The French sculptor Rodin once said that, just as all Greece is brought together in the Parthenon, all France is brought together in her cathedrals — rocks, forests, gardens, sun and people. What a profound way to say that every French cathedral is more than just a building. It is a monument to the nation’s faith and generosity. So also our cathedral is more than an historic, century-old building. It is an inspiring expression of our faith and who we are.
When Constantine legalized the Christian faith with the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D., the Church emerged from Rome’s subterranean cemeteries and moved into the city’s basilicas. In these buildings, courts of justice were held as well as other public functions. In the basilicas of imperial Rome, the apse, located at the farthest point opposite the main entrance, was the seat of authority. Here the magistrates would sit in judgment. Here the emperor would be enthroned. Because of the importance of this space, the early Christians transformed the apse into the sacred space for the liturgy. Here the bishop, surrounded by his priests, would sit on a slightly elevated chair.
“Yoo-hoo! Is anybody …?” So Molly Goldberg would begin her popular radio show, hollering out from her tenement window to her neighbors. Her words became a buzz word on the lips of Jews and Italians and Irish for over 20 years. First broadcast on American radio from 1929 to 1946, The Goldbergs moved to TV. By 1950, half of all TV sets in the New York area on Monday nights were tuned on to The Goldbergs.
In the early 1890s, patriotism in America was very low. The fires of the Civil War had been extinguished and there was a general cooling of any national sentiment. A Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy was thoroughly convinced that the nation needed a new awakening of national ardor And so he composed the “Pledge of Allegiance” to that end.
According to a report issued by the Center for Studies on New Religions, there were 90,000 Christians killed for their faith in 2016. As Robert Nicholson of the Philos Project has said, “There are many places on earth where being a Christian is the most dangerous thing you can be.” Open Doors, a non-denominational organization which supports persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries, has reported that there are 215 million Christians today who face intimidation, physical harm, loss of property and even death simply because they were Christians.
In June 2013, the European Union adopted “Guidelines on the Promotion and Protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief.” At the time, church leaders welcomed the directives. However, most recently, the secretary-general of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences reported that there has been little movement defending religious liberty on the basis of these guidelines.
On Oct. 13, 1917, more than 70,000 people gathered in a small rural community about 110 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal. Reports that the Blessed Mother had promised a miracle on this day brought them to the Cova da Iria. It had rained throughout the night. The ground was muddy; the people, drenched. As the clock passed the predicted noon hour and nothing happened, skeptics jeered at the simple faith of the thousands waiting for the miracle.
This year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of our Blessed Mother at Fatima. The message of Fatima, strengthened and authenticated by fulfillment of its prophecies in history, remains as needed today as it was when Lucia and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco, heard it from the lips of Our Lady. In an age when humankind continues its rebellion against the will of God, Mary repeats for each of us the first words of Jesus in his public ministry. She brings to us Christ’s call to conversion. “The kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15).
In 2007, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice established the International Women of Courage Award. It is presented to women who show exceptional courage, even at great risk to their own lives. Each year, U.S. embassies around the world put forward candidates for this award from their country of service. This year, on March 29, First Lady Melania Trump presented the awards. Among the recipients from countries as diverse as Colombia, Papua New Guinea and Botswana was Sister Carolin Tahhan Fachakh, a member of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
Thank you for accepting God’s call. Thanks to all of you who have left family and country to serve God’s people on these shores. Jesus does not call us servants. He calls us friends (cf Jn 15:14). Thanks for being such trusted, loyal friends of the Lord himself.
Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome the wife of Zebedee rise early. Their grief at Jesus’ death makes them restless. Bearing spices, they come to complete the burial rites of the one whom they love. Far from their thoughts are Jesus’ own words that he would suffer, die and, on the third day, rise again. For them, as for every pious Jew, the resurrection would happen on the last day when all the bodies of the dead would be raised from their tombs. Not before!
In 1975, Raymond Moody published the bestseller Life After Life. In it, he coined the term “near-death experience” to label what some individuals said had happened to them after they were clinically dead. Moody’s pioneer work sparked a great interest in the reality of these experiences. Thus, in 1981, the International Association for Near-Death Studies was established. This international organization encourages scientific research on the physical, psychological, and religious nature of these reported experiences.
On Sept. 27, 2016, New Scientist, a weekly international magazine, reported that a team of American scientists had produced the first three-parent baby through genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization. The scientists did their work in Mexico because the revolutionary technology using the DNA of three individuals to produce the baby is not legal in the United States. Some are greeting this latest break-through with great enthusiasm as a way to stop certain diseases. Others are expressing their grave concerns about the morality of such technology.
Two years ago, Rachel Dolezal enjoyed a good reputation as a civil rights activist and a well-respected professor at Eastern Washington University. She was the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Spokane. Today, she has a hard time finding a job.
In 1605, Johann Carolus printed the first weekly newspaper in Antwerp. However, his was not the first effort to keep the public informed. In 1556, the government of Venice was already publishing monthly news reports. These reports sold for one
gazetta, one of the smallest Venetian coins of the day. Other countries in Europe soon began publishing their own newspapers, calling them “gazettes.”
Western Civilization is still feeling the effects of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. When Martin Luther broke from the Catholic Church, “he shattered the notion of universal or objective truth” (Gerard Howlin, “Today everyone preaches something but no one believes in anything, Irish Examiner,” Jan. 4, 2017). Luther fostered the notion that the individual was the arbiter of what is true or false and what is right or wrong. With no objective truth, God was no longer the center of the cosmos; the individual was!
Certain laws enacted in the United States since 1965 have established anti-poverty and welfare programs aimed at helping the needy among us. However, despite spending $15 trillion, today’s national poverty rate is higher than it was in 1965. Laws, in and of themselves, do not solve problems. In fact, sometimes laws exacerbate the social breakdown.
Pomp, pageantry and politics go into the mix of the inauguration of any new president of the United States. When Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as our third president, he walked to the Capitol for his swearing-in. He read his speech. Then, he went back to his boarding house. By such simplicity, he sent the message to the young nation that its president should not be seen as a monarch.
Although there are differences that divide one church from another in the United States, every church is facing the same diminishing number of young people in attendance. LifeWay Research reports that, among Protestants, about 70 percent of young adults who had attended church in high school no longer do so. More astonishing is the statistic that 80 percent of young people raised as Catholics stop attending church by the time they turn 23.
Within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, there stands a small shrine called the Aedicule. In its present form, it dates from 1810. It marks the event at the center of the Christian faith. Here Jesus was buried. Here, from this grave in an abandoned limestone quarry, Jesus rose from the dead on Easter. Today, in one day alone, as many as 5,000 pilgrims may be counted visiting this sacred place to pray.