Champaign-Urbana Deaf Catholic Ministry

Group Picture at the Vatican

Here is a picture of the group in front of St. Peter's at the Vatican.  Click on the small picture to see a bigger version. 

Text of Papal Audience Address

Follow the link below to see the written text from the Papal Audience that we attended - check out the greetings he gives to the pilgrims at the end! 

http://www.zenit.org/article-23016?l=english

Hat tip:  Father Mulcrone at http://blog.deafchurchchicago.org

Home - Last Thoughts

Everyone is now home from our pilgrimage to Rome.   Half of our group had to get up at 3 AM Rome time on Friday.  Why?  Some people in our group had to leave on a flight at 6:30 am!  Other people had flights at about 9:30, others had flights at 1:30 pm.  Since we had only two busses, the groups that had flights at 6:30 and 9:30 took one bus, the group at 1:30 pm had the other bus (and were able to sleep later!)  The hotel was nice enough to put out breakfast at 3:30 am for those on the early bus - it included croissants, jam, cereal, milk, and coffee.  Everyone arrived home safe and sound, some later than others.

I thought I would write a little bit about some differences in Europe compared to the US. 

1.  The most important difference is that our money does not go very far in Europe.  Why?  It takes $1.50 to buy 1 Euro.  This means that when we shop, if you see a price in Euros, you have to MULTIPLY by about 1.50 or even 1.60 to get the price in dollars.  When I was in Europe in 1989 in Germany, we would see a price in German marks (before the Euro) and be able to DIVIDE by 2 to get the price in dollars.  Things are expensive in Europe!

2.  Gas in Europe is almost $10 per gallon.  We complain a lot about gas prices here, and we have the right to complain, but they pay a lot more in Europe.  However, people in Europe use busses and trains and WALK a lot more than Americans do.  In many of the smaller towns, people live close to where they work and walk to work and home. 

3.  Hotels work very hard to save energy.  When you check in, you often receive a key card.  After you open the door, electricity comes on in your room for about 2 minutes.  To keep the electricity on, you have to put your key card in a slot in the wall.  It's a pretty smart way to make sure that people don't leaave their lights on all day!  Air conditioning is also not always available.  At our hotel in Rome, the AC was shut off between midnight and 8 am.  The theory was if you were hot, it was cool outside and you can open a window.  (There are no screens, though, so you would also get the flies and the bugs!)

4.  Public toilets are often hard to find, especially in Italy, and you often have to pay to use them.  There is often an attendant to clean them and you "tip" the attendant the equivalent of about 30 cents American.  On the other hand, it's very easy to find places that sell water, which is good when you have temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more!

5.  Milk, OJ, and eggs are not sold refrigerated in the grocery stores.  Milk is sold in about quart (liter) containers that seem to be sort of cardboard, but have some plastic.  They are sold on the shelf much like juice boxes or other similar things in America.  After they are opened, they need to be refrigerated but they are not refrigerated in the store.  It's kind of strange to see, really.

6.  When crossing the street, you need to use the crosswalks, but they are not always respected in Italy!  You need to look for traffic, but as you are walking across, you need to walk quickly and not look at traffic.  It is understood that if you look at the driver, then you know they are there and they will not stop.  It takes a little getting used to but it's necessary to do.

7.  All of the coins in Italy have their value in numbers on the back, whether it's 1 or 2 Euros, 50, 20 or 10 cents.  It's very nice for tourists who don't know one from the other.  Our US money isn't like that, and I wonder what tourists think about that when they come to visit us.  For example, our dime (10 cents) says "one dime" on the back, but if you don't know a dime equals 10 cents, you don't really know how much money it is. 

8.  Paper money in Euros starts at 5 euros.  There are 1 and 2 Euro coins, which are actually preferred by people.  I would often receive 2 and 1 Euro coins when change was 5 or 7 Euros simply because people preferred using the coins to the paper.  You can tell the difference between the 1 and 2 Euro coins by the color of the outside ring of the coin.  1 Euro has a gold circle, while the 2 Euro has a silver circle.

9.  Diet Coke is called "Coca-Cola Light" in Europe.  Coke is known more as Coca-Cola. They do also have Coke Zero there.  "Coca-Coca Light" actually tastes a little sweeter than Diet Coke, maybe they use a little different recipe???

There are other differences but I think these are the most important. The last few days, I was asking people what their favorite part of the tour was.  A lot of people said it was the whole experience, meeting new people, new cultures, seeing many many new things.  Others said their favorite was Padua because they felt very close to St. Anthony.  Other people enjoyed Assisi because of the beautiful countryside atmosphere and St. Francis.  Still other people enjoyed visiting the catacombs.  Two people said their favorite moment was seeing 1,400 Deaf people in St. Peter's Square or in St. Peter's Basilica, participating in truly historic and remarkable events.  My personal favorites were the catacombs for their sheer inspiration, realizing how so many people had died for their faith.

However, the moment that touched me the most was the moment that I saw a beautiful, simple, humble crucifix in a chapel behind the Papal chapel in the Holy Staircase building.  It had some very dramatic lighting but was just so beautiful in its simplicity it struck me and I had to spend several moments just sitting in awe and praying in front of it.

   

Seeing the Pope and all the people were, of course, very beautiful and exciting moments but this one moment of seeing Jesus Christ on the cross just struck me very powerfully.  I will always give thanks for this trip and thank everyone for their prayers and constant watch over everyone while we were gone.  We felt all the prayers and knew everyone was with us. 

   

Our Last Day???

It's hard to believe today is our last full day in Rome.  It's been such an unbelievable trip.  While it's been incredibly hot, the faith of the people and the cooperation of everyone has been wonderful to see.

We started the day with a group gift for Father Joe.  Two members of our group found a wonderful statue of Jesus the Good Shepherd in a store in the Vatican and we all contributed toward its cost.  Father Joe was quite surprised and I think a little embarrassed but was very nice.  We then received our ticket for the Mass at the Vatican this morning.  We got on our bus and when we got to St. Peter's, we again had crowds of Deaf coming from all over the world.  We had a quick group picture taken in front of St. Peter's.  We went through security again and then were in St. Peter's Basilica!  Wow - what a sight to see, so many Deaf from so many different countries!  Once we got in and were able to get everyone situated, I was in about the third row of pews and had a great view of things.  Other members of our group were not so lucky and could not see very well.  We had 1,240 Deaf people at the Throne of St. Peter to celebrate Mass.  What an inspiring sight! 

During the opening procession, priests from all the groups processed up in red robes and then we had Archbishop Kelly - and Deacon Ralph Hinch from Chicago!  He received the honor of serving during the Mass!  What a great honor for those from Chicago - and for Ralph!   

The readings were Signed and spoken in different languages.  Irish Sign Language was spoken in English, others were spoken in their native languages.  Luckily, the interpreters had English translations for everything!  Archbishop Kelly spoke his homily in English and had wonderful words of inspiration for us from the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul.  They were told to choose:  be silent about Jesus, or be killed.  They were strong in their faith and refused to be silent, and were killed for it.  We, too, have to be courageous and refuse to give up in teaching the Deaf about God and God's love for everyone.  What a great homily!  At the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, when the Archbishop said "Through Him (Jesus), with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever" and we all said "Amen" - I had chills up my spine!  It was just so awesome.  We then Signed the Our Father together as they sang it in Latin, and then communion time came.  There was one group (we think from Spain and Italy) that just surged forward in a big group towards communion instead of forming lines like Americans do - it really surprised us!  It did not take long for communion because we had a lot of priests to help out with distributing communion.  After communion - another big honor from Chicago!  We were one of four groups who had Deaf choirs signing after communion!  We all Signed the same song - "Lord, when you came to the seashore".  It's a beautiful song - and everyone said that Chicago's group was the best!  What a great honor for our leader Virginia Hinch and all of the people who were part of the choir!  I was one of them and it was really very inspiring to be a part of it.

After Mass, we assembled outside the Vatican for our bus ride to the Sanctuary of Divino Amore for lunch.  After lunch, the best part began - the party!  We had hundreds of Deaf together learning about each other, it was great.  I had two Welsh people at my table and we had great fun comparing Welsh Sign Language to ASL.  Since Welsh SL is based on British SL, there are some big differences from ASL but there are also things that are the same.  I also met people from Puerto Rico, Spain, Italy, Mexico, and Germany.  There were also Americans from Indianapolis there.  After awhile, I needed some peace so I went up to the church.  This website has some information about this fascinating church. 

http://www.santuariodivinoamore.it/en.html

They have a very beautiful modern church - and then they have also preserved the older church very nicely.  Everything is quite peaceful and since it is located outside the city it's rural so there's a lot of farmland as well.  It was very nice to see that.

We are now back at the hotel and are packing for our plane rides home tomorrow.  One group is leaving the hotel at 4:15 AM!  Their plane flights leave early, and the other group leaves the hotel about 9:30 am.  We will be sleeping a lot on the plane!  I will have one final post once I'm home with some final thoughts on the trip.  Thanks again to everyone for all of the prayers for us.  Even with the big heat we never lost anyone to heatstroke or any problems like that, and I know your prayers helped with that.  Pray for our safe travels tomorrow!

As the Italians say - "Ciao!" 

WOW - What an Amazing Day!

This day was so amazing.  Three years of planning went into this day and we were very excited to get started.  We received two things this morning:  a green bandana with the ICF logo on it and a new name card tag.  We will be wearing both for the next two days.  We then set off for St. Peter's at about 7:30 am and got there about 8 am.  It was so amazing to see other groups of Deaf people with their green bandanas and name tags from other countries gathering near the security checkpoint. 

Once our guide figured out where we were supposed to go, we started lining up for the security checkpoint.  They set up metal detectors for the papal audiences to make sure you only bring safe things in.  Once we passed through there, we went on to the seats they had set up for us - and I had a FRONT ROW seat!  How awesome!  A woman next to me from Wisconsin was celebrating her birthday today - what an awesome birthday present!  The Pope doesn't come out until 10:30 so we had to wait awhile, of course.  The weather was again very hot and there was some breeze but not much, so I was glad I had brought water.

While we were waiting, a Deaf woman from Italy came up asking how to Sign various cities and states in the US, like New York, LA, Maine (!).  She very carefully wrote down how to do each Sign.  After we did that, we asked her to teach us the Italian signs for various cities like Milan, Rome, Venice, Pisa, etc.  Interesting - the Sign for Rome in Italy is the same as the Sign for "name" in ASL!  I hope that doesn't confuse me too much tomorrow at the social.

At 10:30, the Pope came out in the Popemobile and came around in front of us - very inspiring!  I hope my video turns out OK.  He drove around the square and then headed up to the special sitting area for him at the front in front of St. Peter's.  It was interesting how they worked out interpreters, they had interpreters for England, Italy, Germany, USA and one other country up in front and the TV screen would show them in a small picture on the same screen as the big picture that showed the Holy Father.  Each country would interpret when the Pope or someone spoke in their language.  After a couple readings and the Pope's prepared remarks, there were intentions and prayers for the pilgrims around the square in various languages.  It took awhile, and at the end we all stood and prayed the Our Father together and the Pope blessed us all.  Very inspiring! 

The papal audience finished at noon, we had about an hours' time to eat lunch or shop or whatever, then we met at 1:15 to go meet our bus.  Once we got the group together and all went to the bus, we arrived at the meeting point and the bus wasn't there!!!  We waited a bit and then finally the busses arrived.  One group went back to the hotel, another smaller group went to the Conference for Pastoral Workers.  At that conference, representatives from various countries involved in ICF talked about their country's Deaf ministry and the challenges of Deaf ministry in their countries.  Many of them talked about oral emphasis still and how the Deaf still feel isolated.  We are not alone in the US with our struggle to get resources and funding to help us learn about Christ.

Brian Switek from Chicago, ICDA Vice President, was also explaining to the Puerto Rican people about ICDA and how to join.  They were all very enthusiastic about meeting Brian, as this picture shows!

Once we returned from the conference at 7 pm, we were able to go out to dinner or shop or whatever.  Tomorrow is another exciting day - Mass in St. Peter's in the morning and then the Deaf Social in the afternoon.  I don't think anyone will have problems sleeping on the plane on Friday!

Thank you so much for the prayers of everyone, we really do feel them here and we do try to remember you while we have Mass. 

Roma - Day Two

Wow - what a fantastic day in Rome!  It was another HOT day with really no clouds so we drank water as much as we could and stayed in the shade as much as we could. 

We got on our bus near the hotel and started off.   We drove by the Roman Forum, which was built on the site of a past cemetery.  It was the center of commerce and justice so this was where you came if you had something to buy or were a criminal and were tried.  We then drove past the Circus Maximus, which is where the chariot races were held in Roman times.  You can still see a track around it today -people jog around it!  Above the Circus Maximus is the home of Ceasar Augustus.  It is still impressive 2000 years later.

We got off at the Colosseum, which is of course the site of the famous gladiator fights and where Christians were martyred by being thrown to the lions.  There is actually a cross erected on the floor of the Colosseum to honor those martyrs.  It was a very inspiring site to see - and to really see how great architects the Romans were.  They used lighter materials at the top so it wasn't so heavy it would collapse on itself.

After the Colosseum we went back to the bus for a bit and then went to the Spanish Steps.  They are called that because they are located near the Spanish Embassy.  However, as our guide says, they were "an Italian idea"!  From the Spanish steps, we walked to the Pantheon, which was a place to gather statues to honor various Roman gods and goddesses.  We now use it to honor various saints.  Raphael is buried in the Pantheon, which is something I did not know before.  We had lunch around the Pantheon, which was very nice.  A lot of people had pizza from various pizzerias.  The pizza here is very thin crust with very little cheese but very very good!  Of course, we also had to have some gelato (ice cream) too!

After the Pantheon, we walked to our bus and then went to the Basilica of St. John in Lateran.  It is called in Lateran because the Lateran family used to own the grounds on which it stands.  (Sometimes it's nice to be rich!)  Inside the cathederal is a bird with olive branch, the symbol of another family that paid to help renovate the Basilica later.  The Basilica itself is quite beautiful and has a lot of beautiful paintings.  It also has an organ that was built in the 16th century - and still works! 

Across from St John Lateran is a building that houses the Holy Staircase.  A medieval tradition says that the Empress Helena in 334 AD had Pilate send the stairway that Jesus had climbed several days during the day he was sentenced to death to Rome.  Therefore, it is called the Holy Staircase or Pilate's Staircase.  If this was requested in 334 AD it would have been hard for Pontius Pilate to send it since he would have been dead but it is a very nice tradition.  Many pilgrims come from around the world and climb its 23 steps on their knees.  At the top of the staircase is the papal chapel.  This was all restored by Pius the 9th.  What was very inspiring to me was another chapel kind of behind where the Papal chapel is where there is a beautiful crucifix.  It was so humble and moving to see, I spent a few minutes praying in front of it.

After St John Lateran we went to the last of the 4 Papal Basilicas, St Mary Major.  The 4 Papal Basilicas are St. Mary Major, St John Lateran, St Paul Outside the Walls and St Peter's.  St Mary Major is dedicated, of course, to the Virgin Mary.  Its Holy Door is very beautiful.  Inside are a number of mosaics and paintings that show the life of the Virgin Mary.  It houses a gorgeous relic underneath its altar that is a piece of wood from the Baby Jesus' manger.  As a result, Christmas is a big festival at this church! In front of the relic is a beautiful statue of Pius the 9th, who commissioned the church. 

After St Mary Major, we headed back to the hotel for some free time before dinner near the hotel.  Tomorrow is the start of the BIG EVENT - the papal audience!!!  We are very, very excited about this and we have already started to see groups of Deaf from other countries.  We have seen Deaf from Slovakia (at Assisi), England, Germany, and Italy.  It is so exciting to see groups of Deaf and meet them.  Tomorrow we are expecting 1300 Deaf people in ST Peter's square!  Awesome!!!

More later!

Christian Roma

Today we focused on Christian Rome.  We started at the Vatican Museums and toured the Sistine Chapel on our way to St. Peters Basilica.  We saw Michelangelo's famous statue of the Pieta in St Peter's Basilica.  Today we had something very special - DEAF tour guides!  We had one tour guide who was Italian who spoke to us in Italian Sign Language, then another tour guide translated for us to ASL.  It was interesting to see that Italian Sign Language is very similar to ASL in many ways.  There are differences, of course, but I think we could have a conversation with Italian Deaf very easily.

Anyway, our guide stayed with us for lunch and then we had a very quick shopping break.  We then boarded our bus to head to St. Cecilia's Catacombs.  What an inspiring thing to go through - and a welcome break from the 108 degree heat in Rome today!  It is a constant 50 degrees in the catacombs - much nicer!  We saw a room where 9 Popes have been buried, and also saw St. Cecilia's tomb.  Her body has been moved to another church, but there is a statue there that shows how her body was found.  One hand holds up 3 fingers while the other holds up 1, showing her belief in the Trinity (3 persons, 1 God).  It was very inspiring to go through the catacombs. 

After the catacombs we went to the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls.  It is one of the Vatican Basilicas and is where St. Paul is buried.  It also has pictures of every Pope from the 2nd (St Peter is represented as a Palm Tree) to the current Benedict XVI.  Very interesting to see - there is room for about 16 more Popes then they will have to figure something out!  We had Mass at this Basilica in a room dedicated to St. Stephen.  We celebrated a Mass in honor of St. Paul where St. Paul's conversion story was read.  In his homily, Fr. Joe reminded us that God asked Paul "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  God does not ask him why he was persecuting God's people, or why he was persecuting God's church, he asked why he was persecuting GOD.  It reminds us that our troubles, our problems, our frustrations, our pains, are also God's troubles, frustrations, problems and pains.  We are never alone when we are Christians.  It was a very moving homily.

After Mass we went to the restaurant for dinner.  We had rigatoni with radacchio and cheese, plus spaghetti carbonara for a starter course, then chicken with spinach for the meat course.  Dessert was tirimasu that had a VERY strong coffee flavor - it helped wake a lot of people up!  We then walked to the Trevi fountain and took pictures of everyone throwing coins into the fountain.  Tomorrow we will try to see the Spanish Steps.

Tomorrow is also Ancient Rome - the colosseum, Roman Forum, and other sights.  Please pray that we all are able to stay hydrated and safe because it will also be very hot tomorrow.  Wednesday is our General Audience with the Pope - we are very excited!  Thursday we have Mass at the Vatican and our group has been chosen to sign a song in Sign for the group!  What an honor! 

I am not able to post pictures for the rest of the trip because our hotel does not have Internet access and I am writing these posts from an Internet point.  My card reader is not working so I will post pictures once I am home.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the stories of the trip!

Assisi - Amazing Town!

We stopped in Assisi on our way to Rome - what a great town to visit!  It honors both St. Francis and St. Clare.  We could not go into the Church of St. Clare because it was closed and hurried on to our restaurant for lunch.  After lunch we went to St. Francis' Basilica and toured the Basilica and also saw St. Anthony's tomb.  The Basilica has a number of frescoes that tell the story of Francis' life, including how he gave up all of his wealth and riches to follow Jesus.  His father was not happy about this and there is a fresco that tells that story.  There was also a famous fresco showing St. Francis with the animals.  St. Francis' tomb was very inspiring to see - people buy candles as an offering and also often leave pictures of people they are praying for there. 

We then had Mass in a chapel in the lower part of the Basilica.  Imagine - Sunday Mass at St Francis' Basilica!  However, Father Tony reminded us that Francis would probably be embarrassed and even horrified at some of the honor that we give him - he would want to make sure that we give that honor and glory to Christ.  It was a good reminder that we need to remember who we are honoring when we visit these holy sites.

After we finished at the Basilica, we had a short chance to shop then headed on to Rome.  Rome traffic is very bad but we arrived safely at our hotels and found our rooms.  We had dinner at the hotel in a very very warm restaurant - but we were grateful for the food!  We started off with vegetarian lasagna with peas in it - quite good, then chicken with carrots and potatoes, then pistachio and chocolate gelato for dessert.  Good stuff!  Tomorrow is the Vatican Museums and other Vatican treasures. 

Pisa and Florence

The hotel we are staying at does not have Internet access, so this is a double post.

Yesterday, we rode for 4 hours and arrived in Pisa.  They have a beautiful cathederal next to their most famous landmark, the leaning tower.  There is also a beautiful baptistry building next to the Cathedral.  We celebrated Mass in the Cathederal - although Father Joe and Father Tony had to do some quick thinking.  Why?  Because the altar at the side chapel is like the old altars - and didn't have space for them to stand behind the altar and Sign Mass!  Father had a very good idea - he did what he needed to do at the altar facing away from us, then faced toward us to Sign all the prayers.  Father Tony held the prayer book for him.  It all worked out fine!  We had a little time to shop in Pisa before we headed back to the bus and on to our hotel in Montecito Terme.  The hotel is very nice.  The water in the pool is very cool, unlike the pool at the other hotel, which was very warm.  The cool water feels good after a long day in the hot sun!  We had dinner tonight at the hotel - bean soup, then pork and potatoes followed by a chocolate pie. 

Today we went into beautiful Florence.  We first stopped for a group picture in front of one of the most famous bridges in Europe.  It is famous because it is quite old - and from the location of the picture you can see all of old Florence in front of you.  It was quite a beautiful picture.

We then headed into Florence and toured the Church of the Holy Cross, where both Michelangelo and Galileo are buried.  Michelangelo has 3 statues at his tomb - Galileo only has 2 because the Church would not let them put up a statue representing Galileo's philosophy.  The Church did not agree with all of his philosophy teachings.  One thing that was very interesting is that Galileo was born on the same day Michelangelo died.  There are some Italians who believe that the spirit of Michelangelo was passed onto Galileo.  Interesting!

We continued our tour and saw the government building where prisoners were tried and sentenced (a favorite building of our guides).  We also saw a wedding party taking pictures - the bride was quite beautiful.  There is a courtyard in front of the government building filled with different statues.  One is a copy of Michelangelo's David, another is of Hercules and another is of Judith.  All three are considered heroes of Florence.  We continued on to the Duomo (Cathedral).  The baptistry building next to the Duomo has some doors called the Doors to Paradise.  They are made of metal and are 3-D representations of different stories in the Bible, including the Creation, Abraham & Isaac, and others.  Very beautiful!

We then had some free time to shop, tour the Cathedral if we wanted to, and eat lunch, etc.  Once we gathered again we walked to a THIRD church, where we celebrated Mass.  It was quite hot in that church.  After Mass we had some brief confusion about where to meet our busses.  We thought we would meet them in front of the police headquarters, but there was a policewoman holding a very business-like machine gun so we changed plans! 

We took the bus back to the hotel and had a short amount of free time (a chance for another quick swim!), then dinner at a local restaurant.  It was wonderful, with pasta that tasted like stroganoff; then a choice of lamb, pork or chicken with french fries and salad; then cream puffs for dessert.  Good stuff!

Tomorrow we head to Assisi and will celebrate Sunday Mass there before heading on to Rome.  The trip is going well - continue the prayers for us! 

Venice!

Today was a wonderful day in Venice.  The sun was out and it was beautiful - and hot!  We took a ferry over to the island of Venice and toured the Court Palace, where all of the important senators and judges would meet to decide laws.  It was also where criminals would go to be convicted and sentenced.  As part of that tour we also toured the Bridge of Sighs.  It has that name because it was the last bridge prisoners would walk over before they went to prison - their last look at "freedom".  We walked over, went through the prison, and then walked back "to freedom"!  We also toured St. Mark's Basilica briefly then went to see a demonstration of glass blowing.  Venice is very famous for its glass. 

After the tour, we had some free time for lunch and then we met up for gondola rides.  The gondola rides were 40 minutes long and were very relaxing.  It was very interesting to see how the gondoliers (drivers) would use their legs to drive the gondolas as well as their paddles.  After the gondola rides, we met up with the entire group for Mass at a side chapel in St. Mark's Basilica.  It was a beautiful chapel with mosaics all along the ceiling.  We found out after Mass that the stone used for the altar comes from Syria - and is the very same stone that Jesus Christ would have walked on when he was preaching!  How inspiring! 

After Mass, we went to a restaurant in Venice for dinner.  We had a pasta/lasagna course to start, then a very good chicken course with salad, then tiramisu for dessert.  Very good food!  After dinner, we walked back to the ferry for the ride back to the bus.  It was a very tiring day but very wonderful!

Click on the photo album on the left side of the page to see some pictures from Venice!