The Old Rugged Cross

At mass yesterday, I had a truly amazing spiritual experience. Because this weekend is "The Exultation of the Holy Cross," one of the hymns chosen by our cantor was "The Old Rugged Cross" a hymn used more frequently in a protestant church rather than a catholic service. As we sang, I was overcome with emotion. I saw myself standing by my father in the Zion Congregational Church in Manvel and heard him singing the hymn. The tears came down my cheeks.

Science and Faith

As a non-scientist and a non-religionist, the best book I have read in some time is The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins. Francis Collins was the director of the Human Genome Project and is a committed and practicing Christian. He has given me a way of reconciling my questions about the relationship of science and religion.

Political NOT Moral

I can't understand why this preacher and others like him want to become part of this political scene we have been part of for the past year. He has all the room needed to convince others of the immorality of abortion, gay marriage, etc. within the restrictions posed by accepting non-profit status.


Grand Forks Herald Reverend ‘at Large’: "It all started during a May 18 sermon. The Bemidji State University graduate told his congregation no Christian should vote for either Democratic contender for president, Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama, because of their support of abortion rights and homosexual marriage. Beforehand, he had invited the Warroad Pioneer newspaper to report on his sermon and it did."

SANCTE PATER: 'The last Mohicans' of Christ

This blog entry is interesting and needs to be read by anyone interested in the disappearance of Christianity in the land of Jesus, St. Paul and St. Peter.

Published Date: 27 April 2008

By Robert F Worth
In Malula,
Syria

ELIAS Khoury can still remember the days when old people in the
mountain village of Malula spoke only Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Back then the village, linked to the capital Damascus, only by a long and bumpy bus ride, was almost entirely Christian, a vestige of an older, more diverse Middle East that existed before the arrival of Islam.

Now Khoury, 65, grey-haired and bedridden, admits ruefully that he has largely forgotten the language he spoke with his own mother.

'It's disappearing,' he said in Arabic, sitting with his wife on a bed in the mud-and-straw house where he grew up. 'A lot of the Aramaic vocabulary I don't use any more, and I've lost it.'

Malula, along with two smaller neighbouring villages where Aramaic
is also spoken, is still celebrated in Syria as a unique linguistic island. In the Convent of St Sergius and Bacchus, on a hill above town, young girls recite the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic to tourists, and booklets about the language are on sale at a shop in the town centre.

But the island has grown smaller over the years, and some locals say they fear it will not last. Once a large population stretching across Syria, Turkey and Iraq, Aramaic-speaking Christians have slowly disappeared, some fleeing westward, some converting to Islam. In
recent decades, the process has accelerated, with large numbers of Iraqi Christians escaping the violence and chaos of their country."

What Would Jesus Do?

Persecution continues and in the eyes of some, anyone not a Moslem is allied with the invaders. We could do much better in supporting the million Iraqi Christians who have fled the country.

Christian quoter: Supporting Iraqi Christians: "So I am calling for more involvement there, specifically to protect the Christian minority who are being persecuted by those opposed to the occupation. In the eyes of good Muslims there is no separation of religion and politics. They wrongly see all Christians as supporters of the invasion. So Iraqi Christians who were no threat to Saddam are viewed as friends of the invaders and suffer with little apparent protection from the Coalition forces. They are being forced to flee their country."

END TIMES

It is nearing the time when Christian presence in Iraq will be gone. Thousands are in refugee camps in Syria and Jordon and have overloaded the ability of those countries to provide relief.

Work must be done to keep Christians from leaving Iraq, says bishop:

"ROME, Apr 24, 2008 / 01:27 pm (CNA).- Speaking to the SIR news agency,
Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad said this week, “I am pleased to
hear that some countries in the European Union have opened their doors to Iraqi
Christian refugees, but it is also necessary to work so that Christians do not
keep leaving Iraq.”"

Great Day

The part of the Holy Father's speech to the Bishops that grabbed me was

A strongly worded critique of what is often called "cafeteria
Catholicism.

Said Benedict: "Is it consistent to profess our belief in church
on Sunday, and then during the week to promote business practices or medical
procedures contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for practicing Catholics
to ignore or exploit the poor or the marginalized, to promote sexual behavior
contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or to adopt positions that contradict the
right to life of every human being from conception to natural death?"

Deploring the tendency "to treat religion as a private matter," the pope declared:
"Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel."

Benedict XVI Visit

In case you haven't found it, this blog address will provide a detailed description of his visit to Washington DC and New York. There is even a complete liturgical "book" for each of the days he will be here.

World news Feed Article | World news |

More Anti-Christian actions. Have you heard any of our presidential candidates say a word?

An Assyrian Orthodox priest was shot to death Saturday by gunmen using silencers as the Christian cleric and his wife returned home after a trip to the market in Baghdad.
The latest attack against Iraq's Christian minority drew a new plea
from Pope Benedict XVI for Iraqis to ``find the way of peace to build a just and tolerant society.''
Father Youssef Adel, 47, had tried to escape the sectarian violence, fleeing the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora at a time when insurgents were burning down churches and uprooting Christians from their homes on threat of death. He moved with his wife, Lamia, to a relatively safe area in the mostly Shiite central district of Karradah and presided over services at the nearby St. Peter and Paul church, according to an assistant who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
But in a tragic example of the dangers that continue to face Iraqis despite a sharp drop in violence, Adel was shot to death by gunmen near the gate of his house, another priest in the same church said, also declining to be identified for fear of becoming a target himself.

IRAQ Iraqi Christians also taking to the streets abroad - Asia News

Not even once have I heard the "christian" leaders of our country point out the difficulties being experienced by Christians in Iraq.

"Rome (AsiaNews) – Iraqi Christians have brought their silent marches to the West, calling for justice and an end to the persecution visited upon them daily in their homeland. As people in the Plain of Nineveh march every day demanding the truth about the murder of Mgr Faraj Rahho, Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Iraqi immigrants in the Netherlands, Germany and Canada (see photo) have taken to the streets, waving banners and holding up photos of their martyrs. For some demonstrators Monsignor Rahho is “a symbol for every Iraqi Christian,” not only for the Chaldean community."

OSV | Pope Benedict XVI | Papal Visit 2008

He's coming! On April 15, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI will begin a six-day trip to the United States, visiting Washington, D.C. and New York City. The Holy Father will meet with President Bush, lead Mass at the National Park in Washington and Yankee Stadium, address the United Nations General Assembly, and visit Ground Zero."

Artvoice Blogs » Echo Chamber: New You Could Have Read Anywhere

As you read down, you find this interesting item. It has been my understanding that Islam, like Christianity, has numerous divisions.

"Islam has surpassed Catholicism as the world’s leading religion,
according to Vatican officials. Roman Catholics account for 17.4 percent (1.1 billion) of the world’s population, while Muslims comprise 19.2 percent (1.3 billion), a number that continues to rise. The total for all Christians of all denominations is roughly 2.1 billion, or a third of the world’s population. “For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us,” said Monsignor Vittorio Formenti. He, of course, was neglecting the first 200,000 years of human history when he made that statement."

Christians in Iraq

Although this article is long, it deserves reading and thoughtful reaction. The Catholic Church in the United States ought to be protesting the continuation of the killing. The article is in the last issue of our diocean newspaper, The Catholic Voice.

The
Catholic Voice - an online publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Oakland: "Chaldean bishop: U.S. accountable
for death of Iraqi
archbishop


Women cry as they attend a memorial Mass for Chaldean
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, at a church in Baghdad March 18.

CNS photo/Thaier al-Sudani, Reuters
By Joe Kohn
Catholic News
Service
DETROIT (CNS) — A Chaldean Catholic bishop said the United States
must be held accountable for the death of Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq.

Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim of the Eparchy of St. Thomas
the Apostle, based in Southfield, Mich., said that particularly the
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is responsible for the terrorism and killing of Christians in Iraq. He said the administration is ignoring the problem."

A Point of View

The law of unintented consequences ls certainly at play.

(CBS) -- An Anglican
clergyman in Baghdad, who has seen his flock murdered and forced into exile by Muslim extremists, says Christians there are worse off now than under Saddam's rule and are probably suffering more than any time in history. The Rev. Canon Andrew White, an Anglican priest known as the "Vicar of Baghdad," speaks to 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley for a segment on the persecution of Christians in Iraq to be broadcast this Sunday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. "There's no comparison between Iraq now and [under Saddam]," says White. "Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians - probably ever in history," he tells Pelley, referring to the nearly 2,000 years of Christian history in the area. That's because White estimates that 90 percent of Iraq's Christians, once thought to number over a million, have either
fled or have been murdered by Islamic extremists during the religious civil war.
That includes his own church leaders and most of the men of his parish. "They are mainly killed. Some are kidnapped," says White.
"Here in this church, all of my leadership were originally taken and
killed." Their bodies were never recovered. "This is one of the
problems. I regularly do funerals here, but it's not easy to get the
bodies," White tells Pelley.
White invited 60 Minutes cameras to an underground Baghdad service for what's left of his congregation, mostly the old, the ill, and those who cannot afford to flee. The purge is almost complete in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, once a Christian stronghold, and the recent surge of American troops also has stemmed some of the violence. "I don't see a lot of [Christian murder victims] anymore," says Army Col. Rick Gibbs. "But when we first arrived, we saw lots of that. It would not surprise my soldiers to walk down a street on patrol and see three or four bodies laying in the street with a bullet behind their head," says Gibbs.

At the height of the violence, churches were bombed and the Army did not guard them, Gibbs says. "[Christians] feel that if we are overtly protecting the churches, that someone underground covertly will come in and murder the Christians because they are collaborating with the U.S. forces," Gibbs tells Pelley. It all started after the invasion, says a young Christian who did not want to be identified. "[Muslim extremists] were telling us that Christians were against Islam, that we're infidels, that women shouldn't drive and that a woman who doesn't wear a head scarf should get her head cut off," he says. "I thought, 'What are we, going back to the Middle Ages?'"
It's all happening because religion can go wrong, says White. "When religion goes wrong, it kills others. [Islam] has [gone wrong] and in the past, Christianity has gone wrong," he says.

Controversy as France says it will take in 500 Iraqi Christians : Europe World

A slightly different point of view.

Paris - A French government announcement that it will grant asylum to 500 Iraqi Christians stirred controversy Saturday, with opponents warning it amounted to discrimination against Moslems. "The situation is very difficult for the Moslems, too, but the Christians have a particularly difficult time," said Troyes Bishop Marc Stenger in defence of the move.
Several aid agencies had earlier criticised the government decision to grant the 500 asylum in the coming weeks. "It is risky showing preference to refugees on the strength of their religion," said Pierre Henry, head of the France Terre d'Asile organisation. Stenger, whose remarks were published in the edition of le Monde due out
Sunday, visited Christian communities in northern Iraq last month.
He said half the 700,000-strong community there was already fleeing, and the situation had only worsened since the abduction and murder of Iraqi Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho.

The offer of asylum was meanwhile being taken up with mixed
feelings by the Iraqi Christians, according to the Syrian Bishop of Mosul quoted by France Inter radio. He said moving away was "moving away from ourselves", and the congregations would be sending mainly younger people who could later help the rebuilding process in their homeland. ontroversy as France says it will take in 500 Iraqi Christians :

Iraq’s Christians Living Out the Passion this Easter

Iraq’s Christians Living Out the Passion this Easter

Although article is lengthy, it is worth reading.

Catholic World News : Al Qaida threat cites Pope

Maybe it is time to bring back the crusades!

"Al Qaida threat cites Pope
Vatican, Mar. 20, 2008 (CWNews.com) -
The head of the Al Qaida terrorist network charged that Pope Benedict XVI
(bio - news) is leading a 'crusade' against Islam, and vowed retribution, in a
taped message released on the 5th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Christians in Iraq

By listening to TV news and comentary as well as most newspapers, you would never know that most of the Christians in Iraq have left, become homeless or died. The Archbishop was killed a week ago. The persecution is carried out by the same folks our President expects to create a "peaceful, democratic" country. Pray for their safety.

Actor Martin Sheen named recipient of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal - Catholic Online

Actor Martin Sheen named recipient of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal - Catholic Online

It is always uplifting to know that even a celebrity like Sheen is recognized for actions of the heart.