A former colleague of mine from CBS, Richard Barber, is working on a documentary about the high school Mardi Gras bands of New Orleans — and yesterday he sent me this new preview of the film, “The Whole Gritty City.” It looks amazing. Check out the clip below. And visit the website for more information about how you can support this work and help it get seen. And Happy Mardi Gras! Read more
Some of us of a certain age here tonight can remember a song that was popular exactly 40 years ago. In 1971, a group from Canada called the Five Man Electrical Band had a hit called “Signs.” The song is about how signs are always telling us what to do, and the chorus says, “Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?” Well, the Five Man Electrical Band has faded into history – though the other day, I... Read more
A former colleague of mine from CBS, Richard Barber, is working on a documentary about the high school Mardi Gras bands of New Orleans — and yesterday he sent me this new preview of the film, “The Whole Gritty City.” It looks amazing. Check out the clip below. And visit the website for more information about how you can support this work and help it get seen. And Happy Mardi Gras! Read more
Why don’t more couples who live together stay together? Marcel over at Aggie Catholics offers one answer: The analogy that is most commonly used is that cohabitation is like taking a car on a “test drive”. The problem is that when we use people as objects, it is the worst thing we can do in a relationship. Pope John Paul II said the opposite of true love is use. This is because we make them less than human when we... Read more
Some bone, reportedly from one of the church’s oldest saints, is drawing the faithful and the curious. From a local paper in San Bernardino, California: Sixteen hundred years ago, if someone wanted to describe a relic of Mary Magdalene and the cave in southern France in which it rests, they would have needed a little vellum and a lot of patience. On Sunday, all it took was the click of a camera phone. Hundreds of faithful Catholics and even a... Read more
Pardon the absence of an umlaut. I’m not sure how to add one. But I am sure of this: Max Lindenman is the real deal. For proof, just read his latest essay, which references in its lede one of the ’90s greatest movies (crafted from one of the decade’s most inventive screenplays), while dissecting the work of Jack Chick and Flannery O’Connor. Really. Go and read. You can thank me later. Read more
An outspoken critic of the new missal is reversing course: A prominent Catholic pastor in Seattle is “letting go” of his campaign against a new Latinized translation of the church liturgy, but not his convictions in starting it. “It is the people who will have the last word on the new missal once it is introduced,” Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral, said in a Sunday morning homily. Noting that the missal will be introduced later this year,... Read more
Pardon the absence of an umlaut. I’m not sure how to add one. But I am sure of this: Max Lindenman is the real deal. For proof, just read his latest essay, which references in its lede one of the ’90s greatest movies (crafted from one of the decade’s most inventive screenplays), while dissecting the work of Jack Chick and Flannery O’Connor. Really. Go and read. You can thank me later. Read more
That’s my nominee for Best Song Lyric Ever, from the final moments of “Les Miserables.” For those who missed it: below is the thrilling finale to the 25th anniversary concert, which aired Sunday night on PBS. In a word: wow. Read more
She’s now sharing her story with the world — and seeking others who have also survived abortion. From the Des Moines Register: The defining moment of Melissa Ohden’s life arrived five days before she was born. Her biological mother entered St. Luke’s Medical Center in Sioux City on Aug. 24, 1977, as a pregnant, 19-year-old college freshman. She must have been scared. The teen from South Sioux City, Neb., was administered a saline infusion abortion – a salt injection designed... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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