On this day in 1789, Father John Carroll of Maryland, superior of the Church in the new American nation, was appointed the first Bishop of Baltimore, the first American diocese. In that year there were 30,000 Catholics in the whole country. Read more

Did you know that at one time Deacons could be made Cardinals? Well, today marks the death of Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (1806-1876), secretary of state for Pope Blessed Pius IX and one of the last Cardinal Deacons. Born in Sonnino, he was educated for the priesthood and took minor orders, but he decided against becoming a priest. As a deacon, he pursued an administrative career in the Papal States. In 1841, he entered the office of the Secretariat of State.... Read more

For Sacred Scripture is not like other books. Dictated by the Holy Ghost, it contains things of the deepest importance, which in many instances are most difficult and obscure. To understand and explain such things there is always required the ‘coming’ of the same ‘Holy Ghost;’ that is to say, his light and grace.Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus (1893) Read more

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Mary Louise Cecilia “Texas” Guinan was a saloon keeper, actress, and entrepreneur. Born in Texas to Irish immigrant parents, she started singing and acrting at an early age. She broke into vaeudeville around 1906 and made her film debut in 1917, with the silent movie The Wildcat. She became the United States‘ first movie cowgirl, nicknamed “The Queen of the West.” Upon the introduction of Prohibition, she opened a speakeasy called the 300 Club at 151 W. 54th Street in... Read more

Mack Sennett was a Canadian -born Academy Award-winning director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the “King of Comedy.” Many important actors started their careers with Sennett, including Charlie Chaplin, , Gloria Swanson,, The Keystone Cops, Bing Crosby, and W. C. Fields. Born Michael Sinnott, he was the son of Irish immigrants. He died on November 5, 1960 in Woodland Hills, California at the age of... Read more

Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night is an annual celebration on the evening of 5 November. It marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament, in London, United Kingdom. This became an annual event throughout the English-speaking world, which at the time had a strong anti-Catholic bent. During the American Revolution, when Catholic France came to the Americans’ aid,... Read more

Born in France, he joined the Jesuits in 1612. A Jesuit mission had been established in Hanoi in 1615. He arrived in Hanoi in 1620. He wrote the first Vietnamese Catechism and he published the first Portuguese-Latin-Vietnamese dictionary, which was later used widely by many Vietnamese scholars to create the new Vietnamese writing system, largely using the Roman alphabet – still used today and now called Quốc Ngữ (national language).(From Wikipedia) Read more

Born in Germany, he was ordained in 1899. He served as a parish priest and became active in the Centre Party, Germany’s Catholic party. In 1931, he was named a Canon of Berlin’s Cathedral Chapter and pastor of St. Hedwig’s Cathedral. Since the excesses against the Jews on the 9th of November, 1939, he held evening prayers at St. Hedwig’s – thousand meters from Hitler’s Reich chancellery interceding publicly and emphatically for them. Having protested again in August 1941 against... Read more

A bogus Knights of Columbus oath was circulated in the early 1900s as an anti-Catholic tactic designed to inflame Protestants and others. Although branded by a US Congressional Committee in 1913 as a fake used by American bigots, the bogus oath was used against Democratic candidate Alfred E. Smith in the 1928 presidential campaign and again against John F. Kennedy in 1960 in the West Virginia Democratic primary. The fake oath reads: “I do promise and declare that I will,... Read more