Pope: May Fr Santoro “become the seed of hope for building authentic brotherhood”

I am deeply saddened by the murder of Fr. Santoro Link

here is a brief bit of info from another story:

A Catholic priest has been shot dead in northern Turkey by a man apparently shouting the Islamic acclamation 'God is great'.

It was not immediately clear if there was any link to the Danish cartoons protests.

A Vatican official identified the priest as a 59-year-old Father Andrew Santoro from a small town near Rome, a member of the Santa Maria Catholic Church in Trabzon.

The Turkish Government has strongly condemned the murder.

A quote from the Turkish prime minister:

"Killing a priest in a holy place can't be approved. Officials will work hard to throw light on the situation."

Another quote for an article:

Pope Benedict XVI's envoy in Ankara, Monsignor Antonio Lucibello, said he had spoken with a witness _ an Italian woman who worked with the priest _ who said Santoro had been killed while he was ``kneeling in the first row of the church'' and praying.

``He didn't see his attacker face-to-face,'' Lucibello said, adding that the witness said she heard the young man shout ``Allahu Akbar'' as he fled.

Another article (link):

His Christian and Muslim neighbours and acquaintances are shocked, still wondering what might be behind the murder of a friendly man who had no enemies.

What people fail to understand is that these killings are usually not personal, but are also the most personal you can get at the same time. Fr. Santoro was not killed for who we was, and in that way it is not personal. He was killed for what he was and what he believed, and in that way it cuts to the core of the personal.

Faith is both personal and universal. It helps define us, nurture us and support us...but it unites us as one in One Body. Those who attack Christians do not attack the individual, they may claim reasons (usually spreading the faith or an imagined or real slight) but their attack is on the One Body.

But that body has been broken, the blood has been shed for all. It can not be touched, for it is the Body of Christ. Faith is personal and as one. Faith (and also Marriage), in a very real way is a reflection of the Trinity. In the Trinity three are One, all are individual but still One and that is One unto itself.

He was killed while praying. Another line that causes my heart and prayers to go out is:

`It's a small community, only about 15 Catholics, but it's important because we've been there for hundreds of years, since the beginning.''

There are only 15 people in his Church. My heart and prayers go out to this community in their time of trial. Although they are only 15, they are part of the One Body in Christ. Through their faith and suffering they are linked to all who believe and all who suffer, in Christ the Lord. We are One in the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, may He grant us peace.

Sisters Win Christian Identity Battle

This story (link) may be some good news for once. I'll repost the whole story:


February 3 (Compass) – Two young Coptic Christian women whose father had converted to Islam when they were infants have won a court battle in Egypt to retain their official religious identity as Christians. Now 18 and 19 years old, Iman and Olfat Malak Ayet will be issued national identity cards matching their Christian birth certificates tomorrow.

In the final verdict, presiding Judge Farouk Ali Abdel Kader of Cairo’s District No. 1 Administrative Court declared that the civil authorities had conducted a “non-justified intervention” by imposing upon the two plaintiffs a belief they had not chosen. “It is not in any way acceptable that the civil authorities take advantage of their authority to force the plaintiffs to embrace Islam,” the ruling specified. The court also ordered the government’s Civil Affairs Department, which had refused to issue Christian ID cards to the Ayet sisters, to pay all legal fees in the lawsuit.

Although the verdict was handed down more than eight months ago, on May 31, 2005, civil authorities refused to implement the decision. “They were pretending that they were waiting for the approval of the State Security Investigation,” attorney Naguib Gibrael told Compass. Finally, Gibrael served notice to the interior minister, warning that Article 23 of the penal code required that any government employee who refused to obey a court verdict be jailed for six months or fired. The minister sent written approval of the verdict, and on January 26 the Civil Affairs Department accepted the Ayet sisters’ ID applications, issuing official receipts to pick up their new identity cards on Saturday (February 4).

“This has been a long struggle with the security authorities,” said Gibrael, legal counsel on the sisters’ case. “We really ask for a guarantee, to stop the postponement in executing these verdicts.” Marrying Christians Prohibited Under Egyptian civil law, every citizen is required within six months of their 16th birthday to obtain a personal identity card. Nearly three years ago, the Ayet sisters were surprised to learn that, before his death, their father had changed their identities from Christian to Muslim on government records.

The change also left them with new Muslim names. Although the father had divorced their mother and married a Muslim wife, he had never interfered with his daughters being baptized and raised as Coptic Orthodox Christians by their mother. When Olfat Ayet turned 16, she had applied for her national ID card in order to qualify for her school’s final examinations and to apply for university acceptance. But the Civil Affairs Department refused to accept her Christian birth certificate, insisting she was legally a Muslim and would be committing apostasy to leave Islam and “convert” to Christianity. Once issued, Egypt’s bar-coded national ID cards are difficult to change. Government-recognized authorities must issue documented certificates to alter the details of marital status, religion or profession. If the Ayet sisters had been issued Muslim identities, they would have been prohibited under the statutes of Islamic law enshrined in Egypt’s legal codes from marrying Christians.

So in May 2003, the two minor girls filed a case through a maternal relative against the Interior Ministry and the Civil Affairs Department, requesting the right to change their identities back to their original Christian names and religion. Key documentation for the girls’ case included official certificates from the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate confirming their Christian identity at birth, as well as the Christian marriage certificate of their parents. They also had proof that their father had falsified his own birth certificate when he altered their records, claiming that his new Muslim name taken in 1986 was the one given him when he was born in 1955.

The sisters’ legal counsel, Gibrael, is a well-known Coptic lawyer who had won a previous landmark case reinstating Christian identity to a Coptic woman who came back to her Christian faith after converting to Islam. In that April 2004 verdict, an Egyptian administrative court validated the return of Mira Makram Gobran Hanna to the Coptic Orthodox Church 13 months after her conversion to Islam. A certificate issued by the church and approved by the State Security Directorate had confirmed this change in Hanna’s religious status, but years later civil authorities intervened and demanded she return to Islam.

Under the dual standards of Egyptian law, Christian citizens are free to convert legally to Islam, but Muslims are prohibited from changing their religion. At least 10 percent of Egypt’s population is Coptic Christian.

In a place where tensions can run so high, and you are not free to choose your own faith, I am touched by the courage of these two young women. I pray that the situation may turn out as positive as it seems it may.

The days events

First my prayers to all those who are waiting for news and information for any family they may have had on the ferry that sank in the Red Sea. (link)

I would also like to comment on the Churches burned in Alabama (link). There is not enough information yet to make any real comments. My prayers are with the people who lost their churches, may the love of Christ sustain them.

The Vatican issued a statement today about the cartoon issue (link).

One line from it that I must echo:

"There should be more respect for religion, whatever religion it is. What has happened over the last few days is an ugly, very ugly sign which should make us think"

I'm on and off line alot today, my wife and I are cleaning the house and getting ready to have some people for the Super Bowl. This is Steeler country. I'm also catching up on some reading for the next two days.

I'll try to keep ahead of news on the above stories and post when I can.

Saudi Interior Minster Calls on Vatican to Intervene in Danish Cartoon Controversy

Here is a Link to the article.

The overview of the story is this:

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif called on international religious institutions, especially the Vatican, to step into the developing row between Muslims and the European press over the publication of cartoons insulting the Prophet and condemn these actions.

The drawings originally appeared in a Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September and were later re-printed in a Norwegian publication and, earlier this week, in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Now, let me preface the following statements with the fact that I know many Muslims who are loving people and fully reject violence.

But I think that it is a mistake, originating from their own theocratic state, for Saudi Arabia to assume that the Vatican controls the west. Or even just Italy. I am an Italian American, and even the Italian American culture keeps the concepts of Italy and the Church separate. In Italy itself it is even more so true.

I have seen, in my short lifetime, a Crucifix in a jar a urine called art. I have seen cartoons that demonize John Paul II. I have seen good priests judged as predators by a scandle hungry media because of the actions of sick and evil individuals in the Church. I've been told that Marian apparitions are really demons And have seen my faith presented in the light of what it was at the worst points in history, rather by the reforms it trys for today. It has all upset me.

But it has not made me call for the removal of ambassadors, burning of flags, threatened to take hostages or resort to physical violence.

What I have done is attempt to live my life as my faith truly teaches me. To love and respect others. To preach Christ's love by my actions. To be a living representative, to the best of my flawed ability, of Christ's love.

The Vatican will make a statement, of that I'm sure. I'm sure it will condemn the cartoons since they are disrespectful.

But I wish they would say:

Renounce the attacks in Iraq on Christian Churches, give the Coptic Christians the right to practice their faith without fear and a percentage representation in their own government based on their actual population, Renounce terror at its' root of Islamic fundamentalism not just in name only and act as you want the world to see Islam. Then we will condemn the cartoons, as we condemn all acts that try to generalize an entire faith by the acts of a few. We have done that to others in our history, and it has been done to us. So we do not approve.

That won't be what is said. But...it should be.

Hate is a cancer of fear and ignorance. Only by Love and knowledge of each other can it be cured. The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy. We must cease to be apathetic to the tears of the suffering.

Coptic Christian Leader has his life threatened on National TV

For people who don't believe that Coptic Christians are oppressed and that it is a well known and even legal occurrance, I refer you to this link.

A Coptic leader has his life threatened...and why:


Father Boutros is an Egyptian Coptic priest who has peacefully inspired about 500 Egyptian Muslims to convert to Christianity, something considered a crime punishable by death in the Muslim world. For carrying out those conversions, he was imprisoned twice while he was living in Egypt in the early 1980’s and is now living in exile outside of the country.

In case someone says that something has been taken out of context:

TV host Adib, in threatening Father Boutros, said that no one will remain quiet about what Father Boutros says and does even today. He will be cut up into little pieces. If he were still in Egypt, he would never be able to return to his home alive. He was told he would not get away with those conversions of Muslims to Christianity.


Maybe they were talking about cut up into pieces in the next world? hmmm...but:

We know where Father Boutros resides and finding him is not difficult. We can get him by many ways and by any means.


The reporter says:

This story brought threats, common in the Muslim world, to a new level done by a TV host on an Arab television show. Frightened Christian Copts in Egypt are for good reason now terrified by the new openness and courage of their own priests.

Oh...and for people expecting an international outcry, the show aired in December of 2005. The reporter only saw it today.

I pray for Coptic Christians in Egypt and around the world. That one day they may live in and vist the land of Egypt in safety, and celebrate the faith brought by St. Mark. I pray that Egypt may one day shelter them in safety, as it sheltered the Holy Family.

Liturgical Time

In a book I am reading called "Among the Copts" the author tells a story about liturgical time.

A Coptic priest is performing the Liturgy. When it is time for him to raise the host, he does so and raises his eyes to heaven. Moments pass...they turn to minutes. Some people are wondering what is happening. After a long time he lowers his eyes and continues. After the liturgy a deacon asks him what happened. The priest is confused; he says that he had only raised his eyes for a moment. When he did he saw, not the dome of the church, but the clear sky and a ladder stretching to heaven. Still, to him, only a brief moment had passed.

This story illustrates what Liturgy should be, touching the infinite of God if only for a moment. Sometimes, time no longer applies.

I have my own experience with Liturgical time. It was at my wedding.

My wife and I had just received the Eucharist. I put my hand over hers’ and bowed my head in prayer. I looked at her and thanked God for the moment. I thanked Him for this life, and how it was going. Even with all of the ups and downs...this was a moment of perfection. I thought of children we may have and prayed for them. I prayed for their health and their grades in school. I prayed that they would choose a good college. I prayed for our whole life together. I thanked God again for all His gifts. I prayed for my wife and I as we grew old together. Growing old never seemed so perfect.

I realized that with the Eucharist, Christ had come to our wedding; small and insignificant us, to our wedding. But we are made so significant by His love for us, and that love makes possible our love for each other. Love was all around me and gave me meaning. The true bridegroom had come to the Liturgy. It was the longest and deepest prayer I have ever prayed. I can remember every word of it. As I remember every word, I think now what I thought then: Wow...it's been a while. But when I looked up from my prayer, the priest had only moved three steps and was passing me on my right to give communion to my best man. I had entered Liturgical time. In my love, I had grasped a deeper connection to the infinity of Christ's love.

It also happened, though not as pronounced, when we put the rose at Mary's feet. My mother died when I was ten and I have had a deep devotion to the Mother of God since childhood, time went a bit strange there as I thought of the Mother of God and my parents watching the wedding together. My wife says this is when it happened for her. In her prayer and conversation with Mary, she thought that a long time had passed but the Ave Maria had only just begun.

The Liturgy lets us grasp infinite love. The sacrifice of Christ is made manifest, His love tangible. Sometimes even the best of us let it fall into habit. But sometimes, even the worst of us see eternity in the heartbeat of Christ's love for us.

An article I found and a question

I just found an article online called Egyptian Copts are Oppressed (Link).

There is a line in the article that has a history I do not understand:

Among the Copts who are concerned with the general Coptic issue, none fail to realize the extent of the disagreement between myself and the engineer 'Adli Abadir, who sponsored the Zurich conference and the upcoming conference in Washington.

I was wondering if people more active with these issues can explain to me what the difference is here. I have seen some articles that question if these conferences are a good thing. I don't know much about them, but is it simply a difference in the way one person is going about it as opposed to another.

Zietun, Vailankanni and Lourdes...Pray for Us O' Holy Mother of God

Three apparitions: Zietun, Vailankanni and Lourdes. What do they show us? What is similar?

For information on Zietun see my post from January 16 (link). In brief, Mary appeared and was seen by Christians and Muslims alike. As a lasting sign, many have been healed. People of all faiths have been healed.

At Lourdes, Mary appeared to St. Bernadette. To this day, many are healed there. People of all faiths or no faith, have been healed. As a further sign of unity, the best book on Lourdes has been written by Ruth Cranston. She is a Protestant, and wrote the best and most moving work on what is considered a Catholic place.

At Vailankanni Mary appeared to a shepherd boy and then a lame boy. The people built a church for the Holy Mother. The crew of a Portugese ship prayed to be saved from a storm, and were amazed to already find a church when they landed. The sailors began the process that transformed the small church into the "Lourdes of the east." It is called the shrine of Our Lady of Good Health. Thousands go there, and people are healed...again, no matter what their faith.

These healings lead people to Christ through Mary. All of the different denomonations of the Christian faith are welcomed. And Christ, through His mother, heals the One Body.

In the West, the Mid-East and Far East...Christ has sent His mother. I am asked, "Why do Catholic pay such attention to Mary?" Because it is her Son, who sends her. Her soul magnifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God her savior.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and The Immaculate Heart of Mary, they shower love upon the world. That love, with Scripture and Tradition... will heal the beating heart of the One Body in Christ the Lord.