Free Republic

The cardinal returns to the difficult process of choosing Aoun's successor. Already five parliamentary sessions have ended in a deadlock. The rift - albeit without naming names - with Hezbollah is deepening. The disagreements over Article 49. Lebanese patriarchs and bishops launch special "Truth and Reconciliation" commission. Beirut (AsiaNews) - The suspicions put forward by the Maronite patriarch are serious and destined to cause discussion. During his last homily at Sunday Mass, the cardinal spoke of Lebanon's adversaries "who do not want to elect a president, considering it unnecessary or of relative importance that he be a Maronite Christian" as...

A road trip on a weekend and making sure you can still get to Mass can sometimes result in a very pleasant surprise and a holy experience.Quite recently Marjorie (my fiancée) and I were returning home over the weekend from a car trip to Ohio. Not wanting to miss Mass, we looked online at Mass times for the areas we would be traveling through on Saturday afternoon. Expecting to be driving near Uniontown, PA about four o’clock, we found several churches that had four o’clock Saturday afternoon Masses listed.But our travel plans were slightly delayed driving over the mountainous region...

BEIRUT: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the election of a president in Lebanon hinges on the success of a nuclear deal between his country and Iran, Al-Mustaqbal newspaper claimed Sunday, however figures cited in the report later denied the diplomat made such remarks. “Diplomatic sources in Paris” told Al-Mustaqbal that Kerry informed Boulos Matar, the Maronite bishop of Beirut, during a Saturday meeting between the two in Paris that an end may be in sight to Lebanon’s nine-month-long presidential vacuum. The report claimed the meeting lasted for 45 minutes. “Washington is optimistic that a Lebanese president...

Father Wissam Akiki with his wife and daughter, Perla, at her first Communion. ST. LOUIS — Surrounded by his wife, daughter and the bishops of his Church, Father Wissam Akiki made history in February as the first married man in 90 years to enter the priesthood for the Maronite Catholic Church in the U.S. Kp> But for Catholics of most Eastern-rite Churches in the U.S., including the Maronites, the fact the priest is a married man isn’t that extraordinary: What’s extraordinary is that they have to ask the Vatican for permission to ordain married men in the first place. snip...

The Bashar al-Assad rule in Syria has come under heavy fire from people who believe that the regime must quit over its atrocities. But any attempt by the US-led West to impose a replacement will backfire soon India’s oil-rich western neighbourhood, extending from the Arabian Sea to the Bosporus, is engulfed in conflicts arising from sectarian and civilisational rivalries, aggravated by the meddling of external powers. With an arsenal of over 100 nuclear weapons, Pakistan is today witnessing a period of internal strife, largely arising from the pernicious role of its military establishment and tensions across its disputed borders with...

ANAHEIM – An Islamic mosque with plans to expand is now operating in a small former church that was previously occupied by a Maronite Catholic church. The sale prompted questions – even from church parishioners – about the future of the site.

'Arab Spring': The chilly cruel winter reality of Arab racism and Islamic bigotry Not that ethnic racism and religious bigotry weren't rampant before the so-called "Arab spring" sprung about. But the intolerance tide seems to be only worsening, and without an Arab dictator to "hold" various factions together, vulnerability expand, risks rise. --- RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY: As the D.B. puts it: "Violence Against Egypt's Copts in an Intolerant Arab Spring.. The elephant in the room of the Arab Spring is now the mistreatment of minority communities—Christians and others—across the Arab world." FPM asks: Hillary Clinton Promises to Save Egypt's Christians? ......

Communion paves the way for evangelization, says Pope to Maronites    Nicosia, Cyprus, Jun 6, 2010 / 02:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict visited the Maronite Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Graces in Nicosia before leaving the country on Sunday afternoon. He called Maronites to be proud of their traditions while remaining tied into the Universal Church.At the cathedral, which has a capacity of around 300 people, Maronite Archbishop Youssef Soueif welcomed Pope Benedict and his entourage composed of members of the Roman Curia in addition to the Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa.Assuring the "ancient"...

Anti-Maronite Lebanon's Maronites make up the largest Christian community in the country - a community where religion and politics are inextricably mixed. The Maronites, linked culturally and politically to the West, favored teir own continue rule, Lebanese nationalism, and a Western-oriented foreign policy. Sunni Muslims favored Pan-Arabism and were often friendly to Nasir and Syria [source], so was its armed wing the Phalangist's early stance, pro-Western and opposed to Pan-Arabism [source] in the 1970s, the Maronite bloc showed some degree of unity in opposing pan-Arabism, (although recently some have split and allied themselves with Hezbollah and became anti-American) [source]. Any...

Ahmed sits on a plastic chair on the side of a quiet street. A large empty bypass stretches overhead in the direction of the wealthy Hamra district. In the darkness above, a tank can be seen sitting stationary on the road. One soldier is manning the gun turret, another stands guard beside the vehicle. Their weapons are pointed in Ahmed's direction, or more accurately, over his head. Ahmed is also on guard, but he is only equipped with a walkie-talkie. At 19, he is an idealistic member of Hizbullah and at midnight he can be found sitting at the entrance...

Arab Americans are as diverse as the national origins and immigration experiences that have shaped their ethnic identity in the United States, with religious affiliation being one of the most defining factors. The majority of Arab Americans descend from the first wave of mostly Christian immigrants. Sharing the faith tradition of the majority of Americans facilitated their acculturation into American society, as did high intermarriage rates with other Christian ethnic groups. Even though many Arab Christians have kept their Orthodox and Eastern Rite church (Greek Catholic, Maronite, Coptic) affiliations, which have helped to strengthen ethnic identification and certain rituals, their...

DAMASCUS - Many in the Arab world are blaming the Lebanese for being so disunited and for not rallying en masse behind Hezbollah and its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. These divisions are strange for those who do not know Lebanon: there are in essence three Lebanons, each with its own history, objectives, alliances and leaders. One friend from "Sunni Lebanon" cursed Hezbollah tremendously, saying that the Shi'ite militia had ruined her life, while another from "Shi'ite Lebanon" (which makes up about 40% of the population) said Hezbollah was the greatest thing about the Arab world since emancipation from the Ottomans...

How [radical] Islam makes one into a fascist, whether you are Arab, black, etc. The broader view of the deep & wide reality of Islamofascism What do the Arab Muslim massacre in NYC WTC, The Pakistani Muslim bombing in London, the Arab Muslim bombing in Madrid, an Indonesian attack on Australians in Bali, an Arab Muslim racist attack on an ordinary Jew in Paris, Arabs' onslaught in the genocide campaign in Sudan, WW2's Bosnian Muslims attacking Christian Serbs, Jordanian Arab murderer: Zarqawi that seperated (Nazi style) between Shiite & Sunni kids on a bus, Arab slave masters in Mauritania, a...

General The Wrong Kind of Mass Murderer by Ariel ...Non-Arab Muslims such as the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran; the Berbers ¯ also known as the Amazighes ¯ in ... Once again, Arab racism marches on. ... http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14118Uncle Boutros and Uncle Tom: A lesson in Arab tolerance ...Having written somewhat myself on the subject of the forced Arabization of ... keep in mind that Arab racist attitudes also extended to those who--to jump ... http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=11344Arab leaders 'Reap what they saw', their failed racist attempts distinguishing between blood all these years - terror comes home to roost. http://lightonthings.blogspot.com/2006/04/terror-made-in-arabia-in-islamia.htmlRADICAL ISLAMISM...

The Maronite Liturgy The center and focus of all the Holy Mysteries is participation in the Eucharist. Baptism and Chrismation initiate us into the community of believers, but it is the Eucharist which is the source and cause of community. While Baptism "grafts" us as members into the Body of Christ, the Eucharist nourishes us with the Body of Christ. We have become adopted children of God the Father, and therefore brothers and sisters of Christ, it is the Eucharist which enables us to grow in the likeness of Christ. Thus the Eucharist is the Holy Mystery which completes the...

LEBANON Marian month in Lebanon: a glimmer of hope in tough times by Youssef Hourany Next Sunday is the feast of Our Lady of Lebanon – the event comes at a time when confidence in politics is low. But Patriarch Sfeir said: "Our situation is still better than that of other countries in the region." Beirut (AsiaNews) – The month of May in the country of the Cedars has a special aura about it, owing to the devotion to Our Lady permeating the life of the Lebanese people. Tens of thousands of people, even non Christians, go every year to...

Christmas is sacred, Pell warns race gangsJill Rowbotham and Elizabeth Gosch CATHOLIC Archbishop George Pell has warned gangs of Middle Eastern descent not to target Christmas celebrations, after families were abused and gunshots fired into cars at a primary school's carols night in western Sydney on Monday. Cardinal Pell said the attack in the multicultural suburb of Auburn, where Lebanese Muslims are believed to have turned on Lebanese Christians, was "apparently motivated by religious intolerance". He said: "I am deeply concerned about the targeting of Christmas celebrations at schools for students as young as five years old. "The attack was...

BEIRUT, Lebanon, MAY 9, 2005 (Zenit.org). - An explosion in Lebanon destroyed the Voice of Charity Catholic radio station of the patriarchate of the Maronites. The blast in Jounieh, north of Beirut, killed two people and injured 27 on Friday. "I think it was hit directly and deliberately," said Bishop Bechara Rai of Jbeil of the Maronites on Vatican Radio. On Friday the radio station expressed its solidarity with family members of those imprisoned in Syrian jails in Damascus who "have denounced the atrocities of Damascus' prisons" and "what they saw." "I think those who have been harmed in Syria...

Column from Bahrain Times: the War on terror blamed for ‘Christianphobia:’ Jihad Watch posted it and you can refer to: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/004183.php Hugh Fitzgerald's reply below: Twenty Points for Archibishop Lajolo: 1) If "the war on terrorism is seen linked to Western political strategy" and that this is responsible for "Christianphobia," then what explains the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh in Kashimir? Or on Buddhists in Thailand, and the Bamiyan Buddhas -- the people and the artifacts -- in southern Thailand? Is this because Hindu (and Sikh) and Buddhist villages and artifacts have also been linked "to Western political strategy"? And...

The EU and the UN have finally decided to take the first timid steps to try to put an end to what it happening in Darfur in the Sudan. The recent report by Human Rights Watch on Darfur corroborates the worst suspicions of those who have followed developments in western Sudan. There have been killings on a massive scale, expulsions, the systematic torching of villages and – last and not least – the use of rape as a weapon of intimidation and humiliation against the province's black population. These are not just the depredations of unruly Arab militias. They are...