c. 2008 Religion News Service

Catholic visionary draws thousands to central Alabama

(RNS) Thousands of pilgrims from across the country visited central Alabama for a five-day prayer retreat focused on a woman who has reported daily sightings of the Virgin Mary since 1981.

Marija Lunetti, from Medjugorje in the former Yugoslavia, reported daily visions while pilgrims gathered outside the house where she has been staying in Shelby County, Ala., about 25 miles south of Birmingham.

On Thursday (July 3) and Friday, she reported visions at 10 p.m. in a field amid pilgrims gathered under a pine tree. Lunetti said the Virgin Mary appeared to her and offered blessings for everyone in the crowd.

Although no one else could see the apparitions, many in the crowd believed Lunetti sees miraculous visions.

“It’s an overwhelming experience,” said Judith Rojas of Salt Lake City, who came to Birmingham Tuesday and left Saturday. “She’s here. The Virgin Mary is visiting us from heaven. How can you comprehend that?”

Lunetti’s home village of Medjugorje, in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina, has drawn millions of pilgrims since Lunetti and five other youths began reporting the visions 27 years ago.

Terry Colafrancesco, the founder of Caritas of Birmingham, promotes the visions of Medjugorje and sponsored Lunetti last week. Lunetti was seeking medical treatment at St. Vincent’s Birmingham for a broken collarbone and shoulder injured in a skiing accident earlier this year in Italy, where she now lives.

Lunetti may stay several more weeks in Birmingham to continue seeking therapy and may eventually undergo surgery, Colafrancesco said.

The Catholic Church has not ruled on the validity of the Medjugorje visions, and the Catholic Diocese of Birmingham prohibits Mass at Caritas, although it allowed a special daily Mass for visiting pilgrims at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church.

_ Greg Garrison

New Orleans archdiocese plans to close 15 Catholic churches

(RNS) The Archdiocese of New Orleans has revealed plans to close 15 Catholic parishes _ none of them the embattled communities publicly resisting closure.

All of the affected parishes, which haven’t been named, have discussed leadership issues with neighboring parishes receiving them in mergers or other arrangements, said archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey.

Comiskey stressed that parishes strongly resisting closure are not among those being suppressed in the upcoming announcements.

Formal documents closing the 15, called decrees of suppression, are being prepared now. Comiskey said pastors will announce the closures to affected parishioners beginning with the Saturday Masses of July 12.

After Hurricane Katrina, the relatively few parishioners remaining in some hard-hit communities, many with wrecked churches, were asked to worship in neighboring parishes until a permanent reorganization could be fashioned. Their parishes remained open, but only on paper.

Comiskey said most of the first wave of closures affect those storm-damaged parishes.

The announcements will implement about half of Archbishop Alfred Hughes’ controversial post-storm reorganization plan.

Under that reorganization 33 parishes were identified for closure, either to be merged with neighbors, downgraded to missions or in other arrangements. The plan also reopened three parishes and called for eight parishes to share four pastors.

_ Bruce Nolan

Birmingham named most generous city in America

(RNS) Birmingham, Ala., ranks as the most generous city in America, according to a study that measured percentage of household income given to charity in 60 metropolitan areas.

Birmingham-area residents give 3.6 percent of their household income to charity, just ahead of several other Southern cities, the study said. Memphis, Tenn., was second at 3.4 percent and Columbia, S.C., was third with 3.2 percent.

The study was done by the Tijeras Foundation in Albuquerque, N.M., a city that incidentally ranked fourth from the bottom, ahead of just San Antonio, Pittsburgh and Tampa, Fla. The foundation supports church organizations, including help with fund raising and financial management skills.

The foundation’s study attempted to establish a benchmark for generosity and identify factors that make some communities more generous than others.

The initiative, called Generous Communities, aims to increase community generosity. In Albuquerque, the Tijeras Foundation has helped more than 600 people attend a six-week stewardship program.

The study found factors that appear to correlate to higher levels of generosity: Generous communities have a higher percentage of evangelical Christians, married couples, entrepreneurs and African-Americans.

In Birmingham, people who deal with charity already knew about the city’s high level of giving.

“It doesn’t come as a surprise to us,” said Drew Langloh, president of United Way of Central Alabama.

_ Greg Garrison

Quote of the Day: Former Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt

(RNS) “You need tremendous spirituality to stop yourself falling into the abyss.”

_ Former Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt speaking in Paris two days after her rescue from guerrillas. Betancourt, who said she made herself a wooden rosary in the jungle during her six years as a hostage, was quoted by The New York Times.

DSB DS END RNS