 WORLDWIDE
NEWS & VIEWSwith a Catholic slant
HEADLINES:
Holy Father hails historic agreement of Augsburg as "an event of great importance" that will lead to "unity and communion among Christians."
His Holiness Pope John Paul II announced during his Angelus Sunday his great joy at the joint signing of the agreement between the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church that brings the two Faiths so much closer. The pact was signed 482 years to the day that the Augustinian monk Martin Luther bolted the Church when he posted the 95 theses on the door at Augsburg. Because of the importance of this concordat, we also bring you more details in the second story below. For more, click on Pope salutes historic Augsburg accord.
Walls of misunderstanding and division come tumbling down with historic pact signed by Catholics and Lutherans on Reformation Day: one small step for man, one giant leap for faith and unity!
 
It has been 482 agonizing years where hundreds of thousands of Catholics and Protestants were killed in the name of Faith and, as we near the third millennium, the Holy Father's call for reconciliation and unity is coming closer to reality as the Holy See, represented by Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, President for the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and Bishop Hans Christian Knuth, head of the Reformation in Germany for the Lutheran Church signed a historic pact which brings the two religions closer to unity by agreeing on the common premise of the Doctrine of Justification and salvation through Jesus, something both Churches have long agreed to but the nomenclature, emphasis and perception have kept them apart for so long. Now, through ecumenical dialogue a breakthrough signals hope for unity. For more, click on Doctrine of Justification.
Archbishop Belo celebrates with East Timor the Feast of Fatima
 
Archbishop Carlos Ximenes Belo celebrated Mass in Dili following a procession in which the East Timorites carried a statue of Our Lady of Fatima in thanksgiving for the last Indonesian soldier leaving their land. The archbishop publicly thanked the Virgin for saving his flock from further destruction and for providing hope for the people of East Timor in the face of tremendous hardships and reconstruction. He also took the occasion to thank the international community for coming to the aid of East Timor and restoring peace, especially the Australian peacekeepers. For more, click on East Timor turns to thankful prayer.
Iraq moves to resurrect Papal Plans for historic "Jubilee Journey," assures Vatican no political pressure will be applied
 
Less than a week after the Vatican announced plans to postpone the Holy Father's trip to Ur in Iraq because of problems with politics and the Iraqi government, the Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, second in command to Saddam Hussein, is doing all he can to rectify damage control, issuing a statement that the Iraqi regime will assure the Pope that his visit will be free of any political inference or interference at all and encouraged the Holy See to go forth with plans for Pope John Paul II to trace the footsteps of Abraham at his birthplace in Ur south of Bagdad. For more, click on Iraq anxious to have Pope now
 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
58 and counting,
hoping and praying...
Coming
Tomorrow:
- 28th 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-fifth 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 4th.
- DAILY LITURGY for Thursday's Feast of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop and the Thirty-first Friday in Ordinary Time - FIRST FRIDAY.
- Words of wisdom from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in SIMPLY SHEEN
- ...and more in our 209th issue for 1999!
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Ten Popes after Gregory the Great deal with Schism in the East
 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 first half of the seventh century covering ten Popes from 604 and Pope Saint Gregory the Great's immediate successor Pope Sabinian to the martyrdom death of Pope Saint Martin I in 655. For Installment twenty-five The Agony and ecstasy of the Church after Pope Gregory the Great - part two: "The Apostolic Line of Peter during the first half of the seventh century" in the BARQUE OF PETER
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The DAILY WORD
"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. And he who does not carry his cross and follow Me, cannot be My disciple...So, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be My disciple."
Luke 14: 26-27, 33
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Appreciating the Church's vigiliance against Heresy and Schism
We continue our new daily series in uncovering the great treasuries of the Church contained in her Deposit of Faith. Today, we feature, the Church's vigilance against Heresy and Schism, something that has hounded followers of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church since its inception. For the forty-fourth installment, click on APPRECIATING THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH
Events in Church History
 On this date in 1148 Ireland's Saint Malachy passed to his eternal reward at the age of 54. He was the Archbishop of Armagh and Down who is most remembered for his famous prophecies of the men who would sit on the Throne of Peter. This mystic's prognostication has been unbelieveably accurate right up to our present Holy Father Pope John Paul II. For other pertinent events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES
 Archbishop of Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, O.P. has made great strides in healing the rift between Austria and Rome
 Our one-hundred-eighteenth red-hat we feature, in alphabetical order is the 54 year-old youthful prelate Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, O.P., Archbishop of Vienna since 1995 and the man who is considered the miracle worker in preventing an all-out schism in Austria. Some believe there will be more fireworks for this young Dominican is being groomed for higher things inside the Vatican. He received his red-hat and elevation to the cardinalate from Pope John Paul II in the Holy Father's most recent Consistory of February 21, 1998. For more on Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, O.P., click on COLLEGE OF CARDINALS COLLECTION
DAILY LITURGY
 Today we commemorate the Thirty-first Wednesday in Ordinary Time and the Feast of Saint Martin de Porres, religious and missionary  while tomorrow we celebrate the Feast of Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop. For the readings, liturgies, meditations, and vignettes on these feasts, click on DAILY LITURGY.
A jewel in the rough
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".
"All during His life, love went out to those who were not only weak, but even the worst people, like the woman in the city, the grasping tax collector, the robber on the tree. Jesus saw that a jewel had fallen into the mud and thou encrusted with foulness that it was still a jewel."
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 29th person selected out of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY. The voters chose Father Jozo Zovko, O.F.M., the popular 58 year-old charismatic Franciscan most synonymous with Medjugorje for he is the priest who, as pastor of St. James in 1981, sheltered the visionaries from the communist soldiers and spent nearly two years incarcerated for his courage and beliefs. He was then transferred to Tihaljina and is associated with the beautiful statue of Our Lady of Tihaljina. In 1992 he was assigned to the Franciscan Monastery in Siroki Brijeg where he remains today when not traveling around the world promoting the messages and love through various organizations he has founded. For more, click on 
