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Auxiliary bishop David O’Connell of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was shot to death Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, authorities have confirmed. Bishop O’Connell, 69, who was found dead in a room with a gunshot wound to his upper torso, was killed just before 1:00pm, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,” notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change” in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.” And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

CNA Staff, Jun 20, 2020 / 08:55 pm MT (CNA).- After the toppling of a saint’s statue in San Francisco, the city’s archbishop said Saturday that important protests over racial injustice have been “hijacked” by a mob bent on violence. “What is happening to our society? A renewed national movement to heal memories and correct the injustices of racism and police brutality in our country has been hijacked by some into a movement of violence, looting and vandalism,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement June 20. The archbishop’s statement came after a statue of St. Junipero Serra was torn...

Matthew 5:9 says “Blessed are the peacemakers” and it would appear Pastor Clementa Pinckney was definitely one of those. While the mainstream media is decrying the fact that the Charleston shooting victim’s body was carried past a Confederate flag today, the good pastor may not have found it all that offensive. In 2000, during his first term in the South Carolina State Senate, Pinckney actually voted in favor of H5028, the May 2000 compromise which placed the flag at its current location. H5028 related to THE PERMANENT PLACEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES FLAG, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE FLAG, AND THE...

Now is the time to talk about replacing the statue of Robert E. Lee, as iconic as it is controversial, from its perch at the center of Lee Circle, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced Wednesday (June 24) during a gathering held to highlight his racial reconciliation initiative. "Symbols really do matter," he said. "Symbols should reflect who we really are as a people. "We have never been a culture, in essence, that revered war rather than peace, division rather than unity." The slaying last week of nine black people in a historic Charleston, S.C., church at the hands of Dylann Roof,...

The Pope's visit to the church is likely to be 'extremely quick' (CNS) Pope Francis will pay a brief “private visit” to the Italian church of a Pentecostal pastor he knew from Argentina, a Vatican spokesman has said.The visit to the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation in Caserta, about 130 miles south of Rome, “is under study and likely would take place July 26″, said Fr Federico Lombardi.Fr Lombardi said the Pope knew the church’s pastor, Giovanni Traettino, from Buenos Aires, where the Pentecostal pastor participated in ecumenical events with Catholics, especially Catholics belonging to the charismatic renewal movement. The then-Cardinal...

Egypt has issued an order barring pop star Madonna from entering the country because she visited Israel. Members of Egypt's parliament have demanded Madonna, who has not requested entry into Egypt or announced any plans to visit the country, be barred from entering Egyptian soil. The parliament directed Egyptian embassies abroad to deny any visa requests from Madonna. The demand comes after Madonna, aka Esther, visited the Jewish state last week making daily headline news with midnight trips to a Jewish cemetery, a quick drive by past the Wailing Wall, and even the arrest of her security detail. The Material...

Innocent bystander shot to death 12/26/2002 From Staff Reports A man trying to settle a dispute was shot to death at a Far North Dallas apartment complex Wednesday night. Police said Bothwell Gandari, 37, was shot and killed around 10:30 p.m. at the Ventana Apartment Homes in the 5500 block of Spring Valley Road. Mr. Gandari was trying to calm a domestic argument when someone pulled a gun and shot him. No further infomation was available, police said. The investigation will be continued on Thursday. Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/122602dnmetshooting.28a1641c.html