Remarkable:  Najih Shaker Al-Baldawi, a local resident of Balad city in Iraq stopped a suicide bomber from the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) from claiming many lives at his town’s Sayyed Mohammad Shrine. According to Al-Manar news, the attack was “aimed at destroying the shrine” Najih physically stopped the terrorist from entering the shrine, hugging him before his explosive laden vest detonated, killing them. His body took direct impact of the explosion, reducing the death toll at the... Read more

From The Catholic Herald:  Cardinal Vincent Nichols has written to priests in Westminster diocese discouraging them from celebrating Mass facing east. He issued the message to clergy days after the Vatican’s liturgy chief Cardinal Robert Sarah invited priests to celebrate Mass ad orientem from Advent onwards. Cardinal Sarah was speaking at a liturgical conference in London. Following Cardinal Robert Sarah’s appeal at the Sacra Liturgia conference in London, Cardinal Nichols wrote to priests reminding them that, “the General Instruction of... Read more

Diane Montagna has the scoop:  Pope Francis has appointed American journalist Greg Burke as the new Director of the Holy See Press Office effective August 1, the Vatican announced on Monday. The appointment comes after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of longtime Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ. Lombardi was appointed as Director of the Holy See Press Office by Pope Benedict XVI exactly 10 years ago, on July 11, 2006. The Pope has also named a Spanish laywoman, Paloma García Ovejero, as Vice Director, making her one of... Read more

The search continues for the body of the Wichita seminarian who was swept away while kayaking over the weekend, and friends are remembering a young man of great faith:  As of Sunday, crews were still looking for the young man in the swollen waters of the Arkansas River. Bergkamp, 24, had been kayaking with four friends, a man and three women, Saturday morning on the Arkansas River when they hit churning water under the 21st Street Bridge. Police say one... Read more

And she’s ministering, of course, in Vegas: If ever a nun seemed right for Las Vegas, Sister Mary Kieffer does. The Dominican nun knows, for instance, that a mudslide doesn’t have to consist just of earthy material falling down a hillside — it can also consist of vodka, Kahlua, Baileys Irish Cream, milk and ice. Yes, if 63-year-old Sister Mary wasn’t busy overseeing the spiritual care department at St. Rose Dominican Hospital-San Martin campus, she could work behind the bar... Read more

It’s simple. He explains:  A strict daily routine is the recipe for a long life, according to the world’s oldest priest, Belgian Jacques Clemens, who will celebrate his 107th birthday on Monday. Clemens, who has also celebrated his 80th anniversary as a Catholic priest, gets up every morning at 5.30 a.m. and goes to bed at 9.00 p.m. Read more.  To put this in context: Fr. Clemens was born in 1909, when Pius X was pope. He has lived through... Read more

Details:  For the first time in America, more people are being cremated than buried, according to a groundbreaking new report. The National Funeral Directors Association discovered that 48.5% of the dearly departed were incinerated last year, compared to 45.4% of the dead who were interred. Previously, burials outnumbered burn-ups. Cremation, it turns out, is hot, with the number of cremations up 50% since 2005. At that rate, more than 70% of Americans are expected to be cremated by 2030. Canadians... Read more

Details:  Recovery crews are searching for a man gone missing from a group of kayakers in the Arkansas River near the 21st Street bridge in northwest Wichita. The call came out at about 8:40 a.m. Battalion Chief Frank Buck of the Wichita Fire Department said the crews are searching for a man who became separated from a group of five kayakers. “The report was he was not wearing a life vest,” Buck said. Buck said all of the other victims have... Read more

We don’t know his name. We don’t even know where, exactly, this encounter took place. What we do know is that at a particular moment, a “scholar of the law” posed a question to Jesus that, 2,000 years later, continues to haunt us and challenge us and provoke us. This particular Sunday—after a week of anguish and mourning and accusations and divisiveness and fear—we face that question again. “Who is my neighbor?” The answer that Jesus gave remains one of... Read more