Thursday, January 8, 2004

More Dead in Iraq

From FOXNews.com - Top Stories - U.S. Black Hawk Crashes in Iraq; 8 Dead:



A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter (search) went down west of Baghdad on Thursday, killing all eight people on board, the U.S. military confirmed.



At least four of the victims were soldiers. It was the deadliest helicopter incident for Americans in Iraq since Nov. 15, when two Black Hawks collided under fire in Mosul, killing 17 soldiers.

UFO's Over Huntington

Strange, I hadn't heard anything about this locally (I work in Huntington).



From WorldNetDaily:



Cops baffled after sighting UFO
: "Three police officers in Huntington, Ind., claim to have seen an Unidentified Flying Object the day after Christmas hovering over a Catholic church, and UFO investigators now are looking into the incident.



Officer Chip Olinger was warming up his car Dec. 26 about 2:30 p.m. when he reported seeing a circular object in the sky and radioed fellow officers Greg Hedrick and Randy Hoover, who also saw it, reported the Huntington Herald-Press.



The trio then watched the object move over a Catholic church and toward its steeple. The object reportedly was the size of a hot air balloon or trampoline. The cops say it stopped a few times, spun slowly, changed shapes and at one point turned orange. "

Wednesday, January 7, 2004

New Bookstore Opening in Fort Wayne

Good news for us locals.



From News Sentinel | 01/06/2004 | New bookstore opening in former Million Story Book Co. spot to feature screening room, cafe:



"The store, tentatively scheduled to open this summer, will replace the Million Story Book Co., which closed at the end of July 2003. But the new bookstore will be more than twice the size of the old, and will incorporate a full-service cafe, a screening room for children's and independent films, and a 6,000-square-foot children's section.



Peter Bobeck, son of Covington Plaza developer Duane Bobeck, is the originator of the new-concept store, which will take his middle name and be known as Mitchell Books. The younger Bobeck moved back to Fort Wayne from Las Vegas in November to tackle the project."

Which Came First Christmas or the Pagan Holiday?

A surprising answer. Sorry, I didn't see this earlier.



From Calculating Christians by William J. Tighe:



"Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals.



Rather, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Son” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance."

An Example of Another Way Bishop's are Named

Here we have a model that is still practiced by Eastern Catholics and could greatly benefit Latin Catholics:



From VIS:



Pope John Paul II



- Approved the election canonically carried out by the Synod of Bishops of the Church Armenian Catholic Church, which met in Bzommar, Lebanon from September 1-9, 2003, of Fr. Kricor-Okosdinos Coussa, pastor of Holy Cross

Parish in Alep, Syria and of Holy Martyrs Parish in Rakka, Syria, as bishop of the eparchy of Alexandria of the Armenians (Catholics 1,276, priests 1, religious 5), Egypt. The bishop-elect was born in Alep in 1953 was ordained

a priest in 1980.


Notice the number of priests he has under him, as well as laity!

New Co-adjutor for Kansas City

From the VIS:



Pope John Paul II



- Appointed Bishop Joseph F. Naumann, auxiliary of St. Louis, U.S.A. as coadjutor archbishop of the archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas (area 32,425, population 1,174,500, Catholics 197,752, priests 159, religious

756), U.S.A.




Notice the number of secular priests verss religious in this diocese, is that right?

Interesting Read, Novel by Cloistered Nun

What makes Amata Means Beloved most interesting is that the author herself is a cloistered religious. So this is not a story written by a clever researcher but rather a tale about what goes on behind the cloister walls written by someone who lives there.



One can imagine that not a few of the stories told about the sisters in the novel reflect the stories of the actual nuns living with Sister Mary Catharine in their Monastery in N.J.



The story is a quick read and a real page turner, plus here is a way to contribute to a community of nuns that are praying for you day and night...