Free Republic

Here we go yet again. This time we were off for a week in Italy - Rome, Venice, and Milan with our Rick Steve's Travel Guides in hand. Of all the places we've been so far, the books paid off handsomely in Italy. And next to the Swedes up in Kiruna, the Italians are some of the nicest Europeans we've met to date. No wonder so many Americans were there at the same time as we were. We land in Rome in the evening and catch a cab to the hotel. What can you say about Italian cab drivers? After...

Here’s How the Church of the Future is Experimenting in the Cathedral of MilanWith video installations, electronic music, and abstract art. With Lenten readings from Oscar Wilde and Jack Kerouac. With the pulpit given over to nonbelievers. All this in the great diocese whose patrons are Saint Ambrose and Saint Charles BorromeoROMA, June 13, 2006 – One of the key phrases of the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI is “new evangelization.” But in the Duomo of Milan, the cathedral of one of the most important and populous dioceses in the world, governed by cardinal Carlo Maria Martini...

Fr. Tucker over at Dappled Things points to two interesting little liturgical tidbits: Photos and Descriptions of the Ambrosian Liturgy -- The Ambrosian Rite is the proper liturgical usage of the Archdiocese of Milan. Our friends at the Cattolici Romani web forum have an excellent, excellent discussion of the particulars of that rite, as well as copious photos sure to please many of our readers. The text is in Italian. Announcing: Anglican Use Conference on 5 June in Scranton -- If you're interested in the interesting pastoral provision that has opened the door for Episcopal clergy and laity to...

ROBBIO, Italy (Reuters) - Wine conjures up the image of cultured drinkers sipping their way delicately through a full-bodied vintage. But for two history buffs with a passion for the tipple, northern Italy has the barbarians to thank for its long wine-making tradition. Luca Sormani, from Como, and Fulvio Pescarolo, from the tiny town of Robbio near Milan, have traced the region's wine culture all the way back to its Celtic roots and have started making it according to ancient methods. Celtic tribes from farther north -- known to the Romans as "Barbari" -- conquered northern parts of Italy about...

(AXcess News) New York - Italian officials have known for some time that their country was exporting Islamic militants and that the city of Milan is the center for these potential terrorists. Now the officials worry that militants may return from fighting in Iraq to carry out bombings in Europe, according to the BBC. Considered the center for radical Islam in Europe, Muslims have arrived in Milan more recently and relatively few have acquired citizenship. Prosecutors in Milan and Rome ordered dozens of raids in the aftermath of the London bombings last July, resulting in almost 200 arrests. Four expulsions...

Tens of thousands of Italians protested on Saturday demanding legal recognition for gay unions and the right to abortion, two days after Pope Benedict condemned homosexual marriage and the use of the abortion pill.Clutching banners reading "We will no longer be silenced," the demonstrators, many women and gay couples, crammed into squares in Rome and financial capital Milan."We thought the church had withdrawn from interfering in Italian politics ... but instead there is a terrible resurgence. These are ugly signs for freedom of expression," Nobel literature laureate Dario Fo, a social campaigner, told reporters at the Milan protest.Police said 50,000...

Brescia and Naples, 18 Nov. (AKI) - The three Algerians detained on Tuesday in the Italian cities of Brescia and Naples were planning a massive terror attack - "on a ship as big as the Titanic, packed with explosives" - that aimed to kill "at least 10,000 people", as well as an attack on "Italian citizens and interests" in Tunisia, according phone conversations between the three men, which Italian anti-terror police say they intercepted after al-Qaeda's deadly 7 July attacks on London and on the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. In their tapped phone conversations, Yamine Bouhrama, Mohamed...

NEW YORK — The scandal engulfing the United Nations Procurement Department () now appears to be bottomless. It also shows signs of growing more sinister, especially where it involves a mysterious private company called IHC Services (), which did big business with the procurement department until it was removed from U.N. rosters in June. New details of how dark the scandal could prove to be have emerged from the private sale of IHC on June 3, 2005, just as the procurement scandal was about to break. It now appears that while doing business with the U.N., IHC had links both to Saddam...

My dear FRiends, I’ve something to say you about my Country. And it’s something really shameful if you consider that I love my Country as I’ve never loved nothing, nobody. (I wanna become an ambassador because of this great love I feel, I wanna serve Italy representing her all over the world: but there are times in which you can rest in silent on the shames of your beloved Land). The fact is that: there was an Islamic School in Milano and we closed it because it was illicit. After this school was closed on health and security grounds, some...

With her indominatable spirit, GipperGal's adventure continues. Just a reminder to all, that GG is accompanying a group but has not met up with them yet. Fasten your seatbelts, you're in for quite a ride! Enjoy the adventure! * * * * * Aug. 8, 2005 7PM All I can say is somedays you're the pigeon and somedays you're the statue. Either that or I could fall back on my old excuse. One of my ancestors must have spit in the eye of the village witch. Ever since then my family tree has suffered from Dutch Elm disease. (Or at...

ROME (AP) - Police arrested 142 people in a two-day anti-terrorism security sweep around Milan prompted by the London bombings, the ANSA news agency reported Saturday. Some 2,000 carabinieri paramilitary police fanned out across the Lombardy region, stepping up patrols around train stations, subways and other sensitive sites, ANSA said, quoting the regional commander of the carabinieri, Gen. Antonio Girone. Girone said the operation was focusing around Milan as "a possible primary objective of any possible terrorist action," ANSA said. Calls placed to Girone's office weren't immediately returned Saturday. Of those arrested, 83 were immigrants and authorities issued 52 deportation...

Italian prosecutors want to extradite 13 CIA officials accused of kidnapping a radical Muslim cleric and transporting him to Egypt where he reportedly was tortured, and they've asked Interpol to help track down the Americans, a court official said Tuesday. A man identified as the former CIA station chief in Milan is among the 13, according to a report by the judge who issued the arrest warrants. The leftist opposition said Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government will respond in parliament Thursday to their demands to know whether Italian officials were involved in the cleric's abduction. ''It appears to be the most...

Italy probes possible CIA role in abduction By John Crewdson (Chicago) Tribune senior correspondent An Italian prosecutor investigating the apparent kidnapping of a suspected Islamic militant in the streets of Milan served military authorities this week with a demand for records of flights into and out of a joint U.S.-Italian air base in northern Italy. Italian newspapers have reported that the prosecutor, Armando Spataro, is investigating the possible role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the disappearance of Osama Nasr Mostafa Hassan, better known as Abu Omar, a popular figure in Milan's Islamic community who vanished Feb. 17, 2003....

Liverpool beat Milan on penalties Jerzy Dudek saved two penalties in the shoot-out as Liverpool were crowned European champions in dramatic fashion. Paolo Maldini volleyed Milan ahead after just 50 seconds while Hernan Crespo scored twice to put the Italians 3-0 up at the break. Steven Gerrard headed a reply, Vladimir Smicer fired the second and Xabi Alonso equalised after his penalty was saved. Serginho fired his penalty over the bar and Dudek denied Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko to secure the trophy. Goalflashes and major incidents as they happen: EXTRA-TIME FULL-TIME AC Milan 3-3 Liverpool AET A remarkable night...

On the surface there would seem to be little to unite the Aryan racialists of the neo-Nazi movement with the terrorists of radical Islam. To the neo-Nazis, Muslims are almost all members of ``inferior`` races; and to the Islamic terrorists, the neo-Nazis are almost without exception either atheists or members of fringe quasi-Christian sects. But the reality is that there has been close cooperation between Muslim extremists and Fascists ever since the founding of the Nazi movement in the 1920`s. For all of their differences, Muslim extremists and Nazis have always been united by a common group of beliefs and...

NPR.org, April 2, 2005 · "Tip O'Neill was correct," says Father Tom Reese, editor in chief of America, the Catholic weekly magazine. "All politics is local... even in the Catholic Church." Reese suggests that instead of focusing on the possible papal candidates as a bookie would look at horses in the starting gate, try to think about the election from the point of view of the electors, the cardinals who cast the votes. "Each cardinal is thinking, how will this candidate go over in my diocese?" Reese says. "If you're from the Third World, you're concerned with people who are...

ROME, Italy (AP) -- Two members of a heavy metal group called the "Beasts of Satan" who confessed to taking part in three ritual Satanic slayings were sentenced to prison Tuesday, and a third defendant was acquitted, Italian media reported. Andrea Volpe, Pietro Guerrieri and Mario Maccione had confessed to roles in the grisly 1998 killings of Chiara Marino, 19, and Fabio Tollis, 16, in the woods outside of Milan. Five other members of their suspected Satanic cult have been ordered to stand trial in June. Volpe, considered the mastermind of the ritual killings, was sentenced to 30 years in...

Dan Brown sparked controversy with his novel based on Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper - now a French clothing company has followed suit in Italy. The authorities in Milan have banned a billboard featuring an all-female version of the 15th Century fresco, which the fashion house itself says was inspired by the hotly debated book. The campaign has run without controversy in both Paris and New York. But its use of religious symbols could offend Milan, the town hall ruled.

Intelligence agencies have had some success in tracking suspected al-Qaeda operatives. But the organisation is changing to continue its fight against the West. The West has never encountered an enemy like al-Qaeda before. The problem for the world's intelligence agencies is that it is not a unified organisation with an identifiable structure, like the IRA, but an amalgam of groups around the world whose members embrace Osama bin Laden's ideology of global jihad, or holy war. These Jihadi warriors share the belief that they have an obligation to fight the oppressors of their Muslim brothers, from Palestinians in the Middle...

ARIS, May 29 — Italian and German investigators have disclosed fresh information suggesting that hints of an attack involving aircraft and the United States were more widespread among European law enforcement agencies before Sept. 11 than previously suspected.The disclosures come after weeks in which the Bush administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which announced a shake-up today, have come under sharp criticism that they did not pay sufficient heed to signs of Al Qaeda plots in the United States that may have alerted them to the Sept. 11 attacks.A Central Intelligence Agency spokesman said today that before Sept....