relics
St. John Paul II’s Blood Books East Coast Tour
Great news, first-class relic lovers! A small Vial of St. John Paul II’s Blood is going on tour this summer! It will hit Boston, NY, Philly and Baltimore. I have…
Inside Hadyn’s Head
During a press trip to Austria’s Burgenland region, we visited Eisenstadt, a town billed as Haydn’s Graceland. Being a non-disciple of Elvis, I’ve never possessed a desire to tour Graceland.…
Virgin Apparitions, Holy Blood, and Me
During a panel discussion for The Virgin, the Copts and Me, held as part of the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, Namir Abdel Messeh, a French filmmaker of Egyptian origin, admitted…
Holy Haulers, Baltimore!
Baltimore is the land of a million amateur haulers. The streets are teeming with old trucks hand-painted with phone numbers and offers to haul anything—telephone poles always have handwritten ads…
Head-Hunting
An excerpt from Rag and Bone, in which a soccer-playing Syrian calls Bashar al-Assad a lizard.
The Bad Old Days
A dear friend who was recently on a family vacation in Wisconsin went above and beyond the call of duty. Way beyond. When she returned, she presented me with a…
The Desiccated Finger of Fate
I reported to the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center yesterday for an appointment in the Avon Foundation Breast Center(!). The first thing I saw as I exited the parking structure was…
Shine On, You Crazy Diamonds
In a recent Guardian article about Italian Bishop Domenico Mogavero’s flash new Armani-designed liturgical duds, mention was also made of the Pope’s rumored penchant for Prada footwear. “The Vatican daily…
Why Not Share?
Since Mary Valle’s digging through her archive, I’ll post something from my own: a workbook page from Youth for Christ’s DC ’91 “Congress on Youth Evangelism,” the occasion of my…
Mother/Daughter Chat: Catholic School
“What was that kind of school you went to, Mom?” asked my seven-year-old daughter, Margaret, the other day. “Catholic, honey.” “And what were those things—those outfits?” “Uniforms?” “I’m glad I…
Science and Belief—Truce?
Today, over on the Huffington Post, Nina Burleigh’s piece Science and Belief in Turin is calling for a truce between science and religion, and warning that all those believers who…
