Khazen

The Media and the Conclave anti-Catholicism

 

 

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – The anti-Catholicism that abounds in the mainstream media, the academy, and the entertainment world continues to both amuse and upset us greatly! Who needs morning coffee when you can read the latest stupidity about the Conclave scheduled to commence in the Vatican next week?  It’s enough to evoke peals of laughter or growls of anger. 

Being seasoned Catholic journalists who have "been there done that" we prefer the former, knowing that the latter shows more respect than is due.
 
Tim Stanley, a very fine young Catholic pundit in the UK, report that the very unfunny Ricky Gervais, whp purports to be a comedian, has called Catholics "morons."  Stanley had tweeted that, "Crowd greeting #Pope estimated at 200,000. Beat that, Richard Dawkins," to which Gervais responded, "Some people are morons, beat that, education!" (Stanley, by the way, is smart, tough, and articulate, a young talent to watch!)

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Cabinet, workers dispute enters tenth day

  BEIRUT: The dispute between Lebanon’s civil servants and the Cabinet entered its tenth day Thursday as protestors rallied outside government buildings. Around 300 protesters demanding a wage hike gathered outside the building of the Finance Ministry’s Value Added Tax department in Beirut’s Mathaf before holding a sit-in outside the building of the Finance Ministry’s directorate […]

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Media trying to Frame Vatican with negative press

By Deal W. Hudson & Deacon Keith Fournier

 

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – It’s sad but predictable that most of the mainstream TV networks have chosen "to frame" the Conclave irresponsibly.  Their respective frames reflect the media’s predictable, and reprehensible, attempt to discredit the Catholic Church while simultaneously boosting their notion of what qualities the new pope should embody. 

Hmmmmm, let’s guess, would those qualities be tolerance, flexibility, pluralism, progressivism, and the "third world?" The problem with talking about mainstream media coverage nowadays is its utter predictability, akin to "shooting ducks in a barrel."  But it’s a barrel of their own making and our responsibility as Catholic journalists to inoculate the public against their version of framing the Conclave.

Our good friend, former Vatican ambassador and Boston mayor, Ray Flynn, published some comments yesterday that summarize the media coverage with the authority of a man who spent many years as a Catholic in the Vatican. Ambassador Flynn, a master storyteller of Boston Irish persuasion, has also published an excellent novel about a papal Conclave, The Accidental Pope.

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U.N. warns Lebanon could be drawn into Syria war

  BEIRUT: The United Nations warned Tuesday that Lebanon could be dragged into the bloody conflict in Syria, as rival Lebanese politicians struggled to agree on a new electoral law for the June 9 elections.   Beirut MP Ammar Houri said his Future Movement has been engaged in talks with the Progressive Socialist Party in […]

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Patriarch urges protection for Iraq’s fleeing Christians

 

.- Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, says greater security is needed for Christians in Iraq who are leaving their homeland for fear of local disorder. “They are leaving the country because there is no stability. Another reason is the rise of fundamentalism,” the patriarch told Aid to the Church in Need Feb. 25. “Security and freedom” are the most important issues for the Church’s survival in Iraq, he said. Patriarch Raphael is head of the Chaldean Patriarchate of Babylon, and is Archbishop of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Baghdad. The Chaldean Catholic Church is one of the Eastern-rite Churches which is in full communion with the Pope.

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Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi: Next pope?

VATICAN CITY  — From 2002 to 2007, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi wrote a daily column in the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire.

The column, called "Mattutino" or "morning prayer," offered a short thought for the day, and was often accompanied by a quote drawn from an array of authors. It ranged from the Psalms to obscure contemporary poets, from Christian writers to contemporary novelists and philosophers.

It was through the "Mattutinos" that most Italian Catholics first came to know Ravasi, then the director of an historic library in Milan, and discovered his blend of encyclopedic interests and knack for finding a spiritual "opening" even in the most un-Christian writers.

The fame as a moderate liberal he enjoyed within some Catholic circles could have scuppered his chances for a Vatican career, but Pope Benedict XVI came to appreciate Ravasi.

In 2007, he appointed him head of the Vatican department for culture, with the task of reopening the dialogue between the Catholic Church and contemporary secularized culture.

 

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Pope rounds on rival cardinals and their ‘sins against unity’

Pope Benedict used last night’s Ash Wednesday mass to deliver a withering and extraordinary blast at the warring factions in the Vatican’s upper-echelons, whose power struggles many believe influenced the Pontiff’s historic decision to stand down.

 

Earlier on Wednesday, during the general audience, the Pontiff had alluded to the need for church figures to avoid the temptations of power and privilege.

But yesterday evening his warning was clearer. “We must reflect on how the face of the Church is marred by sins against unity and division of the ecclesiastical body. We must overcome individualism and rivalry,” he told great and the good of the curia assembled in St Peter’s Basilica. “The true disciple does not serve himself or the public, but the Lord.

“Many are ready to get on their high horse over scandals and injustices – obviously committed by others – but few seem able to act according to the real wishes of their own hearts and consciences.”

Pundit Gerard O’Connell of the Vatican Insider said: “This was a very, very, clear and strongly worded speech. It was an appeal for an end to the personal rivalries and of people competing to put themselves in high profile positions. I think Benedict is passing messages to the cardinals and to those who will succeed him.”

 

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Cheikh Bechara Jaffal el Khazen

  Cheikh Bechara Jaffal el Khazen of Zouk Mikael is the son of Jaffal, son of Moussa son of Tarabieh, son of Abi Nawfal Nader, son of Abi Nader Khazen, son of Abi Saker Ibrahim who’s the son of Chidiac Sarkis el Khazen.   Born in 1756, he held the position of Governor of the […]

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