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Month: January 2021

Pinocchio — PG-13 (A-II)

Posted by | Jan 4, 2021 | , , , , , |

It’s no lie to say that “Pinocchio,” Italian director Matteo Garrone’s live-action version of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel — which he also who co-wrote with Massimo Ceccherini — is scrupulously faithful to the grotesqueries of its source material. As such, it falls well short of what anyone might regard as straightforward family entertainment.

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Man who filmed ‘prank video’ at Mass in Canada charged with hate crime

Posted by | Jan 4, 2021 | , |

Edmonton, Canada, Jan 4, 2021 / 04:14 pm (CNA).- A 25-year-old man who late last year interrupted a Mass in Canada by exposing himself as part of a “prank video” has been charged with a hate crime and banned from all diocesan property.

The incident happened during Mass Dec. 13, 2020 at Santa Maria Goretti, a predominantly Italian parish in Edmonton, Alberta.

Father George Puramadathil, the parish’s pastor, told CNA that he was celebrating the Mass when a young man approached the ambo and, speaking in Italian, “requested five minutes” with the priest. 

Father Puramadathil said he assumed the young man was a member of the parish youth group, or in any case someone in need of help.

“I thought, ok, let him talk,” Puramadathil recalled thinking at first, but the young man switched to English and began shouting “very vulgar terms.” He then took out a bottle of wine from his pocket and began to open it, the priest recalled.

When Puramadathil approached the man and asked him to leave, the man descended from the ambo and “lowered his pants in front of the people” before running from the church and escaping over a fence.

Puramadathil reported the incident to the Archdiocese of Edmonton and to the police, and later learned that the suspect was wearing a camera and had posted a recording of the incident online. The video has since been removed.

Puramadathil said he believes the man had associates who picked him up in a car after he jumped the fence. He also later learned that the young man had several associates in the sanctuary who also were taking videos of the incident, and had registered to attend the Mass using false names.

The archdiocese announced Jan. 3 that the suspect had been charged, and that local police had banned him from entering Santa Maria Goretti church. In addition, the archdiocese has served the suspect a notice banning him from all diocesan property.

“The fact that one of the charges – mischief to religious property – is considered a hate crime, shows the seriousness of the incident. This kind of action cannot, and will not, be tolerated,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

Both the police and the archdiocese have declined to name the suspect publicly.

Several family members of the alleged conspirators have since telephoned Father Puramadathil to apologize for the prank, he said. The suspect’s family is registered at the parish, and the suspect was once an altar server at the church, the priest noted.

Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton celebrated Mass at the parish Dec. 20, meeting with parishioners and blessing the ambo where the incident occurred.

“Restoration and healing are needed, and so we turn to our loving God. God undoes by His blessing the harm done by evil acts,” Archbishop Smith told the congregation as quoted by Grandin Media.

“As I do, let us together implore God from our hearts for the grace of purification.”

The parish has reviewed its security since the incident and will place more volunteers and ushers at the back of the church, but the doors will remain unlocked during Mass, Grandin Media reported. Local police report there were at least 37 hate-related charges laid in Edmonton in 2020.

The incident in Alberta caps a year of apparent hate crimes directed against Catholic churches over the border in the United States, and around the world.

Across the US, churches and Catholic statues have been vandalized. Several incidents have involved statues of St. Junipero Serra, a founder of the mission system in what is now California.

Abroad, a recent report chronicled more than 500 hate crimes against Christians in Europe in 2019, included attacks against Catholic priests, arson attacks on Catholic churches, the destruction of images of the Virgin Mary, vandalism of a pregnancy counseling center, and the theft of consecrated Eucharistic hosts from tabernacles.

 

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Argentine boy saved from stray bullet by crucifix

Posted by | Jan 4, 2021 | , |

San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, Jan 4, 2021 / 03:46 pm (CNA).- Several hours before the beginning of 2021, a 9-year-old Argentine boy was saved from a stray bullet by a small metal crucifix on his chest, an event that local media have called “a New Year’s Miracle.”

According to a report from the police office of San Miguel de Tucumán, capital of the northwestern province of Tucumán, “the event took place around 10:00 pm on December 31 2020: a 9-year-old boy named Tiziano, from the neighborhood of Las Talitas, checked in with his father into the ER of the Baby Jesus Hospital in the southern part of the capital city with a superficial wound in the thorax, produced by a firearm.”

“After being checked thoroughly by several doctors on staff for 48 minutes, the boy was released,” the report says.

Tiziano’s family contacted José Romero Silva, a journalist from Telefé, Jan. 1 to explain how the boy’s life was saved: the bullet hit in the middle of the small metal crucifix that the boy received as a gift from his father. Tiziano’s aunt sent Silva a picture of how the bullet damaged the crucifix, which prevented the bullet from causing any real damage, except for a minor superficial wound.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”es” dir=”ltr”>[MILAGRO DE AÑO NUEVO] Anoche minutos antes de la 00 una bala perdida le pegó en el pecho a un Niño en Las Talitas. Pero el impacto fue en un crucifijo que el menor llevaba puesto, lo que salvó su vida. El Cristo quedó intacto y el Niño con una herida por el roce<a href=”https://twitter.com/telefetucuman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@telefetucuman</a> <a href=”https://t.co/N0vfFPtE8U”>pic.twitter.com/N0vfFPtE8U</a></p>&mdash; José Romero Silva (@Josecitors) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Josecitors/status/1345172600113262593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Silva shared the picture in his Twitter account, writing: “New Year’s Miracle: yesterday, minutes before 00 hours a stray bullet hit the chest of a boy from Las Talitas. But it hit in a crucifix the minor was wearing.”

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