I’m shamelessly stealing something The Anchoress did last year. Throughout the season of Advent, she posted a number of Christmas gift ideas that not only make shopping less hectic but support good Catholic groups and noble causes. So each week of Advent I’m going to highlight a few items that I believe Catholics — and … Read more
Last week, The New York Times ran an interesting story about the effects of constant electronic stimuli on learning and attention in children. Students have always had distractions and time-wasters, but computers, cell phones, iPods, and electronic games represent a whole new level of stimulation — and studies show that these make for profound challenges … Read more
The Minnesota couple asking people to vote about whether they should abort their child has said they never intended to have an abortion at all. Frankly, I was waiting for this. According to a CNN article, husband Peter Arnold said he wanted “to stimulate conversation about the politically charged subject”: Arnold told CNN he bought … Read more
When a mother takes the life of her child — especially after birth — it flies in the face of what we believe about the maternal instinct. An article at Scientific American highlights some new research on the subject, and it’s raising eyebrows. Dario Maestripieri has spent most of his career studying maternal behavior in primates. In particular, … 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
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
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
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
Bullying is all over the news these days — particularly as it relates to suicide and depression in children and young adults. This kind of behavior has always been around, but appears to have reached new heights — and is happening at younger ages. Marjorie Campbell wrote about bullying in a recent article right here … Read more
A new indigenous tribe has been identified in Peru. The Yines are a nomadic people who have never had contact with the outside world. They were discovered living in a national reserve of the country’s Amazonian rainforest. The government has promised the tribe protection, but that’s increasingly difficult to do. Drug traffickers continue to push … Read more
Switzerland’s Capuchin monks are getting desperate for vocations, so they recently placed a quarter-page ad in a premier business magazine looking for new recruits. According to The Independent: The ad appeared in the “banking and insurance” section of Saturday’s edition of Alpha. It calls on young Catholic “bankers, journalists, teachers, theologians, tradesmen, lawyers and communication … Read more
On Saturday, an old stone house collapsed in Pompeii. The building had been closed to the public, but was known for the beautiful gladiator frescos on its interior walls. Historians believe this was the place gladiators trained and relaxed before fighting. According to the Telegraph, the Italian government has been criticized for allowing Pompeii to … Read more
CNS reports that a new seminary opened last week in Cuba: The new headquarters of the archdiocesan seminary of St. Charles and St. Ambrose was inaugurated on Wednesday. It is a complex of salmon-colored buildings organized around a chapel with stained glass windows located about five miles south of Havana. The Holy See’s Secretary of … Read more
CNA reports that the Synod for the Middle East, a historic gathering of bishops in Rome, ended on October 24 with some criticisms of its concluding statement. The bishops’ concluding “Message to the People of God” criticized Israel in detail, but omitted most of the criticisms made against Islamic governments during the synod. Some observers … Read more
Yesterday, I read a blog post about how rapidly the world is aging and what it means for the future. Stephany Anne Golberg in Smart Set writes: The number of people who are 60 and older is set to triple in the next 40 years. By 2050, there will be more people aged 65 and … Read more
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTfaro96dg 635×355] The film Waiting for Superman by Davis Guggenheim has received many accolades, and they are well-deserved — I saw the film last night. Guggenheim follows the stories of five children at different grade levels in both parochial and public schools. One lives in Redwood City, CA, and the rest are inner city kids … Read more
Hard to believe, but a Michigan woman posted an ad on her church bulletin board for a Christian roommate and was then cited by the state for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against people of other faiths. The 31-year-old woman is not a landlord or a management company, but a homeowner looking for … Read more
CNN ran a piece yesterday about research out of the University of Wisconsin showing that meditation permanently changes the brain by strengthening the circuits related to concentration and empathy. Richard Davidson, a psychologist at the university, says that strengthening neural systems is no different than training muscles of the body. “The original investigations by people … Read more
Rachel Held Evans, a Christian writer and blogger in Tennessee, has taken on an interesting new project. For one year, she has committed to following all of the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as she can. Don’t worry, she’s not including polygamy (and a few other things) — but pretty much everything else is … Read more
When a parish is closed, what happens to the art? Lou McClung, an artist and jack-of-many-trades near Cleveland, Ohio, wondered just that and decided to do something unusual: open a museum for rescued statues. A local paper, the Canton Rep, carried the story. McClung, who owns Lusso Studio, recently bought a decommissioned church to show … Read more