It is confirmed: Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has officially invited Pope Francis to visit Egypt. On a related note, deposed president Hosni Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, "who was educated by Catholic nuns, ensured that construction of [a new Catholic church in Sinai] could proceed after years of delay and opposition by local political leadership" (CNA). […]

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria met recently with the Orthodox bishops there. The leader of the war-torn country — in which, every minute, another family flees — assured his continued opposition to "terrorist, extremist thought, which knows neither borders nor nationalities". Bishops in the Middle East, including Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai, have repeatedly called for […]

  Just before Christian patriarchs met in Damascus, it was reported by the Syrian Arab News Agency that Tartous, Syria, is now host to the Middle East’s first mosque named after the Virgin Mary. The Daily Star noted that the mosque’s formal name is al-Sayyida Maryam. Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed, Syria’s awqaf minister, has stressed before […]

Forbes Magazine

OPINION

On arms, Hizbullah accepts nonnegotiable dialogue

By Amal Saad-Ghorayeb

Following the withdrawal of Syria’s military and intelligence services from Lebanon, attention was riveted on the fate of Hizbullah’s armed wing, the Islamic resistance. Bereft of the political cover its military activity received from the Assad regime, the party now finds itself in the position of having to persuade its compatriots of the advantages of what it calls the “unique formula of resistance and army” that Lebanon has at its disposal to combat Israel.

While Hizbullah can count on domestic support for its resistance in the short to medium term, it may not be able to do so it in the long term, once Israel evacuates the Shebaa Farms and a regional settlement is reached. In post-Syria Lebanon, where sectarianism has resurfaced with a vengeance, the question is no longer one of “Why do we need a resistance?” but “Why do the Shiites get to keep their arms?” International pressure from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States in particular could feed on such sensitivities, obliging the Lebanese government to work toward disarming the party.

Hizbullah may find itself cornered domestically, having to choose between backing down at the last minute and giving up its weapons or fighting a losing battle to retain its arms. If it chooses the first option, it will become an emasculated shadow of its former self, operating in a political space demarcated by the very forces which brought about its demise. If it goes for the second, it will find itself isolated domestically and delegitimized.

Hizbullah is attempting to avert the likelihood of such a dilemma by rationalizing its resistance role and underscoring the need for strategic defense. It has been both constrained and galvanized by the U.S.-led campaign to disband its armed resistance. It regards this and the wider U.S. regional goal to militarily constrain Iran, Syria and Palestinian Islamists as part of a “neoimperialist strategy.” It also considers the “democratizing” thrust of the Bush administration a flimsy pretext to shape the Middle East to its own benefit, and that of Israel.

Lebanon’s Aoun buries hatchet with jailed Geagea

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s opposition leader Michel Aoun visited a fellow-Maronite Christian civil war foe in his prison cell near Beirut on Wednesday, drawing a line under a bloody rift that tore their community apart 15 years ago.

“This visit today … comes to turn a page of the past that now belongs to history and to look to the future,” the retired general told reporters after his one-hour meeting with former militia chief Samir Geagea in a cell at the Defense Ministry.

Aoun returned to Lebanon on May 7 after 14 years of an exile that began after Syrian troops defeated his forces in 1990.

Earlier that year, Aoun’s men had battled Geagea’s Lebanese Forces militia for four months. Hundreds of people were killed in the conflict, which devastated parts of a Christian enclave.

• 
  
  Beatification requires that a miracle has occurred
  
  
• 
  
  Group approaches local bishop
  
  
• 
  
  After Rome’s approval an investigation is launched
  
  
• 
  
  Findings are sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
  
  
• 
  
  Case is presented to the Pope
  
  
• 
  
  Blessed may be accorded a feast day
  
  
• 
  
  Relics of the candidate may be venerated
  
  
• 
  
  Canonization (actual sainthood) requires proof of a second miracle

Beatification and Canonization

HISTORY

According to some writers the origin of beatification and canonization in the Catholic Church is to be traced back to the ancient pagan apotheosis. In his classic work on the subject (De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonizatione) Benedict XIV examines and at the very outset refutes this view. He shows so well the substantial differences between them that no right-thinking person need henceforth confound the two institutions or derive one from the other. It is a matter of history who were elevated to the honour of apotheosis, on what grounds, and by whose authority; no less clear is the meaning that was attached to it. Often the decree was due to the statement of a single person (possibly bribed or enticed by promises, and with a view to fix the fraud more securely in the minds of an already superstitious people) that while the body of the new god was being burned, an eagle, in the case of the emperors, or a peacock (Juno’s sacred bird), in the case of their consorts, was seen to carry heavenward the spirit of the departed (Livy, Hist. Rome, I, xvi; Herodian, Hist. Rome, IV, ii, iii). Apotheosis was awarded to most members of the imperial family, of which family it was the exclusive privilege. No regard was had to virtues or remarkable achievements. Recourse was frequently had to this form of deification to escape popular hatred by distracting attention from the cruelty of imperial rulers. It is said that Romulus was deified by the senators who slew him; Poppaea owed her apotheosis to her imperial paramour, Nero, after he had kicked her to death; Geta had the honour from his brother Caracalla, who had got rid of him through jealousy.

Pope seeks to beatify John Paul

Pope Benedict XVI has begun the process of beatifying his predecessor John Paul II, the first step to sainthood.

“The cause for the beatification of John Paul II is open,” the new Roman Catholic leader told priests meeting at Rome’s Basilica of St John in Lateran.

The Pope waived the usual rules which require a five-year wait before the Church begins to make someone a saint.

John Paul II died on 2 April, leading to widespread calls from Catholics worldwide for him to be made a saint.

Pope Calls on Media to Report Responsibly

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that the media can spread peace but also foment violence, and he called on journalists to exercise responsibility to ensure objective reports that respect human dignity and the common good.

Benedict made the comments during a brief appearance at his studio window to bless thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square below, following in the beloved Sunday tradition of Pope John Paul II.

Draped underneath the window for the first time was the red tapestry bearing Benedict’s papal coat of arms, which includes traditional elements from his native Bavaria and a nod to St. Augustine.

Noting that Sunday was the world day of social communications, the pope praised the media for what he called the “extraordinary” coverage of the death and funeral of John Paul.

Pope Taps Cardinal to Stand in at Ceremony

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has designated a cardinal to stand in for him at a beatification ceremony later this month in a shift from his predecessor who declared more “blesseds” and saints than all his predecessors over the past 500 years combined.

The head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, will celebrate the Mass on May 14 to beatify a Franciscan nun who worked in Hawaii and the co-founder of a missionary society in Spain.