During the Closing Mass at Tejo Park, Lisbon, Pope Francis announced that the next World Youth Day will take Place in 2027 in Seoul, Korea, but that before that, there will be an event for youth during the upcoming 2025 Jubilee in Rome. The Lisboa 2023 website reports that “the number of Catholics in South Korea has increased by 50 per cent in the last twenty years. In that time, the percentage of Catholics in the country has gone from... Read more
Every time World Youth Day takes place, there is a question looming over the event, where will the next one be? On my way to Lisbon, I had a conversation on the plane with a fellow traveler about this. In the recent past, WYD has gone to Latin America twice (Brazil and Panama), Australia and the rest have been in Europe. With the incredible growth of the Church in Southeast Asia, perhaps that is where it should go? It has... Read more
An estimated 500,000 gathered at Parco Eduardo VII, renamed Colina do Encontro during World Youth Day 2023, to welcome Pope Francis to Lisbon, Portugal. I arrived with the fourteen pilgrim group from the Diocese of Savannah at around 3:45pm for a Welcoming Ceremony scheduled at 6pm. The Park was packed already. Arriving involved getting on a train followed by riding on two subway lines, during which our small group got separated. I have traveled much, but have never ridden trains... Read more
Imagine what it would be like to live in a two-dimensional world. It would feel as if we were stuck in some old-school cartoon on television or perhaps a caveman drawing. There would only be length and width… everything would be flat and the concept of depth would simply not exist. It would be impossible to experience it and explain it. In a two-dimensional world, circles, squares, triangles and rectangles would exist. But what about spheres and cubes? What about... Read more
Today, Bishop Stephen D. Parkes issued the statement below in regards to the Carmel in Savannah. Important to note is that the Bishop has no jurisdiction over the property of Carmel. The issue at hand is between the Carmel of Savannah and the Carmelite Order worldwide. This is the case with every religious order that functions in a diocese – the Bishop usually does not own their property, nor can he make internal decisions of the Order. Bishop Parkes has... Read more
Last Wednesday, I visited a man who told me about the terrible pain he feels in his bones. Recently, he woke up with blood everywhere under his bed sheets – he explained that his bladder had exploded and blood leaked out everywhere. The pain was unbearable. He was rushed to the hospital. He said that even though he’s in his 90s, he still longs for his mother, especially when the pain becomes unbearable. He has been bedridden for several months... Read more
When we love someone, we want to spend time with him or her, don’t we? We don’t want to be far away from that person – and when we are far away, we can’t wait until we see him or her again. Tonight, we gather as a community to recognize that Jesus loved his disciples so much that he did not want to leave them like sheep without a shepherd. It was a struggle in his heart: yet Jesus knew... Read more
God gives each one of us the freedom to choose. The season of Lent we have just begun is a time when we examine the choices we have made in the past, and ask for wisdom to choose wisely in the present. This freedom to choose is given so that we may freely choose God in return. If we were like robots, automatically choosing what is right, then what merit would there be in choosing what is good? We don’t... Read more
On Palm Sunday 2017, two bombs exploded in northern Egypt: one inside the church of Saint George in Tanta, and the other outside the Church of Saint Mark in Alexandria, the mother church of Egyptian Christians. Forty-seven people died during the celebration of Mass, over 100 were injured. Several weeks later, on Easter Sunday, a priest in Egypt delivered a homily which I read a few days later. I was stunned by the message, especially since just a few years... Read more
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Carmelite Monasteries Close, Cor Orans, what is this all about?
I recently posted a statement by Bishop Parkes of the Diocese of Savannah in relation to the recent happenings at the Savannah Carmel, Our Lady of Confidence Monastery, where Carmelite nuns have faithfully prayed for the people of South Georgia since 1958. The statement was issued soon after a website published an article where a volunteer gardener of the monastery as well as an unknown insider of the monastery were interviewed. It is disheartening to see media which identifies as... Read more