The news reports read like the plot of a grade B (or C) movie or perhaps a silly mystery novel: mysterious people lurking in the background of a scandal, the butler fired and accused of wrongdoing, corruption and political and financial manipulation behind the scenes.

One might think that this comes from a notorious state in the developing world like Mali or one of those republics that became independent with the collapse of the Soviet Union such as Turkmenistan. But no! It is the Vatican.

Of course, we have heard all of this before — during the 9th and 10th centuries–what one of my professors called the period of papal pornocracy. Or perhaps we think of the Renaissance, when popes worked and fought hard to carve out states for their bastard sons and arrange good marriages for their illegitimate daughters.

But I am not describing 1,000 or 500 years ago. I am describing headlines from last week! How can the church even appear to be the church of the poor and oppressed (we call this Christ’s preferential option for the poor)? I am embarrassed, scandalized, and profoundly saddened by this mess. I mourn for such a corrupted and distorted church.

But the Catholic Church is every bit as much mine as it is the pope’s or the college of cardinals’ or the bishops’ church. Nothing will drive me out, although I long for a Martin Luther to call it as he sees it with no holds barred.

Where do we look to understand this? We go to that famous sign on Harry Truman’s desk: the buck stops here. That should be on the desk of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

I recall a wise priest commenting that when St Peter’s was built in Rome, the quotation from Matthew in big letters should not have been “I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven” but rather a couple of lines later in Matthew: “Get you behind me, Satan.”

I am not suggesting that Benedict is Satan any more than Jesus was denouncing Peter as Satan. But the leaders of the Church in Rome appear to have forgotten that second quotation while wallowing in the first. Jesus spoke both for a reason.

I have no doubt of the personal sanctity of Pope Benedict. Yet he needs to get serious about administering and reining in the cardinals and bureaucrats, many of whom he has appointed.

When Pope John XXIII was asked how many people worked in the Vatican, he answered: “About half.” I wish it were so today. I would take sloth over fraud any time.

Yet the pope keeps making cardinals who run the bureaucracy who are not themselves experienced shepherds of the church, much like himself when he went to work in the Vatican. It is time to clean house. It is time to take away the sanctimonious big shots and their privileges.

I’d like to see fewer red socks and white lace and more compassion and service. It looks to me like when two or three are gathered together in the Vatican, the most we can expect is nonsense. That is not exactly what Jesus said about two or three gathering together.

Here is my message to the cardinals. Leave the fancy red clothes to the St Louis Cardinals. Wear simple priestly garb. Look like a man of God and not a character who walked out of a Renaissance fresco. Talk about the poor and oppressed (that should take all your waking hours, or at least the hours between wine sipping and fine dining).

I hope the holy father can start this process by refining his own behavior. There are pictures online of his now arrested butler carrying a white umbrella to shield the pope from I-don’t-know-what.

Holy Father, sell the white umbrella and the red shoes and give the money to the desperately poor. If you need a suggestion of where to find them, I can help. Try the diocese of Machakos in Kenya.

When the next papal election takes place, I hope and pray that the cardinals will do something radical. I think it is time to reach outside the Sacred College. Choose a pastoral and simple bishop.

I hear that Bishop Clark of Rochester is available, and he is three years younger than Benedict when he was elected. It has been a mere 600+ years since a non-cardinal has been elected. It is time for an outsider to sit on the chair of Peter and start a process to revamp the governance of our Holy Catholic Church that more and more appears not to live up to its name.

If the cardinals choose a cardinal, I hope it is someone like 78-year-old Angelo Roncalli, who in 1958 was elected and took the name John XXIII. I used to joke that Pope John brought the Church from the 16th at least into the 19th century with the Second Vatican Council (convened 1962). Now is the time to move from the 19th to the 21st century. I don’t see any Vatican insider who can do that.

Of course there are many pious and holy and effective bishops and cardinals. But they seem quiet and marginalized. I ask them to be more bold and to take more risks.

Shepherds are not good because they let the sheep roam. They have that shepherd’s crook for a reason. St Catherine of Siena, whose tomb I visited today in Italy, was an outspoken critic of pope and cardinals. She was investigated by the Inquisition but became a saint and a doctor of the Church.

If our leaders do nothing, then laypeople need to hold the leaders’ feet to the fire. Hmmmmm. Flaming soles of corrupt church leaders is the way corrupt church leaders are punished in Dante’s Inferno. We could use his indignation now!

President Bush and Vice President Cheney declared that the gas fracking process was exempt from the pure air and water regulations.

While the industry uses very dangerous hazardous chemicals in the process, once they are used, they are called waste and can be disposed anywhere. The chemicals that are used in the fracking process are called hazardous because they can kill people or make them very sick.

The state has apparently declared that these (hazardous) wastes can be used for dust and ice control on roads. Once dumped, the chemicals can evaporate or become attached to the road dust. The toxic chemicals can then contaminate your air, water, land and any food produced on the land.

Some of the chemicals will run into the ditches to make them a hazardous waste site.

If you drive through the contaminated slush on your way home, some of it will stick to your car. If you park in your driveway the contaminated slush can melt and make your driveway into hazardous waste site.

You get out of your car, walk through the slush and if it sticks to your shoes, you take the hazardous chemicals into your home for anyone who touch or crawl on the floor to be contaminated by them. By the way, many of these toxic chemicals are absorbed through the skin to do their thing on you and your children.

Shoes saturated in hazardous chemicals are not my idea of a healthful condition by the way since the toxic chemicals can be absorbed by your skin. Any chemicals left in your driveway could also end up in your well water. How about some fracked coffee for breakfast or a fracked shower?

Somewhere in the southern states a man used waste chemicals for dust control in a small town. Guess what? That town is not there any more as it was too toxic for people to live in it so it was destroyed by the EPA.

If the wastes were used as road salt in a village or a city it would pose a threat to anyone that walked across a road or where slush could be thrown. If you got it on your shoes, you could transfer it into your home , school, hospital or into a business. In my opinion, it would not take long to turn a community into a hazardous waste dump. I wonder what fracked shoes would feel like? Once low level pollution was ignored but now it is being demonized in public parks.

According to the May 5, 20l2 edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, a NYS-DEC spokeswoman stated that 6.8 million gallons of this toxic waste was spread on New York’s roads in 2010 (apparently with NYS-DEC approval).

It appears that money talks and DEC walks. Who owns this state, the gas companies or the people of the state? Personally it is my opinion that we should call fracking the fifth horseman of the apocalypse. I wonder how many people’s lives our politicians are willing to sacrifice for money?

You might not be able to sue gas companies for contaminating your land but can you sue a town for using this toxic soup on roads next to your property if it gets on it?

I take issue with Lou Lombardo’s May 25 article, “Body piercings and tattoos are taboo in my book.”

While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I strongly disagree with Mr. Lombardo’s, as well as his disagreeable manner of expressing it.

His “estimate that over 75 percent [of tattooed persons] are obese,” is ridiculous, and implies that his opinions have statistical support which does not really exist.

His further speculation that this obesity plays into reasons for getting tattoos, as a means of distracting from one’s weight, is simply insulting.

It is also an ignorant conclusion given the traditional importance of tattoos in other cultures that Mr. Lombardo himself notes, albeit without sources cited for supposedly historical facts.

Mr. Lombardo would do well to consider that many persons with tattoos have chosen the images and placement carefully because they carry great personal significance.

Although this is not always the case, never in my life have I encountered someone who decided to get a tattoo because they thought it might distract positively from something about their appearance or personality.

The decision to get a tattoo, on the contrary, frequently involves opening oneself to more negative attention, since the tattooed person will undoubtedly face the sort of blatant prejudice exhibited by Mr. Lombardo.

Promoting such prejudice in a newspaper is extremely discrediting to the publication. It is not news, but rather a small-minded personal opinion meant to lambaste a subset of people because they are different.

It is no better than the type of gossipy behavior one might find in a schoolyard; it is better left unsaid entirely, and certainly should not be presented in a newspaper.

~John Adams

Every year at the end of May, I feel obliged to write a Memorial Day editorial — and always, I feel wholly inadequate for the task.

I take time during the holiday to remember the veteran who left the deepest mark on my life. He’s a favorite great-uncle who landed fighter planes on aircraft carriers during World War II. He’s also the closest thing to a grandfather I ever knew, and I miss him dearly.

My father spent a short tour of duty in the Army, but hardly spoke of his experience nor encouraged me to consider military service myself. Throughout my entire extended family, there were few military role models leading me to serve my country in uniform.

So, here I am in the middle of my career, “educated beyond my intelligence” as my uncle often teased, and typing away at a keyboard for a living. Any drill sergeant worth his salt would have a field day with the likes of me.

When I reflect on American freedom on Memorial Day, Indepenence Day and other patriotic holidays, I am thankful I enjoy the freedom to choose my course of life.

I didn’t grow up under constant threat of invasion like children of Israel and therefore didn’t have to face compulsory military service to defend my country. I didn’t come of age in a time of the draft. When I turned 18, my choices in life fanned out in all directions and nobody told me which path to take.

Even today, the forces abroad that threaten America do not cause me to live in fear. They make life inconvenient at the airport and during visits to museums in Washington D.C. Otherwise, my life is as it has been my entire adult life. I pay my taxes and government stays out of my way as it should be.

During community parades, we see veterans groups presenting our country’s flag and conducting solemn services but, beyond that, there isn’t much of a show of military might. In our country — unlike the familiar television images you see from Russia, China and North Korea — you rarely see tanks or missles being trotted through town, nor the precision formations of active soldiers marching through town.

Our military exists to keep America safe at home and protect her interests overseas. Our armed forces do so much more than fire weapons at our enemies. They train emerging nations to defend themselves. They build roads, bridges and schools that lead to stable societies. They project America’s strength and confidence abroad — a living symbol of our country’s values.

My generation might be one of the first free to live our entire lives without being absolutely required to serve our country — yet so many my age and younger still choose to walk away from complacent civilian lives to allow me the privilege of personal independence.

Memorial Day reminds me each year that I owe my freedom — in every imaginable way — to America’s veterans and active duty servicemen and women.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

GAINESVILLE — The Caledonia-Mumford softball team captured its first Section 5 title since 2006 by routing third-seeded Cuba-Rushford 12-3 in the Class C2 championship game Thursday at Letchworth.

The top-seeded Red Raiders (19-1) play a Class C regional qualifier Saturday at a site and time to be determined. Cal-Mum will face the winner of today’s first regional qualifier, which pits Class C1 champion Gananda (19-1) against Class C3 winner Keshequa (17-1).

Gananda beat Williamson 9-8 in 10 innings, while Keshequa romped over Honeoye 13-2.

After the Rebels took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the Red Raiders tied it in their half of the frame on Hannah Anderson’s leadoff home run over the fence.

Cal-Mum scored three times in the second inning, only to see Cuba-Rushford get one back in the top of the third. But Courtney Flagler’s two-run homer over the right-field fence keyed a six-run fourth inning that extended the Red Raiders’ advantage to 10-2.

Cal-Mum added two runs in the fifth before the Rebels (15-4) completed the scoring with a run in the seventh.

Anderson was 4-for-4 with four runs scored and three RBIs, while Jordan Sarat (two RBIs) and Katie Cappotelli split four hits.

Sarat got the pitching victory, scattering nine hits while striking out 13.

Sarat was chosen as the tournament’s most valuable player, while teammates Anderson, Flagler and Brittany McEwen made the all-tournament team.

Also selected to the all-tournament squad were Cuba-Rushford’s Joy, Emily Fair, Brittany Fair and Olivia Smith; Oakfield-Alabama’s Ashley Covel; and Lyons’ Roshee Boctic.

— Read entire story in next week’s LCN.

GAINSEVILLE — Top-seeded Keshequa captured their second straight sectional softball title with the 13-2 Class C3 victory over No. 3 seeded Honeoye, the same team the Lady Indians defeated last year for the crown.

Alex Flint earned MVP honors as the junior tossed a complete game four-hitter with 15 K’s and no walks.

At the plate, Flint went 3-4 with a homerun.

Also for Keshequa, Tessa Gordinier was 3-4 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored while Selena Erwin was 3-4 with three runs scored and one RBI. Kristen Jackson was 2-4 with a double; Ariel Wood went 1-3 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored while Haley Russell had a hit and scored twice.

Honeoye (16-4) was led by Erica Crastley who was 2-3 with two runs scored while Erin Converse was 1-3 with one RBI.

— Read entire story in next week’s LCN.

Now Republicans in the US House of Representatives are attempting to extend unnaturally low interest rates on these loans. At stake in the Republican plan is the repeal of a portion of the Obama health care plan. While Democrats claim that there is no disagreement on the extension of the low rates, they say that the plan should be paid for by taxing the rich. “Unfortunately, it’s politics as usual in Washington. While there’s an agreement that student loans shouldn’t be doubled. They’re bickering about what is the best way to pay for that is,” said our own Senator Kirsten Gillbrand. “I don’t think the republicans are serious about making sure these loans don’t double in size. It’s going to mean a thousand dollars more per student to pay because of this and it’s not affordable.”

Republicans also blamed Democrats for stonewalling the process.

If nothing is done, interest rates on student loans will automatically double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.

Today’s Weather

A seventy three percent chance of rain today. Rain will continue overnight with a 90 percent chance of precipitation.

We’ve all seen them floating gently on warm summer breezes in the fading light of early evening. We count ourselves lucky when we happen to catch sight of one, and when they first appear on the horizon we know that summer has arrived.

The 11th annual Red, White and Blue Balloon Rally last weekend at Letchworth State Park brought together over 25 hot air balloons— from single seaters to 10-person baskets. Balloonists made the trek from as far away as Florida and New Hampshire.

Sean Quigley of Portageville, who heads the rally as “Balloon Master,” makes the ultimate decision about whether or not conditions are suitable for balloon flights.

“Today’s conditions were absolutely perfect,” said Quigley shortly after landing from his one hour flight Saturday. Early morning and early evening are the best times for flight, as the heat of midday tends to cause turbulence and make flights unsafe.

Quigley, who has logged over 2,100 flights over the course of his 25 year piloting career, developed his interest in ballooning at a young age.

“I read about it in Popular Mechanics when I was 10 years old,” he remembers. “I used to send off little helium balloons with messages attached to them.”

Click on a thumbnail below to launch a slideshow by Matt Leader.

Angeline (Bonadonna) Amato
ROCHESTER, N.Y./MOUNT MORRIS, N.Y. — Angeline (Bonadonna) Amato, 95, died May 23, 2012. Arrangements, John W. Martin Funeral Home, Mount Morris.

Margaret “Peg” “Grandma Mimi” Schillinger
AVON, N.Y. — Margaret “Peg” “Grandma Mimi” Wall Schillinger died May 25, 2012. Arrangements, Stephenson – Dougherty Funeral Home, Avon.

Angeline (Bonadonna) Amato
ROCHESTER, N.Y./MOUNT MORRIS, N.Y. — Angeline (Bonadonna) Amato, 95, died May 23, 2012. Arrangements, John W. Martin Funeral Home, Mount Morris.

Margaret “Peg” “Grandma Mimi” Schillinger
AVON, N.Y. — Margaret “Peg” “Grandma Mimi” Wall Schillinger died May 25, 2012. Arrangements, Stephenson – Dougherty Funeral Home, Avon.