The tweet shared ’round the world – a.k.a. Ellen Degeneres’s Oscar selfie with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Spacey, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, and more – has turned into a boon for Ellen’s two favorite charities: St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and the Humane Society. Samsung, who made the phone that took the picture that got retweeted over three million times, addressed both the donation and the question of whether they paid ABC to use the phone. They said,... Read more
People don’t always look forward to Lent because it involves a sacrifice, like giving up a favorite food or drink. But there’s a greater spiritual good behind the Church’s call to us during this holy season – and Father Jonathan Morris explains that in the video below. In addition, he issues a lenten challenge designed to benefit your mind, body and soul, so that, at the end of these 40 days, you emerge a better human being who has grown... Read more
If Julie and Rusty Bulloch were innkeepers in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, they would have found an indoor room for Mary and Joseph, and maybe even redecorated it to make it more homey. That life-affirming spirit is evident in season two of their UP TV reality show “Bulloch Family Ranch,” in which they invite an unwed pregnant mother to live with them so she has the support she needs during her difficult time. Along the way, the series also explores... Read more
The 2014 Oscars were my favorite in quite a few years despite running a half-hour long. Ellen DeGeneres proved a funny and classy host, the acceptance speeches were, by and large, interesting as opposed to just a list of names, and God even received a couple of shout outs. It all began with DeGeneres who, after last year’s sometimes-crass hosting job by Seth MacFarlane, felt like a breath of fresh air with her good-natured ability to poke fun at people.... Read more
The big feel-good story making the rounds here in New York City this week is that of Polly McCourt, who went into labor on the corner of a busy Manhattan street right outside her 68th Street and 3rd Avenue apartment building. Her doorman Anton and other strangers rushed to help her as she gave birth to a baby girl right there in the middle of the city. Twenty-year-old Isabel Williams saw the commotion on her way to work and initially... Read more
Kerry Weber insists that the Jesuit-run “America” magazine office, where she serves as managing editor, does not have a batphone connected directly to Pope Francis’ office at the Vatican, and that the mercy-focused pontiff is not actually doing P.R. for her new book, “Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job.” It’s simply a providential twist of fate that they’re both grounded in this foundational element... Read more
Since I’ve been watching the Olympics for the past two weeks, my “American Idol” viewing fell a little behind before catching up on the DVR this weekend. One of the most interesting moments of Tuesday’s performances by the girls was seeing Harry Connick Jr. kick into ‘Dad mode’ again. As my fellow Patheos blogger, Catholic Mom Lisa Hendey, wrote about a few weeks ago, Connick questioned the song choice of a 15-year-old contestant who auditioned for the judges with the... Read more
When an ice skater falls down three times during an Olympic performance with the world watching, it can feel almost impossible to move forward with any vision for a brighter future in the sport. That was certainly the case for Italy’s Carolina Kostner after the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. In addition, she had skated poorly four years earlier during the Turin games, which took place on her home soil. Kostner was considered a bright young talent who would take the skating... Read more
Frequent “Christopher Closeup” guest, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Sarah Hart, has co-written a new musical theater production called “Bernadette of Lourdes” that will debut at the Pope John Paul II High School Library in Hendersonville, Tennessee, on Thursday March 6, 2014, with a cast of both high school students and adults. It’s an introduction to a production that Hart hopes will be picked up and performed by schools and theaters across the country. The play tells the story of St. Bernadette who,... Read more
Several pregnant women about to give birth lay on a cold cement floor, shivering due to fever and malaria. That sight prompted Chicago doctor Kevin Hunt to add an unexpected new direction to his life. As I wrote about in a blog post last year, Dr. Hunt traveled to Northern Uganda in 2007 at the request of Father Sam Okori, an African priest working in his parish while in the United States taking pre-med classes. Father Sam’s goal was to... Read more
Christopher Closeup
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