2015
#BreakingNews Yemen Death toll at 600 by Extremists - Please PRAY
Yemeni death toll rises. Al Qaeda promises gold to whoever kills the Shiite leaders Asia News Report:by Paul Dakiki
Since the beginning of the conflict, there are more than 600 dead and over 2,200 injured. No electricity, water or medicines. Paramedics killed while on duty. Afghan Islamists ready to invade Yemen with "thousands" of fighters.
Beirut (AsiaNews) - The death toll in the war launched by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies against the Houthi rebels in Yemen continues to climb. And while the Saudis and the Emirates are trying to polarize the UN against the rebels, even al Qaeda is becoming an "ally" promising 20 kg of gold to whoever kills the leaders of the Shiite uprising.
Last night the World Health Organization stated that the number of those killed from March 26 to date is 643 with 2226 injured. The continuous bombing of Sana'a, Aden and near the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb by the coalition led by Riyadh has created a new wave of refugees: at least 334 thousand are displaced within the country; almost 255 thousand have fled abroad.
The WHO states that ""The humanitarian situation is critical, with power cuts and water and fuel shortages further deteriorating... the situation”. Attacks on healthcare workers and health facilities have also been reported. Since March 30 three volunteer ambulance workers have been shot and killed while on duty.
Yesterday in Aden, for the first time since the beginning of the clashes, the NGO Doctors Without Borders has managed to get 2.5 tons of medical supplies. A Red Cross vessel, with material and medical staff is instead stuck in port because of the fighting. Yesterday the Houthis bombed the center of Aden from the hills around, causing 22 dead and 70 wounded among the civilian population.
The operation "Firmness Storm " was launched at the request of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, ousted by Houthi groups demanding a greater share of power. So far, the operation involves air strikes, but does not exclude a ground war.
Two days ago, the Gulf monarchies proposed a UN Security Council resolution that imposes sanctions against the rebel leaders, Abdel Malek al-Houthi and the son of former president, Ahmad Ali Abdallah Saleh.
In the past, the Saudis had fought fundamentalist groups like al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula supporting Saleh. Today, al Qaeda appears an unlikely "ally" of the Saudis. Yesterday the terrorist group reportedly promised 20 kg of gold to anyone who "kills or captures" Iranian- Shiite backed al-Houthi or Saleh.
The intra-Yemeni conflict has become a theater of war between the two regional powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, Sunnis and Shiites, forcing the countries in the area to take a stand and take sides. In addition to the Gulf monarchies, the Arab coalition is supported by Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan. Also yesterday armed Islamists with Hezb-e-Islam, in Afghanistan, proposed sending "thousands" of fighters in Yemen to support the Sunni coalition.
The conflict is even causing even deeper division among the Lebanese parliament and parties with Hezbollah who defend the Houthis and Hariri's party who have taken the defense of Saudi Arabia.
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Latest News #Vatican Info Service and #PopeFrancis
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09-04-2015 - Year XXII - Num. 067
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Summary (Image source Vatican.va) | |||||||||||||
| - Francis receives the president of the Slovak Republic, 25 years after the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Holy See | |||||||||||||
| - The Holy Father addresses the Patriarchal Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church | |||||||||||||
| - Presentation of the Holy See pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale | |||||||||||||
- Audiences
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| Francis receives the president of the Slovak Republic, 25 years after the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Holy See Vatican City, 9 April 2015 (VIS) – This morning the Holy Father Francis received in audience, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the president of the Slovak Republic, Andrej Kiska, who subsequently met with Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, Under-Secretary for Relations with States, in the Secretariat of State. During the cordial discussions, which took place shortly before the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the then Czech and Slovak Federative Republic on 19 April 1990 following St. John Paul II’s visit to the country, satisfaction was expressed for the good bilateral relations sealed by the Agreements in force and by the fruitful dialogue between the Church and the civil authorities. The Parties then turned their attention to the current International context, with particular attention to the challenges affecting certain areas of the world, especially the Middle East, and the importance of the protection of the dignity of the human person. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Holy Father addresses the Patriarchal Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church Vatican City, 9 April 2015 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis received in audience twenty bishops of the Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church, who will attend next Sunday's Holy Mass to be celebrated for faithful of Armenian rite in St. Peter's Basilica, during which St. Gregory of Narek will be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. In the discourse he addressed to the bishops, the Holy Father remarked that on Sunday they will “raise a prayer of Christian intercession for the sons and daughters of your beloved people, who were made victims a hundred years ago”, and invoked Divine Mercy “so that it might help all, in the love for truth and justice, to heal every wound and to expedite concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace between the nations that still have not managed to reach a reasonable consensus on the interpretation of these sad events”. Francis greeted all the clergy and lay faithful of the Armenian Catholic Church, many of whom have accompanied the bishops to Rome in these days, as well as “those who live in the countries of the diaspora, such as the United States, Latin America, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, up to the Motherland”. He added, “I think with particular sadness of those areas, such as that of Aleppo, that a hundred years ago were a safe haven for the few survivors. In such regions the stability of Christians, not only Armenians, has latterly been placed in danger”. “Your people, whom tradition recognises as the first to convert to Christianity in 301, has a two thousand-year history and preserves an admirable patrimony of spirituality and culture, united with a capacity for recovery amid the many persecutions and trials to which it has been subjected. I invite you always to cultivate a sentiment of acknowledgement of the Lord, for having been capable of maintaining fidelity to Him even during the most difficult periods. It is important, furthermore, to ask of God the gift of wisdom of the heart: the commemoration of the victims of a hundred years ago indeed places us before the darkness of the mysterium iniquitatis”. “As the Gospel tells us, from the depths of the human heart there may emerge the darkest powers, capable of planning the systematic annihilation of one's brother, of considering him an enemy, an adversary, or even without the same human dignity”, he observed. “But for believers the issue of the evil committed by man also introduces the mystery of participation in the redemptive Passion: a number of sons and daughters of the Armenian nation were capable of pronouncing Christ's name to the point of shedding their blood or of death by starvation during the interminable exodus they were forced to undertake”. “The painful pages in the history of your people continue, in a certain sense, the Passion of Christ, but in each one of these there is also the germ of the Resurrection. There is no lack of commitment among you, Pastors, to the education of the lay faithful to enable them to interpret reality with new eyes, in order to be able to say every day: my people consists not only of those who suffer for Christ, but above all of those who are risen in Him. Therefore it is important to remember the past, in order to draw from it the new lymph needed to nurture the present with the glorious announcement of the Gospel and with the witness of charity. I encourage you to support the path of continuing formation of priests and consecrated persons. They are your first collaborators; the communion between them and you will be strengthened by the exemplary fraternity they may observe in the Synod and with the Patriarch”. The Pope expressed his gratitude to those who made efforts to alleviate the sufferings of their ancestors, making special reference to Pope Benedict XV “who intervened before the Sultan Mehmet V to bring an end to the massacre of the Armenians”, and who was “a great friend of the Christian Orient: he established the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and in 1920 he inscribed St. Ephrem the Syrian among the Doctors of the Universal Church”. Francis continued, “I am pleased that our meeting takes place on the eve of the same gesture I will have the pleasure of performing on Sundayregarding the great figure of St. Gregory of Narek”. “To his intercession, I entrust in particular the ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Armenian Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church, aware of the fact that the 'ecumenism of blood' has already been achieved through the martyrdom and persecution that took place one hundred years ago”, he concluded. “I now invoke the Lord's blessing upon you and your faithful, and I ask you not to forget to pray for me”. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Presentation of the Holy See pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale Vatican City, 9 April 2015 (VIS) - “In the beginning … the Word became Flesh” is the name of the Holy See's pavilion at the upcoming 56th Venice Biennale of Art (9 May to 22 November 2015), which was presented this morning by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and commissioner of the Pavilion, along with Paolo Baratta, president of the Biennale and Micol Forte, curator of the Vatican Museums Collection of Contemporary Art and of the pavilion. During the press conference, held in the Holy See Press Office, Cardinal Ravasi explained that, continuing from the theme of the Holy See's first contribution to the 2013 Venice Biennale, the 2015 pavilion will see to re-establish the dialogue between art and faith and the need to examine, especially at an international level, the relationship between the Church and contemporary art. “Continuing from the first edition, the Holy See pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennale will develop the theme of the 'Beginning', with an itinerary leading from the Old to the New Testament, making 'logos' and 'flesh' the terms of a relationship constantly in progress”. “The reference to Genesis, understood as Creation, De-Creation, Re-Creation, in 2013 constituted the object of a reflection that is now further developed in the Prologue of the Gospel of John. In this latter, two essential poles are highlighted: the transcendent Word that is 'in the Beginning', and at the same time, reveals the dialogical and communicational nature of the God of Jesus Christ; and the Word that becomes 'flesh', body, bringing the presence of God into the essence of humanity, especially where it appears to be wounded and suffering. The 'vertical-transcendent' dimension and the 'horizontal-immanent' dimension of flesh thus constitute in this sense the axes of research. It is necessary to refer to these axes – and their intersection – to understand the individual works and the dialogue that is interwoven between them within the exhibition space. Micol Forti presented the works and artists represented in the Pavilion, remarking that the “indissoluble bond between 'logos' and 'flesh' produces a dialectic dynamism … that inspires, in artists as well as in the public, reflection on the binomial that is at the root of humanity. The three artists, all young, of differing provenance, experience, ethical and aesthetic vision, have been required to flesh out the idea evoked in the Prologue of the Gospel of John”. They include the Colombian Monika Bravo who, Forti explained, “has developed a narrative, deconstructed and recomposed on six screens and the same number of transparent panels, positioned on strongly coloured walls. In each composition, Nature, the Word (written and spoken) and artistic abstraction are presented as active elements of heuristic vision, open to a margin of experimental indeterminacy in the development of a new perceptive space and sensory fullness”. The Macedonian Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva has designed a “monumental, architectural installation, whose 'fabric', almost a sort of skin or mantle, welcomes the visitor in a dimension that is simultaneously physical and symbolic. [The work is] made of organic waste material, in a journey from 'ready-made' to 're-made'”. Forti continued, “Flesh transforms into history in the reality offered without falsification” by the photographer Mario Macilau, from Mozambique. The series of nine black and white photographs taken in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, depicts the street children who at a young age are compelled to face life in terms of survival. “It is not a photo-reportage, but rather a poetic work that reverses the connections between now and before, near and far, the visible and what cannot be seen”. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Audiences Vatican City, 9 April 2015 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father received in audience: - Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secreteriat for the Economy; - Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, archbishop of Perugia - Citta della Pieve, Italy; - Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, apostolic nuncio in Australia; - Msgr. Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”.
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Today's Mass Readings : Thursday April 9, 2015
Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Lectionary: 264
Reading 1ACTS 3:11-26
As the crippled man who had been cured clung to Peter and John,
all the people hurried in amazement toward them
in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,
“You children of Israel, why are you amazed at this,
and why do you look so intently at us
as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence,
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers and sisters,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration
of which God spoke through the mouth
of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said:
A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.
“Moreover, all the prophets who spoke,
from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors
when he said to Abraham,
In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you
by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
all the people hurried in amazement toward them
in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.”
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people,
“You children of Israel, why are you amazed at this,
and why do you look so intently at us
as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence,
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.
Now I know, brothers and sisters,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration
of which God spoke through the mouth
of his holy prophets from of old.
For Moses said:
A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.
“Moreover, all the prophets who spoke,
from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days.
You are the children of the prophets
and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors
when he said to Abraham,
In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you
by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
Responsorial PsalmPS 8:2AB AND 5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
or:
R. Alleluia.
O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
or:
R. Alleluia.
AlleluiaPS 118:24
R. Alleluia, alleluia.This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 24:35-48
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
Saint April 9 : St. Mary Cleophas : Mother of St. James the Less
MOTHER OF ST. JAMES THE LESS AND JOSEPH
Feast: April 9
Information:
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This title occurs only in John, xix, 25. A comparison of the lists of those who stood at the foot of the cross would seem to identify her with Mary, the mother of James the Less and Joseph (Mark 15:40; cf. Matthew 27:56). Some have indeed tried to identify her with the Salome of Mark, xv, 40, but St. John's reticence concerning himself and his relatives seems conclusive against this (cf. John 21:2). In the narratives of the Resurrection she is named "Mary of James"; (Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10) and "the other Mary" (Matthew 27:61; 28:1). The title of "Mary of James" is obscure. If it stood alone, we should feel inclined to render it "wife of (or sister of) James", but the recurrence of the expression "Mary the mother of James and Joseph" compels us to render it in the same way when we only read "Mary of James". Her relationship to the Blessed Virgin is obscure. James is termed "of Alpheus", i.e. presumably "son of Alpheus". St. Jerome would identify this Alpheus with Cleophas who, according to Hegesippus, was brother to St. Joseph (Hist. eccl., III, xi). In this case Mary of Cleophas, or Alpheus, would be the sister-in-law of the Blessed Virgin, and the term "sister", adelphe, in John, xix, 25, would cover this. But there are grave difficulties in the way of this identification of Alpheus and Cleophas. In the first place, St. Luke, who speaks of Cleophas (xxiv, 18), also speaks of Alpheus (6:15; Acts 1:13). We may question whether he would have been guilty of such a confused use of names, had they both referred to the same person. Again, while Alphas is the equivalent of the Aramaic, it is not easy to see how the Greek form of this became Cleophas, or more correctly Clopas. More probably it is a shortened form of Cleopatros.
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source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmarycleophas.asp#ixzz1ratqr0YW
RIP Cardinal Turcotte of Montreal age 78 "...he had Jesus Christ in his bones,"
Official STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA ON THE DEATH OF CARDINAL TURCOTTE Ottawa, Ontario 8 April 2015
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement after learning of the death of His Eminence, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte: “I was saddened to hear of the passing of His Eminence, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, Archbishop Emeritus of Montreal. “His Eminence was a man of deep principle and service who lived his life according to the Catholic faith. Over a lifetime, his ministering helped thousands including the homeless and the poor, which is why he became known as ‘the people’s priest’ and a shepherd to the people of Montreal. “Cardinal Turcotte was a priest for 56 years, a bishop for 33 years and a principal advisor to the Pontiff as a Cardinal for 21 years. His Eminence was a former President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and he was a member of the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and Pope Francis in 2013. “Cardinal Turcotte dedicated his life to the Catholic Church and will be remembered for years to come for his compassion, humility, and leadership.”
Free Catholic Movie : "Les Miserables" : Stars Anthony Perkins
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