Someone asked me the other day if a new movie called Antichrist has something to do with the antichrist?

Does the film have religious overtones?

No, it doesn’t. It’s the latest work from a controversial, cutting-edge-type move-maker named Lars von Trier.

From what I’ve read, the film sounds pretty grim. It’s about chaos and sorrow—and there’s a talking fox.

But no antichrist.

At the same time, though, Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver has been called the antichrist—as in the antichrist.

Erie County (think Buffalo) Executive Chris Collins (that’s him) compared Silver, an Orthodox Jew, to the antichrist at a GOP dinner on Saturday.

From a description I read, it sounded like a joke. Maybe not a funny one.

A couple of quick updates:

1. I tried to make some sense yesterday of the Vatican’s plans for welcoming disaffected Anglicans. Seveal readers thought it’s a bigger deal than I did—and they may be right.

I got a pithy reaction from Bishop Catherine Roskam, the assistant bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, which I share here:

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We appreciate the welcome the pope extended to those in the Anglican communion who are disaffected. We for our part continue to welcome our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, both lay and ordained, conservative and liberal, who wish to belong to a church that treasures diversity of thought.

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John Allen has a comprehensive analysis of “What the Vatican’s Welcome of Anglicans means” HERE.

2. I wrote at the start of the week about Archbishop Dolan planning to take part in a program about Catholic-Jewish relations with the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC.

It turns out that Dolan will be focusing quite a bit about Catholic relations with the Jewish community—and not just in New York.

He’s been named Moderator of Jewish Affairs for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, a pretty significant role. He’s replacing Cardinal William H. Keeler, the retired Archbishop of Baltimore, who has been a key international figure in Catholic-Jewish relations.

The appointment is effective Nov. 11 and is good for five years.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the Bishops  Conference, says:

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Since the Second Vatican Council, important strides in this relationship have been made through dialogue and collaboration in countering racism, anti-Semitism and other offenses against human dignity. Our Episcopal Conference, through the leadership of your predecessors in New York, and especially through the tireless and generous service of Cardinal William Keeler, has sought to contribute to the work of reconciliation between the Church and the Jewish people after centuries of mutual estrangement. While we look back with gratitude on nearly a half century of progress in these efforts at healing and renewal, we also know that important and pressing challenges lie ahead for us.

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George also said that the Jewish community will find Dolan to be “a friend who communicates the joy of his own faith, while at the same time conveying profound respect for the spiritual gifts of the other.”

Dolan will join Keeler on November 11 for the semi-annual USCCB’s consultation with the National Council of Synagogues—with Dolan taking over as co-chair.

Two quirky notes about Soupy Sales, the pie-throwing comedian and early TV star who died yesterday:

1. The AP notes that Sales was born Milton Supman in 1926, in Franklinton, N.C., where his was the only Jewish family in town. His parents owned a dry-goods store and apparently sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan.

Yikes.

2. TV writer Verne Gay notes that when Fred Rogers—Mister Rogers—graduated from a (Presbyterian) seminary and saw a TV for the first time in his parents’ home, the first thing he saw was Sales and someone else throwing pies at each other.

Mister Rogers was so turned off that he decided to start his own TV show as a non-pie-throwing alternative.

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One final, completely unrelated note: When I was a kid, my parents somehow came up with a Soupy Sales doll (remember, he was a big star back in the day). I cried whenever I saw the doll. I still remember the fuzzy black hair on its head.

I think I found a picture of it:

You have to like this book title: Ostriches, Dung Beetles, and Other Spiritual Masters, A Book of Wisdom from the Wild.

Dung beetles, yeah.

It’s a new book by Sister Janice McLaughlin, president of the Ossining-based Maryknoll Sisters, who did missions work in Zimbabwe in Central Africa for the past 30 years.

It’s been described to me as “a lovely little book of meditations on African animals from the wild, their characteristics and what they have to say to us.”

McLaughlin explains: “From Kilimanjaro to Cape Town, I have been privileged to interact with the people who live in harmony with nature and with the abundance of wildlife that make the continent such a Garden of Eden.”

She will be available to sign copies of the book at the Maryknoll Sisters’ annual International Bazaar on Saturday (Oct. 24) at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, 10 Pinesbridge Road, in Ossining.

Booths will display items from Africa, the Americas, East and South Asia and the Pacific Islands, areas where the Maryknoll Sisters work in mission. The purpose of the bazaar is to raise funds to support the sisters and their work.

Directions are HERE. The bazaar is from 10 to 4 and Sister McLaughlin will be there all day.

This is common sense, I suppose, but still worth noting…

So many religious congregations struggle to maintain effective social-service ministries in their communities. Especially these days, when money is tight and many houses of worship are scrimping to pay their electric bills, it can be hard to keep soup kitchens, food pantries and other ministries alive.

A new study of 59 agencies founded by religious groups has found that congregations are better off NOT going it alone. Regional efforts, including interfaith initiatives, are the way to go.

Jo Anne Schneider, a prof at the University of Maryland who led the project, explains: “We compared everything from small food pantries directly connected to a congregation to national hospital systems and their local affiliated hospitals. Congregation-focused models work well for mainline Protestants, Quakers and African American churches, but only if several congregations provide support or the sponsoring congregation is sufficiently active with enough resources to support the nonprofit. Jewish and Catholic systems rely on their communities as a whole with the Jewish Federation, Archdiocese, or Order providing centralized support. Some thriving evangelical organizations rely on networks with no formal connections to congregations.”

Again, it’s common sense. The old “two heads are better” thinking.

But many congregations, we all know, are kind of insular and committed to doing things the way things have always been done…

The study, called the Faith and Organizations Project, is being funded by a $500,000 grant from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment.

It’s all right HERE.

I would imagine that a lot of people are confused today by the Big News that the Vatican is taking steps to make it easier for conservative Anglicans to become Catholics while retaining Anglican traditions.

The fact that the NYTimes made it the Lead Story today will by itself tell many people that this is a major step for Rome.

I’m not so sure, although the whole thing is certainly quite interesting.

As you know, many traditional Anglicans—including Episcopalians in the U.S.—are unhappy with the liberal drift in parts of the Anglican Communion (meaning Europe and the U.S). They do not want to see gay bishops or female bishops. Some still do not want to see female priests. They don’t like the idea of some Anglican priests blessing same-sex couples.

Just last year, conservative Episcopalians in the U.S. left the church to form their own Anglican community, the Anglican Church in North America.

Now, some Anglicans have petitioned the Vatican to let them become Roman Catholics, while holding on to their Anglican liturgy.

But not that many.

The Times itself reports today that Cardinal William Levada (that’s him), the American boss of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “said that 20 to 30 bishops and hundreds of other people had petitioned the Vatican on the matter in recent years.”

We’re talking HUNDREDS of people out of 80 million Anglicans. Maybe a couple of thousand will think about making the change.

Most Anglicans live in parts of the world where their church communities are already quite traditional. So they’re good, more or less.

And disaffected Americans already have their own community that allows them to remain Anglicans.

So what’s the big deal?

Father Thomas Reese, the Jesuit scholar, writes that the most significant aspects of the whole story may be that the Catholic Church will recognize the Anglican liturgy—possibly opening the doors to other liturgical adventures—and that an uptick in married Anglican priests who become Catholic will raise new questions about the need for the celibate priesthood.

He writes:

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Despite all the Vatican attempts to downplay the acceptance of married Anglican priests, many people will ask why not married priests for other Catholics? Cardinal Levada said that not only married Anglican priests will be ordained but also married Anglican seminarians who join the Catholic Church. The Vatican has made clear that married Catholic priests will not be welcomed back to the priesthood, but could a married Catholic man join the Anglicans, enter an Anglican seminary and then return to the Catholic Church? If so, this could become a rich source of priests for the Catholic Church.

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This is interesting stuff. But I haven’t heard or read anything to make me think that we’re going to be see any major changes here in the Catholic or Anglican worlds.

Maybe that’s why two Anglican archbishops, including Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (that’s him), endorsed the whole thing, saying that it’s all good for conservative Anglicans who want out.

If they expected to lose significant numbers of Anglicans, I doubt they would have that reaction.

The funny thing to me is that I’ve long joked that the Episcopal Church in the U.S. could triple in size by actively seeking out lapsed Catholics. Come up with a fancy name for a “Try us, you’ll like us” program. Promote several easy steps toward becoming an Episcopalian. Explain how familiar the Episcopal liturgy would be for ex-Catholics.

Sort of like what the Vatican is doing, but in reverse.

But the Episcopal Church will never do it. It would be un-P.C.

Many people have asked me what became of Father Patrick Dunne, charged with stealing a few hundred thousand bucks from his former parish—Our Lady of Sorrows in White Plains.

Now we know.

After many months of delays, Dunne pleaded guilty today to the top count against him, second-degree grand larceny, a felony. Our courts reporter, Rebecca Baker, reports that Dunne will serve five years’ probation with some time in jail.

He’ll find out Jan. 12 how much jail time he’ll get.

As part of the plea deal, Dunne must pay restitution of up to $432,000 to the Archdiocese of New York. Where will he get that kind of money? His lawyer isn’t saying.

Dunne apparently had a bad gambling problem and has received treatment.

Will we see Dunne in a parish again? Maybe. Monsignor John Woolsey, who was accused of stealing nearly $1 million from a NYC parish and spent a year in jail after pleading guilty to misappropriating $50,000, is now a priest on staff at Holy Family Church in New Rochelle.

Woolsey has no authority over church funds.

If you’re interested in Islam, Jewish-Muslim relations or interfaith relations in general, Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale has a pretty interesting program tomorrow (Oct. 21) at 7 p.m.

Muhammad Zibdi, the Chief Islamic Judge of the Muslim Sharia Court in Jerusalem, will speak. This guy is based Where the Action Is, but travels around the world speaking about interfaith understanding.

Also on the program is Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel.

It’s free and open to the public.

Archbishop Dolan will share the stage with a prominent Jewish leader next month to speak about an always interesting subject (and one that’s surprisingly sensitive at the moment): the state of Catholic-Jewish relations.

He’ll discuss the subject with Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the (Conservative) Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC, on Nov. 5. The occasion will be the seventeenth annual Nostra Aetate Dialogue at Fordham U.

The event will take place at the McNally Amphitheatre at Fordham University Law School, 140 West 62nd Street.

Edward Bristow, professor of History at Fordham University, will moderate.

Catholic-Jewish relations have generally been bright in recent years, improving by the decade since Vatican II. But there has been some…strain…the past few years.

Mel Gibson’s movie made a lot of people uncomfortable a while back.

Then Pope B16 urged wider use of the Latin Mass, raising concerns about a once-a-year Good Friday prayer urging conversion of the Jews.

Early this year, B16 lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop who happened to be a Holocaust-denier.

And most recently, Jewish leaders have been peeved about a legalistic statement from the Catholic bishops of the U.S. that said that even though the Catholic Church recognizes the covenant between God and the Jewish people, Catholics must affirm their belief that Jesus Christ “fulfills God’s revelation begun with Abraham.”

The statement includes:

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With St. Paul, we acknowledge that God does not regret, repent of, or change his mind about the “gifts and the call” that he has given to the Jewish people (Rom 11:29). At the same time, we also believe that the fulfillment of the covenants, indeed, of all God’s promises to Israel, is found only in Jesus Christ. By God’s grace, the right to hear this Good News belongs to every generation.

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When one considers the near-miraculous improvements in Catholic-Jewish relations over the past 40 years—and we’re talking about a deep and meaningful relationship—one could make the case that the events of recent years are minor and somewhat inevitable, given the real differences between the religions.

Still, it will be quite interesting to see how Dolan and Eisen, two personable and articulate men, frame these issues and concerns.

Eisen (that’s him, below), who came to JTS in 2007, has expressed a great interest in interreligious work. This is a good opportunity for him to make a significant contribution on issues of interest to many people.

Archbishops of New York are remembered, in part, by how well they get along with New York’s large and influential Jewish community. Cardinal O’Connor, of course, was the Archbishop of Catholic-Jewish Relations, beloved by New York’s Jewish community.

Cardinal Egan got along well with the JC, but he was more reticent (as he was with all things).

Dolan got rave reviews from Milwaukee’s Jewish community, and got off to a good start here, as well.

You have to figure that when he gets to Fordham, he’ll be well-versed on the issues and concerns out there and ready to soothe them.

A group of liberal/moderate religious leaders is asking people to “fast” from violent media—in particular “anti-immigrant” media voices—from Oct. 19 to 26.

The “Media Violence Fast” is starting its third annual campaign against overall violence in the media.

But this year they’re asking people to consider the impact of “anti-immigrant hate speech.”

A statement from the group includes this: “The coalition is expressing particular concern about the frequency and tone of anti-immigrant remarks made by several TV and radio commentators, such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and Lou Dobbs.”

The Fearsome Foursome of Conservative Talking Heads should get a big laugh at the whole thing.

Cheryl A. Leanza, a media attorney who serves as policy director with the United Church of Christ’s Office of Communications, says: “Hate speech in the media is a growing problem that must be examined before it can be solved. The possible correlation between hate speech and violence crime gives us great pause. Immigrant, minority, and religious populations are often targets of hate speech before they are subsequently the target of physical hate crimes.”

About media violence in general, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, says: “Violence may be satisfying at some primitive level, but it almost always causes more violence and seldom leads to solutions. Media writers and producers would do well to remember that some of history’s most dramatic confrontations with power have been non-violent, including Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement against imperialism or Martin Luther King’s encounters with bigoted laws and people.”

Got that Limbaugh? How ‘bout you Beck?

Anyway, the campaign is being run by the So We Might See Coalition, a new interfaith group that includes the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Islamic Society of North America, United Methodist Communications, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and several other faith groups.