Bracing for "The Week That Was"

We’re sliding into one of the busiest times for parishes, but it can be easy to forget what it’s really about. From this week’s “All Things New”: Back in the 1960s, there was a TV show called “That Was the Week That Was,” which satirized current events. It was a precursor to “Saturday Night Live” [...]

I love these gals

The Sisters of Life have an office in my building, and I always get a kick out of seeing them on the elevator or in the lobby or striding down the sidewalk, headed for the subway.  They’re a young order, of young women, and they radiate enthusiasm and joy. The ones I’ve encountered aren’t exactly [...]

Charlie Sheen's father on the meaning of life — UPDATED

Martin Sheen talks with Irish interviewer Gay Byrne about life, faith, conversion — and Charlie. You can watch the entire conversation right here.  An excerpt, below. UPDATE: LifeSiteNews has picked up this significant excerpt: Byrne asked Sheen: “The liberal causes that you espouse are readily identifiable with people in the movie business, but your anti-abortion [...]

Bishop: some benefits for gay couples are acceptable

The Bishop of Providence Rhode Island granted an interview to a local media outlet, and offered some thoughts about homosexual rights: In an exclusive interview, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin said the Church is not opposed to granting some benefits and rights to gay couples—as long as the term marriage is not used. His statement—which [...]

A reader is dyeing to know…

Here’s a classic Easter-time quandary. A friend writes: How terrible is it if I have little kids come over to the apartment on Good Friday and color Easter eggs? I answered: “Not terrible at all.  The color is black, right?” She wasn’t amused. Any thoughts?  What do you think?

Cat + dolphin = adorable

Brace yourselves.  This is guaranteed to make you go “Awwwww….”

This Lent: sheep, wolves, serpents

Elizabeth Scalia over at First Things sums up the season now ending, and a church riven by factions, with a meditation on today’s scripture readings: Our Lenten time in the desert has felt similarly discordant and serpent-struck. Our Christ-loving Pope—I wouldn’t want to be in his place—is beset on all sides; his curia often “helps” [...]

Meet a modern hermit

She’s a widow, doing her thing outside Baltimore (go Terps!) and took a moment to chat with Margaret Cabaniss at  Inside Catholic. Snip: What does your average day look like? If you go back to the desert fathers, they say, “Go sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” That’s the kind [...]

USCCB: Seven "credible" allegations against priests in 2010

The organization yesterday released an update on the sex abuse crisis still roiling the Catholic Church: Reports of current instances of sexual abuse of minors continues to decrease, with seven credible allegations against seven priests reported in 2010, according to the 2010 Survey of Allegations and Costs done by the Center for Applied Research in [...]

Uncovered: why we veil the cross this week

Some churches go all out to cover statues and crosses before Holy Week; others do hardly anything at all. The New Theological Movement has an interesting explanation: We will reproduce here the historical study offered by Fr. Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University (taken from Zenit): “It probably derives from [...]

Papal ring and cross to be sold on eBay

Get ready to update your PayPal account.  Now you can own some priceless religious objects — for a price. From the Associated Press: A lavishly jeweled cross and a ring once owned by Pope Paul VI are heading to auction on eBay. The items have turned up at a U.S. store owned by a Southern [...]

April in New York

I went for a walk during lunch and stumbled on the scene below, just two blocks from my office.  (Incredibly, I took the shot with my cell phone.) Across the East River, on Roosevelt Island, there were no signs of either King Kong or the Green Goblin (despite what you might see in the movies.) [...]

Coming soon: "The Church of Blessed John Paul II"?

It could happen — most notably in the late pontiff’s native Poland. The Vatican today released guidelines for observing the soon-to-be-Blessed’s feast day — to be marked on October 22 — along with the collect for that feast day’s mass, and other details: In the Diocese of Rome, where Pope John Paul served as bishop, [...]

Please: think before you post

A gentle reminder: there are guidelines for posting comments.  Please make yourself familiar with them. Any comments that use slurs involving someone’s race, religion, political ideology or sexual orientation will be automatically deleted. Thank you for your cooperation. Dcn. G.

On Michael Voris: "It is not an approved apostolate" — UPDATED

While the Diocese of Scranton’s decision to cancel an appearance by Michael Voris has made headlines, his standing in his own diocese is meriting a closer look. A reader posted the following in the comments: The Archdiocese of Detroit recently issued the following statement regarding St. Michaels’ Media and Real Catholic TV: “In 2006, St. [...]

Shock: Catholic colleges supporting Planned Parenthood

Tim Drake over at the National Catholic Register has the scoop: A new report, “A Scandalous Relationship: Catholic Colleges and Planned Parenthood”, by the Manassas, Va.-based Cardinal Newman Society, reveals more than 150 current and past connections between Catholic colleges and universities and Planned Parenthood. The Cardinal Newman Society broke the connections down into seven different categories: [...]

A revised "Hallelujah" for the Passion

With Holy Week approaching, a reader from Canada sent this my way: Leonard Cohen’s ubiquitous classic, rewritten to tell the story of Christ’s Passion, by singer Kelley Mooney.

As parishes close, mass attendance in Camden plunges

While church attendance in beleaguered Boston appears to be improving, the story further south is less encouraging. From the Philadelphia Inquirer: Kim Simmons-Dimpter was the sort of lifelong Catholic who attended Mass every Sunday, volunteered at religious classes, and even tried to persuade her teenage son to get out of bed and go to church. [...]