.- Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a plea for the release of two kidnapped Orthodox archbishops in Syria.
“The kidnapping of two men of peace is a sign of the terrible violence that is destroying the fabric of Syrian society,” Cardinal Dolan said in an April 26 statement.
He explained that the plight of the archbishops, along with the murder of their driver, “continue to weigh heavily on the hearts of people of good will.”
On April 22, Archbishop John Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Archbishop Paul Yagizi of the Greek Orthodox Church were kidnapped near Aleppo, Syria by armed men who appear to have killed their driver.
It remains unclear who carried out the kidnapping. The Syrian government and rebel groups have both traded accusations over who is to blame.
LoS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard has been previously attacked for backing the Church’s teachings on homosexuality and expressing his concern for those who live the homosexual lifestyle. Four women, representing the pro-abortion and homosexual group FEMEN, took to the stage at ULB University in Brussels where the archbishop was participating in a debate on blasphemy laws. The women disrobed to reveal black-painted slogans on their bare chests and backs, such as "my body my rules. "Waving signs that read "stop homophobia," the women doused the archbishop with water from bottles formed in the image of the Virgin Mary.
In the minutes before the women could be forced off stage, Archbishop Leonard sat drenched with water, eyes closed in prayer. The archbishop then kissed the image of the Virgin Mary on one of the water bottles that was used in the attack. "He was very calm and maintained a position of prayer. I have to believe he was praying for us," one of the attackers said to reporters. The attack was spurred by an interview three weeks ago where Archbishop Leonard said that when speaking to Christians who are inclined to homosexuality he suggests celibacy, as is required for all single persons.
BEIRUT: Maronite Cardinal Beshara Rai called Saturday for the release of two Syrian bishops who were abducted earlier this week. “I urge those concerned to release kidnapped bishops Boulos Yaziji and Yuhanna Ibrahim,” Rai said during a speech he made at a church in Argentine leg of his Latin American tour. Ibrahim, the Syriac Orthodox […]
President Michel Suleiman ordered on Monday stronger measures to preserve security and stability in northern Lebanon a day after three men were killed in clashes over a clampdown on illegal construction. “Suleiman followed up the security situation in the country in general and specifically the North and met at Baabda palace with caretaker Defense Minister […]
CAIRO, EGYPT (Catholic Online) – The images are compelling. They clearly show Egyptian police officers participating in the attack on the Coptic cathedral in Cairo. This is thuggish behavior and unbecoming of a civilized police force. The images show Egyptian police officers standing by as protesters fire guns, wield machetes, and throw stones at Christians. The Muslims were attacking a Coptic funeral who were mourning the death of another who was killed in a previous clash with Muslims. Another image shows officers standing by as a protester burns a Holy Bible. What would happen if the roles were reversed?
The government’s response has been embarrassingly lukewarm at best. Four Copts were arrested. Christians in Egypt are facing increasingly hostile discrimination and the government is not only failing in its obligation to protect them, it seems to be helping militant Muslims attack them.
Unfortunately, this is typical behavior for militant Muslims and those than enable them. These Muslims are not content with diversity and instead insist on destroying any institution that is not their own. Ever since a new, supposedly democratic government was formed in Egypt, the Muslims have taken advantage of every opportunity to discriminate against and suppress Coptic Christians. The participation of the police in the religious violence does much to implicate the government in crimes against Christians. It is also quite revealing that four Christian mourners were arrested while the Muslim attackers who initiated the violence were aided by police.
EARLIER this year Iran’s authorities arrested a score of men who, in separate incidents, claimed to be the Mahdi, a sacred figure of Shia Islam, who was “hidden” by God just over a millennium ago and will return some time to conquer evil on earth.
A website based in Qom, Iran’s holiest city, deemed the men “deviants”, “fortune-tellers” and “petty criminals”, who were exploiting credulous Iranians for alms during the Persian new-year holiday, which fell in mid-March.
Many of the fake messiahs were picked up by security men in the courtyard to the mosque in Jamkaran, a village near Qom, whose reputation as the place of the awaited Mahdi’s advent has been popularised nationwide by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When he took office in 2005 he gave the mosque $10m.
Iran’s economic doldrums may have helped to cause this surge in people claiming to be mankind’s saviour—and in women saying they were the Mahdi’s wife. “In an open atmosphere where people could criticise the government they would not believe these people,” says an ex-seminarian in Tehran, the capital, noting that most Iranians still get all of their news from state television and state-owned or -sanctioned newspapers.
Last year a seminary expert, Mehdi Ghafari, said that more than 3,000 fake Mahdis were in prison. Mahdi-complexes are common, says a Tehran psychiatrist. “Every month we get someone coming in, convinced he is the Mahdi,” she says. “Once a man was saying such outrageous things and talking about himself in the third person that I couldn’t help laughing. He got angry and told me I had ‘bad hijab’ and was disrespecting the ‘Imam of Time’,” as the Mahdi is known.
Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri said Saturday the Lebanese authorities have banned his award-winning film "The Attack" from cinemas in his home country because it was partly shot in Tel Aviv using Israeli actors. "I regret to inform you that the Interior Minister of Lebanon, Minister [Marwan] Charbel, has decided to punish us and the […]
BEIRUT: Maronite Cardinal Beshara Rai called Saturday for the release of two Syrian bishops who were abducted earlier this week. “I urge those concerned to release kidnapped bishops Boulos Yaziji and Yuhanna Ibrahim,” Rai said during a speech he made at a church in Argentine leg of his Latin American tour. Ibrahim, the Syriac […]