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atholic NEWS HERALD
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November
Volume
Number
11 t
&
2001
23,
11
Serving Catholics
in
Western North Carolina
in
the Diocese of Charlotte
Artist draws inspiration
n sid
and
Students share thanks of the
season forThanksgiving. Our
strength from creative endeavors
Lady of the Assumption
By JOANITA M.
Catholic School students reveal
NELLENBACH
Correspondent
why they give thanks.
On a lighter note, students share their thoughts on how
FOREST CITY
Alan Paul
dish-brown paint onto a piece of clear and began to
plastic, filled his brush,
paint the hair of Pontius Pilate's servant. It
to cook a turkey.
—
Murfitt poured a small amount of red-
was
"Jesus
Condemned
to Death," the
of the 14 Stations of the Cross that Murfitt is painting and repairing for his first
...Pages
8-9
parish church, Immaculate Conception.
Father Herbert Burke, the parish's pastoral administrator, asked him to take
News
Local
Charlotte resident recalls conflict in native country ...Page
15
Deacon's early faith
Joann Cilone, Mr. Andrew J. Cilone has seen the completed station, which
Murfitt delivered to the church just before Thanksgiving. "I think he's doing a ...Page
16
Advent 2001Father Matthew Kauth, parochial vicar of St.
Matthew parish, provides insight for the first week
of Advent. ...Page
12
fvery Week Entertainment ...Pages
Editorials
10-11
& Columns ...Pages
12-13
Prayer makes us aware that
everything - even principal in
(Jesus) suffered."
wife of Rev.
God
point
sion, The smooth-as-marble, cream-colored plaques, Murfitt said, look "dead" to him, adding that, "Now, when people look at them they'll be able to see some of
what
struggles lead him closer to
on the project after seeing several statues he had painted. Murfitt wanted to paint the stations a few years ago, but the previous pastor never gave him permis-
and
evil
-finds
its
definitive reference
God.
-Pope John Paul Letter to U.S. Bishops,
II
1993
very good job," she said. "He was really nervous about it; he didn't want to do anything that would upset anybody. He's just a very special person." Murfitt
works by a window in a room at home or at nearby Isothermal Community College, where he's taking an art class so he can learn to do details, such as realistic faces. He's also painted angels and a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, among other pieces, but accepts no payment for his work. "I don't want any money," Murfitt said. "I do it for the Lord. This is my way to give thanks to the Lord for bringing me where I am today. I was supposed to be dead. He gave me back my life." Where Murfitt, 54, is today is a long way from the accident that put him in a wheelchair and on artificial legs and from his tough youth in the Bronx, NY.
He did
drugs, sold drugs,
made
zip guns,
Photo by Joanita M. Nellenbach
Alan Paul Murfitt paints the Murfitt was the porter (janitor) at Public School 145 on
New York
City's
pistols built of pipe.
Upper West
he could
ordered him to burn trash in the school's
working
Once he stole a car so twin sister who was upstate. He'd been raised
visit his
Side.
His foreman regularly
incinerator. "I wasn't supposed to be-
Catholic, but after confirmation he
cause
mostly quit going to church. "Sometimes I believed, sometimes I didn't," he said. "You could say I hung out with the wrong crowd, but that's what we did in my neighborhood." He had a violent temper: "I used to carry a (metal) pipe, about six feet long. Somebody jumped in my face, I knocked 'em down. I never hurt anybody real bad. I got close to it, but I never hurt anybody real bad, never killed anybody." Then came the accident when he was 29.
said,
I
didn't
"but
have a
license,"
when you've got
times you do things
if
Murfitt
kids,
you want
some-
to keep
your job." That first Monday after Christmas day 1976 a new employee turned on the gas in the incinerator, without Murfitt's knowledge, but the fire didn't start. Murfitt opened the incinerator door, dropped in a piece of paper, added a flaming piece." I threw the paper in," he said, "and instead of the gas blowing up, it blew out." Murfitt's co-workers found him unconscious,
first
Station of the Cross.
right
hand over
That hand and he was burned body. His work
his face.
his face weren't hurt, but
over 75 percent of his boots held in the heat that cooked his legs and feet. Doctors amputated his left leg above the knee; two months later they took the fingers of his left hand and his right leg
below the knee.
year in the hospital." the pain," he said.
me
I
don't
He
spent a
remember
'The Lord doesn't
let
remember."
A
psychiatrist visited to determine
Murfitt's mental state.
The window was
open, and the doctor asked
if
he wanted
to jump out. "No," Murfitt replied, "but if
you want
to,
go ahead."
See ARTIST, page
5