Pinoy Meets World

Many may see Saturday’s celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene as a mark of Filipino piety, but a senior Catholic Church official lamented the display of “excess” devotion during the event.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales scored many followers for trying to get near the image of the Black Nazarene, even if it meant injuring their fellow devotees.

Earlier reports said at least two people died while hundreds were injured in the yearly procession of the image of the Black Nazarene, which is believed to have miraculous powers.  Read more... (155 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

A fourth church in Malaysia has been firebombed, stoking concern among Christians as a dispute rages over the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims.

The attack was the latest in a series of assaults, just days after a Kuala Lumpur court ruled non-Muslims could use Allah to refer to God in their literature.

Bishop Philip Loke said two firebombs were thrown at his Good Shepherd Lutheran Church early Saturday but missed the glass windows, hitting the building wall instead.  Read more... (182 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

ROME (AP) – A Vatican researcher claims a nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin proves the authenticity of the artifact revered as Jesus’ burial cloth.

The claim made in a new book by historian Barbara Frale drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery.

Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, said Friday that she used computers to enhance images of faintly written words in Greek, Latin, and Aramaic scattered across the shroud.  Read more... (185 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Typhoon Ramil (Lupit) may have weakened on Thursday, but President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo just the same called on Filipinos to pray that the calamity-stricken Philippines be spared from further devastation.  Read more... (200 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

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LONDON (AFP) – - About 800 pages of the world’s oldest surviving Bible have been pieced together and published on the Internet for the first time, experts said on Monday.

The Codex Sinaiticus, written in Greek on parchment leaves in the fourth century, is available online in a project involving institutions in Britain, Germany, Egypt and Russia which held different parts of the ancient book.

As part of the four-year joint project, digital photographs have been taken of the reunited manuscript, allowing scholars worldwide to research in-depth the Greek text, the British Library in London said.  Read more... (129 words, estimated 31 secs reading time)

SEVILLE, Spain (Xinhua) — Peru’s Sacred City of Caral- Supe was added to the UNESCO’s (Unite Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage List yesterday.

The city, being the oldest center of civilization in the Americas with 5,000 years of history, is situated on a dry desert terrace overlooking the green valley of the Supe River. The 626- hectare archaeological site dates back to the Late Archaic Period of the Central Andes.

Exceptionally well-preserved, the site is impressive in design and architectural complexity, especially its monumental stone and earthen platform mounts and sunken circular courts.  Read more... (156 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)