The replica of the House of the Virgin Mary in Jamaica, Vt.
Burlington, Vt., Jul 1, 2021 / 11:12 am (CNA).
Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer is an exact replica of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s house in Ephesus, where she lived in prayer with St. John in the last years of her life.
“I want everyone to know that our Lord gave us an incredible gift here in Vermont and hopefully they can come and pray and thank him for it,” said Mary Fraser Tarinelli, the owner of the replica, located in Jamaica, Vt., 120 miles south of Burlington.
The replica, which sits on a 190-acre Catholic prayer ground, is the only one that exists in the United States. It is one of four or five in the world, according to Tarinelli.
Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer includes guest rooms, chapels, a shop, a kitchen, a cemetery, a rosary walk, and a prayer monument to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.
Tarinelli told CNA she has set up the replica house to be as close to the original as possible. The altar, the pictures on the wall, the stone floor, and the handless and nose chipped Blessed Virgin Mary Statue are all taken from the house in Ephesus.
“I don’t think you can get any closer than what we’ve done here,” Tarinelli said.
Tarinelli’s mother had had what she considered a miraculous experience at Our Lady’s house in Ephesus,
The construction of the replica began in 2002 and was finished in 2006.
Tarinelli contacted to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. and requested that an oratory be built in honor of Our Lady of Ephesus.
Getting the approval for an oratory more quickly than she expected, Tarinelli wondered how she would have the money to build the oratory. Tarinelli knew she was “in trouble.”
She called her friends at the American Society of Ephesus, and told them about her situation and they offered to pay for every expense of the oratory. The Our Lady of Ephesus oratory is now located in the back of the crypt church in the shrine.
Tarinelli believes that the Blessed Mother’s intercession brings many people to her house of prayer.
“Anybody that’s here is here because the Blessed Mother has brought them here,” she told CNA. “I guarantee you aren’t here because of my advertising.”
Tarinelli’s vision for the property is for a religious order eventually to live there in order to preserve the replica, the land, and the silence.
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Pope Francis meets with the United States bishops at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2015. / L’Osservatore Romano.
Rome Newsroom, Nov 28, 2022 / 08:01 am (CNA).
Pope Francis has emphasized the difference between bishops’ conferences and bishops in a new interview with America Magazine.
“The bishops’ conference is there to bring together the bishops, to work together, to discuss issues, to make pastoral plans. But each bishop is a pastor,” the pope said in a lengthy interview conducted at his Vatican home on Nov. 22 and published Nov. 28.
“Let us not dissolve the power of the bishop by reducing it to the power of the bishops’ conference.”
The conversation with the Jesuit publication covered a wide range of topics, including the role of bishops, racism, polarization, sexual abuse, the Vatican-China deal, and whether he has any regrets from his time as pope.
In the interview, Pope Francis was told about a 2021 America Magazine survey that found that Catholics in the United States consider the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to be the least trustworthy out of the groups listed — 20% of U.S. Catholics surveyed found the USCCB to be “very trustworthy.”
Francis was asked: “How can the U.S. Catholic bishops regain the trust of American Catholics?”
“The question is good because it speaks about the bishops,” he responded. “But I think it is misleading to speak of the relationship between Catholics and the bishops’ conference. The bishops’ conference is not the pastor; the pastor is the bishop. So one runs the risk of diminishing the authority of the bishop when you look only to the bishops’ conference.”
“Jesus did not create bishops’ conferences,” he added. “Jesus created bishops, and each bishop is pastor of his people.”
The U.S. bishops met in Baltimore for their annual fall general assembly on Nov. 14-17. Katie Yoder
Pope Francis said the emphasis should be on whether a bishop has a good relationship with his people, not on administration.
He gave the example of Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas: “I do not know if he is conservative, or if he is progressive, if he is of the right or of the left, but he is a good pastor.”
In the U.S., the pope said, there are ‘some good bishops who are more on the right, some good bishops who are more on the left, but they are more bishops than ideologues; they are more pastors than ideologues. That is the key.”
“The grace of Jesus Christ is in the relationship between the bishop and his people, his diocese,” he said.
A bishops’ conference, instead, is an organization meant to “assist and unite.”
Pope Francis was also asked whether the USCCB should prioritize the fight against abortion over other issues.
To which he said: “this is a problem the bishops’ conference has to resolve within itself.”
The pope pointed out that the activity of a bishops’ conference is on the organizational level, and in history, conferences have at times gotten things wrong.
“In other words, let this be clear: A bishops’ conference has, ordinarily, to give its opinion on faith and traditions, but above all on diocesan administration and so on,” he said, again emphasizing the sacramental nature of the pastoral relationship of a bishop to his diocese and its people.
“And this cannot be delegated to the bishops’ conference,” he added. “The conference helps to organize meetings, and these are very important; but for a bishop, [being] pastor is most important.”
In the interview, Pope Francis also denounced polarization as “not Catholic,” and said the Catholic way of dealing with sin is “not puritanical” but puts saints and sinners together.
He also said in the U.S., where there is a Catholicism particular to that country, something he called “normal,” “you also have some ideological Catholic groups.”
Pope Francis arrives at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Sept. 23, 2015. CNA
On the topic of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis was asked about the apparent lack of transparency when it comes to accusations against bishops, compared with the handling of accusations against priests.
The pope called for “equal transparency” going forward, adding that “if there is less transparency, it is a mistake.”
To a question about Black Catholics, Francis said he is “aware of their suffering, that he loves them very much, and that they should resist and not walk away” from the Catholic Church.
“Racism is an intolerable sin against God,” he added. “The Church, the pastors and laypeople must continue fighting to eradicate it and for a more just world.”
Asked if he has any regrets, or if he would change anything he has done in nearly 10 years as pope, Francis said in English, as he laughed, that he would change “all! All!”
“However, I did what the Holy Spirit was telling me I had to do. And when I did not do it, I made a mistake,” he added.
On his seeming constant joyfulness, the pope said he is not “always like that,” except when he is with people.
“I would not say that I am happy because I am healthy, or because I eat well, or because I sleep well, or because I pray a great deal,” he explained. “I am happy because I feel happy, God makes me happy. I don’t have anything to blame on the Lord, not even when bad things happen to me. Nothing.”
He said the Lord has guided him through both good and difficult moments, “but there is always the assurance that one does not walk alone.”
“One has one’s faults,” he said, “also one’s sins; I go to confession every 15 days — I do not know, that is just how I am.”
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