Catholic father, claiming religious objections, sues over mandatory vaccinations

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From The Staten Island Advance in New York City: Subjecting his children to required vaccinations would “defile” God’s creation of the immune system, anger God and constitute a sacrilege, maintains a Bay Terrace father, who opposes immunization on religious grounds, according to a recently filed lawsuit. A practicing Roman Catholic, the father, identified in an affidavit only as “P.R.,” maintains “children are born from the hand of God” and immunizing them “demonstrates a great lack of faith in the gift... Read more

John Allen leaves NCR, joins the Boston Globe

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The press release: John Allen, a senior correspondent for the highly respected National Catholic Reporter, will be joining the staff of The Boston Globe in early February. Allen, widely hailed as the best-sourced and most knowledgeable English-speaking reporter on the Vatican, will help lead coverage of Catholicism and the Vatican as an associate editor of The Globe. “There is a resurgence of global interest in the Catholic Church, inspired by the words and deeds of the newly-installed leader, Pope Francis,”... Read more

Jesuit priest and peace activist John Dear dismissed from order

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From NCR: A popular U.S. Catholic priest and author known for his peace writings and some 75 arrests for civil disobedience actions across the country has been dismissed from the international Jesuit religious order, which says he was “obstinately disobedient” to its directives. Removal of Fr. John Dear caps 32 years in the order for the priest, who has been known for protesting a wide range of issues, including U.S. policies on Latin America, nuclear weapons development, and the cooperation... Read more

Picture of the day. Maybe of the year.

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

And the year is only seven days old. Priceless: Photo: CNS/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters From Catholic News Service: Surrounded by cheese sellers, shoemakers and bleating, baying animals, Pope Francis immersed himself in a lively re-enactment of a special day in Bethlehem. He even let a lamb rest on his shoulders and greeted a tiny baby named Francis, who played the part of Jesus, when he visited a live Nativity scene Jan. 6 at the Church of St. Alfonso Maria dei... Read more

Pope Francis: “The heart is a road, everything passes there. Put it to the test!”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Part of the pope’s homily today that hit close to home: The Pope invited everyone to think about what happens in their own hearts. What do we think and feel, what do we desire, do I examine the spirits? “Do I test what I think, what I want, what I desire – he asked – or do I accept it all” without discernment? “So many times, our heart is a road, everything passes there… Put it to the test! And... Read more

“The best preacher I ever had…”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

He’s described by Pat Archbold: As I thought about it, I kept coming back to one particular priest that week in and week out offered good solid preaching. I realized that he was the best preacher I ever had. So what about his preaching made it so good? Well, no one particular thing. I have tried to distill certain elements of his preaching and other good preaching to come up with a list of things I think are at the... Read more

A comment about no comments: “The blogosphere shouldn’t be Calvary”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

I read with interest, but hardly surprise, NCR’s decision to shut down comments on its website. I know exactly why they did it. Back in May of 2012, I did the same thing, announcing: This has been coming for a while. I’ve shut down comments for a week or two in the past, to have a breather, but the resultant serenity doesn’t last for long. On some days, keeping track of the torrent of comments has become a full-time job,... Read more

Atheist “church” reports split

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Seems the world’s hottest atheist “church” is now in schism. Details: The Sunday Assembly was riding high. The world’s most voguish – though not its only – atheist church opened last year in London, to global attention and abundant acclaim. So popular was the premise, so bright the promise, that soon the Sunday Assembly was ready to franchise, branching out into cities such as New York, Dublin and Melbourne. “It’s a way to scale goodness,” declared Sanderson Jones, a standup... Read more

My Lord: some reaction to the pope’s reported decision on monsignors

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Around the blogosphere, there’s been some interesting reaction to the much-reported move by Pope Francis. From a monsignor, Charles Pope: Somehow, we have lost the ability in our culture to confer honors, and bestow rewards without others taking offense. Yes, I fear that we, as a wider culture, have lost the important ability to bestow honor and have sunk into cynicism and some degree of envy when it comes to the practice of recognizing achievement. It will be admitted, that... Read more

NCR suspends comments: “Comments that have appeared in recent days have been vile and demeaning…”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The announcement: National Catholic Reporter suspended the commenting feature of its website, NCRonline.org, effective Monday 10 a.m. Central time. We ordered our Web editor to suspend the commenting feature and to hide all previously posted comments because of the malicious, abusive nature of the comments that have bombarded our site in recent days. Comments will be suspended indefinitely. NCR editors will explore options that will allow commenting to return in a way that respects our writers, the subjects of our stories, and our... Read more

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