James Martin, S.J.

St Patrick s Day–or as it s known in the Ordo the Feast of St Patrick–falls for the first time since 1940 during Holy Week Not surprisingly that means no Masses in honor of the patron saint of Ireland that is the man born Patricius in Roman Britain on March 17 A few Catholic bisho

This is a long post but a few commentators have asked about the news of the death this weekend of Walter J Burghardt S J the great theologian writer and well-known preacher Here is the official obituary from the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus which does a fine job of summing

Reports on the Vatican s new 86-page document on the procedures for canonization may have left some Catholics and their non-Catholic friends scratching their heads Essentially the Congregation for the Causes of saints responding to widespread concern that the saint-making process had gotten

In case you were wondering In All Things was in fact out of commission for several days since we were switching servers–something about as enjoyable as moving or root canal Our entire website was shut down for one day In any event Tim Reidy that s Maurice Timothy Reidy for those who

Today marks the 150th Anniversary of the appearances of Our Lady to St Bernadette Soubirous in the Grotto of Lourdes the small town in Southern France that has become one of the church s main sites of pilgrimage It has become fashionable in recent years especially after Vatican II to dow

NCR and Whispers both noted this surprising video of Father General Adolfo Nicolas speaking–in English–on vocations and religious life The clip seems to have been taken from a Jesuit vocation video What we need today says Nicolas is the ability to dream greater dreams for the world

Robert Mickens the Tablet s Rome correspondent has a brief piece in that mag s latest issue on the recently revised prayer from the Tridentine rite for Good Friday The Tablet For those who haven t followed the controversy here it is in short When Pope Benedict issued his motu

A few months ago I wrote a piece in the magazine on the essential place of joy humor and laughter in the spiritual life and in the life of the church The Most Infallible Sign In it I suggested that not only was Jesus most likely a person of great wit but also that the saints and the great C

The new movie 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days about an illegal abortion in Romania during its communist era won the prestigious Palme d Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year The New York Times in a rave review said that that Christian Mungiu s new work deserves to be seen by the largest