Culture & Entertainment

For the third year in a row, a Catholic podcast has bolted out of the gate after New Year’s Day to become the No. 1 most popular on Apple Podcasts, beating out secular podcasts from The New York Times, NBC News, and NPR.

To hear him tell it, Father Daniel F. X. Powell Jr. was just doing his job, giving homilies and ministering to the flock. And then… “Next thing you know, there’s a book,” he laughed.

Charles Chaput was born in September 1944 in Concordia, Kansas, a small community in north central Kansas in the heartland of America’s Midwest, where farming is a tradition and family values are cherished.

Ministering to a terminally ill 14-month-old boy as a volunteer chaplain at Saskatoon Hospital in Saskatchewan was more than Father Modestus Ngwu, O.P., could handle.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, doesn’t generally introduce himself as a runner. His first love is hockey, which, at nearly 70 years old, he still plays regularly. He even coaches the goalkeepers at a local Catholic high school.

What can I say? Susan Tassone has done it again! When it comes to prayer books with purpose, I have found Susan’s various titles to be a great go-to source. This Lent, we are treated with yet another. Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent And in Times of Suffering is Susan’s latest and it will be a valuable asset to your Lenten journey this year and beyond.

What can I say? Susan Tassone has done it again! When it comes to prayer books with purpose, I have found Susan’s various titles to be a great go-to source. This Lent, we are treated with yet another. Praying with Jesus and Faustina During Lent And in Times of Suffering is Susan’s latest and it will be a valuable asset to your Lenten journey this year and beyond.

As much as I want to resist doing it, it is tough to write a review without addressing the elephant in the room. The coronavirus and the resulting restrictions that are being imposed have affected us all. It has even spilled over into the books I am currently reading. Though many were not written intentionally for this period we are facing, they sure fit nicely into the story line. Such it is with the book I am reviewing this month, Hope to Die: The Christian Meaning of Death and the Resurrection of the Body by Dr. Scott Hahn.

God’s Mercy Awaits You: Find Healing after Abortion – written by Good Shepherd Sister Patricia Marie Barnette – is a book that offers all the above and gives readers a profound sense of hope. Published by Pauline Books and Media (www.pauline.org), a publishing arm of the Daughters of St. Paul, the book was released just as the worldwide pandemic was seizing the country. Sister Patricia melds more than 30 years of counseling experience into this 170-page book that teaches exactly what the title says: Mercy.

The Diocese of Harrisburg will host a free virtual screening of the short film “Across” later this month, and the event promises to offer a glimpse into the remarkable life of Venerable Augustine Tolton, the first African-American priest in the United States. The 30-minute movie will introduce viewers to pivotal decisions in Tolton’s childhood, as he attempts to escape slavery in 1863. A historical presentation about Father Tolton will follow the screening of the stirring film. Discussion will be led by writer/director Christopher Foley, Bishop Ronald Gainer, and Bishop Joseph Perry, postulator of the cause for the canonization of the priest, who was declared Venerable last year.