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Iran leader a '79 U.S. hostage taker? Nov. 13, 2006: The Russian publication Kommersant published a newly located photograph of a U.S. hostage-taker in Iran circa 1979 bearing a striking resemblance to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  The Iranian leader steadfastly denied he was involved in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the holding of 52 Americans for 444 days despite assertions to the contrary of some of those hostages and former Iranian President Abholhassan Bani-Sadr, who says he was a ringleader and the liaison with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  Charges by the ex-hostages were made shortly after Ahmadinejad came to power June 24, 2005. But from the beginning, the White House and State Department made it clear they would rather not know the truth about Ahmadinejad because it would place the U.S. in a position of refusing to permit a head of government into the country to attend U.N. meetings. 

Iran leader a '79 U.S. hostage taker? > Nov. 13, 2006: > The Russian publication Kommersant published a > newly located photograph of a U.S. hostage-taker in Iran circa 1979 bearing a striking resemblance to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad > . >  The Iranian leader steadfastly denied he was involved in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the holding of 52 Americans for 444 days despite assertions to the contrary of some of those hostages and former Iranian President Abholhassan Bani-Sadr, who says he was a ringleader and the liaison with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. >  Charges by the ex-hostages were made shortly after Ahmadinejad came to power June 24, 2005. But from the beginning, the White House and State Department made it clear they would rather not know the truth about Ahmadinejad because it would place the U.S. in a position of refusing to permit a head of government into the country to attend U.N. meetings. > 

Iran leader a '79 U.S. hostage taker? > > Nov. 13, 2006: > > The Russian publication Kommersant published a > > newly located photograph of a U.S. hostage-taker in Iran circa 1979 bearing a striking resemblance to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad > > . >  The Iranian leader steadfastly denied he was involved in the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the holding of 52 Americans for 444 days despite assertions to the contrary of some of those hostages and former Iranian President Abholhassan Bani-Sadr, who says he was a ringleader and the liaison with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. > >  Charges by the ex-hostages were made shortly after Ahmadinejad came to power June 24, 2005. But from the beginning, the White House and State Department made it clear they would rather not know the truth about Ahmadinejad because it would place the U.S. in a position of refusing to permit a head of government into the country to attend U.N. meetings. > > 

Why God Gives US Problems Hope this will help you to see opportunities behind the threats! Why God Gives Us Problem? LIFE IS A SERIES OF PROBLEM-SOLVING OPPORTUNITIES. 1. God uses problems to DIRECT you. 2. God uses problems to INSPECT you. 3. God uses problems to CORRECT you. 4. God uses problems to PROTECT you. 5. God uses problems to PERFECT you. The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you -- depending on how you respond to them. Unfortunately most people fail to see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives. They react foolishly and resent their problems rather than pausing to consider what benefit they might bring. Here are five ways God wants to use the problems in your life: 1. God uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Is God trying to get your attention? "Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways." Proverbs 20:30 2. God uses problems to INSPECT you. People are like tea bags ... if you want to know what's inside them, just drop them into hot water! Has God ever tested your faith with a problem? What do problems reveal about you?"When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience." James 1:2-3 3. God uses problems to CORRECT you. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It's likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove. But you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something ... health, money, a relationship... by losing it. "It was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws." Psalm 119:71-72 4. God uses problems to PROTECT you. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. Last year a friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem, but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when management's actions were eventually discovered."You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good." Genesis 50:20 5. God uses problems to PERFECT you. Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. God is far more interested in your character than our comfort. Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity. "We can rejoice when we run into problems ... they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady." Romans 5:3-4 Here's the point: God is at work in your life even when you do not recognize it or understand it. But it's much easier and profitable when you cooperate with Him! ~~by Mena Haryanto

Lesson seen in group learning spiritual director was suspended priest SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) -- A recently confirmed report that a priest long forbidden to function as a cleric had been heavily involved with a local Springfield private prayer group shows the difficulties Catholics can run into when they support unofficial spiritual groups, according to church officials. It also illustrates the difficulty church authorities have tracking the activities of a small number of priests who continue to defy orders not to exercise their ministry. In early September, the Diocese of Springfield was contacted by Vic Valois, a Catholic and a former member of a group called Seeds of Hope. He reported that Father John J. Szantyr had been the group's long-standing spiritual mentor and occasional sacramental celebrant. Father Szantyr, 76, is allegedly a repeated sexual offender with victims in more than one diocese. He has been forbidden to minister in any way or to publicly present himself as a priest since being removed from ministry by the Diocese of Worcester, Mass., in 1988. Yet, until recently, he has continued to wear clerical clothing and refer to himself as "Father" in violation of the canonical restrictions against clerics who face credible charges of sexual abuse of a minor.

Natural family planning gets government, insurance recognition ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- The medical coding system used by the government, insurance companies, medical clinics and health care providers now includes two codes specifically for natural family planning. Behind the push for the new codes was the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals, a national organization that promotes the use of the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, which is used for natural family planning and women's health and infertility issues while upholding Catholic teaching. Diane Daly, director of the Office of Natural Family Planning for the St. Louis Archdiocese and a member of the academy, headed the committee that worked several years for the new codes. On Oct. 1, the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) published the following codes for natural family planning: V25.04: Counseling and instruction in natural family planning to avoid pregnancy, and V26.41: Procreative counseling and advice using natural family planning.

St. Augustine on Adoring the Eucharist Published Thursday, May 31, 2007 by Taylor Marshall | E-mail this post E-mail this post // Remember me (?) All personal information that you provide here will be governed by the Privacy Policy of Blogger.com. More... There has been a debate in the comments over whether St. Augustine believed that the elements of the Eucharist are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. It is also claimed that St. Augustine held to a spiritual presence of Christ akin to that taught by John Calvin.Concerning the Eucharist, St. Augustine wrote:"Nobody eats this flesh without previously adoring it."- St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 98, 9As St. Augustine taught, Catholic Christians bow or kneel before receiving the Eucharist. This is because Catholics show worship or adoration (Greek - latria; Latin - adoratio) to the Eucharist because it is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and worthy of our worship.St. Augustine also explained that the Christians of his day prayed for the departed at the Eucharistic liturgy and he referred to the offering of the Eucharist as "the most true sacrifice" (verissium sacrificium) that the priest offers (immolat) to God. (cf. City of God, 10, 20)Either St. Augustine believed that he was offering the one true Sacrifice of Calvary at the Eucharist or he believed he was offering an independent sacrifice of symbolic bread and wine. A sacrifice to God of symbolic bread and wine would be blasphemous since the only acceptable sacrifice before God is the sacrifice of Christ that was offered once and for all. Therefore, Augustine must have believed that the sacrifice of the Eucharist was the same sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Hence, we have here the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist.The Eucharistic sacrifice is NOT a new sacrifice or a repetition of the sacrifice of Christ. It is the one sacrifice that Christ offered once and for all time. The presence of this one sacrifice is eternal and it realized in the eschatological banquet of the Holy Mass. Christ does not die again and again. But that one sacrificial death of redemption is re-presented every time the Holy Mass is offered or, to use the Latin phrase of St. Augustine, immolated.

Plight of Iraqi refugees shapes nuns' visit to Middle East WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A family of six Iraqis lives in a unheated, single room in Beirut, Lebanon -- the adults unable to work legally, the teenager with diabetes unable to get medical care or attend school. The family -- an engineer, his wife and three children, and the wife's brother -- fled violence in their homeland two years after they received threats and their home was fired upon. Once out of the country, they quickly burned through their savings. For Mercy Sister Anne Curtis, the refugee family helped define what she described as abhorrent conditions for the millions of Iraqis who have fled their homeland, most taking up residence in Lebanon or Syria. She was one of a group of eight U.S. women religious from different communities who spent more than a week with Catholic Relief Services in mid-January looking into the problems and aid opportunities for Iraqi refugees in Syria and Lebanon. CRS is the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency. "I'm still sorting out my impressions," Sister Curtis told Catholic News Service in a phone interview a few days after the delegation returned to the U.S. Jan. 20. During her first few days in the Middle East, she said she felt "an overwhelming sense of sorrow and shame about a U.S. war and the consequences; such massive human suffering."

Many have family and friends who are mystified as to why a couple would continue a pregnancy knowing their child will die. Loved ones often fear that by continuing on, the parents are simply delaying their grief or torturing themselves. What will they say to strangers who casually ask if the nursery is ready? And what if bringing the baby into this world causes the child suffering? But for some, the pregnancy feels precious because it may be the only time they’ll get to be with that child, says Schoonveld. “I think most people who have continued want to experience as much time with the baby as possible and want to hopefully meet the baby.

When the child dies, staff can help parents make their memories tangible by cutting a lock of their baby's hair or making hand impressions that parents can run their own fingers over during all the years to come. Horgan also knows the kind of practical, crucial details you never want to have to learn — such as how bathing in warm water can help stave off rigor mortis, buying precious time for parents who want to hold their child’s body.

Nearly a half hour after his birth, when Robbie’s breathing was still imperceptible, Steve bent to show his son to Jeanne’s 92-year-old great aunt Veva Conley and she impulsively reached out to warm Robbie’s foot, turned purple from lack of oxygen. In that instant, everything changed. Courtesy of Deibert familyRobbie Deibert, the day he was born.Robbie, presumably startled, took a deep breath. And another. And another. Soon his breathing was normal and his color started to improve. The next day, Stepping Stones helped them arrange to take him home to their light-filled house to live with his 2-year-old big brother, Stevie, for as long as his body would last.

Dale Fushek ANTI-ABUSE ACTIVISTS: In this March 2006 photo, activists David Clohessy, left, and Tom Doyle are seen at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Tempe before talks on the Catholic Church and sexual abuse of children by clergy. Tribune