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395 A.D.
Death of Saint Moses the Black, Ethiopian slave who was converted by monks and ordained a priest, becoming one of the most sought after spiritual directors among the desert fathers.
846 A.D.
Muslim pirates land at the mouth of the Tiber and sack Rome, pillaging and plundering the venerable St. Peter's Basilica as well as St. Paul's-Outside-the-Walls during the last days of Pope Sergius II.
1429 A.D.
Saint Joan of Arc, commissioned by King Charles VII enters Paris to win back the beseiged city from the English. She would ultimately fail and be captured a year later.
1498 A.D.
Pope Alexander IV commissions the Italian master Michelangelo to fashion the famous sculpture of the Blessed Mother cradling her Divine Son Jesus after He had been taken down from the cross. This masterpiece is forever called the "Pieta" and is on display in the back, right side of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome today.
1910 A.D.
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is born in Skopje, Macedonia. She would go on to join the Sisters of Loretto out of Ireland, be assigned to Calcutta and found her own Order - the Missionaries of Charity dedicated to assisting the lowliest of lowlies. This famous woman was, of course, Mother Teresa and she would become one of the most well-known and beloved religious of all time whose passing last year on September 5, was greatly mourned by the entire world.
1978 A.D.
Albino Luciani, Cardinal of Venice becomes the 263rd successor of Peter after he is elected on the third ballot on the first day of the conclave and takes the name honoring his two predecessors - Pope John Paul I. He would die on September 28th, 33 days later from a heart attack which many feel was induced by some sort of drug administered to him via a conspiracy. No one truly knows for sure since there was no autopsy but suspicions still exist because he had planned to clean up the Vatican Bank and demote several Curial figures who had virtually run things during the previous regime. John Paul I was known as the smiling Pope and declined to have a coronation ceremony.
The agency said the rebels held a "summary execution" at a mission in Kasika in eastern Congo on Monday. MISNA said the killings were in reprisal for an attack on rebel forces nearby on Sunday. The priest and nuns belonged to the Sons of the Resurrection religious order.
The massacre comes one day after Pope John Paul publicly prayed for an ended to violence in the Central African country and called on rebels and government troops to respect humanity and call a cease-fire. Congo has been embroiled in violence since August 2 when President Laurent Kabila ordered Rwandan soldiers who helped him come to power last year to leave the country.
The commemoration was approved yesterday by the Department of Culture and will be celebrated for the first time on August 26, Mother Teresa's birthday. In the official document approving the feast, authorities said: "The commemoration should awake among Argentineans the spirit of fraternity and solidarity to create a giving culture and to encourage Argentineans to create new private and collective humanitarian initiatives." The statement also recognized Mother Teresa as "a role model of the virtues our society needs."
According to a recent Gallup poll, twenty percent of Argentineans volunteered in a humanitarian activity last year, but only two percent are actively involved in volunteering on a steady basis in the some 47,000 humanitarian groups.
The Day of Solidarity will also include a Man or Woman of the Year chosen from among people who have founded the most creative and effective initiative for social assistance.
Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Adwok of Khartoum celebrated the Mass and told the assembled congregation that Sudanese Christians only have their faith to fight injustice, and said that Christians must never use violence to solve their problems. Father Hilary Boma, chancellor for the archdiocese, was arrested on August 1 and Father Lino Sebit, a parish priest, turned himself in on July 29 after an arrest warrant was issued.
Bishop Adwok said a purported confession by the priests of involvement in the bomb plots was obtained through torture. He added that the government should either try the priests in an open court or release them. A spokesman of the Episcopal Church of Sudan said that the detention of the priests was a tactic by the government to discredit Christianity. He said the government has always given lip service to religious tolerance while persecuting Christians.
Father Juan Carlos Jaramillio said he denounced Rube Giraldo in the small town of El Santuario last year because the teacher was teaching spells to his students and the children even tried to conjure spirits. Giraldo said he was not involved in the incidents and suggested that the priest denounced him because he believes in a religion long ago considered a heresy by Catholics. After townspeople began making death threats and started calling him "Satan's professor," Giraldo filed a civil rights lawsuit against the priest.
Last week the country's highest court, the Constitutional Court, ruled in his favor in a surprise climax of what has become a national debate about the relationship between church and state. The Constitutional Court in recent years has struck down several laws favorable to the Catholic Church in Colombia including mandatory Catholic education in public schools, tax breaks for the Church, military service exemptions, and the requirement for a Church annulment in order to receive a civil divorce.
