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Thursday, 17 May 2012 14:18
STEUBENVILLE, OH (Catholic Online) - I graduated from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in May of 1977. As a "revert" to the Catholic Church, I came back to the faith after turbulent years searching for truth and meaning. I was a teenage "hippie", caught up in the sixties and early seventies. During this period I became enamored with the little poor man of Assisi, Francis. In my faith journey I reached out to one of his brothers, a holy Franciscan priest named Fr. Michael Scanlan, T.O.R. who was the rector of a seminary in Pennsylvania. He had just agreed to assume the Presidency of a small college in Steubenville, Ohio and was dedicated to returning it to fidelity to the Catholic faith. I had a year of philosophy while I was discerning a monastic vocation and wanted to continue my studies once I left the monastery. So, with his full support and encouragement, I joined him at that College as one of the "first responders" to his vision. I became a part of the early renewal of that great work of the Holy Spirit now called Franciscan University of Steubenville . I led one of the first student households and helped in many other ways to form the Catholic culture on the campus, one of the distinctive marks of that now extraordinary Catholic College. I became a worker in the vineyard, a part of that miracle of the Lord. I graduated with honors in philosophy and theology. After marrying my wife on the campus we began to have children. I went on to law school in nearby Pittsburgh. Upon graduation I stayed to serve the work of Steubenville in any way that I could, standing with Fr. Michael Scanlan. I learned so much from that wonderful priest and champion of the Church.
Written by
Sunday, 13 May 2012 21:13
PROVIDENCE, RI (Catholic Online) - Thomas J. Tobin is the Bishop of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. He has stood strong in his defense of the dignity of every human person from conception to natural death as well as his defense of true marriage and the family and society founded upon it. He has tried to help erring Catholics, including Catholic politicians in his own Diocese, to turn from error and turn toward the truth. He is solid as a rock in his orthodoxy, but always defends the faith with a pastor's heart. In June of 2011, Rhode Island passed "civil union" legislation. The Bishop knew that such legislation was dangerous to the common good. He recognized that the continuing moral erosion of our culture which has as one of its bad fruits, the movement to eliminate marriage and the family and society founded upon it by giving a moral and legal equivalency to homosexual relationships. The legislation contained what are called "religious exemptions". However, a group of homosexual equivalency activists who called themselves "Marriage Equality Rhode Island", who represent the "LGBTI" (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Intersex) community issued this statement upon the passage of the legislation: "We are extremely disappointed that the Senate brazenly ignored the commonsense objections raised by equality and civil rights leaders here and across the country. This civil union bill contains dangerous and discriminatory language that, without question, will cause significant harm to countless gay and lesbian couples in loving, committed relationships, and we will continue to fight it through whatever means are necessary." "Furthermore, we renew our request that the governor veto this hurtful and ill conceived bill. To not do so would be a slap in the face to the gay and lesbian community, and every Rhode Islander who cares about equal rights and protections for all our state's citizens."
Written by
Saturday, 12 May 2012 23:42
Hail to the Chief President Michel Suleiman,
Written by
Sunday, 6 May 2012 22:32
Compare and Contrast French and US election. Surprising numbers.
Compare and Contrast electoral Map and votes of the United States presidential election in 2008 vs Electoral Map in France votes in 2012.
Written by News
Sunday, 6 May 2012 00:03
Perhaps “cloud computing” has become one of those redundant phrases as well. I recently had the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion on cloud at IBM’s Impact conference. One of the panelists, Dr. Angel Diaz, vice president of software standards & cloud for IBM, predicted that we may not even be using the term “cloud” within the next five years – any and all forms of computing will be taking advantage of a mix of network and local resources. In the meantime, another IBMer, Chris Dotson, wants to make the point that cloud, as it exists today – occurs in many different forms. He provides four reasons why the term “cloud” gets brutally misused across the industry:
Written by News
Saturday, 5 May 2012 23:22
The Lebanon Daily Star, Lebanon's media received poor marks on a newly released report on media in the Arab world, receiving an overall grade of just over 2 out of 4 in the Media Sustainability Index for 2010-11. Surprisingly, its grade for freedom of speech (1.99) was one of its lowest in six different areas related to the media, although the country is often hailed as an oasis of media freedom compared to other countries in the region. The rankings were announced during a panel discussion organized Thursday by Maharat Foundation, a local media watchdog, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. The index is composed of six "objectives," or areas in which a country receives a numerical grade on a scale of 4: freedom of speech, professional journalism, plurality of news, business management, supporting institutions and serving public needs. Representatives of media outlets, NGOs, professional associations and academic institutions served as the primary sources of information in drafting the report. While most of the scores saw slight increases and decreases since 2005, when the process was launched, Lebanon's score when it comes to "supporting institutions" for the media significantly dipped from 2.34 in 2005, to only 1.64 in 2011. Even though the report cited several initiatives undertaken by different universities, newspapers and NGOs to launch training programs for journalists, these efforts have largely failed in terms of sustainability, resulting in the low "supporting institutions score." The report highlighted the inactive role of the Journalists Union, which it said has "closed its doors to working media professionals, failed to hold elections for years, and had done little to defend the rights of journalists." Other reasons provided by the report were difficulties in the country's electricity, Internet and infrastructure which negatively affect the performance of media. The media's lowest grade (1.28) in "serving public needs," a newly introduced objective in the index. According to panelists who contributed to the report, media outlets are not undertaking reform or supporting discussions leading to reform; they only wait to see what politicians say in order to identify their reporting angle.
Written by News
Sunday, 15 April 2012 15:43
In an unprecedented move in French diplomacy, newscasts on several TV channels showed the first few minutes of a video link-up between the French president and his Washington counterpart.Days before the 22 April first-round vote in the French presidential election, the rare glimpse of banter between world leaders shows Obama saying of the campaign, "It must be a busy time." He adds: "I admire the tough battle you are waging." Sarkozy replies, grinning and with arms folded: "We will win, Mr Obama. You and me, together." The cameras leave before the presidents talk about Syria, Iran and oil. Washington told Le Monde it had indeed been aware that cameras were authorised to film the first few minutes of the video conference.
Three Musketeers of Obama's in mission to Paris: John Del Cecato presidential strategist David Axelrod, Cornell Belcher, pollster, and Stephen Geer, "inventor" of fundraising on the Internet. They have contributed to the electoral triumph of 2008 and remain mobilized alongside the outgoing President for appointment in November 2012. Suffice to say that the visit "private" in recent days in the French capital, at the initiative of Olivier Piton, installed French lawyer in the U.S., instead of motivations "professional".
Written by News
Sunday, 1 April 2012 01:44
By Michael Terheyden, Leaders of the Salafist movement are calling the late Coptic Pope, Shenouda III, the "head of the infidels." Wagdy Ghoneim actually celebrated his death in a message posted on Facebook. The Salafist cleric said, "We rejoice that he is destroyed.... May God have His revenge on him in the fire of hell - he and all who walk his path." This is true hate speech. As we enter into Holy Week we need to pray for the Coptic Christians. KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - According to an article written by Wayne King and published on Compass Direct, as the Coptic community mourns the death of their beloved religious leader, his Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Salafis are hurling hateful insults at him. The title of the article is "Salafist Leaders Celebrate Death of Coptic Pope in Egypt." The writer says that these attacks reflect open contempt for the Copts.
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