BLOG: Matthew Harrison
Pope Benedict XVI begins Lent with an ancient Roman Ash Wednesday tradition. The Holy Father will preside over a penitential procession from the Basilica of St. Anselm to the the Basilica of St. Sabina, where he will celebrate Holy Mass and the blessing and imposition of Ashes. Join Salt + Light’s Pedro Guevara Mann and ...read more
Recorded on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the World Day of the Sick, February 11th, this week’s Vatican Report looks at the Catholic Church’s involvement in healthcare. Catholic News Service’s John Thavis and Cindy Wooden report. To view this video you need the latest version of Flash Player ...read more
Today we recognize the feast of St.  Scholastica. Scholastica is the younger sister of St.  Benedict, the father of Western Monasticism, and I’d like to share a charming story from St. Gregory about the bond between the two.  Benedict was visiting Scholastica and she had the sense, likely divinely inspired, that this would be the ...read more
Through catechesis and witness talks Nothing More Beautiful is inviting viewers to encounter anew the beauty of Christ. The latest encounter of this Archdiocese of Edmonton initiative focuses on the theme of Jesus Christ: Lamb of God and Bread of Life. Bishop Gary Gordon of the Diocese of Whitehorse, Yukon, provides the catechesis talk.  Prior ...read more
This Sunday’s Super Bowl offers one of the biggest sporting events of the year, but before the big game, at 4:30pm ET, Salt + Light Television is inviting viewers to tune in for Faith Bowl III. Over the course of a 30 minute round-table discussion, pro-athletes Mike Piazza, Mike Sweeney and Bobby Keppel talk about ...read more
On January 21st, Pope Benedict appointed Flaminia Giovanelli as undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.  The 61-year laywoman becomes the first woman to hold that particular position, but not the first one to reach that level.  In this week’s Vatican Report from Catholic News Service, John Thavis and Carol Glatz discuss women ...read more
The Wednesday General Audience this week offered a beautiful discourse on the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  In comments after the General Audience, Pope Benedict also acknowledged the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.  He prayed: May the memory of such events, in particular the tragedy of the Shoah that ...read more
This past Sunday, Pope Benedict visited Rome’s Great Synagogue. Pundits were predicting a less then cordial meeting, but the Pontiff was warmly received, and the meeting was considered a success by both Catholics and Jews. In this week’s Vatican Report from Catholic News Service, John Thavis and Cindy Wooden provide insight into the Holy Father’s ...read more
This month on Lectio Divina, Archbishop Thomas Collins reflects on the servants and the wedding feast as found in Matthew 22:1-14. This is the dramatic parable where the king prepares a marriage feast, and invites his servants, but they refuse to come.  The Archbishop also includes the portion from Matthew 24:45-5: the passage that speaks ...read more
Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI met with members of the Jewish community at the Great Synagogue of Rome.  Pope John Paul II visited the Synagogue in 1986, the first visit by a Pope to a Synagogue in centuries! The Venerable Pontiff’s name came up a number of times as many ...read more