Tag: Christianity

The cause for the canonization of a Belgian immigrant who experienced three apparitions of Mary in the Wisconsin wilderness in 1859 and dedicated her life to children’s catechesis will move forward, U.S. bishops determined June 14.

Green Bay Bishop David L. Ricken, who declared in 2010 that Adele Brise’s apparitions were worthy of belief, presented the proposal during a consultation at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Spring Plenary Assembly June 12-14 in Louisville. Brise’s apparitions are the only U.S. Marian apparitions declared “worthy of belief.”

“The virtuous life and sanctity of Adele still has relevance to people today, first of all her simple obedience,” Bishop Ricken said June 14. “Adele demonstrated heroic obedience to her family, to her parish priest, to the bishop, to Our Lady and ultimately to Our Lord and his will for her. Her obedience was often accomplished by great acts of faith.” Brise also exemplifies freedom from idleness and a model for catechesis and the new evangelization, Bishop Ricken said.

Before a cause is opened, church law requires diocesan bishops to consult with the Christian faithful, the Holy See and other bishops. The June 14 vote, which passed with a unanimous voice vote, fulfills the latter condition.

Brise was 28 when the apparitions occurred some 18 miles northeast of Green Bay. The first took place while she was walking to a gristmill to grind grain. The last two took place a few days later while she was walking on the way to and from Sunday Mass.

Bishop Ricken felt compelled to explore the woman’s canonization after noticing visitors at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, which honors Mary and commemorates the apparitions, praying at Brise’s grave, he told OSV News in May. He said the shrine’s visitors often ask if Brise’s cause for canonization is underway, noting that she has inspired their own faith.

According to historical accounts, the Blessed Mother was silent during Brise’s first two encounters with her, and Briese wondered if the woman dressed in dazzling white was a ghost. On the third encounter, after seeking advice from a priest, she fell to her knees and asked, “In God’s name, who are you, and what do you want of me?”

The lady identified herself as “the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same.” Her request for Brise was twofold: “Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners,” and “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and how to approach the sacraments.”

Brise did as she was instructed. As a girl still in Belgium, she had promised Mary that she would become a teaching religious sister, but she was unsure of how to fulfill that promise after she accompanied her family when they immigrated to America. After the apparitions, she traveled as far as 50 miles from her home to teach children, exchanging household chores for time to instruct them. Eventually, other women joined her, and the area’s Catholics built them a convent, school and larger chapel. An inscription seeking the intercession of Our Lady of Good Help was placed over the chapel door, and the eventual shrine was known as the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help until it became the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in 2023.

Twelve years after the apparitions, the Great Peshtigo Fire — which still holds the record for the most devastating fire in U.S. history — broke out in northeastern Wisconsin Oct. 8, 1871, killing as many as 2,400 people and burning 1.2 million acres. The people near Champion fled to the chapel of Our Lady of Good Help where Brise and her companions were praying. They prayed all night, lifting a statue of Mary in the opposite direction of the smoke and flames. Eventually rain came, extinguishing the fire.

The convent, school, chapel and their surrounding five-acre grounds, which were consecrated to Mary, were saved, but everything else for miles around them had been destroyed, with char on the outside of the property’s fence. A local priest wrote at the time that the shrine’s buildings “shone like an emerald isle in a sea of ashes.”

The fire anniversary draws thousands of Catholics for an all-night prayer vigil. The following day, Oct. 9, is the date historians believe marks Mary’s final apparition to Adele.

Brise and her companions continued to catechize, inspiring the faith of the area’s Catholics. She died July 5, 1896, and is buried near the shrine chapel.

According to Bishop Ricken, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion is serving as petitioner for Adele’s cause. A postulator, who has yet to be identified, also has been selected to work with the diocese and to assemble a formal petition.

“There are many steps along the path to canonization, and a diocesan investigation and Roman phase are needed before declaring her ‘venerable.’ There is no set timeline; it’s on God’s time,” Bishop Ricken told OSV News in May.

When a sainthood cause is officially opened, the candidate receives the title “Servant of God.”

The church’s process leading to canonization involves three major steps. First is the declaration of a person’s heroic virtues, after which the church gives him or her the title Venerable. Second is beatification, after which he or she is called “Blessed.” The third step is canonization, or declaration of sainthood. In general, two miracles need to be accepted by the church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint, one for beatification and one for canonization.

According to the USCCB website, there are currently 11 American canonized saints; another four persons are beatified, while 13 have been given the title “Venerable.”

Moscow, June 18, 2024

Photo: foma.ru     

Since the start of the 200 churches program in 2010, more than twelve dozen churches have been built in Moscow, and another 200 are currently under construction.

Thus, the program has far surpassed its original goal.

Today, there about 130 completed stone churches, with the same number of parish halls with Sunday Schools, according to MP Vladimir Resin, curator of the construction program, reports Foma.

According to Resin, never before in the history of Christianity have so many churches been under construction in one city. The goal is to eventually have at least one church within walking distance of all residential areas in Moscow.

The construction program runs entirely on donations, gathered in part by a charitable foundation established specifically for this purpose.

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A federal court in Louisiana has issued a temporary injunction blocking a federal agency from enforcing an abortion provision in regulations meant to add workplace protections for pregnant workers.

In United States Conference of Catholic Bishops v. EEOC, religious groups challenged final regulations for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that grant workers protections for time off and other job accommodations for pregnancy-related medical conditions such as miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation — but also for abortion, which was opposed by many of the bill’s supporters, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Becket, a Washington-based religious liberty law firm, filed a lawsuit May 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on behalf of the USCCB, as well as The Catholic University of America and the dioceses of Lake Charles and Lafayette in Louisiana.

Laura Wolk Slavis, counsel at Becket, said in a statement, “The EEOC twisted a law protecting expecting mothers and their babies and co-opted the workplaces of over 130 million Americans to support abortion.”

“That is an abuse of power — no one should have to choose between their conscience and protecting pregnant women,” she said.

The EEOC regulations govern the implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2022. The law went into effect in June 2023 and prohibits employment practices that discriminate against making reasonable accommodations for qualified employees due to their pregnancy, childbirth “or related medical conditions.” The final regulations for the law were published in April 2024.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act legislation was supported by many Catholic groups, including the U.S. bishops’ conference, but Chieko Noguchi, USCCB spokeswoman, told OSV News May 23 that while the conference supported the law itself, the EEOC “hijacked the law,” and its regulations would, in effect, force the USCCB to “knowingly support employees as they get abortions, and it forbids us from encouraging them to choose life.”

In its temporary injunction June 17, the court found that “‘Abortion’ is a term that is readily understood by everyone.”

“If Congress had intended to mandate that employers accommodate elective abortions under the PWFA, it would have spoken clearly when enacting the statute, particularly given the enormous social, religious, and political importance of the abortion issue in our nation,” the court found, adding the legislative record “unambiguously confirms that Congress specifically did not intend for the PWFA to require employers to accommodate abortion.”

The court added EEOC may be making “semantic gymnastics” and “disingenuous” legal arguments in a “textbook case of a federal administrative agency exceeding its statutory authority in a way that both usurps the role of Congress and violates authority vested in the states under the principles of federalism.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wolk Slavis added in her statement that “banning employers nationwide from affirming life is unacceptable and unlawful.”

“This ruling is an important step in ensuring that American workplaces can be free to continue serving their communities consistent with their beliefs,” she said.

The federal government has 60 days to appeal the decision.

Kazan, June 18, 2024

Photo: palomnikofficial.ru     

The recently discovered revered Moscow copy of the wonderworking Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was recently delivered to the cathedral of the Kazan-Theotokos Monastery in Kazan itself, drawing thousands of Orthodox faithful.

The icon stopped in Kazan on June 14-16 as part of the All-Russian procession that began from the Moscow Kremlin on May 6, reports the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Moscow Kazan Icon, before which the heroes Pozharsky and Minin prayed before defeating the Poles in 1612, was recently UPDATED: Patriarch Kirill discovers 16th-century wonderworking Moscow Kazan Icon, lost for a century (+VIDEOS)His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia made a major announcement on Saturday, November 4, the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in memory of Russia’s deliverance from the Poles in 1612.

“>discovered by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill himself in the patriarchal residence in Peredelkino, outside Moscow. The original Kazan Icon, which was stolen in 1904, remains lost.

Hierarchical services and molebens with an akathist to the Mother of God were held in the cathedral every day during the icon’s stay in Kazan.

Thus far, the icon has visited 20 dioceses, with more than 300,000 Orthodox faithful having the opportunity to venerate it.

Altogether, the icon will visit 60 cities throughout Russia.

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Tensions are continuing to rise within the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala, India, as clergy and laypeople resist efforts to impose a new liturgy on their parishes.

A circular letter was issued by Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil – the head of the Syro-Malabar Church – and archdiocesan administrator Bosco Puthur was supposed to be read at Masses last week, but 321 churches in in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese refused to do so, resulting in protests and verbal assaults.

The Syro-Malabar Church, with an estimated following of 4.25 million worldwide, is the second largest of the eastern Churches in communion with Rome. Ever since its synod decided in 2021 to adopt a new, unified mode of celebrating the Mass, the Church has been gripped by controversy, above all in its largest jurisdiction of Ernakulam-Algamany.

The synod required that Mass be celebrated facing the people during the Liturgy of the Word, and facing the altar during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

That decree, however, was resisted by a swath of clergy and laity in Ernakulam-Angamaly, on the grounds that Mass facing the people throughout the celebration represented their local tradition and is also more in keeping with the liturgical teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

The circular issued by the major archbishop insisted the synod-prescribed Mass liturgy be used by July 3, or the Mass would not fulfill the Sunday obligation, and any priest using the banned version would be excommunicated.

This circular has been set on fire, thrown in water, and put into waste bins by rebel groups. They reiterate their intention to stick to the full people-facing Mass even after the deadline.

“Over 450 priests and all parish committees within the Ernakulam – Angamaly archdiocese have stated multiple times before the Synod and the Vatican that they will only offer mass where the priest faces the congregation throughout the ritual,” said Riju Kanjookaran, the spokesperson for the activist group Almaya Munnettam (Lay People to the Fore).

“But the Church leadership has never considered the stand of the diocese or intervened to find a solution and instead has always tried to impose its agenda,” he said.

Father Kuriakose Mundadan, the presbyteral Council Secretary of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, has written a letter to all the bishops in India claiming the former apostolic administrator has made a minor issue of the rubic in Mass into a major issue.

“Archbishop Andrews Thazhath misused his power as the Apostolic Administrator and has obviously misguided and misinformed Pope Francis on the liturgical issues of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly,” the priest wrote.

“His unethical acts and reports have snowballed for the worse, which significantly is a minor issue of a rubric, (versus populum and versus altare) to a serious issue of ecclesial communion. This is to say the least, utterly unchristian and against the basic gospel principles,” Mundadan continued.

He called what Thazhath did “really abominable.”

Father Jose Edassery gave a statement noting Thazhath was once the strongest proponent of the mass versus populum, “while now he has shamelessly backtracked by contending that the narrative and the theology is erroneous.”

The priest claimed “humungous lies” have been incorporated in the dismissal letter issued to the Archdiocese of Ernakulam.

“One cannot miss the cruel, irresponsible and wild allegations … in the latest circular issued by Major Archbishop Thattil and Bishop Puthoor which has pronouncedly condemned the people of the Archdiocese to be eternal victims of hierarchal apathy and highhandedness,” Edassery said.

Seattle, June 18, 2024

    

Archpriest James Bernstein, a noted priest and Orthodox author, reposed in the Lord yesterday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Fr. James reposed at the age of 78.

“With the hope of the resurrection and life eternal we pray ‘memory eternal!’ for Fr. James Bernstein, who fell asleep in the Lord this morning, surrounded by family,” St. Paul Orthodox Church in Brier, Washington, where he served as priest for nearly 30 years, wrote yesterday.

Fr. James is the author of several booklets from Ancient Faith Publishing, and is especially known as the author of Surprised by Christ, which tells the story of his road from Judaism to Christianity and ultimately to the fullness of the faith in the Orthodox Church.

Before his conversion to Orthodoxy, he was known especially as a co-founder of Jews for Jesus. He later served as a pastor in the Evangelical Orthodox Church, which eventually led him and his family to holy Orthodoxy.

He was received into the Orthodox Church in America in 1981, and in 1985 he began studying at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York. He later transferred to the Antiochian Archdiocese and was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. In 1990, he was assigned to St. Paul’s in Brier, Washington, where he served for more than a quarter of a century. He was elevated to the rank of archpriest in 1999.

May Fr. James’ memory be eternal!

Watch his “last words” with Abbot Tryphon:

​

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ROME — In his 1947 classic “Civilization on Trial,” here’s how the legendary Arnold Toynbee described what historians are really after — among other things, thereby providing the best distinction ever delivered in the English language between journalism and history.

“The things that make good headlines are on the surface of the stream of life, and they distract us from the slower, impalpable, imponderable movements that work below the surface and penetrate to the depths,” Toynbee wrote. “But it is really these deeper, slower movements that make history, and it is they that stand out huge in retrospect, when the sensational passing events have dwindled, in perspective, to their true proportions.”

The Vatican beat at the moment provides a classic example of that contrast, as news outlets and pundits this week are consumed with Pope Francis’ latest use of off-color language to refer to gays, while the real movement of history lies instead in a new, nearly 150-page tome issued by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and titled “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in the Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint” (“That They May Be One”).

If the Christian Humpty Dumpty is ever put back together again — meaning, if the divided Christian family is ever reunified — the issuance of this document almost certainly will be remembered as a milestone moment along that path.

In effect, the document takes stock of where things stand 30 years after the late St. Pope John Paul II issued Ut Unum Sint, a landmark encyclical in which he invited other Christians to join Catholics in reimagining the exercise of the papacy to make it a force for unity rather than a lightning rod of division — what John Paul memorably called a “service of love recognized by all concerned.”

The new document synthesizes roughly 30 responses to Ut Unum Sint collected over the years from different Christian denominations and organizations, as well as the results of some 50 ecumenical dialogues that have taken up the question of papal primacy.

Summing up, the document suggests broad agreement on at least three basic points.

First, everybody more or less agrees on the need for some sort of unifying force at the universal level of Christianity. To put it differently, if we didn’t have a papacy, we’d have to invent it, though people may disagree strongly over what it should look like.

Second, there’s a broad sense that Catholic teaching about papal primacy needs to be revisited, especially that of Vatican I, the council which proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility. The idea is to distinguish what’s essentially about that teaching, as opposed to what may have been conditioned by the exigencies of a particular historical moment.

Third, there’s also broad consensus that the way forward lies in exploring the relationship among “everybody, some and one,” meaning, respectively, synodality as a process involving all the stakeholders in Christianity, collegiality as a sense of shared authority among bishops, and papal primacy as the ultimate point of reference for the unity of the church.

This may all seem abstract and academic, but it’s vital prolegomena to any future prospect of overcoming Christianity’s historical divisions.

Boiling it all down, it’s a common-sense instinct that somebody has to be in charge, coupled with the political reality that the kind of authority invested in that leader, and the ways in which they’re able to exercise it, need to be hammered out clearly if the system’s going to hold up over time.

In presenting the document, much was made of Pope Francis’ own ecumenical teaching and gestures, especially his insistence on synodality as a constitutive element of the Church. The Secretary General of the Synod Cardinal Mario Grech of Malta, argued that the experience of synods under Francis “demonstrate how it could be possible to arrive at an exercise of primacy at an ecumenical level.”

One practical suggestion is the idea of greater synodality ad extra, meaning outside the Catholic Church, in the form of regular consultations among the leaders of the various Christian denominations — sort of a G7, if you like, of heads of churches instead of heads of state.

For all the promise of the new document, however, there are at least a couple of questions it leaves hanging, and which will have to be addressed in conversations going forward.

First, the most divisive issues in Christian life today aren’t just about who does the teaching, but what it is they teach — in other words, it’s not just about authority, but also doctrine.

This truth came home clearly in the ferment over Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican’s controversial document authorizing blessings of persons in same-sex unions, which caused the Coptic Orthodox Church to suspend its dialogue with Catholicism and prompted the Russian Orthodox to declare that Fiducia represents “a sharp deviation from Christian moral teaching.”

How to ensure a baseline of agreement on core doctrinal principles, while also allowing individual churches to express their own language and pastoral practice, will remain a core ecumenical challenge regardless of how papal primacy ends up being resolved.

Second, there’s the matter of whether Francis’ own exercise of primacy is consistent with his rhetoric on synodality.

His two synod gatherings on synodality, after all, were widely expected to deal with the hot-button matters of blessing same-sex unions and women deacons, and indeed there was considerable conversation on both matters during the first edition last October. Yet in the interim before the concluding assembly this October, Francis preemptively has taken both issues off the table, first by issuing Fiducia and then by telling CBS he has no intention of moving on the diaconate.

Francis has also issued more motu proprio than all his recent predecessors combined, amending Church law at will: he staged a trial of a cardinal and nine other defendants which at least some observers believe ignored basic principles of due process; he’s run roughshod over traditional structures of governance in the Vatican, personalizing the papacy to a new degree; and he’s ignored the pleas of liturgical traditionalists for space to celebrate the Latin Mass, despite his repeated insistence that the Church must include “everybody, everybody, everybody.”

If that’s the Catholic notion of synodality, some ecumenical observers may be tempted to think, then it just seems like the imperial papacy under another guise.

Those thorny matters weren’t resolved by the new document, and will hang over ecumenical conversation for some time to come. Yet few would dispute that the ecumenical cause seems strong after “The Bishop of Rome” than before — and that, all by itself, probably is enough to classify it as one of Toynbee’s “slower, impalpable, imponderable movements” that make history. 

Svityaz, Volyn Province, Ukraine, June 18, 2024

Photo: єпархія.укр     

More than 200 Orthodox faithful in the Western Ukrainian village of Svityaz came out on Sunday, June 16, to defend their local Sts. Peter and Paul Monastery.

The schismatics and nationalists of the “Orthodox Church in Ukraine” attempted to seize the monastery through their usual scheme of gathering a collection of random people, unrelated to the given church or monastery, to hold a vote to force the community into the schismatic OCU.

Photo: єпархія.укр To participate in the vote, organizers demanded only to see a local address, regardless of religious affiliation, reports the Diocese of Vladmir and Volyn.

However, the schismatics were defeated, with only 102 voting for the monastery to apostatize, and 249 voting for it to remain Orthodox.

Abbot Arseny and the monastery brotherhood were present for the vote. Fr. Arseny called on the community not to succumb to divisive provocations, but to unite around protecting Ukraine and its future.

The monastery was formed in 2002 at a parish church that dates to the mid-19th century. It never closed during the long decades of atheist rule. Today, three monks and six novices labor at the monastery.

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For Thalia Cintron, a trip last summer to the 9/11 Museum in New York sealed the deal.

Growing up in Atwater Village in Los Angeles, her single mother, Jennifer Leyva, and other relatives always told her to thank military service members when she encountered them.

When Thalia was 12, a close cousin joined the U.S. Army.

“I thought, ‘I can do that, too,’ ” she recalled.

So when Cintron saw the 56-foot-long bronze memorial to firefighters who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the motto inscribed on it really hit home: “Dedicated to those who fell, and those who carry on.”

“I don’t want this to ever happen again,” she said. “I want to protect my country.”

Cintron will now get her chance by deciding to join the Air Force Academy after graduating from Providence High School in Burbank, and wants to become a military intelligence officer.

With a strong, hard-working mother as a role model, and a penchant for building up those around her that she developed for years playing volleyball, Cintron has the tools to succeed, according to those who know her best.

“She will figure out what she has to do to be successful and then she will go about getting it done,” said Coach Mike, who coached Cintron in volleyball from fourth to eighth grade at Holy Trinity School and for the past two years at Elysian Valley Recreation Center. “No one will outwork her.”

Funny, polite, and humble, Cintron pointed to her all-Catholic schooling as a character builder — as well as her mother, who often worked two jobs raising her.

“I saw how strong and independent she was and how she carried all this weight on her shoulders, and that inspired me,” Cintron said.

Holy Trinity was a two-minute walk from Cintron’s house. She recalled her and her mother packing lunch every morning together. Jennifer, who grew up Catholic, said the hard work to pay for private, Catholic schooling was a priority. 

“I wanted to make sure she had that Catholic school foundation and discipline,” Jennifer said.

That foundation was ultimately made possible thanks to help from the Catholic Education Foundation of Los Angeles (CEF), which provided tuition assistance during Cintron’s four years at Providence High. 

Before that, Cintron was an altar server at Holy Trinity Church from grades 2-8. During seventh grade, she and her classmates visited Washington, D.C. Cintron fell in love with it.

Her interest in social studies, government, and history continued during her time at Providence High, a Catholic co-ed, college preparatory high school founded by the Sisters of Providence.

When Cintron was a sophomore in high school, her mother suggested she apply to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Cintron then did the same for the Air Force Academy.

Her visit to Ground Zero came after she attended the West Point Summer Leaders Experience last June. Led by current West Point cadets, the event is a weeklong immersion into the academic, military, and social life of a West Point cadet.

In the end, though, Cintron chose to remain closer to home and join the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

“I relied a lot on prayer in deciding,” Cintron said. “My faith got stronger during the process. I read the Bible a lot.”

On June 22, Cintron, her mother, and other relatives were scheduled to fly to the academy in Colorado. After being sworn in on June 27, she’ll report to basic training for six weeks. Her four years of academy schooling, which she will enjoy on a full scholarship, begins in mid-August.

After graduating, Cintron will serve five years of active duty and then three years as a reservist.

She’s confident in her ability to integrate into the collaborative nature of the Air Force Academy largely in part due to the lessons learned playing volleyball at Providence High. 

“It’s taught me that I need to be strong as an individual but also that I can’t let that get to my head and I need to work with my teammates and bring them up as well,” said Cintron, who was a libero — a defensive specialist — on the team. “If one person’s energy falls, the entire team’s energy falls.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also taught Cintron some lessons. Isolating herself during her first year of high school, she said, was particularly tough.

“It was very hard to focus on school online,” said Cintron, who maintained a 4.0 GPA. “I relied on my friends. We held each other accountable. Staying in contact with people is critical. Also, I learned a lot about time management during the pandemic.”

Jennifer said it’s going to be tough saying goodbye to her daughter at the Air Force Academy. But she knows Cintron has made the right choice.

“She knew how to be responsible from a very young age, and frankly, she’s been very easy — I’ve never had any issues with her,” she said. “I’m so proud of her. She’s worked very hard to get to where she’s at. She earned it.”

Coach Mike, who also is Thalia’s godfather, agreed.

“She will combine her God-given talents with a great desire to excel and a work ethic that is second to none,” he said. “She has made me so proud of her accomplishments, and she’s made all of Holy Trinity School and Providence High School proud.”

Marta Dasic, a student from Kosovo and Metohija Millions have become refugees: scattered all over the world, they try to find a place they could call home some day—yet, it doesn’t work. There is no such place except the only one that you abandoned or, rather, was forced to leave. This is the sad fate of generations of Kosovo Serbs who fled away from their land. The sufferings, the search of a new home, the humiliation of being an émigré or a refugee, feeling like a stranger anywhere you go, attempts to return no matter what—any Serbian family could share a similar story. In keeping with the Christian conviction that there is no such thing as destiny or fate, but only Divine Providence for man, the Dasic family returned to their native village of Brestovik, near the town of Pec and not far from the monastery of the Patriarchate of Pec. They returned, despite the post-war devastation, almost literally to the smoldering ruins of their native home. When Marta Dasic grew older, in emulation of her parents she became a student of the Philological Department at the University of Pristina, where she studied the theory and history of literature.

My mother and father were doing everything they could so that we wouldn’t feel that we practically lived under occupation

“My family fled “Kosovo is the Grave Where we Have Been Buried for Centuries and from Which we Have Risen Again and Again”The reality in which we live today in Kosovo and Metohija can undoubtedly be called, “Divine education”.

“>Kosovo in 1999, during the war and terror. We lived in central Serbia and this is where I was born. Even though it was Serbia, we felt as if everything around was foreign to us—living in a rented apartment and knowing that you don’t really own anything here is no picnic. At the same time, your own house built by your ancestors and your land, where generations of forefathers labored, was laid waste. Being homesick—well, I was born with this feeling. Ever since we were small, every time we heard our parents’ stories about their native Kosovo, we dreamed of going home. Sure, we were afraid; it is not all so simple to return to a place where there is impending danger, especially when you have two young children. But I am glad that we returned. Thank God.

Glory to God we returned while we were still young. Childhood doesn’t allow you to look at the world with suspicion—children prefer a bright and joyful outlook. So, as we were growing up, we lived in our Brestovik and always wondered why our mother and father were afraid to return here, since we spent our time playing, dreaming, and rejoicing at the newfound beauty of our native places.

So what if we didn’t have things that other parents typically spoil their children with! So what if we didn’t have any big-city entertainment, or God knows what else, like in Belgrade! But you can’t find such beauty anywhere else! Such beauty plus tranquility—my mother and father did everything possible so that we would never feel that we were practically living under occupation. A feeling of being at home, a sense of our native home—that’s what they gave us.

Why did I all of sudden decide to study Serbian language and literature at a time when the majority of young people choose other fields of study that offer more opportunities to get a well-paid job? Who needs those boring linguists with their books and letters?

In the classroom I like the language and I like Slavic literature. After all, the life of a nation isn’t exclusively about diagrams displaying population’s increase in purchasing power. I firmly believe that language and literature help a nation not to turn into a populace—and it is arch-important for Serbia, and Kosovo and Metohija, too! So I don’t regret in the least bit that I chose philology.

Despite all the difficulties, I want to stay here in my native area. Sure, I know perfectly well that you can’t find a job try as you might—and our young people take off running anyplace to avoid staying in Kosovo. Actually, this applies not only to Serbs, but also to Albanians. On the other hand, if all the Serbs flee, all that will be left for us would be to suffer phantom-limb pains in a strange land about our lost homeland—so, no thanks, I am staying put here. God willing, it will all work out here.”

***

We try to offer help to the best of our abilities to people like Marta who are confident that God will provide for them. This conviction gives strength to other people as well: like the ones who think of Kosovo and Metohija as not simply a stretch of land “somewhere out there, in Serbia,” but a land that’s native in spirit. Even if they have never been there.

Aspring linguists of the University of Pristina