The Message Monthly -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
"+Perspective --
When Advent turns to Christmas
Tuesday night before Thanks-
giving. A car comes down the
street. Is this the one?
It is not.
The dog barks. Is some one at
the door? No. A jogger passes by on
the sidewalk. He is not the one we
are waiting for.
I am waiting for my son Ben to
return from college, to join the fam-
ily for Thanksgiving. He didn't say
when he would arrive. He didn't
call before he left. He will be here
tonight. Some time.
Dinner and evening activities
go on outwardly as usual, but in-
wardly there is an extraordinary
difference -- tension, anticipation, hope, anxiety,
expectation, and even a tinge of irritation -- Why
didn't he call and tell us when to expect him?
The new U.S. bishops pastoral message on the
family speaks of "the incredible busyness of family
life" and how it is "hard to imagine how a family
can live faithfully, be life giving and grow in mutu-
ality without deliberately choosing to spend time
IB PAUL It.
INGANG
EDITOR
together."
We are deliberately choosing
to spend time together -- but that
time together has not yet started,
and we, Ben's mother and I, are
waiting.
Finally, a few seconds worth of
activity shatters the silence of the
waiting hours. A car pulls up, the
dog barks, the door opens, and Ben
is home. We move from a little Ad-
vent to a little Christmas.
Now it is Wednesday night,
Ben is home, and we are waiting at
the train station in Centralia, Ill.
Waiting for Matt, our older son, to come home from
college for Thanksgiving.
A crowd gathers near the railroad tracks.
They are waiting, too. Budget cuts have closed the
railway station, and there is no one around to ask
about the train.
Is it on time? There is no one to answer the
question. All that is possible for us is to wait. Min-
utes past the scheduled time go by. People in
parking area mill around, circle t[
briefly to each other, and return to their cars,
wait, until finally the sound of the train
and the crossing signals clang.
Is this the right train? Or is it
we are waiting for?
The engines pass, slow, and stop. A door
opens. Matt steps out. Advent again has
Christmas.
It's Sunday after Thanksgiving.
a ride. We talk about Christmas and the next'
he will be home. ::
It's later Sunday afternoon, and we are
waiting for a train. People gather, leave
to take a long look down the tracks, talk to
other, stomp away the cold, and re
cars again. There's talk about C
next time Matt will be home. :+
Is it possible? All of life is
by brief moments of Christmas -- when we
erately choose to spend time
-.-.- Vatican Letter
Judgment: Cleaning project heightens drama in Michelangelo
By JOHN THAVIS Judgment after it occurs, with formally unveiled on Easter. ingly with solvent to remove Michelangelo
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --
Suspended between heaven
and hell, their faces have been
scrubbed clean for Judgment
Day.
A woman's bulging eyes now
betray her fear as she gazes up
at the implacable expression of
Christ. Beside her, a figure
winces in apprehension, un-
easy about what comes next.
A less-confident neighbor
simply pulls a hood over his
head and looks glumly below
-- toward scenes of eternal suf-
fering.
In the features of more than
300 painted figures, doubt and
dread shine through. To ex-
perts restoring Michelangelo's
"Last Judgment" mural fresco,
that is the real discovery of a
four-year project which is fi-
nally nearing completion.
"Now that we can see what's
happening, it becomes strik-
ingly clear that this scene is
the moment just before Christ
makes his judgment," said
Fabrizio Mancinelli, a member
of the Vatican Museum
restoration team.
Most medieval and Renais-
sance artists depicted the Last
The MESSAGE
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the blessed seated in angelic
calm and the damned in the
mouths of beasts. The genius
of Michelangelo was to capture
the instant of uncertainty be-
fore most of the individuals
learned of their fate.
"No one is very confident --
even St. Peter looks uncomfort-
able," Mancinelli said.
Fellow restorer Gianluigi
Colalucci pointed out that the
cleaning has brought back to
light what Michelangelo's con-
temporaries called the "dread-
fulness" of the painting.
"The figures are all anxious.
Even the saints are holding up
the instruments of their mar-
tyrdom as if to say: 'I earned
this, right?"' he said.
The Vatican Museum al-
lowed journalists to view the
restored sections of the work
for the first time in late No-
vember. The 1,700-square-foot
painting, which covers an en-
tire wall of the Sistine Chapel,
has been covered by scaffolding
since April 1990 and will be
For the first time in cen-
turies it will then be possible
for visitors to see Michelan-
gelo's Sistine frescoes more or
less as he painted them some
500 years ago. The frescoes on
the ceiling were restored be-
tween 1980-90; the entire pro-
ject has been underwritten in
part by Japan's Nippon Televi-
sion Network.
Like the ceiling restoration,
the cleaning of the "Last Judg-
ment" has brought out vivid
colors that had been hidden
under centuries of grime.
Mancinelli said there is a dif-
ference, however: the ceiling
features cool shades of green,
yellow and blue, while the
"Judgment" has "hot" colors --
especially reds and purples
that reflect a Venetian influ-
ence on Michelangelo.
To the casual observer, of
course, the striking novelty is
that the fresco can be seen
again. What was once a dark
soup of bodies under a gloomy
sky has been daubed painstak-
Father Joseph Kirsch granted leave of absence
Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfin-
ger has granted a leave of ab-
sence from the active ministry
of the priesthood to Father
Joseph Kirsch, who has been
serving as pastor of St. Agnes
Church, Evansville.
Bishop Gettelfinger presided
at all parish Masses over the
weekend, Nov. 27 -- 28, and
announced the decision to
parishioners. He also offered
Mass for the school children on
Monday morning, Nov. 29.
Father Raymond Brenner,
Dean of the West Deanery, will
serve as administrator of the
parish and work in collabora-
tion with the parish staff dur-
ing the interim.
Father Kirsch has written to
priests and pastoral life coordi-
nators in the diocese, and to
members of St. Agnes Church.
Father Kirsch noted that he
has "struggled with the issue
of mandatory celibacy and the
question of the married priest-
hood." He also stated he has no
plans at this time, "other than
to try to find a job in a social
work-related field, so as to con-
tinue in ministry with God's
people."
Father Kirsch also asked for
prayers.
He said he intended to stay
in the Evansville area if job op-
portunities permit.
layers of candle soot, glue and
painted touch-ups.
The difference is like night
and day. In one corner of hell,
for example, only a toothy gri-
mace was previously visible.
Now, viewers can see the rest
of the story: it's a horned devil
who happens to be sitting in a
cavern of fire.
The cleaning has ended at
least one debate: whether
Christ might have had a beard
in Michelangelo's original. Be-
cause the figure of Christ was
restored many times over the
centuries, it was difficult to
say. The final verdict is that
Christ was indeed clean-
shaven, the experts said.
Another debate still simmers
among restorers, however:
whether to remove the "loin-
cloths" that were later painted
onto 38 nude figures, for the
sake of modesty. Mancinelli
said some of the figures would
have to be undressed because
their loincloths look "too dark"
and incongruous in the re-
stored fresco.
St. Andrew will lose his
drapery, for example. But St.
John the Baptist will keep his
tiny animal-skin brief- done
in good 16th-century taste,
Mancinelli said -- and St.
Peter will remain covered, too.
The loincloths were painted
on as a result of the Council of
Trent, only a few years after
fresco. The artisl
cover the nudes
most of the add-onS
contemporary, Da
Volterra. Some
plaster and cannot
but others wqre
and could be
For Mancinelli,
urgency, however,
"Some of these (l
are considered
mony to a
taste. Anyway,
if you leave
always be remove
proceeding with c
said.
The decision on.
ures to undress v
for last, he said.
To tell the
tion experts
of questions ab
cloths. They re
when journalists
"A lot of
the Madonna
nude,"
Michelangelo
and several
clothed, and gave
pie wrap.
One member
tion team
the "Last Jw
veiled next
grandeur as a
people
will notice"
loincloth and who
Bishop's sc
The following activities and events are
schedule of Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger
