Heroes in Haiti

This video from CNN presents Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow with the extraordinary work Mary’s Meals is doing in earthquake-devastated Haiti.  Present in the country from 2006, the organization was already in place and integrated to be able to immediately provide aid after the disaster.

Finding Camelot

This just in: historians in England believe they may have located King Arthur's Round Table. While no camel remains seem to have been found at Camelot, the article cites a 6th century source who refers also to a shrine to Christian martyrs also on the site, which was found in Chester.

Just In from Sydney

xt3.com teams up with Matt Maher to create this bridge from World Youth Day Sydney to WYD Madrid 2011:

 

 

Really Tough Questions

From the WSJ:

Does the Internet Make You Smarter?

or

Does the Internet Make You Dumber?

They are so Young

One of the concerns amongst the pro-choice movement is the absence of enthusiasm in young people in support of abortion.  In contrast, as Catherine Palmer points out in her post on the waning ranks of pro-abortion activists, it is the pro-life movement that sees ever increasing numbers of youth standing for what they recognize as an evident truth.  With even Pampers tapping iPad to give a closer glimpse into the womb, today’s awareness is shifting away from a vendetta against unborn life.

Heavy Matter

Mary Eberstadt presents 'The Weight of Smut' in the June/July issue of First Things. Dealing with the ever-expanding findings on the damaging effects of pornography on the individual and society, she points to a trend parallel to the likewise expanding obesity epidemic in the United States. Thoughtful and thorough, she reveals a parasite every confessor already sees far too often.

Making It Better

One signature is helping make the world a safer place.  Mark Thiessen writes Monday about Governor Dave Heineman’s ratification of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in Nebraska last week.  Thiessen quotes a recent New York Times Magazine article ‘The First Ache’, which notes that the unborn infant’s “immature physiology may well make it more sensitive to pain, not less: the body’s mechanisms for inhibiting pain and making it more bearable do not become active until after birth.”

smallprint

xt3.com has created an informative fact sheet entitled ‘The Pope, the Media, and the Sexual Abuse Scandals’.  Providing background and specifics, it’s a must-read for anyone wanting the complete picture.

Loony Lefty Hack

Brendan O’Neill has been called worse things by various members of his country, where he is the editor of the U.K. online magazine spiked,* described by the former president of the ACLU as “one of those rare publications that defends free speech even when it is difficult and unfashionable to do so”.

He risks being unfashionable yet again with Tuesday’s article reviewing the push by atheists in England to arrest the Pope during his visit this fall.  As an atheist himself, O’Neill identifies this eruption as revealing the internal decay of the secular outlook.

* “spiked is endorsed by free-thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, and hated by the narrow-minded such as Torquemada and Stalin. Or it would be, if they were lucky enough to be around to read it.”

No Hurting

The center of the nation became a center of protection yesterday as Nebraska passed 44-5 a law to prevent killing unborn children who can feel pain, nrlc.org reports. The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, corresponding to research that identifies pain receptors throughout the body connected to the brain at 20 weeks, prohibits abortion following that age. This data is reflected in other prenatal care, affirms Spaulding Bach, who notes: "Doctors performing fetal surgery at and after 20 weeks now routinely use fetal anesthesia."

2020 and the Changing Face of the World

"Nothing like this has ever happened to any civilisation before."

Writing about the world's largest nation, Peter Hitchens describes his visits near Danzhou and the crisis facing China as their policy of forced abortions leaves them with an imbalance of over 30 million more boys than girls. An extended article on China's single child policy, Hitchens' writing provides a sober update on the accelerating distortion of our single largest population group.

The Jersin Report

Mark Jersin came to the rescue with photos of this morning’s Station Church, Santa Prisca.  Very Prescient, certainly.

 

Photo by Mark Jersin

The palms (or here in Rome, olive branches) from Palm Sunday flank the tabernacle.

Photo by Mark Jersin

Here you have Saint Peter baptizing the young Prisca.

Photo by Mark Jersin

Santa Prisca

Tomorrow concludes the Roman Station Mass trek.  After an early morning Mass at Mary Majors, you have the Seven Churches Walk, which continues on (for 15 miles) to Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Sebastian’s, the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, Saint John Lateran’s and Saint Peter’s.  A practice begun by Saint Philip Neri, he would encouragingly call out along the way, “We’re Neri there!”

Well, perhaps not.

I have yet to visit today’s church on the Aventine Hill, as I had Mass with the sisters today.  One account of Saint Prisca identifies her as being one of Saint Peter’s converts, being baptized by him when she was 13.  Condemned to death by the Romans, she pulled a Daniel in the amphitheater and had a ravenous lion merely licking her feet instead of devouring her.  So the Romans cut off her head instead—making Prisca the first martyr in the west.

Santa Prassede

One of my favorite churches, Santa Prassede was the site for today’s Station Mass.  In addition to having beautiful 9th century mosaics, it gives a glimpse into the history of the martyrs’ relics.

  

First century Praxedes lived here as with her sister Pudentiana and father Pudens she helped hide Christians from Roman persecution.  When 23 of them were discovered in her home, they were cut down before her eyes.  Taking a sponge, she collected their blood and preserved it in a container hidden in the courtyard well.  When she herself was martyred, she was buried in the same spot.

Centuries later, after the emperor got the idea of pitching the martyrs’ relics into the sea, Pope Saint Paschal I began collecting relics from the catacombs and bringing them here, carrying some of them barefoot from outside the city.  Over 2,300 martyrs are now buried here today.

Paschal, who also rebuilt the church, added a small chapel on the side as a tomb for his mother Theodorica.  From the same period as the mosaic over the apse, it is full of the rich gold of the Byzantine style.

Adjacent to the tomb is a small chapel with a portion of the pillar brought back from Jerusalem at which Jesus was scourged.

San Giovanni a Porta Latina

This was my first time at today’s Station Church.  Following a beautiful trek southward which led to quiet tree-lined roads, we arrived at this morning’s small church.

If you can identify this, you’re doing well.

The church stands next to a small shrine commemorating an event described by Tertullian, who writes that the Evangelist was seized by the State and boiled in oil, and ‘he came forth as from a refreshing bath’—so he was subsequently sent off to the island of Patmos.

You can make out part of the scene here.

Lined with alabaster windows in the front, which fill the church with a warm glow, the upper portion of the church is lined with 12th century frescoes.

 

The creation of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden work down the left side of this photo, while Cain and Abel run across the back of the church.

The ancient columns and wood roof reflect the early style of the church.

Cared for by the Institute of Charity today, Saint John’s is a welcome discovery on a lovely spring morning.

Santo Stefano Rotondo

When you visit Cambridge, you find in its center one of its oldest buildings, the Round Church of c. 1130.  Designed to evoke the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, it is one of only four such churches in England. 

Person visiting Cambridge Round Church, c. September, 2009 

England’s awareness of Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher emerged from the First Crusade, thirty years before this church was built.  700 years earlier, Rome had built today’s Station Church, Santo Stefano Rotondo.  What was their link to the church in Jerusalem?

Mainly the fact that they’d built it.  Constantine ordered the building of the church in Jerusalem in 326, with pilgrims like his mother Saint Helen flocking to the site.  With the discovery of Saint Stephen’s bones in the Holy Land in 415, Pope Leo the Great (or possibly Simplicius who succeeded him) ordered the building of a church to house his relics in Rome.

Of the same scale as the church in Jerusalem, Saint Stephen’s shares the feeling of austere simplicity brought with age.  If not the vending of falafel outside its doors.

Sant’Apollinare

Piazza Navona has a distinct shape, formed on the outlines of the circus which long ago stood there.  At the north end of its long, extended reach, leaving the piazza places you in front of the young University of Santa Croce, and immediately adjacent you find the lovely church of yesterday’s Station Mass.

Newly restored, the interior of Sant’Apollinare is awash in various marble hues (fitting, as ‘numerous epigraphical fragments’ from excavations identify the site as having been the marble quarries’ central office under the Imperial administration: the office to visit when you’ve lost your marbles).

Currently the church is slightly awash in violet.

San Marcello

If San Crisogono Monday had a sinking feeling, today’s church would be the last straw, at least for Pope Saint Marcellus, who in being condemned by the Emperor Maxentius, had his newly made church converted into a stable, for which he was to care for, and in his elderly state, he had to bale—that is, bail out of here to the next life.

Today his relics are under the main altar.

 

A major fire destroyed the church in 1519, but preserved in this side altar is a thirteenth century fresco of the Virgin and Child.

Santa Maria in Via Lata

Having Mass with the MC sisters yesterday I missed the Station Mass right off the Via del Corso (translated the street would be something like, ‘way of the street’ or, ‘avenue of the boulevard’.  A slight feeling of redundancy).  Historically the name of the street was Via Lata, which of course carries over in the name of the church.  Today as well you can still order a Latte in a nearby bar, but you’d better specify you want coffee with it, or you’ll simply be served hot milk.

San Crisogono

Monday’s Station Church could leave you with a sinking feeling, at least if you were Chrysogonus himself.  An account of his martyrdom states that after being beheaded at Aquileia under Diocletian, his body was thrown into the sea.

His body being rescued by the priest Zoilus, today he lies (in part) under the main altar, which also contains the arm of the apostle James the Great.

This doesn’t show you beneath the main altar, but just above it:

And a lovely wooden choir in the apse.

In Case You Misheard

This post from reverendfun.com clears up any misunderstanding . . .

Save on Travel Costs

My cousin sent me this link for the virtual tour of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.  Great graphics—now you don’t need to pay for flights!

San Nicola in Carcere

Ianus, Sospita, and Spes are the Roman deities of the day—yesterday, actually, as we visited the church built on top of their temples.  Saturday’s Station Church of Saint Nicholas was also built by the site of the vegetable market Forum Olitorium.  “Lettuce pray,” the ancient vendors would call out.  “Leeks for the meek,” they’d offer.  “Be devout, eat saurkraut,” they’d chant.  OK, maybe not—the Goths hadn’t arrived yet.

Here’s a temple wall incorporated into today’s church.

Perhaps getting up and down chimneys is considered a pretty impressive feat for those in tight spots, because Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of prisoners: the in Carcere of today’s name means jail in Italian.

Happy Feast Day!

Here’s a photo from our courtyard: candles lit last night commemorating Saint Joseph’s solemnity.

San’Eusebio

Saint Joseph was known as a woodworker, and on his feast day today our Station Mass was at San’Eusebio: appropriate because the choir stalls there had some of the most intricate wood carving I’d ever seen.

Here you can see the ambo used for the massive Psalters that would be placed so that everyone singing could see the large font from a single book.

A beautiful barrel vault here.

Saint Joseph’s Feast Day, in addition to being a national holiday, is Father’s Day here in Italy.  It’s also a special celebration for the Holy Father as well, since Joseph is his namesake.

San Martino ai Monti

Pope Saint Sylvester (314-335) built the original church of today’s Station Mass, so the full name of the church is actually Santi Martino e Silvestro ai Monti.  He’s buried under the crypt altar, which is under this not-crypt altar.

Sylvester is also believed to have been the first bishop in the West to use a miter, which at the time they said, ‘was a miter good idear.’  Or something to that effect.  His miter and throne are preserved here; unfortunately you can’t see them in this photo of the ceiling.

 

The extensive ruins below show the original Titulus Aequitii (being one of the original 25 parishes of Rome), which, while appearing to be a home, also shows a hall which could hold about 400 people, being the only such design of a house known in the city.

By the way, while we’re in the Monti district, these two photos from the nearby church of Santa Maria ai Monti help clarify a difficulty of the visitor (or resident) in Rome.  While the 40 days of Lent can bring you to some of the most magnificent churches of the city, with almost 1,000 churches filling the streets, there’s no way you’ll see them all.

And even the most obscure chapels cascade with art.

Ceiling: Santa Maria ai Monti

So enjoy what you can, knowing there’s always more.

San Paolo fuori le Mura

One of Rome’s four major basilicas was Wednesday’s Station Church.  As you can see from the link, happily I took lots of photos the last time we were there, so that my missing of the Mass yesterday is a little less disastrous.

The ‘First Scrutiny of the Catechumenate’ might not be a term readily tossed about, but its occurrence today explains why Gregory the Great had everyone coming out to a major basilica on a Wednesday.  Today, just as 1400 years ago, the season of Lent is the Church’s time of preparation for those who are preparing to join the Church (catechumens), and the liturgies where they publically professed their intention and were prayed for by the community were called scrutinies.  If Saint Gregory were arranging his Station Churches today, he’d send us to Saint Paul’s on the Third Sunday of Lent, because we’ve since moved the event from Wednesday.

San Lorenzo in Damaso

Tuesday’s Station Church was built by Pope Saint Damasus over his home, so his name gets put into the church’s title.  Damasus is buried here as well, under the high altar designed by Bernini.

 

The late 300’s are of course a long time ago, so remodelings and rebuildings have shifted the church: most notably in the 1484 construction of the Palazzo Cancelleria, which is still Vatican property today with a whole houseful of important offices packed inside.

This gives the church all sorts of notable aspects, so that even the side altars are quite ornate.

Or the sacristy:

After Mass another student mentioned studying this palace in architecture class.  Of note, she said, were the ‘unbroken string courses’ in the courtyard.

If you were hungry you might be disappointed to learn that does not refer to an all-you-can-eat spaghetti buffet, but to the horizontal lines that run between the floors.

Two years ago we brought you the flying skeleton, this year we have the still partially hair covered skull.

i Santi Quattro Coronati al Celio

If you need to drop off your baby somewhere you could do so at Monday’s Station Church.  The Augustine Nuns who care for the church arrived in 1564, and at the entrance set up a revolving case that allowed you to leave your baby behind anonymously to be cared for in their orphanage.

The name of the church comes from four brothers, scourged to death under Diocletian, earning them the title of the ‘crowned ones’.  Having won the crown of martyrdom, they can join the Who’s Who gallery of saints shown in this apse fresco above the main altar.

Continuing our round of the Seven Hills of Rome, Monday’s church is very much atop the Caelian, bringing you up a stiff climb as you continue south past the Coliseum, and giving you a view of the neighborhood from above.  Here you can see the medieval fortified exterior of the church; not quite distinguishable in this shot is the upper edge of the Coliseum to the lower right of the photo.

Cosma Update

Not all of us are as forgetful as I am, and so happily others had cameras last Thursday when we visited the Basilica of Cosmas and Damian for our Station Mass.  As we were guided through the crypt, Laura took this photo of the 6th century main altar, below which the martyr brothers are buried.

Photo by Laura Taylor

sactownseminarians.com

For more Station Mass coverage, Colin has been posting to the Sacramento Seminarians’ blog, so click on over.

Nettuno

Three of us visited Nettuno Sunday, arriving first at the church where Saint Maria Goretti is buried on our way to find the house where she had lived and been stabbed.  Asking one of the nuns there how we could get the house,  we were happy when a parishioner offered to drive us the distance out there.

He drove us first through the town, to the hospital where Maria had died after they’d rushed her there following the attack.  A chapel marks the room today.

Then we drove out to Ferriere where her family had moved three years before her death.  Sharing a home with the Serrenelli family, the kitchen and dining area were in common.  The Serrenelli’s youngest, the 19-year-old Alessandro, repeatedly attempted to approach the 11-year-old Maria, till on July 5th, 1902, he stabbed her 14 times when she resisted his attempt to rape her.

   

Our visit to the home was on a lovely sunny day.  Our transporting host dropped us off at the house, and the three of us were able to celebrate Mass in the chapel in the former kitchen.

Confirming that there were no busses running on Sunday, we hiked the 11 kilometers back into town, where we found a well-appreciated lunch before visiting the crypt where Maria is buried.

Nettuno lies on the Mediterranean, and together with the neighboring Anzio was the landing site for the Allies invasion of Italy in Operation Shingle on January 22, 1944.  With 83,000 casualties on both sides, of which 12,000 were fatalities, the attack was a punishing stalemate that filled the cemeteries near the towns.  Today’s peaceful harbor and beaches bear little mark of the recent past, except perhaps Nettuno’s designation as the ‘City of Baseball’, a local pursuit born from the time the Allies spent here during the war.

A Day in the Life . . . in Afghanistan

I’ve posted about classmate Father Carl Subler before, now serving as a chaplain in Afghanistan.  Daylife has a great collection of photos from his deployment.

The Venerable English College

Saturday several of us had the opportunity to visit the English College here in Rome, the oldest English institution outside of England.  Founded in 1579, it succeeded the Hospice of Saint Thomas established in 1362,  begun by John and Alice Shepherd as a center for English pilgrims.

The Main Chapel

Rosary sellers by trade, the couple purchased the site for a guild which cared for burgeoning number of visitors following the holy years 1300 and 1350.  Or to be precise, the "poor, infirm, needy and wretched persons from England".  The not-so-poor as well began to congregate there as well, and by the time of Henry VII, the nickname had been given of ‘the King’s Hospice’.

Our Lady of Walsingham

Henry VII’s son had a different relationship with Rome, and when Henry VIII took supremacy of the Church in England, coming to Rome suddenly took on a different light.

45 years after Henry’s schism, Catholics in England were still considered traitors, and to support or welcome a priest was a capital crime.  The foundation of the English College was to form priests to minister to the underground minority, though returning to England as a cleric meant death upon being apprehended.

The Martyrs Chapel

The walls of the College today list the 44 graduates who were killed in England over a 100 year period, from 1581 to 1678.  Brutality was integral to the government’s executions, and the second floor of the chapel was lined with images of alumni who had been killed, providing a testimony to their classmates who would follow them.

A favored form of execution, developed by Edward Longshanks of Braveheart fame, was to hang, draw, and quarter the condemned: being cut down from hanging before dying, the person’s abdomen was cut open to sequentially remove organs, and then the body was chopped in quarters after death.

 

In the English College the tradition developed of gathering to sing the Te Deum upon receiving news of the martyrdom of a graduate.  Saint Philip Neri lived across the street from the school, and on seeing the students in the street would greet them, “Salve flores martyrum,” meaning, ‘Hail, blossoms of the martyrs,’ as in the midst of studies they already recognized their fate.

Still in use as a seminary today, the College now bears the name Venerable, an appellation indicating its age and significance for the English people.

Ceiling of the refectory: Saint George