Naason Joaquin Garcia, the 50-year old “Apostle” of the Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) Church, got quite a surprise when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport and deplaned from his private charter airplane – officials were waiting for him, and arrested him for human trafficking, production of child pornography, forcible rape of a minor, and several other felonies committed between 20...

At least we got past Christmas and celebrated again the birth of the baby that changed everything – the one and only King Lord Jesus Christ God Almighty. Armed with faith we shall venture into the future without fear. In this era of extreme soap-opera politics on national TV news and social media, those President Donald Trump haters -- who claim to be Christian -- should change their ways with ...

Ramadan Mubarak roughly translates into “Happy Ramadan”. The Islamic holy month of Ramadan officially begins this May 17 and will extend through June 14, this important event is also observed by the Muslim community in Costa Rica. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, a practice that allows them to understand the suffering of others. Fasting is obligatory for adults...

Holy Week is here and in a country like Costa Rica where the majority of the population is Catholic, there are many religious traditions taking place all around the country. The “procesiones” ( processions or religious parades) began yesterday with the Virgen de la Dolorosa and continued this Palms Sunday with the reenactment of the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem. While some communities make th...

The first Jewish settlers arrived to Costa Rica shortly after Christopher Columbus (1502), there was also a number of members of this community that arrived at the end of the XIX century. The Jewsish settlers from Poland and some from Central Europe arrived during the first decades of the XX century. Today, the estimated Jewish population is of approximately 5,000 the majority live in Escazu, San ...

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation has organized an international congress in Costa Rica from November 29 to December 1, 2017 in which Pope Francis' "Laudato Si" and speeches on the environment by Benedict XVI will be the main themes, reported Papal news sources. Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si" is being used to create a tool to measure and rank countries' efforts in human ...

August 2 is a holiday in Costa Rica, it’s a day reserved to honor the country’s patron saint, the Vírgen de los Angeles or “La Negrita” as Costa Ricans refer to her. The tradition in the country for catholic faithful involves a pilgrimage, “La Romería”, to the church in Cartago that was built in honor of La Negrita, “La Basílica de Los Angeles”. Hundreds of thousands, some say more than a...

Sydney, Australia, Feb. 6 — Over 4,400 people reported cases of child sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church in Australia between 1980 and 2015, according to a report released on Monday at the beginning of a new round of hearings by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Royal Commission, which is responsible for investigating the extent...

Toronto, Jan. 30 — Canadian police on Monday charged a 27-year-old Canadian student, Alexandre Bissonnette, with six counts of first degree murder and five counts of attempted murder for the shooting attack on the weekend at a mosque in Quebec City. Police believe Bissonnette, who was arrested a few hours after the attack on the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, is the only suspect in the case. ...

At least four people have been killed, and several injured, in an attack on the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center in the eastern Canadian city of Quebec, local media reported. La Presse newspaper said in its digital edition that at around 9:15 p.m. Sunday local time, a suspect was located by police on one of the city's bridges. Quebec police confirmed to the media that several people have be...

VATICAN CITY, Dec. 24 -- Pope Francis on Christmas Eve encouraged Catholics to turn away from consumerism and embrace the "smallness" of Baby Jesus. During his homily at the annual Midnight Mass in a packed St. Peter's Square, Francis said the humble story of Jesus' birth in a manger remains a guiding principle of Catholicism. "The Gospel reveals a paradox: it speaks of the emperor, the gove...

By Wendy Anders A rendering of the Second Coming of Christ, source Facebook. U.S. computer programmer Nora Roth, has boldly claimed that “Jesus will come back to Earth and incite the rapture” at the end of December, reported aol.com this week. Her calculations are explained on her website, Mark of the Beast, where she asks the wild questions, "Are 6,000 years of sin almost over? Will Jes...

By Wendy Anders Jehovah's Witnesses distributing literature in Costa Rica, Facebook. This weekend’s 3-day gathering of over 7,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses from the San José metropolitan area was held in La Guácima, Alajuela. According to Wikipedia: “Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. Th...

By Wendy Anders File photo Even the faithful aren't exempt from common crimes in Costa Rica. The latest church this year to be robbed in Costa Rica was the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Catholic Temple in the canton of Mora, which neighbors Santa Ana west of San José, reported Costa Rica’s tabloid El Diario Extra today. Based on police reports from municipal Mora police, the theft too...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.    By Britt Nelson Politics or religion -- take your pick – both can boil your oil faster than anything else, bursting gaskets, and causing humanity to come apart at the seams. Both have been the basis for unending wars throughout the world li...

Cartoon by Clay Jones A court on Friday suspended the ban on Islamic burkini swimming costumes imposed by a French Riviera town in a ruling likely to set a precedent to be followed in France's other beaches. France's Council of State, the country's top administrative court, lifted the ban in the Cote d'Azur town of Villeneuve-Loubet. The ruling was expected to be adopted by 30 other muni...

Wikimedia Commons Social networks users have expressed their outrage on Wednesday in support of two women on the beaches in Nice and Cannes, who were confronted by French police and made to remove some of their clothing as part of a controversial ban of the burkini, the full-body swimsuit. U.K. newspapers published pictures on Tuesday night of one of the two women being surrounded by four m...

Wikimedia Commons By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. Expats living in Costa Rica, who grew up in the United States of America, can say goodbye to the Pledge of Allegiance that was recited daily by schoolchildren everywhere beginning in 1945. For most Americans, Executiv...

Wikimedia Commons French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Wednesday he supported the ban issued in several parts of the country against the burkini, but ruled out government legislation on the matter. Valls said in an interview with La Provence newspaper that general laws dictating clothes are not a solution. The Prime Minister's comments arrive in the wake of an all-out beach brawl i...

Wikimedia Commons Controversy has sparked in France after a French NGO decided to arrange a day at a water park near Marseille for women who wear the Islamic full-cover swimsuit known as "burkini", while French authorities plan to ban it. On its Facebook page, Smile 13 announced the organization of the day on Sept. 17 at SpeedWater Park, giving access only to women wearing burkinis, while m...

Early Monteverde community diner., Source: John Campbell by Jody Jenkins How far would you go for your beliefs? It’s a question more pertinent than ever in today’s globalized world brimming with moral issues easily accessible with the swipe of a fingertip on any smartphone. In a virtual age where tapping a “donate” button equates to activism, how do we decide which causes are really worth ri...

Cartoon by Clay JonesJust a day after the much awaited release of the latest smartphone game 'Pokemon Go' in Japan, some of the country's most popular tourist attractions have started urging visitors to use caution when playing or stop playing altogether at their facilities. The most emphatic protest came from the Izumo-taisha shrine, considered the second most sacred in Japan, which banned th...

Cartoon by Clay Jones Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan said Tuesday that anti-Semite images have "no place in (a) presidential campaign," and that the Trump's communications staff has got to clean up its act, in response to a controversial tweet posted by the magnate. Ryan was reacting Tuesday to a radio interview about the controversy that erupted last Saturday when Don...

By Iahsan at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Concurrent with the birthday anniversary of Imam Hassan (2nd Shia Imam), a girl from Costa Rica converted to Shia Islam at the Razavi Holy Shrine of Iran. The Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad is a complex which contains the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Twelver Shiites. It is the largest mosque in the world by dimension and ...

Radiohead performing in Portugal. Wikimedia Commons Istanbul, Jun 18 (EFE).- Istanbul police used tear gas Saturday to break up a demonstration protesting the attack last Thursday against fans who went to a party thrown by the Radiohead band, which was celebrating the publication of its new disc, "A Moon Shaped Pool." About 100 fans gathered Saturday around 6:00 p.m. at a square in Istanbul...

Source: Flick Commons By Britt Nelson Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff The horrific Orlando murders are echoing and vibrating messages of love around the world like a stone thrown into a pond. Massive rallies are being held around the world in memory of those killed. United States Pre...

ALPHARETTA, Ga., June 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- It only took six weeks for the nearly 200 team members of the Scheduling Institute to hit their goal of $20,000 to support an immediate need for the Soup Kitchen in La Carpio, Costa Rica, a far cry from the affluent town of Alpharetta, where the company's headquarters are located. La Carpio is one of the poorest and most dangerous communities in Costa ...

Wikimedia Commons Austin, Texas, Jun 13 (EFE).- Hilda Ramirez is a Guatemalan Indian who has spent four months in a church that has provided her with sanctuary in this Texas city in order to prevent U.S. authorities from detaining her and complying with the deportation order issued against her and her 10-year-old son. She has no wish to return to Guatemala, from where she fled north in 2014...

By Britt Nelson   I was there when Coady was born I was there when Coady died. He was 26 years old. Coady died of a heroin overdose In Jaco Beach, Costa Rica, June 8, 2015.   He had accepted Jesus as his savior. Fifteen days before Coady died I saw him Baptized In the Pacific Ocean waves.   I did not know my son. During his adult years, There was always...

Source: Correos de Costa Rica Vatican City, May 27 (EFE).- Pope Francis met in a private audience here Friday with Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, who invited the pontiff to visit the Central American country. "If it's possible," the pope responded. Solis arrived almost 20 minutes late for the audience, a delay officials said was due to a misunderstanding between the Vatican ...

By Gavin Drake of Anglican News A lay canon of England’s Liverpool Cathedral has been elected unopposed to serve as vice-chair of the Anglican Consultative Council. She joins the Archbishop of Hong Kong, the Most Revd Dr Paul Kwong, who was elected last week as chair of the body; and five new members of the Standing Committee. The Anglican Consultative Council is the legally constituted body...

Turismo Miramar Buenos Aires, Mar 27 (EFE). - Residents of Miramar, a coastal city in Argentina's Buenos Aires province, have built the world's tallest chocolate Easter Bunny, a creation that stands 5.2 meters (just over 17 feet) tall and weighs 3,000 kilos (3.3 tons), city officials told EFE on Sunday. "In the past six years, around this time, we have made giant Easter eggs, but since othe...

Mabel Flores, Flickr Commons More than 70 Fire Departments across Costa Rica will be very vigilant from now until the early hours of Easter Sunday as communities engage in the traditional burning of the Judas Iscariot effigy. The burning of Judas begins with the hanging of the effigy, which happens on Good Friday and is followed by burning on the night of Holy Satruday. This religious tradi...

Leo and Zana Finkenbinder. Source: Olivet Nazarene University Olivet Nazarene University Press Release - An innovative educational and research facility in a Costa Rica cloud forest has been named for Dr. Leo Finkenbinder, zoology professor at Olivet Nazarene University, and his wife, Zana. The couple has worked for more than three decades in that region to advance scientific knowledge and eco...

Scientology objects of faith. Wikimedia Commons SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, March 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On a typically glorious Costa Rican afternoon in February, hundreds of guests assembled to welcome the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Latin American Goodwill Tour to San Jose. The celebration signaled the opening of the Volunteer Ministers bright yellow pavilion in the nation's capital. Here, v...

Wikimedia Commons Aboard the papal aircraft, Feb 18 (EFE).- Pope Francis said Thursday that he did not meet with relatives of 43 trainee teachers kidnapped 18 months ago in southern Mexico because he had received multiple requests from different groups, "including ones at odds with one another." The Argentine pontiff made the remarks to international media, including EFE, while flying back ...

Roses now adorn the spot where the Jesuits were gunned down on the UCA's campus on Nov. 16, 1989. They were planted by Obdulio Ramos, husband to Julia Elba Ramos and father to Celina Ramos, who were killed along with the Jesuits. Photo by Charles Barry. Jesuits.org Washington, Feb 5 (EFE).- A U.S. district judge on Friday approved the extradition to Spain of a retired Salvadoran army officer w...

Jack Donnelly By Jack Donnelly Article 75 of the Constitution states that Costa Rica is a Catholic country. That sounds more theocratic than the reality. The majority of Ticos will readily affirm they are Catholics, but many are rather laid back in their approach to observance and dogma. This is especially true in the areas of relationships, marriage, divorce, birth control, etc. There is a...

Pixabay Commons An internal page within the website of the Ministry of the Environment in Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: MINAE) was hacked by an Egyptian group claiming allegiance to the Cyber Caliphate, an extremist branch of ISIS. The Web page in question is a document that normally holds a compilation of events related to the history of Isla del Coco, a World Heritage Site that is part of ...

Wikimedia Commons New York, Dec 7 (EFE).- Republican president hopeful Donald Trump on Monday called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" until U.S. authorities can "figure out what is going on," justifying the proposed Muslim entry ban by claiming that large segments of the world's Muslim population bear "great hatred" towards Americans. Trump's campaig...