Jeffrey Miller

A reader sent me the following story:

Vatican City, 13 Dec. (AKI) – After a one day delay, due to a complex journey from southern Italy, a massive fir from the southern Italian region of Calabria has been hoisted into place in St Peter’s Square as the official Vatican Christmas tree. The 33-metre high white fir, a gift from the Calabrian regional government, is one of the biggest trees in the history of Vatican Christmas celebrations. Transporting the nine-tonne fir, whose trunk is nearly three metres in circumference, was no easy task. The pine stands in the middle of St Peters Square alongside a larger-than-life-size Nativity scene.

The tree, chosen from the Massicio del Garaglione Forest had to be carried down the steep mountain valley with a powerful Forest Rangers helicopter, before being loaded onto a long haul truck and carried by road to Rome. The tree took up most of the width of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway, where it was escorted by the forestry commission, the civil protection unit and motorway staff.

The pine procession caused intense congestion along the already difficult highway, forcing the convoy to halt regularly and allow other vehicles past. A trip which a car could cover comfortably in eight hours took a record 53 hours.

The late Pope John Paul II introduced the first Christmas tree to St Peter’s Square in 1982, four years after assuming the papacy. Each year, the tree comes from a different European country or region of Italy. Last year’s tree came from the Austrian town of Eferding.

The massive tree in the square this Christmas is not the only gift from Calabria. Another 29 pines of varying dimensions have been placed around Vatican City including one in the private apartment of Pope Benedict XVI.

That is rather interesting that it has been such a short time that the Vatican has had a Christmas Tree.

TRENTON, N.J. (BP)–A New Jersey school district violated the constitutional rights of a second grade student last year when it prevented her from performing the song "Awesome God" at a talent show, a federal district judge ruled Dec. 11.

The girl, known only as "O.T." in the lawsuit, was prevented from singing the popular contemporary Christian song at the Frenchtown (N.J.) Elementary School after-school program when the district attorney and school superintendent said the song’s religious content was inappropriate for the event. Previous talent shows had included students singing songs by Nirvana, Bon Jovi and Stevie Nicks.

Allowing "Awesome God" into the program — known as "Frenchtown Idol" — would have violated the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against government establishment of religion, the attorney asserted. But U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson disagreed, saying the school’s action amounted to viewpoint discrimination and violated the girl’s First Amendment rights.

In this day of euphemisms, maybe instead of using the word God they could say instead my significant wholly other.

Roman Catholic nuns in Poland who mounted an occupation of their convent in a protest against the appointment of a new mother superior are refusing to leave the building, despite being expelled from their order by the Vatican – writes Jonathan Luxmoore for Ecumenical News International.

The dispute erupted in August 2005 at the Kazimierz mother-house of the Sisters of the Family of Bethany, when the superior, Mother Jadwiga Ligocka, was dismissed by a Vatican delegate but she occupied the convent with other nuns.

"Let us pray for these lacerated, lost and highly strung sisters," Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin told Poland’s Catholic information agency KAI on 6 December 2006. "There are no private religious orders in the Catholic Church where everyone can set their own rules."

Under a decree from the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, dated 28 October, the nuns were expelled from the order, which was founded in 1930 and has about 100 members.

Somehow I don’t think "Let us pray for these lacerated, lost and highly strung sisters," came across very well in translation from Polish.

HIGHLAND | Sister Evelyn Brokish, a Catholic nun for nearly 50 years, speaks with such spirited eloquence that she left town and chamber officials momentarily stunned when she told them she had a message.

"All of a sudden it was so silent, it was if they’d stopped breathing," said Brokish.

"I told them I thought every highway, boulevard, street, avenue, lane, and dog trail should have a huge billboard that would say ‘Welcome to Highland: Home of the ChocoNutty Trio.’

"I developed it in Highland, started the trademark in Highland, manufacture it in Highland and it’s being sold in Highland. I said it half jokingly but half seriously. I think it’s a possibility. After all, look at Hershey, Pennsylvania."

In October, Brokish, 69, a Wisconsin native who moved here 15 years ago, opened her own candy business, Poverello Delights. Her ChocoNutty Trio, a peanut butter cup, soon will become a registered trademark.

She is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi congregation in Milwaukee. The name Poverello comes from the word poverty and has Franciscan origins. Saint Francis was the "Poverello," or the "little poor person."

Brokish is also a freelance church musician who plays throughout Northwest Indiana. Many of her candy creations have musical titles such as Soft Chew Duo and Fudge Variations.