http://www.udayton.edu/mary/news01/20010606.html
Mary in the Secular Press
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.
Commentary on Mary in various news articles from May 17 through
June 4, 2001.
Systematically arranged portraits of Jesus and the Virgin Mary draw worshippers
eyes to the front center of Orthodox churches. Around that focal point are
icons depicting other significant figures in ancient and modern Christianity,
from the Apostles to patron saints within the branches of Orthodoxy, The Columbus
Dispatch said in its Faith & Values section on May 25. The article discusses
the icon of Christ at St. Gregory of Nyssa Orthodox Church on the North Side
of Columbus, a portable iconostasis used by St. John Russian Orthodox Church
in Worthington, which lacks its own building and meets at St. Johns
Episcopal Church, and an intricately carved and pieced together wooden iconostasis
at St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Prairie Township.
An image of the Virgin Mary in a revealing garland of flowers on display at the Arizona State Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe continues to make the news. Our Lady, a photo collage based on the Virgin of Guadalupe by California artist Alma Lopez, depicts Mary wearing a swimsuit of flower petals. Recent articles included: A report that the image of Our Lady will remain on display until Oct. 28, cutting the duration of the exhibition short by about four months. Albuquerque Journal, May 23.
A phone interview with Museum Regent Frank V. Ortiz, who
compared the exhibit to racial epithets and suggested Hispanic representation
among docents is inadequate according to documents released by the Museum
of New Mexico. Ortiz said his written comments were motivated by a widespread
lack of appreciation for the museum's impact on traditional culture among
local residents. Ortiz received both a call by museum volunteers for his resignation
and a strong rebuke from top administrators. Albuquerque Journal, May 23.
Editorial comment by National Review's deputy managing editor with the headline:
"Stop Attacking Our Lady." In National Review Online Mike Potemra
states the collage "shows a woman of great loveliness, bedecked with
flowers. Surely
an appropriate image for the loveliest member of the
human race, the woman described in medieval Catholic writings as flos florum
the flower of flowers." May 24.
A report that state museum officials promise to reconsider
how they treat sensitive subjects in the wake of protests following their
decision to keep the image of a scantily clad Virgin Mary on display through
October.
Local and national critics of the image were scheduling prayer
vigils, including one on June 30 organized by America Needs Fatima, a Pennsylvania-based
campaign responsible for a deluge of more than 12,000 postcards protesting
the display. Albuquerque Journal, May 25.
A defense of the collage by southern California artist Amy
Lopez who said she doesn't understand why some people consider her representation
of the Virgin Mary offensive. "I see this woman's legs and her belly
and
I don't see anything wrong," she told the Los Angeles Times. Memphis,
TN Commercial Appeal and Houston Chronicle, May 28.
Details of a thousand Virgin Marys appear in a lovely, reverent,
very different view of Old Master paintings of the Virgin Mary in a three-minute
film by Christina Gruppuso, the Providence Journal Bulletin said on May 20.
An entry in the Rhode Island School of Design's Senior Film/Animation &
Video Festival, the film shows single closeups of a hand, an eye, Mary's lips
dissolving from one image to the next seamlessly while birds chirp, bells
toll and soft music plays. Eventually there are views of Mary's arms holding
the infant Jesus. Christ, the Virgin Mary and several saints returned, in
icon form, to St. Nicholas Cathedral in Manhattan, the seat of the Russian
Orthodox Church, May 17, the New York Daily News said on May 18. The 19th
century works had been bought on the black market and smuggled out of Russia
in 1992. U.S. Customs authorities seized them a year later but a lengthy investigation
and court battle deferred disposition of the 34 holy relics.
Irish folk singer and the first woman European Parliament
member Rosemary Scanlon, who goes by her stage name Dana, was scheduled to
perform during the National Medjugorje Conference May 25-27 at the University
of Notre Dame, the South Bend Tribune wrote on May 24. The event, sponsored
by Queen of Peace Ministries, marked the 13th annual conference at the university
and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the appearance of the Blessed Virgin
Mary to six young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Carrying flags and banners, handmade crosses and candles
as tall as a man, a quarter-million pilgrims approached the shrine at Lourdes
during Holy Week, to celebrate Easter at the mountain grotto where St. Bernadette
is said to have encountered the Virgin Mary in 1858. Many who come are deeply
involved in spiritual matters but there are also large numbers who don't have
much to do with organized religion but still feel the pull of the sacred mysteries,
the South Bend Tribute said on May 17.
Several celebrations honoring the Virgin Mary during May
were reported by the secular press: The Albany, NY, Times Union said Our Lady
of Peace Prayer group was sponsoring its 11th annual May Day crowing of the
Blessed Virgin Mary on May 21at St. Mary's Church.
The Memphis, TN Commercial Appeal showed Immaculate Conception
third-grader Somer Smith offering a flower in honor of the Virgin Mary during
the school's May Procession May 17.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that St. Gertrude
Catholic Church religion classes ended the school year May 7 with a May crowing
of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Chicago Daily Herald wrote that as May drew to a close,
the 700-plus families of the Queenship of Mary Church were finishing a month-long
celebration honoring the Virgin Mary. DuPage County's only Vietnamese Roman
Catholic Church also draws Filipinos.
"Unlocking the Secrets of 'Loraaminshee' and the
Possible Links with the Lost Medieval Convent of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Termonfeckin, Co Louth," an essay by Niall Murphy, 14, a second-year
student at Drogheda Grammar School, is overall winner of this year's TCD schools
prize in history, the Irish Times wrote on May 22. "If we had received
it as a BA dissertation from a final-year student, it would have been in the
running for a first," said Dr. Sean Duffy, incoming head of TCD's department
of medieval history.
Locals in the city of Elsa, Texas, claim they can see the
Virgin Mary's face in the dust on the bonnet of a 1981 Chevrolet Camaro sports
car and devout Christians are making pilgrimages to view it for themselves,
the Daily Star said on June 1.
Mary McGrath, a 69-year-old retired school social worker,
is taking pity on damaged Twin Cities statues, the Minneapolis, MN Star Tribune
said on June 4. After noticing that the statue of the Virgin Mary in a peaceful
little arbor in Minneapolis had lost her aging thumb and fingertip she spoke
with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet who will arrange for repairs.
The statue and little garden are dedicated to the nuns of their order who
served at the old St. Mary's Hospital. Now she is determined to aid a statue
of St. Francis of Assisi in St. Paul's Como Park Conservatory. "His hands
are really gone," she said.
A question about the religious significance of the Ladybird
from the Netherlands was answered by the London Guardian May 31 as follows:
"Lady" comes from the Virgin Mary; its German name translates as
"Maria beetle;" in Dutch, it translates as "Our dear Lord's
little creature." "Why make a federal case if the Blessed Virgin
Mary decides to favor an unsuspecting family with a million in cash?"
Colombian cops who nabbed three adults arriving in Bogota
from Spain with two kids in tow and wads of U.S. currency secreted in their
bags and babies' diapers didn't believe the explanation given by a female
member of the group that the Virgin had appeared before the family and the
money simply fell into their hands. Reported by the Institute for Public Affairs
May 28.
A review of Dianne Schoemperlen's "Our Lady of the Lost and Found," appeared in the May 27 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The book "is a dandy, read, full of both entertainment value and food for thought." Previously reported.