For months, the world has prayed over the plight of the kidnapped Salesian priest, the Rev. Tom Uzhunnalil. There even reports—later proved false—that he was scheduled for crucifixion on Good Friday. Now, a video has surfaced: A Salesian priest kidnapped in Yemen on March 4 personally appealed for Pope Francis’ help in a video posted to YouTube Dec. 26. “Dear Pope Francis…as a father, please take care of my life,” Father Tom Uzhunnalil said. “My health is deteriorating; I am in... Read more
Details: President-elect Donald Trump attended a Christmas Eve church service at a historic church just a short drive from his Palm Beach estate Saturday night. Trump and his wife Melania and an entourage of Secret Service agents and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies made the trip from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club to attend the 10:30 p.m. service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, which sits about 400 yards from the Atlantic Ocean. They received a standing ovation from the congregation when they arrived.... Read more
This morning, to mark the Feast of St. Stephen, I decided to take a short drive to Rockville, Maryland to visit a place that holds some powerful memories for me: St. Patrick’s, the parish where I grew up and where I first served as an altar boy nearly 50 years ago. [img attachment=”131766″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”img_7225″ /] It’s marking its 50th anniversary this year. I remember when it was first going up, in the middle of a vast empty field;... Read more
Leave it to the good people at Wikipedia to tell us (as Paul Harvey would say) “the rest of the story” behind the Irving Berlin classic that will forever be associated with Bing Crosby. Take a look: The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941. He subsequently recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers and Chorus for Decca... Read more
Has anyone else noticed this? Some Christmas ads this season have carried a distinct message of acceptance, inclusion, and welcome—especially toward those who might considered strange or “different.” First, there’s Apple’s poignant ad featuring Frankenstein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFPcsYGriEs Then there’s this ad from Lowe’s with a very similar (but notably more whimsical) theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duqghRhWBzQ To some, these will just be cute vignettes about holiday hospitality. But I think these go deeper than that. They are small parables with a pointed lesson about... Read more
What a gift Fred Rogers was to the world. And this story just slays me—not least of all because it is profoundly, beautifully diaconal. Merry Christmas! (And a grateful h/t to Mark Shea, who discovered this.) https://www.facebook.com/StoryCorps/videos/10154838801418622/ Read more
From Canada: Joe Lang knows all the children’s classics. Itsy Bitsy Spider, check. Alice the Camel, check. ABCs/Twinkle Twinkle/Ba Ba Black Sheep, check. (He performs those three in sequence, “same tune, different song.”) Strumming his guitar and singing in a cheerful voice, Lang led a singalong for the “holy people” at Jean Vanier School one day last month. It’s a place he says he doesn’t get to often enough. Through his day job as a religious consultant with Regina Catholic... Read more
A remarkable form of ministry, via the National Catholic Register: “Because of your caroling, we decided to keep our baby.” On a cold and crisp December morning, a young married couple spoke those words as their car pulled up next to Roseann Gracza and her Christmas carolers in front of the Family Planning Associates abortion center in San Bernardino, California. They had been looking for a sign not to go through with the abortion they had scheduled. Gracza recounted the... Read more
When was the last time you saw a picture of a prince of the church doing that? The New York Times this morning introduces readers to the man who will be Newark’s new archbishop: For about a year, the guys at the gym just called him Joe. He lifted weights in the early mornings wearing a skull-printed do-rag. He worked out on the elliptical, wiping it down when he was done. Then one day Shaun Yeary, a salesman at a landscape... Read more
Given events of the last 24 hours, and the prevailing theme of the sacred event we are about to celebrate, it’s worth revisiting and praying over the encyclical Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth.”) In April of 1963, the sainted Pope John XXIII offered to a world full of anxiety and uncertainty these words of caution, prudence and hope: 112. Justice, right reason, and the recognition of man’s dignity cry out insistently for a cessation to the arms race. The stock-piles of... Read more
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