NIMRUD, Iraq (AP) — The chilly December wind whipped rain across the strewn wreckage of a city that, nearly 3,000 years ago, ruled almost the entire Middle East. Rivulets of water ran through the dirt, washing away chunks of ancient stone.

The city of Nimrud in northern Iraq is in pieces, victim of the Islamic State group’s fervor to erase history. The remains of its palaces and temples, once lined in brilliant reliefs of gods and kings, have been blown up. The statues of winged bulls that once guarded the site are hacked to bits. Its towering ziggurat, or step pyramid, has been bulldozed. MORE

Vol 9 Issue 53 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
December 31, 2016 ~ Saint Sylvester, opn!

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (99)
2. Circumcision
3. Saint Concordius
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:
This year will mark the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Protestant revolt that caused the loss of so many souls in once Catholic Europe. Continue reading →

A Blessings of Christmas to all,

It has been quite a good year indeed! Land for a friary has been chosen, purchased and blessed in the last few weeks. It was hoped to offer a longer description, but it is 2.7 acres in North Lafayette secured for this home.  So many who have prayed for aFoundation of Friars and the Third Order secular continues to grow, thirty strong now. Continue reading →

Zsa Zsa Gabor’s Catholic Funeral. She was cremated. Another slap in the face for Catholics. Cremation is for those who do not have the expense of a regular funeral, but here you have the rich and famous doing it. What a sad message they’re sending to our youth.

She hated it — she hated it so much,” he said. ” ‘Look at those phoney people,’ she would say. ‘They are all phoney. They talk, there are tears in their eyes. They are so fake. They are only coming for a piece of cake. They don’t suffer.’ My wife hated it.” MORE

California discriminates against plastic. Michael Jackson rolls over in grave, all of Hollywood, Burbank and Rodeo Drive.

Californians now face a new grocery-store reality: No more plastic bags.

Voters approved Proposition 67, the statewide ban on carry-out plastic bags, 52 percent to 48 percent.

“It’s a victory that California voters have said ‘no’ to big plastic,” said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. “The defense of this law by grass-roots environmental organizations and community groups is a real testament to this new era of monied special interests not having their way.” MORE

I can’t wait for California to be it’s own country. Please just leave already.

Realizing they’re powerless against America’s love affair with red meat, scientists have moved on to a battle they think is more winnable: stopping cows from carrying out the biologically necessary process of flatulence. People, no surprise, love their rib eyes and ground chuck — even multiple ties to cancer so far seem an ineffective deterrent — and despite meat consumption in the U.S. actually declining moderately for most of the last decade, a new study by the Dutch bank Rabobank has found it’s spiking again, causing a sudden binge unlike anything the country’s seen in 40 years. MORE

“Sure California,” a professional-secession group, filed paperwork with the state lawyer basic in November for a proposed 2018 poll measure to strike language within the state structure binding California to the USA.

This month, the group introduced the opening of a “cultural middle” in Moscow — “the primary of many deliberate California tradition facilities which can serve to construct a bridge between the nation of California and the nations of the world,” learn a press release on Sure California’s web site. MORE

Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Rev. Franklin Graham will take part in President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration ceremony next month, Trump’s inaugural committee announced Wednesday.

Dolan, the archbishop of New York, was critical of Trump’s stance on immigration during the campaign, writing an op-ed in The Washington Post addressing why Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric was “so problematic.” MORE

Corrected left out chestnuts, ha.

Strange title, you may think, but Jews who follow their Hebrew faith were not allowed to write songs about other religions. Being the clever people that they are, they figured they would get around the rule by writing about the season. Well here they are, Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow, Most wonderful time of the year, Silverbells, No place like home, Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  Blitzen was Jewish?

I’ll be home for Christmas and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. I don’t know about the others but Irving Berlin’s wife was Catholic. This only proves, that in America, where there is a Will there’s a Way. “Laughing all the way,” to the Bank.

Joseph B. D. Saraceno

Malcolm Jack sings the praises of the Jewish composers whose classic songs are at the heart of our sentimental season

Irma Raymond
December 26 at 1:10am

Grace to the Rescue…

Grace restores,
the broken pieces
fills in the cracks
smooths the creases.

Grace heals,
the heart that aches
mends the wounds
patches the scrapes. Continue reading →

Concern about the effects of fake news racheted up a notch Sunday with a tweet from Pakistan’s defense minister threatening nuclear war with Israel on the mistaken belief Israel’s defense minister had threatened Pakistan if it sent troops to Syria.

Fake news has been credited with contributing to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. MORE

WOW Worst drought in a hundred years. Vietnam could be ‘sowing the seeds of the next crisis.

Vietnam is expected to show annualized growth of 6.3% in the fourth quarter when it releases the data sometime next week.

That would be the first slowdown in annual growth since 2012 and below the 7% growth that was expected by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. MORE