Wonderful news, via Fides:  The site of Jesus’ baptism on the Jordan River has been officially declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, during a ceremony held in Paris on the evening of Tuesday, February 2. The ceremony was also attended by a delegation from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, including the Jordanian Minister for Tourism Nayef H Al-Fayez and Archbishop Maroun Lahham, Patriarchal Vicar for Jordan of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In his speech, delivered during the ceremony,... Read more

You may remember this item from a few weeks back. Now, an update: A man was arrested Tuesday, accused of posing as a Catholic priest and stealing from parishioners. Erwin Mena was taken into custody in Elysian Park without incident, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Investigators said over several years, Mena posed as a priest and visited a number of Catholic churches throughout the L.A. area, including St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish in Highland Park. Churchgoer Nancy Resendiz said she remembered Mena from early last... Read more

Details: Pope Francis on Tuesday called on consecrated men and women to make courageous and prophetic choices, to not be afraid of getting their hands dirty and of walking the geographical and existential peripheries of mankind today. The Pope was speaking to consecrated men and women during the closing Mass of the Year of Consecrated Life in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Year, which was celebrated throughout the world, began on the First Sunday of Advent in November 2014 and came... Read more

Happy Groundhog Day! To celebrate, let’s take another look at the great Harold Ramis comedy that tells a hilarious and heart-tugging story about conversion, love and redemption. The New York Times marked the movie’s 10-year-anniversary in 2003 with a thoughtful and surprisingly interesting glimpse into the different religious connotations of the film: Harold Ramis, the director of the film and one of its writers, said last week that since it came out he has heard from Jesuit priests, rabbis and Buddhists,... Read more

This happened last fall, but an inquest has uncovered the sobering facts. Details:  A teenage girl who was on the contraceptive pill died from an ‘extremely rare’ blood clot after returning home from a family holiday, an inquest heard. Sophie Murray, 16, had been prescribed the pill for around eight months by the time she returned from Gran Canaria last September. But two weeks later, the “happy and healthy” teenager, from Accrington, started complaining of breathlessness and chest pain. Blackburn Coroners... Read more

A fascinating vocation story that proves, once again, that God is full of surprises: Sean Hagerty, SJ, 31, was climbing the corporate ladder in the beer distribution business when he decided to become a Jesuit priest. And even by Jesuit standards, that’s a pretty uncommon path. But there hasn’t been anything routine about Hagerty’s life to date, so it was no surprise when he decided to ditch the King of Beers for God’s Kingdom. Raised on the Upper West Side... Read more

From Variety:  Pope Francis will play himself in the new religious movie “Beyond the Sun,” marking his acting debut and the first time that a pope has appeared in a feature film. [note: not quite true…see below]. “Beyond the Sun” — from Ambi Pictures — is a family adventure based on the Gospels. Pope Francis asked the filmmakers to make a movie that communicated Jesus’ message to children. AMBI co-founders Andrea Iervolino and Lady Monika Bacardi will finance and produce... Read more

Details:  Four Phoenix City councilmen are trying to block a group of Satanists from giving the opening prayer at a Feb. 17 council meeting. Followers of the Satanic Temple, an organization that promotes religious agnosticism, are scheduled to give the invocation and submitted a request in December. While some Phoenix leaders have objected, the city has said it will let the Satanists pray. City Attorney Brad Holm defended the decision in a statement released Thursday. “Consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s direction, the city... Read more

From CNS, a cardinal cracks open a window into a process that’s rarely discussed: Although the number is not high, it is no longer “exceptional” to have priests turn down an appointment as bishop, said Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Speaking Feb. 1 about the annual course his office sponsors for new bishops, the cardinal was asked about rumors that more and more priests are saying they do not want to be a bishop and... Read more

That would be Burlington’s Bishop Christopher Coyne—shown above, on the right, standing beside Brooklyn’s own Frank Caggiano (now on loan to Bridgeport). Aleteia’s Zoe Romanowsky has a terrific interview today with Bishop Coyne, who has made social media a cornerstone of his ministry. Snip:  A bishop’s life is busy; it’s a very full schedule. How do you find time to be present on social media, maintain a web site, and do blog posts, podcasts, and videos? Do you have a... Read more