Category Archives: Current Events

Is Portugal about to go down the same road as Greece?

by Joseph Saraceno

PORTMorally they have all the ill’s we have. Did Our Lady of Fatima forget Portugal?

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — An anti-austerity alliance including radical leftist parties takes power. A shaky economy and huge debts menace the national economy. The rest of Europe watches with a wary eye.

Sound familiar? It’s not Greece, but another eurozone country: Portugal.

A nation that just months ago was hailed as an example of how to follow through with budget austerity measures has become a new source of concern in Europe. MORE

 

VIDEO: Mark shares more of the Extreme Team’s work at Mt. St. Michael

by Joseph Saraceno

Mark Peterson continues his guided tour of all the work the Extreme Team has done in the last two days to refurbish the kitchen at Mt. St. Michael.

A blessing bestowed on a group of Roman Catholics who are dedicated to the traditional Catholic Faith, many individuals of whom I have known since the early seventies as Catholics were confused as their Churches were turned into Protestant halls of celebration or pagan hootenanny free-for-alls. Some, sacrificing all, found this refuge in the wilderness where the eagles could gather.

The Traditional Mass is Changing the Face of the French Clergy

by Joseph Saraceno
Alte-Messe(Paris) The face of the French clergy is changing at a fast pace, and that in two respects. The number of priestly vocations is at the lowest level. Simultaneously, a change from the new to the old rite is taking place.

Decline in Diocesan Priestly Vocations by 84 Percent

In 1966, the year after the end of the Second Vatican Council, there were 4,536 diocesan seminarians in France.  Within ten years the number fell, under the influence of Pope Paul VI.and in the Post-Conciliar period to 1297 in 1975. A  decline of almost three-quarters could be described as a fast collapse.  Under Pope John Paul II,  the slump was halted 20 years later, in 1996, the number was still 1,103 seminarians at approximately the same level. MORE

Coptic Pope visits Jerusalem

by Joseph Saraceno

eddbaI had planed to write to him but had to many other priorities. Looks like he’s heading towards the inter Faith Gospel of AntiChrist.

Pope Tawadros II has arrived in Jerusalem in a historic visit that marks the first time that a head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church has visited the city since Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

The website of the Coptic Church in Jerusalem said the pope’s only reason for the visit on Thursday was to attend the funeral prayer of the Bishop of Jerusalem Anba Abraham, the head of the Coptic Church in the Holy Land, who died on Wednesday. MORE

El Salvador condemns bishop accused of raping girl

by Joseph Saraceno

BISHOPSan Salvador (AFP) – A “well-loved” senior bishop in El Salvador who is also a prominent Church historian was Friday condemned by government officials and a rights organization after being accused of repeatedly raping a girl in the 1980s.

Bishop Jesus Delgado, 77, was on Thursday suspended from his functions as number three in the country’s archdiocese after the alleged victim, today a 42-year-old woman, came forward with her account. MORE

VIDEO: Who is buying ISIL’s oil?

by Joseph Saraceno

OILISOn the face of it, it looks like any state-run oil industry.

Engineers, managers and traders all help extract, refine and distribute oil, which makes its way across Syria and Iraq, as well as overseas.

But this is no state-run company. This is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) lifeline – a business that provides the armed group with more revenue than any other source. MORE

 

VIDEO: Las Vegas priest’s journey spans 2 states, 3 languages

by Joseph Saraceno

vegas%20priestSunlight is just starting to filter through the palms east of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in downtown Las Vegas when The Rev. Courtney Edward Krier begins his day.

At 7 a.m., the priest’s floor-length black cassock sweeps along the courtyard of the church on the corner of Ninth Street and Ogden Avenue as he pours out old holy water in preparation for his first Mass of a long day. Back inside, he fills the large, silver pot with water from the kitchen tap and carries it down a narrow hallway and into the elaborate church, where it is placed by the door and blessed for use by congregants in ritual purification as they enter the church. MORE

 

Mesmerizing NASA Animation Shows Our Planet’s Yearly Plant Cycle

by Joseph Saraceno

The yearly cycle of Earth’s ecosystem is simply beautiful.

As the seasons change throughout a year, the density of plant growth on land and in oceans fluctuates. NASA scientists recently imaged that yearly cycle in a stunning new animation.

The animation does not showcase a specific year of the annual plant life cycle, rather it shows an average yearly cycle based on an accumulation of satellite data and images, including data sets of the average over years and a “running average” over a certain number of days.