Pope proclaims first saints, says Christians still persecuted

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday proclaimed as saints some 800 Italians killed in the 15th century for refusing to convert to Islam, and said many Christians were still being persecuted for their faith.

The Vatican seemed at pains not to allow the first canonizations of Francis' two-month-old papacy to be interpreted as anti-Islamic, saying the deaths of the 'Otranto Marytrs' must be understood in their historical context.

The 800 were killed in 1480 in the siege of Otranto, on the southeastern Adriatic, by Ottoman Turks who sacked the city, killed its archbishop and told the citizens to surrender and convert.

When they refused, the Ottoman commanding officer ordered the execution of all men aged 15 or older, most by beheading.

"While we venerate the Otranto Martyrs, we ask God to sustain the many Christians who, today, in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence and give them the courage to be faithful and to respond to evil with good," Francis said before more than 70,000 people in St. Peter's Square.

He did not mention any countries, but the Vatican has expressed deep concern recently about the fate of Christians in parts of the Middle East, including Coptic Christians who have been caught up in sectarian strife in Egypt.

A booklet handed out to participants said the "sacrifice" of the Otranto Martyrs "must be placed within the historical context of the wars that determined relations between Europe and the Ottoman Empire for a long period of time".

HEALING MIRACLE

Francis' predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, made a speech in Regensburg, Germany, in 2006 that was perceived by Muslims as equating Islam with violence.

Benedict said at the time he had been misunderstood. He is now living in retirement in a Vatican convent, after stepping down in February.

Roman Catholic sainthood requires that two miracles be attributed to those who are being made saints - one before beatification, and another before canonization.

In the case of the 800 Italians, the requirement for the first miracle was waived because they were killed "in hatred of the faith".

The miracle approved for their canonization was that of a nun who had cancer which, according to the Church, was healed after she prayed at a memorial to the martyrs in Otranto.

At Sunday's ceremony, Francis also proclaimed Colombia's first saint, a nun who died in 1949, and canonized a Mexican nun who died in 1963.

At the end of the Mass, he made his first appeal as pope against abortion, saying life must be "respected from the moment of conception" and throwing his support behind an Italian group promoting legal protection for embryos.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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How to Graduate From a Failing School System and Still Be Brilliant

Growing up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago, Sue Khim saw some of her brightest classmates languish in a public school system that failed to engage or develop their natural aptitudes.

But when she moved to a new school district fortunate enough to have a gifted program, Khim’s own academic career took a fortuitous turn. “It changed my life,” she tells TakePart. “I was around peers who were truly intellectually motivated, the class covered really interesting and thought-provoking material—it was at a much higher level than what we were doing at the school in the regular classes.”

That event would later turn out to be the inspiration for Brilliant, a startup the young entrepreneur founded with partners Silas Hundt and Sam Solomon.

With Khim as its CEO, Brilliant aims to identify and develop high-aptitude students from around the world who may be bored with their current classes and provides them with a more challenging curriculum.

 

 

The company’s namesake website focuses on building students’ mastery in science, math and engineering by presenting them with high-level concepts and problems.

Its software is designed to identify a student’s starting level and then build upon it, with equations that over time, increase in their degree of difficulty. Participants can also engage in group problem-solving sessions, working with like-minded kids who offer feedback and support in resolving stumbling blocks.

The profiles the students create on the site become calling cards, forming a database for top-tier universities to pour through in order to find the world’s brightest young minds. For those who are especially advanced, Brilliant can facilitate mentorship and scholarship opportunities.

Khim explains, “We were excited by the prospect of helping to create a world in which smart, driven people could be found and nurtured on a more meritocratic basis, irrespective of their geography or socioeconomic background...We wanted to create a company to help these people reach their full potential...”

Though Brilliant.org saw its official launch in October of 2012, it’s already attracted 75,000 users worldwide, and made a difference in the lives of some very impressive students.

Among them is Dylan Toh, a 12-year-old from Singapore who found Brilliant when he was searching the Internet looking for advanced math problems. His abilities were so astounding, Brilliant facilitated a mentorship program for Toh that allowed him to study abstract linear algebra and positioned him for scholarship offers at top-tier American universities.

Fifteen-year-old Phoebe Cai also ranks among Brilliant’s brightest. She was already performing data analysis at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, but has also earned herself a series of national math prizes, including the bronze medal at the Math Prize for Girls Olympiad.

Khim reports that so far, girls make up less than half of the users active on Brilliant, but her hope is that as the site encourages more students in general to embrace hard sciences, more female students will find their way into it.

In the meantime, what’s arguably most inspiring about the company’s work is that it allows the students themselves a say in the course of their education. Whereas before they were simply at the mercy of others’ decisions—their parents, their school systems, their local economy—Brilliant offers them the means to challenge themselves and grow in ways that may not have been possible before.

What other sorts of changes could benefit our educational system? Let us know in the Comments.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• No Boys Allowed: ‘Girls Who Code’ Combats the Gender Gap in Computer Sciences

• Girls Crank Up Their Confidence at ‘Rock Camp’

• So Long Barbie DreamHouse: Roominate Gets Girls Excited About Science

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A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.  In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com

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Kidnapped Syrian bishops still missing: church sources

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two Syrian bishops kidnapped by gunmen on Monday are still missing, church sources in Damascus and Aleppo said on Wednesday, contradicting a report that the men had been freed.

A source at the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo said the bishops had not been released and he was unaware of any contact with their abductors. At the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus, a source also said there was no indication they had been freed.

Greek Orthodox archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were seized near the northern commercial and industrial hub of Aleppo, which is contested by rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Authorities blamed the abduction on a "terrorist group", the label they usually give to anti-Assad rebels, but opposition fighters in the province denied they had kidnapped the two and said they were working for their release and trying to find out who had taken them.

The bishops were the most senior church figures caught up in the fight between Assad's forces and rebels trying to end four decades of family rule by Assad and his late father.

The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people and frightened minority groups as the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels gain ground in northern Syria, where Salafi and jihadi groups, including the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, have emerged as among the most formidable insurgent formations.

(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Syrian church: 2 abducted priests still missing

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian church officials say they have no information on the whereabouts of two bishops who were kidnapped in northern Syria.

The Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Bishop, Tony Yazigi, had told reporters on Tuesday that the bishops, both based in the northern city of Aleppo, had been released.

But later on Tuesday, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus said in a statement that it had not received "any official document indicating the (bishops') release." The statement was posted on the Patriarchate's website.

Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church were abducted on Monday while traveling outside Aleppo. Gunmen pulled them from their car and shot and killed their driver.

It was not clear who abducted the priests and who is holding them.

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Chavez gone, but family still has clout in Venezuela

By Brian Ellsworth

SABANETA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Sitting under the shade of mango trees in the childhood backyard of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro kicked off his election campaign with a sentimental chat with members of the ex-president's family.

Chavez's five brothers regaled Maduro, the acting president, with stories of how they played marbles and ate mangoes as children on the grassy lawn. It was all part of Maduro's efforts to highlight his ties to the symbolically important family ahead of the presidential election on Sunday.

"The family is here with you, fulfilling Chavez's orders and his legacy, so Nicolas Maduro can be ratified by the people to continue accelerating the Bolivarian revolution," said Chavez's brother Adan, referring to the late leader's socialist movement.

Perhaps inadvertently, the televised event was also a "who's who" of powerful government officials: Chavez's son-in-law, who is the vice president, a cousin who is second-in-command at state oil giant PDVSA, and Adan, who is the governor of their home state of Barinas.

Chavez's death last month shook the OPEC nation after 14 years of his self-styled socialist revolution. But it has done little to curb the influence of relatives whose blood ties to the messianic leader helped them gain considerable power.

Supporters of Chavez, a charismatic anti-poverty crusader whose social spending won him the adoration of millions, see his immediate family as a symbol of the humble roots that gave birth to his "21st century socialism."

Opposition critics deride them as a nepotistic clan that wields undue influence. In western Barinas, where Chavez grew up, adversaries slam them as an ersatz royal family that treats the sweltering plains state as their fiefdom.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and the late president's anointed successor, describes himself as a "son" of Chavez and has made the immediate family a central part of his campaign for the April 14 election.

He told stories of how, in the wake of the failed 1992 coup that made Chavez famous, he used to meet with Chavez's brothers Argenis and Adan, ducking in and out of Caracas metro cars to ditch intelligence officers who were following them.

"You are the brother of our commander Hugo Chavez, and we are his sons, which means you are our uncle and protector, a leader of this revolution," Maduro told Adan Chavez onstage at a rally in Barinas.

BROAD INFLUENCE

Chavez's vitriolic insults, sweeping nationalizations and steady concentration of power during his rule led millions to revile and dismiss him as a dictator.

But his nationalism and generous social spending also drew a near-religious following among the poor, and his cult of personality and micro-managing style left everyone from street activists to cabinet ministers scrambling for his attention.

Those with family connections rose through the ranks, and even after his death they remain key power brokers.

His daughters Rosa Virginia and Maria Gabriela served at public events as stand-in first ladies for the twice-divorced Chavez, and were highly visible during the mourning following his death.

They have been important figures in Maduro's campaign to reinforce his ties to Chavez, but have little evident political influence nor ambition.

Rosa Virginia in 2007 married leftist activist Jorge Arreaza, who went on to become science minister and later Chavez's bedside companion during the late president's final weeks.

He was sworn-in as vice president by Maduro hours after Chavez's grand state funeral, standing alongside the glass-topped coffin of his late father-in-law.

Chavez's cousin Asdrubal rose in less than five years from being a manager of a small oil refinery to vice president of PDVSA. Another of Chavez's brothers, Argenis, runs the national electrical utility and is deputy electricity minister.

Adan Chavez won the backing of the ruling Socialist Party to be elected in 2008 and 2012 as governor of Barinas, a post previously held by Chavez's father, Hugo de los Reyes Chavez.

The late president's sympathizers scoff at the idea the family has undue influence or has benefited from nepotism, and insist they should continue to play a big role in politics if Maduro wins Sunday's election, as is expected.

"That's just speculation, trying to make people believe that they have improperly taken something for themselves," said Miguel Angel Leon, a pro-government legislator in Barinas.

"They've earned what they have because of the political work they've done and the support they have as leaders."

Opinion polls give Maduro a lead of between 10 and 20 percentage points although his opponent, Miranda state governor Henrique Capriles, hopes the surge of sympathy over Chavez's death will wear off before Sunday.

FAMILY TIES

Reuters was unable to reach family members for comment. The governorship of Barinas did not answer phone calls, and the mayor of the municipality that includes Chavez's hometown - another brother - was unable to schedule an interview.

Venezuela's opposition, which has a relatively small presence in Barinas, has for years leveled a barrage of corruption accusations against the family. They deny them, and note that no official charges have been brought against any of Chavez's relatives.

Wilmer Azuaje, who is now a state legislator in Barinas, has accused Chavez's family of buying several large estates in the area, alleging that they used a family cook of limited financial means as a straw buyer.

"They're the ones with the most expensive cars, with the most expensive houses," said Azuaje.

"This year we're really going to go after the corruption by the Chavez family."

The family and Chavez's supporters accuse Azuaje himself of corruption, noting that he lost his seat in the National Assembly over alleged tax irregularities.

Supporters of Chavez's family in Barinas say they are humble and true to their origins, and cite achievements of the local government such as investments in healthcare and improvement of roads under the leadership of Adan Chavez.

"They need to continue supporting the revolution," said Ender Puerta, a 45-year-old lawyer interviewed near Maduro's rally in Barinas.

"Their presence will be very important because they gave us Chavez, the kind of man who only appears once every 500 years."

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore in Caracas; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Kieran Murray and Lisa Shumaker)

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Pope Francis still has most of his right lung

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Does the pope have only one lung?

Despite reports that Pope Francis has lived most of his life with just one lung, he had actually only removed the upper part of his right lung in a surgery, and his friends and family say he remains in good health for a 76-year-old man.

The Buenos Aires archdiocese and the Vatican have declined to provide medical reports or specific details about the surgery. Erroneous reports that his entire lung was removed have appeared in numerous media, including Argentine newspapers and The Associated Press, since as early as 2005, when Bergoglio was considered a potential successor to Pope John Paul II.

But the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, put it this way after Bergoglio succeeded Benedict XVI: "I confirm that many, many years ago he had an operation in which part of a lung was removed." Lombardi added that it wasn't a handicap for Francis, and that "those who know him have always seen him in good health."

Bergoglio's former spokesmen, Federico Wals and Guillermo Marco, said they didn't know any details about the operation, which would have occurred in the late 1950s. They said the diocese does not have his medical records.

The AP could find no record showing Bergoglio himself talking about his lung condition, apart from describing it to two journalists, Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti, who wrote his authorized biography, "El Jesuita," and another book published last month, "Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio."

The "Conversations" book says Bergoglio was a 21-year-old seminarian when he fell feverish and was near death for days.

"The doctors were worried. Finally, they diagnosed a severe lung infection. Because they found three cysts, when his condition was stabilized and a prudent amount of time had passed, he had to undergo the removal of the upper part of his right lung."

"The pain was tremendous," the book continues. "Since then, he's dealt with a pulmonary deficiency that, while it doesn't limit him seriously, it marks a human limit. Surely, that episode strengthened his understanding of what's really important in life."

The pope's last surviving sibling, his younger sister Maria Elena Bergoglio, also told the AP that doctors removed "a pretty big part" of one lung, but said her brother is "completely healthy."

Marco, who served as Bergoglio's spokesman for years in Buenos Aires, said "a good part" of one lung had been removed, but he told the AP that diminished lung capacity seemed to bother Francis less than other ailments that come with old age, such as lower back pain. That's why he wears orthopedic shoes and uses a cane at times, and "walks kind of crookedly," Marco said.

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