OSV Newsweekly

Beauty is a window through which we see God. It glorifies him, attests to him, and reveals something of his nature. It draws us to him, just as it teaches us about him.

That’s one of the reasons why those who love God have always sought not just to see him in the beauty of his creation, but also to imitate and glorify him through creating beautiful works with their own hands. That was true for Michelangelo 500 years ago, and it’s true for Catholic media makers today. Or at least it should be.

Recently, Our Sunday Visitor spoke with Dominican Father Peter Cameron, the editor of Magnificat and the founder of the Blackfriars Repertory Theatre, about the nature of beauty and its power to move the human soul. more

A $40 million flop. It’s not the most charitable description for “There Be Dragons,” but it might be the most accurate.

The 2011 film, which cost just short of $40 million to make, grossed less than $4 million at the box office. It also was almost universally panned by critics, with most reviews echoing The New York Times’ Stephen Holden, who described it as “an interminable two-hour Sunday school sermon punctuated with battlefield carnage.” more

On Feb. 25, Pope Benedict XVI addressed 200 scientists and members of the Pontifical Academy for Life who gathered at the Vatican to discuss infertility and its treatments. Here are excerpts of what the pontiff said.

The topic that you chose this year, “Diagnosis and Therapy of Infertility,” besides being humanly and socially relevant, possesses a special scientific value and expresses the concrete possibility of a fruitful dialogue between ethics and biomedical research. more

You know you are getting old, Catholic style, when you are no longer obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. That’s reserved for the younger set — the under-60 crowd.

Most aging and creaking baby boomers such as myself consider that an insult and maintain the classic fast on those days anyway — two very light meals and a main meal. I’d like to say it’s devotion. But it really is our Peter Pan complex where we refuse to acknowledge getting older. And the fact that our digestive systems don’t allow us to eat much more than that anyway. more

As the controversy over President Barack Obama administration’s January directive to religious institutions to pay for employees’ contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs was heating up, Michael Gerson — a conservative columnist frequently friendly to the Church’s views — speculated on the reasoning behind this provocative move.

“The Obama administration seems to have calculated that, since contraceptives are popular and the Catholic Church is not, the outcry would be isolated,” Gerson wrote. more

The sheer range and depth of Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer’s activity is breathtaking.

His most recent book (his sixth) is “Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues” (Ignatius, $16.95). The former Gonzaga University president — who has degrees in accounting, theology and philosophy — has founded seven national organizations and is president of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith. He is also president of the Spitzer Center of Catholic Organizations, which helps cultivate cultures of evangelization in Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and other organizations. more

Every year, like millions of my fellow Catholics, I take time during Lent to meditate on the life and death of Jesus Christ, attending Stations of the Cross devotions and doing spiritual reading. And of course, I listen to the Passion readings that are so central to the Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion and Good Friday liturgies.

This year, I am able to have a fresh perspective on the Gospel accounts of the events that took place in Jerusalem during Holy Week, thanks to a trip that turned out to be an excellent preparation for Lent. more