If a hoarsely chanted version of the “Hot Pockets” jingle means anything to you, that’s probably a sign that you are a fan of the stand-up comedy of Jim Gaffigan. Clean, Catholic, and hilarious, Gaffigan—who writes his material with his wife Jeannie—has impressed many by his ability to . . . . Continue Reading »
The fact that this hatchet job on Thomas More appears in an impeccably well-done BBC production shows how fast our culture is changing, and how much work defenders of religious liberty have before them. Continue Reading »
Nuns are having a moment in the media. Lifetime television recently conducted extensive studies to identify the unmet desires of its viewers and found that what young women want is—more Christian programming. The network responded by creating the reality series The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns to follow five surprisingly relatable young women—Stacey, Claire, Christie, Eseni, and Francesca—in their discernment to be Catholic Carmelite nuns. Continue Reading »
I sometimes see reflections of my Eastern Orthodox faith in unexpected places. Take the hit CBS television show Elementary, a contemporary rendition of the great Sherlock Holmes stories. Continue Reading »
In Christopher Beha’s excellent debut novel, What Happened to Sophie Wilder?, writer Charlie Blakeman nearly laughs when Sophie, his ex-girlfriend and a Catholic convert, says she plans to save the soul of her dying father-in-law, an atheist: “I don’t think I knew a single person who would have spoken in that way about saving someone’s soul,” Charlie observes. “The religious people I knew talked about their faith apologetically. It was an embarrassment to their own reason and intelligence, but somehow a necessary one.” Continue Reading »
Forgive us if we pack the streets around Ed Sullivan Theatre next spring, searching the sky for plumes of white smoke. True, the transition from David Letterman to Stephen Colbert hardly calls for a conclave, and the future of the Late Show has little to do with the life of the Church worldwide. Even so, it feels like a momentous occasion for Catholics, who despite constituting the largest religious body in the country, usually search in vain for signs of communion in popular culture (that second-largest religious body—lapsed Catholics—offers a more populous field of celebrity ambassadors). Continue Reading »
What if someone had access to a mass-surveillance supercomputer that could predict not only acts of terror, but everyday violent crimes? Such is the premise of CBS’s Person of Interest, an hour-long drama thematically resonating with debates over individual privacy and national security. Continue Reading »
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