Arts
New Vatican arts app highlights museum pieces, restoration
VATICAN CITY - The Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums has released a smartphone app to help culture enthusiasts learn about the works owned by the Holy See — and as a novel way of encouraging art lovers to help fund restoration.
Washington exhibit showcases Indiana Jones’ quest for the sacred
WASHINGTON - The exhibit “Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archeology,” at the U.S. National Geographic Museum until Jan. 3, features 100 carefully crafted film props alongside real archaeological finds.
Finding God’s presence in media and culture
Seeds of the Word: Finding God in the Culture (Word On Fire, hardcover, 275 pages, $24.95).
The teen vampire series Twilight has at least one thing in common with the prolific 20th-century Catholic writer and monk Thomas Merton — they both have a part in teaching us about God in the culture.
Why stay? A new book looks at feminists who refuse to give up on faith
In the moments before Jennifer Zobair converted to Islam, she had one pressing question for the imam, about a verse in the Quran that seemed to give husbands permission to beat their wives.
Catholic student wins Ottawa Bluesfest talent contest
Amateur singer, songwriter and guitarist Grace Lachance convinced those at this year's RBC Ottawa Bluesfest that she's the one worthy of becoming a professional musician.
Sounds of Sistine Chapel on Ontario church tour
If Michelangelo was listening to music while he worked on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, his playlist would probably sound something like Le studio de musique ancienne de Montréal’s Music from the Sistine Chapel concert.
‘Fish-out-of-water’ priest fodder for CBC comedy
Fr. Rajumr Chebattina got his 15 minutes of fame in early July when he was featured with Fr. Paul Batchilder on CBC’s new summer series, Still Standing.
The positives of radio
In a nation where violence is no stranger to its youth, a group of Salvadoran teenagers stand as a hope for their country’s future.
Hope rises that papal encyclical on environment will address vitality of water sources
IQUITOS, Peru - As floodwaters rose with heavy rains in this Amazonian city, Graciela Tejada and her neighbours found greasy slaughterhouse offal, human feces and used hypodermic needles floating practically to their doorsteps.
Call to action on the environment
Now is the time Catholics need to prepare for a new urgency and a new way of thinking about our tradition and the natural world. We have to claim a new or renewed intimacy with creation.
Bringing the human back into hospital design
TORONTO - People go to hospital in the hope of feeling better. But if patients are welcomed into a forbidding, institutional room with a strange bed, fluorescent lights and cold, hard floor, what then?
A simple formula for those who struggle with prayer
3 Moments of the Day by Christopher S. Collins, S.J. (Ave Maria Press, 138 pages, softcover $17.60).
Prayer is a conversation with God — but are we delivering a one-way monologue? It can sometimes be difficult to hear God in prayer. However, 3 Moments of the Day presents a refreshingly simple, straightforward method to help us encounter God not only in prayer but throughout the day.