Staten Island Ministry helps youth make a radical choice of faith

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The religious order of nuns that runs the St. Edward Food Pantry in Pleasant Plains has formed a ministry in the hopes of strengthening the Roman Catholic faith among young people.

The Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary has formed a Catholic Youth for Radical Faith Ministry (CYRF) on Staten Island that operates out of the order’s convent in Pleasant Plains.

The worldwide CYRF ministry is a response to Pope Benedict’s call for youth to make a radical choice of faith within the “New Evangelization.” As part of their mission, the sisters have launched a fund-raising campaign in the hopes of sending 13 Staten Islanders to World Youth Day 2013, slated for July 23-28 of that year in Rio De Janeiro in Brazil.

The order already has earmarked $10,000 to cover the expenses of three attendees, and needs nearly $30,000 additional to sponsor all the candidates, said Sr. Gertrude Lilly Ihenacho, congregation minister. 

/subONE OF THE CHOSENRRGabriella Reyes, 22, a parishioner of Holy Child R.C. Church who aspires to become a medical doctor, was thrilled to be chosen as one of the WYD attendees.

“I went to World Youth Day when I was 11 and it had a huge impact on me,” the Huguenot resident said. “It was amazing to see so many young Roman Catholics coming together at one place at one time.”

Unfortunately, the St. Joseph by the Sea High School graduate, does not see that enthusiasm matched on Staten Island.

“It’s hard to find Catholic youth who are excited about their faith,” Ms. Reyes said, noting that some don’t even want to admit to their religion.

“Sometimes it’s seen as nonsensical to be religious,” she observed, speculating that negative media accounts about the Roman Catholic Church have fueled those sentiments.

“I am happy and excited to be a Catholic,” said Ms. Reyes, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at Stevens Institute and is studying for her master’s degree in biomedical science at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

The goals of the CYRF ministry are to generate youthful enthusiasm in and defense of their faith, to foster Gospel values and discipleship and to provide young people with the opportunity to interact with other Roman Catholics from throughout the world. The Franciscan Handmaids sponsors people to attend World Youth Day as a way of reaching these goals, according to the order’s literature. 

/SUBA GLOBAL EXPERIENCErR“World Youth Day is a global experience,” Sister Gertrude noted. “We want them to see knowledge and spirituality among Catholic Youth. We want the youth to really understand their faith, to be able to defend their faith.”

The ministry aims to give young people more information about their religion, especially with regard to issues of social justice.

“We want to empower the youth to make informed decisions,” Sister Gertrude said.The Staten Island ministry also provides ample opportunities to serve both on the Island and throughout the world, while trying to counterract powerful negative social forces, such as drugs and crime that are influencing today’s youth.

“You can’t get by stealing, by wanting somebody to bring it to you,” said Sister Gertrude, who was a public health physician prior to joining the order. “You can be anything you want to be as long as you identify what your skill is and go for it,” she said.

The CYRF ministry allows for real and web-based contact with other members throughout the world. The ministry is a global link to educational, financial, volunteer, internship, missionary and employment opportunities and resources with Catholic agencies, the United Nations and many other non-profit organizations.

Members of the ministry have opportunities to attend various conferences, retreats and pilgrimages. They have acces to Papal messages, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops newsletters and a wealth of educational information on the Roman Catholic faith and social justice issues.

Volunteers are needed to join a fund-raising committee. To make a donation or for additional information about the CYRF ministry, contact Anita Fein, administrator of the St. Edward Food Pantry, at 718-984-1625, or e-mail stedwardfoodpantry@hotmail.com.

Polish children rake in First Communion bonanza?

At the height of the First Communion season, extravagance and pomp are not an uncommon occurrence in Poland, with increasingly chic outfits, hairstyles and receptions taking centre stage, the Rzeczpospolita daily reports.

The trend has prompted the Roman Catholic Church in the country to appeal for the faithful to safeguard the occasion’s religious character.

The celebration predominantly spells pressure for the godparents who seek to deliver to the children’s – and parents’ – expectations, with the bar set high.

Bicycles and scooters no longer list as the most popular presents, now outdone by personal computers and tablets.

Those undecided can still resort to the customary evergreen, the envelope. The going rate, however, is 1,000 zloty (around 250 euro).

As a new fad has it, each of the guests is also to receive a memorabilia gift, most often an angel made of plaster, writes the daily. (aba/jb)

Bishop’s visits inspire John Knox residents

NORTH TAMPA –

As the spiritual leader of 450,000 Catholics in West Central Florida, Bishop Robert Lynch leads a Mass like few others in the Tampa area.

His appearance can pack assembly halls with adoring parishioners, turning routine worship services into special occasions.

Lynch is admired for his teachings, adherence to Catholic principles, and concern and care for his flock, especially the sick and elderly.

“The bishop is quite understanding on the condition of aging,” said Claudia Behr, a seven-year resident at St. Joseph’s John Knox Village, 4100 E. Fletcher Ave.

As the cantor for Catholic services at the retirement center, Behr draws inspiration to sing her best when Lynch is in attendance.

Such was the case April 25 when the bishop led a special Mass of the anointing of the sick and elderly at John Knox. His visit drew about 150 residents, staff members and student volunteers, who filled the center’s Crystal Dining Room.

John Knox Village in Tampa and Bon Secour Maria Manor in St. Petersburg are the two area retirement health care centers most closely associated with the Diocese of St. Petersburg, said Frank Murphy, director of communications for the Catholic diocese spanning Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. Lynch tries to visit both centers at least twice a year to connect with the residents.

As a retirement center with Protestant and Catholic residents, John Knox Village opens its doors daily to a host of preachers and spiritual leaders. But perhaps none has the appeal among the residents and employees as the leader of the Tampa area’s Roman Catholic Church.

* * * * *

Since his installment as bishop in 1996, Lynch has made ministering to the sick, elderly, poor and imprisoned a priority, Murphy said. He regularly visits county jails and prisons during the holiday season.

He strives to bring hope, encouragement and prayer to people in poor health or with other frailties.

Lynch, who is based in St. Petersburg, enjoys his trips to the retirement center in North Tampa and is willing to stop by “whenever I’m invited,” he said.

“I think it gives our senior citizens hope,” Lynch said. “They connect very well with the bishop.”

The Mass of anointing and sacrament paying tribute to the sick and elderly at John Knox is held a few times a year.

The bishop’s most recent visit attracted several priests, who assisted him in carrying out the Mass. The rites included the receiving of Holy Communion and Lynch and the priests conducting a special blessing of the hands.

The audience was sprinkled with many residents in wheelchairs from the village’s medical center and nursing home. They were joined by members of Jesuit High School Key Club, who serve as center volunteers; and Isaac Mallah, president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph’s-Baptist Health Care, a five-hospital health care system with locations in Tampa and Plant City.

The rituals traditionally are performed by Monsignor Austin Mullen and the Rev. Robert Schindler, two retired priests who live at John Knox. They were among eight priests who participated in the Mass.

“It’s not always a physical healing,” said Behr, the cantor who leads congregational singing at Catholic Mass at John Knox. “It is quite often a spiritual, mental and emotional Mass to help us cope with the process of aging.”

The bishop embraced residents, staff members and volunteers at the hour-long service. He delivered a message of faith and caring, and offered guidance on living a Christ-centered life.

Sister Marie Celeste Sullivan, a John Knox Village resident who has known Lynch nearly 20 years, considered it a privilege to see him again.

“It’s wonderful for the people who are [shut-in], too,” said Sullivan, who served 30 years as administrator at St. Joseph’s Hospital on West Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. “There is something about being confined that is hard” to handle.

Caroline North, the marketing director at John Knox, found solace in the bishop’s words. She said she cherishes the relationship he has formed with residents and staffers at the center.

“We are a Catholic institution,” North said. “A lot of our residents select us because of our Catholic affiliation.

“The bishop comes out to anoint the sick as well as the employees, because we are the caregivers.”

Lisa Lyons, John Knox’s executive director, said Lynch’s visits help fortify her faith.

“It’s the essence of who we are,” Lyons said. “The bishop has a great rapport with the seniors. I wanted to make sure they had an opportunity to be with him.”

Hundreds Mourn 7 Family Members Who Died in a Bronx Car Crash

It came in a procession of seven hearses that rolled up under bleak gray skies, announced by the tolling of a church bell. The hearses had to double- and triple-park on the street outside as, one by one, the coffins bearing 10-year-old Jazlyn in her white communion dress, her mother, aunt, two young cousins, grandmother and grandfather were carried up the church steps. It was a funeral Mass to bless a family dealt an incomprehensible loss.

Miguel Alberty, the father of one of Jazlyn’s best friends, said he did not cry until he saw the smallest of the coffins. Then the tears flowed. “It’s too much,” he said. “If you ask me, it’s seven too many.”

Months of preparing for the communion ceremony — and years of building families and lives — were cut short Sunday when a Honda Pilot driven by Jazlyn’s mother, Maria Nuñez Gonzalez, 45, struck a median barrier on the Bronx River Parkway and plunged 60 feet off an overpass into a nonpublic area of the Bronx Zoo, killing everyone inside.

In addition to Ms. Nuñez Gonzalez and her daughter, the other passengers were Maria Nuñez Rosario, 39, and her daughters, Naily Rosario, 7, and Marlyn Rosario, 3; and Ana Julia Martínez, 81, and Jacobo Nuñez, 85, who had arrived just last week from the Dominican Republic to attend Jazlyn’s first communion.

 The funeral Mass at St. Raymond, a Roman Catholic church, drew hundreds of mourners, some of whom arrived hours before the 9:45 a.m. service and waited outside the black wrought-iron gates. Residents of the apartment building across the street peered down from their windows; some of the Catholics among them silently crossed themselves.

“I feel there is a hole in my heart,” said Mr. Alberty’s daughter, Mikaela, 9, who has been sitting next to Jazlyn’s empty chair at St. Raymond Elementary School all week because no one has wanted to touch her books or pencil case.

Gwendolyn Bowell, 70, a home attendant, said she could not help but give thanks for her own large family of 6 children, 14 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. “I feel for them very much,” she said. “It was so fast. It was so many from one family.”

Inside the church, Msgr. John Graham said the Mass in English and in Spanish, and included hymns and prayers that were requested by family members: “The Lord Is My Strength,” “He Is Risen” and the “Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.”

Calling the accident “a nightmare,” Monsignor Graham told the mourners in the pews that the seven would “become one with Christ.” Quiet sobbing echoed through the sanctuary.

“Give them eternal peace,” said Yanet Gomez, 43, as she left the church at the end of the service. “They simply went early.”

The accident, which is still under investigation, occurred after Ms. Nuñez Gonzalez lost control of the car while speeding on an elevated section of highway, careering into the median and then flying over the guardrail (police estimated that she was driving 68.5 miles per hour in a 50-m.p.h. zone). In response to criticism that the roadway was unsafe, state transportation officials began installing new concrete barriers this week to supplement the four-foot-tall guardrails.

Family members said that Ms. Nuñez Gonzalez had picked up her parents from a relative’s home, and was driving them, along with her sister and the three children, to a church service; she had planned to take them home for a family dinner.

Ms. Nuñez Gonzalez and Ms. Nuñez Rosario had worked together in custodial services at Fordham University, and dozens of their friends and colleagues lined up outside the church to honor them.

“It’s not just co-workers, it’s family,” said Fernando Bonilla, 51, a custodian who described the sisters as “top-notch workers” who always pulled their weight. “All I’ve been doing is praying to God since it happened.”

Monsignor Graham said that St. Raymond’s had been devastated by the loss, and would plant a tree on the grounds in Jazlyn’s memory. “On Saturday, she was going to receive Jesus for the first time,” he said. “She is now with Jesus forever.”

After the funeral Mass, relatives climbed into a white stretch limousine that displayed the names of the dead on its side, spelled out in blue, yellow and pink tape with bouquets of matching roses. The family buried Ms. Nuñez Gonzalez, Ms. Nuñez Rosario and the three children at the church’s cemetery. The coffins for the sisters’ parents were to be flown to the Dominican Republic for burial.

Several women sobbed as they were helped into the limousine, and one kept asking: “¿Por qué? ¿Por qué?”

“It was a sea of caskets,” said Monica Martin, 68, as she was leaving the church. “I have never seen that before, and hope I never will again.”

Dundee’s Catholic Church sends message of support to former city student Kate …

The Roman Catholic Church in Dundee has expressed support for Kate McCann ahead of the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of daughter Madeleine.

Kate and Gerry McCann.

  
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Kate McCann studied medicine at Dundee University, graduating in 1992, and is understood to have closely followed her Catholic faith while a student in the city.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Dunkeld said: ”Anyone would pray for the parents of a missing child irrespective of their faith or belief. Madeleine McCann touched the hearts of everyone and especially in Dundee because her mother studied and gained her medical degree here.

”In a way this brings Madeleine’s disappearance closer to home because we can identify with her mother as she lived for a spell in Dundee.”

Although her residence in Dundee was some 20 years ago, it is understood Kate regularly attended mass in the city.

The spokesman added: ”She is in our prayers.”

Originally from Liverpool, Kate Marie Healy came to Dundee University on leaving school and after five years of study at Ninewells Hospital she graduated with a MB ChB degree in 1992.

She initially specialised to become a gynaecologist but later became an anaesthetist. She met her husband Gerry McCann while employed at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow and they were married in 1998.

They had family and settled in Leicestershire where Kate became a GP and Gerry took up a post as a cardiologist. Since Madeleine’s disappearance Kate gave up her practice and Gerry scaled back to working three days a week.

Born in 2003, Madeleine disappeared on May 3 2007 from the resort of Praia de Luz in the Portuguese Algarve where her family had gone for a holiday.

Scotland Yard detectives have been brought in and last week said they had uncovered new information to suggest Madeleine could be alive and living with her abductor. The senior officer leading an investigative review called on Portuguese police to reopen the case.

Photo by Niall Carson/PA Wire

The forts be with you

The fortified town of Carcassonne. Photo: Alamy

Legends and gullible souls have thrived on the legacy of the Cathars, writes Michael Gebicki, who explores their spectacular landscape.

I am driving through the Languedoc region in the southern depths of France, through a taut, spare landscape that the French know as the garrigue after its fragrant vegetation. Crumbling fortresses crown the sharp limestone hills that erupt like blades, an echo of the Pyrenees that rise tomy left. Wine is a staple here and vines inch in parallel across the landscape like fat green caterpillars. Now and again a sign along the roadside reminds me that this is Pays Cathare, the country of the Cathars. Just as the Amish sect shapes Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, this part of southern France has been defined by the Cathars.

The Cathars were an offshoot of Christianity that took root in southern France starting about the 11th century. Cathars saw themselves as true practitioners of the Christian faith, deploring the moral, spiritual and political corruption of the Church of Rome.

They regarded the sacrament of the Eucharist, one of the pillars of the Catholic mass, as a farce, rejected baptism and the adoration of the crucified Christ. They also renounced war, capital punishment and marriage, and attracted a universal following that included landless peasants as well as lords.

Najac, France. Photo: Alamy

In the courts of the Cathar nobles, troubadours, the roaming poet performers of the Middle Ages, sang of chivalry and courtly love, providing a welcome relief from the Catholic Church’s Latin hymns.

Ultimately, the growing influence of the Cathars put them on a collision course with the Roman Catholic Church. Early in the 13th century, Pope Innocent III decided that Enough was enough, and organised the Albigensian Crusade. It was a brutal campaign that raged across the sharp hills on the northern flanks of the Pyrenees and as far north as Najac, where the Eglise Saint Jean was built by villagers as a punishment for Cathar beliefs.

For the crusaders, it was a heavensent opportunity for profit. With the divine authority of the pope behind them, invading princes were given licence to pillage and loot, and to take the Cathar lands as their own. Within 40 years, it was all over. The Cathars were slaughtered to the very last.

Modern-day troubadours in the Mirepoix Languedoc Roussillon region. Photo: Alamy

Catharism now exists only as a memory, a pretty dream. So comprehensively did the Catholic Church wage war against the Cathars that only memories of their faith remain. All that’s left are the crumpled stones of their once daunting forts that stand like rotting molars on the high hills.

Yet even in their decline, the Cathar sites are formidable. Once their cities on the plains had fallen to the papal forces, they retreated to their chateaux, the collective name for their fortresses. Knowing what was to come, they installed strongholds in the sky. On the sharp, ridged peaks on the northern foothills of the Pyrenees they constructed walls, bastions and battlements in places that only a mountain goat would climb.

The way to explore Cathar country is to take a drive along the D117 between the Mediterranean holiday resort of Perpignan and Foix, a distance of about 140 kilometres.

Probably the most spectacular of all the Cathar castles is the Chateau de Peyrepertuse, which lies on the north side of the D117, crowning a high crease that rises 350 metres above its surroundings. From the road that spirals upwards from the village of Duilhac-sous- Peyrepertuse, it is almost impossible to separate the mountainside from the castle, so seamless is its construction. From the parking lot, a 10-minutewalk along a path on the steep north face delivers you to the courtyard of the lower castle.

Peyrepertuse consists of two castles built two centuries apart, starting in the 11th century when this was one of the forts along the border between France and Spain.

Although the chateaux curtain walls and towers are intact, you need imagination to reconstruct the chapel, soldiers’ quarters, interior of the keep and the fireplaces from the toppled masonry – although the latrine apparently still functions.

A staircase hacked from the rock leads to the upper castle, the Chateau St-Georges, from where there are impressive views over the surroundings, including the blunt finger of the Chateau de Queribus, about five kilometres to the southeast.

This was the final stronghold of The Cathars. When it fell to the crusaders in 1255, the remaining Cathars fled, many to Spain where The movement finally died.

A short drive to the east of Chateau de Peyrepertuse is a brooding mountain by the name of Bugarach and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll head there, buy yourself some real estate and wait.

Not tomorrow, not the day after but right now. The reason is that when the world ends on December 21, 2012, the final date of the Mayan calendar, only those living at the foot of this mystery mountain will survive.

Several esoteric New Age groups have identified Bugarach as an ‘‘alien garage’’. Come Armageddon and the aliens –who have ben using the caves and fissures in the limestone peak as a storage depot

for their intergalactic vehicles – will flee our doomed planet, taking the nearest humans with them.

As supporting evidence for their claims of mystical properties for the mountain, the New Age true believers cite mysterious archaeological digs by Nazis in the region and later by Mossad, the Israeli secret service. They also credit Bugarach as the inspiration for Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth (unlikely) and construct hypotheses around the frequent appearance of flying saucers over the mountain (most probably clouds) and the unexplained visit of the late French president Francois Mitterrand to the top of the mountain by helicopter (never happened).

Despite the inconvenience of truth, gullible souls have flocked to the region, installing tepees, gypsy caravans and yurts and annoying the locals by meditating in their gardens and climbing to the top of Bugarach in the nude.

Continue just a few kilometres to the north-west where the town of Rennes-le-Chateau rises on its hilltop, and the plot thickens. Just over a century ago, Berenger Sauniere, the local priest, supposedly found documents hidden in his church, unearthed a tomb in the church grounds and, afterwards, mysteriously acquired a great deal of money. He then set about a lavish restoration project that included the church, his house, a glass orangery and the odd Tower Magdala.

Roll forward the years and along comes Henry Lincoln, a British author and television presenter who visits Rennes-le-Chateau, hears the story and is inspired to write The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. This pseudohistorical treatment puts forward the fantastic notion that Jesus of Nazareth did not die on the cross but survived, married Mary Magdalene, had children, migrated to the south of France and established the Merovingian dynasty, and Sauniere had uncovered the truth. Another few years go by and Dan Brown breathes new life into the theory when he writes The Da Vinci Code. Although Brown does not mention Rennes-le- Chateau in his novel, he borrows the name of its priest for his murdered curator of the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere. By several degrees of separation, therefore, Rennes-le- Chateau is associated with a blockbuster novel and becomes a pilgrimage site for the convinced as well as the merely curious.

The main object of attention is the village church, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. As if to deepen the mystery, Sauniere salted his church with clues suggesting dark forces at work, from the inscription above the door, which translates as ‘‘this place is terrible’’, to the statue of the devil beneath the holy-water font. None of these are exceptional features in Roman Catholic churches of the period, but there’s plenty to ponder in this pretty church.

Continue north from Rennes-le-Chateau along the D118 and you Reach Carcassonne, the classic Cathar site in this part of the world.

Thiswas the main stronghold of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, a Cathar noble, but the city was captured relatively early in the crusade. Carcassonne is the picture book mediaeval fortified city and the largest fortress in Europe, a ring of honey-coloured walls, towers and turrets rising from vineyards where the Canal du Midi meets the river Aude.

Majestic as it is, much of Carcassonne is fake. In the middle of the 19th century, Carcassonne was largely rebuilt in the style of the Loire Valley castles, but so persuasive is the effect that the city is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Inside the city walls, Carcassonne is far more compact than it looks from the outside. It feels a little like a theme park, complete with a miniature train that tours the city, but it’s well worth a visit for the stained-glass windows in the Basilica St-Nazaire and the implements of torture in the Inquisitor’s tower. At the heart of the city is the 12th-century Chateau Comtal, the finest remaining example of a Cathar castle.

To the south-east of Foix, the Chateau de Montsegur stirs the most poignant memories for sympathisers of the Cathar cause. This was one of the last of the Cathar castles and one of the movement’s bloodiest chapters.

After a 10-month siege by an army of 10,000, Montsegur finally surrendered and more than 200 Cathars within who refused to renounce their faith were marched down the mountainside and into a stockade and burned alive.

From the parking lot it’s an absolute slog to get to the castle along a steep, rocky path that climbs the face of the crag. Your reward is a wonderful view, although I wish it was the love songs of the troubadours I was hearing instead of the lonely wind whistling through the tumbled stones.

Blanquette de Limoux

The Languedoc-Roussillon wine region is the world’s largest wine-producing region, responsible for more than a third of total French output. Among this vast produce is a number of specialty wines that are found nowhere else, and one of them is Blanquette de Limoux, which comes from the heart of Cathar country, just south of Carcassonne. In about 1531, some 150 years before the first champagne appeared, the monks of St Hilaire near Limoux started making a sparkling wine from Mauzac grapes. The tradition continues, although these days Blanquette de Limoux contains small quantities of chardonnay and chenin blanc as well as Mauzac. Blanquette sparkling wine comes in dry, semi-dry and sweet versions, but even the dry is typically sweeter than the sparkling wines of Champagne, with a more assertive fruit character. This is a perfect wine for a warm afternoon and Blanquette de Limoux is widely available from the caves, the wine shops found throughout the region.

Chez Dyna

My temporary home in the region is Chez Dyna, a small guesthouse in the village of Alaigne, which sits among vineyards south-west of Carcassonne. It’s small, charming, full of character and great value. For just €50 ($64) a night, I have a huge room with a modern bathroom with a bath. The breakfast spread is enormous – croissants and baguettes fresh from the bakery, peaches, juice, plunger coffee, a quality muesli and yoghurt. I also have a selection of teas and coffee-making supplies in my room, which is unusual in a French guesthouse, but the owners of Chez Dyna are British. They’re also enthusiastic and genial hosts, a font of information about the region. Alaigne might be small but it’s an Anglo enclave. Just across the road from Chez Dyna is a bistro operated by a British rugby fanatic, which has a regular clientele consisting mainly of expatriates who have taken up residence here. It might be cultural cowardice, but it can also be a great relief not to have to get your tongue around French syllables first thing in the morning. chezdyna.com.

Trip notes

Getting there

Singapore Airlines operates flights between Singapore and Toulouse via Singapore and Frankfurt. It is possible to travel by train between Paris and Carcassonne. The fastest trains make the journey in just over five hours.

Staying there

Among the websites with reasonably priced accommodation in the Languedoc region are Logis Hotels (logishotels.com), Chambres d’hotes (chambresdhotesfrance.com), France Voyage (france-voyage.com) and Guides de Charme (guidesdecharme.com).

Touring there

A car is essential and there are car hire agencies located in gateway cities including Toulouse and Carcassonne.

Another option is the Sentier Cathar, a historic walking trail that links the Cathar sites between Foix and Port-la- Nouvelle on the Mediterranean. The 250-kilometre trail takes about 12 days to walk in its entirety, although it is easy to break this down. Overnight stops are in villages along the trail.

More information

audetourisme.com/en

The writer travelled to France courtesy of Singapore Airlines.

Research says ‘God spot’ does not exist

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  ** FILE ** A woman ignites a candle before a Mass in the Roman Catholic Church at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria. Researches have been trying to determine whether a part of the human brain – a “God spot” – is responsible for spiritual feelings. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

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Turns out the other “G-spot” is a myth.

Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that the so-called “God spot,” an epicenter of the brain responsible for feelings of spirituality and connection to a higher power, doesn’t exist. Their study instead shows that several regions of the human mind work together to produce religious experiences and the desire to connect with an omnipotent creator.

“Spirituality is a much more dynamic concept that uses many parts of the brain,” said Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology at the university and the report’s prime author. “Certain parts of the brain play more predominant roles, but they all work together to facilitate individuals’ spiritual experiences.”

To form their conclusions, Mr. Johnstone and his colleagues studied 20 people with traumatic brain injuries that affected their right parietal lobes and found that they were much more likely to feel “closeness to a higher power.”

Impairment of the right side of the brain, the report says, decreases feelings of selfishness, often sparking spiritual quests. It also can cause people to focus less on themselves and more on the well-beings of others, a cornerstone of virtually all major religions.

Christian doctors and scientists generally support that type of research, but some fear that Mr. Johnstone and others often overlook the concept of free will. Scripture teaches that God offers grace to all who want it, but forces no one to accept it.

“From my point of view, in Christianity, there are a lot of decisions involved. Being selfless is a decision,” said Chris Mathes, a neuroscientist and co-organizer of the Christian Neuroscience Society. Mr. Mathes, like other members of the 2-decades-old society, is also a vocal believer in God and a practicing Christian.

“The ability to be good is given by God, but it’s a choice that we make. It isn’t forced upon us,” he said. “I’m always very skeptical about making big leaps from some observation in the human brain to a behavior,” such as compassion for others or a proclivity to break the law.

The Missouri study also found a strong correlation between increased activity in the brain’s frontal lobe and participation in religious services, such as a Catholic Mass. Spiritual experiences at those services, the survey shows, are results of strong stimulation of that part of the mind.

Few in the scientific Christian community dispute the notion that their spirituality produces noticeable reactions inside the head, but, for some, the line is crossed when it is suggested that certain people are predestined to believe in God because of the framework of their brains.

“I’m not sensing a lot of controversy here, unless people start to say that you believe the way you believe because you’re wired that way, that it’s all biomechanical stuff,” said Dr. William J. Bicket, a North Carolina surgeon and a member of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. “That’s when you get into another issue, which is free choice. If I’m not responsible for my drug use, for the murder of someone else, because I’m just wired that way, I’m concerned about that” school of thought.

Some also have speculated that the brain injuries sustained by the 20 subjects in the Missouri study may have simply returned them to a childlike state of open-mindedness, where adult skepticism, or hostility toward faith, is greatly diminished.

“There might be some inhibition as adults that gets released because of that brain injury,” Mr. Mathes said. “Kids can be more open to spiritual things. There may be some built-in prejudices built into the brain” as we grow older.

Previous research also has supported the idea that multiple areas of the brain come together to form one’s spiritual identity. Certain parts, other studies have suggested, produce the intense emotions often felt during prayer or religious gatherings.

But when it comes to grasping the concept of God, human beings use the same functions they would to understand another earthly person, said Jordan Grafman, director of traumatic brain injury research at the Kessler Foundation.

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The Irish Association of Catholic Priests should stop using Vatican II to …

I see that the Irish so-called Association of Catholic Priests (a title which misleadingly implies that it is representative of the views of most Irish clergy) is in the papers again, this time for expressing its support for Father Tony Flannery, who has been “silenced” by “The Vatican”: that is, he has been told to stop writing articles attacking the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church, which he consistently describes as being simply the views of a clique of reactionary clergy who have seized power in the Roman curia, and have decided to suppress as far as they are able the freedom of speech of everyone else.

Father Flannery, it may be remembered, came out in support of the Taioseach, Enda Kenny, when he scurrilously attacked the Pope last year: “I was happy with the Taoiseach’s statement”, he said; “Many of us priests are frustrated with the way the Vatican conducts its business.” Maybe he was more than just “happy” with the statement: indeed, David Quinn, of the Iona Community, former editor of the Irish Catholic, asked an interesting question “Did a priest angry at Rome [i.e. Fr Flannery] help him write the speech?…. One could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that he was trying to encourage the creation of an Irish Catholic Church, as distinct from the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.”

Quinn’s theory, so far as I know, was never denied, and it has a certain plausibility. One of the Taioseach’s top advisers is one Frank Flannery, Fr Flannery’s brother; and Fr Flannery is one of the founders of the aforementioned Association of Catholic Priests., which calls for the establishment of a national Church, separate from Rome, that would be conducted “democratically”. The ACP was formed less than 2 years ago, and kicked off by demanding that the Church should “re-evaluate” a number of its teachings, notably those on the ordination of women, artificial birth control and priestly celibacy.

This Association of Catholic Priests has now declared that it is “disturbed” that Fr Flannery is under investigation by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF): well, it would, wouldn’t it? Fr Flannery himself founded it, it’s his mouthpiece: but the way the ACP goes on, you’d think the Irish clergy had risen up as one man in his defence (they haven’t). In a statement yesterday, the ACP said (in other words Father Flannery said) “we affirm in the strongest possible terms our confidence in and solidarity with Fr Flannery and we wish to make clear our profound view that this intervention is unfair, unwarranted and unwise”. It (he) also said among other things that “While some reactionary fringe groups have contrived to portray our association as a small coterie of radical priests with a radical agenda [No!!! surely not], we have protested vehemently against that unfair depiction. We are and we wish to remain”, the statement added, “at the very heart of the Church, committed to putting into place the reforms of the Second Vatican Council”. Ah, yes, to be sure, the Second Vatican Council. Does that, I wonder, include Lumen Gentium? Does Fr Flannery remain “committed”, do you suppose, to the following?

The pope’s power of primacy over all, both pastors and faithful, remains whole and intact. In virtue of his office, that is as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff has full, supreme and universal power over the Church. And he is always free to exercise this power. The order of bishops, which succeeds to the college of apostles and gives this apostolic body continued existence, is also the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church, provided we understand this body together with its head the Roman Pontiff and never without this head. This power can be exercised only with the consent of the Roman Pontiff. For our Lord placed Simon alone as the rock and the bearer of the keys of the Church, and made him shepherd of the whole flock….(Lumen Gentium § 22)

The Daily Mail yesterday had an interesting blog piece, by the writer Mark Dooley, under the headline “Why the Pope is right to gag Fr Trendy”. Two years ago, Dooley appeared on a television programme entitled “Faith in Crisis”. He was joined on the panel by Fr Flannery, whom he hadn’t met before he appeared on the programme. Indeed, it was only when Fr Flannery accused Mr Dooley of suggesting that he didn’t celebrate the Mass properly, that he realised he was a Catholic priest at all, since “he neither spoke nor dressed as someone who wished to be identified as a member of the clergy”.

“Like most of the other participants on that programme”, Mark Dooley continues “Fr Flannery chanted from a radical hymn book. His message was one of dissent from Rome on issues ranging from clerical celibacy to women priests. As he spoke, I remember being surprised that the Vatican permitted such flagrant opposition to Church doctrine by one of its priests.

“I was, therefore, amused to hear that the ACP was ‘disturbed’ by Fr Flannery’s so-called ‘silencing’. ‘This intervention’, they say, ‘is unfair, unwarranted and unwise’ because, contrary to the claims of ‘some reactionary fringe groups’, the ACP is not ‘a small coterie of radical priests with a radical agenda’. Rather, it is ‘committed to putting into place the reforms of the Second Vatican Council’.”

This insistence that only the ACP and those who think like it authentically reflect the teachings of the Second Vatican Council really needs nailing, once and for all. They really do have a nerve, these people, going on and on about Vatican II in order to justify their defiance of the Magisterium of the Church. Do they think the rest of us know nothing ABOUT the Council? As Mark Dooley rightly went on to insist:

Studying the documents of Vatican II, I can see no evidence that the Council Fathers sought the ordination of women or the repudiation of priestly celibacy. When they spoke about ‘reform’ of the Church, they were not suggesting putting up for grabs the fundamentals of Catholic theology. Their objective was not, as the then Cardinal Ratzinger said in 1985, ‘to change the faith, but to represent it in a more effective way’.

It seems to me that the principal objective of groups like the ACP is to ‘change the faith’. As Pope Benedict recently said of the ACP’s Austrian counterpart, they have ‘issued a summons to disobedience’ – even to the point ‘of disregarding definitive decisions of the Church’s Magisterium’ or teaching authority. In so doing, they are not only dissenting from the traditions of the Church, but from their priestly vows.’

No organisation can tolerate that level of dissent. This is especially so in the case of an institution whose origins are considered divine. For if you believe that the Church is the repository of timeless truth, and that those elected Pope are successors of St Peter, you will surely realise that changing the faith amounts to heresy. If, however, you don’t believe such things, why remain a member of the Catholic Church? (My emphasis).

I really couldn’t put it better myself: so I won’t even try.

Follow an Old Tradition: Make Crosses Out of Palm Sunday Reeds

Christians may not get any closer to heaven by folding the palm reeds given out in the churches of some denominations this Palm Sunday, but many will create for themselves a symbol they can display to remind them of God.

And have some fun while they’re doing it.

“It’s popular with Italians, but I think you’d find it in Catholic culture everywhere,” said the Rev. Rich Futie, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Stamford, about the cross-making practice.”Italians certainly have had a great tradition of doing it, making it a sign of faith. Some can be quite artistic.”

The practice is also popular in Greece and Spain, said Msgr. Stephen DiGiovanni, pastor of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford.

Greek Orthodox Churches follow the practice, as do some Episcopal churches. Karin Hamilton, director of communication and media for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, said she’s seen some Episcopalian palm crosses at some of the churches.

The crosses are made by folding two reeds in ways that essentially work like knots. No glue, tacks or other clamping or adhesives are used—just folding and, at the end, tucking extra ends into the middle, or cutting them off with scissors. Like a good knot, a tightly folded cross can be quite sturdy and hold up well over time.

The Rev. Greg Markey, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, said the making of palm crosses isn’t any kind of requirement or obligation of the Roman Catholic faith, or even an important part of it. “It’s just something people do.”

People often keep them for a year, until the next Palm Sunday, and sometimes have one in each room of their homes, Markey said.

“It’s a sacramental — something that helps us to drive toward the sacred,” he said. “Many other things are sacramentals, too. That’s why we bless the palms on Sunday… They’re very much like holy cards we have in our homes and blessed medals.”

In the Roman Catholic Church, palms are blessed as the priest begins the Mass with the procession to the altar, Markey said. The significance of palms “goes back to the Old Testament,” he said. “Jews would wave palms in the air as part of certain festivals or as a sign of joy.

Christ proclaimed king

When Christ entered Jerusalem and was publicly proclaimed a ‘king,’ palms were placed before the donkey that he rode in on, Markey said.

“People will keep them in their homes as signs of the holy in their lives, and many will take them to the cemetery also to place them on graves,” Futie said.

“They’re properly disposed of by either burning them or burying them,” Futie said, something that applies to all palm reeds brought home from Palm Sunday, not just those made into crosses.

“It’s quite common in parishes that the priest will say, ‘Please bring them in,’—maybe the week before Ash Wednesday—and they’ll be burned for the ashes used that day, and the ashes become a sacramental, too,” Futie said.

That’s just what St. Mary’s does, Markey said. “That’s a traditional way of doing it, so there’s a whole cycle there.”

Editor’s note: This article originally was published just before Palm Sunday in 2011. Anthony Gurliacci, in the accompanying video, is the father of David Gurliacci (then patch editor in Norwalk, now in Darien), who wrote this article and took the video.

Roman Catholic Church investigating how porn slideshow ended up at First …

Holy oops!

The Catholic Church launched an investigation after an Irish priest inadvertently played a slide show of gay porn to a group of parents who had come for a meeting about their children’s First Communion.

Father Martin McVeigh was setting up a PowerPoint presentation last week when the sexual images popped up on the computer, The Ulster Herald reported.

“There were plenty of shocked faces,” one person at the meeting told the newspaper. “There’s a lot of parents very angry about it.”

Parents said in a statement that McVeigh quickly removed the offending memory card from the computer and bolted from the room.

“He was visibly shaken and flustered,” the statement said, according to The Associated Press. “He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room. The coordinator and the teachers then continued with the presentation.”

McVeigh returned to the meeting 20 minutes later and told parents that children get lots of money for their Holy Communion and should consider giving some of it to the church.

Parents present at the meeting were understandably furious and many of them pulled their children from the First Communion program, The AP reported.

On Monday, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said McVeigh had no idea how the images got on the memory stick and was assisting with the investigation.

“The priest has stated that he had no knowledge of the offending imagery,” Brady said in a statement. “The archdiocese immediately sought the advice of the [Police Service of Northern Ireland], who indicated that, on the basis of the evidence available, no crime had been committed.”

McVeigh reportedly said other church officials had access to the memory stick as well.

“I don’t know how it happened but I know what happened,” he said.

With News Wire Services