Saudi Arabia: Woman Becomes Christian and Flees -- 6 Years and 300 Lashes For her Collaborator

(Riyadh) A Saudi court has sentenced two men to several years of imprisonment and additional flogging, because they have helped a woman to become  Christian and to escape from Saudi Arabia. The daily newspaper Al-Hayat has reported this . The criminal division of the city of Al Jabar has sentenced the Lebanese Christians to six years in prison and 300 lashes. The second man, a Saudi citizen, was sentenced to two years in prison and 200 lashes. Both were colleagues of the woman and announced to appeal against the judgment.

The case became known in 2012, as the media reported on the illegal departure of the Saudi woman, "the young woman from Al Jabar" is how she became known. Saudi women can not leave the country without the consent of their fathers, husbands or guardians. The young woman is believed to be currently in an unknown location, probably in Sweden.

The father of former Muslim woman from the area of ​​Al-Khobar, which was converted to Christianity, had identified the two men. The charge was that they had convinced the woman to give up Islam and helped her with a fake passport to escape from Saudi Arabia.

In the Wahhabi Kingdom, one of the strictest Islamic countries of the world, the Sharia is Islamic law is applied in a particularly radical form. Muslims who convert to another religion can be sentenced to death. Therefore, the woman had left the country hastily.

According to press reports, the woman has taken refuge in Sweden, where she is protected by a charity. The young woman appeared last year in a video which was posted on YouTube in which she explained to profess Christ and to have accepted Christianity through baptism. 

The father of the woman called  the Saudi government to return his daughter  in November 2012. The Saudi embassy in Sweden has been active in "diplomatic channels".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Asianews

A Traditionalist Jew in a Soutane

Edit: This is awesome.

He converted to the Conciliar Church -- and lead his apostolate, despite resistance which he's experienced from their side.

Hw. Oliver Horovitz auf der
Webseite der Pfarrei Le Pradet
© Screenshot

(kreuz.net)  Fr. Oliver Horovitz was ordained for the Archdiocese in 2007.

The bi-monthly newspaper 'L'Homme nouveau' mentioned him in an article of the 30th of June.

He began with the Jewish religion

The clergyman comes from a non-practicing Jewish family.

As an intelligent person he began to consider the meaning of his life.  But he didn't get an answer from philosophy.

He asked God, to show Himself in his life.  That happened.  So, he began to practice the Jewish religion, which his parents had given up.

Called to be a Priest

Accidentally he found the Gospel and read it.  Then he knew that he had to become a priest.  He still didn't know the Church.

He knocked on the door of the nearest Catholic church.  Two years later he was baptized and entered a seminary, which was directed by the Oblates of St. Vincent de Paul:

"There I found -- which today seems a little strange -- a master, to whom I thank and to whom I owe an immense debt."

Priest in the Archdiocese of Paris

On the 23rd of June 2007 Fr. Horovitz was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Paris.

Since his priestly ordination he always wore a soutane.  From the beginning he celebrated as well the New Mass as well as the Holy Mass of the Roman Rite.

At the Parisian Parish of St. George the young priest founded a Catholic recreation area.  Actually, he had to give it up because of Old Liberal resistance.

Retirement to Fréjus-Toulon

In 2008 he had to retire to the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon. The reform Bishop Dominique Rey (59) was glad to have him

Since then he's directed a parish, a school and a Catholic youth club -- near Toulon -- in the 11,500 population community of Le Pradet.

From the beginning he radically broke with the Old Liberal pastoral tone of his predecessors.

In his first sermon he spoke of the last things:  "There are faithful, who have begun to cry against the Church from anger."

Fr. Horovitz received shortly after arrival four anonymous letters with the photo of a revolver and three bullets.

Play and Prayer

He runs with Fr. Blin and some of the parish members a youth outreach and began a new society "Brother and Sisters of the Mission".

His youth effort began with six boys --- in the meantime there are about forty children every week. The group is segregated by age and sex.

Many would ask what sense there is to play ball with children.

Fr. Horovitz answerd that:  "A child, who plays well as a child, prays well."

The greatest enemy is boredom

 Fr. Horovitz is a pragmatist:  "The greatest enemy of the Catechism instruction is boredom"  -- he explained.

The instructor has to be concise:  "When he finishes, the children should say: >>Really?<<".

Link to kreuz.net...

Extraordinary Jewish Converts Arrested and Sent to Auschwitz

Editor: This is actually part of a series in its last part.

"For the Novitiate of Koningshoeven!“

Trappist in Cloister Koningshoeven

During their deportation to Auschwitz six Loeb-Sisters met Edith Stein as well.  by Anscar Christensen


(kreuz.net) After the Pastoral Protest Letter of the Dutch Bishops against National Socialism in 1942 all Catholics of Jewish descent were arrested in the Netherlands.

Among them they found three sons and three siblings of the Jewish Loeb family. They lived as Trappists in two Dutch Cloisters.

The time of their captivity found the Loebs in a brilliant society: Doctors, Intellectuals, educated Dominicans and a great Carmelite, Sister Benedicta a Cruce Edith Stein.

Because of her strong character, Sister Benedicta was the natural leader of the group of deported Jewish religious. The Holy Office and the Rosary was prayed in common.

Witnesses reported that both Loeb priests comforted them and heard their confessions. The Sisters were brave and helpful -- especially to the children.

We don't know anything more than this. The group was sent to the fearful Camp of Auschwitz in Poland. A National Socialist document soberly reported their birth and day of death: August and September 1942.

It was and unconfirmed report from an anonymous letter after that Fathers Ignatius and Nivardus Loeb together with two Polish and two Greek priests were shot, because they had heard confessions.

Father Nivardus, the former assitant of the novice master, called, before the bullets of the firing squad hit him: "For the Novitiate in Koningshoeven!

Sister Veronika Loeb, who contracted a serious case of tuberculosis during their incarceration, was later sent by the SS to the infamous Concentration Camp Westerbork.

Actually after only eight or ten days they let her free again. Her superior sent her thereafter to various hospitals. Finally she died on August 1944 in the Cloister.

The youngest Loeb-brother, Hans, who had not entered into the Cloister, was in any case arrested and was forced to work in a Polish zinc mine.

As the Soviet Troops neared, he was put on an open truck wagon and transported west. He suffered severe frostbite on his feet and died in February 1945 in an infirmary in Auschwitz.

Paula -- the youngest child of family Loeb -- married in Holland. During the war she was hidden in the house of a courageous Catholic in Nijmagen.

She is the only living member of the extraordinary family Loeb.

Link to original...

Anglican churches in Waltham Forest could move en masse to the Catholic Church after a decree issued by Pope Benedict XVI [The Guardian]

St Margaret's, in Woodhouse Road, Leytonstone, St Michael's, in Palmerston Road, Walthamstow, and St Saviour's, in Markhouse Road, Walthamstow, all look set to take the Pope up on his offer.

But some Anglicans believe the Catholic Church’s opposition to the ordination of women and gay rights will be a stumbling block.

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