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e-mail this to a friend printable version » 11/09/2009 17:38VATICANAn ‘Ordinariate’ for Anglican priests, even married, and faithful who become Catholic, Pope saysBenedict XVI’s apostolic constitution ‘Anglicanorum coetibus’ is published today. It will provide for full communion and preservation of Anglican rites and traditions. In no way does the apostolic constitution contradict the “ecumenical an endeavour of the Catholic Church, Fr Federico Lombardi says. Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Anglican priests, even if they are married, as well as the faithful, individually and as communities, can retain, under certain conditions, their rites and traditions if they decide to enter into...

Dedication of St. John Lateran November 9th, 2009 by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. As a rebellious teenager, I thought that Catholics should stop wasting their money on expensive churches.  We ought to sell them all and buy food for the poor, I argued.Funny thing.  Jesus, who cared much for the poor, did not have this attitude.  As an adolescent he yearned to spend time in Herod’s sumptuous Temple (Luke 2).   As an adult, he defended its integrity against the moneychangers (John 2).  Francis of Assisi, who gave away all his possessions, begged for money to buy materials to restore ruined...

Note: The following text is a quote: October 28, 2009 ICE agents arrest Albanian national wanted for murder in Italy The Albanian national also faces criminal visa-fraud charges NEW YORK - An Albanian national, who was convicted in absentia for a murder in Italy, was arrested on Wednesday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Ferdinand Marku, also known as Edmond Voli, faces visa-fraud charges for knowingly and intentionally making false statements on a federal immigration application. Marku, 39, was convicted in absentia, in Rome, Italy, for the November 2000 fatal stabbing of a victim near a subway station...

Remnant Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OCTOBER 20, 2009CONTACT: H. M. OWEN (U.S.), noevolutioninfo@gmail.com or PETER WILDERS (Europe), wilderspeter@gmail.com The Scientific Impossibility of Evolution November 9, 2009 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. St. Pius V University (Rome) In Response to Pope Benedict XVI’s Call for Both Sides to be Heard The 150th anniversary of Darwin’s "Origin of the Species" in November 2009 will be the occasion for a unique conference at Pope Pius V University in Rome presenting a scientific refutation of evolution theory. According to Russian sedimentologist Alexander Lalamov...

Legend has it that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The fiddling in Nero's case may be euphemistic – but in the case of Obama's emporial dismissiveness of the critical straits our military personnel find themselves in, his lack of action is both feckless and lundane. In March 2008, the Boston Globe reported that Obama "[planned] to unveil his long-awaited new strategy for Afghanistan." ("Obama plans more Afghanistan reinforcements"; March 26, 2009; Boston.com; Farah Stockman and Bryan Bender) And so it was that, on Sept. 21, Obama finally revealed his true plan, but I will get to that...

Top Stories for Thursday, October 29th, 2009: The monastery of St. Thaddeus, according to tradition, was built by the Apostle St. Jude Thad­deus, “ the brother of the Lord” and the first missionary of the Armenians in 66 A. D. It is located in present- day Iran. According to the fifth- century Armenian chronicler Movses Khorenatsi, he is also buried here. If so, then this church is equal in rank with the Roman basilicas of Peter and Paul, the tomb in Compostela of the Apostle James, and the Madras cathedral of the Apostle Thomas, only much less known. It...

The first century B.C. was one of the most culturally rich in the history of the Roman Empire - the age of Cicero, Caesar and Virgil. But as much as historians know about the great figures of this period of Ancient Rome, they know very little about some basic facts, such as the population size of the late Roman Empire. Now, a group of historians has used caches of buried coins to provide an answer to this question. During the Republican period of Rome (about the fifth to the first centuries B.C), adult male citizens of Rome could be taxed...

On a recent History Channel presentation of 'The Naked Archeologist' the show examined the Bar Cochba Revolt of 135 AD. According to Josephus the Herodian Temple had a rectangular base measuring 450 X 450. Silver coins minted during the revolt featured a Fig Tree on one side and the rebuilt temple on the other. If the only evidence for the rebuilt temple was the widespread discovery of hundreds of thousands of the Bar Cochba silver throughout ancient Israel, there would be no controversy today. However, when the base of the Temple Mount was measured recently, the base was discovered to...

ROME – Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they think are the remains of Roman emperor Nero's extravagant banquet hall, a circular space that rotated day and night to imitate the Earth's movement and impress his guests. The room, part of Nero's Golden Palace, a sprawling residence built in the first century A.D., is thought to have been built to entertain government officials and VIPs, said lead archaeologist Francoise Villedieu. The emperor, known for his lavish and depraved lifestyle, ruled from 37 A.D. to 68 A.D. The dig so far has turned up the foundations of the room, the rotating mechanism...

Many atheopaths1 and their compromising churchian allies claim that biblical belief and science are mortal enemies. Yet historians of science, even non-Christians, have pointed out that modern science first flourished under a Christian world view while it was stillborn in other cultures such as ancient Greece, China and Arabia. The historical basis of modern science depended on the assumption that the universe was made by a rational Creator. An orderly universe makes perfect sense only if it were made by an orderly Creator (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:33). For example, evolutionary anthropologist and science writer Loren Eiseley stated:...

Hesse unveils fragments of Roman emperor statue found in streamPublished: 27 Aug 09 15:55 CET Hessian Science Minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann on Thursday presented fragments of a 2,000-year-old bronze equestrian statue of Roman Emperor Augustus found recently in a stream near Giessen. “The find has meaning beyond Hesse and the north Alpine region due to its quality and provenance,” Kühne-Hörmann said during the presentation with state archaeologist Dr. Egon Schallmayer and Director of the Roman-German Commission Dr. Friedrich Lüth. “We’ve rediscovered the remnants of early European history. The unique horse head is a witness to the broken dream of the Romans...

A wealthy investment banker and prominent fundraiser for President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other top Democrats was arrested Tuesday on charges he lied to get a $74 million business loan that -- once confronted by authorities -- he hastily repaid. Prosecutors accused Hassan Nemazee of giving Citibank documents showing he owned millions of dollars in collateral. They said the documents were "fraudulent and forged." A Clinton spokesman didn't immediately return an e-mail message seeking comment. The chairman and chief executive of Manhattan-based Nemazee Capital Corp. served as national finance chairman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2008, and later...

Italy: Gaddafi fails to show up at top-level meeting in Rome Rome, 12 June (AKI) - The speaker of Italy's lower house cancelled a top-level conference in honour of Muammar Gaddafi in Rome on Friday after the Libyan leader failed to arrive. "The conference with Gaddafi has not been held due to the delay by Libyan (leader) Gaddafi," said Gianfranco Fini, a senior ally of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. "The two-hour delay is not justified." Gaddafi was scheduled to meet Fini late Friday and take part in a conference with the speaker and former Italian foreign minister Massimo D'Alema....

Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has lashed out at the United States by likening the 1986 U.S. Strikes on Libya to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks on the United States in 2001. He was speaking Thursday in Rome, where he is on a three-day official visit. In a speech to Italian lawmakers, Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi urged the world to understand the reasons that motivate terrorists. He called for dialogue with terrorists, saying, "One must talk to the devil, if it brings about a solution." While condemning al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, he implied there was little difference between bin Laden's...

Inscriptions revealing complaints about high taxes from 1,700 years ago have been found during the excavation of the ancient city of Rhodiapolis in Antalya's Kumluca district. The excavation was started by Professor Nevzat Çevik, head of the archaeology department in Akdeniz University's faculty of science and literature, and led this year by Assistant Professor İsa Kızgut. Kızgut told the Anatolia news agency that they made interesting discoveries concerning the social life of the people of Rhodiapolis. Noting that one of the most interesting discoveries was an inscription, Kızgut said: “In addition to many historical artifacts, we uncovered some relics concerning...

Archaeologists said Thursday they had unearthed the ruins of a villa believed to be the birthplace of a Roman Emperor who reigned almost 2,000 years ago. Professor Filippo Coarelli, who is leading the dig, said "numerous clues" pointed to the site as the house of Emperor Vespasian, who ruled the Roman Empire from 69 AD to 79 AD. The location of the villa, in the ancient city of Falacrine, 70 kilometres (45 miles) northeast of Rome, was a strong indicator that the site was where the ruler was born, Coarelli added. Vespasian was born in the city, which was lost...

Many comparisons have been made between the Roman Empire and the United States.  The Roman Empire was the most powerful civilization on Earth.  Similarly, the United States, for now, is the sole remaining superpower.  However, with the good comes the bad and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire has been compared to the decline and pending fall of the United States. We often forget the fact that the Roman Empire was preceded for 450 years by the Roman Republic, which arose in 509 B.C. with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy.  Of course, there's an interesting correlation with...

ROME, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When the Italian drug agency approved the sale of the deadly abortion drug RU 486 late Thursday night, senior Vatican officials responded strongly saying that doctors who prescribe it and the women who take it risk excommunication. The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) said the drug, to be sold under the brand name Mifegyne, would not be sold in pharmacies and only be administered by physicians in hospitals. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, a bioethics professor, author and former vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) told Corriere della Sera newspaper, "This is a compound which...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Sometimes a job is just a job, even when from the outside it looks like it involves the stuff of an Indiana Jones movie. Fabrizio Bisconti is the newly named archaeological superintendent of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, which oversees the upkeep and preservation of 140 Christian catacombs from the third and fourth centuries scattered all over Italy. Most of the time, he said, the job is just work and study. Staff members can spend a full month with surgical tools and cotton balls cleaning a third-century sarcophagus, but then there are those stunning, shocking,...

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The absolutism of technology, which finds its clearest expression in certain practices contrary to life”, could "draw dark scenarios for the future of humanity": Benedict XVI returns to warn against a development that is only concerned with technological progress, bringing with it the manipulation of embryos, abortion, euthanasia, sterilization, birth control under the pretext of wanting to promote human development. At today's Angelus address the pontiff reiterated the views expressed in his recently published social encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. "Acts that do not respect the true dignity of the person - said the pope - even...

President Obama presented Pope Benedict XVI a letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy during their meeting at the Vatican Friday, and asked the Pontiff to pray for the senator, who is being treated for brain cancer. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters the president called the Massachusetts Democrat after the meeting. Gibbs said the two spoke for about 10 minutes as Air Force One left Rome heading for Ghana, "telling him he had delivered the letter on his behalf to the Pope." The letter was described as personal. According to Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, "the contents of...

Reminds me of Bill Clinton!U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. Mr. President! Behave! Is this your new theme song?(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...

While Barack Obama continues his foreign tour in Italy, trouble is brewing on the home front. His poll numbers are slipping, as Rasmussen reports here, and Gallup does here. The source of the shift is independent voters, particularly in swing states. The numbers are nothing for the White House to fret about, but clearly the president’s shine is beginning to wear off. The main reason for his slump was a depressing jobs report last week that saw unemployment rise to 9.5%. It is soon likely to hit the red letter figure of ten per cent. The $787 billion stimulus package...

A scientific investigation seems to confirm the theory that St Paul's bones lie under the basilica bearing his name in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI has announced. The bones, long buried in a sarcophagus under St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, have been carbon-dated to the first or second century AD, the Pope said, adding a dramatic flourish to the close of the Pauline year. Standing in front of the sarcophagus, which is under the main altar and was discovered only three years ago, Pope Benedict said he felt moved to be able to make the announcement. The Holy...

Captive soldier Gilad Shalit was made an honorary citizen of Rome on Wednesday. Gilad's father, Noam Shalit, accepted the honor in his stead at a ceremony at city hall as part of a campaign led by the mayors of both Rome and Paris. Earlier in the day Shalit held a series of meetings with Italian officials, including Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and the presidents of the parliament and senate. The main event was held at Julius Caesar Hall on Rome's Capitoline Hill. Mayor Gianni Alemanno told those assembled of his ties to the Shalit family and to Israel. He met...

Rome catacomb reveals "oldest" image of St Paul Sun Jun 28 ROME (Reuters) – Vatican archaeologists using laser technology have discovered what they believe is the oldest image in existence of St Paul the Apostle, dating from the late 4th century, on the walls of catacomb beneath Rome. Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, revealing the find on Sunday, published a picture of a frescoed image of the face of a man with a pointed black beard on a red background, inside a bright yellow halo. The high forehead is furrowed. Experts of the Ponitifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology made the discovery...

There are fears for the future of Rome's ancient Aurelian walls after chunks collapsed on Tuesday. A major street was closed in the Italian capital after bricks from the nearly 2000-year old wall fell down. The city's archaeological authorities want to save the historic treasure, but they claim protection and restoration is limited due to poor financial resources, according to the Italian daily, Il Messaggero. Authorities told the daily that whenever chunks of the walls collapse, the area is usually fenced off, but restoration work is almost never completed due to a lack of funds. "Their maintenance is a recurrent...

ROME (AP) — Italian police arrested six people Thursday in raids on a group of suspected radical leftists who were allegedly planning a terror attack, authorities said.

One of the Palestinian Authority's famous frauds is the claim that there was never a Jewish Community in the Holy Land. They like to say that any Jewish claim to Jerusalem or the Temple Mount began with the Zionist movement 100 years ago. Of course that's a lie in fact even after the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE when the Romans change the name of the country to Palestinia, most of the world recognized the Holy Land and Jerusalem as Jewish. The truth of the matter is that even ancient Muslim writings recognized Jerusalem as a Jewish City. For...

THE summer evening was autumnally cold and damp, the backless stone seats in the outdoor theater unforgiving. Many of the 8,000 spectators were irritable; most of us had shown for a rained-out performance the night before. And frankly, I’ve seen better productions of “Carmen.” But as the performers began to move, their shadows rose 100 feet and danced across the imposing backdrop of a yellow limestone wall. A marble statue of Caesar Augustus stood ghostly white upon his perch in the wall, his right arm raised as if he had just commanded the singers to begin their performance. When Carmen...

This is pretty cool. There was a Solemn High Mass celebrated in the Pantheon of Rome recently to celebrate the 1400th anniversary of its consecration as a Catholic Church. I wonder what the tourists thought? Take that, Jupiter.

The February 2008 edition of Christianity Today ran a cover story about evangelicals looking to the ancient Roman Catholic Church in order to find beliefs and practices.1 What was shocking about the article was that both the author of the article and the senior managing editor of CT claim that this trip back to Rome is a good thing. Says Mark Galli the editor, “While the ancient church has captivated the evangelical imagination for some time, it hasn’t been until recently that it’s become an accepted fixture of the evangelical landscape. And this is for the good.”2 Chris Armstrong, the...

A story about the Roman Empire. (which was called Honoria) how it came about and how it eventually fell. Very eerily similar to America's history.

Yesterday...the Superior of the FFI, Fr Stefano Maria Manelli, celebrated Solemn Mass in the Cathedral of the Pope, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, on the occasion of the Octocentennial of the Approbation of the Rule of St. Francis by Innocent III on 16 April 1209. This took place in the context of the Chapter of Mats, a Conference of the Ministers General of the First Order and the TOR of the Franciscans (Friars Minor, Conventuals, and Capuchins) to celebrate this Octocentennial. Here are some images of the Mass, by way of our friends at Rinascimento Sacro.

ROME, April 6 (UPI) -- At least six people were killed when a strong earthquake struck Monday in Italy, 60 miles northeast of Rome, officials said. Four of the dead were said to be children, The New York Times reported. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, but ANSA said it was a 5.8 quake, centered at L'Aquila. The quake was felt in Rome and elsewhere in central Italy, ANSA said. The Italian news agency said there were reports of other injuries, and a report that firefighters were trying to get some people out...

Roman police find sewer children The children were found in sewers close to railway stations Italian police have found more than 100 immigrants, including 24 Afghan children, living in the sewer system beneath railway stations in Rome. The children range in age from 10 to 15 years and are now being looked after by the city's social services. They were found when the railway police followed up reports of children living near the city's stations. The police say they do not speak Italian and broke into the sewers by removing manhole covers. The charity Save the Children Italy says that...

In the last three months, we've been reduced to something like the ancient Athenian mob — with opportunistic politicians sometimes inciting, sometimes catering to an already angry public. The Greek comic playwright Aristophanes once described how screaming politicians — posing as men of the people — would sway Athenian citizens by offering them all sort of perks and goodies that the government had no idea how to pay for. The historian Thucydides offers even more frightening accounts of bloodthirsty voters after they were aroused by demagogues ("leaders or drivers of the people"). One day in a bloodthirsty rage, voters demanded...

SNIPPET: "A Black September terrorist who served only about half his 30-year sentence for planting three car bombs in New York City in 1973 was released Thursday into the custody of immigration officials to be deported. Khalid Al-Jawary, 63, was released from the Supermax maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado, said Carl Rusnok, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. Rusnok said a federal immigration judge had signed a deportation order for Al-Jawary."

The Galileo affair: history or heroic hagiography? by Thomas Schirrmacher Summary The 17th century controversy between Galileo and the Vatican is examined. Fifteen theses are advanced, with supporting evidence, to show that the Galileo affair cannot serve as an argument for any position on the relation of religion and science. Contrary to legend, both Galileo and the Copernican system were well regarded by church officials. Galileo was the victim of his own arrogance, the envy of his colleagues and the politics of Pope Urban VIII. He was not accused of criticising the Bible, but disobeying a papal decree...

President of the Italian parliament Gianfranco Fini (L) greets US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a ceremony at the lower chamber of the parliament in Rome. The US administration is committed to a "new era of cooperation" with its allies, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday during a visit to Rome. (AFP/Alberto Pizzoli)

The Pope is preparing to offer the Traditonal Anglican Communion, a group of half a million dissident Anglicans, its own personal prelature by Rome, according to reports this morning. History may be in the making", reports The Record. "It appears Rome is on the brink of welcoming close to half a million members of the Traditional Anglican Communion into membership of the Roman Catholic Church. Such a move would be the most historic development in Anglican-Catholic relations in the last 500 years. But it may also be a prelude to a much greater influx of Anglicans waiting on the sidelines,...

From Il Corriere della Sera: Call for directive to prevent episodes like Duomo demonstration in Milan from happening again ROME – Places of worship, supermarkets and shopping malls will join public institutions, political party headquarters and diplomatic premises as being off-limits for demonstrators. Organisers will also have to pay a deposit as a guarantee against damage.NEW RULES – Interior minister Roberto Maroni has proposed new rules for public demonstrations, revealing that he is working on a directive to be sent to prefects and chiefs of police. A week ago, the minister explained to a hearing of the Senate’s constitutional affairs...

Now that the Obama Administration has taken power, it is critical for us to pay attention for how our language is being transformed before our eyes. The transformation of language is a common way for governments to take power without violence and with the appearance of legitimacy in a society that still holds its constitution, history and freedoms dear to it. In other words, it is a way for governments to implement change in a way that doesn't feel or look like much change at all. Change you can believe in, for sure.

Can anyone give the proper pronounciation for "Scipio", as in Scipio Africanus? Read the name for 40 years and have never heard it pronounced.

There were many reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. Each one intertwined with the next. Many even blame the introduction of Christianity for the decline. Christianity made many Roman citizens into pacifists, making it more difficult to defend against the barbarian attackers. Also money used to build churches could have been used to maintain the empire. Although some argue that Christianity may have provided some morals and values for a declining civilization and therefore may have actually prolonged the imperial era. Decline in Morals and Values Those morals and values that kept together the Roman legions and thus...

They came. They saw. They slaughtered. And now, almost 2,000 years after fighters and wild animals last entertained the rabble, gladiators are set to return to the Colosseum. Umberto Broccoli, the head of archaeology at Rome city council, said it was time that the five million people who visited the Colosseum annually saw the kind of shows originally staged there. They should also experience “the sights, sounds and smells” of Ancient Rome. Mauro Cutrufo, the deputy mayor, said that a series of events would be held next year to mark the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of the Emperor...

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient roman battlefield from the third century near Göttingen that will rewrite history, Lower Saxony's department for preservation of historical monuments said on Thursday. “The find can be dated to the third century and will definitely change the historical perception of that time,” Dr. Henning Haßmann told The Local. The amazing discovery allows an insight in what must have been a dramatic battle between Romans and Germanic tribes. “The find indicates a massive Roman military presence,” Haßmann said. So far historians believed that the battle of the Teutoburg Forest, which took place in 9 AD, resulted...

The creator of CBS' red-hot procedural "The Mentalist" has unfinished business in Italy. Bruno Heller says he wants to produce a theatrical wrap-up to his critically beloved and prematurely canceled HBO drama "Rome." "There is talk of doing a movie version," he said. "It's moving along. It's not there until it is there. I would love to round that show off." The lavish period drama ran for two seasons on HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC. With the final season of "The Sopranos" as its lead-in, the first season was solidly rated, but high production costs presented the...

Holy See Gets Cluster Bomb Convention Rolling Signs Agreement and Immediately Ratifies It OSLO, Norway, DEC. 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- To send a message of solidarity with victims, the Holy See has signed and ratified on the same day a convention prohibiting the use and stockpiling of cluster bombs. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Vatican relations with states, attended the two-day signing ceremony in Oslo. The text of the convention was hammered out in May in Ireland. The agreement will go into effect once 30 nations have ratified it, a process the Holy See got rolling the same day as the...

St Ralph Sherwin, from an eighteenth-century portrait in the College.The College has been known as the "Venerable English College" since 1818 because of the 44 students who were martyred for the Catholic faith between 1581 and 1679, as well as the 130 who suffered imprisonment and exile. 41 of these have since been canonised or beatified by the Church. The College's "Protomartyr" was St Ralph Sherwin. He was born in Roddesley, Derbyshire, around 1550 and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, before leaving for Douai and then Rome. His name stands first in the famous Liber ruber (a list of...