Jesuit Abducted By Taliban In Afghanistan

Vatican Radio is reporting that Afghan forces have arrested a man in connection with the abduction of Father Alexis Prem Kumar. It says the kidnapped Indian Jesuit has been located in the Gilan district of Herat, Afghanistan. According to the Hindustan Times, Father Kumar, 47, country head of Jesuit Refugee Services, was kidnapped on Monday by six gunmen from Zenda Jan district in Heart province.

The abduction came nearly 10 days after an attack on the Indian consulate in Herat by four heavily-armed gunmen carrying rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. On May 29, the Indian mission in Herat had issued an advisory asking its nationals to exercise extreme caution while venturing out.

"We are deeply shocked by Prem's abduction. We are in contact with all the relevant authorities and doing everything possible to ensure his safe and speedy return. Meanwhile, our prayers are with Prem and his family and friends at this difficult time," said Jesuit Father Peter Balleis, International Director of the NGO working for refugees around the world. JRS said that Father Kumar had accompanied teachers on a visit to a JRS-supported school for the returnee refugees in Sohadat township, half an hour from the city of Herat. He was kidnapped from the school as he was about to return to Herat. 

Link (here) to Aleteia

Al Qaeda-Linked Militant Is Responsible For The Missing Fr. Dall' Oglio, S.J.

Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio, S.J.

Father Paolo Dall'Oglio was abducted by an "Al Qaeda-linked militant" in Syria in July 2013, and was believed to still be alive.

However, according to Mid East Faces, "ISIS defector" Abu Mohammad Assuri indicates Father Paolo was shot 14 times and "killed right after his capture."

Father Paolo's death was first reported "by Tahrir Souri, a Syrian opposition website," and "was immediately confirmed by the Syrian League for Human Rights." The Syrian League for Human Rights named defector Assuri as an eyewitness to killing.  There were "at least 1,213 cases" of Christian persecution reported in Syria alone last year, where "10 percent of [the people] are Christians." Many of these "have become targets for Islamist groups who believe Christians are supporters of President Bashar al-Assad."

Link (here) to Brietbart

Fr. Charles F. Suver, S.J. "The Jesuit of Iwo Jima"

Fr. Charles F. Suver, S.J. "Mass at Iwo Jima"

Jesuit Father Charles F. Suver, a native of Ellensburg and a 1924 graduate of Seattle College, celebrated Mass prior to the famed flag raising. What’s more, the idea to plant the Stars & Stripes atop the 550-foot volcano was hatched six days earlier in the priest’s shipboard cabin, 

according to the late Jesuit Father Donald Crosby’s 1993 book, “Battlefield Chaplains: Catholic Priests in World War II.” Father Suver, a Navy chaplain, was among 19 Catholic chaplains and 58 chaplains assigned to minister to the three Marine divisions that wrested Iwo Jima from the Japanese in the war’s bloodiest battle in the Pacific, 

Father Crosby said in his book. On the eve of the landing assault, the then 38-year-old chaplain gathered with friends in his cabin after supper to chat.  “One young officer in the group said that if he could take an American flag from the landing craft, perhaps someone could hoist it on top of the volcano…,” Father Crosby wrote.  “Challenged a young lieutenant, ‘Okay, you get it and I’ll get it up there.’ Not to be outdone, Suver added, ‘You get it up there and I’ll say Mass under it.’ “Six days later he would keep his promise.” But it would be a long six days. Father Crosby, who researched Marine records and contacted several hundred former chaplains in writing his book, chronicled how Father Suver and a fellow Jesuit chaplain narrowly escaped death on several occasions during the battle for Iwo Jima.

Afterwards, “both remain haunted by their memories of the struggle,” the author said. “Most important, both found that the Iwo Jima experience gave them a deepened appreciation of their vocation as Roman Catholic priests, just as it did for their non-Jesuit and non-Catholic colleagues.” 

Father Suver’s landing craft had been among the ninth wave of landing crafts to reach the shores of Iwo Jima the morning of Feb. 19. They hit the beach at 9:40 a.m., which Father Suver thought was “far too early for a priest,” Father Crosby wrote. The chaplain soon discovered his heavy Mass kit would be of no use amid the hazardous surroundings, so he planned to bury it and return for it later. His assistant, however, convinced him to leave the kit out in the open, correctly surmising that another Marine would come along and spot the priest’s name on the kit and bring it to him. The flag raising took place on Feb. 23. 

Father Crosby’s book chronicles how Father Suver celebrated Mass atop Suribachi afterwards on an altar consisting of a board laid across two empty gas drums. 

But Jesuit Father Jerry Chapdelaine, a friend of Father Suver’s, said last week from his residence at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma that the reverse was true. Father Suver “told me the Mass was said before the raising of the flag – not after,” Father Chapdelaine said. “A lot of people got the deal wrong about the saying of the Mass…Father Suver told me (that he said to his men), ‘I’ll say Mass to you guys and then you raise that flag.’” Father Crosby’s book describes how Father Suver could hear Japanese soldiers chattering in caves nearby as he celebrated the Mass. The capture of Suribachi was a prelude to 29 more days of fierce fighting, in which the Marines suffered most of their casualties, Father Crosby wrote.  

“So many of the men (Father Suver) had seen on top of Suribachi were to ‘remain behind on Iwo.’ One of the severely injured was the brash young lieutenant who had boasted that he would put the flag on top. Tragically, he had been shot in the back before the flag raising and remained paralyzed for the rest of his life. Another Marine had carried the flag to the top.” 

After the war, Father Suver spent more than a dozen years ministering with the Jesuit Oregon Province’s Mission Band, conducting week-long spiritual renewals and other activities. He was pastor of St. Aloysius Parish in Spokane from 1958-66, and later did marriage counseling and retreat work in Seattle, then was chaplain at the Park Rose Care Center in Tacoma, residing with the Jesuit Community at Bellarmine Prep. “I remember him when I was a kid; he was on the Mission Band,” said Father Chapdelaine, who became good friends with the wartime chaplain when they resided at Jesuit residences in Portland and Tacoma. “He was one tough guy…physically strong, and he had lots of courage. But he was a very gentle man, too. “He talked about his fears (on Iwo Jima), but he (said he) didn’t think about that stuff much. He was pretty focused on what was going on. He was sensitive to the guys. 

“And he loved being a military chaplain. He told me they (the military) weren’t going to take him, that he was too old when he applied.” Father Suver died of cancer in 1993 at age 86, 

at the Bessie Burton Sullivan Skilled Nursing Residence at Seattle University. It was Easter Sunday. “He wanted to die on Good Friday – that’s what he told me,” said Father Chapdelaine, who celebrated his funeral Mass at St. Joseph Church in Seattle. “I don’t know if it was connected (to Iwo Jima) or not.”

Link (here) to CatholicMil.org

Fr. William Doyle, S.J. Chaplain Of The Battle of Ypres "They Speak His Name With Tears"

By Father William Joseph Doyle, S.J.

[The following letter, written by Father William Doyle a few days before he was killed during the advance of Irish troops north-east of Ypres on August 17th, 1917, is a chapter of autobiography needing the fewest possible notes in its elucidation. This Jesuit Chaplain of the Irish Province was the son of Mr. Hugh Doyle of Dalkey, co. Dublin, for many years Registrar of the Dublin Bankruptcy Court; he was forty-four years of age when he wrote this to his father, aged eighty-six.* Educated at Radcliffe by the Rosminians, William Doyle nevertheless became a Jesuit. He studied in Belgium, was ordained at Milltown Park in 1907, was Professor at Clongowes (where he founded and edited The Clongovmian) and subsequently laboured in Limerick and in Dublin. In November, 1915, the call to more strenuous service came to him, and three months later he went to the Front with the 16th Irish Division. For his bravery at Ginchy he was awarded the Military Cross, and he was afterwards commended by his Commanding Officer for the V.C., which, however, he was not to receive. As a preamble to his own letter may be quoted a line from that of a brother-chaplain, written about Father Doyle before his death : "He is a marvel. They may talk of heroes and saints—they are hardly in it!" That exclamation neither the saints nor heroes aforesaid, nor yet the eighth Urban of the scrupulous Decree, will in anywise take amiss.]

July 30th, 1917.—For the past week we have been moving steadily up to the Front. It was half-past one a.m. when our first halting-place was reached, and we marched again at three. It was the morning of July 31st,. the Feast of St. Ignatius, a day dear to every Jesuit, but doubly so to the soldier sons of the soldier Saint. Was it to be Mass or sleep ? Nature said " sleep," but grace won the day; and while the weary soldiers slumbered the Adorable Sacrifice was offered for them. As we fall into the line once more the dark clouds are lit up with red and golden flashes of light, the earth quivers with the simultaneous crash of thousands of guns—the Fourth Battle of Ypres has begun. . . . The road was a sight never to be forgotten. On one side marched our columns in close formation. On the other galloped by an endless line of ammunition waggons, extra guns hurrying up to the Front, and motor-lorries packed with stores of all kinds ; while between the two flowed back the stream of empties and ambulance after ambulance filled with wounded and dying. We marched on through the City of the Dead—Ypres, out again by the opposite gate. A welcome halt at last, with perhaps an hour or more of delay. At that moment the place for sleep did not matter two straws—a thorn-bush, the bed of a stream, anywhere would do to satisfy the longing for even a few moments of slumber after nearly two days and nights of marching without sleep. I picked out a soft spot on the ruins of a home, laid me down with a sigh of relief.

August 1st.—Morning brought a leaden sky, more rain, and no breakfast. Our cook, with the rations, had got lost during the night, so there was nothing for it but to tighten one's belt.

Sunday, August 12th —We have just got back to camp,, after (for me at least) six days and seven continuous nights on the battle-field. I shall give you the principal events of these exciting days, as I jotted them down in my notebook. (August $th.) All day I have been busy hearing the men's confessions, and giving batch after batch Holy Communion. My poor, brave boys—they are lying on the battle-field, some in a little grave dug and blessed by their chaplain, who loves them all as if they were his own children. Do you wonder that, in spite of the joy that fills my heart, many a time tears gather in my eyes as I think of those who are gone ? As the men stand lined up on parade I go from Company to Company giving a General Absolution, which I know is a big comfort to them. Then I shoulder my pack and make for the train which, this time, is to carry us part of our journey. "Top-end for Blighty, boys; bottom-end for Berlin !" I tell them as they clamber in, for they like a cheery word. "If you're in Jerryland, Father, we're with you too," shouted one big giant, and is greeted with a roar of approval.

Reknowned Jesuit Fr. Edmund Walsh On Defense Of Christian Civilization

Fr. Edmund A Walsh, S.J. and Gen Douglas MacArthur

Fr. Edmund Walsh, S.J. was an enthusiastic supporter of Cold War militarism, praising in particular the building of the US navy's first nuclear powered submarines and giant aircraft carrier. As the strongest citadel of Christian civilization, America needed to be vigilant and well armed. Addressing graduates of the FBI academy in 1947 he declared that never before was there

"greater need for clear heads, steady hands and great hearts at the controls of human destiny, for men who walk humbly in the sight of God but keep their powder dry"

Walsh's most stridently militarist position was his justification of a peremptory nuclear first strike by the United States against the Soviet Union. Writing immediately after the outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula which he interpreted as the "final confrontation" between "two great centers of world power whose basic and irreconcilable character" was known to Soviets decades ago, Walsh argued that all states were obligated to protect their populations from attack. Preemptive attacks were morally just. The United States, for example, would have been justified in intercepting and destroying the Japanese aircraft attacking Pearl Harbor. With a "Soviet feint in some remote area of Asia or the Middle East," the U.S. defense system had better keep its eyes fixed on the Northwest and Arctic sector for a sneak surprise attack. 

If the U.S. government had "sound reason to believe (that is, had moral certitude)" that a surprise attack was being planned then President Truman was justified in "taking measures proportionate to the danger" including use of atomic bombs. 

While the results would be tragic and horrific, there was no immorality in the United States government choosing the lesser of two evils. Walsh justified military force in the abstract by pointing out that "even Christ himself did not disdain to seize the lash and drive the hypocrites out of the Temple". Writing on this same issue of the atom bomb and the Christian conscience in Total Empire he ends the book with the rather ominous sentence: "The debate is not whether we can afford to do the necessary things for the defense of Christian civilization -- but can we afford not to do them?"

Link (here) to read the full paper with citations.

The Eight Jesuits Say "We Believe That We Survived Because We Were Living The Message Of Fatima. We Lived And Prayed The Rosary Daily In That Home."

Father Hubert Shiffer was one of these eight Jesuit survivors. He was 30 when the atomic bomb exploded at Hiroshima and lived another 33 years in good health. He recounted his experiences at Hiroshima during the Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia (USA) in 1976. At that time, all eight members of the Jesuit community were still alive. Fr. Shiffer, on the morning of August 6, 1945, he had just finished Mass, went into the rectory and sat down at the breakfast table, and had just sliced a grapefruit, and had just put his spoon into the grapefruit when there was a bright flash of light. His first thought was that it was an explosion in the harbor (this was a major port where the Japanese refueled their submarines.) 

Then, in the words of Fr. Schiffer: "Suddenly, a terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunderstroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me 'round and round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind." 

The next thing he remembered, he opened his eyes and he was laying on the ground. He looked around and there was NOTHING in any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground. The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong with himself. After the conquest of the Americans, their army doctors and scientists explained to him that his body
would begin to deteriorate because of the radiation. To the doctors amazement, Fr. Schiffer's body contained no radiation or ill-effects from the bomb. Conclusion: There are no physical laws to explain why the Jesuits were untouched in the Hiroshima airblast. There is no other actual or test data where a structure such as this was not totally destroyed at this standoff distance by an atomic weapon. All who were at this range from the epicenter should have received enough radiation to be dead within at most a matter of minutes if nothing else happened to them. There is no known way to design a uranium-235 atomic bomb, which could leave such a large discrete area intact while destroying everything around it immediately outside the fireball (by shaping the
plasma). Not only did they all survive with (at most) relatively minor injuries, but they all lived well past that awful day with no radiation sickness, no loss of hearing, or any other visible long term defects or maladies. Naturally, they were interviewed numerous times (Fr. Schiffer said over 200 times) by scientists and health care people about their remarkable experience. 

The eight Jesuits say "we believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the rosary daily in that home." Fr. Shiffer feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Mother which protected him from all radiation and ill-effects. Fr. Schiffer attributes this to devotion to the Blessed Mother, and his daily Fatima Rosary; "in that house the Holy Rosary was recited together every day." 

Of course the secular scientists are speechless and incredulous at this explanation - and they are sure there is some "real" explanation - but at the same time over 50 years later the scientists are still absolutely bamboozled when it comes to finding a plausible scenario to explain the missionary's unique escape from the hellish power of that bomb. From a scientific viewpoint, what happened to those Jesuits at Hiroshima still defies all human logic from the laws of physics as understood today (or at any time in the future). It must be concluded that some other (external) force was present whose power and/or capability to transform energy and matter as it relates to humans is beyond current comprehension; a plausibility argument for the existence of a Creator who left his "calling card" at Hiroshima. 

Link (here)

Our Hearts Were In Our Mouths

As we know, the Soviet system was not kind to religious people despite it’s founding laws. There were various periods in Soviet history when religion was actively suppressed and then loosened. As can be seen from a more detailed view from the Library of Congress here and from an interesting anti-religious point of view that defends Marxism here.  As you can see, what a constitution says and what a state does can be dramatically different. Father Ciszek, an American Jesuit, had always wanted to serve as a priest in Russia. He was ordained in 1937 and in 1938  managed to be sent to Poland. During Hitler’s aggressive World War II years the Russians and Nazis carved up Poland. Father Ciszek had reached his goal, but unfortunately the Soviets sentenced to 15 years in prison for being a “Vatican Spy.” After years in the famed Lubianka prison in Moscow, he was sent to Norilsk in Siberia where he spent his remaining prison time in various Gulags. There were several Gulag uprisings that took place in 1953. He describes a final assault at his prison by solders:

Troops mounted on trucks roared through the gate, firing as they came…..Our hearts were in our mouths….We watched some prisoners, as they were herded into groups, kill themselves by ripping their bodies open with knives.

He was released in 1953 a free man, but not free enough to chose even where he was to live. He was not allowed to leave the country, and lived for years as a Soviet citizen with limited rights. He managed to administer to Russian citizens in various cities of Siberia after his release, Norilsk being the first. Wherever he was told to live, he began his priestly duties however he could; a friendly family giving their home and risking social devaluation. He took over for another priest in a temporary hovel. He was always being watched by the MVD (Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del) the Interior Ministry, and regularly ordered to report for interrogations.

Link (here) to The Catholic Stand

Bergogliano And Anti-Bergogliano Factions

This turmoil was exemplified by the monumentally lethal “Dirty War” that raged in two phases in Argentina from 1973 until 1983. By this time Bergoglio was serving amid growing controversy as the Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in Argentina (1973 to 1979), and then as the Rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel until 1986 when he was abruptly removed. His actions or inactions during this period are now being re-examined as he assumes papal power. Referring to the enthusiasm with which he accepted his new role, the New York Times observed that “he was less energetic when it came to standing up to Argentina’s military dictatorship during the 1970s as the country was consumed by … the Dirty War. He has been accused of knowing about abuses and failing to do enough to stop them.” “History condemns him,” declared a senior Brazilian academic. “It shows him to be opposed to all innovation in the church and above all, during the dictatorship, it shows he was very cosy with the military.” Francis rejected suggestions that he had hard-right sympathies, claiming that it was merely his “authoritarian way of making decisions” while he was head of the Argentinian Jesuits in the 1970s “that created problems” in the past. Nevertheless, such problems were substantial and the criticism he faces has been emphatic. For example, a presently serving provincial of another Latin American country and one of the most senior figures in the Society of Jesus confided his negative views in an e-mail quoted by Paul Vallely, in his new biography, Pope Francis: Untying the Knots (2013): 

Yes, I know Bergoglio. He’s a person who’s caused a lot of problems in the Society and is highly controversial in his own country … As Provincial he generated divided loyalties: some groups almost worshipped him, while others would have nothing to do with him … He left the Society of Jesus in Argentina destroyed [and] we have spent two decades trying to fix the chaos that the man left us … It will be a catastrophe for the Church to have someone like him in the Apostolic See. 

 As Vallely observes, “this constituted an extraordinary counterblast” to the acclaim that otherwise met the election of Pope Francis, but it was “far from a lone voice” from within the Jesuit order to which Bergoglio had dedicated a major part of his adult life. It is clear that great bitterness enveloped Bergoglio during his time as Provincial Superior, as Vallely’s account reveals. Regarded as a gifted and charismatic young man, Bergoglio had enjoyed a rapid ascent through the ranks to head the order at only thirty-six, just three months after taking his perpetual vows. Under his leadership the province broke up into Bergogliano and anti-Bergogliano factions, driven, Vallely argues, by two polarising forces: Vatican II and Peronism.

Link (here)

WWII - Jesuit Chaplains of the Irish Province 

Link (here) to Flickr

Fr. Otto Pies, S.J., "The Most Admirable Priest-Rogue" In The Dachau Concentration Camp

The most admirable priest-rogue was a Jesuit former master of novices named Otto Pies. Released from Dachau in the Spring of 1945 as the Americans were advancing, 

he disguised himself as an S.S. officer and came back to the camp with a truckload of food - rousted God knows where in those bitterly foodless days. He drove into the camp, into the priests' wired-off compound, and then drove off with 30 of the priests hidden in the back. 

Two days later, when 5,400 prisoners - 88 of them priests - were led off into the Alps to be lost in the snow, Otto Pies came back in the same uniform and truck and picked up more.

Link (here)

NAZI Monster And War Criminal Rudolf Hoess, His Jesuit Confessor And The Divine Mercy

Soon after his appointment, Archbishop Wojtyla approached Jesuit theologian Ignatius Rozycki and asked him to review Sister Faustina's writings. Initially skeptical, Fr. Rozycki spent ten years in an exhaustive study of the Sister and her notebooks, which the Vatican had condemned in 1958. Father Rozycki's findings were published and the prohibition lifted in 1978. Beatified in 1992, St. Faustina was canonized in the year 2000; on the latter occasion Pope John Paul II declared the first Sunday after Easter "Divine Mercy Sunday."

A few weeks ago I came upon a thought-provoking homily by Father Matthew Kelty, O.C.S.O., which was given on Divine Mercy Sunday, 2006. It seems that during the former Commandant's solitary confinement in Krakow, where he awaited execution for his war crimes, Rudolph Hoess heard the bells of the local Carmel and was reminded of the Faith he had observed as a child but had long since rejected. He called for a German-speaking priest.

The local Jesuit provincial, Fr. Ladislav Lohn, S.J., went to the convent of Sister Faustina and asked the Sisters to pray earnestly while he went to hear the prisoner's confession. In the end Hoess was reconciled with the Church and received Holy Communion. Later Hoess wrote his wife and five children, expressed sorrow for his crimes, and begged forgiveness of the people of Poland. Hoess was executed April 16, 1947.

In his homily, Father Kelty contends that, though he may rightly spend an eternity in Purgatory, by the mercy of God even a man like Rudolph Hoess could be saved. This is an uncomfortable truth for some, even offensive to those whose sense of justice could be satisfied with nothing less than eternal damnation for such a "monster."

Link (here)

Jesuit Beaten And Murdered With Two Bullets To The Head

Fr. Frans van der Lugt, S.J. presiding at Mass in Homs

A Dutch Jesuit priest who chose to remain in the beseiged city of Homs to care for its starving population has been shot dead, according to media reports. Fr Frans van der Lugt, a 75-year-old psychologist, had remained in the rebel-controlled Old City throughout the siege, which is now over 600-days long, with government forces surrounding them. He had been offered the chance to leave, but chose to stay. 

His death was reported by the pro-government Al-Mayadeen TV, and the Jesuits have since told the Catholic News Service that Fr van der Lugt was beaten and then shot with two bullets in the head. The Washington Post reports that a masked gunman killed the priest inside a monastery in the Bustan al-Diwan area of the city, although the identity and motive of the killer remains unclear.

In February he had told the Daily Telegraph that the city had been abandoned by the international community. He came to Syria in 1966, and in the 1980s had set up an agricultural project outside the city to help young people with mental disabilities. He said that hunger was sending some people insane.

Link (here) to the Catholic Herald

Fr. Frans van der Lugt, S.J., "People Have Nothing To Eat"

Fr, Franz van der Lugt, S.J.

We refuse to die of hunger in Homs. We Christians and Muslims love life and want to live. This was the appeal Fr. Frans van der Lugt sent via YouTube. The Dutch Jesuit has been living in Syria for decades and is the only European left in the besieged city.Activists in the Bustan ad Diwan area of Homs shared the video posted on YouTube by Fr. Frans in recent days. The video shows Fr. Francis as he is also known, speaking from what seems to be a church altar.

“I am here to talk to you about the old city of Homs which has been under siege” for one year and seven months now. “I represent the local Christian communities,” the priest said referring to the 70 or so Christians that remain in Syria’s third major city. Homs supports the revolt and has suffered huge destruction under the country’s repressive regime.

“Christians and Muslims are going through a difficult and painful time and we are faced with many problems. The greatest of these is hunger,” Fr. Frans states. “People have nothing to eat. There is nothing more painful than watching mothers searching for food for their children in the streets.”

Link (here) to read the rest of the story at UCANews

Fr Anton Puntigam, S.J. And Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The blood-splattered shirt of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 triggered the outbreak of the first world war, is to go on display in Vienna on Friday. The once white garment, now stained a dark brown, is to be exhibited in a glass vitrine at the Austrian Military Museum (HGM), which holds more artifacts related to the assassination than any other institute. "This is the undershirt he was wearing beneath his uniform, directly on his skin, so it's much more blood-soaked than the uniform he wore over it," said Thomas Reichl, of the museum. The shirt was in the possession of the Jesuit religious order until 2004 when it was discovered gathering dust in their archives and passed to the HGM on permanent loan. Because of its delicate condition it is only rarely put on public display. This time it will be viewable for 12 days in a dimly lit room.

A Jesuit priest Fr Anton Puntigam (here) and family friend accompanied the archduke and his pregnant wife, Sophie, to Sarajevo where they had been sent by Emperor Franz Joseph to inspect Bosnian military manoeuvres. The priest gave the couple the last rites and was later handed the shirt and the assassin's Browning pistol for safekeeping.

Traveling in an open-top car on 28 June 1914, the archduke was shot at by 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a Serb who sought unity for the Yugoslav states and their independence from Austria-Hungary. He was able to take close aim at the archduke's car when it stalled close to the Latin Bridge. The archduke and his wife, who flung herself on her husband to try to protect him and was shot in the abdomen, both died of their injuries shortly afterwards.

Link (here) to The Gaurdian

Fr. Walter J. Ciszek, S.J. "It's Never About You, It's About How God Uses You"

Sister Rosemary Stets dropped off the box full of letters, sealed shut and postmarked to Europe, at the post office just before Christmas. Bound for Rome, the more than 150 letters weren't just any old correspondence. Rather, they were ones the Bernardine Franciscan nun had held onto for decades, some dating to the 1960s, to the first years of a relationship with her longtime friend and spiritual adviser, the Rev. Walter J. Ciszek. From Reading, they were bound for a postulator in Rome, whom the Catholic Church had appointed to investigate the life of Ciszek as part of the canonization process."I sent it special certified mail - all kinds of guarantees," Stets said of the box. "And he was waiting on the other side." Several days later, it hadn't arrived. Stets was beginning to worry. "He said, 'It's Christmas, everyone is sending packages,' " she recalled. By the middle of February, the package remained MIA."One day, I got a call from the desk (at the convent) saying that I had a package there," she said. "It's my box and the print on the label was so blurred you couldn't even read it. How it got there and came back was a miracle." Stets reflected on Ciszek's life Sunday afternoon during a presentation before about 45 people at the McGlinn Conference Center on the Bernardine Franciscan sisters' Motherhouse complex, near the Alvernia University campus in Reading.  

"He was an exceptional person, a very humble man," she said of the celebrated Jesuit priest, a native of Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, who was held for 15 years in a Soviet prison. "He thought nothing of his talents and gifts. He'd say, 'It's never about you, it's about how God uses you.' " 

Then 24, Stets began a correspondence with Ciszek in 1969 that would last until his death in 1984. "My young adult life was very much entwined with his life and his guidance of my life," she said. "At some point in my life, I was going to give up. I didn't feel like I fit. And he walked me through that. After I met him and began to visit him and made a few retreats with him, our relationship deepened." She recalled with a laugh the personal side of Ciszek, whom she said would pray in his Bronx apartment with New York Yankees games on in the background. "What he taught me is no one is born holy," she said. "We become holy from a lifetime of conversion. Those of us who knew him know whole-heartedly that he is a saint."

Link (here) to The Reading Eagle 

Jesuit And His Parish Under Seige In Syrian War

The Jesuit Courtyard in "Old Section" of Homs

A priest working in the devastated city of Homs in Syria has given an account of some of the horror he's facing every day. The priest, who cannot be named, sent a report to the charity Aid to the Church in Need, which is supporting Syrians with an aid package of £25,450 (€30,000) for a center in Homs, on top of £42,450 (€50,000) given last year. 

The report details the priest's struggle to provide basic food, shelter and medicine to more than 30,000 people fleeing violence amid ongoing bomb blasts and other violence.

He goes on to give an account of the “many explosions” of the past week in his quarter of Homs, one of which took place very near to his church. The car bomb left 11 people dead, of whom five were his parishioners. An earlier explosion caused the death of a 10-year-old boy from the Catholic community centre next to his church. 

Three other children were injured. In his report, the priest pays tribute to a Jesuit priest and 74 other Christians living in a “siege[–like] manner” in Homs' ancient Old City, where many historic churches, mosques and other buildings lie in ruins after fierce fighting. 

Facing a shortage of food and medicine, the Jesuit and his flock rely on aid parcels being sent to them. Describing life for the Jesuit and his people, the priest writes that people continue to cling to hope in spite of the difficulties. He said: “We have a great hope. Churches still ring bells for prayers and all people come and share Mass.” Quoting Pope Francis, he writes: “Nobody can steal our hope and joyfulness.”

Link (here) to the Zenit Story

Fr Henri Boulad, S.J. On The Situation In Egypt, “How democratic countries can support such movements is disgusting,”

Fr. Henri Boulad, S.J.

A priest who directs the Jesuit Cultural Center in Alexandria, Egypt, blasted Western support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during a visit to Parliament Hill. Jesuit Father Henri Boulad, 82, a Melkite Catholic, singled out the United States, France and Great Britain for their support of the Islamist group, which he said has created a regime far worse than the military dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak that preceded it. He warned of looming catastrophe. “How democratic countries can support such movements is disgusting,” Father Boulad told a meeting of the Middle East Discussion Group at a luncheon hosted by Canadian Sen. Ann Cools. The Jesuit described Egypt as unstable and that the government is running out of money to provide basic services. Income from tourism has decreased because of strict restrictions on tourist activity and a dangerous lack of security, he said. Forces comprised of a wide array of thinkers, journalists, youth, Christians and a large number of Muslims who oppose the aims of the Muslim Brotherhood are rallying to challenge the regime, he said. “Grass-roots people are more and more convinced these people are liars,” Father Boulad said. Muslim opponents, he explained, “don’t want this kind of Islam.” “I am speaking up and saying ‘Don’t be intimidated by these people,’” he said. “Resist in the name of your principles.”

Father Boulad charged that the Muslim Brotherhood has a systematic plan to harass Christians so that they will leave Egypt and that among their tactics is the kidnapping and rape of Christian girls. The organization also invokes human rights to silence critics in France, Canada and elsewhere, using the courts against people who speak up, he said. The government cries “Islamophobia” and it “is politically incorrect to be an Islamophobe,” he said.

“The United States, France and Great Britain are supporting this. It’s crazy,” he added. “Intellectual and factual terrorism is being implemented not only in Egypt but all over the world. You cannot speak up. They go to court; they accuse you.” “As long as Islam is not reformed, we are going to catastrophe,” Father Boulad warned. Fortunately, he continued, some people have the courage to speak up. He said he hoped liberal democracies would support the growing coalition opposing the Egyptian ruling party.

Link (here) to Catholic Sun

Fr. Nawras Sammour, S.J. "We Need To Step Back And Realize That We Went Too Far,"

Fr. Nawras Sammour, S.J.

For Jesuit Father Nawras Sammour, the ongoing conflict in Syria is a professional challenge and a personal "have all left." Tens of thousands of Syrians have died and millions have been displaced in more than two years of fighting between President Bashar Assad's government and rebels seeking his resignation. "Sometimes I can't believe we Syrians have reached that level of violence," Father Sammour said. "I'm shocked. Shocked. "We need to step back and realize that we went too far," he told Catholic News Service May 31 during an interview at JRS headquarters near the Vatican. In a situation that is so tense and so divided, particularly among different Muslim groups, Father Sammour said Syria's small Christian communities may be frightened. But with Christian aid programs and partnerships with others providing assistance, they also enjoy a certain respect as non-partisans looking only to help others. Father Sammour is Jesuit Refugee Service's regional director for the Middle East and lives in Damascus, Syria. He was born in Aleppo, and his mother, brother and sister still live there, but his nieces and nephews

Link (here) to CNS 
Link (here) to watch a video documentary of the violence and destruction in Aleppo

Radicalization Of Islam In The Region

Middle East expert Jesuit Father Samir Khalil Samir, who teaches at the University of Beirut. "Many people in Lebanon are concerned because the conflict in Syria is becoming more like a conflict between Shiites and Sunnis. These are the two main currents in Islam. In Lebanon, it is also noticeable that the Shiite Hezbollah behave more aggressively than before towards the Sunni Lebanese. 

In the north of Lebanon - that is, in the city of Tripoli - there are already skirmishes every day leaving people dead. Also in the south of Beirut, there are acts of violence. These are all signs that are to be taken seriously. "the wave of violence in Syria is not just for the neighbours of Lebanon and Syria a problem, says Father Samir Khalil.  

"In the Arab world, there are more divisions and conflicts than ever before. This is due to the radicalization of Islam in the region. This is the basic problem in the Arab world, which one has to actually tackle. It is not important whether one is in Iraq, Egypt or Syria. This radicalization has its roots in the attitude of Israel and its Western allies, for example in relation to occupied territories, such as the Golan Heights, which actually by international law belong to Syria. " 

Link (here) to the preeminent European Catholic blogger Christopher Gillibrand , his full post is at Cathcon

Watch Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. Brake Into A Draft Office, Steal Files And Publicly Destroy Them

Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J.

Martin Sheen once recounted about the May 17, 1968 burning of draft files in Catonsville, Md., by nine Dan and Phil Berrigan — broke into a draft office, stole files and publicly destroyed them as an act of nonviolent resistance against war and imperialism, the face of protest changed.

But the iconic images and audio from that historic event were almost lost in the annals of history.unusual suspects to protest the Vietnam War. 

The Catonsville Nine, as they came to be called, marked the beginning of dramatic new forms of antiwar resistance. When seven men and two women — all Catholic, including two priests,

Link (here) to Waging Non-Violence to watch a video of Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. commit a criminal act in which he was sent to prison for.

Read Luke Hansen, S.J. at America glamorize the incident (here)