Names of accused bishops scrubbed from Pennsylvania schools

Denver Newsroom, May 7, 2020 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- A young Catholic artist has drawn an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary on her parents’ driveway bringing religious art to her local community during the quarantine.

The Diocese of Fargo posted on Facebook May 4 an image of Our Lady of Lourdes drawn by Maria Loh, a 17-year old who grew up in Fargo. She said it was an enjoyable experience to share her faith and art with her neighborhood.

“Being able to interact with people when they walked by was very moving in a way because a lot of people have never really seen sidewalk art done like that locally. So being able to share in that kind of experience, it was very, very good,” she told CNA.

Loh has recently been inspired by chalk art and pastels, which, she said, have vibrant and beautiful colors. She has drawn on the sidewalks a few times, including two images of Mary – Madonna of the Lillies and the Pieta by William Adolphe-Bouguereau.

Her most recent chalk drawing was Our Lady of Lourdes by Hector Garrido – an image she had seen as a magnet on her grandparents’ refrigerator growing up. The picture has always been an inspiration, she said, noting that she decided to replicate it after Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France had temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I heard that the shrine had been temporarily closed off to the public, and I remember … thinking that’s really sad because especially in this time, we’re really looking for healing in more ways than one, like physically and mentally and spiritually,” she said.

“It really felt like people wouldn’t be able to go to experience that. So I felt like drawing this image of Our Lady of Lourdes would be a good way to remind people that Our Lady is still with us even if we can’t go to her shrine.”

Loh, the oldest of five, has been involved with art projects and drawing for her entire life. She said, growing up in a Catholic family, she has been inspired by her faith and the religious art in churches.

“I see our faith as so precious… Especially in the form of the Eucharist – the actual body and blood of Christ, I’ve seen that we are very blessed to have that in our faith. It’s something that has impacted a lot of my life growing up,” she said.

While she was working on the piece, Loh said, a majority of passersby did not know who the lady in the image was. She expressed hope that the picture would help remind people of Mary and the beauty of the Church, which, she said, is a powerful attraction to the faith.

“One thing that I hope this kind of art and image will evoke is a desire to come to know who Mary is and how rich our faith is. … All the beautiful art that can be seen in Catholic churches, especially like in Rome, there’s almost a transcendental beauty to them that draws people into the faith to come to know things that they’ve never dreamed of before,” she said.

As Loh finishes her junior year of high school, she expressed the possibility of art school after graduation, but, while she is still uncertain of the future, said art will not be dropped anytime soon.

“I can definitely see [art school] being a possibility. I’ll have to spend some time, especially with God trying to figure out what he wants me to do. But, I don’t think art is going out of my life anytime soon,” she said.

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USCCB Fall Meeting 2021 / CNA

Denver Newsroom, Nov 16, 2021 / 13:50 pm (CNA).
In an unusual interview published by Vatican News ahead of the U.S. bishops’ vote this week on the document titled “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Ch… […]

CNA Staff, Jun 10, 2020 / 12:34 am (CNA).- Catholics have a key part to play— in cooperation with God’s grace— in overcoming racism, the bishop of Phoenix said at the diocesan Mass for Forgiveness of the Sin of Racism this week.

“George Floyd did not die alone. Jesus was with him—praying with him and for him. At every time and every place, Jesus draws near to every person, especially in times of suffering and at the hour of death,” Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix said in the homily June 8.

As the Church gathers to pray for forgiveness for the sin of racism, Olmsted said, it is important to define what Catholics mean by the term.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers guidance, he said, defining it as “unjust discrimination on the basis of a person’s race.”

In Paragraph 1935 of the Catechism, it says “every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design.”

Olmsted said he has seen racial discrimination manifest itself among some Catholics in Arizona. Nearly half of Phoenix’s pastors were born in other countries, he said, and sadly not all have been received well by Catholics in the diocese.

For example, “on the day that I installed one of our finest pastors, protestors came to the parking lot and distributed flyers on car windows denouncing the bishop for replacing their beloved former pastor with ‘these Africans,’” Olmsted said.

The Church provides, through the Sacrament of Confession, a means by which those who have perpetuated the sin of racism can seek God’s mercy.

“The rich mercy of God restores human dignity, even to the most hardened of sinners, if we have the humility to say six words: ‘I am sorry. Please forgive me,’” he said.

Jesus himself, and saints like Pope John Paul II, have modeled the kind of forgiveness that is necessary for healing from racism, Olmsted said.

“[Racism] is overcome by God, by His mercy. It is not our achievement. We have a key part to play, in cooperation with His grace, but only God can change minds and hearts. That’s why the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist play such vital roles in overcoming the sin of racism,” Olmsted said.

In responding to racism, Catholics— even if they are not themselves racist— must not allow their hearts to harden, frozen by indifference, and simply fail to respond altogether, Olmsted said.

“While racism is a sinful act that prejudice, injustice, and lack of respect for human dignity brings about, racism also hides itself behind indifference. Racists may not get caught because they are doing “nothing.” But, in Jesus’ description of the Last Judgment, found in Matthew 25:4, sin is depicted not as what people did but ‘what they failed to do,’” he said.

Olmsted recalled that during March 2000, Pope John Paul II led the whole Church in a Day of Pardon, in which he asked the entire Church to place itself “before Christ, who out of love, took our guilt upon Himself,” and to make a “profound examination of conscience,” and to “forgive and ask forgiveness.”

“Inspired by the example of St. John Paul II, let us beg the Lord Jesus, at this Mass, for the grace we need to overcome the evil of racism and to build a society of Jesus and solidarity,” Olmsted concluded.

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