A.D. miniseries thumbnail

‘A.D.’ Miniseries – Spiritually Rich, Though Flawed Approach

By Christopher Heffron THE OPPORTUNITY to watch a biblical interpretation on the big or small screen can be a mixed blessing. It’s certainly something of a novelty, given the current television culture, to see the story of Jesus’ earthly life – or its aftermath – unfold in a mass-media format. Yet audiences are at the […]

John Mulderig

Fix Your ‘Focus’ Elsewhere

By John Mulderig More than most heist movies, the flimsy crime drama “Focus” (Warner Bros.) glamorizes wrongdoing. Add to that the lax sexual morals and gritty vocabulary of its characters, and the resulting package can be considered suitable for very few. Directors and co-writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s slick little jaunt through the underworld […]

Brooklyn Artists Depict Stations

Fourteen different artists of various faiths, including Catholic, Episcopalian, Buddhist and agnostic, came together to produce one Way of the Cross, currently on display at St. Luke and St. Matthew Episcopal Church, Prospect Heights.

Europe and Nothingness

In the wake of the horrific jihadist attack on the Paris-based journal Charlie Hebdo, the trope “satirical magazine” was regularly deployed to explain Charlie’s character and content. But that’s not-quite-right. And what’s wrong about it – when linked to the sentiment expressed on placards reading “We are all Charlie Hebdo”– suggests just how much trouble Europe […]

NET Focuses on Family

New Evangelization Television (NET TV) will present an original program Mission of Love, based on the catechesis for the 2015 World Meeting of Families to be held in Philadelphia in the fall. Premiering Sunday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m., Mission of Love takes a look into the lives of couples and families: their ups and […]

Children's Christmas books 2014

Children’s Christmas Reading For Giving and Receiving

By Regina Lordan WASHINGTON (CNS) – The following books are suitable for Christmas giving: “I Lived on Butterfly Hill” by Marjorie Agosin. Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, 2014). 455 pp., $16.99. Lucila has a good life: a loving family, close friends and a home in her cherished hill city of Valparaiso, Chile. But […]

Account of Salem Witch Trials Offers Contemporary Lessons

By Nancy L. Roberts Autumn’s hard frosts and shortening days invite contemplation of our mortality. But for our 17th-century Puritan forebears, the veil between this world and the next fluttered in the slightest breeze. This was, after all, an age when people still believed in magic. But it was a gale-force wind that tore through […]

Spirit of Christmas Concert, Dec. 18

Celebrate the Advent and Christmas season with Brooklyn-born singer Debbie Gibson. She will be performing at the Spirit of Christmas benefit concert for Futures in Education at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, Prospect Heights, Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. Premium seats are $100. Prime seating is $75, and general audience tickets are $50. Proceeds will […]

‘Ouija’ is Muddled Chiller

Like some who play the “game” from which it takes its title, the folks behind “Ouija” (Universal) want to have it both ways: It’s all about harmless fun, of course. But what if it’s not?