Today marks the death of St. Daniel Comboni, the first Catholic bishop in Central Africa. Born in Brescia, Italy, he grew up in a poor family. At a young age he studied for the priesthood and was ordained in 1854. From an early age he was fascinated with the African missions. In 1857, he went to Africa, where he worked in the Sudan. In 1867 he founded the Comboni Missionary Institute, and in 1872 he founded the Comboni Missionary Sisters.... Read more

Born in Brooklyn in 1810, John McCloskey was the first native New Yorker ordained to the priesthood (in 1834). After teaching at the seminary for two years, hew was sent to Rome for advanced studies. When he returned, he was named pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village. In 1841, he was appointed first President of St. John’s College (now Fordham University). After a year at Fordham, he returned to parish work. In 1844, he became first Auxiliary Bishop... Read more

Brother Sun, Sister Moon (Italian: Fratello Sole Sorella Luna) is a 1972 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Graham Faulkner and Judi Bowker. The film is a biopic of Saint Francis of Assisi. Featuring Zeffirelli’s signature lush photography, Brother Sun, Sister Moon was conceived and executed in much the same visual manner as his Academy Award-winning adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (1968). Brother Sun Sister Moon attempts to draw parallels between the work and philosophy of Saint Francis and... Read more

In educating the young it is not sufficient that religious instruction be given to them at fixed times; it is necessary also that every other subject that is taught to them be permeated with Christian piety. If this is wanting, little good can be expected from any kind of learning.Pope Leo XIII, Militantis Ecclesiae (1897) Read more

On this day in 1845, John Henry Newman was received into the Roman Catholic Church by Blessed Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist working in England. In his spiritual autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Newman wrote: “I have been in perfect peace and contentment; I never had one doubt. I was to myself, on my conversion, of any change, intellectual or moral, wrought in my mind. I was not conscious of firmer faith in the fundamental truths of revelation, or of... Read more

Today marks the death of Pope Pius XII (1939-1958). He was Pius XI’s announced choice for successor. Born Eugenio Pacelli to a noble Roman family, he entered the diplomatic service as a young priest. From 1917 to 1929 he was nuncio to Germany. He then came back to Italy as Pius XI’s secretary of state. Much has been made of his alleged silence during World War II regarding the Holocaust. However, this controversy only started in the 1960’s with the... Read more

Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau, commonly known as Pigneau de Béhaine, also Pierre Pigneaux and Bá Đa Lộc, was a French Catholic priest best known for his role in assisting Nguyen Anh (later Emperor Gia Long) to establish the Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam after the Tay Son rebellion. Born in Aisne, he joined the Paris Foreign Mission Society and was assigned to Vietnam (then called Cochinchina) in 1765. While there he mastered both the Chinese and Vietnamese languages and wrote a... Read more

Penny Lernoux was an American journalist and book author. Born in California, she studied at the University of Southern California. After rgaduation she got a job with the United States Information Agency (USIA), a government arm devoted to promoting U.S. policy overseas. Lernoux began working in Latin America in 1961, just before the Catholic Church was transformed by Vatican II. She worked in Rio de Janeiro and Bogotá for the USIA until 1964 and then moved to Caracas to write... Read more

Morris Langlo West was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Devil’s Advocate (1959), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), and The Clowns of God (1981). His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. His works often were focused on international politics and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in international affairs. One of his most famous works, The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963), envisioned the election and... Read more

American playwright, legislator, and diplomat, born in New York City, and educated at private schools. From 1930 to 1934 she held editorial positions on such magazines as Vogue and Vanity Fair. In 1935 she married her second husband, the publisher Henry R. Luce. She wrote three successful plays, The Women (1936), Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1938), and Margin for Error (1939), all noted for their acid wit and all later filmed. She was a war correspondent during the early part... Read more