Report: Iran sending 4,000 troops to aid Assad http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Iran-sending-4000-troops-to-aide-Assad-in-Syria-316680
Assad warns: Europe will 'pay price' if it arms Syrian rebels As Western leaders discuss arming Syria at G8 summit, Assad tells German paper, "If the Europeans deliver weapons, the backyard of Europe will become terrorist". He also warned that delivering arms would result in the export of "terrorism" to Europe http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Assad-warns-Europe-will-pay-price-if-it-arms-Syrian-rebels-316836
Its frightening how many potential problems a civil war in a single country could cause to the entire world.
I see that now it is spreading to become a huge Islamic civil war between Shia and Sunni. Hezbollah, once the darling of the Middle East for its fight against Israel is now detested in many quarters for fighting in Syria, supporting the Government. Even in secular Turkey the most stable Islamic country in the world they are talking about using the army to quell the unrest....the beginning of yet another Islamic civil war? I think the thing about all this is for we who read the signs of the times is that we must expect this unrest and revolutions, civil wars to spread to the West as all that once was is pulled down. Already we can see the fracture lines appearing in places such as France, Britain and the US. If it could happen in Sweden, it could happen everywhere.
I wonder if syria is the fault line which will spark a regional conflict.!? Alsorussiao. has regional ties - Putin looked angry at the g8meeting with obama. It has the feeling of the balkans one hundred years ago
Padraig, That is such a moving insight from Pope John XXIII! There is so much suffering and horrendous evil taking place in Syria! This is truly becoming a regional conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Look at the extended alliances: Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Russia form the Shiite camp. Sunni insurgents, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, USA, and potentially Turkey, form the Sunni axis. Yesterday, Israel apparently made a 4th air strike into Syria to impede the placement of advanced air defense systems! The fact that a number of insurgents consist of terrorist groups make my country's involvement all the more ironic! It is all such a web of satanic hatred and deception! A true powder keg! Lord have mercy! Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
Terry, we depend so much on our leaders being people of prayer. When they do not pray we must pray for them. Bobby was right Putin and Obama looked in a foul mood with each other when visiting here. If they who are not directly involved are so angry what chance for peace. ? I liked that analogy of Our Lady doing spring cleaning. So all the furniture has to be lifted...to me that means all powers have to fall. Perhaps this also means that the Vatican itself has to fall?
Time for my yearly Novena . I never get there first day without crying. It is the faith of the ordinary people, it never fails to move me. I have been praying to this young man the last few days, he is a new born saint in heaven. Brendan Kelly. http://www.thecatholicthing.org/col...g-souls-iii-brendan-kelly-of-great-falls.html He is very impressed with heaven. He said, 'Wow you want to see it it!' Great crosses, great saints. Even little boys. Very loveable. If you want something you should ask him. I would like to see him canonised.
New wave of foreigners in Syrian fight http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...9b8-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_story.html?hpid=z1
"CAIRO — He was young and bright, with an education from Egypt’s premier school of Islamic studies and lucrative job offers in the Gulf. But Bilal Farag chose a different path, friends say, one that led him to die on a distant Syrian battlefield while fighting Shiite Muslims he regarded as infidels. “Everybody has their own goal in life,” said a close friend, Hosam Ali. “Bilal’s was to be a martyr.” Waves of Egyptians are now preparing to follow, fired by the virulently sectarian rhetoric of Sunni preachers and encouraged by the newly permissive policies of Egypt’s Islamist government. In recent days, this city’s ancient mosques have crackled with calls for jihad, as hard-line Sunni Muslim leaders command the faithful to respond to recent escalations in Syria by the Shiite forces of Iran and Hezbollah. The Sunni backlash has echoed far beyond Egypt, penetrating every corner of the region, where divisions between the rival Muslim sects are hardening fast. At the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, the top cleric broke down in tears on pan-Arab television last week as he pleaded with his fellow Muslims to help the Syrian rebels “by all means.” Foreign militants have long played a critical role in the Syrian uprising, but the prospect of a fresh flow of radicalized fighters bent on waging sectarian war threatens to complicate the Obama administration’s recently announced strategy to arm the rebellion’s moderate factions."
OOOHH, that is the sweetest story. Now I have two Brendans to pray to, this Brendan and my grandson Brendan.
I think Pope Francis might be anticipating just that. Pope Francis seeks 'pastors not princes' for appointment as bishops http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0621/458115-pope-bishops/ Pope Francis has told senior officials to seek out pastors and not princes when recommending candidates for him to appoint as bishops. He also told the Holy See's diplomats who serve overseas not to try to aspire to live calm and easy lives instead of acting for the glory of God. Pope Francis made his comments in the Vatican to most of the one hundred or so clerics who double as his representatives to local Catholic churches throughout the world and as ambassadors to states. According to the Vatican Information Service the Pontiff highlighted the search for new bishops. Pope Francis said the Nuncios should "be attentive that the priests proposed are pastors who are close to the people as well as gentle, patient, and merciful." He said they should also love poverty which frees them to serve God, living a simple and austere life. He warned that the nominees for promotion should not have what he called "a prince's psychology", or be promotion-seekers. Concluding his job-description for the new bishops he'll appoint, the Pope said that, above all, they must be capable of "keeping an eye on" the flock that will be entrusted to them and of caring for everything that keeps it united. He said they must be able to foster hope and there must be "sun and light in their hearts" enabling them to "sustain with love and patience the plans that God has for his people."
I was reading a section form Blessed Pope John 23rd's journal the other day day and in it he talks of felling a 'rage' at the way prelates around him looked down and treated people they regarded as social inferiors. John was the gentlest of men so if they made his furious these guys must be pretty horrible and obnoxious (some of them).
