Bonn Basilica

The Pope recently revoked the excommunication of several bishops that were a part of an ultraconservative group. One of the bishops had at one point in time denied the existence of the Holocaust. In Germany, denying the Holocaust is a crime. This move by the Pope has caused him to be criticized by Angela Merkel, the Bundeskanzlerin of Germany. Despite the turmoil that is being felt in the Church in Germany, people still gathered today to celebrate Mass with one another.

I went to Mass this morning at the Basilica in Bonn. It is a beautiful building, and it was a very cool thing to be able to worship with people from another country, who speak another language. This universality, the fact that I can know what is going on at a church in Bonn, Germany when I am from Missouri, is one of the things that I like most about the Catholic Church.

The Basilica is a big open building with rock walls. As a consequence, any noise echoed quite a lot and made everything very difficult to understand. I was in a strange church, in another country, listening to a foreign language, and I still knew what was going on and where we were in the Mass. That is cool.

There were a few slight differences that I noted. There was no pause between the first and second readings. And then between the readings and the Gospel, both a Psalm and the Alleluia were sung. No one held hands while saying the Our Father. And Peace be with You was just something that everyone said all at once, not an individual greeting of the people around you.

These minor differences in the structure don't matter though. It is the content that matters and that is the same everywhere. It is comforting to me to know that I have done today what the CSC, my church in the states, is going to be doing in a few hours. There is a sense of community and unity that can literally span oceans when you are doing the same things to worship the same God.

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In other news, Leigh came down to Bonn today and we showed her the city. We went to the Beethoven house, and this time we actually went inside. We were able to take several illegal pictures from inside the house. (You weren't supposed to take pictures in the museuem, or at least that is what I assume a camera with a line through it means) We also enjoyed some cake at a local bakery. Quite a lovely day.

An organ that Beethoven played. A collection of various instruments that had some connection to Beethoven and therefore needed to be displayed in his house.

Flat Stanley with one of Beethoven's compositions

The room where Beethoven was born. Kind of weird to think that he was born at home and not in a hospital or doctor's office.