LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – “We understand that just a few minutes ago, the protesters tried to remove the barrier with barbed wire between themselves and the defense ministry,” an Al Jazeera correspondent reported at the scene.

“Security forces responded with water canons. Protesters responded with rocks.”

The protests have arrived after heightened tension when 11 people were killed in clashes that broke out earlier this week when unidentified assailants fired at protesters staging a sit-in outside the ministry of defense in Cairo.

Protesters have leafleted Cairo’s Tahrir Square with banners reading, “Down with military rule.”

“I’m telling the military council . enough bloodshed, enough fabricated crisis, enough unleashing of thugs on the public, enough destruction . we want them to transfer power to an independent transitional authority tomorrow,” Akrami Darwish, a protester said.

The protests, to “protect the revolution and halt the bloodshed,” were expected to draw people from all major political formations in Egypt, namely the Muslim Brotherhood, a section of the Salafist movement and the liberal activist movements.

Several pro-democracy movements report they would be joining the protests in Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

The ultra-conservative Salafi movement which has gained in popularity is also participating in the rallies. Its candidate, Hazem Abu Ismail, was disqualified because his mother had dual Egyptian-U.S. nationality.

“If anyone approaches its (installations), they should hold themselves responsible,” General Mokhtar al-Mulla, a member of the ruling military council said.

Army troops have been accused of standing idly by near the clashes and not intervening until after the deaths of some of the protesters. The army denies that it was responsible for the bloodshed.

“Our hands are clean of Egyptian blood,” Major General Mohammed al-Assar, a senior official in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said.

The ruling military council has tried to counter accusations that it might use the violence as a pretext to ignore its own deadline to relinquish control of the country.

“We say it frankly and clearly. The armed forces and their supreme council are committed to the handover of power on June 30,” al-Assar said.

“We don’t desire power. The Supreme Council (of the Armed Forces) is not a substitute for legitimacy in Egypt,” he said.

He said the military would ensure the integrity and fairness of the presidential election.

“We are committed to fair elections [...] we don’t have any [favored] candidates. All the candidates are respectable Egyptians.”

The presidential election is scheduled for May 23 and 24 and a run off for June 16 and 17 if there is no outright winner in the first round.

The military has said it would hand over power to civilian rule before the end of June, or by May if there is a clear winner in the first round of elections.

It has been accused of bungling the transition to democratic rule over the past year, with the death of more than 100 people in political violence.

The ruling SCAF cracked down on pro-democracy protests and hauled more than 10,000 civilians to trial before military tribunals.

© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The burglaries in the National and Municipal Galleries during February, as well an armed robbery at the Museum in Olympia last month, has exposed weaknesses in the protection of cultural heritage sites around Greece. The so-called austerity program in effect to pull the country out of insolvency is reducing all national public service budgets.

Even worse, the Greek minister of culture has decided to cut funding for museum security by 20 percent. The Greek government is also planning personnel cuts of 30-50 per cent at the ministry of culture.

The law plans to combine various arms of the archaeological services into one in order to “reduce expenses,” thereby leaving sectors that need specific protection vulnerable to the massive budget cuts currently in effect.

Koutsoumpa says that the Archaeological Service has never had an adequate budget anyway. “The ministry never received above one percent of the national budget, the service always lacked personnel. Whether coming from the national budget or European funds, over 60 percent of the money was always for wages,” she said.

The Greek ministry of culture and tourism comprises 7,000 employees, including 950 archaeologists, civil servants, and 2,000 guards and night-guards. Annually, 3,500 extra employees are hired on short term contracts. In November 2011, ten percent of the total workforce of the ministry of culture was forced to leave the service and retire, as part of plans to reduce the total number of public sector employees in Greece.

Further personnel cuts would mean that the ministry of culture will be unable to cover even its basic operations.

The personnel of the Greek Archaeological Service have been working for poor salaries with limited funding. Net salaries of archaeologists in 2009 ranged from $1,150 a month for newly appointed staff to $2,020 for those with more than 35 years in the service.

As of last year, a newly appointed archaeologist receives $876 each month, after taxes and social security contributions, representing “a 35 percent wage reduction,” Koutsoumpa said. In 2011, the budget for the Archaeological Service was $15.7 million – down 35 percent from 2010 – and in 2012, it is facing an even more severe cut.

Apart from protection, the Archaeological Service is also responsible for 210 museums that include collections of pre-historic, classical and Byzantine antiquities; 250 organized archaeological sites; and 19,000 declared archaeological sites and historical monuments. It also runs 366 projects co-funded with the European Union – with a total budget of $650 million.

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The cash compensation is being described as being unusually large for deaths and injuries attributed to Western troops. U.S. officials say this is due to the scope and significance of the case. The shootings are the most serious alleged war crime by a Western service member to date in the course of the 10-year conflict.

The families of the dead and wounded were told that the money came from President Barack Obama. The payouts were the latest move by the White House to mend relations with the Afghan people after the killings threatened to shatter already tense relations.

Relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan were strained following the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base in February. That act, which U.S. officials have acknowledged was a mistake sparked riots and attacks that killed more than 30 people, including six American soldiers.

There have been no violent protests following the March 11 shootings in Kandahar province’s Panjwai district, but demands for justice on Afghan terms have been getting louder since Bales was flown out of the country to a U.S. military prison. Many Afghans in Kandahar have continued to argue that there must have been multiple gunmen and accused the U.S. government of using Bales as a scapegoat.

While the American military did not publicly confirm the sums paid out, a member of the Kandahar provincial council, Agha Lalai Dastgeeri, confirmed the amount of the payments in addition to did Jaan Agha, a tribal elder in Panjwayi.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales faces 17 counts of “premeditated” homicide, as well as other charges in connection with the March 11 assault on villagers living close to his base. Afghan officials reported the number of villagers killed at 16; the discrepancy has not been explained. The families are receiving smaller payments from the Afghan government.

The 38-year-old soldier, from Lake Tapps, Washington, is accused of using his 9mm pistol and M-4 rifle to kill four men, four women, two boys and seven girls, then burning some of the bodies. The ages of the children were not disclosed in the charge sheet.

U.S. investigators believe Bales returned to his base after the first attack and later slipped away to kill again.

That would seem to support the U.S. government’s assertion that he acted alone, since the killings would have been perpetrated over a longer period of time than assumed when Bales was detained outside his base in Kandahar province’s Panjwai district.

Recent civilian death compensations were made in 2010, when U.S. troops in Helmand province said they paid $1,500 to $2,000 if a civilian was killed in a military operation and $600 to $1,500 for a serious injury. The Panjwai shootings are different because they were not part of a sanctioned operation, but it is a distinction lost on many Afghans who see any civilian deaths as criminal.

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) – Today, I spent a good amount of time with a young man with whom I have shared the ancient but ever new Catholic Christian faith for several years. Raised a Catholic, he fell away from the practice of the Catholic faith in his teenage years. He never received the Sacrament of Confirmation.

He will be confirmed the week after Easter by my dear friend, our parish priest, Fr Brian Rafferty. It will happen on the same day I have the privilege of Baptizing the first born son of this man and his wife. He specifically requested the date so that every year his son remembers his Baptism he will also remember the day his father made public his full embrace of the ancient but ever new Catholic Christian faith as an adult. 

I first met this man several years ago when I helped to prepare he and the wonderful woman who is now his now wife, for Christian marriage. I knew back then that he was a man who hungered for the fullness of the Christian faith. I also knew that the Holy Spirit was at work in him and would bring him home. It was only a matter of time.
 
I learned long ago, we can’t “convince” people to come home to the Church – or “argue”other Christians into becoming Catholic. Only the Holy Spirit can lead them on this journey to the fullness of truth. We are simply roadsigns along the way.We need to be prepared to “give a reason for the hope that is in us.” (1 Peter 3:15)  

When this man and I first crossed paths, he was a participant in a “non-denominational” church here locally. However, like many “former” Catholics, he was not at home. In a naturally supernatural way I simply offered him the bread of life which I have had the privilege of receiving over all these years since I came home to the Catholic Church. His questions were all sincere and his genuine hunger did the work. It was a joy for me to simply be a roadsign and to offer him the fullness of Christianity found within the Catholic Church. 

I am a re-vert to the Catholic Church. I returned to the faith of my childhood after a search for truth as a young man. That search led me home to the fullness of truth which subsists within the Church into which I was baptized as a child. As the years have passed my love for the Lord continues to grow. My greatest joy in life is to help others, like the young man I mentioned above, to find Him and the fullness of His life lived within the Catholic Church. Over these years I have come to understand my own vocation as living in the heart of the Church for the sake of the world.

I am an evangelizer at heart. My service as a Deacon has been deeply involved in the New Evangelization. Perhaps because I am a re-vert, I have often had the joy of sharing the Catholic faith with many “former” or “fallen away” Catholics. Helping them find their way home is one of my greatest joys. I have also had the joy of helping Christians from other communities come into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

I am certainly not alone in experiencing the joy of participating in the New Evangelization. One of its greatest advocates is a very gifted man named Tom Peterson. I met Tom several years ago at a Catholic Leadership Conference. I use to attend the conference regularly when it was chaired by Deal Hudson. I had seen my first “Catholics Come Home” commercial months earlier and became immediately convinced that the work of this non-profit media apostolate was going to become one of the most important resources for the New Evangelization in my lifetime.

Anyone reading this article who has not yet seen a “Catholics Come Home” commercial should go to their outstanding interactive web site by clicking here. Watch these beautifully produced commercials! Read about this fruitful New Evangelization Apostolate. Be encouraged in your own faith and find the courage to give it away to others. Learn to feel good again about being a Catholic Christian. We are living in a new missionary age and we are the missionaries.

I just received some good news from Tom Peterson about the newest missionary work of “Catholics Come Home”. They are following Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Cuba. While many are “questioning” this papal journey, Tom recognizes that this Pope, like his beloved predecessor, Blessed John Paul, is a missionary Pope. He understands that, like Jesus Christ, His Vicar should travel anywhere He has been invited to proclaim the fullness of the Gospel. After all, Pope Benedict XVI has made the “New Evangelization” the foundation of his Pontificate.

Tom Peterson has also made the New Evangelization his Life’s mission. He is a man who lives to share the good news of the Christian life as found in its fullness within the Catholic Church. Tom, who refers to himself as an “advertising guy…simple …

FOUNTAIN HILL, PA (Catholic Online) – Piercing cries ring out – a child is hurt. What happened? Despite
earnest attempts to “child proof” the environments of the little ones in
our lives, accidents do happen. Sometimes even the most conscientious
parents are forced to face the fact that their child was hurt in a
preventable injury.

For many years, “child proofing” consisted of covering outlets with
little plastic plugs and installing latches on cabinets to prevent
curious children from dangerous explorations.

Stair cases were protected with baby gates, preventing terrible tumbles.

Those measures are still important but the world of baby proofing has widened measurably.

The United States Consumer Protection Agency (USCPA) also lists door
knob covers and locks as important tools to protect children from
entering dangerous areas. 

Many of us have seen the cute ducks over bath faucets to try and prevent scalding.

Window guards and safety netting are not items that would come to mind
initially when considering child safety but their capacity to save lives
can’t be disputed.

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors help keep the entire family safe.

Injuries from sharp coffee table edge can be prevented from using corner guards.

The USCPA web page lists very specific instructions for how to deal with blind cords.

With the advent of over-size televisions comes a need for awareness of the dangers of tip overs onto curious children.

More and more people are installing pools, spas and hot tubs. The USCPA
recommends layers of defense against what could be lethal explorations
by children.

In discussing childhood dangers, we need to look beyond our homes to our transportation.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) lists auto
crashes as the leading cause of death for children between the ages of
3-14.

One surprising finding is that bulky coats can be a real impediment to safe operation of a car seat.
The blogging world has even embraced child safety; we need to inform ourselves, do what we can and then keep on praying!

Listed below are some helpful links:

The United States Consumer Protection Agency (pdf)
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
InForum

Blogs:

http://www.safekids.org/
http://www.childsafetyblog.org/

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.