1 Thessalonians 5
1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3. For when they(The Roman Catholic Church) shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child;( THE MOTHER Church and the HARLOT churches who follow her) and they shall not escape.
4. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Revelation 16 (with understanding)
12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; (War in Iraq) and the water (People) thereof was dried up ( slowly dying off like water evaporating), that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Made Ready for peace talks with "The Community of Sant'Egidio)
13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs (Devilish plans - With long tongues or speeches ) come out of the mouth of the dragon, (ROME) and out of the mouth of the beast, (Roman Catholic Church) and out of the mouth of the false prophet. (The Pope)
14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, (Wonders of World peace making -The Community of Sant'Egidio) which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world,
(United Nations) to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.(there will not be a battle of Armageddon but rather Peace and Safety before the great day of God Almighty)
15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. ( Pack your spiritual suitcase)
16. And he gathered them together into a place( an organization) called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (Community of Sant 'Egidio)(Sant'Egidio or in English
St. Giles he was the Catholic miracle saint) (The Community of Sant'Egidio is considered miracle world peacemakers)
17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. (It is time for the End)
Read in this order:
Understanding Revelation 17
1. And there came one of the seven angels (The sixth) which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: ( The Roman Catholic Church )
15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. (Every Continent in the world, waters - Euphrates, Iraq, people slowly dying )
12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power (Vengeance) as kings one hour with the beast.
13. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14. These shall make war ( Feud, Fight, Disagree ) with the Lamb, ( with the belief of Jesus ) and the Lamb shall overcome them: (them= they believe other than the teachings of Jesus) for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
16. And the ten horns (ten kings) which thou sawest upon the beast, (in ROME) these shall hate the whore, (Roman Catholic, Vatican) and shall make her desolate (made ruin) and naked, (Striped) and shall eat her flesh (externally) , and burn her with fire.
17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree,( Avenge) and give (Bestow) their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. (THE HOLY SEE, VATICAN)
The Peace and Safety talks of
"The Community Of Sant'Egidio" in the USA
(Click Here)
________________________________________
Pope Meets With Sant'Egidio Leaders
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Representatives of the Community of Sant'Egidio presented to Benedict XVI the program for the 2008 Inter religious Prayer Meeting for Peace.
Andrea Riccardi, the community's founder, was present at Monday's meeting in which he personally informed the Pope of the event titled "The Civilization of Peace: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue." It will be held Nov. 16-18 in Cyprus.
Sant'Egidio organizes this meeting every year to keep alive the spirit of the World Day of Prayer called by John Paul II in Assisi 1986. Benedict XVI was present at the 2007 meeting in Naples.
Sant'Egidio is organizing the prayer meeting in conjunction with the Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus, Chrysostom II.
Marco Impagliazzo, the president of Sant'Egidio, and Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni-Narni-Amelia, were also present at the meeting.
The 40-year-old community informed in a communique that in the meeting with Benedict XVI they also discussed "poverty in the world and the care of AIDS in Africa."
________________________
Tuesday August 5, 2oo8
| News Europe | |||||
| | |||||
| Italian army sent on to the streets | |||||
| | |||||
The Italian government has deployed 3,000 soldiers in cities across the country as part of a plan to fight street crime. "This morning we have deployed about 350-400 soldiers of the Italian army at institutional sites and sensitive sites," Lieutenant Colonel Claudio Caruso said. One opposition MP expressed fears that the move at the height of the tourist season could alarm visitors to the city. Paola Zabaglia, a commuter at Anangnina underground station, in a suburb of southeast Rome, welcomed the troop deployment. The measure, proposed by the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, was approved by parliament last month and will remain in effect for six months. Maroni gave details of the operation at Tuesday's news conference. "The forces deployed amount to 3,000 units from the army, the navy, the air force, and Carabinieri with military duties," Maroni said. "Of these, 2,000 are destined to the surveillance of sensitive sites and targets. In particular, 1,000 are destined to exterior surveillance of the immigration centres or CIE (centers for identification and expulsion), formerly known as CPT (centers for temporary stay)." While on the island of Lampedusa, where thousands of migrants have arrived from Africa in recent months seeking to enter Europe, 70 air force troops will replace the police who normally patrol the perimeter of the reception center. But Mario Marazziti, a spokesperson for the Sant'Egidio community which works with immigrant groups in Rome, told Al Jazeera that there was little need for the measures as Milan or Rome were much safer than other cities in Europe.
"We have fewer robberies in apartments in Italy than the UK and we have fewer homicides than the rest of Europe. Italy is absolutely a safe country, a great country. So we are launching a terrible message abroad and people are confused,"he said. Marazziti said there was a complete difference between "reality and the perception of citizens". "This is the result of years of preaching from the Northern League [a right-wing populist party] or from electoral campaigning which has been focusing on security," he said. "So every Italian is convinced he's safe and that where he lives is safe – but that Italy is not safe … it's a real paradox and the perception is that we need more security." | |||||
|
 |
| ||||
Religious leaders wrap up meeting, urging enhanced dialogue between religions |
www.chinaview.cn  2008-07-19 13:36:25 |
| MADRID, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of the world's religions Friday ended a three-day inter-faith conference in Madrid, with calls for enhanced dialogue among people from different religions, civilizations and cultures. The World Conference on Dialogue brought together Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders as well as politicians and other experts on inter-religious dialogue. Dialogue is the most important channel through which people can understand each other and conduct exchanges and cooperation, participants said in their final declaration. They rejected the notion that conflict is inevitable between different cultures and civilizations, and called for efforts to promote common human values and build a harmonious world. Terrorism is one of the main obstacles to dialogue and co-existence, the declaration said. It called for an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and pooling efforts to combat it. Participants expressed the hope that their conclusions and proposals would win support from the UN General Assembly. The gathering showed that dialogue is the best way to promote peace and harmony, said Abdullah al-Turki, secretary-general of the Muslim World League, at a press conference after the meeting. Around 300 people attended the conference, organized by the Muslim World League from an initiative by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. |
Saudi inter-faith conference urges
global anti-terrorism pact
MADRID (AFP) — Islamic, Christian and Jewish leaders Friday called for an international agreement to combat terrorism, at the end of a landmark Saudi-organised conference.
The representatives of the world's great monotheistic religions also appealed for a special session of the UN General Assembly to promote dialogue and prevent "a clash of civilizations."
"Terrorism is a universal phenomenon that requires unified international efforts to combat it in a serious, responsible and just way," participants at the three-day World Conference on Dialogue said in a final communique.
"This demands an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and achieving justice and stability in the world."
They called for more "ways of enhancing understanding and cooperation among people despite differences in their origins, colors and languages," and a "rejection of extremism and terrorism."
Around 200 participants attended the gathering in Madrid, organized by the Mecca-based Muslim World League from an initiative by Saudi King Abdullah and aimed at bringing the world's great monotheistic faiths closer together.
Among the representatives were the secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, Michael Schneider, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is in charge of the Vatican's relations with Muslims.
Tauran said Pope Benedict XVI had expressed "a great interest" in the conference.
"His Holiness is convinced that dialogue based on love and truth is the best way to contribute to harmony, happiness and peace for the people of the earth," he told the closing session.
The cardinal said the conference had "stressed the main convictions that we have in common."
The secretary general of the Muslim World League, Abdullah al-Turki, said more such conferences are planned, including possibly one in Japan.
The event took place against a backdrop of tensions between the Islamic world and the West since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
They range from restrictions on the use of the veil by Muslim women in some European countries to cartoons regarded as blasphemous by Muslims and the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Organisers had billed the conference as a chance for the different religions to "get to know each other."
In that limited respect, observers said it had succeeded. It also demonstrated King Abdullah's desire to restore the tarnished image of Islam in the West since 9/11.
"I expect some important Jewish leaders will be taking back positive reports about the opportunity to engage with Muslims," said Walter Ruby, in charge of Muslim-Jewish relations at the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.
He noted some prior resistance to the event among conservative Jewish elements in the US, "who are suspicious about Muslims and feel this is a PR thing... But I think it was a bold and important step. It was King Adbullah's 'Perestroika' moment," he told AFP.
One leading Muslim participant reported a "very good feeling" during the three days of talks.
"Nowadays, you have news about war everywhere, but there is no news about peace. At this conference, we sat down and had very good relations," the secretary general of the Kuwait-based World Organisation of Pan-Islamic Jurisprudence, Al Seyed AbolGhasem Al Dibaji, told AFP.
The conference however provoked some debate in Spain about the decision to stage it in Madrid rather than in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia remains the only Arab Muslim country to ban all non-Islamic religious practices on its soil, even though it has a large community of expatriates professing other faiths.
Related News
- Chinese religious leaders call for interreligious dialogue at
Xinhua - 1 hour ago - Religious leaders wrap up meeting, urging enhanced dialogue ...
Xinhua - 1 hour ago - Inter-faith conference calls for top-level global dialogue between ...
Xinhua - 3 hours ago
July 16,2008
Spain: Peace and security to dominate faith summit
Saudi officials chose Spain as the site for an inter-faith summit due to its symbolism as a place where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived peacefully for over 500 years.
The scale of the challenge and the glimmer of new possibilities in interreligious understnading is on display at the 16-18 July international interfaith conference convened in Madrid by the Muslim World League.
The meeting follows an initiative by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in bringing Muslims together.
One of the participants is ex-British Prime Minsiter Tony Blair, a hate figure for many Muslims because of his key role in the Iraq war.
Mr Balir, who has made interfaith work one of his priorities since leaving office, told reporters today that without co-existence among the religions, world peace would be very difficult to sustain.
His message echoes that of leading Catholic theologian Hans Kung, whose Global Ethics Foundation seeks to bring together people of goodwill from different backgrounds and beliefs.
The World Council of Churches is being represented at the event by one of its presidents, Patriarch Abune Paulos, head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and by Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France, from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Also attending is Lebanese Minister of Culture Dr Tarek Mitri, a former WCC staff and a member of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East, and the WCC's Director of Inter-religious dialogue and cooperation, the Rev Dr Shanta Premawardhana.
Organized by the Muslim World League at the initiative of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the three-day long "International Conference for Dialogue" is gathering some 200 participants representing Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism.
Islam is the official state religion of Saudi Arabia, while non-Muslim religious services and symbols are banned within the kingdom's territory.
This has led to accusations of appeasement and hypocrisy by civil rights groups.
Tony Blair said this morning that there was a "glimmer" of change sigballed by King Abdullah's role at the event, however, and that the meeting was part of a long and difficult process of encouraging global religious freedom and dialogue.
He spoke of the possibility of a Catholic Church being allowed in the Saudi kingdom. For Protestants and other religious groups, prospects of recognition are thin, however.
MADRID: “I never expected anything like it” was the comment of one Pakistani Muslim attending the World Conference on Dialogue organized by the Muslim World League and hosted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
He could have been speaking for most of the participants at what is proving to be quite an extraordinary experience.
Almost all agree that the diversity of clerics and other delegates is nothing short of remarkable. In addition to those from every corner of the Muslim world and of every variety — Sunni muftis, Shiite imams, jurists, academics and more, there are innumerable bishops, priests, theologians and lay people from all Christian denominations and all parts of the world, plus a veritable phalanx of rabbis — European, American and Israeli — not to mention Hindu priests and Buddhist monks. Doubtless there are others as yet undiscovered.
The variety and color of clerical garb of many seen swirling in the conference hotel lobby and at the opening event at the El Prado Palace was in itself a remarkable statement about the event. This was dialogue in technicolor. Sunni muftis in white thobes, turbaned Shiite imams in brown cloaks, a cardinal in red and black, bishops in purple, bishops in black, bishops with remarkable headgear and jeweled crosses, rabbis with skullcaps and hats, Hindu priests in orange and vermilion, Buddhist monks in gray — it is a riot of color — and all not only mixing together with smiles on their faces and chatting together excitedly, but greeting and hugging each other like long-lost friends. The sight of one Hindu priest in orange cloths wandering along a path outside the royal palace just behind a Saudi imam in white thobe just after the opening event provided all the symbolism that was needed.
But, in fact, most people were in everyday wear, suits in general, and it was not easy to know who was what. At one point, I found myself sitting at a table with an Iraqi who turned out to be a Yazidi, a Japanese man who is Shinto priest — and an Indian Muslim who turned out to be a former correspondent for Arab News!
The symbolism of such a diverse presence at the conference was not lost on the delegates, several of whom are already involved in local interfaith dialogues in various parts of the world. It more than made up for the practical problems which were only to be expected in a conference that was organized at such short notice. It is a direct follow-on to the International Conference on Dialogue which took place in Makkah last month. Only those, it seems, who attended that remarkable event were in any way prepared for the no less extraordinary one in Madrid.
According to one Indian Muslim who was at the Makkah meeting, the Madrid summit is exactly what was envisaged.
The fact that the conference has taken place at all is one that many commented on yesterday. “Who would have imagined such an event as this after 9/11?” said one British participant. An Arab bishop expressed much the same astonishment, but it was astonishment laced with strong admiration: “I never imagined to see so many faiths here.”
Anglican and Roman Catholic priests and Jewish rabbis were equally surprised. For them, the importance of the conference was not what it may achieve in final statements, significant though they may be, but in itself — as proof that people of different faiths can come together without rancor and suspicion and instead with warmth and hope — and work for the common good.
That view was echoed by a senior Melkite Catholic cleric from Jordan; he was fulsome in his praise for King Abdullah and his initiative. “We always need wisdom in political leaders if there is to be peace,” he said. Dialogue and the conference were “of the greatest importance.” But there was realism in his attitude: “This was done by the Saudi leadership; now it is up to us, the participants, to take it to the people.”
For much-admired British rabbi David Rosen, it would, however, be foolish to imagine that religion alone can answer all the questions. “If politicians do not do what is needed, it (dialogue) will fail. Religion cannot succeed by itself.” But he added, politics will fail if it does not take religion into account. Religion needs to be brought into dealing with conflicts as “a source of reconciliation and peace.” Pointing specifically to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he believed that peace initiative after initiative had failed “because there was no religious input.”
But even he is an evident enthusiast about the conference. Enthusiasm is the prevailing mood — that and a sense that King Abdullah has performed a remarkable feat in causing such an event to happen. There is, however, one other sentiment among all here. It is the view that this has to be the first of many such conferences; that if there is no follow-up to Madrid, dialogue will falter.
However, having been given a lead, those here are unlikely to let that happen.
A Spanish bishop walks next to Saudi King
Abdullah during the World Conference on
Dialogue at Pardo Palace in Madrid yesterday
| |
| MADRID: The kings of Saudi Arabia and Spain yesterday urged world religions to join forces in building a more peaceful and harmonious world. It was time to turn “a new page for humanity” in inter-religious understanding, which could help the world recover lost values and emerge from confusion, Saudi King Abdullah said on inaugurating the World Conference on Dialogue, a major inter-faith event sponsored by his country in Madrid. Islam was a religion of moderation and tolerance, the monarch stressed. Earlier initiatives may have failed because they sought to merge religions, an attempt doomed to failure because all religions were convinced of their own beliefs despite God being the same for all, King Abdullah said. Human tragedies were not caused by religions, but by extremism, the monarch explained. Spain’s King Juan Carlos said inter-faith dialogue could help to solve problems including terrorism, hunger, disease and poverty. Muslim World League secretary general Abdullah al-Turki called on delegates attending the three-day conference to produce concrete projects with follow-up plans. Other guests at the inauguration included Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair and US civil rights figure the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Around 250 Muslim, Christian and Jewish clergy and other experts on inter-religious dialogue, including 15 women, were attending the meeting. Experts and intellectuals including Lebanese Culture Minister Tariq Mitri and Vatican inter-faith specialist Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran were to analyse questions such as the civilisational foundations of inter-faith dialogue, ways to promote it, and common human values. The conference, which also includes representatives of Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism, is taking place against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict and controversy over caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, but it was expected to shun political questions. The sessions are closed to the media, with a final communique expected tomorrow. Organised by the Muslim World League, the conference was partly inspired by King Abdullah’s unprecedented meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican in November 2007, and by the International Islamic Conference for Dialogue in Makkah last month. The initiative was praised by the World Jewish Congress as a “significant and timely development”. Cardinal Tauran said Saudi Arabia’s “act of great courage” had come surprisingly quickly after King Abdullah’s meeting with the pope. Inter-religious understanding should be promoted with “prejudice-free” religion studies at universities and by training specialists on inter-faith dialogue, the newsletter of Radio Vatican quoted Tauran as saying. Al-Turki said Spain had been chosen as the host country because of the religious tolerance that characterised it when it was partly under Moorish rule for eight centuries until 1492. Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in relative harmony in Moorish Spain, known as Al Andalus. “The image of Al Andalus made us hold this conference in Spain,” al-Turki told the daily El Mundo. King Abdullah also praised Spain’s support to the Middle East peace process and role in promoting the Euro-Mediterranean partnership. - DPA | |
|
