A woman religious from Israel will be among five new beatifications occurring this fall. The announcement of the five new blesseds came last week from the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff. The four other Blesseds include a Spanish Cardinal, a Hungarian Martyr, an Italian diocesan priest and a German religious. Here are ...read more

Obtenir le lecteur Flash pour voir cette vidéo. On Thursday, Salt + Light was visited by the daughter and son-in-law of a saint. Laura Molla and Giuseppe Pannuti were visiting from Milan for the dedication of a new St. Gianna Maternity Home located in Brampton, Ontario. On Friday they traveled to Washington, D.C. for a ...read more

In response to Fr. Thomas Rosica’s post “Senator Edward Kennedy’s funeral: On mercy and misery”, some readers have asked what S+L (and Fr. Rosica, specifically) have contributed to the pro-life cause. I regret that they missed our 2009 March for Life coverage and our acclaimed documentary on St. Gianna Beretta Molla, Love is a Choice. ...read more

The last Monday of August is always the day that the Philippines celebrates its national heroes. This day falls on August 24th of this year and so I started reflecting on the national heroes I remember. My mind went to the national saint in my history books in the Philippines — Lorenzo Ruiz. I looked ...read more

As you may know, fellow Salt + Light producer, Kris Dmytrenko, and I went to World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia. Right after World Youth Day, we stayed a few days longer, this time in the southern part of Australia – South Australia! We were kindly hosted by the Archdiocese of Adelaide. Our mission: ...read more

Liturgically, this has been a week of martyrs. Sunday was the feast of St. Benedicta of the Cross, or Edith Stein, Monday was St. Lawrence, today is St. Pope Pontian and companions, and tomorrow the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe. These martyrs were the focus of Pope Benedict XVI’s Sunday Angelus address — you can ...read more

There is a wonderful story from the life of St. Clare of Assisi, whose feast we celebrate today. I’ll grab it from New Advent’s Catholic Encyclopedia entry on St. Clare: When, in 1234, the army of Frederick II was devastating the valley of Spoleto, the soldiers, preparatory to an assault upon Assisi, scaled the walls ...read more

Among the key patron saints of World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Blessed Mary MacKillop stands out as being the only native-born Australian. During her beatification in 1995, Pope John Paul II said that Mary MacKillop embodies the best of Australia and its people: “genuine openness to others, hospitality to strangers, generosity to the needy, ...read more

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Marie Vianney. As many of our readers know, this holy priest is the patron not only of parish priests, but of the Year for Priests that Pope Benedict XVI launched this past June 19th, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This ...read more

Since it is World Youth Day month, I’d like to share a little something about my first World Youth Day experience, which was last year in Australia! In particular, I’d like to talk about one of the patron saints of WYD 2008 — Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint (well, technically she’s Blessed Mary MacKillop, a ...read more