Held in Birmingham, Alabama at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex on August 17 & 18th. This event is free and open to all. For details click here.
August 10, 1945 was the date that the second atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. The first, Hiroshima, was two days earlier. It was felt that just one bomb would not be enough to convince the fanatical Japanese military to surrender, since they might assume this was a one-time event and the U.S. military did not have the capability to repeat it. That thinking came to an end on August 10th, and although some of the Japanese leadership still wanted to fight to the death, the emperor Hirohito intervened and announced the unconditional surrender. Of course much debate raged over the use of the atomic bomb, but there is no doubt that thousands….and probably hundreds of thousands…of lives, both Japanese and American, were saved by avoiding a land invasion of Japan.
Nagasaki was famous long before that date as the heartland of Catholicism in Japan. It was here that 26 Jesuit priests were martyred in 1597. Today a museum stands here in memory of those martyrs and is fascinating look at the early efforts to evangelize among the Japanese. To learn more about the 26 Martyrs Museum in Nagasaki click here.
That is the question often asked by Catholics who are going on a cruise. The answer depends upon which cruise line you are using and when you are going. Only two cruise lines promise a priest on every cruise: Holland America and Costa Cruises. Some others do offer a priest on select cruises, mainly Christmas, Easter and re-positioning cruises. For a complete list of cruise lines that have a priest on board click here.
Fr. Jack Treacy after Crew Mass onboard the Celebrity Mercury. Crew members often spend weeks or months at sea without the opportunity to attend Mass, so having a priest on board is a real blessing.
My first inclination when looking for a cruise with a priest aboard is: “this is great, a priest all to myself for the entire cruise”. But equally important, maybe more, is that a priest onboard helps to provide for the spiritual needs of the crew members. Often from predominantly Catholic countries such as the Philippines, crew members spend months at sea without the opportunity to attend Mass, go to confession, or receive spiritual guidance.
Fr McCarthy with a group on Holland America’s Veendam. A great experience for priest and parishoners alike.
If you find a cruise that you love, but the cruise line does not offer a priest on board, then we encourage you to consider taking a priest along with you. Often times you find a group of friends who want to cruise together and you can all chip in a bit, pay for the priest’s cabin and not only have the benefit of Mass daily but also be doing a good deed for the priest who probably could use a bit of relaxation himself.
And finally, make your preferences known to the cruise line. There are probably 25% of cruisers who are Catholic. If enough people let the cruise line know that having a priest on board would impact their decision on which line to choose, it can make a difference.
So if you had a priest on board be sure to write the home office and thank them. If you did not, be sure to indicate that you would have preferred to have a priest on board and that may enter your buying decision next time around. You will no doubt get some sort of form letter or email in return, but you can bet if they get enough of these they will start to pay attention.
For many, he was the only Pope they knew. For others, his youthful vigor and willingness to reach out to all people and, indeed, travel the world to evangelize was something they had not seen before. His love for young people is evidenced in the success of World Youth Day, which he began and became a world-wide success. As one of the longest reigning Popes, it is sometimes easy to forget how young and active he was when he first took office. Too often the images we see are of his later years when physical limitations took their toll while his mind remained as sharp and resolute as ever.
With the prospect of Sainthood drawing near, his name will be in the news once again. But even before that event we have evidence of the great love and admiration for him in the many shrines dedicated to him throughout the world.
One of the most significant is the Shrine of Blessed John Paul II in Washington, DC. After having some tough times getting started it was sold to the Knights of Columbus in 2012 and with their financial and organizational might we expect it will become one of the most visited shrines in the world.
Other shrines may have garnered less publicity but have an interesting story nonetheless. An example would be the simple shrine in Bataan, the Philippines. It was here that Pope John Paul II came in 1981 to celebrate Mass in a remote refugee camp populated with an estimated 400,000 Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians (known as “the boat people”) who had fled here for safety in the late 1970’s. Many of these people were not Christian and did not even know who he was, but the message of hope buoyed their spirits. This is a small shrine and we are not aware of a website for the shrine.
Of course, as expected, there is a shrine to him in his native Poland in the city of Krakow. The new John Paul II Cultural Center in Krakow has just been completed and is still being staffed. Since the next World Youth Day in 2016 will be in Krakow this is sure to be one of the main attractions.
Is there a Shrine to Pope John Paul II we haven’t mentioned? Please let us know and we will add it or you can post it here yourself.
Gradually over the last few weeks the damage caused by the floods has been fixed and things are basically back to normal at the Shrine. This is welcome news for the thousands of pilgrims who visit the site every day.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013 is the Feast of the Transfiguration celebrated throughout the Universal Church. In addition to attending Mass in your local parish, you can view Mass live from the Church of the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor in the Holy Land in observance of the Feast of the Transfiguration.
Broadcast will be August 6th at 10:30 a.m. local time (07:30 GMT) using the link above and also on the following media:
Tv2000 (Italian language)
Popolar Tv Murcia (Spanish language)
Maria Vision (Spanish language)
Tele Lumiere (Arabic)
KTO France (French)
Opening ceremonies will begin on Tuesday August 6, 2013 with Holy Mass celebrated by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia Siller, M.Sp.S., of San Antonio along with 11 Cardinals, over 90 Archbishops and Bishops, along with scores of priests.
Mass will be broadcast live at 9:30 a.m. Central U.S. time (14:30 GMT) on EWTN (TV, radio and shortwave); Catholic TV and Canada’s Salt+Light TV.
The stations mentioned above will also have live coverage of the Opening Session on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m Central U.S. time (17:30 GMT) and States Dinner at 8:30 p.m. Central U.S. time (01:30 GMT) The keynote speaker in the evening will be Cardinal Sean O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap. You can also follow the events on Twitter: #KofCSA13
For those Knights attending the convention, we hope they will take advantage of the many Catholic sites in the city. Named after Saint Anthony, it was founded in 1731, and is one of the oldest cities in the U.S. The San Fernando Cathedral is the oldest continually-operating Cathedral in the country. Along the famous river walk you find a statue of Saint Anthony given to the city by the government of Spain.
Pope Francis will be leading the Angelus at noon Sunday from the window of the Papal apartment at the Vatican. Although it is vacation time in Rome and many natives are away, we still expect the Angelus to fill Saint Peter’s Square.
The Wednesday Papal audiences are still cancelled for the month of August.
One of the criticisms of travel review websites is that they can be manipulated by people to either build up their own reputation or tear down the reputation of a competitor. We are sure that most of these websites do their best to avoid this happening since their reputation (and their income) derives from people trusting that the information provided on their site is honest and accurate.
Still, they can be manipulated. We want to pass on an article written by Arthur Frommer, the venerable travel guide publisher about a restaurant that got great reviews for a period of several months on a major travel review website despite the fact that it did not exist.
So by all means visit those travel review websites. They will give you a general idea if an attraction, restaurant or tour company is reliable….just don’t use that as your only resource. Do some additional research.
July 31 is the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order. Masses at the Church of the Gesu in Rome on that day are at noon and 7:00 p.m.
It was earlier announced that Pope Francis would be celebrating Mass on the Feast Day, but we have not been able to find out when that will be and if it is open to the public. So if anything breaks in the next few hours we will let you know.
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