Archbishop Timothy Dolan, below, will bless the massive drill digging the No. 7 extension Friday. (Photo courtesy MTA; Dolan photo, Archdiocese of New York)
Posted on 5/3/2009, 6:18:54 AM by JoeProBono
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan hasn’t wasted time getting his hands dirty.
In his first two weeks on the job, the city's Roman Catholic leader has toured the World Trade Center site. He threw out a pitch for the Mets and noshed on city hot dogs. Now, he’s getting close to a 100-ton boring machine.
Dolan will bless the drill used to dig the $2.1 billion extension of the No. 7 line Friday, MTA officials announced. Sandhogs now cutting the 7,100-foot twin tunnels flowing west from Times Square requested Dolan’s grace.
Priests have blessed the subway drills over the years, but not someone of Dolan’s stature, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said.
“Building tunnels through bedrock deep under Manhattan is a dangerous enterprise,” Donovan said.
Dolan will not venture into the tunnel but give his blessing from the street at West 25th Street and 11th Avenue.
The MTA lowered the head of the boring machine into the earth in February. Its 44 cutters are mounted on a massive disk measuring 22-feet in circumference.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, below, will bless the massive drill digging the No. 7 extension Friday. (Photo courtesy MTA; Dolan photo, Archdiocese of New York)
After all, the Catholic church believes drills will be in Heaven, just like righteous people will.
Drill have souls, don’t you know.
ConsevativeMind are you being sarcastic?
Did ConservativeMind step out of line?
Either my perception of his post is wrong or he was being sarcastic and I missed it.
If you read the article it explains why the blessing took place and the meaning of the event.
No one is stepping out of line.
I am just trying to clarify the intent of the post.
Sarcasm or lack of understanding.
Well you pinged to someone to join you in whatever you were doing with ConservativeMind so I didn’t know.
I would guess that about 70% of the Catholics in this Bishops district vote for the far left, I wonder what he told those union guys that day that might make them more likely to vote conservative.
It seems only right, what with being blessed and all...
I think Antioch has a new hand grenade that is in need of his attention.
I think maybe CM simply doesn’t understand the concept of blessing an inanimate object. Apparently he’s never heard of christening a ship, or “God Bless America” (note, the song is not “God Bless Americans”), or house blessings (again, not “household blessings”).
Blessing something is a prayer that it be used for holy purposes. By blessing a workman’s tools, the bishop reminds the workers, on a feast designed to uphold the sanctity of virtuous labor, that their Christianity doesn’t end when they step out the door at mass, but that their hours of labor are to have a holy purpose.
From the Catholic Encyclopedia (which is hardly authoritative, but is adequate for this issue):
The range of objects that come under the influence of the Church’s blessing is as comprehensive as the spiritual and temporal interests of her children. All the lower creatures have been made to serve man and minister to his needs. As nothing, then, should be left undone to enhance their utility towards this end, they are placed in a way under the directprovidence of “Every creature of God is good. . .”, as St. Paul says “for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5).
There is also the reflection that the effects of the Fall extended to the inanimate objects of creation, marring in a manner the original aim of their existence and making them, in the hands of evil spirits, ready instruments for the perpetration of iniquity. In the Epistle to the Romans St. Paul describes inanimate nature, blighted by the primal curse, groaning in travail and anxiously awaiting its deliverance from bondage. “The expectation of the creature waiteth for the revelation of the Sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that made it subject, in hope” (viii, 19-20). From this it will be easily seen how very reasonable is the anxiety of the Church that the things which are use in daily life and particularly in the service of religion, should be rescued from contaminating influences and endowed with a potency for good...
...(d) The Ritual has blessings for houses and schools and for the laying of their foundation stones; for stables for the lower animals and every other building of any description for which no special formula is at hand. There is also a special blessing for the bridal chamber.
(e) Lastly inanimate things that subserve the equitable needs and convenience of society may receive from the Church the stamp of her benediction before they are sent on their way to do their appointed tasks. Such, for instance, are new ships, new railways with trains and carriages, new bridges, fountains,wells, cornmills, limekilns, smelting-furnaces, telegraphs, steam engines, machines for producing electricity. The many serious accidents that occur explain the concern of the Church for those whose lives are exposed to danger from these various sources.
That was a very cogent insight into what this must be.
There is no justification for God, Christ, or the Apostles ever having “blessed” an item, rather, only people can be blessed by God and all we can do is ask God to do so. It appears the Catholic church tacitly agrees with this.
However, they use the term “blessing” for this “reminder”—it seems to be a very poor borrowing of a term which leads to an easy misrepresentation for at least all non-Catholics, and I would bet many Catholics, too.
The Catholic church should rename the “blessing” the more appropriate “reminder” you say it is.
Thank You so much for explaining the Blessing of the Drill actually means.
This is the reason I pinged Salvation for the Catholic Ping as I was wanting someone more articulate than myself to explain.
I have it in my mind perfectly but posting it in words would not have worked well. : )
Thanks again for answering the call. : )
Catholics do Apologetics too.
But it has nothing to do with being sorry. : )
CM, you’re charitable in your interpretation of what I said, but that’s not really what I mean. “Bless” is actually a good word. The Greek is “eulogia,” meaning “speak well.” The idea is that the priest is praying that the object become a means of blessing a person, in turn. And it’s not at all unbiblical. To the contrary, St. Paul writes, “This cup of blessing, which we bless...” If you were inclined to argue in favor of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, you could argue that he meant to bless Christ, the contents of the cup. You can’t even go halfway as Luther did to consubstantiation and argue that the contents carry Christ. If you don’t go all the way to transubstantiation, than you must acknowledge that inanimate objects are being blessed.
But you’re not wrong at all. Here there is a little difference between the word translated as “bless” in the New Testament, and the word translated as “bless” in the Old Testament. The Old Testament word for “bless,” is Barrack (no fooling — I just discovered this!), meaning, “to bring one to his (its) knees.” So you certainly could argue that you would never Barrack-bless an inanimate object.
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