Skip to main content

Blogs

Mary in the News: July 25, 2018

By Michael Duricy

Read recent items about Mary in both Catholic and secular news. Also, see International Marian Research Institute news and updates.

ML/IMRI Features

Marian Events

Mary in the Catholic Press

Mary in the Secular Press

Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute Features

Updates
  • Marianist General Chapter
  • The General Chapter of the Society of Mary (Marianist) is being held in Rome from July 8-29, 2018.  Below is a link to the a video presentation on that meeting dated July 17, 2018.  We plan to keep you informed of future developments.

  • General Chapter Video Presentation

  •  TOP
Mary in Media: Books, Films, Music, etc.

Snow White: An Allegory of the Blessed Virgin Mary

  • The article below explores Snow White as an allegory of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of a poem titled 'Snow White' which follows.
  • The Immaculate Virgin Mary is the true Snow White since She is as "pure as the driven snow; [and] her blessings and graces, [are as] numerous and varied as falling snowflakes."  I have always been intrigued by the character of Snow White, and the fairy tale has long resided in my imagination.  The true reason for this is because Our Lady is the archetype of all women whose greatness, beauty and purity transcends comprehensibility, and so all idealistic portraits and figures of women, in art, literature, the collective cultural imagination, and above all in Salvation History, are as sacramentals, as icons as it were, of Mary Herself--each providing a unique glimpse into the person of our Lady.

    Though indeed, the primacy of biblical feminine icons must be emphasized--as these, belonging to Public Revelation, provide the clearest portrait of Mary, and serve as morsels providing the greatest depth of insight into Her.  Still, this does not mean we ought to neglect and throw away the plethora of feminine characters which have occupied history, or have been molded in the imaginations of mankind throughout the ages, since these speak in diverse ways of Our Lady--even if at times certain negative aspects need to be polished and done away with--for only the positive, good and noble traits of these women bear witness to Mary the Most Blessed of All Women.

    To appropriate and recognize Our Lady in these historical and mythical feminine icons, is part of a process to see the Face of God in all things, and testifies to the fact that all these feminine icons are so prominent and/or have been crafted, as a temporal response to the inner yearning that beats within the heart of every human being to be one in union with Mary the Mother of God, as was Joseph and as was Christ.  Every heart longs for Mary, since this is indistinguishable from the thirst for God inherent in every man.  Why?  For God is so united to Mary in an indivisible bond of grace, that one cannot be one with God unless one is one with Mary, and vice versa....

    Complete article
  • TOP
From the Marian Treasure Chest

Brother John Samaha, S.M., sent us the text below with the following comments: "August 13 is the feast day of Blessed Jakob Gapp, Austrian Marianist priest martyred by the Nazis in World War II.  He is a model for our times."

A Modern Martyr Championed the Catholic Press by Brother John Samaha, S.M.

Blessed Jacob Gapp, S.M., may well be considered another patron of  justice and peace advocates.   Because the Gestapo condemned him for his unwavering adherence to the Catholic faith and his unabashed denunciation of National Socialism (Nazism), Father Jacob Gapp was guillotined by the Nazis in Berlin at the Ploetzensee Prison on August 13, 1943.  Pope St. John Paul II beatified him in.

Before entering the Society of Mary in his native Austria, this intrepid Marianist priest had served in the Austrian army in World War I, was wounded and decorated for valor, and suffered as a prisoner of war in northern Italy.  This experience taught him to loathe war, selfishness and greed, arrogant pride, political and social injustice.  As a young Marianist religious and teacher of religion he was unstinting as a militant advocate for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.

This action made Father Gapp a serious irritant to the Nazis after they annexed Austria in 1938.  For his own safety and for the welfare of the Marianist school where he was teaching in Graz, his superiors moved him from place to place for parish work.  The Nazi regime forbade him to teach.  Some pupils in the Tyrol told a school inspector in October 1938 that Father Gapp explained to them the Gospel message of brotherly love and their obligation to love and respect "Frenchmen, Czechs, Jews, and communists alike, as they were all human beings."  He insisted, "God is your God, not Adolf Hitler."

Realizing that the spoken word and the printed word clearly possessed a power lacking in the sword of militarism, he employed the Catholic press as a weapon of choice.  And he read avidly to study the thorny problem of National Socialism and all its ramifications.

Imbued with the message of Pope Pius XI's encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge, and the statements of the Austrian bishops, Jacob Gapp had formed a lucid and sound judgment about the utter incompatibility of National Socialism and Christianity.  In his preaching he emphasized this truth fearlessly, and he taught the uncompromising law of love for all people without reference to nationality or religion. 

In a fateful sermon in his home parish of St. Lawrence at Wattens in the Tyrol on December 11, 1938, this seasoned Marianist priest staunchly defended Pope Pius XI against the attacks of the Nazis, knowing that his words were being monitored by the Gestapo.  He urged the faithful to read Catholic literature rather than Nazi propaganda, and to follow the lead of the Catholic press.  This bold move forced him to leave his native country and escape to France.  A few months later his anti-Nazi audacity required that he flee Bordeaux and enter Spain, where he assisted in several  schools and parishes served by the Marianists.  He was adamant in his rejection of the Nazi diatribe.  His zeal for the cause he so fervently espoused was not diminished.

In the summer of 1942 the beleaguered Father Jacob Gapp visited the British consulate in Valencia to inquire about a visa to England.  He also wanted to learn what was really happening in Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe, especially concerning the Church.  The consulate staff gave him a stack of newspapers and magazines.  Among them were copies of The Tablet, a weekly journal edited by Catholic laity in London.  The Tablet provided reports about the persecution of the Church, internment camps, pastoral letters like that of the Bishop of Calahorra in Spain criticizing the Nazi ideology, and objective reports from the war fronts.  Shunning biased propaganda material, Father Jacob began to distribute The Tablet, returning regularly to the consulate for new copies.

Shadowed by the Nazis over the years, he was arrested through a deceptive trap that lured him across the border into occupied France, where the Gestapo arrested him and hustled him to prison in Berlin.  He was deceived by a certain Father Lange, a German priest in whom he had confided, but who was secretly a Gestapo agent.  In January 1943, for two long and intense days he was interrogated nonstop by the Gestapo.  Jacob Gapp welcomed the opportunity to present his case.  The Gestapo interrogators were particularly interested in his visits to the British consulate in Valencia, and in the "subversive propaganda against the Fatherland" he had repeatedly collected there and distributed.  Calmly and firmly the prisoner explained that The Tablet was not propaganda: "It is a good, Catholic journal.  The writing is sound, and I even intended to subscribe."

Willingly and vigorously the martyr-to-be not only admitted he consistently opposed the Nazi regime and all it represented, but explained when and why he had done so.  He virtually flew in the face of the interrogators.  His reasoning and candor stunned the Nazi agents.  First and foremost he was a Marianist religious and Catholic priest, conscience-bound to place God before Caesar.  Since the Nazis were bent on destroying the Church, he was convinced it was his duty to blaze a trail of resistance and opposition, to educate with truth, and to be a role model of fidelity.

For his honesty and integrity Father Jacob Gapp was sentenced to death for treason and guillotined.  His body was destroyed because the Gestapo feared the people would revere him as a martyr.  Reportedly Heinrich Himmler, the cunning manipulator of the Nazi leadership, expressed the opinion that Germany would win World War II without difficulty if there were a million party members as committed as Jacob Gapp.  Even the enemy admired his tenacious and unstinting adherence to conviction.

Today we honor Blessed Jacob Gapp as a modern-day champion of the Catholic press, which strives to be a source of truthful reporting.  Because he respected the Catholic press as the vehicle the Church employs to reveal the Good News for our day, we are invited to call on him to help us to appreciate and promote a more effective Catholic press--print and electronic--with a wider readership, and to use the Catholic press as he did for the cause of truth and justice. 

As the Church regards St. Francis de Sales as patron of the Catholic press, who intercedes for writers and publishers, we can call on Blessed Jacob Gapp as a patron for readers of the Catholic press.  We can request him to assist all who turn to the Catholic press for a reliable source of information.  

Marian Events

Event: Fatima USA 2018

Location: Spiritual Center of Maria Stein, 2365 Saint Johns Road, Maria Stein, Ohio 45860

Date: August 10, 2018

Holy Mass with Rev. Father Alexander Witt begins at 7:30 pm.  After dark, a candle-lit rosary will take form on the grounds as each prayer is recited.  The program will conclude with a candle light procession around the grounds.

More information is available at facebook.com/Fatima.usa.mass

TOP

Mary in the Catholic Press

Our Lady of Mount Carmel: The Way of Contemplation (Zenit) July 17, 2018

On July 16, 2017, feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pope Francis encouraged men and women Carmelites to continue on the way of contemplation.

Greeting the religious of the order at the end of the Angelus, held in St. Peter's Square, the Pope expressed his hope that "they will be able to continue with determination on the way of contemplation." ...

Complete article

Mary in the Secular Press

The director and editors of All About Mary 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.

A Virgin Mary statue has been 'weeping' olive oil. Church leaders can't explain it. (The Washington Post) July 18, 2018

Inside a Catholic church in New Mexico, a seven-foot-tall bronze statue of the Virgin Mary appears to be 'weeping', according to church leaders.

The sculpture, known locally as Our Lady of Guadalupe, is not crying human tears; an investigator with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces said her 'tears' have the same chemical makeup as olive oil treated with perfume--a substance that, when blessed, would be chrism, a sacred oil used in the Catholic Church to anoint parishioners.  But, church leaders say, the rare occurrence has prompted people from all over to come for conversions, confessions, and to watch the statue of the Mother of God cry.

The question, one expert says, is not merely how it's happening (or whether it's happening naturally) but how people are responding to the phenomenon and why they may want to believe in it....

Complete Article

Previous Post

Weekly Marian Features: July 23, 2018

This week's main focus is on the Blessed Virgin Mary and her family, especially her parents, Saints Ann and Joachim.
Read More
Next Post

‘Marian Studies’ presents ‘Marialis Cultus’ from many perspectives

The latest issue of the journal ‘Marian Studies’ presents nine scholarly articles on Pope Paul VI’s 1974 apostolic exhortation ‘Marialis Cultus’ (‘Marian Devotion’).
Read More