The pint-sized institution, which opened last year, is filled with 1,000 feline-themed knickknacks that journeyed with their owners from Ukraine

The new findings raises questions about the authenticity of a collection of texts known as the "post-2002" scrolls

Museums are closing their doors amid the coronavirus crisis, but many offer digital exhibitions visitors can browse from the comfort of home

The tremors, which arrived in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, was the worst the Croatian capital has seen in 140 years

Thieves pilfered "The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884" from the Singer Laren in the early hours of Monday morning

Hundreds of museums are participating in an online attempt to spread joy as COVID-19 keeps their galleries empty

The Getty Museum hopes its social media challenge will spark inspiration amid the COVID-19 pandemic

The story of two bored art lovers who found a way to "a-mouse" themselves

The art within Shing Yin Khor's virtual world represents a sassy response to the game's built-in natural history museum

Select Andrew Lloyd Webber productions will stream on YouTube for 48 hours at a time

The nine classes span contemporary art, fashion and photography

The creator behind the reptilian repertoire hopes many more pet museums are in the works

"Occupy White Walls" allows players to design their own art galleries—and explore others' out-of-the-box creations

We’re really, really sorry

The Rubin Museum of Art and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art offer an array of relaxing experiences

The London institution's online offerings include 280,000 newly added Creative Commons images

The Museo de la Massacre de Ponce and Casa Paoli were among the buildings affected by Saturday's tremors

The app features a database of some two million artworks housed at more than 120 venues

Catch the musical event, featuring Sting, Death Cab for Cutie front man Ben Gibbard and other artists, on YouTube tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern time

With Washington, D.C. COVID-19 state of emergency, Smithsonian officials say museums to close Saturday, March 14; events canceled through May 3

In an official statement, the Institution announced temporary closures beginning Saturday, March 14

Plague, war and politics have altered the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca throughout history

Aubyn O'Grady, program director of the School of Visual Arts in Dawson City, seeks musical inspiration from some very interesting places.

<span class="topsy_trackback_comment"><span class="topsy_twitter_username"><span class="topsy_trackback_content">Squeekville, model train amusement park, on display at Children's ...: Squeekville, model train amusement park, ... http://bit.ly/9x4oFS</span></span>

People and businesses are rallying to support the Muslim community in Fort McMurray recover after widespread flooding that damaged many neighbourhoods.

The following is a post by Kristi Finefield, Reference Specialist in the Prints & Photographs Division, and member of the Picture This blog team. Images have a way of opening our eyes to new aspects of a well-known story. When I think of singer Marian Anderson, an image of her performing at the Lincoln Memorial […]

CBC Ottawa is committed to bringing you all the information you need to know about COVID-19 to stay safe. But we also want to make room for all the positive stories. You'll find them here.

Tag: music therapy  Houston Public Media

How Music Therapists Helped A Mother Connect With The Newborn She Still Hasn’t Met  Houston Public Media

Bengaluru's all-woman music collective Metronome to release a track for Mother's Day  Times of India

'Creative Music Making' Documentary to Air on Nine Network - MPress  Maryville University News

How Do American Indians Celebrate Mother's Day? | Smithsonian Voices | National Museum of the American Indian  Smithsonian.com

Every day there is something or the other happening in the entertainment industry the proceeds of which are being given away for fighting the corona crisis.

Twenty-five years after meeting Johnny Cash, a Newfoundland musician is trying to track down a photo of the pair.

OM Greece

A speedboat approached the gritty beach of the Greek island of Lesbos carrying around a dozen people. It quickly dumped their luggage into the choppy sea before racing away. After some emotional greetings, the OM Greece team and others offered the newcomers towels, water and bananas. The team soon discovered that they were three generations of Syrian Christians, grandparents to grandchildren, fleeing to Europe's safety.

The team's hearts sank when the Syrians told them that the same boat, which charged them a steep 2000 € per person for the 30-minute trip was to make another journey to bring the rest of the family from Turkey. The team had seen the harbour police arrest the pilot and had to break the bad news to them that their relatives' fate was uncertain.

And so the trials and difficulties continue for the hundreds of thousands fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan making their way to Greece's shores in the hopes of moving onward into Europe. OM Greece continues to demonstrate God's love and compassion there.

The OM Greece team on Lesbos has enjoyed chatting with the refugees—something not many other relief workers are doing.

"A young Iraqi guy approached us and excitedly told us the he, too, wanted to become a Christian," recounted the team leader, heading up efforts on the island, where many of the refugees land.

"Stunned, we immediately gave him a Christian tract in Arabic we had picked up earlier that day, and those gathered around began reading it."

Waves of new arrivals of Syrian and other refugees to Greece's shores are overwhelming relief groups and authorities in the biggest humanitarian emergency since World War II.

Despite the early onset of autumn's rains, more than 2,500 mainly Syrian and Afghan refugees, soaked and exhausted, reached Lesbos in just a matter of hours this week alone. This marks a sharp rise in the rate of arrivals making the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey, aid officials said.

Most refugees traveling in unsafe dinghies and boats, squeezing about 40 to 45 people aboard, came in the pouring rain. Some suffered from hypothermia.

Over 430,000 refugees fleeing mayhem in the Middle East already have worked their way this year from Turkey to Greece. Despite Greece's dire economic crisis, many Greeks have been welcoming the refugees even though resources are scarce and many Greeks are also looking for help.

Gabby Markus, OM Greece country leader, also coordinates humanitarian assistance provided by numerous churches in the Athens area to ensure more effective cooperation and aid on behalf of the fleeing refugees.

Government and local officials have appreciated OM Greece and the local churches' quick ability to organise Arabic and Farsi/Dari translators to help communicate with the refugees as well as the practical provision of badly needed water, clothing and cooked meals. A clothing bank, shower facility, possible WiFi/Internet access points, and a potential campsite for temporary stay by the refugees are also in the planning.

"You tell us and we will get the people," Gabby told an official of Greece's Migration Policy Ministry. As a registered Greece-based organisation and with work in 110 countries worldwide, OM is strategically placed to help the refugees in their hour of need.

This week, the Athens team has helped numerous Afghans, including Harazas, sheltering in a sports stadium after a torrential downpour drove them out of one of Athen's outdoor parks.

Inside the stadium, where colorful pup tents lined the floor, young Afghan men danced to a throbbing, ethnic beat. Their arms sliced the air and bodies spun, enrapturing Afghan and Greek onlookers alike.
Greek doctors were on hand to carry out health checks on those who made the strenuous journey from their war-torn homeland.

"We had 45 people packed inside our flimsy rubber dinghy," 20-year-old Habib told OM. It was a dangerous journey and we were very frightened. Now we're exhausted, but we must continue to move on," said the youth, with dark, intense eyes.

Other OM Greece workers participate in cooking and serving meals to refugees gathered at churches in a food-share project. They also assist in meal distributions in parks where refugees congregate in the Greek capital.

"We must help these people who have left everything behind," Gabby said.

OM Greece needs your prayer and financial support to continue and intensify its aid efforts for Syrian and other refugees fleeing conflict to Europe.

A developing OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give specifically to projects in Greece, please mark your gift to be given to Greece. To give to OM Europe's general relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

In each village, a small crowd of people gathered, and children and adults watched the puppet theatre with much interest. The team also put on a concert featuring songs by Istvan Horvath, a member of the OM Hungary team, as well as English songs by the international team. during Easter

The African Union Development Agency says countries should think about how they choose the lesser of the two evils because strict lockdowns have severe consequences.

A team of OM workers and local believers share New Testaments and relief packs of food in a Muslim village in Israel.

CNA Staff, May 5, 2020 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Poland’s bishops have intervened in a debate about whether presidential elections scheduled for May 10 should go ahead despite a nationwide lockdown.

A statement from the permanent council of the Polish bishops’ conference April 27 urged politicians to work together to ensure that the election would be regarded as legitimate by all sides. 

It said: “We appeal to the consciences of those responsible for the common good of our homeland, both those in power and the opposition, to work out a common position on the presidential elections in this extraordinary situation.” 

Poland’s ruling coalition, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, has rejected calls to postpone the election, due to take place this Sunday. 

The state began introducing lockdown measures March 10, which it is now starting to lift. Poland, which has a population of almost 38 million, had 14,242 documented coronavirus cases and 700 deaths as of May 5, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The Polish Senate began debating legislation May 5 that would allow the election to be held by postal vote, rather than at polling stations, due to the pandemic. 

The Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament, will have the final say on the legislation. 

The bishops called on lawmakers to resolve the issue while upholding the principles of Poland’s constitution. They emphasized that they were not seeking to engage in “purely political disputes over the form or timing of election, let alone to advocate this or that solution.”

The bishops’ permanent council said: “We encourage dialogue between the parties to seek solutions that would not raise legal doubts and suspicion, not only of a violation of the current constitutional order but also of the principles of free and fair elections adopted in a democratic society.”

“We ask that, guided by the best will, they would seek in their actions the common good, which today is expressed both by the life, health and social existence of Poles, as well as broad social trust in the electoral procedures of a democratic state jointly developed over the years.”

The bishops continued: “In this difficult situation that we are experiencing, we should take care to cultivate a mature democracy, protect the nation of laws, building -- despite differences -- a culture of solidarity, also in the political sphere.”

If parliament approves the postal vote, the government could delay the vote to either May 17 or May 23 to allow more preparation time, according to Reuters. 

Opinion polls suggest the incumbent President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, would be re-elected by a significant margin if the vote were held soon. 

Bishops’ conference president Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki entrusted Poland to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and to Our Lady, Queen of Poland, at Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa May 3.

Tampico, Mexico :: Logos Hope's crewmembers visit a local church, encouraging the members to share the gospel with their neighbours and around the world.

Long-term worker teaches Transform seminar about loving Muslim women, encouraging two participants to deepen relationships with Muslim friends back home.

Ethnomusicologists visited a North African country to help local singers and a Sudanese Nubian believer write a worship song in his language and style.

CNA Staff, May 4, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has ordered 15 psychiatric hospitals in Belgium which belong to the Brothers of Charity to cease identifying as Catholic institutions after they allowed the euthanization of patients in 2017.

The hospitals are managed by a civil non-profit corporation with the same name as the Brothers of Charity religious congregation which owns them.

The CDF decision was communicated in a letter dated March 30, stating that "with deep sadness" the "psychiatric hospitals managed by the Provincialate of the Brothers of Charity association in Belgium will no longer be able to consider themselves Catholic institutions."

In a statement responding to the CDF's decision, the superior general of the Brothers of Charity, Br. René Stockman, said that "with a heavy heart" the religious congregation "must let go of its psychiatric centers in Belgium."

Br. Stockman pointed out that it is "painful" that the psychiatric centers of the Brothers of Charity in Belgium have lost their Catholic status, considering also that the brothers "were among the pioneers in the field of mental health care in Belgium."

At the same time, Stockman said he recognizes that "the congregation [the Brothers of Charity] has no choice but to remain faithful to the charism of charity, which cannot be reconciled with the practice of euthanasia on psychiatric patients."

The decision by the Vatican's doctrinal office ends three years of disputes between the Brothers of Charity and the corporation which manages their hospitals in Belgium.

In 2017, the board decided to allow euthanasia to be carried out in its hospitals in Belgium, where the euthanasia law is among the most broad.

At the time of the decision, the board of the corporation was composed of 15 members, with only three of them religious brothers of the congregation. 

Two of the three religious brothers among the board members, Luc Lemmens, 61, and Veron Raes, 57, supported the euthanasia decision. Their terms on the board ended at the end of September 2018 and were not renewed.

The religious congregation, especially Stockman, protested the decision, reiterating the Brothers of Charity's rejection of euthanasia in their hospitals.

The brothers appealed to the Vatican, which asked the psychiatric hospitals to change their protocol allowing euthanasia as “a medical act” under certain conditions.

The hospital management responded with a long statement in September 2017, in which it contested a lack of dialogue and maintained the hospital was "perfectly consistent" with Christian doctrine.

The CDF's direction that the hospitals must no longer identify as Catholic was communicated in a letter signed by CDF prefect Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer and secretary Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

The letter retraced the developments of the story, recalling that the document allowing euthanasia in the brothers' hospitals "refers neither to God, nor to Holy Scripture, nor to the Christian vision of Man."

According to the letter, the CDF had spoken with the Brothers of Charity and had also informed Pope Francis of the gravity of the situation.

Other audiences had also taken place beginning June 2017, including with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Secretariat of State, the representatives of the Brothers of Charity and the managing corporation, as well as representatives of the Belgian bishops' conference.

The Holy See also sent Bishop Jan Hendriks, auxiliary of Amsterdam, as an apostolic visitor, but he did not register any steps forward nor a desire to find "a viable solution that avoids any form of responsibility of the institution for euthanasia."

The request of the CDF to the Brothers of Charity and to the managing corporation was clear: “affirm in writing and in an unequivocal way their adherence to the principles of the sacredness of human life and the unacceptability of euthanasia, and, as a consequence, the absolute refusal to carry it out in the institutions they depend on."

The corporation "did not give assurance on these points."

The CDF therefore reiterated that "euthanasia remains an inadmissible act, even in extreme cases," and strengthened the statement by citing St. John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae, and a Jan. 30 speech by Pope Francis to the CDF.

The CDF stressed that "Catholic teaching affirms the sacred value of human life," the "importance of caring for and accompanying the sick and disabled," as well as "the Christian value of suffering, the moral unacceptability of euthanasia" and "the impossibility of introducing this practice in Catholic hospitals, not even in extreme cases, as well as of collaborating in this regard with civil institutions."

The Brothers of Charity is a religious congregation of lay brothers founded in 1807 in Belgium, whose specialization is care for the sick and those with psychiatric diseases.

At the congregation's July 2018 general chapter the group stressed that the Brothers of Charity "believes in sacredness and absolute respect for every human life, from conception to natural death. The general chapter requires that each brother, associate member and others associated with the mission of the congregation adhere to the doctrine of the Catholic Church on ethical issues."

Church planting and Business 4 Transformation go hand-in-hand in Ukraine.

Andy Lowndes, music detective for dementia charity Playlist for Life

OM EAST, in partnership with OM Bosnia, is getting ready for their annual Schoolbags Project in north-west Bosnia-Herzegovina this summer.

THIS time last year the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the Crown Office were united in great fanfare about groundbreaking new legislation designed to tackle domestic abuse.