Quote
“To be accepted in this country … was like receiving a gift. … I hear my father saying, ‘Now you have the right to be here, you don’t have to worry.’”
— Rwandan genocide survivor and peace advocate Immaculee Ilibagiza, who became a U.S. citizen April 17 in New York City. During the 1994 genocide, Ilibagiza was sent by her father to hide with a member of another tribe; the then-college student spent 91 days in a bathroom to avoid being killed. (Catholic News Service)
Profile
Kurt Meyer
Youth minister, St. Philomena Church, Honolulu
- Favorite Scripture: I honestly can’t choose just one. Collectively they work much better.
- Saint: The Apostle Simon Peter or Saint Peter — through all his faults and imperfections, Jesus still chose him as the “rock.”
- Church song: “How Great Thou Art”
- Latest iPod download: Mark my words, I’m the last person under 50 who doesn’t own an iPod. I just don’t have 5,000 favorite songs!
- Five fantasy dinner guests: The Holy Family, myself, George Burns — just think about it.
- Best church: The Roman Catholic Church! (Best parish: St. Philomena in Salt Lake)
- Potato or mac salad: You can only be satisfied with a combo potato-mac salad.
- Tattoo: Nope, God made me perfect already!
Saints 35 and under
Blessed visions
Life was never easy for St. Bernadette Soubirous. The girl from Lourdes, France, was born into a poor family in 1844, suffered from poor health and, while a devout child, was described as a “dull” student who by age 14 had not even made her First Holy Communion.
And yet in 1858, Bernadette was chosen to receive apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who appeared to her 18 times between Feb. 11 and July 16. The town of Lourdes became a popular Marian shrine, and per the Blessed Mother’s instruction, a chapel was built on the site of the apparitions — there, people bathed in and drank the water from a well that had sprung up from the spot where Bernadette was told to dig.
Hounded by publicity, Bernadette found refuge in a convent and later entered the Sisters of Notre Dame. Her poor health persisted, however, and she died in 1879. She was canonized in 1933. (americancatholic.org)