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Here are some of the best images from Pope Benedict XVI's weekend trip to Lebanon, from Catholic News ServicePeople await the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI at Rafiq Hariri International Airport in Beirut Sept. 14 with a banner reading, "Have no fear, the Pope is here." (CNS photo/Paul Haring) A rosary formed of balloons floats above the crowd gathered for Pope Benedict XVI’s meeting with youth Sept. 15. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Benedict XVI attends a ceremony and signing of his apostolic exhortation on the Middle East at the Melkite Catholic Basilica of St. Paul Sept. 14. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via...

If you aren’t excited about this news story, you probably don’t understand it. This is big. This is huge. This is exciting! Have you been frustrated, over the years, with the political statements issued by the US bishops’ conference? If so, prepare for a welcome change. Have you wondered why the bishops never seem to listen to reasonable arguments by conservative Catholics? That’s about to change, too. When John Carr retired from the staff of the US bishops’ conference, after helping to shape the bishops’ statements on political issues for more then 25 years, we wondered whether his departure signaled...

The Obama campaign has launched a desperate new ad that it hopes will somehow turn around its poor standing with Catholic voters across the country who are turned off by the Obama administration’s pro-abortion attack on religious liberty.... In 2008 Barack Obama carried 54% of the Catholic vote. Today only 27% of Catholics support Obama, according to figures from the pro-life group American Life League.“Between August 15-19 of this year, American Life League commissioned a nationwide telephone survey of 900 self-identified Catholic registered voters. The focus of the survey was Catholic perspectives on the Church and nation. Below are some...

A ruptured pipe threatened to dampen Rosh Hashanah services on Long Island, but instead it brought neighbors of two faiths closer together. Synagogue leaders arrived at the Jewish Center of Island Park on Sunday to find the ground floor completely flooded. “The nipple of the pipe had burst, completely flooding about two-thirds of the way back through the building,” said Steve Gappelberg, a member of the center. “It was unusable.” ..Organizers turned to their neighbors at the Sacred Heart Church a block away to help them start off the new year right. “We spent the entire day moving 250 chairs,...

A Joliet-area priest reinstated last week after being removed from ministry over an allegation of sexual abuse has been withdrawn once again, Joliet Bishop R. Daniel Conlon confirmed today. Last week, parishioners learned that the Rev. F. Lee Ryan could minister to homebound parishioners of St. Edmund Catholic Church in Watseka, south of Kankakee, and St. Joseph Mission in Crescent City. He had been removed from ministry in May 2010 because of an alleged relationship with a teenager in the 1970s.

National Geographic‘s new issue exposes the ivory business, which has been hiding in plain sight since a worldwide trade ban was enacted in 1989. And a major player in the magazine’s story is a priest in the Philippines whom I wrote about in 2005 when investigating another global-trafficking phenomenon — the Catholic Church’s movement of sexual abuse suspects across international borders to escape justice. The priest, Monsignor Cristobal Garcia, is now quoted as explaining how to smuggle ivory into the United States: “Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it.”

Members of a national Catholic organization on Sunday demanded the resignation of Bishop Robert W. Finn, who was convicted this month of failing to report child sexual abuse.The National Survivor Advocates Coalition, which has its headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, held a news conference at Barney Allis Plaza in downtown Kansas City - in the shadow of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception - to make its demand."A criminally convicted bishop cannot lead. Bishop Finn must resign or be removed by Pope Benedict," said coalition chairwoman Kristine Ward. "Every hour he remains bishop revictimizes survivors and their families."

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest in Philadelphia who was previously cleared of inappropriate conduct has been suspended due to new allegations of sexual abuse, church officials said Monday. The accusations, which involve minors and date back about 30 years, first surfaced last spring, according to the archdiocese. The Associated Press is not naming the 56-year-old priest because he has not been criminally charged. He could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Today there is no god higher than Caesar, and Caesar has identified himself with the principle of individual choice and thus with the divinity of the individual will.Every functional society is based on a system of common understandings about man, the world, and the common good. Otherwise those who take part in it won’t be able to cooperate effectively in the network of complex, enduring, and sometimes very demanding undertakings through which they carry on the life of the society. Such understandings can exist even though they aren’t held by everyone, or in their entirety by many people at all....

Hopeful eyes look on as thousands of candles and the lighted crosses of a dozen tiny chapels dot the chilly nightscape at Krastova Gora, a holy site high up in Bulgaria's Rhodope mountains."I've had a stroke. That's why I came here. For help!" said Yanko Dimitrov, 65, one of the many who have come to the sacred site... But the big day is September 14 -- the Orthodox Christian feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. According to local legend, spending the night out here on the eve of the feast can do miracles and cure all illness. Mariana...

Mid-East Prophecy Update - September 16th 2012 Pastor J.D. provides a "Headline Timeline," so as to lay a foundation from which to paint the prophetic canvass with the broad brush of last weeks anti-American protests.

Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, That He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.Isaiah 30:18

Moscow, September 17, Interfax - Criminal charges have been brought against the man who poured ink over an icon at the Moscow Christ the Savior Cathedral, the city police department told Interfax. "A Central Administrative District police investigator initiated the opening a criminal case on counts of hooliganism (Russian Criminal Code Article 213) against the man who poured ink over an icon at the Christ the Savior Cathedral on Sunday," it said. The motion was sent to the prosecutor's office for approval. Man pours ink on icon in Cathedral of Christ the Savior

A sect of Gnostic Ebionites, whose religion was a wild medley of heathen superstitions and Christian doctrines with Judaism. Hippolytus (Philosophumena, IX, 13-17) tells us that under Callistus (217-222) a cunning individual called Alcibiades, a native of Apamea in Syria, came to Rome, bringing a book which he said had been received from Parthia by a just man named Elchasai (’Elchasaí; but Epiphanius has ’Elksaí and ’Elkessaîoi; Methodius, ’Elkesaîos, and Origen, ’Elkesaïtaí). The contents of the book had been revealed by an angel ninety-six miles high, sixteen miles broad, and twenty-four across the shoulders, whose footprints were fourteen miles long...

It’s been five years in the making and this morning the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Orlando, Florida will become Catholic.At a Mass of Reception at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, September 16, the Cathedral of the Incarnation, which was formerly associated with the Anglican Church of America, will become the Parish of Incarnation—joining about twenty other former Anglican or Episcopal congregations to be accepted in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, the personal ordinariate established as a home for Anglican converts to Catholicism in the US and Canada.Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop who now leads...

Pope Benedict XVI called for the unity of Christians in the Middle East during a visit Sunday to the summer residence of the Syriac Catholic Patriarch.The Syriac Catholic monastery in Charfet, north of Beirut, was the pope’s last stop prior to his departure, ending a three-day visit to Lebanon amid regional turmoil particularly in neighboring Syria.During a 30-minute meeting with Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan as well as patriarchs and bishops of non-Catholic denominations, the pope stressed the importance of Christian unity in the Middle East, urging Christians not to abandon their land.Patriarch Younan, who resides at the...

In December the Obama Administration pushed a UN resolution that banned criticism of Islam. The Obama Administration helped the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) push through their resolution condemning the stereotyping, negative profiling and stigmatization of people based on religion. Team Obama led the way for the resolution to pass through the General Assembly. Now the Iranian Regime is threatening to sue Barack Obama using that same blasphemy law. Press TV reported: A senior Iranian official says US President Barack Obama could face legal action in connection with the production of an anti-Islam movie by an American Jew. “A complaint...

Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That's a worrisome message for the nation's first African-American president, who can't afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race. The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ...

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. (Psalm 2:1-4)The events of this past few weeks have underscored for me again the message of the second Psalm. The heathen(Nations) do indeed rage, and the people are enflamed because of a vain imagination. We looked in the last post about the...

Pre-Prophecy Update - Thursday, September 13th, 2012 In this special prophecy update, pastor J.D. takes some time at a midweek Bible study to talk about the events ongoing this week in the Middle-East.