Mary Valle
Mary Valle lives in Baltimore and is the author of Cancer Doesn't Give a Shit About Your Stupid Attitude: Reflections on Cancer and Catholicism. She blogs on KtB as The Communicant. For more Mary, check out her blog or follow her on Twitter.
Recent Posts by Mary
Netflix Knows Me
I was browsing Instant Watcher last night and this crazy thing happened. There were all these movies that were literally about me! I was like “what is the Universe trying to tell me?” I don’t know is the thing. Here are some examples. This is seriously freaky. A medical apprentice in 11th-century Persia disguises himself…
Is Tom Leaving Scientology For Suri?
Could be? Who knows? I don’t want to set myself up for heartbreak again. I love too much and I hope too much and I never ever give up on some people. Tom Cruise is one of them. I need to maintain an even keel here. This article is gossip; it has nothing to do…
Pope’s Magic Number of Children: Major Clue Revealed
Pope Francis has come out in favor of siblings. “Siblings help you keep your eyes off yourself,” he said, adding To grow up in a family alongside other children is a profound human experience that reaches its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who became our brother and made us all children of God the Father. I…
Chocolate Deities: Sacrilegious?
Bond Street Chocolate, a small confectionery in the East Village, stocks a good selection of chocolate deities, including Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Chocolate Ganesh has been in residence for over five years, but only recently, a Hindu group has lodged a complaint, saying the chocolate Ganesh is offensive to Hindus….
Vatican’s Conference on Women: Torso Tales
The Vatican’s conference on women has yielded an embarrassment of embarrassments. Winning the Worst-Of Award, trouncing strong contenders such as the bizarre blond-lady video, the “burqa made of flesh,” the “statistics” which prove women don’t want ordination and the #lifeofwomen tag, is this image of a Man Ray sculpture, found on the Outline page for…
Link Roundup: Men of God, Not Ladies of God
Ruth Gledhill writes in Christian Today that Anglican priest Philip North, who will be soon be consecrated as a bishop, is planning to break CoE tradition by refusing to let some of the other bishops present lay hands on him at the ceremony. The reason? He doesn’t want hands that laid on now-Bishop Libby North…
The Papal Explainer: Breeding Like Rabbits
Lots of headlines are trumpeting Pope Francis’ recent declaration that Catholics need not breed like rabbits. However, Catholics are still not allowed to use artificial birth control. There are “licit” ways of preventing pregnancy, said the Pope. Human breeding in a manner unlike rabbits must be done by means of natural family planning (which is…
Different God: Franklin Graham Shuts Down Duke’s Muslim Call to Prayer
At Duke University, a new weekly Muslim call to prayer was to begin Friday at 1 p.m. Muslim students were going broadcast the prayer from the bell tower of Duke’s chapel for about three minutes with “moderate” amplification. Franklin Graham (son of Billy), freaked out and asked Duke alums and donors to turn off the…
Cardinal Burke and the New Emangelicals: A Superfan’s Thoughts
Twitter can sometimes tell us when we first felt something, if it is the sort of thing we note on Twitter. This is my first report on Cardinal Burke. I knew of His Eminence before this day, but I had never really looked at him. Who know why the heart wants what it wants? Something…
News Roundup: God is Woman
On Christmas, a shirtless member of the group Femen, Yana Zhdanova, took the baby Jesus from the St. Peter’s Square nativity scene and shouted “God is woman!” before a guard grabbed her and “covered her chest with his cloak.” Vatican: you should know more than anyone (after 2,000 years in the creche biz) that, where…
5 Hot Holiday Worship Spaces
Traditions are great, but they can be stifling. Sometimes things get so rote we tune everything out, including the whispers of the Divine. Take a moment right now. Think about your plans. Listen to the still, small voice. What is it telling you? I’ll tell you what it’s telling you. ‘Cause God told me to…
Carl Lentz Superstar
You know what I would like to give thanks for in the holiday pre-season? Carl Lentz. And to the Daily Mail for this glorious writeup on him, which gives a good summary of Lentz-descriptions in every single article ever written about him. Meet Carl Lentz, the tattooed, Mohawked pastor flanked by an 11-piece rock band,…
How I Exorcised Lena Dunham
I recently realized that something amiss in my person. I realized that I had let something get by my mental gatekeepers. That something was Lena Dunham. In the previous week, I had, knowing better, read too much about her exploits. These stories had wormed themselves into my brain and were beginning to nibble around the…
Links: Feminist Mikvehs, an Evil Game and a Confused Cardinal
Raymond Cardinal Burke has spoken from his throne again, this time suggesting that the Catholic Church “lacks a rudder.” (JOKE ABOUT CAPPA MAGNA TK) Most Earthlings would say that the rudder is the Pope but maybe having two Popes wasn’t a good idea after all. It’s confusing, even to Cardinals. Anyway, what the church is…
Breaking: God is Not a Wizard
Pope Francis recently said that, regarding the Big Bang, there’s no conflict behind that concept and faith in God. He went on to say “when we read about creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so.”…
Shia LaBeouf is a Christian Man
Shia LaBeouf just made a movie, Fury, where he plays a WWII soldier whose faith gets him through war. Something happened during the filming. I found God doing Fury. I became a Christian man, and not in a fucking bullshit way—in a very real way. I could have just said the prayers that were on…
Wednesday Winkses
Good mornings! Time for your Wednesday Winkses on this wainy days! Sorry, sometimes I dictate to my dog, Ginger, and I always wegrets regret it. Fwankwies, sometimes I just don’t have time to type all this stuff. I fink I catches most of her dogspeaks, though. Happy Diwali! India’s festival of lights has many trawditions…
Halloween: Your Questions, Answered
Halloween’s origins lie in the Celtic mists of carved turnips, bonfires and celebrations of life and death. It’s always been a fun/spooky time of year since, of course, the flipside of harvest is utter desolation and fleece socks. The Irish brought Halloween to America, where it became a children’s holiday. Tots were free to wear…