Saints and Italians Need Not Apply

New York City, N.Y., Aug 19, 2019 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- A New York City public arts program has said it will not build a statue in honor of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, despite the saint receiving the most nominations in a public poll. 

She Built NYC was established in June of 2018 under the patronage of Chirlane McCray, wife of New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, to create more statues of women around the city of New York. The public were asked to nominate women for a potential statue and the campaign received over 2,000 votes for over 300 eligible women.

The results of the nominating period were published in December, with Mother Cabrini receiving 219 nominations - more than double the number received by second-place finisher, Jane Jacobs. 
Despite the public vote, the New York Post reported on Aug. 10 that the selection committee, led by McCray and former New York deputy mayor Alicia Glen, had excluded the first American saint from the planned statutes, instead choosing to honor Rep. Shirley Chisolm, Katherine Walker, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Elizabeth Jennings Graham, Billie Holiday, and Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias. They received the third, fifth, seventh, 19th, 22nd, 24th and 42nd-most nominations, respectively.  

LGBT rights activists Johnson and Rivera were biological males and will be featured together in a single statue. Both were self-identified “drag queens” and co-founders of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. The pair received a combined 86 nominations.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Billie Holiday died from drinking herself to death, and was arrested on her death bed for narcotics posession.

I'm surprised Margaret Sanger didn't get any votes. 

Feast of St. Agatha, February 5

St. Agatha’s popularity spread rapidly in the 3rd century after her gruesome martyrdom. She was brutally tortured to death for refusing to renounce her virginity and Christian religion, and her story of perseverance in suffering has inspired many over the centuries.
Shortly after her death, the Italian people began invoking her intercession for their various needs. In particular, the local people of Catania used a veil she wore to protect them from total destruction. The Golden Legend summarizes how she interceded for the people before God when a volcano erupted.

One year from the day of Agatha’s birth into the new life of heaven, the mountain that looms over Catania erupted and spewed a river of fire and molten rock down toward the city. Then crowds of pagans fled from the mountain to the saint’s tomb, snatched up the pall that covered it, and hung it up in the path of the fire; and, on the very day of the virgin’s birth, the stream of lava halted and did not advance a foot farther.

The volcano was Mt. Etna and it is believed that this was not the last time St. Agatha protected the people of Catania from an eruption. She continues to be invoked by people around the world against volcanic eruptions and is often invoked by firefighters.
God chose the virgin-martyr St. Agatha to be his vessel and continues to protect those who call upon her aid with a sincere faith.

The Bosco Chocolate Drink Mix Feast of St. John Bosco

 The Patron Saint of Magicians!

The Scarecrow Will Have To Look Elsewhere

Turin, Italy, Jun 16, 2017 / 10:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A relic of St. John Bosco, which had been stolen from an Italian basilica two weeks ago, has been recovered, the local Prosecutor's Office reported.

An urn containing a relic of St. John Bosco’s brain was discovered missing on June 3. The reliquary was kept in the Basilica of John Bosco in Asti, the saint's birthplace, fewer than 20 miles east of Turin.

The Pope, Mother Cabrini, and Immigration

Vatican City, Jan 15, 2017 / 05:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Pope Francis pointed to St. Frances Cabrini as an example of how to treat foreigners, calling her a “courageous” woman who knew how to bring God’s love to those who were lonely and in hardship.

After praying the Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square Jan. 15, Pope Francis sent a special greeting to members of different ethnic communities gathered who had gathered in honor of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

This courageous Sister dedicated her life to bringing the love of Christ to those who were far from their homeland and families,” he said, adding that her witness can help us learn “to take care of our foreign brother, in whom Jesus is present, often suffering, rejected and humiliated.”

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Mother Cabrini worked almost exclusively Italians who were:

1) Catholic (and therefore did not reject Jesus as the Son of God),

2) In the country legally, and

3) unlike the wave of immigrants in Europe, were looking for work.

Mother Cabrini's biggest contribution was educating and cathecizing the Italian immigrants to the United States, many of whom were here when she arrived.

The Airtraffic Controllers Union Feast of St. Pius of Pietreclina, September 24

Padre Pio to you and me.

The heart of Padre Pio, the sainted Italian priest and mystic who bore stigmata, will be on display on Sunday at a church in Vineland, the Press of Atlantic City reports.

The relic of the Capuchin friar, now known officially as St. Pio of Pietrelcina and whose feast day is today, will be at Our Lady of Pompeii Church as part of its 14th annual St. Padre Pio festival.

“It’s huge,” the Rev. Robert Sinatra, pastor of Our Lady of Pompeii and festival founder, told the Press. “This is really a once in a lifetime opportunity.” He's expecting 6,000 people.

Many Allied aviation pilots of various nationalities (English, American, Polish, Palestinian) and of varied religions (Catholic, Orthodox, Moslem, Protestant, Jewish) who during the Second World War, after September 8, 1943, were based in Bari to undertake missions on Italian territory, testified to an amazing occurrence.
Each time, while fulfilling their Italian military mission, they approached the zone of the Gargano, in the environs of San Giovanni Rotondo, they saw in the sky a Friar, who in stretching out his wounded hands, prevented them from dropping their bombs. Foggia and almost all of the centers of Puglia were subjected to repeated bombardment; on San Giovanni Rotondo not one bomb fell. 
This event, which is to say the least unheard of, was directly witnessed by the general of Aeronautica Italiana Bernardo Rosini, who at that time was part of the "United Air Command" operating out of Bari with the Allied air forces. "Each time that the pilots returned from their missions," General Rosini told me, "they spoke of this Friar that appeared in the sky and diverted their airplanes, making them turn back.  
Someone told the commanding general that in a convent at this little town of San Giovanni Rotondo, there lived a saintly man, a friar in the odor of sanctity. At war's end, the general wanted to go meet this person. "He was accompanied by several pilots," Rosini continued. "He went to the convent of the Capuchins. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the sacrisity he found himself in front of several friars, among whom he immediately recognized the one who had 'stopped' his planes. Padre Pio went forward to meet him, and putting his hand on his shoulder, he said, "So, you're the one who wanted to get rid of us all!" If there had been any doubt before....

I can't seem to imbed this video, but it's Pio related:

http://youtu.be/ux1qpLDVPcg