Fr. Brian Stanley, commentor here and pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Coldwater, MI, writes:<\/p>\n
\n\nFirst of all, German keyboards are a pain — the z and the y are
switched around and it makes me stop to think.<\/p>\nBut it is so exciting to be here in Cologne. I am writing this in an
internet cafe about 2K from the city center. There are a lot of people
here, and it is so inspiring. I am part of a group from Kalamazoo —
38 of us. We have met all sorts of people from the States. But the
most inspiring people are the Italians, who must have half of their
country here, and they are singing, singing, singing. They even sing OUR
songs — you should here them belt out Country Roads, Take Me Home, to the
place I belong — WEST VIRGINIA! <\/p>\nWe had an orientation tour this a.m., went to the Cathedral, which was
packed and exciting and very holy. The reliquary of the Magi is
humungous, and awe-inspiring. The universal Church is here in full force,
and I am so happy to be a priest, elated to be a Catholic, and blessed to
be here among these holy pilgrims. While there are a few anti-Catholic
protestors, they are met with patience and charity that is a witness to
the power of the love of Christ alive in these pilgrims. <\/p>\nPray for me, that tomorrow I can get my credential to attend the
priests\u00b4 welcome for the Pope on Friday. And tell your readers that I am
praying for you and them at Mass tomorrow — St. Clemens parish in
Langel, a very rural suburb south of Cologne, a town of 3500. Reminds me of
Coldwater, with quainter architecture. The sugar beet fields and wheat
fields remind me of home. On that note, I must move on and get a train
back to Langel. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fr. Brian Stanley, commentor here and pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Coldwater, MI, writes: First of all, German keyboards are a pain — the z and the y are switched around and it makes me stop to think. But it is so exciting to be here in Cologne. I am writing this in an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Brian Stanley, commentor here and pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Coldwater, MI, writes: First of all, German keyboards are a pain — the z and the y are switched around and it makes me stop to think. But it is so exciting to be here in Cologne. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}