Pope Benedict XVI refused a meeting request from Condoleezza Rice to meet this past August and discuss issues pertaining to Iraq and the Middle East in general. While the Vatican has said the Pope typically doesn’t receive visitors during the August holidays, one major Italian newspaper declared the meeting denial a snub against the Bush administration for two reasons.

The first reason is that back in March 2003 — just before the Iraq war began — Rice met with a special papal envoy from Rome and told them that the Bush administration didn’t care about the views of the late Pope John Paul II on the immorality of its planned military actions in Iraq.

The second reason is that the US has responded to a Vatican matter regarding the protection of Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi constitution in an “unacceptable” fashion.

I for one think this is just awesome. Whether intentional or not, Pope Benedict has illustrated that the Bush administration cannot get whatever it wants and that there are individuals out there with the ability to keep the Bush administration in check, since the current lackluster U.S. Congress is unable to do so. I hope the Pope keeps a firm stand on this, and makes the Bush administration show some accountability for its actions for giving it the privilege of his presence.

Hundreds of people are flocking to Benoni, a small town east of Johannesburg, South Africa to be blessed by a 17-year-old South African girl who has experienced apparitions of the blessed Virgin Mary around her home. The teenager, Francesca Zackey, first saw the Virgin Mary on May 7, interrupting the family’s meal.

“My brother-in-law asked for an encyclopedia, and as I was replacing the book back, I just smelt the strongest fumes of roses and it just hit me, and I fell to my knees and I started crying the tears of joy,” she said.

Zackey then called her family over and they also smelled roses. She then felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to her bedroom, where she saw the Virgin Mary sitting on the right side of her bed.

“She had ice blue eyes, brown hair, long brown hair, and an ice blue cloak. Her hands were open, there was light coming out of her hands,” Zackey said.

At first the teenager was scared by the visions, but then she said she found a strength from the Holy Spirit. In her visions, the mother of Jesus Christ called on Zackey to write a book documenting her vision and to start a youth group.

“She said to me that she wants people to pray with their hearts. She said: ‘I want you to open your house for seven days and I want you to put statues where I have been,”‘.

To date, Zackey has had 20 apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Each site where she has seen her is marked with candles, idols of Mary and roses.

One pilgrim who made the trip to visit Zackey is Theresa Skosana. Upon having Zackey’s hands placed on her chest, Skosana fell to the ground. Zackey then held a hand above Skosana’s head as the 53-year-old woman trembled, winced and clenched her fist. Zackey’s family members and others gathered in the room to recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary. After completion of the prayers, Skosana arose to her feet. This scenario has repeated itself numerous times with other pilgrims.

In a world where atheism is on the rise and religious conflict is rampant, it is ever comforting to have another sign from the Heavens that God is watching over us all with His Son Jesus Christ and that He cares deeply for us. There have been countless apparitions like this throughout history, with perhaps the most famous being the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Vatican security officials wrestled a man to the ground today after he tried jumping into the popemobile in St. Peter’s Square. Pope Benedict, who is 80-years-old, was uninjured and continued waving to the crowd amid all the commotion. The attacker, who got within one meter of the Pope, is presently being held at the Vatican for questioning.

The man, who wore shorts and a red shirt, jumped over the protective barricades that line the route and hurled himself toward the open-air popemobile. The 20-30 year old man was unarmed and his nationality is unknown at this time.

Benedict’s predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, was the first to use the popemobile, after a failed assassination attempt by a Turkish gunman in 1981, followed by a priest attack with a bayonet a year later. It will be interesting to see what the nationality of this man is. Perhaps it’s just some random whack-job off his rocker, but maybe it could be a further backlash in retaliation for Benedict’s harsh words against Islam last September.

Celebrities often mistakes themselves for politicians, and seem to think that the rest of the world actually cares remotely about what they think on ethical and social issues. The reality is that celebrities are usually famous for reasons that are anything but moral and righteous. Here is yet another instance of such an occurrence.

Gisele Bundchen, one of the most famous supermodels on the planet, joined the birth control and sexual behavior debate in Brazil today, declaring that Catholic church opposition to condom use was “ridiculous” and that a woman should have the right to choose on abortion.

“Today no one is a virgin when they get married … show me someone who’s a virgin!”

Last month Pope Benedict visited the country and outlined the church’s firm opposition to abortion and contraception, in addition to speaking out against sex outside of marriage. Since then Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic country, has been embroiled in debate over sexual issues.

Bundchen claims that when the church made its laws centuries ago women were expected to be virgins. My question is what gives her the authority to speak openly about the historical ideology of the Catholic church? The church’s policies on issues such as pre-marital sex and abortion are longstanding and certainly won’t be changing anytime soon with conservative Pope Benedict at the helm, who was often at odds with the late Pope John Paul II’s efforts to modernize church policies.

Sorry Gisele, I used to like you, but now you’ve become yet another hypocritical celebrity that thinks they can use their star power to influence people into thinking the way you do. I do not know if Gisele herself is a Catholic, so I won’t bother going into a tirade on that, but her boyfriend Tom Brady is a strong self-proclaimed Catholic, which if that holds true this should certainly ruffle some feathers in their relationship.

Although she has a fan base of millions worldwide, she can’t come close to the influence and reach that Pope Benedict has over a billion Catholics around the world. So do yourself and us a favor Gisele, keep your religious views to yourself, nobody else — especially Catholics — wants to hear them.

Last month I wrote about a Dutchman who re-created Noah’s Ark as a sign of his compassion for the literal truth of the Bible. Now Noah’s Ark is being rebuilt again, but by someone completely different — environmental activists — and for an altogether different cause: global warming.

Historically speaking, Noah’s Ark was built to save humanity and the animal kingdom from the flooding of Earth — a punishment for humanity’s sins. Today, the ark is being rebuilt to serve as a warning to mankind to act now to bring a halt to global warming.

The new ark is being built on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, where according to the Bible Noah’s Ark came to a rest after the flood waters had subsided. The project is set to be completed by the end of this month in order to coincide with a summit taking place in Germany next month where global warming will be high on the agenda.

“This is directed mainly at the politicians of this earth, to world leaders who are primarily responsible for the climate catastrophe which is taking place and for the solution,” said Wolfgang Sadik, campaign leader for Greenpeace, which is behind the project. “The aim is to put on Mount Ararat a memorial, a warning sign that also gives hope, to shake up the world and to say that if we don’t react now it is too late.”

Now this is the type of action that people need to be taking when trying to make a stand on an issue. Depending on the amount of coverage it gets on various media channels around the world, this has the potential to make a real impact on people, because it strikes directly into the heart of billions of Christians, Jews, and Muslims around the world. If this can’t act as a catalyst in getting the peoples of the world to unite and combat global warming I really don’t know what can…

Dutch creationist Johan Huibers unveiled his replica of Noah’s Ark over the weekend, marking the first time anyone has seen the massive ship in roughly 4,000 years. Huibers, as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible, did most of the work with his hands. Construction first began in May 2005.

Referencing old biblical measurements, Johan’s ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide –two-thirds the length of a football field with the height of a three-story house. The ark is filled with life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals.

Although Johan’s replica is massive, Noah’s Ark as depicted in the Bible is five times bigger. Genesis says Noah kept seven pairs of most domesticated animals and one breeding pair of all other creatures, plus his wife, three sons and three daughters-in-law together on the boat for almost a year while the world was deluged.

Huibers says that he hopes his ark will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where churchgoing has decreased largely over the last 50 years. I hope Huibers accomplishes this goal and more, as Christianity has been suffering around the world, particularly in European countries and the United States.

Here’s one that will make you appreciate the casual Sunday stroll to your local church parish. World Magazine ran an article last weekend that discusses how Christians in North Korea are being persecuted and tortured at an increasing rate for their religion.

From both sides of the Korean border, underground Christians are speaking out against North Korean persecution. The executions and torture occur for the most part in the gulag, North Korea’s prison camp which is home to about 200,000 political prisoners, however they also occur in public places. Some estimates put the number of Christians the regime kills at 300 per year, with roughly 50,000 Christians sitting in prison.

The amount and level of torture these Christians are put through is gut-wrenching and heart-aching. One warden hung a man upside down and ordered him to deny his beliefs. Upon refusal, the warden stabbed him and pushed him to the ground, then ordered 6,000 prisoners to trample him to death.

In another example, eight prisoners kept their silence when ordered to deny the existence of heaven, which infuriated prison officials so much that they poured molten iron all over them.

In addition, informants claim that Christian prisoners are deliberately crippled so they cannot walk, and may be left naked and starved so that they are forced to eat the rats crawling around their cells raw. A troubling thought…

I can’t believe these types of stories never hit the mainstream media. How can reporters miss this stuff? International correspondents have a moral obligation to report on human rights abuses around the world. They have no problem running stories about the horrible atrocities of Darfur in the poor African country of Sudan, but when it comes to North Korea, with whom the West is embroiled in a nuclear dispute, they look the other way so as to not upset the North Koreans and scare them away from the negotiating table.

Not that the US government is any better though, on the contrary, we’re trend setters when it comes to mistreatment of prisoners enemy combatants, just look at Cuba and Iraq.

Happy Easter to all! Today is Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It is on this day which Jesus conquered death and sin and all that is evil. Easter celebrations officially began last night with Easter Vigil.

I celebrated Easter mass last night at such an Easter Vigil, or “resurrection mass” as it was called. We walked into a pitch black church and everyone was given a candle, then a large Paschal candle was lit (symbolic of the Risen Christ) and all of our candles were lit from this one. Within a matter of minutes the church was glowing from hundreds of candles; it was a very special and moving experience.

Last night was truly special for me. Apart from celebrating my first Easter Vigil, my church was lucky enough to have a Cardinal preside over the mass. Cardinal McCarrick, former Archbishop of Newark as well as Washington, and one of the electors who selected Pope Benedict XVI as John Paul II’s successor in 2005, presided over Easter Vigil last night. He is the highest ranking church official I have ever met, and is probably the highest I could meet outside of the Vatican. Nevertheless, he was a brilliant and kind man, with a homily that was very moving and taking the time after mass to speak with anyone who desired to meet him (myself included).

Today we ate the blessed food from yesterday for breakfast and celebrated Easter Sunday and the beginning of the Easter season. I hope everyone’s Easter was as special as mine.

Today is Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. It is the seventh and final day of Holy Week, and part of the second day of the Easter Triduum. It officially ends at dusk tonight, so Easter celebrations can actually begin this evening. Before this point, however, celebration of mass is prohibited and Holy Communion is only allowed as Viaticum.

It is believed that on this day Christ performed in spirit the Harrowing of Hell and raised up to Paradise those held captive there. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“He descended into hell” affirms that Jesus did really die, and through his substitutionary death he conquered death and the devil. In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him.

St. Thomas Aquinas further explained the doctrine, contending that “when Christ descended into hell, by the power of his Passion he delivered the saints from this penalty whereby they were excluded from the life of glory.”

Today we went to church for a Polish tradition of blessing the food. We filled two Easter baskets with a little of each type of the foods we will be eating tomorrow, including spices and toppings like sugar and horseradish, and placed them on the altar of the church. The pastor walked out and said a few prayers and blessed all of our baskets with Holy Water.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and I hope all you Christians out there reading this make it a point to go to mass. God Bless!

Today is Good Friday, the Friday just before Easter, when we commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Good Friday is a holy day for Christians, meaning that we are to pray and fast and are allowed only one full meal and no meat (as it is Friday).

There is no official mass on Good Friday, however there is a Good Friday Liturgy, in which there are a series of readings and meditations, and the Passion account from the Gospel of John. Celebration of mass is strictly forbidden on this day, and Eucharist may only be distributed for one of two reasons: 1) if it was consecrated as mass the night before on Holy Thursday; 2) as viaticum for the dying.

It is likely that the name “Good Friday” came from the earlier English name, “Godes Friday,” meaning “God’s Friday;” similar to how “God be with ye” was shortened to “goodbye.”

Here are some names that other countries refer to it as:

• High Friday - in the Holy Land
• Passion Friday - Russia
• Karfreitag “Friday of lamentation” - Germany
• Great Friday - Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland
• Holy Friday - Latin America, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Brazil
• Long Friday - Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland

Today is a very important day for Christians around the world, and I hope you those of you out there can make it to church today to celebrate Jesus sacrificing himself for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus died at 3 PM, so at the very least say a prayer and give thanks at that time.