GODSTUFF WHAT AMERICAN CATHOLICS NEED FROM THE POPE: LOVE Sometimes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. This is Pope Benedict XVI’s big chance. When he lands at Andrews Air Force Base this afternoon, many of the nation’s 64 million Roman Catholics will be listening carefully to what he has to say on this, his first trip to the United States as pontiff. I hope the pope chooses his words carefully. (I’m sure he will.) And I... Read more

Goodbye, sweet friend Mark Metherell died April 11 in Iraq.A roadside bomb. I have no words so will have to borrow some from Mr. Heaney: You are neither here nor there,A hurry through which known and strange things passAs big soft buffetings come at the car sidewaysAnd catch the heart off guard and blow it open. May God hold you in the palm of his hand and shower your wife, baby daughter and the rest of your friends and family... Read more

GODSTUFF ‘STAY TUNED’ BEYOND THE GRAVE “Death can be funny, right?” That’s how journalist Jenniffer Weigel inscribed my copy of her book Stay Tuned: Conversations with Dad from the Other Side, a spiritual memoir about the death of her father, longtime Chicago broadcaster Tim Weigel, who died in 2001 at the age of 56. On the surface, the subject matter of Stay-Tuned-Conversations-Other-Side — Tim Weigel’s untimely death after a battle with a brain tumor; his eldest daughter’s struggle to deal... Read more

GODSTUFF REQUIEM FOR SATCH: JUDGE FOLKS BY DEEDS, NOT WORDS My Uncle Satch was the least politically correct person I’ve ever known. Racial and ethnic epithets (of all varieties) as well as George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words tripped off his tongue with cringe-worthy ease. He refused to mince words (no matter how much anyone pleaded with him to occasionally use discretion.) Uncle Satch was bellicose and bossy, opinionated and stubborn, aggravating and immovable. And he also was one of my... Read more

CRIME BOY WINS THE PULITZER!!!! Maurice Possley (aka Crime Boy, aka Mr. God Girl) has won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting along with his colleagues on the Chicago Tribune “Hidden Hazards” project: Trish Callahan, Sam Roe, Ted Gregory, Mike Oneal and Evan Osnos. God Girl is so proud of her man. Congratulations to everyone at the Trib for such fine, important work so well done. You can read about the Tribune’s winning reporting HERE Read the official Pulitzer Committee... Read more

See the Light:For Uncle Satch “Faith is like electricity. You can’t see it, but you can see the light.” Read more

Book News: The Dude Abides UPDATE: Join “The Dude Abides” group on Facebook HERE. We’re so very happy to announce that God Girl has just inked a deal to publish a new book titled The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers. Following in the tradition of The Gospel According to the Simpsons and The Gospel According to Disney by our homey Mark Pinsky and The Gospel According to Oprah by our friend Marcia Z. Nelson, The Dude... Read more

Dude. Read more

We’re totally plotzing. Again. God Girl just sold another book. She’s dancing around the living room, scaring the cats. Can’t tell you what just yet, but suffice to say, she’s absolutely thrilled. It’s a dream book. More TK very soon. Oh, and here’s the final front jacket of Sin Boldly. It’s a photo GG shot in Asembo Bay, Kenya. (She’s also shot all the photo illustrations inside, and there are many.) Our kudos to the brilliantly talented Curt Diepenhorst at... Read more