Iraqis re-enact the Nativity at Ainkawa refugee camp near Irbil, Iraq, Dec. 19, 2014. Christmas bells did not ring in Mosul and Christian villages last year for the first time in 1,600 years. CNS photo/Sahar Mansour ...read more

In this Advent series, Deacon Pedro learns from Judaism as he prepares for the coming of the Messiah. In the second week, Deacon Pedro and Rabbi Aaron Flanzraich explore the significance of and difference between signs and symbols in Judaism. ...read more

If someone asked you to tell them the Christmas story as it’s told in the Gospels, how would you tell it?  What would you include?  What would you emphasize?  How accurate would your retelling be? The common image of the Christmas story that we have in our minds comes from traditional nativity scenes.  We see ...read more

Choir members sing carols in front of a figure of Christ during Christmas Eve Mass at a Catholic church in Shenyang, China. CNS photo/Sheng Li, Reuters ...read more

In this Advent series, Deacon Pedro Guevara-Mann learns from Judaism as he prepares for the coming of the Messiah. In the first episode, Deacon Pedro and Rabbi Aaron Flanzraich explore the meaning of words in Judaism. ...read more

  A religious brother teaches young Cheridan Sanders how to swim; and that having faith means believing in a reality that does not exist, yet. — I grew up in mission territory. ‘South West’, as it was known then, was hot, dry and isolated. Even today it remains one of the least densely populated nations. ...read more

James W. Foley, the American journalist and war correspondent that was the first American beheaded by ISIS in August, 2014, once said: “Drop a pebble in the water: Just a splash, and it is gone; But there’s half-a-hundred ripples Circling on and on and on, Spreading, spreading from the center, Flowing on out to the ...read more

Welcome to S+L’s Weekly News Round-Up. As the Director of Marketing and Communications here at S+L, many interesting Catholic news stories and articles come across my desk on a daily basis. Some of them we’ll cover on our different television programs and others I’d like to share with you on this blog. This blog column ...read more

In the past week, I’ve been trying to imagine what our world would be like had Jesus never been born. (Check out part 1 and part 2) It’s easy to say that The Church would not exist or that we would have no Pope. There would be no priests, deacons, religious sisters or brothers, nor ...read more

Last time, I was imagining a world without Christmas. That would mean no Christmas music and no Christmas movies.  But a world without Jesus would mean much more to our popular culture. After watching the screen adaptation of Les Miserables two years ago,  I couldn’t help but thinking that this novel would be very different had Jesus not ...read more