Browsing articles tagged with " Catholic Churches"
Of course, there was the colorful priest Father Thomas Quinlan, more popularly known as “T.Q.” He was adored by most, while others gazed at him warily and askance. Quinlan once wore a Superman costume in the pulpit. Another time, he rode a motorcycle into the church sanctuary, a modern day take on Jesus entering Jerusalem for Passover, riding on a donkey. Time magazine once reported that, some years earlier, Quinlan chastised a white parishioner for being “spiritual white trash who merely drop by church to fill up at God’s gas pump.”
Yes, the Basilica of St. Mary has enjoyed a colorful, distinguished past. But the church has never had a more resplendent celebration of the Eucharist, the Catholic Mass, than the special one held Saturday, April 27, at 9 a.m. It was an African service that played host to priests, deacons, nuns, and singers from four different African countries: Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. The visitors were mostly attired in radiant fabrics easily identified as a vibrant hallmark of African culture. Prominent amongst them were endless patterns of flowing kinte cloth.
Yet, courtesy of a choir that hailed from Northern Virginia’s Ghana Catholic Community, and the Arlington Catholic Diocese, the basilica’s ornate, cavernous sanctuary was frequently filled with inspired African rhythms and stellar voices raised in praise. The group was formed only 10 years ago, with some 10 to 15 initial members. However, since 2003, its membership has increased exponentially to some 300 members, chiefly parishioners of Queen of the Apostle and St. Anthony’s Catholic churches. St. Anthony is home to the visiting choir.
The spokesperson for the Ghana Catholic Community was a very stately and regal-looking Nana Adu-Gyamfi. With skin beautifully painted the color of the darkest African night, Adu-Gyamfi was elegantly wrapped in a black and gold kinte cloth, accented by engaging sparkling eyes and a crisp baritone voice. To have an audience with him was something akin to addressing a king. And as kings go, he was unabashed in sharing his reasoned thoughts.
When asked what was the inspiration for the foundation of the Ghana Catholic Community, Adu-Gyamfi first acknowledged the Catholic clergy that were also holding court, noting that he was speaking as a lay person. That order of business addressed, he spoke his truth.
He observed that, “Catholicism is one of the dominant religions in Ghana.” But when he arrived in the United States in 1985 and was introduced to the traditional American Mass, he longed for the way the service was conducted back home. “In Ghana,” he said, “the Mass was a celebration in all aspects.” He added that he found the American version to be “too slow and boring.” His fellow Ghanaians were of like mind and because of Adu-Gyamfi’s reputation as a community activist in Northern Virginia, they sought his guidance, expertise and leadership. Much like the Gospel Mass at the Basilica of St, Mary of the Immaculate Conception reflects the strong influence of African-American culture, things began to change at St. Anthony’s and Queen of the Apostle, with a decidedly Ghanaian tradition.
One of the most immediately recognizable influences was free, unencumbered worship. The African djembe drum leads the opening procession and the call to praise. Richly-adorned baskets, liberally decorated with fresh fruit, are raised high as basket bearers approach the altar during the offering. And of course the choir’s rich, melodious vocal orchestrations, must surely summon the spirits of the ancestors to join in all the earnest praising.
A particularly visual sign of praise is the tradition of spontaneously waving handkerchiefs. This is most often seen during the Gloria and the Santos parts of the Mass, as well as the processional and recessional. There is something about free-flowing handkerchiefs flying through the air that calls to mind dancing spirits and angels. It is a simple act, but inspired.
In addition to Monsignor Walter Barrett, the Episcopal Vicar for the Eastern Vicariate of the Richmond Diocese and a former pastor at St. Mary’s, and a Benedictine monk from Richmond’s Benedictine College Preparatory school, there were also two different orders of local Franciscan nuns that visited for this special Eucharistic celebration. All natives of Kenyan, the were nuns from the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, based at St. Matthews, Virginia Beach, and the Literal Sisters of St. Francis, based at St. Elizabeth Anne Seton’s.
The celebrant for this Mass, the priest who led the service and blessed the Eucharist, was Father Anthony Mpungu and the priest who delivered the homily, the sermon, was Father Paul Kkonde. An African baby was also baptized during this special service and another very colorful accent for this unique Mass were the sparkling white vestments worn by local deacons that were adorned with the West African dyenyame, a symbol, in this instance in iridescent bronze, that means “except God,” except by God is nothing ordained.
The emblem was one selected by Father Jim Curran, the rector, the pastor, of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, a white priest who had seen it on display at an annual Institute of Black Catholics, held at Xavier University.
This African Mass was coordinated through the efforts of Pam Harris, the Virginia Office of Black Catholics, and Oretha Pretlow, the Basilica of St. Mary. In a host of ways, it represents the completion of a glorious circle. Perhaps Deacon Calvin Bailey summed it up best. “For many, many years,” he said, “we have been sending missionaries to Africa and Asia. Now they are sending missionaries to us.”
Casey Pryor had attended a large Protestant church for 20 years.
But this weekend, the 57-year-old Yakima man switched, prompted by new Catholic friends who visited him in the hospital last year while he suffered from nearly fatal bleeding in his throat.
“They came and saw me in the hospital, man,” said Pryor, who has liver disease and hepatitis. “A lot. It was encouraging.”
This Easter morning, Pryor will join 14 other adults and adolescents from Holy Family Parish and thousands more across the globe in waking up to their first day as official Catholics.
“Every parish on the planet is doing a vigil of some kind,” said Bishop Joseph Tyson, head of the Yakima Diocese.
The timing is no coincidence.
For 1,700 years, since the earliest organized days of the Catholic Church, adults and adolescents have ceremonially joined at Easter to officially begin their spiritual life with baptisms, first communions and confirmations on the same day Christians of all stripes believe Jesus Christ rose from the grave in Jerusalem so long ago.
“In the way Jesus rises from the dead … our people enter the church for a more real life,” Tyson said.
Some parishes hold the special services, called vigils, in the wee hours of Easter morning, some at midnight, others the evening before, all to cap a year’s worth of classes on Catholic theology.
The process is called the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults, though many adolescents who grew up in Catholic churches and already have been baptized will receive their first Communion and confirmation on Easter weekend. Same goes for some of the adults, who have been baptized in other Christian denominations.
Either way, the rituals carry a hefty spiritual weight in Yakima County, where 47 percent of the religiously affiliated are Catholic, according to the Nashville, Tenn.-based Glenmary Research Center.
This year, the 41 parishes in the seven-county Yakima Diocese welcomed roughly 185 new members through Easter vigils, most of them Saturday evening with candlelight processions.
Tyson himself delivered the rights to seven at St. Paul’s Cathedral. St. Joseph’s Church initiated four. Holy Redeemer welcomed 20.
Holy Family held its vigil after sundown Saturday as the new members walked by candlelight from the church’s 20-foot cross near Tieton Drive across the parking lot and into the sanctuary.
Holy Family also included several of the new members in a foot washing ceremony at a Last Supper Mass last week.
All have different reasons and back stories that led to their yearning for a spiritual change.
Jessica Berman, 26, had attended the services of a variety of denominations with friends throughout her life.
However, about three years ago, she was inspired to explore Catholicism deeper after witnessing the dedication of her boyfriend, Joseph Gonzalez, with whom she has a 1-year-old daughter.
Now, she wants the family to be on the same page spiritually and, after her stint in the Navy, finds comfort and meaning in the liturgical structure of Catholic worship.
“It’s the same every single time,” she said. “I’m never confused by what’s going on.”
She also senses an indefinable and indescribable presence at Mass.
“There’s something else here but I just can’t explain it,” she said.
Gonzalez will not be there to congratulate her, she said. He is currently stationed in Kuwait, also with the Navy.
Maxine Larson, 85, grew up Presbyterian but did not participate seriously in church life for many years because “I wasn’t sure about the whole thing.”
Her sons ended up attending Catholic churches and, as she aged, she grew more aware of her mortality and developed spiritual yearnings, she said.
“I’m just going down the other side,” she said with a laugh.
Pryor insisted he liked his old church, which he declined to name, and doesn’t think less of it now.
“It does good for a lot of people,” he said. “I just wanted more.”
At first, he was simply touched by the concern of the Holy Family members he hardly knew.
Last September, he spent 14 days in the hospital with a nearly fatal bout of esophageal varices, a swelling and bursting of blood vessels in the throat. It was a symptom of his liver cirrhosis, said the recovering alcoholic, who has been sober for 30 years.
He lost 70 pounds and will need a liver transplant in the coming months.
He had been attending Holy Family for a year or so before his hospital stay in support of his Catholic wife, Chris. They have been married three years and have eight children combined.
Still, he was hurt when not one friend from his former congregation visited him, though dozens of Holy Family members came. One of the priests left a church picnic to anoint him with oil as he lay in the hospital bed.
However, Pryor’s attitude grew more theological, he said, after he began the weekly religious education courses. To him, he had found the way.
“I’ve decided to become a Catholic … because I want to be more like Jesus Christ,” he said.
• Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.
Casey Pryor had attended a large Protestant church for 20 years.
But this weekend, the 57-year-old Yakima man switched, prompted by new Catholic friends who visited him in the hospital last year while he suffered from nearly fatal bleeding in his throat.
“They came and saw me in the hospital, man,” said Pryor, who has liver disease and hepatitis. “A lot. It was encouraging.”
This Easter morning, Pryor will join 14 other adults and adolescents from Holy Family Parish and thousands more across the globe in waking up to their first day as official Catholics.
“Every parish on the planet is doing a vigil of some kind,” said Bishop Joseph Tyson, head of the Yakima Diocese.
The timing is no coincidence.
For 1,700 years, since the earliest organized days of the Catholic Church, adults and adolescents have ceremonially joined at Easter to officially begin their spiritual life with baptisms, first communions and confirmations on the same day Christians of all stripes believe Jesus Christ rose from the grave in Jerusalem so long ago.
“In the way Jesus rises from the dead … our people enter the church for a more real life,” Tyson said.
Some parishes hold the special services, called vigils, in the wee hours of Easter morning, some at midnight, others the evening before, all to cap a year’s worth of classes on Catholic theology.
The process is called the Rites of Christian Initiation for Adults, though many adolescents who grew up in Catholic churches and already have been baptized will receive their first Communion and confirmation on Easter weekend. Same goes for some of the adults, who have been baptized in other Christian denominations.
Either way, the rituals carry a hefty spiritual weight in Yakima County, where 47 percent of the religiously affiliated are Catholic, according to the Nashville, Tenn.-based Glenmary Research Center.
This year, the 41 parishes in the seven-county Yakima Diocese welcomed roughly 185 new members through Easter vigils, most of them Saturday evening with candlelight processions.
Tyson himself delivered the rights to seven at St. Paul’s Cathedral. St. Joseph’s Church initiated four. Holy Redeemer welcomed 20.
Holy Family held its vigil after sundown Saturday as the new members walked by candlelight from the church’s 20-foot cross near Tieton Drive across the parking lot and into the sanctuary.
Holy Family also included several of the new members in a foot washing ceremony at a Last Supper Mass last week.
All have different reasons and back stories that led to their yearning for a spiritual change.
Jessica Berman, 26, had attended the services of a variety of denominations with friends throughout her life.
However, about three years ago, she was inspired to explore Catholicism deeper after witnessing the dedication of her boyfriend, Joseph Gonzalez, with whom she has a 1-year-old daughter.
Now, she wants the family to be on the same page spiritually and, after her stint in the Navy, finds comfort and meaning in the liturgical structure of Catholic worship.
“It’s the same every single time,” she said. “I’m never confused by what’s going on.”
She also senses an indefinable and indescribable presence at Mass.
“There’s something else here but I just can’t explain it,” she said.
Gonzalez will not be there to congratulate her, she said. He is currently stationed in Kuwait, also with the Navy.
Maxine Larson, 85, grew up Presbyterian but did not participate seriously in church life for many years because “I wasn’t sure about the whole thing.”
Her sons ended up attending Catholic churches and, as she aged, she grew more aware of her mortality and developed spiritual yearnings, she said.
“I’m just going down the other side,” she said with a laugh.
Pryor insisted he liked his old church, which he declined to name, and doesn’t think less of it now.
“It does good for a lot of people,” he said. “I just wanted more.”
At first, he was simply touched by the concern of the Holy Family members he hardly knew.
Last September, he spent 14 days in the hospital with a nearly fatal bout of esophageal varices, a swelling and bursting of blood vessels in the throat. It was a symptom of his liver cirrhosis, said the recovering alcoholic, who has been sober for 30 years.
He lost 70 pounds and will need a liver transplant in the coming months.
He had been attending Holy Family for a year or so before his hospital stay in support of his Catholic wife, Chris. They have been married three years and have eight children combined.
Still, he was hurt when not one friend from his former congregation visited him, though dozens of Holy Family members came. One of the priests left a church picnic to anoint him with oil as he lay in the hospital bed.
However, Pryor’s attitude grew more theological, he said, after he began the weekly religious education courses. To him, he had found the way.
“I’ve decided to become a Catholic … because I want to be more like Jesus Christ,” he said.
• Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.
In an effort to get non-practicing Catholics back to the church, and practicing Catholics to reexamine their faith, the Catholic Church has embarked on an initiative known as the “Year of Faith.”
The “Year of Faith” began on Oct. 11, 2012, and will run through Nov. 24 of this year. The start date coincides with the 50-year anniversary of the beginning of the second Vatican council. Pope Benedict XVI announced the “Year of Faith” as a response to Pope John Paul II’s call for new evangelization, or preaching of the Gospel, said Deacon Michael Dulak, who serves at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church in Blasdell.
The goal of the initiative is to not only get people back to the church who may have left for one reason or another, but also deepen the faith of Catholics who are already attending church every week. It’s a “call to action,” said Deacon Mark Hooper from Blessed John Paul II Parish in Lake View.
“Action comes in terms of worship, service and giving witness to others,” he said.
It’s no secret that the Catholic Church has been embroiled in controversy for the past decade, with the priest sexual abuse scandals in this country and abroad leaving an indelible scar on the church. It’s important to remember, Dulak said, that while the scandal is an “incredible tragedy,” it only represents a small number of priests.
“You have the story of the Catholic Church, and it’s much more than just a few priests who didn’t understand what it means to be a priest,” he said.
Not everyone who was turned off by the scandal is going to return to the church, Dulak said.
“We’re in the middle of this whole thing,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult for some people to look beyond that.”
Hot-button social issues in American politics are also something the church is dealing with. While some may be turned off by the stand the church takes on issues like gay marriage and abortion, others appreciate the church for standing by its core beliefs, Hooper said.
“The church has held firm to what it understands as the word of God,” he said. “The church doesn’t compromise on some issues. People are starting to appreciate its standing on issues.”
In some ways, Catholics have “forgotten who they are,” Hooper said. The “Year of Faith” provides an opportunity for Catholics to ask tough questions of themselves.
“Who are we,” he said, “and what do we think about our faith?”
Emphasizing the good the Catholic Church does is one way to get people energized about their faith, Hooper said. Some of the church’s accomplishments include providing hospitals, education and charities to people in need.
“We tend to focus on negative aspects instead of taking a look at who we are,” he said.
Despite the scandals and controversies, it’s a mistake to think of the “Year of Faith” as solely a response to them, Dulak said. It has much more to do with the current culture we live in. Society has become more secular, leading to people feeling unhappy and restless, he said. The initiative provides an opportunity for the church to fill that void in people’s lives.
“It’s an effort to show baptized, non-practicing Catholics and all people the beauty and wisdom of the Catholic faith,” he said.
Telling the church’s story, and explaining what Catholics believe, as well as why they believe, is an important part of the “Year of Faith,” Dulak said.
“It’s hard to contradict the beauty and wisdom of the Catholic faith,” he said.
So far, feedback on the initiative has been positive, Dulak said. For Christmas, both parishes gave out a book by Matthew Kelly titled “Rediscover Catholicism,” and the response to the book and the discussion groups held in the weeks after Christmas has been good, both Dulak and Hooper said.
“We’re encouraged by the participation we have,” Dulak said.
SAUL GONZALEZ, correspondent: At a Los Angeles ceremony, a group of Catholic women is about to commit an act of religious faith, but because they are women it’s an act the Vatican has condemned as a grave crime against the Roman Catholic Church and what the church sees as its divine laws.
“Bishop Olivia and members of the community, I am honored to testify on behalf of Jennifer’s readiness to be ordained to the priesthood.”
GONZALEZ: In a faith that prohibits females from becoming priests, these women are rebels, gathering here this afternoon to ordain this woman, Jennifer O’Malley, as a Catholic priest.
(to Jennifer O’Malley): Do you love the Catholic Church?
JENNIFER O’MALLEY: I do. It’s who I am, so I can’t leave. You know, I’ve gone to other churches and they’re beautiful, but I’m Catholic, and I can’t separate myself from that.
GONZALEZ: O’Malley is a member of a group called Roman Catholic Women Priests. It was started in 2002 when seven women, in an act of defiance against the Vatican, were ordained as priests by a male bishop in Europe. Ever since, the group’s been fighting for full acceptance of women into the priesthood. In the last decade, Roman Catholic Women Priests has ordained more than 100 women in ceremonies similar to this one for Jennifer O’Malley.
“We choose you our sister Jennifer for the order of priesthood. Thanks be to God.”
GONZALEZ: The ordinations are held in non-Catholic churches and definitely without the sanction or recognition of the Catholic Church. In fact, under Vatican policy O’Malley’s ordination, like the women who have done this before her, brings automatic excommunication. That means she’s barred from receiving the church’s sacraments or participating in the liturgy, unless she repents.
O’MALLEY: You know, in a sense it’s hurtful, and the fact that I’m being excommunicated by people who don’t even know me. But on the other hand, again, it is a consequence of doing what God has called me to do.
GONZALEZ: And your response to those who think at worst this is heresy, out and out, and at best some sort of a stunt, really. What do you say to them?
O’MALLEY: You know, it’s a call from God, and I believe it to be a true call, so those other things have to be put aside. And if that means breaking a law within the church, I know within myself, within my intellect and emotionally, that it is the right thing to do.
GONZALEZ: Catholic leaders, of course, see the ordination of women very differently.
REV. THOMAS RAUSCH (Professor of Catholic Theology, Loyola Marymount University): The Catholic Church is not ready for the ordination of women right now.
GONZALEZ: Father Thomas Rausch is a priest and professor of Catholic theology at L.A.’s Loyola Marymount University.
RAUSCH: As far as the church is concerned, these are not valid ordinations. Ordination is an act of the whole church, and this is not an act of the whole church. In a sense, this is an act against the communion of the whole church. It is very difficult to call yourself a Roman Catholic if you are not living in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and communion means you are recognized by the bishop and you have this network of relationships, which is…It’s the kind of glue that holds the Catholic Church together
GONZALEZ: The theological justification most often cited for barring women from the Catholic priesthood goes back to Jesus’ choice of men only to be his disciples. That was followed by centuries of male-dominated customs developed within the church.
RAUSCH: I think that, you know, the culture was patriarchal. It was very much male-centered. Males were educated. They took roles of leadership. They played leading roles in the churches. So I think those cultural reasons really have to be taken into account in order to understand the exclusion of women from ordained ministry in the life of the church.
GONZALEZ: Although there was talk about the possible ordination of women in the wake of Vatican II 50 years ago, in re cent decades the church has taken a tougher stand against the idea of women in the priesthood. In 2008, the Vatican formally declared its policy of excommunication of women who completed ordination. That was followed two years later by the listing of the ordination of women as a “grave crime” against Catholic sacramental law. The church says it’s taken these steps to maintain theological purity and centuries of Catholic tradition and unity. Many who favor the ordination of women, though, say sexism and chauvinism are the real reasons women are barred from the Catholic priesthood.
JANE VIA: When I chose to get ordained, it was because I feel that intelligent, articulate women must act to try to change the church.
GONZALEZ: Jane Via is a Catholic woman priest in San Diego.
VIA: I realized there are no clergymen who are going to stand up to this authoritarian, totalitarian, patriarchal, sexist system, because they have too much invested.
GONZALEZ: Via is one the most prominent figures in the women Catholic priests movement; partly that’s because of her unusual background. Along with having a PhD in theology, Via was also an assistant district attorney in San Diego for over 25 years. That courtroom experience, she says, has helped her in her present conflict with the leaders of the Catholic Church. Via says the evidence she’s gathered shows women had a prominent role in the early church.
VIA: There no are no scriptural barriers to the ordination of women, and the first 300-400 years of the early church I believe the evidence shows clearly included the ordination of women as deacons, the ordination of women as priests, and the ordination of women as bishops.
“Let us pray.”
GONZALEZ: Via leads a congregation in San Diego, with masses held in a borrowed Lutheran church.
Via blessing child: “Giles, God bless you and keep you…”
GONZALEZ: Although worship services here aren’t recognized by the local Catholic archdiocese, Via carries out all of the typical duties of a male priest. The people who attend mass here say that despite this congregation’s outsider status within the Catholic Church, they’re secure in their own religious identities.
(to congregants) How do you identify yourself? What’s your faith?
Group of congregants: Roman Catholic.
(to congregant): What would you say to your fellow Catholics watching this who look at this and see a woman as priest and say that just isn’t real, and the mass you’ve gone to has no legitimacy.
Congregant: For me it is real. It’s as real as a male priest standing there. What’s the difference? Just because one is a woman and one is a man? I don’t think God distinguishes.
GONZALEZ: But Via acknowledges that her battle with the Catholic Church has cost her, from broken friendships to the pain of excommunication.
VIA: I remember being really grieved about not being able to be buried in a Catholic cemetery. That was sort of the ultimate exclusion. You can’t take the sacraments. I knew I would be excommunicated so I knew I could not accept the sacraments in a canonical Catholic church anymore, unless I was unknown to the population there, which is hard for me to be in San Diego.
GONZALEZ: What do you say to those who would say join another community of faith, join another faith, become something else, but don’t stay in the Catholic Church with your views. You would say what?
VIA: For me to just turn my back on this institution and say, “You’re all a bunch of worthless idiots, and I’m not participating anymore. I’m going to do my own thing. I’m going to go be Episcopalian and I can be a priest there” is completely irresponsible. This is my community. If everyone who is progressive-minded, progressive thinking, and willing to stand up to the Vatican leaves the church, the church will never change.
O’MALLEY (at altar): “…and for this we always thank and praise you.”
Ceremony: “We join with the saints of all times and places as they sing forever to your glory.”
GONZALEZ: Yet despite the hardening position of the church against their movement and its ordinations, the women Catholic priests say they aren’t retreating. They say they believe that although they might not see it in their own lifetimes, women will one day be allowed to become Roman Catholic priests—and with the support and blessings of the Vatican.
For Religion Ethics NewsWeekly, I’m Saul Gonzalez in Los Angeles.
VANCOUVER – A new smartphone app is connecting Roman Catholics in the Vancouver area with nearby masses and confessionals — an idea the local archdiocese says developed partly out of some biblical inspiration.
“We’ve always had bishops here who have recognized the need to be out where people are,” says Paul Schratz, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
“Just as Jesus went and talked to people where they were — he went into their homes — now the people are on Facebook, they’re on YouTube, they’re on their tablets, and we have to be there, too.”
The archdiocese recently launched an iPhone app that allows users to search for nearby Catholic churches, check mass and confession times, and see directions on a map. They can filter their searches based on their location and limit the results to churches with mass in the next few hours.
Schratz says he believes it’s the first app released by a Canadian archdiocese, though several in the U.S. and abroad have developed their own.
It replicates the most popular feature on the archdiocese website: its mass finder.
Schratz says the app could prove especially useful during the Christmas season, both for parishioners looking for a church while travelling and the flood of lapsed Catholics who use the holidays as an opportunity to return to mass.
“Everybody knows that Christmas and Easter are the jam-packed masses of the year, so we want to help people,” he says.
Schratz says technology is also making its way into the church services themselves. He recalls a workshop he attended a few weeks ago with local priests.
“It was interesting to see how many of them have their daily prayers and Bibles on their tablets now, so they’re actually reading from there rather than the paper version,” he says.
The app is the latest example of churches using technology to connect followers or reach out to potential recruits.
A handful of churches across Canada have smartphone apps with information about their services and podcasts featuring recordings of sermons. Countless apps display religious texts such as the Bible or the Qur’an.
There are also several apps designed specifically for Muslims living in areas, such as Canada, where mosques don’t broadcast the call to prayer over loudspeakers for nearby worshippers to hear.
Omar Mahfoudhi of Ottawa’s Islamic Care Centre says it’s rare for Canadian mosques to broadcast the call to prayer — a recitation that precedes each of the religion’s five daily prayers. The few that do limit the volume so it can only be heard in the immediate vicinity, such as the mosque’s parking lot.
Mahfoudhi says some Muslims simply set alarms to remind them of their prayer times, but he prefers using an app for his Android phone that plays the call to prayer five times a day. The app also features a compass that shows the direction to Mecca.
He says he appreciates the symbolism of actually hearing the call to prayer.
“I could have an alarm, but the call to prayer is an Islamic institution — it’s something that reflects our active worship,” he says.
Mahfoudhi says combining the call to prayer with technology isn’t a new phenomenon.
He notes that in some Muslim countries, the call to prayer is broadcast on local radio stations.
“You could be out in the middle of nowhere, yet you could still hear it over the radio,” he says.
“The app is new, but that idea of using technology to call people to prayer isn’t.”
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Our Lady Of Lourdes Celebrates 100 Years Nov. 15-18
STEPHEN O’KANE, Staff Writer
Published: November 8, 2012
ATLANTA—As part of its recognition of 100 years as a parish in Atlanta, Our Lady of Lourdes has planned a series of events in November to honor the significant milestone.
Events
- Nov. 14, 2012-Feb. 24, 2013: Our Lady of Lourdes Exhibit at Auburn Avenue Research Library
- Thursday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.: Interfaith Service at Our Lady of Lourdes, 25 Boulevard, NE, Atlanta
- Saturday, Nov. 17 Sunday, Nov. 18: Masses of Thanksgiving honoring past priests and sisters.
- The Nov. 18 Mass at noon will be celebrated by Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.
Our Lady of Lourdes Church was founded in 1911 by Father Ignatius Lissner of the Society of African Missions as a mission for African-American Catholics, who were not being welcomed at Catholic churches.
During a visit to Atlanta, “Father Lissner observed that the oppression of segregated Atlanta had left the Black population without a welcoming Catholic institution,” a history of Lourdes says, and he received permission from Savannah Bishop Benjamin J. Keiley to establish the mission. It became, in the words of Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, the Mother Church of the archdiocese’s African-American Catholics.
At that time, the priest’s search for a site in the Highlands area of Atlanta to build the mission was met with both anti-black and anti-Catholic sentiment. However, with the help of J.J. Spalding, a parishioner of nearby Sacred Heart Church, Father Lissner succeeded in purchasing the site on Boulevard in March 1912.
By November 1912, a building was completed, blessed and dedicated. Father Lissner obtained financing from Mother Katharine Drexel, a wealthy Philadelphia heiress who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, an order established to serve black and Indian people. Black Catholics from throughout North Georgia traveled to worship at the mission church, which has since become an icon for the early black Catholic community in Georgia.
Our Lady of Lourdes was established in 1912 by Father Ignatius Lissner of the Society of African Missions to serve African-American Catholics in Atlanta. St. Katharine Drexel is a co-founder of the church and school. (Photos by Michael Alexander)
St. Katharine Drexel, who was canonized in 2000, is considered a co-founder of Lourdes with Father Lissner, a pioneer in the planting of churches who would continue to strengthen the early community in the face of threats and roadblocks.
Part of the history of Atlanta and the history of the Catholic Church in Atlanta, Lourdes survived the Great Fire of 1917 in the Old Fourth Ward. In the 1960s, Lourdes was on the doorstep of the Civil Rights movement.
Staffed by the Society of African Missions for many decades, it then became a parish served by archdiocesan priests. Now the parish is under the care of the Dominican order, led by pastor Father Jeffery Ott, OP.
At its founding, the Lourdes complex consisted of the church on the first floor, classrooms on the second and a parish hall on the third floor. The mission was initially meant to be a memorial to the late Archbishop Patrick Ryan of Philadelphia and was called Our Lady of Lourdes in memory of the day on which he died.
Throughout its decades of presence in Atlanta, Our Lady of Lourdes has become woven into the surrounding neighborhood and community through its various outreach programs and services. An exhibit featuring historical items and information and highlighting this aspect of the parish will open at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on Nov. 14 and run through Feb. 24, 2013.
“The exhibit will be a visual representation of the Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School,” said Dr. Geraldine Jackson-White, a member of the Our Lady of Lourdes Centennial Committee. “There will be artifacts that represent Lourdes specifically. It’s meant to inform and educate.”
The exhibit, which was made possible by a grant from the Catholic Foundation of North Georgia, will feature items from the last 100 years, from first Communion veils, prayer books and chalices to school uniforms, pictures and pre-Vatican II Communion patens. Banners with information on both Lourdes and Catholicism will also be a part of the display. The focus of the exhibit will be on Our Lady of Lourdes, the African-American Catholic experience in Georgia, and Catholicism in general, said Jackson-White.
“We are hoping that Catholic schools will bring students to learn,” she said, adding that the exhibit was intentionally made to be portable so that any interested schools could use the display for educational purposes in the future.
Also planned in celebration of the 100-year-old parish is an interfaith service recognizing the collaborative service efforts of Our Lady of Lourdes and other local groups. Among these efforts is Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), a multicultural interfaith coalition that advocates for empowerment of ordinary people at the grassroots level, the Lourdes lunch program for the hungry, its Simon’s Call AIDS ministry, Haiti ministry, St. Vincent de Paul ministry, among others.
In addition, every year volunteers from Our Lady of Lourdes join volunteers from other churches to build a Habitat for Humanity home for a deserving family. The Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver and the Junior Knights and Junior Daughters all began in the last quarter century.
The interfaith service will feature speakers from various faith traditions who have worked with or been impacted by Our Lady of Lourdes. Dance and vocal performances will also be a part of the interfaith event.
Patrice Barton Smith, a parishioner since 2003, serves as the co-chair of the centennial committee and has enjoyed working with parishioners and neighbors to help put together the various celebrations.
“It has been a huge honor to play this role,” she said, adding how much the parish has meant to her and the surrounding community. “It means a lot to honor the community that has been so important here.”
Smith also said a series of Masses in recognition of all former priests and sisters that served at Our Lady of Lourdes has been scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 17-18. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory will celebrate the noon Mass on Sunday, Nov. 18. All former priests and sisters have been invited to attend the weekend Masses.
Our Lady of Lourdes started with 15 members. Father Lissner nominated Father Michael Scherrer as the first pastor. Two laywomen, Bessie Rucker and Leulla Holmes, were recruited as the first two teachers at the parish school; they were soon joined by Bessie Landrum and Lucile Rucker. All of the lay teachers were African-American. The school opened in October 1912 with 50 students, and by the end of the school year had 35 pupils in kindergarten, 40 in first grade, and 30 each in second and third. Tuition during the early years was 10 cents a month for families who could pay. The families who could not pay were not turned away.
The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament staffed Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School until 1974. The school closed in 2001, when the Archdiocese of Atlanta could no longer provide funding. It has become the Katharine Drexel Community Center, which includes church offices, Sunday school classrooms, a choir rehearsal hall, and the Drexel Institute for the Arts.
In early 2008, to meet the needs of the growing church, Our Lady of Lourdes introduced a Capital Stewardship Campaign in order to purchase the only adjacent land to the existing property. Over 600 households responded with pledges and donations at the campaign kick-off on Easter Sunday. On June 11, 2008, the Atlanta Urban Design Commission approved the Lourdes’ conceptual master plan/site plan for the construction of a new sanctuary on the property.
Our Lady of Lourdes is located in the midst of what is now known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Landmark District.
For more information on the centennial celebration, please visit the Our Lady of Lourdes website at lourdesatlanta.org.
November 12, 2012 For Immediate Release
Ecumenical Catholic Community Holds 1st Mass in Metro East
Seven people gathered around the table last week to celebrate a Catholic Mass in Belleville, IL. This Mass, however, was not what most people would expect. First of all, the presider was an ordained, married woman. Secondly, all were invited to receive Communion – without exclusion by race, gender, sexual orientation, lifestyle, or religious beliefs. Third, it was not a Roman Catholic community. This was the initial gathering of an Ecumenical Catholic community, the first in the Metro East.
The community is a mission church of Sts. Clare Francis Ecumenical Catholic Church in Webster Groves, MO. The presider in Belleville is a member of that church; the pastors of Sts. Clare Francis will also serve the new community.
“We aren’t in competition with Rome, or anyone else,” said leadership team member Ginny Kiernan Dahlberg. “We simply offer an authentically Catholic option to those who are unsatisfied in their current faith community, Catholic or not – or who don’t have one.”
The Ecumenical Catholic Communion is an international “community of communities,” autonomous Catholic churches with a shared structure, governance, Presiding Bishop and faith. The ECC grew out of the Old Catholic Church, acknowledged by Rome and other Catholic churches in communion with Rome, as authentically Catholic.
Initially, the new Ecumenical Catholic community will celebrate Mass every other Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Those interested can call 618-334-8395 for more information. Information on the Ecumenical Catholic Communion can be found at http://ecumenical-catholic-communion.org and at http://alternativecatholic.org .
For more information, contact: Ginny Kiernan Dahlberg, Ph.D.
(618) 334-8395
milwginny@att.net
#
Recall the case of the parents who took their 15-month-old to a Michigan Applebee’s. The parents ordered apple juice for their child. The server mistakenly brought a margarita. The child drank some of the liquor before the parents realized the mistake. They sued the Applebee’s chain.
Bringing a lawsuit means the plaintiffs — in this case, the parents — ask the government — in its judicial branch — to rule that the behavior of the server, as an agent of the Applebee’s chain, is so serious, and so seriously wrong, that the government will impose a judgment on the restaurant and its owners and shareholders.
Every Sunday, children — and in the case of Orthodox churches, baptized infants — are offered wine to drink.
Why is no one suing the Catholic churches, Roman and Eastern, for serving alcohol to a minor?
The difference lies in the ways we view commercial enterprises on the one hand and religious bodies on the other. Various laws, some local, some state and some national, govern commercial enterprises. Nowhere in American law is the mission of any commercial enterprise given special protection under law.
Religious bodies, in contrast, have constitutional protection by the government, from the government. Congress shall make no law, the first amendment reads, prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Exercise is an interesting word because it presumes action. Religious freedom does not simply mean the freedom to think, a power, one presumes, even the most oppressive regimes cannot hold over their citizens.
Exercise means the work — of keeping holy days and seasons, of regulating food habits and sexual practices, of determining which texts are sacred and which are not and who may proclaim them, teach them and preach them — particular to each religious body.
Communion is central to Catholic life. From the earliest days of the church we have been the people who gather on Sunday to receive the bread and wine that become for us the body and blood of Christ. It is an exercise of our religion, and so is protected by the constitution.
As ancient as is our practice of Communion, the Jewish practice of male circumcision is more ancient still. It is the hallmark of identity for Jewish males. To be a Jewish man is to be circumcised.
And in Hasidic, and other ultra-Orthodox Jewish congregations, the ritual includes metzitzah b’peh, a practice in which the mohel, the Jewish ritual circumciser, uses his mouth in a split-second action to suction the blood from the wound. The mohel, whose mouth is filled with wine, then spills the wine from his mouth over the wound.
On Sept. 13, the New York City Board of Health passed a regulation requiring “written informed consent” from parents before an infant can be ritually circumcised by a metzitzah b’peh-practicing mohel. Since the parents, and other family and friends are present at what is a liturgical (that is, public work) of the community, one wonders why this consent is necessary. Doesn’t the presence of the family and faith community imply consent?
There are a number of issues here. Public health officials are concerned that oral contact creates a risk of transmitting herpes, a virus that can kill infants. Here are the statistics the New York City Department of Health cites: It learned of 11 herpes case between 2004 and 2011 (or an average of around one and half cases a year) it said are “associated with” the practice of metzitzah b’peh.
Two of the 11 cases resulted in death and two other babies suffered brain damage from the infection.
Compare this with 2010 policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics on the dangers of choking among children 3 and younger. A press release announcing the policy stated, “On average, a child will die every 5 days in the United States from choking on food.”
That is, on average, 73 children a year. These are deaths in which the cause is not “associated with” food, but in which the cause is known to be food.
The lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics study is Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He said, “If you were to design the perfect plug for a child’s airway, you couldn’t do much better than a hot dog. It will wedge itself in tightly and completely block the airway, causing the child to die within minutes because of lack of oxygen.”
Yet the New York City Department of Health has taken no steps to require the consent of parents before their child is fed a hot dog.
So clearly something else is at work here. Consider, circumcision has fallen out of fashion in the West, even though the World Health Organization recommends circumcision to reduce or slow the spread of AIDS. A recent article by Danish journalist Kjeld Koplev, in Politiken, describes circumcision as a ritual involving 10 men that is “abuse” and “torture.”
Imagine how he might describe a first Communion Mass, as “a man in a dress plying children with alcohol.”
The Danish example follows their neighbor, Germany, where, according to The New York Times, four German citizens in Hof filed criminal complaints against Rabbi David Goldberg, who serves a community of about 400 Jews, for performing ritual circumcisions.
Another factor is that, in a highly sexualized culture, the thought of a grown man having oral-genital contact with an infant raises the specter of pedophilia.
In the Sept. 24 edition of The New Yorker magazine, Malcolm Gladwell writes about Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant football coach at Penn State University, who was convicted on child molestation charges.
Gladwell quotes authorities on pedophiles in describing their methods. A pedophile, he writes, is someone adept not just at preying on children but at confusing, deceiving and charming the adults responsible for those children.
Where is the confusion or deception for parents who have freely asked for the rite of circumcision and who have freely engaged the services of the mohel who performs it?
Gladwell describes “the grooming process” by which a pedophile hooks his victims. He looks for vulnerable children, most often boys whose home lives are in disarray. He then insinuates himself into the vacuum left by an absent, typically, father. Gladwell observes that a vigilant parent, one who questions the special attention shown a child by a pedophile, will usually send the pedophile running. Secrecy, and the shadows, Gladwell argues, is a pedophile’s friend.
How does any of this describe the mohel? His encounter with the child is a one-time event, involving an infant too young to be “groomed.” Everything the mohel does is in full view and with full consent of the parents. Circumcision in the Jewish tradition is a public rite, with enough onlookers to ensure that nothing outside the boundaries of the rite occurs.
In the New York case, some parents complained that while they asked for the circumcision of their sons, they did not know that metzitzah b’peh would be part of the ritual. Should parents and participants, as far as they are able to understand, be informed of the elements of a religious rite? Of course. The time to learn that you or your child will be fully immersed at baptism is not in the middle of the rite.
But it is the role of the officiant, the one deputed by the religious community, to explain the rite.
Government officials do not get to dictate how Jews will raise their children, even when their practices are foreign to the rest of us. Mormons get to wear odd underwear. Muslim women get to cover their hair and faces. Sikh men get to grow their hair long and wrap it in turbans. And Catholics get to offer the cup of salvation, filled with wine transformed into the blood of Christ, to children far below the legal age of drinking.
It is an uneasy truce, this one we keep not only between various faiths but between believers and nonbelievers. But this truce is, as James Madison wrote long ago, the “lustre” of our country. It is worth keeping and even celebrating.
[Melissa Musick Nussbaum lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. She is co-author, with Jana Bennett, of Free to Stay, Free to Leave: Fruits of the Spirit and Church Choice.]
Our Lady Of Lourdes Celebrates 100 Years Nov. 15-18
STEPHEN O’KANE, Staff Writer
Published: November 8, 2012
ATLANTA—As part of its recognition of 100 years as a parish in Atlanta, Our Lady of Lourdes has planned a series of events in November to honor the significant milestone.
Events
- Nov. 14, 2012-Feb. 24, 2013: Our Lady of Lourdes Exhibit at Auburn Avenue Research Library
- Thursday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.: Interfaith Service at Our Lady of Lourdes, 25 Boulevard, NE, Atlanta
- Saturday, Nov. 17 Sunday, Nov. 18: Masses of Thanksgiving honoring past priests and sisters.
- The Nov. 18 Mass at noon will be celebrated by Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.
Our Lady of Lourdes Church was founded in 1911 by Father Ignatius Lissner of the Society of African Missions as a mission for African-American Catholics, who were not being welcomed at Catholic churches.
During a visit to Atlanta, “Father Lissner observed that the oppression of segregated Atlanta had left the Black population without a welcoming Catholic institution,” a history of Lourdes says, and he received permission from Savannah Bishop Benjamin J. Keiley to establish the mission. It became, in the words of Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, the Mother Church of the archdiocese’s African-American Catholics.
At that time, the priest’s search for a site in the Highlands area of Atlanta to build the mission was met with both anti-black and anti-Catholic sentiment. However, with the help of J.J. Spalding, a parishioner of nearby Sacred Heart Church, Father Lissner succeeded in purchasing the site on Boulevard in March 1912.
By November 1912, a building was completed, blessed and dedicated. Father Lissner obtained financing from Mother Katharine Drexel, a wealthy Philadelphia heiress who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, an order established to serve black and Indian people. Black Catholics from throughout North Georgia traveled to worship at the mission church, which has since become an icon for the early black Catholic community in Georgia.
Our Lady of Lourdes was established in 1912 by Father Ignatius Lissner of the Society of African Missions to serve African-American Catholics in Atlanta. St. Katharine Drexel is a co-founder of the church and school. (Photos by Michael Alexander)
St. Katharine Drexel, who was canonized in 2000, is considered a co-founder of Lourdes with Father Lissner, a pioneer in the planting of churches who would continue to strengthen the early community in the face of threats and roadblocks.
Part of the history of Atlanta and the history of the Catholic Church in Atlanta, Lourdes survived the Great Fire of 1917 in the Old Fourth Ward. In the 1960s, Lourdes was on the doorstep of the Civil Rights movement.
Staffed by the Society of African Missions for many decades, it then became a parish served by archdiocesan priests. Now the parish is under the care of the Dominican order, led by pastor Father Jeffery Ott, OP.
At its founding, the Lourdes complex consisted of the church on the first floor, classrooms on the second and a parish hall on the third floor. The mission was initially meant to be a memorial to the late Archbishop Patrick Ryan of Philadelphia and was called Our Lady of Lourdes in memory of the day on which he died.
Throughout its decades of presence in Atlanta, Our Lady of Lourdes has become woven into the surrounding neighborhood and community through its various outreach programs and services. An exhibit featuring historical items and information and highlighting this aspect of the parish will open at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on Nov. 14 and run through Feb. 24, 2013.
“The exhibit will be a visual representation of the Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School,” said Dr. Geraldine Jackson-White, a member of the Our Lady of Lourdes Centennial Committee. “There will be artifacts that represent Lourdes specifically. It’s meant to inform and educate.”
The exhibit, which was made possible by a grant from the Catholic Foundation of North Georgia, will feature items from the last 100 years, from first Communion veils, prayer books and chalices to school uniforms, pictures and pre-Vatican II Communion patens. Banners with information on both Lourdes and Catholicism will also be a part of the display. The focus of the exhibit will be on Our Lady of Lourdes, the African-American Catholic experience in Georgia, and Catholicism in general, said Jackson-White.
“We are hoping that Catholic schools will bring students to learn,” she said, adding that the exhibit was intentionally made to be portable so that any interested schools could use the display for educational purposes in the future.
Also planned in celebration of the 100-year-old parish is an interfaith service recognizing the collaborative service efforts of Our Lady of Lourdes and other local groups. Among these efforts is Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), a multicultural interfaith coalition that advocates for empowerment of ordinary people at the grassroots level, the Lourdes lunch program for the hungry, its Simon’s Call AIDS ministry, Haiti ministry, St. Vincent de Paul ministry, among others.
In addition, every year volunteers from Our Lady of Lourdes join volunteers from other churches to build a Habitat for Humanity home for a deserving family. The Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver and the Junior Knights and Junior Daughters all began in the last quarter century.
The interfaith service will feature speakers from various faith traditions who have worked with or been impacted by Our Lady of Lourdes. Dance and vocal performances will also be a part of the interfaith event.
Patrice Barton Smith, a parishioner since 2003, serves as the co-chair of the centennial committee and has enjoyed working with parishioners and neighbors to help put together the various celebrations.
“It has been a huge honor to play this role,” she said, adding how much the parish has meant to her and the surrounding community. “It means a lot to honor the community that has been so important here.”
Smith also said a series of Masses in recognition of all former priests and sisters that served at Our Lady of Lourdes has been scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 17-18. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory will celebrate the noon Mass on Sunday, Nov. 18. All former priests and sisters have been invited to attend the weekend Masses.
Our Lady of Lourdes started with 15 members. Father Lissner nominated Father Michael Scherrer as the first pastor. Two laywomen, Bessie Rucker and Leulla Holmes, were recruited as the first two teachers at the parish school; they were soon joined by Bessie Landrum and Lucile Rucker. All of the lay teachers were African-American. The school opened in October 1912 with 50 students, and by the end of the school year had 35 pupils in kindergarten, 40 in first grade, and 30 each in second and third. Tuition during the early years was 10 cents a month for families who could pay. The families who could not pay were not turned away.
The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament staffed Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School until 1974. The school closed in 2001, when the Archdiocese of Atlanta could no longer provide funding. It has become the Katharine Drexel Community Center, which includes church offices, Sunday school classrooms, a choir rehearsal hall, and the Drexel Institute for the Arts.
In early 2008, to meet the needs of the growing church, Our Lady of Lourdes introduced a Capital Stewardship Campaign in order to purchase the only adjacent land to the existing property. Over 600 households responded with pledges and donations at the campaign kick-off on Easter Sunday. On June 11, 2008, the Atlanta Urban Design Commission approved the Lourdes’ conceptual master plan/site plan for the construction of a new sanctuary on the property.
Our Lady of Lourdes is located in the midst of what is now known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Landmark District.
For more information on the centennial celebration, please visit the Our Lady of Lourdes website at lourdesatlanta.org.
