Circus ministry is a high-wire act of faith for chaplain
Circus ministry is a high-wire act of faith for chaplain Sister Priscilla, left, Sister Francisca, Sister Ann Dolores and Father Jerry Hogan bless the Big Apple Circle. (By Tammi Marcoullier) Religion News Service, Published: October 17
WORCESTER, Mass. — With a stairwell for a confessional and a folding table for an altar, the lobby of the DCU Center arena doesn’t look especially holy — until a band of circus workers gathers for Mass.
That’s when the Rev. Jerry Hogan dons a colorful chasuble festooned with images of big tops, lions and zebras. As he administers the Eucharist, off-duty performers help sanctify the space by kneeling on the marble floor, praying and breaking spontaneously into Portuguese song.
The event is no act, even if it is associated with a three-ring circus.
After months of living together on a train and performing hundreds of shows a year, these 50 Catholic circus workers and their children are a beaming bunch as they hug the priest and nuns who’ve prepared them for this day.
“This gives me a way to know Jesus and to be protected,” said trapeze artist Ingrid Silva as she prepared for the sacrament of confirmation.
The Circus and Traveling Show Ministries of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops provides the spiritual lifeblood for about 4,500 Catholics who work in North America’s 41 traveling circuses, as well as thousands more who work in carnivals, rodeos and auto racing.read more at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/circus-ministry-is-a-high-wire-act-of-faith-for-chaplain/2011/10/17/gIQAQNthrL_story.html
That’s when the Rev. Jerry Hogan dons a colorful chasuble festooned with images of big tops, lions and zebras. As he administers the Eucharist, off-duty performers help sanctify the space by kneeling on the marble floor, praying and breaking spontaneously into Portuguese song.
The event is no act, even if it is associated with a three-ring circus.
After months of living together on a train and performing hundreds of shows a year, these 50 Catholic circus workers and their children are a beaming bunch as they hug the priest and nuns who’ve prepared them for this day.
“This gives me a way to know Jesus and to be protected,” said trapeze artist Ingrid Silva as she prepared for the sacrament of confirmation.
The Circus and Traveling Show Ministries of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops provides the spiritual lifeblood for about 4,500 Catholics who work in North America’s 41 traveling circuses, as well as thousands more who work in carnivals, rodeos and auto racing.read more at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/circus-ministry-is-a-high-wire-act-of-faith-for-chaplain/2011/10/17/gIQAQNthrL_story.html
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