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The new movie that debuted on December 1st, The Nativity Story, has received many positive reviews around the country already and also a fair number of attacks by the standard group of village atheists.Criticisms notwithstanding, the movie certainly has many redeeming qualities to it including its portrayal of Joseph and the touching scene of Mary's visit to Elizabeth, but at the same time I feel it necessary to correct the record about its presentation of Mary. More to the point, twenty centuries of theological reflection on the Virgin Mary have been effectively glossed over in the movie, and we have been...

Lea Marie Ravotti “Immaculate Conception” (2004) By David ScottIn November 1848, the specter of revolution sweeping through Europe finally reached Rome.On Nov. 15, extremists executed Pellegrino Rossi, the newly named governor of the Papal States. Angry mobs roamed the streets, surrounding the papal palace on the Quirinal Hill.Besieged for nine days, Blessed Pope Pius IX finally fled under cover of night, disguised as an ordinary priest, taking refuge in Gaeta in the Kingdom of Naples.He was in the third month of his papacy in exile when, on February 2, 1849, he finished a letter to all the world’s bishops....

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- No one knows what she really looked like, yet the Blessed Virgin Mary stands among the most popular artistic subjects in history. In every medium, with every imaginable material, in tiny personal images and gigantic mosaics, artists have depicted her the world over. "Picturing Mary," a stunning new high-definition documentary to debut next month on public television, explores how images of the Virgin reflect numerous traditions, devotional practices and cultures. The one-hour program leads viewers on a pictorial journey through history from the earliest times to the present day and presents a stunning array...

Why the mother of Jesus was more revolutionary than we've been led to believe.There are two Marys. One wears a Carolina blue robe, exudes piety from a somber face, often holds her baby son in her arms, and barely makes eye contact with us. This is the familiar Blessed Virgin Mary, and she leads us to a Christmas celebration of quiet reflection.Another Mary—the Blessed Valorous Mary—wears ordinary clothing and exudes hope from a confident face. This Mary utters poetry fit for a political rally, goes toe-to-toe with Herod the Great, musters her motherliness to reprimand her Messiah-son for dallying at...

Yes, I would like to commit to a rosary for Our Lady's Victory over the Culture of Death and renewal of a Culture of Life! (enter your name and e-mail address at the link above or below)

ROME, JUNE 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- An Egyptian Muslim and deputy director of a prominent Italian newspaper suggested that Mary could be the figure who brings Christians and Muslims together. Magdi Allam of Il Corriere della Sera spoke to ZENIT about the appeal he launched in the pages of the national daily newspaper to Muslims living in Italy to visit the Marian shrines in their host country. The journalist said that he is convinced that the Virgin Mary is a meeting point between Christians and Muslims. "Mary is a figure present in the Koran, which dedicates an entire sura [chapter ed.n.]...

Muslimism is the only great post-Christian religion of the world. Because it had its origin in the 7th century under Mohammed, it was possible to unite within it some elements of Christianity and of Judaism, along with particular customs of Arabia . Muslimism takes the doctrine of the unity of God, his majesty and his creative power, and uses it, in part, as a basis for the repudiation of Christ, the Son of God. Misunderstanding the notion of the Trinity, Mohammed made Christ a prophet announcing himself (Mohammed) just as to Christians, Isaiah and John the Baptist are prophets announcing...

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes A Sermon by Msgr. Ronald A. Knox, preached February, 1934. ABOUT three thousand years ago, a man stood, thrilled with religious awe, on the slopes of Mount Sinai 'in Arabia. He was a shepherd, feeding on those barren pastures the flocks of his father-in-law; his attention had been aroused, at a distance, by the unwanted sight of a fire in the desert scrub. And now that he had drawn nearer, he saw that this was not merely something beyond the ordinary, but something beyond nature itself; the bush before which he stood burned continually, but was not...

ROME, APRIL 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A new book on John Paul II, by Italian journalist Renzo Allegri, looks at a Marian angle of his life. "Il papa di Fatima" (The Fatima Pope) was recently published in Italy by Mondadori. Allegri's research reveals that Karol Wojtyla's life and pontificate seem to have been inscribed in a divine plan that makes of John Paul II that "bishop clothed in white" mentioned in the third part of the secret of Fatima. The Pope himself became aware of that possibility after the 1981 attempt on his life. The attack took place on May 13,...

(AGI) - Vatican, March 25 - During the whole 26 years that Pope John Paul II served as pontiff, "everyone was quite aware of the presence of the Virgin Mary as Mother and Queen of the Church during his spirituality and his untiring inistry". But, said the new pontiff, "this presence was most obvious during the attack on his life in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981". This was a bold statement from Pope Benedict XVI this morning to the new cardinals and all Catholics on the role the Virgin played in deviating Ali Agca's bullet. He made it...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Keisha Castle-Hughes Keisha Castle-Hughes, the Oscar-nominated teen-aged star of "Whale Rider," has been cast as Mary in "Nativity," which looks at the life of the Virgin Mary before the birth of Christ. Catherine Hardwicke ("thirteen") is directing the New Line Cinema project. The story, to be told with a strong female perspective, will follow Mary and Joseph‘s life before the birth of Christ as their love, faith and beliefs are tested. The script incorporates their departure from Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem and includes such biblical figures as King Herod, John the Baptist and the...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The president of the U.S. bishops blasted a recent episode of the cable television comedy "South Park" that he said showed Mary in "a tasteless and ugly fashion."In a Dec. 14 letter to Tom Freston, co-president and chief operating officer of Viacom International, parent company of Comedy Central, the cable channel that shows "South Park," Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., said the channel showed "extreme insensitivity" in choosing to show the episode.The episode, which first was shown Dec. 7 and had repeat showings in the week following, was titled "Bloody Mary." During the episode, a...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue remarked today about last night’s episode of “South Park” (it will run again for the next three nights): “A ‘South Park’ character gets a DWI and is ordered to attend AA meetings.  Told about the 12-step program, he concludes that he needs a miracle to cure him.  The plot then focuses on a statue of the Virgin Mary who is ‘bleeding out her ass.’  The Vatican dispatches a cardinal to investigate and he is sprayed with blood when he walks behind the statue.  He then declares this to be a miracle, which draws even more people. ...

Recently, I participated in an online conversation about the Blessed Virgin. As an evangelical convert to the Catholic faith, I can empathize with the deep fears many evangelicals have about Mary. It’s a terror that runs way down into the guts and marrow of many evangelicals. It’s a deep, unreasoning and nameless fear that does not lose any of its power even when every so-called “basis” for the fear is debunked. And like many irrational fears, it has the odd quality of distracting us from reality and clear thinking. To illustrate what I mean, let me sum up not a...

Goddess RosaryJoining scholars like Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and Letty Russell and a growing number of feminist theologians in reconceptualizing the canon and biblical authority ... connect with the Holy Other in holy writings and sacred rites. The banner on the outside of Ebenezer Lutheran Church boldly proclaims “Goddess Rosary Every Wednesday 7 p.m.” Doubtless this precipitates questions in the minds of passers-by: a rosary at a Lutheran church? A feminist take on a ritual indigenous to a denomination with an especially strong patriarchal foundation? I was eager to experience this new phenomenon, and it was with open mind and heart...

Cops are shot at church 2 officers catch Qns. madman defacing statue of Virgin Mary and her mother BY NANCY DILLON, ALISON GENDAR and DAVE GOLDINER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS A shotgun and sword-wielding madman wounded two cops at close range yesterday after they caught him blasting the head off a century-old statue of St. Anne and the Virgin Mary outside a Queens church. One officer was hit in the head and the other in the leg by shrapnel from police hater Kevin Davy's shotgun. But at least one of the cops managed to return fire and end the 2...

(AgapePress) - A Southern Baptist theologian says he wrote an article in Christianity Today on the Virgin Mary in hopes of encouraging evangelical Christians and other Protestants to pay more attention to her. Dr. Timothy George is dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. As a biblical scholar and educator, as well as a senior editor for Christianity Today magazine, George has written a number of books and articles on religious subjects, and has authored a doctrinal study for the Southern Baptist Convention. In his recent Christianity Today article titled "The Blessed Evangelical Mary," George notes...

(East Providence-AP) -- A billboard sign urging people to go vegetarian that shows the Virgin Mary cradling a chicken carcass is coming down.The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PEE-Tah) paid three-thousand dollars to rent the billboard off Interstate 195 for a month. The sign was put up a week ago.Some religious leaders have complained it's offensive and the sign has been defaced with spray paint.The company that owns the billboard says the sign will be taken down over the next few days and P-E-T-A will get part if its payment back.Robert Murray, co-owner of Massachusetts-based...

Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead: The Radio Debate of Gerry Matatics Against James White and Eric Svendsen on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary On November 18, 2003, Gerry Matatics debated James White and Eric Svendsen on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, hosted by Alpha and Omega Ministries. Let me say first of all that besides his excellent arguments, Gerry Matatics conducted himself as a true Christian gentleman. James White and Eric Svendsen, on the other hand, spent much of the time screaming at Matatics, and accusing him of all kinds of motives and statements that simply were not true....

He was on the ropes. He was millions in debt. A huge corporation was trying to take his patent, ruin his company, and break him legally. His marriage was full of tension. He wore a pattern on his kitchen floor, pacing. So desperate was Louis P. Saia III that he thought of stalking the executives trying to break him. There was nothing left for him and his wife (even his lawyers were dropping him) and he was so beside himself with anxiety -- an upheaval he describes as nearly worse than if a loved one died -- that he could...