Free Republic

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - It will be the first African pediatric hospital to bear the name of the Child Jesus and will belong to the Coptic Catholic Church. It will guarantee health care for children and pregnant women in a country where, unfortunately, high birth rates continue to be marked by a high incidence of neonatal mortality. It will be built on land offered in concession by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi. This is the work promoted by the "Cairo Bambino Gesù Association", a charity organization chaired by the Coptic Catholic priest Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, a member of the...

Is Robert Barron a Bishop of Baal?Did God punish Elijah for destroying the prophets of Baal, as Bishop Barron suggests? John Zmirak has an answer.... The P.T. Barnum of the Catholic ChurchOne of the most blatantly opportunistic public figures in my church has been Robert Barron. When John Paul II and Benedict XVI were pope, he assiduously cultivated an image as a defender of traditional faith. He raised tens of millions of dollars from well-meaning believers who bought into that image, and got himself named a bishop. But as soon as Francis took power, Barron’s skin instantly changed color to...

'Silver scrolls' are oldest O.T. scripture, archaeologist says Feb 27, 2004 By Gary D. Myers Significant scrollGabriel Barkay, in silhouette, shows a picture of how one of the silver scrolls looked shortly after it was removed from the tomb at Ketef Hinnom. Scholars determined that the scrolls were inscribed with the ‘priestly blessing’ found in Numbers 6:24-26. Photo by Gary D. Myers NEW ORLEANS (BP)--While excavating a burial tomb near Jerusalem in 1979, Gabriel Barkay uncovered the oldest known copy of Old Testament scripture. The priestly blessing, recorded in Numbers 6:24-26, was discovered on two small silver scrolls dated to...

Zoroastrian texts such as the Avesta clearly define the status of Persian women and reveal that at a time when many women in the world were deprived of their basic rights, Persian women enjoyed social and legal freedom and were treated with great respect. Avestan texts mention both genders asking them to share responsibility and make decisions together. They are equally praised for their good deeds rather than their gender, wealth or power. “Whoever, man or woman, does what Thou, O Ahura Mazda, knowest to be the best in Life. Whoever does right for the sake of Right; Whoever in...

They have decreed that any Parsi man marrying outside the community will cease to be recognised as one of its members. Originally from Iran, the Parsis practice Zorastrianism. There are only 130,000 Parsis left around the world, of whom about 55,000 reside in India's financial capital, Bombay, or Mumbai. New rule Parsi women have for years been threatened with excommunication if they marry outside the community but now this rule has been extended to men. Their families, too, will not be initiated into the community if they marry out of it. The only good thing about this resolution is that...

...“To Zoroastrians, fire is the physical form of God’s energy. It’s in all Zoroastrian rituals,” Mr. Bhandara explains. “We say that the fire has warmth and light. Light is a metaphor that cuts through the darkness of ignorance, bringing one face to face with the truth of the divine.” ...The supreme deity in the faith is Ahura Mazda. Zoroaster, or Zarathustra in ancient Persian, was actually a prophet after whom the religion came to be known among Westerners. Cyrus the Great, founder of the first Persian Empire circa 550 B.C., was a Zoroastrian. While Persia served as an incubator for...

In a ceremony at an ancient, ruined temple in northern Iraq, Faiza Fuad joined a growing number of Kurds who are leaving Islam to embrace the faith of their ancestors -- Zoroastrianism.Years of violence by the Islamic State jihadis have left many disillusioned with Islam, while a much longer history of state oppression has pushed some in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to see the millennia-old religion as a way of reasserting their identity."After Kurds witnessed the brutality of IS, many started to rethink their faith," said Asrawan Qadrok, the faith's top priest in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.During Fuad's conversion...

HOUSTON: The Zoroastrian Association of Houston celebrated the Grand Opening of the first fire Temple to be built outside India, Pakistan and Iran and included the Navroze (the Iranian New Year heralding the first day of Spring) in 5 days of celebrations from March 20 to 24. The Bhandara Atash Kadeh (fire temple) is a new addition on the site of the vast ZAH grounds on West Airport near the Beltway and is a result of decades of planning and was made possible by the generous donation of Feroze and Shernaz Bhandara. Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor (High Priest of Iranshah in...

The rise of the Arab Caliphate in the seventh and eighth centuries is considered among the most important turning points in the history of the Middle East. Within two centuries,vast areas were united under the banner of Islam, and great empires were brought to their knees at the sword of the Arab soldiers. Among those great empires wasSassanid Persia, and the death of the last Sassanian emperor Yazdegerd III (r. 632-651) is usually considered the point when the Muslim forces put an end to Zoroastrianism in Iran. And while it is true that the fall of the Sassanids dealt a heavy blow to Zoroastrianism,...

The social makeup of Iran’s population is very complex, because there is actually no such thing as an Iranian people. There are, instead, Iranian citizens divided into many ethnic groups: Persians make up about 60% of the population, while the rest are Azars, Kurds, Blouchis, Arabs, Turkmen and tens of smaller ethnic groups. The main religion in Iran is Shia Islam, adhered to by 90% of the country’s people, while Sunnis – mainly Kurds and Blouchis – make up about 10%. The country recognizes Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism and reserves a parliamentary seat for each religion. Zoroastrianism is based on...

There has been a recent surge in conversions to Zoroastrianism among Kurds at home and abroad. Andaz Hawezi, chief of the Zoroastrian Temple in Sweden says thousands have joined the faith. In 2011 he was elected to lead the temple. Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest religions to which most Kurds trace their ancestral faith. Hawezi says not all the new converts or followers are Kurds. There are Arabs, Turks, Persian, Swedish, Polish, British and other nationalities. “We hope to come back to Kurdistan. That’s why we named the Temple Kurdish Zoroastrian.” Hawezi says. The Temple in Sweden is...

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — After over a millennium, the Zoroastrian faith is returning to its original habitat. The Ministry of Religion in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital Erbil has registered the religion, locally known as Zardashti, and suggested to the Kurdish government the ancient faith should be given its own directorate general and its believers be allowed to build new temples. “Now it’s time,” says Nouri Sharif, one of the initiators of the movement that established a Zoroastrian organization in Europe in 2006 and in March announced in Erbil its official return to Kurdistan. In April, a Supreme Council of Zoroastrians...

Among the world’s present-day religions, Zoroastrianism, founded more than 3,000 years ago, is one of the most ancient and historically influential. Yet even though its adherents maintain vibrant communities on four continents, they acknowledge their numbers are dauntingly small — perhaps 125,000 worldwide. Starting Friday, about 1,200 attendees from 16 countries will be assessing their faith’s prospects during the four-day World Zoroastrian Congress in New York City, the first one held in the United States since 2000. The agenda reflects a keen awareness of the challenges facing their religion. Prospects for growth are limited, given that Zoroastrians don’t seek to...

A bungled looting scheme has led archaeologists to an underground Iron Age complex in Turkey that may have been used by a fertility cult during the first millennium B.C., a new study finds.The ancient complex, which has yet to be fully investigated due to the instability of the structure, has rare rock art drawings on its walls featuring a procession of deities depicted in an Assyrian style. This art style appears to have been adapted by local groups, indicating how strongly the culture of the Neo-Assyrian Empire — which hailed from Mesopotamia and later expanded into Anatolia — spread to...

Vatican pumps out pro-homosexual 'seamless garment' propagandaVATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis' synodal process is routinely promoting LGBTQ+ propaganda on its official website, even commending homosexuals who adopt babies as "pro-life" champions. On Saturday, the Vatican's General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops published three "testimonies of homosexual couples," hailing them as stories of "a sexuality that gives life." Three TestimoniesIn the first story, a woman driving to an abortion mill stops at a red light to find a Facebook ad for a baby. The appeal is from fellow parishioner "Karl" — a homosexual living with his partner. "Why can't...

(LifeSiteNews) – Over Mother’s Day weekend, there was a variety of pro-abortion vandalism and vulgarity over the possibility that abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy may no longer be the norm in much of the U.S. should states be able to set their own abortion laws. Pro-life activists expect such activity to continue through the spring and summer, particularly if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Abortion activists disrupted Mass in Los Angeles and protested outside a Catholic church in New York City. The New York abortion supporters blocked the doors of Old St. Patrick’s and screamed about...

Beirut, Lebanon, May 9, 2022 / 10:25 am Pope Francis is postponing his June trip to Lebanon, according to the country’s tourism minister. Walid Nassar announced the delay on May 9, citing “health reasons,” reported AFP. “Lebanon has received a letter from the Vatican officially informing it of the decision to postpone the pope’s planned visit to Lebanon,” Nassar said in a statement. The delay was also reported on Monday by Reuters, which said sources had confirmed that the June 12-13 trip would not go ahead due to the pope’s difficulties in walking. The 85-year-old has been making his public...

Source: Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via A“ROME?—Pope Francis said that the “barking of NATO at the door of Russia” might have led to the invasion of Ukraine and that he didn't know whether other countries should supply Ukraine with more arms” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Since February, Pope Francis has deplored the suffering of Ukrainians and denounced the invasion but refrained from explicitly naming Russia as the aggressor…In Ukraine, it was other states that created the conflict,” Pope Francis said in the interview. No such “objectivity” seemed to influence the Castro-hailing Pope Francis when expounding on former...

ROME—Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin, who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper. “I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,” he told Corriere Della Sera in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting...

Does time exist? The answer to this question may seem obvious: Of course it does! Just look at a calendar or a clock. But developments in physics suggest the non-existence of time is an open possibility, and one that we should take seriously. How can that be, and what would it mean? It'll take a little while to explain, but don't worry: Even if time doesn't exist, our lives will go on as usual. A crisis in physics Physics is in crisis. For the past century or so, we have explained the Universe with two wildly successful physical theories: general...