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I ask your prayers for my friend Jerry. He has been afflicted with permanent injuries sustained when he was hit by a car three years ago. He has done quite well in dealing with them, and getting a new start on life, but he was feeling poorly late in the week -- fever, fatigue, possible UTI etc.-- and was diagnosed with pleural effusion -- fluid around the lungs -- which he describes as feeling like he is drowning. O Lord Almighty, the Healer of our souls and bodies, You Who put down and raise up, Who chastise and heal also;...

FINLAND – Rev. Dr. Juhana Pohjola, Diocesan Dean and Bishop Elect of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (ELMDF) has been charged by Finland’s Prosecutor General with incitement against a group of people. The charges stem from a 2004 booklet published by Luther Foundation Finland (the legal entity behind the ELMDF) which articulates historic Christian teaching on human sexuality. “As a Christian, I do not want to and cannot discriminate against or despise anyone created by God,” Dean Pohjola said in reaction to being charged. “Every human being, created by God and redeemed by Christ, is equally precious.” At...

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). On Jan. 22, 2019, the 46th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand, the governors of both New York and Illinois signed laws to extend and promote abortion. “This is the evolution of humankind in America,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he signed the Reproductive Health Act into law. In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed an executive order to ensure taxpayer funding of abortions, saying that it would make his state “the most progressive … in terms of...

I posted about a year ago asking prayers for my father, who had some back problems, and was facing surgery and long-time therapy. The time since then has been one of struggle for him. He has been in and out of the hospital numerous times, and each time he became weaker. He is now close to the end of his struggle. I got a call last night from the nursing home saying he had been taken to the hospital because he had no pulse. His heart was restarted, but he had two cardiac arrests at the hospital. He is on...

I ask your prayers for my father. He is eighty-eight years old and has been living alone since my mother died eight years ago. He has been in excellent health and condition for a man his age. He still drives. He is active in his church, the American Legion, and volunteers at the information desk of his county courthouse. He is a valued neighbor and member of his community. He went into the hospital last week for some bad back pain, an issue that pops up every couple of years. He also had a case of cellulitis, which was not...

As the manhunt for three men suspected of killing Fox Lake police Lt Charles Joseph Gliniewicz moved into its third day, Lake County authorities announced Thursday that "significant" home security video has been turned over to the Department of Homeland Security. George Filenko, commander of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said a resident provided police the raw video Wednesday night. Although local authorities have not been able to review the tape with the proper equipment, Filenko said the homeowner told investigators that three individuals matching police's limited description can be seen.

The police officer who was fatally shot this morning outside of Chicago has been identified as a longtime veteran of the local police force, the mayor said. Joseph Gliniewicz was named as the police officer that was killed in Fox Lake, Illinois. The manhunt for three suspects believed to be involved in the shooting is underway and involves state and local officials, Lake County Sheriff's Department Det. Chris Covelli said this afternoon. "Not only did Fox Lake lose a family member but I lost a very close friend," Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit said at a news conference. He said...

Whoever qualifies to run for the U.S. Senate in Illinois also qualifies to run for the special election. That's the final decision U.S. District Judge John Grady made today. He had toyed with letting party leaders pick the candidates but he opted for the less confusing route. That means Rep. Mark Kirk with be the Republican candidate. State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will be Democrat. LeAlan Jones will be the Green Party candidate. (Snip) Grady said the state Board of Elections must certify a winner in the race by Nov. 24, though they could do it even earlier, giving the winner...

Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias on Tuesday proposed ethics reforms so sweeping as to appear dead-on-arrival in Washington, D.C. He wants a total ban on corporations and lobbyists donating to candidates and a lifetime ban on senators or congressmen ever becoming lobbyists. More modest laws passed by Congress have already been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has ruled that corporations have a First Amendment Right to free speech that includes donating to candidates. “I’m not going to pretend that as a freshman United States senator, in one day we’re going to change the world and move toward...

IRINEJ, by the grace of God, Orthodox Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch, with the all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church – to all the clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our Holy Church: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, with the joyous Paschal greeting: CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN! “Christ is risen from dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” (Paschal troparion) In greeting you, dear brothers and sisters, with the...

Let's fill some trucks with books, drive them downtown and burn them in front of the Chicago Public Library. Let's drive other trucks to the regional libraries and burn them, too . . . I mean the books, not the libraries, though libraries are the source of the problem. If it weren't for the libraries, it would be hard for innocent young people to be corrupted by the filth pouring out of the country's printers. Instead of burning books or libraries, perhaps we ought to start smashing printing presses. They have served as tools of sin and the devil since...

Fatter drivers cause increase in gasoline consumption, says study Being overweight isn't just bad for your health. New research suggests that America's obesity epidemic is also feeding the growth in U.S. fuel consumption. Americans are pumping almost 940 million more gallons of gas into their vehicles than they did in 1960 because the average American is roughly two dozen pounds heavier. That amounts to $2.8 billion more spent on gas each year, if gas is selling for $3 a gallon. So says a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University. Researchers used...

A criminal investigation into whether lucrative state pension business was being traded for campaign contributions to Gov. Blagojevich has developed a Hollywood storyline: Federal authorities want to know if an investment firm then co-owned by the Oscar-winning producer of "Million Dollar Baby" was pushed to donate money to Blagojevich as it vied for a $220 million state deal, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. The producer, Tom Rosenberg, and Capri/Capital Advisors were approached in 2004 about contributing to the governor and were told it was a condition for securing investment funds from the state Teachers' Retirement System, sources familiar with the...

Pope Benedict XVI's comments on religious radicalism are another sign of his intention to bring his voice into one of the world's most critical showdowns: Islam's internal struggles between moderates and extremists. The remarks — tucked into an address at a German university where he formerly taught theology — were interpreted by many experts in interfaith relations as a signal that the Vatican is staking a new and more demanding stance for its dealings with the Muslim world. Benedict, they say, appears to increasingly view the West's confrontation with radical Islam as a fateful moment in history that demands the...

A burglar who was shot by a Wilmette homeowner during a 2003 break-in, which set off a national debate over local gun laws, was arrested Tuesday and accused of robbing a house in the same neighborhood....(snip) Morio Billings, 34, of the 7500 block of South Sangamon Street, Chicago, is accused of a burglary Friday of a Wilmette home in the 800 block of Michigan Avenue, stealing a purse, keys and a 2004 Volvo parked in the driveway, police said. Billings was arrested 11 days after his release from prison for the 2003 burglary. (snip) In December 2003, Billings burglarized a...

CHICAGO - Actor Mike Farrell testified Thursday that he has been inspired by George Ryan's honesty and integrity, but the star of TV's "M.A.S.H." series was upstaged by allegations of bias and bickering that flared among feuding federal prosecutors."I have thought of him as a good, old-fashioned, meat-and-potatoes, midwestern Republican gentleman," Farrell told reporters as he left the courthouse where the former governor has been on trial for 20 weeks, charged with racketeering, mail fraud and other offenses. Farrell and Ryan both have been active in the movement to abolish the death penalty. The actor, who flew in from Los...

Accused of pocketing $50,000 in bribes and obstructing justice, Chicago City Clerk Jim Laski resigned Monday after changing lawyers to an attorney with a reputation for negotiating plea agreements. After reviewing incriminating transcripts of secretly recorded government tapes, attorney Jeffrey Steinback said he advised Laski, 52, to give up his $135,545-a-year paycheck. The resignation, hand-delivered to Mayor Daley's chief of staff Ron Huberman, comes less than two weeks after Laski promised to stay on the job and "keep fighting" the corruption charges against him. "We discussed it, and he and I determined that it was in his best interest and...

City Clerk James Laski has been secretly recorded as part of the federal Hired Truck investigation, and two of his close associates are cooperating with investigators, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Laski has allegedly made incriminating statements on the secret tape recordings, according to people familiar with the matter. Federal prosecutors played selections of the secret recordings last month in a meeting with Laski to show the strength of their case against him and persuade him to cooperate with the investigation, sources said. The outcome of the meeting could not be determined. 'Trying to work out a deal'"He's leaning toward...

CAIRO, Egypt - Muslims in the Middle East and across the Islamic world ended their final sunrise-to-sunset fast and did last-minute shopping for sweets, clothes and toys Wednesday ahead of a three-day holiday celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan. From the Philippines to Morocco, Muslims prepared for the Eid al-Fitr holiday — or started the celebrating right after their last sunset meal. In the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, children paraded through the streets carrying candles. There were fireworks in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Stalls in street markets in Lebanon and Egypt were packed with multi-colored candies,...

Busch Stadium's final bow came under a cool October sky, with class and grace and the tiny, brilliant flashes of drugstore cameras sparkling deep into the night. It ended Wednesday with two of St. Louis' finest, capless and balding in their blue police shirts, standing in the left field grass and tossing a baseball back and forth as if they were still schoolboys. It ended with Emma Ganske, who had driven from her home in Collinsville without a ticket but who had talked herself into the old park at game's end, reaching over a low wall and scooping a handful...