James Martin, S.J.

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

The New Republic has just put out one of their best issues in years It s hard to know which article to recommend first Included in an issue that focuses on the death or dearth of book reviewing on the face of it a topic that would make only authors upset though the mag prove otherwise ar

The full text of Pope Benedict XVI s new encyclical on hope Spe Salvi has just been released by the Vatican The link is below Like Benedict s first encyclical Deus Caritas Est it is primarily in the form of a meditation See what you think Spe Salvi

Has anyone slogged through Philip Pullman s The Golden Compass part of his bestselling trilogy known as His Dark Materials An excellent article in The Atlantic called How Hollywood Saved God shows how the book s frankly anti-Catholic plotline was successfully watered down for a new ho