Truth & Beauty Project revives Christian culture through transformative experience in Rome

Gigi Duncan   By Gigi Duncan for CNA

July 24, 2024 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

Participants go on “a walk of Rome” to experience the city’s “art, architecture, history, and beauty.” / Credit: EWTN “Vaticano” screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 24, 2024 / 09:45 am (CNA).

With the conclusion of its recent July 8–13 young adult immersion, the Truth & Beauty Project offered participants immersive and transformative experiences in Rome, having encouraged them to revive a Christian culture through their encounters of “truth through beauty.”

The nonprofit offers both young adult and curated immersion trips throughout the year to those who wish to “fall in love with the roots of their Christian faith” and acquire a “deeper understanding of the dignity of the human person, through experiences of art, Scripture, liturgy, and beauty in Rome.”

“Coming to Rome without a Catholic perspective means that you’re missing out on the true meaning of Rome,” participant Moritz Scholtysik shared with EWTN Vaticano. “We are in the heart of Europe, essentially the heart of Christian Europe. If you come here with an open heart and an open mind to the Christian history and culture, only then can you truly experience Rome to its fullest extent.”

Often credited as an epicenter of Christianity, millions of people flock to Rome each year to visit its monuments, art, and over 900 churches.

The Truth & Beauty Project’s curated immersion trips to the eternal city are typically designed with a focus or theme that best fits the needs of the group. As the project cites, these groups have consisted of “CEOs, professional association members, parish staff, VIPs, donor groups, priests, seminarians, friends, families, and more.”

Additionally, the project offers weeklong young adult immersion trips for those between the ages of 18 and 30. While the total cost is 2,500 euros (about $2,700), those who wish to attend can apply for either a partial or full scholarship.

A typical day for this immersive trip usually consists of morning Mass, prayer, discussions held with speakers, and “a walk of Rome” to experience the city’s “art, architecture, history, and beauty,” among other things.

John and Ashley Noronha, who founded the Truth & Beauty Project seven years ago, share their experiences and intentions behind the project. Credit: EWTN Vaticano screenshot
John and Ashley Noronha, who founded the Truth & Beauty Project seven years ago, share their experiences and intentions behind the project. Credit: EWTN Vaticano screenshot

John and Ashley Noronha founded the Truth & Beauty Project in 2017. Credited as speakers, media personalities, theologians, and pontifical university professors, the couple sat down with EWTN Vaticano to share more about this project.

“The idea behind the Truth & Beauty Project was that we realized that there wasn’t this comprehensive program where one could truly understand their Christian identity from all different aspects,” John shared.

“And I would call the Truth & Beauty Project a school of Christian living because it’s an experience,” Ashley added, “a weeklong experience in Rome that really speaks to answer the questions that I think resonate in all of our human hearts: Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? What is God calling me to?”

Participant Katie Mlinek told EWTN Vaticano: “Being able to step away and go into these spaces that are much older than you and much grander than you help you remember that you are a part of a bigger story and something much grander than your own individual life.”

Citing Psalm 27:4 — “All I ask and this I seek is to dwell in the house of the Lord, and to gaze at his beauty for ever and ever!”— the Truth & Beauty Project wishes to “empower” its participants “to make their lives a masterpiece and to go out to share that masterpiece with the world.”

Father Vinay Kamath, who is orginally from the Diocese of Bombay, India, and currently works as a missionary priest in Riga, Latvia, mirrored this in recounting his recent experience attending a young adult immersion trip.

“It’s amazing what can be done by God and the Holy Spirit in six days with the right environment, with the right focus, and with the right innovation and fellowship,” Kamath shared.

Describing the young people in his group as initially being “hesitant” to get to know one another, Kamath then expressed how quickly they soon “bonded together,” feeling “at home” and as though “they’re with a family.”

“I think this is a beautiful experience of love, friendship, and fellowship, which I believe will last a lifetime for some of these young people,” he continued. “And they will go back richer, happier, and I believe holier as well.”

Those who wish to learn more about the Truth & Beauty Project can visit its website, or view recent coverage of the project on “EWTN News Nightly” below.

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Catholic schools in Ireland concerned by proposal to remove Church’s patronage

April 2, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Dublin, Ireland, Apr 2, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- Parents and Catholic schools near Dublin have expressed their opposition to a Department of Education plan to divest a school in the area from its Catholic patronage.

The Catholic Church runs more than 90 percent of schools in the Republic of Ireland, and receives government funds to do so.

The Department of Education has requested that one of the eight Catholic schools in the Malahide-Portmarnock-Kinsealy area, about 10 miles northeast of Dublin, be removed from Catholic patronage.

The request is part of an effort to reduce the role of the Catholic Church in education in Ireland. The Department of Education wants to reach 400 multi- or non-denominational schools by 2030, through a combination of divestment from Catholic patronage and new openings.

Last year, a law was adopted to prohibit Catholic primary schools from prioritizing Catholic students on admissions wait lists.

The Irish Times reported that a letter from the board of management of St. Oliver Plunkett’s School in Malahide told parents that the board and staff are entirely in favor of remaining under Catholic patronage, and that a change would have “huge implications”.

“A change in patronage would mean that First Penance, First Holy Communion and Confirmation would no longer be the responsibility of the school. Therefore, should you wish your child to receive the Sacraments, all preparation would take place outside of school hours and at a cost to parents,” the letter said.

It added that a patronage change “would impact the day to day running and management of the school, particularly in terms of managing finance, recruitment, allocation of resources.”

Parents at local schools have also been warned that Catholic holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and St. Patrick’s might no longer be celebrated at the schools were patronage changed, and that there would be a general change of culture at the schools.

A transfer of patronage would put the schools under either Educate Together, an educational charity which has been lauded by the National Secular Society of the U.K.; Community National School, a multidenominational model; or An Foras Patrunachta, a patron of Irish-language schools.

Parents of children at the schools will be asked to vote on whether they want their schol to divest from Catholic patronage.

In October 2018 Ireland adopted a law barring Catholic primary schools from taking religion into account in admissions. Under the new law, although Catholic schools can no longer use religion as a deciding factor in admissions, schools of minority religious groups, such as the Church of Ireland, can still use religion as a deciding factor to protect their ethos.

Previously, when a Catholic school was full, the admission process to determine which students would move off the waiting list could take religion into account.

Catholic organizations in Ireland have expressed worry that Catholic children and their parents could end up discriminated against under the new law, which they also fear could threaten the ethos of schools’ Catholic education.

[…]

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