Elvis Presley’s fans are gathering in Memphis, Tenn., Saturday to mark the 26th anniversary of his death.
…A local Catholic church will even hold an Elvis Mass, although Elvis wasn’t Catholic.
[Full Story]
An Elvis Mass? Well actually they are probably referring to the annual memorial Mass at St. Paul the Apostle in Memphis, at least I hope so. I can just picture a priest with a high collar alb at Christ and Elvis the King Catholic Church preaching “If you don’t repent you will be in Hunka Hunka burning Hell” The Catholic link could be that Elvis had been reading “The Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus” a book about the Shroud of Turin when he died. You can go here to hear Elvis sing “The Miracle of the Rosary
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I LOVED Elvis singing the Miracle of the Rosary!!
Wow. I will have to send that to my daughter who lives in Memphis. She is bemused by what they call “dead Elvis week”.
Dead Elvis week? I can sympathize. I was in Navy Boot Camp when he died but soon after went to school for a year at a Naval Station in Millington, Tn. With the Elvis moviethons and continuous references to him I have heard enough to last a life time.
It is most unfortunate that Elvis’ recording of ‘Miracle of the Rosary’ was not included on the recently released (March 2009) ‘I Believe: The Gospel Masters’ 4 CD set (Sony Music Entertainment) because of anti-Catholic bigotry. The official description of the set contains the following misleading statement:
“For the first time ever, all of Elvis’ gospel and inspirational master recordings will be offered together in one magnificent 4 disc collection – ‘I Believe – The Gospel Masters.'” (http://www.elvis.com/news/full_story.asp?id=1721).
The aforementioned statement would be true only if ‘Miracle of the Rosary’ were included on the CD set.
I am not sure if this is true, but some Elvis experts and fans have claimed that the song ‘Miracle of the Rosary’ was omitted because a network of Fundamentalists in the “Bible Belt” rejected it because it is explicitly Catholic. Consequently, a decision was made out of pressure to not include the song anywhere on the 4 CD set. However, a non-Gospel/inspirational song called ‘I Was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago’ made the final cut!
It is too bad that this story is not (as of this writing) widely known in Catholic circles, especially among the Catholic League and other Catholic organizations.
In other news, Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B., is scheduled to appear on “EWTN Live” with Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., on March 25, 2009 at 8:00PM (ETD). She worked with Elvis on two of his early movies when she was a young Hollywood starlet and and was a close friend of Elvis.