Pacem in Terris

Just today, I have read about a further abomination - transfering the virtual world of Internet viruses to harm the real world. However, I cannot get how the people who have produced such a thing, cannot get the depravity of their doings. Even though the Internet is not the best possible solution for today's life.

Obviously with the amount of depravities that are only a click away online, even by typing the most innocent words, we can see that the global network is not the thing that we should get attracted to each and every day when we get up. Instead we might consider either limiting the time we use online and using that time to consider how we can make our lives and this world better.

If there are some of you, who make a living out of the Internet, I pray that you make that living doing a descent job. And I pray especially for those highly moral people who might be found in the line of workers of Internet filters which should not be applied only to children, but we as adults must also be aware of whether we too should not be exposed to everything that is being published online, each and every day of the week.

Perhaps starting a daily routine with prayer or with reading from the Holy Bible or even by reading an encyclical.

To those who have started a new war, I would like to remind you of a beautiful encyclical written by Blessed Pope John XXIII, known as the Pope of Peace:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_j-xxiii_enc_11041963_pacem_en.html

Pax Vobiscum!

Archaeologist Sees Proof for Bible in Ancient Wall

By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 22, 8:07 pm ET

JERUSALEM – An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era.

If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication thatJerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C.

That's a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

While some Holy Land archaeologists support that version of history — including the archaeologist behind the dig, Eilat Mazar — others posit that David's monarchy was largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.

Speaking to reporters at the site Monday, Mazar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called her find "the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel."

"It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction," she said.

Based on what she believes to be the age of the fortifications and their location, she suggested it was built by Solomon, David's son, and mentioned in the Book of Kings.

The fortifications, including a monumental gatehouse and a 77-yard (70-meter) long section of an ancient wall, are located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem's Old City, next to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. According to the Old Testament, it was Solomon who built the first Jewish Temple on the site.

That temple was destroyed by Babylonians, rebuilt, renovated by King Herod 2,000 years ago and then destroyed again by Roman legions in 70 A.D. The compound now houses two important Islamic buildings, the golden-capped Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Archaeologists have excavated the fortifications in the past, first in the 1860s and most recently in the 1980s. But Mazar claimed her dig was the first complete excavation and the first to turn up strong evidence for the wall's age: a large number of pottery shards, which archaeologists often use to figure out the age of findings.

Aren Maeir, an archaeology professor at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said he has yet to see evidence that the fortifications are as old as Mazar claims. There are remains from the 10th century in Jerusalem, he said, but proof of a strong, centralized kingdom at that time remains "tenuous."

While some see the biblical account of the kingdom of David and Solomon as accurate and others reject it entirely, Maeir said the truth was likely somewhere in the middle.

"There's a kernel of historicity in the story of the kingdom of David," he said.