Hooliganism – Origin of Word

Origin of the word

The first use of the term is unknown, but it appeared in an 1898 London police report. One theory is that the word came from the name of an Irish hoodlum from Southwark, London named Patrick Hooligan. Another theory is that it came from a street gang in Islington named Hooley. A third theory is that it’s based on an Irish word, Hooley, which means a wild, spirited party¹.

¹hooley or hoolie a party, esp. a wild or lively one. Anglo-Irish slang. Perhaps a variant of the Gaelic ceilidh -Rosalind Fergusson, Shorter Slang Dictionary (New York: Routledge, 1994) 113

for further information on this word, please see the following url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooligan

Hooliganism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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St. Mother Theodore Guerin brought inspiration, motivation

By Crystal Garcia
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Since St. Mother Theodore Guerin has been canonized, things at St. Mary-of-the-Woods haven’t died down and the Sisters of Providence hope they never do, said General Superior Denise Wilkinson.

“We hope that she’s always a source of inspiration and motivation to other people,” she said.

Guerin was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 15 in St. Peter’s Square after a process that took the Sisters of Providence 97 years to complete.

“With great trust in divine providence, Mother Theodore overcame many challenges and persevered in the work that the Lord had called her to do,” Pope Benedict said on the day of her canonization.

Born Oct. 2, 1798, in Etables-sur-Mer, France as Anne-Thérèse, Guerin wanted to join a religious order when she was 20, but her mother wouldn’t let her. When she was 25, her mother agreed to let her go.

On Aug. 18, 1823, Guerin entered the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé, France. She became Sister St. Theodore eight years later.

A request for sisters to minister in the diocese brought Guerin and five other sisters to Indiana in October 1840, in which as a superior, Guerin took on the “mother” title. They spent a harsh winter in a log farmhouse, but within nine months of their arrival they established the Sisters of Providence Academy, now St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.

“By the time of her death in 1856, the sisters were running schools and orphanages throughout the state of Indiana,” the pontiff said at the canonization. “In her own words, ‘How much good has been accomplished by the sisters of St. Mary-of-the-Woods. How much more good they will be able to do if they remain faithful to their holy vocation.’”

The canonization process began in 1909 when Bishop Francis Silas Chatard gave his permission to open the cause for Guerin’s beatification and canonization after she healed Sister Theodosia Mug’s cancer through an intercession with God in 1908.

Pope John Paul II named her “venerable” in 1992, which means she lived a virtuous life to a heroic degree. He also gave her the “blessed” title in 1998 at a beatification ceremony at the Vatican.

Healing the eyesight of Phil McCord, director of facilities at the Sisters Providence in 2000, was the second miracle needed for Guerin to be canonized.

To be accepted as a miracle, three groups of examiners at the Vatican must review it: a panel of medical experts, who must agree the healing wasn’t medically explainable; a committee of theologians; and a congress of cardinals in the Congregation for Saints.

While Guerin has been recognized by at least two popes, she also has been honored by the state when her portrait was hung in Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office in July and when a portion of U.S. 150 near St. Mary-of-the-Woods College between U.S. 40 and Bolton Road was named the Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Memorial Highway.

“We’ve named roads, bridges and other facilities for sports heroes, military heroes and politicians,” Daniels said at the road sign unveiling, five days before the canonization. “That’s all well and good, but we’ve had many of those and only one saint.”

Since Guerin’s canonization, Wilkinson said they have noticed more visitors to the area, whether it’s campus tours, people attending Liturgy services or visitors to her shrine.

A small group of regulars attended Sunday services before the canonization, Wilkinson said, but now it’s not unusual to have several more people there for the first or only time.

Wilkinson said the people who have really been busy since the canonization are the ones who answer the e-mails from people asking for prayers from Guerin’s intercession and telling stories, and the gift-shop people.

There have been a lot of orders from the Web site and more requests for information about Guerin’s life.

“I think what is most rewarding or satisfying is that Mother Theodore has always been for us such an important figure and so alive with us, an extraordinary woman, so I think it’s affirming that so many people are responding to her story,” Wilkinson said. “The more I reflect on the whole experience, I think I realize that she told her sisters when she was alive that we are all saints by loving one another, and I think that our work now is to help everyone become saints and not to put obstacles in people’s way.”

Tribune-Star reporter Mark Bennett contributed to this story.

Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812)231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com

Terre Haute, Indiana News – TribStar.com – St. Mother Theodore Guerin brought inspiration, motivatio

Muslums Coming to Christ

During a recent ministry trip overseas I was presented with some astounding statistics on Muslims coming to Christ. As the sources are involved in restricted access areas, they do not want their names mentioned as sources, neither can I personally confirm the accuracy of these reports. However, for your interest and information: I’ve been informed that there are now over 50,000 believers in Afghanistan. Before the war there were less than 100 Christians in the country. Today there are more than 400 Christian missionaries in Afghanistan, operating in each of the 34 provinces, for the first time in Afghan history. One of the missions involved in Afghanistan claims that there are today over 50,000 Afghan Christians.

Another mission involved in Iraq claims that, in the year before the war in 2003 there were only 3,000 known evangelical Christians in Iraq, and only six evangelical churches. Today there are more than 25,000 Iraqi believers in 25 churches in Baghdad alone. And hundreds of new churches in other areas of Iraq.

According to Christian author, Dr. Jim Murk (author of Islam Rising – The Never-ending Jihad against Christianity) estimates that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity each year in America.

According to Muslim sources, over 6 million Muslims convert from Islam to Christianity each year! This seems to be an incredibly high figure, but perhaps these sources are counting all those lost to Islam as converts to Christianity. It is possible that many are leaving Islam without coming to faith in Christ.

However, there is no doubt that tens of thousands of Muslims are coming to faith in Christ in Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia, and other parts of the Muslim world.

Does your church have a programme for reaching Muslims for Christ? Are your members well informed on the teachings of Islam and the culture of Muslims? Are they effectively trained in evangelism and prepared for cross-cultural witnessing? If Muslims come to Christ in your area, would you church be able to welcome them into the congregation, and effectively disciple them?

Frontline Fellowship has been revising and refining our Muslim Evangelism Workshop over the last 24 years. We have resources that can assist your church in effectively witnessing to and evangelising Muslims, and discipling converts from a Muslim background.

Frontline Fellowship’s book: “Slavery, Terrorism and Islam – The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat” (128 pages with 110 pictures and maps), includes the Muslim Evangelism Workshop Manual and many helpful and practical chapters and appendixes to enable your to understand Islam and evangelise Muslims effectively.

Frontline Fellowship also has a number of audio CD lectures from the Muslim Evangelism Workshop including: The Challenge of Islam; Comparing the Bible with the Quran; Challenging Muslims; Guidelines for Muslim Evangelism; The Scourge of Slavery; Uprooting Terrorism; Islam According to the Reformers; Reformation or Islamisation; etc.

Three of the best films produced on Sudan are now available on one DVD (Sudan: The Hidden Holocaust; Terrorism and Persecution – Understanding Islamic Jihad; and Three Days in Sudan).

You will also find useful articles and links on Islam on www.frontline.org.za.

“The desert tribes will bow before Him and His enemies will lick the dust…all kings will bow down to Him and all nations will serve Him.” Psalm 72:9 – 11

Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884
PO Box 74
Newlands, 7725
Cape Town, South Africa
Web: www.frontline.org.za
E-mail: admin@frontline.org.za

MUSLIMS COMING TO CHRIST

source URL: http://www.frontline.org.za/articles/Muslims%20coming%20to%20Christ.htm

‘Shibui’ – for the best in good taste

I love words, the study of their origins, old words, new words, and foreign words introduced into the English mainstream.  Such an up-and-coming word is ‘shibui.’  I do hope that it will become mainstream along with other words that have flowed into the English language.  I was delighted to find the word in Wikipedia, and I include it here for all to enjoy!

---

Shibui

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Shibumi is also the name of a book by Trevanian.

Shibui (渋い, adjective), or shibumi (渋み, noun), is a Japanese word which refers to a particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty. Like other Japanese aesthetic terms, such as iki and wabi-sabi, shibui can apply to a wide variety of subjects, not just art or fashion.

Originating in the Muromachi period (1333-1568) as shibushi, the term originally referred to a sour or astringent taste, such as that of an unripe persimmon. Shibui maintains that literal meaning still, and remains the antonym of amai (甘い), meaning ‘sweet’.

However, by the beginnings of the Edo period (1603-1867), the term had gradually begun to be used to refer to a pleasing aesthetic. The people of Edo expressed their tastes in using this term to refer to anything from song to fashion to craftsmanship that was beautiful by being understated, or by being precisely what it was meant to be and not elaborated upon. Essentially, the aesthetic ideal of shibumi seeks out events, performances, people or objects that are beautiful in a direct and simple way, without being flashy.

Expert singers, actors, potters, and artists of all other sorts were often said to be shibui; their expertise caused them to do things beautifully without making them excessive or gaudy. Today, sometimes baseball players are even said to be shibui when they contribute to the overall success of the team without doing anything to make themselves stand out individually.

The concept of shibui was introduced to the West in 1960, in two special publications of the American magazine House Beautiful.

In James A. Michener’s "Iberia" the word ‘shibui’ is referenced as follows: "The Japanese have a word which summarizes all the best in Japanese life, yet it has no explanation and cannot be translated. It is the word ‘shibui,’ and the best approximation to its meaning is ‘acerb good taste.’"

[edit] Reference

• Ueda, Makoto (1985). "Shibui." Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd.
  
• Michener, James A. (1968). "Iberia." Spanish Travels and Reflections. A Fawcett Crest Book reprinted by arrangement with Random House, Inc.

[edit] See also

• Wabi-sabi
• Iki

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibui"

Category: Japanese aesthetics

Far from the Maddening ‘Hoi Polloi’

Here’s another e-mail grab bag item. It is astounding that so many familiar
phrases, although we do not understand their origin, are so well understood.
Take the phrase ‘hoi polloi.’ I was very much surprised to learn that
this common term is of Greek origin. As always, I’m probably giving out
more information than most people are interested in, but then that’s the
Historian/Secretary in me. Enjoy! 🙂

Hoi polloi: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The hoi polloi protesting their perceived maltreatment by the wealthier
classes.

The hoi polloi protesting their perceived maltreatment by the wealthier
classes.

Hoi polloi (Greek), an
expression meaning "the many" in both Ancient Greek and Modern Greek, is
used in English to denote "the masses" or "the people", usually in a
derogatory sense. For example, "I’ve secured a private box for the play so
we don’t have to watch the show with the hoi polloi."

The phrase became known to English scholars probably from Pericles’ Funeral
Oration, as mentioned in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War .
Pericles uses it in a positive way when praising the Athenian democracy,
contrasting it with hoi oligoi, "the few."

Its current English usage originated in the early 19th century, a time when
it was considered necessary to know Greek and Latin in order to be well
educated. The phrase was originally written in Greek letters.[2][3][4]
Knowledge of these languages would serve to set apart the speaker from the
common people who did not have that education.

The phrase has been the source of considerable controversy over its correct
usage. One debate has been over the usage of the English article "the" in
front of the phrase. Furthermore, the phrase has at times been used to mean
the exact opposite of its originally intended meaning.[5] According to
Thesaurus.com, synonyms for "hoi polloi" include "Middle America,
commonality, commoners, great unwashed, huddled masses, infrastructure,
masses, multitude, plebians, proletariat, rabble, rank and file, riffraff,
the common people, the herd, the many, the masses, the working class,
vulgus".[6]

Contents

Since "hoi" means "the", it might be said that the common usage of the hoi
polloi is incorrect. However, this later usage is well-established and it is
often the case that phrases borrowed from other languages become treated as
single words in English.[7] The Chicago Manual of Style considers the usage
"the hoi polloi" to be the standard usage.[8] (Merriam) Webster’s Dictionary
of English Usage says:

“It is interesting to note that when hoi polloi was used by writers who had
actually been educated in Greek, it was invariably preceded by the. Perhaps
writers such as Dryden and Byron understood that English and Greek are two
different languages, and that, whatever its literal meaning in Greek, hoi
does not mean "the" in English. There is, in fact, no such independent word
as hoi in English — there is only the term hoi polloi, which functions not
as two words but as one, the sense of which is basically "commoners" or
"rabble." In idiomatic English, it is no more redundant to say "the hoi
polloi" than it is to say "the rabble," and most writers who use the term
continue to precede it with *the* …[9]

”Still others cite examples such as "Alcohol" or "Algebra" or "Algorithm"
which are an Arabic-derived words with "Al" denoting "the" … As is
typically the case, not everyone agrees with this logic; they point out that
if this were the case, that "hoi polloi" would become a single word
"hoipolloi" or hyphenated "hoi-polloi." And, according to Lytsar Visa,
"Occam’s Razor tells us that in the face of multiple rational alternatives,
the simplest one is the best. If they want to prepend a superfluous the in
front of hoi polloi … I say let them eat their steak sandwiches with au
jus and pay for them using their MAC Cards in an ATM machine."
[edit] Use in reference to the upper class

Since the 1950s the phrase has often been misused to refer to the upper
class, which is the opposite of its actual meaning.[10][11] It has been
speculated that this usage has arisen due to similarity between the phrase
"hoi polloi" and "high" or "hoity toity".[12][13]
[edit] Grammatical notes

The reason that the English transliteration of the phrase is "Hoi Polloi"
and not "Oi Polloi" as one would presume from a visual inspection of the
Greek letters, is the spiritus asper on top of iota, which denotes
an initial aspiration, similar to an "h" sound (the diacritics are always
placed on top of the second letter of a diphthong). In Modern Greek,
diacritical marks had lost their initial function of modifying the
pronunciation and polytonic orthography was dropped in favour of monotonic
orthography. The phrase is currently written with no breathings
[edit] Pronunciation

It is interesting to note that the phrase has three different
pronunciations:

English speakers are pronouncing it "Ho-e Puhlo-e".

Ancient Greek speakers would pronounce it (according to Erasmus) "Hoee
Pol-loee"

Modern Greek speakers are pronouncing it "E poh-lee,"
since in Modern Greek there is no aspiration and "οι" equals to an
"e" sound (all Ancient Greek diphthongs are now pronounced as monophthongs).
Greek Cypriots still pronounce the double-λ (IPA: /ˈi poll’i/).

This is why most Greeks do not understand the phrase when they hear it
spoken by an Anglophone person, usually to the surprise of the latter.

Go to the following URL for the many uses of the phrase ‘hoi polloi.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_polloi"

Vietnamese Immigrants Are Filling Up America’s Catholic Priesthood

Dec 22, 2006

DUBUQUE, Iowa — If you visit the Divine Word College, a tiny Catholic
missionary school outside of Dubuque, Iowa, you will hear the hallway
conversations most likely not carried out in English. Usually, they are in
Vietnamese. So is the music played late at night in the school’s cafeteria,
when students are hungry for a bite.

Vietnamese dominate this seminary. Forty-three out of its 67 students, about
2 out of 3, are Vietnamese.

"They are replacing the traditional Irish and Italian immigrants, who once
provided a steady supply of priests in the States," says Len Uhal, National
Vocation director, and vice president for recruitment. "We look to Asians,
particularly Vietnamese immigrants to fill the quotas."

In the last four decades, the number of priests in the United States has
dropped 27 percent, to around 43,000. And though Asian Americans comprise
only 1 percent of the American Catholic Church, they account for 12 percent
of all Catholic seminary students nationwide. And the majority of those tend
to be Vietnamese.

In Orange County, home to the largest Vietnamese population outside of
Vietnam, almost 15 percent of the Catholic priests are Vietnamese. Last
year, three out of seven priests ordained in the county were Vietnamese.
Four years ago, the county’s Most Rev. Dominic Luong became the first
Vietnamese Bishop in the United States.

Father Binh Nguyen, 39, who attended Divine Word College, is now one of its
four recruiters, perhaps its best. He travels regularly to various
Vietnamese communities, talking to potential students. "I rarely fly,
because you don’t know how long it will take to recruit," he says. "And I
rarely stay at hotels. I take my time. I stay at the potential recruit’s
home, talking to the family, to everybody, making sure they know what [to]
expect."

Lam Tran, 25, a junior, was one of those recruits. A third-generation
Catholic, when he was younger and living in Vietnam, Lam dreamed of becoming
a priest. But "that was nearly impossible in communist Vietnam," he says.
His family came to the United States five years ago, when his father was
granted political refugee status.

"I feel like it was fate," Tran says. "I like the quiet and the busy school
schedule. There’s no distraction here. Besides, I have many more years
before I take the final vow." Seminary school students have 12 years before
taking their vow.

Tran also likes the 1-to-4 teacher-to-student ratio, almost unheard of in
any other college. There are plenty of grants and scholarships available,
even to those who didn’t fare well in high school.

One is Khoa Mai, 31, who spent much of his formative years in the refugee
camp in the Philippines. Mai recounts in Vietnamese the story of his ordeal
as a boat refugee in the 1980s. "I starved on that boat. I was muscular in
Vietnam but by the time we landed, I was near dead, just skin and bones."
Sixteen people died, he says. They ran out of food and water after two
weeks. If the Belgian ship that rescued them hadn’t come when it did, "the
next day we would have started eating the dead."

Mai, who spent some years working in a nail salon and then on an assembly
line for a high-tech company, will take at least three years of ESL classes
before enrolling in serious college-level courses. Mai says, "I was lucky. I
met Father Binh while I went camping. He offered a real education with some
scholarship. I have a chance now."

Those who graduate and decide not to follow the path to priesthood will have
to pay back a certain amount of their loans, but nowhere as high as that of
a regular university. That’s an attraction for the education-loving
Vietnamese. "If you miss out on your education," says one student who
preferred to remain anonymous, "going to seminary school is your second
chance to become somebody." To Vietnamese Catholic families, he says, having
a son who is a priest "is a kind of honor that elevates the family’s
standing in the community, especially for poor families."

Though only 10 percent of Vietnamese in Vietnam are Christians, in America
the figure is 30 percent, and much of that population is Roman Catholics.
That’s not surprising. Vietnamese Catholics were persecuted by the
communists and many fled from North Vietnam to the South in 1954, and later
to America when South Vietnam fell in 1975.

Richard Vu, 24, says his father was quite surprised when he decided to enter
the seminary. "I was living in Atlanta. I had a girlfriend."

And it hasn’t been easy. "I cried for many weeks when I first came here. I
never felt so lonely. But I knew what I wanted and I told my girlfriend not
to wait. We’re now good friends."

Uhal and Father Binh acknowledge that far fewer U.S.-born Vietnamese would
consider going to seminary school. "We rely more and more on immigrants,"
says Uhal. "For example, the second largest group here is 10 Sudanese
students, followed by Indonesians."

It is no wonder that on immigration debate, the church knows where it
stands. Without these "new Irish," their supply would further dwindle.

— Andrew Lam

source URL:
http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=2e648cc54abbec6cd6c7895e4b07eb6a

A Little Perspective on the War on Christmas

Blank 2 Stationery

By Megan Basham Tuesday, December 19, 2006 It has become yet another heralding of "the most wonderful time of the year." Along with the temporary inclusion of Bing Crosby and Burl Ives into light rock radio formats, holiday sales, and cheerful family photographs wishing "Season’s Greetings" from the mailbox, every December I have come to expect stories of the ACLU’s persecution of the Christian part of Christmas. So effective has the secular left’s legal onslaught been that now the mere whisper of a threat is enough to pull down the Christmas trees in Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport. And elementary school principles no longer wait for the stray Wiccan parent to complain before they scurry around banning red and green construction paper from decoration activities and "Away in a Manger" from Christmas pageant programs. Women look on during a rally against female feticide in New Delhi, India, in this, Dec. 10, 2006 file photo. Indian lawmakers and women’s rights activists raised an alarm Monday, Dec. 18, 2006 over new evidence that indicates about 7,000 fewer girls than expected are born each day in the country, where women are routinely discriminated against and parents often abort female fetuses. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File) Related Audio: A police officer stopped the singing of Christmas songs So, like clockwork, with the arrival of colder weather also arrives my wounded sense of injustice as one of the majority who worships the Jesus the city of Chicago deemed unfit to portray on film. This year, however, while the stories of the ACLU’s grinchiness remain as ridiculous as ever, I’m having a little trouble mustering up my traditional holiday outrage-and not just because the clerks at Wal-Mart have resumed wishing me "Feliz Navidad" (I live in a Southwestern city.) After a close encounter with believers who daily live Christ’s prediction, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also," I can’t help but blush a bit at my previous, very vocal indignation. For almost two-weeks in October, the organization Gospel for Asia (GFA) hosted a small collection of journalists for an informational tour of India . With 54 Bible colleges, 400 Bridge of Hope centers (elementary-level programs for children of Dalits, India’s lowest caste), a radio ministry broadcasting in 102 languages, and a network of over 16,000 native missionaries throughout the country, GFA is in a unique position to provide insight on the state of the Church in Asia. The common challenge they say all workers in Indian ministry face is violent opposition. These are but a few reports out of the country from the last month alone: ¨ On November 14, villagers in the northeast state of Assam , India forced nine families from their homes for converting to Christianity. ¨ On November 17, students of a GFA Bible School were beaten and threatened with being burned alive by a mob on a road in Uttar Pradesh. All their Gospel literature was burned. Simon John, a GFA regional director, acknowledges that such incidents are common throughout the Northern region. ¨ On November 21, Bashir Ahmad Tantray was killed by unidentified gunmen for attempting to evangelize in the northern district of Jammu and Kashmir. ¨ On November 30 more than 50 members of an extremist Hindu group stormed a Catholic girls’ school in Karnataka, assaulting several teachers for teaching the Bible to children. Later the same group attacked a Carmelite seminary, desecrating the statue of Our Lady in Karnataka. ¨ On December 7, a 23-year old Anglican charity worker was stoned to death, his body found underneath a pile of rocks in the cemetery of a church in the Dharamasala region of India . Of course, I am annoyed when I hear that liberal atheists are once again protesting a courthouse crèche-but I likely would be more annoyed to be on the Christian end of any of the above incidents. Only a handful of such stories even make the news. Meeting with GFA missionaries, pastors, and Bible college students, I heard numerous first-person accounts of sacrifices made to become followers of Christ. Disowned by families, driven from homes, jailed, beaten, and sometimes killed, America ‘s version of anti-Jesus hatred seems like petulant child’s play in comparison. While state-side secularists stir up trouble in the public square, few have shown the temerity to enter our very churches. Not so in India . Gospel for Asia’s church service in Karnataka last Easter was interrupted by masked men who waited for the husbands and fathers in attendance to leave the building before descending on the women and children, beating some to the point of collapse. Earlier in the year, i nsurgents burned to the ground a GFA Believers Church building that was under construction. The fire also destroyed the nearby temporary shelters of GFA missionaries. During another attack on the same building site, Hindu extremists fired 40 rounds of ammunition into the construction area. Miraculously, no one was killed. Lest we’re inclined in our first-world comfort to think this is merely the work village barbarians, its worth noting that their government provides tacit approval of anti-Christian prejudice. In some Indian states, new believers face harsh anti-conversion laws that require astronomical financial penalties and jail time. Indian law actively prosecutes proselytizing efforts. On the local front, authorities routinely invent charges against pastors and evangelists in order to take them into custody and off the preaching circuit. However shifting the legal ground the ACLU stands on in the United States , compared to the hostilities third-world Christians must endure, their activities seem more like a nuisance than persecution. This is not to suggest that the war on Christianity in America isn’t real, but in other parts of the world, that war has a body count. How often, as we file our briefs and lodge our protests for our First Amendment rights, do we remember what believers of other nations, with whom American Christians share a closer bond than merely that of citizenship, face all year long? As one GFA leader pointedly asked our small group, "How often do our American brothers and sisters fast and pray over our situation?" Because it speaks especially to the hearts of India’s most destitute (and illiterate) caste, the Dalits, Christianity there has become known as a "low class" religion, a religion of the poor and cast off . . . the untouchable. How very like New Testament faith that seems. And with our elaborate high-tech structures, mass media outlets, and thriving Christian book/music/film industries, how very unlike our own. God has blessed American believers with every good material thing. The poorest of United States ‘ Christians would be counted among those unable to go through the eye of a needle in the majority of the world. Asked how he might approach evangelizing in the States, one GFA worker shrugs ruefully, observing that, "Trying to reach Americans is like trying to reach the Brahmins" ( India ‘s highest and wealthiest caste). It goes unspoken that we might also share the Brahmin sense of entitlement and superiority. Perhaps our success as a Christian nation has narrowed our vision so that we no longer recognize the blessing of being able to congregate, pray, and give to God as freely as wish. Perhaps it has made us too eager to appeal to courts, and not eager enough to appeal to hearts. GFA Regional Director Benny Moses described the attitude Indian believers hold in regard to persecution in a way that may leave some of us in the Western world squirming: "Christian means you never react-we do not even file charges when they beat us." He seems similarly unconcerned about his minority status as a Christian, expressing confidence in the prospect of converting the country: "He [the Holy Spirit] will do his business as we do our business.]" (Perhaps an apt message for his American brethren suffering from troubled hearts this Christmas?) As American Christians, we do have much for which to be grateful. But we should never confuse our allegiance to the United States with our true "home" country. And in that concept, even our adversaries have something right. "What Americans don’t understand about Muslims is that that their faith is their citizenship," comments GFA founder and author Dr. K.P. Yohannan. How much more true should that be for Christians? We may have a patriotic obligation to protect the biblical principles on which our founders based our government, but we have an even higher calling to do what we can to sustain those with whom we share a heavenly citizenship. Christmas is not a national holiday-it is a religious one. Those of us who profess faith in Christ would do well remember that we honor the Lord of the holiday not only by asserting our own religious rights, but supporting our overseas spiritual family as they face worshipping without any. The day may come where the ACLU has its way and our faith is officially declared an affront to the state, but that day has not yet arrived. While I would never suggest that we acquiesce to the secularists’ efforts to make mention of the Messiah’s name a crime, we must also make it a priority to support our brothers and sisters for whom that day has already come.

For comments see source URL: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=a_little_perspective_on_the_war_on_christmas&ns=MeganBasham&dt=12/19/2006&page=full&comments=true

 

Church to Canonize Four and Beatify 78

Posted on December 19, 2006

By Benedict XVI’s decision the Church will soon canonize four more saints
and proclaim 78 new blessed.

On Saturday, in a private audience to Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect
of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the Pope authorized the promulgation
of decrees of recognition of the candidates’ miracles or martyrdom.

The four blessed to be canonized saints are:

• Szymon of Lipnica, Polish, priest of the Order of Friars Minor
(1439-1482).

• Antonio de Santa Ana (born Antonio Galvao de Franca), Brazilian, priest of
the Order of Alcantarine or Discalced Friars Minor, and founder of the
Convent of Conceptionist Sisters (1739-1822).

• Charles of St. Andrew (born Johannes Andreas Houben), Dutch, priest of the
Congregation of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1821-1893).

• Marie Eugenie de Jesus (born Anne-Eugenie Milleret de Brou), French,
founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
(1817-1898).

The Holy Father also authorized the publication of decrees of recognition of
miracles attributed to the intercession of four Servants of God, thus
opening the doors of beatification to them.

They are:

• Carlo Liviero, Italian, bishop of Citta di Castello and founder of the
Congregation of Little Handmaidens of the Sacred Heart (1866-1932).

• Stanislaus of Jesus Mary (born Jana Papczynski), Polish, priest and
founder of the Congregation of Marian Clerics of the Immaculate Conception
of the Virgin Mary (1631-1701).

• Celina Chludzinska, Polish, widow and founder of the Congregation of
Sisters of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1833-1913).

• Marie Celine of the Presentation (born Jeanne-Germaine Castang), French,
nun of the Second Order of St. Francis (1878-1897).

In addition to the four blessed, the Pope has authorized the beatification
of 74 Servants of God by recognizing their martyrdom through the publication
of the necessary decree. In the case of martyrs, no miracle through their
intercession is necessary for their beatification.

The 74 martyrs who will soon be beatified are:

• Manuel Gómez González, Spanish, diocesan priest born in 1877, and Adilio
Daronch, Brazilian, lay person born in 1908, both killed in Feijao Miudo,
Brazil, in 1924.

• Albertina Berkenbrock, Brazilian, lay person born in 1919, killed in 1931.

• Eufrasio of the Baby Jesus (born Eufrasio Barredo Fernández), Spanish,
born in 1897, priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, killed during
religious persecution in Spain in 1934.

• Lorenzo, Virgilio and 44 companions of the Institute of Brothers of the
Marist Schools, Spanish, killed during religious persecution in Spain in
1936.

• Enrique Izquierdo Palacios and 13 companions, Spanish, of the Order of
Friars Preachers, killed during religious persecution in Spain in 1936.

• Ovidio Beltrán, Hermenegildo Lorenzo, Luciano Pablo, Estanislao Víctor y
Lorenzo Santiago, Spanish, members of the Institute of Brothers of the
Christian Schools, and José María Cánovas Martínez, Spanish, parish helper,
killed during religious persecution in Spain in 1936.

• María del Carmen, Rosa and Magdalena Fradera Ferragutcasas, Spanish,
religious of the Congregation of Daughters of the Blessed and Immaculate
Heart of Mary, killed during religious persecution in Spain in 1936.

• Lindalva Justo de Oliviera, Brazilian, of the Sisters of Charity of St.
Vincent de Paul, born in 1953, killed in 1993 in São Salvador de Bahia,
Brazil.

In addition, the Pope proclaimed the heroic virtues — a decisive step
toward beatification — of the following Servants of God:

• Mamerto Esquiú, Argentinean (1826-1883), of the Order of Friars Minor,
bishop of Cordoba, Argentina.

• Salvatore Micalizzi, Italian (1856-1937), professed priest of the
Congregation of the Mission.

• José Olallo Valdés, Cuban (1820-1889), professed religious of the
Hospitaller Order of St. John of God.

• Stefan Kaszap, Hungarian (1916-1935), novice of the Society of Jesus.

Primate cites growing coarseness and aggression

From:ireland.com
Monday, 18th December, 2006

A "growing coarseness and aggression" in Irish society has been attributed
by the Catholic Primate of All-Ireland, Archbishop Seán Brady, to increased
secularisation and the marginalisation of religion.

In general there was "very deep concern, particularly by parents, about
where we are going morally and spiritually", Dr Brady has said in an
interview with The Irish Times.

"Do we want to have a culture of Podge and Rodge, or one of decency and
respect?" he asked.

The increased "coarseness and aggression" in Irish society was evident "on
the roads, in drinking, the increase in sexualisation of children at an
earlier age, stress, excess generally. It is dehumanising".

Such "dehumanisation is linked to secularisation", he said. It was opposite
to Christian core values which "called on Christians to look out for one
another" and to develop "a good caring attitude, bringing healing to
brokenness", he said.

This "is not just in Ireland", he added. He recalled a discussion at a
recent synod of bishops in Europe where they were told "more and more people
were fearful of the future, isolated, and made no life commitments".

He said that where child protection was concerned, the church would work
closely with the authorities in both jurisdictions so its child protection
policy was compatible with civil requirements in both.

He had learned a lot during his 10 years as primate about "the great
suffering of [ abuse] victims and their families. We need to do everything
we can to heal that suffering as fully as possible and to ensure it can
never happen again".

The past decade had seen a rapid decline in both vocations to the priesthood
and attendance at weekly Mass, but he felt using attendance at Mass as a
yardstick was "an incomplete way to assess the life of the Church" as there
had been, for instance, no decline in numbers at Catholic schools.

He said it was not right "for the State to seek to monopolise education" and
did not accept that the segregation of children attending school along
religious lines contributed to sectarianism.

source URL:
http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/9538680?view=Eircomnet

Anthropologist Foresees a Christian Renaissance – “Ideologies Are Virtually Dece

Date: 2006-12-17

ROME, DEC. 17, 2006 (Zenit.org).- French anthropologist René Girard, one of
the most influential intellectuals of contemporary culture, thinks that a
Christian Renaissance lies ahead.

In a book published recently in Italian, "Verità o fede debole. Dialogo su
cristianesimo e relativismo" (Truth or Weak Faith: Dialogue on Christianity
and Relativism), the anthropologist states that "we will live in a world
that will seem and be as Christian as today it seems scientific."

Girard, recently elected to be one of the 40 "immortals" of the French
Academy, said: "I believe we are on the eve of a revolution in our culture
that will go beyond any expectation, and that the world is heading toward a
change in respect of which the Renaissance will seem like nothing."

The text published by Transeuropa, is the result of 10 years of meetings
between the French thinker and Italian professor Gianni Vattimo, theorist of
so-called weak thought, on topics such as faith, secularism, Christian
roots, the role of the Gospel message in the history of humanity,
relativism, the problem of violence, and the challenge of reason.

The book presents specifically to the general public the transcription of
three unpublished conferences in which the two authors challenge each other
on the most radical points of their thought.

New need

In the book, the French professor states that "religion conquers philosophy
and surpasses it. Philosophies in fact are almost dead. Ideologies are
virtually deceased; political theories are almost altogether spent.
Confidence in the fact that science can replace religion has already been
surmounted. There is in the world a new need for religion."

In regard to moral relativism, defended by Vattimo, René Girard writes: "I
cannot be a relativist" because "I think the relativism of our time is the
product of the failure of modern anthropology, of the attempt to resolve
problems linked to the diversity of human cultures.

"Anthropology has failed because it has not succeeded in explaining the
different human cultures as a unitary phenomenon, and that is why we are
bogged down in relativism.

"In my opinion, Christianity proposes a solution to these problems precisely
because it demonstrates that the obstacles, the limits that individuals put
on one another serve to avoid a certain type of conflicts."

The French academic continues: "If it was really understood that Jesus is
the universal victim who came precisely to surmount these conflicts, the
problem would be solved."

According to the anthropologist, "Christianity is a revelation of love" but
also "a revelation of truth" because "in Christianity, truth and love
coincide and are one and the same."

Christian truth

The "concept of love," which in Christianity is "the rehabilitation of the
unjustly accused victim, is truth itself; it is the anthropological truth
and the Christian truth," explains Girard.

In the face of Vattimo’s appeals to justify abortion and euthanasia as well
as homosexual relations, the French professor stresses that "there is a
realm of human conduct that Vattimo has not mentioned: morality." Girard
goes on to explain that "understood in the Ten Commandments is a notion of
morality," in which the notion of charity is implicit.

Girard then answers Vattimo, who suggests a "hedonist Christianity."

"If we let ourselves go, abandoning all scruples, the possibility exists
that each one will end up doing what he wants," writes Girard.

The French anthropologist criticizes the "politically correct world" which
considers "the Judeo-Christian tradition as the only impure tradition,
whereas all the others are exempt from any possible criticism."

Girard reminds the defenders of the politically correct that "the Christian
religion cannot even be mentioned in certain environments, or one can speak
of it only to keep it under control, to confine it, making one believe that
it is the first and only factor responsible for the horror the present world
is going through."

As regards moral nihilism, which seem to permeate modern society, Girard
concludes that "instead of approaching any form of nihilism, stating that no
truth exists as certain philosophers do," we must "return to anthropology,
to psychology and study human relations better than we have done up to now."

source URL: http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=100064