From The Boston Globe:  In 1953, the Catholic Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette established a shrine and spiritual retreat on a 199-acre lot in Attleboro. The shrine’s motto — “Come nearer, my children” — is reflected in the array of opportunities it offers worshipers and pilgrims to draw close to God. Among them: daily Masses, religious conferences, a soup kitchen for the hungry, and a Festival of Lights at Christmastime that attracts 400,000 visitors. As a place of worship, charity,... Read more

Here’s the latest in his series of monthly videos, dramatizing his prayer intentions. And, like all the others, it’s gorgeous. You can read all about it here. But take a look below.  This continues to be a heart-stirring and uplifting way to use modern media to proclaim the faith—and it deserves wide circulation and praise. https://vimeo.com/161607237 Read more

From Vatican Radio:  The Secretariat for Communications announced an new web initiative on Monday: a dedicated office – DotCatholic – to inform and engage the worldwide virtual community with Catholic doctrine, preaching, and ethos. At the invitation of the Secretariat, of State of the Holy See, the Secretariat for Communications has established a Bureau called “DotCatholic” with the purpose of utilizing a generic Internet domain name (.catholic) of the first level, in order to share the teachings, the message and... Read more

From Vatican Radio: The Press Office of the Holy See on Monday confirmed that Pope Francis met on Saturday, April 2, 2016, with the head of the dissident traditionalist Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (SSPX), Bishop Bernard Fellay. The confirmation came through a one-sentence communiqué from the Press Office, saying, “The Press Office confirms that Saturday, 2 April, a meeting took place in the Vatican between Pope Francis and Bishop Bernard, Fellay, Superior General of the St. Pius X... Read more

A statement released Saturday from the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI):  The CBCI Delegation met the Hon’ble Minister for External Affairs, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, at her Office this evening and discussed all matters related to the release of Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian Priest, abducted by the suspected IS Militants from Aden, Yemen, on March 4, 2016. The CBCI Delegation expressed the deep concern and distress of the Catholic Church in India over the fate of Fr. Tom, whose whereabouts... Read more

A little numbers-crunching from CARA at Georgetown in February found some heartening news: Aggregating over multiple years and studies, CARA’s national surveys of self-identified adult Catholics (CARA Catholic Polls or CCP) indicate that 8% entered the Church as adults. Three-quarters of these adults (75%) say they went through an RCIA program. Thus, we can assume that 6% of all adult self-identified Catholics are converts who have been through RCIA. How many Catholic adults are there? According to the Census, the... Read more

A great read, with some great book recommendations, from Kevin di Camillo in OSV’s The Priest:  In 2003, there were very few books about deacons and the diaconate in English. The main titles were John N. Collins’s Deacons and the Church, Russell Shaw’s booklet Permanent Deacons, and Phyllis Zagano’s Holy Saturday. There were a few others in English, but very few. The definitive tome,Diaconia in Christo, by noted theologian Karl Rahner, Herbert Vorgrimmler, et al., 1962, had not been translated... Read more

When I was in college, I had a journalism professor who worked as an editor for The Washington Post. He was constantly impressing on us the importance of checking sources and double-checking facts. One day, he offered us this advice—a piece of wisdom that originated, I’m told, in Chicago’s famous City News Bureau. “If your mother tells you she loves you,” he said. “Check it out.” That’s good advice for reporters. And, I think St. Thomas would have understood exactly... Read more