It's a Launch

Before the late unpleasantness, the lead story from Catholic New York (the place, not the paper) was the launch of Sirius Satellite Radio's The Catholic Channel, which was delayed indefinitely 24 hours before its slated launch at September's end.

In the spirit of the liturgy, the channel's launch is now scheduled for the First Sunday of Advent, 3 December, ostensibly with the weekly 10.15 Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral celebrated by Cardinal Edward Egan as its marquee event.

While the cardinal's recovery from an early September total-knee replacement was cited as the rationale behind the postponement, the channel also lacked a full-time program director in the run-up to its prior airdate. In recent weeks, the void's been filled with the appointment of ESPN vet Rob Astorino to fill the PD slot. A Fordham communications grad and Eucharistic minister in his parish, Astorino ran last year as the Republican nominee for Westchester county executive.

With good Italian names like Rulli, Astorino and Egan on the channel's masthead, you know everything's on the up-and-up. In the meantime, however, the musical canon's still making for quite the inspiring listen.

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