Iraq’s Way of the Cross: “We appeal with sadness and pain to save these innocent persons from death”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The situation grows worse with every passing day. From our regional director at CNEWA: Early this morning, we learned that the fighters of ISIS (the Islamic State) have conquered all the Christian villages around Mosul in the Nineveh Plain — namely Qaraqosh, Talkeif, Tel Eskof, Qaramlesh, Bartella and Al Qosh. I talked to Archbishop Yohanna Boutros Moshe of Mosul, whose eparchy includes these ancient Christian villages, and he informed me that tens of thousands of Christians left their homes in... Read more

Deacon’s wife makes history: Loretta Rush named first woman to head Indiana Supreme Court

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Details: History was made Wednesday in Indiana when the first woman was named to head the state Supreme Court. Loretta Rush, 56, the newest and only female member of the state Supreme Court, will replace Brent Dickson, a 28-year court veteran who has served as chief justice since 2012. A transition date has not been set, but Dickson said the handoff likely will occur later this month. When Rush begins her new duties, she will join 19 other women heading... Read more

Report from Iraq: families throwing children from a mountain to keep them from terrorists

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:26 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The nightmare that is Iraq gets worse. This was just posted at the CNEWA blog: This report was sent to us by Ms. Christina Patto, VP Assyrian Aid Society of Iraq. Here what she wrote: Here is our report and some of our testimony concerning the events happening now in North of Iraq. It is a tragic situation, nobody can imagine how terrible it is, as much as I write to you and send you reports it will not be... Read more

Spain hopes to bring home priest who has Ebola, making him first patient treated in Europe

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From NBC News: Spain is arranging to retrieve a Catholic priest who has tested positive for Ebola in West Africa, which would make him the first patient in the outbreak to be treated in Europe, health officials said Wednesday. Liberia closed the hospital in its capital city, Monrovia, where the priest and seven hospital staff contracted Ebola. The World Health Organization said that the total number of cases in the outbreak, the worst on record, had grown to more than... Read more

Francis remembers Paul

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From the CNS blog this morning: Holding his weekly general audience today in the Vatican’s air-conditioned Paul VI audience hall, Pope Francis reminded people that today is the 36th anniversary of the death of the pope who commissioned the hall. Pope Paul VI died Aug. 6, 1978, at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo. He was 80 years old. “I remember him with affection and admiration, given how he lived a life totally dedicated to serving the church, which... Read more

Oklahoma City archbishop on Black Mass: “This Satanic ritual is deadly serious”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Details: Archbishop Paul Coakley is calling for a Catholic campaign of prayer to oppose a satanist’s plans for a “Black Mass” at Civic Center Music Hall. In an open letter released Tuesday, Coakley said there had been no indication Oklahoma City officials would block the event “in spite of repeated requests.” The archbishop wrote that he was asking Catholic churches to conclude each Mass between Wednesday and Sept. 29 with the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, who according to... Read more

When a parish refuses to do a funeral

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The following email arrived yesterday afternoon: I just had a disturbing conversation with a co-worker whose sister passed away a few days ago, and when the family tried to arrange her funeral, they were refused by a local parish because the sister wasn’t registered there. The sister had been sick with cancer for several years and had not been attending mass at any parish where she lived , so the family was trying to arrange the funeral at the parish they... Read more

“The Latin Mass appears to be alive and well”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

That’s the assessment from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: When Pope Francis was first elected, he appeared to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square without the short, red velvet cape known as a mozzetta. Some Roman Catholics immediately cried foul, worried that the pope’s decision to forgo the more formal wear signaled a threat to traditional Catholic worship. Specifically, they fretted over the fate of the old Latin Mass, now in the hands of a papacy that seemed to shrug off... Read more

Must-see video: “How to Dad,” a great new ad from Cheerios

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Smart, funny and utterly winning. One blogger writes: It is well shot and the guy playing the dad is fantastic. Also, it is funny without being condescending, and that is hard. So often, humor in commercials is at the expense of someone. These diapers are so simple even these stumbling dads can handle them! Dad can’t control his kids, but this cereal can! In this commercial, everyone comes from a place of strength, even if it is silly strength at times.... Read more

Bishop calls for fasting, prayer in battle against Black Mass—UPDATED

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:53 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa has issued a letter to his flock: As has been widely reported, a Satanic Black Mass has been scheduled for September 21 in Oklahoma City’s Civic Center. As a part of Satanic worship, a Black Mass attempts to invert the action and meaning of the Eucharist in order to mock Christ’s sacrifice and worship Satan through an orgiastic ritual of pain and perversion. It blasphemes everything which we hold as sacred and redemptive; and the... Read more