!catholics this is our guy

Also ill pay 2500 Marsey bucks and 2500 DC to commission a set of Wolverine Marseys

I don't know if you necessarily believe this but I feel the angels give me signs in the form of numbers whenever I looked at a clock I would always see an angel number. And as crazy as it seems the numbers where never wrong and almost always seemed to match whatever I was thinking in the moment or answering a prayer.

I prayed to God in 2020 I was really depressed that year and almost attempted suicide. Now I didn't come out as trans till October 3rd of 2020 I did come out as pan on the Jan 1st 0f 2020 though. I was so mentally ill to being digonsed with a schizophrenic spectrum disorder To. That caused me to get into trouble with the law. I rember almost wanting to murder my mom for some reason. And how scared I got I had a dream of seeing a demon and I couldn't move in this dream and that's when I knew I let evil get the best of me. I feel terrible for the times I broke the law and I asked for forgiveness. And I kid you not my prayers seemed to work a bit bec I was never convicted and I was never sent to juvie either. And I was given a number which mentioned something about starting over. It's almost as if god though I was worth saving.

Eventually I began to use these numbers more and more and I even asked tjem of being pansexul and trans was okay and the numbers just said you make your life a reality which means if you act bad you will have bad things happen. If you act good things will happen.

I felt as far as the transgender thing went I figured god wants us to choose our gender and sexuality and god does not control it. And God isn't this continue freak like alot of transphobic and homophonic christants make them to be.

And I still get these numbers sending positive messages that it's okay to be the way I am. It also mentioned that my partner would be a man almost as If it knew despite being a woman in a man's body I still dated men as If I was a woman.

that is so chill

An update about my son wanting to go to youth group...

I decided to email the youth pastor before talking to my son. I asked the church's views on LGBTQ rights, single parents, how salvation focused their teachings were, etc.

I got back the attached email.

So I sat my son down and explained that this church would not accept his trans aunt and friends, his queer aunt, me as a single mom who's never been married.

His response was "well that's stupid, now I don't want to go".

People here were right - he was looking for a group to make friends at. We've decided on Scouts (Canada, much more liberal than the US version) and either swimming lessons or karate.

We are going to go to the Unitarian Church and see if he wants to go regularly.

SO RELIEVED. I am so thankful I have an awesome kid.

fricking unitarians lmao

!catholics we are going to make it

!catholics !christians

I normally can't watch his videos because his cadence kills me but this one is fricking more chill.

I think he makes good points. Not Trad Cath "pope is fricking evil" garbage but makes reasonable critics of his statements and lack of follow up at the fricking interfaith youth conference and about the fricking US presidential election.

Tell me your thoughts.

!catholics !christians Happy 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First Reading

The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear;

and I have not rebelled,

have not turned back.

I gave my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;

my face I did not shield

from buffets and spitting.

The Lord GOD is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced;

I have set my face like flint,

knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

He is near who upholds my right;

if anyone wishes to oppose me,

let us appear together.

Who disputes my right?

Let that man confront me.

See, the Lord GOD is my help;

who will prove me wrong?

-Isaiah 50:5-9a

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Responsorial Psalm

'R. (9) I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.

or:

R. Alleluia.

I love the LORD because he has heard

my voice in supplication,

because he has inclined his ear to me

the day I called.

R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The cords of death encompassed me;

the snares of the netherworld seized upon me;

I fell into distress and sorrow,

and I called upon the name of the LORD,

"O LORD, save my life!"

R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Gracious is the LORD and just;

yes, our God is merciful.

The LORD keeps the little ones;

I was brought low, and he saved me.

R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.

or:

R. Alleluia.

For he has freed my soul from death,

my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

I shall walk before the Lord

in the land of the living.

R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.

or:

R. Alleluia.

-Psalms 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Second Reading

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,

if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

Can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister has nothing to wear

and has no food for the day,

and one of you says to them,

"Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, "

but you do not give them the necessities of the body,

what good is it?

So also faith of itself,

if it does not have works, is dead.

Indeed someone might say,

"You have faith and I have works."

Demonstrate your faith to me without works,

and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

-James 2:14-18

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord

through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

-Galatians 6:14

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gospel

Jesus and his disciples set out

for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.

Along the way he asked his disciples,

"Who do people say that I am?"

They said in reply,

"John the Baptist, others Elijah,

still others one of the prophets."

And he asked them,

"But who do you say that I am?"

Peter said to him in reply,

"You are the Christ."

Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them

that the Son of Man must suffer greatly

and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,

and be killed, and rise after three days.

He spoke this openly.

Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,

rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.

You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,

take up his cross, and follow me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for my sake

and that of the gospel will save it."

-Mark 8:27-35

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You are thinking not as God does, but has human beings do." Interesting line. Jesus' death playing out the way it did was necessary for Salvation, but I wonder, in what way? "the Son of Man must ... be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes." This is curious to me, because does that mean the Jewish establishment rejecting Jesus was theologically necessary for the New Covenant, or was it rather part of some deeper plan, that Jesus being a radical is what enabled the Gospel to reach a wider audience?

For those of you who haven't been following the saga, @Rad_juju has taken into her care a few abandoned kittens and their young mama at great personal cost.

They've been through a lot and need our spiritual support so let's all pray today for the good health of those poor sick little babies and for the continued strength of @Rad_juju in her righteous crusade to mend them.

The name of the mom is Sheila, the kittens are Triana, Rena, Rusty and Brock.

I usually freestyle my prayers but maybe our resident missionary @Corinthian can suggest some good topical ones.

!catholics !christians !animalposters

Here's the /r/Catholicism thread discussing his announcement, I don't use unlike our jannies and it's not my fault the announcement was made there.

I might not have made this thread over here but a few of our resident have taken it upon themselves to criticize His Holiness this morning so I thought I'd balance it out with something wholesome.

@Eleganza remember the other day when I said he doesn't accurately represent the positions of Protestants let alone Catholics/Orthodox? Well, he agreed and decided to call it quits.

!Christians !Catholics Be respectful and I won't any heretics.

I genuinely don't understand how a left wing atheist made something this based

The youth arm of the right-wing Swiss People's Party filed a criminal complaint against Ameti for violation of freedom of religion and worship, the party announced on Monday morning. Nicolas Rimoldi, founder of Mass-Voll, a movement formed to protest pandemic measures, also announced that he would press charges.

After Swiss daily Blick reported on the pictures published by Ameti on Instagram on Sunday, it did not take long for the 32-year-old politician to respond to the criticism. She had deleted the pictures after becoming aware of the religious content, she wrote on X and asked for an apology.

Ameti said that she had happened to have an art catalogue with her and had not paid attention to the religious content of the picture.

Amid criticism, she resigned from leadership of the Liberal Greens in Zurich. The party is also considering expulsion proceedings, according to a report in Swiss public television SRF. "In the view of the party leadership, Sanija Ameti's continued membership of the Green Liberals would damage the reputation of the Green Liberals. In order to prevent further damage, the party is requesting that expulsion proceedings be initiated immediately," the party announced.

Ameti had published pictures showing her with a sports pistol during shooting practice, as well as a picture of Mary and Jesus riddled with gunshots.

Picture included since this could use one of you young !Catholics/!Christians to fix her and maybe that type of appeal will cause some of you to start caring about proselytizing heathens.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-politics/criminal-charges-against-sanija-ameti-after-shots-fired-at-jesus-picture/87516891

!catholics !christians happy 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time!

_________________________________________________________________________________

First Reading

Thus says the LORD:

Say to those whose hearts are frightened:

Be strong, fear not!

Here is your God,

he comes with vindication;

with divine recompense

he comes to save you.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,

the ears of the deaf be cleared;

then will the lame leap like a stag,

then the tongue of the mute will sing.

Streams will burst forth in the desert,

and rivers in the steppe.

The burning sands will become pools,

and the thirsty ground, springs of water.

-Isaiah 35:4-7a

_________________________________________________________________________________

Responsorial Psalm

R. (1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!

or:

R. Alleluia.

The God of Jacob keeps faith forever,

secures justice for the oppressed,

gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets captives free.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

or:

R. Alleluia.

The LORD gives sight to the blind;

the LORD raises up those who were bowed down.

The LORD loves the just;

the LORD protects strangers.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

or:

R. Alleluia.

The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains,

but the way of the wicked he thwarts.

The LORD shall reign forever;

your God, O Zion, through all generations.

Alleluia.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

or:

R. Alleluia.

-Psalms 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10

_________________________________________________________________________________

Second Reading

My brothers and sisters, show no partiality

as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes

comes into your assembly,

and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,

and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes

and say, "Sit here, please, "

while you say to the poor one, "Stand there, " or "Sit at my feet, "

have you not made distinctions among yourselves

and become judges with evil designs?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.

Did not God choose those who are poor in the world

to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom

that he promised to those who love him?

-James 1:2-5

_________________________________________________________________________________

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the kingdom

and cured every disease among the people.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

-Matthew 4:23

_________________________________________________________________________________

Gospel

Again Jesus left the district of Tyre

and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,

into the district of the Decapolis.

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment

and begged him to lay his hand on him.

He took him off by himself away from the crowd.

He put his finger into the man's ears

and, spitting, touched his tongue;

then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,

"Ephphatha!"— that is, "Be opened!" —

And immediately the man's ears were opened,

his speech impediment was removed,

and he spoke plainly.

He ordered them not to tell anyone.

But the more he ordered them not to,

the more they proclaimed it.

They were exceedingly astonished and they said,

"He has done all things well.

He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

-Mark 7:31-37

_________________________________________________________________________________

The Old and New Testaments are pretty neat, Jesus performs a miracle promised by the Old Testament, but I'm intrigued by the Epistle today. I've been reading Acts of the Apostles on my own recently because I've been curious about the early Church and who could be Christian was actually a controversial topic. Paul even had his travelling companion Timothy get circumcized so that he'd be trusted by the Jews they initially preached to. Peter declared pretty early that Christ's salvation was for everyone, even Gentiles, but it took time to get the message out. Don't be picky with who you share the Gospel with.

!downmarseyrs let's kill /h/reformationofdrama before it grows!

ROME – As the use of autonomous weapons systems becomes an increasingly prominent feature of modern warfare, including in both Ukraine and Gaza, the Vatican is backing new restrictions on these AI-driven "lethal autonomous weapons," often known by the acronym "LAWs."

Italian Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Vatican's Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva, argued for a moratorium on the development of weapons systems that can make firing decisions without human intervention — often dubbed "killer robots" — during an Aug. 26 address to a group of experts meeting in the Swiss city.

"It is profoundly distressing," Balestrero said, "that, adding to the suffering caused by armed conflicts, the battlefields are also becoming testing grounds for more and more sophisticated weapons." In particular, he insisted that autonomous weapons systems can never be considered "morally responsible entities."

"The human person, endowed with reason, possesses a unique capacity for moral judgement and ethical decision-making that cannot be replicated by any set of algorithms, no matter how complex," Balestrero said, according to a report in Vatican News, the Vatican's official state-sponsored news agency.

"What the companies are creating is technology that makes human judgment about targeting and firing increasingly tangential," that report said. "The widespread availability of off-the-shelf devices, easy-to-design software, powerful automation algorithms and specialized artificial intelligence microchips has pushed a deadly innovation race into uncharted territory, fueling a potential new era of killer robots."

Even before the current fighting with Hamas began, Israel was employing an automated sentry gun system to monitor the border fence with Gaza, capable of identifying targets and suggesting action without human intervention. It also uses an AI system called "Habsora" to identify bombing targets inside Gaza, which is said to be capable of doing so at a rate much higher than manual detection.

In that context, Balestrero made a distinction between a "choice" and a "decision," arguing that the latter is a human act that involves weighing ethical considerations such as human dignity.

He called for international agreements governing the use of LAWs, saying they're necessary "to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: human dignity itself depends on it."

"No machine should ever make the decision to take a human life," Balestrero said.

When the inevitable SKYNET end comes, don't say we didn't warn you.

I've obviously never read it, but I did watch an Italian documentary series! Which then reminded me of Lisetta (AKA "Italian Lisa"). She would occasionally ask for a clarification about exactly how we translated something. Turns out LOL my little neighbor had terminal leukemia the whole time . She was so fricking hardcore that she was putting in questions about how to interpret stuff and we didn't notice it was on her deathbead.

Anyway the idea of going on this journey literally to heck and back for the woman that you love, that appeals to me.

The American movie "To Heck and Back" where Audie Murphy stars as himself is pretty good. Probably the best in terms of I'm watching this with my dad and he's saying "yeah, they got that right".

various catholic things

Sometimes people things and you get so goddarn fricking exhauseted and then you realize you can't even walk anymore

!catholics !christians happy 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First Reading

Moses said to the people:

"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees

which I am teaching you to observe,

that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land

which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,

which I enjoin upon you,

you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.

Observe them carefully,

for thus will you give evidence

of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,

who will hear of all these statutes and say,

'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'

For what great nation is there

that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us

whenever we call upon him?

Or what great nation has statutes and decrees

that are as just as this whole law

which I am setting before you today?"

-Dt 4:1-2, 6-8

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Responsorial Psalm

R. (1a) The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice;

who thinks the truth in his heart

and slanders not with his tongue.

R. The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

Who harms not his fellow man,

nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;

by whom the reprobate is despised,

while he honors those who fear the LORD.

R. The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

Who lends not his money at usury

and accepts no bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things

shall never be disturbed.

R. The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

-Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Second Reading

Dearest brothers and sisters:

All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the Father of lights,

with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.

He willed to give us birth by the word of truth

that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you

and is able to save your souls.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:

to care for orphans and widows in their affliction

and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

-Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth

that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

-Jas 1:18

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gospel

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem

gathered around Jesus,

they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals

with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,

do not eat without carefully washing their hands,

keeping the tradition of the elders.

And on coming from the marketplace

they do not eat without purifying themselves.

And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,

the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. —

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,

"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders

but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"

He responded,

"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,

"Hear me, all of you, and understand.

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;

but the things that come out from within are what defile.

"From within people, from their hearts,

come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,

adultery, greed, malice, deceit,

licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

All these evils come from within and they defile."

-Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This one is very late but I didn't notice a post for this week which made me sad. I don't have a talent for giving biblical insights but I will say that always keep a look for not just your actions externally but also look inwards and examine your own heart. I wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope you have a great week next week.

!architecture to finish my Brazilian posting of weird architecture.

This is the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro, it was built between 1964-1979 and it was designed by architect Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca. Some say he was inspired by the maya pyramids , others that he was inspired by the Apollo program

The Cathedral is 75 meters tall (246ft) and 106 meters of diameter (348ft). The internal height is of 64 meters (210ft).

Interior of the cathedral

Statue of John Paul II

A statue of homeless Jesus

Bonus now from the Cathedral of Brasilia

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Aparecida. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer and built between 1958 and 1970 under the direction of Structural Engineer Joaquim Cardozo (who also made the structural project pf the cathedral).

The statues represent the 4 evangelists.

That cathedral is not very aesthetic (debatable as Niemeyer won the Pritzker prize for it) but it's very interesting from a !engineering POV. It's a hyperboloid structure composed of 16 hyperbolic-curved pillars made of reinforced concrete, each one weighting 90 metric tons. And 16 sections of glass fiber between the pillars, forming the stained glass, its total surface is of 2,000 sq meters.

!catholics !christians happy 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First Reading

Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem,

summoning their elders, their leaders,

their judges, and their officers.

When they stood in ranks before God,

Joshua addressed all the people:

"If it does not please you to serve the LORD,

decide today whom you will serve,

the gods your fathers served beyond the River

or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling.

As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

But the people answered,

"Far be it from us to forsake the LORD

for the service of other gods.

For it was the LORD, our God,

who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt,

out of a state of slavery.

He performed those great miracles before our very eyes

and protected us along our entire journey

and among the peoples through whom we passed.

Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."

-Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Responsorial Psalm

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

I will bless the LORD at all times;

his praise shall be ever in my mouth.

Let my soul glory in the LORD;

the lowly will hear me and be glad.

R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

The LORD has eyes for the just,

and ears for their cry.

The LORD confronts the evildoers,

to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.

R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,

and from all their distress he rescues them.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;

and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Many are the troubles of the just one,

but out of them all the LORD delivers him;

he watches over all his bones;

not one of them shall be broken.

R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

-Psalms 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Second Reading

Brothers and sisters:

Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.

For the husband is head of his wife

just as Christ is head of the church,

he himself the savior of the body.

As the church is subordinate to Christ,

so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives,

even as Christ loved the church

and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,

cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,

that he might present to himself the church in splendor,

without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,

that she might be holy and without blemish.

So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one hates his own flesh

but rather nourishes and cherishes it,

even as Christ does the church,

because we are members of his body.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother

and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

This is a great mystery,

but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.

-Ephesians 5:21-32

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;

you have the words of everlasting life.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

-John 6:63c, 68c

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gospel

Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said,

"This saying is hard; who can accept it?"

Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,

he said to them, "Does this shock you?

What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending

to where he was before?

It is the spirit that gives life,

while the flesh is of no avail.

The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.

But there are some of you who do not believe."

Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe

and the one who would betray him.

And he said,

"For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me

unless it is granted him by my Father."

As a result of this,

many of his disciples returned to their former way of life

and no longer accompanied him.

Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"

Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We have come to believe

and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

-John 6:60-69

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Gospel this week picks up at a bit of an awkward spot, as we don't have context on what teaching is hard to accept. It's a continuation from last week where Jesus said that He is the Bread of Life and that all must eat his flesh and drink his blood to be saved. What sticks out to me most is that "Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him." Predestination is a controversial topic in Christianity and I get why people can believe in it, with Jesus making so many spot-on predictions in the New Testament.

I also want to point out a line from the Second Reading: "For no one hates his own flesh, but rather nourishes and cherishes it." I think in our modern world, self-hatred is a common affliction, even among Christians. How can you expect to love your neighbor as you love yourself when you hate yourself? I feel it myself, the inclination to hold every sin you've ever committed against yourself as proof that you're irredeemable, but if you think the person you know best is beyond salvation, how can you have any hope for others? So take care of yourself, because if you can't, how can you expect to take care of anyone else?

Historian William Dalrymple writes: "The Israelis are eliminating one of the last Christian Palestinians strongholds in the West Bank and the place I chose to stay when I was researching the Palestinian Christians in From the Holy Mountain. It is a place with an incredibly ancient history, a cradle of Christianity, and its people have some of the closest DNA matches to the people of the time of Christ. Why is no one reporting this?"

On X (Twitter ) he writes: "Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich officially announces building a new settlement in Jabal al-Makhrur in the town of Beit Jala near Bethlehem. The settlers and the army have begun expelling the citizens and declaring it a closed military zone. Many of its residents are holding a sit-in in a tent and refuse to leave despite all the attacks. This is one of the last Christian Palestinian villages."

And this is also in the same week that Christian prayer services have been banned on Mount Tabor:

This regrettable stance is not isolated; comparable obstructions have also marred other sacred events, including Saturday of the Holy Light in Jerusalem. It is incumbent upon the Israeli authorities to uphold the inviolable rights of freedom of worship, access to holy sites, and the unimpeded performance of religious ceremonies-rights that are both inherent and guaranteed by international law to the indigenous Christian community in the holy land.

Within the last year attacks on Israeli Christians have also increased:

The findings are part of a report by the Jerusalem-based Rossing Center, called Attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem, which examined the increase in hostilities towards Churches and their members in 2023.

This included "a worrying increase in severe property and physical assaults" affecting communities in Jerusalem's Old City.

Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Hana Bendcowsky from the Rossing Center divided up the problems faced by Christians in the region into 'smash' and 'squeeze', terms used by human rights observers.

"The 'smash' describes incidents such as the attack on the Church of the Flagellation, where a statue was smashed with a hammer", she explained.

These violent attacks are mostly carried out by marginalised young ultra-Orthodox Jewish men with hardline-nationalist views, she added, stressing however that "even among the ultra-Orthodox such behaviour is not normative, the majority would not go into a church and smash a statue of Jesus."

"And the 'squeeze' pushes members of the community away, it is incidents like priests being spat at or a nun being told to take off her cross when she goes to the hospital.

Figured I'd provide a counterweight to @911roofer. I support neither side.