Last week, Fr. Ben was in the Diocese of Charleston, SC, where our 9th Shrine in the world for Persecuted Christians will be established. It will be located in the Adoration Chapel of the newly renovated Church of the Most Precious Blood, in Pawleys Island, SC.
The location was not quite ready for the Mass & Installation, so Fr. Ben travelled with the Pastor and two Knights of the Holy Sepulchre from the parish, to have the icon of ‘Mary, Mother of the Persecuted, blessed by the Bishop of Charleston, the Most Rev. Jacques Fabre-Jeune. As always, a shrine is only established with the express support of the Bishop, and his personal blessing of the icon. The Bishop is originally from Haiti, and he spoke during the blessing, in particular, about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Many Haitians were originally from the Igbo tribe in Nigeria.
Hopefully, Bishop Jacques will be in the parish within the next few weeks for Mass and blessing of the facilities. We are particularly grateful to the Knights from the parish who took the initiative in seeking to establish a shrine. With our next shrine due to be blessed in Ismailia, Egypt, we will have 10 shrines in the world in our 10th anniversary year!
Picture (from left to right) – George Felton, Jim Lampe, Bishop Jacques, Fr. Paul MacNeil, Fr. Ben