Commemorating

the anniversary of the death of a saint...

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez

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Another martyr

for the Christian faith, made such by the fanatic murderers of the Taliban.

Pakistan Christians bury murdered leader Shahbaz Bhatti

Have mercy on his soul, Lord, and be with all the persecuted Christians in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world...

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It's a good thing


Pope advances cause of sainthood for Spanish nuns murdered by communists

"The cause of a German priest and two companions, murdered by National Socialists during WWII, has also been advanced."

Ah, the media!

The causes of individuals martyred by the extreme right are also advanced, but that can't be in the headline because we're all anti-Communist, right? The Right, and the Fascists, may have made some mistakes, but they don't deserve a headline, do they? I mean, that would tar all right-wing individuals with the same brush, while using 'Communist' only tars the left. That's OK, isn't it?

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It's been a long wait...

...for justice.

Activists, officials laud verdict in nun's death

I am not so hopeful about a change in the political and legal climate in Brazil. As long as the rich continue to worship the god of the world, such acts will continue, and a small number will ever receive justice...

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War is brutal

and people fighting wars can be savage...

Icon of soldier beheaded for not taking off his cross gives myrrh in Penza church

The article doesn't say, but the only thing I can think of is that the soldiers who captured him were Muslim. It's the only thing that makes sense.

Can miracles like this still happen? I believe in miracles, while at the same time I admit to being most often skeptical, if only because so many of these 'miracles' turn out to be hoaxes, often perpetrated to make money or for political ends...

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A holy person...

St. Thérèse's Spiritual Little Brother

A Vietnamese Redemptorist...

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A martyr for our faith

"All of life is Advent": On the life and death of Alfred Delp, S.J.

"The author of Advent of the Heart wrote his reflections on Advent from a unique--and harrowing--perspective"

I will always be astounded by the incredible courage of martyrs in facing their deaths. Faith is obviously a certainty, something they know, and not an abstraction...

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A modern saint


Martyr who refused to remove crucifixes from hospital honored Oct. 29

The Nazis were equal-opportunity murderers. It doesn't matter the faith, religion, nationality, gender or sexual preference, they were willing to murder anyone who didn't do what they said, felt they threatened them or were simply different. Political and national loyalty becomes and ultimate evil in this case. Thank God for Sister Maria Restituta and others like her who were courageous even to death. Not just the faith, but our world goes on as it does because of people like her...

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Times continue to change...


Vatican recalls fallen Christian martyrs

"The Vatican recalled the violent deaths of Catholic priests, religious, and lay volunteers. Asia saw the greatest toll, including Archbishop Rahho of Iraq."

In days past, those who died while spreading the word of God, or because of living the Word of God, were martyrs and automatically saints. That's why the Vatican is hedging on calling them martyrs now. The heroic virtue of dying for one's faith is no longer enough. One of them might have been a {shudder} liberal!...

I don't think

that this information should come as too much of a surprise to too many people.

KGB 'involved' in murder of Polish priest

"KGB agents, desperate to curb the influence of Poland's Catholic Church, may have had a hand in the murder of a Polish priest at the forefront of opposition to communist rule, investigators in Warsaw have claimed."

Requiescat in Pacem, Fr. Popieluszko. Rest in God's light...

R.I.P. - Fr. Thomas Pandippallyil

And now, extreme violence and killing in India. Fr. Thomas is a martyr...

Hindu extremists kill priest for being Christian and helping the poor

Please pray for his family, confreres and friends. Also pray for those who committed this horrible torture and killing, that even if they never find a desire to become Christian, that they will give up murder as a way of making themselves heard and scoring points for their gods...

Requiescat in Pacem, Fr. Thomas. Go quickly to God and rest in God's peace...

(As an aside, these are the people who would cry the loudest if the West were to make faiths other than Christianity, or promoting their faiths other than Christianity, illegal. But they find it just fine to do it in their countries. I always find that double standard interesting...)

A welcome message...

After all the corporate hoopla about the Olympic Games and the news about the ongoing oppression in the land of Tibet comes this article about the true face of the Chinese Government's oppression of religion in China...

A land of martyrs

Without getting in to a political argument about the corruption of politics in the West, why is it that these 'workers paradises' have to be held under tight control and oppression by military and police might? Why don't the people lliving there see their countries as the 'paradises' they're supposed to be?

Before anyone thinks

that we're too 'modern' for persecution in the Western countries:

Blessed José: teen martyr of the 20th century

Remember Mexico not that many years ago...