Arts
Catholic movie reviews - The Lorax, Project X, Tyler Perry's Good Deeds & more
Looking for a movie this weekend? We've got reviews of five of the week's new releases for you.
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
Vatican Secret Archives marks 400th anniversary with Rome exhibit
ROME - Working with the city of Rome, the Vatican Secret Archives is celebrating its 400th anniversary with an exhibit designed to shed light not only on its holdings, but on some of the myth and mystery surrounding its collection of millions of documents.
"Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Reveals Itself" opened at Rome's Capitoline Museum Feb. 29 and is scheduled to remain open until Sept. 9.
Vatican archives' officials and exhibit curators said about a hundred original documents are being displayed outside the Vatican for the first time.
Reaching across the Israeli-Palestinian divide with Salt+Light's new documentary
TORONTO - Fr. Tom Rosica knows he’s going to get letters. You don’t wade into the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis expecting bouquets of roses.
Controversy has never been a hallmark of Salt + Light TV. Since its launch in the wake of World Youth Day 2002, Rosica has consciously shaped the digital broadcaster as a voice of hope — clear, Catholic evangelism without the rancor, resentments or fear that so often mar religious television.
Despite efforts at balanced, just-the-facts reporting, Salt + Light’s next big documentary will elicit partisan passion for and against Israel, for and against the Palestinian leadership, when it airs later this year.
Catholic movie reviews - Wanderlust, Act of Valor, Ghost Rider II & Coriolanus
With the oscars this weekend, everyone's mind is on the movies.
And if you're thinking of heading to see some of this week's new releases then check out our reviews below.
Catholic movie reviews - This Means War & Disney's The Secret World of Arriety
Looking to see a movie this weekend? We've got reviews of two of the weekend's biggest releases - This Means War and Studio Ghibli's The Secret World of Arriety.
Messenger of the Sacred Heart won’t give up, and neither will its editor
TORONTO - In 1966 Fr. Frederick Power, S.J., was assigned to be the editor of Canada’s longest running Catholic magazine. He was 42 years old and had no idea that he’d still be at the helm 46 years later. But earlier this month, the 500th edition of Canadian Messenger of the Sacred Heart was published under Power’s stewardship.
Power will turn 88 in May but says he has no plans to step down from the magazine that has been continuously published since 1891. Asked if he has worked out a succession plan for his retirement, the venerable editor smiled and said: “I’m working on it.” In 1997, when he passed the 31-year tenure of a previous editor, he thought: “I might as well keep going.”
Since every saint has a story, artist Caruso will try to tell it
RICHMOND HILL, Ont. - Artist Antonio Caruso’s Catholic faith has influenced him from a very young age. And as a sculptor and painter, it has had a strong impact on the artist he became and the various religious subjects he pursues.
Growing up in a very religious family in Italy, he lost his father when he was only 13 years old.
“But I always had visions of my father through Jesus,” said Caruso, who moved to Canada permanently with his family in 1995. The artist now lives in Woodbridge, Ont.
Catholic movie reviews - The Vow, Journey 2, Safe House & Chronicle
Thinking of heading to the movies this weekend? Our latest selection of reviews arrives just in time for Valentines Day.
Catholic movie reviews - The Woman in Black, Big Miracle and more
This weekend sees Daniel Radcliffe's first role after the success of Harry Potter in Woman in Black. Is it worth your time and money this Super Bowl weekend?
We also have reviews of Big Miracle, One for the Money and Man on a Ledge.
Innovation becomes tradition: 2011's top 10 films, best family films
NEW YORK - In late 1965, the three-decade-old National Legion of Decency announced that it was changing its name to the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures.
That switch represented more than just altered terminology. It signaled an intent on the part of the U.S. church's officially sanctioned film agency to take a more open and positive -- though by no means uncritical -- approach in its assessment of cinema.
In keeping with this new emphasis, that same year, the film office issued its first list of the 10 best movies released over the previous 12 months.
As with many an innovation, the list gradually became a tradition, one that the Media Review Office of Catholic News Service -- which now performs the work originally done by the Legion and its successors -- intends faithfully to honor. So here -- in alphabetical order - are, first, our choices of the Top 10 films of 2011 suitable for a variety of audiences, followed the 10 best films for family viewing.
Author aims to bring more light than heat to homosexuality
EDMONTON - While theology professor Paul Flaman has received positive feedback to his new book Homosexuality and Following Jesus, he expects the ultimate reaction will be mixed.
A priest-psychologist once told him, “It’s practically impossible to say anything significant about homosexuality without getting somebody mad at you.”
Nevertheless, Flaman is out to sow understanding, not division, all the while making the Catholic teaching clear to his readers.
Catholic movie reviews - Iron Lady, Extremely Loud, The Grey & more
Looking for a movie this weekend? We've got new reviews of two oscar-nominated pictures and two brand new releases.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
By John Mulderig, Catholic News Service
NEW YORK - Few events in recent history have exerted as deeply personal an impact on the lives of millions of Americans, and of people across the globe, as the attacks of 9/11.
So it's odd and a little baffling that a film based on our national tragedy of a decade ago should register -- for most of its two-hour-plus running time, at least -- as uninvolving.
Catholic movie reviews - Haywire & Red Tails
Looking for a movie for the weekend? This week we've got reviews of two big Hollywood action movies.
Haywire
By John P. McCarthy, Catholic News Service
NEW YORK - With the fairly suspenseful but frequently brutal thriller "Haywire" (Relativity), filmmaker Steven Soderbergh tries his hand at action-oriented espionage. Stylish and spare, the result plays like the work of a talented yet restless director ticking another genre off his list.