An 85-year-old man in Spain, who has no formal training in construction, has singlehandedly completed two-thirds of a 131-foot tall cathedral that he has been working on for the past 50 years, using scrap, on a piece of land that he owns.

Justo Gallego has been working on the cathedral since 1963, using rejected bricks, wood, metal, oil drums (for the pillars), broken tiles, plastic food tubs and cardboard that he collects every day from yards and factories nearby, BBC reported.

So far Gallego has singlehandedly put together a huge central dome which he had worked on for 20 years, more than 24 unfinished cupolas, a sacristy, cloisters, a spacious crypt, walls with biblical, albeit gaudy paintings, and perhaps 1,000 stained glass windows, BBC said. 

He built it without any experience in architecture, construction and no building plan, although he read a lot of construction books on his own, TravelDudes said. In fact, he doesn’t even have a license for its construction, making the cathedral illicit, BBC News reported.

But the former Trappist monk who calls his work in progress Catedral de Nuestra Senora del Pilar continues to work with no interference from the city council—perhaps, because it has become a singular lure for tourists to the small town, Mejorada del Campo, which is very near Madrid, according to Tales of a Brit Abroad.

Work of faith

Gallego told BBC the cathedral is a work of faith. “My mother was very pious. She taught me my faith and I love the church. So I put everything into this.” Born in 1925, his education was disrupted by the Civil War in 1936.

“You don’t need to study. You just need strength. It all comes from above,” he told BBC News. And as for his building plan, he said it is all “in my head,” although he adds that he has gained inspiration from St Peter’s in the Vatican, a number of castles, other churches and the White House.

A normal day for Don Justo begins at 4 a.m. when he collects scrap material from nearby factories and junkyards. By 6 a.m. he is at the site, and starts his work. He rests every Sunday and on holidays, BBC News said.

With barely any funding, he relies largely on donations from tourists (there is no entrance fee to the cathedral). He does welcome donations whether through money or materials, however, TravelDudes reported.

And according to Tales of a Brit Abroad, he has hired a Romanian who lives in the town and a man from Toledo to work “part time on the windows and more intricate aspects of the job.”

TravelDudes noted that “everything has been started, but nothing has been finished. The central dome is uncovered, revealing a patch of sky, and the cathedral’s towers stop abruptly.”

 BBC News mentioned the bare floor, and spiral staircases that lead nowhere, ending in mid-air. Pablo Queralto, an architect with Mejorada council told BBC, “The bricks don’t meet minimum standards, either in themselves or the way they’ve been laid.”

But Don Justo told the BBC he has no regrets, and if he lived again he would do the same, only larger. “People have called me crazy and insulted me. But they’re ignorant. When I look at what I’ve created, it overwhelms me and I give thanks to the Lord.”

Next month, leading atheist Christopher Hitchens is scheduled to debate leading agnostic David Berlinski on the topic, “How Atheism Poisons Everything” in Birmingham, AL.

Hitchens is the author of the bestseller “Hitch 22” and the controversial “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

Aside from his books, he has also written columns for The Atlantic, Vanity Fair and Slate. A worldwide in-demand speaker, he was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy, but says that despite this he will be present for the debate, according to the Fixed Point website.

Berlinski has authored the book “The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions.”

He has also written several books on mathematics. Aside from his book against atheism he is also known for his participation in the Ben Stein film “Expelled.” He has strong feelings about atheistic regimes as his parents escaped Nazi persecution under Hitler. Berlinski earned his doctorate from Princeton and taught philosophy and math at the University of Paris and Stanford University.

The debate, which will be at the Sheraton Hotel in Birmingham, will take place at 7 p.m. on Sept. 7.

The event is hosted by Fixed Point Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense of Christianity, according to its website at www.fixed-point.org, where tickets may be also be purchased and inquiries made. One can also call (204) 414-6311.

On the Fixed Point website Larry Taunton of Fixed Point writes, “One may reasonably wonder why Fixed Point Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the defense of Christianity, would sponsor a debate between an atheist and an agnostic.  It is out of the ordinary for us to do so, to be sure.  But we hope to demonstrate that these issues are relevant to everyone, not just Christians and atheists.”

British columnist and former atheist, Peter Hitchens, has written a book about his conversion to Christianity.

Hitchens, a London Mail political columnist and former Marxist revolutionary, has penned “The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith.” The book has a different subtitle in the U.K., namely Why Faith is the Foundation of Civilization, the Washington Times said.

A Cain and Abel scenario has unfolded with Hitchens’ new faith. His older brother Christopher, who remains an atheist, and he have had heated public debates. Christopher has authored the tome God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, CBN News said.

Both brothers were raised in a Christian home with a devoutly Baptist grandfather. Their paternal grandmother, whom they never met, was Anglican. Peter said they had “an extremely religiously conscious household,” CBN News said.

Both brothers became Marxists but today Peter considers himself a conservative member of the Church of England. He attends a small church that still uses an “old prayer book,” the Washington Times said.

The brothers are estranged. Peter suggests that his brother is a “repressed seeker”. He hopes his brother “might one day arrive at some sort of acceptance that belief in God is not necessarily a character fault – and that religion does not poison everything,” the Washington Times said.

Peter said that when he was an atheist, “We were full of our own righteousness. We knew what was right. We knew we were right. We knew we were good. We defined our own goodness,” CBN News said.

He had no Christian friends at the time. “There is a lot of scorn in revolutionary socialism.  There’s a lot of scorn for the people who aren’t up for it. There is a lot of scorn for the people who are opposed to it. There’s a feeling that you are the vanguard and you know best, and everyone else is ignorant and stupid,” CBN News said.

“You see that scorn in the new atheists, in the way they treat their opponents – not with any kind of respect at all. They still act as if Christianity is a kind of stupid aberration that only an idiot could follow,”    CBN News said.

Peter’s return to Christian faith took place in stages through the years. There was a time he remembers distinctly when he genuinely felt a fear of God though he was still an atheist. He was looking at Rogier van der Weyden’s painting, The Last Judgment, depicting the terror of Hell. ”One of them was actually vomiting with fright,” Hitchens told CBN News.

At that point, Peter feared for himself. “One of my reasons for my change is that I am scared. But then again, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Ironically, after the CBN interview it was learned that Christopher Hitchens had been diagnosed with cancer, CBN News said.

The Washington Times has speculated, “If Christopher turns out to be right, he won’t be able to tell his brother, “I told you so.” And if he’s wrong, well, he probably won’t be in any mood to admit it.”

The solitary life of the monks and hermits are shrouded in mystery, and one wonders what makes them seek to leave everything behind in exchange for a life in isolation with minimal sustenance and complete dependence on God.

A documentary will however follow the path of monks, nuns and hermits, some of whom chose refuge in caves, others in monasteries. This documentary, called Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer will include a companion book and claims to have uncovered a prayer that was used some 2,000 years ago, and is still in use today but largely unknown to most of the world, according to their website.

The feature film and book is the work of Dr. Norris J. Chumley, a doctor of theology and executive producer and director of media for Columbia University’s Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life, according to his website.

V. Rev. Dr. John A. McGuckin, who co-produces the film, is a professor of Byzantine Christian Studies at Columbia University and is also a professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, according to the UTSNYC website.

The two men film the pathways of monks, nuns and hermits from ancient times in Greece, Mt. Sinai, Romania, Mt. Athos and Egypt. They also interview some monks about their solitary inner lives of meditation and prayer, according to Hartley Film Foundation.

Chumley and McGuckin visit St. Antony’s, the oldest monastery that still exists today, and go inside a cave in a mountain where St. Antony lived for 46 years. They also visit Mt. Sinai where God spoke to Moses in the desert, and investigate St. Catherine’s Monastery which was built in the fifth century. Their documentary also leads them to the Ukraine and Old Russ, the Huffington Post says.

The film seeks to understand why some people choose the solitary life, and in some ways they compare it to people today who wish to simply get away from everything and seek solace in a quieter, more remote environment, the Huffington Post says.

The mystical aspect of the hermit’s prayer life is also focused upon, particularly a prayer that they say is believed by some to have first been practiced by the apostles, according to the Huffington Post.

The Jesus Prayer, they say is recited over and over, and they say it is akin to the biblical verse which enjoins Christians to pray constantly without stopping.  In similar fashion they contend that in the midst of a city one can recite the Jesus Prayer to oneself while doing daily activities, the Huffington Post says.

They claim that the Jesus Prayer had sprung from hermits in the Egyptian desert and reached the Mediterranean, then traveled through Greece, Slavic areas, Eastern Europe and Russia, the Huffington Post says.