The village of Kaa is in the north of the Bekaa Valley, close to the Syrian border. It has a population of some 13,000 Christians, most of them Melkites. After the city of Zahle, this is the home of the country’s the largest Catholic population. Kaa is surrounded by mostly Shiite Muslim communities.

Kaa has been very poor for a long time, with government services largely absent. On July 1, 1975, Islamic extremists from adjacent villages violently attacked the community. Five people were martyred. The government did nothing to intervene. In fact, army reports at the time did not even mention the incident.

After the arrival of Syrian troops in Lebanon in 1978, Kaa residents were divided into those supporting and opposing that presence. The government cracked down on local critics, especially members of the Kataeb party. On June 28, 1978, Syrian intelligence forces arrested 15 young members. Their lifeless bodies were brought back the next morning. That incident left deep scars. It created a climate of fear and many residents opted for moving to Beirut. At the same time, there was an aggressive push to sell local land to outsiders.

By Tara K. E. Brelinsky ZEBULON, NC - On first read I couldn't quite figure out what it was about the headline that bothered me so much. "Homosexuals Have Gifts and Qualities to Offer the Christian Community" was the highlighted statement being used to draw readers into the newly released documents coming out of the Catholic Church's Synod on the Family.

Of course, as one could imagine, a firestorm has been lit on social media and I wasn't really planning to jump in. But once I recognized just what had me so unnerved by that title, I decided weighing in on the matter was worth the risk of getting singed. 

Homosexuals, that's the word that has me uneasy. Because why must we identify a group of people by their self proclaimed "sexual preference"? I mean, it goes without saying (or at least it should) that every person has gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community. Yes, Bob, who may happen to be attracted to Larry, can sing in the choir or minister to the home-bound just as well as Joe, who's married to Linda. So what does homosexuality or heterosexuality have to do with it? Nothing. Well, nothing insomuch as every person is created in the image of God and he has the ability to reflect that image (or not).

In truth, a Christian church which is not welcoming to all people has ceased to be genuinely Christian. Last Sunday's gospel reading (Matthew 22:1-14) was a fitting reminder that God invites all of us, good and bad alike, to join His celebration.

Of course, there was a catch in that gospel parable of the wedding feast. When the host's A-listers RSVP'd "No, thanks, we've got other plans", he sent his servants to invite everyone they happened to find milling about in the streets. The catch was that everyone who came had to leave their street clothes at the door and don the provided wedding garments. Those new duds symbolized the putting on of Christ and repentance from sin.

Controversy prompts Vatican to clarify synod midterm

Vatican City, Oct 14, 2014 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After a media frenzy and lively internal debate were both raised by the publication of the midterm relatio of the Synod of Bishops, its secretariat issued a statement clarifying its merely provisional nature. “The General Secretariat of the Synod … reiterates that it is a working document, which summarizes the interventions and debate of the first week,” said an Oct. 14 declaration of the Holy See press office on behalf of the secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

The statement was made “in response to reactions and discussions following the publication of the Relatio post disceptationem, and the fact that often a value has been attributed to the document that does not correspond to its nature.” The relatio's publication was hailed in the secular media with such headlines as “Synod signals Catholic shift on gays” and “Vatican's New Views On Gays, Divorced”.

The Holy See press office also noted that the relatio “is now being offered for discussion by the members of the Synod gathered in the Small Groups, in accordance with the Regulations of the Synod.” Among the synod fathers who received the relatio less than warmly was Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, O.F.M., of Durban, South Africa's largest port on the Indian Ocean.

Cardinal Napier, a moderator of one of the small circles at the synod, openly dismissed the relatio during an Oct. 14 briefing with journalists, saying, “that’s Cardinal Erdo’s text, not the synod text.” The cardinal questioned whether “some expectations of the synod are unrealistic,” and underscored that “the synod is not called to discuss contraception, abortion, same-sex marriages. It was convoked to speak about the family.” “How it is written, the relatio conveys that there is an agreement on issues, on which there is not in fact an agreement” the Archbishop of Durban underscored. And he concluded: “I hope the line of the synod, not that of some group, prevails.”

  TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Six Syrians were detained Monday during raids in north Lebanon for lacking identification documents, security sources said. Members of …