In the face of all that happens in the Middle East, I try to pay special attention to the plight of the Christians in that ancient land which has such a rich place in our Christian history.  I also try, as Editor in Chief of Catholic Online, to call regular attention to the plight of our Christian brethren who suffer such intense persecution precisely because they remain faithful to the ancient faith. Our Catholic Christian faith precedes in time and history the presence of Islam in Syria. I am helped in my efforts by some of our excellent writers like Michael Terheyden, whose coverage of the challenges faced by Christians in the Middle East is one of the many great resources we offer our readers.
I am always happy to find good news to report on in the midst of the seemingly unending stream of bad news. When I do, I want to bring it to you, our dear readers, whose prayer propels its multiplication. On Thursday I read a great report in Asia news entitled "Trappist nuns in Azeir, a sign of hope for Syria at war". 

This reliable news service is one of my "go to" sources for news on the Middle East. Here is an excerpt: "Amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, when the main noise has been the sound of bombs going off and the screams of those they wounded, there are still some places where the prevailing hatred is held at bay. One of them is a Trappist monastery in the small Maronite village of Azeir, located in western Syria between the cities of Tartous and Homs." 

"Five Italian nuns from the Monastery of Valserena (Pisa) call it home. Despite the fighting raging around them, they chose to stay in the country. "Despite our Italian nationality," said Sister Monica, superior of the Mother House, "and the resources we might have because of it, we are part of this community and cannot leave at a time of trial. Its fate is our fate." "In letters written over the past few months and posted on the monastery’s website, the nuns describe the tragedies of the war and the suffering endured by the residents of the villages that surround them. For the sisters, the monastery is a tangible sign of hope.

"A place where God is worshiped in his real presence, both Eucharistic and Ecclesial, through prayers and brotherly communion, is a blessing for all." However, "Our neighbours are discouraged," said one of the letters posted. "Even in our small village, civilians and young conscripts have been killed."

"The country," wrote another, "has become a battleground for adversaries that are bigger than Syria, people who came to fight in this land and this people to settle their own conflicts." In each post, the Trappist nuns call on all Christians to pray for the Syrian population that welcomed them. According to them, "people want justice, freedom, democracy but also jobs and a chance to go out with the family." "During the months of war, Muslims came to the monastery, not only to ask for basic items, but also for some comfort."Some young people began turning to us because they needed someone to help them think, grow and reflect," one nun said.

"The nuns responded to such requests with their life, full of prayers and small actions, like growing vegetables in the garden and tending the orchard, which produces all sorts of fruit," another nun said. Bearing witness in this simple fashion helps people have hope and stand up to hatred,  mindful of the traditions of this land where Christians and Muslims have lived in peace for centuries. "Our trust in man comes from Christian hope and it is stronger than all the horrors," Sister Monica wrote. "Christians are called to bear witness to it in the world. Since we have been called to Syria, why leave?

They also reveal the beauty of the prophetic and timeless mission of the whole Catholic Church. In 2005 they left their beautiful Monastery of Valserena in Italy to found a monastery in Syria.They left a place of peace for a place plagued by the intrinsic evil of war. Why would they do this? 

First, because they really know Jesus Christ. They also did so because they were inspired by the heroic witness of seven Cistercian monks of Tibhirine who were martyred in 1996 in Algeria. The witness of these heroic monks is chronicled in an extraordinary film entitled "Of Gods and Men"

The race for the White House is close and the outcome might not be known until the day after the election. That’s the take from Karl Rove, the GOP political strategist whose American Crossroads super PAC and its affiliate, Crossroads GPS, have budgeted more than $300 million on presidential, U.S. Senate and U.S. House races this year.

The Erie Times-News interviewed Rove on Thursday about the election and his upcoming visit to Erie. Rove will speak Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m., as part of the Jefferson Educational Society’s fourth Global Summit. Rove, a former deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, predicts that Republican nominee Mitt Romney will win the Nov. 6 election. "I think Romney is going to win this, but it’s going to be a very, very close election,” he said. Rove said in an opinion piece in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal that President Barack Obama’s problem remains the sluggish economy. Rove’s super PAC is doing its part for Romney, spending money on television commercials, mailings and Internet ads in the key swing states of Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. "We’ve had activity in all those states,” he said.

Rove’s groups are also involved in about a dozen U.S. House and another 12 Senate races, he said. It has not spent money on the tightening U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania between incumbent Democrat Bob Casey and Republican nominee Tom Smith. Both Obama and Romney are spending a lot of time in Ohio, and the campaigns and PACs are blitzing the state with commercials. But Rove said Ohio — and its 18 electoral votes — is not the only key to the White House. And he doesn’t agree with the oft-cited argument that a Republican cannot reach 270 electoral votes without Ohio. "It’s always easier to win with Ohio, but there are 11 combinations given the current (electoral) map,” he said. Asked whether he thinks Pennsylvania is out of play for Romney, Rove said he thinks the Republican nominee has a chance. "If you take a look at the public polls, the state has moved in Romney’s direction as the country has,” he said. No money has been spent on the presidential race in Pennsylvania since August, and the state — traditionally one of the battlegrounds — has seen few visits from the candidates. But Rove noted that GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan campaigned near Pittsburgh last Saturday. Rove left open the possibility that his super PAC could spend money in Pennsylvania.

Asked about Colin Powell’s endorsement Thursday of Obama, Rove called that expected since Powell, a moderate Republican, backed the president four years ago.Rove doesn’t think the endorsement from Powell, secretary of state under President George W. Bush, will make much of a difference. "Endorsements are overblown, particularly when they’re expected. It had more impact in 2008,” he said. "It had a man-bites-dog kind of surprise to it.”With less than two weeks until the election, both candidates must work to ”close the sale with the people that are up for grabs,” Rove said.

President Barack Obama made one candid admission in an interview with The Des Moines Register that originally was off-the-record but subsequently released after some pressure by the publication.

Here’s the key quote:

"The second thing I’m confident we’ll get done next year is immigration reform. And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt. Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee [Mitt Romney] and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community. And this is a relatively new phenomenon. George Bush and Karl Rove were smart enough to understand the changing nature of America. And so I am fairly confident that they’re going to have a deep interest in getting that done. And I want to get it done because it’s the right thing to do and I’ve cared about this ever since I ran back in 2008."

Rome, Italy, Oct 25, 2012 / 04:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the country approaches election day in two weeks, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia is encouraging Catholic voters to place their faith above their allegiance to political parties.

“I’m always encouraging our people minimally to vote, maximally to run for political office, and make sure that they’re Catholic prior to being Democrat or Republican and that they put that into practice politically,” he told CNA in Rome on Oct. 22.

Archbishop Chaput echoed the calls of other American bishops to have their flocks consider their faith in the voting booth.

“We do believe in the separation of church and state, but we don’t believe in the separation of faith from our political life,” he said.

“It’s very important for Catholics to make distinctions when voting that they never support intrinsic evils like abortion, which is evil in all circumstances. That’s a lot different from different economic policies” that people can reasonably disagree on, the archbishop explained.

His remarks come as an Oct. 22 Gallup poll shows the “economy in general” is the issue rated most important by Americans as the election nears.

“But people who are practicing Catholics cannot have alternate views on abortion,” he stated. “Such foundational issues have a huge impact and it’s important that Catholics make those distinctions.”

“A person (candidate) might be right on a lot of secondary issues but wrong on the foundational issues. And if that’s the case, it would be very difficult for a Catholic to vote for someone who, for example, favors unlimited access to abortion … undermines the meaning of marriage or supports policies that really undermine the foundation of our culture.”

Archbishop Chaput sees Philadelphia as a great example of both Catholic and civic virtue. He noted that it both produced two canonized saints, John Neumann and Katherine Drexel, and was the location of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the writing of the U.S. Constitution.

Khazen.org congratulates the Lebanese nation, the Maronites and the Catholic Maronite Church  on the nomination of our Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara el Rai.

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

When others began congratulating the patriarch, Archbishop Thottunkal continued his brief interview, saying, "For our church, it’s a great honor from the Holy See, recognizing our apostolates as well as our missions in India and all over." The cardinal-designate said the appointment also is an honor for India: "It’s great culture and people," and the Vatican recognizes "the great unity in diversity of our country." Cardinal-designate Tagle said a bishop’s job often involves keeping secrets, so spending the morning with other synod members and not breathing a word about the news was not a huge challenge. He told CNS that Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, informed him of the pope’s decision just before 5 p.m. the previous evening. "Listening to the text of the pope’s letter being read out to me, I also felt like — here it comes," he said, fighting back tears, — "it felt like someone far greater than I am is here. Very near." He told Vatican Radio the announcement was "a spiritual experience for me," and that his initial reaction was "to respond with the words of the prayer before Communion: ‘I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,’ but I felt that someone greater than me has come to call me."

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 50% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 46%. Two percent (2%) prefers some other candidate, and two percent (2%) are undecided.

This is the second straight day with Romney enjoying a 4-point advantage. Prior to that, with the exception of the convention bounces, neither candidate had led by more than three points for months. However, it is not clear whether this represents a lasting change in the race or is merely statistical noise. See daily tracking history.

These updates are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, approximately two-thirds of the interviews for today’s update were completed before the end of Monday night’s presidential debate. The single night of interviews conducted after the debate is similar to the two-point advantage Romney has enjoyed recently rather than the current four-point spread. As always, caution should be used when interpreting a single night of data in a tracking poll. Friday morning will be the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the final debate.

Mitt Romney has advanced to a slight lead over Barack Obama in trust to handle the economy, and Obama has slipped beneath a clear majority in who better understands the public’s economic problems – two key metrics of the 2012 presidential race. These trends in the latest ABC News/Washington Post daily tracking poll aren’t strong enough to change current preferences, nor is the 2-1 view that Obama won Monday night’s final debate. But they’re among the underlying dynamics making the race seem closer now than a month ago. See PDF with full results and charts here.

The candidates remain essentially tied, with 49 percent of likely voters for Romney, 48 percent for Obama in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. That includes vast and sharpening gaps among some groups, with highs for both candidates among core supporters.

One example is white men, in particular those who lack a college degree; almost all of the recent shifts in trust on the economy and perceived economic empathy have occurred in this group. Romney’s support among white men is its highest of the campaign, a 2-1 margin, 65-32 percent. That compares with 57-41 percent, McCain-Obama, in the 2008 exit poll.

While it’s closer among white women, 53-44 percent, Romney-Obama, that very broad support among white men lifts Romney to a new high among whites overall, 59 percent. And it expands the gender gap to a new high as well: A 17-point lead for Romney among men, 57-40 percent, compared with a 15-point advantage for Obama among women, 56-41 percent.

And it’s men, compared to four years ago, who are making it close. Obama beat John McCain among women in 2008 by 13 points, similar to his margin over Romney today. But McCain only tied Obama among men, a far cry from Romney’s large advantage in this group now.

Obama pushes back among other groups. One example is Hispanics, whom Obama described as crucial to his re-election in a Des Moines Register interview released today. While they make up a small share of the national electorate in this survey, 8 percent (about the same as in 2008), Obama is supported by 75 percent of Hispanics – a new high this season, and more than his 67 percent in the 2008 exit poll. They indeed could be critical in close states, or in those with larger concentrations of Hispanic voters.

  Following events in Lebanon from the United States, as I have done during the past week, leaves one with the impression that most media in the U.S. are eager to see a resumption of the devastating and wasteful civil war that ravaged Lebanon for 15 years until 1990. Virtually every story on Lebanon is […]

  President Michel Suleiman carried on his consultations on Wednesday with Lebanese foes over the deteriorating situation in the country and the possibility of resuming the national dialogue sessions as soon as possible. Suleiman held talks on Wednesday with Hizbullah’s Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc head MP Mohammed Raad at the Baabda Palace. The president will […]