Tiny Tim journeys to the USA

The Family Doyle, thinking I might be a bit lonely out here in DC despatched a teddy bear for me! Tiny Tim, my new travelling companion, really is very tiny! He arrived yesterday and, hungry after his long trip, I took Tiny Tim out for dinner. This photo shows Tiny Tim next to Massive Pizza - which makes Tiny Tim like even tinier than he really is!

Then Tiny Tim wanted to see the Basilica...



And here's the passport photo of Tiny Tim!

The Washington DC Atmosphere

Washington DC is a planned city, so one of the first things that strikes you is that the streets are very long, and the buildings are not very high. No building is allowed to be higher than the Capitol (although there is at least one exception in the Post Office Building). Thus since most of Washington DC consists of long streets and a lot of my time in Washington DC has consisted in walking around these streets, to give an idea of the atmosphere here, the following are some photos showing a rather distinctive American architectural flavour and the wide roads!

I took this photo at night - in the foreground is an American flag. The sky really was that colour - I have no photo editing software over here anyway, so I wouldn't be able to edit the photo even if I wanted to - honest guv'!

DC is served by an excellent underground service, called the Metro. The trains are air conditioned, and it's fairly easy and cheap to use. As you take the escalator out of the station it's always a bit of an adventure as to what you'll see.

If the Metro system is the arteries and veins going in and out of the city and the people working in Washington DC are the life-blood, then Starbucks is like the pancreas - storing and replenishing the cells! The following is a photo taken from the first floor of a Starbucks. Coffee is about half the price of back in England and you can buy an big iced tea for one pound.

In bucks, workers meet and discuss, gossip or formulate ideas and plans...

And a post about DC wouldn't be complete without a photo of a Maccy D's! Since bumping into Fr Pavone in McDonalds (see previous post) I make sure I keep an eye out for anyone important in there!

And a photo taken from a car looking at the Capitol.

And here's the White House at night. It's all lit up and rather pretty.

An ever-so-slightly-disjointed-introductory-post to my Washington DC photos

The following is a long and convoluted lead up and introduction to some of my photos of Washington DC.

Shortly after the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the BBC (in true BBC fashion) interviewed a bunch of dissenting Catholics [ aka "commentators and theologians"] asking their views on the recently elected Holy Father. It was anything goes as long as it didn't compliment the Church. However, to get Hans Kung [dissenting theologian], Leonardo Boff [liberation theologian] and Lavinia Byrne [disciplined ex-nun pro women priests etc] into the same interview the BBC really had to be making a rather ridiculous clearly biased effort to select their "commentators and theologians" so that they'd be saying unorthodox things.

Twelve months later, the BBC did a follow up on their website, asking Lavinia Byrne her impressions of Benedict XVI one year on. She was asked whether because the Holy Father was travelling less than his predecessor, "media interest would start to wane?". She replied:

"I do not think he is a traveller, and that does have an impact on the Church,"

"If the pope stays at home, you need to have state-of-the-art telecommunications, and you must have a really good website.

"The Vatican's website needs to carry daily updates, list contact details, and provide pictures of the people who run the departments - even their holiday snaps."

To think that by putting some photos on the Vatican website of a couple of Cardinals playing tennis whilst on holiday, people will drop everything, and make sure they arrive early to Mass seems rather out of touch to me.

Here ends my introduction to my photos of Washington DC...

...

...

well there's a vague connection between the above and my photos!

Guess who I saw today!

So there I am in downtown Washington DC in need of the loo.

As one does, I decided to pop into McDonalds. On the way out I see a guy from behind eating his bigmac and fries with a black clerical shirt on. Oh that must be a priest, I wonder if he's from Catholic U or the Dominican House of Studies I thought.

I couldn't believe it, but as I see him from the front, the guy is the spitting image of Fr Frank Pavone!

"Fr Frank Pavone??" I asked cautiously. "Yup!"

We had a nice chat, and I told him I was studying bioethics here in Washington DC. Washington DC is seriously cool!


Fr Frank's bio is here on the Priests for Life website.

Some Clarification....

I thought I would put up this map to show where abouts I am at the moment. On the map you can see the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, part of the campus of the Catholic university of America, a Diocesan seminary and the Dominican House of Studies! This is a very Catholic area! I really should put some photos up of the area so will have to devote some time to that.


View Larger Map

Chapel of Our Lady of Brezje

This is one of my favorite (note american spelling!) chapels in the Basilica. It is located in the crypt and is dedicated to our Lady of Brezje, in Slovenia and was a gift from the Slovenian Bishops. Brezje was the site of many miracles.

The text on the mensa of the Botticino marble altar translates: "Mary Help of Christians of Brezje, pray for us." Inlayed into the predella is the date of Prince Gorazd's baptism, 745 A.D., which marked the advent of the Christianity in Slovenia. On the left wall are the famous words of Bishop Anton Slomsek (1800-1862): "Let the holy faith be your light, and your mother tongue the key to a national culture which will show you the way to salvation."

On the right wall is a quotation from Bishop Frederic Baraga (1797-1868): "This is all I desire: to be where God wants me to be." - aaahh -a man after my own heart! I actually find these words a rather profound yet simple prayer (perhaps really a plea) to our Lord.

Prayer to Our Lady of Brezje
Mary, Help of Christians,
you show us how to be Christian,
how to "hear the word of God and keep it" (Luke 11:28).
Help us to respond to God as you did,
that His power work in us,
that the Spirit form Christ in us,
and that His mind, His heart, His will be ours.
We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

How To Preach Like A Deacon (and my ramblings on the permanent diaconate!)

I do not think I have ever heard a deacon give a sermon, or at least if I have I do not remember it... which might not be such a bad thing, as at least it wasn't memorably bad. But the reputation of the preaching of permanent deacons is unfortunate.

DadWithNoisyKids did hear a very weak sermon given by a permanent deacon and has written a rather astute and comic post about it, called How To Preach Like A Deacon.

Personally I am in favor of the permanent diaconate. Over here in the USA there are a handful of deacons who are third order Dominicans, and thus focus particularly on learning to preach effectively. This could be a great asset to a parish, helping to relieve the parish priest from preaching.

Perhaps, as a new generation of permanent deacons of the caliber of Laurence Hemming and Alcuin Reid, begin to come through who are not of the previous baby boomer generation, the orthodoxy and purpose of the permanent diaconate might improve too.

To conclude my speculations on the permanent diaconate I might point to the fact that permanent deacons can "function as deacons in the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal" (see here for reference).

The future of the permanent diaconate could really be rather promising. In the meantime though, sermons such as the one heard by DadWithNoisyKids might be somewhat the norm!

Chapel dedicated to Pope Saint Pius X

I have a busy timetable here, hence I haven't updated for a few days - more on that some other time. I feel it would be a great privilege for me to be able to post some photos of Washington DC, in particular of the Catholic sites, in order to share with those reading some of the enormous opportunity I have been blessed with in being here.

Here are some photos of one of the side chapels, dedicated to Pope St Pius X, in the crypt of The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The Basilica is set on the grounds of the Catholic University of America. More on Catholic U later!

That's a relic of St Pius X in the altar. The altar has a white stone in each corner depicting aspects of St Pius X's life. The one in the top right represents St Pius X's fight against modernism: It shows a ship (representing the church) on stormy waters, being guided by the Holy Spirit.

This is a stunning statue of St Pius X. I took this photo by placing my camera against a marble column, hence the statue is reflected in the marble.

The Basilica by night

So the truth is that I am in ... Washington DC. What am I doing here? It's a bit complicated so I might come onto that in another post. While I figure out how to explain my visit over the blog, here are some photos of the interesting sites around here.

As I said in my previous post, I have no photo-editing software and I am without my preferred SLR camera - I just have a little digital camera instead. So here are some photos of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception - the biggest church in the USA - at night time.

Where's Joee?

When I was little, we used to have these books called 'Where's Wolly?'. They were cartoon books with Wolly in the picture somewhere hidden amongst other cartoon characters and you had to find him. Similar to that, but with a spiritual incentive, I'll pray a decade for the first correct answer as to where abouts in the world I am at the moment, and a Hail Mary for any guess.

Here's a clue - a few photos I've taken of around here - in fact across the road. Unfortunately there's no photo-editing software on these computers but I will upload more photos shortly.