Is the Ark of the Covenant About to Be Unveiled?

An intriguing blog post about this longstanding mystery has been posted at the Sancte Pater blog. Here’s a snippet to give you a flavor:

The patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia says he will announce to the world Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps the world’s most prized archaeological and spiritual artifact, which he says has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.

Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, “Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries.”

The announcement is expected to be made at 2 p.m. Italian time from the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome. Pauolos will reportedly be accompanied by Prince Aklile Berhan Makonnen Haile Sellassie and Duke Amedeo D’Acosta.

“The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia for many centuries,” said Pauolos. “As a patriarch I have seen it with my own eyes and only few highly qualified persons could do the same, until now.”

According to Pauolos, the actual Ark has been kept in one church, but to defend the treasure, a copy was placed in every single church in Ethiopia. . . . (continue reading)

Medjugorje Apparition Claims Are Divisive, Bishop Warns

Jul. 4, 2006 (CWNews.com) –

The Catholic bishop whose diocese includes the town of Medjugorje has warned that “something similar to a schism” has arisen at the parish church where apparitions of the Virgin Mary are alleged to take place.

In a homily delivered in Medjugorje on the feast of Corpus Christi, Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that both he and his predecessor have expressed severe misgivings about the reported apparitions. He added that both Pope John Paul II (bio – news) and Pope Benedict XVI (bio –news) backed the judgments of the local bishops.

In his homily Bishop Peric explained that– “while recognizing the Holy Father’s right to give a final decision” on the validity of the reported apparitions– he doubted their validity. He recalled that when he discussed the reports from Medjugorje with Vatican officials, including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, they shared his incredulity.

“They particularly do not seem to be authentic,” the bishop observed, “when it is known before that these so-called ‘apparitions’ will occur.” Bishop Peric cited the schedule that the Medjugorje seers have provided, listing the times and places at which they claim the next visits by the Mother of God will occur. Thousands of messages from Mary are now claimed, and the bishop observed that “the flood of so-called apparitions, messages, secrets, and signs do not strengthen the faith, but rather further convince us that in all of this there is nothing neither authentic nor established as truthful.”

The first reported appearances of the Virgin at Medjugorje occurred just over 25 years ago. During the 1980s, thousands of Catholic flocked to the little town, with many reporting profound spiritual experiences. These pilgrimages were eventually slowed by the violent bloodshed that tore through the region in the 1990s and by the increasingly public skepticism of the hierarchy.

Bishop Peric reminded his people of the restrictions that he has imposed on activities in Medjugorje. The parish church is not formally a “shrine,” he said, and should not be characterized as such. Pilgrimages to the church are discouraged. Priests there are “not authorized to express their private views contrary to the official position of the Church on the so-called ‘apparitions’ and ‘messages,’ during celebrations of the sacraments, nor during other common acts of piety, nor in the Catholic media.”

The bishops urged the “seers” of Medjugorje to “demonstrate ecclesiastical obedience and to cease with these public manifestations and messages in this parish.”

Some of the Franciscan priests assigned to the Medjugorje parish, he said, have been expelled from their order because of their refusal to accept Church authority. “They have not only been illegally active in these parishes, but they have also administered the sacraments profanely, while others invalidly,” he said. As Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, he said, he felt obliged to warn the faithful “who invalidly confess their sins to these priests and participate in sacrilegious liturgies.” (source)

Would You Like to Learn How to Evangelize Atheists?

Would You Like to Learn How to Evangelize Atheists?

Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, Call Your Office

Atheists are out in force these days, and they’ve thrown down the gauntlet repeatedly, demanding that Catholics and other Christians defend their belief in God.

Don’t Worry. I Won’t Quit My Day Job.

Alright, this may be kind of weird, but here goes. Those of you who know me (you know who you are) know that I was a wannabe rock star in my youth. That’s demented, I know. But it’s the honest truth about what I thought was important back then. Those of you who don’t know me can read about this, shall we say, “colorful” time of my life in my chapter, “Conclusions of a Guilty Bystander,” in my book Surprised by Truth 2.

Among the various bands I played bass for during the late 70s (and virtually all of them were just plain old garage bands), the tightest, most creative, and most successful (which, truth be told, was a very, very modest success, to be sure) was Geneva Brown — a four-man group featuring drums, keyboards, guitar, and bass.

In addition to two or three hours worth of eclectic but cool Top-40 and other songs that we played covers of, we also had about a dozen tasty original tunes written by our talented guitarist/vocalist Jim. At our peak, I can honestly say we were pretty good and had a devoted, if small, local following.

But in those days, there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of other bands, just like ours, who were scrapping for opportunities and schlepping their gear around Southern California, just like we were, in vans and station wagons, looking for that BIG break that never winds up materializing, except for those very few, very talented bands who happen to be at the right place at the right time. While it’s true that a tremendous amount of the success of the bands who make it is due to their genuine musical prowess, it’s also true that plain old “good luck” has a role in it, too.

As for us, we played a bunch of parties, any number of Elks lodges, parish festivals, honkie-tonks, some bar & grill-type gigs during happy hour, more than a few fiascos, and we even won first place in a Southern California battle of the bands, held in Temecula on Halloween night of 1980. Something like 70 or 80 bands from around the Southland entered the contest, we were told, by sending in demo tapes, just like we did. Of those entrants, maybe 15 or 20 were selected to perform live that night, including us.

And we won. 

Honestly, I’ll bet that few if any of the 1000 or so kids who were there that night even remember it now. But I do. We performed 4 songs in our 15-minute set and brought the house down (or so it seemed to us) with our final number, Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.”

I married my lovely wife Nancy on February 7th, 1981, and our first child, Jonathon, came along in utero a few weeks later. So . . . my dream of becoming the next Paul McCartney soon went out the window. (I had contemplated going to NYC to audition for the role of Paul in “Beatlemania,” but when a friend sensibly pointed out that I just didn’t have anywhere near the necessary vocal chops to pull off that monster role, I came to my senses).

My time playing with this band came to an end within a year or two after I got married, and I remember the bittersweet feeling I had then, unplugging my guitar for good and getting used to the idea that I would never be commercially successful in music. Of course, God had planned a far better, far more worthwhile, and far more fulfilling career to pursue.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the few years I had to mak show with the guys in this band. It was great fun. I recently came across a pretty beat up cassette tape of two of our original songs (neither of which I wrote or sang on).

These two songs are “Nothin’ Wrong, Nothin’ Right” and “Simple Man.” What you’ll hear is the four of us (after a few beers, if I recall) doing a very rough recording during a practice session in late 1979 or early 1980 (as best I can remember). We were slamming away with small cassette player on a stand in the middle of the room to record the sound. Nothing was mixed, nothing was miked, just a wall of sound.

The poor quality of the recording and the resulting audio anomalies you’ll hear were compounded by the bad condition of the 30-year old, dime-store cheap cassette tape that this music was stored on. The tech guy who transferred it to digital cleaned it up as best he could, but there are some gaps, here and there, because of breaks in the tape. Give it a listen and you’ll hear what I mean.

These songs bring back good memories of a fun time in my life, even though I wince a little at some of those memories, not to mention wincing when I think about how ridiculous my hair looked like back then.

Don’t Worry. I Won’t Quit My Day Job.

A Persistent Question: Was Terrorism Behind the Air France Crash?

On Wednesday morning, news emerged out of Paris that two Muslim men aboard Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, were Islamic radicals listed on France’s terrorist watch list.

French foreign intelligence agents from the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) released this information to the Paris weeklyL’Express. Immediately, the story became headline news around the globe. And then, just hours later, those same French terrorism investigators recanted.

“No Terrorists in AF447,” read the second L’Express headline posted on Wednesday evening at 5:35 p.m. local time. Translated from the French, the flip-flop was explained as follows:

Failing to have the date of birth of passengers, it was impossible [for DGSE agents] to know if they were real terrorists or homonyms. Refining their “screening,” the investigators said, raised doubts. The theory of the accident, which killed 228 people, remains privileged.

Why did DGSE agents release potentially “doubtful” information ten days into an investigation when they could have waited only a few more hours to verify facts? Before this information was released, terrorism as a cause for the crash was at the bottom of most experts’ guess lists. Investigators had been focusing on mechanical failure, namely faulty speed sensors, as well as lighting strikes. Satellite photographs suggest that the aircraft flew into a violent storm. At first there was no crash site, which only enhanced the mystery. Then the site was found. Headway was being made. Why bring terrorism into the mix so late in the game, only to say excusez-moi, our mistake?

It is implausible to think that French investigators would release theoretical information before they checked the birth dates, unless they wanted that information in the public domain. The exclusive story was generated by agents from the DGSE, not by the French press. By raising inside suspicions of terrorism, French investigators have gained collaborative possibilities from agents abroad. If critical passenger information was not being shared with international agents before, that certainly is no longer the case. Now terrorism investigators from around the globe — from Interpol to DHS — are decoding the backstory of every passenger on that list with new eyes. French investigators wanted to make the story headline news. And they did.

Philippines Airlines Flight 434, a Boeing 747 which nearly crashed into the sea back in 1994, comes to mind. En route from Manila to Tokyo, a small explosion on board the aircraft ripped a hole in the side, killing a 24-year-old engineering student named Haruki Ikegami and nearly causing the airplane to crash. Luckily, there was an island with an emergency landing strip nearby. As author Simon Reeve explains in The New Jackals, it was the quick thinking captain and his “brute force” that was responsible for saving the lives of the passengers on board. As for how the mystery was solved, that involved international collaboration.

Japanese investigators initially believed the cause of the crash was firecrackers snuck onboard. The rationale behind that thin theory was that it was Christmastime and firecrackers are notoriously popular in Asia during that time of year. But a few days later, the Associated Press in Manila got an anonymous call from a man saying the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf was responsible for the blast. Investigators around the globe were put on notice.

Months later, police investigators in Manila responding to an apartment fire unexpectedly discovered detailed drawings of what looked like a bomb’s timing device. Mindful of the unsolved Philippines Airlines crash, they faxed the drawings to the Japanese explosives expert assigned to the case. The drawings were the necessary missing piece of the puzzle, which in turn solved the crime. The apartment belonged to Ramzi Yousef, one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists and the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack.

On the Philippine Airlines passenger list, Yousef had used the pseudonym Armaldo Forlani; he didn’t use a “homonym” or even his real name. But he had personally carried the bomb on the airplane, armed it, and hid it under a seat. He wasn’t on the plane when it almost crashed; he’d deplaned on a scheduled stopover in Cebu. Had Japanese investigators neglected to seek international help in solving the case, the truth may never have emerged.

For now, the reason for the crash of Air France Flight 447 remains unsolved. But terrorism as a cause is no longer relegated to the bottom of the theoretical pile. In going on record with L’Express, agents from DGSE tipped the hand of the international community. Were terrorists on board? Time will tell. In the meantime, the French submarine Emeraude, with its state-of-the-art sonar equipment, is searching the bottom of the ocean floor for clues. So are others around the globe. Was Terrorism Behind Air France Crash?

A Persistent Question: Was Terrorism Behind the Air France Crash?

On Wednesday morning, news emerged out of Paris that two Muslim men aboard Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, were Islamic radicals listed on France’s terrorist watch list.

French foreign intelligence agents from the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) released this information to the Paris weeklyL’Express. Immediately, the story became headline news around the globe. And then, just hours later, those same French terrorism investigators recanted.

“No Terrorists in AF447,” read the second L’Express headline posted on Wednesday evening at 5:35 p.m. local time. Translated from the French, the flip-flop was explained as follows:

Failing to have the date of birth of passengers, it was impossible [for DGSE agents] to know if they were real terrorists or homonyms. Refining their “screening,” the investigators said, raised doubts. The theory of the accident, which killed 228 people, remains privileged.

Why did DGSE agents release potentially “doubtful” information ten days into an investigation when they could have waited only a few more hours to verify facts? Before this information was released, terrorism as a cause for the crash was at the bottom of most experts’ guess lists. Investigators had been focusing on mechanical failure, namely faulty speed sensors, as well as lighting strikes. Satellite photographs suggest that the aircraft flew into a violent storm. At first there was no crash site, which only enhanced the mystery. Then the site was found. Headway was being made. Why bring terrorism into the mix so late in the game, only to say excusez-moi, our mistake?

It is implausible to think that Fre
nch investigators would release theoretical information before they checked the birth dates, unless they wanted that information in the public domain. The exclusive story was generated by agents from the DGSE, not by the French press. By raising inside suspicions of terrorism, French investigators have gained collaborative possibilities from agents abroad. If critical passenger information was not being shared with international agents before, that certainly is no longer the case. Now terrorism investigators from around the globe — from Interpol to DHS — are decoding the backstory of every passenger on that list with new eyes. French investigators wanted to make the story headline news. And they did.

Philippines Airlines Flight 434, a Boeing 747 which nearly crashed into the sea back in 1994, comes to mind. En route from Manila to Tokyo, a small explosion on board the aircraft ripped a hole in the side, killing a 24-year-old engineering student named Haruki Ikegami and nearly causing the airplane to crash. Luckily, there was an island with an emergency landing strip nearby. As author Simon Reeve explains in The New Jackals, it was the quick thinking captain and his “brute force” that was responsible for saving the lives of the passengers on board. As for how the mystery was solved, that involved international collaboration.

Japanese investigators initially believed the cause of the crash was firecrackers snuck onboard. The rationale behind that thin theory was that it was Christmastime and firecrackers are notoriously popular in Asia during that time of year. But a few days later, the Associated Press in Manila got an anonymous call from a man saying the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf was responsible for the blast. Investigators around the globe were put on notice.

Months later, police investigators in Manila responding to an apartment fire unexpectedly discovered detailed drawings of what looked like a bomb’s timing device. Mindful of the unsolved Philippines Airlines crash, they faxed the drawings to the Japanese explosives expert assigned to the case. The drawings were the necessary missing piece of the puzzle, which in turn solved the crime. The apartment belonged to Ramzi Yousef, one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists and the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack.

On the Philippine Airlines passenger list, Yousef had used the pseudonym Armaldo Forlani; he didn’t use a “homonym” or even his real name. But he had personally carried the bomb on the airplane, armed it, and hid it under a seat. He wasn’t on the plane when it almost crashed; he’d deplaned on a scheduled stopover in Cebu. Had Japanese investigators neglected to seek international help in solving the case, the truth may never have emerged.

For now, the reason for the crash of Air France Flight 447 remains unsolved. But terrorism as a cause is no longer relegated to the bottom of the theoretical pile. In going on record with L’Express, agents from DGSE tipped the hand of the international community. Were terrorists on board? Time will tell. In the meantime, the French submarine Emeraude, with its state-of-the-art sonar equipment, is searching the bottom of the ocean floor for clues. So are others around the globe. Was Terrorism Behind Air France Crash?

What Happened to Air France Flight 447?

UPDATE (06-10-09): Terror Names Linked To Doomed Flight AF 447  Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.

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