US Military Chief in Israel for talks on Iran

Military men (Netanyahu was special forces, and has been shot in battle):

The United States’ top military official held talks Friday with Israeli leaders in an effort to coordinate responses to Iran’s nuclear program and urged closer cooperation between the two allies.

Remarks by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey before the talks appeared to reflect concern in Washington about possible Israeli plans to move independently to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“We have many interests in common in the region in this very dynamic time, and the more we can continue to engage each other, the better off we’ll all be,” Dempsey said at the start of a meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at his Tel Aviv office.

Barak replied, “There is never a dull moment, that I can promise you.”

Dempsey also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.

“Both our countries share the same interests, both the same values, and I’m sure we can somehow work it out together,” Gantz said as the two generals sat down for their meeting.

Dempsey said his presence in Israel “reflects the commitment we have with each other, and I’m here to assure you that is the case.”

No Israeli statement was issued after the day’s talks, reflecting the sensitivity of the subject, and spokesmen for Netanyahu and Barak declined to comment on the substance of the discussions, citing what they described as standard procedure for consultations with visiting U.S. military chiefs.

A spokesman for Dempsey said in a statement that the talks had “served to advance a common understanding of the regional security environment.”

There’s more here.

 

The Stolen People of the Sinai

Forgotten:

Thousands of poor migrants from across Africa are being kidnapped by Bedouin gangs.

Refugees from sub-Saharan Africa are being kidnapped, tortured and ransomed for thousands of dollars in the Egyptian Sinai in what human rights activists say is the world’s forgotten hostage crisis. Over the past year, thousands of desperate migrants from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia have been kidnapped by Bedouin tribesmen who are taking advantage of continuing instability in Egypt to ramp up their lucrative trade.

Migrants have reported being rounded up by gang members and held in specially constructed jails where they are frequently tortured until relatives in Europe or Africa come up with thousands of dollars.

Testimony compiled by human rights groups reveals that torture with electric cables and molten plastic is routinely used against victims as they make desperate calls home to plead for cash. Many kidnap victims claim to have been raped by their abductors, and there are reports that captives who have been unable to raise funds have had organs removed for sale on the black market.

Critics have accused the international community of standing idle in the midst of a kidnapping scandal that has drawn little attention compared with Somali piracy, whose victims are often white employees of multinational corporations rather than poor Africans.

Father Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean priest based in Rome, receives regular calls to his Vatican office from the families of kidnapped migrants as they try to liaise with loved ones or kidnappers. “There are no real efforts being made to save these people,” he told The Independent. “The inertia of the [international community] is a godsend for criminals who get rich. The millionaire business around this trafficking is forcing hundreds of families into debt for amounts that they will pay for decades, in order to save the lives of their son, daughter or husband. Many sell everything, or end up in the hands of usurers”.

Most of the sub-Saharan migrants making their way to the Sinai desert are from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan – three impoverished African nations which have a history of persecuting political opponents and ethnic minorities. Most of those fleeing are hoping to reach Europe, where there are already sizeable populations from their countries.

Before the turmoil created by the Arab Spring, many migrants trekked through the Sahara to reach Libya, Algeria and Morocco in the hopes of finding work or catching a boat across the Mediterranean. Most now have no choice but to enter Europe via the Sinai and Israel, forcing them into the hands of Bedouin tribesmen who have long engaged in smuggling arms, drugs and people after years of chronic under-investment and prejudice from central government in Cairo…

According to a recent Israeli government report, an estimated 11,763 people were smuggled into Israel through the Egyptian border in 2010. Last week, the Knesset passed new legislation making it easier for the authorities to speed up deportations, leading to an outcry from human rights groups.

Doctors working for Physicians for Human Rights Israel, a charity which examines migrants on arrival, conducted interviews with 800 refugees, with 78 per cent reporting that they had been kidnapped, tortured or held for ransom at some point during their journey through the Sinai. A separate survey by the Hotline for Migrant Workers, based in Tel Aviv, found that 50 per cent of migrants had reported being raped in the Sinai, including many men…

“The situation is getting worse and worse,” added Father Zerai. “Something must be done.”

There is more here.

 

The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference Appoints a Woman as Secretary-General

Some local news, albiet via Vatican Radio:

The bishops of Southern Africa have appointed Sister Hermenegild Makoro as the new Secretary- General of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

She will replace Fr Vincent Brennan SMA who is to retire in March.

Linda Bordoni spoke to Sr. Hermenegild by telephone and asked her about her background, how she views her appointment, and what issues are currently on the table in the SACBC.

First of all, very modestly, she points out that although her nomination is a first for Southern Africa, she is not the only woman Secretary-Gereral of a Bishops Conference because “there is one sister in the Nordic countries who also is Secretary-General of a Bishops Conference… she sent me a congratulations note, and also in New Zealand – if I’m not mistaken there is another woman”.

Sr. Hermenegild says she sees her appointment as recognition from the bishops of the work that women are doing in this part of the world. “I really look at it like that because the women are doing great work in this part of the country. Even here in the Conference, most of our offices are headed by women, and in education women are in leadership, in health women have been in leadership, so I think and I do believe that the bishops do realise that women are doing a great job. You go to the parishes: who do you find? You find women in leadership”.

Commenting on the fact that last year saw two Nobel Peace Prizes going to African women, Sr. Hermenegild acknowledged that that is because women are doing a lot of work “and for me that’s why the bishops are recognising and acknowledging the work women are doing in the Church. I think we play a leadership role and for me it’s very important and fulfilling. I myself have been involved since my early years as a religious, fully involved in the pastoral work in our diocese, so I’m sure that the bishops looked at this and they do appreciate it. And they do recognise the qualities that women have in places of leadership.

To the question “What would you say are these qualities?”, Sr. Hermenegild said that when a woman takes a responsibility upon herself, she does not pull out, she puts the whole of herself into it and just gets on with the work…

For more on her, click here.

Some fine thinking outside the box.

 

Neocatechumenal Way: Itinerary of Christian Initiation Approved

As expected, by Pope Benedict XVI:

Addressing more than 7,000 people of the Neocatechumenal Way, Pope Benedict XVI has approved the celebrations marking the itinerary of Christian initiation. It took place during an audience at the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall…

And Vatican Radio

On Friday The Holy See officially approved the catechetical journey of Christian initiation of the Neocatechumenal Way.

The act of approval was promulgated at an audience in the Vatican where 7,000 members of the movement will be present. The cause for approval has been in the hands of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for the past fifteen years. In 2008, the Holy See approved the final version of the movement’s Statutes, and last year approved the thirteen volumes of the Catechetical Directory.

The Holy Father has marked the celebrations by sending 17 Missio Ad Gentes to various places in Europe, North and South America, and Africa. Each Missio Ad Gentes consists of one priest and three or four families, who are asked to go together on mission to places that have either been de-Christianized, or that have never heard the Gospel.

These Misso Ad Gentes follow 40 others who were sent throughout the world by Pope Benedict XVI in previous years.

Wikipedia has more on the Neocatechumenate.

All Creatures of Our God and King

I just needed to listen to this (and sing along):

From the Princeton University Chapel in a day gone by (1979)…

Tears well up.

Perhaps, as the weekend starts, there is that need to enter it right?

Hope yours will be blessed and full of praises to the King, who alone, is our Salvation.

 

Pope Warns: Threat to Freedom of Religion and Conscience in USA

The Catholic Herald:

Pope Benedict XVI has warned visiting US bishops that “radical secularism” threatens the core values of American culture, and called on the Church in America, including politicians and other laypeople, to render “public moral witness” on crucial social issues.

The Pope was speaking yesterday to a group of US bishops who were in Rome for their ad limina visits, which included meetings with the Pope and Vatican officials, covering a wide range of pastoral matters.

Opening with a dire assessment of the state of American society, the Pope told the bishops that “powerful new cultural currents” have worn away the country’s traditional moral consensus, which was originally based on religious faith as well as ethical principles derived from natural law.

Whether they claim the authority of science or democracy, the Pope said, militant secularists seek to stifle the church’s proclamation of these “unchanging moral truths”. Such a movement inevitably leads to the prevalence of “reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society”…

Read on here.

And the sad thing is that they are exporting this secularist worldview to the rest of the globe. Being a Christian does not mean that you are abnormal!

How I long for a society where Christ is honoured and treasured above all…

 

£1 Million Not To Be Used, Ordinariate Asks for Cash

The Church Times reports:

The UK Ordinariate, which celeb­rated its first anniversary on Sunday, is to refrain from spending a £1 million grant until the Charity Commission has completed an investigation.

The Charity Commission said last year that concerns had been raised about the grant, which was made by the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (CBS), a registered charity founded in 1862 to support the Catholic revival in the Church of England (News, 8 July). The trustees of the CBS said that the objectives of the Ordinariate were compatible with the charitable objects of the Confraternity.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Ordinariate said that the £1 million had been received, but would not be spent until the outcome of the Charity Commission investigation was known. “It is a dispute between the group of people disputing it [the donation] and the Confraternity. We are waiting to hear what the resolu­tion will be.”

A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: “The Commission has met with the trustees of the Con­fraternity and also received a sub­stan­tial amount of other information representing a range of views. We intend to provide a public statement on the outcome of our engagement in due course.” She said that it was likely to be “a matter of months, not weeks” before the investigation was concluded.

The Ordinariate spokesman said that it needed “at least £1 million a year” to operate, and that it was “still a struggle because we are setting everything up from scratch”. He said that some financial help had been provided by groups such as the St Barnabas Society and the Catholic League.

In a pastoral letter published on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the Ordinariate, its Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton, admitted that there had been “disappointments and set­backs on the way”, but these had been “outweighed by the warmth of the welcome and the knowledge of being in communion with the See of Peter and countless millions across the world”.

He said that there was “a constant stream of men and women being received into the full communion of the [Roman] Catholic Church through the Ordinariate”; several new groups were expected to enter the Ordinariate before Easter; and “a number of ordinations to the priest­hood” were expected to take place at Pentecost. There are also “several young men . . . exploring the pos­sibil­ity of ordination within the Ordinariate”.

Mgr Newton continued: “This is all extremely encouraging, but could be a strain on our limited financial resources. I ask you to be generous in your financial stewardship.”