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William Dalrymple’s 1997 travelogue "From the Holy Mountain" is an excellent place to start for Westerners seeking to understand the devastating decline of Christianity in the Middle East. The historian William Dalrymple is Britain’s most famous living travel writer. He is also a member of the Dalrymple clan, a celebrated Scottish family of three principal branches. William’s branch became Roman Catholic in the 19th century, and in the 20th both his Uncle John (“Old Jock”) and his brother John (“Young Jock”) were ordained Roman Catholic priests. Today “Young” Father Jock Dalrymple is the pastor of a parish church in Edinburgh....

A Christian man was executed during the night by a high-profile ruler after making an uncompromising defense of real marriage. The Christian, who was renowned for his holiness, had told the ruler in public that his relationship with his partner was “against the law” of God. The Christian’s words enraged the ruler’s partner who successfully plotted to have him permanently silenced. John the Baptist was first imprisoned before he was beheaded. The Catholic Church honors him today, August 29, as a martyr and saint. While John’s death happened a little less than 2,000 years ago, his heroic stance for real...

Is Islam inherently violent? Does it justify violence against infidels? Does it encourage the faith to be spread by the sword? The establishment of an “Islamic State” in northern Iraq this summer has brought such questions to the forefront in the face of the lethal brutality the Islamic State has unleashed against religious minorities, including the expulsion and killing of Christians. There are political and military aspects to those questions, but they are most fundamentally theological. Does God desire violence to spread his revelation? Theology addresses reality at its deepest level, and, therefore, theological ideas matter a great deal in...

Featured Term (selected at random:CANONICAL LIFE A rule of life drawn up in ancient times for the clergy, mainly the cathedral assistants. Intermediate between the monastic life and secular priesthood, they lived in community. Many later become canons regular of St. Augustine (354-430), who introduced this mode of life into his own episcopal household. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random:TRANSITIONAL DIACONATE The temporary state of men who intend to go on for the priesthood. Before their ordination as deacons they must indicate whether they wish to enter the permanent or the transitional diaconate. They must also decide whether to marry or remain celibate. Once they are ordained deacons, they cannot marry and continue in the Church's ministry. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

George Tate George Tate was in the US Army in World War II. He served in a unit that was establishing communication lines across the Himalayas.George’s son, Sid is a parishioner, he said about his Dad, “His plane was riddled with enemy gunfire going in, and as I understand it his job was conducted in an active combat zone. He received the Bronze Star, which was the military’s 4th highest award: Awarded to ‘any person whom while serving in with the United States military after 6 December 1941, that distinguished himself or herself apart from his or her comrades...

Christian holy site in Iraq -Deir Mar Mattai on Maqloub Mountain News / Kurdistan Kurdish Peshmerga Steps in to Protect the Oldest Monastery in Iraq 27.08.2014 Shahab BotaniBasNews, Maqloub Mountain    After Islamic State (IS) militants took control of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, various religious minorities that pepper the region came under attack as well in the wake of IS’ spread of terror. Many holy sights revered by the religious minorities have been destroyed in order to wipe their existence from history.   One of the most important Christian holy sites in Iraq is Deir Mar...

DAHUK, Iraq—Of all the many ancient peoples who once lived in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates, Iraq's Assyrian Christians pride themselves on having persisted in their traditional homeland for millennia, even as other civilizations thrived then disappeared, as languages and cultures died out, as ethnic groups melted into the ways and genetic pools of their conquerors. But today Iraq's Assyrians, and its Christians in general, fear that their place in this multiethnic, multisectarian mosaic society is shrinking, under severe threat from the ultraconservative Islamist group the Islamic State (IS). It isn't the first time that Iraq's Christians...

Featured Term (selected at random:DEGRADATION A penalty by which a cleric is reduced to the lay state; a deprivation, an abasement. Its effects may be deposition and privation of a religious habit. It is permanent unless remitted by a superior after completion of conditions required as penance. It can only be imposed for things labeled criminal by law or if one continues giving scandal after deposition. It is real if accompanied by formalities prescribed by the Roman Pontifical, and verbal when inflicted by a person authorized to sentence. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic...

Featured Term (selected at random:OPERATING GRACE Similar to preventing or prevenient grace, it precedes the free consent of the will or accompanies it in the performance of an act. The thought of doing a good act suggests itself with no effort on the part of the human being, as an indeliberate impulse. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Ethiopia’s little-known churchesWith their sheer cliffs, surreal rock formations and vertical spires, northern Ethiopia’s Gheralta Mountains recall stretches of the southwestern United States’ red desert landscape. The primary difference: perched high and tucked away into these mountain cliffs are some of the country’s least visited rock-hewn Ethiopian Orthodox cave churches, some of which are more than 1,000 years old. The Gheralta cluster, located in Tigray Province, includes more than 30 structures. Although local legend claims that these churches date to between the 4th and 6th Centuries, historians believe that they were more likely built from the 9th to 12th Centuries....

Featured Term (selected at random:UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO Decree on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council. It deals with the Catholic principles on ecumenism, the practice of ecumenism, and the churches and ecclesiastical communities separated from the Roman Apostolic See. A careful distinction is made between spiritual ecumenism, mainly through prayer and the practice of virtue, and practical ecumenism, which actively fosters the reunification of Christianity. Also the faithful are told to recognize various levels of nearness to the Catholic Church, in descending order, the Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Protestants (November 21, 1964). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John...

Let's see what the Father of Protestantism thought about the Blessed Mother..... Despite the radicalism of early Protestantism toward many ancient Catholic "distinctives," such as the Communion of the Saints, Penance, Purgatory, Infused Justification, the Papacy, the priesthood, sacramental marriage, etc., it may surprise many to discover that Martin Luther was rather conservative in some of his doctrinal views, such as on baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary. Luther indeed was quite devoted to Our Lady, and retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which were held then and now by the Catholic Church. This is...

Priest on Road to Canonization Given Highest US Military Honor Editor of Biography Reflects on What Fr. Kapaun Has to Teach Us Washington, D.C., April 12, 2013 (Zenit.org) Kathleen Naab | Thursday in the White House, President Barack Obama bestowed on Fr. Emil Kapaun the nation's highest military recognition, the Medal of Honor.The priest, who died in a prisoner of war camp during the Korean war, is also being considered for canonization.The life that won Fr. Kapaun not only such high military praise, but also possible recognition as a canonized saint, is the subject of a biography called "The...

What a beautiful salutation to call upon Our Most Blessed Mother! One may be tempted to think that these words are an exaggerated expression of piety as they apply also to her Son, whose sacrifice on the Cross obtained our Redemption. However, God’s Redemption began not with an imposition upon an unworthy humanity, but through the free gift of a woman’s fiat that first opened the door of heaven to bring down the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. This is why St. Bernard, and the Church throughout the ages echoing his words, refers to Mary as the “cause...

Featured Term (selected at random:VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES Repository of confidential documents of the Holy See, going back to the early centuries. Deterioration of the original papyri, transfers, and political upheavals caused the almost complete loss of the collections earlier than Pope Innocent III. In the fifteenth century the Archives were kept in Castel Sant'Angelo. In 1810, Napoleon ordered the Archives of the Holy See to be transferred to Paris, and though later returned to Rome many documents were lost. The Archives are now housed in a special building off the Piazza of St. Peter's. to the Archives is attached the...

Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass next August to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, an Argentine cardinal has revealed. Speaking at the Armenian Catholic cathedral in Buenos Aires, Cardinal Mario Poli said that the Pontiff will celebrate the commemorative Mass in St. Peter’s basilica. The date for the Mass has not yet been announced.

Featured Term (selected at random:KIDDUSHIN Literally "sanctification," the Jewish marriage service and state of matrimony. Essential to the wedding is the ring ceremony, in which the groom places the ring on the forefinger of the bride's right hand and says, "Behold thou art consecrated unto me, according to the law of Moses and of Israel." The ceremony takes place under a Huppah or (canopy), symbolizing the new home to which the groom is taking the bride. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random:OMNIPRESENCE God being simultaneously wherever he is, since he is present everywhere. The divine omnipresence is twofold, by nature and by grace. By nature God is present in all things by essence, knowledge, and power. This is the presence of a cause in the things that share in God's goodness. By his essence, he is substantially in all things, including the created spiritual essences (angels, demons, human souls) as the immediate origin of their existence. by his knowledge, he exercises his wisdom directly in all creation down to the least details. By his power, he operates...

Featured Term (selected at random:IMITATION OF SAINTS The practice of striving to put into practice in one's own life the virtues that the saints practiced in theirs. This is one of the reasons why the Church canonizes saints, to give the faithful secure patterns of holiness in every period of Christian history and on every level of human society. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.