Arts
Les Misérables show how love overpowers death
On Christmas day a film adaptation of Victor Hugo’s book Les Miserables made its debut in theatres. Though Hugo had a less than perfectly benign view of the Catholic Church, his masterpiece is, from beginning to end, conditioned by a profoundly Christian worldview. It is most important that, amidst all of the “Les Miz” hoopla, the spiritual heart of Hugo’s narrative not be lost.
Debunking the myths of the Council of Trent
In time for the 450th anniversary of the closing of the Council of Trent, eminent Jesuit historian Fr. John W. O’Malley has written this concise and readable account of the council that determined the features of modern Roman Catholicism.
Choir school marks 75 years of making music
TORONTO - Each year, across the Toronto Catholic District School Board, Grade 2 boys take part in a yearly ritual, as adjudicators from St. Michael's Choir School visit their classrooms and listen carefully to the small, unformed voices that may one day make up the ranks of one of the finest music schools in the world.
The journey into medical purgatory
Imagine crawling to the bathroom 15 times a day with painful rectal cramping, bloody diarrhea and in searing pain from swollen joints. Then, when you make it to the hospital’s emergency room, you’re finally rolled into, wait for it… a psychiatric ward storage room.
- By Joe Gunn
Year of Faith cinema
In Porta Fidei (The Door of Faith), an apostolic letter announcing the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI urges us to study the history of Catholicism, which he describes as “marked by the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin.”
Stained glass finishes Jesus’ story
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - St. Marcellinus Secondary School in Mississauga is planning to build what may be the biggest stained glass window of the resurrected Christ in Canada.
The Hobbit and its Gospel ethics
Like Star Wars, The Divine Comedy and Moby Dick, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is the story of a hero’s journey. This helps to explain, of course, why, like those other narratives, it has proved so perennially compelling.
Zero Dark Thirty
Zero Dark Thirty (Columbia) offers moviegoers a challenging account, based on real events, of the decade-long hunt for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
Quebec nun, 96, hits Japan’s big time
One of the best-selling Canadian authors alive over the last four months has been a 96-year-old nun who lives in Chofu City, Tokyo, and teaches women’s Bible study classes.
Steve Bell gives a different Christmas perspective
In Keening for the Dawn: Christmastide, Steve Bell combines the Christmas theme with his folksy sound and a soft country touch.
Les Misérables makes the transition from stage to screen
Once thought unfilmable, the musical classic of Les Misérables has transcended the stage onto the silver screen.
New play explores the Nativity's mysteries
Toronto - Madhuri Ramadeen credits a Christmas play from her childhood for bringing her to Christ.