It was the biggest performance in the short history of the Damascus Opera House. On Sunday, Jan. 6, a worldwide audience watched embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad take center stage and deliver a familiar monologue on the legitimacy, resilience, and victimization of his authoritarian regime. Assad has made four similar speeches since the beginning of […]

Demonstrators blocked the road outside the French embassy in Beirut on Monday after a French court postponed the release of Lebanese leftist militant George Abdallah, who has spent 28 years in jail, as Prime Minister Najib Miqati condemned the “unjustified” delay. Dozens of leftist protesters and supporters of Abdallah rallied in front of Paris’ embassy […]

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (Catholic Online) – Twin brothers living together in Belgium, deaf from birth, were told by a physician they would soon go blind. Supposedly unable to bear the thought of never seeing one another again, they chose euthanasia and were killed by lethal injection in a Belgian hospital on Dec. 14 of last year.  Doctors concluded the brothers were of sound mind and made the mutual decision fully aware of what they were doing, except perhaps from a moral standpoint.  Belgian law permits euthanasia to be carried out by doctors if the patients make their wishes clear and are suffering pain, which is unbearable.

According to national statistics, a full one percent of all deaths in the country are now the result of euthanasia. Most of those cases are for terminal cancer. The suicide of the twin brothers is unusual because neither man was dying and their pain was psychological rather than physical.  According to a report in the Telegraph, the brothers worked as cobblers. Neither of the men has been named.  RTL Television reported that doctor David Dufor "presided over the euthanasia." The doctor stressed that the men made the decision to end their lives "in full conscience." He also added that it was a "relief" to see them end their suffering.

Just prior to their euthanasia procedure, the brothers enjoyed cups of coffee, and spoke with their parents. Dufor described that conversation in positive terms, saying it was "rich." Despite the sanitary description of the euthanasia being offered by the doctor and the media, the horror story does not end with the ill-advised decision of these brothers. Instead, it takes a twist for the macabre as the legislature considers an amendment to the law, which could open the floodgates and allow euthanasia of Alzheimer sufferers and children.  For now, the amendment, offered by the Socialists, is tabled. The law would allow euthanasia of minors on the condition "they are capable of discernment, or beset by an incurable illness or suffering that cannot be alleviated." Of course, one must wonder how often children are truly capable of appreciating the ramifications of their decisions.  The forecast is that parliament will take up and eventually pass the amendment.  Physician assisted suicide is legal in a number of places including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and in the U.S. state of Oregon. These pockets of legalized euthanasia have given rise to a sick form of tourism, suicide tourism.  Most suicide tourists come from surrounding European countries.

Vatican City, Jan 11, 2013 / 01:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict’s mass of 2.5 million followers in eight languages during his first month on Twitter has one Vatican priest calling the pontiff’s online presence “a new frontier” of evangelization. Father Paolo Padrini, a collaborator of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said it is good that the Pope has so many followers, but it even more important that the Pope “seeks to co-exist and share on Twitter.” “Being present in social media is evangelizing, if just for the fact that he is present with his words,” he told CNA Jan. 11.

“It’s a great joy to see the Pope’s words being disseminated, a joy that is held by all believers.” Twitter is a social media service that allows users to send out 140-character messages, called “tweets,” to other users who follow their accounts. Followers and others may then share these tweets with their own followers with a “re-tweet.”
 
The Pope’s first tweet on his personal account went out on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Over 64,000 people retweeted his introductory message on his English-language account “Pontifex,” while over 33,000 did so for his Spanish-language account “Pontifex_es.” As of Jan. 11, he has sent out only 21 tweets. He has shared his favorite memory of Christmas, asked for prayers for an end to the Syria conflict and exhorted others to look to Jesus Christ. “Following Christ’s example, we have to learn to give ourselves completely,” the Pope said on Twitter Jan. 9. “Anything else is not enough.” Anyone on Twitter may interact with any other user. Those who have replied to the Pope range from the devout, the appreciative and the inquisitive to the flippant, irreverent and even obscene.

The Pope’s followers are numerous indeed. His English-language account has over 1.4 million subscribers, his Spanish-language account has 575,000 and his Italian-language account has 265,000. His tweets also go out in French, German, Polish, Portuguese and Arabic. His Arabic-language account is the least popular but still has a respectable 18,000 followers.

  With parliament working to decide on an appropriate electoral law to use in elections later this year, an old proposal has reemerged from the dustbin to take headlines this past week. The Orthodox Gathering’s proposed draft law gained attention when the four major Christian parties agreed to back it in a meeting last Monday. […]

A statement issued by Bkirki after a Christian summit on Friday called for agreeing on an electoral law that secures fair and just representation for all Lebanese communities. "The participants in the summit were Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh,” the statement said, remarking […]