Free Republic

The NYPD is hunting a 'serial stabber' who attacked three homeless men sleeping on park benches across the city, leaving one dead, during a seven-day crime spree. The unidentified man's crime-ridden week began on July 5 around 3am on the Hudson River Park walkway in Manhattan's West Village. The attacker, who goes by the name Delly, was seen wearing a sweatshirt from Innocence Project - a nonprofit that helps exonerate the wrongly convicted - when he approached a man, 34, lying on a park bench and 'displayed an unknown sharp object.' He then stabbed the man in the stomach before...

VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that by elevating the patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldeans to the rank of cardinal he wished to express his spiritual closeness and affection for Iraqis.By inducting Emmanuel III Delly into the College of Cardinals, "I intend to express in a concrete way my spiritual closeness and my affection for these people," the pope said at a Vatican ceremony creating 23 new cardinals."I think now with affection of communities entrusted to your care and, especially, to those most tried by suffering, challenges and difficulties of various kinds," he said."Among them, how...

Philadelphia might've waited 24 years for John Foley's red hat, but between the rivers in what's now Iraq, generations of the Chaldean Catholic community have stood it out a good bit longer to see their patriarch take a place in the papal senate. Eighty-one years old, Cardinal-designate Emmanuel III Delly will formally be inducted into the Sacred College at the upcoming consistory. (No, the patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans isn't the first of the designates to be photographed in the robes of his new office -- the red get-up is a privilege of patriarchs, even those who go...

President Talabani Says Benedict XVI Sees Progress in Constitution VATICAN CITY, NOV. 10, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Iraqi Constitution guarantees the rights and freedom of the nation's Christians, President Jalal Talabani told Benedict XVI. The country's constitution, and the scourge of terrorism, were the main topics of the talks between the Pope and Talabani, who was received in audience today in the Vatican. In statements published by AsiaNews, Talabani later said that the Holy Father referred to the Iraqi Constitution as "progress." For his part, the president said he assured the Pope that the rights and freedom of Iraqi Christians will...