Jonathan Safran Foer used to be the next big thing in American fiction. Now, at 39, he is auditioning (not yet successfully) for the part of major author.

Like E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Independence Day, and a host of similar films over the past 30 years, Arrival explores the theme of an alien visitation to Earth.

PHILADELPHIA – Jesuit Father Joseph Fitzmyer, a leading Catholic biblical scholar, died Dec. 24 at Manresa Hall, a Jesuit infirmary in Philadelphia. He was 96.

NEW YORK – Directed and co-written (with Jay Cocks) by Martin Scorsese, Silence (Paramount) is a dramatically powerful but theologically complex work best suited to viewers who come to the multiplex prepared to engage with serious issues.

VATICAN CITY – One of the jewels in the Vatican Museums will reopen to the public after a $2.4 million makeover to make it earthquake resistant.

GOWER, Mo. – Tucked away off a rocky road in Gower in rural Missouri, a small community of cloistered nuns has just come out with a new Christmas album.

CHICAGO, Ill. – Two Emmy Awards have gone to a documentary that shows St. John Paul II’s central role in the end of communism.

NEW YORK – With "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," last year's promising reignition of the iconic franchise, "The Force Awakens," gains a worthy – and equally family-friendly – companion.

VATICAN CITY – 'Tis the season for a huge assortment of holiday concerts and carols to choose from, making Advent and Christmas a unique period for reminding people of the evergreen beauty of sacred music.

ROME, Italy – For American composer J.J. Wright, the Second Vatican Council's call to inculturate the Church's ancient musical traditions into “mission territory” – while preserving its unity – is something he has adopted personally with one of his greatest passions: jazz.