Thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world are celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. The day culminated with Christmas Eve Mass at the 1,700-year-old Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where it is believed Jesus was born. In Bethlehem, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Jerusalem voiced his support for […]

  A United States diplomatic source said that the naming of Lebanon’s former Information Minister Michel Samaha to its global terror list was an important step in the fight against terrorism. “[Monday’s] designation of Samaha was important because such designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing […]

  رأس البطريرك الماروني الكاردينال مار بشارة بطرس الراعي قداس الاحد في كابيلا القيامة في الباحة الخارجية للصرح البطريركي في بكركي، عاونه الأساقفة سمير مظلوم، بولس الصياح، منير خير الله ولفيف من الكهنة، وخدمته جوقة "فرق السيدة". حضر القداس النائب نعمة الله أبي نصر على رأس وفد من جامعة آل ضو، السفيرة الاميركية في لبنان […]

  After decades of dormancy, the Levant is rising again. Syria’s war, Lebanon’s seasonal conflicts, and ongoing shifts in Iraq, Egypt and Turkey are restoring the Levant’s characteristic chaos and cosmopolitanism. In turn, instead of continuing to approach the region disjointedly, Washington must resurrect the Levant as an idea.   Beirut, Babylon and beyond: The […]

  Getting to the Rene Mouawad military airport in North Lebanon’s Qlayaat requires a bumpy, half-hour long drive from Tripoli over unpaved country roads, farmland and orchards.  Mahmoud Hussein, 50, one of the landowners in the village, built his house right next to the airport, and his orange orchards are spread out along the fence. […]

  President Michel Suleiman stressed on Saturday the importance of committing to the Baabda declaration to triumph over the developments that the region is passing through. “Disassociating (the country) from the turmoil in neighboring countries is the only way to prevent Lebanon from being affected by the negative repercussion in the region,” Suleiman said after meeting […]

Marktl am Inn, Germany, Dec 21, 2012 / 04:16 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Christmas letter that Pope Benedict XVI wrote to Baby Jesus when he was seven years-old demonstrates his devotion to the Sacred Heart and his desire to be a priest. The letter is on display this Advent in the village of Marktl am Inn in Bavaria, where he was born.

"Dear Baby Jesus, quickly come down to earth. You will bring joy to children. Also bring me joy," he wrote in the 1934 letter, published on the Church-affiliated Italian website Korazym.org. "I would like a Volks-Schott (a Mass prayers book), green clothing for Mass (clerical clothing) and a heart of Jesus. I will always be good. Greetings from Joseph Ratzinger," he wrote in German cursive hard writing called Sütterlinschrift.

The letter, found during the renovation of a house that Joseph Ratzinger’s occupied when he was a professor in Regensburg, was published on Dec. 18. The message was discovered in the estate of his sister Mary, who kept the letter after the Pope’s house was converted into a small museum dedicated to him.

In Korazym’s view, the “letter was uncommon for a seven-year-old since he did not ask for toys or sweets, which were always in front of the Ratzinger family’s nativity for his three brothers." The first thing the Pope wanted was a Schott, one of the first prayer books with the missal in German and a parallel text in Latin. At the time there were two editions in the country, one for adults and one for children.But little Joseph also asked for "green clothing for Mass." The Pope and his brothers used to play the "game of the priest," and their mother, a seamstress, would help them by making clothes similar to those worn by priests, according to an "Inside the Vatican" interview his brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, gave a few years ago. He also asked for a heart of Jesus, referring to an image of the Sacred Heart, which his family was very devoted to.

By F.K. Bartels, GLADE PARK, CO (Catholic Online) — On Wednesday, December 20, 2012, during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorized the Congregation to promulgate a number of decrees. Among them this one, "Servant of God Paul VI, Giovanni Battista Montini, Italian, Supreme Pontiff (1897-1978)." This is the beginning of the long awaited path to his possible canonization. The champion of human life, prophetic Pope Paul VI is now called Venerable.   Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae, promulgated three years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, rapidly became at the time of its release the most intensely mocked and reviled Church document in centuries, perhaps amassing more derision than any other solemn teaching of the Church in the entire history of Christendom. To this day, many Catholic proponents of Pope Paul’s teaching hesitate to mention Humanae Vitae to those who grew up in the 60s and 70s for fear of the averse reactions which not infrequently follow.

On the other hand, Catholics who broach the subject of Humanae Vitae with those whose birthdate allowed them to be spared the brunt of the 60s sexual revolution and acute-suspicion-of-authority influence, experience a different reaction: Paul VIs encyclical is often not part of their vocabulary because they have never heard of it. So the first step is to invite them to read it. The situation with these Catholics, especially those who are approximately thirty years of age and younger, is both interesting and encouraging: once they are properly catechized on the theology of the human body and the spiritual language it speaks, along with the consequences of making a lie of one’s body during the marital act through the use of artificial birth control, treating fertility as if it is a disease, objectifying one’s spouse and refusing to be open to life, they very quickly recognize the profound worth of Pope Paul’s teaching. And not only that; as a result they often develop a deep and lasting appreciation for the Church. They begin to see that the Church is our mother who desires to take us into her womb and, by nourishing her children with the words of truth and the sacraments of life, raise us to new and eternal life in Christ.

  LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Upheaval in the Middle East, demonstrated by a terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya that left four dead has been blamed on an amateur video. "The Innocence of Muslims," an inept film that blasphemes against the Prophet Mohammed has been used as an ostensible […]