Italian (American) Catholic and Altogether Strange

Laid off Electrician Stands by Pro-life Values

2011-03-23T05:26:00.000-04:00

How many of us would stand by our principle when it cost us 100 dollars? How many would do the same if it cost them 1000 dollars? And how many would do it if they were nearing the end of unemployment and it cost them 70,000 dollars? Well that is just what electrician Tim Roach did.

Faced with the end of his unemployment he received a call from his union rep with a job offer as a foreman for eleven months with a salary between 65,000 and 70,000 dollars. But Tim turned it down...because it was part of the building of a planned parenthood clinic.

Any quotes used from this point on are from the article found here.

Tim did not even pause. They would find other ways to alleviate the tight budget and hard times. They would find ways that would not involve taking a life. Tim's wife, Nicole, tried at first to justify taking the job. They both, however, quickly saw that the excuse of "it's just a clinic" would not sit right with their consciences. Nicole is proud of her husband:

“What struck me most is that he turned it down immediately, He had within himself that sort of moral upbringing that had him immediately recognize that this was not the right thing to do."

The rest of Tim and Nicole's story, about how the whole ordeal of job loss has strengthened their faith as both individuals and a family, is in the link above. I want to focus for a second on what it takes to make such a decision.

First, it takes awareness. A pro-life person needs to be aware of where their money goes and what if funds. In this case the link was direct. He would have been helping to build a place that killed and led people to kill. No amount of money was worth that. But there are subtler things for us to remember in how we spend our money. Do you choose Pepsi or SoBe, from abortion supporting Pepsi Co or Coke, Vitamin water or the local knockoff that does not support it? What level of involvement is alright? Is it alright to buy from a company that contributes to general dispersal organizations like the United Way who allow people to choose Planned Parenthood as a place to donate? Or are direct contributors like Pepsi and AT&T. Each person needs to look at the involvement of the companies they support and determine what that means. Some people are uncomfortable with boycotts and a case can be made for more effective methods depending the level of involvement from the company and how it hurts the workers as well. It is a matter of making a moral decision based on the awareness of the issue and what we know to be right. Awareness means not being lazy about finding out where the money is going and how it gets there. It means facing what that money train means and how we are a part of it. But awareness needs something else to make it a force.

Second, it takes Courage. Awareness needs courage to be active. We can know, ponder and decide to do a large number of things...but the action of doing them in the face of hardship, ridicule and derision takes courage. Tim turned down a 70,000 dollar job when he and his family were facing a bleak set of options. That takes courage. But that courage comes from something else.

Third, it takes Faith. Tim had the faith to know and believe abortion is wrong. He also had the faith to look right into the presented solution to his problems, vacations for his children and comforts for the whole family, and have the faith that God would provide. To place the situation in God's hands rather than do what he knew was wrong.

Awareness, to know the situation.
Courage, to act on what is right.
Faith, to guide us in knowing right from wrong and sustain us in our courage.

Dear Lord, as lent continues help us have the awareness to see how our lives effect everyone around us. Give us the courage to make difficult choices and give us the faith to know you will help us in all our hardships.

Using your Kindle To Teach CCD

2011-03-17T14:45:00.006-04:00

For the last few months I have been using my kindle to carry my lesson plan and references for teaching 8th grade CCD. For those non-Catholics who don't know and those Catholics who never asked ; CCD stands for Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. It is the name for the classes Catholic children who are not in Catholic school take in order to learn the faith.

I favor using more modern tech if I can. A few weeks ago we all did our own fake facebook page (on a paper template) for Jesus to cover concepts such as who His friends were, what people would ask as intercession, how saints pray for us (by seeing what intercessions they would post) and omnipresence by showing Him attending many masses at the same time with the events function.

So I thought I would post on how to use the Kindle as a lesson planner and reference holder. First I write a lesson plan.

Here is a bullet pointed version of my lesson plan for this week based on our textbook. I often use the bullet pointed version and use the text as a guide to the main points of the plan in addition to what I have memorized about the text. (Page numbers in parentheses from the teachers manual):

Lessons 8 And 9 Combined
Part 1: Suffering Servant and the Passion

Opening Prayer

Engage

What is a prophet?
Why is it important to get messages to people accurately, safely and on time?

Teach and Apply
The Suffering Servant
Isaiah and prophecy
Read pages 84-85 (152-53)
Why was the idea of the suffering servant helpful during exile?
The odds of Christ. 1 in 10 to the 157th power to fulfill 48 prophecies (He fulfilled 324)
Speaking out for justice
Sinless Servant
Christ as Historical figure…He existed
Compare the suffering servant with Jesus
Works of art inspired by the life and work of Jesus
Does Christ inspire you?
Veneration of the Cross p. 92 (p. 160)
Evil in the world
Original Justice
Original Sin
What effects of original sin do you see in the world today?
Where and why do people suffer?
Silently read p. 95
Moral and Physical evil (Did you know p.95 (p. 167))
How does the Paschal Mystery illustrate good coming from evil?
Freedom, good and bad consequences p. 95 (p.167)
Faith Connection activity p. 95 (p. 167)
Jesus the new Adam
Jesus Cross, our Cross

Connect
How does the passion and death of Jesus help us carry our crosses
Without Good Friday, No Easter Sunday
"Unless there is a cross in our lives, there will never be the empty tomb--unless there is a crown of thorns, there will never be the halo of light--unless there is a Good Friday, there will never be an Easter Sunday- Fulton Sheen

Dealing with Loss and Suffering

Closing Prayer

I then take the lesson plan and use Mobipocket creator to convert the Word Document to a Kindle Format..usually a PRC file. Sometimes the formatting gets messed up on the indents of the bullet points...if that would bother you then use a format without bullet points.

I then bookmark relevant points in the Compendium of the Catechism so I am sure present the material on the major points in the correct manner. If you do not have a Kindle version of the Compendium then go to the Vatican Website and copy and paste the sections you need into a word file and convert it like the lesson plan.

For this lesson I have sections 118, 119, 366

118. Why was the death of Jesus part of God's plan?
599-605
619
To reconcile to himself all who were destined to die because of sin God took the loving initiative of sending his Son that he might give himself up for sinners. Proclaimed in the Old Testament, especially as the sacrifice of the Suffering Servant, the death of Jesus came about “in accordance with the Scriptures”.

119. In what way did Christ offer himself to the Father?
606-609
620
The entire life of Christ was a free offering to the Father to carry out his plan of salvation. He gave “his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) and in this way he reconciled all of humanity with God. His suffering and death showed how his humanity was the free and perfect instrument of that divine love which desires the salvation of all people.

366. What place does human freedom have in the plan of salvation?
1739-1742
1748
Our freedom is weakened because of original sin. This weakness is intensified because of successive sins. Christ, however, set us free “so that we should remain free” (Galatians 5:1). With his grace, the Holy Spirit leads us to spiritual freedom to make us free co-workers with him in the Church and in the world.

I then bookmark all Scripture readings in my Kindle version Catholic Edition RSV Bible, and read over any important notes in the Kindle RSV Catholic Study New Testament by Scott Hahn. I highlight as notes or bookmark any helpful information. For this week I have the Suffering Servant Isaiah passages and the Passion accounts.

I then load any MP3 versions of hymns that are suitable for reflection if I have them.

Then anything special. This week I do a short prayer service for the Veneration of the cross in Word and convert it to Prc for Kindle.

Now I move the lesson plan, Bible and Compendium (along with any other bookmarked reference material) into one Kindle collection so I have them all in one place to make it easier to switch between them.

Then I can use the Kindle one handed while writing on the board, reference dozens of various sources and even use it to play music. So with the kindle and teachers manual (to reference the textbook) I usually do the whole class while not having to go through multiple books.

Now in class I use the kindle as the main reference to my lesson plan (always have paper backup), my Bible (although be sure to keep one on the class altar/prayer space) and portable Compendium of the Catechism.

My Thoughts on Events in Egypt

2011-03-17T12:51:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has followed my blog in the past knows that I have always tried to bring awareness about the sufferings of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Although I am Catholic, these are my brothers and sisters in Christ and they have suffered horribly over the centuries.

Like nearly everyone in the world I was riveted by the coverage of recent events in Egypt. I prayer fervently for the Egyptians to win their freedom. I rejoiced as Muslims and Christians acted as one, defending each other at prayer and/or Divine Liturgy. But since the end of the revolution covered by the media things have not gone very well for the Coptic Christians.

The site The Free Copts has excellent coverage of events; so I will only provide a short summary. More detailed information can be had in this article: link

The short form is that on March 5th a Coptic Church was destroyed after local unrest involving a mixed relationship. Muslims destroyed the Church as the military watched and by many reports aided. Then 2,000,000 Copts and liberal Muslims protested for 9 days outside the TV Building in Maspero demanding the return of the Copts to their village and the rebuilding of the Church.

Eventually the military agreed, after some Muslims even made the insane accusation of witchcraft against the Copts, to rebuild the Church. That is a short summary, please read the above links for a full account.

There is cause for concern and hope in the story. One one hand there was death and destruction as the military watched. On the other, there was a united interfaith demand for justice that is being met. But there are still some very troubling response from the military in what I have read.

There is a long hard road ahead for all of Egypt and her people. May God guide and protect everyone. And may the Coptic Orthodox Church be allowed to worship in full equality.

Why I've been away for two years

2011-03-17T12:18:00.000-04:00

Why have I been away...self explanatory:

It's been two years...but

2011-03-17T11:17:00.001-04:00

It has been two years but i've decided to try posting again. Life is good and I have some time here and there so we will see if I can resurrect the old blog in time for Easter. I plan on trying next week.

It Has Been Awhile

2009-11-15T13:43:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile since I have updated. Life has been a bit hectic but fulfilling. I am a father now and soon I'll be a stay at home dad. This may give me a little more time to keep up this blog since Lily is a fairly calm child. I know that I'll be run ragged in other ways, but time may be slightly more flexible than doing it all and working. So I don't know, but it is possible that after Christmas I'll try to revitalize this blog and keep up with issues of Christian persecution and my other thoughts.

Support Resolution 1303

2008-07-24T20:25:00.001-04:00

The Free Copts has more: link

Here is the text of the legislation: link

Rally in Washington DC in Support of Coptic Christians in Egypt

2008-07-14T12:16:00.001-04:00

Link to article: here and reposted below

American Egyptian Coptic Christians along with activists from Egypt, the Middle East, Europe and the USA, will organize a peaceful rally on July 16, 2008. The rally will start in front of the White House at 12:00 Noon- 2:00 P.M., and will conclude in front of the Egyptian Embassy at 2:30- 3:30 P.M. The purpose of the rally is to protest recent violent attacks against Coptic Christians in Egypt.

The Copts of Egypt are the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. They number about 15% of Egypt’s population of 80 millions. Not a month passes by without their churches, homes and businesses being attacked. According to a study made by Ibn Khaldoun Research Center in Cairo, over 240 major attacks against the Copts took place during the period from 1972- 2003. It is estimated that, during the last three decades, more than 4000 Copts were killed or injured. This in addition to damages directed to Coptic properties that could exceed hundreds of millions of dollars. Hundreds of Christian Coptic girls, some are minors, are abducted and forced to embrace Islam and marry Muslim men.

During the last few weeks, Muslim extremists in Egypt attacked a jewelry store owned by Copts killing four Copts. The extremists also attacked Abu Fana Coptic monastery injuring many monks and kidnapping three. The abducted monks were tortured, humiliated and ordered to denounce their Christian faith. In Fayoum, Muslim extremists attacked homes and businesses owned by Coptic Christians. A Coptic Christian man was killed by Muslims in the town of Dafash, governorate of Minia, in the southern part of Egypt.

In addition to violent attacks by Muslim extremists, the Copts of Egypt suffer from discriminatory laws and practices imposed on them by the Egyptian government. These practices include restrictions on church building, under representation in Parliament, and discrimination in jobs and promotions. Many high ranking jobs in Egypt are out of reach for Copts.

Kidnapped monks released after southern Egypt clashes and other attacks

2008-06-01T13:00:00.002-04:00

Link to the story.

Two quotes from the article:

Three monks abducted after bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians were set free Sunday as calm returned to the southern Egyptian village, said a security official.

The battle erupted Saturday when local Muslims claimed the expansion of a monastery was being carried out illegally on state property in the village of Deir Abu Fana, near the city of Minya, 210 kilometers south of the capital.

And:

The latest clashes, however, come against a disturbing backdrop of attacks against Christian jewelers over the past week that prompted one Coptic member of parliament to claim Thursday that police were not adequately protecting the community.

On Wednesday, gunmen stormed a jewelry shop in Cairo and killed the Coptic owner and three of his assistants, but did not steal anything.

The Free Copts have the story of the jewelery attacks: Copts shot dead in Cairo attack
and Four Cairo Copts shot dead in gangland-style slaying

Egypt complains to Britain at treatment of Coptic pope

2008-04-14T17:50:00.003-04:00

With Pope Benedict XVI coming to America tomorrow I would like to post this story and ask my brothers and sisters to think how Catholics would feel if our Pope was treated this way:

CAIRO, April 8 (Reuters) - Egypt has complained to the British government about the way security treated the head of the Egyptian Coptic Church in the VIP lounge at Heathrow airport in London, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Airport security insisted on March 30 that Pope Shenouda, 84, go through normal security checks, including a metal detector and a body search, local papers said. The body search was eventually waived when the cleric objected, the papers said.

The Foreign Ministry told the British ambassador in Cairo that the Egyptian people were extremely offended at the incident and the British government should explain what it called "this unacceptable behaviour, which led to an angry reaction on the part of Egyptian public opinion", a statement said.

Britain replied that it regretted the incident but that religious leaders and other VIPs are not exempt from the standard security procedures at Heathrow, the statement added.

It quoted the British ambassador, Dominic Asquith, as saying he was awaiting a report from London on the incident and would ask for a meeting with pope Shenouda to apologise.

Pope Shenouda is the spiritual leader of most of Egypt's Coptic Christians, who number up to 10 percent of the country's 75 million people. He was in England to open a new cathedral in Stevenage in Hertfordshire, north of London. (Writing by Jonathan Wright; Editing by Catherine Evans) Source

I think this is totally unbelievable. I am glad the ambassador will apologize. That this even happened is outrageous.

Man convicted of murder in Egypt gains release from Pennsylvania prison

2008-01-16T21:52:00.001-05:00

The story:

An Egyptian convicted of murder in absentia in his home country was released from federal custody after a judge ruled he had legitimate reasons to fear being tortured if deported.

Sameh S. Khouzam, 38, called his release after seven months "the best thing in the world. I'm blessed with all the love and support of the good people around me," the York Daily Record reported.

Despite his release Tuesday from York County Prison, Khouzam must still wear a monitoring device on his ankle. A spokesman for the Justice Department said officials had not decided whether to appeal his release.

Khouzam has argued he will be tortured for his religious beliefs as a Coptic Christian if he is deported to Egypt, which is predominantly Muslim. He also denies the allegations that he killed a woman and then fled to the United States a decade ago.

The incident (attack) at Abu Fana Monastery in El Minia

2008-01-13T20:48:00.000-05:00

The Free Copts has the story (Link)

Anti-Christian violence flares in India at Christmas

2007-12-27T07:56:00.000-05:00

The article:

Bangalore, Dec. 26, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Three Christians were killed, and 18 churches destroyed, in a coordinated series of Christmas attacks by Hindu zealots in Indias eastern Orissa state.

Beginning on Christmas Eve and continuing through Christmas Day, Hindu mobs carried out at least 20 assaults on Christian institutions in Orissa. The wave of violence led to the destruction of 18 churches and village chapels, 4 convents, 8 hostels run by Church groups, and 15 shops belonging to Christian vendors.

The attacks began in the Kandhmahal district of Orissa, when Hindu militants began pulling down Christmas decorations that were displayed on homes and church buildings. Gun-wielding assailants then interrupted Christmas Eve services in a few churches. As the mobs surged, law-enforcement officials in four towns urged pastors not to go near their churches on Christmas Day, since police could not provide adequate security.

The Catholic bishops of India issued a statement decrying the "well-planned attacks," suggesting that they pointed toward "a planned effort to disturb communal peace." The violence, the Indian bishosp said, "completely shocked us, and we are deeply pained at a time when we are celebrating the peace and harmony of Christmas."

link

Angry Muslims attack shops owned by Christians amid sectarian tensions in Egypt

2007-12-17T17:55:00.000-05:00

CAIRO, Egypt - Angry Muslims attacked and destroyed shops owned by Coptic Christians today in southern Egypt.

A police official says the attackers hurled stones and set fire to several shops, smashed windows of a church and damaged two cars in the early morning hours.

Police detained 15 people suspected of taking part in the attacks in the town of Isna, located about 560 kilometres south of Cairo.

The riots followed reports that two Coptic Christians pulled down the veil of a Muslim woman in a car park on Saturday evening.

Muslim-Coptic tensions are commonplace in southern Egypt, mostly over land or church construction disputes.

Coptic Christians make up an estimated 10 per cent of Egypt's 76
.5 million people and generally live in peace with the Muslim majority.

Link

Why is Christmas when it is?

2007-12-04T19:09:00.001-05:00

Alot of people argue that Christmas is when it is because the date is close to a Pagan holy day. This however is not really correct. Yes there is some borrowing, but there are strong studies to show that December 25 was chosen for much more important reasons.

Christians celebrated 25 March as the Feast of the Annunciation, a commemoration which continues today. Since 25 December falls exactly nine months after the Annunciation, it seemed the most natural day on which to celebrate Jesus' birth. And teh date for the Annunciation was set first.

There may even be a strong basis for 25 December as the actual, historical date of Christ's nativity.

In a recent issue of "Osservatore Romano" (the Vatican's official newspaper), Professor Tommaso Federici, Professor at the Pontifical Urbanian University and consultant to two Vatican Congregations, says that recent archaological discoveries in the Holy Land shed light on when Jesus was born:

"As long ago as 1958, the Israeli scholar Shemaryahu Talmon published an in-depth study on the calendar of the Qumran sect, and he reconstructed without the shadow of doubt the order of the sacerdotal rota system for the temple of Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 24, 7-18) in New Testament times.

Here the family of Abijah, of which Zechariah was a descendant, father of John the herald and forerunner (Luke 1,5) was required to officiate twice a year, on the days 8-14 of the third month, and on the days 24-30 of the eighth month.

This latter period fell at about the end of September. It is not without reason that the Byzantine calendar celebrated 'John's conception' on September 23 and his birth nine months later, on June 24.

The 'six months' after the Annunciation established as a liturgical feast on March 25, comes three months before the forerunner's birth, prelude to the nine months in December: December 25 is a date of history"

Even the common argument that shepherds would not have been in the fields in December is inaccurate. That is the time of the year when sheep naturally begin giving birth ("lambing"), and the shepherds would typically stay with the sheep at night to take care of the newborn lambs. In fact, the lambing season would have been the only time of the year in which the shepherds would have stayed with the flocks during the night (see Luke 2:8).

So from what we know we would know when Zechariah was in the temple when he was told about John. We also know from the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth and where they were in gestation where to place the rest of the dates.

This information seems to confirm that Jesus could well have been born on or near 25 December, perhaps even 6 January (considering the many possible normal fluctuations of gestational periods as human gestation is actually 10 months but varies). So either of these traditional dates may be - or at least come very close to - Jesus' real birthday!

The fact that December 25 happens to fall four days after the Winter Solstice is a coincidence of history (and the Eastern Christmas is sixteen days removed from the solstice, so it's harder to see a connection there).

Back to the Annunciation being set as a date first. Why do we celebrate the Annunciation on March 25 (aside from what Professor Federici has shown as common ancient knowledge about the birth of John)? Because the ancient Jews believed in something called Integral Lifespan. This is the belief that holy people die on the same day their life began. We know what date passover was the year Christ died, it comes out to March 25. Since life begins at conception, his life began (according to ancient logic) on March 25.

In the Didache, the recorded writings of the 12 apostles from the first century, it is clear that it was always believed by Christians that life begins at conception.

Now, I'm not saying that the integral lifespan theology is correct, but it was the basis for when to set the date. And yes traditions and such did develop from some pagan ways.

But look at the above...where three or four lines of thought and ancient proofs indicate that we actually have the right day. And it has nothing to do with pagan festivals.

We are a People of Hope

2007-12-02T12:21:00.000-05:00

Pope Benedict's newest Encyclical letter (New Encyclical: For in this hope we were saved (Spe salvi facti sumus)), the second of his pontificate, explore the virtue of Hope. It is, in many ways, well timed for advent and the current state of our world. As I read through it I was continually struck with the realization as to how much hope is at the very heart of Christian living.

The pope writes:

Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.

Hope is the very heart of our faith. We are an Easter people. And what is being described above, if not the triumph over death and sin that is the hope of Easter. But we are also an Advent people…waiting and expecting the joy of Christmas. The arrival of the Savior.

But what the Pope writes about goes beyond that…he writes of an active hope. A hope that is, as he says, “performative”. In reality it is transformative…transfiguring. He says:

We have raised the question: can our encounter with the God who in Christ has shown us his face and opened his heart be for us too not just “informative” but “performative”—that is to say, can it change our lives, so that we know we are redeemed through the hope that it expresses?

But this hope…this living, performative, transformative and transfiguring hope is known by a name…a person. Drawing on St. Gregory Nazianzan the pope writes:

He says that at the very moment when the Magi, guided by the star, adored Christ the new king, astrology came to an end, because the stars were now moving in the orbit determined by Christ.2 This scene, in fact, overturns the world-view of that time, which in a different way has become fashionable once again today. It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love—a Person. And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free.

A person. As faith is an encounter with a Person. Christ. God. A Person who loves us beyond all human understanding. The cause of our Hope.

There is much more to the Pope’s new Encyclical and I have not finished it yet. But as we move toward Christmas and now into Advent…It is good to remember that we are:

An Easter People
An Advent People
A people of Hope

May we prepare our hearts.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

2007-11-28T11:53:00.001-05:00

I have not been reliable in blogging for a bit. I have spent some time moderating a Christian message board. I am now moderating a smaller one and will have more time. So after Christmas (hopefully through December) I will be blogging at least twice a week.

Shadia Nagui Ibrahim:

2007-11-26T14:58:00.000-05:00

A summation of the story:

An Egyptian Christian woman has been jailed for three years because her father's brief conversion to Islam 45 years ago made her legally a Muslim while her official papers said she was Christian, her lawyer said Thursday.

The story is here at The Free Copts: link

Another source article: link

I hope to write more on this later.

Egypt Police Arrest Muslims After Christians Killed

2007-11-14T17:51:00.000-05:00

Link to the story (link).

Egypt Arrests Three Christian Rights Activists

2007-11-13T20:55:00.000-05:00

The Story: Link

A quote from the article:

The U.S. Copts Association said the recent arrest was likely caused by the men’s investigation into reports that a Coptic worker in Cairo was thrown from his balcony by two Egyptian police after he refused to pay them extortion money, according to WorldNetDaily.

The association’s report said soon after the Coptic worker’s fall, the Egyptian police had reported the death as suicide.

Pope to make first visit to the United States

2007-11-12T12:23:00.000-05:00

The Story is here (link)

Kind of odd to write that in a way. John Paul II traveled so very much that to think of this as the fist Papal visit is a bit odd. I'm looking forward to what he will say at the United Nations. I'm sure his visit to ground zero will be handled with dignity and will leave a lasting impression on more than a few American Catholics.

50 arrested in clash in Minya province

2007-11-01T14:55:00.000-04:00

The Story:

Cairo (AP) -- Police arrested some 50 people Friday following a clash between Muslims and Coptic Christians triggered by a land dispute, security officials said.

Some 20 people were wounded during the clash in Minya province, some 210 Kilometers (130 miles) south of Cairo, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The clashes began after Friday prayers when Muslim villagers in Izbat el-Abid protested against the extension of a monastery in a nearby village, claiming the construction was on state property, the officials said.

Police had to ask for reinforcements from throughout Minya to control the clash, the officials added.

US House foreign affairs committee passes resolution calling Armenian Genocide exactly what it is...genocide.

2007-10-11T09:04:00.000-04:00

The US House foreign affairs committee has made a potentially historic move (Article).

They have passed a resolution that calls the Armenian Genocide exactly what it was. It is honest and direct.

Yes, it has severe ramifications for our relations with Turkey. But it is the right thing to do.

I urge people to write their reps and ask them to support this resolution when it reaches the full floor of the House. This is about doing what is right without backing down. As said in the article:

"We've been told the timing is bad," Democratic House member Gary Ackerman said in an emotional hearing that lasted nearly four hours. "But the timing was bad for the Armenian people in 1915."

Help save Onsy Zachary

2007-08-30T11:14:00.000-04:00

The story is here in detail. Please read and sign the petition. (link)

Egypt in uproar over Christian convert case

2007-08-12T17:03:00.000-04:00

The story (link)

Some notable excerpts, His first lawyer resigned from the case:

His first lawyer – Mamdouh Nakhla, director of the Al Kalema Center for Human Rights – withdrew from the case Tuesday after claiming his decision was base on “national unity” and alleging that Hegazy did not give him the documents that proved Egyptian authorities rejected his application.

“If you add the state of alert in Egyptian society, and to protect the feelings of our Muslim brothers, and to protect our national unity…we decided to abandon this case,” said Nakhla, according to Reuters. However, some reports have claimed that the lawyer was threatened by Egypt’s security police who said he would be killed if he continued the case. During a press conference at Nakhla’s office, one of the staff members at Al Kalema Center reportedly shouted, “He is being threatened, he is doing this under pressure,” according to Compass Direct News.

And the second is now in custody:

Furthermore, the Christian convert’s new lawyer – Dr. Adel Fawzy Faltas, president of the Middle East Christian Association (MECA) in Egypt – is said to be detained by the Egyptian police after holding a high-profile online chat with Hegazy, according to Compass.

Faltas, 61, was arrested from his Cairo home Wednesday afternoon. His home was reportedly raided Thursday by officials who confiscated two laptops and a desktop computer.

"They cut up the mattresses, tore everything up and took all the books as well," said Nader Fawzy, head of the Canada-based MECA, who has close contact with various leaders of MECA’s Egyptian branch, according to Compass.

Fawzy said that Faltas had been blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back when he was arrested.

The rest of the members of the Christian rights group is said to be in hiding. A third lawyer, Ramses Raouf el-Nagar, has now taken up Hegazy’s case.

And the family:

The case has garnered national attention with some Egyptian newspapers giving it front page coverage, according to Reuters.

When asked why he has chosen to fight for legal Christian status, Hegazy explained that his wife was four months pregnant and he wanted his son to be raised openly as a Christian.

Egyptian police arrest two Christian activists

2007-08-09T12:36:00.001-04:00

The story (link)

Christian Convert Sues Egypt Over Legal Status

2007-08-09T11:29:00.000-04:00

A link

This is a monumental case.

An excerpt:

A former Muslim has sued Egypt for refusing to recognize him legally as a Christian in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Egypt.

Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, 25, filed the lawsuit against Egypt’s interior ministry last Thursday for rejecting his application to replace Islam with Christianity on his identification papers, according to Compass Direct News.

Hegazy, a journalist and political activist, had said in his petition that he believes that love and peace are the purposes of religion and that he found that in Christianity, according to Reuters.

Although Hegazy converted at age 16 to Christianity, he never sought to change his status legally because of all the obstacles. Hegazy said he wanted to be officially recognized as a Christian now so that his expectant child can be born and raised openly as a Christian.

“My wife is pregnant. I want my son to be born within my own religion and for the fact that he is Christian to be written on official papers,” said Hegazy, according to Agence France-Presse.

In Egypt and in many Middle Eastern countries, the parents’ legal religious status determines their children’s official religion on their identification papers.

His wife Zeinab is four months pregnant, according to Compass. The couple were forced to have an Islamic wedding because they are both legally Muslims. If they’re religious status is officially changed to Christianity then their child will be able to enroll in Christian religious classes at school, marry in a church, and attend church services openly.

And what has been the response?

His legal action has sparked anger among the country’s Muslims who have retaliated by filing a lawsuit and delivering death threats against his lawyer.

Why is this so important:

“This is the first such case in the history of Egyptian justice,” said Mamduh Nakhla, the director of Al-Kalima Center, a Coptic Christian rights group, according to AFP.

Other Egyptian Muslims are said to have converted to Christianity quietly but there has not been known of a case of someone seeking official recognition, according to Reuters.

I'll write more on this later.

I Don't agree with him on everything. But way to go Duncan Hunter

2007-08-02T16:17:00.000-04:00

Hunter Sponsored Two Illegal Immigrants

Snippet of article:

According to the paper, Hunter sponsored Fouad Yousef Hakim Mansour and Saheir Gamil Shaker Mansour, Coptic Christians who fled religious persecution in Egypt. They lived illegally in the United States for a decade before applying unsuccessfully for asylum.

(link)

Offical Announcment to all news media

2007-06-25T11:38:00.000-04:00

This is a repost of something over at Neferteeti's blog:

The American Coptic Association, the International Christian Union, and other National and International Human Rights Organizations in and outside of the United States will hold Solidarity Rally on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 in front of the United Nation building between 44th and 45th street in New York City between 12: 00 Noon until 2:00 PM.

The purpose of the rally is to protest the bloodshed, murder and destruction of the property,
recently incurred by the Christian Community in Egypt. Although this has been happening for
many years, these attacks have been intensifying and more frequent. The criminal perpetrators
are using swords to kill, and the government of Egypt looks the other way. This appears to be
a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Copts (Christians of Egypt) carried out
by fanatical Muslims and blessed by Mubarak's government!!

Copts are the largest minority in the world without rights! A stable Egypt is very important in
that part of the world. The atrocities facing the Copts exemplify the intolerance by the Mubarak regime towards non-Muslim minorities. It is therefore the duty of every freedom loving person to speak out in defense of the persecuted Coptic community, particularly since the Copts in Egypt are unable to defend themselves or speak out.

Your coverage of this rally is crucial in order to shed a light on the persecution of non-Muslim
minorities in the Middle East. Your participation and subsequent coverage of the rally would
serve as a reminder to those in the Middle East who spread intolerance, hate, persecution and
oppression, that their actions are noticed and condemned. It would support the basic Human
Rights of Middle East minorities such as the Copts and others. We believe that a free media is
the voice of the weak, voiceless, and the oppressed.

Thank you for your anticipated support. For further information please contact:

Monir A. Dawoud, MD.
President of I.C.U. (International Christian Union)
President of A.C.A. (American Coptic Association)
E-mail:
mdmd1239@aol.com
Fax: (201) 863 6600
Phone: (201) 863 6600 Office
(201) 424 1001 Cellular

Judge stops Khouzam deportation

2007-06-18T12:24:00.000-04:00

The Story is here (link)

Egypt Detains Six After Clashes Between Muslims And Christians

2007-06-17T11:59:00.000-04:00

The story is here (link)

Egypt’s Copts, Muslims clash

2007-06-15T10:51:00.000-04:00

Here is the story (link)

CAIRO - Violent clashes have erupted between Muslims and Coptic Christians in the northern city of Alexandria and elsewhere in Egypt, newspapers reported.

One clash was sparked by a row between a young Copt and the son of the imam of the city’s Bilal mosque which resulted in dozens of the faithful from both sides fighting outside the Church of the Holy Virgin in Al-Dekhela district.

Several people were hurt and police arrested 13 Muslims and Copts yesterday, said the independent newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yom which added that the incident underlined growing tensions in the port city and elsewhere.

Anti-riot police had sent 35 vehicles to patrol the district inhabited by members of both communities.

In another incident on Thursday, four people were taken to hospital and 35 arrested in the village of Saft Meydum, south of Cairo.

Violence erupted after a Coptic youth on a bicycle rode into a young Muslim girl whose relatives stormed into the streets heading towards the cyclist’s home intending to stone it, newspapers said.

Copts are estimated to form six to 10 percent of Egypt’s 76 million people.

A review of Champions of Faith: Baseball Edition

2007-06-12T12:43:00.000-04:00

Faith and a man. Faith removes the shell and rough scars of life and renews us like children. Christ sums it up clearly:

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them,
and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:2-3

There is of course more theology to that verse, but the above is a good application. Is there anything else that can take an adult and just with a sight or a smell turn him back into a child in his heart? For many of us there is baseball.

I see a game.
Pick up a mitt, bat or ball.
See a kid with a baseball cap.

And I’m a child again. In my heart I can run as fast as when I was ten. I can dive across a baseball diamond. I can hit a ball a country mile.

A child does not worry about how the Trinity is one God in three divine persons; except by the power of God.

A child does not worry about how the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ; except by the power of God.

And that same child brushes their teeth and dreams about hitting a walk off home run in game seven of the World Series.

I was that child. Millions of us were that child. Think for a moment that you are a child today.

You are ten. You are a baseball fan. You love Mike Sweeny of the Kansas City Royals. And Mike Sweeny says:

“I truly believe that it is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. People say, “how can you believe that?” I say, “Why Can’t you believe that?” For me as a man of God, I don’t put restrictions on the Holy Spirit.
-Mike Sweeny

What does that mean to your faith?

You are 10. You love baseball, but you hate getting up for Mass at 7:30 Sunday morning. You love the Cardinals. And Jeff Suppan and David Eckstein talk about how they make it top priority to go to mass no matter how difficult it is with all the travel.

Substitute the players from when you were a child. Who might you be today in your faith, had those words found you? Faith makes you as a child. Baseball makes you as a child. In all honesty that difference can be made in you even today.

Last night I watched a DVD called Champions of Faith: Baseball Edition. This is a DVD where some of the leading figures in Baseball talk about their Catholic faith. It shows that a real man is a man of Christ. And as someone personally devoted to St. Joseph that kind of message is very dear to my heart.

I worried at first: Is this going to be one of those hokey things? Will this be one of the many outreach efforts with tacked on Christianity? Will people be talking in ways that no one talks in real life? Will they be saying words no one says?

That answer is a huge no. It is not hokey or labored in its points. It is natural because these men are honestly and really speaking about their lives. They are sharing stories and a personal love for Christ.

Never in my life did I think that I would hear some of the major figures in Baseball talk about the Eucharist, Prayer and how Christ fills their lives.

For me this film really touched me.

In this age when people around the world suffer for the Love of Christ and many are afraid to speak His name, it is refreshing for young and old to see high profile athletes saying proudly that He is their Lord.

In this age when steroids dominate almost every baseball story it is good for people young and old to see men talking about the lift Christ brings to their life.

People who read this blog know that I don’t sell things. I’m not about that. But I can say with all my heart that if you love baseball and Christ (Catholic or not, though this is a great tool for Catholic Churches, Schools and youth groups) watch this film.

For 65 minutes you will be a child again. Your faith will be alive in your heart and you will be jumping into the ivy at Wrigley field or at the 318 foot mark in Yankee Stadium pulling a home run back in the park.

And then you have the challenge: Continue it past the 65 minutes. Show your youth group. Show your mother and father. Show your Son and Daughter. Show your wife. Be as a child and speak out loud that Christ is Lord.

I learned last night that I can always be a child again. I saw again that the Eucharist needs to be at the heart of my life and that in my heart I can still hit a walk off home run in game seven of the World Series.

Website for Champions of Faith: Baseball Edition (link)

Rights groups oppose deportation of Coptic Christian

2007-06-08T09:46:00.000-04:00

The Story (link)

By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

LANCASTER, Pennsylvania -- U.S. human rights activists are opposing the proposed deportation of a Coptic Christian, alleging the man could face torture or death in his native Egypt.

While 38-year-old Sameh Khouzam initially was allowed to stay in the United States due to such fears, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office now has decided to deport him for an Egyptian homicide charge, The New York Times said Wednesday.

But while the Egyptian government has ensured the safety of the resident of Lancaster, Pa., activists are dubious regarding Khouzam's actual future in Egypt.

Those activists pointed to Khouzam's repeated allegations that he was tortured in Egypt previously and the case drew the interest of the American Civil Liberties Union.

ACLU officials are asking for a stay of Khouzam's deportation and ultimately want him released for custody. They argue deporting Khozam to Egypt for the homicide charge would be tantamount to violating the United Nations' Convention Against Torture, the Times said.

A Muslim Friend's Letter to Slain Father Ragheed

2007-06-07T14:50:00.000-04:00

I'll repost the story (link)

ROME, JUNE 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of a letter written posthumously to Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni by a Muslim friend of his who is a professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Father Ragheed and three deacons were shot and killed in Mosul, Iraq, on Sunday after Mass.

* * *

In the name of the compassionate and merciful God,

Ragheed, my brother,

I ask your forgiveness for not being with you when those criminals opened fire against you and your brothers. The bullets that have gone through your pure and innocent body have also gone through my heart and soul.

You were one of the first people I met when I arrived to Rome. We met in the halls of the Angelicum and we would drink our cappuccino in the university's cafeteria. You impressed me with your innocence, joy, your pure and tender smile that never left you.

I always picture you smiling, joyful and full of zest for life. Ragheed is to me innocence personified; a wise innocence that carries in its heart the sorrows of his unhappy people. I remember the time, in the university's dining room, when Iraq was under embargo and you told me that the price of a single cappuccino would have satisfied the needs of an Iraqi family for a whole day.

You told me this as if you were feeling guilty for being far away from your persecuted people and unable to share in their sufferings …

In fact, you returned to Iraq, not only to share the suffering and destiny of your people but also to join your blood to the blood of thousands of Iraqis killed each day. I will never forget the day of your ordination [Oct. 13, 2001] in the [Pontifical] Urbanian University … with tears in your eyes, you told me: "Today, I have died to self" … a hard thing to say.

I didn't understand it right away, or maybe I didn't take it as seriously as I should have. … But today, through your martyrdom, I have understood that phrase. … You have died in your soul and body to be raised up in your beloved, in your teacher, and so that Christ would be raised up in you, despite the sufferings, sorrows, despite the chaos and madness.

In the name of what god of death have they killed you? In the name of which paganism have they crucified you? Did they truly know what they were doing?

O God, we don't ask you for revenge or retaliation. We ask you for victory, a victory of justice over falsehood, life over death, innocence over treachery, blood over the sword. … Your blood will not have been shed in vain, dear Ragheed, because with it you have blessed the soil of your country. And from heaven, your tender smile will continue to light the darkness of our nights and announce to us a better tomorrow.

I ask your forgiveness, brother, for when the living get together they think they have all the time in the world to talk, visit, and share feelings and thoughts. You had invited me to Iraq … I dreamed of that visit, of visiting your house, your parents, your office. … It never occurred to me that it would be your tomb that one day I would visit or that it would be verses from my Quran that I would recite for the repose of your soul …

One day, before your first trip to Iraq after a prolonged absence, I went with you to buy souvenirs and presents for your family. You spoke with me of your future work: "I would like to preside over the people on the base of charity before justice" -- you said.

It was difficult for me to imagine you a "canonical judge" … And today your blood and your martyrdom have spoken for you, a verdict of fidelity and patience, of hope against all suffering, of survival, in spite of death, in spite of everything.

Brother, your blood hasn't been shed in vain, and your church's altar wasn't a masquerade. … You assumed your role with deep seriousness until the end, with a smile that would never be extinguished … ever.

Your loving brother,

Adnam Mokrani
Rome, June 4, 2007
Professor of Islamic Studies in the Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture,
Pontifical Gregorian University

[Original text: Arabic. Translation by ZENIT]

Info from the attacks on May 11th.

2007-05-31T17:45:00.000-04:00

Free Copts has a good breakdown of May 11th- May 20th (link)

Over the last four decades there have been 120 Major attacks on Copts and over 4000 killed. (link)

I will be blogging more in the coming weeks.

Statement of Protestant Leaders against Anti-Catholic Bigotry

2007-05-29T19:41:00.000-04:00

This did my heart good today. That all may be one. (link)

Text of statement:

As Protestant Christians and as Americans, we condemn the grotesque anti-Catholic bigotry that is now on display as a result of the Supreme Court's recent decision upholding the constitutionality of the federal law prohibiting partial-birth abortion.

We denounce as particularly odious a cartoon published by the Philadelphia Inquirer depicting the five justices who formed the majority in the case wearing Catholic bishops' mitres. Scarcely less offensive were the comments of law professor, and former University of Chicago Law School Dean, Geoff Stone identifying the Catholic religious affiliation of the justices forming the majority and accusing these distinguished and honorable jurists of imposing their religion rather than faithfully interpreting the Constitution.

We believe it is our particular duty to condemn the bigotry we are now witnessing in view of the history of anti-Catholicism in our nation. It is a stain on the Protestant Christian conscience that at one time many of our people accepted the vile teachings of Paul Blanshard in his book American Freedom and Catholic Power, and supported the anti-Catholic agenda of the group founded by Blanshard and others that now styles itself "Americans United for Separation of Church and State" (formerly known as Protestants and other Americans united for Separation of Church and State).

Just as Pope John Paul II acknowledged past injustices committed by Catholics, or committed in the name of Catholicism, against Protestants, Jews, and others and pledged to work against any revival of these injustices, we acknowledge past Protestant prejudices against Catholics and pledge to fight against the anti-Catholic bigotry we are now witnessing. Our Catholic brothers and sisters will not have to wait to hear our voices forcefully raised against the bigotry now directed against them.

Because evil begets evil, we are not surprised that bigotry would emerge among those who have placed themselves in the service of the moral abomination known as partial-birth abortion. For our part, we praise any judge, statesman, or citizen—irrespective of religious affiliation—who steps forward to tell the truth about the injustice of this horrific practice, or to expose the lie that baby-killing is somehow protected by our Constitution.

We call on our fellow Protestant Christians of every denomination—including those denominations that do not share our view that the life of the child in the womb must be honored and protected by law—to join with us in condemning the new anti-Catholicism that has, in the aftermath of the partial-birth abortion decision, reared its ugly head. We hope that no Protestant Christian will bring shame on himself or herself and on the great tradition of Reformed Christianity by participating in this appalling bigotry or remaining mute in the face of it.

We also call on groups that present themselves as enemies of prejudice, including "Americans United for Separation of Church and State," to join with us in condemning the Philadelphia Inquirer cartoon and other manifestations of anti-Catholic bigotry. This is a time of testing for them. Are they selective opponents of prejudice? Do they regard anti-Catholicism as an acceptable form of bigotry? Are they content to see Catholics treated in ways that they would be the first to condemn if the victims were members of other religious traditions or minorities? By responding or failing to respond to our plea to them to join us in condemning the injustice being suffered by our Catholic fellow citizens, we will soon know whether their claim to oppose prejudice and bigotry is an honest one or mere hypocrisy.

Gary Bauer
President, American Values

Bishop Wellington Boone
Wellington Boone Ministries

Dick Bott
President, Bott Radio Network

Phil Burress
President, Citizens for Community Values

Dr. Dale Burroughs
President, Biblical Heritage Institute

Alan Chambers
President, Exodus International

Charles W. Colson
Founder, Prison Fellowship Ministries

David Crowe
Director, Restore America

Elizabeth Harmer Dionne
Executive Director, Legacy Law Foundation

Mark L. Earley
President, Prison Fellowship Ministries

Diane Gramley
President, American Family Association of Pennsylvania

Colin A. Hanna
President, Let Freedom Ring, Inc.

Cathi Herrod
President, The Center for Arizona Policy

Dr. John A. Huffman
Pastor, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, California

Dr. Kenneth Hutcherson
Pastor, Antioch Bible Church, Antioch, Washington

Phillip L. Jauregui
President, Judicial Action Group

Warren Kelley, President
Point of View Radio Ministries

Rod D. Martin, J.D.
Founder and Chairman, TheVanguard.Org

Dean Nelson
Executive Director, Network of Politically Active Christians

Dr. Frank S. Page
President, Southern Baptist Convention

Tony Perkins
President, Family Research Council

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition

Ron Shuping
Exec. VP of Programming, The Inspiration Networks

John Stemberger
President & General Counsel, Florida Family Policy Council

Jim Tonkowich
President, Institute for Religion and Democracy

Rick Warren
Pastor, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California

Dr. Hayes Wicker
Pastor, First Baptist Church Naples, Naples, Florida

Donald E. Wildmon
Founder and Chairman, American Family Association

Dr. Frank Wright
President & CEO, National Religious Broadcasters

Wendy Wright
President, Concerned Women for America
Date: 5/22/2007

Police in India arrest 4,000 Christians at protest rally

2007-05-29T12:09:00.000-04:00

The Story (link)

10 injured in religious clash in Egypt

2007-05-11T21:41:00.000-04:00

The Story: (link)

The story is new right now, I'll try and find out more.

The Free Copts has more (link)

Copts injured in Upper Egypt

2007-05-02T12:29:00.000-04:00

Free Copts has the story. (link)

This happened a few days ago. My news search did not pick it up. I don't know why that still surprises me.

Pray for our brothers and sisters. And remember those who have been arrested on no charge.

Relay for Life.

2007-05-01T15:36:00.000-04:00

I have a friend who is involved in the relay for life for the American Cancer Society. Going on my fourth month without I smoke I wanted to throw in my support for this cause.

Here is the link (link).

Please keep this cause and those with Cancer in your prayers. Alot of people do alot of hard work for this cause. Let us support them in anyway we can and my the Lord bless the efforts of all the people who work so hard for great causes such as this.

Rantings of a Sandmonkey Done

2007-04-30T20:36:00.000-04:00

I find this sad. (link)

I understand. He is in my prayers. You know, those of us who do not have persecution and these problems to face are going to have to be more active. I think, in honor of all the risks he has taken in these last few years...that is the only decent thing to do.

Feast of St. Mark

2007-04-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Mark today. For my Coptic brothers and sisters, as Mark and Peter were together in the Lord. May our two Churches grow closer. Even if that is a single brother and sister at a time.

May the Lord draw us closer. And may the Church of Alexandria be held in the hand of God against all who strive to harm her.

Baby Emilio given until May 8th

2007-04-19T12:29:00.001-04:00

The Story (link).

Judge gives baby Emilio 9 more days.

2007-04-10T12:15:00.000-04:00

The story (link)

Emilo Gonzales has unitl Tuesday. His appeal for life denied don Good Friday

2007-04-08T13:26:00.000-04:00

Emilio Gonzales is facing death again at the hands of the texas futile care law. He has until April 10th (link) and (link).

In my previous posts I have contact info to voice your opposition to this (link).

Please keep this child and his mother in your prayers and do all you can.

A disturbing thing from the lifesite report:

Pro-life advocates helping the Gonzales family are troubled that doctors are not certain in their diagnosis. They believe Emilio has Leigh’s Disease, a condition that is treated primarily through vitamin therapy. But on March 12, a hospital ethics committee voted behind closed doors to end Emilio’s treatment, deeming his life “futile.”

Under Texas law, a hospital is required to wait only 10 days before discontinuing treatment, to allow for a transfer to another hospital willing to admit the patient. Due to litigation, the 10-day window in Emilio’s case was extended until April 10; however, because of hospital bureaucracy and extensive paperwork, a successful transfer to another hospital is unlikely to occur in time to save Emilio’s life.

A state probate hearing on this case is scheduled to take place at the Travis County Courthouse on Tuesday--the same day the hospital plans to cease giving Emilio his treatments.

An outside nurse reviewing Emilio’s records noticed that the hospital had removed the boy’s vitamin treatments during the initial 10-day period, bringing up concerns among some that the hospital could be rushing to end the toddler’s life to avoid discovery of malpractice in the boy’s treatment.

“People who could profit from an innocent person’s death should not get to decide when it occurs. Whatever the hospital’s motives are for pushing to end Emilio’s treatment, a child's life outweighs all other concerns--whether it’s to cut costs, or for convenience, or something else,” said Carden. “And furthermore, the twisted state law that allows hospitals to exterminate disabled children over their parents’ wishes needs to be changed.”

May we all proclaim as one: Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

2007-04-08T11:18:00.000-04:00

Christ is Risen!
Indeed He is Risen!

And most blessed and wonderful day to all.

No matter what our differences let us proclaim in one voice:

Christ is Risen!
Indeed He is Risen!

Pakistani Christians Could Face Death on Blasphemy Charges

2007-04-05T16:55:00.000-04:00

Pakistani Christians Could Face Death on Blasphemy Charges

Apr. 4, 2007 (AsiaNews) - In Pakistan, an 11-year-old boy is one of 5 Christians who could face a death penalty after being charged with blasphemy against Islam, the AsiaNews service reports.

Police in the town of Toba Tek Singh are searching for 4 Christians who were charged with showing disrespect for Mohammed: a crime punishable by death under Pakistan's draconian law. One man has already been arrested, AsiaNews reports.

A local priest says that the blasphemy charges are being used to settle a family feud. "It is a totally fabricated case," he insists. Other Christian families in the region are frightened by the prospect of arbitrary accusation and arrest.

AsiaNews Story (link)

A Rosary Worldwide For Good Friday

2007-04-03T14:25:00.000-04:00

I don't know who came up with the idea, but between noon and three on Good Friday let us all join in prayer for an end to Abortion and Christian Persecution and Terrorism. The suggested method is a Rosary. But for those readers who do not say the Rosary just join in prayer for these intentions.

Also on this unified Easter let us say a Rosary or make a special prayer intention for Christian Unity. That all may be one.

St. Francis of Paola

2007-04-02T21:22:00.000-04:00

Who?

Xavier?
Assisi?

Nope Paola. Calabria Italy. The partron of Calabria. Some people departed that area long ago and so I am here.

Saint Francis of Paola founded the Order of Minims. He was born in 1416 in Paula in Calabria, Italy. His parents were remarkable for the holiness of their lives. Remaining childless for some years after their marriage they had recourse to prayer, especially commending themselves to the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis was the eldest of three children. He suffered from a swelling which endangered the sight of one of his eyes. His parents again had recourse to Francis of Assisi, and made a vow that their son should pass an entire year in the "little habit" of St Francis in one of the convents of his order, a not uncommon practice in the Middle Ages. The child was immediately cured. From his early years Francis showed signs of extraordinary sanctity, and at the age of thirteen, being admonished by a vision of a Franciscan friar, he entered a convent of the Franciscan Order in order to fulfil the vow made by his parents. Here he gave great edification by his love of prayer and mortification, his profound humility, and his prompt obedience. At the completion of the year he went with his parents on a pilgrimage to Assisi, Rome, and other places of devotion. Returning to Paula he selected a retired spot on his father's estate, and there lived in solitude; but later on he found a more retired dwelling in a cave on the sea coast. Here he remained alone for about six years giving himself to prayer and mortification.

In 1435 two companions joined him in his retreat, and to accommodate them Francis caused three cells and a chapel to be built: in this way the new order was begun. The number of his disciples gradually increased, and about 1454, with the permission of Pyrrhus, Archbishop of Cosenza, Francis built a large monastery and church. The building of this monastery was the occasion of a great outburst of enthusiasm and devotion on the part of the people towards Francis: even the nobles carried stones and joined in the work. Their devotion was increased by the many miracles which the saint wrought in answer to their prayers. The rule of life adopted by Francis and his religious was one of extraordinary severity.

They observed perpetual abstinence and lived in great poverty, but the distinguishing mark of the order was humility. They were to seek to live unknown and hidden from the world. To express this character which he would have his disciples cultivate, Francis eventually obtained from the Holy See that they should be styled Minims, the least of all religious. In 1474 Sixtus IV gave him permission to write a rule for his community, and to assume the title of Hermits of St. Francis: this rule was formally approved by Alexander VI, who, however, changed their title into that of Minims. After the approbation of the order, Francis founded several new monasteries in Calabria and Sicily. He also established convents of nuns, and a third order for people living in the world, after the example of St. Francis of Assisi.

The last three mouths of his life he spent in entire solitude, preparing for death. On Maundy Thursday he gathered his community around him and exhorted them especially to have mutual charity amongst themselves and to maintain the rigour of their life and in particular perpetual abstinence. The next day, Good Friday, he again called them together and gave them his last instructions and appointed a vicar-general. He then received the last sacraments and asked to have the Passion according to St. John read out to him, and whilst this was being read, his soul passed away. Leo X canonized him in 1519. In 1562 the Huguenots broke open his tomb and found his body incorrupt. They dragged it forth and burnt it, but some of the bones were preserved by the Catholics and enshrined in various churches of his order. The Order of Minims does not seem at any time to have been very extensive, but they had houses in many countries. The definitive rule was approved in 1506 by Julius II, who also approved a rule for the nuns of the order. The feast of St. Francis of Paula is kept by the universal Church on April 2, the day on which he died in 1507.

If I get some time in the next few days I'll write some of the stories about him.

As we enter Holy Week and Approach a shared Easter

2007-04-02T21:06:00.000-04:00

Every once and awhile it happens. Though we are not unified...the most important day for us is.

And this year we will celebrate Easter on the same day. I'll try and get some posting in this week but I can't promise a lot since work is crazy.

But as we near this Sunday remember that all over the world as one.

Christos anesti
aléthos anesti

Christ is Risen.
Indeed He is Risen.

Al'Masiah qam
haqqan qam

Christo è risuscitato
in verità è resuscitato

And in many other languages (link)

My brothers and sisters who read this blog, I know I have not had a lot of time or posts lately but let us remember this Thursday. Holy Thursday. That through His Body and Blood we are one. And let us remember it not only this Easter Season, but let it go out with us from that day to all days.

Hospital Agrees to Care for Disabled Baby Emilio Gonzales Until April

2007-03-21T23:12:00.000-04:00

The Story (link)

More coverage (link)

Catholic Run Hospital to Murder Child under Texas Law

2007-03-15T12:06:00.000-04:00

The Seaton Healthcare system...A Catholic run system that runs the Children's Hospital of Austin is going to murder a 16 month old Child.

Story(link).

Contact Information

Most Reverend Gregory M. Aymond
Bishop of Austin

Contact: Rick Bologna
Location: Chancery
P.O Box 13327 1600 N. Congress
Austin, TX 78701
512-697-2015 (link)

Children's Hospital of Austin contact info (link)

City of Austin Mayor's Comission for People with Disabilities (link)

Texas U.S. Senators
John Cornyn (link)
Kay Bailey Hutchison(link)

Governor Rick Perry of Texas (link)

Texas Futile care law is killing again: The case of Emilio Gonzales. They are going to murder a 16 month old.

2007-03-15T09:46:00.000-04:00

A link to the Story (Link).

The Basics:

AUSTIN, Texas, March 14 (UPI) -- The mother of a critically ill boy is desperately seeking another hospital before doctors at Children's Hospital in Austin, Texas, remove his respirator.

Catarina Gonzales, 23, of Lockhart, Texas, wasn't ready to accept the physicians' assessment that continuing treatment of her 16-month-old son Emilio not only was hopeless but possibly painful, the Austin American-Statesman said Tuesday.

"It's really hard because you see your son moving and you see him opening his eyes," Gonzales said. "He's fighting. ... If I have to take him out of state, I will."

The Austin hospital on Friday gave her 10 days to find another hospital but an extensive search had failed and odds of a transfer were poor, the newspaper said. Her attorney, Jerri Ward, said she would be surprised if one could be found in Texas.

The child has Leigh's disease, which causes the central nervous system and muscles to degenerate. Doctors said the child's brain is shrinking and there's no hope of a reversal.

Gonzales told the America-Statesman she believes her son responds to her but doctors say he is comatose.

Texas law permits doctors to decide that treatment is "medically futile" if they believe it prolongs dying.

More later.

Copts forced to declare they set their own homes on fire.

2007-02-22T18:27:00.000-05:00

ISTANBUL, February 22 (Compass Direct News) – Police detained Christian families in Upper Egypt and forced them to deny arson attacks on their homes during a spate of anti-Christian violence last week, the families said.

Two Coptic Orthodox families said police detained them for 36 hours when they attempted to report a February 13 assault on their homes in Armant, 600 kilometers (373 miles) south of Cairo.

The fires came five days after Muslim groups set four Christian-owned shops alight on February 9.

International media reported that rumors of a love affair between a Christian man and Muslim woman sparked the violence, but local papers said hostilities began over accusations that Christians were blackmailing Muslim women to convert.

In the wake of the violence, police detained eight Muslim young men and Copt Ramy Ishaq, whose relationship with a 19-year-old Muslim woman was the basis for the romance rumors, sources in Armant told Compass.

The rest of the story is here.

(Source) Compass Direct

Girl Suffers Forced Abortion in Italy

2007-02-20T17:54:00.000-05:00

I can't even comment at the moment:

Girl Suffers Forced Abortion in Italy
Minors have no “right to choose” life in Catholic nation

By Peter J. Smith

TURIN, Italy, February 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Italian judge ordered a 13 year-old girl to undergo an abortion, despite the girl's pleas to let her keep her child reports the Italian news agency, La Stampa.

The girl, Valentina, had become pregnant by her 15 year-old boyfriend, however rather than let her choose to keep her child, her parents demanded she have an abortion on the grounds that she was ruining her life by becoming a mother.

"You cannot hold this child ... you must abort, and father will never have to know,” Valentina's mother told her, saying that she did not have the money to support the child.

Despite Valentina's repeated attempts to make her parents understand she wanted to choose to keep her baby, the case went to the Court of Minors. Judge Giuseppe Cocilovo then issued the ruling to abort Valentina's child.

Under Italian law, a minor may not decide whether to keep or abort her child, and may be forced by her guardians or parents to undergo an abortion.

However, the abortion has meant nothing less than disaster for Valentina, who was confined to the psychiatric unit of Regina Margherita children's hospital in Turin after the abortion for wanting to commit suicide.

“You have made me kill, and now I kill myself, I kill myself”, cried Valentina. "I do not want here to be," Valentina repeated. "I am not crazy, I am only evil like a dog for what my parents and the judges have obliged to make to me."

The case of Valentina is an egregious case of forced abortion in Italy, where one would expect that a woman‘s “right to choose” would mean the possibility of choosing life. However, the silence of purportedly "pro-choice" feminist groups has been deafening thus far over 13 year-old Valentina's forced abortion, despite her very own choice that her body should carry life.

To respectfully protest the Italian authorities:

Italian Embassy in U.S.
3000 Whitehaven Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C., 20008
Tel (202) 612-4400
Fax (202) 518-2154
Italian Embassy in Ottawa

275 Slater Street, 21st Floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H9
CANADA
t. +1.613.232.2401
f. +1.613.233.1484
email: ambasciata.ottawa@esteri.it

Italian Justice Ministry
Via Arenula, 70 - 00186 ROME
Tel: 06.68851
Web Site: http://www.giustizia.it
Email: ufficio.stampa@giustizia.it
callcenter@giustizia.it

(Source)

Persecution Follows Anti-Conversion Bill in Indian State

2007-02-06T17:15:00.000-05:00

I read this on The Free Copts (link)

Here is the article:

Written by Persecution.org
Tuesday, 06 February 2007
India (ICC) - Only two weeks after the Himachal Pradesh state government passed an anti-conversion bill, two Christian institutions have already faced harassment by Hindu fundamentalists.

This shows that there is a direct connection between anti-conversion legislation and Christian persecution. Rather than assisting in keeping the peace between religious groups, anti-conversion laws actually embolden Hindu extremists to attack religious minorities. These two attacks from last month are further proof of this disturbing trend.

In the first attack, about 250 people belonging to the VHP and its youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, gathered in front of the house of Pastor Behal, a retired officer from the Indian Army, who runs an orphanage in Kangra. They demanded that he close the institution and move out of the area on January 21, the Rev. Madhu Chandra of the All India Christian Council (AICC) told ICC.

When the AICC contacted Sudha Devi, the sub-divisional magistrate of Kangra district, she said police had been deployed at the site and the situation was under control. But she also said that the Hindu protestors had submitted a memorandum against Pastor Behal alleging that he was mistreating orphan children and converting them to Christianity.

The second attack occurred just a few days earlier in Kullu district, when police arrested four workers of a drug addiction rehabilitation center, the Last Resort, in Khokhan village. Two inmates had run away from the center and lodged a complaint alleging that they had been forcibly kept in the center and had Christianity preached to them. The names of the four workers are Rajesh Toppo, Nizam Minthang, Gopal Singh Bhatia and Lalboi, and their accusers are Vinod Saini and Amos.

The plaintiffs stated in an affidavit that they were pressured by a mob, allegedly comprising of Hindu fundamentalists from the VHP, to levy charges against the four Christians. The four said that the plaintiffs had recently been brought to the center by their parents, who had consented that they be given treatment at the center. The Christians also denied the allegation that they were trying to convert them.

Jeremy Sewall, ICC’s Policy Analyst for South Asia, said, “It is incredibly important to grasp the deception surrounding these anti-conversion bills. Although proponents claim that they will encourage religious freedom by prohibiting forcible conversion, they are really designed to stamp out India’s rapidly growing church. When a state government passes anti-conversion laws, radical Hindus see that as a license to attack Christian ministries. This is exactly what has happened to Pastor Behal and the four drug rehab center employees.”
The less than 0.1 percent Christian population of Himachal Pradesh was stunned when the Congress government passed the anti-conversion bill on December 30. The bill is awaiting the consent of the state governor.

Catholic theologians in talks with Oriental Orthodox

2007-01-30T14:02:00.000-05:00

Prayers on this. That we may grow closer.

Rome, Jan. 30, 2007 (CWNews.com) -

Theologians representing the Catholic and Oriental Orthodox churches are meeting in Rome this week, to continue a series of discussions that began in 2003.

The Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox involves the churches that broke with Rome after the Council of Chalcedon, such as the Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Malankara Orthodox churches and the Armenian Apostolic Church. This joint theological commission is distinct from the group that met in Belgrade last September, bringing together representatives of the Orthodox bodies that broke with Rome after 1054.

This week’s discussions include representatives of the Oriential Orthodox churches and their counterparts who are in communion with the Holy See, including the Coptic, Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian, and Syro-Malabar Catholic churches. The Maronite Catholic Church, which boasts an unbroken history of communion with Rome, is also represented at the meeting.

The discussions by the joint commission have centered on the exericise of apostolic ministry in the universal Church and the nature of ecclesial communion. This week’s talks, beginning January 30, will continue through February 3, under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. (link)

My wifes post on 1/22/07 on abortion And excellent set of links and reading

2007-01-24T12:11:00.000-05:00

My wife did an excellent post (link)

Abdel Kareem Nabil Update

2007-01-21T14:45:00.000-05:00

Freedom For Egyptians has an update on the trial of Abdel Kareem Nabil(link).

He is on trial for religious disdain, insulting the president, attempts to flare up sectarian unrest and turmoil and disrupting public security.

He is on trial for having an opinon. He is on trial for speaking.

Unity: Where we have been and where we are

2007-01-18T12:04:00.000-05:00

Is there much behind us? Much that follows us? Years of regret and harsh words to each other? Yes. It can not be denied. It can not be ignored. But what lies ahead? Does the road ahead have hope?

Yes. This year has been a great year for unity. We can see the Holy Spirit pushing us forward. Pope Benedict has said:

"Theological dialogue is necessary, in-depth knowledge of the historical reasons of choices made in the past is perhaps indispensable. But what is urgent in the main is that 'purification of the memory,' so many times recalled by John Paul II, which alone can dispose spirits to receive the full truth of Christ."

"It is before him, supreme Judge of every living being, that each one of us must place himself, in the awareness of one day having to render an account to him of what one has done or not done for the great good of the full and visible unity of all his disciples."

Pope Shenouda II has said in the past:

"The whole Christian world is anxious to see the church unite. Christian people, being fed up with divisions, are pushing their church leaders to do something about church unity and I am sure that the Holy Spirit is inspiring us."

And there are more than words. In the recent Papal visit to Turkey the heads of many Churches laid more groundwork.

And Catholics, Lutherans and this year the Methodists have signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (link).

But there is still far to go. To me, the strengthening of unity will come where Christians of all kinds stand up for their brothers and sisters wherever they suffer. Christ will take us by the hand and lead us...but we must extend our hands to those who suffer. To those who need.

The Lord called to Peter and Peter walked across the water toward our Lord. But he became scared of the strong wind and began to sink.

Christ did not let Peter sink, He took him by the hand and saved him.

Our road ahead in unity is filled with stong winds.

The wind of regrets.
The wind of wrongs toward each other.
The winds of Pride.
The winds of those who do not want Christians united.
The winds of the enemy.
The winds of our own fears.

But there is also the Lord in the whispering wind, as He came to Elijah. Above all there is the hand of the Lord reaching out to us. He will take our hand. He will carry us. But we must clasp each others hands, so we go to Him together.

Scripture and Commentary Day 1 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

2007-01-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

Day 1

United through the presence of Christ
‘One Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Ephesians 4:5, 6)

Ezek 37:15-28 My dwelling place shall be with them
Ps 67 (66) Let the peoples praise you, O God
Eph 4:1-6 One Lord, one faith, one baptism
Jn 14:23-27 We will come to them and make our home with them

Commentary

The scriptures stress that God’s will is for the unity of God’s people. Through Ezekiel the prophet, God affirms that Judah and Israel – two divided, often estranged kingdoms – will again be one. God’s cleansing presence will strengthen and bless them in a covenant of peace.

The natural response to God’s gift of unity is our gratitude and praise. The psalmist calls upon all the nations to unite in praise of God, whose saving power may be seen in all nations and throughout the whole earth.

Jesus taught his first followers that he, with the Father, would be present with them, “making a home” with each one who loved him. And he promised that this presence would not end with his death, that he would continue to be present with each one of his followers – and with us, today – through the Holy Spirit.

But the promise of Jesus’ presence is not limited to individual believers: for, as the evangelist Matthew affirms, wherever even two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name they form a community, a community in which Jesus has promised to be present, strengthening and accompanying them on their way.

This common belonging is shown powerfully in our common recognition of baptism. In baptism Christ calls each one of us, bringing us into his body, the church. Because we each belong to Christ, we all belong to one another. That common belonging – to Christ, and to one another – makes us one, despite all our differences of history, culture, and theological conviction: “for where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Mt 18:20).

Source (Vatican Website "Resources For The Week of Prayer For Christian Unity")

Online RSV (For reading the Scripture above)

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity January 18-25

2007-01-17T10:20:00.000-05:00

Here is the link (link).

The daily meditations and Scripture:

January 18:
In the beginning was the Word. "And God said..." (Gen 1)

January 19:
The Saving Word of Christ. "He makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak." (Mk 7: 31-37)

January 20:
The Holy Spirit gives us the Word. "The Spirit ...will testify on my behalf." (Jn 15: 26)

January 21:
The silence of the forgotten and the cries of the suffering. "If one member suffers all suffer together." (1 Cor 12: 26)

January 22:
God's judgement on our silence. "Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these..." (Mt 25: 45)

January 23:
Empowered to speak out. "But the woman ... came in fear and trembling ... and told Him the whole truth" (Mk 5: 33).

January 24:
Forsakenness. "Why are You so far from helping me?" (Ps 22: 1)

January 25:
Resurrection--glorification. "Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." (Phil 2: 11)

Let us all join our prayers for Christian Unity!

St. Anthony The Great

2007-01-17T10:14:00.000-05:00

Today is the feast of St. Anthony the Great. He is one of the saints shared by Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches (although the feast is not celebrated on the same day). He is called the founder of Monasticism,and also the Father of Monks. And indeed was one of the Great desert Fathers, and is much loved by our Coptic brothers and sisters.

May he be one of the many bridges to all our Churches growing closer. May we join in the prayer for unity on this, the day before the start of the week for Christian unity, and pray that:

Saint Anthony, you spoke of the importance of persevering in our faith and our practice. Help us to wake up each day with new zeal for the Christian life and a desire to take the next challenge instead of just sitting still. Amen

May that challenge be to unity and love. And may unity be in our prayers for the week ahead and always. May it be the work of our hands and our hearts.

Last years post on St. Anthony (link)

The week of prayer for Christian Unity starts tomorrow. Barring any problems, the blog should be fairly active with news posts this week.

Posting soon

2007-01-16T17:51:00.000-05:00

I'll be back to posting soon. Now that the new semester has started I'm back to my normal work schedule.

Free Copts Website Hacked

2006-12-20T12:21:00.000-05:00

The Story here (link)

It seems to me that if someone felt it was lies they would argue against it. If they felt it was true they would erase and attack it.

But the truth always has a way of coming back. It will not be silent. And neither will those who stand for the truth. Those who support the Copts and those who suffer are not faceless cyberspace pirates, they are people with faces and real stories. They stand up and point to the injustice and do what they can. Because that's what love and loving each other does.

St. Nicholas

2006-12-06T17:46:00.000-05:00

There is almost no saint as beloved as St. Nicholas. Parton of many things...but first and foremost children, the innocent and the poor.

St. Nicholas was a wealthy man. But money did not move his heart, it was moved by our Lord. The St. Nicholas center writes of his life:

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

Nicholas was legendary in his giving to others. The story is told:

In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.

The dignity of others was always important to Nicholas, who had the heart of a child and a deep faith. And he exercised these in a legendary, but simple way. His care and love for others is basically that. Simple.

In a way he is one of the best examples of exercising effortless love with supreme effort, as Christ taught us. In the end, is that not the call of a Christian: effortless love with supreme effort.

Pray for us, St. Nicholas and lead us to a better understanding of Christ.

Advent Begins...Let's take a look at St. Nicholas

2006-12-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

My wife is named Nicolle, so I have a special fondness for St. Nicholas. Many people know at least something about the great saint, mainly because he is the seed of the Santa Clause stuff. There is a great site: (link) It is the St. Nicholas Center. It does ol' St. Nick more justice than I could. The related info section is very well done.

He is patron of alot. Such as Sailors:

St. Nicholas, patron saint of sailors. Saint for all those tossed about in life by the many problems that confront us. Perhaps it is a good time to invoke his intersession for our armed forces overseas and for all those who feel lost on the ocean of problems that beset our daily lives.

Eternal God,
In your great love you gave your servant Nicholas
A perpetual name for deeds of kindness
on land and sea.

Grant that your church may never cease to work for the happiness of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

And Thieves????

So why is Ol' St. Nick also the patron of thieves? Well, he is good at getting into houses. Seriously, Nicholas is above all the patron of children and the poor, and there is a strong connection than the one between poverty and theft.

Think about the days in which St. Nicholas lived. Alot of people were poor and very few were rich. The space between those classes was huge and most of the poor had to steal to survive. Nicholas however, is not the saint to help you break into a house. He is rather, the saint to help you break out of your old life.

St. Nicholas was rich, very rich. There are hundreds of stories where he would give to the poor so they would not have to turn to sin or crime. St. Nicholas is a saint for when there seem to be no other options. When the choice was between feeding your family or stealing, Nicholas was the hand that lifted the poor up and kept them from crime.

He is the patron of thieves who repent and an enemy of those who rob the poor of dignity.

And he is patron of....

Apothecaries (pharmacists)
Armed forces police
Bakers
Bankers
Bargemen
Barrel makers
Boatmen
Boot blacks & shoe shiners
Bottlers
Boys
Brides
Brewers
Businessmen
Butchers
Buttonmakers
Candle makers
Captives
Chandlers (suppliers of ships)
Children
Choristers
Citizens
Clergy
Clerks
Cloth trade & merchants
Coopers (barrelmakers)
Corn measurers & merchants
Court recorders, registrars, clerks
Dock workers, longshoremen
Drapers
Embalmers
Ferrymen
Firefighters
Fishermen
Florists
Grain dealers & merchants
Grocers
Grooms
Haberdashers
Infants
Infertile
Judges
Lace makers & sellers
Lawsuits lost unjustly
Lawyers
Lemko people, Ukraine
Linen merchants
Longshoremen
Lovers
Maidens
Mariners
Merchants
Military intelligence
Millers Murderers
Navigators
Newlyweds
Notaries
Oil merchants
Orphans
Packers
Parish clerks
Paupers
Pawnbrokers
Pedlars
Perfumeries, perfumers
Pharmacists
Pilgrims
Pirates
Poets
Poor people
Preachers
Prisoners
Prostitutes
Pupils
Ribbon weavers
Robbers & thieves
Schoolchildren
Sailors & mariners
Scholars & students
Seed merchants
Shearmen
Shipwreck victims
Shipwrights and gaugers
Ships carpenters
Shoemakers
Shopkeepers
Skippers
Soldiers
Spice-dealers
Spinsters
Tanners
Teachers
Thieves
Timber merchants
Travelers
Unjustly condemned
Unmarried men
Unmarried women
Virgins
Watermen
Weavers
Wine porters, merchants & vendors
Women, desirous of marrying
Woodturners

Austria
Belgium
Germany
Greece
Italy
Kingdom of Naples (Italy)
Netherlands
Sicily
Norway (with Saint Olaf)
Apulia (Italy)
Lorraine (France)
Switzerland

CITIES & TOWNS

Albania
Sveti Nikola

Argentina
San Nicolás

Aruba
Sint Nicolaas

Australia
Sankt Nikolai

Austria
Dorfbeueren; Saalbach; Sankt Nikolai im Sausal, Sankt Nikolai ob Drassling, Steiermark; St. Nikola an der Donau (on the Danube); Traboch

Belgium
Ghent; Kampenhout; Liege; Lochristi; Sint-Niklaas, Flanders

Bulgaria
Sveti Nikola, Prokhod

Canada
Saint-Nicolas, Quebec

England
Liverpool
Portsmouth

France
Amiens; Civray; Le Souich; Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, Lorraine
Germany
Albaching; Altenberg; Altenbruch (Land Hadeln); Gamhurst; Idenheim; Konz; Lubeck; Nieheim; Pfersdorf; Rheurdt; Wald

Greece
Corfu
Parga

Hungary
Dánszentmiklós
Szigetszentmiklós
Ireland
Galway; Limerick

Italy
Ancona; Bari, Apulia; Duronia; Fossalto

Macedonia
Sveti Nikole
Malta
Siggiewi

Mexico
San Nicolás, Durango; San Nicolas, Sonora; San Nicolás, Tamaulipos; San Nicolás de Ibarra

Netherlands
Amsterdam, Benschop, Biervliet, Blankenham, Blija, Broek in Waterland, Broekhuizen, Denekamp, Deventer, Dordrecht, Dwingelo, Edam, Eemnes, Elburg, Ellekom, Groningen, Haps (now in Cuijck), Harderwijk, Heino, Helvoirt (now in Haaren), Hendrik-Udo-Ambacht, Heythuizen, Ijhorst, Ijsselstein, Kampen, Koudekerk, Krommenie, Kuinre, Lutjebroek, Meijel, Midlum, Monnickendam, Muiden, Nieuwveen, Odijk (now in Bunnik), Olde Markt, Nijland, Oosterwierum, Oosterwolde, Poppenwier, Purmerend, Schelluinen, Schoonebeek, St. Nicolaasga, Tienhoven, Valkenswaard, Vollenhove, Vreeland, Wespe, Westerland, Wieuwerd, Wijhe, Zoetermeer

Palestine
Beit Jala

Peru
San Nicolás
Phillipines
San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte; San Nicolas, Pangesinan

Russia
Moscow; Zaraisk
Scotland
Aberdeen

Spain
Alicante
Switzerland
Fribourg; Lucerne; Sankt Niklaus

United States
New York City, New York; San Nicolas Island, California

Venezuela
Porlamar

Wales
Saint Nicholas

I don't really think that I can say anything else...except that Santa is alot buiser than you thought. So why? Why is Nicholas so very loved. The answer is in the story of his life.

For St. Nicholas Day...which is soon (December 6th). I'll do a post on his life.

Impending attack on Archangel Michael church, Alexandria

2006-11-30T12:03:00.000-05:00

This story is being carried by The Free Copts (link) and Neferteeti (link).

Prayers for the soul of a wonderful girl, A short life with great meaning

2006-11-29T12:51:00.000-05:00

You know, we often miss that there is beauty in the world. That there are people who give and give. I was reading this story and it touched my heart:

EAST WINDSOR -- Mary Rose Gabriel saved every dollar she ever received as a birthday or Christmas gift and, when she was 16 years old and had saved $7,000, decided that others needed it more than she did.

"She said, 'I'm not doing anything with it, I might as well give it to the church,'" her sister Sarah Gabriel recalled yesterday at her family's home in the township's Twin Rivers section.

Mary Gabriel, 18, gave everything she could during her life, which was cut short Sunday night when her car hit a utility pole on Old Trenton Road.

Her mother Suzan Gabriel said officials at St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church in East Brunswick were surprised by the teen's generosity.

"They couldn't believe it," Suzan Gabriel said.

From the biggest sacrifice to the smallest gesture, Mary Gabriel always thought of how she could help others, her mother and sister said.

She had dropped off Mark Ibrahim, whom she called her "soon-to-be fiance," at his house in Hamilton at 11:30 p.m. Sunday and was driving home when her car spun off the road and struck the pole, family members and police said. She was ejected from the car and died by the time police arrived.

West Windsor police said there was no indication, other than skid marks, of what led her car to split a utility pole in half.

She lived a life grounded in her faith, giving away some of her favorite clothes to the needy and visiting inmates in prison, her mother said.

"She would do anything just to make other people happy," Suzan Gabriel said.

A small example happened on Thursday, when Mary, Sarah and two cousins went to the Thanksgiving parade in New York City. Mary asked the other three, who were cold and wet from the rain, if she could get them soup, Sarah said. All three said no. A few minutes later, "she came back with four soups," said Sarah, who is 17.

Mary Gabriel was a student at Mercer County Community College, having graduated from Hightstown High School in three years. She planned on transferring to Rutgers University and wanted to be a nurse practitioner

"She would talk a lot about the future," Sarah said. "She said how she wanted to be a strict parent."

Mary wanted to live in West Windsor one day, because she thought it would be a good place to raise children. Suzan Gabriel said her daughter and Ibrahim were planning to become engaged next summer.

Mary Gabriel was also interested in her Coptic background. She was preparing to go with her family next summer to Egypt for the first time in 10 years.

Her 19th birthday would have been Friday.
Source

We all get a life. The time of that life is known only to the Lord. Some in eighty years do not manage to be the loving example of this young girl.

Look at what Christ says:

Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'

Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?'
And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'

Matthew 25:34-40

For Mary Rose Gabriel who, as the article says:

A small example happened on Thursday, when Mary, Sarah and two cousins went to the Thanksgiving parade in New York City. Mary asked the other three, who were cold and wet from the rain, if she could get them soup, Sarah said. All three said no. A few minutes later, "she came back with four soups,"

And:

She lived a life grounded in her faith, giving away some of her favorite clothes to the needy and visiting inmates in prison.

And:

Mary Rose Gabriel saved every dollar she ever received as a birthday or Christmas gift and, when she was 16 years old and had saved $7,000, decided that others needed it more than she did.

"She said, 'I'm not doing anything with it, I might as well give it to the church"

Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do unto me.

May she rest in the arms of her Lord. And may we see that in a world so often comsumed in pain and strife that there are examples of love and beauty in the simple acts of loving each other as our Lord told us to.

The Pope's Visit to Turkey

2006-11-28T07:46:00.000-05:00

Here is the schedule for the Pope's visit to Turkey. I'll be taking a look at this through the week.
Prayers for the Holy Father during his visit.

Vatican City, Nov. 13, 2006 (CNA) - The Holy See has published the official schedule for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, which will take place November 28 to December 1 and will include meetings with various political leaders and representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches as well as with leaders of Islam and Judaism.

Tuesday, November 28

The Pope will arrive in Ankara at 1pm. The day’s activities will include a visit to Atatürk Mausoleum, the welcome ceremony, a visit to the President of Turkey followed by meetings with the deputy prime minister, the president for religious affairs, Ali Bardakoglu, and the Diplomatic Corps. Bardakoglu, who was one of the harshest critics of the Pope’s lecture in Ratisbona last September, has since said that the visit would be “a positive step toward developing dialogue between Islam and Christianity.”

Wednesday, November 29

the Pope will celebrate Mass at Ephesus, where tradition says the Virgin Mary resided. Later, in Istanbul, he will go to pray at the patriarchal Church of St. Gorge followed by a private meeting with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.

Thursday November 30

The Feast of St. Andrew, the Pope will participate in a “Divine Liturgy” with Bartholomew I at the patriarchal Church of St. George, after which they will sign a joint declaration. Later he will make a visit to the once great Cathedral of Hagia Sophia (which is now a museum) and to the Apostolic Armenian Cathedral, where he will meet with Patriarch Mesrob II. Afterwards he will meet with the Grand Rabbi of Turkey and then have dinner with the members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Turkey.

Friday, December 1

the Pope will celebrate Mass in Holy Spirit Cathedral, and then, after a farewell ceremony, he will depart for Rome.

This will be third visit to Turkey by a Pope. Pope Paul VI visited in 1967 and Pope John Paul II in 1979.

Argentina mother expresses forgiveness of son’s killer during court trial

2006-11-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

Source

Article:

Buenos Aires, Nov. 15, 2006 (CNA) - The mother of a murdered Argentinean man surprised the country this week when she approached the man charged with the crime during his trial, gave him a rosary, hugged him, and invited him to open his heart to God.

The courtroom encounter occurred in the town of Esquel in southern Argentina. Ana Maria Suarez was present during the trial of Fabian Chavez, 25, who confessed to killing her son, Mariano Drew.

Before those present, Suarez said, “Only prayer each day soothes my grief. Yesterday when I went to the Church of St. Cajetan, I prayed to the Virgin Mary and I thought, my son is with God. But I also thought of you, so young that you are. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to give you this,” she said before handing him a rosary.

“Only God heals wounds. I forgive you. And if my son offended you I ask your forgiveness. I loved him and now I don’t want you to suffer. The fate that has befallen you grieves me because I work with young people. In this country there is much violence. And you have been a victim of that since you were born. It is love that also helps to heal wounds,” Suarez said, hugging the defendant, who broke down in tears.

Last September, Chavez, who was raised as an orphan and is an admitted alcoholic, beat 27 year-old Mariano Drew to death in the town of El Hoyo.

A Prayer

2006-11-09T15:04:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share this:

Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love, Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity, Inflame my heart with love for You and for those around me.

Grant, O Lord, that every moment of this day, in all my dealings with others, I may keep in mind Your words, "...as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me."

Grant that I may rule all my dealings with others according to Your command: "...love one another, as I have loved you."

Grant that I may think of them as You think of them and of me.

Grant that I may feel toward them as You feel toward them and me. Grant that I may speak to them and of them as You would were You in my place. Grant that I may bear with them as You bear with me.

Grant that I may regard it a privilege "...not to be ministered unto, but to minister."

Grant that I may seek opportunities of doing good to them in a kindly way — seeing You, serving You, in them.

Place Your thoughts in my mind, Your love in my heart, Your words on my lips — that I may learn to love others as You love me.

Fr. John Harden SJ

Egyptian blogger arrested

2006-11-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

Freedom for Egyptians has the story. I'll update with more soon. (link)

For All Saints, known and unknown

2006-11-01T12:37:00.000-05:00

Today is all saints day. What is All Saints Day:

All Saints Day

During the year the Church celebrates one by one the feasts of the saints. Today she joins them all in one festival. In addition to those whose names she knows, she recalls in a magnificent vision all the others "of all nations and tribes standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, proclaiming Him who redeemed them in His Blood."

The feast of All Saints should inspire us with tremendous hope. Among the saints of heaven are some whom we have known. All lived on earth lives like our own. They were baptized, marked with the sign of faith, they were faithful to Christ's teaching and they have gone before us to the heavenly home whence they call on us to follow them. The Gospel of the Beatitudes, read today, while it shows their happiness, shows, too, the road that they followed; there is no other that will lead us whither they have gone.

"The Commemoration of All Saints" was first celebrated in the East. The feast is found in the West on different dates in the eighth century. The Roman Martyrology mentions that this date is a claim of fame for Gregory IV (827-844) and that he extended this observance to the whole of Christendom; it seems certain, however, that Gregory III (731-741) preceded him in this. At Rome, on the other hand, on May 13, there was the annual commemoration of the consecration of the basilica of St. Maria ad Martyres (or St. Mary and All Martyrs). This was the former Pantheon, the temple of Agrippa, dedicated to all the gods of paganism, to which Boniface IV had translated many relics from the catacombs. Gregory VII transferred the anniversary of this dedication to November 1.

Things to Do:

* Visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead during the Octave of All Saints' Day (November 1 through November 8) will gain a plenary indulgence that can be applied only to the souls in purgatory. On other days, this work only gains a partial indulgence.

* Spend a little time after Mass thanking God for all the unnamed saints, some of whom could be our own relatives;

* Have a special meal and if you have young children have them dress up like saints and play games;

* Pray the Litany of the Saints -- you could make it really special by chanting it ("he who sings prays twice") and you could read an explanation of this litany, which is considered the model of all other litanies.

* From the Catholic Culture library:
o The Church's Thanksgiving Day by Fr. Joseph Minihan,
o Ideas for Sanctifying All Saints' Day by Jennifer Gregory Miller,
o Halloween and All Saints Day by Fr. William Saunders.

Remember today all those who suffer for their faith around the world. Say a prayer for all saints: Those we know and those we do not.

May their examples lead us in courage and love.

Prayers for Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church

2006-10-25T14:38:00.000-04:00

(link)

Coptic pope has spinal surgery at Cleveland Clinic
Associated Press

CLEVELAND - Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Orthodox Church based in Egypt had successful spinal surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and is expected to be released soon, the research hospital said Tuesday.

"He is in excellent condition and recovering well in his hospital suite," the clinic said. No details were released.

The surgery was performed Sunday by Dr. Iain Kalfas, chairman of neurosurgery at the clinic.

Shenouda, 83, has started physical therapy in his room and is expected to be released from the hospital soon, according to the clinic, which said he would continue physical therapy when he returns to Egypt.

Shenouda has led the Coptic Orthodox Church since 1971. Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's more than 70 million people and are the largest Christian minority in the Middle East.

Under his leadership, the church has established congregations in the United States, South America, New Zealand and Australia. Its four North American congregations in 1971 have grown to more than 100.

Prayers for a speedy recovery and the blessings of the Lord.

Prayers and Support for Pro-Life Law

2006-10-18T19:41:00.000-04:00

Please read this artcle (link).

I'll try to add more later.

Married Three Years Today!!!!!

2006-10-18T12:06:00.000-04:00

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My wife's blog

2006-10-16T20:03:00.000-04:00

So my wife has a blog that I really enjoy reading (link).

Ahh...the signs of marriage. See each other all the time, work together but in different departments and still read each other's blogs. No wonder we are pretty good on communication. We talk in first, second and third person.

Armenian Genocide Statue Destroyed in France

2006-10-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

Gateway Pundit has the story (link).

All I can say is that maybe if people keep acting in response to the French Bill, then people will learn about the Genocide.

I pray no one gets hurt, but such childish acts of vandalism and political name calling might bring attention to the least talked about crime against humanity of our time.

Islamic Group Beheads Assyrian Priest, Crucifies 14 Year Old Boy in North Iraq

2006-10-12T14:25:00.000-04:00

Mosul, Iraq (AINA) -- On Monday, October 9, a prominent Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) priest, Fr. Paulos Iskander (Paul Alexander), was kidnapped by an unknown Islamic group. His ransom was posted at either $250,000 or $350,000. This group had demanded that signs be posted once again on his church apologizing for the Pope's remarks as a condition for negotiations to begin.

Father Alexander was beheaded on Wednesday.

An email from a priest in Sweden, Adris Hanna, describes the Muslim terror campaign against the Christians in Iraq:

The Syriac-Orhtodox priest Paulos Iskandar was kidnapped this Monday, October 9, and beheaded today Wednesday October 11.

The Bishop in Mosul wrote me an email tonight and told me that the funeral will be held in Mosul tomorrow.

Christians are living a terrified life in Mosul and Baghdad. Several priests have been kidnapped, girls are being raped and murdered and a couple of days ago a fourteen year old boy was crucified in the Christian neighborhood Albasra.

I have also spoken to a group of nuns that were robbed and treated brutally on their way between Baghdad to Amman in Jordan.

The murder of father Paulus is the final blow for Christians, and now only hell is expected for the Christians of Iraq.

We the oriental Christians in Sweden and the rest of the Western world must protest against the genocide. We must do what we can to stop the rape, threats, hatred, robberies, murders… We must do something.(source)

Also on the story:

link

And where is Fox, CNN, MSNBC...anyone.

Kidnappers Forcing Teenage Girl to Convert to Islam. Plus an Update as more news comes out. Kidnapped Girl Escapes to Family

2006-10-10T14:31:00.000-04:00

The Free Copts have the story (link).

I'll repost it here:

On October 2nd at 2:30 p.m., Lorans Wageah Emeel, a 15-year-old Christian girl, was kidnapped by Muslims in the Egyptian city of El Mahala Al Kobra. The incident was publicized by El Tareek, the only Arabic Christian newspaper in the Middle East. It is reported that the abductors are trying to force Lorans, a student of Saida Nafesa High School in El Mahalla Al Kobra, to deny Christ and accept Islam.

At approximately 10:30 a.m. Cairo time, on October 3rd, the Emeel family gathered around the El Mahala Al Kobra police station, pleading with the officers to return Lorans to them. Her parents accused a Muslim man of kidnapping their daughter at 2:30 in the afternoon and filed a police report at the station.

The kidnapping of Christian teenage girls in Muslim nations has reached into the thousands. Many are forced through physical violence to convert to Islam. Other girls are often lured into becoming Muslims with promises of material wealth. The Voice of the Martyrs sponsors safe houses in Islamic countries to protect Christian teenage girls who have been threatened with or have escaped from abduction. These Christian refuges are also places where young women learn job skills and receive spiritual training.

Please offer your prayers. But also...Contact our own government here in the United States. Make this an issue. Make the sufferings of our brothers and sisters an issue for our own government. Our tax dollars are going to support (in the form of military aid to Egypt) the government that turns a blind eye to this.

Some links on how to mail Congress about the United States and their role in this:

Link
House of Representatives faq

Link
THE COMPLETE LIST OF E-MAIL ADDRESSES & FAX NUMBERS FOR CONGRESS, SENATE & GOVERNORS

Link
Congress.org

Update (From Voice of the Martyrs)

An Egyptian Christian teenager escaped her Muslim kidnappers last week hours after they had drugged her on a public bus. They threatened to rape her and convert her to Islam if her family did not leave their Nile Delta city of El-Mahala el-Kobra. Laurence Wagih Emil, 15, escaped the ground-floor room where she was being held in Cairo's southern Helwan suburb at 10 p.m. last Tuesday (October 3) while her captors were away breaking their Ramadan fast.

Her father, Wagih Emil, had received several threatening text messages from his daughter's mobile phone. "Take the rest of your daughters and leave the city, or you will lose them one by one," said one. "The girl is not accepting easily, but she will embrace Islam for sure." Before family members recovered her, State Security Investigation officials interviewing Laurence Emil told her she would never see her parents again unless she reported a false story denying the kidnapping.

An Open Letter From The American Coptic Union to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

2006-10-09T20:00:00.000-04:00

I'll post the text of the letter here:

Contact: Rafique Iscandar, American Coptic Union, 201-798-1451, americancu@hotmail.com

MEDIA ADVISORY, Oct. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- The President of the American Coptic Union (ACU) sends the following open letter to the US Department of State, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Dear Secretary of State Rice:

The American Coptic Union (ACU), which represents Coptic people in the United States and Egypt, is deeply concerned about the human rights abuses perpetrated against the Copts in Egypt. While these violations against our people have been escalating since September 11, 2001, the Egypt government has not protected its Coptic population—as Islamic terrorists and the Egyptian State Security Investigation authority continues to attack and persecute the Copts.

The daily horrors of shame-rape, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and forced conversion, particularly in the southern part of Upper Egypt, are seriously eroding the Copts’ economic, social, and religious existence. Despite the good relationship and numerous calls by President George W. Bush to President Hosni Mubarak, the daily life of the Copts continues to deteriorate.

While the Egypt government continues to isolate its Coptic population, it has never discussed the constitutional rights of Egypt’s Christians nor has it legislated any new laws or presidential decrees to ensure human rights for the Copts. In fact, human rights activists are often harassed, attacked and falsely imprisoned in Egypt for speaking out.

As I write this letter to you, not one case of rape or kidnap, which was reported to the Egyptian authorities, has been filed. The ACU has personally documented and reported many of these crimes, which the Egyptian government has ignored.

Mary Bulak is a Coptic mother who lost two underage daughters, after they were kidnapped, raped and forcefully converted to Islam, Nov. 10, 2003. Although our organization has spent considerable time with officials from the U.S. Department of State and the USCIRF, giving full details of the horrible crimes and suffering endured by the Bulaks, the Egyptian government still refuses to end the suffering of this family (and thousands of other families who have endured similar persecution). Another crime committed by the Egyptian government is the killing of Sabry Zaky Esq., a Human Rights lawyer, July 23, 2004. This crime was also ignored and to this day, it remains unsolved despite several requests for investigation.

The American Coptic Union requests that you discuss the continued human rights abuses of the Copts in Egypt, along with the cases mentioned in this letter, during your upcoming meeting with the Egyptian government. We also suggest building a friendly grass roots effort with those Christians and Muslims who are loyal to the U.S. and its values for freedom.

Sincerely,

Rafique Iscandar
President

Woman uses Baby as Weapon

2006-10-09T19:42:00.000-04:00

This is just disgusting (link):

Prosecutor says Pa. mom used 4-week-old baby to beat boyfriend; child seriously injured
By Associated Press
Monday, October 9, 2006

ERIE, Pa. - A woman used her 4-week-old baby as a weapon in a domestic dispute, swinging the infant through the air and striking her boyfriend with the child, authorities said.
The boy was in serious but stable condition Monday at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, police said.
“Never, never, never. I can never remember anything like this,” District Attorney Bradley Foulk told the Erie Times-News.

Chytoria Graham, 27, of Erie, was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and simple assault. She was held Monday in the Erie County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail.
The infant, whose name was not released, suffered a fractured skull and some bleeding in the brain, authorities said. His head hit Graham’s boyfriend, the baby’s father, police Lt. Dan Spizarny said.

Authorities removed four other children from Graham’s home and placed them with the Erie County Office of Children and Youth, Foulk said.

Prayers for the child and all involved.

Updating to Blogger beta

2006-10-05T12:35:00.000-04:00

I'm updating my blog to beta. It give me more control on style and additions. So it may look different off and on over the next few days.

The shootings at the Amish School

2006-10-05T12:21:00.000-04:00

This has been the big story in PA (and the nation) this week. My prayers and heart goes out to the famlies of all involved. I saw this headline today:

Amish mourn after attack, urging forgiveness of gunman

A quote:

As they struggle to understand the slayings of five of their children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish in this Lancaster County village are urging forgiveness of the killer and are quietly accepting what comes their way as God's will.

and:

The Amish have also been reaching out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, who committed suicide during the attack.

"The Amish neighbor came that very night, around 9 o'clock in the evening, and offered forgiveness to the family," Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, told CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts. (source)

It is Respect Life Sunday

2006-10-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

Say a prayer for all life. Born and unborn. Suffering and happy.

Love each other today.

A tragic story

2006-09-24T17:48:00.000-04:00

I was shown this article (link).

The 24-year-old remains in a coma with multiple injuries in Indiana.

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

BOARDMAN — Township native Kade Kotheimer, 24, married his college sweetheart and moved to Indiana two months ago to begin a career as a firefighter.

On Sept. 15, he was involved in a minor traffic accident and got out of his car to check on another driver. He was then struck by three vehicles and remains hospitalized in a coma with multiple injuries.

"He probably thought that he was safe in the center lane," said his father, Kim, a township police detective. "I probably would have thought the same thing."

A van pulled into the lane and struck him, sending the 2001 Boardman High School graduate airborne and into oncoming traffic, where another vehicle struck him, according to published reports.

A third vehicle then ran over him as he lay in the road, his father said.

The Indianapolis Star reported that the driver of the van doesn't have a driver's license and has a long record of traffic offenses.

Kotheimer had just started a job as a firefighter for the Speedway Fire Department in Indiana about two months before the accident. He graduated in the spring from the University of Akron with a degree in fire science and got married a few months ago.

Trust fund established

Members of the Speedway Fire Department have established the Trust Fund for Firefighter Kade Kotheimer to help with expenses.

More information is available on the Internet at www.speedwayfire.org. There's a link to the Kade Kotheimer Fund.

Donations may be made at the National City Bank branch at the Southern Park Mall. Although the Web site indicates all branches may accept the donations, the mall branch is the only Mahoning Valley location where the fund is set up.

His father said that Kotheimer and his wife, Denae, had just closed on a new house two days before.

While in high school, Kotheimer was active in band and theater orchestras and the jazz band, but he always wanted to be a firefighter.

"From the time he was young, he said that's what he wanted to do," his father said.

He enrolled in the cadet program through the Western Reserve Joint Fire District, a program where 16-and-17-year-olds learn about firefighting.

Chief David Comstock Jr. said that's where Kotheimer stood out.

"The No. 1 thing was he was very enthusiastic," Comstock said. "He always had a positive attitude."

He also showed a passion and knack for the job, the chief said.

The Speedway firefighters also plan a benefit motorcycle show Oct. 3 for their injured comrade.

Lt. Jeff Hartman of the Speedway department said about 2,000 red bracelets, with Kade, SFD and his badge number, 160, written on them also will be sold to raise money.

Checks to the Trust for Kade Kotheimer also may be mailed to Hartman at the station, 1410 N. Lynhurst Drive, Speedway, Ind. 46224.

Serious injuries

Kotheimer's injuries include head trauma and multiple fractures in both legs, but his father said his condition has improved over the last week.

A tracheotomy tube has been inserted to help him breathe, and a feeding tube is being inserted in his stomach, Kim Kotheimer said.

"In the neurological intensive care unit, they told us that they don't measure in minutes or hours, they measure in days and weeks and months," he said.

Kim Kotheimer credited his son's department for their fund-raising efforts and support since the accident.

Joe Rush, a Speedway firefighter, said individuals within the 34-member department are working Kotheimer's shifts so that he continues to receive a paycheck. Others are working to paint the couple's house and get it ready to move in.

Hartman, who also serves as president of Speedway town council, said the employees are contributing sick time to pitch in for their injured co-worker.

The fact that Kotheimer worked at the department only a short time before his injuries is irrelevant, Rush said.

"It doesn't matter if you're here for one day or for 20 years, it's a brotherhood," he said.
Friday, September 22, 2006

Please keep them in your prayers and help in any other way you can. Here is a link to the department and what they are doing to help. (Link)

Who are we

2006-09-20T09:49:00.000-04:00

Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have stated that the difference (the main one, at least) between Christianity and Islam is the nearness of God.

In Islam God is very removed. Majestic to the point of total mystery.

In Christianity God is still a mystery, but His desire of love and redemption for His people can be seen fully in Christ. Emmanuel, God with us. God is a mystery, but He wishes to share with us the heart of His nature through Christ.

John Paul II respected the core of Islamic theology as submission to the will of God.

And Benedict recently has been focusing on reason in faith. And reason as part of God's nature.

So to put them together we have the examples of Mary and the Garden. Mary submits totally to the will of God. Christ, in the garden, struggles against the opposition of human will and divine will and submits to the will of the Father in total love.

But in Islam, if God is such a mystery, reason can not be used to grasp His will. Violence or peace can be equally valid in a theological sense since He is a total mystery. This, I think has been the point the last two popes have been striving to hammer home. Dialogue is possible, but only if we understand the differences and the reasons for them.

In Christian theology we have Christ as our guide and window. We have Mary as an example as well. And Joseph, as well, who submits to the will of God. We have glimpses of the will of God and His desires for us by virtue of our examples of submission, and by our greatest example: The Cross.

Even with these examples (not to mention all the saints), the greatest examples in history, Christians can place reason apart from faith or enact faith without recourse to reason.

The points of the popes are as much a call for us to examine how we practice our own faith, as a call for us to understand how Islam differs. Only if we do both can we be true representatives of our faith in meaningful dialogue.

Perhaps the results of all of this will be that we will see which side of Islam will speak for Islam in that dialogue. One that wishes to bring reason or one that does not.

Nun shot in Somalia offered forgiveness with dying breath

2006-09-19T13:47:00.000-04:00

The story speaks for itself:

Mogadishu, Sep. 19, 2006 (CNA) - The Consolata missionary sister who was shot dead by Islamic extremists in Mogadishu, Somalia, forgave her killers with her final breaths.

Sr. Leonella Sgorbati, 70, was shot five times in the back, in broad daylight, as she was walking back to her residence from the pediatric hospital where she gave medical training. Sr. Sgorbati was returning home at midday for lunch. Two gunmen reportedly jumped out from behind parked cars and opened fire on Sr. Sgorbati and one of the security guards who accompany the sisters when they cross the street, reported MISNA. The guard also died.

The attackers were reportedly well aware of the sisters’ daily routines and knew that the only moment to strike was when they crossed the street. Other sisters heard the shots and ran out onto the street, only to see the gunmen fleeing and Sister Leonella on the ground.

“We followed the stretcher into the hospital, where Sr. Leonella was rushed to the operating room. The medics brought four or five sacks of blood, but as much as they put in, came out,” Sr. Marzia Feurra, a Consolata missionary, told MISNA. “When the surgeon arrived he told us that there was nothing left to do.”

Sr. Feurra described Sr. Sgorbati’s final moments on the operating table. “Sister Leonella was still alive; she was in a cold sweat. We held hands, looked at each other and, before turning out like a little candle, three times she repeated to me ‘forgive.’ ‘Forgive, forgive, forgive…’ These were her last words,” she said.

Sr. Sgorbati’s funeral will be held Thursday at Consolata Church in Nairobi.

This morning Pope Benedict XVI sent a telegram, through Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, offering his condolences and prayers to the Consolata community, of which Sr. Sgorbati was a part. The communication called the sister’s death “tragic” and deplored the manner in which she was “barbarically murdered.”

“In firmly reaffirming his condemnation of every type of violence, His Holiness hopes that the blood poured from this faithful disciple of the Gospel will become a seed of hope for the construction of an authentic fraternity between peoples, in the mutual respect for the religious convictions of all,” the telegram said.

A Swedish journalist and a Somali peace activist, also foreigners, have been killed in Mogadishu recent months. According to the Associated Press, their deaths coincide with a rise in Islamic radicalism in Somalia, as a hard-line Muslim militia expands its reach.

How To React

2006-09-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

The question is not should we oppose the violence in faith. But how should we oppose it. Oscar Romero said:

We have never preached violence,
except the violence of love,
which left Christ nailed to a cross,
the violence that we each must do to ourselves
to overcome our selfishness
and such cruel inequalities among us.

The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword,
the violence of hatred.

It is the violence of love,
of brotherhood,
the violence that wills to beat weapons
into sickles for work.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, November 27, 1977

We can not forget that the points from last week are not new to the Pope:

In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel's faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth. The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:4-5).

Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbour found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (19:18; cf. Mk 12:29-31). Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.

In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant.

Deus Caritas Est

Now, it is because of love that the violence brought by fundamentalists angers and hurts us so much. It is because of love that voices are raised in opposition. But what should not be done is the advocating of violence, even implicity, as an immediate resort. Also, it should not be advocated as a personal action. This is what defines us.

Doing so has the danger of removing the understanding that there are muslims who are not radicals, and although we disagree with the theology of even the non-violent muslims, we should not group them together.

Historically, as Catholics (and Christians in general) we have been grouped, by others; not with the great examples of our faith, but with the exceptions. Many of us have been forced to defend the behavior of public, historical and everyday Catholics and explain what the Church really teaches.

And in those cases we often come away saying, "Why couldn't that person have been less confrontational and not assumed that I represented what they were angry about. We could have come to a better solution or dialogue."

At times we (all of us, despite our best intentions) run the danger of letting that happen.

We do not agree with muslim theology (even the non-radicals) and try to show the Christian way, but truth can be said harshly without charity or it can be phrased with charity. I believe that the truth can be stated boldly, forcefully and in the full spirit of truth with charity.

Radicals are calling for the death of the Pope. It makes us angry. Angry like Peter when the struck off the ear of the guard in the garden. But that is not what Christ (or the Pope) is asking of us.

We want to defend our Pope and all Christians, but we need to do it in the way he and Christ lay out as our example.

So maybe the question should be: How should we each in our personal lives (in our relations with muslims and others) react to this situation?

With truth. I have spent days explaining to people what the Pope said. I have talked endlessly in personal conversations about the differences between Christianity and Islam and Islam and radical Islam.

We have non-violent means of reaction available to us. We have effetive means of non-violent actionif we invest the time to use them. We have congress. We have charities. We have our personal interactions with others. We do not have to back down from stating the ugly truth about radical Islam. We do not have to back down from disagreeing with the theology of Islam in general. But we must not answer cries of violence with violence.

It is the nearness of God incarnated in Christ that defines a Christian. It is that nearness that calls us to react with reason over violence. That is the heart of the Pope's message.

The Pope's Speech: An appeal for Faith with Reason Falls on Deaf Ears.

2006-09-16T09:52:00.000-04:00

I suppose for some time it will be referred to as "The Pope's Speech". It is, in my opinion the single most misunderstood speech I have ever read. This is not to say that the Pope is not against Muslim radicals and spreading faith by violence, but the stand he takes in his speech is greater than that.

The speech is not about Islam it is about faith and reason. It is about how the use of violence and force to make someone a religion is not of God. How God and reason are not exclusive concepts. It is about how that is an element from greek thought and how, as the modern philosophical concept moves away from such thought...can we still keep it. As modern philosophy makes the choice of God a freedom that is considered the highest exercise of reason, can we show just how the acceptance of God is actually the highest use of reason. It is about how some faiths:

This gives rise to positions which clearly approach those of Ibn Hazn and might even lead to the image of a capricious God, who is not even bound to truth and goodness. God's transcendence and otherness are so exalted that our reason, our sense of the true and good, are no longer an authentic mirror of God, whose deepest possibilities remain eternally unattainable and hidden behind his actual decisions.

(In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II said the God of Islam is a God so majestic that He is removed from His people, and though Benedict does not us Islam as a specific example...I'm sure he did not use the words by accident).

He contrasts that with the Christian view:

As opposed to this, the faith of the Church has always insisted that between God and us, between his eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy, in which unlikeness remains infinitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of abolishing analogy and its language (cf. Lateran IV).

God does not become more divine when we push him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable voluntarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as logos and, as logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love "transcends" knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Ephesians 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is logos. Consequently, Christian worship is "logic latreía" -- worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf. Romans 12:1).

This is the heart of the speech. Faith with reason is the best use of our faith since we aare in the image of God. If we do not have reason we fall to violence, athesim or an apathy about God that fills our world today.

And the media takes a single part and runs with the only time the word Muslim is used. The radical Muslims give their answer by reacting. Not with reason. But violence and anger.

We can not be afraid to speak because of how some might take it. And in the reaction to the Pope's speech, his words are proven true.

Finally let's look at the apology:

Pope Benedict told Muslims on Saturday he was sorry they had found his speech on Islam offensive, expressing his respect for their faith and hoping they would understand the “true sense” of his words.

“The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a statement.

Not sorry he said it, because he shouldn't be. Not sorry he used those words. But sorry that others are not using reason.

And further lack of reason:

Two churches -- neither of them Catholic -- were fire-bombed in the West Bank, although no one was hurt.

But the Chancellor of Germany got it right:

“It was an invitation to dialogue between religions, she told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper in an interview. “What Benedict XVI emphasized was a decisive and uncompromising renunciation of all forms of violence in the name of religion.”

A bit busy today

2006-09-15T21:28:00.000-04:00

I'm a bit busy today, but I'll be writing about the Pope's trip to Germany in the next two days.

Before that, here is the full text of the speech that has caused so much uproar (I'll give my thoughts in the next post. But this speech is about God and reason and God removed vs God With Us. The word Muslim occurs once. Violence is not of God and it is not rational. Only faith, guided by reason, of which love is a part, will solve the worlds problems. This is very much part of his point :

Papal Address at University of Regensburg

"Three Stages in the Program of De-Hellenization"

REGENSBURG, Germany, SEPT. 12, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered to scientists at the University of Regensburg, where he was a professor and vice rector from 1969 to 1971.

This is the version the Pope read, adding some allusions of the moment, which he hopes to publish in the future, complete with footnotes. Hence, the present text must be considered provisional.

* * *

Faith, Reason and the University
Memories and Reflections

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a moving experience for me to stand and give a lecture at this university podium once again. I think back to those years when, after a pleasant period at the Freisinger Hochschule, I began teaching at the University of Bonn. This was in 1959, in the days of the old university made up of ordinary professors. The various chairs had neither assistants nor secretaries, but in recompense there was much direct contact with students and in particular among the professors themselves. We would meet before and after lessons in the rooms of the teaching staff. There was a lively exchange with historians, philosophers, philologists and, naturally, between the two theological faculties.

Once a semester there was a "dies academicus," when professors from every faculty appeared before the students of the entire university, making possible a genuine experience of "universitas": The reality that despite our specializations which at times make it difficult to communicate with each other, we made up a whole, working in everything on the basis of a single rationality with its various aspects and sharing responsibility for the right use of reason -- this reality became a lived experience.

The university was also very proud of its two theological faculties. It was clear that, by inquiring about the reasonableness of faith, they too carried out a work which is necessarily part of the "whole" of the "universitas scientiarum," even if not everyone could share the faith which theologians seek to correlate with reason as a whole. This profound sense of coherence within the universe of reason was not troubled, even when it was once reported that a colleague had said there was something odd about our university: It had two faculties devoted to something that did not exist: God. That even in the face of such radical skepticism it is still necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian faith: This, within the university as a whole, was accepted without question.

I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by professor Theodore Khoury (Muenster) of part of the dialogue carried on -- perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara -- by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.

It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned Persian. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Koran, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship of the "three Laws": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran.

In this lecture I would like to discuss only one point -- itself rather marginal to the dialogue itself -- which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason," I found interesting and which can serve as the starting point for my reflections on this issue.

In the seventh conversation ("diálesis" -- controversy) edited by professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). The emperor must have known that sura 2:256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion." It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under [threat]. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war.

Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels," he turns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably ("syn logo") is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats.... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...."

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practice idolatry.

As far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma which nowadays challenges us directly. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?

I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: "In the beginning was the 'logos.'"

This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts with logos. Logos means both reason and word -- a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist. The encounter between the biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance.

The vision of St. Paul, who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (cf. Acts 16:6-10) -- this vision can be interpreted as a "distillation" of the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between biblical faith and Greek inquiry.

In point of fact, this rapprochement had been going on for some time. The mysterious name of God, revealed from the burning bush, a name which separates this God from all other divinities with their many names and declares simply that he is, already presents a challenge to the notion of myth, to which Socrates' attempt to vanquish and transcend myth stands in close analogy. Within the Old Testament, the process which started at the burning bush came to new maturity at the time of the Exile, when the God of Israel, an Israel now deprived of its land and worship, was proclaimed as the God of heaven and earth and described in a simple formula which echoes the words uttered at the burning bush: "I am."

This new understanding of God is accompanied by a kind of enlightenment, which finds stark expression in the mockery of gods who are merely the work of human hands (cf. Psalm 115). Thus, despite the bitter conflict with those Hellenistic rulers who sought to accommodate it forcibly to the customs and idolatrous cult of the Greeks, biblical faith, in the Hellenistic period, encountered the best of Greek thought at a deep level, resulting in a mutual enrichment evident especially in the later wisdom literature.

Today we know that the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced at Alexandria -- the Septuagint -- is more than a simple (and in that sense perhaps less than satisfactory) translation of the Hebrew text: It is an independent textual witness and a distinct and important step in the history of Revelation, one which brought about this encounter in a way that was decisive for the birth and spread of Christianity. A profound encounter of faith and reason is taking place here, an encounter between genuine enlightenment and religion. From the very heart of Christian faith and, at the same time, the heart of Greek thought now joined to faith, Manuel II was able to say: Not to act "with logos" is contrary to God's nature.

In all honesty, one must observe that in the late Middle Ages we find trends in theology which would sunder this synthesis between the Greek spirit and the Christian spirit. In contrast with the so-called intellectualism of Augustine and Thomas, there arose with Duns Scotus a voluntarism which ultimately led to the claim that we can only know God's "voluntas ordinata." Beyond this is the realm of God's freedom, in virtue of which he could have done the opposite of everything he has actually done.

This gives rise to positions which clearly approach those of Ibn Hazn and might even lead to the image of a capricious God, who is not even bound to truth and goodness. God's transcendence and otherness are so exalted that our reason, our sense of the true and good, are no longer an authentic mirror of God, whose deepest possibilities remain eternally unattainable and hidden behind his actual decisions.

As opposed to this, the faith of the Church has always insisted that between God and us, between his eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy, in which unlikeness remains infinitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of abolishing analogy and its language (cf. Lateran IV).

God does not become more divine when we push him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable voluntarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as logos and, as logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love "transcends" knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Ephesians 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is logos. Consequently, Christian worship is "logic latreía" -- worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf. Romans 12:1).

This inner rapprochement between biblical faith and Greek philosophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance not only from the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world history -- it is an event which concerns us even today. Given this convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and some significant developments in the East, finally took on its historically decisive character in Europe. We can also express this the other way around: This convergence, with the subsequent addition of the Roman heritage, created Europe and remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe.

The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part of Christian faith has been countered by the call for a de-Hellenization of Christianity -- a call which has more and more dominated theological discussions since the beginning of the modern age. Viewed more closely, three stages can be observed in the program of de-Hellenization: Although interconnected, they are clearly distinct from one another in their motivations and objectives.

De-Hellenization first emerges in connection with the fundamental postulates of the Reformation in the 16th century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system.

The principle of "sola scriptura," on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this program forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole.

The liberal theology of the 19th and 20th centuries ushered in a second stage in the process of de-Hellenization, with Adolf von Harnack as its outstanding representative. When I was a student, and in the early years of my teaching, this program was highly influential in Catholic theology too. It took as its point of departure Pascal's distinction between the God of the philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In my inaugural lecture at Bonn in 1959, I tried to address the issue. I will not repeat here what I said on that occasion, but I would like to describe at least briefly what was new about this second stage of de-Hellenization. Harnack's central idea was to return simply to the man Jesus and to his simple message, underneath the accretions of theology and indeed of Hellenization: This simple message was seen as the culmination of the religious development of humanity. Jesus was said to have put an end to worship in favor of morality. In the end he was presented as the father of a humanitarian moral message.

The fundamental goal was to bring Christianity back into harmony with modern reason, liberating it, that is to say, from seemingly philosophical and theological elements, such as faith in Christ's divinity and the triune God. In this sense, historical-critical exegesis of the New Testament restored to theology its place within the university: Theology, for Harnack, is something essentially historical and therefore strictly scientific. What it is able to say critically about Jesus is, so to speak, an expression of practical reason and consequently it can take its rightful place within the university.

Behind this thinking lies the modern self-limitation of reason, classically expressed in Kant's "Critiques," but in the meantime further radicalized by the impact of the natural sciences. This modern concept of reason is based, to put it briefly, on a synthesis between Platonism (Cartesianism) and empiricism, a synthesis confirmed by the success of technology.

On the one hand it presupposes the mathematical structure of matter, its intrinsic rationality, which makes it possible to understand how matter works and use it efficiently: This basic premise is, so to speak, the Platonic element in the modern understanding of nature. On the other hand, there is nature's capacity to be exploited for our purposes, and here only the possibility of verification or falsification through experimentation can yield ultimate certainty. The weight between the two poles can, depending on the circumstances, shift from one side to the other. As strongly positivistic a thinker as J. Monod has declared himself a convinced Platonist/Cartesian.

This gives rise to two principles which are crucial for the issue we have raised. First, only the kind of certainty resulting from the interplay of mathematical and empirical elements can be considered scientific. Anything that would claim to be science must be measured against this criterion. Hence the human sciences, such as history, psychology, sociology and philosophy, attempt to conform themselves to this canon of scientificity.

A second point, which is important for our reflections, is that by its very nature this method excludes the question of God, making it appear an unscientific or pre-scientific question. Consequently, we are faced with a reduction of the radius of science and reason, one which needs to be questioned.

We shall return to this problem later. In the meantime, it must be observed that from this standpoint any attempt to maintain theology's claim to be "scientific" would end up reducing Christianity to a mere fragment of its former self. But we must say more: It is man himself who ends up being reduced, for the specifically human questions about our origin and destiny, the questions raised by religion and ethics, then have no place within the purview of collective reason as defined by "science" and must thus be relegated to the realm of the subjective.

The subject then decides, on the basis of his experiences, what he considers tenable in matters of religion, and the subjective "conscience" becomes the sole arbiter of what is ethical. In this way, though, ethics and religion lose their power to create a community and become a completely personal matter. This is a dangerous state of affairs for humanity, as we see from the disturbing pathologies of religion and reason which necessarily erupt when reason is so reduced that questions of religion and ethics no longer concern it. Attempts to construct an ethic from the rules of evolution or from psychology and sociology, end up being simply inadequate.

Before I draw the conclusions to which all this has been leading, I must briefly refer to the third stage of de-Hellenization, which is now in progress. In the light of our experience with cultural pluralism, it is often said nowadays that the synthesis with Hellenism achieved in the early Church was a preliminary inculturation which ought not to be binding on other cultures.

The latter are said to have the right to return to the simple message of the New Testament prior to that inculturation, in order to inculturate it anew in their own particular milieux. This thesis is not only false; it is coarse and lacking in precision. The New Testament was written in Greek and bears the imprint of the Greek spirit, which had already come to maturity as the Old Testament developed.

True, there are elements in the evolution of the early Church which do not have to be integrated into all cultures. Nonetheless, the fundamental decisions made about the relationship between faith and the use of human reason are part of the faith itself; they are developments consonant with the nature of faith itself.

And so I come to my conclusion. This attempt, painted with broad strokes, at a critique of modern reason from within has nothing to do with putting the clock back to the time before the Enlightenment and rejecting the insights of the modern age. The positive aspects of modernity are to be acknowledged unreservedly: We are all grateful for the marvelous possibilities that it has opened up for mankind and for the progress in humanity that has been granted to us. The scientific ethos, moreover, is the will to be obedient to the truth, and, as such, it embodies an attitude which reflects one of the basic tenets of Christianity.

The intention here is not one of retrenchment or negative criticism, but of broadening our concept of reason and its application. While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them.

We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons. In this sense theology rightly belongs in the university and within the wide-ranging dialogue of sciences, not merely as a historical discipline and one of the human sciences, but precisely as theology, as inquiry into the rationality of faith.

Only thus do we become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today. In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions.

A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures. At the same time, as I have attempted to show, modern scientific reason with its intrinsically Platonic element bears within itself a question which points beyond itself and beyond the possibilities of its methodology. Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based.

Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought -- to philosophy and theology. For philosophy and, albeit in a different way, for theology, listening to the great experiences and insights of the religious traditions of humanity, and those of the Christian faith in particular, is a source of knowledge, and to ignore it would be an unacceptable restriction of our listening and responding.

Here I am reminded of something Socrates said to Phaedo. In their earlier conversations, many false philosophical opinions had been raised, and so Socrates says: "It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being -- but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and would suffer a great loss."

The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur -- this is the program with which a theology grounded in biblical faith enters into the debates of our time.

"Not to act reasonably (with logos) is contrary to the nature of God," said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.

Lift your voice in Prayer: Love as Active

2006-09-11T11:41:00.000-04:00

We are called to prayer. We are called to love.

So many times we are asked to raise or join our voices in prayer. How?

True, the great expressions of faith in our liturgies, songs and devotions are examples of this. But the core, the Eucharist is an act of love. The core of the liturgy and the core of Christian life is love.

The beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, 4 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.

Can they be given a core? Yes. Blessed are those who love. Who love God. Who love others. Blessed is love.

But love, far from passive is active. Far from calm, is a burning desire. It is love that led our Lord to come to us. Love that led Him to die for us. Love that leads our brothers and sisters to stand firm in the face of persecution.

And it is love that should cause us to lift our voice in opposition to persecution. To lift your voice in prayer is to lift it in love. It is to Pray. To write. To speak. To stand against harm to others.

Life itself is a prayer because it is alive with love. Guided by love. May the silent prayers in our hearts be joined to the active expression of the love of Christ toward others.

Love puts us in the heart and life of another through the One Body in Christ.

We are not only people sitting at a computer reading this.

We are a girl in Egypt preparing for her wedding who is kidnapped and taken away.

We are a husband waiting for the one you love, as the bridegroom waits in the Song of Songs.

We are a family who has a moment of joy turned to sorrow.

We are again at the computer, but can We go back to it unchanged? Love transforms us. It awakens our hearts. May the life in Christ move us to prayer and action.

For Mona Yacoub
For Marianna Rezk Shafik Attallah
For Tereza Ghattas Kamal
For Lydia Atef Atta
For Ingy Nagy Edwar

For all who suffer as they do.

We work in a good job, but We are also a Copt who can not get a good job because the ID badge names you a Christian.

We are in Church free from fear, but We are also a Copt who knows that you could get stabbed or shot leaving the service on Good Friday or any day.

We might attend a church at a building that has stood for 200 years, but We are also a Copt who must watch as a monastery that has stood for 1,400 years is demolished.

We donate for church repair, but We are also a Copt who sees their place of worship fall apart and get killed for trying to repair it.

We celebrate the Eucharist, the most holy event we share. But We are also a Copt who, as on September 19, 2003, watches as security throws the consecrated Host to the ground and steps on it.

We see children playing but you are also a handicapped Coptic child who sees the center devoted to helping them attacked, as in November of 2003 and again in 2004 and again in 2005.

We are all of these things and more (link)

We are and must see ourselves as one. Tell one person today what our brothers and sisters suffer. Tell another tomorrow. Do what you can.

Let our prayer be an active love that seeks to fill those who hunger and thirst for justice. And let us do it with the love of Christ, not with hate. Because love is the active force of a better world.

As St. Theresa of Avila wrote:

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

We are all one in the Body of Christ.
What love is too great for that heart to feel?
What good is too great for those hands to accomplish?

To write Congress and our politicians:

(link) House of Representatives
(link) Congress.org
(link) E mail and Fax numbers for Congress and state Governors

To write Catholic Bishops:

[(link) catholic-hierarchy.org] With your bishop will be a link to your diocese web page or other contact info. You can use the search bar to look anywhere in the world.

To help the suffering children in any way you can. Coptic Orphans (link).

If anyone has any other ways or events in support of our brother and sisters always feel free to email them to me and I will get them up here as fast as possible.

Mona Yacoub

2006-09-05T16:53:00.000-04:00

From time to time I have done stories on this blog about the kidnapping and forced conversion of Coptic girls in Egypt. A good friend of this blog, Peter, sent me this story about a Catholic girl who has been taken.

Here is the link (link).

Let me echo a part of this post:

On to what YOU can do, it’s very simple (as I may have mentioned above).

Just pretend this is the Gospel and SPREAD the (not-so-Good) news. TELL people about this poor girl.

Tell your friends online, skip the gossip and share THIS around the water cooler, or even just forward this and other articles to people who might be interested.

Also, educate yourself about kidnapping. It happens all over Egypt, and most cases end up in tragedy, not with a “happy ending.”

And also:

Finally, for the Catholics out there, WRITE to your bishop or priest, and ask them to tell the Pope about his Egyptian daughter whose status as a Christian is hanging in the balance.

It should not matter what faith a person is when an innocent is kidnapped. So many people deny these things happen. If you are a person who does not believe such things happen, then support the investigation of these acts. There is nothing to lose, and if you are wrong innocents will be saved. The only reasonable act of love is to stand against these horrors, no matter who they befall.

If you are a Catholic please write your bishop and talk to your priest about this case. Info on how to contact your bishop or diocese:

[(link) catholic-hierarchy.org] With your bishop will be a link to your diocese web page or other contact info. You can use the search bar to look anywhere in the world.

But do not just mention poor Mona. Bring to light all of our Coptic brothers and sisters who suffer.

Write. Pray. Hope. Love.

Always, In Christ.

Nefertetti has covered such stories in the past. For info on these types of cases:

(link) Marianna Rezk Shafik Attallah
(link)Tereza Ghattas Kamal
(link)Lydia Atef Atta
(link) An overview of a few cases

And I could keep going with this list.

Monday

2006-09-01T09:35:00.000-04:00

I'll be totally back to my normal schedule Monday and will be blogging again with more frequency.

Christian Cobbler killed in Cairo

2006-08-21T12:30:00.001-04:00

This is only on a pay site at the moment I'll be trying to find out more as the day goes on. (link)

My prayers. It comes to mind that the first convert of St. Mark was a cobbler.

This is what I've found in addition to the pay article:

A Muslim ex-convict stabbed and killed a Christian cobbler northeast of Cairo in June, confessing that he had planned to murder him because he was an ‘infidel’ who had made an offhand comment that offended him. Hossam Hafez Ahmad Attaya knifed Fouad Fawzy Tawfik on June 27 as the shoemaker was bending down to take the Muslim man’s foot measurement near his shop in Zagazig, provincial capital of Sharkeya.

“I want to kill him because he is an infidel, let me kill them all!” Attaya was heard to shout as he sunk an eight-inch blade into the Christian’s left lung and stomach, according to Tawfik’s family. “My brother was clearly victimized for being a Christian,” Noshe Fawzy Tawfik told Compass. Restraining Attaya from stabbing Fouad Tawfik a second time, bystanders called an ambulance.

The shoemaker died minutes later from loss of blood before he could reach the hospital. Attaya admitted during questioning that he had planned the murder in response to a joke Fouad Tawfik had made several days before, lawyer Fady Nabil Labib told Compass. Labib, who is representing the victim’s family, quoted Attaya from official investigation records as saying he was specifically angered by Fouad Tawfik’s offhand comment that “tomorrow America is going to invade Egypt and kill everyone in it.”

On June 27 Attaya visited his cousin’s shoe shop, located only 50 meters (165 feet) away from Fouad Tawfik’s store, and pretended to be interested in buying shoes. The Muslim man had his cousin call Fouad Tawfik to take measurements and then attacked him with a concealed knife.

Labib told Compass that a case against Attaya is due to be heard in a criminal court but that no date has been set for the hearing. Labib and Zagazig church leaders are confident that Attaya will be fairly prosecuted, though not necessarily because the ex-convict has pled guilty in initial interrogations. “If there is any kind of fairness in this situation, it is because of his past crimes, not because he killed a Christian,” Father Daniel Habib, priest of St. Antonius Coptic Orthodox church, told Compass.

Fouad Tawfik’s funeral was held at the church. Attaya is a follower of the strict Wahhabi Islam, which views the creation of human images as a form of idolatry. The Muslim was sentenced last year for attempting to destroy an ancient statue of Ramses II located at the entrance of Zagazig University and for burning a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Legal Loopholes

Recent events have made Egypt’s Coptic Christians, estimated to number between 8 million and 15 million, particularly wary of legal loopholes used to acquit those who carry out periodic attacks on Christians. Last month Egypt dropped charges against a Muslim for his April knife attacks on churches in Alexandria – which killed one churchgoer and wounded more than a dozen others – after a committee of psychiatrists published a report that he was mentally imbalanced. In Zagazig, Christians are confident that Attaya will not be acquitted on the pretext of insanity. “They can’t say he is insane, because he was already tried for burning a picture of Mubarak,” Fr. Habib commented. “He can’t be sane one minute and not the next.”

Double Standard

The disparity between police treatment of Hossam Attaya and treatment received by Christian murder suspects in the nearby village of Kafr Salama Ibrahim has angered church leadership and lawyers. Certain interpretations of Islamic tradition demand that a murderer or his family pay compensation to the family of the victim.

Police invoked this extra-legal “blood-money” settlement last December by detaining 11 Christians without trial in Kafr Salama Ibrahim and insisting that they pay 1 million Egyptian pounds to the family of the Muslim man they were suspected of killing. After four days in police custody, the Christians gave law enforcement officers deeds to five of their homes as compensation. All 11 had expected to be released, but police kept five.

Their case has yet to be heard in Masoura’s Criminal Court (See Compass Direct, “Egyptian Copts Lose Homes, Freedom over Murder Charge,” August 14). Christian lawyers involved in the Kafr Salama Ibrahim case agreed that the Christians had been blackmailed into accepting the extra-legal settlement. Though Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution designates shariah, Islamic law, as the basis for country’s legal system, it does not give police the power to impose Islamic law verdicts on citizens without granting them a fair trial.

“After Tawfik was murdered, we demanded compensation because of Kafr Salama,” Father Habib said. “Police told us, ‘Okay, the victim and the killer’s families should sit down together and work out an agreement.’ But soon they forgot all about it and no compensation was ever given.”

Christian lawyers were skeptical that there was any legal recourse for pursuing the same type of extra-legal settlement that they said police had unilaterally imposed upon Christians in Kafr Salama Ibrahim. Fr. Habib noted, “The real injustice is how police acted differently in these two cases. “In Kafr Salama they enforced Islamic law, but in this situation [the murder of Fouad Tawfik], it was just a suggestion.”

With the death of her husband, Fouad Tawfik’s wife, Abeer Magdy Mekaye, now faces the challenge of raising her two small children alone. “I want to be a good mom and to help my kids grow up in a Christian home and to know their faith,” said the mother of 6-year-old Batul and 3-year-old Fawzy. “I need God’s help, because I have problems in my spine and leg. Please pray for my physical healing and the ability to heal from the loss of my husband.”

An observation is that this happened on June 27th and the first news article in the west is August 17th.

Here are links to story coverage (link) and (link)

From the article:

Christians are confident that Attaya will not be acquitted on the pretext of insanity. “They can’t say he is insane, because he was already tried for burning a picture of Mubarak,” Fr. Habib commented. “He can’t be sane one minute and not the next.”

Oh yes, they can. And oh yes, they will.

The first person to show kindness to St. Mark was a cobbler. He was the first convert in Egypt. The cobbler, so many centuries ago, was a sign to St. Mark that Christ was in the hearts of the Egyptian people. This cobbler, and recently Hani Sarofim, are still signs that no matter what the cost God is still in the hearts of the Egyptian people.

I pray that the compassionate heart of God embrace and care for the suffering family left behind. As the Lord, through St. Mark, healed the cobbler so long ago...may he heal and protect all who suffer for the love of Him.

Chaldean Catholic priest kidnapped in Baghdad

2006-08-21T12:24:00.000-04:00

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Chaldean Catholic priest was kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, just after celebrating Mass Aug. 15 for the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, church leaders said.

Masked kidnappers forced Father Saad Sirop Hanna, 34, to stop his car, then they took him away, Vatican Radio reported Aug. 18. Father Hanna works at St. Jacob Parish in Dora, one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods.

Father Philip Najim, the Rome-based representative of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad, confirmed the report.

"It is truly a very sad situation because he is a young priest who was continuing his studies. In fact, he was supposed to come here to Rome to study. He is a young priest who has dedicated his life to serving both the nation and all the Christian faithful he encounters," Father Najim said.

"Given the situation" of violence and confusion in Baghdad, especially in Dora where various militias have been fighting each other for months, "it is difficult to identify who took him," Father Najim said.

The priest said Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after the kidnapping and was assured that "everyone is trying to resolve this situation as soon as possible and to secure the release of our priest."

The Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni political organization, immediately condemned the kidnapping, Vatican Radio said.

"This demonstrates how united the Iraqi people are and that they are not trying to make divisions, because we are one people trying to live in peace," Father Najim said. "It does not surprise me that the Islamic party issued this statement.

"The Catholic Church in Iraq suffers daily, like the rest of the Iraqi people," he said. "Water and electricity are lacking. There are not enough hospitals but, more than anything, there is no security."

(Source: Catholic News Service)

"Honor Killing" in Italy Condemned

2006-08-21T12:18:00.000-04:00

The archbishop of Lahore condemned the "honor killing" of a young Pakistani woman in Brescia, in northern Italy, for refusing an arranged marriage.

Mohammed Saleem cut his daughter's throat on Aug. 11 for having purportedly dishonored her family by refusing the arranged marriage, and by working in a bar and living with a 30-year-old Italian man, reported AsiaNews.

In Pakistan "honor killing" remains a widespread phenomenon -- some 1,015 cases were reported last year.

Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore told AsiaNews that "there is no justification of such killing for the sake of the family's honor."

"It is an old and unjust feudal practice in Pakistan that denies women the right to make decisions on their own," explained Archbishop Saldanha, who also heads the Catholic bishop's conference of Pakistan.

"Because of such a practice, honor killings often occur. Although it is rare, it even happens among Christians," he said. "Once they reach a certain age, freely choosing one's spouse is a fundamental right and we cannot deny it."

The archbishop added: "This type of incident is earning Pakistan a bad name.

"People who go to foreign countries should accept to live in an international culture, adhere to international values based on universal human rights. And if they cannot adjust to international values and norms, they should come back to Pakistan."

Indifference

According to Peter Jacob, executive secretary to the National Commission on Justice and Peace, honor crimes are commonplace in Pakistan and the government is not doing enough to discourage them.

"If this murder happened in Pakistan," he said, "the grandfather or the mother of the killed girl would have gone to the police station to report the case against the murderer."

"This would make them both plaintiffs as well as guardians of the accused. The murderer would be arrested, sent to jail, and after some time, he would be forgiven. This way within a couple of months he would be free."

Jacob and other groups have been campaigning to abolish laws that are discriminatory toward minorities and women.

He said, however, that "the government doesn't really listen. Although it implemented some changes in 2004 so that honor killings are now considered common murders, it has failed to apply them."

According to Madadgaar, an organization set up by Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) and UNICEF, 1,015 honor killings occurred in 2005 compared with 1,349 the previous year.

But for LHRLA president Zia Ahmed Awan, the figures do not paint the actual picture since it is estimated that only one honor killing in 10 is reported.

New values

Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni-Narni-Amelia in Italy, and president of the Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Italian bishops' conference, said on Vatican Radio that "without a doubt it is necessary for someone entering a country to accept the institutional framework that governs the life of such a country."

"This episode, sadly, is not the first and this case forces us to reflect on the complexity of the different planes on which this problem should be addressed," he added.

The bishop also reflected on "the relationship between immigration and resident citizens."

"If on one hand it is necessary to clarify the juridical framework," he said, "on the other it is necessary to have the great courtesy to work for a positive integration," which requires effort and commitment.

Bishop Paglia also underlined that, given this incident, "the condemnation should be clear and firm, because ... there is no reason at all in the world that can impede or attenuate the condemnation of a murder."

(Source: Zenit News Agency)

Months of Harassment Force Copt Blogger to Censor Herself

2006-08-14T12:39:00.000-04:00

here is the story (link):

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the months of harassment by the authorities in Qina (near Luxor, in central Egypt) that forced Hala Helmy Botros to close down her blog Aqbat Bela Hodood (Copts Without Borders) about the persecution of the Christian Coptic minority, and to stop writing on this subject for other websites.

Botros, 42, who wrote under the pseudonym of Hala El-Masry, is now the target of a judicial investigation and is banned from leaving the country.

"We are outraged by the practices used by the Egyptian authorities to intimidate and silence Botros," Reporters Without Borders said. "With relations between Christians and Muslims off-limits in the traditional media, all she did was write posts on the Internet about the fate of the Coptic minority. It is unacceptable that freedom of expression and movement should be restricted in this fashion. We insist that the authorities guarantee Botros' basis rights."

In articles, interviews and video reports online, Botros had accused the political authorities and police of complicity in the attacks against Copts on 19 January when they tried to restore their church in the village of Edyssat (near Luxor). Houses were burned and the church was destroyed in the course of this violence, in which two Copts were killed and several others injured.

Her posts clearly irritated the authorities as first her phone line was cut and then her Internet connection, forcing her to go to her father's house to continue posting. The authorities also placed her under surveillance. One night, her father was beaten by two strangers who told him, "This is a present from your daughter."

When he went to the police station to report this, the police got him to sign a blank sheet to which they added a statement in which he appeared to accuse her of being responsible for the attack. Botros reacted by filing a complaint against the police officer concerned, Mahmoud Sabri, accusing him of bringing false charges, but the case was not pursued by the authorities.

On 15 June, she tried to fly to the United States to attend a conference about the Copts in Newark, New Jersey, but the authorities removed her from the airplane before it took off, on the grounds that she was banned from the leaving the country. She was questioned for several hours at the airport and ordered to report to a state security court in Cairo on 25 June.

Security agents raided her home on the night of 22 June with the apparent intention of arresting her, but she was in Cairo at the time. Her husband was forced to go with them and to sign a statement guaranteeing that she would report to the court three days later.

Botros went to the court with two lawyers, Mamdouh Ramzy and Naguib Gobraeil, on 25 June. She was questioned about her Internet posts and accused of "spreading false news" and of "disrupting social harmony between the Muslim and Christian communities." She was released the same day after paying 3,000 Egyptian pounds (400 euros) in bail, but was questioned again the next day.

Fearing for her safety and the safety of her family, Botros finally decided to shut down her blog. She is being watched by plain-clothes police, her telephone is tapped and her e-mail is being monitored.

www.rsf.org