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‘Last Supper' sculpture dedicated to local church
‘Last Supper' sculpture dedicated to local church

Yahoo

time22-05-2025

  • General
  • Yahoo

‘Last Supper' sculpture dedicated to local church

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — You can find works of sculptor Timothy Schmaltz all around downtown Youngstown. Wednesday, a new one was dedicated on the property of the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. Schmaltz's newest sculpture is a depiction of the 'Last Supper.' It sits behind the Basilica at the corner of Watt and East Wood Streets. Bishop David Bonner presided over the dedication attended by 80 people under a tent in the pouring rain. Noticably missing on the sculpture are the 12 apostles — though 12 seats surround the table. Smaltz said that was intentional. 'Showing that we have to become involved in our lives, in our spirituality. We can't just sit back and be passive observers,' Schmaltz said. Schmaltz lives in the Toronto area of Canada and said what he loves about public artwork like the 'Last Supper' is that it's always out there sending a message and is always turned on, so to speak. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Days before conclave, cardinals in Rome pitch messages to the pews
Days before conclave, cardinals in Rome pitch messages to the pews

Straits Times

time05-05-2025

  • Politics
  • Straits Times

Days before conclave, cardinals in Rome pitch messages to the pews

Cardinal Peter Erdo walking near Basilica of Santa Francesca Romana on the day he presides over the Sunday Mass on May 4. PHOTO: REUTERS ROME – Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of France cooed at babies on May 4 at a church in the Monti neighbourhood of Rome. Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary asked for prayers for fellow cardinals at a church near the Colosseum. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Congo joined priests from across the globe behind the altar of a church in western Rome. The three cardinals – considered contenders, though not favourites, to become the next pope – were among those celebrating Mass across Rome on May 4, making among their final public appearances before the conclave to elect a pope begins on May 7. Campaign rallies they were not. But in the homilies the cardinals delivered, and in their interactions with the faithful, they offered hints at the messages they might be giving to other cardinals, and to what kind of pope they might want, or want to be. All cardinals are assigned what is known as a titular church in Rome; when they are in town, they can choose to celebrate Mass there. Some, including Aveline and Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines, a leading papal contender, had done so last week. Tagle drew hundreds of Filipino faithful to his titular church in the gritty Centocelle suburb on May 1. A smattering of lesser-known cardinals also fanned out across the city on May 4, giving eager Vatican watchers a chance to snap photos of them all over town. But the two Italian favourites, Cardinals Pietro Parolin and Pierbattista Pizzaballa, did not take to the pulpit, acting like front-runners in a political campaign who chose to remain silent rather than, perhaps, make a mistake and lose electoral ground. A few curious Catholics – and news reporters scrutinising cardinals' every move – showed up to Pizzaballa's titular church anyway, hoping to catch a glimpse of a potential new pontiff. 'I'll understand if you desire to go,' the priest at the church of Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo, on a hill overlooking Rome, told about a dozen parishioners. 'Cardinal Pizzaballa will not be here today or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.' The parishioners stayed. The half-dozen reporters milling around took off, contenting themselves with chatting with Francesco Ziaco, a 63-year-old banker who had come to see Pizzaballa – and who happened to also look a lot like him. (A reporter from RAI, the Italian broadcaster, asked Mr Ziaco if he was the cardinal, going clandestine in civilian clothes. Though he was not, he acknowledged, 'The first time I saw his picture, I thought, 'This guy looks like me.'') The cardinals who did celebrate Mass were met with enthusiastic support. A standing-room-only crowd filled the Basilica di Santa Francesca Romana, also known as Santa Maria Nova, waiting for Erdo, the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, to arrive. Several rows of chairs painted in gold near the front of the church were reserved for dignitaries, including the Hungarian ambassadors to the Holy See and to Italy. In his homily, the cardinal, a favourite of conservative Catholics, urged the faithful to pray for a new pope 'who will have to deepen the church's mission in a dramatic phase of humanity's history'. 'The church of today must confront first of all the question of its own ambition,' he said, calling for traditions to be protected and the church to focus on evangelisation. Erdo, 72, did not mingle with parishioners. He waved off reporters who asked questions but did lower his car window on the way out to greet a toddler. The tone of Aveline's Mass felt lighter. He opened the service at Santa Maria ai Monti by thanking the Virgin of the Mount for having performed a 'little miracle'. Later in the service, the parish priest, the Reverend Francesco Pesce, explained that the cardinal's bag had been stolen at Mass at the church last week. Three days later, it was found. Rev Pesce joked that he would become pope and make Aveline his secretary of state. There were laughs all around. The cardinal thanked parishioners for making him feel at home. 'Do not be afraid of the truth, it will set us free,' Aveline, 66, the archbishop of Marseille, said during his homily. 'Do not be afraid of those who are different from us, because each man and each woman is a brother and sister for whom Christ has risen.' Aveline individually named the teenagers who had been confirmed, one of the sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church, a week earlier. He stopped by the front pews to shake hands with elementary school children whom he later joined in the sacristy for a chat. He spoke with parishioners and patted babies. He did not speak with reporters. At the San Gabriele Arcangelo all'Acqua Traversa, Ambongo, the archbishop of Kinshasa, made a point to stress the universality of the church in a homily delivered from an altar with priests from the Philippines, India, Madagascar and Italy. Ambongo, 65, a favourite of Francis, asked the faithful to pray for the cardinals entering in the conclave so that they would be illuminated with the Holy Spirit 'to elect for the universal church a pope' who is ready to face the challenges of the modern world. After Mass, the cardinal met reporters, staying on message with the sort of discipline that would make many political operatives jealous. 'I asked for prayers – not for prayers for a certain cardinal, for a cardinal from a certain part of the world,' he said. 'We pray for a pastor that God wants for his universal church.' Ambongo dodged questions about gay, lesbian and transgender Catholics, of whom he has been less than inclusive, saying, 'It's not the time to talk about these things'. Then he said hello to parishioners, kissed a baby and went to lunch, hoping, he said, that the papal election would be a short one. 'We hope that it will not take a long, long time,' he said. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Pope Francis' ordinary shoes bring pride to his Argentine neighborhood — and his cobbler
Pope Francis' ordinary shoes bring pride to his Argentine neighborhood — and his cobbler

Associated Press

time24-04-2025

  • General
  • Associated Press

Pope Francis' ordinary shoes bring pride to his Argentine neighborhood — and his cobbler

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The man who would become Pope Francis always bought his shoes in the same small store. And now, the remarkably ordinary footwear that surprised and charmed millions has brought pride to his old Buenos Aires neighborhood — and his cobbler. The simple black shoes — a stark contrast to the flashy ruby red slippers of Francis' predecessor, former Pope Benedict XVI — are among the pope's personal effects that have captured attention as his death this week triggers an outpouring of emotion around the Roman Catholic world. The seemingly comfortable loafers offer a powerful reminder of Francis' humility, simplicity and lack of ceremony that helped him relate to ordinary people wherever he went. A third-generation cobbler The Muglia family men were the first cobblers in the middle-class Flores neighborhood of western Buenos Aires. Their shop, Muglia Shoes, opened in 1945, just a few years after Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrant parents. There wasn't much competition, so when a young Bergoglio came in to buy shoes, it was Juan Jose Muglia's grandfather who sold him the first pair. Bergoglio was in his 20s then, serving as a Jesuit priest at the Basilica of San José de Flores just around the block. 'My father, my grandfather, they told me stories about how Father Jorge came from the church around the corner to buy these shoes, they were the ones he liked, he wore them all the time,' Muglia, 52, told The Associated Press on Thursday. 'They're simple, it's the kind of shoes that waiters like to wear today, Muglia said, holding up a pair of the handmade lace-up loafers. 'They can last you years and years.' When Muglia took over after his father's death, he added a poster of Elvis Presley, a Harley Davidson motorbike and a vinyl turntable to give the place a hipster note. A time gone by The racks now display newer fashions like pointy boat shoes and bright patent leather numbers. But much of the shop remains the same, including the pinewood-paneled walls, floor-to-ceiling shelves of cream-colored shoeboxes and, of course, the leather black loafers with grippy, nonslip soles that Francis repeatedly purchased, inspiring local Catholic priests to do the same. 'Priests came here from all the basilicas in the city, some young priests even came from Rome to buy them,' said Muglia. They sell for around $170 today — far more than the price-tag Francis saw — due to Argentina's runaway inflation. When Francis became pope in 2013, Muglia said he offered to send the pontiff off to St. Peter's with a new pair of his favorite shoes. But he recalled Francis saying that his feet had become too swollen in his old age and he needed to find a more customized fit that he could depend on in Rome. Papal footwear Rather than adopt the typical papal shoes — red velvet or silk — as pope, Francis didn't stray from his Flores roots. He chose normal black shoes with an orthopedic sole — a far cry from the Byzantine era, when pilgrims customarily kissed a decorative cross embroidered on the papal shoe, and from the era of Pope Benedict, whose bespoke leather slippers in a succulent tomato red prompted Esquire Magazine to name the former pontiff 'Accessorizer of the Year' in 2007, prompting intense speculation about the designer brand. As years passed, beyond the occasional priest or parishioner who dropped into Muglia Shoes, few ever wondered about the brand of Francis' plain footwear. But that changed when Francis died on Monday at the age of 88, setting off a frenzy of interest about his Flores roots. Around the world, Francis was remembered for paring down the papacy's inherited pomp to become more accessible — swapping the fur-trimmed velvet cape that popes had worn since the Renaissance for a simple white cassock, and preferring a Ford Focus to the usual papal limo. As word spread about his original footwear and local journalists flooded the neighborhood, Muglia said curious customers have bombarded him with requests. He placed a framed portrait of Francis prominently in his window. 'It was a world of people,' Muglia said. 'They came from everywhere.' A neighborhood remembers In Flores, the mourning for Francis feels personal. Residents remember him as someone who lived frugally, visited and advocated for the city's poorest and could often be found sharing Argentina's signature yerba maté drink with old friends and strangers. At the newspaper stand just down the block from Muglia Shoes, vendor Antonio Plastina, 69, recalled how he and Francis made small-talk 'like any two Argentines, a bit of this and that, some politics mixed with soccer.' 'He was a marvelous person, those are beautiful memories,' Plastina said, his eyes welling up. After becoming archbishop and cardinal, Francis still made the half-hour drive to Flores from downtown Buenos Aires every Sunday before church. He always bought the two main Argentine daily papers, Plastina said, and read the news with a cup of coffee at the quiet cafe across the street, now a mattress store on a traffic-clogged intersection. Although the crowds that poured into Flores upon learning of Francis' death largely tapered out by Thursday, they left a mass of bouquets and handwritten notes to their beloved pontiff at the iron-barred windows of Membrillar 531, the modest house where Francis grew up as the eldest of five siblings. 'My vision is going but my memory is long,' said Alicia Gigante, 91, Francis' neighbor and family friend, who stopped at the house on Thursday morning, leaning on her daughter for support. 'I'll remember him for a long time, always his kindness, his smile, and that greeting, when you rang the doorbell and he came out into the street,' she said, her voice trembling. 'There he was, always the same, he would caress you and bless you.'

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