In his first homily, the pope emphasizes ‘desperately needed’ missionary work.
Video: https://nyti.ms/4k0GekA
The American pontiff celebrated his first Mass as the leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics to an audience of cardinals at the Sistine Chapel.
In Pope Leo XIV’s first homily on Friday, he put himself squarely on the side of “ordinary people,” and against the rich and powerful — a not insignificant statement for the first pope from the world’s richest and most powerful country.
It also seemed that in a church divided between those who want to emphasize the defense of doctrine and those who want to prioritize missionary work, the Chicago-born pope defined himself, first and foremost, as a missionary, and in so doing made it clear he wanted a missionary church. This is what a lot of cardinals supportive of his predecessor, Pope Francis, were looking for going into this week’s conclave, and it seems they found it in Leo.
In his homily during a Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, the pope invoked the story of Jesus, saying that while rich people dismissed him as an inconvenient fanatic, ordinary people found him “not a charlatan but an upright man, one who has courage, who speaks well and says the right things.”
But he noted that they, too, abandoned him when the going got tough. Even for Jesus’ first followers, he was “only a man,” the pope said, and so when he was crucified, they were disappointed and left him.
Leo argued that this was exactly what was going on today, with many spheres — read: mass media, pop culture, government elites, academia, Silicon Valley — perceiving Christianity as “absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent.”
He is a former leader of the international and intellectually rigorous order named for St. Augustine, the fourth-century bishop and writer whose vision of the centrality of faith redefined the church and Western culture by helping bury, and tar, the once influential Greek philosophy of Epicureanism. That worldview, which had a following in some elite ancient Roman circles, prioritized happiness through a moderate pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.
The new pope seemed to echo Augustine when he lamented those “settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power or pleasure.”
By talking about all of this in his first homily, the new pope signaled that he would make spreading the Gospel into this enemy territory a priority of his pontificate, in strong continuity with Francis.
One part of the homily sounded like a mission statement: “These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.”
He added, pointedly, that nominal believers occupy these settings too, people who treat Jesus as a superhero rather than someone who led by his actions, and whose actions true believers need to imitate. He said these Christians live as de facto atheists.
The Chicago-born pope went to Peru as a missionary, and his missionary ethos so impressed Francis, who empowered him and put him in a position to become pope. He ended by telling the cardinals that he, like Francis, saw himself as a simple missionary with the job of spreading the Gospel through his actions. Francis made a habit of excoriating cardinals for putting themselves above their flocks, for living big and forgetting what they were there for. Leo also reminded the cardinals arrayed in front of him, in less harsh but no less uncertain terms, that their job was to be simple missionaries, too.
To emphasize this, the pope spoke of an ancient saint who welcomed his coming martyrdom — being devoured by wild beasts in a Roman arena — because it would remove his body from the picture and let his missionary faith shine through.
“His words apply more generally to an indispensable commitment for all those in the church who exercise a ministry of authority,” Leo said. He argued that the cardinals’ duty was not to take center stage, but to “move aside” and “to make oneself small” so that the faith could grow and spread.
“I say this first of all to myself,” he added.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/09 ... onary-work
Christianity
Re: Christianity
Hail Mary, full of grace: Why popes and other Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary
Video: https://apnews.com/video/why-popes-and- ... 0082469735
BY GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO
Updated 4:30 AM MDT, May 17, 2025
Share
GENAZZANO, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV closed his first public blessing as pontiff with a Hail Mary, after invoking the feast day of Our Lady of Pompei. On his first papal trip, he went to the Sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel in the medieval village of Genazzano and on the drive back stopped to pray by Pope Francis’ tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
That’s just three of a myriad Virgin Marys around the world, whose veneration is central to Catholics from the pope to the ordinary faithful. Even many of the less-than-devout know what it means to throw a Hail Mary.
The month of May is dedicated to Marian celebrations, so here’s a look at the history and traditions about Mary and why praying to her means so much to so many.
One Mary, a myriad titles
According to the Gospel, Mary is the mother of Jesus — and the mystery of the incarnation of the son of God through her is central to Christian dogma.
The oldest title for Mary is precisely “mother of God,” or Theotokos in the original Greek. It was chosen after heated theological debate in the first centuries of Christianity.
St. Mary Major is the oldest still-standing sanctuary dedicated to that, said Giuseppe Falanga, professor of liturgy at Pontificia Universita della Santa Croce in Rome. It was built on one of Rome’s hills in the 5th century — according to tradition, because of the pope’s dream and an August snowfall there on what is now also celebrated as the day of Our Lady of the Snows.
//RELATED STORIES
//What is the traditional Sunday blessing that popes deliver in St. Peter’s Square?https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-sun ... 7496d708a5
//Pope Leo XIV is known as 'Father Bob' among fellow Augustinians. Who are they? https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-xiv ... 2fbdad6046
//Faithful react to Pope Leo's first Sunday blessing in St. Peter's Square https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-xiv ... 3521c0ae49
There are three major categories of titles for Mary — first, those related to dogma and major events in her life.
The Assumption on Aug. 15, for instance, celebrates Mary being taken body and soul into heaven. It’s marked by Masses and religious festivals but also the peak of summer holidays for faithful and atheists alike in countries such as Italy and Greece, where all but the most essential work grinds to a halt on that feast day.
Then there are titles related to apparitions. In December, millions gather in Mexico, and across the Americas, to celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe who, according to church tradition, appeared to an Indigenous man in 1531. Millions more visit the sanctuaries in Fatima, Portugal, and in Lourdes, France, other sites of apparitions in the past few centuries.
And then there are titles based on what pilgrims and faithful want — from Good Counsel to protection (the many “Guard” Marys ) to Star of the Sea, invoked by seafarers.
“It’s almost like there’s a Mary for everything,” said Kayla Harris, professor and director of Marian Library at University of Dayton in Ohio.
It’s also why the rosary is one of the most widely used prayers — including publicly for the pope — and why popular devotions to the Virgin Mary, including processions and festivals, are so central to Christianity, Falanga said.
Different icons, common prayers
How Mary is represented, however, varies greatly across time and places, Harris added.
There are “Black” Virgin Marys — dark-skinned paintings and statues like Brazil’s much beloved Virgin of Aparecida. In rare icons, she’s represented pregnant or as an older woman.
She’s either portrayed alone or, most often, holding the baby Jesus, as in the Genazzano 15th century painting, a close-up of the two faces with Jesus’ fingers holding his mother’s neck. Mary looking at Jesus makes a theological point, too — inviting worshippers to fix their gaze on Christ, not her.
In fact, according to the Catechism, Catholics are to give Mary special veneration, but not worship her — something reserved for God alone, Falanga said.
Motherhood, prayers and the month of May
It’s that relatability as a mother figure that makes Mary so universally appealing as an intercessor before God, Harris said.
Since the 19th century, May has been devoted to the Virgin Mary — though already in Greek and Roman times, goddesses of fertility were celebrated in this month of springtime blooming, she added.
Mother’s Day is also celebrated in May in many countries, including Italy and the United States — and it coincided with Leo’s first public Sunday blessing at noon, a time for another traditional daily invocation to the Virgin Mary.
Two mothers who went to morning Mass on a recent weekday at the Genazzano chapel — where the Mary icon stands — said they pray their children, ranging in age from 18 to 24, will keep the faith.
“The Madonna has been holding my hand since I was a child,” said Anastasia Galizia, who grew up in the village and witnessed Leo’s visit. “I ask her how to love her son and I pray for conversion, for me, for my family and for the whole world.”
At the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome, which is served by Augustinians — Leo’s religious order — there are two popular prayer spots for mothers. One is a sculpture known as the “Labor Madonna” where expecting mothers go; the other is a chapel with the relics of St. Monica, St. Augustine’s mother, who prayed incessantly for his conversion.
“We welcome a lot of moms, who come to pray to St. Monica for their children, who have walked away from the faith, and they ask the Lord for the gift to touch their hearts,” said the Rev. Pasquale Cormio, the basilica’s rector.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-xiv ... 4af85c1b6c
Video: https://apnews.com/video/why-popes-and- ... 0082469735
BY GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO
Updated 4:30 AM MDT, May 17, 2025
Share
GENAZZANO, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV closed his first public blessing as pontiff with a Hail Mary, after invoking the feast day of Our Lady of Pompei. On his first papal trip, he went to the Sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel in the medieval village of Genazzano and on the drive back stopped to pray by Pope Francis’ tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
That’s just three of a myriad Virgin Marys around the world, whose veneration is central to Catholics from the pope to the ordinary faithful. Even many of the less-than-devout know what it means to throw a Hail Mary.
The month of May is dedicated to Marian celebrations, so here’s a look at the history and traditions about Mary and why praying to her means so much to so many.
One Mary, a myriad titles
According to the Gospel, Mary is the mother of Jesus — and the mystery of the incarnation of the son of God through her is central to Christian dogma.
The oldest title for Mary is precisely “mother of God,” or Theotokos in the original Greek. It was chosen after heated theological debate in the first centuries of Christianity.
St. Mary Major is the oldest still-standing sanctuary dedicated to that, said Giuseppe Falanga, professor of liturgy at Pontificia Universita della Santa Croce in Rome. It was built on one of Rome’s hills in the 5th century — according to tradition, because of the pope’s dream and an August snowfall there on what is now also celebrated as the day of Our Lady of the Snows.
//RELATED STORIES
//What is the traditional Sunday blessing that popes deliver in St. Peter’s Square?https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-sun ... 7496d708a5
//Pope Leo XIV is known as 'Father Bob' among fellow Augustinians. Who are they? https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-xiv ... 2fbdad6046
//Faithful react to Pope Leo's first Sunday blessing in St. Peter's Square https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-xiv ... 3521c0ae49
There are three major categories of titles for Mary — first, those related to dogma and major events in her life.
The Assumption on Aug. 15, for instance, celebrates Mary being taken body and soul into heaven. It’s marked by Masses and religious festivals but also the peak of summer holidays for faithful and atheists alike in countries such as Italy and Greece, where all but the most essential work grinds to a halt on that feast day.
Then there are titles related to apparitions. In December, millions gather in Mexico, and across the Americas, to celebrate the Virgin of Guadalupe who, according to church tradition, appeared to an Indigenous man in 1531. Millions more visit the sanctuaries in Fatima, Portugal, and in Lourdes, France, other sites of apparitions in the past few centuries.
And then there are titles based on what pilgrims and faithful want — from Good Counsel to protection (the many “Guard” Marys ) to Star of the Sea, invoked by seafarers.
“It’s almost like there’s a Mary for everything,” said Kayla Harris, professor and director of Marian Library at University of Dayton in Ohio.
It’s also why the rosary is one of the most widely used prayers — including publicly for the pope — and why popular devotions to the Virgin Mary, including processions and festivals, are so central to Christianity, Falanga said.
Different icons, common prayers
How Mary is represented, however, varies greatly across time and places, Harris added.
There are “Black” Virgin Marys — dark-skinned paintings and statues like Brazil’s much beloved Virgin of Aparecida. In rare icons, she’s represented pregnant or as an older woman.
She’s either portrayed alone or, most often, holding the baby Jesus, as in the Genazzano 15th century painting, a close-up of the two faces with Jesus’ fingers holding his mother’s neck. Mary looking at Jesus makes a theological point, too — inviting worshippers to fix their gaze on Christ, not her.
In fact, according to the Catechism, Catholics are to give Mary special veneration, but not worship her — something reserved for God alone, Falanga said.
Motherhood, prayers and the month of May
It’s that relatability as a mother figure that makes Mary so universally appealing as an intercessor before God, Harris said.
Since the 19th century, May has been devoted to the Virgin Mary — though already in Greek and Roman times, goddesses of fertility were celebrated in this month of springtime blooming, she added.
Mother’s Day is also celebrated in May in many countries, including Italy and the United States — and it coincided with Leo’s first public Sunday blessing at noon, a time for another traditional daily invocation to the Virgin Mary.
Two mothers who went to morning Mass on a recent weekday at the Genazzano chapel — where the Mary icon stands — said they pray their children, ranging in age from 18 to 24, will keep the faith.
“The Madonna has been holding my hand since I was a child,” said Anastasia Galizia, who grew up in the village and witnessed Leo’s visit. “I ask her how to love her son and I pray for conversion, for me, for my family and for the whole world.”
At the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome, which is served by Augustinians — Leo’s religious order — there are two popular prayer spots for mothers. One is a sculpture known as the “Labor Madonna” where expecting mothers go; the other is a chapel with the relics of St. Monica, St. Augustine’s mother, who prayed incessantly for his conversion.
“We welcome a lot of moms, who come to pray to St. Monica for their children, who have walked away from the faith, and they ask the Lord for the gift to touch their hearts,” said the Rev. Pasquale Cormio, the basilica’s rector.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
https://apnews.com/article/pope-leo-xiv ... 4af85c1b6c
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Re: Christianity
The Israeli settlers crept up to the ancient church perched above the West Bank’s last Christian-majority town.
As they reached the outer walls, they crouched down to light a ring of fire. Then they revved the engines of their secret weapons brought to fan the flames: garden leaf blowers.
Residents watched in horror as the blaze spread closer to the Church of St George, which dates back to the fifth century. The flames were doused, but not for long. That evening, settlers returned to the town of Taybeh with assault rifles. The same happened the next day and three days after that.
Bashar Fawadleh, the parish priest, told The Telegraph: “Each time we called the Israeli police, but they did not come. “If they attack our sacred site, they can attack anything of ours.”
Settler attacks on Palestinians are on the rise across the occupied West Bank, where roughly half a million Israelis live in Jewish settlements among three million Palestinians.
Five Palestinians have been killed in the last two weeks in villages and towns not far from Taybeh, including Sinjil where two men, including a dual US citizen, were beaten to death by settlers on July 12, prompting fury from the Trump administration.
While most of the violence is directed against Muslims, settlers have started to attack Palestinian Christian villages like Taybeh.
The once-flourishing Christian community in the West Bank has dramatically shrunk to less than 2 per cent of the population as many emigrated abroad to escape the violence and religious discrimination.
The same has happened in Gaza, where its roughly 1,000 Christians are mostly sheltering in the war-battered Strip’s last three churches, one of which was attacked by Israeli forces last week, killing three civilians.
Father Bashar Fawadleh
Father Bashar Fawadleh fears the attacks will drive Christian families from his parish - Maya Levin for The Telegraph
Walking around the scorched earth that now encircles the Church of St George, Father Bashar warned: “This is just the beginning. They want to put fear in our hearts to live here.
“These attacks will bleed the town of people as they leave scared. We have lost 10 families already in the past two years.”
Emboldened settlers have set up illegal outposts closer to the town. A makeshift sign written in Hebrew erected outside the ancient town in June read: “There is no future for you here.”
“The settlers are making problems for us every day. Assaulting, vandalising, terrorising, terrifying our families, destroying our fields of olive trees, damaging our properties,” he said.
There were more than 750 incidents of settler violence recorded in the first half of this year, up from 216 for the whole of 2023, according to the United Nations.
The settler community is seizing the moment to annex land Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six Day War, encouraged by hard-Right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who come from settler backgrounds.
The Israeli settlers first attacked Taybeh, north east of Ramallah – the de facto capital of the Palestinian territory – just before the Oct 7 massacre in southern Israel.
During the devastating war that followed in Gaza, the situation has grown dire.
Visiting Taybeh, the Patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem condemned the most recent violence as “clearly part of the systematic attacks against Christians that we see unfolding throughout the region”.
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel who is an evangelical Christian and staunch advocate of Israeli settlement construction, also toured the blackened church site on Saturday.
He called the attacks an “act of terror” and demanded “harsh consequences” for the perpetrators. But he did not attribute the attack to settlers.
Last week, the settlers grazed their cattle at the church, in what residents said was a desecration of the holy site.
Throwing his hands in the air, Suleiman Khouryeh, Taybeh’s mayor, said: “We cannot protect the town, they are armed, we are not.”
He believes the settlers are taunting the residents, trying to get them to answer with violence. “And we will not,” he said.
The mayor is on high alert after the recent killings in Sinjil. “What happened there could at any moment happen to us – the settlers don’t care whether we are Christian or Muslim. We are under attack because we are Palestinian.”
Affirming what other witnesses had told The Telegraph, he said that Israeli police provided no help. “We call the Israeli guards for help and no one comes. Who will protect us?”
The future of the community is in peril, he warned. “The youth has lost hope, there is no work, no safety, no life, no future and they want to leave.”
Standing on an arid hill above Taybeh, Ramiz Akhoury pointed towards a huge swath of land to the east of the town, which hosts thousands of olive trees, sheep and chicken farms and fields of crops – the lifeblood of the local economy.
“They have taken it all,” the 37-year-old olive oil producer said forlornly. Over the past two years, he estimates that the settlers have seized 3,000 acres, which includes 70 per cent of his own land.
“They steal our farming equipment, cut our trees, burn them…We are all scared,” he said. In an attack last year, his uncle and aunt were badly beaten while working on the land.
He showed The Telegraph dozens of videos showing the settlers grazing their cattle through Palestinian land, destroying vegetation and olive trees, as well as gun-wielding settlers burning land.
“Why do they come to us carrying guns. Do they want peace? I do not think so,” he said.
In the face of the persistent violence and intimidation, farmers like Mr Akhoury have been forced to surrender most of their best land, ridding many of their livelihoods.
Eid Kabnaeh, a 63-year-old Muslim-Palestinian, lives with 100 members of his extended family, creating their own small village on the outskirts of Taybeh.
A tightly-wired fence has been erected around their open front room to stop settlers throwing stones at them when they drive-by, sometimes in a Jeep that was stolen from the family in April.
They said they have been the target of settler attacks for four years, despite their home being 50 yards away from an Israeli military barracks.
The family lives in constant fear of the next attack, not knowing when or how it will come. “We are scared to move, we do not take our sheep to the valley to graze, they steal our cars, detain our children, behave like the military,” Mr Kabnaeh said.
On June 25, dozens of men attacked the family while they prayed. “We smelt the fires before we felt them,” Mr Kabnaeh said.
Footage shows masked attackers setting fire to their cars and then trying to burn their homes. Many of the women and children suffered badly from smoke inhalation.
“It is hard to talk about what happened. The children were the most afraid, now they have nightmares,” Mr Kabnaeh added.
Before leaving, the settlers painted a large Star of David on their outside wall. Mr Kabnaeh claimed that Israeli police just stood and watched from their base..
If it is not the settlers, he said the Israeli Police harassing the family sometimes daily, often weekly.
“They come at night for checks all the time,” he said, describing how they pulled the house apart and separated the men from the women and children. “We don’t know what they are looking for, they never find anything.”
Despite the relentless threats and violence, when asked if he would move, he shook his head and said: “I will continue to live here, this is my land, this is my home, my future.”
Illegal actions given legitimacy
A report in December by Peace Now and Kerem Navot, Israel-based rights groups, said that settlers, with the backing of the Israeli military and government, have seized 14 per cent of the West Bank through establishing outposts and driving Palestinian farming communities out.
Yonatan Mizrachi, the co-director of Settlement Watch at Peace Now, said the levels of settler violence that has been seen since Oct 7 “cannot happen without government support, indirectly or directly”, and the [coalition’s decision not to enforce the law”.
“The settlers right now feel strong and that their illegal actions have been given legitimacy by the government,” he added.
Israel Police confirmed it had received reports from residents of an arson attack near the church and said a “thorough investigation” would be carried out.
“If arson is confirmed, justice will be pursued regardless of race or background,” a statement said.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: “Contrary to claims regarding the arson of a church in the village area, such incidents are not known to the IDF. Fires near the church are known and were extinguished by Israeli civilians.”
It confirmed it had received reports of fires being set in an open area near Taybeh on July 8 and several suspects setting fire to land on July 11. In the latter incident, the IDF said it dispatched forces but “found no suspects in the act of arson”.
It added: “Regarding the question of military presence around the village, the IDF operates continuously in Judea and Samaria against terrorist activity and to improve the security of all area residents.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ar ... 00363.html
As they reached the outer walls, they crouched down to light a ring of fire. Then they revved the engines of their secret weapons brought to fan the flames: garden leaf blowers.
Residents watched in horror as the blaze spread closer to the Church of St George, which dates back to the fifth century. The flames were doused, but not for long. That evening, settlers returned to the town of Taybeh with assault rifles. The same happened the next day and three days after that.
Bashar Fawadleh, the parish priest, told The Telegraph: “Each time we called the Israeli police, but they did not come. “If they attack our sacred site, they can attack anything of ours.”
Settler attacks on Palestinians are on the rise across the occupied West Bank, where roughly half a million Israelis live in Jewish settlements among three million Palestinians.
Five Palestinians have been killed in the last two weeks in villages and towns not far from Taybeh, including Sinjil where two men, including a dual US citizen, were beaten to death by settlers on July 12, prompting fury from the Trump administration.
While most of the violence is directed against Muslims, settlers have started to attack Palestinian Christian villages like Taybeh.
The once-flourishing Christian community in the West Bank has dramatically shrunk to less than 2 per cent of the population as many emigrated abroad to escape the violence and religious discrimination.
The same has happened in Gaza, where its roughly 1,000 Christians are mostly sheltering in the war-battered Strip’s last three churches, one of which was attacked by Israeli forces last week, killing three civilians.
Father Bashar Fawadleh
Father Bashar Fawadleh fears the attacks will drive Christian families from his parish - Maya Levin for The Telegraph
Walking around the scorched earth that now encircles the Church of St George, Father Bashar warned: “This is just the beginning. They want to put fear in our hearts to live here.
“These attacks will bleed the town of people as they leave scared. We have lost 10 families already in the past two years.”
Emboldened settlers have set up illegal outposts closer to the town. A makeshift sign written in Hebrew erected outside the ancient town in June read: “There is no future for you here.”
“The settlers are making problems for us every day. Assaulting, vandalising, terrorising, terrifying our families, destroying our fields of olive trees, damaging our properties,” he said.
There were more than 750 incidents of settler violence recorded in the first half of this year, up from 216 for the whole of 2023, according to the United Nations.
The settler community is seizing the moment to annex land Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six Day War, encouraged by hard-Right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who come from settler backgrounds.
The Israeli settlers first attacked Taybeh, north east of Ramallah – the de facto capital of the Palestinian territory – just before the Oct 7 massacre in southern Israel.
During the devastating war that followed in Gaza, the situation has grown dire.
Visiting Taybeh, the Patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem condemned the most recent violence as “clearly part of the systematic attacks against Christians that we see unfolding throughout the region”.
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel who is an evangelical Christian and staunch advocate of Israeli settlement construction, also toured the blackened church site on Saturday.
He called the attacks an “act of terror” and demanded “harsh consequences” for the perpetrators. But he did not attribute the attack to settlers.
Last week, the settlers grazed their cattle at the church, in what residents said was a desecration of the holy site.
Throwing his hands in the air, Suleiman Khouryeh, Taybeh’s mayor, said: “We cannot protect the town, they are armed, we are not.”
He believes the settlers are taunting the residents, trying to get them to answer with violence. “And we will not,” he said.
The mayor is on high alert after the recent killings in Sinjil. “What happened there could at any moment happen to us – the settlers don’t care whether we are Christian or Muslim. We are under attack because we are Palestinian.”
Affirming what other witnesses had told The Telegraph, he said that Israeli police provided no help. “We call the Israeli guards for help and no one comes. Who will protect us?”
The future of the community is in peril, he warned. “The youth has lost hope, there is no work, no safety, no life, no future and they want to leave.”
Standing on an arid hill above Taybeh, Ramiz Akhoury pointed towards a huge swath of land to the east of the town, which hosts thousands of olive trees, sheep and chicken farms and fields of crops – the lifeblood of the local economy.
“They have taken it all,” the 37-year-old olive oil producer said forlornly. Over the past two years, he estimates that the settlers have seized 3,000 acres, which includes 70 per cent of his own land.
“They steal our farming equipment, cut our trees, burn them…We are all scared,” he said. In an attack last year, his uncle and aunt were badly beaten while working on the land.
He showed The Telegraph dozens of videos showing the settlers grazing their cattle through Palestinian land, destroying vegetation and olive trees, as well as gun-wielding settlers burning land.
“Why do they come to us carrying guns. Do they want peace? I do not think so,” he said.
In the face of the persistent violence and intimidation, farmers like Mr Akhoury have been forced to surrender most of their best land, ridding many of their livelihoods.
Eid Kabnaeh, a 63-year-old Muslim-Palestinian, lives with 100 members of his extended family, creating their own small village on the outskirts of Taybeh.
A tightly-wired fence has been erected around their open front room to stop settlers throwing stones at them when they drive-by, sometimes in a Jeep that was stolen from the family in April.
They said they have been the target of settler attacks for four years, despite their home being 50 yards away from an Israeli military barracks.
The family lives in constant fear of the next attack, not knowing when or how it will come. “We are scared to move, we do not take our sheep to the valley to graze, they steal our cars, detain our children, behave like the military,” Mr Kabnaeh said.
On June 25, dozens of men attacked the family while they prayed. “We smelt the fires before we felt them,” Mr Kabnaeh said.
Footage shows masked attackers setting fire to their cars and then trying to burn their homes. Many of the women and children suffered badly from smoke inhalation.
“It is hard to talk about what happened. The children were the most afraid, now they have nightmares,” Mr Kabnaeh added.
Before leaving, the settlers painted a large Star of David on their outside wall. Mr Kabnaeh claimed that Israeli police just stood and watched from their base..
If it is not the settlers, he said the Israeli Police harassing the family sometimes daily, often weekly.
“They come at night for checks all the time,” he said, describing how they pulled the house apart and separated the men from the women and children. “We don’t know what they are looking for, they never find anything.”
Despite the relentless threats and violence, when asked if he would move, he shook his head and said: “I will continue to live here, this is my land, this is my home, my future.”
Illegal actions given legitimacy
A report in December by Peace Now and Kerem Navot, Israel-based rights groups, said that settlers, with the backing of the Israeli military and government, have seized 14 per cent of the West Bank through establishing outposts and driving Palestinian farming communities out.
Yonatan Mizrachi, the co-director of Settlement Watch at Peace Now, said the levels of settler violence that has been seen since Oct 7 “cannot happen without government support, indirectly or directly”, and the [coalition’s decision not to enforce the law”.
“The settlers right now feel strong and that their illegal actions have been given legitimacy by the government,” he added.
Israel Police confirmed it had received reports from residents of an arson attack near the church and said a “thorough investigation” would be carried out.
“If arson is confirmed, justice will be pursued regardless of race or background,” a statement said.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: “Contrary to claims regarding the arson of a church in the village area, such incidents are not known to the IDF. Fires near the church are known and were extinguished by Israeli civilians.”
It confirmed it had received reports of fires being set in an open area near Taybeh on July 8 and several suspects setting fire to land on July 11. In the latter incident, the IDF said it dispatched forces but “found no suspects in the act of arson”.
It added: “Regarding the question of military presence around the village, the IDF operates continuously in Judea and Samaria against terrorist activity and to improve the security of all area residents.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ar ... 00363.html
Re: Christianity
With Festivities and Papal Prayer, the Vatican Aims to Attract the Young
At a gathering that has been called the “Catholic Woodstock,” the church has embraced influencers on social media as a way to engage the youth.
Pope Leo XIV arriving at the festival in a Roman suburb on Saturday evening, the culmination of the Vatican’s six-day celebration of youth in the church.Credit...Remo Casilli/Reuters
Elisabetta Povoledo
By Elisabetta Povoledo
Reporting from Vatican City and Rome
Aug. 2, 2025
Nuns danced in conga lines. Teenagers bounced up and down to the rhythm of bongo drums. And thousands sang along as singers and bands alternated sets on the huge stage built just last month in a Roman suburb for a youth festival that has become known as the Catholic Woodstock.
“This is the youth of the pope!” many chanted.
The chant turned into a roar when Pope Leo XIV arrived at the site by helicopter on Saturday evening for a vigil of prayer and readings. He will return to the site on Sunday for an early morning Mass.
After moving through the crowd in an open popemobile, Leo carried a cross up steep stairs to an altar on the stage. He presided over a service that included responses to questions posed by young faithful, switching among Spanish, Italian and English.
“My prayer for you is that you may persevere in faith, with joy and courage,” he said to applause.
Image
The pope waving from an open vehicle with a crowd around him.
Pope Leo XIV arriving at the youth festival in an open popemobile on Saturday.Credit...Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
Christina Mertens, who works for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, Calif., was among the hundreds of thousands of people who converged on Rome over the past week for the six-day event, which ends on Sunday, after an outdoor sleepover at the festival site and the Mass.
Back home, she said, she didn’t see many young adults at church, “I think a lot people are busy with other priorities,” she said. But on Saturday, at the concert, she felt invigorated. “Being here I was realizing, wow, this is exactly what we need to see for the church.”
World Youth Day, as it is known, is held every two or three years in various locations around the world. This year, it coincided with the Roman Catholic Jubilee — a holy year that usually takes place every 25 years — and kicked off with a gathering of hundreds of mostly young Catholics from 70 countries who promote their faith online.
That reflects the Vatican’s growing recognition of the importance of Catholic social media influencers in its efforts to engage more young people.
Image
Several men play bongo drums with a crowd in the background.
Playing bongo drums Saturday as part of the Catholic church’s World Youth Day and Jubilee of Youth celebrations. Credit...Matteo Ciambelli/Reuters
“It was right that the Church recognized this new type of evangelization and supported it” in an official manner, said Nicola Campo, 19, a popular Italian TikTok influencer. He attended the two-day Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, and on Friday, met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.
The week’s events also included an opening Mass at St. Peter’s Square, confession stations set up at the Circus Maximus, and other concerts and seminars as well as prayers in churches and basilicas.
St. John Paul II created World Youth Day in 1985 to tap into what he saw as a reservoir of authentic faith among young people. Some four million youths participated in the event in Manila in 1995, which is still a record. During the 2000 celebration, also held in Rome, two million people attended. This year the turnout was expected to be about 500,000.
The reason for the drop in attendance this year is not clear. But studies by universities, think-tanks and research centers show that, especially in the West, many young people, even if they identify as spiritual, express skepticism of traditional religious institutions. Studies also show that there has been an increase in people with no religious affiliation.
“We see that young people are searching for something spiritual,” said the Reverend José María Díaz-Dorronsoro, of the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome. But “this doesn’t mean that they are turning to a traditional religion” or going to Mass. The university is one of seven that participated in a study of young people’s attitudes toward faith and religion, presented at a seminar in Rome last month.
He noted many possible reasons, including disagreement with some of the church’s stance on moral issues, including contraception, acceptance of gay marriage and abortion, as surveys of young Christians in the United States show. There is also frayed trust caused by the clerical abuse scandal, he said.
Image
A large crowd is gathered on a sunny hillside.
A large crowd at the youth festival outside Rome eagerly awaited the expected appearance Saturday of Pope Leo XIV. Credit...Yara Nardi/Reuters
At the same time, there is a risk of growing “religious illiteracy” within the family, said Rita Bichi, a sociologist at the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore who studies youth participation in religion.
The reason, she said, is that some women, who traditionally transmit the faith in their families, have been leaving the church in part because they feel excluded. The need to better include women in decision-making positions in the church has repeatedly emerged as a priority of Catholics worldwide.
For many young people, being Catholic is difficult in today’s world with all its distractions, especially going to Mass and participating in the Church, said Andres Maria Rodriguez, 20, a first-year engineering student from Chiapas, Mexico, who attended the festival. He said being there was a jolt of positive energy. “It’s been insane, a once in a lifetime experience,” he said.
The Church has long been trying to expand its appeal to young people; for years the Vatican has run an account for the pope on social media. In September, the Vatican will canonize the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. He had created a website on eucharistic miracles, and his youth and deep faith spread his appeal among young Catholics after his death. Some call him “God’s influencer.”
Thousands of young people this week thronged to a church in downtown Rome to pray before a relic of Acutis.
Katie Prejean McGrady, who hosts a show on Sirius FM, was one of several hundred Catholics who participated in the gathering of digital influencers.
Image
Three women dance with tents and flags in the background.
Dancing at the music festival Saturday, part of the Vatican’s celebration of World Youth Day and the Jubilee of Youth. Credit...Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“It was a joyous celebration of this group of people doing this particular kind of work,” she said. And then the church saying, “we’re supporting you in this,” she said.
“It would be strange for the church not to do so,” given that in its history the church had always adopted the language of its time, said Reverend Lucio Ruiz, who heads the Vatican’s communication department, which organized the event.
Brett Robinson, a professor who studies the digital world from the University of Notre Dame, also attended. He said outreach online was “a very effective route to evangelization.” But he and others also discussed the dangers of using a medium that focuses on personalities who often turn into brands.
But those concerns did not dampen the enthusiasm at Saturday’s gathering.
In a moment when “it’s so easy to feel like faith is dying,” said Vanessa Garlepp, 24, a biomedical engineer, from Orange County, Calif. “it’s really beautiful to see just the unity and the energy of the young church. It gives a lot of hope.”
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/worl ... -pope.html
At a gathering that has been called the “Catholic Woodstock,” the church has embraced influencers on social media as a way to engage the youth.
Pope Leo XIV arriving at the festival in a Roman suburb on Saturday evening, the culmination of the Vatican’s six-day celebration of youth in the church.Credit...Remo Casilli/Reuters
Elisabetta Povoledo
By Elisabetta Povoledo
Reporting from Vatican City and Rome
Aug. 2, 2025
Nuns danced in conga lines. Teenagers bounced up and down to the rhythm of bongo drums. And thousands sang along as singers and bands alternated sets on the huge stage built just last month in a Roman suburb for a youth festival that has become known as the Catholic Woodstock.
“This is the youth of the pope!” many chanted.
The chant turned into a roar when Pope Leo XIV arrived at the site by helicopter on Saturday evening for a vigil of prayer and readings. He will return to the site on Sunday for an early morning Mass.
After moving through the crowd in an open popemobile, Leo carried a cross up steep stairs to an altar on the stage. He presided over a service that included responses to questions posed by young faithful, switching among Spanish, Italian and English.
“My prayer for you is that you may persevere in faith, with joy and courage,” he said to applause.
Image
The pope waving from an open vehicle with a crowd around him.
Pope Leo XIV arriving at the youth festival in an open popemobile on Saturday.Credit...Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
Christina Mertens, who works for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, Calif., was among the hundreds of thousands of people who converged on Rome over the past week for the six-day event, which ends on Sunday, after an outdoor sleepover at the festival site and the Mass.
Back home, she said, she didn’t see many young adults at church, “I think a lot people are busy with other priorities,” she said. But on Saturday, at the concert, she felt invigorated. “Being here I was realizing, wow, this is exactly what we need to see for the church.”
World Youth Day, as it is known, is held every two or three years in various locations around the world. This year, it coincided with the Roman Catholic Jubilee — a holy year that usually takes place every 25 years — and kicked off with a gathering of hundreds of mostly young Catholics from 70 countries who promote their faith online.
That reflects the Vatican’s growing recognition of the importance of Catholic social media influencers in its efforts to engage more young people.
Image
Several men play bongo drums with a crowd in the background.
Playing bongo drums Saturday as part of the Catholic church’s World Youth Day and Jubilee of Youth celebrations. Credit...Matteo Ciambelli/Reuters
“It was right that the Church recognized this new type of evangelization and supported it” in an official manner, said Nicola Campo, 19, a popular Italian TikTok influencer. He attended the two-day Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, and on Friday, met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.
The week’s events also included an opening Mass at St. Peter’s Square, confession stations set up at the Circus Maximus, and other concerts and seminars as well as prayers in churches and basilicas.
St. John Paul II created World Youth Day in 1985 to tap into what he saw as a reservoir of authentic faith among young people. Some four million youths participated in the event in Manila in 1995, which is still a record. During the 2000 celebration, also held in Rome, two million people attended. This year the turnout was expected to be about 500,000.
The reason for the drop in attendance this year is not clear. But studies by universities, think-tanks and research centers show that, especially in the West, many young people, even if they identify as spiritual, express skepticism of traditional religious institutions. Studies also show that there has been an increase in people with no religious affiliation.
“We see that young people are searching for something spiritual,” said the Reverend José María Díaz-Dorronsoro, of the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome. But “this doesn’t mean that they are turning to a traditional religion” or going to Mass. The university is one of seven that participated in a study of young people’s attitudes toward faith and religion, presented at a seminar in Rome last month.
He noted many possible reasons, including disagreement with some of the church’s stance on moral issues, including contraception, acceptance of gay marriage and abortion, as surveys of young Christians in the United States show. There is also frayed trust caused by the clerical abuse scandal, he said.
Image
A large crowd is gathered on a sunny hillside.
A large crowd at the youth festival outside Rome eagerly awaited the expected appearance Saturday of Pope Leo XIV. Credit...Yara Nardi/Reuters
At the same time, there is a risk of growing “religious illiteracy” within the family, said Rita Bichi, a sociologist at the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore who studies youth participation in religion.
The reason, she said, is that some women, who traditionally transmit the faith in their families, have been leaving the church in part because they feel excluded. The need to better include women in decision-making positions in the church has repeatedly emerged as a priority of Catholics worldwide.
For many young people, being Catholic is difficult in today’s world with all its distractions, especially going to Mass and participating in the Church, said Andres Maria Rodriguez, 20, a first-year engineering student from Chiapas, Mexico, who attended the festival. He said being there was a jolt of positive energy. “It’s been insane, a once in a lifetime experience,” he said.
The Church has long been trying to expand its appeal to young people; for years the Vatican has run an account for the pope on social media. In September, the Vatican will canonize the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. He had created a website on eucharistic miracles, and his youth and deep faith spread his appeal among young Catholics after his death. Some call him “God’s influencer.”
Thousands of young people this week thronged to a church in downtown Rome to pray before a relic of Acutis.
Katie Prejean McGrady, who hosts a show on Sirius FM, was one of several hundred Catholics who participated in the gathering of digital influencers.
Image
Three women dance with tents and flags in the background.
Dancing at the music festival Saturday, part of the Vatican’s celebration of World Youth Day and the Jubilee of Youth. Credit...Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“It was a joyous celebration of this group of people doing this particular kind of work,” she said. And then the church saying, “we’re supporting you in this,” she said.
“It would be strange for the church not to do so,” given that in its history the church had always adopted the language of its time, said Reverend Lucio Ruiz, who heads the Vatican’s communication department, which organized the event.
Brett Robinson, a professor who studies the digital world from the University of Notre Dame, also attended. He said outreach online was “a very effective route to evangelization.” But he and others also discussed the dangers of using a medium that focuses on personalities who often turn into brands.
But those concerns did not dampen the enthusiasm at Saturday’s gathering.
In a moment when “it’s so easy to feel like faith is dying,” said Vanessa Garlepp, 24, a biomedical engineer, from Orange County, Calif. “it’s really beautiful to see just the unity and the energy of the young church. It gives a lot of hope.”
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/worl ... -pope.html