Murder of a Russian Orthodox Priest

mosnews.com reported:

Moscow region authorities are continuing their investigation related to the brutal torture and murder of Archimandrite Herman, the abbot of the Voznesenskaya Davydova Pustyn monastery, 85 km from the Russian capital. The priest was found dead in his cell in the monastery on July 26.

His body was tied up, and, according to law enforcement officials, it appeared that Father Herman had been tortured before he was murdered. For reasons yet unclear to the investigation, it took fellow monks two hours to notify the authorities after they found the body around 2:20 p.m., the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the latest police findings, the abbotÂ’s murderers took $200,000 in cash from a safe box in his room. They didn't bother to check his desk drawer, though, missing an additional $5,000 that detectives found later.

Read more...

It was obviously about money. I wonder if he was a target too, or he just happened to be at the monastery at the time of robbery.
 

Nuns Really Rock

 
Basque news and Information Channel, eitb24, reported:

Every year, thousands of members of PETA , (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), send postcards from all over the world to the Misericordia in Pamplona/Iruña, organizer of the bullfights, protesting against the bull running and bullfights.

The nuns living at the Misericordia take the stamps from the postcards, recycle them and sell them to collectors to finance Catholic missions in the underdeveloped world.
...
The funds raised have helped build two water wells, one in Cameroon and one in India.

Read more...

Yep, those are the Catholic nuns. They ROCK.
 

Evolution and Creationism

 
The Christian Post reported:

Catholics can believe in evolution just as long as God's involvement is acknowledged, according to some top Catholic leaders.

Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick, told reporters at the National Press Club last week a contemporary Catholic "need not say that creationism is the only answer -- that in six days or seven days, God made the world," according to the Associated Press.

Creationism is the literal, biblical account of God creating man and the universe in six days.

McCarrick said this concept of "theistic evolution" agreeing with Darwin's evolutionary theory, given that one accepts God's guidance in the process -- was the view of the late Pope John Paul II.

Read more...

Two thumbs up to Cardinal McCarrick. I don't see any conflict between evolution and creationism in his explanation.
 

A Catholic Bishop Killed In Kenya

The Associated Press reports:

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI was "deeply saddened" by the killing of a Roman Catholic bishop in Kenya this week and expressed hope the prelate's death would "hasten the dawn" of peace and reconciliation in the African country, the Vatican said Saturday.

Bishop Luigi Locati was shot to death Thursday night as he walked with a guard to his house from a dining hall for Catholic clergy in Isiolo, where he was based, about 125 miles northeast of Kenyan capital Nairobi. He was 76.
[...]
Kenyan police had detained two people for questioning in the killing and said they were investigating attempted robbery as a possible motive. The Catholic Information Service for Africa reported Friday that Locati had escaped two other attempts on his life during his tenure in the remote area of central Kenya.

Benedict said the bishop had a noble soul and praised the "advancement of human dignity which characterized his priestly and episcopal ministry."

Read more...

May his soul rest in peace.

---

UPDATE Apr. 24, 2006
Yet another murder in Kenya. Catholic World News reports:

Apr. 24 (CWNews.com) - A Catholic priest of Kenya's Isiolo diocese has been killed, less than a year after the murder of the apostolic vicar of the same diocese.

Father Galgalo Boru was killed when robbers ambushed the car in which he was traveling. The robbers had apparently been waiting for the car, which was clearly marked as a vehicle belonging to the Catholic Church.

Father Angelo Ngugi, who served with the slain priest at a parish in Bulesa, was riding in the same car, but escaped by jumping out of the vehicle. At least one other passenger also escaped, while one man died alongside Father Boru. The survivor, Father Ngugi, said that all of the passengers had been robbed.

Read more...

R.I.P. Fr. Galgalo.

The Contact Lens and The Ant

 
I received this story from my cyber friend PebblePie:

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff.

In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took a hold on the rope, and started up the face of that rock Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens. Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there. Here she was, far from home, her sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to find it.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff. She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and from throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff.

One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it.

Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

I think it would probably do some of us good to occasionally say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

-- Josh and Karen Zarandona

OK God, I get it now.
 

An Answer From Book of Jonah

 
I have a special way to communicate with God. Whenever I need his opinion on a major issue, I pick up The Bible,ask the question in my head, then choose a random page to read from The Bible.

Today, I needed an important answer. Actually, I needed a lot of help from God. Here's what I got this time:

Book of Jonah - Chapter II

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish saying:

I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the nether world I cried, and you heard my voice.

You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.

Then I said, 'I'm driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?'

The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit.

O LORD my God.

As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you; into your holy temple.

Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty.

But I with the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to you what I vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD!"

Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

I guess I'm getting some help from him this time. I know the hard times will be over with very soon.
 

I Don't See a Problem Here

 
The Georgia Bulletin reported:

Desperation for monetary aid and security has forced churches in Iraq to accept help from the Kurdish regional government in the northern part of the country. But some Iraqi bishops are worried that taking money from Kurdish authorities will compromise their political neutrality and anger their Arab neighbors, an Iraqi priest told Catholic News Service...

Father Najib said that several months ago the regional Kurdish government was paying the salaries of bishops in northern Iraq as well as salaries of church staff, including gardeners, drivers and security guards. He said the bishops met and decided not to accept the stipend for themselves "because it's very dangerous to take salaries now from the Kurds."

Read more...

I don't see any problem in accepting financial help from the Kurdish regional government. The Kurds are as Iraqis as anyone else. So, accepting help from the Kurds shouldn't be viewed as a betrayal of the Arab neighbors.
 

Why God Created Children

 
I received this advise from my sister-in-law:

To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students...Here is something to make you chuckle.

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was "DON'T!"

"Don't what?" Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve...We have forbidden fruit!!!!!"

"No Way!"

"Yes, way!"

"Do NOT eat the fruit!" said God.

"Why"

"Because I am your Father and I said so!" God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants. A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!

"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

"Then why did you?" said the Father.

"I don't know," said Eve.

"She started it!" Adam said

"Did not!"

"Did to!"

"DID NOT!"

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.


BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?


THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.


2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.


3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.


4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.


5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.


6. We child proofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY!
Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home.

AND FINALLY: IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:

"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"

A very good advise :-)
 

Faith and Science at The Vatican

Reuters reported:

CASTELGANDOLFO, Italy - Everyone knows the Vatican is interested in Heaven but it may come as a surprise to some that it is also interested in the heavens.
...
"The Vatican wants to show its appreciation for science," said Father Chris Corbally, a soft-spoken Jesuit from Britain who is the observatory's vice-director and dean of its international summer school.
...
Popes have been intertwined with astronomy for centuries.

The Inquisition condemned Galileo for insisting that the earth revolved around the sun. It was just one step in a tango between faith and science that still goes on today.
...
"These students come here because they want to learn more science," said Corbally.

"The whole environment of the place invites reflection. But we don't ask what their faith is, or if they have any. What we do ask is what quality of person they are, what enthusiasm they have, what is the promise of continuing in research careers in astronomy or in astrobiology," he said.

Read more...

This is so cool. I hope Iraqi students get the chance to participate in this program.
 

101 Inspirational Stories of the Rosary

 
Yesterday, I spent most of the day fixing my husband's computer. During one reboot of the computer, I picked up "101 Inspirational Stories of the Rosary"and read.

I believe in the power of the rosary. So, while reading one of the stories in the book, I said to myself, "I'll pray the rosary. It will help me find the problem with my husband's computer." Within minutes of this thought, I found the problem, and now it's running smoothly.

I reached St. Bernard's prayer to Mother Mary when I found the problem. Today, I'd like to share this prayer with you:

Mary, our Mother,
the whole world reveres you as the holiest shrine of the living God, for in you the salvation of the world dawned.

The Son of God was pleased to take human form from you.

You have broken down the wall of hatred,
the barrier between heaven and earth which was set us by the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

In you heaven met earth when divinity and humanity were joined in one person, the God-Man.

Mother of God, we sing your praises, but we must praise you even more.

Our speech is too feeble to honor you as we ought, for no tongue is eloquent enough to express your excellence.

Mary, most powerful, most holy, and worthy of all love.

Your name brings new life, and the thought of you inspires love in the hearts of those devoted to you.

Have a nice day everyone.