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Mary in cyberspace
By CHERYL HECKLER-FELTZ
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Dayton, Ohio
There are literally dozens of home pages dedicated to Marian
interests. These range from the genuinely creative and endearing to the really
strange.
One page, for instance, is dedicated to stories about rosaries
changing to gold, believed to signify that their previous owners now rest in
heaven.
The University of Dayton created one of the first Mary pages 18
months ago -- a page that is both comprehensive and scholarly. The page now
gets 1,000 hits per week and two E-mails a day with comments like this:
- "I am an 8-year-old girl and at my school this year we have
decided to play down Halloween and play up All Saints Day. I am going as Mary.
What should I wear to REALLY look the part?"
- "I am a conservative Protestant writing to tell you that you
have missed the boat. Do you not understand that Christ is central to the life
of a Christian and not Mary?"
- "I am a college student with a presentation due in 24 hours
about how Chaucer treated Mary throughout his works. What should I tell them?"
- "Our parish hopes to establish a week of celebrations to honor
and learn about Mary. Can you design a plan for us that could include a series
of events for this?"
- "I live in an area of Finland where there are just very few
Catholics. I'm writing to tell you how happy I am to establish a link to
someone else who understands very well something that is essential to my life
-- my Catholic faith."
- "I'm a student at Harvard Divinity School needing very specific
artistic details regarding the physical design of rosary beads from the 14th
century."
- "Can you come up with a patron saint for realtors? If so, you
should select a saint who is forceful, a good talker and really understands
crazy financial situations. Also, you should pick someone who can really
BS."
National Catholic Reporter, November 22,
1996
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