Faith of the Fathers Report

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Pope Rules Chaldean Priest Can Stay in San Diego

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

SAN DIEGO -- In a landmark decision, Pope Francis has ruled that a priest who is part of the San Diego Iraqi Christian community will not have to return to Iraq.

The Pope this week overturned a decree that would have sent Father Noel Gorgis of the St. Peters Chaldean Church in El Cajon back to Iraq.

In October of last year, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church ordered 10 priests, including Gorgis, to return to Iraq or leave the church for good. The church patriarch said the group never had their moves to the U.S. approved.

Most of them had fled Iraq around the time of the Gulf War, and today ISIS militants are threatening Iraq's Christians with death if they don't convert to Islam.

...spoke with Father Noel Gorgis in October about his fears of returning home.

"To tell me go back to Iraq, it really is to make to tell me go and have suicide," Gorgis said at the time.

The Chaldean Church of San Diego appealed to Pope Francis shortly after the decree to move was issued.

If They Had Any Guts, All US Papers Would Publish Muhammad Cartoons

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

The terrorists won today.

That was the message Wednesday from retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters when he appeared on Fox News' "America's News Room."

"It's a terrible morning. It's a bad morning for press freedom, for freedom of information," he said. "It's bad because the terrorists won. The terrorists won this morning."

Peters fears publications will limit their own freedom because of this attack.

...Peters chastised other publications for not having the courage to publish the cartoons of the prophet Muhammed like the French magazine did.

"It was the bravest publication I know. There is not a single magazine in the English-speaking world that had the guts, the courage, to take on Islamist fanaticism and mock these fanatics the way Charlie Hebdo is," he said.

"The correct response to this attack, by all of us in journalism, we pretend to be so brave, if we had guts," Peters said. "Those cartoons would be reprinted on the front page of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times tomorrow. They won't be."

Peters also criticized the Western world as too weak to deal with radical Islam and said our political correctness may lead to our destruction.

UPDATED: Sisi first Egyptian President to attend Coptic Christmas mass - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, right, visits Coptic Pope Tawadros II, center, during Christmas Eve
Mass at St. Mark's Cathedral, in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015 (Photo: AP)

The following excerpts are from ahramonline:

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has attended the Coptic Christmas mass to mark the first attendance ever made by an Egyptian president to the religious occasion.

El-Sisi arrived at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo's Abbasiya district during the mass and gave a brief speech before leaving instantly.

He said that both of Egypt's Muslims and Christians are celebrating this occasion, asserting that they are "one entity" in the world's eyes.

He added that he had to come to congratulate the Coptic community and then apologised for interrupting the mass.

Video footage broadcast by State TV – covering the full mass – showed crowds cheering as El-Sisi entered the Cathedral with churchmen and saluted Pope Tawadros II.

Former Egyptian heads of state have visited the Cathedral including Gamal Abd El-Nasser and interim President Adly Mansour, but this is the first time for a president to attend the mass.