James Martin, S.J.

Last night CBS reran The Mystery of Christmas which cast doubt or at least tried to on some of the more popular parts of the Christmas narratives including the shepherds the magi and so on Ben Witherington III professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary did his usual fi

In case you missed it here s the latest news about our latest convert whose desire to become a Roman Catholic has been long rumored on both sides of the Pond Blair was received into the church by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O Connor on Friday In the next issue of America dated Jan 7 2008 A

The Pope s cat Chico has written a new book called Joseph and Chico A Cat Tells the Life of Pope Benedict XVI which will be published by Ignatius Press in March From the press release In this beautifully illustrated book for children Chico the cat describes the life of his best

Christmas is being moved to June And for good reason Beat Christmas Burnout

This CBS television show In God s Name set to air Sunday night Dec 23 9-11PM ET looks interesting It was produced by the talented French filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet who did the amazing doc on 9 11 a few years ago They filmed the destruction of the World Trade Center accidentally

A few weeks ago Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship said that he saw a certain obstinance my word not his in response to Pope Benedict s motu proprio relaxing restrictions on the Latin Mass called Summorum Pontificum Here s what Archbishop

That s what I wanted to know when my publisher used that phrase As it turns out a book trailer is only the latest way of introducing the webby Youtubey crowd to books It s like a trailer or a coming attraction for a new movie only for a new book Like movie trailers they re short

Yesterday National Public Radio s show On Point produced by WBUR in Boston arranged a conversation on The Golden Compass with Hanna Rosin the journalist who wrote a terrific piece in The Atlantic Monthly that told the story of the way that the film s producers grappled with the controv

I m not sure what s worse about this story Nun Reads List of Curse Words to Kids That it was listed on MSN com s home page as one of the top stories of the day That so far 86 news organizations have picked it up Or that it caters to the same hoary anti-Catholic stereotypes about women re