On August 22, theatergoers will be treated to a new sports film from Sony Pictures and Affirm Films, WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL. Inspired by a true story, the film tells the remarkable journey of legendary football coach Bob Ladouceur, who took the De La Salle High School Spartans from obscurity to a 151-game winning streak that shattered all records for any American sport. I had the opportunity this week to talk with Jim Caviezel, who plays Coach Ladouceur, about... Read more
So we were walking around Rome… trudging, actually… for what seemed like hours. And miles. Or kilometers, I suppose, since we were in Rome. Anyway, we wandered toward Campus Martius, past gelato stands and trattorias and open markets, past offices and apartments, surrounded by pedestrians and taxis and Vespas, and then…. there on our right, standing in the middle of a bustling city block, was a church. (Click on this and other images to see the fine details.) It... Read more
More changes emanating from Rome! Today Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, auxiliary bishop in Baltimore, was named by Pope Francis as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts. Bishop Rozanski, 55, will replace Bishop Timothy McDonnell, who is retiring at the age of 76. The announcement was made today in Washington DC by Archbishop Carlo Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States. The Diocese of Springfield has a strong Polish contingent who will certainly appreciate Bishop Rozanski, the... Read more
A man has destroyed a statue of Jesus in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, decapitating the 6-foot figure with a sledgehammer. The statue had stood for two decades outside Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Charleston before Charles Jeffrey Short, 38, exercised a kind of political theater, demonstrating his view that the Ten Commandments should be taken literally. It seems the vandal didn’t even know the specific Scripture verse which required him to destroy the religious art. According to a report on... Read more
Just how much clout does the Holy Father have in World Cup Soccer? I mean, Pope Francis is a soccer fan, to be sure; but can he affect the outcome? Apparently, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff worries that the pope has a lot of influence on the outcome. According to The Tablet, Columbian Archbishop Óscar Urbina Ortega has said that Ms. Rousseff, during her visit to the Vatican in February, asked Pope Francis for two things: 1. She asked that he record... Read more
My fellow Patheos blogger Will Duquette has a great essay on his blog about the USCCB’s efforts on behalf of raising the minimum wage. In A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats–Or Does It?, Will argues against using the Big Hammer to fix social problems–attempting to fix “the system” rather than helping individuals. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I wrote about the same thing–and reached the same conclusions–last January when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to the chairs... Read more
“I’m so happy, I’m so excited, oh, my gosh!” said 16-year-old Justina Pelletier when asked about her reaction to news that she’ll be going home to her parents after sixteen months in state custody. The Connecticut teenager was removed from her family home by the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families after a disagreement between two highly regarded medical centers regarding the teen’s medical diagnosis. Justina had been treated at Tufts Medical Center for mitochondrial disease, a rare genetic disorder... Read more
Nancy Pelosi’s attack has backfired! The left-wing Congresswoman from California sent her Archbishop a letter, pressuring him not to attend the upcoming March for Marriage in Washington DC this Thursday. (I published the archbishop’s clear and effective response here.) But CatholicVote, which is one of the organizers of the March, reports that CV members have rallied and are now sponsoring “Pelosi buses” to transport people to the March. They are encouraging concerned Catholics to make a financial contribution at their... Read more
Anne-Marie Pelletier, a French Biblical scholar who has written on Christianity and women, is the first woman recipient of the Ratzinger Prize in theology, it was announced today in the Vatican. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Scientific Committee of the “Vatican Foundation: Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI”, made the announcement this morning in a press conference in the Holy See Press Office. The award will be presented November 22, 2014 to two individuals: In addition to Dr. Pelletier, the... Read more
The Internet has been abuzz this week with news that liberal Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has called on San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to withdraw from participation in the March For Marriage, scheduled for Thursday, June 19 in the nation’s capital. Archbishop Cordileone is a featured speaker at the March, which is intended to rally support for traditional marriage of one man and one woman, in the face of the relentless assault by gay marriage advocates, through legal rulings which disregard... Read more
Seasons of Grace
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