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Later this month, representatives of Israel's government are slated to attend a new peace summit at Annapolis, Md., sponsored by the Bush administration. Desperate not to be seen as obstructing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's goal of creating a Palestinian state before her boss's term expires in January 2009, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has enthusiastically endorsed the conference. Given the fact that the history of Mideast "peace" summits shows that such conclaves are as likely to increase violence as they are to engender reconciliation, the stakes for Israel's future at Annapolis are enormous. Placed in this dramatic context, can there...

The University of St. Thomas' latest attempt at freshman shock therapy is in full swing. The vehicle is the school's "common text" -- a book, chosen annually, that all freshman English students must read and discuss. If you've ever wondered where the idea comes from that colleges and universities have become liberal indoctrination camps, well, it comes from rituals like this. As usual, this year's common text isn't a literary classic by a Dead White Male. It's "The Handmaid's Tale," an ideologically freighted polemic by feminist novelist Margaret Atwood. Here's a summary: Right-wing Christian fanatics have taken over America and...

When 16th century European priests arrived in southern India to introduce Christianity, they were told that a more famed Christian missionary had been there first. In the districts of Travancore and Cochin, there was already a community of Indian Christians with a tradition of loose communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The man who first converted them, the Indians said, was none other than St. Thomas the Apostle (the "Doubting Thomas"), who reputedly arrived in India aboard a Roman trading vessel in 52 A.D. Whether St. Thomas actually preached under the palm trees of Travancore and Cochin is a point...

Thiruvananthapuram: A remark reportedly made by Pope Benedict XVI at St Peter's Square in September that St Thomas may not have evangelised in south India has kicked off a row in Kerala.The south Indian state has a sizeable Christian population, a majority of whom believe their ancestors joined the faith after St Thomas's evangelism.The issue has come to light following an article by George Nedungatt SJ, a faculty member of the Oriental Pontifical Institute in Rome, in the English edition of Sathyadeepam, a Catholic publication from Kerala.In the article it is pointed out that the Pope made an observation that...

The Apostle Thomas "His Question Gives Us the Right … to Ask Jesus for Explanations" VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's address at today's general audience, dedicated to present the figure of the Apostle Thomas. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters: Continuing with our encounters with the Twelve Apostles chosen directly by Jesus, today we dedicate our attention to Thomas. Always present in the four lists of the New Testament, he is presented in the first three Gospels next to Matthew (cf. Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15), while in the Acts...

July 3, 2006 Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle Psalm: Monday 28 Reading 1Eph 2:19-22 Brothers and sisters:You are no longer strangers and sojourners,but you are fellow citizens with the holy onesand members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.Through him the whole structure is held togetherand grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;in him you also are being built togetherinto a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Responsorial PsalmPs 117:1bc, 2 R. (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.Praise...

Official blunt on public housing He wants 'only the best residents' back Tuesday, April 25, 2006 By Bill Walsh Washington bureau WASHINGTON -- U.S. Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson shed little light Monday on the future of public housing in hurricane-battered New Orleans, but said that "only the best residents" of the former St. Thomas housing complex should be allowed into the new mixed-income development that replaced it. In a wide-ranging interview with reporters, Jackson was asked about the relatively small number of apartments in the 60-acre River Gardens development in Uptown that have been set aside for former residents of...

The job of a college president is not for the faint of heart. Pressure groups regularly parade through the office, lobbying for the latest cultural or intellectual fad. Many college presidents put their finger to the wind when making decisions on controversial matters. Those who decide to challenge liberal orthodoxy can pay a high price. Harvard President Lawrence Summers recently resigned under pressure after daring to question the politically correct line on sex differences. Presidents of Christian colleges have an especially tough job. They face enormous pressure to embrace secular trends. It takes a president with a steady vision to...

Traveling with students? Unmarried? Two rooms. That was the ruling Wednesday by the president of the University of St. Thomas, the Rev. Dennis Dease. The St. Paul-based university will not let staff or faculty who travel officially with students share a room on those trips with an unmarried partner. That decision, announced Wednesday, essentially affirms the judgments Dease made last year in two cases involving unmarried teachers traveling with students. Putting the policy in writing, however, is unlikely to end the controversy that's divided the St. Thomas campus the past few months. Faculty members who were caught in one of...

The University of St. Thomas today said it will not let staff or faculty who travel officially with students share a room on those trips with an unmarried partner. The decision by St. Thomas President Rev. Dennis Dease, posted on the St. Thomas Web site this morning, puts into policy the university's position. But it's unlikely to end the controversy that's divided the campus the past few months. While the travel policy affects only a few professors, it became a flashpoint on campus after two professors who live together as unmarried, heterosexual partners were told in December they could travel...

Eight bodies found at Canada farm The bodies of eight men have been found in several vehicles in woodland on a farm in Canada, police say. The grim discovery was made by a farmer on his land in Elgin County, Ontario. Police have launched a murder hunt and say it is possible more bodies will be found. They say all the men were white but have given few other details. "We are not in a position to release any information about the persons, the motive or the cause of death," said Ontario Police Sergeant Dave Rektor. The farm is near...

The effects of a University of St. Thomas decision that kept two unmarried partners from traveling together on university business continue to ripple through the campus, and what began as a debate about travel policy is edging into a tougher discussion about the university's future. Two recent St. Thomas rulings launched a wider debate over Catholicism and the university's reach into employees' lives. A choral director last spring was told she couldn't officially bring her lesbian partner along on a trip with a university choir; two professors who live together as unmarried, heterosexual partners were told in December they could...

A ban on unmarried University of St. Thomas faculty sharing sleeping quarters on business trips would contradict the university's nondiscrimination policy, according to a resolution discussed Tuesday by faculty leaders. The resolution, which supports such travel arrangements, is the latest step after two controversial decisions by university officials to restrict travel plans of St. Thomas professors. Members of the university's faculty senate debated the measure, but delayed a vote because several professors wanted more time to consider the issues. Last spring, a choral director was told she couldn't officially bring her lesbian partner along on a trip to France with...

As a Catholic university, St. Thomas is in a constant state of reflection on its academic mission and on the ways in which we should manifest our Catholic identity. One of the most important responsibilities carried out by St. Thomas faculty and staff is to model Catholic values in our daily interactions with students. In saying this, I refer only in part to behavior reported in recent media coverage about whether unmarried partners should share a room while supervising students on a university-sponsored trip. As our mission statement makes clear, "St. Thomas educates students to be morally responsible leaders who...

Kottayam, Jan 14: Mar Mathew Moolakkatt was appointed as the Archbishop of the Knanaya Catholic Church here today. Mar Moolakkatt is the second Archbishop of the church. He was appointed following the retirement of Archbishop Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry after 38 years of service as Bishop of the Church. The Knanaya Catholics are the descendants of the families who had migrated to Kerala in 345 AD along with Knai Thoma.

One day in a spring, an elderly man walked alone on a stone road lined by young willows in Xuzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province. At the end of the road was a museum that few people have heard of. A Chinese theology professor says the first Christmas is depicted in the stone relief from the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220). In the picture above a woman and a man are sitting around what looks like a manger, with allegedly "the three wise men" approaching from the left side, holding gifts, "the shepherd" following them, and "the assassins" queued...

We contacted St. Thomas senior Katie Kieffer and asked for her report on Ann Coulter's appearance at St. Thomas. Ms. Kieffer's report provides a valuable counterpoint to the columns by the Star Tribune's fatuous columnist as well as to Father Dease's condemnation of the event: Here are my thoughts on the atmosphere at the Ann Coulter event. Please note that the quotes are accurate to the best of my knowledge, but since there was no recording of the speech, they may not be word-for-word. About five days prior to the event, several members of the St. Thomas Standard staff and...

CHENNAI (ICNS) – The tsunami waves have subsided, but a miracle is being talked about across Chennai. It is the story of how St Thomas’ miraculous post kept the invading waves away, sparing the newly renovated Santhome Cathedral. The Cathedral, the world’s second basilica built on an apostle’s tomb, has been giving shelter to hundreds of tsunami victims ever since the waves ravaged many buildings across the coast. But even though the killer tsunami waves devastated the Chennai coast, Father Lawrence Raj, the parish priest of the Santhome Cathedral Basilica, says “the sea did not touch our church.” The reason?...

July 3, 2004 Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle Psalm: Saturday 29 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading IEph 2:19-22 Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Responsorial PsalmPs 117:1bc, 2...

Celebrating the Apostle’s comingK. R. N. Swamy The X-mas this year is being celebrated as the 1950th year of Apostle St Thomas coming to India St Thomas Museum, Chennai THE two-month-long celebration, that started on November 17 this year in Cochin, commemorating the 1950th year of Apostle St. Thomas’ arrival in India, was symbolic of Indian culture. A hundred thousand- strong congregation of Christians, presided over by the erudite Muslim President of India, Abul Kalam, so steeped in Hinduism. Three major Christian organisations, (representing the 22-million-strong Christian community), the Evangelical Fellowship of India with more than 100 church groups, the...