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550 A.D.
Death of Saint Galla, daughter of the Roman Consul who jointed a community of consecrated women on the Vatican Hill and cared for the sick. She died of cancer on this date.
578 A.D.
Death of the first Crusader Robrecht of Jerusalem, Count of Flanders.
787 A.D.
Opening of the 8th Ecumenical Council also known as the 4th Council of Constantinople which ended the Greek schism and deposed Photius.
1347 A.D.
Death of Saint Flora, mystic and patroness of abandoned convents, single women and victims of betrayal. Many miracles were attributed to her after her death.
1582 A.D.
First day of the new Gregorian Calendar which was introduced in Italy and other Catholic countries. In order to make the transition from the old Julian Calendar to the new one authored by Pope Gregory XIII it was necessary to eliminate ten days. Thus, when people went to sleep on the night of the 4th in 1582, the next day they woke up was October 15th.
1920 A.D.
Pope Benedict XV issues his eighth encyclical Principi Apostolorum Petro on St. Ephrem the Syrian.
1938 A.D.
Death of Blessed Sister Faustina Kowalska, Polish religious and messenger for the Devotion to Divine Mercy. She recorded all the messages from the Sacred Heart of Jesus and compiled them in a 600-page diary entitled Divine Mercy in my soul. Born on August 25, 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland she died at the age of 33, the same age as Jesus was when He died on the Cross. She was beatified by fellow Pole Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1993.
1993 A.D.
Pope John Paul II issues his tenth encyclical Veritatis Splendor the "Splendor of Truth" that was completed August 6, 1993 and released on this day to the world.
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman hailed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac as a great Croatian and defender of the persecuted. "Cardinal Stepinac was one of the greatest Croats within the Croatian Church and the overall Croatian peoples during the Second World War. He decisively condemned pro-fascist moves and the crimes of the Ustashe regime ... and was also against communist methods," Tudjman said. "The very act of the beatification ... and the arrival of the Pope represents recognition not only of Stepinac, but of the Croatian Catholic Church and the Croatian nation as a whole."
The Holy Father arrived in Zagreb on Friday for a two-day visit which reached its climax on Saturday when he beatified Cardinal Stepinac during an open-air Mass. The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris this week called for a delay of the beatification so that a third-party could investigate the cardinal to determine whether he supported the Nazi-backed fascist regimes murder of Jews, Gypsies, and Serbians.
Michele Finn has been given approval to withhold food and water from Hugh Finn who has been kept alive through the feeding tubes for 3 1/2 years. An auto accident damaged his aorta in March 1995, starving his brain of oxygen and leaving him in a semi-comatose state. Judge Frank Hoss, Jr. said Virginia law allows the withholding of life-sustaining treatment if a person is in a persistent vegetative state.
While doctors have diagnosed Finn as suffering from a persistent vegetative state, his family contends that Finn sometimes answers questions verbally, and he can blink his eyes to answer them. When told he would no longer be able to receive Holy Communion when the feeding would be stopped, he reportedly cried.
Gilmore said Finn's family asked him to step in. He also said state law gives him the right to act on behalf of Virginia citizens when he determines existing procedures fail to adequately protect legal rights and interests. The state attorney general's office said it is considering avenues for appeal.
Ann Nugent, a leader of the Australian group Ordination of Catholic Women (OCW), told the newspaper that she had been told earlier this month of the decision by Bishop Geoffrey Mayne of the Australian Military Ordinariate, who also serves St. Thomas More Parish in a Canberra suburb.
She said that the bishop subsequently told her that she is not to receive Communion at the parish, lector at Mass, or remain on the parish council. He also told her that he had informed Archbishop Francis Carroll of Canberra of his decision.
Nugent said she feels like an outcast and believes that the bishop's action are example of clerical abuse of power. "It's overkill on his part. I don't know why," she said.
At a meeting of the permanent council of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Msgr. Mario Zenari, the permanent Vatican representative to that body, stressed the "constant concern" of the Holy See for the situation in Kosovo, where recent massacres have prompted new international scrutiny.
Msgr. Zenari noted that the Vatican has been consistently calling for international help for Kosovo, "since February of this year." He observed that the Pope has issued statements "on four separate occasions" calling world leaders to recognize the potential for bloodshed there, and seeking diplomatic efforts to stave off the impending violence.
Msgr. Zenari said that the latest "unjustifiable atrocities" should prod the world's leaders to intervene immediately, and urged OSCE to reach a consensus on the need to "arrive at a just and equitable solution to the crisis."
In Geneva, Human rights groups last Wednesday called for an international investigation into the massacre of 16 men, women, and children in village in the war-torn Serbian province of Kosovo.
At least 16 ethnic Albanians, including 10 women and children, were killed last weekend in the village of Gornje Obrinje as they took refuge from fighting in a nearby forest. The victims were shot at close range and some bodies were mutilated, and local people said Serbian police or Yugoslav Army soldiers were responsible. Yugoslav officials deny involvement, but have refused to allow an independent investigation.
The outlawed Kosovo Liberation Army, made of ethnic Albanians who make up the majority population of the province, are fighting for independence from greater Yugoslavia which is dominated by Serbia. Human rights group have documented cases of abuses by Serbians against the population which they believe are supporting the independence movement.
"The pattern of human rights abuses and impunity for perpetrators in Kosovo is indisputable," Amnesty International said. "Abuses like those alleged at Obrinje spotlight the need to protect the displaced and refugees from Kosovo and put their human rights on the agenda as much as their humanitarian needs." NATO countries are preparing air strikes on Serbian targets in Kosovo if Belgrade does not recall military forces from the region, although Russia has vehemently opposed such a move.
