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

There nbsp are actually 34 of nbsp us wrote Jimmy Sanchez 19 nbsp because God nbsp has never left us down here nbsp One of the 33 trapped miners in a letter quoted in Time magazine nbsp H t Deacon s Bench James Martin SJ

Here is Elizabeth Scalia aka The Anchoress commenting on tolerance inside and outside the church on the First Things blog nbsp nbsp Towards the end of her impassioned post The Tolerance Disconnect which starts with Glee but ends with the Holy Spirit nbsp she makes a provocative suggestion

Today is the Feast of Blessed John XXIII the beloved Papa Roncalli nbsp Here is a reflection on his life from My Life with the Saints Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was the third of thirteen children born in 1881 into the Roncalli family who were poor farmers in the town of Sotto il Monte near B

Last night I finally saw David Fincher s highly touted new film The Social Network and nbsp it s extraordinary nbsp I ve always been a fan of Fincher director of Fight Club The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and one of the great overlooked movies of the last ten years Zodiac nbsp nb

A great video from the Jesuits Chicago Province on the Jesuit vocation and ordination to the priesthood nbsp Go Forth and Set the World on Fire from Chicago and Detroit Jesuits on Vimeo

More details of the connection between Blessed Mary MacKillop s excommunication and the sisters reporting of sexual abuse nbsp This time the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart MacKillop s order weigh in on the story nbsp From CNS The religious congregation co-founded by Blessed Mary

From the Irish Echo today on an American Jesuit s work for justice The Rev Joseph Mulligan is the kind of person who can see the up side and the down side of a situation It rsquo s a quality that has helped him in the 24 years he rsquo s worked as a pastor in Nicaragua He rsquo s had to deal wit

Fr Jack Collins a Paulist priest asks passersby what they know about the saints and the answer is almost nothing at all nbsp It s from Bustedhalo com s series You Don t Know Jack nbsp There s one guy at the end who seems to know a little but he looks rather shady James Martin SJ

The priest who was widely quoted here and here and here as nbsp stating that part of the reason nbsp for the 1870 excommunication of the soon-to-be-canonized Blessed Mary MacKillop was her participation in raising nbsp questions about nbsp a sexually abusive priest now says he was misquoted nbsp