Regular blog readers will recall that in November, Salt + Light filmed extensively in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Tonight we show you the first film from that trip: Within Your Gates: A Pilgrim Guide to the Holy Land. This evening’s broadcast commemorates the first anniversary of Pope Benedict’s own voyage to the Holy Land. ...read more

Given the shortage of priests in many dioceses, few Catholics would be surprised by the results of an American survey reporting that 42% of priests feel overwhelmed by their workload. “Why would someone be happy with a celibate life, little pay, long hours and a regular drubbing in the press?”, asks Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, a ...read more

Jack Valero, a senior representative of Opus Dei, is defending the record of Pope Benedict in the pages of The Guardian. Valero addresses then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s handling of laicization cases, including his efforts to more strongly enforce abuse investigations by bringing them under the purview of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in ...read more

On Tuesday, S+L’s production team was visited by Charlie Lewis, lead religion reporter for the National Post. Lewis asked each of us, as young Catholics in the media, how we feel about the Church’s response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, as well as how we’ve perceived the sometimes questionable mainstream media coverage. Today on ...read more

Last week, Christopher West announced that he was taking a six-month sabbatical for personal and professional reasons. In a possible allusion to the debate over the popular author’s interpretation of John Paul II’s teaching, the Theology of the Body Institute stated that he will take time to “to reflect more deeply on fraternal and spiritual ...read more

Every year, Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the Via Crucis (the Way of the Cross) from Rome’s Coliseum. Tonight on Perspectives, S+L’s Vatican correspondent Alicia Ambrosio retraces the history of the Stations of the Cross, and how it came to be that the Holy Father would lead this devotion in a former site of Christian persecution. ...read more

“I am well aware,” Christopher West confessed in his recent interview with S+L, “that those looking for flaws in me will always be able to find them.” The popular Theology of the Body author and speaker offered a forthright response to his critics, who last year sparked a surprising public debate among Catholic academics. Theologian ...read more

Christopher West left a jarring first impression when I listened to him in 2002. Gathered in a Vancouver living room, we were a dozen Catholic men watching one of his DVD presentations about John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Our group consisted of good friends, but we suddenly became a little uncomfortable in each ...read more

The Christian Churches in the Holy Land are often characterized as intractably, scandalously divided. The impression is not without reason, as evidenced by the embarrassing 2008 skirmishes between Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox monks in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre—the church recognized as the site of Calvary and Jesus’ empty tomb. It would be wrong, however, to ...read more

On Monday, the S+L blog published an unofficial transcript of Cardinal William Levada’s address on the Vatican’s outreach to Anglicans. His talk attracted a great deal of attention due to the rarity of a visit to Canada by this high-ranking Curial Cardinal. However, the speech was particularly significant given that the office he charges, the ...read more