The Road to Sainthood Infographic

September 16, 2015 By Sharon Friedman

When Pope Francis visits America this month, he’ll be canonizing a Franciscan friar named Father Junipero Serra. Some 231 years have passed since Father Serra’s death. Is it normal for canonizations to take that long? Check out the infographic below for the answer and to learn much more! (Courtesy of Value Penguin). (note that you can click on the image below to enlarge it). “When Father Junipero Serra becomes Saint Junípero Serra upon his Sept. 23 canonization in Washington, D.C., 231 years will... Read more

Living in-between seed and shrub

August 30, 2015 By Elizabeth Scalia

by Joe McHugh In Memory of Thomas E. Porter 1927—2015 Tom Porter was a brash, street-smart Irish kid from Cleveland’s west side who was as good at acting and translating Latin as he was at playing baseball. Graduation from high school came with a choice between going to college on a baseball scholarship or taking the road less travelled by joining the Jesuits. He opted for the Jesuits. I met Tom when I was a college kid in Detroit and... Read more

Touching God’s Wilder Side

August 21, 2015 By Guest Contributor

The wilder side of God refuses all our attempts at predictability and containment by Joe McHugh God and I are infuriatingly slow learners. I’m slow to let God convince me to move in the general direction of virtue, and God still struggles to remember I’m a visual learner. I need a compelling story or an arresting image just to get me interested in what God might bring to the table. Gospel stories, however, can often chip away at my spiritual... Read more

Tweeting With God: Essential Text for RCIA and More

July 21, 2015 By Guest Contributor

by Albert Little Tweeting with God was not what I expected. When it arrived in my mailbox and I pulled the packaging open I was surprised to find, in my hands, not a small paperback treatment but a large, square, full-colour kind of textbook. And that’s how I’d best describe it: as an introductory textbook. In the very first pages, author Fr. Michael Remery makes it plainly clear who he is targeting with his textbook styled book: young people growing... Read more

Catholicism Faces a Heavy Future, Full of Light

July 14, 2015 By Elizabeth Scalia

A challenging future means an exciting time to be Catholic by Kelley Cutler “You can show your love to others by not wishing that they should be better Christians.” — Saint Francis of Assisi What side are you on? Are you a traditional or progressive Catholic? Are you liberal or conservative? Are you Republican or Democrat? Are you on the right or the left? I’m often asked these questions to which I reply, “I am a Catholic anarchist.” I am... Read more

Beating Cancer, one Facebook Post at a Time

June 22, 2015 By Guest Contributor

Hello, my name is Matt and I’m a social media addict. Before I even get out of bed in the morning, I grab my iPhone to turn off my alarm and check Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I even consult an app called Timehop that shows me the no doubt witty and insightful social media activity I posted on this day in previous years. As I board the train to work, my social media odyssey continues as I read the best... Read more

“Sister Act” Remake? Tell Us About REAL Black Sisters!

June 19, 2015 By Guest Contributor

by Shannen Dee Williams, PhD. When news of Disney’s plan to reboot its wildly successful Sister Act franchise broke last week, media and fan reactions were as swift as they were predictable. From TIME to The Guardian, divinely inspired headlines cheered the impending reincarnation of America’s favorite black Catholic nun and choir director on the silver screen. Some even began speculating about who among today’s leading black actresses might replace Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg, who starred in the first two Sister... Read more

My Second Christian Pilgrimage into Ramadan

June 18, 2015 By Guest Contributor

By Joe McHugh Ramadan 2015 starts on June 18th and ends on July 17th, and, even though I’m a Catholic Christian, I plan to observe it again this year, just as I did in 2014. I have little idea what this year’s observance will bring, but let me tell you how it affected me last year and how it molded and shaped my religious sensibilities while ultimately confirming the Christian quality of my religious quest. The first time I prayed... Read more

Jenner’s Gnosticism, the “Shadow Council,” and St. Irenaeus

June 9, 2015 By Fr. Robert Barron

By Very Rev. Robert Barron Two news items from last week put me in mind of St. Irenaeus and the battle he waged, nineteen centuries ago, against the Gnostic heresy. The first was the emergence of Bruce Jenner as a “woman” named Caitlyn, and the second was a “shadow council” that took place in Rome and apparently called for the victory of a theology of love over John Paul II’s theology of the body. I realize this requires a bit... Read more

America Embraces Era of Religious Persecution

June 1, 2015 By Russell Shaw

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The persecution of the Catholic Church and other morally conservative religious bodies has begun in the United States. As predicted, it isn’t—thank God—bloody persecution like the persecution of Christians in many countries. But it’s real persecution, and likely to get worse. This new persecution currently has two prongs. One consists of pressuring individual religious believers to cooperate with public policies inimical to faith. The other prong is pressure targeted at religious groups and institutions to adapt their programs to the... Read more