Praying for the Pope

First reporting assignment for Ari Goldman’s religion class – my beat is the Papacy & the media, and for this one we had to write about a ritual moment….

The Rev. John Massari has thick black eyebrows and a mane of silver hair. He emerges from the door to the back-left of the altar in green embroidered robes, the appropriate color for the period of Ordinary Time, which begins 8 days after Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar of the Catholic Church. His footsteps sound hollow on the marble floor, and they interject the opening recital of Mass, delivered by long-time congregation member Francesca Illuzzi.

“Gesu, l’unico maestro di sapienza e liberatore della potenza de male,” Illuzzi, 77, invokes the power and virtue of Jesus as Massari stands to face the congregation of the church of Our Lady of Pompeii. As is custom, the 11 o’clock Sunday Mass is in Italian, and Massari’s booming voice addresses an audience of around 40 Italians and Italian-Americans, in the 120-year old Church on Carmine Street.

Before the consecration of the bread and the wine during Communion, Massari pauses to deliver a key part of the Eucharistic Prayer. He asks God to grant peace to the Church, “together with your servant Benedict XVI, our Pope.”

The Pope’s name is mentioned in each of the 4 Eucharistic Prayers, one of which is always recited during the second half of Mass—the part known as the Mass of the Faithful.

Although the public does not repeat the name out loud, devout Catholics like Illuzzi say a silent prayer for their Pope after Massari’s tribute, most with heads bowed.

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The current canon of the mass is known as the ‘post-Tridentine’ mass, or the Mass of Paul VI, whose liturgy was promulgated in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council. But praying for the Pope is nothing new. It’s almost as old as ritualized mass itself, which began during the first century. Intercessions, or ‘prayers on behalf of others’, including the Pope, were included in the liturgy from the time of Pope Pius I in the mid-100s.

“You say the name out loud to call attention to the people,” Massari explains after the service is over. In the rectory office, adjacent to the nave of the Church, a picture of the current Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI, hangs. “The Pope is a Catholic figure,” says Massari, “in other words, he is a universal figure.”

Massari says that praying for the Pope is important, because of the important function he serves as the leader of God’s people on earth. “The way you pray for the President of the United States, it makes sense to pray for the Pope because of his responsibility.”

Most practicing Catholics don’t limit praying for the Pope to time at mass. Illuzzi says that she prays for Benedict XVI every day, in private, as she’s done for the other 5 Popes who’ve led the Church during her lifetime.

“If they nominated him, it means he deserves it. The cardinals, the Holy Spirit inspires them, and I pray for the Pope that the Holy Spirit inspires him to do the right thing for his people,” says Illuzzi, a first-generation Italian immigrant from Bari in Italy. Her 5^th floor walk up in the West Village has been her home ever since she came as a newlywed to New York 48 years ago. Religious iconography decorates every room, including a stained glass lamp on her bedside table, which illuminates passport-sized pictures of the loved ones she’s lost. In the living room, a large portrait of the previous Pope, John Paul II is propped on a dresser against the wall.

“Of course I have the Pope’s picture, but not yet the most recent one. I have small postcards of him, people send me them from Italy,” she explains. “Popes are not all the same, but they’re always inspired by the Holy Spirit, to teach the whole Church.”

Illuzzi believes that the Holy Spirit directly instructs the Pope, and that through this instruction the Pope is the best possible leader of the Catholic Church. She says that the episode of the Pentacost, when the Holy Spirit inspired St. Peter and the Apostles, to preach the gospel of Christ’s resurrection marks the beginning of the relationship between the Pope and the Holy Spirit.

For Catholics—whether members of the clergy or the congregation—the short mention of the Pope during mass evidences a long-standing importance given to his title. According to Catholic dogma, Jesus effectively named the Apostle Simon “Peter”, the first Pope. In 1 of the 4 canonical gospels, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” This is thought to have happened in Rome, which is why the Papacy is based there, in the Vatican.

“I never criticize the Pope,” Illuzzi says, “I hold my opinion to myself. There is always a higher motivo why a Cardinal was made a Pope.”

Bye bye first semester…

These past 4 months in NCY and at the J-School have flown by. Honestly can’t believe it, we’ve all learnt so much and I’ve enjoyed every second (almost). Hope you enjoy the last video, courtesy of Andrew Parsons and I.

Barbershops in low-income neighborhoods offer more than a cut & shave

Happy Thanksgiving !

After my first time celebrating this glorious American holiday (which inconvenienced my birthday celebration plans, oh well), I also got the Black Friday feeling. No fun, sitting in a Walmart line for 3 hours at midnight as crazed shoppers ran, kids cried, and staff stressed.

But it was apparently a pretty hefty economic boost for retailers. Here is a Daybook story we did (assigned,shot,edited between 10am and 4pm) about whether smaller, independent businesses experienced a boom-boom.

 

Thousands learning Irish in NYC

Check out my latest (and last of the semester) Irish story, picked up by Irish Central, and the Fulbright Commission in Ireland.

 

Madeleine Ni Ghallcobhair, a Fulbright Scholar from an Irish-speaking area of Ireland called a Gaeltacht, set up the projector and faced a class of 12 undergraduate students at Manhattan College in the Bronx. Basic Irish language vocabulary studded the screen: “Is maith liom – I like.”

Ni Ghallcobhair addressed a girl in a green Ireland sweatshirt. “An maith leat e?” she said while gesturing to the male student seated beside her.

The girl blushed. “Are you asking me if I like him?” she said. “Um, yes, is maith liom e.”

Every week, Ni Ghallcobhair teaches Irish language classes at three City University of New York campuses, Lehman College, College of Mount St Vincent, and Manhattan College. She came to New York last August as a Fulbright Scholar on the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant scheme. The exchange program was launched by the Fulbright Commission in Ireland in 2006, and is funded by the Irish government. So far, 47 teaching assistants have been sent to the U.S.

“I’m partly here as cultural ambassador, so I’m trying to teach my students the language, but also a bit of the context, history, and the customs that we have,” said Ni Ghallcobhair. “I’ve been really impressed that a lot of people are really interested in Irish here.”
The enthusiasm for Irish amongst New Yorkers that Ni Ghallcobhair’s experienced is echoed by many Irish-language speakers living and teaching in the city. According to Elaine Ni Bhreinnan, 32, who teaches Gaelic at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan, “Irishness sells in America. It’s like a brand, and the Irish language, thankfully, goes with it.”

There are approximately 11 institutions that offer Irish language classes in New York City. These are divided between NYU and CUNY, the two universities that offer Irish as a language elective — or in the case of Lehman, a minor in an undergraduate program — and cultural centers, such as the Irish Arts Center, or the Aisling Center in Yonkers.

At a conference in Notre Dame last April, the Ireland Fulbright Commission presented the findings of a report about the teaching and learning of Irish in the U.S.

“We discovered that there’s more out there than we know about,” said Colleen Dube, the executive director of Ireland’s Fulbright Commission. Dube added that the Irish Language Learning & Teaching in the U.S. report also revealed a growing need for facilitating Irish classes in non-academic settings.

“There’s a constant crossover between those coming from an academic angle, and someone who gets subsumed in the general culture,” said Dube.

In a classroom setting, Ni Challcobhair emphasizes vocabulary and grammar, with focus on conversation for the first 20 minutes or so of every class. Students are typically placed in partners to discuss a set topic. Hilary Sweeney and Pádraig Ó Cearúill’s classes at NYU’s Ireland, or Glucksman, House follow a similar format.

Sweeney, who teaches different levels of Irish to undergraduate students, said that, in addition to teaching the language, it’s essential to provide context.

“I think it’s important that there are connections between what’s going on in academia, and what’s going on in greater world,” Sweeney said at the NYU Glucksman House Irish Language Day last weekend. “When it’s a language, it’s all about communication, and we want to foster communication between anyone who’s learning Irish, whether in a cultural center, at home, or in a formal university setting.”

Irish-born Rebecca McLynn, 21, and Ohio-native Maggie Cardosi, 23, are enrolled in the Irish-American Studies M.A. offered at NYU. Both girls consider knowledge of Irish as crucial to understanding Irish history and general culture.

Anne Dolan, 26, a previous student of Irish at Lehman College, said that pursuing Irish music and singing heightened her interest in the Irish language. Of her class in Lehman, Dolan said that, “it was not exactly a discussion, but it also wasn’t a lecture.”

In Ní Bhraonáin’s Tae Agus Comhra (Tea and Conversation) free Wednesday evening class, the goal of getting people to speak Irish is achieved through informal conversation and song. In a recent class, Ni Bhreinnan’s father led the five students in attendance in a sean-nos, or old-style, folk sing-along.

“We talk about what we did for the week. A native Irish person knows colloquialisms that an American teacher wouldn’t necessarily know,” said Sheila Houlihan, a first-generation Irish-American, referring to classes at the Irish Arts Center that she had attended. “They all have different dialects, Hilary’s from Munster, Elaine is from Dublin, and Tomas is from Connemara.”

Houlihan is also enrolled in Intermediate Irish at Lehman College, supervised by Tomás Ó h-Íde. She was among the 20 U.S. students who participated in the newly established Irish Language Summer Study Award scheme, sponsored by the Ireland – United States Commission for Educational Exchange. The program allows American students of Irish to complete a two-week long immersion course in a Gaeltacht area of Ireland, and is yet another example of a new dialogue between academic and cultural teachings of Irish.

Ireland’s previous deputy consul general instituted the cooperation between academic and cultural institutions in Irish language teaching.

“Whether it was a ball, or a night out for dinner, he just loved being immersed in the Irish language, so he’d invite all of us various language professors, instructors, enthusiasts, and activists,” said Ni Bhreinnan. “We were given the opportunity to get to know one another and work together, which we’ve done for the last 5 years.”

The 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language, focused on promoting Irish through tools such as the internet, and by opening new schools and teaching centers, was published in December 2010 by the Irish government. According to a spokesperson from the Irish Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht, a program strategy is currently being delineated. At present, the department provides funding for Irish teaching resources at three New York campuses — Fordham University, CUNY schools including Lehman college, and NYU’s Glucksman House.

Deputy Consul General Peter Ryan said that he was grateful for the steady popularity of the Irish language amongst New Yorkers. During a recent interview, Ryan echoed many native Irish-speakers living in the city, who said they were impressed with the amount of people in New York interested in learning Irish. He added that attention should now be focused on how Irish teaching can be incorporated into sports and cultural pastimes.

“We need to turn to the Gaelic Athletics Associations,” Ryan said. “The number of people enrolled in GAA sports is just unbelievable. And according to the Fulbright report, they want to help with Irish teaching.”

 

Italian Opera 101

Last night I had my first Metropolitan Opera experience, with the wonderfully tragic La Boheme performance starring Dimitri Pittas (Rodolfo) and Hei-Kyung Hong (Mimi). The set design surpassed by far that of any production I’ve seen so far. None other than the genius Franco Zeffirelli was in charge of both the set design and production.

Act II was particularly breathtaking, but Act III did it for me, with faux snowfall, beautiful lighting, and all-black costumes to highlight the emotional affliction Mimi and Rodolfo face.

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I’ve been to the opera in Berlin and in Dublin, and I’ve enjoyed ballet performances in Belgrade, London, and even at the Sydney Opera House. But getting dolled up, drinking champagne, and enjoying the beauty of the Met was something new and I’m now wholly in love with the opera.

An earlier staging of La Boheme in the Met, starring the great Pavarotti as Rodolfo:

ITALIAN OPERA

Opera was born in the early 1500s in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Dafne by Jacopo Peri, written in 1597 is the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical Greek Drama, and like all operas at the time, it was confined to court performances. In Venice in 1637, the idea of  opera “seasons”, attended by the public and supported by ticket sales, emerged. In early Baroque operas, the opera seria tradition reigned supreme, which borrowed elements from comedia dell’arte, and incorporated a highly stylized approach.

Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo is the oldest opera still running:

During the 1750s and 1760s,opera composer Christoph W.R. von Gluck, inspired by art critic Francesco Algarotti’s Essay on the Opera (1754), initiated a reform in opera convention, fueled by the idea of ‘beautiful simplicity’. In the early 19th century, the bel canto opera movement flourished, foregrounding versatility of tone. For example, Bellini’s operas exemplify the bel canto tradition.

 

In the mid-19th century, composer Giuseppe Verdi launched a new, more direct opera style. Beginning with his biblical opera Nabucco, the operas expressed a growing patriotism that followed from the fall if Napoleon. Verdi’s three most famous operas, Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata, were produced in the early 1850s.

Verdi’s signature style was succeeded in the 20th century by the melodrama of verismo, exemplified by composers such as Giacomo Puccini, whose work includes La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, and Tosca.

Other notable 20th century Italian opera composers include Luciano Berio, Lorenzo Ferrero, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Luigi Dallapiccola, Luigi Nono, and Sylvano Bussotti Salvatore Sciarrino.

More on (Italian) opera here and there. 

I know it’s French, but I have to link Carmen, one of my absolute favorite arias. Callas vs Jenkins

And some more I like….

9/11 Memorial

We went on a class trip to the 9/11 Memorial recently.

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I’m not a New Yorker and I’ve never seen the Towers, so coming to the site, for me, may not have been as overwhelming as for many of the 8 million who lost someone, or knew of someone, who perished there 10 years ago. On one hand, it was less devastating than memorials like concentration camps, since Ground Zero was both preserved and revamped. On the other hand, the feeling of treading on sacred, seminal ground was undeniable.

The holes honored and reminded of the void the attacks instilled, but the erected museum mirrored the construction work happening around it. The site signals hope as well as loss. Some think it sterile, lacking in emotion or the human connection. Almost as if non-New Yorkers cannot really comprehend the loss, given the buzz of the financial district within which it is walled. I disagree.

A woman placed a white sheet of paper over one of the 2,983 names of victims engraved around the gaping hole. She traced it with a black charcoal pencil.

A single red rose rested on top of another of the 2,983 names.

A family searched for a name out of the 2,983 listed.

Some were just tourists, taking pictures, trying to comprehend it all. But many masks gave way to grief.

The sound of the waterfall and the weight of the pools pulled me down, weighed on my own past grief.

Something was so…honest. It wasn’t trying to be fancy, despite the modern museum building. It was a piece in the puzzle of rebuilding that America has been undergoing since it was struck with that harrowing blow on 9/11 ten years ago.

 

Sex & the City (Park)

Before they were evicted, hos some protestors kept warm in Zuccotti Park.

By Ines, Olivia, Jackie. #putyourhandsin

-As seen on the New York Torch