Special Commission To Study Marriage Annulment Reform

Vatican City, 22 September 2014 (VIS) – The Holy See Press Office today issued the following communique:

“On 27 August 2014, the Holy Father decided to institute a special Commission to study the reform of the canonical marriage annulment process.

The Commission will be chaired by Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto, dean of the tribunal of the Roman Rota, and will be composed of the following members: Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts; Msgr. Luis Francisco Ladario, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Bishop Dimitri Salachas, Apostolic Exarch of the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church; Msgrs. Maurice Monier, Leo Xavier Michael Arokiaraj and Alejandro W. Bunge, prelate auditors of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota; the Rev. Fr. Nikolaus Schoch, O.F.M., substitute promotor of Justice of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura; Fr. Konstanc Miroslav Adam, O.P., rector of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum); Fr. Jorge Horta Espinoza, O.F.M., Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical University Antonianum; and Prof. Paolo Moneta, formerly professor of Canon Law at the University of Pisa.

The work of the Special Commission will begin as soon as possible and will focus on the preparation of a proposal for the reform of the marriage annulment process, seeking to simplify and streamline the procedure, while safeguarding the principle of the indissoluble nature of marriage”.

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Some Assyrians Who Fled Their Town Say They Wish to Leave Iraq

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- Some Assyrians who were forced by ISIS to flee from Telsqof, an Assyrian town north of Mosul, say they do not wish to return but leave Iraq. In an interview conducted by the World Council of Churches and posted on youtube, residents of Telsqof say they have no future and would like to leave Iraq. A resident shows cell phone pictures of their homes which have been destroyed and asks how can we return to our homes.

In the interview the residents say ISIS looted, destroyed or booby trapped their homes with explosives. All of the residents fled the town.

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Some Assyrians Who Fled Their Town Say They Wish to Leave Iraq

Tens of Thousands of Assyrian and Yazidi Children At Risk in North Iraq

The following excerpts are from AINA.org:

(AINA) -- 200,00 Assyrians and 150,000 Yazidis who were driven from their villages by ISIS are now facing the dangers of cold weather as winter approaches. Already temperatures in north Iraq are very low at night, requiring extra blankets and space heaters for warmth.

...In an interview on the MidPoint program on Newsmax TV, the president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, Julianna Taimoorazy, is warning that up to 200,000 children are at risk from exposure to cold weather.

Note: Assyrians are also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs.

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Tens of Thousands of Assyrian and Yazidi Children At Risk in North Iraq

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (From Goffine's Devout Instructions)

September 14

This feast is a yearly commemoration of the erection, at Jerusalem, by Constantine the Great, and his mother, Saint Helena, of the cross on which Christ died. This took place under the Emperor Heraclius, by whom the holy cross, which Khosroo, King of Persia, had carried into his own conntry, was, after fourteen years, recovered, brought back to Jerusalem, and borne by the emperor himself to the hill of Calvary, whither it had been borne by the Saviour. Upon this occasion a miracle occurred. As Heraclins was about to carry the cross to the proper place on his shoulders, out of veneration for it, he found that while wearing the imperial dress he could not move it, until, by the advice of the patriarch Zachary, he laid aside his royal ornaments, dressed himself plainly, took off his shoes, and in such manner made himself like the humble Saviour. Introit of the Mass:

"But it behooves us to glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection."

Prayer: O God, Who on this day givest us joy by the annual solemnity of the exaltation of the holy cross, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may deserve the reward of His redemption in heaven Whose mystery we have known upon earth. through the same Lord Jesus Christ, etc. Amen.

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