Free Republic

Recently, there has been an uprising of protests by Tibetan monks over China’s occupation of Tibet and the exile of the Dalai Lama. The protests are not done with signs and chanting but with self-immolation or the act of burning oneself alive. Richard Gere has praised the actions of the Buddhists monks calling them “a pure act.” Gere, a long-time Buddhist, says, “It all really comes down to motivation. I mean none of these self-immolators have harmed anybody else. It is totally a self-sacrifice for their people, for others. So on that level it’s a pure act. But I think...

An extraordinary brawl between clergymen broke out yesterday at the very site where Jesus is said to have been born. The annual cleaning of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem descended into a battle between the rival Christian denominations that share it. Brooms, fists and vicious insults flew in all directions between 100 priests and monks dressed in their traditional robes. The fight ended only after Palestinian police, bending their heads to squeeze through the church’s low ‘door of humility’, rushed in with batons to restore order. The row is believed to have begun after a clergyman of one...

Featured Term (selected at random):CLERICAL COMMUNITY The living and sharing together that the Church has traditionally favored and encouraged for men in the clerical state. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

They were dubbed the Millionaire Monks, a small monastic community in rural Wisconsin feted around the world for its wildly successful Internet business selling laser printer inks and toners. As recently as 2009, the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank was projecting annual sales of $3.5 million for its for-profit business, LaserMonks Inc. And their prior and chief executive officer, Father Bernard McCoy, was talking expansion - of both the company and the abbey. Today, the monks' 15,000-square-foot home on 500 acres in Sparta, Wis., is all but empty. They sold off their belongings - everything from furniture...

The Kennedys fought with the likes of Franklin Roosevelt, Jimmy Hoffa, and Robert Bork over the duration of thirteen presidential administrations. Now that no Kennedy holds political office in Washington, they're fighting each other. The family feud involves two iconic landmarks: the Kennedy Cape Cod compound and the John F. Kennedy Library overlooking Dorchester Bay. In Hyannis Port, Ted Kennedy's heirs prepare to transform the waterfront mansion the family has owned for 85 years into a retreat for thinkers and politicians contemplating public policy. The compound where early movie-mogul Joe Kennedy screened films for starlet Gloria Swanson, where the brood...

The discovery of the decapitated heads of seven French Trappist monks in Algeria in May 1996 shocked France and provoked a great outpouring of public emotion. Over 10,000 people gathered in Paris’s Place du Trocadéro to show their solidarity with the murdered monks. Earlier that year, in March, the monks had been abducted from the Tibhirine monastery in the Atlas mountains by a group of 20 armed men. For many, their decapitation also marked the climax of Algeria’s civil war between Islamist rebel groups and the Algerian government. The monks’ bodies were never found, which raised questions about who had...

A 'PRAYERFUL protest' outside the family planning clinic in Limerick by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal has been severely criticised by women across the country who rang RTE's Liveline yesterday, to voice their anger. The Franciscan Friars, who are known in Limerick as the Moyross Monks, staged a protest outside the Family Planning Clinic on Mallow Street on Saturday in a campaign against promiscuity. Siobhan, a young Limerick woman, who attended the clinic at the weekend rang Joe Duffy on Tuesday and said she had felt intimidated by their presence. She said one of the friars stared at her...

Praised be Jesus Christ" said the joyful voice of a monk on the other end of the line. Within minutes I heard another joyful voice, Fr. Daniel Mary of Jesus Crucified, the Prior of this burgeoning monastic community in Wyoming formally called "Carmel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary". I had another absolutely delightful conversation with this wonderful priest and spiritual father. ... The last time we spoke, Father shared the monk's hopes to build a new monastery to house their growing young community. The artist's rendering of the 144,000 square foot French Gothic style monastery alone can send one...

Featured Term (selected at random):OLIVETANS The Order or Our Lady of Mount Olivet, a branch of the Benedictines founded by St. Bernard Tolomei in 1313 at Mount Oliveto near Siena. They follow a strict interpretation of the Rule of St. benedict and for a time were total abstainers from wine. There are also Olivetan nuns, based in Switzerland. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

88 Monks, average age 47: "It is above all the Liturgy in the Gregorian Choir as well as our loyalty to the Pope and the Church's teachings", said P Karl Wallner. Vienna (kath.net/Cross Press) IN the Cistercian Monastery of Heiligenkreuz in the Vienna Wood, the number of Monks has risen to 88, which means a doubling in the last year, and the highest manpower in its almost 900 year history. The average age of the Monks is 47 years. "Such a wave of young people who want to participate in our life hasn't happened since the Middle Ages,' exclaimed P....

Under Louisiana law, it is a crime for anyone but a licensed funeral director to sell "funeral merchandise," which includes caskets. To sell caskets legally, the monks of Saint Joseph Abbey would have to abandon their calling for one full year to apprentice at a licensed funeral home, learn unnecessary skills and take a funeral industry test. They would also have to convert their monastery into a "funeral establishment" by, among other things, installing equipment for embalming human remains.

Perhaps you've seen the rotating ads on CMR promoting the Mystic Monk coffee. Well, they do more than roast beans. They are a newly-founded energetic community of contemplative Carmelites known as the Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel who are serious about what they do: "strict monastic enclosure, two hours of contemplative prayer daily, study and spiritual reading, and manual labor." While the community is currently still small (under 20) they are being inundated with vocation inquiries and are planning to build a new monastery on a striking site in Wyoming to be known as the...

Sometimes we need a little brevity in our day. It is my wish that you all will get a kick out of the creative way these high schools students give a great rendition of Halleluia! Silent Monks Singing Halleluia

Printer Friendly Format Nation Monks’ thriving coffee business helps attract young men to monastery By Sheila Archambault Posted: 11/16/2009 WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A small Carmelite monastery in Clark, Wyo., has seen its coffee sales take off in the last couple of years, and the growing awareness of its coffee business has brought an added benefit to the community -- more members. "In the past two years, the monks themselves have grown from six to 15 monks and all the new monks are under 25, some right out of high school," said Susie George, a neighbor of the monks who...

President Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) seems determined to go after a small Catholic college in North Carolina. Readers of First Things, the thoughtful journal founded by Rev. Richard Neuhaus, are familiar with the funny ads regularly run by Belmont Abbey. “Got Monks?” reads the white-on-black ad that encourages serious young Catholics to consider a college where the Benedictine monks seek God and where the students seek truth. But Obama’s EEOC obviously reads that ad as an invitation to “get the monks.” The EEOC’s district office in Charlotte, N.C., is demanding that Belmont Abbey cease and desist violating Title...

Many readers may be familiar with Laser Monks, the innovative and popular ministry of some Trappists out in Wisconsin. Now, the New York Times looks at the lay women who make that ministry hum: At the ringing of a bowl-shaped bell, five monks at a remote monastery congregated in the chapel here for the fourth of their seven daily rounds of prayer, their voices murmuring a Gregorian chant in Latin. At the same time, in a nearby house on the monastery’s property, the phone was ringing in a small office where two women and an office manager run a multimillion-dollar...

MOUNT ATHOS – When you see the summit of Athos emerge through the mist of the Aegean, stop the clocks. Because things are on another schedule there. The calendar is the Julian one, 13 days behind the Latin calendar that spread throughout the rest of the world. The hours are counted not from midnight, but from sunset. And it is not under the noon-day sun but in the dark of night that Athos is most alive and pulsating. In songs, lights, and mysteries. Mount Athos is a truly holy land that inspires fear of God. It's not for everyone....

Police will take away more than 100 monks for political re-education today on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising that led to the flight of the Dalai Lama. The rounding up of 109 monks from Lutsang monastery in Qinghai province, western China, is one of a series of extraordinary security measures being implemented to prevent restive Tibetans from commemorating the anniversary with protests against Chinese rule. About a quarter of China’s territory, an area the size of Western Europe, has been closed off to foreigners. Thousands of troops and paramilitary police have been deployed in Tibetan-populated...

Donat Kubwimana escaped Rwanda in a van filled with fellow Catholic monks, all fleeing the genocide that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of their countrymen.  Fifteen years later, the 44-year-old is working on his master's degree in French at Queens College in Flushing. On Thursday, he became a U.S. citizen. "I'm so lucky," Kubwimana said after being sworn in. Kubwimana's harrowing tale of survival and achievement has become an inspiration to his Flushing community. "Just his story could have an impact," Brother David Turmel, 60, said of Kubwimana's journey from a Catholic compound in Rwanda to Queens.Kubwimana left...

The Core of Monasticism Is Adoration In the address pronounced today at Heiligenkreuz Abbey, Pope Benedict XVI offered the whole Church a veritable Charter of Monastic Life for this generation, and for all generations to come. This is, without any doubt, one of the most luminous Pontifical teachings on the monastic vocation ever articulated. I am humbled and set ablaze by it. It deserves study "on bended knee." Thank you, Holy Father!Address of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVIVisit to Heiligenkreuz AbbeySunday, 9 September 2007Most Reverend Father Abbot,Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,Dear Cistercian Monks of Heiligenkreuz,Dear Brothers and Sisters in...

Long before dawn in the remote desert south of Barstow, the only light for miles around is a faint glow from a triple-wide trailer. Inside, several monks chant in Vietnamese. Then there is silence. The trailer is home to the first cloistered Catholic monastery in the Inland area. The white-robed monks pray and chant together seven times a day and silently meditate twice. Here in Lucerne Valley, off a dirt road and at the foot of barren mountains, there is little to disturb them. "There is God in this deserted place," said Brother Matthew Nguyen. "There are not many people...

It was an unholy spectacle. On Sunday, brawling priests and Israeli paramilitary police careened through the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after a fight erupted between two rival groups. Armenian monks and their worshippers had been participating in a ceremony marking the 4th-century discovery of the cross on which Christ was crucified when they found their path blocked by a Greek Orthodox monk posted in Jesus's tomb. Fists began flying, kicking monks lost their footing and 10ft ceremonial candlesticks and banners toppled to the ground. Police dragged priests from the melee in head locks and arrested two Armenian...

Step into the riveting silence of Philip Groning's stunning new documentary on the spirituality of Carthusian monks. Filmed without narration and very little dialogue at the Monastery of the Grand Chartreuse in France, Mr. Groning captures the brimming vitality of monastic life and the overpowering sound of God. (U.S. airing only) Sun 10/26/08 9:00 PM ET & 6 PM PT Thu 10/30/08 2:30 PM ET & 11:30 AM PT From the NY Times Lives Lived at a Monk’s Pace, Allowing Time for the Spirit to Flourish The Carthusian monks who are the subjects of Philip Gröning’s documentary “Into Great...

Italians were shocked yesterday by a ferocious assault on Franciscan monks by hooded thugs at a monastery in the foothills of the Alps which has left one of the monks fighting for his life. Father Sergio Baldini, 48, the guardian of the San Colombano Belmonte monastery near Turin, and three elderly monks from the Franciscan order of Friars Minor were having their evening meal when they were attacked by three hooded men who gagged and bound them before punching, kicking and beating them with clubs. Father Baldini suffered severe head injuries but also has "serious respiratory problems" because he choked...

It isn't every day that a group of Catholic monks find themselves on the pop charts. Yet that's what happened to the monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz, a 12th-century Cistercian monastery near Vienna, whose CD of Gregorian chants has become a runaway hit. After its European release in May, "Chant: Music for the Soul" became the top classical album in Britain before crossing over to the pop charts, at one point outselling recordings by Madonna and Amy Winehouse. Even before its U.S. release on July 1, the album became the most popular classical recording in this country, thanks to copious downloads...

Biblical Text-Writing May Have Poisoned Monks Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Damaged Skull June 27, 2008 -- Medieval bones from six different Danish cemeteries reveal that monks who wrote Biblical texts and other religious materials may have been exposed to toxic mercury, which was used to formulate just one of their ink colors: red. The study, which will be published in the August issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, also describes a previously undocumented disease, called FOS, which was like leprosy and caused skull lesions. Additionally, the researchers found that mercury-containing medicine had been administered to 79 percent of the...

A choir of Cistercian monks is being groomed for chart stardom. Our correspondent discovers how they are coping Within minutes of arriving at the monastery in the Vienna Forest, I see a clutch of men wearing lederhosen, while an oompah band tunes up for the May Day fair. I’m starting to suspect the record company of doing a deal with the Austrian tourist board. As first reported in The Times in March, the Stift Heiligenkreuz monastery is the home of Universal Classics’ latest unlikely stars: the Cistercian monks of the Holy Cross. Already favourites of Pope Benedict, the brothers...

28 March 2008 [For Immediate Release] Over hundred of monks arrested after a raid in Ngaba Kirti Monastery After days of unrest and protests in Ngaba County since 15 March, which saw the death of at least 23 Tibetans, arrest and injury of over hundreds, the Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) forces arrested over a hundred monks from Ngaba Kirti Monastery during a raid of the monastery this afternoon, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). Earlier this morning, hundreds of PAP and PSB came to Ngaba...

Tibet monks disrupt China media event By Geoff Dyer in Lhasa Published: March 27 2008 12:27 | Last updated: March 27 2008 12:39 The simmering political tensions in Tibet burst into the open on Thursday in one of Lhasa’s most important temples when a group of 30 young Buddhist monks interrupted a government-organised visit by journalists with shouts about the lack of freedom in Tibet and in support of the Dalai Lama. The monks were clearly agitated and several wept openly as they accused the authorities of lying to the visiting journalists and promised further demonstrations. “We want a free...

25 March 2008 [Press Release] Protest erupts after prayer for deceased in Drango County Following a peaceful protest in Drango County (Ch: Luhuo xian), Kardze "TAP", Sichuan Province, on 24 March 2008 which resulted in the death of one Tibetan and another left in critical condition after People's Armed Police (PAP) fired indiscriminately into the protesting crowd, the monks of Drango Gaden Rabten Nampargyalpeling Monastery organized a special prayer session for the deceased in the morning of 25 March. According to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), at around 8:00 AM (Beijing Standard...

Nepalese Police Beat Monks, Refugees in Tibetan Protest; 40 Arrested March 24, 2008 KATMANDU, Nepal — Police in Nepal broke up a protest by 200 Tibetan refugees and monks near the offices of the United Nations on Monday by beating them with bamboo sticks and arresting 40. The refugees demonstrating in Katmandu were demanding that the U.N. investigate the recent crackdown in Tibet by Chinese authorities. Chanting "China, stop killings in Tibet. U.N., we want justice," the protesters were marching to U.N. headquarters when police stopped them about 300 feet from the office and snatched their banners. When the Tibetans...

Dig at homes site uncovers skeletons of eight monks By Nicola Fenwick BURIAL SITE: Mark Randerson, of Durham University's archaeology department, with two of the monks uncovered at the site in Northallerton ARCHAEOLOGISTS have discovered the complete skeletons of eight Carmelite monks. The excavation in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, also revealed that the town's priory is unique, because its layout differs from all other known Carmelite priories and monasteries in Europe. Housing developer Castle Homes owns the site and will be building a residential development there. But it has given assurances that the design of the building will ensure the preservation...

PEOSTA, Iowa (CNS) -- For the craftsmen and artisans at New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, a relatively new ministry has expanded into a new state-of-the-art, 40,000-square-foot factory, almost five times larger than their previous facility. "Because of increasing demands for caskets, we were unable to keep up with production to satisfy demand, so we had to develop a new woodworking facility," said Sam Mulgrew, the operation's general manager. "It's not a highly automated factory. It has good dust collection, air quality and other features." In their work, the monks strive to produce burial caskets and urns that reflect their values...

The monks at Mepkin Abbey have supported their contemplative lives for 40 years largely by supplying eggs to local grocery stores. No more. The abbey has succumbed to a campaign undertaken last year by the animal-rights activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Too bad. In announcing its decision to phase out its operation over the next year and a half, a Mepkin spokesman said PETA's campaign had become a distraction to the Trappist community: "While the monks are sad to give up work that has sustained them for many years, a hard and honorable work of which...

More than 100 monks have marched in central Burma, the first time they have returned to the streets since last month's bloody crackdown on protests. The monks chanted and prayed as they marched through Pakokku, the site of an incident last month that triggered pro-democracy protests nationwide. The government said 10 people died during the crackdown, but diplomats believe the toll was much higher. Thousands more - many of them monks - were thought to have been detained. Separately, the Human Rights Watch organisation has accused the Burmese army of forcibly recruiting children to cover gaps left by a lack...

Hong Kong - The Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao reports that monks in Tibet have been involved in clashes with the police over the last four days. The monks in the capital Lhasa wanted to celebrate the award of the United States Congressional Gold Medal to their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. About 1,100 monks have been confined to a monastery in Lhasa following the clashes, but it remains unclear whether arrests have been made. US President George W Bush attended the award of the medal, the highest civilian honour given by Congress, to the Dalai Lama in Washington on...

Yangon - Myanmar's ruling military junta has released 80 monks and 149 women, believed to be nuns, who were rounded up in last week's demonstrations. A Burmese journalist has also been released. Earlier on Wednesday morning, more opponents of the military regime were arrested in the country's most important city Yangon. At least eight lorry loads of prisoners were taken to an undisclosed location. The arrests came a few hours after the departure of Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's special envoy to Myanmar. He met with junta leader General Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an attempt...

Blogger Niknayman has a list of names and affiliations of over 300 monks and civilians who have been arrested by the Myanmar Military Regime. Many are from the National League of Democracy, the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Newspapers across Asia are putting the number of detained people at 1500. Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norwegian organization reports that the number of arrested is much higher at over 2000. Death toll is rumoured to be in the hundreds, though the Myanmar Junta refuses to confirm the official number. Democratic Voice of Burma is quoting this announcement from Ko...

I’m sick and tired of all the hand-wringing and whining going on in the liberal media over the supposed “crisis” in Burma. Seriously, who cares? Let the Burmese worry about Burma, I always say. Here’s a typical example of the kind of biased reporting I’m talking about, from the Daily Mail: [T]he bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle … Well, yeah, duh. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for that. Only the blood of monks can quench the thirst of the mighty teak tree. And teak is one of Burma's major exports, to make futons...

The country's top brass seem to have learned nothing from the contempt they drew from the international community for their conduct 19 years ago when Burmese generals put down the popular uprising in 1988. Then Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, as the country's army commander-in-chief, blithely headed a high-ranking delegation to Rangoon shortly after the junta's resort to violence left some 3,000 people dead, and sent hundreds of thousands seeking refuge in Thailand. The visit was tantamount to condoning a military dictatorship elsewhere decried for the excesses against demonstrators. The trade-off? Some kind of arrangement involving Burmese timber and fishery. Not long...

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand." Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand....

Thousands dead in the massacre of the monksLast updated at 01:05am on 1st October 2007 Comments Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: 'Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.' Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered...

The US has banned dozens of members of Burma's military government from obtaining US travel visas because of ongoing violence against protesters. A state department spokesman said more officials would be added to the list if they were judged responsible for human rights abuses. Reports from Burma say military may have succeeded in limiting the scale of the protests in the main city, Rangoon.

Violent crackdown launched in Myanmar AP Security forces shot and wounded three people, and beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks Wednesday in the most violent crackdown against the protests that began last month, witnesses said. About 300 monks and activists were arrested, dissidents said. Reports from exiled Myanmar journalists and activists in Thailand said security forces had shot and killed as many as five people in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon. The reports could not be independently confirmed by The Associated Press. The U.N. Security Council will meet later Wednesday to discuss Myanmar, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told...

The monks have vowed to continue their action Lorries with loudspeakers have been driving through Burma's main city of Rangoon warning residents to stop anti-government protests.The broadcasts threatened that "action will be taken against those who violate this order". But hundreds of monks and civilians defied the threats and began fresh protests at the Shwedagon pagoda. On Monday, there were protests in at least 25 towns, with tens of thousands of people marching in Rangoon. Several military trucks are now parked near Shwedagon pagoda, which has been the focus of the protests. Eyewitnesses said several hundred monks gathered at...

Burma's ruling military junta has warned it is ready to "take action" against Buddhist monks leading mounting protests, state media have reported. Brig Gen Thura Myint Maung, minister for religion, warned them not to break Buddhist "rules and regulations" as Rangoon saw the largest march yet. He blamed the protests on "destructive elements" opposed to peace in Burma. President George W Bush is set to announce fresh US sanctions on Burmese leaders, the White House says.

Myanmar protesters hit 100,000 mark As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar's biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military. From the front of the march, witnesses could see a one-mile stretch of eight-lane road was filled with people. Some participants said there were several hundred thousand marchers in their ranks, but an international aid agency official with employees monitoring the crowd estimated said the size was well over 50,000 and approaching 100,000. It was the latest...

Thousands of monks and civilians are marching through Burma's former capital in what appears to be the biggest anti-government protest so far. Eyewitnesses said the number of people demonstrating on Monday was as high as 30,000. It follows Sunday's march in Rangoon by 20,000 monks and nuns, in what was the largest protest for almost 20 years. Events are now moving unpredictably, analysts say. So far the ruling generals are showing unusual restraint. Monks are revered in Burma and any action against them by the military government would spark an outcry. But there are fears of a repeat of 1988,...

20,000 march against Myanmar government About 20,000 people led by Buddhist monks demonstrated against Myanmar's military junta Sunday, in what has quickly become the largest anti-government demonstrations since the failed democratic uprising in 1988. The 10,000 monks marched from Yangon's famous Shwedagon Pagoda to the nearby Sule Pagoda before passing the U.S. Embassy, witnesses said. Monks shouted support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while the crowd of 10,000 protected them by forming a human chain along the route. It was the sixth straight day monks have marched in Yangon, and came a day after they were allowed...

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has greeted Buddhist monks protesting against the military junta. Apparently unable to hold her tears, Aung San Suu Kyi came out of the house she has been detained in since 2003 as the monks were let through a roadblock. At least 2,000 monks are staging a sixth day of protests through the streets of the main city of Rangoon. Up to 10,000 marched through Mandalay with protests also taking place in five townships across Burma. (snip) The area around University Avenue where Ms Suu Kyi's house is located has been closed to traffic...