 WORLDWIDE
NEWS & VIEWSwith a Catholic slant
HEADLINES:
Holy Father returns home to Vatican weary from grueling trip that took him from searing heat of India to bitter cold of Georgia's early winter
His Holiness Pope John Paul II is back home ready for a well-deserved few days of rest after his grueling trip to India and Georgia. It was an unusual Papal Trip for it took him to two nations where Catholicism is in the vast minority and where prejudice against Catholics has lead to tensions from the Hindu fundamentalists to the Orthodox in Georgia. Yet there were Orthodox followers who defied the Patriarch's snub of the papal Mass to attend and give the Holy Father respect and honor. For more, click on Pope back home.
Vatican makes it official: Iraqi trip off until at least January 2000. Holy See rethinking "Jubilee Journey" by not lumping too many together.
  
Maybe the delay of beginning the Holy Father's historic "Jubilee Journey" is a blessing in disguise. The Vatican not only made it official that the trip to Ur in Iraq would be postponed until at least late January next year, they are rethinking the stress it puts on a nearly 80-year old Pontiff who is showing the fatigue of age and his possible Parkinson's disease that is getting increasingly worse as the years go by. To preserve the strength and stamina of the Pope, they have decided for him to make more trips covering less time. Thus his Iraq trip will be only to Ur and not to Egypt as originally planned. The Holy See planners see merit in quick, shorter trips for the Sovereign Pontiff in the coming year's stressful schedule in which Pope John Paul II hopes to retrace the footsteps of our religious heritage from Abraham to Saint Paul. For more, click on "Jubilee Journey".
Israel says "sorry, but that's the breaks" but they may be crying last from findings that point to place of Jesus' Baptism being in Jordan, not Israel
  
Israel was in an apologetic mode yesterday as they apologized to the Holy See for the brouhaha centering around the construction of a mosque immediately next to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth where countless pilgrims are expected to flock next year. Though they apologized, they rationalized they had no choice but to allow the mosque to be built and suggested building an additional door to reach the Basilica from the other side. It could be from the other side of the Jordan, not Israel's side that pilgrims will come and spend money thus denying the tourist industry in Israel from recent findings that point to the fact Our Lord was baptized east of the Jordan River in Jordan. For more, click on East Timor turns to thankful prayer.
California Court not playing ball with Ten Commandments
 
Can you believe a federal appeals court in San Francisco believes that the Ten Commandments are not educational? That was their decision in upholding a ban of religious material on advertisements on high school ballfields and outfield fences. Place any immoral thing you want on the billboards, but don't dare try to instill in the kids and parents the values passed down by Almighty God to Moses on Mount Sinai as the benchmark for human behavior for all generations. Does one wonder why this generation is so confused and misguided when our judges determine that the Ten Commandments are controversial? Just another sign that we had better pray harder for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart. For more, click on Judges strike out in decision
 For additional religious and secular headlines from around the world, we refer you to our new up-to-the-minute NEWS ticker billboard by clicking on the ARROW
51 and counting,
hoping and praying...
Coming
Tomorrow:
- 23rd selection of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY
- A layman's perspective on the Church today in Pat Ludwa's column VIEW FROM THE PEW
- The forty-ninth installment in our new feature on the treasures of the great Deposit of Faith in our daily series APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH
- Retro issues of our on-going series in our feature series on the Church today with the Archives of WHERE IS HOLY MOTHER CHURCH HEADING AS WE NEAR THE MILLENNIUM?
- Time Capsules in Church History with MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES focusing on November 11th.
- DAILY LITURGY for Thursday's Feast of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop and Friday's Feast of Saint Josaphat, Bishop, Religious and Martyr.
- Words of wisdom from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in SIMPLY SHEEN
- ...and more in our 214th issue for 1999!
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Schism seaps into Rome during second half of the seventh century
 We continue with our on-going series of this abridged History of the Mass and Holy Mother Church over a 2000 year span called 2000 YEAR VOYAGE ON THE BARQUE OF PETER. Today we feature the Sovereign Pontiffs from the second half of the seventh century covering ten Popes from Pope Saint Eugene I in 654 to Pope Saint Sergius I who died in 701. For Installment twenty-six The Agony and ecstasy of the Church after Pope Gregory the Great - part three: "The Apostolic Line of Peter during the second half of the seventh century" in the BARQUE OF PETER
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The DAILY WORD
"But Jesus answered and said, 'Were not the ten made clean? But where are the nine? Has no one been found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?' And He said to him, 'Arise, go thy way, for thy faith has saved thee.'"
Luke 17: 17-19
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 Appreciation of the Existence of Purgatory
Today we continue with our new series in the search to uncover the wonderful treasures of the Church contained in the great Deposit of Faith. We look again today at that merciful gift from God - Purgatory - where we are able to be cleansed before looking upon the Beatific Vision forever. There have been many misconceptions about this intermediate "stopping off point" between earth and Heaven and we hope to convey what the Church teaches about Purgatory over the next several installments. For the forty-eighth installment, click on APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH
Events in Church History
 On this date 450 years ago in 1549 Pope Paul III, 220th in the line of Peter, passed away after a successful fifteen year pontificate. It was Paul, a promoter of the arts, who promoted Michelangelo as honorary architect for life at St. Peter's and who gave papal approbation to the Jesuits and convened the landmark Council of Trent - the 19th Ecumenical Council, opening it in the remote village of Trent in Northern Italy in 1545. For other pertinent events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES
 Retired Cardinal Giuseppe Maria Sensi will celebrate the 70th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood next month
 Our one-hundred-twenty-first red-hat we feature, in alphabetical order is the 92 year-old Cardinal Giuseppe Maria Sensi, retired Nuncio prelate who has lived under seven different Popes during this century. Since 1987 he has been totally retired in Rome. He received his red-hat and elevation to the cardinalate from Pope Paul VI in the Consistory of May 24, 1976. For more on Cardinal Giuseppe Maria Sensi, click on COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION
DAILY LITURGY
 Today we commemorate the Feast of Pope Saint Leo the Great, Doctor of the Church  while tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of Saint Martin of Tours, bishop. For the readings, liturgies, meditations, and vignettes on these feasts, click on DAILY LITURGY.
Console can have more merit than counsel
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN".
"When one is looking for counsel, it is always well to seek out those who themselves have suffered. There is much more wisdom resulting from patient bearing of suffering than there is from books. No sinner is ever consoled by having a moral theology flung at his head. Perhaps the reason why Peter and not John was chosen as the Head of the Church was because he fell and, therefore, understood human weakness."
October 25th Medjugorje Monthly Message
Dear children! Do not forget: this is a time of grace; that is why, pray, pray,
pray! Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE
Finally the long-awaited books "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..." and THE HIDDEN WAY are available!
 
With the messages completed, you can now order the book that contains ALL the messages. This much-anticipated 224-page book of ALL the messages to the world imparted to the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart from the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a lasting gift that will inspire you in your faith, and all God asks of us. You can acquire your own handsome, coffee-table top copy of "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..." containing all 632 messages or the THE HIDDEN WAY containing 100 inspirational Meditative Lessons from Our Lord and Our Lady on Church Doctrine by clicking on "I SOLEMNLY TELL YOU..." or THE HIDDEN WAY or both books at BOOKS
To review past articles in textonly format, click on Archives.
To read the front page graphics versions click on the desired Year below
 To print out this issue in TEXT ONLY, click on the printer icon. For text of this page, click here
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Today we bring you the 24th person selected out of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY. The voters chose Pope Leo XIII, the 256th Sovereign Pontiff who reigned from 1978 to 1903. He truly deserves to be higher, but 24th is where he finished in the final tally. We suspect he didn't finish higher because many associate him with the 19th rather than the 20th century. What is fitting is that he is honored today on the feast of his namesake Pope Saint Leo the Great. The parallels between Leo XIII and Pope John Paul II are more than coincidental as you'll see in today's profile. For more, click on 
