From Sister Suzanne Toolan and the Sisters of Mercy website comes this remembrance: I wrote “I Am the Bread of Life” for a San Francisco archdiocesan event in 1964. I was teaching high school at the time and wrote the song during my free period. When the bell rang for the next class I decided I didn’t like the music, so I tore it up and threw it in the wastepaper basket. My classroom was next to the infirmary, where... Read more
From the Facebook page of the North Bend, Oregon police: This morning, our dispatcher informed me that there was something I might want to see on our video surveillance system in our front lobby. I caught the attached still from that system… Seems a homeless gentleman came to our PD to report the theft of some of his items overnight…including his shoes. The theft occurred outside of our jurisdiction and so Officer Brent Gaither notified the proper law enforcement agency... Read more
The film unspooled this weekend at the Venice Film Festival. Is this Mel Gibson’s act of redemption? From Variety: Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge,” which premiered today at the 73rd International Venice Film Festival, is a brutally effective, bristlingly idiosyncratic combat saga — the true story of a man of peace caught up in the inferno of World War II. It’s the first movie Gibson has directed since “Apocalypto,” 10 years ago (a film he’d already shot before the scandals that engulfed... Read more
From Australia: In 2006, 14 men were ordained to the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Perth A decade on, the Deacons talk to The eRecord about how their work as Deacons has inspired them. When Permanent Deacon Trevor Lyra was ordained 10 years ago, it was the second time he had entered into a fellowship of men serving something bigger than themselves. Permanent Deacons are men – married or single – who are called to be ordained ministers of... Read more
When this first popped up on my Facebook feed, I thought it must be a parody. But no. The only thing more surprising would be if something like this were produced by the Clinton campaign. Check this out below. The GOP nominee has produced a video saluting a new Catholic saint. Has any candidate of either party done anything like this before? Worth remembering: Trump has a well-documented “Catholic problem” right now—a significant deficit among what’s been described as “the largest religious contingent in... Read more
If you’re looking for something to jolt you awake this morning, this Gospel should do it. Jesus is blunt. After offering a litany of people we are supposed to hate—including everyone in your family—he puts it all on the line: “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” You can picture jaws dropping and disciples stopping in their tracks. But scholars tell us Christ was using hyperbole to shock his listeners. He wanted to... Read more
Words for this weekend, as we mark one saint’s feast and prepare to celebrate another’s elevation to the altars. “The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.” — St. Gregory the Great Read more about St. Gregory. St. Gregory the Great, pray for us! St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us! Read more
Some may remember this story from last year. Now, an update, from David Gibson at RNS: The Catholic archbishop in New Jersey has barred a gay priest from ministry because the cleric supports gay advocacy groups and has backed a Catholic high school counselor who was fired when church officials discovered the woman was in a same-sex marriage. Fr. Warren Hall said he was notified by phone on that Newark Archbishop John Myers, an outspoken conservative who has submitted his retirement... Read more
Vatican Radio reports: ‘It’s not every day that you have a new work of mercy in the Catholic Church!’ That was how the new director of the Vatican press office, American Greg Burke introduced the briefing, focused on the papal message entitled ‘Show Mercy to our Common Home’. Since biblical times, Christians have been called to carry out 6 acts of mercy, listed in St Matthew’s Gospel – giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, welcoming the stranger,... Read more
Would something like this ever happen in the United States? Read on, from Canada’s Catholic Register: After more than a year and a half wait, a Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform pro-life advertisement is set to run on Peterborough Transit buses. The advertisement, which the CCBR first proposed in January of 2015, contains two pictures of growing fetuses with the words “growing, growing gone. Abortion kills children.” The City of Peterborough had originally refused to run the ad “on the... Read more
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