How is your new year going so far? At this early hour in this brand new year, it seems as if anything is possible. The future is a clean page, a blank calendar, waiting to be written on. Everything is pure. Unblemished. How appropriate, then, that we celebrate today Mary, the Mother of God. She herself is Possibility. She is Creation begun anew – the New Eve. With Mary, and the birth of her son, Jesus Christ, the coming of God... Read more

These guys are a phenomenon. Behold, Kristin and Danny Adams, a married couple with young kids who clearly have too much time on their hands. I don’t know where they come from, but I can’t help but think to myself: this is what happens when you graduate with a degree in musical theater and can’t land a lead on Broadway. You become a star on YouTube! Hey, why not? Meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4In0ZiMG0ZA Read more

Well, this is different: an interpretation of the Nativity which shows disembodied hands reaching out to cradle the infant Jesus, who is aglow with light and rests on hundreds of photographs of familiar figures ranging from Anne Frank to St. Bernadette and Osama Bin Laden. Details: [roughly translated by Google]: This year, the nursery of the Madeleine church, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, leaves no one indifferent.Like every Christmas for seven years, the parish commissioned a a contemporary artist to... Read more

One progressive theologian thinks it could happen. From NCR:  Pope Francis may soon fulfill the Brazilian bishops’ special request to allow married priests to resume their priestly ministry, liberation theologian Leonardo Boff said in a Dec. 25 interview in the German daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. “The Brazilian bishops, especially the pope’s close friend Cardinal Claudio Hummes, have expressly requested Pope Francis to enable married priests in Brazil to return to their pastoral ministry,” Boff said. “I have recently heard that the pope wants... Read more

Details: On the morning of Dec. 10 in a cemetery in Quincy, Father Augustus Tolton’s cause for canonization took one step further as his remains were exhumed and verified. Father Tolton, a former slave, is the first recognized American diocesan priest of African descent. In 2011, the Archdiocese of Chicago officially opened his cause for sainthood. While digging up Father Tolton’s grave may seem like a macabre undertaking and the antithesis of the prayer “may they rest in peace,” it... Read more

Details:  During 2016, nearly 4 million people came to see the Pope at the Vatican. The Prefecture of the Papal Household has published its annual summary of the numbers of participants at meetings and audiences with the Pope in the Vatican. The statistics include general and special audiences, jubilee audiences, liturgical celebrations, and the Angelus and Regina Coeli addresses. The Easter celebrations of March and the celebrations surrounding the canonization of Mother Teresa in September brought the highest numbers. That’s an increase... Read more

Details:  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has denied being an atheist and said that he considers religion to be important. On Christmas day, the Zuckerberg posted a message on his Facebook account greeting his followers a “Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.” “But Aren’t You Atheist?” one commenter asked. In response, Zuckerberg wrote, “No. I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important.” According to Beliefnet, the young billionaire... Read more

From The Washington Post:  An organization of Catholic businesses is suing the Obama administration over a federal rule they say will force Catholic hospitals and doctors to perform gender reassignment services against their faith. The Catholic Benefits Association filed the lawsuit Wednesday in North Dakota District Court along with the Catholic Diocese of Fargo. In a statement, the groups called the rule part of a “multi-agency effort to redefine the term ‘sex’ in federal anti-discrimination laws.” The lawsuit concerns a rule... Read more

From The Los Angeles Times, the star of “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Silence” opens up: Garfield is a young man who feels things. Deeply. During a leisurely conversation at a vegetarian Mexican restaurant in West Hollywood, the 33-year-old British actor speaks often of “welling up.” It happened recently, he says, at the first public screening of “Silence” when during a Q&A Scorsese recalled telling Pope Francis that Garfield spent so much time preparing to play a Jesuit priest that he could... Read more

This is too good not to put out there: arguably the best-known number from “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” this clip captures the unique energy and verve of Debbie Reynolds—no wonder it earned her an Oscar nomination. People accustomed to her dewey-eyed ingenue in “Singin’ in the Rain” will see something altogether different here. And, in retrospect, the song could serve as the anthem of Reynolds’ colorful, celebrated, painful life. She didn’t let anything keep her down. Want an encore? TCM describes this dance... Read more