World Watch: Pope Francis I in Ireland in the heat of sex scandals in the Church

From en.kiosko.net

Pope Francis was in Ireland, met with its Prime Minister and eight survivors of child abuse by Irish priests, and attended 

the 9th Meeting of Families in Dublin. 

This came in the wake of the Pennsylvania report about the abuse of some thousand children by Catholic priests for several decades.

I picked a free copy of The New York Times International Edition while boarding the Cathay Pacific flight Saturday evening from Hong Kong to San Francisco. The front page story said: "As pope visits, rage at abuse. Faithful in rural Ireland call on Catholic Church to offer more than apologies"

As soon as I got settled in SFO early Sunday morning, I went through my world watch of newspapers at the en.kiosko.net website, and found these interesting front page treatments of the Irish journey of Pope Francis I:

From en.kiosko.net

Sud Ouest (France): "The Church faces its demons. The very Catholic Ireland has been marked by the revelation of pedophile scandals and other abuses within the church. Beyond contrition, society expects actions."

El Pais (Spain), Sunday issue: "The new Ireland receives Pope with reproaches. Irish Prime Minister asks the Pope to go "to action" on the subject of abuse. The pontiff has met with eight victims of abuse during his trip"

ABC (Spain): "The indignation, the shame and the suffering of the Pope. Francis I denounces and laments in Dublin the 'failure of the ecclesiastical authorities to face these repugnant crimes' of sexual abuse that embarrasses the Catholic community"

The Irish Times (Sunday issue) reported that, according to two eyewitnesses, "Pope Francis referred to those who cover up child abuse in the Catholic Church as “caca” – the Spanish word for s**t – during a meeting in Dublin with abuse survivors."

From en.kiosko.net

The Independent (UK): "Abuse shames church, Pope tells Ireland", and The Sunday Telegraph (UK): "Pope apologizes for Church child abuse"

From en.kosko.net

The breastfeeding Mama Mary

Nuestra Senora de la Leche at the Manila Cathedral.

Photo by the author. 

This August is the National Breastfeeding Awareness Month 2018 in the Philippines. August 1 to 7 was the Worldwide Breastfeeding Week.

That week, we saw two newspapers featuring a picture of a group of breastfeeding mothers in their front pages: the Philippine Daily Inquirer and an African broadsheet.

What could be the best icon for breastfeeding? The Virgin Mary in her representation as Nuestra Senora de la Leche (Our Lady of the Milk), or Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto (Happy Delivery), or La Virgen de la Leche (The Virgin of the Milk).

I remembered taking a picture of the image of the Nuestra Senora de la Leche in one of the alcoves of the Manila Cathedral in November last year, right beside the large painting of the Filipiniana-dressed Our Lady of the Philippines. The feast day of the breastfeeding Mama Mary is on 11 October. It could be that the image is brought out only for veneration at the cathedral in October to November.

In the image, she holds the baby Jesus nursing on her right breast. She is like any mother opening her blouse anywhere to feed her hungry baby.

This very human, motherly image of Mary is far from the Nuestra Senoras garbed in rich garments in religious processions in provincial towns during her various feast days and in Intramuros during the Marian festival in December.

In Santiago, Chile, according to reports, the image of La Virgen de la Leche enshrined at the Church of Our Lady of Divine Providence is believed to be miraculous. Many childless couples attend her processions hoping that they be gifted with a child.

Pilgrims to the Holy Land may have visited the Chapel of the Milk Grotto, which is near the Church of the Nativity.

The grotto, according to tradition, is where Mary and Joseph rested during their flight to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. While she was nursing the baby Jesus, a few drops of her milk fell on the rocks, and soft yellowish-brown limestone turned creamy white.

Infertile couples, Christians and Muslims, according to pilgrimage accounts, visit the Milk Grotto to seek Mary's intercession for them to have a baby. Muslims have a high regard too for Mary.

The breastfeeding Mama Mary has been the subject of paintings around the time of Leonardo da Vinci. One painting attributed to him, the Madonna and Child (also called the Madonna Litta after its previous owner Count Antonio Litta) at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, shows Mary nursing the Christ child set against a mountainous scenery framed by symmetrical windows.

The Madonna Litta, c1490s. Da Vinci. Hermitage Museum.

The Museo Nacional de Prado [Prado Museum] in Spain has a collection of La Virgen de la Leche paintings.

Several paintings depict Mary nursing on her right breast --

La Virgen de la Leche. Alvaro de Luna. c1490.

-- and in this scene, we see Mary's milk spurting after the baby may have had his fill onto St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Benedict:

'La Vrgen de la Leche con Nino' between St. Bernard of Clairvaux
& St. Benedict. Pere Lembri. 1410-1415.

She is also depicted nursing on her left breast --

La Virgen de la Leche. Bernard van Orley. c1520.

In this painting by Orley, there are five angels in the background: a harpist and singers, three of them reading a large music book.

La Virgen de la Leche. Marinus van Reymerswaele. 1525-1550.

If not for the title, Reymerswaele's mother and child could be any nursing mother anywhere in the world.

The Virgin and the Souls of Purgatory. Pedro Machuca, 1517.

The Machuca painting is described as an intriguing version of the La Virgen de la Leche, 'a symbol of Marian mercy that serves to help the souls of Purgatory.' 

Here we see Mary with both of her breasts open, with milk dropping from the right toward the souls below. It appears that the baby wants to help her mother quench the thirst of the souls too.

The beautiful woman feeding her child in these paintings is the epitome of motherhood and motherly love. She is Mama, indeed!


References:

1. The Madonna Litta at The Hermitage at
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+Paintings/29633/?lng=en

2. The La Virgen de la Leche collection at Museo del Prado at https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obras-de-arte?searchObras=la%20virgen%20de%20la%20leche