In this final week of 2009 this blogpost will be bestowing my awards alas without honoraria to the year rsquo s outstanding Catholic layperson outstanding Catholic legislator and outstanding Catholic government executive Our friend blogger extraordinaire Rocco Palmo always chooses a churchman

Somewhat unnoticed this past week in the U S media was the passing of Edward Schillebeeckx O P 1914-2009 a Dominican priest who advised the Dutch bishops at Vatican II and became a major figure in the Church s efforts to implement the reforms of that Council in the decades that followed H

Here s an article I wrote for Slate com for Christmas Eve this year You may have more in common with the Mother of God than you think If nbsp card manufacturers still think of Mary as a fair-skinned beauty queen many Christians especially Catholics don t even think of her as human Mary exist

No that is not a fake headline nbsp Here s the story from the Associated Press in which the official Vatican newspaper praises Homer Marge Bart Lisa Little Maggie et al on the occasion of the show s 20th anniversary nbsp nbsp NB the praise of laughter L Osservatore Romano on Tuesday cong

As promised while the magazine nbsp moves into its biweekly schedule over the holidays i e Christmas and New Year s just so you don t think we re succumbing to creeping secularism we are offering you a surfeit of items in our online Culture section nbsp And since moviegoing is a popular pas

From the London Times The Vatican has defended its moves towards beatifying Pope Pius XII saying that they reflected the piety of the wartime pontiff and not his ldquo historical importance rdquo nbsp Pope Benedict XVI sparked anger among Jewish groups on Saturday by bestowing the title ldquo