A pieta painting, "Moma," by artist Kelly Latimore, was displayed outside the law school chapel at The Catholic University of America since February 2021. It was stolen on Nov. 23, 2021, and a copy was stolen in December. / The Catholi… […]
Students at The Catholic University of America posing with Delilah the Camel at the school’s annual “Greccio” live nativity event on Dec. 12, 2021. / Patrick Ryan/The Catholic University of America
Washington D.C., Dec 12, 2021 / 22:29 pm (CNA).
You knew this wasn’t your average live nativity scene when you saw the camel.
Delilah, to be more precise.
On Sunday night, Dec. 12, she was the B.M.O.C. (Biggest Mammal on Campus) at The Catholic University of America — and the scene-stealing star of this year’s “Greccio,” a popular Advent event that pays homage to St. Francis of Assisi’s first-ever re-enactment of Christ’s birth, in Greccio, Italy, in 1223.
“Big” does not adequately convey Delilah’s dimensions. She measures 7 feet tall, from her well-cushioned feet to her impressive-looking hump, and tips the scales at approximately 900 pounds (not counting the 12 pounds of dormant grass she munched off the quad during her breaks.)
Delilah brought more than sheer size to the role of 1st century dromedary, however. With extraordinary patience, she let people stroke her surprisingly soft coat to their hearts’ content, and she posed like a pro for hundreds of selfies, looking directly into the camera with what looked an awful lot like a smile.
“Steady … cheese!” her handler, Jennifer Caton of Bar C Ranch, prompted her. Delilah got an animal cracker each time she complied, which was almost always. (This wasn’t her first rodeo — er, nativity scene.)
Catholics in St. Francis’ day had become consumed with worldly cares. Reenacting the nativity at a cave out in the countryside, he hoped, would re-focus their attention on God’s profound humility and love.
The Conventual Franciscan friars in charge of the university’s campus ministry had a similar goal in mind when they initiated the first Greccio event on campus seven years ago. Coming at the end of the semester, it serves to remind students that there is more to celebrate this time of year beside the end of finals.
Held outside the St. Vincent de Paul Chapel, Sunday’s observance featured carols and scripture readings; costumed shepherds, wise men, and the Holy Family; hot chocolate and humongous home-baked cookies … and one very cool camel, among assorted other animals.
There were lots of little kids in attendance — the free event is a huge hit with young families from the surrounding Brookland neighborhood — but nobody seemed more overjoyed to see Delilah than The Catholic University of America students, who welcomed the interruption from their exam week studies.
“I didn’t know there was going to be a camel here,” said Emily Thomas, 19, a freshman from Baltimore who was taking a break from writing a 10-page paper on the Beatitudes.
“She’s like the coolest animal I’ve ever seen,” said a smitten Ben Rees, 19, a sophomore from Smithfield, Rhode Island, who had already knocked out two papers on Sunday but still had one to go.
“I love this,” said Susan Gibbs, the university’s interim executive director of communications, as she watched the festive scene unfold.
This was her first Greccio, and she seemed as delighted to be there as the students. “I mean, how often do you get to meet a camel?” she said.
Surveillance footage shows a man hammering at the Our Lady of Fatima statue located outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2021. / Screenshot taken from Metropolitan Police Depart… […]
A pieta painting, "Moma" by Kelly Latimore, has been displayed outside the law school chapel at The Catholic University of America since February 2021. It was stolen Nov. 23, 2021, and soon replaced. / The Catholic University of Americ… […]
A pieta painting, "Mama," by artist Kelly Latimore, has been displayed outside the law school chapel at The Catholic University of America since February 2021. It was stolen on Nov. 23, 2021. / The Catholic University of America
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The Catholic University of America. / Kristi Blokhin / Shutterstock
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Dr. John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America, discusses religious freedom at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 16, 2013. / CNA
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Professors and students stand in front of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at The Catholic University of America’s campus, to begin building truss number six of Notre Dame Cathedral in France. / Patrick G. Ryan, university photographer
Washington D.C., Jul 28, 2021 / 15:03 pm (CNA).
Students and professors at the Catholic University of America (CUA) are building a full-scale truss replicating that which was destroyed in a 2019 fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
On the lawn in front of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., students and professors at the university are working with the architecture non-profit Handhouse Studio to create a wooden truss, a roofing framework. The truss has the same specifications as one of the hundreds of trusses destroyed in the devastating April 2019 fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.
“The making of this in front of the Basilica is magic.” said Tonya Ohnstad, visiting professor at the university’s school of architecture and a leader in construction effort, to CNA in a July 27 phone interview.
The truss, which will be approximately 45 feet wide and 35 feet tall when finished, is being constructed in partnership with Handhouse Studio during a 10-day workshop. Ohnstad compared the rebuilding of the truss to a “true living medieval experience.”
The workshop began on Monday morning when 30 White Oak trees donated from neighboring Virginia forests arrived at the university campus, along with a crane. Traditional timber framers, carpenters, faculty, students, and alumni have been participating in the project, using the methods and materials of the original medieval builders of Notre Dame.
“It’s so incredible,” Ohnstad said, “I wish everyone could come and see the way they would have seen the construction of these important buildings with people working, all of the embodied energy of the humans, and everything people are pouring into these logs that would then be part of the church.”
An architecture graduate student involved in the effort, Sam Merklein, told CNA that his class contributed research into different joints, sketches, and dimensions of the truss; the students worked in collaboration with the Notre Dame architects in France.
“It’s amazing to see all the drawings that detail all the different components of the building,” Merklein said, “but then also just to be able to say that we’re helping to reconstruct a cathedral that is hundreds of years old and has had so much work put into it throughout the century is amazing.”
The university’s architecture department is teaching a related course on the history and reconstruction of the cathedral, which includes a public lecture series featuring experts from many fields.
Ohnstad’s architecture class on the cathedral, which began at the end of June, prepared for four weeks before the timber arrived on campus. She told CNA her team is rebuilding the sixth truss out of the hundreds of trusses that held up the cathedral.
When asked if the truss will be used in the actual rebuilding of the cathedral, Ohnstad told CNA it has not been decided yet. She called the truss building a “gesture of global solidarity” to show the French that “we’re in this with them, we want to help them reconstruct it, and that we hope that they will take a truss from us and put it in Notre Dame.”
Ohnstad told CNA that she is collaborating with the group Charpentiers sans Frontières (“Carpenters Without Border”). As the team at CUA could have slightly different measurements and estimates than the team in France, the truss could be ruled out from being used in the Cathedral for that reason.
However, when finished, the truss will be raised in front of the basilica for display on August 3 at 5:30 p.m. At the event, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington will come to bless the structure.
The truss will then be raised for display on the National Mall on August 5, in partnership with the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Training Center and with the support of Preservation Maryland.
The National Building Museum also found interest in the truss, and will be exhibiting the structure within its “Great Hall” for sight seeing from August 6 to September 16.
“I think it’s really amazing that across the Atlantic we’re able to help out with the cathedral,” Merklein said, “and whether or not the timber framers here are going to send over a truss into the cathedral, or if it’s just going to be a symbolic effort and gesture, I think it’s a really great experience and something I’m proud to work on.”
Bumble Dee/Shutterstock
Washington D.C., Jul 14, 2021 / 09:01 am (CNA).
The Catholic University of America announced this week that it has received a $64.1 million research grant from NASA to fund a cooperative agreement with other Washington-ar… […]
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