Lottie Manalo to brother Eduardo: Why are you keeping us away? -Rappler

Source: Rappler

Echoing the calls of her brother, Angel, Lottie Manalo Hemedez appeals to their older brother, Eduardo, to talk to the family and end the controversy in the Iglesia ni Cristo

'TALK TO US.' Lottie Manalo-Hemedez appeals to her brother, INC leader Eduardo Manalo, to talk to the family and end the long-running controversy rocking the church. Photo by Alecs Ongcal/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – For the first time since being expelled from the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), Lottie Manalo Hemedez faced the media to appeal to her brother, INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo, to talk to his siblings and end the long-running controversy rocking the 101-year-old church.

"We want to talk to him to find out the cause of the disagreement between us. We want to know why he's angry at us. He hasn't given us a reason," Lottie said in a press conference on Friday, January 15.

Hemedez said she and her brother Angel still do not know why they were being harassed, deprived of their rights within the residence they claim as their own, and denied the opportunity to speak to their older brother.

Lottie, Angel, and Eduardo are among the 6 children of second Iglesia executive minister Eraño "Erdy" Manalo and Cristina "Tenny" Manalo. Eraño died in 2009, leaving his eldest son Eduardo in charge of the 2.25-million-strong church. (INFOGRAPHIC: The Manalos of the Iglesia ni Cristo)

It was after their father's death that things slowly started to change, Hemedez said. Within a few months, Eduardo began slowly distancing himself from the family, until they weren't able to talk to him at all.

"After my father passed away, nag-umpisa na unti-unti. Maraming mga bawal, hindi na kami pwedeng dumalaw ng Central. Kapag tinatanong namin bakit, ang laging sasabihin, "Atas ng pamamahala." Wala po kaming magagawa kundi sumunod kasi atas ng pamamahala, pero wala silang binibigay na reason," Lottie said.

(Everything slowly started to change when my father passed away. Suddenly there were a lot of things that were prohibited, we could not visit the Central Office. When we ask why, we were told it's upon orders of the leadership. We couldn't do anything but follow, but they didn't give us a reason why.)

"We asked countless times to be able to speak to our brother, but we were always turned away," she added.

In July 2015, Angel and his mother Tenny appeared in a YouTube video to appeal for help, claiming that their lives were in danger. Eduardo later expelled his own mother and siblings for exposing the supposed death threat and allegedly creating divisions within the church.

Since then, the siblings have cried harassment by the church's top leaders. Their residence at 36 Tandang Sora in Quezon City is now the subject of competing ownership claims, and electricity inside the compound has been cut off. A portalet and guardhouse blocked the driveway, and fences were put up.

While the INC leadership said these were security measures to protect themselves from unknown masked men seen entering the compound, the Manalo siblings claim these were forms of harassment designed to force them out of Tandang Sora.

No power struggle

It has been 5 years since Lottie last spoke with her elder brother. She said she was puzzled by Eduardo's silence and distance from them, saying that they used to be close and that he was a "kuya (older brother) in every sense of the word."

A few months before their father died, Eduardo even promised that he would take care of his siblings.

"'Pinatawag niya kaming lahat. Nakaidlip nang kaunti ang father ko, tapos sabi ng mother ko, na'ndito na si Eddie. And when my father saw him sabi niya, 'Huwag mong pababayaan ang mga kapatid mo.' And he promised that he would do that.... Sabi niya, kung ano ang aming kalagayan, ipagpapatuloy niya," Lottie said.

(My father called us all to him. He was sleeping at the time, and when Eduardo came, my mother woke him up. And when my father saw him, he said, 'Be there for your siblings.' And he promised that he would do that.... He said he would keep up our current living situation.)

What triggered the sudden change? Lottie said she still does not know the reason. She also denied that there was a power struggle, or challenges to Eduardo's leadership that supposedly arose after the death of their father.

Was Eduardo's wife and her sister-in-law, Lynn Ventura Manalo, a contributing factor? Lynn has been referred to as "Jezebel" by INC members critical of the goings-on inside the church.

Lottie recalled that her father had once told off Lynn, telling her not to "interfere" with the affairs of the church. Lottie, however, did not elaborate, adding that she has "no idea" if Lynn was responsible for the divisions within the church.

'As long as it takes'

Since their expulsion in July 2015, Lottie said she and her brother Angel have been enduring difficult living conditions. Fences have been put up around their residence, walling them in and forcing them to climb over them to be able to attend court hearings.

Even before their expulsion, Lottie said the family had been harassed and followed by unknown men. It was their concern for their safety, she said, that finally prompted them to speak out and appeal for help.

Despite the difficulties, Lottie is adamant: she would not leave 36 Tandang Sora, despite the INC's insistence that the property belongs to the religious organization.

Her camp earlier said she owns the title to the property, adding that the INC had falsified a deed of sale that supposedly transferred the lot to the church.

"Why should I leave? It's my house," she said.

Asked how long she can endure living in a walled-off property, with no electricity, Lottie replied: "As long as it takes." – Rappler.com

SIGALOT SA PAMILYA NI ERAÑO G. MANALO (Iglesia Ni Cristo®)!

REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

OOFICE OF THE CITY PROSECUTOR

QUEZON CITY

16A-00032
FALSIFICATION OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

Complainant: LOLITA M. HEMEDEZ
#36 Tandang Sora Avenue, QC

Versus

Respondent: EDUARDO V. MANALO
#1 Central Avenue, New Era Quezon City

"Under the virtue of the authority vested in me by the Revised Charter of Quezon City and existing laws you are hereby commanded and REQUIRED to appear at the OFFICE OF THE CITY PROSECUTOR, 4th Floor, Hall of Justice Building (Bulwagan ng Katarungan) beside Quezon City Hall, Elliptical Road, Quezon City.

Room 428

January 27, 2016

2:00 PM

() Subscribe and Swear to your written statement on record;

() Submit (a) hotograph of your damaged vehicle or property with corresponding estimate of damage (b) medical certificate

() Submit to clarificatory questioning

NO MOTION TO DISMISS WILL BE ENTERTAINED. ONLY COUNTER AFFIDAVITS WILL BE ACCEPTED. OTHERWISE RESPONDENT IS DEEMED WAIVED HIS/HERTHEIR RIGHT TO PRESENT EVIDENCE.

FURTHER NO POSTPONEMENT WILL BE GRANTED UNLESS ON EXCEPTIONALLY MERITORIOUS GROUNDS.

WHEREFORE FAIL NOT AT YOUR PERIL.

Witness my hand this 6th day of January, 2016.

BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE CITY PROSECUTOR:

SOLIVAN L. USMAN

Assistant City Prosecutor

=========================================================

Anglican Communion on the Brink of Formal Schism

Deep divides between member churches of the Anglican Communion, over homosexuality and other issues, could precipitate its breakup as early as this week.

by EDWARD PENTIN Posted in 01/11/2016 for National Catholic Register

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby

CANTERBURY, England — The Anglican Communion stands on the verge of formal schism this week, as its leaders began meeting Monday to discuss the issue of homosexuality and other matters in Canterbury, England.

The five-day meeting, called by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, is seen as a last-ditch attempt to keep the ecclesial community together following a long-running dispute over homosexuality and deeper differences over how Anglicans should interact with today’s largely secular, post-Christian society.

The global summit of 38 primates of the Anglican Communion, which claims to have 85 million followers worldwide, is usually held every two years, but it hasn’t convened since 2011, principally because of the dispute over homosexuality. This week’s meeting will also discuss other issues such as religious violence and climate change.

Since 2003, when Episcopalians (the American branch of Anglicanism) made an active homosexual bishop, divisions have deepened between largely Western Anglicans, who would like to see greater acceptance of homosexuals in the church, and those, mostly in Africa and Asia, who argue it is contrary to Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian teaching. Tensions increased last year when the Episcopal Church moved towards solemnizing same-sex “marriage.”

Pressure has also been building in the run-up to this week’s meeting with more than 100 Anglicans, including the dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, sending a letter to the archbishops of Canterbury and York urging repentance for treating homosexuals as “second-class citizens.”

“The time has come,” they wrote, for Anglicans to acknowledge that they have failed in their duty “to care for LGBTI members of the Body of Christ around the world.” The Anglican Communion, they added, needed to “apologize” for not “challenging ill-informed beliefs about LGBTI people.”

The signers of the letter said they understood there are “differing ways of interpreting the Scriptures” but urged the primates to be “prophetic” and “Christlike” in dealing with “our LGBTI sisters and brothers who have been ignored and even vilified for too long.”

The Anglican bishop of Oxford, the Rt. Rev. David Ison, even argued for change by seemingly equating those opposed to acceptance of homosexual practices with ISIS. “The sexuality divide focuses the big question facing the whole of humanity,” he told Christian Today. “How do we treat people who are different from us? The forces of Daesh (ISIS) in Syria seek to eradicate difference and make everyone else like them, through violence and the threat of death.”

Vocal Opposition

But other Anglican leaders have been equally vocal in their opposition to the move. As the Anglican Communion cannot excommunicate people or provinces, bishops in favor of Christian tradition have formed a group, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which is threatening to break away entirely unless “godly order” is restored.

Reports say Anglican archbishops from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Rwanda and Congo will probably stage a walkout within a day or two of the inauguration of the summit. They are calling on British and U.S. prelates to publicly give up their support for same-sex “marriage” and actively homosexual bishops.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Anglican bishop of Rochester, England, said he does not agree with the argument that there can be “different interpretations of Scripture” on the issue. “The Bible is clear on many things, including its teaching on human sexuality, and the Church has upheld that teaching for 2,000 years,” he said.

Of the 38 Anglican provinces, only eight are in favor of acceptance of same-sex unions: the U.S., Canada, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand, South India, South Africa and Brazil.

Since becoming archbishop of Canterbury in 2013, Welby has tried to keep some semblance of unity, most notably by appointing a Nigerian, Rev. Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon, general secretary of the Anglican Communion. Unity in the Episcopal Church has also been helped by having an African-American evangelical, the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, as its presiding bishop since last November, although some do not believe his election will be of help. Furthermore, Welby has already said he thinks it might be a good idea to effectively dissolve the Anglican Communion and replace it with a much looser grouping.

Vatican Perspective

The Vatican, meanwhile, is watching events in Canterbury closely. It argues that, for dialogue between Rome and Canterbury to effectively continue, the Anglican Communion must stay as one, but it recognizes that its dispersed authority model makes that an almost impossible task. It is perplexed at Anglicans’ wish to allow local and regional bishops to decide on doctrinal matters without seemingly having a sense of what is owed to the communion as a whole, but recognizes that Welby is not, as he has said himself, an “Anglican pope.”

Some see the problems affecting the Anglican Communion as similar to those facing the Catholic Church and all Christian denominations. Father Ed Tomlinson of the Anglican Ordinariate of Tunbridge Wells in England has argued that what is dividing the body of Christ is a more fundamental issue than just homosexuality. Rather, he contends, it is being caused by “modernists” who have “lost their faith but do not wish to lose their Christian culture and identity.” The miracle that is needed, he believes, is for the Church to “wake from slumber, stand for truth and refute error.”

For Lord Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, author of Anglican Orders: Null and Void?, the only doctrine in the Church of England "is the doctrine that there is no doctrine."

He told the Register Jan. 11 that since Anglicans began "openly to defy" their belief in "even the sola Scriptura to which they once clung — for instance by manufacturing a homosexual 'bishop' in contravention of the biblical teaching that homosexuality is wrong because it is medically dangerous to its practitioners — they abandoned even scriptural doctrines and thereupon ceased to be a 'religion' in any recognizable sense."

He said that is why the churches in Africa, which still adhere to the scriptural doctrines, "no longer recognize Anglicanism as their own."

"The Anglican religion is no longer anything much to do either with England or with religion," he said. "It has a questionable past, an uneasy present and no future."

For now, the Vatican is hoping and praying that Welby can hold the Anglican Communion together, but if there were to be a definitive split, it would try to continue dialogue across the divisions, speaking to both parties if necessary.

Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.

WARNING TO THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO DESTROY THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC and APOSTOLIC CHURCH OF CHRIST!

DID YOU TRY TO DESTROY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

The JEWS tried to destroy it and they in turn were almost totally destroyed in 70 A.D.

The CATHOLIC CHURCH is still here!

The ROMANS tried to destroy it. But they in turn were destroyed and their entire empire collapsed in 471 A.D.

The CATHOLIC CHURCH is still here!

The Muslims tried to destroy it in the middle ages and failed.

The CATHOLIC CHURCH is still here!

The PROTESTANTS tried to destroy it in the Reformation and FAILED and look what happened to them. The Church of Protestantism which Luther founded was from the very beginning CRACKED and SPLINTERED. Look at PROTESTANTISM today, over 39,000 splinters with more cropping up every day.

The CATHOLIC CHURCH is still here!

HITLER tried to destroy it and failed. Where is he and his 1000 years of Reich now?

The CATHOLIC CHURCH is still here!

COMMUNISM tried to destroy it and failed. And where is Communism today?

The CATHOLIC CHURCH is still here!

SO, IF ALL OF THE ABOVE MUCH MORE FORMIDABLE FOES TRIED AND FAILED TO DESTROY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN SUCCEED?

Remember, if you FIGHT against GOD’S CHURCH, you fight against God Himself…

“IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO IS AGAINST US?” –Romans 8:31

Source: https://www.facebook.com/iglesiacult

This Agnostic Scientist Converted After Witnessing a Miracle at Lourdes

Source: ChurchPop

Alexis Carrel was born into a Catholic family in a small town in France in 1873. He attended Mass regularly and went to Catholic schools run by Jesuits. Unfortunately, by the time he went to college he was an agnostic. He completely rejected the Catholic faith and wasn’t even sure if there was a God.

However, he wouldn’t stay that way. And an extraordinary miracle from Lourdes helped lead him back.

[See also: The Night Charles Dickens Was Haunted By the Spirit of… the Virgin Mary?]

[See also: The Amazing Deathbed Conversion of Oscar Wilde]

As an agnostic, Carrel studied biology and medicine and went on to become a world famous scientist. He developed a way to allow organs to live outside the body, a huge step toward organ transplants, and he developed new techniques for cleaning wounds. Most importantly, though, he invented techniques for suturing large blood vessels, which earned him a Nobel Prize in 1912.

This is why his opinion about alleged miracles at Lourdes mattered so much.

Although the original apparitions at Lourdes had occurred in 1858, people in the early 20th century (as they are today) were still claiming to be cured by the water there. Despite the large number of alleged cures, the French medical establishment was firmly against the possibility that anything supernatural was happening.

Carrel himself was also a strong skeptic. That is, until he met a girl named Marie Bailly.

He was on a train to Lourdes with a doctor friend to see the hysteria for himself in 1902 when he came across Bailly, who apparently had something called tuberculous peritonitis. It was a fatal disease. She was only half-conscious and had a swelled belly. Trying to help, Carrel gave her morphine, but said he didn’t think she’d even survive the rest of the trip to Lourdes. Other doctors on the train came to the same conclusion.

When they arrived, her friends carried her to the grotto, and three pitchers of water from Lourdes was poured on her. With each pour, she said felt a searing pain throughout her body. To the amazement of the doctors present, her belly started to flatten back to a normal size almost immediately and her pulse returned to a normal rate.

By that evening, she was well enough to eat a normal dinner.

The scientist in Carrel didn’t know what to make of it all. He had to admit that everything he knew about medicine made it seem like her cure was indeed miraculous. But he knew that publicly claiming to have witnessed a miracle would ruin his career. So he just stayed quiet about it all. He didn’t even want people to know he had gone to Lourdes.

However, Bailly’s cure quickly became national news. News outlets reported that Carrel had been present, but that he didn’t think there was anything miraculous about what happened. This wasn’t exactly accurate, so he was forced to publish a public reply. In it, he scolded religious believers for generally being too quick to claim something unusual was miraculous, but he also criticized the medical establishment for ruling out the possibility of miracles, saying that Bailly may indeed have been cured miraculously.

This was a public scandal! How could someone so steeped in science and so accomplished in medicine say that Bailly’s cure might have been miraculous? His career in France was over. Unable to work in hospitals any longer, he moved to Canada, and eventually the United States. He joined the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York and spent the rest of his career there. (Marie Bailly, for her part, joined a convent.)

So he had been convinced the woman’s cure could have been miraculous – what did that mean for him spiritually?

He didn’t know what to do with it exactly, since fully admitting to himself that he had witnessed a true miracle at Lourdes would require him to rethink his religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

It took him 25 years of working it out in his heart and mind, but finally, in 1939, he decided to meet with a Catholic priest in order to seriously consider returning to the Church. They became friends, and three years later he announced, “I believe in the existence of God, in the immortality of the soul, in Revelation and in all the Catholic Church teaches.”

And just two years after that, he died. But not without receiving Last Rites on his deathbed.

God had brought him back just in time.

Pray for Alexis Carrel, may he rest in peace!

[See also: The Miracle that Led “Obi-Wan Kenobi” to Convert to Catholicism]

[See also: The Little-Known Story of John Wayne’s Deathbed Conversion to Catholicism]

CBCP News: Black Nazarene is Bible-based—lay preacher

CBCP News, MANILA, Jan. 11, 2015—Non-Catholics might not buy it, but a lay evangelist asserts that no less than the Bible itself has inspired the popular depiction of the revered Black Nazarene.

Devotees attempt to touch the statue of the
Black Nazarene during last year's procession. (Photo: CBCPNews)

“The iconography of the Black Nazarene is thoroughly Biblical. No matter what the cause for the dark color of the Nazareno, it is here to stay. There are nevertheless Biblical and theological reasons for the black iconographic depiction of the Nazareno,” notes Dominican lawyer-preacher Marwil N. Llasos in a recent post on the top-rating blog site Know The Truth where he reflects on the phenomenal Filipino Catholic devotion.

Black and beautiful

He shares Scripture considers black beautiful, citing a verse from the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) which reads: “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon” (Song of Songs 1:5, KJV).

According to him, Christ is the final Davidic King spoken of in prophecy as the “fairest of the sons of men” (Ps. 45:2).

‘Suffering Servant’

Llasos stresses the Nazareno’s dark color aptly portrays Christ’s Passion, underscoring the pain the Lord had to bear for the sins of men, embodying as well His prophetic role as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).

“Even in our modern idiomatic expression, one who suffers much from being severely beaten is said to be ‘black and blue … He was black and blue all over His body because of the torture and unbearable sufferings He endured during His most sorrowful passion. He was one whole wound, from the crown of His head to the soles of His feet,” he says, adding that Syriac only has one word for black and suffering or sorrow.

‘Man of Sorrows’

Related to Isaiah’s description of Christ as Suffering Servant is of Him as a “Man of Sorrows,” Llasos states.

“Black is the color for mourning. It is also the color for sorrow. Black Madonnas are actually depictions of Mary as the Sorrowful Mother. The black images of Christ, like the Black Nazarene, points to Him as the Man of Sorrows

Isaiah 53:3-4 reads: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”

Christ saves all

“The Black Nazarene reminds us that Jesus Christ is the savior of all – not just of those with fair complexion. He is also the Savior of people with dark complexion, those who have been traditionally exploited and treated as mere slaves. God in Jesus Christ loves them – and the salvation offered by God in Christ is also for them. The image of the Black Nazarene resonates with the theology of the Incarnation – that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Jn. 1:14),” he explains.

According to the apologist, in Jesus, God “is one of us”, but no single race or culture can exclusively appropriate Him.

“We all can relate to Him. He belongs to us all… The Black Nazarene is a symbol of faith in the Incarnation and Redemption, but one that is an inculturated faith,” he adds.

‘Became sin for us’

While no longer politically correct, Llasos recalls that black used to be associated with sin as suggested by the expression “sin of the blackest hue.”

In the image of the Black Nazarene, a black Jesus carries His cross, driving home the point that “in carrying the cross of our salvation, the Savior bore our own sins”.

1 Peter 2:24 reads: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt. 2:24). It was the sinless Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29).

“Jesus Christ took our place on the cross to save us. He who had no sin became sin for us so that we can be saved. The Pauline teaching is clear: ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him’ (2 Cor. 5:21),” Llasos explains. (Raymond A. Sebastián/CBCP News)

The Court Sheriff’s Official Report on Occular Inspection of Angel Manalo's Residence Proves there is a Violation of their Human Rights

Source: INC Silent No More

The Court Sheriff’s Official Report is PROOF!

The INC Leadership thru its INC Legal Department tried to cover up the truth… But one thing about the TRUTH, it will find its way out into the glaring light of day. And once it does, the only people who will not be able to see it… ARE THE BLIND.

Introducing the Court Sheriff and his first-hand account manifested in his official report of the events that happened during the hostile take over of the INC Maintenance workers and the illegal erection of the fences at No. 36 Tandang Sora, the Ancestral Residence of Bro. Eraño G. Manalo.

UNDENIABLE FACTS BY THE COURT OFFICIAL

I heard many brethren were wondering what the Court Sheriff’s Official Report contains…

INC Lawyer’s humiliating denial:

And because the INC lawyers know well enough that they will FAIL MISERABLY IN COURT because they will only be PROVEN GUILTY with all the evidences against them, that’s why they immaturely resorted to this as a clear sign of pathetic desperation:

The INC Lawyers have made the Iglesia Ni Cristo the laughing stock of the whole world with their ill-conceived acts. Even the whole justice community is laughing at these two “unaware” lawyers with their DEMANDING TONE, YET TIME AND TIME AGAIN, THEY DELIBERATELY FAIL TO RESPECT AND FOLLOW THE LAW. SUCH HYPOCRITES!

Nothing much more to say but… Liars will be liars, and Truth will be Truth, no matter what! Now we all know who lying and who’s telling the truth based on the facts presented.

So the now question is… are YOU still UNAWARE?

~ Antonio Ebangelista

Evading dialogue with Catholic Church is wrong – Patriarch Kirill

Source: Pravmir.com through InterFax

Cooperation with “the largest Christian Church,” the Catholic one, could help protect Christians and prompt the revival of Christianity “on global scale,” the church leader said.

Moscow, December 14, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sees dialogue with the Catholic Church as an opportunity to reduce persecutions of Christians across the world.

“Evading dialogue with the Catholic Church now would be wrong: we defend the same values both in public and in private life. We need to establish such cooperation in the face of the non-Christian world as would enable us to multiply our own forces. Including what, I think, deserves positive treatment – our shared position on the situation in the Middle East,” the Russian Orthodox Church leader said at a meeting with representatives of the Youth Public Chamber and the Chamber of Young Legislators.

The ousting of Christians from the region where their “whole villages are being either slaughtered or chased out” will lead to imminent radicalization of the Muslim population.

“The presence of Christians in Islamic states forced their leaders to try to strike balances and provide rights for minorities; but if there are no Christians, there will no such concern either,” Patriarch Kirill said.

Christians are becoming a minority in the world: as a result of serious conflicts in Pakistan, in Asia and Africa, with one Christian dying in this world every hour for his convictions, while in the West “church and religion are being ousted from public life” under the influence of “ruling liberal doctrines,” Patriarch Kirill said.

Cooperation with “the largest Christian Church,” the Catholic one, could help protect Christians and prompt the revival of Christianity “on global scale,” the church leader said.

Nevertheless, cooperation cannot abolish the theological differences between the two churches, he said. Even assuming that such differences suddenly disappear and “theologians will sign everything,” even that is unlikely to change anything, because such agreements will have to be accepted by everyone who considers themselves an Orthodox Christian, and that is highly unlikely, Patriarch Kirill said.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: How the Virgin Mary Became the World’s Most Powerful Woman

"Praying for the Virgin Mary’s intercession and being devoted to her are a global phenomenon. The notion of Mary as intercessor with Jesus begins with the miracle of the wine at the wedding at Cana..."

Source: National Geographic

Mary barely speaks in the New Testament, but her image and legacy are found and celebrated around the world.

By Maureen Orth

Photographs by Diana Markosian

Published November 8, 2015

As the sun sets in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina—a hot spot for Virgin Mary sightings—devotees of diverse faiths and nationalities gather to pray.

It’s apparition time: 5:40 p.m. In a small Roman Catholic chapel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the village of Medjugorje, Ivan Dragicevic walks down the aisle, kneels in front of the altar, bows his head for a moment, and then, smiling, lifts his gaze heavenward. He begins to whisper, listens intently, whispers again, and doesn’t blink for ten minutes. His daily conversation with the Virgin Mary has begun.

Dragicevic was one of six poor shepherd children who first reported visions of the Virgin Mary in 1981. She identified herself to the four girls and two boys as the “Queen of Peace” and handed down the first of thousands of messages admonishing the faithful to pray more often and asking sinners to repent. Dragicevic was 16 years old, and Medjugorje, then in communist-controlled Yugoslavia, had yet to emerge as a hub of miracle cures and spiritual conversions, attracting 30 million pilgrims during the past three decades.

I’m in Medjugorje with a group of Americans, mostly hockey dads from the Boston area, plus two men and two women with stage 4 cancer. We’re led by 59-year-old Arthur Boyle, a father of 13, who first came here on Labor Day weekend in 2000, riddled with cancer and given months to live. He felt broken and dejected and wouldn’t have made the trip had not two friends forced him into it. But that first night, after he went to confession at St. James the Apostle church, psychological relief came rapidly.

“The anxiety and depression were gone,” he told me. “You know when you’re carrying someone on your shoulders in a swimming pool water fight—they come off, and you feel light and free? I was like, Wait a minute, what just happened to me? Why is that?”

5 Things to Know Marian Apparitions Researcher Michael O’Neill relays some fascinating facts about Virgin Mary apparitions.

The next morning, with his friends Rob and Kevin, he met another of the “visionaries,” Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic, in a jewelry shop and asked for her help. Gripping his head with one hand, she appealed to the Virgin Mary to ask God to cure him. Boyle said he experienced an unusual sensation right there in the store. “She starts to pray over me. Rob and Kevin put their hands on me, and the heat that went through my body from her praying was causing them to sweat.”

Back in Boston a week later, a CT scan at Massachusetts General Hospital revealed that his tumors had shrunk to almost nothing.

Since then, Boyle has been back to Medjugorje 13 times. “I’m a regular guy,” he said. “I like to play hockey and drink beer. I play golf.” But, he continued, “I had to change things in my life.” Today, Boyle said, he’s become “a sort of mouthpiece for Jesus Christ’s healing power and of course the Mother and the power of her intercession.”

Mary is a magnet for young and old. On August 12, during a Mass celebrating her assumption into heaven, Roman Catholic youths guard a life-size figure in Kalwaria Pacławska, Poland. The Feast of the Assumption is a weeklong festival here.

PRAYING FOR THE VIRGIN MARY'S intercession and being devoted to her are a global phenomenon. The notion of Mary as intercessor with Jesus begins with the miracle of the wine at the wedding at Cana, when, according to the Gospel of John, she tells him, “They have no wine,” thus prompting his first miracle. It was in A.D. 431, at the Third Ecumenical Council, in Ephesus, that she was officially named Theotokos, Bearer of God. Since then no other woman has been as exalted as Mary. As a universal symbol of maternal love, as well as of suffering and sacrifice, Mary is often the touchstone of our longing for meaning, a more accessible link to the supernatural than formal church teachings. Her mantle offers both security and protection. Pope Francis, when once asked what Mary meant to him, answered, “She is my mamá.”

Her reported appearances, visions experienced often by very poor children living in remote or conflict-wracked areas, have intensified her mystery and aura. And when the children can’t be shaken from their stories—especially if the accounts are accompanied by inexplicable “signs” such as spinning suns or gushing springs—her wonder grows.

Michael O’Neill is the Virgin Mary’s big data numbers cruncher. On Miraclehunter.com, he has codified every known apparition of Mary back to A.D. 40.

Mary is everywhere: Marigolds are named for her. Hail Mary passes save football games. The image in Mexico of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most reproduced female likenesses ever. Mary draws millions each year to shrines such as Fátima, in Portugal, and Knock, in Ireland, sustaining religious tourism estimated to be worth billions of dollars a year and providing thousands of jobs. She inspired the creation of many great works of art and architecture (Michelangelo’s “Pietà,” Notre Dame Cathedral), as well as poetry, liturgy, and music (Monteverdi’s Vespers for the Blessed Virgin). And she is the spiritual confidante of billions of people, no matter how isolated or forgotten.

Muslims as well as Christians consider her to be holy above all women, and her name “Maryam” appears more often in the Koran than “Mary” does in the Bible. In the New Testament Mary speaks only four times, beginning with the Annunciation, when, according to Luke’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel appears to her and says she will bear “the Son of the Most High.” Mary answers, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” Her only extended speech, also in Luke, is the lyrical Magnificat, uttered in early pregnancy: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”

Indeed they have.

Yet clues about her life are elusive. Scholars of Mary must take what they can from Hebrew Scriptures, first-century Mediterranean texts, the New Testament, and archaeological digs.

Anna Pidlisna, 32, of Ukraine, says she came to Medjugorje—where plaster statues can fetch about 30 euros apiece—after receiving a vision of Mary. Apparitions aren’t the only Marian sign; many say they’ve seen a “spinning sun.” Physicist Artur Wirowski has an earthly explanation: It can occur when sunlight reflects and refracts charged ice crystals vibrating in sync within the clouds.

The Bible says she lived in Nazareth when Romans had control over the Jewish territory. After Mary became pregnant, her betrothed, Joseph, a carpenter, considered quietly leaving her until an angel came to him in a dream and told him not to. The birth of Jesus is mentioned in just two Gospels, Luke and Matthew. Mark and John refer to Jesus’ mother several times.

North Korea agrees 'regular' visits by South's Catholic priests

Source: Yahoo!News

Priests from the Seoul archdiocese will visit the cathedral in Pyongyang on key holy days each year (AFP Photo/Ed Jones)

South Korea's Catholic Church said Monday it had reached agreement with North Korea to send priests there on "a regular basis," seeking an opening in a country with a long history of tight religious control.

The agreement, which should see priests leading services in Pyongyang on major holy days from next year, followed a visit to the North Korean capital by South Korean bishops last week.

Pyongyang's state-run Korean Catholic Association (KCA) has no ties with the Vatican and is often referred to as the "Church of Silence" by Catholics in the South.

Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North's constitution, all religious activity is subject to extremely tight restrictions and completely banned outside of state-sanctioned institutions.

There is no resident Catholic priest anywhere in the country and just one Catholic church building in Pyongyang, Changchung Cathedral. But experts say it holds no confessions, baptisms or sacraments.

The South's Catholic Bishop's Conference of Korea (CBCK) said in a statement that priests from the Seoul archdiocese would visit the cathedral "on major Holy Days each year and hold a mass on a regular basis".

CBCK spokesman Lee Young-Sik told AFP the first visit was scheduled for Easter in March 2016.

"And then we will iron out details on how frequently they would visit and lead a mass there," Lee said.

The KCA claims there are 3,000 Catholics in the country, while the UN estimates around 800.

In the early 20th century, Pyongyang was a regional missionary hub with scores of churches and a thriving Christian community that earned it the title of "Jerusalem of the East".

For North Korea's founder leader Kim Il-Sung, Christianity threatened his monopoly on ideology and had to be effectively eradicated, a goal he reportedly achieved with executions and labour camps.

The current regime allows Catholic organisations to run aid projects in North Korea, but direct relations with the Vatican are non-existent.

When Pope Francis visited South Korea last year, he held a special mass in Seoul dedicated to reunification of the two Koreas.

"All Koreans are brothers and sisters, members of one family, one people," the pope said in an address that was cloaked in a religious context and avoided any overt political statement or mention of religious oppression in the North.

Pope advances sainthood causes of Lutheran convert, U.S. missionary in Vietnam -Catholic Courier

By Junno Arocho Esteves (Catholic Courier)
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of a Lutheran convert who established a branch of the Bridgettine order in her country and a U.S. missionary who died while ministering to the wounded in Vietnam.

During a Dec. 14 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, the pope signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad, who refounded the Order of the Most Holy Savior of St. Bridget, better known as the Bridgettines.

Born in Sweden in 1870 and baptized into the Reform Church, she immigrated to the United States in 1886 to earn money for her family back home.

After working as a nurse, she converted to Catholicism in 1902. Moving to Rome, she dedicated her life and her religious order to prayer and work for the attainment of Christian unity. St. John Paul II beatified her in Rome in 2000.

The pope also signed decrees recognizing the miracles needed for the beatifications of:

-- Father Ladislao Bukowinski, a Ukrainian priest who died in Kazakhstan in 1974.

-- Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa, an Italian nun who founded the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer in the 18th century.

-- Sister Mary of Jesus Santocanale, an Italian nun born in 1852, who founded the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes.

-- Itala Mela, an Italian laywoman and Benedictine Oblate who died in 1957.

The pope also recognized the heroic virtues of four women and eight men, including New Hampshire native Brother William Gagnon -- a member of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God. Brother Gagnon tended to the sick and wounded during the Vietnam War, before falling ill and dying in Ho Chi Minh City in 1972.

The pope also recognized the heroic virtues of Teresio Olivelli, an Italian layman who spoke out against fascism and Nazism before being arrested and imprisoned. Olivelli died trying to protect a fellow prisoner in a German concentration camp in 1945.

Iglesia Ni Cristo® habol ay Kapurihan ng Sanlibutan!

"Around 100,000 attended the event, mostly INC members, but organizers said the program - which would last until 3 a.m. of January 1 - was open to the public." -Press Telegraph

Sa kabilang dako, ang TUNAY na IGLESIANG KAY CRISTO-- ang IGLESIA KATOLIKA ay HINDI naghahabol ng kapurihan ng sanlibutan. Ang kanyang mga natanggap ng GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS ay PAGKAKATAON lamang at hindi po ito PINASINAYANAN o NOT ACTUALLY INITIATED TO GAIN THE RECORDS ika nga.

Sabi nga ng Banal na Kasulatan sa Matthew 16:20 "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" (NIV)

Source: The Splendor of the Church blog

Pope Francis the Greatest Modern Pope?

Summarizing Muhammad (محمد) Islam's Prophet!

Source: Answering Muslims

Muhammad in Arabic (Source: Answering Muslim)

Muhammad was born around 570 AD in an Arabian city called Mecca. His father Abdullah died before he was born, and his mother Amina died when he was six years old. After the death of his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, Muhammad was raised by his uncle Abu Talib, leader of the Banu Hashim clan. We may divide Muhammad’s life into three main periods.

• Pre-Prophetic Period (570-610 AD). While still young, Muhammad began work in the Meccan caravan trade, which put him in contact with diverse religious traditions. At 25 years old, he married a wealthy widow, Khadijah, who was 15 years his senior. With more leisure time, Muhammad developed the habit of retreating to a cave on Mount Hira for prayer and reflection, as was common for the polytheists of the Meccan Quraysh tribe.

• Meccan Prophetic Period (610-622). During one of his yearly retreats, Muhammad became convinced that a demonic spirit had ordered him to recite verses (now found in Qur’an 96:1-5). However, his wife Khadijah and her cousin Waraqah persuaded him that he was a prophet of Allah. Muhammad soon began preaching Islam to friends and family members, and later to the public. Due to his increasingly inflammatory condemnation of the religious beliefs of the polytheists of Mecca, Muhammad and his followers were persecuted. After his wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib died, Muhammad decided to flee Mecca.

• Medinan Prophetic Period (622-632). Having formed alliances with various non-Muslim groups, Muhammad began robbing the Meccan caravans. These attacks eventually led to a series of battles with Mecca. As war booty poured in, so did new converts. The growing Muslim army allowed Muhammad to subdue not only Mecca, but the rest of Arabia as well. Muhammad suffered an agonizing death in 632 after being poisoned by a Jewish woman whose family had been slaughtered by Muslims.

Muslims believe that Muhammad is their highest moral example (Qur’an 33:21) and the final authority (along with Allah) in all decisions (Qur’an 33:36). According to the Qur’an (4:65), a person can have no faith without unquestioningly accepting Muhammad’s judgments.

QUESTIONS ABOUT MUHAMMAD

• "Why Did Muhammad Wear Women's Clothing?"

• "Why Did Muhammad Attempt Suicide?"

• "Was Muhammad a Pedophile?"

• "Who Killed Muhammad?"

MORE ON MUHAMMAD

• "50 Reasons Muhammad Was Not a Prophet"

• "Don't Make Fun of Muhammad" (VIDEO)

• "Eastwooding Muhammad" (VIDEO)

• "Jesus Owns Muhammad" (VIDEO)

The Qur'an: A Book Full of Conjecture and Doubt

Source: Answering Muslims

Posted by Anthony Rogers

"Jesus ressurecting [sic] and dying on the cross is a mere legend. The people who 'saw' him THOUGHT they saw him, but it was someone who looked similar to him, . There;s [sic] no evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (as), and the Quran refutes that, and the Quran has plenty of evidence on its side." - Muslim Kangaroo (See here [the link is dead])

No doubt Kangaroo has the following passage of the Qur’an in mind here:

And their saying: Surely we have killed the Messiah, Isa son of Marium, the messenger of Allah; and they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them so (like Isa) and most surely those who differ therein are only in a doubt about it; they have no knowledge respecting it, but only follow a conjecture, and they killed him not for sure. S. 4:157 Shakir

As will be shown, only in a kangaroo court would the verdict come down against the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in favor of the Qur’anic account of what happened. (For a good example of just such a court, see here.)

What Muslims "see" in the Quran and THINK is a refutation is actually just a bad argument substituted for and made to appear like a good one. Actually, it doesn't really bear much of a resemblance to a good argument; at best all we can say about it is that it is an apparently good enough counterfeit for many people to be convinced (read: deceived) by it. In fact, this passage doesn’t even represent an argument at all; it is simply a claim that contradicts what the Bible and history say about these matters. So calling it a refutation isn’t even accurate.

It has been said on this blog before (see here), but it bears repeating, especially in the context of a discussion of Surah 4:157, every time that we think of the "refutation" supposedly given in the Qur'an the one thing we should be struck with above all else is how many errors the author(s) of the Qur'an were able to make in such a short space, and Muslims really should be encouraged to add this to the list of evidences of the supernatural authorship of the Qur’an, for surely no one person could make so many mistakes AND yet still manage to dupe so many people. A supernatural being is clearly involved with both the composition and reception of the Qur’an; unfortunately, that being is most certainly not God, but is merely a being that masquerades like Him or an angel that pretends to have been sent by Him. This being made it appear to the author(s) of the Qur’an (and those who follow him/her/them) that the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are mere legends, but they are really only following a satanically inspired conjecture. This point will be made in a myriad of ways over the course of several posts, beginning with the following:

1. This verse represents the Jews as boasting: "We killed the Messiah…."

Contrariwise, the speech attributed to the Jews here is a clear error. The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus crucified precisely because they rejected His claim to be the Messiah, for no Jew would boast of killing the Messiah.

All the author(s) of the Qur'an would have had to do here to accurately reflect what the Jews would or could have said along these lines given their actual beliefs is either drop the word “Messiah”, as the following (mis)translations of the Qur’an, likely out of a recognition of the problem that exists in the Arabic text, do:

and their statement that they murdered Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of God, when, in fact, they could not have murdered him or crucified him. They, in fact, murdered someone else by mistake. Even those who disputed (the question of whether or not Jesus was murdered) did not have a shred of evidence. All that they knew about it was mere conjecture. They certainly could not have murdered Jesus. S. 4:157 Muhammad Sarwar

They [proudly] spread a rumor that: “We killed Jesus, son of Mary.” For sure they did neither kill Jesus nor crucify him. Their wishful thinking has created so much confusion in account of the lack of [historical] proof for their saying. Know for sure that they did not kill him. S. 4:157 Bijan Moeinian

Or, add words to the effect that they killed Jesus for His CLAIM to be the Messiah. Indeed, this is exactly the sort of thing the Jews did do in opposition to the sign made by the Romans which called Jesus "the King of the Jews". In protest, the Jews clamored for the sign to be changed so it would read that He SAID He was/is the King of the Jews.

Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour And he said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!" So they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, "JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS." Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews'; but that He said, 'I am King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." (John 19:13-22)

Catholics worldwide increased by 15 million in a single year

HAPPY FEAST DAY, THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD!
January 1, 2016 (New Year according to the Gregorian (Catholic) Calendar).

To God be the glory!

As Jesus commanded us to "PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL TO ALL NATIONS" and "BAPTIZING THEM" in the name of the TRINITARIAN GOD, making EVERYONE HIS DISCIPLE (Matt. 28:19-20), the CATHOLIC CHURCH is reaping another fruitful 15,000,000 souls to HIS BODY-the CHURCH making her still the largest single Christian Church in the world that has 1.2 billion people (1/6 of the total world population) adherents and is the only Christian Church that enjoys the privilege of being called JESUS' BRIDE- One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. #ProudCatholic -CD2000

Source: Catholic Herald

Church gained 15 million Catholics in a year, say researchers

Children at Regina Mundi Catholic church in Soweto. The Church continues to grow in Africa (CNS)

Study reports that there were 1.23 billion faithful worldwide at the end of 2012

Membership of the Catholic Church grew by 15 million in a single year, according to new statistics.

The Fides news agency published the figures, which are based on the latest edition of the Church’s Book of Statistics, which covers the period up to December 31 2012.

Fides said the number of Catholics worldwide increased in 2012 to 1,228,621,000, a rise of 15 million on the year before.

The greatest increases were in the Americas and Africa, but the Church also grew in Asia, Europe and Oceania, Vatican Radio reported.

Catholics comprised 17.49 per cent of the world population in 2012, Fides said, a decrease of 0.01 per cent on 2011.

The number of priests in the world increased by 895 to 414,313, but the number in Europe declined by 1,375. Meanwhile, the number of women religious worldwide fell by 10,677 to 702,529.

According to the study, the Church runs 71,188 preschool centres, 95,246 primary schools and 43,783 secondary schools around the world, as well as 115,352 charity and healthcare centres.