Clericus Cup tournament At The Vatican

Alessandra Tarantino/AP

Redemptoris Mater football team players, wearing yellow and blue, challenge for the ball with Pontificia Universita' Lateranense players during the final of Clericus Cup tournament, at the St.Peter's parish recreation sports center in Rome.


I'm a big fan of soccer. Seeing future clergymen playing it made me wish I attended the tournament. The students acted like normal players would act during the bad and good moments of a soccer game. The Guardian reports:

It was an event you might have hoped would inject a bit of spirituality back into the beautiful game, a football tournament for priests and seminarians played out in the shadow of St Peter's Basilica.

But passions run high, even under a dog collar, and when the referee whistled for a penalty in the second half of the Clericus cup final, tempers boiled over. Students from the Pontifical Lateran University squared up angrily to the hapless official, insisting that the Costa Rican striker for Redemptoris Mater college had dived in the box, and while the language was not as purple as it can be in the premiership, words were had.
[...]
The incident prompted a flurry of blue cards, invented for the tournament and used to dispatch players to a temporary "sin bin".

I'm actually glad the players acted normally. It's not the end of the world. Let them be themselves for a day. What's the big deal about it?

The Kidnapping of Fr. Nawzat P. Hanna

Another Chaldean priest was kidnapped in Baghdad yesterday. AsiaNews confirmed the news on its Web site:

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Yet another Chaldean priest was kidnapped this morning in Baghdad. He is Fr. Nawzat P. Hanna, parish priest of Mar Pithion, from the Baladiyat quarter. Confirmation of the abduction reached AsiaNews, via Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, Chaldean auxiliary bishop in the capital, who has invited Catholics to “pray for Fr. Nawzat’s immediate release”. The abductors have already made contact with the Chaldean Patriarchate, but as of yet there is no further news.

The priest was leaving the house of an ill parishioner, when he was stopped by a group of persons who had been waiting for him, says the bishop. Msgr. Warduni is convinced that a motive for ransom is behind the abduction, but among Baghdad’s faithful the rumour has spread that this morning’s sequester is in response to the Patriarch and bishops recent denouncements of persecution against the Christian community there. “By kidnapping another priest – anonymous sources tell AsiaNews – the terrorists kill two birds with one stone: they get rich and at the same time force the Patriarch to transfer him abroad, thus giving the whole community a very strong message”.

The forced exodus of Iraqi Christians from their homes, which started in Al-Dora distirct, has spread to other suburbs of Baghdad. A few days ago, a militant group burned St. Goerge Assyrian Church in Al-Dora district.

With all these rapid developments, we haven't heard a word from the Iraqi President or his Prime Minister. All is quiet at the Green Zone. It tells you how much those people are disconnected from reality on the ground.

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UPDATE May 23, 2007
Thank you Mister Ghost for sending me the following good news:

Baghdad (AsiaNews) –Chaledean priest Nawzat P. Hanna freed yesterday evening in Baghdad after three days of captivity carries the signs of having been beaten. Msgr Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary bishop of the capital’s Chaldean Catholic Church himself went to fetch the priest “in a certain part of the city” as he told AsiaNews today. His release took place at around 9.30 in the evening. “When he saw me – tells the prelate – Fr. Nawzat strongly embraced me, he was in tears and he was deeply tried; he then thanked all of those who had prayed for him in these days, The Virgin and the saint of his parish, Mar Pithion”.

I'm guessing he'll be transferred to Northern Iraq or asked to leave the country. Let's hope he recovers from this bad experience.

Is Your Christianity Better Than Mine?

I lived the first 28 years of my life in Iraq, then another six years in Australia. I never needed to pause and think about my religious affiliation. I was definitely a Christian. Period.

When I moved to the United States, I never knew I shouldn't call myself a Christian. I was told that I'm not a Christian. Instead, I'm a Catholic. Then, I realized that each American Christian domination calls itself a different name. There are Catholics, Baptists, Southern Baptists, Episcopalians, Mormons, etc... The list is very long. It gets even worse when some people try to preach Catholicism to me because I was born in the Middle East. In their opinion, it means I'm not Catholic enough.

This is so wrong. It's even more wrong when it's used in politics. Here's the latest:

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Leaders for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Rev. Al Sharpton are planning an in-person meeting, a church spokesman said.

Sharpton asked for the meeting during a telephone apology he gave to two church elders last week after he said during a debate that Mormons don't believe in God.
[...]

The Pentecostal minister and former Democratic presidential candidate's remarks were about Mitt Romney, a Mormon who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Sharpton said that "as for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that, that's a temporary situation."

Sharpton says the remark was distorted for political purposes and has apologized to "regular Mormons" for the slight. He later told a web site editors that he "wasn't saying that Mormons didn't believe in God, I was saying that we weren't going to have to rely on atheists" to defeat Romney.

My late father-in-law was a Mormon. So, I find Sharpton's remarks very wrong. I met Mormons during the last six years and none of them strikes me as "Godless person."

What's Sharpton's definition of a good Mormon? And what makes him think that Romney isn't a good Mormon? Sharpton isn't a Mormon. How can he decide who is or isn't a good Mormon?

Then, what does Sharpton mean by "we weren't going to have to rely on atheists."? Does that mean all Democrats are atheists? If no, then does that mean Barak Obama - my favorite candidate for the 2008 presidency - is a better candidate than the other Democrat candidates just because he's not afraid to talk about his faith during his campaign? I don't think so.

It's time to clear the clouded religious air in America. At times, it goes overboard for no good reason.

Chaldean Bishops Appeal To The Iraqi Politicians

Fay's NOTE: News from Iraq wasn't pleasant during the last two weeks. So, I took a week-long break from the news. I'm back with better energy.

In these last four years our Iraqi people have suffered and continue to suffer from threats, kidnappings, forced exile, attacks and killings which have provoked thousands of innocent victims and the total destruction of the Iraqi institutions and national infrastructure. All of this is a folly of human reason.

This is why we are urgently asking the entire international community, the participants at the Sharm el-Sheikh Conference, the coalition forces and the Iraqi political representatives to intervene without delay to protect innocent Iraqis, their property, their rights and their personal freedom. We also appeal to all of the religious authorities to let their voices be heard in the defence of the salvation of our country and its sons and daughters, so that the wonderful social fabric of our Iraqi society may be kept whole, because its loss would mean the disastrous destruction of an ancient cultural and religious civilisation.

We particularly ask that the threats, kidnappings and forced emigration of our Christians people is stopped and we affirm most strenuously that the Christians are authentic Iraqi people, one of the most ancient parts of the population. Christians have always sought to integrate themselves with their Arab, Kurd, Turk, Shiite, Sunni, Yezidi brothers, within the nations’ social life and have always had a most important role in the building of national historic values, decisively contributing to the destiny of Iraq through their peaceful way of life.

Moreover, we confirm the essential relationship between Christianity and Islam, as monotheistic religions through their teachings they both aim to spread Charity, the Common Good and Peace. God knows of our differences, which exists by his Divine will: “If Your Lord had wanted, he would have created all men as one nation” (Koran, Yonis, 99). We must accept his divine design and respect diversity, which makes of us one garden with different flowers, of which each one glorifies God the creator with his own perfume.

We believe that religion is a catalyst for peace and we are convinced that God reveals himself with great clarity in the practise of Peace, Justice, Mercy, Tolerance, Reconciliation and Forgiveness.

My brothers, enough with violence, threats, attacks and killings! Let us work together hand in hand to bring about Unity, Security and Prosperity in our land, Iraq.

Signed by a group of Chaldean Bishops.