Flying priests will gather in Clear Lake, Iowa July 11-14

Fr. Bernard McCoy, O.Cist. (Sparta, WI)
The 48th annual meeting for the National Association of Priest Pilots will be held July 11-14 in Clear Lake.

The Mason City Municipal Airport is the hub for the “fly-ins.” Accommodations will be at the Best Western Holiday Motor Lodge, Clear Lake. The meeting and other events will be at St. Patrick Catholic Church.

On Tuesday, July 12, the group will gather at the Mason City airport at 6:30 p.m.

A representative of the Federal Aviation Administration will present the “Wilbur and Orville Wright Award” to the Rev. Melvin Hemann, for his 50 years as a pilot and flight instructor.

Hemann is a charter member of the National Association of Priest Pilots.

Following the award ceremony Archbishop Jerome Hanus, Archbishop of Dubuque, will offer a prayer and provide a special “blessing” for the airplanes and pilots, those flown in by members of the NAPP and airplanes belonging to local pilots.
Read more: http://www.globegazette.com/news/local/article_f86923d8-a8e4-11e0-8c0f-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1RtlHxk00

Not sure why the writer put the word "blessing" in quotes...  it is a real blessing.  Is he only pretending to bless him?  If he's quoting someone, wouldn't it be more than one word?  Are journalists clueless on religion by accident or on purpose?

5 comments:

Badger Catholic said...

Insert "flying bishops" joke here.

Terry Nelson said...

Matt - is Fr. Bernard still at Springbank?

Badger Catholic said...

Terry, as far as I know everyone is still there. I've tried to contact them to find out what is going on but they are not responding. Fr. Bernard had spoke to a local paper that's not online and stated they were having problems but that they were not going anywhere.

Kat said...

As to the one-word quote thing, it can happen, but it's fairly rare and should be clearly attributed. For instance, if someone makes up a word, or has a specific phrase they use to refer to something, that might be used in quotes within a paraphrase. However, in this case it simply looks like the reporter is an idiot.

Terry Nelson said...

Thanks Matt - good to hear.