Khazen

White Smoke Rises; New Pope Chosen

  VATICAN CITY — With a puff of white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and to the cheers of thousands of rain-soaked faithful, a gathering of Catholic cardinals picked a new pope from among their midst on Wednesday. The name of the new pope, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, […]

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Suleiman Kicks Off 8-Day Tour to Africa

    President Michel Suleiman headed on Tuesday to Africa on an 8-day tour at the head of a delegation, the state-run National News Agency reported. The President will hold talks with senior African officials in Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria in addition to the Lebanese community in those countries. Suleiman is accompanied by first […]

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Eastern Catholics pay tribute to St. Sophronius on March 11

by Benjamin Mann

.- A courageous leader of the Jerusalem Church during the Islamic conquests of the seventh century, Patriarch Saint Sophronius I has his liturgical memorial on March 11. Though he is acknowledged and celebrated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, St. Sophronius is more commonly venerated among Eastern Catholics and within the Eastern Orthodox churches. All of these traditions commemorate him on the same date, the purported date of his death in 638.

Born in Damascus, Syria, around the year 560, Sophronius came from an esteemed family and received a deep philosophical education. His early devotion to God grew into an inclination toward monastic life, and while still young he entered a monastery in Palestine. He became a friend and student of John Moschus, his fellow monk who would become an important spiritual writer in the Eastern Christian tradition. The Zoroastrian Persians – long-standing military rivals of the Byzantine Empire, hailing from present-day Iran – invaded Palestine in 605. As a result the two monks fled first to Antioch and then Egypt. But their flight became a spiritual quest, taking John and Sophronius to many monasteries throughout the Middle East. Moschus’ memoir of their travels, entitled “The Spiritual Meadow,” survives and is still read in the Church to this day.

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Florists, bus drivers and technicians take oath
 
.- This evening 90 people who will assist the Conclave in various capacities took an oath of secrecy not to divulge anything about it or the events surrounding it. Among the people participating are “religious for the sacristy, religious for confession, nurses and doctors, waiters and food service personnel from Santa Marta, technical assistants, and people who clean Santa Marta and the Vatican,” said Vatican press director Father Federico Lombardi at a March 11 briefing. The list also includes less obvious personnel, such as florists, minibus drivers who transport the cardinals to the Sistine Chapel, and the heads of the Swiss Guard and Vatican Police.

The ceremony was presided over by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in the Pauline Chapel at 5:30 p.m.All of the cardinals – both electors and non-electors – will gather together one last time on Tuesday morning in St. Peter’s Basilica for the Mass to Elect a Roman Pontiff.

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Harlem Shake craze inspires lighthearted competition in Beirut

  BEIRUT: It started with a mask and a raunchy hip thrust. The Harlem Shake, a viral YouTube video trend, hit Lebanon several weeks ago and has been recreated by random strangers on the streets of Beirut, university students, club-goers and office workers. The dance video phenomenon began with a group of Australian teenagers who […]

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Charbel Briefs Suleiman on Vote Preparations but Candidates Shy Away from Registration

      Interior Minister Marwan Charbel briefed President Michel Suleiman on the preparations undertaken to hold the elections in June amid reports that no candidate had on Monday registered for the polls.A statement issued by the presidential palace, said Charbel briefed Suleiman “on the security situation in the country and the preparations undertaken by […]

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Cheikh Serhal Toufic el Khazen

    A letter from Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir to the family of Cheikh Serhal el Khazen.   Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East Bkerke   This Apostolic blessing is addressed to the beloved ones hereby mentioned: Cheikha Nomiss, sister of deceased Cheikh Serhal Toufic el Khazen and her daughter, her cousins, […]

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The 10 Most Controversial Things About Women Sheryl Sandberg Just Said

 

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg  appeared on "60 Minutes" tonight to explain her controversial views on women in the workplace.

Sandberg insists that one reason there are fewer woman in top leadership roles then men is because women hold themselves back.

 Here are the most in-your-face statements she made:

  1. "Men still run the world."
  2. "Women attribute their success to working hard, luck and help from other people. Men will attribute that same success to their own core skills."
  3. Women hurt themselves by "leaning back. They say, I’m busy or I want to have a child one day, I couldn’t possibly take on any more. Or I’m still learning on my current job. I’ve never had a man say that to me.
  4. "I’m not suggesting women aren’t ambitious … but when it comes to ambition to lead, to be the leader of whatever you are doing, men/boys outnumber girls women."

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Lebanon’s revised 2013 budget sees $3.48 bln deficit

    BEIRUT: Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi has presented a revised draft budget to Lebanon’s cabinet which sees expenditure of $14.08 billion and a deficit of $3.48 billion, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. It said the revised version cuts spending by more than $1 billion from an earlier draft budget announced in September, […]

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