With all the hoopla over the upcoming canonization of Mother Mary MacKillop the first Australian saint nbsp it would be nbsp terrible nbsp to forget another important canonization coming up nbsp this weekend on nbsp Oct 17 the amazing Andre Bessette the Holy Cross brother of Canada 1845-1937

New York Magazine has a fun feature on its last page called the Approval Matrix which critiques cultural trends nbsp Along the nbsp vertical axis is the spectrum Highbrow to Lowbrow nbsp Along the horizontal axis is Brilliant to Despicable nbsp nbsp Here is this week s in case nbsp my

Chile s political dynamics were largely unknown to the American public prior to this week s dramatic rescue of 33 miners And now we generally only hear about how the episode will affect President Sebasitian Pinera s chances for reelection The Jesuit-edited Mensaje magazine is a valuable source of

ROME There are three non-Christian participants known as special invitations at the Middle East Synod here now in its fourth day of speeches and discussions Rabbi David Rosen is a Jewish American leader well known in Catholic circles and a regular habitue of the annual interreligious peace

A Lebanese bishop yesterday reminded the Synod that Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint called for a review of the practice of papal primacy in the light of the ecclesiology of the First Millennium It was good to recall said Guy-Paul Noujaim a Lebanese auxiliary and titular bi

ROME The excellent New York-based Catholic Near East Welfare Assocation CNEWA yesterday organised a fringe press meeting to consider some of the North-American dimensions of the Synod discussions It was hosted by CNEWA s secretary-general Msgr also Archimandrite of the Greek-Catholic patriarc