Many religious communities are embracing a "green" lifestyle (see the posts on the Sisters of Providence, a group of English Benedictine sisters, and an Austrian monastery and an article in the upcoming 2011 issue of VISION Magazine). We can add another to the list: the sisters of Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, Wisconsin, an ecumenical community in the Benedictine tradition, which received the highest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum rating ever: 63 out of 69 points for sustainability, energy efficiency, and choice of materials. The building has bamboo flooring, solar panels, and windows oriented to maximize sunlight and prairie views.

The monastery and part of its prairie

"People wonder why such a small [three-member] community would do something like this," said Sister Mary David Walgenbach. "But we are charged to tread lightly upon the earth."

Pope Benedict XVI

This past April, Pope Benedict XVI became the seventh-oldest pope since reliable records began being collected in the year 1400. Benedict XVI, now 83, moved just behind John Paul II who died at 84 years of age. Anura Guruge, an IBM information systems expert, posted a table that ranked the oldest known popes on his website www.popes-and-papacy.com.

Guruge did not consider popes who were in office before 1400 as those records “are either unreliable or unavailable and as such are impractical for meaningful analysis.”

Should Benedict XVI remain pope until 2015, he will move into second place behind Clement XII who was 87 at the time of his death. The oldest modern pope, Leo XIII, lived to be 93.

Benedict XVI was elected pope April 15, 2005 three days after his 78th birthday. He was the fifth oldest pope ever to be elected and the oldest in the past 274 years.

During a 2008 homily, Benedict reflected on a passage from the Book of Wisdom on age: “The world reputes that he who lives a long life is fortunate, but God, more than at age, looks at the rectitude of the heart. God,” he said, “is the true wisdom that does not age, he is the genuine richness that does not spoil, he is the happiness to which the heart of every [person] aspires profoundly.”

Sister Carol Ann Nawracaj, O.S.F. and her sister Terri Macor at a Giants game

When Sister Carol Ann Nawracaj, O.S.F. is not leading the Villa Maria Education Center—a school for children with learning disabilities where she is director—teaching graduate education classes, writing books, serving on various boards, or utilizing her artistic abilities with her Bernardine Franciscan community in Connecticut, she has a few other things up her sleeve.

Building on a childhood interest in sleight of hand, Nawracaj is a professional magician and a member of the Society of American Magicians. Besides doing magic for her students, faculty, family, friends, and other sisters, she has performed for David Copperfield and Paul Newman and appeared on Entertainment Tonight. She also used her magic to entertain the audience of Nunsense at the Connecticut Broadway Theater.

But that’s not all. During the summer of 1974, when she was studying at Fairfield University where the New York Giants football team was training, she slowly became "first a friend, and then a fan" of the team. She baked cookies for the coaches and players and even made Christmas stockings for their kids, according to an article in the New York Times.

Her developing relationship with the team led to then-head coach Ray Perkins naming her an honorary assistant coach, and subsequent head coaches have renewed her contract. In this capacity she gives “spirit” talks at team meetings, sends congratulatory messages and birthday and holiday remembrances, and collects news clippings of the team that she artistically displays for the players at the end of each season. She accompanied the Giants to all of their Super Bowls and shared in their victory celebrations. Her role as coach has been featured in many newspaper articles, and she has appeared on CBS, FOX, WOR, NFL Today, Sports Channel, and Sports Update.

The Vatican Museums and London's Victoria and Albert Museum are bringing together two “long-lost twins,” two halves of an artistic masterpiece conceived by the Renaissance master Raphael, reports Carol Glatz of Catholic News Service.

Some of Raphael's enormous tapestries for the Sistine Chapel and his preparatory paintings, called cartoons in the art world, will be united for the first time in the Sistine Chapel exhibition. Since the Renaissance, "the cartoons and the tapestries have led separate lives" and the Sept 8-Oct. 17 exhibit will bring together "the two halves of the same story," said Mark Evans, senior curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Michelangelo completed the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1512. When Pope Leo X was elected the following year, he wanted to leave his mark on the chapel, but every surface had already been painted. He decided to commission a special set of tapestries for the chapel's lower walls. Tapestries were a popular art form at the time and the church liked to use them for special liturgical ceremonies.

Because the designs would be sent off to famed tapestry artisans in Belgium, Raphael had to color them exactly like a painting so weavers would know what precise hues to use. That unique kind of detail meant the cartoons eventually became prized works of art in and of themselves.

The tapestries depicted the lives of Sts. Peter and Paul and events from the Acts of the Apostles. They also were designed to specifically correspond to the frescoed images of the lives of Moses and Jesus.

In 1623, before becoming king, Charles I of England bought seven of Raphael cartoons. They became, as they are to this day, the property of the British royal family. Coinciding with Pope Benedict's visit to England in September, the exhibit is meant to be a visible sign of the coming together of the two countries' common cultural heritage, said Arnold Nesselrath, director of the Vatican Museums' Byzantine, medieval, and modern collections.

Seeing the cartoons alongside the final product is considered to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, he said; "it was something not even Raphael ever got to see."

(photo credit: one of Raphael's tapestries hanging from a wall of the Sistine Chapel--CNS)

Mother Alfred Moes

U.S. News & World Report just released its annual ranking of best U.S. hospitals. Only 152 medical facilities out of almost 9,000 considered made the list, and of those 14 got onto the “honor roll” for their ability to take on and meet the most medical difficult challenges. At number two (behind Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which has held the top spot for 20 consecutive years) is the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Last July I blogged about the Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America exhibit, which is making its way through various venues in the United States (see schedule below). If you attend the exhibit you will find out (among many other things) that the foundress of the Rochester, Minnesota community of the Sisters of Saint Francis, Maria Catherine Moes, later known as Mother Alfred Moes, also had a role in the founding of the Mayo Clinic.

The “Mayo” in the clinic’s name comes from Dr. William Worrall Mayo. After witnessing the destruction of Rochester by a tornado in 1883, Mother Moes proposed to Dr. Mayo that she would build and staff a hospital if he and his sons would agree to provide the medical care. This hospital was the beginning of what would become the Mayo Clinic.

Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America Touring Schedule
May 9, 2010-August 28, 2010: Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Cleveland, Ohio
September 24, 2010-January 22, 2011: Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Liberty Island, New York
February 2011-April 2011: The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, Dubuque, Iowa
June 17, 2011-August 14, 2011: Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles, California
September 2, 2011-December 31, 2011: Center for History in association with the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College, South Bend, Indiana

Father Pius Pietrzk, O.P.

On Friday, June 25, President Barack Obama announced the appointment of Father Pius Pietrzyk, O.P. as a member of the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation, reports Father Brian Mulcahy, O.P., prior provincial of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.

The Legal Services Corporation was established in 1974 and operates as an independent nonprofit corporation to promote equal access to justice and provide grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. It is the single largest provider of civil legal aid for the poor in the nation. The corporation is headed by a bipartisan board of directors whose 11 members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Before becoming a Dominicans, Pietrzyk attended the University of Chicago law school and after graduation worked in corporate and securities law for the Chicago-based law firm of Sidley & Austin. In that time he discerned a vocation to the priesthood and left the practice of law to enter religious life. He entered the Province of St. Joseph as a novice in 2002 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2008. He currently serves as parochial vicar in St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Zanesville, Ohio.