Priest Chaplain Describes Moment Cruise Ship Ran Aground

A Catholic chaplain aboard the sinking Costa Concordia rushed to consume the Eucharist in an attempt to protect it as the cruise liner began to sink on Friday night.

Fr Rafaeli Mallena, 70, described his ordeal to Fr Giacomo Martino, director of the Apostolate of the Sea for the Italian bishops’ conference.

He said as he realised the ship was in serious peril he had two things at the forefront of his mind: protecting the valuables, which the staff had entrusted to him, and protecting the Blessed Sacrament.

When the first explosion was heard during dinner, Fr Rafaeli said, “he felt immediately that something was very, very wrong”, according to Fr Giacomo. He immediately went to the chapel to pray and 40 minutes later, when he realised the “abandon ship” alarm was sounding, he consumed the Eucharist and locked the staff’s valuables, including jewellery and money, in a safe.

As chaos ensued among the 4,200 passengers aboard, the priest tried to stay aboard in an effort to help but he was persuaded by crew members that it would be better if he boarded a lifeboat and left the sinking ship.

Fr Giacomo Martino said that Fr Mallena had now returned to Rome where he was recovering from his ordeal…

May he recover soon and well.

 

Still Very Hot in Cape Town

It’s almost 7 and still not cooling!

Does the Merneptah Stele Contain the First Mention of Israel?

Biblical Archaeology Society:

Does this fragmentary hieroglyphic inscription contain the first mention of Israel? According to a recently published article by Manfred Görg, Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis, the name-ring on the right may indeed read “Israel,” and they date it almost 200 years earlier than the reference to Israel on the Merneptah Stele.

The Merneptah Stele has long been touted as the earliest extrabiblical reference to Israel.* The ancient Egyptian inscription dates to about 1205 B.C.E. and recounts the military conquests of the pharaoh Merneptah. Near the bottom of the hieroglyphic inscription, a people called “Israel” is said to have been wiped out by the conquering pharaoh. This has been used by some experts as evidence of the ethnogenesis of Israel around that time.

But a new publication by Egyptologists and Biblical scholars Manfred Görg, Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis suggests that there may be an even earlier reference to Israel in the Egyptian record. Manfred Görg discovered a broken statue pedestal containing hieroglyphic name-rings in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and, after studying it with colleagues Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis, they suggest that one of the name-rings should be read as “Israel.” Not all scholars agree with their reading because of slight differences in spelling, but Görg, van der Veen and Theis offer strong arguments, including supportive parallels in the Merneptah Stele itself. This newly rediscovered inscription is dated to around 1400 B.C.E.—about 200 years earlier than the Merneptah Stele. If Görg, van der Veen and Theis are right, their discovery will shed important light on the beginnings of ancient Israel.

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Notes

* See Frank J. Yurco, “3,200-Year-Old Pictures of Israelites Found in Egypt,” Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1990.

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For more about the discovery of a possible first mention of Israel before the Merneptah Stele by scholars Manfred Görg, Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis, see “When Did Ancient Israel Begin?” Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2012.

Altar from Episcopal Church Ends Up on eBay for $49,500

Is this what the Episcopal Church has been reduced to?!

An altar from the shuttered St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jersey City has turned up on eBay, for sale by a New York importer at a nearly $50,000 price tag.

The eight-foot-high altar has an inscription on the bottom in memory of Edward F.C. Young, a banker and power broker who was one of the most influential people in Jersey City at the end of the 19th Century.

Young attended St. John’s, where he was a vestryman, and he and his family were major church benefactors, said Dennis Doran, the former senior warden at St. John’s and a current member of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy.

The inscription to Young on the altar, donated to the church when Young died in 1908, makes it of inestimable historic value, according to Doran.

“It ought to be in Jersey City, along with the pulpit and the lectern, which were also memorials to Young,” he said.

The 137-year-old Summit Avenue church closed in 1991. Since then, it has been the focus of a battle between the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, which wants it demolished, and folks like Doran who want the historic structure preserved…

Sad. Selling altars on eBay.

But I must wonder… Any Continuing Anglicans (with the necessary $) interested in saving the once sacred? It sure looks like a magnificent altar…

HT

 

A ‘Reverse’ Ordinariate?

It’s something that appears to be happening in South America somewhere:

On February 19, 2012 Bishop Oscar Rojas Quinto and three of his clergy will be received as priests into the Anglican Church of Peru, along with their congregations from Huancayo in the mountains of central Peru.

These former Roman Catholics have been in conversation and prayer for over a year following the request of Bishop Oscar to be received as Anglicans and become part of the Anglican Diocese of Peru.

Bishop Harold William Godfrey, who heads the Diocese of Peru, called it a “reverse Ordinariate.” The word Ordinariate was taken from Pope Benedict XIV’s initiative to give Anglican clergy and congregations a way to maintain some of their traditions while becoming Roman Catholics.

The Peruvian initiative is different. For ex Anglicans joining the Roman Church, the Ordinariate is a destination in which the clergy are re-ordained as Roman Catholic clergy because Rome does not recognize Anglican orders.

This proposal has provided a place where the move can be formally considered by both sides. Upon mutual agreements, the clergy will be received as Anglicans without the need for re-ordination since Anglicans recognize ordination in apostolic succession. Once received, the bishop and their clergy are fully part of the Anglican Diocese and their participation in the Ordinariate is over. Clergy from churches not in apostolic succession have to be re-ordained.
This first group is ex Roman Catholics. As a community of former Roman Catholics, they have suffered from persecution and prejudice. They have been accused of being “false priests”; their services have been broken up and legal action threatened, said the Rev. Ian Montgomery, Canon to the Ordinary.

“These are brave men and women who have endured much for the sake of the Gospel. It is an honor to count them a part of the Anglican family. The Anglican community in Peru has many clergy from other traditions. We are too young to have many who have grown up through our ranks. The clergy from evangelical traditions outnumber those from Roman traditions two to one. We welcome into the Ordinariate those from evangelical traditions. There are more who are in the process of conversation.” Montgomery said this can not be rushed as the decision is a mutual one freely entered into after much prayer”…

You can read the rest here.

 

Witch Conducts a Pagan Ceremony at a Catholic Church

A witch who went to jail for dragging a policeman 190m with her car has hijacked a wedding ceremony being performed by the reverend Father Bob Maguire.

The Herald Sun:

Father Maguire said he felt like the “devil took over me” when Eilish De Avalon conducted a Pagan Handfasting Ceremony at a Brighton Catholic church.

Father Maguire said he had warned the woman to tone back her scripts for the January 7 wedding but was “taken for a ride” on the day.

Ms Avalon, who was jailed for two months last June after pleading guilty to recklessly causing serious injury, dangerous driving, driving while suspended and using a mobile phone while driving, yesterday confirmed to the Herald Sun it was the first time she had performed the ceremony in a church, but declined to speak further.

Handfasting ceremonies are performed for same-sex couples, opposite gender couples and for multiple partners.

The bride and groom’s hands are tied during the ceremony and vows are usually taken for a year and a day.

At the end of some services, the couple jump over a broomstick.

Father Maguire said he was fuming about the ceremony conducted after his official religious ceremony at St James Church Brighton.

He was also further angered that Ms De Avalon, 40, posted on Facebook: “History in the making this morning in when I conduct a Pagan Handfasting Ceremony in a Catholic church with the support of Fr Bob.”

Fr Maguire said: “She is using me as an endorsement to blow her own trumpet. She took an opportunistic advantage of the parish.

“I was taken for a ride and blindsided. Once in the saddle she took over the place. It was like the devil got a hold of me.

“I’ve never had an experience like that in my 50 years (with the church).”

Bishop Les Tomlinson, Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, said the matter would be looked into and described the service as “peculiar” and regrettable.

“Such a person is not welcomed in the Catholic Church to interfere with liturgy,” he said…

Which is why Fr Bob should have stopped it.  I suppose his facial expression in the above photo with the witch at his side says it all. If it was me I would have taken the broomstick and swept her out the door. Alternatively, I would have simply refused to perform the ceremony. Let the witch do it, at a coven somewhere…

Neopaganism in a Church?! I’ve never heard of such nonsense (unless you’re Episcopalian of course)…