Lots of people read Aquinas and ignore horror movies. Lots of people watch horror movies and ignore Aquinas. The opportunity we have is to bring these things together.

The media and the field of communications need to exercise more kindness and share the truth with charity, Pope Francis said.

Once in a blue moon someone asks me what we can do to shake our fellow citizens, including fellow Catholics, out of their apathy.

The Catholic Register’s popular Youth Speak News feature will evolve into a vibrant new online platform over the coming months to meet teenage and young adult Catholics where they live.

Technology always changes, and dealing with change can be daunting. But some transformations can be for the better.

The unprecedented meetings this week between Pope Francis and three Canadian delegations of Indigenous people in Rome are big news. Thirteen camera crews and dozens of journalists — Italian, American, British and Canadian — greeted Metis National Council president Cassidy Caron after the MNC delegation of nine came out to St. Peter’s Square after their hour-long encounter with the bishop of Rome.

There’s a saying in the Media Literacy Education community: “Media Literacy isn’t just teaching with media, it’s teaching about media.” I believe this could also apply to prayer and the media: “Let’s not just pray with media (e.g., praying with a prayer app), let’s pray about the entire world of media itself.”

I once sat in a room at a table with a small group of people doing homework. Except for myself, each person wore earbuds listening to music. I caught snippets of various styles: chords of some rock punk and the melody of a heartfelt ballad … my mind mused what it might be like as I imagined all of the music playing simultaneously without the earbuds. I pondered that everyone would likely be irritated and annoyed as they worked to turn down the music, perhaps allowing one reigning speaker to continue playing. 

Perhaps the oldest strategy of war is: “Divide and conquer”— which can take many forms. Physically divide a land mass into north and south. Encourage a portion of a country to secede. Partition. Physical divisions create smaller spaces and populations to overtake, can leave families separated and citizens stranded. But the most insidious division is spiritual, psychological, social. If planned from without and then wormed into a once-harmonious (even if not homogenous) group, division can be made to feel organic and even righteous through… you guessed it: fear-mongering.

When I give Media Literacy workshops to folks, I often ask: What’s the first thing you think of when you think of “the media”? The overwhelming majority think: the news.

On March 26, our popular culture evidently took one more step towards a state of depravity with the release of  “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X, a rapper known for his unorthodox rap/pop crossovers and his openly homosexual identity.

I hear this often: there isn’t much Christian or religious material out there. I also hear the media is now very secular. And this is where I stop people and say: No! You are wrong, it’s everywhere — we’ve just lost the art of finding Christianity and religion in everything. 

There has been a massive resurgence of a kind of Neo-Apocalypticism of late, due in no small part to the persisting coronavirus pandemic with all its fallout; the embrace of Socialism/Marxism/Communism by the West (particularly among the young); racism in the spotlight again; civil unrest and violence; emerging globalist totalitarianism; the dominance and imposition of gender ideology; the undermining of the family and rights of parents; ever more radical abortion and euthanasia policies; “surveillance capitalism”; the rise of “fake news”; and now, sweeping censorship of free speech by left-leaning Big Tech.

I was recently asked by a parish to do a (virtual) workshop on “News Literacy.” I was told by the families that invited me: “The confusion goes way beyond just ‘fake news.’ There are so many voices on so many digital platforms, speaking both without and within the Church — we need some guidance!” All sides produce legitimate-seeming data, evidence and documentation. Who and what to believe?

WASHINGTON -- When the death of Alex Trebek -- beloved longtime host of "Jeopardy!" -- was announced, celebrities and fans around the country took to social media to express their grief.