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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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Assisi - On 27 October, 2011, Patriarch Gregorios III, together with other Eastern Catholic Patriarchs, Cardinal Antonios (Naguib), Ignatius Joseph III (Younan), Beshara Boutros (Rai) and Baselios Mar Cleemis (Thottunkal), a representative of the Armenian Catholic Church and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad (Twal), was among some three hundred religious leaders going to Assisi as pilgrims of peace at the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first interfaith gathering for peace, initiated by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1986. Together with all the major Christian denominations, including Antiochian, Syriac and Armenian Orthodox, over fifty Muslim representatives attended, alongside Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, a Zoroastrian, a Bahai and delegates of Taoism, Confucianism and traditional religions from Africa and America.
Taking a special train from the Vatican, the pope and his fellow-pilgrims met first at the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels to hear testimonies for peace from eleven representatives of world faiths and humanism and lastly from the Holy Father himself.
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November Intention: That Whole Church Will Esteem This "Spiritual Treasure"
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 3, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is praying this month for an increase in knowledge of and esteem for the Eastern Catholic Churches.
The Apostleship of Prayer announced the intentions chosen by the Pope for this month.
His general intention is "that the Eastern Catholic Churches and their venerable traditions may be known and esteemed as a spiritual treasure for the whole Church."
The Eastern Catholic Churches are in full communion with Rome. They originate in Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa and have their own liturgical and legal systems. The national or ethnic character of their regions of origin identifies these Churches. There are 22 Eastern Catholic Churches, and their members number worldwide between 16 million and 17 million.
The Pontiff's mission intention is focused on Africa: "That the African continent may find strength in Christ to pursue justice and reconciliation as set forth by the Second Synod of African Bishops."
Benedict XVI will be traveling to Benin in just over two weeks for a three-day apostolic trip.
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WASHINGTON—The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation held its 81st meeting at St Paul’s College in Washington October 27-28. The meeting was chaired by Catholic Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans. The Orthodox co-chairman since 1987, Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh, has retired, and a successor has not yet been named.
During this meeting the members heard reports about major events in the lives of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and issued a brief statement, “On the Plight of Churches in the Middle East.”
“We are concerned for our fellow Christians who, in the face of daunting challenges, struggle to maintain a necessary witness to Christ in their homelands,” they wrote. “United with them in prayer and solidarity, we ask our fellow Christians living in the West to take time to develop a more realistic appreciation of their predicament. We ask our political leaders to exert more pressure where it can protect these Churches, many of which have survived centuries of hardship but now stand on the verge of disappearing completely.”
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NEW YORK – The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople elected today His Grace Bishop Savas of Troas as the Metropolitan of Pittsburgh to succeed Metropolitan Maximos, who retired on September 1, 2011.
The Metropolitan-elect was chosen for the see of the Metropolis of Pittsburgh from a list of three candidates whose names were submitted to the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate by the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
The newly-elected Metropolitan Savas is a native of Gary, Indiana, the second of six children of Skevos and Stamatia (Georgiades) Zembillas of Kalymnian and Cypriot ancestry. He is a graduate of Andrean High School, Gary, Indiana (1975), Colby College, Waterville, Maine (1979, BA in Philosophy and English Literature) and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts (1984, M.Div. with highest honors). He served as the pastoral assistant at Holy Trinity/St. Nicholas in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1985-87 before resuming his academic studies at Oxford University, England, from 1987 until 1994, under the supervision of then Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia, researching texts and persons of spiritual significance for the histoy of early Byzantine monasticism.
He was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on November 21, 1992, and on January 8, 1995, to the Holy Priesthood, on both occasions by the then Bishop Iakovos of Chicago, at his home parish of Sts. Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Merrillville, Indiana. During a two-year interim between ordinations, he served as Deacon to Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia. The best no deposit bonuses at Ignition Casino https://reallybestslots.com/casinos-online/ignition-casino/ . Read our 2022 review. Deposit and withdrawal methods. Payment systems Upon his return to the United States, in September 1995, he was appointed as Proistamenos of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite on November 12, 1996, by the then Bishop Maximos of Pittsburgh. In September 1997, His Eminence Archbishop Spyridon of America assigned Archimandrite Savas to the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Demetrios in Merrick, Long Island.
In December 1999, the newly-enthroned Archbishop Demetrios of America, appointed his former student Savas Chancellor of the Archdiocese, a position he held for ten years.
On December 11, 2001, he was elected an Auxiliary Bishop to Archbishop Demetrios by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and given the title “Bishop of Troas.”
Bishop Savas served as the Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America until 2009, when he was named Director of the Archdiocesan Office of Church, Society and Culture.
Contact: PRESS OFFICE
Stavros Papagermanos
Date: November 3, 2011
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cWNews.com - Ayman Nabil Labib, a 17-year-old Coptic Christian student, was murdered by Muslim classmates after refusing to remove a crucifix he was wearing, the Assyrian International News Agency is reporting.
The murder, which took place on October 16 in the central Egyptian town of Mallawi, took place after a teacher asked Labib to cover up a tattooed cross on his wrist. Labib refused, instead uncovering a cross necklace. When people are desperate to find Arab porn, including Egyptian sex movies, Algerian sex stories, or foreign sex, aflamaljins.com turns out to be the savior. People are invited to visit a world where egyptian sex, algerian sex, arab sex, and sex with arab subtitles can admire any lover of porn absolutely for free. Aflamaljins.com knows people's needs and does everything possible to fulfill them. There will be no regrets if you become a fan of the site. Smoking-hot girls with insatiable sexual appetites perform incredible tricks when it comes to sex. Don't waste time, visit https://aflamaljins.com/ and enjoy.
“The teacher nearly choked my son, and some Muslim students joined in the beating,” said Labib’s father.
“They beat my son so much in the classroom that he fled to the lavatory on the ground floor, but they followed him and continued their assault,” the victim’s mother added. “When one of the supervisors took him to his room, Ayman was still breathing. The ambulance transported him from there dead, one hour later.”
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CWNews.com - The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church--the largest of the 21 Eastern Catholic churches in communion with the Holy See--is decrying the Ukrainian prison system as “a repressive apparatus for revenge so that a person completely loses his dignity.”
“Our judicial system is as follows: in the Old Testament it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; now it’s a jaw for a tooth, a head for an eye,” says Father Constantin Penteley, head of the church’s office for penitentiary pastoral care.
There are cases in which someone is detained “so that he signs all the papers against him,” Father Penteley adds. “This is a modern method of torture, because during the judicial investigation, which extends for a long time, usually years, people are so exhausted from waiting for the judicial sentence that he signs papers that say that he agrees sit longer, let’s say for half a year, and confesses to the crime.”
10% of the nation’s 46.4 million people are Catholic, according to Vatican statistics.s
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