Damascus, Syria, Nov 5, 2014 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite persecution and threats faced by the Catholic faithful in Syria, religious communities in the war-torn country have continued their initiatives to proclaim the message of the Gospel. On Oct. 31, some 50 men and women religious from 16 different congregations of consecrated life met in Damascus with Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, Vicar Apostolic of Aleppo, and Archbishop Mario Zenari,  Apostolic Nuncio to Syria.

“The meeting has been a valuable opportunity of consolation for everyone, which we have offered each other reciprocally,” Bishop Abou Khazen told Fides News Agency. “In situations like the ones we are going through, the love of God can be experienced in practice only if others can see it reflected in the love that we give to our brothers and sisters, with our limitations and weaknesses.”

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A picture shared on social media by an Australian jihadist shows two kids dressed as jihadists and posing with assault rifles. The image was shared by Mounir Raad, from Melbourne Australia. Raad is believed to be fighting for the Islamic State in Syria.  The image demonstrates that the Islamic State is recruiting, preparing, and possibly even using children as fighters in their quest to carve out an Islamic caliphate and terrorist haven in the Middle East.

The image tweeted by Raad is just one of several which have infamously emerged in the months since the Islamic State began its bloody rampage last summer. Images of kids in full military regalia, or with mock-suicide vests on, all turn the stomachs of people in the western world.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Americans have been entirely disenfranchised. Although they will vote today, many will be unsure of what they are actually voting for, and they will cast votes for candidates that barely interest them. Many are participating out of a lingering sense of duty, but most have given up altogether.

No matter who wins, you lose.

This is a toxic development, one that has roots in the collapse of the old Soviet Union. The Cold War was a fearful time for both citizens and elites. Elites, in particular, had to worry about workers turning into communists. To prevent this, wages were kept adequate and generous welfare benefits, public spending, and infrastructure improvements were standard. These were financed by very high taxes on the richest Americans who could pay as much as a 90 percent marginal rate during the most extreme times of the last century. General prosperity made up the difference.

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 Turkey ’s new president has been accused of behaving like a “sultan” after he installed himself in the biggest residential palace in the world, built for a price tag of £384 million.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan now resides in the White Palace, which was constructed in breach of court orders in protected forest land in the capital, Ankara.