Diocese bishop opts for circus Mass over Ave Maria's dedication ceremony

Last Sunday, Diocese of Venice Bishop Frank Dewane celebrated Mass at a Sarasota church accompanied by priests wearing colorful Ferris wheels, clowns, giraffes, unicycles, lions and merry-go-rounds on their vestments.

This was the annual circus Mass, Dewane said, honoring the nearly 100-year history of the Ringling family on Florida’s west coast and the importance of itinerant people like circus performers to the Catholic universal church.

Last Sunday, Ave Maria founder Tom Monaghan spoke inside his new 100-foot-tall, $24-million oratory at Ave Maria town accompanied by residents and supporters of the private university in the Catholic tradition...

Last Sunday was the day Monaghan and university President Nick Healy had invited Dewane to celebrate dedicatory Mass at the oratory after consecrating it as a sacred place.

Last Sunday came and went.

Without Dewane’s consecration, no one can celebrate Mass inside the oratory.

Continued troubles in Naples, it seems...

And what's with the sacrilegious vestments?