Lightning Times

Morning Report: 2015-01-02

USA: Former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo dies. Mario Cuomo died at his home in Manhattan on the day his son Andrew Cuomo was being sworn in for a second term as governor. He was 82.

Nigeria: Chibok parents look back in anguish. Parents of the abducted girls spoke at a demonstration in Abuja.

Middle East: Telegraph (UK) profiles Arab Christians fighting for Israel. And Amir Shalayan, profiled in the article, explains why he supports the Jewish State bill.

Sinai Jihadis Kill Coptic Priest

The Coptic priest Mina Aboud Sharween was attacked Saturday by Islamist gunmen in the northern Sinai town of El Arish shortly after the Muslim Brotherhood declared Sinai its center of revolt against the military coup which deposed Mohamed Morsi as president. The Brotherhood criticized Pope Tawardros, leader of Egypt’s 8 million Copts, for giving his blessing for Morsi’s removal by the military.

Morning Report: 2012-06-08

Russia tests ICBM. Video at Breitbart.

Walter Russell Mead: Good news from California. At Via Meadia, electoral reform in California shakes things up; "We’ll see if this helps."

Gay pride celebrations begin in Tel Aviv. 'The streets of Tel Aviv were filled with rainbow-colored pride flags on Friday as thousands of people were taking part in the annual Gay Pride March. The festivities began at 10 a.m. with a community happening at Meir Park with musical performances, celebrity appearances and speeches by public figures such as Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz and Labor leader Shelly Yechimovich. ...'

French anti-Semitic attacker turns himself in. 'Israel Radio reported late Thursday that the lead suspect in last weekend’s anti-Semitic attacks in Lyon, France has turned himself in to police. The suspect and 10 others attacked three people as they left the Beit Menachem Jewish school on Saturday night. The French Interior ministry said the assailants wielded a hammer and an iron bar. ...'

State Department purges religious freedom from human rights reports. Via Counter Jihad Report:

The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.

The new human rights reports–purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered–are also the human rights reports that cover the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role. ...

"His Holines Disowned Christ in Cuba"

Carlos Eire at Babalu on papal fallibility:

Today His Holiness Benedict XVI disowned Christ in Cuba. Today, he averted his eyes from the eleven million crucified Cubans in his midst, as he celebrated the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist. Today, he chose not to speak for the crucified, or to chasten their tormentors. Instead, he spent his time criticizing the so-called embargo, blessing the tyrants, and preaching a platitudinous sermon written for the theological faculty at the University of Regensburg rather than for the Cuban people.

And his subaltern, Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino, archbishop of Havana, beamed with satisfaction at the abject submission of Church to state.

I am saddened, yes, as are many other Cubans. I wept today. I am beyond sad: today has been one of the blackest days for me in a long time. The clouds hung low. At one point the sun was blotted out. I could not help but see eleven million crosses, with bodies writhing on them, stretched from one end of Cuba to the other. But I am not broken. Nor is my faith shaken. God works in mysterious ways. The Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, Pope Benedict XVI has betrayed Cuba. So what? Aside from questions of faith and doctrine, he is as fallible as all of us are, and as prone to moral failure. And as a Catholic, it is my duty to pray for him. ...

Forget the pope. Let Peter weep, when he comes to his senses. Weeping is not for us, nor is whining. Forget any power on earth. Forget the differences between Catholics and non-Catholics. Forget heaven above, forget hell below . Cuba is hell on earth, our hell. Our task is to fight the tyrants and those who set up the eleven million crosses. ...

More from Jack Fowler at The Corner, in a similar vein:

I guess the upside for Cubans is that the cock crowed, and the heir of Peter denied them, so this upcoming Passion Week brings them closer to the Christ of Gethsemane and The Cross. But damn, shouldn’t they have been brought closer to political freedom? Again, it’s something another Holy Father would have done, and did do. But I guess the freedom of Cubans doesn’t equate to the freedom of Europeans.