FROM THE ARCHIVES: DON'T MESS WITH FATHER NICK AT CHRISTMAS:

OH, HOLY FIGHT! TOWN TREE FUROR (MARSHA KRANES, December 9, 2005, NY Post)

The fir has been flying on Long Island over a Christmas tree-lighting celebration in the tony North Shore community of Manhasset. The North Hempstead town supervisor, who is Jewish, objected to a local Catholic priest's religious blessing at last Friday's ceremony, and he made his displeasure known � in front of the entire crowd. What followed was a mini-holy war, waged via phone and e-mail, that ended with Supervisor Jon Kaiman bowing to public out rage and repeatedly apologizing to the Rev. Nick Zientarski by letter and in person.

A friend who's a parishoner sent us the e-mail yesterday, but we didn't want to run it without the priest's say-so. That seems superfluous now:

Subject: War on Christmas hits home- your comments please!

Dear Friends,

I don't normally send out bulk emails, but this is a special case that
I would like you to know about and comment on if you wish.

This past Friday, I was invited by the Manhasset Parks Department to
give a blessing at a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony here in town. I
thought about what kind of blessing to give-- something generic or
something "Catholic". It seemed to me that because this was a Christmas
tree, it would be okay to use the blessing from my Catholic tradition.
Further, a different clergy person from the area is asked each year to
do this blessing, which would mean that each house of worship would be
represented over the years and that people would hear blessings in the
various traditions. So I proceeded with the blessing found in the
Catholic Book of Blessings.

The ceremony started with the pledge of allegiance and then I gave my
blessing. Now, present at this function were various political
representatives, including the Town Supervisor, Jon Kaiman. As I gave
the blessing, I heard him saying something as he stood behind me,
something to the effect of, "this is nonsense", "we're not doing this
next year", "I can't believe this", and so on.... AS I WAS GIVING THE
BLESSING. I stumbled a bit on my words as I heard him, but continued.
When I finished (the blessing took all of 1.5 minutes), Mr. Kaiman
proceeded to get up to the microphone and tell everyone in a harsh,
annoyed voice, "Hi, I'm Jon Kaiman. I just want to make it clear that
this is in no way a religious ceremony... we're here to celebrate the
"holiday" tree lighting. This is not the place for a religious
ceremony." And so on. Because I was so stunned, I really can't remember
everything that he said. But his attitude was very clear and many
people were very upset. I thought about 50% or more were from my parish
(about 150 were in attendance) ... and they all told me how mean he was
and some went to talk to him and he told one lady off, saying "I don't
care what you think". This was bad. So many people called and wrote to
him that he was pretty much forced to apologize both in a letter the
next day and on the phone just yesterday. Obviously he's feeling the
heat from what he did.

Nobody was offended by my blessing, which did actually mention "Jesus"
twice. I received no phone calls or letters. Only support from other
people who were very upset.

So what do you think about all this? Was I wrong to give a Christian
blessing at a Christmas tree lighting that also included music like
Silent Night and featured Santa Claus coming in on a fire truck at the
end? The war on Christmas hit home for me-- not only have the stores
rejected God and Christ, now our government is warring against us. They
say that the persecutions ended with the Roman Empire. No... they
continue even until today.

I welcome your comments, even if you disagree with me.

-Father Nick Zientarski
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church
Manhasset, NY 11030

(Originally posted: 12/09/05)

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 23, 2006 7:51 PM