Video - Jesus’ tomb after centuries finally opened in Jerusalem.

Jesus’ tomb after centuries finally opened in Jerusalem. (NationalGeographic).

Jerusalem - For the first time in centuries, scientists have exposed the original surface of what is traditionally considered the tomb of Jesus Christ. Located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, the tomb has been covered by marble cladding since at least 1555 A.D., and most likely centuries earlier.

"The marble covering of the tomb has been pulled back, and we were surprised by the amount of fill material beneath it,” said Fredrik Hiebert, archaeologist-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, a partner in the restoration project.

“It will be a long scientific analysis, but we will finally be able to see the original rock surface on which, according to tradition, the body of Christ was laid."

According to Christian tradition, the body of Jesus Christ was laid on a shelf or “burial bed” hewn from the side of a limestone cave following his crucifixion by the Romans in A.D. 30 or possibly 33. Christian belief says Christ was resurrected after death, and women who came to anoint his body three days after the burial reported that no remains were present.

The marble slab that covers the holy bench—roughly 3 by 5 feet and carved from creamy marble—had been pulled away from the wall. Beneath it was a grey-beige stone surface. What is it? a conservator was asked. "We don’t know yet," she replied. "It's time to bring in the scientific monitoring tools."

Outside the Edicule, Thephilos III, the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, stood watching the events with a serene smile. "I'm glad that the atmosphere is special, there is a hidden joy," said the patriarch.

"Here we have Franciscans, Armenians, Greeks, Muslim guards, and Jewish police officers. We hope and we pray that this will be a real message that the impossible can become the possible. We all need peace and mutual respect." Read the full story here.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski A Polish Putin: Autocratic Power Grab Accelerates in Warsaw.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski A Polish Putin: Autocratic Power Grab Accelerates in Warsaw. (Spiegel).

Poland's national-conservative government was quick to sideline the country's high court. Now, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his party have their sights set on complete control of the state.

At age 73, she is the grande dame of politics in Warsaw -- and she still talks so much and so fast that hardly anyone can get a word in edgewise. More than anything, though, Jadwiga Staniszkis is not afraid of those in power.

Even as a young assistant professor during communist times, her defiance got her into trouble and she spent some time in prison as a result.

Today, 27 years after the fall of communism, Staniszkis is once again taking on the authorities. The sociology professor has become one of the most outspoken critics of the current national-conservative government under the control of Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Although Kaczynski has no formal position in the government, he is widely seen as the one pulling the strings in the background.

Staniszkis was long a fan of Kaczynski and has even campaigned for his national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in the past. She once gushed: "I think he is perhaps the most intelligent politician in Poland. I like him a lot."

Today, she says: "He wants to monopolize power with no limitations. The approach is informed by a Bolshevik understanding of politics."

Kaczynski has placed state-run media in Poland under his control and weakened the country's highest court, known as the Constitutional Tribunal. And that was just the beginning.

The Warsaw-based newsmagazine Polityka has even described it as a coup d'état. There have been large protests in the country, harsh criticism from Brussels and a rule of law inquiry from the EU, but nothing has yet stopped Kaczynski.

Now, on his path to absolute power, he is preparing to put every last aspect of the state under his control. Already, he can rely on his party's majority in Polish parliament to do his bidding. But he apparently has aspirations beyond just dominating ministries, state agencies and the judiciary. Under his leadership, the state is to take on a stricter, fatherly role -- not unlike an autocracy.


In the battle over the Constitutional Tribunal, Professor Staniszkis knows the primary adversaries well. Both Andrzej Rzeplinski, who is president of the court, and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who has robbed the court of its power, attended her university classes.

Professor Staniszkis, who has known Jaroslaw Kaczynski for several decades, has not been allowed to see him for months. The two don't have that much to say to each other anyway. "He doesn't understand the Western concept of sovereignty, which uses a system of checks and balances to prevent a dictatorship of the majority," says Staniszkis. Her former student, she adds, wants absolute power. "It is archaic and reminiscent of Putin's approach to power." Read the full story here.

Video - 'Good Friday' The Passion of the Christ.

Video - Good Friday Reflection: From the Cross.

Video - The Passion Narrative According to St. John.

Islamic State brand Christmas festivities "heretical".

Islamic State brand Christmas festivities "heretical". (AsiaNews).

New attacks have been launched against Christians and Christmas celebrations in northern Iraq by Daesh [Arabic acronym of the Islamic State, IS] and other extremist groups.

AsiaNews sources in the north of the country report that Isis militants in Mosul have posted signs in the city ordering Muslims "not to celebrate" Christmas in any way with the Christians, because "they are heretics." 

While in Kirkuk, groups of Islamic extremists stormed two Christian cemeteries, desecrating and destroying several graves.

Iraqi Christians have denounced these most recent attacks, threats and intimidation and say they will not stop them from celebrating the feast.

The Chaldean Patriarchate also condemns the violence and intimidation of the Iraqi Christian community, and does so using the Koran and which states that Christians are not heretics and the Trinity is a theological expression of the revelation of the One God.

The Muslim holy book, say the leaders of the Chaldean Church, describes Christ as the "carrier of the word of God." Christians are not polytheists or infidels and this is why the Koran says that "they are the closest to those who believe."

Some residents in the Iraqi capital, interviewed by AsiaNews, invite Muslims to "follow  their faith" and "to leave us free to live and celebrate ours" as the Koran itself states, when it  prohibits "constructions" on the subject of faith and says: "I have my religion and you yours. "

Meanwhile, the Christian MP Yonadam Kanna, president of the Rafeedain group, present the Parliamentary  Assembly a document that shows that over 700 thousand Christians have left the country because of the conflict and violence in the last 30 years.

The emergence of the Islamic State and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain in the summer of 2014 are the latest in a series of attacks, with the desecration of churches and places of worship, violence to individuals and groups, uprooting and dispossession of assets and property. From a population of more than 1.5 million in 2003 today, the community counts less than 500 thousand.

Video - The Passion Narrative According to St. John.

British PM on Pope comments: 'There is a right to cause offence'

British PM on Pope comments: 'There is a right to cause offence'.(BBC).

Prime Minister David Cameron has disagreed with a comment made by Pope Francis, who warned against mocking others' religions.

Following the attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, the Pope made his point by saying someone who insulted his mother could "expect to get punched".

But Mr Cameron, speaking to CBS News, said the media had the right to publish material that was offensive to some.

Twelve people were killed by militant Islamists in the attack in Paris.

A policewoman and four people at a kosher supermarket died in separate attacks in the French capital earlier this month.

'Right to offence' Speaking to the Face the Nation programme on the American TV channel CBS, Mr Cameron was asked how to "find the right balance" after the Pope defended freedom of expression but said there were limits to freedom of speech.

The pontiff had said religions should be treated with respect, so that people's faiths were not insulted or ridiculed.

Mr Cameron replied: "I think in a free society, there is a right to cause offence about someone's religion.

"I'm a Christian - if someone says something offensive about Jesus, I might find that offensive, but in a free society I don't have a right to, sort of, wreak my vengeance on them."

He said as long as publications acted within the law, they had the right to publish any material, even if it was offensive to some.

Former Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries, writing in the Independent on Sunday, also suggested the Pope had been wrong to make the comments.

He said: "I am a great admirer of the Pope, but when, to make the proper point that we should not insult the faith of others, he said his assistant could 'expect a punch' if he cursed his mother, I was aghast.

"The reference to a punch could easily be taken for a justification of violence in response to insult." Hmmm.....HEAR ! HEAR !

Pope Francis I advocating use of Violence?

Pope Francis I advocating use of Violence? (AFP).

Pope Francis said Thursday there are limits to freedom of expression, especially when it insults or ridicules someone's faith.

Francis spoke about the Paris terror attacks while en route to the Philippines, defending free speech as not only a fundamental human right but a duty to speak one's mind for the sake of the common good.

But he said there were limits.

By way of example, he referred to Alberto Gasparri, who organizes papal trips and was standing by his side aboard the papal plane.

"If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch," Francis said, throwing a pretend punch his way. "It's normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others."

Many people around the world have defended the right of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to publish inflammatory cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in the wake of the massacre by Islamic extremists at its Paris offices and subsequent attack on a kosher supermarket in which three gunmen killed 17 people.

But recently the Vatican and four prominent French imams issued a joint declaration that denounced the attacks but also urged the media to treat religions with respect.

Francis, who has urged Muslim leaders in particular to speak out against Islamic extremism, went a step further when asked by a French journalist about whether there were limits when freedom of expression meets freedom of religion.

Francis insisted that it was an "aberration" to kill in the name of God and said religion can never be used to justify violence.

But he said there was a limit to free speech when it concerned offending someone's religious beliefs.

"There are so many people who speak badly about religions or other religions, who make fun of them, who make a game out of the religions of others," he said. "They are provocateurs. And what happens to them is what would happen to Dr. Gasparri if he says a curse word against my mother. There is a limit."


Hmmm.....The Jesuits have always loved violence, mothers used to scare kids with 'If you don't behave i'll send you to the Jesuit school'..... Now again threatening to punch people.

I'll go with the previous Pope: “Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity. On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be,” Pope Benedict XVI.


For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Colossians 3:13 NIV

Did the Pope forgot that? "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also." Matthew 5:39 pic.twitter.com/gg0WNGJtn0
— Isabelle Daniel (@isabelledaniel) January 15, 2015

Pope threatens to punch friend if he curses his mother. Hmmm...NEW AGE of Christianity? Romans 5:8 http://t.co/e1kQJeT2ih
— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) January 15, 2015

Video - Convertis de l’islam, témoignages de musulmans convertis au Christ.

Converts from Islam, testimonies of Muslim converts to Christ. (French).

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

 A Merry Christmas to all my readers!

The word “Christmas” means “Mass of Christ,” later shortened to “Christ-Mass.” The even shorter form “Xmas” – first used in Europe in the 1500s – is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ’s name: Xristos, therefore “X-Mass.”

The 'Politically incorrect' days of Christmas - What If the liberal media covered Jesus' birth today?

What If the liberal media covered Jesus' birth today?HT: IsraelMatzav.

Video - Footage of Syrian Christian Town of Maaloula As Syrian Army Regained Control over It

Ancient bibles and rare Greek and Hebrew texts are being made available online.

Vatican library

Ancient bibles and rare Greek and Hebrew texts are being made available online.(HD).
A treasure trove of ancient bibles and rare Greek and Hebrew texts are being made available to the public through a website set up by the Vatican and Oxford University.

A priceless 1455 copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first major book to be printed with movable type in the West and one of fewer than 50 surviving copies, went online Tuesday in the first stage of the project between the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV) and Oxford’s Bodleian library.

The four-year project, funded by the Polonsky Foundation, will eventually create an online archive of 1.5 million pages, the Vatican said in a statement. One third of the fragile manuscripts will come from the Bodleian, which is one of Europe’s oldest libraries, and the other two-thirds from the Holy See’s collection.
The website, http://bav.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ includes video presentations by Vatican archivist Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

Texts already online include a 1490 Italian bible with lavish illustrations, translated by a Camaldolese monk, and a 1479 Cologne bible with hand-painted color woodcuts of the Creation scene said to have influenced all subsequent production across Europe.

Works by Plato, Homer and Sophocles are to make it onto the website over the next three years.

Curators have had to weigh up the importance of sharing the texts against their physical condition in order to minimise the risk of damage during digitisation, the Vatican said.

Enthusiastic scholars across the globe can make special requests to get particular works uploaded onto the website.

With over 11 million printed works and 55,000 digital journals, the Bodleian library is the second biggest in Britain, after the British library.

United Nations will Investigate Racist Character of Major Dutch 'Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet' Festival.

United Nations will Investigate Racist Character of Major Dutch 'Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet' Festival.HT: TundraTabloids.

At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received a letter from the U.N. which stated that the Dutch tradition concerning the major national folklore fest Sinterklaas, which takes place on December 5th, is racist. The assistant of this white bishop is a black person called Zwarte Piet (Black Peter), who, according to the U.N. is presented as stupid and as a servant. This feeds the stereotype that Africans are second-rate citizens. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, South African Navanethem Pillay wants to know whether Black Peter is a racist stereotype. The investigation has to be finished by the end of November.

Saint Nicholas (15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra (Demre, part of modern-day Turkey) in Lycia. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker.He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos".

Early legends: In the early legends Sinterklaas was either accompanied by a demonic servant or by a Moorish partner responsible for organisation of the gifts

• 1845: Amsterdam-based primary school teacher Jan Schenkman writes the book Sint Nicolaas en zijn Knecht ("Saint Nicholas and his Servant"). This is the first time that a Spanish servant character is introduced into the Saint Nicholas narrative. The servant is described as a page boy or man, and is depicted as a dark person wearing clothes associated with Moors. The book also established another mythos that will become standard: the intocht or "entry" ceremony of Saint Nicholas and his servant (then not yet named Zwarte Piet) involving a steamboat. In the 1850 version of Schenkman's book, he is depicted in simple white clothing with red piping, as the typical Spanish page of the day. In later editions, the page acquires the name "pieter", and is shown in a much more colorful page costume, looking much as he does today. The book stayed in print until 1950 and has had considerable influence on the current celebration.

Hmmmm.........What I find interesting in the whole 'story' is that Zwarte Piet' is a 'Moor' a Muslim who converted to Christianity.....we don't want people to know this fact....do we?

The expression : "hand over someone the Zwarte piet" is derived from a board game and means "make someone responsible for an unattractive job". This expression is also used to blame someone.

Update: Parade with Green Peters Cancelled due to Death Threats

"Pigs Fly Moment" - Abu Islam and son imprisoned for insulting Christianity.

"Pigs Fly Moment" - Abu Islam and son imprisoned for insulting Christianity.(EI).

Nasr City Misdemeanour Court has sentenced Abu Islam, the controversial Salafi preacher, to 11 years in prison for insulting Christianity and threatening public security.

The court sentenced Abu Islam, otherwise known as Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud Abdallah, for disparaging Egypt's minority faith, vandalising a Bible and disturbing public security, setting a bail of LE3,000 to potentially suspend the punishment.

The court also sentenced Abu Islam's son to 8 years in prison for complicity with his father.

Prosecutors received several reports accusing Abu Islam and his son of contempt of Christianity after they tore up and set alight a Bible in front of the US embassy ​​amid September 2011 protests against the incendiary "Innocence of Muslims" film considered deeply offensive to the Prophet Mohamed.Video evidence proved the defendants guilty.

Abu Islam owns the Al-Umma satellite channel and is director of the Islamic Enlightenment Centre.Hmmmm.....Salafis going in mental orbit in 3....2....1.Read the full story here.

Pope Francis I wades into gay marriage row.

Pope Francis I wades into gay marriage row.(HD).

Pope Francis waded today diplomatically into the gay marriage debate, telling the Archbishop of Canterbury he wants to work together to promote family values “based on marriage.”

Francis, who vigorously opposed gay marriage in his native Argentina, and Archbishop Justin Welby chatted, prayed and had lunch together at the Vatican in their first encounter since both were installed in March.

Welby, the spiritual leader of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, has opposed legislation in Britain that would legalize gay marriage, saying it would undermine family life. He appeared last week before the House of Lords before it moved the gay marriage bill a step closer to becoming law. The legislation would enable gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies in England and Wales.

In his remarks to Welby, Francis said he hoped they could collaborate in promoting the sacredness of life “and the stability of families founded on marriage.” He noted that Welby had spoken out on the issue, a reference to his House of Lords testimony.

Significantly, though, Francis didn’t say that marriage should be based on a union between a man and woman, which is how Benedict XVI and John Paul II routinely defined marriage.

Hmmm...I thought Jesuits are supposed to know the Bible.....1 Corinthians 7:2 "But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband."Read the full story here.

Pope Francis To Canonize 800 Christians Who Were Killed After Refusing To Convert To Islam By Ottoman Soldiers.

Church of Saint Caterina in Otranto. 

Pope Francis To Canonize 800 Christians Who Were Killed After Refusing To Convert To Islam By Ottoman Soldiers.HT: InfidelBloggers.By Pastorius.

Pope Francis is preparing to canonise an estimated 800 Italian laymen killed by Ottoman soldiers in the 15th century. The canonisation service will be on May 12 in St Peter’s Square and it will be the first carried out by the Pontiff since he was elected in early March.

The killing of the martyrs by Ottoman troops, who launched a weeks-long siege of Otranto, a small port town at the most eastern tip of southern Italy, took place in 1480.

When Otranto residents refused to surrender to the Ottoman army, the soldiers were ordered to massacre all males over the age of 15.

Many were ordered to convert to Islam or die, but Blessed Antonio Primaldo, a tailor, spoke on the prisoners’ behalf. “We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, and for Jesus Christ we are ready to die,” he said, according to Blessed John Paul II, who visited Otranto in 1980 for the 500th anniversary of the martyrs’ deaths.

Primaldo inspired all the other townspeople to take courage, the late Pope said, and to say: “We will all die for Jesus Christ; we willingly die so as to not renounce his holy faith.” There were not “deluded” or “outdated,” Blessed John Paul continued, but “authentic, strong, decisive, consistent men” who loved their city, their families and their faith.

The skulls and other relics of the martyrs currently adorn the walls around the altar of Otranto Cathedral as a memorial to their sacrifice. According to the archdiocese’s website, popular tradition holds that when the soldiers beheaded Primaldo, his body remained standing even as the combatants tried to push him over. Legend has it that the decapitated man stood until the very last prisoner was killed, at which point Primaldo’s body collapsed next to his dead comrades.

In 1771, the Church recognised the validity of the local veneration of Primaldo and his companions and allowed them to be called Blessed. In 2007, retired Pope Benedict XVI formally recognised their martyrdom and, in 2012, he recognised a miracle attributed to their intercession. Martyrs do not need a miracle attributed to their intercession in order to be beatified. However, miracles must be recognised by the Vatican in order for them to become saints.

The miracle involved the late-Poor Clare Sister Francesca Levote. She was suffering from a serious form of cancer but was healed after a pilgrimage to pray before the martyrs’ relics in Otranto in 1980, a few months before Pope John Paul’s visit in October. She died in February 2012 at the age of 85.

In a letter published in December 2012, Archbishop Donato Negro of Otranto said that the martydom of the townnsfolk must represent a “purification of the memory of the Catholic Church and a rooting out of every possible lingering resentment, rancor, resentful policies, every eventual temptation toward hatred and violence, and every presumptuous attitude of religious superiority, religious arrogance, moral and cultural pride.”

Remembering Christian martyrs is an occasion to examine one’s own life and make sure it corresponds with the Gospel call to love and forgive, he added.Hmmmm.....'An observation about the different use of the word “martyr”: in Christianity, unlike in Islam, martyrs do not kill'.It was actually Pope Benedictus XVI who took the step! Pope Benedictus XVI Canonized Christian Martyrs slain by Turkish Muslims before leaving office.Read the full story here.

"In God We Trust" - Proposal would allow state religion in North Carolina.

"In God We Trust" - Proposal would allow state religion in North Carolina.(WRAL). By Laura Leslie.Raleigh, N.C. — A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide.

The legislation grew out of a dispute between the American Civil Liberties Union against the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. In a federal lawsuit filed last month, the ACLU says the board has opened 97 percent of its meetings since 2007 with explicitly Christian prayers.

Overtly Christian prayers at government meetings are not rare in North Carolina. Since the Republican takeover in 2011, the state Senate chaplain has offered an explicitly Christian invocation virtually every day of session, despite the fact that some senators are not Christian.

House Bill 494, a resolution filed by Republican Rowan County Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford, would refuse to acknowledge the force of any judicial ruling on prayer in North Carolina – or indeed on any Constitutional topic:

"The Constitution of the United States does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional; therefore, by virtue of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the power to determine constitutionality and the proper interpretation and proper application of the Constitution is reserved to the states and to the people," the bill states. "Each state in the union is sovereign and may independently determine how that state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion." Read the full story here.

Overnight Music Video - He is Risen! - Keith Green