Catholic Church

By Kathy Schiffer, Catholic World Report - Alejandro Monteverde, the award-winning director of Sound of Freedom and Bella, had never heard of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini when he was offered the script for a biographical film about her ministry in the slums of New York... (after reading the script).. Monteverde was inspired, though, after learning about the life of Francesca Cabrini, a poor Italian immigrant nun who fought to overcome disease and poverty in the Five Points district of New York City... “I was shocked.. that I’d never learned anything about her. Her life was cinematic!”

By Steven Tucker, Crisis Magazine - It often seems Artificial Intelligence can do anything these days. But is this only because such disembodied electronic mega-minds have been unconsciously modelled by their programmers after the even more omnipotent and algorithmically impressive mind of God? One Christian thinker who thinks deus may indeed lurk somewhere deep within machina is George Franklin Gilder (b.1939), the longtime chairman of George Gilder Fund Management.

By Carl E. Olson, Catholic World Report - “What are you giving up for Lent?” While the question might be common in many Christian circles, it seems that answers to it are, well, increasingly creative. In fact, there are websites and books (with work sheets!) aplenty that offer “creative” suggestions for those trying to discern what needs to be given up, shut down, set aside, reduced, or eliminated altogether. And that’s fine, especially if it helps people take steps in spiritual growth.

By Michelle Petersen, Crisis Magazine - Among Catholics, this wave of consternation is about to hit on the eve of Ash Wednesday. Each year, these questions pepper Catholic social media; and each year these Catholics suffer more than necessary because repetition of the rules cannot address the experiential side of their struggles. We give it our best guess and tough it out for the two required days, then feast during Eastertide, and soon our busy lives delay the search for deeper answers until Lent rolls around again. This year, let us prepare in body, mind, and spirit and seek ....