Meeting a Future Saint In the 80s, my husband Cliff, a news photographer and reporter, accompanied Bismarck, ND Catholic Bishop John Kinney to Rome to record his five-year Ad-Limina visit, which is an obligation of church hierarchy to visit the tombs of the apostles, and to meet with the pope, in this case, Pope John […]
Last night before heading off to bed I happened to check my email, only to read this unbelievable headline – “Obama Administration Allows Fertility Clinics To Sell US Citizenship.” Boy, did that catch my eye! I’ve just finished reading the Policy Alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security. You can read it here but […]
With the Middle East in mayhem, I’ve been thinking back to my travels in Egypt and Israel during a less tumultuous time. Upon returning to my teaching post in snowy Salzburg Austria, I found myself suffering from a fever – possibly a result of the sudden change from shirtsleeve weather to freezing cold. From the […]
While I was in the Holy Land, many Scripture verses surfaced in my mind and heart as I stood in the places of the Old and New Testaments. But, the one I found myself recalling most often was Psalm 91: For you have made the LORD, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No […]
When Pope Paul VI visited the Holy Land, Auxiliary Bishop Marcuzzo was still only a seminarian, but to this day he remains impressed by the visit. Now, 50 years later, other seminarians are preparing for the visit of a new Pope. Returning to the sources: this was the goal Pope Paul VI had set himself […]
One of the points I try to stress with those joining me on the many trips I host to Rome and other Christian holy places is the difference between a tour and a pilgrimage. A tour is more of a fun seeking trek to an exotic location, one filled with great photo opportunities that contain […]
I’ll admit it’s work, but I love it. I love camping…. the dust clouds and the cicadas’ rhythmic swell and the sun leaking into the thin tent nylon in the early morning, insistent. Our rusty old camp grill and the Coleman torch that scatters just a bit of an ethereal Hey-summer-we-survived-this-year’s-algebra-and-ancient-history-and-disappointments-and-triumphs-and-we’re-back-to-settle-in-your-scheduleless -rustic-August glow. The whispers […]
One year ago, on May 23, 2010, the Holy Shroud of Turin was placed out of public view at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin (Torino), Italy. We are not expected to see it again until the year 2035. For only the 18th time in its 2,000 year history, the Church’s most venerated relic […]
Before I jump into the interview with Donna D’Errico, I would like to thank her for answering a few questions regarding her life as both a Catholic and explorer. See if you can name what Catholic sacramental she is wearing on her expedition. JQ Tomanek: Can you give us a little background on yourself? Were you raised Catholic? Where did […]
“Lake Superior is the biggest, deepest, cleanest, coldest and roughest of all the Great Lakes,” said the captain of the tour boat as we cruised out of Munising, Michigan, average snowfall 250 inches, to view the Pictured Rocks National Shoreline. Pictured Rocks is a spectacular display of multicolored sandstone cliffs and geologic formations, soaring to […]
A city like no other, maybe even more so this time of year. What do you call a city with a jail named Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven)? For the last 3,000 years, you call it Rome. Forty years had passed since I had last visited Rome, broke and hitchhiking through Europe the summer after […]
My spiritual and secular sojourns began early in my life. My journeys have been far and wide, and have taken me down forks, in circles or off the beaten path. The trips I’ve taken have enriched my life in many ways, and these in turn have enriched my Catholic family and my travel agency located […]
Today, October 4th is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. Last year, on a pilgrimage to see the Shroud of Turin, north of Assisi in Italy, my travel companions (three teenage girls) and I got to spend a few special hours in Assisi. Seeing the Shroud left an indelible impression on me and spending time in […]
A “Woman Screams for Help After TSA Molestation,” and the “Texas Pat Down Ban May Be Back.” Those are just two of the headlines breaking around the nation this morning, as summer travel picks up—and so do concerns over excessive airport security. How much indignity are you willing to endure if told it’s for safety’s […]
Nearly 800 years ago, Pope Gregory IX, responded to shouts of “Santo Subito” (“Sainthood Now”) when he left the Lateran Palace in Rome and made the 120-mile arduous journey to Assisi (shown at left) to canonize St. Francis. Francis just wanted to be a humble hermit yet died a very public death in 1226, bearing the […]
Holy Week can never be the same for me. Not after seeing the Shroud of Turin last year. It’s been nearly a year since the Shroud was placed on public display (for just the 18th time in its history) in Turin, Italy. Never did I imagine I would be among the over two million pilgrims […]
I grew up in Bombingham at a time in history when the unholy trinity was “Catholics, niggers, and Jews.” Somehow, I rejected that fairly early as I rode my ice blue bike with the white banana seat in the shadow of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. I had earned that bike by going to summer school […]
Standing at the base of an old, graying, wooden ladder I didn’t know what I would find in that mountain-cave turned church. As I ascended those ten or 12 steps my heart pounded, my breath grew short and my eyes were filled with awe. What I found in that stone-cooled room in the middle of […]
