Remember the scene in Animal House when John Belushi's Bluto Blutarsky, in full toga, encounters the beatnik guy with folk guitar singing, "I Gave My Love a Cherry"?

Wonder what Bluto's reaction would be to the whole St. Joan of Arc Parish experience so colorfully described by Mark Shea?

It's a beehive of activity at St. Joan's and only a churl could find fault with…the worthy projects underway, such as the neo-pagan ecospirituality task force, the weekly homilist, the Hatha Yoga in the Sanctuary, the staff bursting with Gay Pride, the Mission Statement indistinguishable from a Unitarian committee on Spelling Reform for Guatemala, and the confirmation class that produces graduates who boast that their faith is "a mix of Eastern Religion and Christianity."

Continuing the church roundup: Steve Schultz at Catholic Light finds all the stops pulled out at a "two-hour bilingual Eucharistic shindig" marking the golden anniversary of St. Anthony of Padua Parish.

I will say this: We must separate the fact that Christ becomes present in body, blood, soul and divinity from everything else. Christ is there whether the homily is boring, the altar boys are wearing sneakers, the music is irreverent, or not. Even if there is an awards ceremony during the Mass Christ is still there. "Awards ceremony? What on Earth is he talking about?" you say.

And Alexandra Baldwin at Oremus reports on attending a christening in church apparently designed by Jean-Claude Killy in this dispatch, "Half Price Lift Ticket with Each Child Baptized":

A good time was had by all. My husband and I were particularly thrilled with a little game called 'Find the Tabernacle.' It was cleverly hidden outside the main body of the church in a delightfully Bauhaus, wedge-shaped chapel. Obviously the church is suffering from a severe lack of funds, and had to commision the Crucifix and Tabernacle from the Arts and Krafts division of that well-known discount house 'Kute and Kreative Katholic Koncepts.' The Crucifix looked like it was made entirely of gilded tin foil, and the Tabernacle itself could only have been made by cutting down the hood of an El Camino, adorning it with slabs of molton glass and painting it with thick layers of encaustic. I am sad to say that, being without my glasses, I missed the Stations of the Cross, but Bryan assures me they were along the same lines.