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Date
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Topic or Event Description
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| Nov 12 |
Sacred Tradition: Handing on the Faith. |
| Dec 10 |
The Church's Teaching Authority: By What Authority? |
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Discussions include a variety of topics, such as the following, provided by visiting priest, Fr. Flor McCarthy:
When Good Things Go Wrong
In July 2002 nine coal miners in Pennsylvania found themselves trapped in a shaft 240 feet below the ground when they accidentally cut into an old mine that was flooded with millions of gallons of water. Luckily one area remained free of water, and there they sought refuge. Very early on they decided that they would live or die as a group. They bound themselves together so they wouldn't float away from one another in the dark. Their ordeal lasted over three days.
The awfulness of their situation hardly bears thinking about - the cold, the wet, the hunger, the rising water, the uncertainty. They had two working lights but saved them for forays into the shaft. Most of the time they were in darkness. They wrote their wills and scrawled last messages to their loved ones as they huddled together to keep warm. The water continued to rise. However, they knew that efforts were being made to rescue them because they could hear drilling.
The news of the trapped miners spread throughout America and far beyond. Everybody's prayer was that they would all be rescued safely. But as the hours went by this became less and less likely. But the miracle happened. Eventually the rescuers bored through the ceiling where the miners were trapped. All nine miners emerged into the sunlight and into the arms of their families. Though they were covered in coal dust and their clothes soaked through, they were in surprisingly good physical condition.
One man in particular was hailed as their saviour, Bob Long. Long, aged 37, with a wife and three young children, was a surveyor. Answering a call in the middle of the night, he raced to the scene, and using global satellite surveying equipment pinpointed the spot to drill the crucial flrst air hole. Had he miscalculated, the miners would probably have died.
One would have expected that after their rescue they would all have lived happily and gratefully ever afterwards. Alas, a year had not gone by when the triumphant moment had become mingled with trouble and tragedy. What went wrong?
Hero status was immediately conferred on the miners by the media. A Hollywood bidding frenzy ensued for the rights to their story. Within a week they had sold the rights to Disney for a book and a movie for $150,000 each. Overnight the weedy field where the rescue took place became a tourist attraction.
For a few days the miners were the most famous men in America. They appeared on television talk shows with such luminaries as Oprah and David Letterman. President Bush referred to them as symbols of the American spirit. One miner said, "After the rescue, people would literally come up to me on the street and ask if they could touch me."
It was inevitable that the halos would fall from their heads. They were not real to begin with. In the aftermath of the rescue, they went out of their way to give credit to the hundreds of people who worked round the clock to save them. But, of course, it was the miners who flew to race meetings in private jets and who were feted at the Governor's Mansion. The miners were treated like royalty while the hard work of the rescuers was overlooked. This gave rise to tensions and resentments.
Most of the miners used their windfall sensibly. They paid off the morgage on their homes, bought a new truck, and indulged themselves a little by buying some item for personal enjoyment such as a hunting gun or a boat For some, the traumatic event changed the lives. Of one man it was said that before the accident he was a coal miner first and a family man second. After it he was a family man first and a coal miner second. Another, who up to then was not a regular churchgoer, now began to attend church regularly.
But it was a very stressful year for them. Traumatic events, combined with sudden celebrity, can put enormous stress on people. They have suffered from depression, migraine headaches, sleeplessness, anxiety attacks, and nightmares. Many of them have had to go to see a therapist; a number are on antidepressants. Where once their days were full, now there was a void - only one returned to working in the mine. That meant lots of time for worries, regrets and introspection. Six of the nine miners have filed a lawsuit against the mining Company, claiming that it was negligent. That hasn't gone down well with everyone.
However, for one man things took a tragic turn. That man was Bob Long. We have seen how he in particular was singled out as the saviour of the miners. Yet, less than a year later, he put a gun to his head and killed himself. It's not easy to figure out exactly what went wrong in his case.
At first he went out of his way to stress that he was only one of many who worked to get the miners free. However, Disney cut him into the book-and-movie deal for the miners' story - the only one of the rescuers to receive money. The other rescuers resented this. And so too did the miners. The result was that Long found himself shunned by his fellow rescuers and by the miners. He didn't help his cause when he criticised the miners in a newspaper article, accusing them of ingratitude. After the article he received death threats on the phone. When he died only one miner went to the funeral home to pay his respects. Another thing: when things were bothering him he was unable to discuss his troubles with anyone.
How could such a good thing go so badly wrong?
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