Now it can be told: If you’re a Catholic on Facebook, or the internet in general, chances are Samer Noam has made you laugh. Or he’s made you angry. If he’s done his job the way he wants, he’s done both. Noam is the man, the myth, the legend behind the Catholic satire site, Eye of the Tiber. Catholic News Agency had a chance to sit down with the Californian writer and professional smart aleck to talk inspiration, excommunication (well, his... Read more
Delicious: West Deptford food packaging company has taken the plain pizza box and converted it into a welcome banner for Pope Francis in commemoration of his visit to Philadelphia later this month. Amanda Farese, director of marketing for Savona-Stavola — a company that provides food packaging products — has used her artistic abilities to create original artwork for pizzerias and restaurants in the South Jersey andPhiladelphia area. “I’ve always loved art, and this gave me an opportunity to showcase my art to the millions of people living in... Read more
This is an interesting meditation by the daughter of a mixed-faith family—but it seems to me this shows the potential pitfalls of choosing to not choose a faith for your children: Growing up in Harrison, New York, 10 minutes outside the Bronx, everyone I knew was Italian, Jewish or both. Mine was a pretty secular home, run by an Italian-Catholic mother and a Canadian-Jewish father. We had a Christmas tree and a menorah. I ate chicken scarpariello and bagels and... Read more
Now it can be told: If you’re a Catholic on Facebook, or the internet in general, chances are Samer Noam has made you laugh. Or he’s made you angry. If he’s done his job the way he wants, he’s done both. Noam is the man, the myth, the legend behind the Catholic satire site, Eye of the Tiber. Catholic News Agency had a chance to sit down with the Californian writer and professional smart aleck to talk inspiration, excommunication (well,... Read more
From today’s homily: Pope Francis says sowing divisions and discord is a sickness within the Church and described a person who indulges in gossip as like a terrorist who throws bombs. His comments came during his homily at his Friday (4th September) Mass in the Santa Marta residence. Taking his inspiration from St Paul’s letter to the Colossians where the Apostle spoke of how Christ was sent by God to sow reconciliation and peace among humanity, Pope Francis’s homily was... Read more
This: Details: Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican Thursday for a personal — and very normal — errand: New glasses. Francis arrived at dusk at the Ottica Spiezia on swank Via del Babuino in his Ford Focus, accompanied by his bodyguard and some plainclothes police, witness Daniel Soehe said. Shop owner Alessandro Spiezia told The Associated Press he put new lenses in the pope’s existing frames. He said he had made the pope new glasses last year, and that... Read more
One person’s anonymous testimony: I grew up hearing all sorts of mythology from parishioners about our faith and abortion; that it was an “unforgivable sin”; that it condemned you to hell; that you are automatically excommunicated and no longer “Catholic.” Unfortunately, those misconceptions are common, and while I am at peace with my standing before God, the church as a community is still rather uneasy about fully accepting and loving those of us who have had abortions. As many critics have... Read more
Don’t you know someone who’d like this for Christmas?: Fr. Leopold is on a mission to share the good news of Jesus Christ with minifigures everywhere. Sporting his brand new clerics and a friendly face, he is ready to preach the gospel and bring the sacraments to his people. Featuring 171 genuine LEGO® bricks, three modified bricks (his Roman collar, the sacramentary and the lectionary were printed after they left the factory) and a set of four vestments (a green... Read more
From Catholic News Agency: A media firestorm arose in Spain after a transsexual woman, who considers herself a man, asked to be the godfather of her nephew – leading a diocese’s bishop to turn to the Vatican for an answer. After writing to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about the issue earlier this month, Bishop Rafael Zornoza Boy of Cádiz and Ceuta was told that since transsexual persons are not consistently living Church teaching, its “impossible”... Read more
The New York Times offers this preview of a new book, due out later this month, and the women who made it happen: The idea of a cloistered life strikes some as one of severity and silence, of running away from a broken heart or a broken life. But as Toni Greaves discovered when she visited a community of cloistered nuns in New Jersey, it was a joyful embrace of a life that is in many ways countercultural given the... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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