Nicole Neroulias of the Religion News Service has an interesting column this morning at Christian Century. She wonders if religious believers are more susceptible to cons and scams than are those without a faith tradition. While there’s no hard data on the phenomenon and her piece is based largely on anecdote, she makes some good … Read more
ROME — In a startling change to the Catholic Faith, Pope Benedict XVI announced today that tossing people down elevator shafts could represent a first step in assuming moral responsibility “in the intention of reducing the risk of having your own son electrocuted to death before your very eyes.” The Imperial Mainstream Media Center has … Read more
Fourteen years after the death of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the American bishops have put the Bernardin era in their national conference behind them. Among the multiple messages of their choice of Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that may be the most important. The symbolism by … Read more
In the midst of this past weekend’s fire-storm of reading mis-comprehension — which is being addressed by much more qualified folks than I — I was surprised (and pleased) to stumble upon this little nugget towards the bottom of John Allen’s recent article: As part of that picture, the legendarily bookish pontiff reveals that when the “family” … Read more
Our son Chippy is a newly-arrived 7th grader here in Fairfax, VA. Considering the grades 7 to 9 the equivalent of earthly purgatory, I have held my breath as Chippy found his way around the hallways and classrooms of the local junior high. It started last Friday in the lunch room — some boys had … Read more
Pope Benedict XVI is in the news for comments he made about condoms in Peter Seewald’s forthcoming book, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times. In the book, the Holy Father answers many direct questions about controversial issues, the Church’s problems, and his own life. Seewald asked the … Read more
The spirit of our Catholic liturgy is the spirit of music and song. To give glory and praise to the living God, human speech alone can only take us so far. Words alone can never be enough. We need to pay him homage with songs of joy and with instruments made for praise. St. Augustine … Read more
On September 18, 1939, the public hospital in the port city of Dieppe, France recorded the death of a sixty-three year old woman, a Catholic painter of some reputation. Gwen John had traveled to this city from Paris only days before, carrying nothing except a notarized copy of her will and burial instructions. Augustus John, … Read more
A few interesting Catholic news stories from around the Web: First, the pope met behind closed doors with 100 cardinals to discuss both sexual abuse by priests and religious freedom around the world: The meeting is taking place on the eve of a ceremony known as a consistory at which the pope will create 24 new cardinals, … Read more
Are children like litter? Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University professor, thinks so. In a recent video clip from the Joy Behar Show, the esteemed professor compared having many children to “littering” and explained that “we’ve got too many people on this planet to begin with.” Other members of the panel agreed that refraining from having … Read more
For years, Hollywood has struggled with the problem of integrating CGI into their productions. Third and Seventh’s Alex Roman, on the other hand, has no such problem — as evidenced by his “Above Everything Else” commercial for Silestone. [video:http://vimeo.com/15630517 635×355] Well, to be honest, I suppose the issue of “integration” is still present in Roman’s work, as … Read more
Time for a few Friday morning links: The TSA’s new regulations for air travel — including the introduction of full-body scans — have been getting plenty of negative press lately. In protest, one group has proposed a National Opt-Out Day where passengers would refuse the scans the day before Thanksgiving — potentially creating huge delays … Read more
In 1997, a group of arts enthusiasts established The Storm Theatre in New York City to focus on work that explores what it means to be human. Over the years, its repertoire has ranged from classical Shakespeare to Karol Wojtyla’s obscure plays to modern works reflecting life today. Zoe Romanowsky talked to Artistic Director Peter … Read more
At present, more rap stars have been killed than abortionists. I was sitting on an airport shuttle bus when I overheard two men in their thirties discussing the second murder of a rap singer. “People need to see that this isn’t just about music,” one said. I think I know what he means. Taste never … Read more
Is marriage obsolete? According to a new TIME/ Pew Research Center poll, 40% of Americans believe it is. What we found is that marriage, whatever its social, spiritual or symbolic appeal, is in purely practical terms just not as necessary as it used to be. Neither men nor women need to be married to have … Read more
Yesterday, Newser highlighted a number of press reports about S 510, a major food safety bill making progress in the Senate. While it contains some important protections, a number of people are justly concerned about the bill’s impact on family farms. The problem is that it will will require small scale operations to adhere to … Read more
Recently, I encountered an online discussion among Catholic converts and Protestants that strayed into the topic of the St. Joseph house-selling kit. It was meant to be a sort of “gotcha!” moment for Catholics defending the cult of the saints. While I have no intention of going into the arguments concerning this particular practice, I … Read more
Insofar as it touches on questions of ethnic origin and national identity, archaeology can be a contentious field. Nowhere is this more true than in present day Israel/Palestine, where every new discovery or theory must travel through a political filter that often does more to shape a scholar’s opinion than do the cold facts of … Read more
Last week, I pointed readers to the fascinating debate between Robert Spencer and Peter Kreeft on the subject of Islam, promising to offer my own reflections later. If you haven’t yet watched the debate, go bookmark it now, and when you sit down to watch it, prepare to be . . . unsettled. Pour yourself … Read more
I never would have called myself a Democrat, but if this study from the Hollywood Reporter about Americans’ TV preferences is to believed, I should be a Prius-driving, arugula-munching, Pelosi-loving liberal: According to months of data from leading media-research company Experian Simmons, viewers who vote Republican and identify themselves as conservative are more likely than … Read more