Hundreds of millions of people around the world today will celebrate Masses to honor an appearance of the Blessed Mother made 481 year ago. December 12, 1531 Our Lady of Guadalupe put an end to the Mayan culture of death. Mary was the woman, clothed in the sun, with the moon at her feet, who […]
One year ago, on May 23, 2010, the Holy Shroud of Turin was placed out of public view at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin (Torino), Italy. We are not expected to see it again until the year 2035. For only the 18th time in its 2,000 year history, the Church’s most venerated relic […]
My Dad, bless his heart (which nearly killed him more than once), has been dying since 1980. Thirty-two years ago, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Marshall Islands when a telegram arrived for me in Majuro, and informed me to fly to Eugene, Oregon on the next available flight. My father had a […]
On December 8, 2006 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), Mel Gibson released his epic movie, Apocalypto . Hopefully many eyes were opened by this movie’s portrayal of the evil of human sacrifices practiced by the Aztecs and other Indian cultures in what would become Mexico. The movie provides the historical backdrop of today’s Marian celebration: the Memorial […]
Today, October 4th is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. Last year, on a pilgrimage to see the Shroud of Turin, north of Assisi in Italy, my travel companions (three teenage girls) and I got to spend a few special hours in Assisi. Seeing the Shroud left an indelible impression on me and spending time in […]
Bismarck, North Dakota… It’s Pentecost Sunday, the day the Holy Spirit appeared as tongues of fire on the Apostles’ heads and everyone could understand what was being said. We could use a little of that around here as each day more all-time record floodwaters scream down 750 miles of the Missouri river, leaving an every […]
Nearly 800 years ago, Pope Gregory IX, responded to shouts of “Santo Subito” (“Sainthood Now”) when he left the Lateran Palace in Rome and made the 120-mile arduous journey to Assisi (shown at left) to canonize St. Francis. Francis just wanted to be a humble hermit yet died a very public death in 1226, bearing the […]
“This case is not over,” said lead attorney Samuel B. Casey about Friday’s 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. that gave the green light for the destruction of human embryonic stem cells for research purposes. That action overturns an injunction put in place by a District Court judge last summer. […]
The U.S. Appeals Courts for Washington D.C. has given the green light for the destruction of human embryonic stem cells for research purposes. The action overturns an injunction placed by a federal judge, last August, who ruled such destruction violated Congressional spending laws, in place since the 1990’s. It was a 2-1 decision and a […]
You don’t have an invite to the Royal Wedding and can’t make the beatification of John Paul II this weekend? Well, all is not lost. You can still salvage your weekend by going to see Hoodwinked Too, Hood vs. Evil. And thanks to this article on Catholic Lane, you can enjoy the show even more knowing […]
Holy Week can never be the same for me. Not after seeing the Shroud of Turin last year. It’s been nearly a year since the Shroud was placed on public display (for just the 18th time in its history) in Turin, Italy. Never did I imagine I would be among the over two million pilgrims […]
Was Chief Sitting Bull a Catholic convert? Did he convert William “Buffalo Bill” Cody? That was the scuttlebutt around Catholic circles this past week. From stories, to blogging, to Catholic radio shows, to postings from Facebook friends, I heard it multiple times. As a student of the Old West, having read numerous accounts of Sitting […]
Senomyx is a biotech company that produces artificial flavors. It enhances the way our food tastes. They are so clever their website states that they “focus on the discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor ingredients.” Last year another discovery was made, that Senomyx uses, in its research, HEK 293. HEK 293 are […]
