Another woman is touting an attempted ordination to the Catholic priesthood: Mary Alice Nolan will soon be ordained a Roman Catholic priest. The 64-year-old’s ordination will not be acknowledged by the Catholic church, which only allows men to become priests, but the lifelong follower of the faith is not letting that stop her. The San Rafael resident plans to press onward with the ordination, to be conducted by a female bishop of the Western Region of Roman Catholic Priest, in... Read more

From The Catholic Register in Canada: A Scarborough, Ont., parish is mourning the loss of its 34-year-old associate pastor who died suddenly while on pilgrimage in Jordan. Fr. Tomasz Dzida, active in youth and family ministry at Our Lady Queen of Poland parish, was struck down by a massive stroke Aug. 27. He was rushed to the Al Khalidi Hospital and Medical Centre in Amman, Jordan, where he suffered a second stroke. The young priest never regained consciousness and died... Read more

Details:  Young Catholics are leaving the faith at an early age – sometimes before the age of 10 – and their reasons are deeper than being “bored at Mass,” the author of a new report claims. “Those that are leaving for no religion – and a pretty big component of them saying they are atheist or agnostic – it turns out that when you probe a bit more deeply and you allow them to talk in their own words, that... Read more

Sad but true:  One of the largest Catholic hospital systems in the Midwest is saying farewell to saints’ names at 12 of its hospital campuses in Indiana and Illinois. In a move to create a stronger identity, Franciscan Alliance will become Franciscan Health, and will stop using the names of St. Francis, St. James, St. Anthony and other familiar saints at its hospitals, the company announced Tuesday. That means that Franciscan St. Francis Health in Indianapolis will be known simply... Read more

If you want to understand Donald Trump’s faith, it helps to understand one of the most influential ministers of the last century, the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale. The New York Times notes: For all that has been written about Mr. Trump’s high-profile careers — as a real estate developer, a casino owner and a reality-television personality — relatively little attention has been focused on the role religion played in shaping his personality. Overlooked amid tabloid accounts of his romances or... Read more

It happened after Mother Teresa’s canonization Sunday: Despite being 79-years-old, Pope Francis shows no sign of slowing down. After braving the intense Roman heat during the canonization ceremony that lasted for more than two hours in Saint Peter’s, he still had one more activity on his already busy agenda for that day. He met with the “pizzaioli.” It is the official Italian term for those who are responsible for making one of the most popular dishes in Italy: pizza. The... Read more

As some of you know, I’m an occasional contributor to the monthly devotional magazine Give Us This Day, published by Liturgical Press. With their kind permission, here’s my reflection for today, September 6: + Today’s Gospel might make you wonder: “What kind of a god would do something like this?” What sort of deity would found a church with ordinary, unremarkable men—including, significantly, one who would become a “traitor”? What kind of god would choose to come down from his mountaintop... Read more

I noticed this while channel surfing tonight, and it seems worth noting. If you haven’t seen the promos for Kevin James’s new show, “Kevin Can Wait,” check out some highlights below—and observe a prominent fixture on the family’s living room wall: a crucifix. It’s not every day you see that on network television—especially in a comedy on CBS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuNcS1-Xpxs Kevin James, if you didn’t know this already, is Catholic. From a 2012 profile on CNS: He doesn’t exactly advertise it, but... Read more

A great story about faith on the local news?  Yes indeed. From Troy, New York, the story of 11-year-old Landon LaChance, who is battling a series of benign tumors growing behind his eyes. Since this story aired, he has flown to Rome. Landon is scheduled to attend the papal audience this Wednesday, tour the Vatican and meet Pope Francis. See below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wvXZBybQko Photo: YouTube Read more

The first trailer for the new HBO series was released over the weekend: a strange, surreal, unorthodox (in every sense) glimpse at a fictional pope who is, by his own description, “revolutionary.” The Hollywood Reporter got a first look in Venice: Jude Law is a dangerously iconoclastic Pontiff and Diane Keaton his chief advisor in Paolo Sorrentino’s Vatican-set satire made for Sky, HBO and Canal+. Who knows where Paolo Sorrentino’s amusing, unpredictable and irreverent Vatican fantasy, The Young Pope, will... Read more