WobLog

Rocco makes note of the recent ordination of twin brother priests in the Diocese of Erie (Pennsylvania) [although Rocoo mistakenly identifies them as identical twins]:

(Update: I'm told the brothers are identical twins)

Their parents never had to force them to go to daily Mass at 6:30 a.m.

"It wasn't an obligation for us, but rather something we saw as cool," Joseph Campbell said.

So it's no surprise that the 26-year-old Erie twins are being ordained priests tonight, together, at St. Peter Cathedral.

"It's the work of God," Dolores Campbell, their mother, said.

She and her husband, John Campbell, named their 12th and 13th children for Monsignor James Joseph Gannon. The late priest was the family's pastor at St. Andrew Catholic Church, just two blocks from the home where James, who is older by 15 minutes, and Joseph grew up.

Priests were always part of their lives.

James Campbell remembers not only the men who "offered the sacraments that we valued so much," but also the priests who showed their human side when sitting in his parents' living room....

Joseph Campbell admired the selfless care of the men who helped in times of sickness and financial need.

Over the years, the twins were inspired by too many priests to name. But the boys knew at an early age that it was a group of men they wanted to join.

I encountered half of the brother-priest duo during the events surrounding the election of Benedict XVI last spring. Joseph Campbell, who was a seminarian at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, appeared on EWTN's Life on the Rock when it aired live from Rome last April. He seemed like an impressive young man back then, and the details of his and his brother's story back that impression up.

Pray for the Fathers Campbell!

Posted by Don Roberts at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A friend of mine passed this on a bit ago, and I'm still laughing...

Offbeat News
Thursday, June 15, 2006

Art gallery loses its head, displays plinth

LONDON (Reuters) - One of Britain's most prestigious art galleries put a block of slate on display, topped by a small piece of wood, in the mistaken belief it was a work of art.

The Royal Academy included the chunk of stone and the small bone-shaped wooden stick in its summer exhibition in London.

But the slate was actually a plinth -- a slab on which a pedestal is placed -- and the stick was designed to prop up a sculpture. The sculpture itself -- of a human head -- was nowhere to be seen.

"I think the things got separated in the selection process and the selectors presented the plinth as a complete sculpture," the work's artist David Hensel told BBC radio.

The academy explained the error by saying the plinth and the head were sent to the exhibitors separately.

"Given their separate submission, the two parts were judged independently," it said in a statement. "The head was rejected. The base was thought to have merit and accepted.

"The head has been safely stored ready to be collected by the artist," it added. "It is accepted that works may not be displayed in the way that the artist might have intended."

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just returned from the grocery store, and while standing in line, my eyes perused the nearby magazines assaulting me from the checkout line. There was the normal Hollywood gossip that I try to avoid, and then my eye caught the latest Muscle & Fitness magazine, with a muscled bodybuilder posing on the cover. One of the lines said, "10 BEST EXERCISES FOR MASS." I thought, "Wow, exercises to go to Mass?" And then I realized what they really meant.

But it's not as ludicrous as it first sounds. We go to the 1962 Latin Indult Mass ("Tridentine"), and there's an awful lot of kneeling that goes on. I figure some deep knee bends might be appropriate preparation.

Posted by Lisa Roberts at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're ever in Paris on a Friday night, head down to the Montparnasse area for Friday Night Fever, the nighttime rollerblading tour of the City of Lights. Thousands of skaters get together for this once-a-week event (weather permitting).

If you don't have your skates with you, you can grab a table at one of the cafe-bars at the intersection of Boulevard de Montparnasse and Rue de Rennes, order a drink, and watch the crowd go by (it takes about 5 - 10 minutes). It's quite a sight!

Posted by Don Roberts at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)