2016-09-30T17:01:22-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

Photo by Bob Plain Kathy Schiffer found this curiosity: The babe in the manger is a girl named Hope.  Joseph (er, “Jose”) is an illegal immigrant looking for a job in the U.S.  Mary (“Maura”) is a teenage runaway who fled her Connecticut home after her parents became upset upon discovering her pregnancy.  The Angel Gabriel, nicknamed “Gabe,” is a homeless black man. The reinterpreted Nativity, its characters hewn by chainsaw artist Michael Higgins, stands in Tiverton Four Corners, Rhode... Read more

2016-09-30T17:01:23-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

Just in time for Christmas, members of Holy Nativity parish are joining the church. Details, from the press release: Former Anglican priest Lowell Andrews, of Payson, Arizona, will be ordained a Catholic priest on Sunday, Dec. 16, and 30 of his parishioners will be received into the Catholic Church as part of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a new national entity created by Pope Benedict XVI. The ordinariate, which is equivalent to a diocese, but national in... Read more

2016-09-30T17:01:23-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

…comes this: EL James’s best seller Fifty Shades of Grey has been named popular fiction book of the year at the Specsavers National Book Awards in London. Read more

2016-09-30T17:01:23-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

I hear this a lot. “I’ve already received communion.  Can I receive again?” No less than two people asked me this question on Saturday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  They’d been to Mass for the feast day, and were then attending Mass in the evening for their Sunday obligation. The short answer is: yes.  Even if you’re attending two separate Masses on a given Sunday. The longer explanation, from the Code of Canon Law: Can.  917 A person who has already received the Most Holy Eucharist can receive it a second time on... Read more

2015-03-13T16:51:47-04:00

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:51 pm   By

A reader dropped me an e-mail about this.  Evidently, it happened on November 10.  But I had to really hunt to find news about it on the diocesan website.  There was nothing on the Diocese of Phoenix Facebook page, either.  I finally found a link to the Catholic Sun, and was able to search its archives.  Don’t hide your light under a bushel, Phoenix!! Details:  Sixteen men, who were already faithful and active in the Church, are now permanently called... Read more

2016-09-30T17:01:55-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

Over at HuffPo, Jesuit Mark Bosco looks at the lively and often creative tradition of the Christmas creche, and illustrates it with examples from the James and Emilia Govan Creche Collection at the Loyola Museum of Art.   (Shown above: the Lincoln Memorial as a Nativity setting, featuring an eagle as angel, and an elephant and a donkey, created by Hanneke and Les Ippisch, crafted in Montana of wood, paper, wire, ribbon.). Details: The devotion to the infancy of Jesus, precisely... Read more

2016-09-30T17:01:55-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

Details: The bishops of Florida’s seven Catholic dioceses have released a statement opposing the upcoming Tuesday execution of Manuel Pardo, Jr., a former decorated Florida highway patrolman and police officer who killed nine people over a 92-day serial murder vigilante spree. “While the Catholic Church recognizes that the state has the right to carry out the death penalty under certain circumstances, the modern penal institutions make this unnecessary as the public is protected from any further harm,” the bishops say. “We believe that... Read more

2016-09-30T17:01:55-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

I posted on his impending ordination a couple weeks back. Now, it’s happened:  When Muskegon native Matthew Anthony Hysell was ordained last week at St. Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica in Edmonton, he became Canada’s first deaf priest. “The distinction of being the first deaf priest in Canada was certainly not an honor I was looking for” Hysell said in an e-mail. “But I do admit that I am pleased with the recognition that this occasion is bringing to the needs of... Read more

2012-12-10T03:52:50-05:00

Last updated on: December 10, 2012 at 3:52 am   By

A reader dropped me an e-mail about this.  Evidently, it happened on November 10.  But I had to really hunt to find news about it on the diocesan website.  There was nothing on the Diocese of Phoenix Facebook page, either.  I finally found a link to the Catholic Sun, and was able to search its archives.  Don’t hide your light under a bushel, Phoenix!! Details:  Sixteen men, who were already faithful and active in the Church, are now permanently called... Read more

2016-09-30T17:01:56-04:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm   By

This video is beginning to make the rounds: a glimpse at how some are making beautiful music in Paraguay from, literally, garbage. It’s a teaser for a documentary called “Landfill Harmonic:” Cateura, Paraguay is a town essentially built on top of a landfill. Garbage collectors browse the trash for sellable goods, and children are often at risk of getting involved with drugs and gangs. When orchestra director Szaran and music teacher Fabio set up a music program for the kids... Read more

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