World News Gathered & Syndicated

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Researchers are confident that complete sentences could still be understood today, using the linguistic “common language” allowing different groups to communicate.

Professor of Evolutionary Biology Mark Pagel and his team predict that certain words would have changed so slowly over long periods of time as to retain traces of their ancestry for up to 10,000 or more years.

“We discovered we could predict a rate of evolution for words,” Professor Pagel says. “There was a small subset of words that evolved so slowly over time they might last up to 20,000 years. You realize, ‘golly, I might be able to predict words that link these families,’ and we found these 23 words that have a common ancestor.”

The 23 words include Mother, Fire, to spit and worm, which would have sounded very different, Professor Pagel says. “The words would not sound exactly the same, but they would be recognizable, or in a form that we could easily learn to recognizable.

“The words for mother, for instance, sound like mama or something similar.

“If we were to sit round a campfire, we could have a basic conversation.”

Previous studies have examined shared sounds among words to identify those that are likely to be derived from common ancestral words, such as the Latin “pater” and the English “father.” The difficulty with this approach, the team said, is that two words might have similar sounds just by accident, such as the words “team” and “cream.”

To combat this problem, Professor Pagel’s team showed that a subset of words was used frequently in everyday speech, are more likely to be retained over long periods of time.

Sound similarities are discovered they do not merely reflect the workings of chance. “The way in which we use a certain set of words in everyday speech is something common to all human languages,” Pagel said.

“We discovered numerals, pronouns and special adverbs are replaced far more slowly, with linguistic half-lives of once every 10,000 or even more years. 

“As a rule of thumb, words used more than about once per thousand in everyday speech were seven to ten times more likely to show deep ancestry in the Eurasian super-family. The research shows they each probably stem from a common language ancestor.

“As words evolve they change, such as P to F transition, which change over time.”

Calling for more research into common languages, Professor Pagel noted that “The fact we can find these ancient links should encourage us to do more of it. We can test interesting questions about human migration and evolution through these links.”

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic online) – Researchers believe that the item in its heyday was more like a gleaming crystal. Archaeologists now think that it may be an example of a fabled Viking navigational aid known as a sunstone, able to pinpoint the location of the sun even when cloud or fog made it invisible in the skies above.

The Alderney crystal could be the world’s first known specimen is likely to cause almost as big a stir as might the capture of a leprechaun, or the discovery of King Arthur’s sword.

As published in the scientific journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society, physicists at the University of Rennes in Brittany say that the Alderney crystal remains one of the great maritime mysteries: how to explain the nautical prowess of the Vikings in an age long before the invention of reliable magnetic compasses.

Vikings raped and pillaged their way from Scandinavia to reach not just British shores but also those of North America, where they are believed to have set up colonies in the 10th century. One of the great mysteries was as to how they were able to accurately navigate to foreign lands. Their vessels held up to 120 men and crashing through the waves at up to 15 knots – almost 20 miles per hour. An error of just a few degrees could take them rapidly off course

Essential to their navigation was there place in relation to the sun. Historians have long wondered how they navigated on the days when weather conditions or the time of the day meant that the sun was out of sight.

An Icelandic legend about the travels of the Norwegian king Olaf in the 11th century refers to sunstones.

One winter’s day, Olaf met a farmer’s son named Sigurour, who boasted that he could sense the position of the sun even in a snowy sky. According to legend, the assembled company looked out of the window but “could nowhere see a clear sky.” After asking Sigurour to tell him where the sun was, the king ordered his minions to fetch “the solar stone” to test the young man’s claims.

‘He held it up and saw where light radiated from the stone and thus directly verified Sigurour’s prediction.’

Sunstones are also found in the inventories of several churches and one monastery in 14th-century Iceland. No official sunstones have ever been found, until scientists began to investigate a crystal called Icelandic spar, which would have been quite common in the Vikings’ homelands.

The crystal has a peculiar molecular structure, which means that light passing through it is split into two. Rotating the crystal eventually exposes the point where the two beams converge, and it is this angle that indicates the direction of the sun.

The jury is still out. Left languishing in a wooden box with only a purple velvet lining to dignify it as anything other than a nondescript piece of rock, the Alderney crystal may soon be retrieved from the storeroom and honored with its own display cabinet.

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

LONG ISLAND, NY (Catholic Online) – In my previous article the case was made for a microscopic analysis of the “Masculine Genius.” Before sinking knee deep in the “Masculine Genius” it is important to put the concepts of masculinity and femininity into perspective. Masculinity and femininity are forever entangled in a relationship that cannot be dissolved. Neither can exist without the other and both desire the other continually.

This wonderful dance of energy between the masculine and feminine is symbolic of God Himself. God is manifested to us as an indivisible union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This relationship is so sacred, beautiful, and inspirational that its value is incomprehensible to all but God. God gives us a sense of Himself, however, by revealing His relational likeness through the physical world around us and even our very selves.

Anyone who has taken high school chemistry has learned about how tiny atoms of hydrogen form bonds with atoms of oxygen to make water. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms relate through their shared electrons. An even stranger relationship in science that has been in the spotlight recently is quantum entanglement.  Those in the scientific community sometimes refer to quantum entanglement as “spooky action” because it involves very tiny particles affecting each other over very large distances after a previous interaction! Sounds like these particles have some sort of a relationship!

Despite having created a physical world so fundamentally reflective of relationship, God saved the highest relational honor for man. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:27 God created man in His very own image which is to say He gave man the ability to understand himself. This understanding is profoundly experienced through the marriage of man and woman, male and female. Blessed John Paul II discusses the beautiful nature of this relationship in great detail in his “Theology of the Body.” 

“Theology of the Body” is a wonderful work for those curious about the mechanics of relationship. The beauty of the “Theology of the Body,” however, is that it is experienced everyday and in ways you do not even recognize. I can attest to this experience. God has blessed me with the heart of a wonderful woman through whom He has revealed much to me. This woman is my fiancée and she is a talented dancer.

Prior to meeting my fiancée, dance was as far from my mind as the galaxies at the edge of the known universe. This, I now realize, was because it was challenging for me to be receptive to the talents of others that were foreign to me. I could never have imagined though how inspirational my fiancées dancing could be in helping me understand the relationship between the masculine and feminine.

Music is a somewhat of an invisible force in a dance that is made visible by a dancer. The dancers become the music by letting its emotion and beat be reflected in certain movements. This reflection is one of the amazing things about dance because it is how a dancer remembers the dance. Listening for a certain beat count or tempo clues the dancer as to which moves to use and how much energy to put into them. The dance is ultimately guided by the music – thus a dance about something joyful will look different from a dance about something sad.

The music also serves an important purpose of keeping dancers in synch when there are multiple dancers on stage. If a stage of 10 dancers danced to their own will, utter chaos would ensue. Dancers may collide, trip over each other, or just make the dance look very inartistic. I found the music is quite symbolic of the spiritual nature of masculinity.

The music certainly serves a purpose for the dancers but the dancer also does something equally important for the music. A dancer is a physical manifestation of the invisible beauty in music. Without a brilliant display of visual technique, it is very difficult for most human beings to truly appreciate the emotion and complexity of music.

It would be a shame if a beautifully composed song(s) was lost to time because no one could truly appreciate it. As visual beings, we remember and understand a great deal by seeing things. In fact, many of our memories are formed by things we see whether they are good or bad. I found the dancer is thus symbolic of the spiritual nature of femininity.

Any manifestation of masculinity or femininity can be demonstrated separately as can music and a dance, but …

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The Russian media is widely reporting that their diplomats in North Korea have been advised to leave the country because of the threat of imminent war. Other diplomats have been told the same.

These antics are just that, antics. North Korea has not taken substantial preparations for war, only superficial ones. For example, their military remains unmobilized, a genuine and expensive first step that is required if a nation is serious about fighting.

The expert consensus is that Kim Jong Un is bluffing, and flexing his muscles for domestic reasons. Kim Jong Un likely feels the need to demonstrate his strength and consolidate power and this is easily done by manufacturing a domestic crisis and making demonstrations, and protestations of strength.

Essentially, the current crisis is Kim Jong Un’s homemade Reichstag fire.

The greatest concern is that something inadvertent will occur to push the situation over the brink. With tensions running high, a mistake by one side could result in immediate retaliation by the other, sparking a conflict.

It could be as simple as a trawler straying too far north, or south, or a jet passing too close to nervous defense system operators.

Diplomatically, the North has given the South and its allies, especially the United States and Japan, plenty of casus belli to attack. The North has severed diplomatic ties, sealed its border, and declared the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War “invalid.” In addition, the country has “reserved” the right to attack preemptively other countries with nuclear weapons and says it will step up its nuclear weapons development program.

The possibility of a limited, but crippling first strike by the United States does exist, should the current administration decide that Kim Jong Un needs to be crippled militarily. Specific targets would include their nuclear development program.

However, any strike by either side appears incredibly unlikely.

For now, U.S. and allied joint exercises will continue in the region and North Korea will keep up with its antics. It seems understood by both sides that war would benefit none and as long as Kim Jong Un can continue grandstanding for his people while the world rolls its eyes, everything will return to normal within the next couple months.

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

Who’s going to watch or feed them and make sure they get to class on time? Better yet, who’s going to keep their souls clean when invitations to raucous parties become the norm?

In the case of many public colleges, it’s a moment when Catholics scurry for the campus map to locate the nearest church. What they find are Newman Centers typically located right off campus and a chaplain ready to reach out to their children as a spiritual guide and friend.

“I’ll always have a parent look at me and say, ‘keep an eye on my son,’” said Father Thomas Ryan, the chaplain at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Four of the public colleges inside the Archdiocese of Baltimore have a Newman Center with chaplains. Father Edward S. Hendricks has been at Frostburg State University for 14 years, making him the longest-tenured chaplain and the perfect person to be the director of campus ministry for the archdiocese.

“As chaplains, we are more and more immersed in everyday life on campus, which is great,” Father Hendricks said. “You have to earn your way there. It’s not going to happen the moment when you get there, but it happens over time.”

When he was tapped to be the Johns Hopkins chaplain in 2002, Father Ryan was hoping to appeal to Catholics on campus and further their Sacramental life, not knowing that the popularity of his outreach would extend eventually to Hopkins’ satellite campuses.

“There’s just something very invigorating about this work,” Father Ryan said.

In the four years he has worked with Catonsville’s University of Maryland Baltimore County students, Father Richard A. Gray has seen Mass attendance rise from 50 a week to 80 to 90 students.

“We offer an avenue for students to practice their catholic faith once they are not forced to go to Mass by their parents,” Father Gray said.

Students can also be baptized, confirmed and have the sacrament of reconciliation among many other services.

Towson University’s Father T. Austin Murphy enjoys a strong relationship with his students thanks to an effort to engage them in the social norms of the day. He routinely exchanges e-mails with Newman Center regulars and keeps a popular page on the popular Web site Facebook.

“A year ago, I didn’t know what Facebook was,” he said. “Now, I have all these friends and we use it to promote events. That gets a lot of people going. The thing with the college kids, and particularly young people, is it’s all about networking with their friends.”

Most of the centers have Newman Nights, where regulars drop-in for social activities.

Each has built a strong individual community through their archdiocesan-funded outreaches. Students routinely participate in social justice activities and become the best evangelizers for the centers.

“I always have to remember when I’m out that I’m representing Newman,” said Towson senior Laura Vesely, who is also the president of the Newman Club on campus.

Father Hendricks said there are at least two new Catholics a year and about three to eight confirmations a year at Frostburg.

“Some students come from a Catholic background but they very often don’t go to church,” he said. “They come out of curiosity. They’re investigating their faith, and it’s because of their peers. In a lot of cases, fellow students have more influence on them coming to church than I do.”

Father Ryan said Johns Hopkins has a strong undercurrent of faith on campus, with 21 different traditions represented. During any given week, 150 to 200 students will attend the two Masses at the school, he added.

For many years, UMBC was regarded as a commuter school with little campus life. The school has sought to change that perception by increasing the residence halls to house the current 4,000 students living on campus.

Father Gray, who is part-time at UMBC while helping the Hispanic ministry for Harford County’s St. Francis de Sales and St. Margaret, said UMBC allows him to reach people on the ground floor.

“I enjoy the kids who are mature in their faith who were lukewarm Catholics who discovered our ministry,” he said.

Just because students attend Mass, doesn’t mean they’re are on their best behavior. They face the same temptations of drugs, alcohol and sex many students do throughout their academic careers.

“They hear all sorts of wild stuff and they see all sorts of wild stuff,” Father Murphy said. “Everything is pierced. Everything is tattooed.”

Not all temptations are in public, however. Many of the chaplains say there is a growing concern about the number of male students admitting they spend a large amount of time watching Internet pornography on the easily accessible campus networks.

“It’s becoming a real serious issue because it’s so available,” Father Hendricks said. “Because we’re on a public campus, there’s no filter. I think we’re seeing more and more of it.”

Some students are blocking themselves from normal social interaction, the priests say, because of large amounts of time on the Internet, through social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace as well as Instant Messengers.

The four chaplains routinely meet to discuss such concerns, but also share tips about trends that might make their way to another campus.

No matter what difficulties might arise, all agree they enjoy fostering the growth of the next generation of Catholics.

“I love it,” Father Ryan said. “There’s nothing quite like it.”

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – On Tuesday, a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber flew over South Korea in what appears to be a show of force for the North Koreans. The bomber flew from its base in Missouri to South Korea, dropped dummy bombs on a target, then flew home as quietly as it came.

The bomber’s appearance over South Korea was probably intended to demonstrate to North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, that the U.S. has the easy ability to strike his country without warning.

So far, the North has shown no reaction.

North Korea remains the world’s most secretive and elusive country. Governed by a totalitarian dynasty, now in its third generation, just what happens in the country remains a mystery to most. Reports tell of a massive population of people living in abject poverty, constantly threatened with imprisonment and death by a brutal regime. Famine is a chronic threat.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un and his comrades in the government and military, live luxurious lives, drunk with power.

Political experts suggest that to assert his power over the country, Kim Jong Un, the young son of the late Kim Jong Il, has been doing a lot of saber rattling. Despite the tough talk, North Korea may not be near the brink of war at all. Instead, the bellicose rhetoric could be more for his people than the outside world.

It is thought that so long as North Korea can keep up the appearance of threat by the West, the government can justify brutal and dictatorial control over the people.

The flight of the B-2 would only serve Kim Jong Un’s purposes then, by giving the North Koreans another excuse to increase the rhetoric and act out once again, possibly with another nuclear test, or some form of belligerence, such as the sinking of a ship near border waters, or the shelling of targets over the border. Both types of attack have been used in recent years, killing several people in the South.

Despite the North’s excessive belligerence, no attack has sparked conflict.

Although it appears both North Korea is actually reluctant to fight, it would be a mistake to dismiss the threat in its entirety. North Korea has one of the world’s largest militaries and the country has spared little expense on it. The North also has several short-range missiles that can strike targets across South Korea with conventional warheads.

Although the country has nuclear weapons, it is unclear if these can be deployed in combat; it’s not a question anyone would like to see answered by the North.

For the moment, the world waits to see how Kim Jong Un will spend his new political currency, given him by Tuesday’s B-2 flight. Perhaps a policy of de-escalation and careful ignorance of the North’s behavior would be more conducive to peace than feeding the North’s rhetoric machine with new fodder.

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

WORCESTER, MA (Catholic Online) – The woman formerly known as beautiful and author at Huffington Post, Shannon Bradley-Colleary, had an article recently with the declarative title “Abstinence Got Me Pregnant.” It’s a “family planning” story meant to demonstrate that people should not be expected to follow a moral code when it comes to sexual intercourse, and probably many women can relate.

The author describes how she was raised by religious parents and a father that scared off boys while cleaning his gun, how she fell in love in college and “relinquished” her virginity unexpectedly on Cheez-It crumbs behind a couch in an off-campus apartment while “roommates farted and belched like cannon-fire in adjacent rooms,” how she began taking birth control pills and used them for the next five years as a “serial monogamist,” how after she had her heart broken and broke a few herself she decided to take a “leave of absence” and become abstinent, how a broken-hearted young man still pursued her with roses, poetry, and silly declarations of love, how she got pregnant and to her relief miscarried so she was “spared, making a choice” that might “haunt” her for the rest of her life, and finally how some ten years later she gave birth to two daughters with her husband “at just the right time, with exactly the right partner.”

What does she credit for things working out well? Birth control, because abstinence got her pregnant.

Her point is this: “…sex should NOT BE a MORAL ISSUE, it should be a PRACTICAL ISSUE.” [Emphasis hers.]

She plans to take her daughters to Planned Parenthood when they are in high school because although she hopes “they will only give themselves to men who cherish them” she believes it is better to be “practical” and dispense with any “moral imperatives” so they won’t ever experience shame or blame. She concludes, “Knowledge is power.”

Take a deep breath, relax your face muscles, and let’s examine the logic of this statement because this is a serious issue that needs to be clarified. I once thought this way too, until I realized 1) everyone needs a moral code, and 2) words mean things.

We need definitions. We have to know what we are talking about. The word “practical” is derived from the Latin practicalis and it relates to practice or action. The word “moral” stems from môrâlis and is concerned with ethics. Animals merely act without any rational consideration; but humans can act thoughtfully, can reason about morality, and don’t have to be slaves to base appetites. I know – it’s countercultural, but let it sink in. It’s the truth.

There’s a word that has become rather distorted, and it relates to choosing actions based on knowledge. That word is “conscience” from cum alio scientia, with other knowledge, science from experiment, and it begins with the individual. A rational being (i.e. a person) has the ability to use
reason and act in a conscionable way. By an active power of the soul, we use our intellect to gain knowledge, and it, admittedly, can be difficult. A properly formed conscience is not the work of a lazy intellect.

So what’s the difference between acting “practically” and acting “morally”? Really nothing, except the former is repetitious, and the latter implies a need for deeper thought and introspection. Someone may say, “Well, acting practically means to make good choices without appealing to harsh judgment.” That, however, is a travesty to logic. To know what is good, one must judge, so the issue is still a moral issue, just without using that Big Scary Word. And without guidance you end up saying something silly like, “Birth control is the responsible thing to do when you aren’t going to be responsible in the first place.” Logical fail.

This confusion stems, in part, from the use of the word “sex.” Let’s examine that word. It comes from the Latin word secus which refers to the state of being male or female, sexual organs. The union of two bodies is sometimes called intercourse, but if we’re talking about people instead of animals, we need a word that represents the union of both body and soul. “Intimacy” from the Latin intimus refers to the inmost, deep-seated, inner nature, that thing between a man and woman that is the deepest union, not isolated to a physical act. It encompasses – is the very wellspring – of the entire union and relationship.

Intimacy is uniquely human. Animals have intercourse to procreate; …

NEW YORK, NY (Catholic Online) – As Oscar Wilde once put it, “A cynic knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.” Bloomberg’s ads are certainly cynical. The posters, which were plastered around the city on Monday target teens and highlight the costs of teen pregnancy.

Featuring crying babies, the posters decry the expense and challenge of being a teenage parent. Posters read:

-I’m twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen.

-Got a good job? I cost thousands of dollars each year.

-Dad, you’ll be paying to support me for the next 20 years.

-Honestly Mom, chances are he won’t stay with you. What happens to me?

These ads highlight to cost of being a teen parent, but they also fail to demonstrate the value of every human life and the gift that is motherhood. Having a child, even as a teen, can be a rewarding and life-changing experience. While some of those changes may be challenging, the joy of parenthood is also very rewarding.

Planned Parenthood also has its problem with the ads, blasting them because they say the ads shame teen pregnancy and perpetuate gender stereotypes. Catholic Online agrees – at least in part.

Haydee Morales, vice president of Planned Parenthood of New York City said, “The latest NYC ad campaign creates stigma, hostility and negative public opinions about teen pregnancy and parenthood rather than offering alternative aspirations for young people.”

Morales then called for more education, although not of the type that will actually help with the problems associated with teen preganancy. 

Teens are best served by abstinence education and being taught the value of marriage and the virtues of chastity and patience.

Though teens can – and do - make wrong choices in life. Though they can and do engage in inappropriate and immoral behavior, God does not make mistakes. Every child is an intentional gift from God and an opportunity for his or her parents to serve as responsible stewards of new life, regardless of their youth and finances.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – A recent study has shown that manuka honey can fight back on two fronts, killing MRSA and other superbugs, but also prevent bacteria from becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Professor Dame Sally Davies described the growing presence of drug-resistant super bugs as a “ticking time bomb” which could leave millions vulnerable to untreatable germs within a generation.

However, a new study in Australia offers a solution. At the University of Technology Sydney, tests were carried out on manuka, kanuka and clover honeys to find which was best at treating bacteria commonly found in chronic skin wounds.

By far the most capable at treating wounds Comvita medical-grade manuka honey, made by bees foraging on New Zealand’s manuka trees. When combined with common antibiotics, the honey hampered the spread of bacteria on wounds.

More importantly, scientists found the honey prevented the bugs from developing any resistance to antibiotics. “Manuka honey should be used as a first resort for wound treatment, rather than the last resort, as it so often is,” Professor Liz Harry, of the university said.

A previous study which found that the honey was effective against more than 80 types of bacteria, including MRSA. Commercial honey bought at shops is not suitable as it needs to be sterilized to make it medical grade.

Infections have since become more difficult to defeat, but no new class of antibiotic has been discovered since the 1980s.

A previous study that found manuka honey is effective against more than 80 different types of bacteria, including hospital superbug MRSA.

“We have shown bacteria do not become resistant to honey in the laboratory. Consistent with these facts, we also found that if MRSA were treated with just rifampicin [antibiotic], the superbug became resistant very quickly,” Harry said.

“However, when manuka honey and rifampicin are used in combination to treat MRSA, rifampicin-resistant MRSA did not emerge. In other words, honey somehow prevents the emergence of rifampicin-resistant MRSA – this is a hugely important finding.”

With overuse of antibiotics partly blamed for the increase in resistant superbugs, doctors are being asked to prescribe fewer antibiotics to patients. While infections are becoming increasingly difficult to beat, no new class of antibiotic has been discovered since the 1980s.

“With the existence now of bacteria that are resistant to all available antibiotics, and the death of new antibiotics on the market, manuka honey should be used as a first resort for wound treatment, rather than the last resort as it so often does,” Harry adds.

“What we need is an acceptance by society that antibiotics are not going to provide all that we hoped for when they were discovered in the 1940s; and that we need to start getting very serious about using alternatives to this, or use honey in addition to them.”

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

Though some are quick to blame the manufacture of biofuels for an increase in food prices to the world’s most impoverished, local farmer and Chairman of the U.S. Grains Council, Dale Artho, disagrees.


“The claim that ethanol is the reason for rising food prices is misleading at best,” he said. He pointed to a recent study by the Texas Agri-Life Extension Service, indicating a total waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard would reduce corn prices by only 30 cents per bushel — a 5 to 8 percent decrease, he says, based on current prices. That study is available at www.afpc.tamu.edu.


“We need to look no further than the skyrocketing energy costs to find where the true increases in food prices begin,” Artho said.


“Consumers are hit with a double whammy. Oil at more than $115 per barrel not only drives up fuel prices but prices at the grocery store. Production, distribution, manufacturing and packaging costs—escalated by the price of oil—play a much bigger role in rising food costs than the price of corn,” he said.


“The skyrocketing price of oil, surging global demand for grains and meat, poor harvests in key production areas around the globe, and a weakened U.S. dollar are the real factors determining world grain and food prices,” he said. “The production and use of ethanol, while increasing demand for corn & sorghum, is not contributing significantly to food price escalation. It is, however, helping to keep oil prices lower than they might otherwise be,” he said, which has the indirect affect of lowering prices of all commodities that have to be delivered.


“The food versus fuel debate affects Christians in an intrinsic and intimate way,” Artho said, “because food is an integral part of our life with Jesus. Scripture is full of examples of the sanctity of food: Abel offering the lamb, Melchizedek offering bread and wine, massa and quail in the desert during the Exodus, Jesus giving us His body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharistic celebration of the Last Supper.


“Jesus taught us the importance of food in our spiritual and everyday life,” he said. “We have been taught not to waste food but instead to appreciate food as the fuel of life. How we use food is an indicator of our Catholicity.”


Artho is a parishioner at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Vega. He is Chairman of the U.S. Grains Council, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to building export markets for barley, corn, sorghum and their products. The Council is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has nine international offices and active market development programs in more than 50 countries.


Artho is also President of the Board of Directors of Catholic Radio of the Texas High Plains, which owns and operates St. Valentine Catholic Radio, KDJW 1360 AM in Amarillo.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Professor Fabrice Wallois of Picardie University in Amiens, France says that the findings suggest that early in the development of the brain it begins to decipher distinct sounds or “phonemes.”

Using bedside functional optical imaging, Wallois and colleagues scanned 12 sleeping 28-32-week gestation age pre-term infants, the earliest age at which cortical responses to external stimuli can be recorded.

Wallois said that babies as young as three months before birth, a baby’s brain establishes neural functions that help decipher human speech. At birth children can discriminate some syllables and recognize human speech but how these immature brain cells process it remains unclear.

Utilizing non-invasive scanners, Wallois and colleagues analyzed 12 sleeping premature infants born after 28 to 32 weeks while playing voice recordings.

This is the earliest age for neuronal responses to external stimuli and Prof Wallois found the premature brain can perceive differences in syllables.

The tests produced responses in the right frontal region of the brain, which is the first part of the brain to form, syllabic changes also sparked responses in the left hemisphere. This suggests certain linguistic brain areas exhibit a sophisticated degree of organization as early as three months prior to full term.

“We observed several points of similarity with the adult linguistic network. The research gives a new insight into the way mothers communicate with their babies – and how language skills develop,” Wallois said.

“First, whereas syllables elicited larger right than left responses, the posterior temporal region escaped this general pattern, showing faster and more sustained responses over the left than over the right hemisphere.

“Second, discrimination responses to a change of phoneme (ba vs. ga) and a change of human voice (male vs. female) were already present and involved inferior frontal areas, even in the youngest infants.

“Third, whereas both types of changes elicited responses in the right frontal region, the left frontal region only reacted to a change of phoneme.

“These results demonstrate a sophisticated organization of areas at the very onset of cortical circuitry – three months before term.

“They emphasize the influence of innate factors on regions involved in linguistic processing and social communication in humans.”

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Anytime something unusual happens, conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork to claim they have secret knowledge or a unique perspective that explains everything. In the case of Benedict’s resignation they are claiming that he was compelled to resign in the face of pressure from nefarious lobbies within the Church.

The latest conspiracy, is related to the assignment of a Vatican minister to Colombia. Speculation claims that Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, an Italian who occupied a post that roughly translates to that of foreign minister in the Vatican.

The Vatican is emphatically denying rumors that the decision to transfer Balestrero was connected to the Vatileaks scandal in which Benedict’s butler leaked confidential Church documents to a reporter.

Some quarters of the Italian media are speculating that the move was a punishment for Balestrero. What Balestrero’s role in the scandal was remains unclear because the report is still secret. However, word of his mention in the report, which was secretly prepared by church cardinals, has been leaked.

Balestrero has connections to the Vatican bank and may have been involved in the banking scandal. His new post could be an effort to clean up the financial arm of the Church.

This transfer, some speculate, suggests that the Pope was compelled to resign as a result of corruption within the Vatican, some of which could linked to Balestrero in the secret report.

However, that Balestrero has done anything wrong is empirically denied given the nature of his transfer. The Vatican has stated this his transfer was planned well in advance of Benedict’s resignation and that his new post is considered both important and prestigious. From Bogata, Balestrero will be part of the umbrella group that oversees conferences of all the bishops of South America.

Such a transfer is inconsistent with one who may be tainted with scandal.

Nonetheless, the theories will abound, and with Benedict planning an a secluded retirement, there may not be much opportunity to quell the conspiracy theories. Then again, such notions aren’t all that unusual. The Church has always been plagued with accusations of scandal throughout its history. Sadly, some of the scandals have been quite real, but many of them have simply been vicious stories concocted by enemies of the faith.

The good news is, the Church is protected and resilient, and it always survives attempts to destroy it, further proof of its divine favor and faithful devotion to its sacred responsibility.

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