Arts
Noah sparks debate over one of the world’s oldest and most beloved stories
NEW YORK - In recent years, Hollywood has made a concerted effort to lure religious audiences to the local cineplex with such films as The Passion of the Christ, Son of God and even dark-horse hits like Facing the Giants. And most of the time, it’s worked.
Getting to know Mary of Nazareth as mother
Catholics know the Virgin Mary well as mother, but not as daughter, woman or wife. The film Mary of Nazareth extrapolates from what is known of the Immaculate Conception to explore the life of a Jewish girl famous for saying yes to God.
Jerusalem divided but shockingly similar
TORONTO - When three young women, strangers to each other, were brought together in Jerusalem by an adventurous movie director they were surprised to discover how much they had in common.
Church treasures saved from sale
TORONTO When churches have a stained glass emergency — imagine a rock thrown through hundred-year- old glass — they call Mansu Han, artist, craftsman and stained glass superhero.
Some reading to help bolster the Lenten spirit
If you’re not ready, you can lose track of Lent. After Ash Wednesday slips by, the Thursdays and Fridays of Lent can seem a lot like any other Thursday or Friday.
Russell Crowe really wants Pope Francis to see Noah
ROME - Actor Russell Crowe is using social media to try to cajole Pope Francis into seeing his latest film, the controversial Noah, which stars Crowe as the waterlogged biblical patriarch.
‘Greatest love story ever told’ hits big screen
WASHINGTON - The upcoming movie Son of God should be seen as “a love story,” according to two of its executive producers, the husband-and-wife team of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey.
Audio Bible enlists Hollywood A-listers
A Bible for the new age is taking Scripture back to its spoken roots.
Salt+Light spreads its wings
Canada’s Catholic broadcaster has opened its first French-language bureau.
Still heroic superheroes
Superheroes have gotten too super. In their original form, comic book characters like Superman, the Flash and Spiderman were drawn in a way that emphasized their humanity as much as their prodigious abilities.
Papacy, despite its warts, is all good
Behind the anecdotes and centuries-long ups and downs presented here, Mike Aquilina constantly drives home his central point — the papacy never erred theologically.
The Golden Rule: a Magna Carta for God’s kingdom
If there’s any such thing as Christian ethics (and there is), most of us would imagine it might be based on the Golden Rule. But few moral theologians spare more than a passing thought on the crowning lines of the Sermon on the Mount: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
Atheism and the sins of the father
A once-popular book that links atheism with shoddy fathering is getting a second life with a new publisher, thanks, in part, to the rise of non-belief in the United States.