Survivor of Iraqi Church Siege Killed

In an apparent robbery?

BAGHDAD (AP) — Rafah Toma survived one of the most horrific attacks on Iraq’s tiny Christian community — the siege on a Baghdad church two months ago that left 68 people dead — only to be gunned down in her home Monday by thieves stealing her cash and jewelry.

It was not immediately clear whether Toma’s death was the latest attack to target Iraq’s beleaguered Christians, or instead another of the brutal robberies that have become commonplace for all Iraqis, Muslim and Christian alike.

The priest that found her battered body, Father Mukhlis, serves at the Our Lady of Salvation church where more than 120 people were taken hostage on Oct. 31 after gunmen stormed the building during an evening Mass. He said that Toma, who was in her 50s, was one of the parishioners at Mass that evening.

“It was her fate to not die in the attack on the church but to die by gunmen who killed her to steal her gold and money,” he said. “Christians face a tragedy in this country.”…

The blood of Christian martyrs is flowing in 2011!

End of an Era: Fr John Broadhurst on the Anglican Ordinariate

Ruth Gledhill of The Times interviews Father John Broadhurst on the new Anglican Ordinariate. The video also includes footage of Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols and auxiliary Bishop Alan Hopes, himself a convert or ‘Tibernaut’ as some are calling them, and who received the founding members of the Ordinariate at the start of 2011. Earlier, Ruth broke the story in The Times of the receptions at Westminster Cathedral on 1 January, feast of Mary Mother of God, of three former Anglican bishops including Father Broadhurst, three Walsingham nuns and two of the bishops’ wives…

When Heresy Leads to Apostacy

Do read this excellent apology by Fr Z.

It also well exposes much of what is wrong with (and the danger of) ‘Continuing Anglicanism’.

And on a side note, I commentated on his blog:

The Continuum blog lot tend to be nasty, belligerent and ant-Catholic in the extreme. They are dead against the idea of anyone leaving ‘Continuing Anglicanism’ for Rome. Fr Robert Hart is particularly vocal in that. It’s almost as if they think that the truth resides with them alone, yet sadly, they (as ‘Continuing Anglicans’) are unable to see their own very fractured state… Not a friendly blog and not worth visiting at all.

Historic Lesbian Marriage of 'Top Clergy' of the Episcopal Church

Just keep reminding yourself: Anglicanorum Coetibus,  Anglicanorum Coetibus…

The historic marriage of Episcopal Divinity School, dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary, took place today at the Cathedral Church of St Paul in Boston.

From the press release:

The Episcopalian bishop of Massachusetts began 2011 by solemnizing the first lesbian marriage – of two senior Episcopalian clergy – at Boston’s St Paul’s Cathedral Saturday (January 1).

The marriage of Episcopal Divinity School, dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary, was the first lesbian marriage solemnized by the Right Reverend M Thomas Shaw SSJE, Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

At the marriage attended by close to 400 guests, Bishop Shaw commented: “God always rejoices when two people who love each other make a life long commitment in marriage to go deeper into the heart of God through each other. It’s a profound pleasure for me to celebrate with God and my friends, the marriage of Katherine and Mally.”

The couple met on June 30, 2008, at the urging of a mutual friend. At the time, Canon Lloyd, 57, said, “We were both travelling a lot and so we would talk by phone. And somehow when you talk a lot by phone, a relationship can go deeper more quickly than when you spend time in person. At least that is what happened to us.”

Although this is a second marriage for Canon Lloyd, it is the first for Dean Ragsdale,52. “It’s astonishing how the world is changing,” Dean Ragsdale said, “when I grew up, I never believed I would be able to have someone special in my life and now to have almost 400 people show up to support us at our marriage ceremony is wonderful.”…

Though the Episcopal Church’s canons and formularly still state that marriage is between a man and a woman, the church at its General Convention in July of 2009 decided to allow that “bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church.”…

And now you know why we have it! Flee while you still can.

By the way, whatever this abomination is, ‘marriage’ it is not.

Egypt: Imam Criticises Pope Benedict for Condemning Church Bombing

So much for trying to help!

Cairo – The imam of Al-Azhar condemned the Alexandria attack but criticised the Pope’s “interference”. At a press conference, Ahmed al Tayeb condemned the New Year’s Eve attack that killed 21 people in Alexandria and called for “unity between the cross and the crescent.” However he also criticised the appeal by Benedict XVI to Egypt’s leaders to counter the persecution of Christians, as an “interference” in internal Egyptian affairs. He explained: “We don’t want to comment on the opinion of the Pope in the Vatican, but we have the right to disagree with him.”

If they protected the rights of Christian minorities, then no such ‘interference’ would be necessary!

See also Press TV covering this news.