Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s envoy Bishop Samir Mazloum lamented the eruption of the dispute between the Christian Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Forces over the parliamentary electoral law, urging calm to resolve their differences, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper Saturday. He told the daily: “A meeting between the two sides has not been scheduled due to the […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged lawmakers to agree on an electoral law that meets the aspirations of the Lebanese people, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday. "MPs must reach an accord over a vote law that meets the aspirations of Lebanese people inside the country and around the world,” al-Rahi said after meeting […]

  BEIRUT – Somehow, the shots missed Jesus. He survived the rampage by armed men in St. George’s Cathedral during the Lebanese civil war. But since the mosaic of which he is a part is otherwise shell-pocked, his figure has become something of an attraction. The cathedral is not far from downtown Beirut’s posh hotels, […]

  BEIRUT: U.S. Coordinator for Middle East Affairs Philip Gordon, who is on an official visit to Lebanon, condemned Tuesday Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria alongside the regime of President Bashar Assad. The U.S. official also announced that Washington would offer an additional $10 million to help support Syrian refugees in Lebanon.   During his visit to […]

  Despite the recent kerfuffle on social media and promises of street action from activists, a 1.3 kilometer road known as the Fouad Butrous Highway will be built in Ashrafieh, the vice president of Beirut’s Municipal Council told NOW.   “The tender has been accomplished,” Nadim Abu Rizk, from the council, told NOW. “The contractor […]

  The UAE foreign ministry on Sunday advised Emirati citizens not to travel to Lebanon “except in case of utmost necessity” due to “the current situation in the region, especially in Lebanon.” ”If necessary, holders of diplomatic and special passports planning to travel to Lebanon should obtain prior permits from the Ministry and should coordinate with […]

KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) – I cannot help but wonder at two opposing visions of women on Mother’s Day: the postmodern feminist vision and the Catholic vision. In my first article, I explored a feminist vision of women. In this article, I will explore a Catholic vision using two sources written by Blessed John Paul II: The Gospel of Life and On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, which was written 25-years-ago come this August.

In The Gospel of Life, John Paul II says man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence. This supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in its temporal phase. Life in time is the fundamental condition, the initial stage and an integral part of the entire unified process of human existence.

Human existence is a process of divinization made possible in and through Christ. It reaches its full realization only in eternity. This means that human life is a sacred reality to be preserved and brought to perfection in love as a gift of ourselves to God and to each other.

• By Michael Terheyde

KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) – I cannot help but wonder at two opposing visions of women on Mother’s Day: the postmodern feminist vision and the Catholic vision. I will explore each of them in separate articles. In this article, I will look at postmodern feminism and explore its vision. The postmodern world we live in reminds me of two popular novels from the late 1800’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. In both novels, their author, Lewis Carroll, makes reason into a toy and turns reality on its head. Postmodernism does likewise.   I see modern feminism, which is dominated by radical feminism, as the epitome of Postmodernism. It finds sustenance in the darkest corridors of the postmodern world. And from these dark places, it constructs a fantasy narrative used to justify its ugly war of hatred against men, marriage, family, and the harsh realities of economic life, all of which it battles via politics and control of the general population.

As you can tell, I have a very negative view of feminism. But it was not always so. When I was young, I was open to what feminists had to say. It was when I listened to them and watched them spread their tentacles throughout society, that I formed an opinion on feminism. Some of my early recollections included the following statements made by leading feminists:  The feminist philosopher Sandra Harding, called Newton’s Principia Matematica a "rape manual." Luce Irigaray, a linguist and pseudo philosopher, claimed that E=mc² is a "sexed equation." Musicologist, Susan McClary, described the first movement from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as follows: ". . . the carefully prepared cadence is frustrated, damming up energy which finally explodes in the throttling murderous rage of a rapist incapable of attaining release."

I believe these statements represent the fantasy narrative which dominates feminism today. This narrative is largely based on five major postmodern categories. You may recall them: metaphysics which rejects truth and God; epistemology, which claims we cannot know; human nature, which emphasizes the malleability of people; ethics, which emphasizes groups in conflict with each other; and politics, which emphasizes egalitarianism, socialism and the acquisition of power.

  President Michel Suleiman stated on Friday that Lebanon’s economy and democratic system will protect it against challenges. He added: “The Baabda Declaration and a defense strategy that places the resistance’s arms at the will of the army will protect Lebanon against any Israeli assault.” He also stressed the need to equip the army with modern weapons. […]

  انها حتما المرة الاولى التي تتم فيها مناقشة كتاب حول طانيوس شاهين بمشاركة خازنية. وهي ايضا المرة الاولى التي يتم فيها تناول هذا الموضوع في اطار ندوة فكرية في زوق مكايل، حيث تشكلت النواة الاولى لحركة الاعتراض الكسروانية. عندما طلب مني الاستاذ انطوان سلامه المشاركة في ندوة حول كتابه الجديد، لم اتردد بالقبول، حتى […]