Retired Priest from Merrick killed by impaired driver

"Family and parishioners of a Merrick church are mourning the loss of a retired priest who delivered a sermon on Jesus' life and resurrection, then died hours later on Good Friday in a crash allegedly caused by an impaired driver on the Southern State Parkway.

The Rev. T. Chacko Mammen, 69, was driving west in his GMC sport utility vehicle when a Honda driven by Christopher Gomez-Almendarez, 23, rear-ended his vehicle about 12:10 a.m. near Exit 30 in North Massapequa, State Police said. The GMC careened onto the shoulder and hit a tree. Mammen was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage, where he was pronounced dead, police said."

                         



This is a tragic loss for his family and for the Mar Thomas Church - this is a Church not in communion with Rome but with its origins going back to St. Thomas the apostle.  God Bless his family and his parish.

Maryland man inspired by Islamic State attack plotted to drive truck into National Harbor pedestrians, officials say

18 years after 9/11 and we are now so used to terroristic plots they barely make the news!

"A Maryland man inspired by the Islamic State group plotted to ram a stolen U-Haul truck into as many pedestrians as possible at a popular convention and tourist destination just outside the nation’s capital, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The allegation was made in a court filing as prosecutors in Maryland urged a judge to keep the defendant, 28-year-old Rondell Henry, detained on a charge of driving a stolen vehicle across state lines. The police arrested him on March 28 after officers who discovered the stolen truck saw him leap over a security fence."

All In The Family: ISIS Edition

 

Why is this news not a major news story?  Whenever I see an article on a 'right wing' or 'left wing' site, I always google it to confirm other major news sources have the same details more or less.  I see mostly local Texas news covering the original story and the AP story is here.  But Americans going overseas to join the Islamic State, or Al Shabab, or any other terrorist organization (or anyone covering up for them) should warrant major news coverage.  Now that ISIS has been mostly defeated, we need to bring to justice ALL the people who joined them.  We should not allow what happened with the Nazis to happen with ISIS - hundreds of them starting a new life somewhere else and living freely for decades. No country should allow anyone to return from Syria or Iraq, let them rot in jail or be executed where they caused such evil.

 

"Arman (28) and Oman (27), ISIS fighters and ideologues to their core, haven’t turned up from the battlefield. The brothers were last known to be fighting with ISIS in Syria after allegedly traveling there from Egypt between October and December 2014. Their father, Mohommad Hasnain Ali, is set to be released from a Dallas halfway house on April 17 as part of his year-long federal prison sentence for covering their tracks. Their mother, Sumaiya Ali, is in federal prison in Carswell, New Mexico until April 2020 for lying on their behalf to investigating FBI agents, although she is writing letters to the judge begging for earlier transfer to home confinement. More on that later.

The Ali family is hardly alone these days as the remnants of destroyed ISIS society are somehow fit back into various parts of the world. Not more than 250 Americans attempted to join the caliphate; not all successfully. Now comes the final chapter of the story, the returnees."

The Latest Church Scandals, The Latest Grand Jury Report, etc...

Cardinal McCarrick, Cardinal Cupich, Cardinal Wuerl - they are all the same.  So many Catholics are asking what they can do, one thing is:  Do not give any money to the Catholic Church until they bring back ordination of married men to the secular priesthood.  Or simply do not give any money to it period.  Give Francis what he wants:  a poor Church.  

Suspected Killer of Long Island Deacon Arrested in Memphis: Police

They caught the guy who did this horrible murder of a good Deacon, Patrick Lodgson RIP.

"The 70-year-old Logdson was the program manager at Anthony House, where he lived to serve others, people who knew him said. Patton was one of three people living at the home at the time; it helps those who struggle with drug addiction or homelessness." ....

"St. Vincent de Paul of the Diocese of Rockville Center, which ran the Anthony House, said in a statement in November: "Even at the time of his death, [Logsdon] was carrying out the Gospel message of caring for the poor as he has done faithfully for 33 years."

University of the Incarnate Word Student Shot to Death by Campus Police Officer

The University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas is a Catholic school founded by the Sisters of the Incarnate Word.   It started out as a small all-female school and is now a large university with a very diverse student population. On Friday, a student named Robert Cameron Redus was pulled over by a campus police officer for allegedly speeding and driving erratically.  The police office shot Cameron Redus multiple times and Redus died.  This article from the San Antonio Express News quotes various people regarding this incident which I will break down in a different format:

Cameron Redus

• Honors Student
• "Dozens stood to speak about Redus. Nearly all invoked his outgoing spirit, helpful attitude and affection for everyone he met."
• " I don't think anyone understands how something like this could happen to someone like Cameron. It makes no sense.”
•  “He was one of the most level-headed people I've ever met. What I have heard is completely counterintuitive to what I have known him to be,” he said, referring to accounts of Redus initiating an altercation with the officer who shot him."

 
UIW police Cpl. Christopher J. Carter

• "As authorities investigate the shooting, one of the officer's former neighbors described him as having a confrontational personality.
  “He was mean,” said Hugo Bustillos, who now lives in the two-bedroom apartment near Fort Sam Houston where Carter, 38, used to live."
• Carter also had run-ins with at least one other tenant over Carter's dog before Carter moved away last year."
• “He exaggerated a lot,” Bustillos said.
  “He put a lot of false statements on us with our landlord,” Bustillos said. “He said we were smoking pot in front of our kids, but we were just smoking cigarettes.
  “He also made trouble for someone else and got into an argument with” management.
• "Over the course of Carter's eight-year law career in Texas, he has held nine jobs at eight agencies"

This is a horrible situation that cuts very close to home for me.  I just hope that justice is served for the Redus family and that all at the University are able to pull together to come to some sort of peace.

Fr. Richard Novak, martyr

I never knew Michael Novak's brother was a priest who was murdered:

"Do you know young people looking for causes that would give their lives immeasurable value for the future? Before his violent death, young Father Richard Novak, CSC, started a movement that desperately needs the labors of a new generation.

My younger brother was murdered at age twenty-eight in Bangladesh, in the waning days of the 1964 Muslim/Hindu riots that left several thousand dead. It was January 16, not quite two months after the murder of John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

When the news was reported to Pope Paul VI, he exclaimed:  “A martyr!”"

Pure Evil

Police: Newlyweds lure man through Craigslist for thrill killing

"(CNN) -- It isn't that the man had done anything wrong to infuriate Elytte Barbour and his wife.

The couple -- married three weeks -- just wanted to kill someone together, police said.

And Troy LaFerrara, 42, happened to be the unlucky one.

The Barbours are accused of luring LaFerrara through a "companionship" ad on Craigslist, and stabbing and strangling him to death.

Barbour told police he and his wife had tried to kill others. But the plans didn't work out.

"He tells us that they intended to kill somebody together," Sunbury Police Chief Steve Mazzeo told CNN. "They tried to kill other individuals and failed. And this happened to be one that worked."

Read the rest only if you have a strong stomach here.

I often think that the muslim culture is sick, but perhaps the West, especially the US, is sicker.

Female Worker raped at NYU's Catholic Center

A horrible story from the NY Post:

"A 24-year-old worker at NYU’s Catholic Center was raped by a brute who forced his way into the building after stalking her for several blocks before dawn Thursday morning, cops said.


The thug, who pummeled the victim’s face and ripped off her clothing during the assault, also stole the woman’s pink tote bag and iPhone before running off, according to an NYPD source.

“The Cardinal and all of us are keeping her in our prayers,” said Joseph Zwilling, Director of Communications, Archdiocese of New York. “We are grateful that she was not more seriously hurt.”

Death row diary offers a rare glimpse into a morbid world

CNN had an article on a death row inmate's blog, with posts by his sister.  I have a couple of problems with this blog - for one thing the top of the blog notes the man is on death row for a murder he did not commit.  This makes him sound innocent which he is not.  He was a career criminal who was involved in a robbery that left a man dead.  He claims he was not the one that pulled the trigger but does not deny being involved in the crime.  As a Christian I have some reservations about the death penalty but do not see a problem with it in limited circumstances.  When someone is a career criminal and commits a horrible murder with no question of their guilt and no extenuating circumstances I think the death penalty may be appropriate.  I am not sure if it is appropriate in this case, but I do have a real problem with this attitude:

"I understand there are usually about two dozen witnesses to these executions and I sometimes wonder about those who will be at mine, unknown, faceless men rooting for me to die, happy to see me breathe my last breath. I wonder about men who do not know me, have never met me, never broken bread with me and who know nothing about what's in my heart, who nonetheless are anxious, eager, happy to see me die.


It does not bother me, but I wonder if it will ever bother any of those men (and yes, it's almost always men, with their lust for blood; women seldom indulge in this), perhaps in their sunset years when they reflect back on their youth and wonder about their imperatives. I hope, for their sakes, that one day they will be ashamed -- or at least disappointed -- with their naked blood lust and will determine to henceforth set a better example for those following behind them."


First of all, the family of the victim certainly has the right to be eager to see him die, and he does mention that earlier.  But the reason so many are anxious to see a criminal die is because they usually care about justice and the victims.  For this criminal to try to take the high moral ground is extremely hypocritical - did he ever reflect back on his youth and his imperatives that lead directly to a man's death?  His sister is giving him a voice when his victim and his family has none.  She allows her brother to express publicly his reflections on dying that his victim never had the chance to do.  She makes her brother out to be a victim when he is not, but he did create and victim, and she is victimizing the family again.

Convent Fire was Possibly Arson

Possible Hate Crime, Arson in Staten Island Convent Blaze

"NEW YORK –– A convent and chapel in New York City were the site this weekend of a suspicious fire, which injured two nuns and four firefighters. Sister M. William McGovern, provincial superior of the Daughters of Divine Charity community on Staten Island, said the fires were “a true tragedy.”
“The historic portion of our home — with our chapel, sacristy, archives and provincial offices — was destroyed and is now a crime scene,” Sister William said.
Early in the morning of Oct. 12, firefighters responded to fires at St. Joseph Hill Convent and Chapel. According to multiple local news sources, Sister Regina Gegic and another older sister were staying in the building when the fire started. Sister Regina was forced to leap from the second floor of the building to escape the flames.
Sister William said Sister Regina “is in intensive care at Staten Island University Hospital,” with injuries sustained from the fall. The other sister in the building at the time of the fire was not reported to have been harmed."

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/possible-hate-crime-arson-in-staten-island-convent-blaze/#ixzz2hqXuhnHY

Mother protecting her kids runs over a convicted rapist

For those of us who love justice and hate evil, this is a great story!

"A would-be carjacker messed with the wrong mom.

A Texas mother protecting her kids from an alleged knife-wielding carjacker engaged in a terrifying hand-to-hand fight behind the wheel of her vehicle that ended with the suspect being thrown out, run over and hospitalized.

"I told him he messed with the wrong witch," Dorothy Baker told ABC of her frantic battle coursing the roads of Baytown, Texas.

Police say Ismael Martinez, 54, snuck inside the backseat of Baker's parked unlocked minivan waiting for her to return from a CVS drug store when he sprung up on her.

Allegedly holding a knife to her oldest son, she says he demanded that she drive him to the nearest ATM"

Disgusting perverts in political office and the priesthood

As a New Yorker, I have been accostomed to politicians being exposed as perverts or crooks (Elliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, Vito Lopez, etc...).

As a Catholic I have become accostomed to priests being exposed as perverts or crooks (Paul Shanley, John Corapi, Marcial Maciel, etc..).

 This short article talks about perverted and crooked politicians but everything said about them would also apply to perverted and crooked priests as well.

Political Narcissists:  Lacking a Moral Center
 By George Marlin
   

"What makes these and so many other political lowlifes believe they are indispensible and that nothing they ever do will be led against them in the long run?

First and foremost, they are narcissists.  They have grandiose views of their talents, excessive interest in themselves, a craving for attention and admiration, and a consciousness of superiority.

This type of person, as social philosopher Christopher Lasch once observed, depends on others “to validate his self-esteem.  He cannot live without an admiring audience. . . .For the narcissist, the world is a mirror, whereas the rugged individual saw it as an empty wilderness to be shaped to his own design.”  Success for these narcissists “consists of nothing more substantial than a wish to be vastly admired; not for one’s accomplishments, but simply for oneself, uncritically and without reservation.”

   

Vatican: 100,000 Christians killed annually

By Catholic News Service


GENEVA (CNS) -- More than 100,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith, and millions more face bigotry, intolerance and marginalization because of their beliefs, a Vatican official said.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's permanent observer to U.S. agencies in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council May 27 that "credible research" by Massimo Introvigne, a former representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on combating intolerance and discrimination against Christians, "has reached the shocking conclusion that an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of some relation to their faith every year."

In addition, he said, "in some Western countries, where historically the Christian presence has been an integral part of society, a trend emerges that tends to marginalize Christianity in public life, ignore historic and social contributions and even restrict the ability of faith communities to carry out social charitable services."

Of course the bigots in this country will deny this, or downplay it as they always do.

Catholic Church Mediates Ceasefire Between Honduran Gangs

I heard this story driving home from work tonight.  You can listen to the story on NRP.org but it does not go into details about the Church's involvement.

Funeral held for victim of Hofstra home invasion

From the USA Today

"The Rev. Osvaldo Franklin, speaking in both Portuguese and English, told the near-capacity crowd at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., that the 21-year-old Hofstra University junior killed last week during a home invasion gone bad would have been pleased to see so many of her friends and family gathered to say farewell.

Family members, including Andrea's twin sister, Jessica, sat mostly in silence during the morning Mass, gripping tissues and each other's hands. A few sobs could be heard from the attendees, many of whom had come to Sleepy Hollow from Hofstra

"During this tragedy, a question comes to mind, why? Why?" Franklin said. "Why Andrea? In the flower of her youth, she left us. She was a good daughter and, like Jessica, a good student. Both Andrea and Jessica were always smiling."

"They came from a good family with good values," Franklin said. "My dear friends, only the word of God, through our faith in the resurrection, can help us in this moment of pain."

Many of the attendees wore white ribbons during the service at the church where the sisters received their First Communion."

The Arab Collapse

Ralph Peters is a columnist in the NY Post, a retired US Army Lt. Colonel, and certainly not a dove when it comes to war, foreign policy and geopolitics.  I think he has an good understanding of the middle east and his latest column calling for the US to stay out of Syria is excellent.  America has become addicted to wars and we have to stop the mentality that we must kill in order to promote the good around the world.  The popularity of neo-conservativism in America among Catholics is understandable due to issues of abortion, general attitudes towards Christianity and religion and the Catholic Church in particular, family issues, the gay agenda, etc... But the worst aspect, the policies that are most wrong, the most incompatible with traditional Catholic teaching is the neo-conservative support of wars.  I have found my own views on this shifting towards the libertarian view of war and I think more and more Catholics are waking up on this issue. Peters shows why the USA does not need and should not interfere (again) in the middle east.

Go read Peters' whole article. 

Excerpt:

"The Arab Spring has unleashed the Arab Collapse. Everybody still standing in the region is picking the flesh of the helpless. The Islamist cancer proved more virulent than Arabs themselves expected, while dying regimes behave with unrestrained ruthlessness.

And our diplomats still think everyone can be cajoled into harmony.

We’re witnessing a titanic event, the crack-up of a long-tottering civilization. Arab societies grew so corrupt and stagnant that violent upheaval became inevitable. That’s what we’re seeing in Syria and Iraq — two names, one struggle — and will find elsewhere tomorrow.

We can’t stop it, we can’t fix it, and we don’t understand it. But we can stay out of it.

When the US is in the Middle East, the Arabs want us out. When we’re out, they want us in. But our purported Arab (and Turkish) allies consistently agree that Uncle Sam should pay the party bill, while they take home all the presents.

Yes, Syria’s humanitarian crisis is appalling. And no, I don’t like to see innocents dying or suffering. But the calls from the region for American action are nakedly cynical.

Turkey has the largest military in NATO after our own, but cries “helpless” crocodile tears over Syrian refugees — while dreaming of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire upon their ruined lives. Our Saudi “friends” spent decades building the most-sophisticated military arsenal in the Middle East, apart from Israel. Now the Saudis wring their hands over Syria’s misery — but won’t intervene directly to stop the killing.

The Saudi position is always “You and him fight!” As long ago as Desert Storm, Saudis joked about renting the American army and our bumpkin gullibility. (Try to find one US officer who’s worked with the Saudis and doesn’t hate their guts. . .) Now they want Washington to spend our blood and treasure to open the mosques of Damascus to their Wahhabi cult."

Hofstra Student Shot Dead During Home Invasion

"(CBS/AP) A female Hofstra University student who was fatally shot early Friday in a Long Island home was killed along with an armed suspect during a police-involved shooting as authorities responded to a home invasion robbery, police said, reports CBS New York.

The victim, identified by 1010WINS radio as Andrea Rebello, 21, from Westchester County, was reportedly in the home with her twin sister at the time of the break-in.  

Police said the other sister was not harmed, CBS New York reported."

From CBS News.
 
This is horrible - please pray for this young woman, her family and the other students in this house that will have to live with this.  Hofstra is a great school but near two of the highest crime neighborhoods in Nassau County:  Hempstead and Uniondale.  In 2004 there was a Hofstra student raped right off of California Avenue near where this home invasion took place.  Everyone needs to be aware of bad it is around there and consider living on campus.

IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups

As the scandal over the IRS targeting Tea Party groups continue ('Angry' Obama announces IRS leader's ouster after conservatives targeted), a Catholic writer claims the IRS has her in their sights as well:

Noted professor and sociologist Dr. Anne Hendershott claims IRS may have targeted her with a 2010 audit


5/16 UPDATE:  Bill Donohue of The Catholic League says they were also targeted by the IRS and mentions the same man as Dr. Hendershott:  Chris Korzen, the head of Catholics United:
Bill Donohue:  IRS Targeted Catholic League

3 girls kidnapped in Cleveland

The story of the 3 girls kidnapped and held captive for 10 years in Cleveland is just horrible.  At least the girls are alive and reunited with their families.  I hope the 3 Castro brothers that were arrested are thrown in prison for the rest of their lives, kept in general population, suffer greatly for years, and then convert and come to Jesus before dying at not too old an age.  I often post stories involving violence by muslim radicals against non-muslims because there is a serious problem in the islamic culture that needs to be addressed until the violence ends.  But the problem with violence and evil in our own culture of the USA is probably even greater and our whole society needs to be radically changed.

"Cleveland (CNN) -- When three women missing for about a decade turn up in your neighbor's house, little quirks look a little different.

That's what some neighbors of a fired Cleveland school bus driver said Tuesday, a day after a woman's screams led to the arrest of 52-year-old Ariel Castro and his two brothers -- and freedom for Amanda Berry and two other women, Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32.

Each disappeared from the same Cleveland street -- Lorain Avenue -- three miles from the home in which they were found Monday. They were found when one of them broke out the bottom of a screen door and called for help Monday evening, startling a neighbor who came over and helped kick in the door.

"Help me, I am Amanda Berry," the now-27-year-old woman told police in a frantic 911 call from the neighbor's house. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now."

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

thrust into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen..