Thanks to our production editor Stephanie Ratcliffe for her report from south Brooklyn on the eve of the arrival of Hurricane Irene Stay safe everyone Friday August 26 6 37PM--If I am going to stay away from home for a few days I am going to need clean clothes On the way to the nicer neighbor

ldquo I need advice about my marriage rdquo nbsp She was certainly direct brushing aside the question I had proffered to open our conversation about her four children all of whom were in our parochial school nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp ldquo Okay Tell me about your marriage rdquo ldquo

The U S bishops released their annual Labor Day statement on Aug 24 Penned by Stockton Calif Bishop Stephen Blaire ldquo Human Costs and Moral Challenges of a Broken Economy nbsp will likely prove notable for observations that in years past would have hardly seemed controversial his reitera

Fr Mychal Judge the fallen chaplain of the Fire Department of New York City will be honored with a statue in front of his former parish according to a story from Religion News Services via The Huffington Post When All Saints Church sought to signal its hospitality to gays and lesbians the Ca

If you live on the East Coast or even if you don t you re probably aware that Hurricane Irene is expected to travel up the I-95 corridor this weekend New York City already has announced that its public transportation will shut down beginning at noon on Saturday This combination of dangerous wea

Bill Keller the outgoing editor of the New York Times pens a column in the NYT magazine this week seeking answers to questions about the religious beliefs of GOP presidential candidates and how those beliefs might impact their governance He snidely suggests that if a candidate claimed belief in

Since Fr Jim Martin our culture editor is away in the Holy Land researching his next book follow him on Facebook for daily reports I will highlight this latest film review by Michael V Tueth S J The Help is a film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett rsquo s best-selling first novel about tellin

The Readings for Sunday August 28 the nbsp Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 20 7-9 Psalm 63 2-9 Romans 12 1-2 Matthew 16 21-27 raise nbsp two questions one simple and one complex nbsp How does it feel to suffer What does it mean to suffer Suffering consumes the body ev

I came across this short notice in The Catholic Sun that the co-founder of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Sofia Cavalletti died in Rome yesterday Cavalletti was 94 years old nbsp Cavalletti a Hebrew and scripture scholar began her work with children in 1954 after a discussion with childre

The unexpectedly rapid fall of the house of Qaddafi has given many in the media an opportunity to speculate on whether the rebel victory constitutes a political ldquo win rdquo for Obama His controversial decision to involve U S forces in the campaign to oust the colonel six months ago was much

A memo from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate CARA at Georgetown University offers some stats worth worrying over The Great Recession appears to have had a significant effect on U S fertility and infant baptisms have tracked that overall decline Fewer babies have been part of t

Reports out of China indicate that Beijing is increasing its pressure on members of the so-called underground Catholic church distinguihed from the Beijing-administered Patriotic Catholic Church by its fealty to Rome Union of Catholic Asian News UCAN is reporting that Chinese security officials

The Anne E Casey Foundation released their ldquo 2011 KIDS COUNT Data Book rdquo today and it did not make for encouraging reading According to the report after showing dramatic improvement between 1996 and 2000 the condition of America rsquo s children has been in a significant decline since

Albert Mohler President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary yesterday posted False Start The Controversy over Adam and Eve hat tip to Joe Carter at First Things which details the dispute in evangelical circles regarding the historical nature of human origins as described in Genesis and

45 000 Verizon employees have now returned to work following a two-week strike but it seems the dispute is just beginning The two sides agreed to resume negotiations but there are few signs of goodwill between them Verizon is the principal phone service provider in the Northeastern United States

Fr Jim Martin author of Searching for God at Ground Zero recently returned to the site of the September 11 attacks nbsp

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp In March I made my yearly pilgrimage to Anaheim not to Disneyland but to the Catholic Religious Education Congress sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese where I am always provoked and energized by the workshops offered I am sti

Cambridge MA In my last blog just two days ago I promised a follow-up in which I reflected further on ldquo the Hindu-Christian dialogue of the future rdquo which ldquo will be more comprehensive and engaging than any we have known up to now since we can no longer give without receiving rd

Ten years ago I was preparing class in my room at Saint Peter rsquo s College in Jersey City when the phone rang It was my friend Bryan Kelly a recent Fordham grad and member of the swimming team calling from Tokyo where he was studying for an MBA A few weeks before we had met in New York