Some twins have to flip a coin—who gets mom and who gets dad for the graduation ceremony. Laura and I were blessed. When we both graduated from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. last year, the whole family was together, sitting in front of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception adjacent to campus under the May sun—beaming grandparents, placid sisters, and squirming brothers eying the cookie platters. And of course, mom and dad keeping everybody together, a skill they’d been honing for twenty-two years.

Being a twin teaches you to share things—clothes, toys, birthday cakes, bedrooms, and the blankets at grandma’s house. It teaches you to share the important moments in life, and to share life itself. Laura and I have often wondered—anticipating each other’s thoughts—why God doesn’t give everyone a twin. But that sounds soppy.

When Tony Snow stood up to deliver our commencement address last spring, he reminded me why graduation doesn’t take place by e-ceremony or in a private meeting. It’s a celebration not simply to pay homage to a piece of paper marked “diploma” but also to give thanks to and for the people who have shown the graduates what true excellence in all its dimensions is. Nothing is accomplished in a vacuum, and joy is only joyful when it is shared.

Tony Snow, who had learned about his cancer relapse just a few months earlier, stood before us as a model of excellence and accomplishment. He was also a model of down-to-earth joy. His speech—summarized by “live boldly, live a whole life”—is worth reading in its entirety, with its five “road-tested” tips for the graduates. Sweet and simple to list, though maybe not to practice: think, go off-road, commit, get out. And then the most obvious of all:

Finally, love. How trite is that? But it’s everything. It separates happiness from misery. It separates the full life from the empty life. To love is to acknowledge that life is not about you. I want you to remember that: It’s not about you. It’s a hard lesson. A lot of people go through life and never learn it. It’s to submit willingly, heart and soul, to things that matter. Love is not melodrama. You don’t purchase it, you don’t manufacture it. You build it.

Every time I buy something gaudy for my wife she says, “Oh that’s nice,” and then it goes away someplace. The love letters she keeps; I don’t know where the jewelry is.
. . .

Think not only of what it means to love but what it means to be loved. I have a lot of experience with that. Since the news that I have cancer again, I have heard from thousands and thousands of people and I have been the subject of untold prayers. I’m telling you right now: You’re young [and you feel] bullet-proof and invincible. [But] never underestimate the power of other people’s love and prayer. They have incredible power. It’s as if I’ve been carried on the shoulders of an entire army. And they had made me weightless. The soldiers in the army just wanted to do a nice thing for somebody. As I mentioned, a lot of people—everybody out here—wants to do that same thing.
. . .

And finally this: Wherever you are and whatever you do, never forget at this moment, and every moment forward, you have a precious blessing. You’ve got the breath of life. No matter how lousy things may seem, you’ve got the breath of life. And while God doesn’t promise tomorrow, he does promise eternity.

That day, May 12, 2007, I received a piece of paper marked “diploma,” and Tony Snow did too. His was an honorary degree, embossed with gold to be framed and proudly displayed. “Let me make a confession,” he said at the end of the ceremony. “I’ve never been happier than I am today, not because I got this wonderful, fancy degree. But because the tips that I’ve been sharing with you are leading me toward my next graduation.” For Snow, all of life was an education. May he now rest in the peace of eternal summer.

Germany has taken the initiative to tackle the Iraqi refugee crisis. The German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble proposed to his EU colleagues a plan to accept more Iraqi refugees in Europe and to step up member states aid efforts for the region. So far, majority of all national ministers and governments remain silent. Europe cannot ignore and overlook the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since 1948 no longer: 4.5 million Iraqis were forced to leave their homes under the most brutal conditions. More than 2 million of the Iraqi refugees have found shelter in neighboring countries.

While European governments were divided about the Iraq war and many were part of US-led coalition, Europe should now be united in its effort to contribute some relief to the current humanitarian crisis. The French presidency has taken up the German initiative on Iraqi refugees. On Thursday this week [24.07.2008] the Interior Minister of the EU member states will decide upon a proposal of giving shelter to some of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees in Europe. Europe should send out a strong sign of solidarity and assist the suffering Iraqis.

Five years after the American-led intervention, the security situation in most parts of Iraq is still unstable. The safer areas in northern Iraq are better off but still suffering from a huge influx of refugees from other parts of the country, which poses new problems for internal stability. This is also true for the neighboring countries; especially for Syria where 1.5 million Iraqis live today. For Iraq’s neighbors, the humanitarian crisis has become unmanageable. Europe’s approach should be, first of all, to assist the refugees in northern Iraq; second, cooperate with the neighboring countries to mitigate the pressure caused by the influx of millions of Iraqis; and third provide shelter for some of the most vulnerable refugees in Europe.

While all Iraqis suffer from a lack of security, the situation of Christians and other religious minorities like Mandaeans or Yezidi is particularly dreadful. Following the start of the Iraq war, persecution of Christians increased dramatically. The kidnapping and murder of the head of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, Archbishop Rahho, in February 2009 in Nineveh, is indeed the most public sign of this disastrous situation, condemned by the EU Parliament and the Slovenian Presidency. Since the early days of Christianity, Christian communities have lived in the region. Some like the Chaldeans still today pray in Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. Today, Christians face existential persecution. Refugees report about rape, forced conversion and executions. Many of them receive life threatening letters from Islamic terrorists before being brutally expelled from their homes. Of the 1.4 million Christians who were in Iraq 20 years ago, more than half have already left the country. From 600,000 Christians who remain living in the country, over 400,000 of them fled to Northern Iraq and Nineveh plain.

While American NGOs have begun to address the refugee problem, the official US position still sees a stable and secure Iraq as the only solution to the refugee crisis. However, the refugees need support now. The deteriorating situation in the neighboring countries does not allow for further delay. Refugees in Syria, Jordan or Lebanon are often barred from work and running short on funds. Europe should increase its support for refugees who have found shelter in Iraq’s Northern provinces, and as well as for those in neighboring countries.

In addressing the refugee crisis, one has to admit that for some of the most vulnerable groups of refugees in the neighboring countries, a return to Iraq will not be a viable option. Christian refugees, as well as other minority groups, will not be able to go back to their ancestral homeland in the foreseeable future. This group of the most vulnerable refugees need shelter which the West is able to offer to some of them by establishing asylum quotas. Quotas are also important as they signify hope in such a desperate situation, and thus help to stabilize the circumstances in the border countries.

The refugee crisis in the Middle East presents not only a humanitarian tragedy but a serious geopolitical risk. Europe must prepare to accept more of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees through quotas. More countries should follow the example of Sweden and the Netherlands and join the current German initiative to increase their efforts if this crisis is to be solved. The meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council this week is a good opportunity to send a strong signal of solidarity. We are obliged to do so as Europeans loyal to legacy of European founding fathers and common values we share together. Now is the time to act.

Signed by conservative and Christian democratic Members of European Parliament:

Anna Zaborska, Slovakia
Manfred Weber, Germany
Konrad Szymanski, Poland
Carlo Casini, Italy

This open letter was published in the German Die Welt, the Slovak Sme, the Polish Polska, and the Italian Avvenire.

“<=:-)", a friend suggests to me, is likely the papal smiley face---the Pope smiling with his mitre on.

Zenit reports on Papal text-messaging:

Benedict XVI is weaving together a mini-catechesis with a medium nearly any young person can relate to — cell phone text messages.

The Friday morning local time message to Youth Day pilgrims was a call to Christian love. “The spirit impels us 4ward 2wards others; the fire of his love makes us missionaries of God’s charity. See u tomorrow nite - BXVI,” it read.

Before the Pope’s boat-a-cade reached Sydney Harbor Thursday afternoon local time for his official arrival to World Youth Day, the Holy Father sent his third text message. That one said, “The Holy Spirit is the principal agent of salvation history: let him write your life-history 2 - BXVI.”