Should a Catholic Church ever be a movie set? From our most iconic movies to some regrettable music videos, it’s a question that has been asked many times and answered in different ways.
Music
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Remembering The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan, the raucous and tragic sage of Irish music
Shane MacGowan once said that he was the one that God would use to save Irish music. Despite a public persona that was often less than saintly, he grappled with faith in many of his iconic songs.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
The abolitionist history of ‘O Holy Night’
In “O Holy Night,” we are reminded of the promise of the Incarnation and its continuing resonance today.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
The Gen Z Catholic Retreat Music Playlist
Whether you know it as Kairos, Spark, Magis or Encounter, we bet there was a song playing in the background that involved a banjo, a scraggly-bearded lead vocalist and lyrics about finding yourself through struggle.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Lighting up Christ the Redeemer with a Taylor Swift T-shirt isn’t blasphemy. I still don’t like it.
This is an image of Jesus, who is God, and he surely loves Taylor Swift the human woman. But he’s not a Swiftie; he’s the Lord.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
This Irish Christmas carol was once nearly forgotten. Now it’s newly famous.
I have learned to take Christmas carols seriously and to anticipate the epiphanies they may bear in my spiritual life.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Sex, religion and iconography in pop music
American pop star Sabrina Carpenter filmed her most recent music video in a Catholic church, but Catholic iconography has long been the basis for pop songs with sexual themes and erotic imagery.
Posted inFaith, News
Meet the DJ priest bringing the Gospel to young people through electronic music
At a Halloween festival with some 30,000 partygoers, Father Peixoto re-mixed electronic dance beats with words from Pope Francis’ encyclical about protecting the environment. “The people are dancing with sentences from ‘Laudato Si’.’”
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Javelin’ is a meditation on grief bathed in Christian imagery
Usually private about his personal life, Stevens dedicated the album to his “beloved partner,” who passed away in April.
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
In ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version),’ Taylor Swift reckons with her (and your) past self
With her release of the album “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”, Taylor Swift revisits the recording that transformed her from a star into a supernova, reflecting with joyful grace on the woman she was still becoming.