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When one of the world's leading exorcists, Father Gabriele Amorth, was asked how one can tell if someone is possessed, he replied, "By their aversion to the sacrament and all things sacred." One of the clearest signs of demonic possession is a hatred for the Eucharist or the crucifix. Back in December of 2009, little Jalen Cromwell of Taunton, Massachusetts, was forced to undergo psychological evaluations for drawing a stick figure of the crucified Jesus. See here. And electrician Colin Atkinson's palm cross was deemed "insensitive." See here. As noted here, "..David Cameron's government will insist at the European Court...

Q: My parish has a beautiful crucifix mounted on the wall behind the altar that has been a great aid in my prayer life. Unfortunately, I must pray without this aid during the seasons of Christmas and of Easter, as during these seasons the crucifix is completely covered. During Christmas, a star is placed above the crucifix with a tail that hangs down to completely cover it. Likewise, during Easter, a banner of the Risen Christ is hung over the crucifix so that it is hidden from view. I realize that "a cross, with the figure of Christ crucified upon...

Featured Term (selected at random):CROSS ON STAFF Symbol of St. Philip the Apostle because he was a traveling missionary who used the cross effectively in his contest with paganism and eventually died on it. St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-73) likewise has a cross-mounted staff as her emblem. The Latin style pommée cross with knoblike rounded ends is often used as a ceremonial cross. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

(AINA) -- In mid-October Egyptian media published news of an altercation between Muslim and Christian students over a classroom seat at a school in Mallawi, Minya province. The altercation lead to the murder of a Christian student. The media portrayed the incident as non-sectarian. However, Copts Without Borders, a Coptic news website, refuted this version and was first to report that the Christian student was murdered because he was wearing a crucifix. "We wanted to believe the official version," said activist Mark Ebeid, "because the Coptic version was a catastrophe, as it would take persecution of Christians also to schools."...

SAN DIEGO -- A full panel of federal judges has declined to rehear the case of a war memorial cross in a public park in San Diego that has been deemed unconstitutional by the court. A group fighting to preserve the monument announced Monday that the 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied its request. Five of the judges dissented, stating the cross should stay. A three-judge panel in January ruled that the cross conveys a message of religion and is unconstitutional. Kelly Shackelford says her organization will appeal to the Supreme Court. Shackelford is an...

September 14, 2011   Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Reading 1 Nm 21:4b-9 With their patience worn out by the journey,the people complained against God and Moses,"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,where there is no food or water?We are disgusted with this wretched food!" In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,which bit the people so that many of them died.Then the people came to Moses and said,"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us."So Moses prayed for...

The 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the East Coast on Tuesday rattled a church in Alexandria, Va. so hard that bricks fell through a stained glass window in the ceiling and then broke off the right arm of Jesus Christ on a large crucifix above the altar. The damage occurred at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Old Town Alexandria, just a few miles across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Further damage to the church included collapsed chimneys and brick walls crumbling. It was the latter that sent bricks tumbling through a stained glass window above the crucifix in the...

Sitting Bull (sitting) wearing his crucifix Not long ago, I was speaking with Father Phil Wolfe about the evangelization of the Flathead Indians in northwest America. He stood up up from his desk and went to one of his many bookshelves and pulled down a book. He opened it and set it in front of me with a page open to a photo. "Who's that?" I had seen the photo several times since my youth. It's in every student's US History book. "That's Sitting Bull," I said. "Have you ever seen this photo before?" he asked. "Yes, of course."...

www.catholicnewsagency.com European court says crucifixes can remain in Italian schools The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights issues its ruling. Credit: Council of Europe Strasbourg, France, Mar 18, 2011 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Italian public schools can continue to display crucifixes in classrooms, overturning an earlier decision that declared them to be a human rights violation.Seventeen judges of the Grand Chamber gave the 15-2 ruling on March 18, holding that there had been “no violation of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 (right to education) to...

Europe is the most faith deprived region of the world, a cool zone of the gray secularism on the globe, whose own pious fervour has grown damp. [kreuz.net] The Munster Publicist Felizita Küble published an article in a broadcast in the church-antagonnistic German weekly 'Die Zeit'. The article was published on 6 August. There she interviewed US Attorney of European Law, Joseph Weiler.

(ANSA) - Rome, June 30 - The Italian government has voiced its optimism over the outcome of an appeal heard Wednesday against a landmark European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling on the display of crucifixes in school classrooms. Last November, the ECtHR said the compulsory display of crosses in Italian schools violated children's and parents' freedom of belief, prompting Rome to request that the matter be referred to the court's appeal body, the Grand Chamber. Following the three-hour hearing, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Italy had "everything in order to ensure a positive result". "This is a great...

For atheist human rights activist, crucifix in Italian classrooms not against secularism Nirmala Carvalho According to Lenin Raghuvanshi, “Human rights and democracy do not exist in a vacuum, in a value-neutral space. Denying the identity, culture and history of a society is a violation of secularism and human rights.” New Delhi (AsiaNews) – “The crucifix in Italian classrooms is not a tradition that goes against the values of secularism,” Indian human rights activist Lenin Raghuvanshi told AsiaNews. “A secular education means learning from history and logic. Jesus Christ brought peace, reconciliation, non-violence and justice in the world,” said Raghuvanshi who...

Ezzaz Aziz and his offensive necklace "The Netherlands is a democratic country. I think it's nonsense that you can express one religion but not another. I feel a fire burning inside me because I don't live in a democratic country, but in a third world country." That's what it has come to. "Conductor banned from wearing crucifix necklace," by Thijs Papôt for Radio Netherlands, June 16 (thanks to C. Cantoni): An Amsterdam appeal court has ruled that the Amsterdam public transport service is within its rights to ban its conductors from visibly wearing a necklace bearing a crucifix. The verdict...

STRASBOURG, France, JUNE 1, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The "crucifix trial" in the European Court of Human Rights has given rise to an unprecedented intervention of 10 member States as third parties. The European Centre for Law and Justice, which was also authorized to become a third party in the court hearing regarding the legitimacy of displaying crucifixes in Italian schools, reported today that ten other States will have this amicus curiae status in the "Lautsi vs. Italy" case. This case was referred to the Grand Chamber when the Italian government appealed a decision issued by the Second Section of the court...

(ANSA) - Rome, April 26 - Italy will officially file its long-awaited appeal over a European court ruling against crosses in Italian classrooms on June 30, Cabinet Secretary Gianni Letta said Monday. The appeal against last year's sentence will be presented to the 17-strong governing panel of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Grand Chamber. On April 30, two months before the official submission of the plea, the Italian government will submit a detailed dossier to the ECHR, Letta said. "The issue of religious symbols is the subject of increasingly frequent polemics and interventions in the whole of...

Sign up for the editor'sweekly newsletter CDU chastens new Muslim minister for mooting school crucifix ban Published: 26 Apr 10 17:20 CETOnline: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100426-26797.html Just one day before taking her post, Lower Saxony’s new Social Minister Aygül Özkan has apologised to her fellow Christian Democrats for starting a heated political debate by suggesting that crucifixes don’t belong in German public schools. East German message in a bottle sender meets boy finder - Society (26 Apr 10)Integration official rejects call for school crucifix ban - National (26 Apr 10)NRW coalition shaky as parties turn on each other ahead of poll - Politics...

The designated social minister in Lower Saxony – Germany’s first woman Muslim state minister – has called for crucifixes to be removed from state schools, saying they have as little place there as headscarves. “Christian symbols do not belong in state schools. School should be a neutral place,” said Aygül Özkan, who is a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and will be made Lower Saxony's social minister next week. She also stressed her support for the ban on headscarves in such schools – as well as accepting that church schools would be an exception from a crucifix...

Nurse Shirley Chaplin. London, England, Apr 7, 2010 / 12:46 am (CNA).- A Christian nurse in Britain lost a discrimination claim on Tuesday after fighting a policy that barred her from wearing her crucifix to work.Shirley Chaplin, 54, was told by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital last year that the crucifix she has worn for almost 40 years on the job without incident needed to be removed for “health and safety reasons.” Chaplin refused to comply and consequently took the hospital to an Employment Tribunal which ruled on Tuesday that Chaplin is not facing discrimination, as...

It wasn’t until I found myself wanting a crucifix that I felt force of Protestantism’s opposition to this particular sign. It happened during my "homecoming" to the Catholic Church. I remember having the strange notion that it would require courage for me to be seen wearing a crucifix. Why? Because to most of my Protestant friends a crucifix was "a sign to be spoken against" (cf. Luke 2:34). It was seen as a Catholic symbol—bad enough in itself—that revealed Catholicism’s lack of appreciation for the resurrection and its desire to "keep Jesus on the cross." The implication was that a...

A late-Medieval crucifix found in Gloucestershire has been declared treasure by a coroner.The 500-year-old silver pendant was discovered by a man in Yanworth, near Cirencester, in June 2009. It depicts Christ on the front flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist and on the reverse, St Christopher carrying the Christ Child. Cirencester's Corinium museum hopes to buy the cross, which is now being valued by independent auctioneers. Kurt Adams, finds liaison officer for Gloucestershire and Avon, said: "Finds such as this silver cross are a very rare finds, especially when considering this object is a truly exceptional example...