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Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Saints and Martyrs

More martyrs

As linked to by the Young Fogey from AsiaNews: A Chaldean priest and three deacons killed in Mosul:

Fr Ragheed Ganni, 34, was hit by gunfire in front of the Church of the Holy Spirit. Three deacons, who served as his aides, were also killed.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) —“ An armed group gunned down and killed Fr Ragheed Ganni and three of his aides. The murder took place right after Sunday mass in front of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul where Father Ragheed was parish priest. Sources told AsiaNews that hours later the bodies were still lying in the street because no one dared retrieve them. Given the situation tensions in the area remain high…

…which follows on his links to Iraq’s Catholics are being crucified.

The Assyrian News Agency reports that the martyrs are:

Father Ragheed Ganni,
Sub-deacon Basman Yousef Daud,
Sub-deacon Wahid Hanna Isho, and
Sub-deacon Gassan Isam Bidawed

Eternal rest grant onto them O Lord, and may the perpetual light shine upon them.

Lord, welcome home your martyrs who have washed their robes and made them white in Your blood.

Blame the Muslims? Certainly they bear responsibility for their inhumanity and the murders they have committed. But as several have pointed out, this didn’t happen under Saddam.. but rather right under the nose of George Bush’s regime.

This further supports my contention that Evangelicals of Mr. Bush’s ilk and his neo-con supporters cheer as Catholics die.

But woe…

Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’
Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

So much in blogland

I’ve been keeping up with my daily blog reads and there’s so much going on that I wanted to mention a few of the highlights to my readers.

From the Conservative Blog for Peace

The Young Fogey posts on the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is joyous news for all who long for the reunification of the Catholic faithful.

He’s been posting so many good links and reads of late that it’s difficult to keep up. Even so, keep up I do. I highly recommend people read what he posts. The combination of his genteel, classically liberal style, and his balanced and studied Christian witness make his the first site I visit each day.

From blogs4God

They’re back.

Dean Peters has done a remarkable job or re-engineering blogs4God. He found the technology (Pligg) and the style best suited to capturing Christian witness in bloggerland.

No doubt its taken awhile, but the wait has been worth it!

Dean’s other site, Heal Your Church Website has also been revamped.

Whether you are a church or a witness, if you care about your on-line presence, take heed.

His recent posts on Bab’tist Churches was funny (sort of in a sad sense) and a wake-up call to the church webmasters among us (yes, I’m one) who fail to proof and re-proof their work. I’ve taken Dean’s counsel seriously (as far as I’m able with my technical skills) and our parish has benefited.

I also offer up my prayers for Dean and his family. Dean’s father was called home to the Lord last week. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord!

From Faith and Theology

Who knew?

Say theology and a flood of images pass through your mind (or maybe not). Anyway, the images I get are of disaffected academics with some relationship to God, trying to disprove Him, disrupt all else, and de-construct so they can reconstruct.

It is easy to think that way, if you rely on a caricature modeled after folks like Hans Kung. But anyway…

Benjamin Myers of the Faith and Theology Blog sets all that to rest.

What he and his collaborators post is amazing, insightful, easily digestible, and actually provides some insight, some glimpse of God, to common folks like me.

His postings come at you in layers, from the first insight to the deep pondering.

I can’t get enough of Propositions by Kim Fabricius, and the recent Prayer in a time of war by George Hunsinger is something that should be said daily.

Think theology is for academicians? Read Ben Myers blog, and you may very well see our Lord in ways you haven’t yet experienced.

And the rest

My other daily reads come from different Catholic traditions, and represent a cross section of what I see as very good, wholesome, and positive in blogs. They are:

They all fit into the model proposed in the recent posts on blog level ecumenism.

No one denies who they are, their faith or tradition, yet they are open to discussion, understanding, and to common witness.

Technology is not immune to God, and in the hands of His servants can do amazing things. Let’s pray that it continues to work for the building up of the one body of Christ.

Current Events, Perspective, Political, Saints and Martyrs,

Doing the devil’s work

From the AP via the International Herald Tribune: Iraq’s Christian minority flees from violence

BAGHDAD: Despite the chaos and sectarian violence raging across Baghdad, Farouq Mansour felt relatively safe as a Christian living in a multiethnic neighborhood in the capital.

Then, two months ago, al-Qaida gunmen kidnapped him and demanded his family convert to Islam or pay a US$30,000 ransom. Two weeks later, he paid up, was released and immediately fled to Syria, joining a mass exodus of Iraq’s increasingly threatened Christian minority.

“There is no future for us in Iraq,” Mansour said.

Though Islamic extremists have targeted Iraqi Christians before, bombing churches and threatening religious leaders, the latest attacks have taken on a far more personal tone, with many Christians being expelled from their homes and forced to leave their possessions behind, police, human rights groups and residents said.

The Christian community here, about 3 percent of the country’s 26 million people, is particularly vulnerable. It has little political or military clout to defend itself, and some Islamic insurgents view it as a fifth column —” calling Christians “Crusaders” —” whose real loyalty lies with the U.S. troops they are fighting.

Many churches are now nearly empty during religious services, with much of their flock either gone or too scared to attend. Only about 30 people sat scattered among the pews at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the relatively safe Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah during this week’s Sunday Mass. About two dozen worshippers took communion in the barren St. Mary’s Church in the northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday…

After I had read that article, I came across an article on church closings at the Buffalo News. In Under canon law, Catholic parishes rarely ‘close’ I found the following:

Closing a parish is a rare and rather involved legal process that extends all the way to the Vatican.

…

—No parish is really ever closed unless there are no Catholics left there,— said Litwin. —In reality, what seem to be closings are not really closings. You’re closing buildings perhaps, but you’re merging parish boundaries.—

The Vatican clarified the issue last summer in a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in which Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, a high-ranking prelate, wrote: —Only with great difficulty can one say that a parish becomes extinct.—

—A parish is extinguished by the law itself only if no Catholic community any longer exists in its territory, or if no pastoral activity has taken place for a hundred years,— Hoyos wrote, according to the Catholic News Service…

President Bush has done quite the job in ridding Iraq of Christians. By 2108 the Canons regarding church closings will become operative. No Christians, no pastoral activity, no churches in Iraq.

Mr. Bush is the real problem, not the jihadists pushing dhimmitude, who in reality have been given license to run rampant under the ‘government, we don’t need no stinkin’ government’ situation in Iraq.

I would say, beyond much doubt, that President Bush considers the Christians of the Middle East anything but Christians, maybe dogs, but certainly not Christians.

You see, our President is firmly aligned with the Evangelicals whose rhetoric, practice, and belief, denies the fact that anyone of the ‘catholic’ persuasion is a Christian at all.

  • Christians in Lebanon – nope.
  • Christians in Iraq – nope
  • The Orthodox, Romans, Orientals – who dat.
  • Christians in Israel – just those awaiting the rapture

Mr. Bush, pay attention to scripture. A house divided and all…

You are working against these ancient communities of faith, and the responsibility for their fall lies at your feet. You’ve just about accomplished what the Roman Emperors, the Hun, the Horde, the Sultans, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Kim Jong-il, all combined couldn’t accomplish. You’ve just about rid a huge chunk of the earth of Christianity.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, ,

To our Armenian brothers and sisters

We stand with you today and always. Once the truth is acknowledged we can truly say: Never again!

The Young Fogey sums it all up in 92 Years ago.

Armenian genocide chain poster

Guard me, O Christ my God, in peace
Under the shadow of your holy and venerable cross.
Deliver me from the visible and invisible enemy.
Make me worthy to give you thanks and glorify you
together with the Father and the Holy Spirit now
and always. Amen.

— From the Divine liturgy of the Armenian Church

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Publish a Bible – you die

At least that’s the way it is in Turkey – the long time EU aspirant, that touts its facade of democracy and its religious freedom, but does nothing to engender those values in its people or national consciousness. From the LA Times and elsewhere: 3 killed in attack on Bible publisher in Turkey:

Five youths — all with notes that say, ‘They are attacking our religion’ — are held at the scene.

ISTANBUL, Turkey — In a gruesome attack that sent shockwaves through Turkey’s tiny Christian community, assailants Wednesday slit the throats of three men at a publishing house that distributes Bibles and other Christian literature.

Five youths were detained at the scene in the conservative eastern city of Malatya, Turkish authorities said. One news report said the suspects carried notes indicating their motive was right-wing nationalism.

Turkey’s sometimes hostile stance toward its own religious and ethnic minorities has been a persistent source of concern to Western governments as the country presses ahead with its campaign for European Union membership.

Although the government officially preaches tolerance, it historically has failed to rein in virulent ultra nationalist groups. Authorities were accused of ignoring repeated death threats against Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian newspaper editor who was gunned down outside his offices in Istanbul in January. Prosecutors later said a teenager confessed to the shooting.

At the Zirve publishing house in Malatya’s city center, police discovered the three victims bound hand and foot and tied to chairs with their throats cut. Two were dead; the third died later at a hospital…

And speaking of freedom, the Young Fogey points to an article on our country’s efforts in Iraq and how our “Christian” President has brought pain and suffering to the Christians of Iraq.

From Asia News: Islamic group in Baghdad: —Get rid of the cross or we will burn your Churches—.

In the Dora quarter threats continue to be made against Christians. In the last two months Christian parishes have been forced to give in to extremist pressure, only the Church of Sts Peter and Paul has withstood so far. A fatwa forbids the practice of Christian ritual gestures.

—Get rid of the cross or we will burn your Churches—. This is the threat aimed at the Chaldean Church of Sts Peter and Paul, located in the ancient Christian quarter of Baghdad, Dora. Local sources say an unknown armed Islamic group is behind the threats which are inseminating terror in the capital. The Arab website Ankawa.com and Aina news agency speak of a campaign of persecution in act in the area. Even Mosul, a Sunni stronghold, the Christian presence is being gravely threatened.

Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, Chaldean auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, tells AsiaNews —in the last 2 months many Churches have been forced to remove their crosses from their domes—. In the case of the Church of St. George, assira, Muslim extremists took the situation into their own hands: they climbed onto the roof and ripped out the cross…

Well maybe they’re just not his kind of Christians…

The Young Fogey also points to the following LRC Commentary: Does Anybody Care About the Christian Arabs?

Short answer, NO!

If you are a Christian in the Middle East, whether in Israel or the Muslim lands, you may not practice your religion.

Any Christians proselytizing Jews or Muslims in Israel proper? Nope, forbidden.

Anyone reading bibles, wearing crosses, or praying in public in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt? Nope, forbidden.

Have a Church and want to keep it, sorry, forbidden – it is being converted into a mosque (most especially in Turkey and the Turkish controlled areas of Cyprus.

Israel – allies and friends? Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey – partners? Iraq – bastion of freedom and democracy?

Current Events, Perspective,

…and the proposed solutions would be wrong

All over the place, but this from Reuters: Gunman kills 32, self, in worst U.S. college massacre.

Gun control, people control,
parent beratting, immigrant rating,
liberal baiting, education failing,
fault of religion …or not.

If and until we all come to the conclusion that it is indeed the fault of each and every one of us, that it is our weakness and the dispossesion with which we regard each other that lies at the heart of such crimes, there will be no end in sight.

Our only hope lies in One who sees past what we are to what we can be.

Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest.
Grant healing to all those affected.
Fill our hearts with contrition.
Have mercy on us in our sinfulness.
Do not delay any longer.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Media, Perspective,

Imus, Ima, Imum

A little Lingua Latina humor from my college days.

Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, fire every shock jock, talking head, conservative, liberal, doctor, or anyone with an opinion from every radio and television station. These people make my skin crawl.

People who listen to them fall into two categories.

  1. Those who need affirmation in their beliefs.
  2. Those who are looking to have their empty heads filled with something.

I grew-up listening to WKBW-AM radio in Buffalo. These guys had enough broadcasting wattage to reach Virginia. They had music, family safe humor, the news and weather. That’s what radio should be, even AM radio.

But its come to this, the airwaves filled with mindless blather by people who like to hear themselves talk – and get paid a lot for it. Need ratings? Blather. Need more ratings, insult someone.

On the Imus issue I found Al Roker’s commentary on the issue to be not all that enlightening – what else could he say – but I did find the com-boxes disturbing.

Why?

Because many of them touted out the old lines: “I’m not a racist but…” ; “I love you but…” ; “What he said is wrong, and I’m no racist, but…” ; “I have a lot of black friends, but…”

Everyone needed to couch their language and their commentary just in case someone might think ill of them.

I’d ask everyone there, everyone with a comment, how do you live? What do you do in your day to day in dealings with people? Are you fair, honest, and trustworthy? Do you treat everyone with dignity? Are you so unsure of your own actions and lifestyle as to apologize before you even begin talking?

It’s time to take a step back.

Live a life that exhibits dignity, and treat people with human dignity. That DOES NOT mean you have to agree with their lifestyle choices, or in any way support what they believe in. It simply means that you must accept and preserve their humanity before all people. It means that you see yourself in them, in their eyes, in their souls regardless of color, creed, orientation, or membership in a terrorist organization.

Yep, even the ‘bad guys.’ We torture them, we torture ourselves.

Folks like Mr. Imus never got that. No one has dignity, not his peeps, not even the reflection he sees in the mirror. That’s the sad part. No firing will fix that. Only grace can fix that.

God help us to see the humanity of all our brothers and sisters. Help us to see your reflection in them.

Current Events, Media, Political,

Dancing with the… political humor?

Ok, I don’t really watch much TV at all. I’ll watch the local news from time to time. Living in the state capital makes for some interesting news. That being said, my wife and I are big fans of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

I have my favorites and I cast my votes, but that’s not what this post is about.

Tonight, Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron made a hilarious comment – and I caught the subtle message therein. He was doing the whole bit on making sure you vote for your favorites when he said (I’m paraphrasing):

With what’s going on in the world you feel as if your vote doesn’t count, as if no one’s listening? Well we listen to you, cast your vote.

The sad part is that he’s right. The majority of American want out troops home, and actually voted that way. But, let’s see, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran next! Yep, I’d agree. Only Dancing with the Stars and American Idol listen. At least Edyta is still dancing and Melinda is still singing.

Current Events, Political

What happened to the love?

A question President Bush is certainly asking today.

Mr. Bush and King Abdullah lovefest

Recall the not too distant past, with the King of Saudi Arabia visiting Mr. Bush at his Texas ranch. There were handshakes, hugs, goodwill all around. They probably had a love fest in Mr. Bush’s oil filled jacuzzi. Well, it appears the love is gone.

From the Voice of America: US ‘Surprised’ by Saudi Comments on American Role in Iraq

The Bush administration Thursday expressed surprise, and said it was seeking clarification, over remarks by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah at the Arab League summit that the United States role in Iraq was an “illegal foreign occupation…”

Of course our being in Iraq, and totally distant to the persecution their Sunni co-religionists are experiencing, would tick off the Saudis. In addition, the Saudis certainly see the coming conflagration involving Iran. They know that they will be on the receiving end of a boatload of hurt in a region-wide war.

Let’s see how long it takes for Mr. Bush (at the urging of his family) to pull out from Iraq. Their historical ties to the House of Saud should seal the deal. Unfortunately, the family is dealing with the stubborn, intractable son.

$10 a gallon anyone?

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