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Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, OSP     The early years of Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, the foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, have been delineated more by oral tradition than by anything else. Elizabeth was born in the 1780s, a native of the Caribbean where havoc was constantly being created by both weather and the will of man. Her country of birth is not documented but oral tradition says she was born in Haiti and moved with her family to Santiago, Cuba.  She received an excellent education and in the early 1800s Elizabeth left Cuba and settled in the United States. By 1813, Providence directed her to Baltimore, Maryland where a...

STOPP International's Ryan Report                                            SPECIAL ISSUE 2003 Summary and Analysis of Planned Parenthood’s Operations in the U.S.Behold the Lord, Jesus Christ, who tries so hard to get our attentionContents:1) Introduction 2) Abortion 3) Planned Parenthood Financial Information 4) Planned Parenthood Organization 5) Planned Parenthood’s National Headquarters 6) Sex Education and Other ‘Services’7) STOPP International's Plan for Defeating Planned Parenthood1) IntroductionThis is the e-mail version of STOPP International’s 2003 Special Issue of the Ryan Report.  Its purpose is to provide detailed information about the very head of the Culture of Death in the U.S. – Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA).  Please...

Amman (AsiaNews) – About 15,000 Christians from Jordan and the Holy Land came today to the shores of the Jordan River to the spot where, according to tradition, Jesus was baptised. They travelled to the holy site, which is just a few kilometres south-west of the Jordanian capital of Amman, to celebrate the Feat of the Theophany.The high point of the event was a holy mass celebrated at 10 am by Mgr Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, with seven leaders of other Churches with a presence in the Holy Land such as the Melkite, Armenian, Maronite, Chaldean, Coptic...

Dear Colleague, A major UN conference is brewing. This one on disabilities. The UN is trying to draft a global treaty that could promote homosexuality and euthanasia. Yours truly, Austin Ruse President ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ January 14, 2004 Volume 8, Number 4 UN to Draft Sweeping Convention on All "Disabilities"    Next week the United Nation convenes a working group to continue drafting an international convention on people with disabilities. The eventual treaty will set domestic legislation on disabilities as treaties are legal documents binding states that ratify them. There is a strong push to finish the Convention this year, and currently...

Damour lay across the Sidon - Beirut highway about 20 km south of Beirut on the slopes of a foothill of the Lebanon range. On the other side of the road, beyond a flat stretch of coast, is the sea. It was a town of some 25,000 people, containing five churches, three chapels, seven schools, private and public, and one public hospital where Muslims from near by villages were treated along with the Christians, at the expense of the town. On 9 January 1976, three days after Epiphany, the priest of Damour Father Mansour Labaky, was carrying out a Maronite...

What are we to say about a human condition in which "Nature red in tooth and claw" rears up on its massive hindquarters, and hurls a 30-foot wall of water against the lowlands of eleven of the poorest and most populous nations on earth, including some playgrounds of the rich of Europe and America, and crushes, chokes, and twists away the lives of going past 150,000 human beings? "Nature" is not the way the Greens picture it. Nature batters human beings. Nature has annihilated tens of thousands of other species, why not the human species? Most of the public voices...

Homosexual attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department Civil Rights Division not only attended a large homosexual event in Philadelphia last year, but they advised police on the scene who arrested 11 Christian protesters, says a source within the agency. According to the Justice Department employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, a number of agency attorneys from Washington, D.C., attended the October "OutFest" event, and, he says, they therefore are not likely to take up the cause of the five criminally charged Christians who believe Philadelphia officials violated their civil rights. As WorldNetDaily reported, on Oct. 10, the group...

YMCA Chief Fired for Transgender Ball Flap Dec 24, 10:00 AM (ET) CHICAGO (AP) - A YMCA director has been fired and overnight facility rentals banned after the parents of young children arriving for a morning swim meet clashed with participants in an overnight transgender fashion show and ball. Greg Weider, who had been acting director of the New City YMCA for two years, was fired Wednesday. Programming manager Michael Horton, who oversaw scheduling at the center, resigned two days earlier. "We've taken very swift, decisive action, and we will do everything we can in order to restore the...

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - An Arizona church pastor accused of molesting a Florida boy eight years ago has been arrested, authorities said. Robert A. Enersen, 54, pastor of the First Assembly of God church in Douglas, Ariz., faces three counts of lewd assault on a child and is being held in an Arizona jail without bail after his Monday arrest, a Polk County (Fla.) sheriff's report said.The charges also include accusations from boys in Michigan and North Carolina.A representative with the Assemblies of God national headquarters said Tuesday the organization was not aware of Enersen's arrest. He does not have...

The Australian site "Christianity.net.au" has a page on How can we know the bible is a reliable document? which is worth a look. As the opening paragraphs state, The reliability of the Bible has been attacked by those outside the Christian faith and even by some who claim to be 'Biblical Scholars'. Yet despite these attacks the Bible has stood the test of time and continues to be a world best seller. Throughout its long history people from different cultures and all walks of life have read the Bible and recognised it as the Word of God. Christians readily acknowledge...

A Methodist minister who was defrocked for declaring that she is a lesbian living with her partner ... Ms. Stroud decided last week to appeal, but delayed the announcement until after Christmas weekend. ... Ms. Stroud said she hesitated to appeal because she is tired and dislikes being in the spotlight, but "there are questions the larger church needs to discuss and wrestle with." She said one factor in her decision was something retired Bishop Joseph Yeakel, the judge who presided at her church trial, said to her after the verdict. Bishop Yeakel told Ms. Stroud "the day will come...

The Embryonic Jesus Story At this time of year, we focus on Christ's birth, but there is a fascinating incident the Bible describes near the beginning of Jesus' human life, several months prior. It is the Embryonic Jesus Story.Luke 1 tells about the first person besides Jesus' mother and earthly father who recognized He was extraordinary – Jesus' cousin John, while John was yet a fetus, and Jesus was but an embryo. When John was a preborn 6-month-old, his Aunt Mary came to visit John's expectant mother Elizabeth, her cousin. Mary was newly pregnant with Jesus. Luke 1:41 says when...

A 12-year-old New Hampshire boy who wanted to jolly up his junior high dance by dressing in a Santa suit instead got a lesson in political correctness when his Scroogelike principal turned the student away, fearing he might offend his classmates.

In America today, Christians have many enemies and few friends. I would like to be counted among the latter. It might appear odd that, as a Jew, I would support Christians and the concept of Christian America. Once upon a time, it would have seemed equally strange for a Christian to call himself a Zionist.But the world is forever and relentlessly changing. As a member of one of the most persecuted minorities in history, I can relate to what Christians are experiencing in the first decade of the 21st century.In America today, devout Christians are rapidly assuming the roles traditionally...

In an incident the YMCA is calling "a very regrettable scheduling error," kids arriving for an early-morning swim meet Sunday walked into a gender-bending scene of the kind most of them wouldn't be allowed to watch on TV. Several of the kids' angry parents clashed with participants in a transgender fashion show, which had been under way at the New City YMCA since about midnight, resulting in a chaotic melee that was eventually broken up by private security guards and East Chicago District police. A YMCA member had reserved the entire facility, at 1515 N. Halsted, from 11 p.m. Saturday...

Here is a list of “religious” members of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. The list is from their website. Some may be surprised to see that their “churches” are officially pro-abort “churches.” The list: Conservative Judaism Rabbinical Assembly United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Women’s League for Conservative Judaism Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church Ethical Culture Movement American Ethical Union National Service Conference of the American Ethical Union Humanist Judaism Society for Humanistic Judaism Presbyterian Church (USA) Presbyterians Affirming Reproductive Options (PARO) Women’s Ministries Washington Office Reconstructionist Movement Jewish Reconstructionist Federation Reform Judaism Central Conference of American Rabbis North American...

The false spider mite has been revealed as the first known animal to make do with only one set of chromosomes, challenging traditional theories of evolution... Using standard sequencing techniques, Weeks's team found the mites' chromosomes to be very different. As far as the researchers could tell, none of the mites carried two identical copies of any particular gene. They conclude that the species is exclusively haploid. Weeks thinks being exclusively haploid might give the animals an evolutionary advantage... This genetic state may be rare simply because diploidy was "frozen" early in evolution and other animals haven't had the...

A couple who placed an anti-abortion sign on their Dauphin County home are refusing to heed borough officials' demand to remove the sign or risk a $500 fine and up to two months in jail. Paxtang officials say the sign violates the borough ordinance that permits "signs for public, religious and charitable institutions and uses such as parks, schools, churches and similar uses." Colman and Frances Wessel attached the sign to their front porch three weeks ago. "We're just exercising our freedom of speech and religion," said Colman Wessel said. "Is it the pro-life words or the picture of Jesus...

VATICAN CITY, JULY 29, 2004 (Zenit.org).- We should take the devil "very seriously," but without losing confidence in the love of God, says the theologian of the Pontifical Household. Cardinal Georges Cottier gave this interview in the wake of last Saturday's murder of a priest in the cathedral of Santiago, Chile. The killing was linked to Satanism. Q: In the great mystery of evil, how much does the action of the devil count and how much responsibility does man bear? Cardinal Cottier: The devil is without a doubt the great seducer because he tries to lead man to sin by...

Sister Grace Marie is requesting prayers for her Mother Margaret Ihlenfeldt who is gravely ill with cancer. Please pray that God's mercy, grace, and wisdom will touch Margaret, and give her courage and peace. Please pray that Grace Marie, and her family who are gathered around her Mom will be strengthened by God's love at this difficult time. If you ever watch EWTN, and you've heard prayers said by a young woman with an English accent-that's Grace Marie. She asked me to post this as she knows Freepers are uber-prayer warriors.