2005 – Page 4 – Jimmy Akin

Season’s Greetings

No, I’m not wishing you "Season’s Greetings" instead of a "Merry Christmas." It turns out that the season’s greeting that many Americans prefer is "Merry Christmas." Imagine that!

"In the cultural battle over whether to use the seasonal greeting ‘Happy holidays’ or ‘Merry Christmas,’ the latter appears to be winning, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday.

"In the poll, which surveyed 1,003 adult Americans by phone, 69 percent said they prefer ‘Merry Christmas’ over ‘Happy holidays,’ which garnered 29 percent.

"Compared with the 2004 Christmas — or holiday — season, the number of people who said they use ‘Happy holidays’ has dropped 12 percentage points, from 41 percent to 29 percent."

GET THE STORY.

Monkey Bild-ness

I had to do a quick post on THIS STORY out of Switzerland, via an Australian news service.

Seems that art expert Katja Schneider (ALERT: Tim’s first rule of Life in the Real World – "EXPERTS GROW ON TREES") of the State Art Museum of Moritzburg in Saxony-Anhalt (everyone got that located on their globe, now?) had pegged the artwork of a local chimp as that of the famous (??) painter Ernst Wilhelm Nay.

He really is famous. Honest! He won a Guggenheim prize, and everything, so you can be assured that he is a GENIUS.

According to the article;

"The canvas was actually the work of Banghi, a 31-year-old female chimp at the local zoo.

While Banghi likes to paint, she is not able to build up much of a body of work as her mate Satscho generally destroys her paintings before they can get to the gallery."

See? Even in the animal world, creative types are misunderstood and oppressed.

Now, animal "art" is nothing new, but this expert got caught in a big faux-pas, and it must be explained in some way.

There can really only be two explanations: Either chimps are under-appreciated as creative artists, or a lot of modern "art" is meaningless garbage.

Which way do you think the art community will split on THIS one?

Can we look forward to a major retrospective of Banghi’s surviving works?

GET THE STORY.

Santa Benedict

I love how Pope Benedict is bringing traditional papal attire back into fashion. It’s also fun seeing the confusion of the secular world, as exemplified by a comment that Michael Dubruiel heard on CNN calling the papal camauro a "Santa’s hat." Leaping on the idea of a "Santa Benedict" instead of a Santa Claus this Christmas, St. Blog’s resident parody king, the Curt Jester, has created a Christmas carol for B16:

"You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Benedict is coming to town
He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice
Benedict is coming to town
He sees you when catechizing
He knows when you’re a fake
He can only teach good not bad
So be good for Jesus’ sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Benedict is coming to town
Benedict is coming to town."

GET THE POST.

Last year an exhibit of papal treasures came to San Diego and it was fascinating to see vestments, clothing, and jewelry of the popes. Some of it was fantastically adorned but much of it was simple, like this camauro worn by Pope Benedict. One of my favorites was a red wide-brimmed hat that belonged to Pius XII and was said to be worn by him as protection against the sun when he walked in the Vatican gardens. If papal artifacts fascinate you, too, I highly recommend the catalogue from the exhibit Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes. At fifty bucks, it’s expensive, but an Aladdin’s cavern of beautiful papal art.

GET THE CATALOGUE.

READ ABOUT THE EXHIBIT.

The Schism Of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish

For those who may not be aware, the Archidiocese of St. Louis recently received a most unwelcome Christmas present.

One of its parishes has gone into schism.

The parish in question, St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, was a personal parish for those of Polish language or heritage.

For decades the parish has acted in a manner that has been a thorn in the sides of the archbishops of St. Louis. The previous archbishop, Justin Rigali, took canonical steps to deal with the parish before his transfer to Philadelphia. The unwelcome task of having to deal with the parish then fell to his successor, Archbishop Raymond Burke.

The directors of the civil corporation of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, which have legal control of the parish under civil law, have modified the bylaws of the corporation to eliminate any reference to the authority of the archbishop or the pastor assigned by the archbishop over the parish.

Rigali and Burke have both insisted that the bylaws be amended to correct this, in accord with canon law, and the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome has insisted that they do so as well.

The directors have refused to do so and have conducted a campaign in the local media against Archbishop Burke, alleging that–among other things–the dispute is over money and that the archbishop is trying to seize the funds of the parish so that it will be unable to properly serve the faithful of the parish.

The Archbishop points out that he has no authority to seize the parish’s funds, but he does want to make sure that the funds are being properly used for the good of the faithful of the parish and that they are not being misappropriated. To that end, he has called for a public audit of the parish’s goods to prevent any misappropriation.

The Archbishop has gone to great lengths to try to reconcile the parish, including a pastoral visit by the Most Reverend Ryszard Karpinski, auxiliary bishop of Lublin in Poland and the delegate of the Polish Conference of Bishops for Polish faithful living outside their homeland.

But instead of pursuing reconciliation with the archdiocese, the parish–which has already been under interdict–has now hired an AWOL priest from a neighboring diocese to attempt to exercise priestly ministry there.

This constitutes an act of schism both on the part of the directors and the priest. Archbishop Burke, one of the most respected canonists in America, writes:

The act of schism, committed by the board of directors of the civil corporation of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, was the hiring of a suspended priest, that is a priest who is not in good standing in the Church, for the purpose of attempting to celebrate the sacraments and sacramentals at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. The priest in question, Father Marek B. Bozek, a priest of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, has left his priestly office of assistant pastor of St. Agnes Cathedral in Springfield against the explicit direction of his bishop, the Most Reverend John J. Leibrecht, and after Bishop Leibrecht had explained to him more than once the gravity of his action and its consequences.

The fact of the matter is that only a priest who is not in good standing would agree to employment by a group of parishioners without the appointment of the diocesan bishop, that is, a group of parishioners who are breaking communion with the Church. All priests serve in communion with the diocesan bishop who serves in communion with the Roman Pontiff. When Father Bozek left his assignment without his bishop’s permission, he was rightly suspended. The penalty of suspension prohibits him from the exercise of his priestly office (cf. can. 1333, §1).
A priest, who knowingly and willingly chooses to attempt to exercise priestly ministry outside of the communion of the Church and, thereby, assists and encourages others in breaking communion with the Church, clearly also commits the ecclesiastical crime of schism. To be clear, it is not only the members of the board of directors of the civil corporation of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish who are in schism, but also the priest whom they have presumed to hire and who has agreed to be hired.

As a result of this tragic circumstance, the parties in question have automatically excommunicated themselves, and the implications are grave. Archbishop Burke spells some of them out:

The ordained priest who goes into schism, in addition to being bound by the above-listed prohibitions, is also rendered irregular for the exercise of Holy Orders (cf. can. 1044, §1, 2º). In other words, he may not exercise the Sacrament of Holy Orders which he has received. Any Mass celebrated by a suspended and excommunicated priest is valid, but illicit. To knowingly and willingly celebrate the Holy Mass, when one is legitimately prohibited from doing so, is a most grave sin. A priest under the penalty of excommunication does not give valid sacramental absolution (cf. can. 966, §1). Neither can he validly officiate at a wedding (cf. can. 1108, §1).

The celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation by a schismatic priest is invalid because he no longer has any faculty to do so, either by universal Church law or the granting of the faculty by the diocesan bishop (cf. can. 882). Baptism and the Anointing of the Sick are conferred validly but not licitly (cf. cann. 862; and 1003, §§1-2).

The faithful who approach a schismatic priest for the reception of the sacraments, except in the case of danger of death, commit a mortal sin. All of the faithful of the archdiocese should guard against any participation in the attempt to celebrate the sacraments or sacramentals at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. Also, they should caution visitors and others who are unaware of the status of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, lest they unknowingly participate in the schismatic acts.

Finally, since the civil legal control of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish belongs exclusively to the members of the board of directors of the civil corporation and they have chosen to lead the members of the parish into schism, I will be obliged to suppress St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish. It is not possible for St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish to remain a parish of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and, at the same time, to operate completely independently of the Apostolic See and the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

READ THE FULL TEXT OF THE ARCHBISHOP’S PASTORAL LETTER.

MORE BACKGROUND ON FR. BOZEK (WARNING: .pdf).

An additional canonical problem is pointed out by Edward Peters, one of the most respected lay canonists in the country. On his blog, he notes:

Fr. Bozek needs to know something here: contumacy for an excommunication imposed for an act of schism is itself punishable, this time, by penal dismissal from the clerical state (1983 CIC 1364 § 2). Moreover, once imposed, penal dismissal from the clergy—not being a censure (1983 CIC 1336 § 1, 5°)—is not reversible by what amounts to offering a sincere apology. Indeed, reinstatement of a “defrocked” priest is reserved to Rome (1983 CIC 293) and is so rare as to be non-existent.

Fr. Bozek should stop and think about that and let the parties to the dispute in St. Louis work out their situation in accord with law.

In other words, if Fr. Bozek does not promptly reverse himself, he could PERMANENTLY destroy his ability to minister as a priest in the Catholic Church.

GET THE STORY.

To all this, I’d like to append two additional thoughts:

1) I am aware that ethnic tensions can, over time, lead to schisms. Ethnic tension between Greeks and Latins played a major role in the Great Schism, and the same thing can happen on a small scale.

But I’m detecting that something else may operating below the surface here. Remember the public audit that the Archbishop has called for? The one to make sure that there is no misappropriate of parish funds? Just suppose that there were misappropriate of funds going on at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish. Y’think that the desire to avoid an audit and the exposure of this misappropriation could play a role in why the directors of the parish civil corporation seem hell bent on schism despite everything that has been done to reconcile them to the Church?

If it were exposed, misappropriation of funds (or other goods) could result in a loss of power for the individual directors or fines or (for all I know) even jail time. Those could be powerful incentives NOT to reconcile with the Church and allow the audit to be conducted.

And then the directors of the civil corporation seem notably concerned with money–charging (falsely) that the Archbishop wants to seize the parish funds . . . which THEY control.

I have no proof of any wrongdoing, and I am not making any allegations of wrong doing. But my spider sense is tingling and I am suspicious.

2) In his pastoral letter, Archbishop Burke writes:

Let us, through the intercession of Our Lady of Czestochowa, implore our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Mercy, on behalf of the reconciliation of those who have gone into schism. Christ, Divine Mercy Incarnate, accomplishes all things. Let us place the dolorous situation of St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish into [his] all-merciful and loving heart.

Amen.

How To Spot An Anti-Catholic

If you’re ever in doubt over whether someone who insists that he is not anti-Catholic really is anti-Catholic, drop in on his blog when a story that highlights the foibles of some Catholic is making the rounds of the blogosphere. Does he carefully note that such a story may be silly but reflects poorly only on the Catholic in question and not the Church as a whole? Or does he snatch up this handy stick and start using it to beat the Church while ignoring those Catholic bloggers who are decrying the silliness?

Case in point: When a Polish Dominican friar, not a monk as the press claimed, sought a recording of John Paul II’s heartbeat for playback at a Christmas Mass, Catholic bloggers rolled their eyes and duly noted that this was a Bad Idea. It wouldn’t have taken an Evangelical blogger much research to find the posts by Mark Shea, Amy Welborn, and JimmyAkin.org (written by yours truly). You would expect an Evangelical apologist who vigorously denies charges of anti-Catholicism to report on such posts in his coverage of the subject. At the very least you would expect him to refrain from giving the impression that all Catholics or the Church as an institution approve of such goings-on.

In the case of Evangelical apologist James White that just ain’t the case.

White not only reaches for the stick and starts swinging; but, in his eagerness to make the Church look bad, he repeats a basic error in the media report:

"Monk [sic] Seeks Recording of JPII’s Heartbeat: OK, this is just plain creepy, but then again, the listing of what Frederick had at the castle church at Wittenberg is just as creepy, just not high-tech. There is something so very non-Christian about this kind of thing you wonder how anyone with a scintilla of respect for biblical teaching could possibly find it attractive."

GET THE POST. (The quote is current as of my visit on 12/20 at 12:40 PM Pacific Time.)

Had White bothered poke around some of the major Catholic blogs, of which he has demonstrated in the past that he is a reader, he would have found out that Dominicans are friars, not monks. (Yes, Mr. White, there is a difference.) But then he would have seen that this particular news story was of an anomaly in the Catholic world, not representative of Catholicism in general, and wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun giving his own readers the impression that Catholics do not have "a scintilla of respect for biblical teaching."

Although the particular "relic" in this case — JPII’s heartbeat — is of questionable taste, authentic relics are not "creepy." Catholics appreciate them because they have much more than "a scintilla of respect for biblical teaching."

READ ABOUT THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR RELICS.

How POD Changes The Market

A way long time ago I pointed out that print-on-demand (POD) technology was not simply a replacement for traditional publishers that aspiring authors could use to get their works out and presented to an admiring public.

POD tech works on the same principle as computer tech: "Garbage In, Garbage Out."

Writers who are not yet ready for prime time can get their work out via POD publishers, but they will sell precious few copies because the work is . . . well, not yet ready for prime time.

But POD tech CAN serve as an important compliment to existing publishing houses for writers who ARE ready for prime time.

Enter JMS.

Earlier I mentioned his project of publishing all the scripts he wrote for B5. That’s something he (and his colleagues) are doing through Cafe Press, which is a POD publisher of books (and other things).

In a Usenet post, JMS explains how this technology is already changing the publishing industry:

Others have asked why I (and the B5 scripts team) are going through
Cafe Press rather than a major publisher. The answer is very simple:
over the years, I’ve had many publishers approach me about publising
the B5 scripts, but they take the same timid line WB has always taken
about the show. We had to push like hell to get the DVDs released, and
they still insisted on testing the water…putting out one disc first
(same with the VHSs) to "test the waters"….and of course now the DVDs
have grossed half a billion bucks for WB.

So when the publishers approached me, it was with the same, "Well,
let’s put out one book now, the ‘best of’ scripts, then we can think
about doing more down the road, so we can test the waters." When I
explained that i wante all of the scripts to go out, all 14 volumes,
nearly a hundred scripts…they couldn’t even fathom such a thing.
It’s never been done, not on this scale. But with Cafe Press, we CAN
do all 14 volumes.

This collection is really the Rosetta Stone of the Babylon 5
universe…and I wanted that to get out there in full, to kind of
finish the job properly. Here’s the scripts, here are the stories
behind the scripts, the arc, the production, here are the photos and
the memos, so that when it’s done…it’s really done. Again, we’re
talking here over 6,300 pages of material…14 volumes, each nearly an
inch thick…it’s just monumental.

A few other places came and said they could do it, but their plan was
to do even FEWER copies, limited edition stuff, hardcover, at a cost of
sixty to two HUNDRED bucks per copy, which I thought was just way, way
beyond the pale. The whole point of the exercise is to get this into
the hands of as many people who want it as possible. The way we’re
doing it now, for a bit over four hundred bucks, folks can get all 14
volumes, plus the 15th free, which is a heck of a lot more affordable,
given what scripts and the like sell for on Ebay.

For me, on a personal basis, it’s been an amazing process to go back in
time, through the memos, scripts and photos, and re-live those years.
Which is one of the reasons why the intros/essays have been ballooning
out in size…from 13,000 words to 15,000 to 18,000 words, not COUNTING
the other material. I’m putting it all in…all the stuff nobody ever
heard about…it’s all going in here.

And then, when it’s done, the tale will at last be told in its
entirety…the show, and the show *behind* the show.

Again, though, bear in mind that there is a ceiling on how long these
will be available at www.babylon5scripts.com so if there’s somebody who
doesn’t know about the site, you may want to let them know in time to
get in while the Cafe Press price breaks will give them maximum
benefit.

I have to be honest…I’m enjoying the hell out of this.

jms

SOURCE.

So: The major publishers aren’t on the verge of going out of business due to POD, but the dynamics of the marketplace are already changing because of it. Projects like the complete JMS B5 script series would NEVER have happened through a regular publisher, but now it is happening because the technological changes with the introduction of POD.

It’s apparently selling like crazy, too.

It’ll be interesting to see how this technology matures (and what impact it has on authors’ royalties since at that point all authors will need publishers for are things like copy editing, proofreading, and typesetting–services POD publishers are sure to offer for a fee–and marketing).

The Last Pope?

That sound you hear is the bottom of the Fiction Writers Think Tank being scraped for the last residue of an original idea. An author who came up short when he did the scraping was Portuguese author Luis Miguel Rocha, who had to rely instead on the old, discredited canard that Pope John Paul I was murdered before he could shovel out the stables of the Vatican Bank.

"Portuguese author and scriptwriter Luis Miguel Rocha said he based The Last Pope on documents he obtained through an undisclosed Vatican source, which he will make public when the novel is published in April.

"The novel puts the theory that John Paul I had become a threat because he was aware of money-laundering involving the Vatican Bank and also because of his plans to liberalise aspects of centuries-old church doctrine.

"’He wanted to be the last wealthy pope. John Paul I wanted to redistribute the riches of the church, open the church to women and authorise the use of contraceptives,’ said Rocha, 29, in a weekend interview.

"The novel depicts the assassination of John Paul I as the result of a conspiracy involving top financial officials, several European governments and a Mafia group that counted top officials of the Roman Curia, including the pontiff’s personal secretary, among its members."

GET THE STORY.

GET THE REAL STORY ON JPI’S DEATH.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once told the story of being approached by a young priest who demanded to know why the Church was so rich. Archbishop Sheen gave him the standard answer to this common question but the priest wasn’t satisfied. He kept pounding on the question until finally Sheen took him aside and asked him bluntly, "Father, how much have you stolen from the collection plate?" Sheen’s guess was on-target: The young priest was skimming from the parish funds and rationalizing his behavior by convincing himself that the Church was too rich anyway.

I’m no Archbishop Sheen, but my guess is that we can trace Luis Miguel Rocha’s dissatisfaction with the Church not to the alleged "murder" of Pope John Paul I, who Rocha claims would have liquidated the Church’s material assets, but instead to Rocha’s desire for women priests and contraceptives.

B5 Scripts

This is just a note for B5 fans who may want to know about this:

Over the next year JMS is releasing a 15-volume set of all the scripts that he wrote for the TV series Babylon 5 (which is the vast majority of the episodes of the show).

These are the productions scripts and include scenes and dialogue that were filmed but never broadcast.

There are generally seven scripts per volume, plus a lot of bonus materials. The bonus materials include newly written introductions by JMS to the scripts, talking about how they originated, what was going on with the show at the time, what production issues were encountered, etc. The bonus materials also include behind-the-scenes photos from the set and a lot of production memos that he sent out during filming talking about the design of various props, alien races, and characters who were meant to be on the show (some of whom never were–like the The Boss and mysterious Mr. Jones).

I’ve seen the first two volumes (which are out), and they’re actually a lot cooler than I thought from the bare description of them.

Among other things, JMS explains things that weren’t necessarily clear on screen. F’rinstance: An early season 1 episode "Infection," which dealt with a piece of organic technology from the planet Ikara that grabbed a person and turned him into an "Ikaran war machine"–as Mr. Garibaldi once termed it. This episode was one of the first filmed and is generally regarded as one of the least successful of the show’s five year run (it’s basically a man in a rubber suit monster episode),

BUT

in volume 1 on the scripts, JMS explains something that could only have been obvious in hindsight (and wasn’t obvious to me even then until he pointed it out): the Ikaran device is (a) dark and scaly with lots of pointy, insect-like leg thingies, (b) organic technology, (c) that incorporates a living being into itself, (d) seizes control of his brain for its own purposes, and (e) turns him into a form of armament.

Does that sound like anything ELSE we encounter on Babylon 5?

It’s SHADOW TECH.

The Ikarans got ahold of some left over shadow tech from the last Great War and used it to try to impose genetic and ideological purity on their planet, leading to them all being wiped out (since nobody is ever pure enough).

The tech in question was one of the things that the Shadows used to create infantry units since, as JMS points out, an army needs to control the ground as well as the sky.

So. It’s still a man in a rubber suit monster episode, but at least it’s a man in a rubber suit monster episode that fits in to the overall shadow mythology that JMS created for his universe.

The volumes also contain alternate, unfilmed versions of some scripts. For example, volume 1 contains the original, unfilmed version of the series pilot, "The Gathering," which is significantly different from the one that finally got shot.

Volume 3 (coming out in January) is set to explain why actor Michael O’Hare (Cmdr. Sinclair) was forced out of the show by The Powers That Be and the introduction of Bruce Boxleitner (and who ALMOST got his role but at the last minute didn’t).

But the really COOL thing will be volume 15, which will be given FREE (including free shipping) ONLY to those who’ve gotten the rest of the set.

What will be in volume 15?

Take it away, JMS:

"It will also [in addition addition to a bunch of other stuff]contain the Babylon 5 writers bible…the production draft of "The Gathering" as a companion to the original draft offered in volume one…and something very special."

"For over ten years, fans have asked "What would Babylon 5 have been like had Sinclair stayed?" Well, that question will be answered in this volume."

"After we finished the movie, but before we got the series going, WB asked to see a breakdown on this five-year arc thingie. So I wrote a six or seven page, single spaced outline of the ENTIRE FIVE YEARS with Sinclair still in place. The document makes for fascinating reading when compared with the series as it developed. NOT ONLY THAT, but the same document has a brief outline for A POTENTIAL BABYLON 5 SEQUEL SERIES, which would have been entitled BABYLON PRIME."

"Finally, by popular request, the nearly-legendary alternate version of the script for “The Exercise of Vital Powers” containing the Londo/G’Kar seduction scene, written in as an elaborate practical joke on the actors, will also be included.

So, if you want

GET INFO ON THE B5 SCRIPTS.

Incarnation During Annunciation?

A reader writes:

Here’s a really quick one for you. (I know your time is valuable!) Father metioned something yesterday I don’t recall ever hearing before, namely, that Mary became pregnant immediately after "fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum [Latin, "May it be to me according to your word," Luke 1:38]." Does the Church teach this definitively?

No, certainly not.

The Church has very very few Bible verses whose meaning it has addressed infallibly, and this one is not one of them.

I know that it’s customary for individuals to speak of Mary becoming pregnant during the Annunciation, as if the Holy Spirit were coming upon her that moment, but this is not what Scripture indicates, nor is it part of Church teaching.

In fact, that’s not what the Greek text here would suggest. In the Greek of Luke 1:35 ("The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you") the verbs are in the future tense, indicating that the Holy Spirit would come upon Mary at some point in the future.

Hypothetically, it could have been a few seconds later, but that’s not the natural sense of the text, and if it was then Mary showed no signs from what Luke records of being aware of the event when it happened.

It could have happened at any time up until shortly before Joseph and Mary began cohabiting (because Joseph already knew she was pregnant by this time; Matthew 1:20).

Personally, I tend to think the Incarnation of Our Savior was something that had phenomenal effects–i.e., that it was something Mary was aware of when she was overshadowed by God’s power–and this means that the exact moment of the Incarnation is likely one that is hidden from us–something not recorded in Scripture.

People tend to look at the Annunciation as if it were the moment of the Incarnation because it’s the closest thing we have in Scripture to a description of that moment, but if you read the text itself, it does not suggest that this is what was going on while Gabriel was talking to Mary.

But that’s just my opinion. If someone wants to hold the opinion that when Gabriel said "The Holy Spirit will come upon you" that he meant "in just a few seconds, during this very conversation" then that’s also permitted.

Christmas Day, All Secure

Michelle here.

A local radio station has been playing round-the-clock Christmas music for the past week, and one of my favorites is "A Soldier’s Silent Night," performed by Fr. Ted Berndt, a Catholic priest, former Marine, and Purple Heart recipient. Curious about the origins of the song, I did some searching on Google. There must have been some controversy over the poem’s authorship because the urban-legend debunker Snopes took on the case and verified the claim that it was written by a U.S. serviceman. The author is another former Marine, James M. Schmidt.

This part of the poem always makes me puddle up:

"I didn’t want to leave him so quiet in the night,
this guardian of honor so willing to fight.
But half asleep he rolled over, and in a voice clean and pure,
said ‘Carry on, Santa, it’s Christmas Day, all secure.’
One look at my watch and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend, Semper Fi and goodnight."

GET THE STORY.

NOTE: I couldn’t find a recording of the performance for sale online. If you find it, please post a link in the combox. Thanks!