Written by Earle Hitchner, in Echo Lifestyle

A standing ovation greeted Father Joseph Maier when he walked onto the stage at Manhattan’s Symphony Space about midway through a special benefit concert on Sunday night, Oct. 12. “Father Joe: Slum Priest,” an eight-minute segment on him and his great work at Bangkok’s Mercy Centre, had just been shown from PBS-TV’s “Religion and Ethics Newsseekly” series on a large stage screen.

On at least two occasions the audience applauded statements he made in the segment about the need for a Catholic priest to be where Jesus would be, with the poorest of the poor in Bangkok, and how he would probably be thrown out of the United States because of the direct, effective manner in which he was fulfilling his religious vows and vocation.

“I hope you don’t believe any of that,” Father Joe said to the crowd from the stage after the PBS-TV segment was shown…