News
Byzcath.org News provides news focusing on the Christian East from varous sources and offers links to other sites dedicated to providing the news about the Church.
Churches and organizations that provide news about the Eastern Churches are invited to submit their news stories to us for publication here (use the contact page for submission)..
Materials from the Vatican Information Service, Zenit, CWNews.com and other sources are published here with permission of their owners but may not be republished further without the permission of their original publishers. Please visit these sites to obtain additional general news about the Church. In addition to these sources EWTN News also provides a good general news summary.
Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
- Details
Moscow, Apr. 24, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who died on April 23 at the age of 76, was the first Russian leader since the fall of the Tsars to be a practicing member of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Yeltsin, who came to power with the fall of the Soviet regime, often visited the largest church in Russia, Christ the Savior in Moscow, as well as the churches of St. Michael the Archangel in Tropariew and Sts. Boris and Gleb in Rublowce, located hear his country residence.
In 2000, Yeltsin was an honorary guest (along with other heads of state from Orthodox countries) at Orthodox Holy Year celebrations in Bethlehem.
While he maintained close contact with Patriarch Alexei II and was generally supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, in 1996 Yeltsin vetoed legislation that the Moscow patriarchate supported, because he feared it would curb religious freedom.
- Details
04/24/2007 14:27 The latest attacks in the North, until now the safest area in the country, sound the alarm. Msgr Rabban Al Qas "begs" the Vatican: “Intervene, Christians are now in ranger everywhere”. The death toll from a suicide bombing of Tell-el-skop: 10 dead, among the 140 wounded two Dominican nuns. In Baghdad the ongoing” massacre” of Christians and Shiites in the Dora quarter.
Erbil (AsiaNews via CWNews.com) – There are numerous children and Dominican nuns among the wounded from yesterday’s suicide bombing of the Christian village of Tell-el-skop, north east of Mosul. Suicide attacks targeting the North of the country have sounded the alarm for religious leaders, who now ask the Holy See for help. “Find a way, a means to save us, the Church in all of Iraq is in great danger, we beg the Vatican to help us bring our voice to the world”. It almost seems like an ultimatum, these words expressed by Msgr. Rabban al Qas, Chaldean bishop of Amadiyah and Erbil, in his reiteration of the Iraqi Catholic Churches appeal launched yesterday through AsiaNews l’appello, following the increasingly ferocious nature of attacks carried out against Christians in the country.
To read the entire story at AsiaNews.it click here.
- Details
Kiev, April 23 – Interfax reports that Patriarch Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has announced his intention to establish a new Greek Catholic diocese in Eastern Ukraine.
‘We are discovering more people than we thought. Even in Kiev there are more Greek Catholics than we hoped to find. As people have become estranged from traditions, they have to be found and awakened’, Cardinal Husar said in a interview to the Ukrainian Focus magazine, commenting on the intention of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to open new dioceses.
For full story click here.
- Details
By Kristen Chick
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
April 24, 2007
Thousands of mourners converged on a small church in McLean yesterday to remember Reema J. Samaha, who died April 16 at Virginia Tech.
More than 1,500 relatives and friends filled the Holy Transfiguration Melkite Greek-Catholic Church for the open-casket service, which was a solemn and poignant celebration of her life, family members said.
To read full story click here. See another account at this link.
- Details
VATICAN CITY, APR 24, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was the Message of Benedict XVI for the 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which is due to be celebrated on April 29, the fourth Sunday of Easter, and which has as its theme this year: "The vocation to the service of the Church as communion."
The Message is dated February 10 and has been published in Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Polish. Extracts from the text are given below:
"The first Christian community was built, in its original core, when some fishermen of Galilee, having met Jesus, ... accepted His pressing invitation: 'Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men!'
"In fact, God has always chosen some individuals to work with Him in a more direct way, in order to accomplish His plan of salvation. In the Old Testament, in the beginning, He called Abraham to form a 'great nation;' afterwards, He called Moses to free Israel from the slavery of Egypt. ... In the New Testament, Jesus, the promised Messiah, invited each of the Apostles to be with Him and to share His mission. ... The mission of the Church, therefore, is founded on an intimate and faithful communion with God.
"The Vatican Council II Constitution 'Lumen gentium' describes the Church as 'a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,' in which is reflected the very mystery of God. This means that the love of the Trinity is reflected in her. Moreover, thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, all the members of the Church form 'one body and one spirit' in Christ. This people, organically structured under the guidance of its pastors, lives the mystery of communion with God and with the brethren, especially when it gathers for the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source of that ecclesial unity for which Jesus prayed on the eve of His passion."
"This intense communion favors the growth of generous vocations at the service of the Church: the heart of the believer, filled with divine love, is moved to dedicate itself wholly to the cause of the Kingdom. In order to foster vocations, therefore, it is important that pastoral activity be attentive to the mystery of the Church as communion; because whoever lives in an ecclesial community that is harmonious, co-responsible and conscientious, certainly learns more easily to discern the call of the Lord.
"The care of vocations, therefore, demands a constant 'education' for listening to the voice of God. ... Now, docile and faithful listening can only take place in a climate of intimate communion with God which is realized principally in prayer. According to the explicit command of the Lord, we must implore the gift of vocations, in the first place by praying untiringly and together to the 'Lord of the harvest.' The invitation is in the plural. ... The Good Shepherd, therefore, invites us to pray to the heavenly Father, to pray unitedly and insistently, that He may send vocations for the service of the Church as communion."
"It is indispensable that, within the Christian people, every ministry and charism be directed to full communion; and it is the duty of the bishop and priests to promote this communion in harmony with every other Church vocation and service. The consecrated life, too, of its very nature, is at the service of this communion."
"Dear brothers and sisters whom the Lord calls to particular vocations in the Church: I would like to entrust you in a special way to Mary, so that she, who more than anyone else understood the meaning of the words of Jesus: 'My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it.' ... May she help you to say with your lives: 'Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God'."
MESS/DAY PRAYER VOCATIONS/...VIS 070424 (660)
- Details
VATICAN CITY, APR 24, 2007 (VIS) - On April 29, fourth Sunday of Easter and 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, the Pope is due to preside at a Eucharistic celebration in the Vatican Basilica during which he will confer priestly ordination upon 22 deacons from the diocese of Rome.
OCL/PRIESTLY ORDINATIONS/...VIS 070424 (70)