Mary Page News
August 18, 2001
Mary Page News items give insight into our interest areas, our outreach, and the myriad ways
people honor Our Lady. We welcome your input and your comments.
The Liturgical Season
with Mary
Congratulations to the Mary Page!
We just learned that our Mary Page web site was featured in St. Anthony Messenger magazine's "Web Catholic" column, in both the print and the online editions. St. Anthony Messenger, of course, is the national Catholic family magazine that has been in print since 1893 (340,000 subscribers) and on the Web since 1996. It's a ministry of the Franciscans. The column is a one-year effort to highlight trends on the Internet for Catholics and to show them exemplary sites. Mary Page was featured in the May, 2001 edition of the magazine and at the on-line link below:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/May2001/Web_Catholic.asp
Personal thoughts and reflections about Mary from our readers
We've added a section to our Research and Publications section showing selected personal comments from our readers about the Virgin Mary. Click here to see comments received within the past month. From this page, feel free to submit your own personal thoughts on Mary.
This section lists all of the current Marian Events by geographical position.
The director and editors of Mary Page under the auspices of the International Marian Research Institute do not necessarily endorse or agree with the events and ideas expressed in this feature. Our sole purpose is to report on items about Mary gleaned from a myriad of papers representing the secular press.
Commentary on Mary in various news articles through June 18, 2001.
Our Lady of the New Millennium, a stainless steel statue of the Virgin Mary more than 33 feet tall and weighing 8,400 pounds, was scheduled to arrive June 17 for a week long stay at St. Edna Catholic Church in Arlington Heights, the Chicago Daily Herald said on June 13. Created by Carl Demma and sculpted by Charles Cooper Parks, the statue was blessed by Pope John Paul II in January, 1999, during his visit to St. Louis. It was blessed at Holy Name Cathedral in May of that year by Francis Cardinal George and was on display at the Chicago Archdiocese’s Millennium Mass at Soldier Field that June. Referred to as the Traveling Madonna, the statue has made suburban stops in parishes outside Chicago. Its next stop will be at St. Petronille parish in Glen Ellyn. A permanent place for the statue is yet to be determined.
Crowds protested outside a monastery in southern Egypt on June 18, angry at revelations that an excommunicated monk allegedly ran a sex-and-blackmail ring at the site, revered as a stopping place of Jesus and the Virgin Mary during their flight to Egypt. The protest in Assiut came a day after thousands of Coptic Christians rioted outside their cathedral in Cairo to protest a sensational story and photographs published by a weekly newspaper, the Associated Press said on June 18. The monastery was built in the fourth century and is known as the Burnt Monastery and also as the Virgin Mary Monastery.
“Our Lady of the Highway” is back at her post after a more than 20-year absence, the Associated Press said on June 15. For decades a larger-than-life statue of the Virgin Mary stood outside Assumption of Mary Church along State Route 17 on the border of Cleveland and its southwest suburbs. When the church moved to a new location in Brook Park in 1981, the statue went into storage. Now restored, the statue is at a Christian bookstore in Berea. But a new 7-foot hand-painted fiberglass and plaster statue of Our Lady, crafted in Italy, graces the front lawn of a showroom for Milano Monuments and Flowers, built on the site of the former church rectory, just up the block from the former church.
Places sacred to people of various faiths are popular destinations for holiday-makers as well as pilgrims, the Singapore Straits Times wrote on June 16. Visiting places like Fatima in Portugal and Lourdes in France was the fulfillment of a lifetime dream for Peter Nathan, a clerk in his 60s, who visited the shrines last year. Faith Tours, a Catholic pilgrimage specialist, saw a 20-percent increase in the number of pilgrims due to the Jubilee Year celebrations. Mecca in Saudi Arabia attracts from 3,500 to 4,000 Singaporean Muslim pilgrims each year, for the 30 day Haj, plus 11,000 to 12,000 who go for the shorter Umrah. India attracts Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian pilgrims and the month-long Khumb-Mela Festival in northern India attracted an estimated 30 million visitors.
XIIIth International Mariological Symposium
The Pontifical Theological Faculty "Marianum" will host the XIIIth International Mariological Symposium in Rome on October 2-5, 2001. The topic will be "Contemporary Hermeneutics and Biblical Mariological Texts: Verification and Proposals." For more information email the Secretarial office of the Marianum at: marianum@marianum.it
From Zenit
World Rosary Ready for Its Sixth Year
140 Countries Expected for Oct. 6 Event
MEXICO CITY, AUG. 1, 2001 (Zenit.org).- More than 140 countries are expected to participate in the sixth annual World Rosary on Saturday, Oct. 6.
Last year, John Paul II led the World Rosary from the Vatican. Sister Lucia dos Santos, 93, the last surviving Fatima visionary, led one of the mysteries, via satellite, from Portugal.
As in previous years, the rosary will be prayed by thousands gathered in parishes, stadiums, cathedrals, convention centers, schools, factories, prisons and hospitals.
The initiative began in 1996, when a group of lay Mexicans called for a large group-recitation of the rosary, as a gift for the Holy Father on the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination. The venue for the first rosary was Mexico's Plaza de Toros, led by the archbishop of Mexico City. Twenty countries participated.
The organizers offer practical suggestions to those planning to join the rosary:
--consecrate the event to the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
--have the Blessed Sacrament exposed during the rosary;
--make provisions for administering the sacrament of reconciliation;
--let it be known that a plenary indulgence may be obtained for praying the rosary in community;
--keep the date as a day of fasting and meditation;
--accompany the event by praying the rosary as a community, family or individual novena.
For more information see
http://www.churchforum.org/rosario.
Those communities organizing a World Rosary on Oct. 6 should send a confirmation to
rosario@churchforum.org
Pope Notes Feast of Basilica of St. Mary Major
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 5, 2001 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II reminded pilgrims that the Church today marks the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, the first Western church building named in honor of the Blessed Virgin.
This feast, the Holy Father said, "invites us to turn our gaze to her whom the Father chose as Mother of his only-begotten Son and, because of this, Mother of all of humanity. We ask her to help us remain united to her Son, Jesus, always: now and at the hour of our death."
"Mary, Mother of God!" the Pope told pilgrims gathered outside the papal summer residence. "This is how Rome venerates her today, celebrating the dedication of the patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major, the oldest church in the West named after the Blessed Virgin Mary."
The building of the church is connected to a dream of Pope Liberius on the night of Aug. 5, 356. In the dream, the Blessed Virgin asked him to build a church in the place where he would find snow the following day.
The miracle happened in the month of August in Rome, on the very spot where the basilica stands today. The present building, atop the foundations of Pope Liberius' church, was built by Pope Sixtus III (432-440).
From L’Osservatore Romano June 6 & 13
Before the final blessing of the canonization Mass the Holy Father led the recitation of the Angelus, which he introduced with a brief reflection on Our Lady: "Her humble and sublime existence is a masterpiece of the Holy Trinity and for every baptized person represents the 'archetype' of Christian life, to which we should aspire with trust and determination," the Pope said.
The last day of May was observed with the traditional candlelight procession and recitation of the Rosary at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens, where the procession was joined by the Holy Father who spoke briefly to the faithful. In his reflection on Mary he said “It is very significant that the last day of May brings us the feast of the Visitation. With this conclusion, it is as if we wanted to say that every day of this month has been a sort of visitation for us. We have lived a continuous visitation during the month of May, just like Mary and Elizabeth. I hope for you all…that the grace of the Marian visitation you have experienced during the month of May and especially on this last evening, will be extended in the days to come.”
We've added answers to two new questions submitted by readers.
A new section on international stamps with images of Mary has been added to our Resources section. The latest added is Brazil. Expect more countries to follow.
A multimedia presentation on Marian National Patronages has been added to our Resources section under Marian Shrines. This page uses Flash and requires Shockwave software to run. If you don't already have Shockwave, our page will guide you to download it for free or to simply display an HTML version. Please let us know what you think of this format. Expect more multimedia presentations in the future!
We've posted memorials to three long-time faculty members who died recently:
The graphic at the top left of our home page now randomly displays flowers named after the Virgin Mary. Click on the flower to enlarge the image and display information about it.
Documents, Pronouncements (Magisterial, doctrinal)
Encyclical MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS by Pope Pius XII
Defining "ex cathedra" (from the
chair of Peter) the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (feast
celebrated August 15)
www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12MUNIF.HTM
Marian Themes in Magisterial Documents
Mary and the Church: Assumption (eschatological image)
A list of quotations on the Assumption from post-Vatican
II magisterial documents such as this from Lumen Gentium, Chapter 8: "in
the Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she
exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5:27)" 65
www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/documents/docs4-5.html
This section contains excerpts from past editions of the Mary Page news.
Our Mary Page web site is updated frequently. Please stop in again and see what's new.
You are invited to help us pray for our Prayer Corner intentions. Please take a look! This site has been updated and enhanced and now allows users to directly submit prayer requests or to volunteer as a prayer partner for these intentions!
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