From The New York Times, some interesting background and analysis of the so-called Johnson Amendment, which LBJ pushed through Congress in the 1950s, and which continues to cast a long shadow over us today: The amendment, as The Times reported in 2011, was not aimed at churches, but at “two nonprofit groups that were loudly calling him a closet Communist.” These were the Facts Forum, funded by the Texas oil billionaire H. L. Hunt to produce and distribute McCarthyist books,... Read more

Details:  Back in 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney lost the Catholic vote by just 2 points, 50 percent to 48 percent. And the GOP has actually won the Catholic vote as recently as 2004 and in 5 of the last 10 11 presidential elections. But Trump trails among Catholics by a huge margin. A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute released this week shows him down 23 points, 55-32. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released earlier this month painted an even... Read more

The Daily Telegraph in Australia profiles several young people who explain why they are giving their lives to God. It’s a terrific read: Amy McCabe was just 12 when she wrote to the sisterhood asking if she could join. Five years later she tried again. While the sisters at the Missionaries of God’s Love welcomed her interest, they encouraged her to get a job and travel before deciding if it really was the life for her. McCabe worked as a... Read more

It happened in Indonesia:  An Isis suicide bomber attacked a Catholic priest with an axe during Sunday Mass – but failed to set off an explosive device. The priest, Albert Pandiangan, was injured after he was stabbed in the arm in a church in Medan on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, police said. However, the 18-year-old attacker was restrained by brave churchgoers who rushed to the priest’s aid. Pictures from inside the church show a young man covered in blood... Read more

Some answers, from Gainesville, Georgia. A reporter there picked up on this story from the national wires, and gave it a local twist: Being in the middle of the Bible belt means Christian churches of all denominations can be found on every corner of the city or on the outskirts of the rural county. However, only two Catholic churches operate in Hall County: St. Michael Catholic Church in Gainesville and Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Flowery Branch. And both... Read more

From the Park Community Church in Chicago, a little something that I imagine a lot of Catholics will appreciate, too. It’s a parody. I think. https://www.facebook.com/parkcommunitychurch/videos/10154527207309656/ Read more

We have a mission priest visiting this weekend, so he’ll be doing all the preaching at my parish. But here’s something timely from the vault: my homily for this Sunday from 2013. + Today’s scripture readings are about something we don’t hear mentioned very much. Humility. If you go to “Google” and type in the word “humility,” you’ll get about 13 million entries. But if you then go and type “fame,” you’ll get 208 million – about 15 times the amount... Read more

Details:  A Kosciusko man has been charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of two nuns in Holmes County. Authorities said late Friday night that Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, was developed as a suspect after “an exhaustive interview Friday evening.” Sanders is charged in the deaths of Sister Paula Merrill, a nurse practitioner with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, and Sister Margaret Held, a nurse practitioner with the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee.... Read more

From The New York Times:  France’s highest administrative court on Friday overturned a town’s ban on burkinis, the full-body swimwear used by some Muslim women, setting a precedent that challenges similar bans in at least 30 other municipalities, most of them on the French Riveria. The burkini — and the decisions to ban wearing them on beaches — has become the focus of spirited global debates over women’s rights, assimilation and secularism. In its ruling, the court, known as the... Read more