title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In September 2015, the Vatican announced that Burke had been reappointed to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, from which he had been removed in December 2013, but not to his more influential positions on the Congregation for Bishops and the Apostolic Signatura. In 2016, he was not reappointed as a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship. In February 2017, Burke was again sidelined when Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu as his special delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, with exclusive responsibility for the duties which would normally be exercised by Burke as its patron. Albrecht von Boeselager, the order's grand chancellor, announced that this meant Burke was ""de facto" suspended" from the patronage. Pope Francis reappointed him as a rank-and-file member of the Apostolic Signatura in September 2017.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke was born on June 30, 1948, in Richland Center, Wisconsin, the youngest of the six children of Thomas F. and Marie B. Burke. He is of Irish heritage with ancestors from Cork and Tipperary. Burke attended St. Mary's Parish School in Richland Center from 1954 to 1959. (In 2012, an addition to the school was named the Raymond Cardinal Burke Annex in his honor.) The family later moved to Stratford, Wisconsin. From 1962 to 1968, he attended Holy Cross Seminary in La Crosse, Wisconsin. From 1968 to 1971, he studied at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., as a Basselin scholar, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970 and a Master of Arts degree in 1971, both in philosophy. He completed studies for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome between 1971 and 1975, receiving a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree and a Master of Arts degree. Pope Paul VI ordained Burke to the priesthood on June 29, 1975, in St. Peter's Basilica.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: After his ordination to the priesthood, Burke was assigned as assistant rector of the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He also taught religion at Aquinas High School in La Crosse (where a new addition was named the Bishop Burke Hall in his honor in 1997 and then in 2011 was renamed the Cardinal Burke Hall). From 1980 to 1984, Burke studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he received a licentiate in canon law in 1982 and a doctorate in canon law in 1984. He then returned to La Crosse where he was named the Moderator of the Curia and Vice Chancellor of the La Crosse diocese. In 1989, Pope John Paul II named Burke the first American Defender of the Bond of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest ecclesiastical court in the Catholic Church.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On December 10, 1994, Pope John Paul II named Burke Bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse and consecrated him on January 6, 1995, in St. Peter's Basilica. Burke took possession of the See of La Crosse on February 22, 1995.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In 2000, Burke convened the fifth diocesan synod for the Diocese of La Crosse, which resulted in the publication of "Synod V, acts: celebrated June 11–14, 2000" in 2003. In 2002, he was influential in founding the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, an order of Augustinian canons dedicated to the Tridentine Mass, the traditional form of the liturgy in the Latin Church.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Two anonymous priests in the Diocese of La Crosse said that Burke's leadership was imperfect. Many of his actions alienated some. One such example was the construction of the $25 million Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, with some saying that the money used should have gone to the poor, while Burke defended the move as a fruitful way to raise spiritual devotion. Another was the diocese's withdrawal from Church World Service's annual Crop Walk because some of the money raised was being used to purchase condoms in developing countries. Burke also welcomed numerous traditional orders, including the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), whose priests offer exclusively the Tridentine Mass, to his diocese. Two priests left the diocese as a result of his policies. Burke closed a number of schools while also raising teachers' salaries. His style was noted by some of his aides to be more formal than that of his predecessor, John Joseph Paul, although his aides described him as warm and approachable in private. During his tenure, the diocese continued to participate in charitable efforts while also increasing its moral and political activism.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On December 2, 2003, Burke was named Archbishop of St. Louis, succeeding Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali, who had been appointed Archbishop of Philadelphia. He was installed on January 26, 2004, and was presented with the pallium on June 29, 2004, by Pope John Paul II. In St. Louis, Burke emphasized the promotion of vocations to the priesthood. He also published a column in the archdiocesan weekly newspaper, the "Saint Louis Review". In both La Crosse and St. Louis, Burke established oratories for those desiring to worship according to the traditional form. As he had done in La Crosse, he invited the Institute of Christ the King into his diocese and ordained priests for the group both in the U.S. and abroad. His ordination of two ICKSP priests on June 15, 2007, in a Solemn Pontifical High Mass marked the first time in 40 years that the Tridentine rite of ordination had been used in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. In 2006, when Missouri voters narrowly approved an amendment to the state constitution permitting embryonic stem cell research, he said it meant that "our tiniest brothers and sisters ... will be made legally the subjects, the slaves, of those who wish to manipulate and destroy their lives for the sake of supposed scientific and technological progress."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: During his tenure, Burke escalated a long-running dispute over the attempted closing of a church in the diocese, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, and the ownership of its significant assets. After Father Marek Bozek led a Christmas Eve Mass in 2005 despite the archdiocese's previous attempted closure of the parish, Burke "declare[d] that the church was in 'schism'", a designation that led to the excommunication of Bozek and the church's lay board. In 2012, a state court ruled against the diocese and sided with the congregation, now an independent Catholic church, and awarded it full ownership of the significant parish assets.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In July 2006, Benedict XVI appointed Burke a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the Catholic Church. On May 6, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI gave Burke two Vatican assignments. He was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which interprets canon law, and a member of the Congregation for the Clergy.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On June 27, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Burke Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. Burke was appointed a member of several dicasteries of the Roman Curia: on May 6, 2008, of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which authoritatively interprets canon law, and of the Congregation for the Clergy, which regulates the formation and training of diocesan priests and deacons; on October 17, 2009, of the Congregation for Bishops, which oversees the appointment of most Latin Church bishops outside mission territories; on July 6, 2010, of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; on July 24, 2010, of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; and on January 29, 2011, of the Council of Cardinals and Bishops of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State. On October 7, 2008, Burke was appointed President of the Commission for Advocates, which is responsible for admitting qualified canon lawyers to a registry of those who may practice in the Vatican's courts.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On March 11, 2010, in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that had come to light in Europe, Burke said that the Vatican needed to prepare a document that outlined a set of explicit guidelines rooted in Canon Law that would guide bishops and their local tribunals worldwide in determining how to report the cases to the Holy See, so as to speed up the process by which justice is done for the victims. Changes would also be made to a policy that provided for high levels of secrecy in the process.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On November 20, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI made Burke Cardinal-Deacon of Sant'Agata dei Goti, the fifth Archbishop of St. Louis to become a member of the College of Cardinals. On February 5, 2011, the memorial of Saint Agatha, Burke took canonical possession of his titular church in Rome.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In October 2012, Burke was appointed the President of the Commission for Controversies at the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On December 16, 2013, Pope Francis made extensive changes to the Congregation for Bishops, the influential Vatican department that oversees the selection and assignment of bishops, and Burke was not reappointed a member. Some speculated this reflected the fact that Burke takes "a more aggressive line than the pope on the Western culture wars". According to Archbishop and former apostolic nuncio to the United States Carlo Maria Viganò, Burke's removal happened due to the influence of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, but Viganò's interpretation has not been independently verified.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: After ten years at the rank of cardinal deacon, Burke exercised his option to assume the rank of cardinal priest, which Pope Francis confirmed on May 3, 2021.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On November 4, 2014, Burke publicly complained that "There is a strong sense that the church is like a ship without a rudder." He balanced his critique by stating that he did not want to be interpreted as criticizing the pope.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On November 8, four days later, Pope Francis removed Burke as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and named him Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a largely ceremonial post usually given to a retired cardinal or as a secondary job to an active one.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Many perceived Burke's dismissal as related to his "rudderless ship" comment. Pope Francis denied that removing Burke as head of the Vatican's highest court was a "punishment" for his outspoken conservative views at the 2014 Synod on the Family, saying that he wanted a "smart American" to serve as patron of the Order of Malta. The pontiff said that the move was part of a broader restructuring of the Vatican bureaucracy that had been decided well before the synod, but he had waited until after the synod to make it official so Burke could still participate in the meeting as the head of a Vatican department.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In spite of the usually ceremonial nature of his new position, trouble surfaced for Burke by early 2017 after it was revealed that he and then Knights of Malta Grand Master Matthew Festing had worked to oust Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager for supplying condoms to people in Myanmar in contradiction to official Catholic teaching, which prohibits artificial contraception. On February 2, 2017, Pope Francis sidelined Burke as the Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta by appointing Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu as his special delegate to the order with exclusive responsibility for the duties normally exercised by the Patron. On February 21, Albrecht von Boeselager, the order's grand chancellor, announced that this meant Burke was ""de facto" suspended" from the patronage.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In November 2016, Pope Francis removed Burke from the membership of the Congregation for Divine Worship. This was seen to be in response to the "dubia" (Latin for "doubts") submitted by him, together with three other cardinals, to elements of "Amoris laetitia" which appear to them to be at odds with Catholic moral teaching, notably with regard to the treatment of divorced persons. Burke had indicated that in the absence of a response to the "dubia" a “formal correction” of Pope Francis would probably follow.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Beginning in February 2017, Burke was transferred to Guam to preside over a five-judge panel at the church trial of Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron of Agaña on charges of sexual abuse of minors. In March 2018, the court found Apuron guilty and ordered that he be removed from office.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On September 30, 2017, Francis reappointed him a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He assumed the position of a rank and file member, and did not regain his earlier position as prefect.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke previously chaired the advisory board of the Institute for Human Dignity, a Catholic-inspired non-governmental organization based in Rome. Burke terminated his relationship with the institute in June 2019 amid its being identified increasingly publicly with the political program of Steve Bannon.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: He became the leader of the Holy League, officially launched on March 7, 2015, on the 444th anniversary of the Holy League called by Pope Pius V against the Ottoman empire in 1571. The modern Holy League describes itself as a parish-based network of men united in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke is widely viewed as a leader of the conservative wing of the church, and "de facto" leader in the United States to those that oppose the reforms under Pope Francis. Shortly after Pope Francis did not reappoint him to the Congregation of Bishops, Burke said, "One gets the impression, or it's interpreted this way in the media, that he thinks we're talking too much about abortion, too much about the integrity of marriage as between one man and one woman. But we can never talk enough about that."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke has denied media perceptions that the Pope planned to change the Catholic Church's teaching on moral issues. He said that people "hardened against the truth" would claim that the Pope wants to change church teachings that today's secularized culture rejects. He also said "their false praise of the Holy Father’s approach mocks the fact that he is the Successor of Saint Peter", and that he consequently "rejects the acceptance and praise of the world". Pope Francis spoke favorably of Burke in 2017, saying, "I do not see Cardinal Burke as an enemy." He also called Burke "an excellent lawyer."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In an interview with "The Wanderer" on January 10, 2019, Burke denounced Pope Francis's September 2018 Holy See–China Agreement. He said that it was "in effect ... a repudiation of generations of martyrs and confessors of the Faith in China." Burke also criticized the notion of "synodality", in which authority is removed from the pope and placed in the hands of bishops. "In listening to the Pope, one is given the impression that he is giving more and more authority to individual bishops and Conferences of Bishops. But this is not the Catholic Church", Burke said. He accused promoters of synodality of attempting to affect a "revolution" in the church, the end of which would result in Catholicism being practiced differently in various countries, to the overall detriment of the church.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke's perceived status as an ultra-conservative and opponent of Pope Francis has led to criticism. Some bishops have refused to allow him to host conferences in their dioceses, and a number of priests have protested against him "and accuse him of spreading propaganda against the Pope." The "National Catholic Reporter" published a highly critical editorial about Burke in July 2019, castigating him as "the modern version of that religious leader that drew some of Jesus' harshest condemnations, those who placed undue burdens on others and pronounced themselves the undisputed bearers of truth." It rebuked him for allegedly wanting to "reconstitute the clericalism that is at the heart of the sex abuse cover-up scandal that continues to undermine the authority of the church," and for attempting "to replace the dynamism of Francis' model of accompaniment with a return to a statute-bound and static institution in service of itself."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On June 10, 2019, Burke, Cardinal Jānis Pujats, and Kazakh bishops Tomasz Peta, Jan Paul Lenga, and Athanasius Schneider published a 40-point "Declaration of Truths" claiming to reaffirm traditional church teaching. The bishops wrote that such a declaration was necessary in a time of "almost universal doctrinal confusion and disorientation." Specific passages in the declaration implicitly related to several writings by Pope Francis, and some of them were seen as criticism or even opposition. The declaration states that "the religion born of faith in Jesus Christ" is the "only religion positively willed by God," seemingly alluding to the "Document on Human Fraternity" signed by Pope Francis on February 4, which stated that the "diversity of religions" is "willed by God." Following recent changes to the Catechism of the Catholic Church to oppose capital punishment, the declaration states that the church "did not err" in teaching that civil authorities may "lawfully exercise capital punishment" when it is "truly necessary" to preserve the "just order of societies".


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In September 2019, Burke and Schneider published an 8-page letter denouncing what they alleged to be six theological errors in the working document for the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region and asking that Pope Francis "confirm his brethren in the faith by an unambiguous rejection of the errors." Burke and Schneider criticized the document for its "implicit pantheism," support for married clergy and a greater role for women in the liturgy, and for what they considered to be excessive openness to pagan rituals and practices common among the Amazonian peoples. They asked that the laity and the clergy pray at least one decade of the Rosary and fast weekly for the rejection of such ideas over a 40-day period, from September 17 to October 26.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: During the 2004 presidential election, Burke stated that he would not give communion to John Kerry or other Catholic politicians who publicly support legalized abortion. "One of the problems I have is bishops who say to me, 'Well, this is unheard of in the church's practice.' Actually it goes back to St. Paul in the (First) Letter to the Corinthians, when he says: The person who eats and drinks the body and blood of Christ unworthily eats and drinks condemnation unto himself," he said. He also wrote a pastoral letter saying Catholics should not vote for politicians who support abortion or other "anti-life" practices. Burke later clarified his position, stating that one could vote for a pro-abortion politician and not commit a mortal sin, if one believed there was a more significant moral issue than abortion at hand, but he also stated that he could not think of any sort of issue that would qualify. In a September 2008 interview, Burke said that "the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death', because of its choices on bioethical questions", especially elective abortion.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In 2008, Burke urged Saint Louis University to take disciplinary action against its head basketball coach, Rick Majerus, after Majerus publicly supported abortion and embryonic stem cell research at a campaign event for Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Burke stated: "When you take a position in a Catholic university, you don't have to embrace everything the Catholic Church teaches. But you can't make statements which call into question the identity and mission of the Catholic Church." Saint Louis University supported Majerus's right to publicly expound on his own personal views when made at an event he did not attend as a university representative.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In March 2009, Burke called on American bishops to withhold the Eucharist from Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion. The bishops' failure to do so, Burke said, "is weakening the faith of everyone. It's giving the impression that it must be morally correct to support procured abortion." He also said that any president who promotes and implements "anti-life" legislation could be an "agent of death". Burke later said that he made his remarks not as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, head of the Vatican's highest court, but simply as an American bishop. Two months later in May, Burke stated, "Since President [Barack] Obama clearly announced, during the election campaign, his anti-life and anti-family agenda, a Catholic who knew his agenda regarding, for example, procured abortion, embryonic-stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage, could not have voted for him with a clear conscience." During the election, Obama had not officially called for same-sex marriage, but had advocated same-sex civil unions.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In February 2013 Burke commented on the Irish abortion debate, stating that, in accordance with canon law, priests should exclude politicians who support abortion from receiving the Eucharist. Burke has stated that not simply politicians but anyone who supports abortion cannot receive Holy Communion. "I can't imagine that any Catholic wouldn't know that abortion is a grievous sin, but if they don't, once they’ve been told, then they either have to cease to support abortion or accept the fact they are not a Catholic in good standing and therefore should not present themselves for Holy Communion," he said.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: When Sheryl Crow, who advocates for embryonic stem-cell research, was scheduled to perform at a benefit concert for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, Burke stated that to have the hospital host Crow would give "the impression that the Church is somehow inconsistent in its teaching." He asked that her invitation be privately removed and resigned from the board on April 25, 2007, when Crow's performance was confirmed.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke said that Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States presidential election was a win for anti-abortion causes.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In an August 2019 interview, Burke criticized people who consider themselves members of the church but disagree with its teaching on certain issues. "I've had non-Catholic leaders of government in this nation tell me that they were certain that the Catholic teaching on abortion and so-called same-sex marriage have changed because so many Catholics on Capitol Hill are regularly supporting this kind of legislation. And that's a scandal," he said. Singling out Joe Biden, he told such people not to attempt to receive Holy Communion. "It's not a punishment. It's actually a favor to these people to tell them don't approach, Burke said, "because if they approach, they commit sacrilege." Burke denounced Kamala Harris for her criticisms of Judge Brian Buescher and his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus, saying that people "need to look at that kind of statement for what it is and say this isn't a person who I want to be the leader of my nation."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In June 2008, Burke as the Archbishop of Saint Louis applied an interdict, which excludes a person from church ministries and the sacraments, to a Sister of Charity, Louise Lears, judging her guilty of three grave canonical offenses against the Catholic Church's faith and teachings. Lears, a pastoral worker and educator, had publicly stated her belief that all of the church's ministries, including the priesthood, should be open to women. Lears received the interdict after attending an ordination ceremony, which the church does not recognize, of a woman to the priesthood at a Jewish synagogue by the WomenPriests movement.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In January 2015, Burke gave an interview to an organization called the New Project. The group was formed to confront what it calls a "man crisis" in the Catholic Church. In the interview, Burke is sympathetic to the group's concerns that men are being driven from the pews because of the "feminization" of the Catholic Church. Burke criticized what he saw as the excessive role of "radical feminism" in the church. He said that it has "assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalized" and led the Church to deemphasize issues important to men, such as chivalry and sacrifice. In addition to decrying "radical feminism", he specifically criticized the introduction of female altar servers as an unwelcome sign of the "feminization" of the church and a disincentive to boys to serve at the altar and start on the path to ordination. "The introduction of girl servers also led many boys to abandon altar service", Burke said. "Young boys don't want to do things with girls. It’s just natural. The girls were also very good at altar service. So many boys drifted away over time." In another 2015 interview, Burke blamed pedophile priests on "radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke has said that it requires "certain manly discipline to serve as an altar boy in service at the side of a priest, and most priests have their first deep experiences of the liturgy as altar boys. If we are not training young men as altar boys, giving them an experience of serving God in the liturgy, we should not be surprised that vocations have fallen dramatically."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke is a strong critic and opponent of moves to soften attitudes towards homosexuality and to permit greater acceptance of gay people within the church. In a 2013 interview, Burke said that same-sex marriage "is a work of deceit, a lie about the most fundamental aspect of our human nature, our human sexuality, which, after life itself, defines us. There is only one place these types of lies come from, namely Satan. It is a diabolical situation which is aimed at destroying individuals, families, and eventually our nation."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In an interview in October 2014, Burke referred to gay relationships as "profoundly disordered and harmful", stating that parents should not "expose [their] children to that." He suggested that parents should not allow their children to have contact with sexually active gay people and should discourage them from attending family gatherings such as celebrations at Christmas. He has described homosexuality as an "ailment" which is not genetic but largely depended on a person's environment. Shortly after he argued that Pope Francis had never said that positive elements could be found in homosexual acts, adding that it was "impossible to find positive elements in an evil act."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Speaking in Oxford after the May 2015 same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland, Burke said that he struggled to understand "any nation redefining marriage ... I mean, this is a defiance of God. It's just incredible. Pagans may have tolerated homosexual behaviours, they never dared to say this was marriage." Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh distanced himself from Burke's remarks, urging individuals "to try to be respectful and inoffensive in language" wherever possible.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In August 2017, Burke said that Cardinal Reinhard Marx's assertion that Germany's recent legalization of same-sex marriage should not be a major concern for the Catholic Church there showed how the church lacked "the clarity and the courage to announce the Gospel of Life and Divine Love to the radically secularized culture". He alluded to diabolical errors spreading from society to Church leaders, raising concerns that the "end times" were nearing, and once again stating that homosexual acts were sinful. He insisted that the correct approach would distinguish between the love for the person and the hatred Catholics "must always have for sinful acts".


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In 2019, Burke chastised some of his fellow bishops for their perceived failures in keeping church teaching. He believes there are "pressure groups" within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) who have been attempting to soften the church's attitude on homosexuality, including trying to remove the description "intrinsically disordered" from the discussion of homosexual acts in the Catechism, a change which Burke said is "not possible." Burke went on, "There is definitely within the hierarchy of the United States an element which is not coherent with the Church on these issues." He then criticized prelates who "promote Fr. James Martin ... within their dioceses." He alleged that Martin "is not coherent with the Church's teaching on homosexuality" and said that such promotion is "an indication to us that there is a serious difficulty within the hierarchy that must be addressed."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In February 2019 Burke penned an open letter with Cardinal Walter Brandmuller addressed to Pope Francis calling for an end of "the plague of the homosexual agenda," which they blamed for the sexual abuse crisis engulfing the Catholic Church. They claimed the agenda was spread by "organized networks" protected by a "conspiracy of silence."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke has opposed any hypothetical change of church doctrine that would permit civilly divorced Catholics who are validly married to remarry or receive the Eucharist once they have entered into a second civil marriage. In 2013 he co-authored a book with cardinals Gerhard Ludwig Müller and George Pell on the subject.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: An interim document from the 2014 Synod of Bishops softened the Catholic Church's language on gay people, contraception and divorced and civilly remarried people. Burke said that the response showed that "a great number of the Synod Fathers found it objectionable." In an interview with Catholic World Report, Burke said the document "lacks a solid foundation in the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Catholic Church) and gives the impression of inventing a totally new, what one member of the Synod called 'revolutionary', teaching on marriage and the family." Burke went on to say, in an interview with BuzzFeed, that if "Pope Francis had selected certain cardinals to steer the meeting so as to advance his personal views on matters like divorce and the treatment of LGBT people", he would not be observing his mandate as the leader of the Catholic Church.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In an interview in the German daily "Die Welt" on April 24, 2015, concerning the Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Burke renewed his criticism of German Cardinal Walter Kasper, whose "merciful" solution for remarried divorcees who wish to receive communion was discussed at the 2014 Extraordinary Synod. “We are bound by the Magisterium. But some Synod Fathers, above all Cardinal Kasper, want to change it. So I had to make myself very clear. Clashes at Synods, incidentally, are nothing unusual. Think of the early Councils, the Arian heresy, for instance, when Athanasius even became physically aggressive”, Burke recalled. He also mentioned that Pope John Paul II had ruled out women's ordination “once and for all”.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke, along with three other cardinals, issued a set of "dubia", or doubts, to Pope Francis, asking him to clarify various points of doctrine in his 2016 apostolic exhortation, "Amoris laetitia" and on general Christian life. The other cardinals were Italian Carlo Caffarra and Germans Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner. Since the 2014 synod, some bishops had begun allowing Catholics who had been divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion, despite the fact that such persons are traditionally said to be committing adultery and living in mortal sin and therefore ineligible to participate according to official church law. A footnote in "Amoris laetitia" was seen as allowing that under some circumstances. Burke said that if divorced and remarried Catholics were permitted to receive Holy Communion, "then the Church's teaching on marriage is finished."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: The four cardinals submitted the "dubia" in private, followed by a public letter ("Seeking Clarity: A Plea to Untie the Knots in "Amoris Laetitia"") in November 2016, asking Francis to clarify various points of doctrine. The first "dubia" asked about the reception of the sacraments by the divorced and remarried. The public letter asked about fundamental issues of the Christian life and referenced Pope John Paul II's encyclical "Veritatis splendor". In April 2017, following no reply to their letter, the cardinals requested a meeting with Francis, but there has been no response to this request.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On April 7, 2018, Burke, along with Brandmüller and Schneider, participated in a conference rejecting the outline proposed by German bishops to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist. Citing chapter 19 of the Gospel of Matthew, he disputed the notion that anyone, including the pope, had the authority to accept divorced and remarried Catholics as full members of the church. During the conference, Burke expressed the belief that a "public correction" of a pope in error can take place after a private one has been ignored or rejected. "As a matter of duty, the pope can be disobeyed," Burke said. He added that "the Roman pontiff can dispense with the law only for the purpose of preserving its purpose, and never for subverting it."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In an interview on September 6, Burke said that he shared fellow "dubia" signatory Caffarra's "profound sadness" that the "dubia" never received a response, and wondered whether such sadness contributed to his death. "The dubia must have a response sooner or later," Burke said. "It’s a simple response: Yes or no. That’s all. It's not complicated."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: At a July 23, 2011, conference on end-of-life care sponsored by the St. Gianna Physician's Guild, Burke said that suffering does not cause a person to have less meaning in his life, nor does it give the government the right to decide if that person should live or die: "No matter how much a life is diminished, no matter what suffering the person is undergoing, that life demands the greatest respect and care. It's never right to snuff out a life because it's in some way under heavy burden."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In 2012, during negotiations between the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which is in a canonically irregular status with the Holy See, Burke expressed optimism that the Society's members would reconcile themselves with the Vatican. He referred to the Society's members as people who "have the Catholic faith and the love of the sacred liturgy." The talks eventually failed. In July 2017, Burke said that SSPX was "in schism" and that it was "not legitimate to attend Mass or to receive the sacraments in a church" of theirs, and that faithful Catholics should avoid SSPX liturgies. He criticized Pope Francis's openness towards SSPX, stating that "There is no canonical explanation for it, and it is simply an anomaly", because while they were not excommunicated, they also were not in full communion with the Catholic Church.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In a July 2007 apostolic letter, "Summorum Pontificum", Pope Benedict XVI authorized wider use of the traditional Mass, which had largely fallen out of use with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI, or Novus Ordo. Restoration of all or some parts of the traditional Mass have been supported by Burke as part of a "reform of the reform", modifying what he sees as deficiencies in the implementation of the newer Mass of Paul VI. In 2012, Burke said the following regarding the liturgical changes that took place after the council:


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke referred to "Summorum Pontificum" as "the most splendid contribution of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI". Over the years, Burke has frequently offered the traditional form of the Mass, including regularly performing ordinations for the ICKSP and the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, both traditionalist groups whose priests offer only the older form of the Mass.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: On March 2, 2011, Burke said that too many priests and bishops treat violations of liturgical norms as something that is unimportant, when they are actually "serious abuses" that damage the faith of Catholics. He criticized a perceived lack of reverence in the way the modern liturgy is sometimes conducted, stating "If we err by thinking we are the center of the liturgy, the Mass will lead to a loss of faith." In a 2015 interview, Burke reiterated his concern that man has become center of Mass, saying that "In many places the Mass became very priest‑centered, it was like the 'priest show.' This type of abuse leads to a loss of the sense of the sacred, taking the essential mystery out of the Mass. The reality of Christ Himself coming down on the altar to make present His sacrifice on Calvary gets lost." Burke blamed modernization of the liturgy after the Second Vatican Council for declining Mass attendance. "In some cases it actually became hard for people to bear because of illicit insertions, foreign agendas, and imposition of the personalities of priests and congregations into the liturgy to the point that people began to think that the Mass was some sort of social activity...If one understands what the Mass truly is — Christ Himself coming down from Heaven to renew the sacrifice of Calvary — how could you possibly not be there on Sunday?" he asked.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke condemned "Traditionis custodes", a July 2021 "motu proprio" issued by Pope Francis which effectively reversed "Summorum Pontificum" by placing limits on priests offering the Traditional Form of the Mass. He said that he could not understand the document's assertion that the Novus Ordo form represented the "unique expression" of the Roman Rite of the Mass, because the Traditional Form "is a living form of the Roman Rite and has never ceased to be so". While Francis described the Traditional Mass as something that had become a tool to promote schism, Burke said that he had not seen such tendencies in practice. He alleged that the Pope's document was "marked by harshness" towards those who attend Mass in the older form and criticized the fact that it took effect immediately, which in his view did not give adequate time for those affected to study its meaning. Burke stated that Pope Francis did not have the authority to eliminate the Traditional Mass.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: The 2012 Synod of Bishops meeting focused on "The New Evangelization". In written comments to the synod, Burke criticized "antinomianism", the belief that grace exempts Christians from obedience to moral law, stating that it is "among the most serious wounds of society today," and is responsible for the legalization of "intrinsically evil" actions such as abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, euthanasia, and same-sex marriage.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In a 2016 interview, Burke said there is "no question that Islam wants to govern the world" and that he feared "being forcibly under an Islamic government". In his subsequent book, "Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ", Burke says:


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said that Burke's remarks were unhelpful at a time when Europe was still wavering in the aftermath of a series of terror attacks.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Before the 2016 United States presidential election, Burke met with Steve Bannon, a close advisor to Donald Trump. The pair met several more times, and Burke was for years a strong ally of Bannon. In 2013, he was named president of the board of advisers to Bannon's Dignitatis Humanae Institute, an academy set up by Bannon to train right-wing Catholic activists. In 2019, however, Burke resigned from the board and cut ties with Bannon because of the latter's stated intent to make a film adaptation of Frederic Martel's work "In the Closet of the Vatican", saying that "I disagree completely with a number of Mr. Bannon's statements regarding the doctrine and discipline of the Roman Catholic Church."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In February 2017, after Trump became president, Burke said that he did not "think the new president [would] be inspired by hatred in his treatment of the issue of immigration." In 2017, Burke met with the right-wing Italian nationalist Matteo Salvini, head of Italy's Northern League and an opponent of Pope Francis on immigration and dialogue with Muslims.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In 2018, Burke condemned the family separation policy of the Trump administration, saying, "A solution to the situation has to be found which avoids this practice of separating small children from their parents, that’s clear."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In May 2019, Burke said that "to resist large-scale Muslim immigration in my judgment is to be responsible" and "a responsible exercise of one’s patriotism"; he cited a book called "No Go Zones: How Sharia Law is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You", by former Breitbart News reporter Raheem Kassam, in support of his contention that immigration of Muslims to Europe and the U.S. was harmful. Burke said that Muslim immigration was because Christians were "no longer ready to defend the moral law" and expressed fears of demographic shift because "Christians are not reproducing themselves."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In 2018, Burke described ongoing sex abuse scandals in the church as "an apostasy from the faith". He added that "principally, it starts with the idea that there can be legitimate sexual activity outside of marriage, which of course is false, completely false". Burke called for prayer and acts of reparation in the midst of the crisis. In 2019, Burke said that "lay faithful who are well-prepared" in dealing with sexual abuse cases "should be called upon to investigate and help get to the bottom of" the church's clergy abuse problem, while also stating that any group of people investigating abuse cases must ultimately report and answer to the pope.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In 2019, Burke was reported to have received, together with other influential U.S. Catholic leaders, substantial monetary gifts from West Virginia bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who had resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct. The gifts had been reimbursed by the diocese. Burke said that the gifts that he received were "generous" but "not lavish," and that he had used them to make charitable donations.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke has criticized global responses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to it as "the mysterious Wuhan virus", he said that the virus is being used by "certain forces ... to advance their evil agenda" and to force people to become "subjects of the so-called 'Great Reset,' the 'new normal,' which is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear."


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Burke has raised objections to COVID-19 vaccination. He has denounced vaccine mandates and compared them to "state-mandated microchipping". Burke stated that the setting of vaccine mandates "violates the integrity of" citizens. In December 2020, referring to COVID-19 vaccine development, Burke said that the use of fetal tissue in vaccine development is "rightly abhorrent," saying it is "never morally justified to develop a vaccine through the use of the cell lines of aborted fetuses." The Vatican ruled 21 December 2020 that "when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available (e.g. in countries where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to physicians and patients, or where their distribution is more difficult due to special storage and transport conditions, or when various types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated) "it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process."" Burke has also criticized social distancing.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: In August 2021, Burke announced he had tested positive for COVID-19; he was hospitalized and placed on a ventilator for several days. On August 28, Burke said that he had been transferred out of the intensive care unit and that his health condition was improving. On September 26, Burke announced that he been moved from the hospital and was making slow but steady progress in his rehabilitation from COVID-19 and he hoped to be able to resume normal duties in several weeks.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: During his tenure in Saint Louis, Burke was awarded honorary doctorates in humane letters by two US Catholic universities, Ave Maria University in 2005, and Christendom College in 2007.


title: Raymond Leo Burke

text: Archbishop Robert James Carlson of St. Louis created the Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke Chair in Canon Law at St. Louis's Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. In May 2011, the Franciscan University of Steubenville awarded Burke an honorary doctorate.


title: Twin films

text: Twin films are films with the same or similar plots produced and released at the same time by two different film studios. The phenomenon can result from two or more production companies investing in similar scripts at the same time, resulting in a race to distribute the films to audiences. Some attribute twin films to industrial espionage, the movement of staff between studios, or that the same screenplays are sent to several film studios before being accepted. Another possible explanation is if the films deal with topical issues, such as volcanic eruptions, reality television, terrorist attacks, or significant anniversaries, resulting in multiple discovery of the concept.


title: Twin films

text: While twin films are often big budget films, a mockbuster can be made with a low budget, with similar titles, aesthetics, or theme as blockbuster films. Mockbusters are usually given more limited release and marketing, intending to take advantage of the public interest in the topic driven by the major film.


title: Twin films

text: Producer Bingham Ray recalls a conversation where the screenwriter of the 2006 Truman Capote biopic "Infamous" phoned to announce that his script had been finished. Ray said "I know, I've got it on my desk!" before realizing that he actually had the screenplay to "Capote", a biopic by a different writer.


title: Twin films

text: Screenwriter Terry Rossio notes that there are always film projects with similar subjects being developed in multiple studios, and that usually only one of them makes it into production in a given period of time, and therefore twin films are better regarded as exceptions to this tendency. For example, the release of the 2015 Whitey Bulger biopic "Black Mass" led to the abandonment of a planned film about Bulger that would have been produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.


title: Twin films

text: The 2008 film "Who Do You Love?", about American record label Chess Records, had its widespread release delayed until 2010 to avoid competing with "Cadillac Records", a higher-budget 2008 film on the same subject.


title: Twin films

text: In one case, for the 1974 film "The Towering Inferno", the fear of having competing action thrillers, both set in a burning skyscraper, convinced two Hollywood studios to merge their productions into one (all-star) film.


title: Twin films

text: The term "twin films" has also been used for films produced by the same production company with the purpose of telling the same story from two different points of view:


title: Michael reaction

text: In organic chemistry, the Michael reaction or Michael addition is a reaction between a Michael donor (an enolate or other nucleophile) and a Michael acceptor (usually an α,β-unsaturated carbonyl) to produce a Michael adduct by creating a carbon-carbon bond at the acceptor's β-carbon. It belongs to the larger class of conjugate additions and is widely used for the mild formation of carbon-carbon bonds.


title: Michael reaction

text: The Michael addition is an important atom-economical method for diastereoselective and enantioselective C–C bond formation, and many asymmetric variants exist


title: Michael reaction

text: In this general Michael addition scheme, either or both of R and R' on the nucleophile (the Michael donor) represent electron-withdrawing substituents such as acyl, cyano, nitro, or sulfone groups, which make the adjacent methylene hydrogen acidic enough to form a carbanion when reacted with the base, "B:". For the alkene (the Michael acceptor), the R" substituent is usually a carbonyl, which makes the compound an α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound (either an enone or an enal), or R" may be any electron withdrawing group.


title: Michael reaction

text: As originally defined by Arthur Michael, the reaction is the addition of an enolate of a ketone or aldehyde to an α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound at the β carbon. The current definition of the Michael reaction has broadened to include nucleophiles other than enolates. Some examples of nucleophiles include doubly stabilized carbon nucleophiles such as beta-ketoesters, malonates, and beta-cyanoesters. The resulting product contains a highly useful 1,5-dioxygenated pattern. Non-carbon nucleophiles such as water, alcohols, amines, and enamines can also react with an α,β-unsaturated carbonyl in a 1,4-addition.


title: Michael reaction

text: Some authors have broadened the definition of the Michael addition to essentially refer to any 1,4-addition reaction of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Others, however, insist that such a usage is an abuse of terminology, and limit the Michael addition to the formation of carbon–carbon bonds through the addition of carbon nucleophiles. The terms "oxa-Michael reaction" and "aza-Michael reaction" have been used to refer to the 1,4-addition of oxygen and nitrogen nucleophiles, respectively. The Michael reaction has also been associated with 1,6-addition reactions.


title: Michael reaction

text: Deprotonation of 1 by a base leads to carbanion 2, stabilized by its electron-withdrawing groups. Structures 2a to 2c are three resonance structures that can be drawn for this species, two of which have enolate ions. This nucleophile reacts with the electrophilic alkene 3 to form 4 in a conjugate addition reaction. Finally, enolate 4 abstracts a proton from protonated base (or solvent) to produce 5.


title: Michael reaction

text: The reaction is dominated by orbital, rather than electrostatic, considerations. The HOMO of stabilized enolates has a large coefficient on the central carbon atom while the LUMO of many alpha, beta unsaturated carbonyl compounds has a large coefficient on the beta carbon. Thus, both reactants can be considered soft. These polarized frontier orbitals are of similar energy, and react efficiently to form a new carbon–carbon bond.


title: Michael reaction

text: Like the aldol addition, the Michael reaction may proceed via an enol, silyl enol ether in the Mukaiyama–Michael addition, or more usually, enolate nucleophile. In the latter case, the stabilized carbonyl compound is deprotonated with a strong base (hard enolization) or with a Lewis acid and a weak base (soft enolization). The resulting enolate attacks the activated olefin with 1,4-regioselectivity, forming a carbon–carbon bond. This also transfers the enolate to the electrophile. Since the electrophile is much less acidic than the nucleophile, rapid proton transfer usually transfers the enolate back to the nucleophile if the product is enolizable; however, one may take advantage of the new locus of nucleophilicity if a suitable electrophile is pendant. Depending on the relative acidities of the nucleophile and product, the reaction may be catalytic in base. In most cases, the reaction is irreversible at low temperature.


title: Michael reaction

text: The research done by Arthur Michael in 1887 at Tufts University was prompted by an 1884 publication by Conrad & Kuthzeit on the reaction of "ethyl 2,3-dibromopropionate" with "diethyl sodiomalonate" forming a cyclopropane derivative (now recognized as involving two successive substitution reactions).


title: Michael reaction

text: Michael was able to obtain the same product by replacing the propionate by "2-bromacrylic acid ethylester" and realized that this reaction could only work by assuming an addition reaction to the double bond of the acrylic acid. He then confirmed this assumption by reacting diethyl malonate and the ethyl ester of cinnamic acid forming the first Michael adduct:


title: Michael reaction

text: In the same year Rainer Ludwig Claisen claimed priority for the invention. He and T. Komnenos had observed addition products to double bonds as side-products earlier in 1883 while investigating condensation reactions of malonic acid with aldehydes. However, according to biographer Takashi Tokoroyama, this claim is without merit.


title: Michael reaction

text: Researchers have expanded the scope of Michael additions to include elements of chirality via asymmetric versions of the reaction. The most common methods involve chiral phase transfer catalysis, such as quaternary ammonium salts derived from the Cinchona alkaloids; or organocatalysis, which is activated by enamine or iminium with chiral secondary amines, usually derived from proline.


title: Michael reaction

text: In the reaction between cyclohexanone and β-nitrostyrene sketched below, the base proline is derivatized and works in conjunction with a protic acid such as "p"-toluenesulfonic acid:


title: Michael reaction

text: Syn addition is favored with 99% ee. In the transition state believed to be responsible for this selectivity, the enamine (formed between the proline nitrogen and the cycloketone) and β-nitrostyrene are co-facial with the nitro group hydrogen bonded to the protonated amine in the proline side group.


title: Michael reaction

text: A well-known Michael reaction is the synthesis of warfarin from 4-hydroxycoumarin and benzylideneacetone first reported by Link in 1944:


title: Michael reaction

text: Classical examples of the Michael reaction are the reaction between diethyl malonate (Michael donor) and diethyl fumarate (Michael acceptor), that of diethyl malonate and mesityl oxide, that of diethyl malonate and methyl crotonate, that of 2-nitropropane and methyl acrylate, that of ethyl phenylcyanoacetate and acrylonitrile and that of nitropropane and methyl vinyl ketone.


title: Michael reaction

text: In the Mukaiyama–Michael addition, the nucleophile is a silyl enol ether and the catalyst is usually titanium tetrachloride:


title: Michael reaction

text: The 1,6-Michael reaction proceeds via nucleophilic attack on the 𝛿 carbon of an α,β-formula_1,𝛿-diunsaturated Michael acceptor. The 1,6-addition mechanism is similar to the 1,4-addition, with one exception being the nucleophilic attack occurring at the 𝛿 carbon of the Michael acceptor. However, research shows that organocatalysis often favours the 1,4-addition. In many syntheses where 1,6-addition was favoured, the substrate contained certain structural features. Research has shown that catalysts can also influence the regioselectivity and enantioselectivity of a 1,6-addition reaction.


title: Michael reaction

text: For example, the image below shows the addition of ethylmagnesium bromide to ethyl sorbate 1 using a copper catalyst with a reversed josiphos ("R,S")-(–)-3 ligand. This reaction produced the 1,6-addition product 2 in 0% yield, the 1,6-addition product 3 in approximately 99% yield, and the 1,4-addition product 4 in less than 2% yield. This particular catalyst and set of reaction conditions led to the mostly regioselective and enantioselective 1,6-Michael addition of ethyl sorbate 1 to product 3.


title: Michael reaction

text: A Michael reaction is used as a mechanistic step by many covalent inhibitor drugs. Cancer drugs such as ibrutinib, osimertinib, and rociletinib have an acrylamide functional group as a Michael acceptor. The Michael acceptor on the drug reacts with a Michael acceptor in the active site of an enzyme. This is a viable cancer treatment because the target enzyme is inhibited following the Michael reaction.


title: Michael reaction

text: All polymerization reactions have three basic steps: initiation, propagation, and termination. The initiation step is the Michael addition of the nucleophile to a monomer. The resultant species undergoes a Michael addition with another monomer, with the latter acting as an acceptor. This extends the chain by forming another nucleophilic species to act as a donor for the next addition. This process repeats until the reaction is quenched by chain termination. The original Michael donor can be a neutral donor such as amines, thiols, and alkoxides, or alkyl ligands bound to a metal.


title: Michael reaction

text: Linear step growth polymerizations are some of the earliest applications of the Michael reaction in polymerizations. A wide variety of Michael donors and acceptors have been used to synthesize a diverse range of polymers. Examples of such polymers include poly(amido amine), poly(amino ester), poly(imido sulﬁde), poly(ester sulﬁde), poly(aspartamide), poly(imido ether), poly(amino quinone), poly(enone sulﬁde) and poly(enamine ketone).


title: Michael reaction

text: For example, linear step growth polymerization produces the redox active poly(amino quinone), which serves as an anti-corrosion coatings on various metal surfaces. Another example includes network polymers, which are used for drug delivery, high performance composites, and coatings. These network polymers are synthesized using a dual chain growth, photo-induced radical and step growth Michael addition system.


title: Akram Afif

text: Akram Hassan Afif Yahya Afif Al Yafei (; born 18 November 1996) is a Qatari professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Qatar Stars League club Al Sadd and the Qatar national team.


title: Akram Afif

text: Early in his career, he was considered to be one of the most promising players to emerge from Qatar. Akram has been named in a three-man shortlist for the Asian Football Confederation’s men's player of the year for bringing the 2019 Asian Cup to Qatar. He won the Asian Footballer of the Year award in 2019.


title: Akram Afif

text: Akram Afif was born in Doha to a Somali Yemeni father Hassan Afif from the Yafa tribe. and Akram's mother is from Yemen. The family is associated with a large Yemeni Somali clan known as Benadiri people. Akram Afiif's father was born in Tanzania, moved to Somalia. His father was top player for Horseed in Somalia and Somalia national team, before moving to Qatar and playing for Al Ittihad. He was later naturalized as a Qatari citizen. After he retired from playing, he managed Al Gharafa from 1986 till 1987 and Al Markhiya from 2001 till 2003 and 2006 till 2007. Akram's father Hassan Afif was well known member of the national football team of Somalia.


title: Akram Afif

text: Akram started off in the youth teams of Al-Markhiya and then Al Sadd before joining the Al Sadd as a full-time student in 2009. During his time at Aspire, Afif traveled to Spain on an exchange student program and played for the youth teams of Sevilla and Villarreal.


title: Akram Afif

text: He represented Sevilla in the 2013 Al Kass International Cup, netting a brace and earning an assist in the team's first match, which ended as a 3–0 victory against Aspire Academy.


title: Akram Afif

text: In January 2015, Afif was signed by Belgian club Eupen. He scored a goal in his debut against Eendracht Aalst on 19 January. On 24 January in his next match against KRC Mechelen, he assisted in three of his side's five goals.


title: Akram Afif

text: Afif finished his first senior season with two goals in nine matches. On 18 March 2016, he scored a brace in a 4–0 home win against KSV Roeselare.


title: Akram Afif

text: On 8 May 2016, it was confirmed that Afif would be rejoining Villarreal, this time on a permanent deal. In doing so, he became the first Qatari-born signing in La Liga history. On 4 August, he was loaned to fellow top tier club Sporting de Gijón in a season-long deal.


title: Akram Afif

text: Afif made his debut in the main category of Spanish football on 21 August 2016, coming on as a substitute for Burgui in a 2–1 home win against Athletic Bilbao. After nine league matches, he returned to his first senior club Eupen on a one-year loan deal on 14 July 2017.


title: Akram Afif

text: He went back to his home country in January 2018 to play for Al Sadd where he had a very successful season.


title: Akram Afif

text: Afif featured in Qatar U20's AFC U-19 Championship qualification campaign in 2014. During the main tournament, he scored the lone goal in the final against DPR Korea to give Qatar the victory.


title: Akram Afif

text: He was called up to the senior national team in September 2015 by coach Daniel Carreño. He scored in Qatar's 15–0 win against Bhutan on 3 September 2015 during the 2018 World Cup Qualification rounds. He also registered an assist in the match.


title: Akram Afif

text: During Qatar's successful 2019 AFC Asian Cup campaign, Afif played a paramount role in helping his team lift the trophy, registering 10 assists overall, a new record in the tournament.


title: Akram Afif

text: Afif is of Yemeni Arab heritage. He was born in Doha, Qatar. His mother, Fayza, is of Yemeni descent from the Yafa tribe and is a homemaker. His father, Hassan Afif, is of Yemeni descent however, he played for the national team and spent a portion of his life in Somali and was born in Moshi in Tanzania. His father previously played for Simba in Tanzania but later moved to Somalia where he went on to play for Horseed FC. He subsequently moved to Qatar and played for Al Ittihad (later renamed Al Gharafa). After retiring, he managed Al Gharafa from 1986 until 1987 and Al Markhiya from 2001 until 2003 and 2006 until 2007.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Mitchell Ross Marsh (born 20 October 1991) is an Australian international cricketer. Marsh has represented Australia in all three forms of cricket, making his debut during the 2011–12 season.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Marsh is the second son of Geoff Marsh and younger brother of Shaun Marsh, both of whom have played for the Australian national side. His sister, Melissa Marsh, was a professional basketball player in Australian leagues and he is cousin to West Coast Eagles player, Brad Sheppard. He was raised in Perth, Western Australia, where he attended Wesley College.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Marsh made his debut for the Warriors at the age of 17 in February 2009 in a Ford Ranger Cup game at Bunbury. He became the youngest ever player in an Australian domestic one-day game and Western Australia's youngest debutant for 70 years. In April 2009, he played for Australia's under-19 team against India and was the team captain during the 2010 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Under his leadership Australia won the tournament, Marsh having a successful tournament scoring 201 runs, including a match winning 97 in the semi-final against Sri Lanka.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Marsh was signed by Deccan Chargers for the 2010 Indian Premier League and in 2011 was bought by Pune Warriors, the team coached at the time by his father. He played for Pune for the three years that the team existed and in 2016 and 2017 played for Rising Pune Supergiants for the two seasons that team existed.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Playing for Australia A against India A in July 2014 at Allan Border Field, Marsh scored 211 runs batting seventh in Australia's first innings, his first double century. He and Sam Whiteman, who scored 174 runs, put on 371 runs for the seventh wicket, an Australian record and, at the time, the second-highest seventh-wicket partnership in first-class cricket. The previous Australian record, set by Queenslanders Cassie Andrews and Eric Bensted, had stood since the 1934–35 season.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: In 2020 Marsh signed to play in England for Middlesex County Cricket Club in the 2020 t20 Blast competition, but the move was cancelled due to the rescheduling of the competition in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He signed again for the 2021 season, but this move was also cancelled after Marsh was called up to play international cricket for Australia. He was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2020 IPL, although he only played in one match of the competition due to injury, and he withdrew from the 2021 Indian Premier League due to bio-bubble fatigue during the pandemic.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: In September 2011, Marsh was named in Australia's Twenty20 squad to tour South Africa. He was later added to the One Day International squad following Brett Lee's withdrawal due to injury. He made a spectacular debut for Australia in the second T20I match of the series, scoring 36 runs including four sixes, three of which were hit in the final over of the Australian innings. In August 2014, Marsh scored 89 runs against Zimbabwe in first match of the Tri-series at Harare Sports Club, adding 109 runs for the fourth wicket with Glenn Maxwell and contributing to partnerships of 47 and 33 with Aaron Finch and George Bailey. Later in the competition he scored 86 not out against South Africa.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Marsh made his Test match debut for Australia against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates on 22 October 2014.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Playing regularly in the One Day International side, Marsh took a five-wicket haul against England during the 2015 Cricket World Cup, and scored his maiden ODI century against India in 2016 at the SCG. He was, however, dropped from the Australian Test side after the first Test of the 2016–17 series against South Africa, coming back into the side during the 2017 series against India and playing in two Tests before he suffered an injury. Later in the year, he replaced Peter Handscomb in the third match of 2017–18 Ashes series, scoring his maiden Test century. His first innings score of 181 was one short of his brother Shaun's career best score of 182.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: In March 2018, Marsh was fined 20 percent of his match fee and given one demerit point for using offensive language during the second Test between Australia and South Africa, after being dismissed by Kagiso Rabada. The following month, he was awarded a national contract by Cricket Australia for the 2018–19 season and was named as cover for Marcus Stoinis ahead of Australia's 2019 Cricket World Cup match against Pakistan in June 2019. The following month he was named in Australia's squad for the 2019 Ashes series in England, but was not selected for the first four Tests of the series. In the fifth and final match of the series, Marsh took his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket, taking 5/46 in the first innings, but ended on the losing side.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: In October 2019, Marsh broke his bowling hand after punching a wall, following his dismissal, during a Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania. As a result he was forced to miss the start of Australia's Test summer. In April 2020 he was again awarded a central contract ahead of the 2020–21 season and in July 2020 was named in a 26-man preliminary squad of players to begin training ahead of a possible tour to England following the COVID-19 pandemic. In August, Cricket Australia confirmed that the fixtures would be taking place, with Marsh included in the touring party.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: In July 2021, in the first Twenty20 International match of Australia's tour of the West Indies, Marsh scored his maiden T20I half-century, scoring 51 runs from 31 deliveries. He continued his good form, scoring another half-century in the following match and in the fourth T20I made 75 runs and took his career best T20I bowling figures of 3/24.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: In August 2021, Marsh was named in Australia's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. On 14 November 2021, Marsh helped Australia win the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, scoring 77 runs in the final and earning player of the match.


title: Mitchell Marsh

text: Marsh was also a talented Australian rules footballer early in his career and represented Western Australia at the 2008 AFL Under 18 Championships.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The Battle of Chaeronea was fought in 338 BC, near the city of Chaeronea in Boeotia, between Macedonia under Philip II and an alliance of city-states led by Athens and Thebes. The battle was the culmination of Philip's final campaigns in 339–338 BC and resulted in a decisive victory for the Macedonians and their allies.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Philip had brought peace to a war-torn Greece in 346 BC, by ending the Third Sacred War, and concluding his ten-year conflict with Athens for supremacy in the north Aegean, by making a separate peace. Philip's much expanded kingdom, powerful army and plentiful resources now made him the "de facto" leader of Greece. To many of the fiercely independent city-states, Philip's power after 346 BC was perceived as a threat, especially in Athens, where the politician Demosthenes led efforts to break away from Philip's influence. In 340 BC Demosthenes convinced the Athenian assembly to sanction action against Philip's territories and to ally with the Achaemenids in Byzantium, which Philip was besieging. These actions were against the terms of their treaty oaths and amounted to a declaration of war. In summer 339 BC, Philip therefore led his army towards South Greece, prompting the formation of an alliance of a few southern Greek states opposed to him, led by Athens and Thebes.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: After several months of stalemate, Philip finally advanced into Boeotia in an attempt to march on Thebes and Athens. Opposing him, and blocking the road near Chaeronea, was the allied army, similar in size and occupying a strong position. Details of the ensuing battle are scarce, but after a long fight the Macedonians crushed both flanks of the allied line, which then dissolved into a rout.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The battle has been described as one of the most decisive of the ancient world. The forces of Athens and Thebes were destroyed, and continued resistance was impossible; the war therefore came to an abrupt end. Philip was able to impose a settlement upon southern Greece, which all states accepted, with the exception of Sparta. The League of Corinth, formed as a result, made all participants allies of Macedon and each other, with Philip as the guarantor of the peace. In turn, Philip was voted as "strategos" (general) for a pan-Hellenic war against the Achaemenid Empire, which he had long planned. However, before he was able to take charge of the campaign, Philip was assassinated, and the Kingdom of Macedon and responsibility for the war with Persia passed instead to his son Alexander.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: In the decade following his accession in 359 BC, the Macedonian king, Philip II, had rapidly strengthened and expanded his kingdom into Thrace and Chalkidiki on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. He was aided in this process by the distraction of Athens and Thebes, the two most powerful city-states in Greece at that point, by events elsewhere. In particular, these events included the Social War between Athens and her erstwhile allies (357–355 BC), and the Third Sacred War which erupted in central Greece in 356 BC between the Phocians and the other members of the Delphic Amphictyonic League. Much of Philip's expansion during this period was at the nominal expense of the Athenians, who considered the north Aegean coast as their sphere of influence, and Philip was at war with Athens from 356–346 BC.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Philip was not originally a belligerent in the Sacred War, but became involved at the request of the Thessalians. Seeing an opportunity to expand his influence, Philip obliged, and in 353 or 352 BC won a decisive victory over the Phocians at the Battle of Crocus Field in Thessaly. In the aftermath, Philip was made "archon" of Thessaly, which gave him control of the levies and revenues of the Thessalian Confederation, thereby greatly increasing his power. However, Philip did not intervene further in the Sacred War until 346 BC.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Early in 346 BC, the Thebans, who had borne the brunt of the Sacred War, together with the Thessalians, asked Philip to assume the "leadership of Greece" and join them in fighting the Phocians. Philip's power was by now so great that ultimately the Phocians did not even attempt to resist, and instead surrendered to him. Philip was thus able to end a particularly bloody war without any further fighting. Philip allowed the Amphictyonic council the formal responsibility of punishing the Phocians, but ensured that the terms were not overly harsh; nevertheless, the Phocians were expelled from the Amphictyonic League, all their cities were destroyed, and they were resettled in villages of no more than fifty houses.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: By 346 BC, the Athenians were war-weary, unable to match Philip's strength, and had begun to contemplate the necessity of making peace. Nevertheless, when it became apparent that Philip would march south that year, the Athenians originally planned to help the Phocians (whom they were allied to) keep Philip out of central Greece, by occupying the pass of Thermopylae, where Philip's superior numbers would be of little benefit. The Athenians had successfully used this tactic to prevent Philip attacking Phocis itself after his victory at Crocus Field.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The occupation of Thermopylae was not only for the benefit of Phocis; excluding Philip from central Greece also prevented him from marching on Athens itself. However, by the end of February, the general Phalaikos was restored to power in Phocis, and he refused to allow the Athenians access to Thermopylae. Suddenly unable to guarantee their own security, the Athenians were forced instead into making peace with Philip. Their peace treaty, known as the Peace of Philocrates, made Athens a reluctant ally of Macedon.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: For the Athenians, the treaty had been expedient, but it was never popular. Philip's actions in 346 BC had expanded his influence over all Greece, and although he had brought peace, he had come to be seen as the enemy of the traditional liberty of the city-states. The orator and politician Demosthenes had been a principal architect of the Peace of Philocrates, but almost as soon as it was agreed, he wished to be rid of it. Over the next few years, Demosthenes became leader of the "war-party" in Athens, and at every opportunity he sought to undermine the peace. From 343 BC onwards, in order to try to disrupt the peace, Demosthenes and his followers used every expedition and action of Philip to argue that he was breaking the peace.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Conversely, there was at first a substantial body of feeling in Athens, led by Aeschines, that the peace, unpopular though it was, should be maintained and developed. Towards the end of the decade however, the "war party" gained the ascendancy, and began to openly goad Philip; in 341 BC for instance, the Athenian general Diopeithes ravaged the territory of Philip's ally Cardia, even though Philip demanded that they desist. Philip's patience finally ran out when the Athenians formed an alliance with Byzantium, which Philip was at that time besieging, and he wrote the Athenians declaring war. Shortly afterward Philip broke off the siege of Byzantium; Cawkwell suggests that Philip had decided to deal with Athens once and for all. Philip went on campaign against the Scythians, and then began to prepare for war in southern Greece.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Philip's forthcoming campaign in southern Greece became linked with a new, fourth, Sacred War. The citizens of Amphissa in Ozolian Locris had begun cultivating land sacred to Apollo on the Crisaean Plain south of Delphi; after some internal bickering the Amphictyonic council decided to declare a sacred war against Amphissa. A Thessalian delegate proposed that Philip should be made leader of the Amphictyonic effort, which therefore gave Philip a pretext to campaign in southern Greece; it is, however, probable that Philip would have gone ahead with his campaign anyway.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: At the start of 339 BC, the Thebans had seized the town of Nicaea near Thermopylae, which Philip had garrisoned in 346 BC. Philip does not appear to have treated this as a declaration of war, but it nevertheless presented him with a significant problem, blocking the main route. However, a second route into central Greece was available, leading over the shoulder of Mount Callidromos and descending into Phocis. However, the Athenians and Thebans had either forgotten the existence of this road, or believed that Philip would not use it; the subsequent failure to guard this road allowed Philip to slip into central Greece unhindered.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Philip's relatively lenient treatment of the Phocians at the end of the Third Sacred War in 346 BC now bore fruit. Reaching Elatea, he ordered the city to be re-populated, and during the next few months the whole Phocian Confederation was restored to its former state. This provided Philip with a base in Greece, and new, grateful allies in the Phocians. Philip probably arrived in Phocis in November 339 BC, but the Battle of Chaeronea did not occur until August 338 BC.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: During this period Philip discharged his responsibility to the Amphicytonic council by settling the situation in Amphissa. He tricked a force of 10,000 mercenaries who were guarding the road from Phocis to Amphissa into abandoning their posts, then took Amphissa and expelled its citizens, turning it over to Delphi. He probably also engaged in diplomatic attempts to avoid further conflict in Greece, although if so, he was unsuccessful.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: When news first arrived that Philip was in Elatea, just three days march away, there was panic in Athens. In what Cawkwell describes as his proudest moment, Demosthenes alone counseled against despair, and proposed that the Athenians should seek an alliance with the Thebans; his decree was passed, and he was sent as ambassador. Philip had also sent an embassy to Thebes, requesting that the Thebans join him, or at least allow him to pass through Boeotia unhindered. Since the Thebans were still not formally at war with Philip, they could have avoided the conflict altogether. However, in spite of Philip's proximity, and their traditional enmity with Athens, they chose to ally with the Athenians, in the cause of liberty for Greece. The Athenian army had already pre-emptively been sent in the direction of Boeotia, and was therefore able to join the Thebans within days of the alliance being agreed.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The details of the campaign leading up to Chaeronea are almost completely unknown. Philip was presumably prevented from entering Boeotia by way of Mount Helicon, as the Spartans had done in the run-up to the Battle of Leuctra; or by any of the other mountain passes that led into Boeotia from Phocis. There were certainly some preliminary skirmishes; Demosthenes alludes to a "winter battle" and "battle on the river" in his speeches, but no other details are preserved. Finally, in August 338 BC, Philip's army marched straight down the main road from Phocis to Boeotia, to assault the main allied army defending the road at Chaeronea.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: According to Diodorus, the Macedonian army numbered roughly 30,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, a figure generally accepted by modern historians. Philip took command of the right wing of the Macedonian army and placed his 18-year-old son Alexander (the future conqueror of the Persian Empire) in command of the left wing, accompanied by a group of Philip's experienced generals.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The allied army included contingents from Achaea, Corinth, Chalcis, Epidaurus, Megara, and Troezen, with the majority of troops being supplied by Athens and Thebes. The Athenian contingent was led by the generals Chares and Lysicles, and the Thebans by Theagenes. No source provides exact numbers for the allied army, although Justin suggests that the southern Greeks were "far superior in number of soldiers". The modern view is that the numbers of the city states that fought were approximately equal to those of the Macedonians.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The Athenians took up positions on the left wing, the Thebans on the right, and the other allies in the centre. Athenian aristocrat Philippides of Paiania, campaigned for Philip's cause with his associates during the battle in Thebes, Eleuthera and Tanagra. Philippides was later prosecuted by Hypereides for his pro-Macedonian actions after the defeat.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The allied army of Athens and Thebes had taken up a position near Chaeronea, astride the main road. On the left flank, the allied line lay across the foothills of Mount Thurion, blocking the side-road that led to Lebedea, while on the right, the line rested against the Kephisos River, near a projecting spur of Mount Aktion. The allied line, which was about 2.5 miles in length, was thus secure on both flanks. Moreover, the allied line seems to have slanted north-eastwards across the plain in between, so that it did not face the direction of Macedonian advance full-square.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: This prevented Philip from attempting to concentrate his force on the allied right wing, since the advanced position of the left wing would then threaten Philip's right. Although Philip could attempt to concentrate his force against the southern Greek left, the troops there occupied high ground, and any attack would be difficult. Since the southern Greeks could remain on the defensive, having only to prevent Philip's advance, their position was therefore strategically and tactically very strong.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Details of the battle itself are scarce, with Diodorus providing the only formal account. He says that "once joined, the battle was hotly contested for a long time and many fell on both sides, so that for a while the struggle permitted hopes of victory to both." He then recounts that the young Alexander, "his heart set on showing his father his prowess" succeeded in rupturing the allied line aided by his companions, and eventually put the right wing to flight; meanwhile, Philip advanced in person against the left wing and also put it to flight.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: This brief account can be filled out, if Polyaenus's account of the battle is to be believed. Polyaenus collected many snippets of information on warfare in his "Strategems"; some are known from other sources to be reliable, while others are demonstrably false. In the absence of other evidence, it is unclear whether his passage regarding Chaeronea is to be accepted or rejected. Polyaenus suggests that Philip engaged the allied left, but then withdrew his troops; the Athenians on the left followed and, when Philip held the high ground, he stopped retreating and attacked the Athenians, eventually routing them.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: In another 'stratagem', Polyaenus suggests that Philip deliberately prolonged the battle, to take advantage of the rawness of the Athenian troops (his own veterans being more used to fatigue) and delayed his main attack until the Athenians were exhausted. This latter anecdote also appears in the earlier "Stratagems" of Frontinus.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Polyaenus's accounts have led some modern historians to tentatively propose the following synthesis of the battle. After the general engagement had been in progress for some time, Philip had his army perform a wheeling manoeuver, with the right wing withdrawing, and the whole line pivoting around its centre. At the same time, wheeling forward, the Macedonian left wing attacked the Thebans on their right and punched a hole in the allied line. On the allied left, the Athenians followed Philip, their line becoming stretched and disordered; the Macedonians then turned, attacked and routed the tired and inexperienced Athenians. The southern Greek right wing, under the assault of the Macedonian troops under Alexander's command, then attacked, ending the battle.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Many historians, including Hammond and Cawkwell, place Alexander in charge of the Companion Cavalry during the battle, perhaps because of Diodorus's use of the word "companions". However, there is no mention of cavalry in any ancient account of the battle, nor does there seem to have been space for it to operate against the flank of the southern Greek army. Plutarch says that Alexander was the "first to break the ranks of the Sacred Band of the Thebans", the elite of the Theban infantry, who were stationed on the extreme right of the battle line. However, he also says that the Sacred Band had "met the spears of [the Macedonian] phalanx face to face". This, together with the improbability that a head-on cavalry charge against the spear-armed Thebans could have succeeded, has led Gaebel and others to suggest that Alexander must have been commanding a portion of the Macedonian phalanx at Chaeronea.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Diodorus says that more than 1,000 Athenians died in the battle, with another 2,000 taken prisoner, and that the Thebans fared similarly. Plutarch suggests that all 300 of the Sacred Band were killed at the battle, having previously been seen as invincible. In the Roman period, the 'Lion of Chaeronea', an enigmatic monument on the site of the battle, was believed to mark the resting place of the Sacred Band. Modern excavations found the remains of 254 soldiers underneath the monument; it is therefore generally accepted that this was indeed the grave of the Sacred Band, since it is unlikely that every member was killed.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Cawkwell suggests that this was one of the most decisive battles in ancient history. Since there was now no army which could prevent Philip's advance, the war effectively ended. In Athens and Corinth, records show desperate attempts to re-build the city walls, as they prepared for siege. However, Philip had no intention of besieging any city, nor indeed of conquering it. He wanted the southern Greeks as his allies for his planned campaign against the Persians, and he wanted to leave a stable Greece in his rear when he went on campaign; further fighting was therefore contrary to his aims. Philip marched first to Thebes, which surrendered to him; he expelled the Theban leaders who had opposed him, recalled those pro-Macedonian Thebans who had previously been exiled, and installed a Macedonian garrison. He also ordered that the Boeotian cities of Plataea and Thespiae, which Thebes had destroyed in previous conflicts, be re-founded. Generally, Philip treated the Thebans severely, making them pay for the return of their prisoners, and even to bury their dead; he did not, however, dissolve the Boeotian Confederacy.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: By contrast, Philip treated Athens very leniently. Although the Second Athenian League was dissolved, the Athenians were allowed to keep their colony on Samos, and their prisoners were freed without ransom. Philip's motives are not entirely clear, but one likely explanation is that he hoped to use the Athenian navy in his campaign against Persia, since Macedon did not possess a substantial fleet; he therefore needed to remain on good terms with the Athenians.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Philip also made peace with the other combatants, Corinth and Chalcis, which controlled important strategic locations both received Macedonian garrisons. He then turned to deal with Sparta, which had not taken part in the conflict, but was likely to take advantage of the weakened state of the other Greek cities to try to attack its neighbours in the Peloponnese. The Spartans refused Philip's invitation to engage in discussions, so Philip ravaged Lacedaemonia, but did not attack Sparta itself.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: Philip seems to have moved around in the months after the battle, making peace with the states that opposed him, dealing with the Spartans, and installing garrisons. His movements also probably served as a demonstration of force to the other cities, that they should not try to oppose him. In mid 337 BC, he seems to have camped near Corinth, and began the work to establish a league of the city-states, which would guarantee peace in Greece, and provide Philip with military assistance against Persia. The result, the League of Corinth, was formed in the latter half of 337 BC at a congress organised by Philip. All states signed up to the league, with the exception of Sparta.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: The principal terms of the concord were that all members became allied to each other, and to Macedon, and that all members were guaranteed freedom from attack, freedom of navigation, and freedom from interference in internal affairs. Philip, and the Macedonian garrisons installed, would act as the 'keepers of the peace'. At Philip's behest, the synod of the league then declared war on Persia, and voted Philip as "Strategos" for the forthcoming campaign.


title: Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

text: An advance Macedonian force was sent to Persia in early 336 BC, with Philip due to follow later in the year. However, before he could depart, Philip was assassinated by one of his bodyguards. Alexander therefore became King of Macedon, and in a series of campaigns lasting from 334 to 323 BC, he conquered the whole Persian Empire.


title: Afghans

text: Afghans (; Persian/; Persian: افغانستانی, romanized: "Afghanistani") or Afghan people are nationals or citizens of Afghanistan, or people with ancestry from there. Afghanistan is made up of various ethnicities, of which the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks are the largest; the pre-nation state, historical ethnonym Afghan was used to refer to a member of the Pashtun ethnic group. Due to the changing political nature of the state, such as the British-drawn border with Pakistan (then British India) the meaning has changed, and term has shifted to be the national identity of people from Afghanistan from all ethnicities. The two main languages spoken by Afghans are Pashto and Dari (the Afghan dialect of Persian language), and many are bilingual.


title: Afghans

text: The earliest mention of the name "Afghan" ("Abgân") is by Shapur I of the Sassanid Empire during the 3rd century CE, In the 4th century the word "Afghans/Afghana" (αβγανανο) as reference to a particular people is mentioned in the Bactrian documents found in Northern Afghanistan. The word 'Afghan' is of Persian origin to refer to the Pashtun people. In the past, several scholars sought a connection with “horse,” Skt.aśva-, Av.aspa-, i.e.the Aśvaka or Aśvakayana the name of the "Aśvakan" or "Assakan", ancient inhabitants of the Hindu Kush region, however according to some linguists, it would be extremely difficult to reconcile either Aśvaka or Aśvakayana with the world Afghan.


title: Afghans

text: As an adjective, the word Afghan also means "of or relating to Afghanistan or its people, language or culture". According to the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan, all Afghans citizens are equal in rights and obligations before the law. The fourth article of the current Constitution of Afghanistan states that citizens of Afghanistan consist of Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Turkmen, Baloch, Pashayi, Nuristani, Aimaq, Arab, Kyrgyz, Qizilbash, Gurjar, Brahui, and members of other ethnicities. There are political disputes regarding this: there are members of the non-Pashtun ethnicities of Afghanistan that reject the term Afghan being applied to them, and there are Pashtuns in Pakistan that wish to have the term Afghan applied to them.


title: Afghans

text: Less commonly Afghanistani (افغانستانی) is an alternative identity marker for citizens of the country Afghanistan. The term "Afghanistani" refers to someone who possesses the nationality of Afghanistan, regardless of what race, ethnic, religious background. In multiethnic Afghanistan, the term "Afghan" has always been associated with Pashtun people. Some non-Pashtun citizens such as Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks have viewed it as a part of Pashtun hegemony that devised to erase their ethnic identity. The term Afghanistani has been used among some refugees and diasporas, particularly among non-Pashtuns.


title: Afghans

text: Afghanistan has never been a nation-state or "dawlat-e milli". Due to its tumultuous history, it has often defined as failed-state. The local groups and communities across Afghanistan have rather strong local and regional identification as a tribes or ethnic groups (Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek or others). For the past two centuries, Afghanistan rulers have tried to create a state that represents Pashtuns. Early efforts were made to create a strong centralized government based on a national identity of "Afghan," which privileged Pashtuns beyond their ethnic boundaries at state level as a whole. Non-Pashtun ethnic groups were not yet ready to accept a centralized state system let alone accepting a new national identity. They did not have overall or even wider identification with Afghanistan as a whole, not to mention national identity or citizenship that was not given to them by the central government.


title: Afghans

text: From a more limited, ethnological point of view, ""Afḡhān"" is the term by which the Persian-speakers of Afghanistan (and the non-Pashtō-speaking ethnic groups generally) designate the Pashtūn. The equation Afghans = Pashtūn has been propagated all the more, both in and beyond Afghanistan, because the Pashtūn tribal confederation is by far has maintained its hegemony in the country, numerically and politically.


title: Afghans

text: Afghanistan's early efforts to create a sort of national identity began in 1919, after receiving its independence from the Great Britain. This was the time when Afghanistan completely regain control over its sovereignty. Especially, the Hazara people who are still considered second-class citizens. After the fall of monarchy in 1973, Mohammed Daoud Khan, a staunch partisan of Pashtunistan, who saw the country not as Afghanistan but a Pashtunistan, a land uniting Pashtuns from NWFP and FATA with Afghanistan. Despite implementing some social and educational progress, he failed to create a national identity. After the Saur Revolution, the central governments tried to advocate for a broader Afghan identity through the use of modern education, but their efforts met with limited success. One of the most common hurdles for fostering a common national identity was the fact they ethnic groups such as Hazara, Uzbeks, or Tajiks could not identify with elements of an identity that had strong base in Pashtun ethnicity that ruled the country.


title: Afghans

text: The term "Afghani" refers to the unit of Afghan currency. The term is also often used in the English language (and appears in some dictionaries) for a person or thing related to Afghanistan, although some have expressed the opinion that this usage is incorrect. A reason for the confusion can be because the apparent incorrect term "Afghani" (افغانی) is in fact a valid demonym for Afghans in the overall Persian language and in Hindustani, whereas "Afghan" is derived from Pashto. Thus "Afghan" is the anglicized term of "Afghani" when translating from Dari or Hindi-Urdu, but not Pashto. Another variant is "Afghanese", which has been seldom used in place of Afghan.


title: Afghans

text: Afghans come from various ethnic backgrounds. Pashtuns form a plurality of the population, while Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks are the next largest and altogether the four form almost 90% of the population. They are of diverse origins including of Iranian, Mongol and Turkic ethnolinguistic roots.


title: Afghans

text: The Afghan people of all ethnicities are traditionally followers of Islam, of whom most are of the Sunni branch. Other religious minorities include the Afghan Hindus, Afghan Sikhs, Afghan Christians and Afghan Jews.


title: Plastic bottle

text: A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, milk, and ink. The size ranges from very small bottles to large carboys. Consumer blow molded containers often have integral handles or are shaped to facilitate grasping.


title: Plastic bottle

text: Plastic was invented in the 19th century and was originally used to replace common materials such as ivory, rubber, and shellac. Plastic bottles were first used commercially in 1947, but remained relatively expensive until the early 1950s when high-density polyethylene was introduced. They quickly became popular with both manufacturers and customers because compared to glass bottles, plastic bottles are lighter, cheaper and easier to transport. However, the biggest advantage plastic bottles have over their glass counterparts is their superior resistance to breakage, in both production and transportation. Except for wine and beer, the food industry has largely replaced glass bottles with plastic bottles.