Horray for Hollywood:  Add Pope Francis to Netflix’s continually growing TV and movie roster names. The streaming service is moving forward with the feature film The Pope, with Jonathan Pryce tapped to play the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and Anthony Hopkins in talks to play his predecessor Pope Benedict. The film will be directed by City of God helmer Fernando Meirelles, has a script by Anthony McCarten, who wrote The Theory of Everything about Stephen Hawking and the... Read more

This is truly something remarkable:  This past Sunday an historic event occurred in Scotland. The bishops of the country, along with thousands of other Catholics, joined together to perform a Consecration of Scotland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. …Unique about the event was that four parliamentarians passed a motion that recognized the event. “That the Parliament recognises that Scotland’s Catholic bishops will consecrate the nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on 3 September 2017; understands that the bishops... Read more

From RNS: Twenty years after the death of St. Teresa of Calcutta, thousands of Christians and Muslims came together to celebrate the consecration, in her name, of this nation’s first Roman Catholic cathedral. St. Teresa Cathedral is also the only one in the world dedicated to the Albanian saint, who spent most of her life working in the slums of India. The consecration Tuesday (Sept. 5), which falls on the one-year anniversary of her canonization in Rome, was long-awaited by the... Read more

A deacon friend from another diocese sent this my way; it’s part of a diocesan press release announcing the installation of a new bishop: “It begins with a lengthy procession consisting of clergy, religious and deacons from the diocese that…could take about a half hour. The entire liturgy is estimated at about two hours.” “Clergy, religious and deacons…”  Wait. What??!! Insert face into palm. I can’t imagine anyone issuing a diocesan press release saying “It begins with a lengthy procession... Read more

With more attention now turning to President Trump’s decision on DACA, this seems a good moment to revisit a story that first circulated last fall, from the organization America’s Voice. It reported that Sen. Dick Durbin had been taking to the Senate floor to tell the stories of people who had benefited from DACA. At one point, he spoke of a Catholic priest: Sen. Dick Durbin profiled Father Rey Pineda, a DACA recipient and Catholic priest at the Cathedral of... Read more

This is how the USCCB has responded to President Trump’s decision on DACA: The cancellation of the DACA program is reprehensible. It causes unnecessary fear for DACA youth and their families. These youth entered the U.S. as minors and often know America as their only home. The Catholic Church has long watched with pride and admiration as DACA youth live out their daily lives with hope and a determination to flourish and contribute to society: continuing to work and provide... Read more

Anyone who has seen those domes — they are among the most famous in the world—will notice something amiss. They no longer have their crosses. Here’s what they actually look like: [img attachment=”231312″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” /] The move has not gone unnoticed. A writer in The Guardian notes: The German supermarket chain Lidl has been caught removing the crosses from a picture of a Greek island used to sell cheese. The packaging on its “Greek” range of foods shows the gorgeous... Read more

And they are, of course, New Yorkers. Check out this brief video that was produced for the Year of Vocations in the Diocese of Brooklyn. Read more

Details:  The number of Anglicans in Britain has collapsed by 50 percent in under two decades, according to figures released today. The latest British Social Attitudes survey’s data on religion show that the number of people in Britain who describe themselves as having no religion at all is also at its highest ever level. More than half, 53 per cent, of the British public now describe themselves as having ‘no religion’. This is up from 48 per cent in 2015.... Read more

That would be “All Saints,” starring John Corbett. (See an interview with him about his Catholic faith here.) The Deacon’s Wife and I went to check out the movie on Labor Day at the only theater in Manhattan where it’s playing. There were, at most, a dozen people in the auditorium. What we saw deserved a much bigger audience. I could not agree more with Deacon Steven Greydanus, who reviewed the film and noted approvingly: Most faith-based films aim at... Read more