Remarkable and poignant, from CNN: Tuesday night was supposed to be a high point of Annabelle Pomeroy’s year. Months ago, the 14-year-old was cast in her first play, Seguin Independent School District’s production of Elf The Musical. She was beyond excited to have not only a speaking role, but a dancing part, too, her parents said. Her moment in the spotlight would never come. She was killed, along with 24 other people and an unborn child, when a gunman opened... Read more

They had no where to go, but then the staff of the nursing home had an idea—and it’s a great story for this season. Check this out, from The Los Angeles Times: Mary Kowalski wasn’t bothered when she was told by the nursing home staff to pack all her belongings and get ready to evacuate. It was at 5 a.m. Wednesday, and ash-filled smoke from the multimillion-dollar homes burning in the Skirball fire was all around. She got ready to... Read more

Time magazine made headlines last week when it chose for its Person of the Year several persons: the women who had come forward to break their silence about powerful men who had sexually harassed and abused them. Time called these women “The Silence Breakers,” women who are saying in effect, “Enough.” Enough of looking the other way. Enough of accepting what’s unacceptable. Enough of the smirks and the shrugs and the tolerance for what is, frankly, intolerable. Enough. The time... Read more

Check this out: The role of deacons in the Church will be discussed by an international ecumenical gathering in Regina, Canada, next year, in a programme bringing together Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Ukrainian Catholics. The Revd Canon Michael Jackson, a deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada, described the gathering as “an academic conference about the diaconate” and said: “We hope lots of deacons are going to come . . . but it’s a conference about the diaconate, and anyone... Read more

A huge h/t to my horse-loving sister, Karen, who spotted this item: It remains to be seen if Catholic Boy prefers turf or dirt, but trainer Jonathan Thomas is surely confident of something the 2-year-old son of More Than Ready  relishes. As far as distance goes, it’s the more the merrier for owner Robert LaPenta’s juvenile colt. Tested on dirt and the 1 1/8-mile trip for the first time, Catholic Boy handled the surface switch with aplomb Dec. 2 as he surged to... Read more

From Reuters: Pope Francis has said the Roman Catholic Church should adopt a better translation of the phrase “lead us not into temptation” in the “Our Father”, the best known prayer in Christianity. “That is not a good translation,” the pope said in a television interview on Wednesday night. Francis said the Catholic Church in France had decided to use the phrase “do not let us fall into temptation” as an alternative and indicated that it or something similar should... Read more

Some not-so-surprising news from a surprising source: Women who rely on birth control pills or contraceptive devices that release hormones face a small but significant increase in the risk for breast cancer, according to a large study published on Wednesday. The study, which followed 1.8 million Danish women for more than a decade, upends widely held assumptions about modern contraceptives for younger generations of women. Many women have believed that newer hormonal contraceptives are much safer than those taken by... Read more

Aleteia’s own Elizabeth Scalia is busy this season doing more than shopping, planning, cooking and decorating; she’s also taking time each day to do what she does best: writing and reflecting on the world around her. Which means the world around us. Which means a place that these days seems too often darker and colder than usual. Despite the chilling headlines and ominous reports, Elizabeth is offering us Advent Light: daily reflections to help guide us through the darkening days... Read more

This video appeared on Facebook this week: it shows a group of Muslims pitching in to help rebuild and restore a Christian church in Mosul that was desecrated by ISIS. CNEWA’s external affairs officer, Father Elias D. Mallon, S.A., Ph.D., has kindly translated the Arabic. The title of the video is: “The Muslim people of Mosul return the cross to the church in the district of Tel Kaif.” A sign in Syriac and Arabic reads: “Church of the Sacred Heart... Read more

The paper, based in the U.K., apologized for the gaffe, which has become an instant classic: The Cambridge News is issuing an apology to its readers after an error with the front page of today’s (December 6) edition of the newspaper. Due to a technical problem, the main headline did not appear on the Cambridge edition, although the correct one was printed in the Cambourne edition of the paper. The headline should have read ‘£2m for ‘sex lair’ school’ in... Read more