Merry Christmas to TIA,

I got my Christmas present early this year from Jesus. Two weeks ago, I fell backwards on the ice in my driveway and hit head first hard. Had a brain concussion and whiplashed my neck. But all is well now with only some minor headaches. Needless to say, it could have been much worse!

God is good! He gave me a great Guardian Angel!

     Merry Christmas! God bless!

     Gary Morella

Good Day TIA,

I know it has been some time contacting you, but you are not forgotten. I hope to make up for it in the near future. I have managed to pass your website out.

Merry Christmas/Froliche Weinachten/Felix Navidad,

     C.J.L.

Dear TIA,

With pleasure do I send in a donation to your great apostolate in response to your recent request. You provide a great service to Holy Mother Church and I thank our dear Lord for your dedication to the cause of Catholic restoration.

I will be sending in monthly donations from now on.

     Viva Cristo Rey!

     S.M.C.

Dear TIA,

Thank you and may God bless you for the wonderful information on snowflakes. I bought books about snowflakes and I am giving them as gifts, but just needed something to explain why I bought the books as Christmas gifts. Your page and poem help to explain this.

Also, I teach a 1st grade religion class and will use this information and poem when the snow is falling outside.

     Love,

     M.T.

Dear Miss Horvat,

Thank you very much for the book on Courtesy you sent me as a gift. It should be read in every traditional Catholic home!

I pray daily for all who were recommended to my prayers so you will also stay in them until my last breath on earth.

     With my priestly blessing,

     Rev. Fr. Vidko Podrza, Slovenia

Dear Dr. Horvat,

I enjoyed reading your COURTESY book. I do need to work on not dressing like a total slob at home. It is so important to have an Adult Centered Home and not a Child Centered Home. I SO agree with that. It's so sad to see parents with one or two children and the children are running them RAGGED! Then I see a large Catholic family and the children are many times so well-behaved. The children revolve around the parents and not vice-versa.

I just read about Sr. Donna Quinn, the abortionist nun!! I can't believe she argues with pro-life protesters! That's incredible. I never thought I'd read about that in my life!

     God bless you.

     A.Y.

Hello TIA,

I wonder if you are informed that a supernatural intervention appears to be going on in India. Indeed, since Catholics have been persecuted unjustly and violently for some years now, one year after the brutal killing in Orissa, a group of elephants gathered and destroyed the main villages that had promoted the violence. What confirms that a divine intervention is in motion, is the fact that those furious beasts destroyed all the houses of Hindus, but spared those of Catholics.

To read details posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Colombo click here.

May the Divine Infant give you a Blessed Christmas season and a Holy New Year.

     E.B., Brazil

TIA,

Here is a news report that gives you an overview of the growing violence against Catholics in my country. I would appreciate if you could inform your readers on this and ask their prayers for us.

Merry Christmas!

     N.C., India


12/15/2009 - Bhubaneswar (AsiaNews) - In the last five years, India has seen a sharp increase in violence provoked by religious and ethnic diversity. These are the findings from a report submitted by Ajay Maken, Minister of State for Home Affairs, to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament in New Delhi.

Over the past five years extremist attacks number more than 3800. The report refers only to those detected by the authorities, but the real number could be much higher. From the 677 cases registered in 2004 it has passed, in a gradual crescendo, to 943 in 2008. The report says that 11 Union States registered no cases during 2009, but despite this the country is marked by an average of two attacks per day. Member States lead the sad standings are Maharashtra (681), Madhya Pradesh (654) and Uttar Pradesh (613).

The report on the violence of religious and ethnic radicalism came to the Rajya Sabha in the wake of the review of special law, known as the Communal Violence Bill 2005, which is once again at the centre of political debate after the recent wave of attacks against religious minorities, particularly Christians in Orissa and Muslims in Gujarat.

While the government of New Delhi is studying new judicial and police tools to stem the flow of these episodes, the victims of violence complain about the inaction of the institutions and continuing insecurity.

The case of Orissa is the most striking. At a meeting December 7 in Berhampur, Christian leaders, human rights activists and residents of Kandhamal took stock of the situation: more than 5,000 houses burned or looted, nearly 300 churches destroyed, more than 50,000 displaced people and nearly 2,500 complaints of which only 823 registered by the police authorities.

The victims of the pogroms doubt positive verdicts in trials and the complete disbursement of compensation promised by the authorities (to date the distribution of compensation for the violence in 2007 has yet to be completed). That is why they created the Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana, an Association of victims of violent extremism, with the support of the Catholic bishops of Bhubaneswar and Berhampur, the evangelical bishop of Bardhan and organizations like All India Christian Council and Human Rights Law Network.

The unresolved problems are many: from the slow pace of rebuilding homes and churches, to the insecurity in which Christians in the region are still forced to live today. The Sampradayik Hinsa Prapidita Sangathana designed to monitor the individual needs of victims, is promoting projects to help especially women and children and to act together as a united front to put pressure on the civil authorities.

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