From Dave "Sacrilicious" Brigham:
"Should I go in?" I asked myself as I stood outside the shrine to Our Lady of Fatima in Boston's Brighton neighborhood. A sign on the unlocked door invited any and all to enjoy the peace and quiet of the shrine, which commemorates the supposed appearance of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Construction of the shrine began in 1968, and was completed at the end of the following year.
I am not Catholic. I am not a religious person whatsoever. But I have an affinity for churches and religious icons. Nobody was around, so I went in.
I felt like such a heathen! And I was afraid that somebody -- a nun or priest or devout worshiper or Ralph Reed -- would come in at any second, ask just what in the name of all that is holy I was doing there, and kick me out. But I remained alone for the five minutes or so that I was in the shrine.
I took my leave and went off to explore more of the grounds of the former St. Gabriel's Monastery on which the shrine sits. For more about the monastery, which is slated to be included in a massive redevelopment soon, see September 22, 2018, "Modern-Day Monastery, No Celibacy Required." According to a Boston Herald article, the shrine would be moved to a new building when the monastery project commences.
Now, for something completely different:
And something even different-er:
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