POLES PRAY ALONG BORDER
POLAND» Polish Catholics GDANSK, held rosaries and prayed together Saturday along the country’s 2,000-mile border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for salvation for Poland and the world in a national event that many felt had anti-islam overtones.
The unusual “Rosary on the Borders” event was organized by lay Catholics but was also endorsed by Polish church authorities, with 320 churches from 22 dioceses taking part. The prayers took place from the Baltic Sea coast in the north to the mountains along Poland’s southern borders with the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and all along the border of this country of 38 million where more than 90 percent declare themselves Roman Catholics.
Organizers say the prayers at some 4,000 locations commemorated the centenary of the apparitions of Fatima, when three shepherd children in Portugal said the Virgin Mary appeared to them.
But the event also commemorated the huge 16th-century naval battle of Lepanto, when a Christian alliance acting on the wishes of the pope defeated Ottoman Empire forces on the Ionian Sea, “thus saving Europe from Islamization,” as organizers put it.
Serbian official praises war criminal. SERBIA» Serbia’s
BELGRADE, defense minister on Saturday praised a convicted war criminal for his role against NATO’S 1999 intervention in Kosovo, saying Serbia no longer has to be ashamed of a bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.
The remarks by Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin illustrate Serbia’s increasing defiance of the West. Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership but at the same time is edging closer to longtime Slavic ally Russia.
“The time of shame is gone. It’s time for a quiet pride,” Vulin said in the central Serbian town of Nis.
He was flanked by former Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a U.N. war crimes tribunal for atrocities committed by Serb troops in Kosovo during NATO’S bombardment, which stopped the crackdown.
Bodies of beheaded Copts found. LIBYA» Libyan
BENGHAZI, authorities have recovered the bodies of 21 Coptic Christian workers, mostly Egyptians, who in 2015 were beheaded on a beach in the coastal city of Sirte by Islamic State militants, according to a statement issued Saturday by a governmentlinked anti-is group.
The group, al-bonyan al-marsous, quoted an IS militant who witnessed the attack as saying all but one of the 21 showed no resistance to their impending decapitation.
Masekela treated for prostate cancer. JOHANNESBURG» South African musician Hugh Masekela says he is canceling commitments in the near future because he needs all his energy to continue treatment for prostate cancer.
The jazz trumpeter said in a statement Saturday that he started treatment in 2008 after doctors found a “small ‘speck’” on his bladder, and had surgery in March 2016 after the cancer spread.
The 78-year-old Masekela also says he felt an “imbalance” and had an eye problem after a fall in April in Morocco in which he sprained his shoulder. He says another tumor was then discovered and he had surgery last month.
Dethroned royals have grand wedding. » Although
BELGRADE, SERBIA it’s not a kingdom now, Serbia has hosted a wedding for dethroned royals.
Prince Philip Karadjordjevic, of the dethroned Serbian royals, married Danica Marinkovic on Saturday in a ceremony at Belgrade’s main cathedral.
The wedding was performed by the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, and attended by many public figures. Dozens gathered outside the church on a sunny but chilly autumn day.