Priests have been known to offer confession in shopping malls. Now a Lutheran pastor is getting into the act. Details: A Lutheran minister is taking an unconventional approach to ministry by setting up a booth on the streets of Manhattan and charging 5 cents for spiritual help, much like Lucy from the “Peanuts” comic strip. In other words: “The pastor is in.” Pastor Gregory Fryer of Immanuel Lutheran Church in New York City told The Christian Post in an interview on... Read more

From the BBC: More than 26,000 Muslim pupils are enrolled in Catholic schools in England and Wales. For the first time an annual census of Catholic schools has collected information on the number of pupils from other religions. The biggest group of non-Catholic pupils are from other Christian denominations – but almost a tenth are from Muslim families. The government has plans to encourage more Catholic free schools to open. This analysis shows that, overall, nearly a third of the... Read more

Adweek describes the set up: Here’s a pretty amazing ad from BBDO New York, with a mystery at its core. At the outset, we meet Evan, a high school kid who can’t wait for summer break. He’s so bored that he begins etching words into a table in the library. The next day, he finds that someone has written back to him on the table—and there ensues a back-and-forth that’s pretty captivating. Perhaps too captivating. There seems to be romance... Read more

From CNS: Pope Francis has recognized the martyrdom of Father Stanley Rother of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, making him the first martyr born in the United States. The Vatican made the announcement Dec. 2. The recognition of his martyrdom clears the way for his beatification. Father Rother, born March 27, 1935, on his family’s farm near Okarche, Oklahoma, was brutally murdered July 28, 1981, in a Guatemalan village where he ministered to the poor. He went to Santiago Atitlan... Read more

A movie adaptation of the phenomenal best-seller is due in theaters in March—and here’s the first look.  I confess I started to read the book and just couldn’t stay all that interested in it; it didn’t hold me. But I know other people who adored it and have passed it along to everyone they know. It will be interesting to see if the movie generates the same buzz. Read more

An Advent calendar for cheese lovers? Yes, please:  Chocolate advent calendars are all well and good – but how about a cheese one instead? Just think of it – 24 individual pieces of cheese, waiting for you every December morning in the run-up to Christmas. Well, we’re pleased to inform you that such a think now exists, thanks to the efforts of London-based blogger Annem Hobson. Annem got a lot of attention last year when she shared details of how she... Read more

Details:  Dutch Catholics are raising alarm bells after the bishops of the Netherlands and Belgium changed the words to the Our Father in a way that they believe amounts to an “ideological reinterpretation of the text.” Dutch Catholics who still attend weekly Mass heard a newly-worded Our Father last Sunday that no longer asked God the Father, as Jesus taught, “to lead us not into temptation” but, instead, “not into trial.” Vox Populi, an orthodox Catholic lay group, is organizing... Read more

Beautiful story, from CNS:  Thomas Myron Hooker lived the last 20 years of his life without a roof over his head, but his death proved he was hardly without a home. Hundreds of people — church families, neighbors, shopkeepers and perhaps even strangers touched by the cheerful kindness and generosity of the man who for years had made camp under a tarp on a street corner in San Francisco’s Richmond District — streamed into Star of the Sea Catholic Church... Read more

Wow:  The pictures coming out of the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, wildfires are just devastating. Acres of woodland blackened. Row upon row of homes and businesses reduced to ashes. But a TV crew with CNN affiliate WVLT spotted something of a miracle amid all that destruction. On Wednesday, reporter Kelsey Leyrer and her team captured footage of what they saw at a house out in Sevier County. It was a statue of Jesus — covered with soot and ashes, but still standing.... Read more

Details:  Aborted fetuses in Texas that would normally be treated as medical waste will have to be buried or cremated starting next month. The new rules, initially proposed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, will require all health care facilities in the state to bury or incinerate the fetuses immediately after an abortion has taken place. Incinerated remains must then be scattered or buried. Previously, health care facilities could dispose of fetuses in sanitary landfills, as is the common practice for... Read more