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Not posted this week. Expect an update to this section next week.

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.  

Mary in the secular news from August 13 through 26

First item in the Sydney Morning Herald Signposts on August 26: "In 1498 in Rome, then 23-year-old Italian artist Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Alexander VI to carve the Pieta, a statue of the Virgin Mary lamenting over the dead body of Jesus, whom she holds across her lap. The work was completed in 1501."

The Advertiser (Nationwide News Pty Limited) in a story datelined London, August 24, reported that a painting by Italian master Titian stolen seven years ago has been found in a plastic bag in London. The painting, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, depicts the Virgin Mary cradling the infant Jesus while Joseph looks on. Considered one of the most famous by the 16^th century Venetian master, it is worth more than $14 million. The painting was recovered intact but missing its frame after a search led by a former London detective specially commissioned to track it down. Reported also by the London Daily Telegraph, which said the detective was approached by a man after a radio appeal and offer of a pounds 100,000 reward for information leading to the painting’s safe return.

Haven Kimmel’s first novel, The Solace of Leaving Early, centers on two people whose mutual antipathy evolves into love and marriage after two orphaned girls come into their lives. The two little girls take to calling themselves Immaculata and Epiphany and see visions of the Virgin Mary in their back yard after their parents are murdered. Reviewed by the Montreal Gazette August 24.

After six people reported spotting black bears in North Park, folks there, perhaps in a rash of copy-cat sightings, have reported four bears, six deer, a moose and the Virgin Mary grilling lamb kebabs in Town Park, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said on August 24.

Robert Graham, who spent the last five years creating 25-ton bronze doors for the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, hosted a party August 20 outside the cathedral to celebrate their completion, the Los Angeles Times said on August 23. Among the guests was Brooke Shields, who "admired the shadow play on the tympanum behind the Virgin Mary above the doors."

From Nature Notes in the London Times August 23: "A common plant in fields and on roadsides now is persicaria, or red shank. It has a short spike of crumbly-looking pink flowers, a zigzagging red stalk, and very distinctive narrow leaves with a dark blotch in the middle of them. Legends attribute this mark to the blood of Christ splashing the leaves, or the imprint of the Virgin Mary’s thumb on them."

No longer able to travel with ease, Pope John Paul II asked Roman Catholics to pray for him during his trip to his native Poland, the Regina Leader-Post said on August 16. Praying to the Virgin Mary during an appearance at Castel Gondolfo to mark the feast day of the Assumption, the Pope said: "I would like today to entrust to you in a special way my pastoral voyage in Poland that I will undertake tomorrow, if it pleases God."

Putting to rest rumors that he had plans to step down, Pope John Paul II ended a prayer to the Virgin Mary at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, a mountain shrine in Poland he visited as a child, with this plea, "Obtain also for me strength in body and spirit, that I may carry out to the end the mission given to me by the risen Lord." Reported August 20 by the London Times and the London Financial Times, August 19 on CBS Evening News, August 20 by the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator.

Pope John Paul II prayed at the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska shrine to the Virgin Mary for her to protect children, as the Vatican grapples with a child sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, Agence France Presse reported on August 19. "Cover children with the mantle of your protection, lest they be scandalized," he said in a prayer he composed himself. During the homily delivered at the Marian shrine the Pope committed homeless, jobless and families to the Virgin Mary, Polish Press Agency wrote on August 18.

The Flaming Lips, a classic-rock group formed in the early ‘80s after allegedly stealing all their instruments from a local church, took their name from a dream in which lead singer Wayne Coyne had a vision of the Virgin Mary speaking to him in tongues of fire, the Sydney Sunday Telegraph said on August 18.

Francie Brady, a comics-obsessed child trying to keep it together while his family disintegrates around him, fakes visions and fantasizes about the Virgin Mary in The Butcher Boy, a film based on Patrick McCabe’s dark novel of 1960s Irish family life. Named one of the week’s Best Films by the London Guardian August 17. Reviewed also by the Glasgow Herald which concluded: "A heartbreaking, horrible, quite unforgettable film - and the only chance you’re ever likely to get to see Sinead O’Connor playing the Virgin Mary." Reviewed also by the Morning Star August 17.

A five-day festival of Greek culture, celebrating the "falling asleep" and subsequent assumption of the Virgin Mary, began August 14 at the Church of the Dormition, with a procession of the icon of the Virgin Mary around the streets surrounding the church. "It is the most important holiday in the Greek Orthodox church after Easter," said Fotis Komborozos, spokesman for the Hellenic Community of Montreal. Reported by the Montreal Gazette August 15 and 17.

On August 16 the Baton Rough LA Advocate ran a color photo of Mitzie Roppolo, caretaker of the Madonna Chapel, "the smallest church in the world," keeping a prayer candle lit following the annual Feast of the Assumption Mass at the church in Bayou Goula. The church was built in 1903 by Bayou Goula resident Tony Gullo as a promise to the Virgin Mary for healing his sick child.

For 14 days, members of Dormition of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church have prayed, fasted and practiced hymns - all in anticipation of a special holiday. The holiday’s name - Dormition of the Theotokos, is the same as the church, the Greensboro, NC, News & Record said on August 15. Dormition of the Theotokos means "the passage through death of the mother of God." Dozens gathered Wednesday evening, eve of the feast day, for vespers, a formal nighttime service that included a processional, hymns praising the Virgin Mary and a special feast.

Six young people walking along railroad tracks during a religious procession in Tlaxcala, 70 miles east of Mexico City, were struck by a train and killed, The Associated Press said on August 15. They were headed to Huamantla, 30 miles to the southeast, to celebrate a religious festival for the Virgin Mary called "The night that no one sleeps."

Other stories related to the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary: 

Innisfail Advocate, August 22 - more than 900 Good Counsel College students and teachers united to celebrate the feast;

Baltic News Service, August 14 - the National Stock Exchange of Lithuania closed due to the national holiday;

Baltic News Service, August 15 and 16 - Latvian President called on thousands of pilgrims gathered on Assumption Day to join in a prayer for the Latvian state;

Baltic News Service, August 15 - over 150,000 people participated in the procession of the cross on the eve of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary at the Aglona Basilica in Latvia;

Corpus Christ Caller-Times, August 16 – Father Stelios Sitaras of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church blessed five loaves of symbolic bread August 15, marking the end of a 15-day fasting period and the celebration of the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos or the "bearer of God."

Providence RI Journal-Bulletin, August 15 - the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Pawtucket was to hold its Grecian Festival the coming weekend.

Spokane, WA Spokesman-Review, August 20 – a few days after Catholics celebrated August 15 as the Feast of the Assumption, a backyard statue of Mary disappeared from a North Spokane yard, only to return vandalized and disfigured.

"On the eve of what Catholic bishops have designated a day of penance for themselves, a Boston court released a videotape of Boston’s Bernard Cardinal Law testifying about his promotion of an accused pedophile priest," begins a New York Daily News story on August 14. After reporting on Law’s testimony, the article concludes: "Tomorrow is the feast of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption, and many churches will hold special Masses with prayers of repentance." On August 13, the Associated Press said the Oklahoma City Archdiocese was planning a day of prayer and fasting for abuse victims August 14, choosing that day because it is the day before a holy day of obligation - the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Forty per cent of legislators in the next Parliament should be women, the Anglican Church of Kenya, has proposed. The church says such a Parliament would be less likely to pass unpopular motions and Acts, the Africa News Service said on August 22. Outgoing Archbishop Dr. David Gitari said women in biblical times took an active role in social and religious matters, giving the examples of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene who were at the forefront in the salvation crusade.

The Pope’s latest visit to Mexico, at the end of a nine-day trip to the Americas that started in Canada and took in Guatemala, drew huge crowds and also raised semi-dormant questions about the government’s relations with the Roman Catholic church, and the Church’s attitude to indigenous people. The highlight of the Pope’s visit was the canonization of Juan Diego Cuahtlatoatzin, a probably mythical Indian, who was portrayed by the Roman Catholic church as having seen a vision of the Virgin Mary., the Latin America regional Report for Mexico & NAFTA wrote on August 13.

The spiritual leader of the world’s 12 million Coptic Christians visited a Middlesex County NJ church the past weekend to celebrate its history and lay the foundation for an important part of its future, the Associated Press said on August 26. Hundreds came to St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in East Brunswick to greet Pope Shenouda III, the Egyptian Christian equivalent of Catholic Pope John Paul II. The 80-year-old pope toured an exhibit commemorating the church’s 25-year history and its treasures, including a sixth century icon of the Virgin Mary and relics of her parents. He later went across the street to lay the foundation stone for the church’s future community center.

Four deeply linked coincidences that alter the course of a life comprise Erik Fosnes Hansen’s enthralling, dream-like novel "Tales of Protection," Copley News Service said on August 19.

In the third story, in 15^th century Rome, an exiled Florentine merchant suffers from an appalling skin disease. Healed by the viewing of an old, second-rate painting of the Virgin Mary, he sends his servant on a quest to learn what he can about the artist who created it. Hansen employs these stories to work out his intriguing theme of non-randomness.

A 9-foot-tall carved wooden statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe was to arrive August 30 in Iowa City as part of an 18-city pilgrimage from Mexico City to Grand Rapids, Mich. The Associated Press said on August 17. Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of unborn children, is one of the very few images in which the Blessed Virgin Mary appears pregnant. Rev. Michael Phillips of St. Wenceslaus parish, said he does not know why Iowa City, or for that matter, St. Wenceslaus was chosen. A permanent shrine for the patron saint of Mexico and all the Americas is being established at St. Francis Xavier Church in Grand Rapids.

Just how fine the line can be between the secular and the sacred was vividly displayed when St. Paul Catholic Church offered its annual "Elvis Presley Memorial Mass" on Thursday, Cox News Service said in a story datelined Memphis, Tenn. August 16. The program also mentioned, as did the pastor, that Thursday was also the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church. Knowing his audience’s devotion swung more toward the King than to the Queen, in his mass the pastor used only gospel songs that Elvis had recorded, sung by the church choir. Presley was raised in the Assembly of God Church and was never a Catholic.

Special episodes of three poplar anthologies (Iconos, Patrias, Calles Famosas) will air on Discovery en Espanol, the Spanish-language channel from Discovery Networks during Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct.15), PR Newswire Association said on August 22. Iconos (Icons) illuminates the mystery, excitement and lasting influence of two revered and controversial figures in Hispanic culture: the Virgin of Guadalupe and architect Antonio Gaudi.

A full-color representation of the Virgin Mary suckling the baby Jesus at her breast is in full view of commuter traffic converging on Highway 1 at First Avenue, the Vancouver Sun said on August 14. The caption on the billboard, erected by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, reads: "If It Was Good Enough for Jesus…The Breast is Best…Dumpdairy.com"

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