A deadly rainstorm brought traffic chaos to major Lebanese cities, including the capital Beirut and its suburbs, as students returned to schools following the Christmas and New Year holidays, and workers and employees struggled to head to work.   The torrential downpours that started on Saturday and are expected to last till Wednesday left […]

By Fr. Greg J. Markey

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (Catholic Online) – The beginning of each year is often a time of “New Year Resolutions”, and a wonderful resolution for 2009 would be to start exercising the option of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue in Mass. Let me explain why.  This past summer Catholics were horrified when a professor at the University of Minnesota willfully desecrated the Eucharist. On the internet Professor Paul Zachary Myers invited anyone to obtain for him a consecrated Host from a Catholic Church so that he could desecrate It. Another man read about the request and took a Host from the London Oratory, videotaping Himself taking It from the Mass. He then sent the Host to Professor Myers and posted the video on the internet.

Professor Myer then proceeded to drive a rusty nail through the Host in order to show the “absurdity” of the Catholic belief in the True Presence, and posted photos of the event on his website. Unfortunately the event set off a series of copycat crimes, and these desecrations are all over the internet.  What can be behind so much hatred? Even a child understands that it is not right to mock what others hold to be sacred. I have offered Mass in reparation for this sacrilege, and I know that many good Catholics have also done forms of prayer and penance in order to console the wounded heart of Our Lord.

  Cairo (CNN) — The controversial Qatari TV network Al Jazeera has bought Current TV, gaining access to millions more U.S. viewers and taking a major step forward in cracking the longed-for U.S. market. The move is the network’s crowning achievement in the U.S. after years struggling to be accepted in the wake of the […]

  اتفقت لجنة بكركي الرباعية التي تضم الكتائب والتيارالوطني الحر وحزب القوات وتيار المردة إثر إجتماع عقدته مساء الأحد في بكركي على التمسك بقانون اللقاء الأرثوذكسي عشية إجتماع اللجنة النيابية لمناقشة قانون الإنتخابات .  

    CAIRO: Egypt’s minority Coptic Christians celebrate on Monday their first Christmas under Islamist rule and amid a climate of fear and uncertainty for their future. "I do not really feel safe," says Ayman Ramzi, who feels his community threatened by the rise of Islamists in the world’s biggest Sunni Arab nation. He was summarising the […]

  يزور رئيس الجمهورية العماد ميشال سليمان روسيا يومي 22 و23 من الشهر الجاري، للمرة الاولى هذا العام، تلبية لدعوة رسميّة وجهها اليه بطريرك موسكو وروسيا كيريل الاول، وقد نقلها الى الرئيس سليمان رئيس المؤسسة الدوليّة لوحدة الشعوب الاورثوذكسية فاليري اليكسيف خلال زيارته لبنان للتعزية بوفاة البطريرك اغناطيوس الرابع هزيم. وعلم ان المؤسسة المذكورة ستسلّم […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi highlighted on Sunday the importance of dialogue, noting that the Lebanese people are “bound” by it. He wondered during his Sunday sermon at Bkirki: “Is it possible that officials have rejected dialogue that was aimed at tackling fateful affairs?”   “Lebanon’s diverse social fabric distinguishes it as a country of dialogue,” […]

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Syrian jetfighters flew several times Friday over the northern border region of Lebanon before carrying out raids on a hilltop castle in the Homs Gap in Syria, security sources said. The sources told The Daily Star the jets made several passes over the border regions of Wadi Khaled and Jabal Akroum starting 2:30 […]

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat revealed on Friday that the reconciliation in the Mountains was complete after the end of violations against Christian properties in a mixed village in the Shouf district. “We will hold a reconciliation ceremony under the auspices of the (Maronite) patriarch and the president after the wound of the town […]