Rick Perry’s latest TV ad is getting a lot of attention, but most all of it is negative.

Here’s the ad:

It’s been viewed almost 3 million times in just a few days and 98% of its youtube ratings have been “dislike.” The comments have now been disabled for it, but the post on Rick Perry’s Facebook wall has continued to get thousands of comments (mostly negative). You can view it here.

If you view the conversation there, it’s easy to see why this kind of ad is not helpful. I admire and commend the witness to the importance of faith, but, on the issue of homosexuality, it lacks the nuance the issue deserves and instead uses it as a political tool.

It ends up just being red meat for those...READ MORE

What is your parish doing to prepare for the influx of C&E (Christmas and Easter) Catholics at Christmas Mass this season?

Making more room and bringing in more chairs? Assigning more extraordinary ministers? More greeters and seaters? More hosts and wine? You might need all of those.

But what are you doing to make a special connection with those C&E Catholics (and anyone else who may be visiting)?

Just think. What if you did something that actually started a meaningful relationship with them? What if you did something that allowed you to make a connection and continue your relationship with them between now and when you see them next (next Easter or Christmas ... or maybe never)?

What...READ MORE

Coming in at 2,132 ft high, the largest Christmas “tree” will be lit up this coming week using an iPad. And not using just any iPad, but the Pope’s iPad:

Of course we saw Pope Benedict sending his first tweet via an iPad earlier this year, too. And while this doesn’t make the pontiff a regular Tweeter or genuine iPad user, it’s important that he continues to make these very significantly symbolic gestures regarding the use of technology and the Church’s embracing of it.

However, I am looking forward to when the novelty wears off and it’s no longer a headline that the Pope, and more importantly the Church, uses the latest technology. The Church has been in the past - and should be in the...READ MORE

Abortion supporters are outraged by the latest iPhone 4S feature, Siri:

Ask Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant for the iPhone, for ideas on where to eat dinner or whether you need an umbrella, and it will deliver helpful localized suggestions.

But try asking it to find a local abortion clinic, and the software turns up a puzzling blank — even in areas that clearly have such clinics. The response in Manhattan is: “Sorry, I couldn’t find any abortion clinics.” (NYT)

For those who don’t know, the latest iPhone 4S has a cool new feature called Siri. It’s an amazing virtual assistant that essentially allows you to ask it any kind of question and it’s able to either search and find the answer,...READ MORE

Some seminarians were digging through texts in a dark corner of the Vatican archives and uncovered a number of previously unknown alternate versions of St. Francis’ famous prayer. It appears, that while the current and most popular form of the prayer is attributed to St. Francis himself, its origin is actually unknown. However, these new finds shed more light on the subject and, indeed, on the prophetical insights of St. Francis himself.

Just kidding. Actually, this is just a modern-day take on the old prayer by a blogging priest (Fr. Stephen Cuyos). I found it worth sharing! Hope you enjoy it:

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there is sensationalism, let me bring your truth
Where...READ MORE

And is it too early to start talking about new year’s resolutions? After all, we are starting a new Church year this Sunday. So here’s a liturgical new year’s resolution: That we fully embrace it.

Embrace what? That’s a fair question I suppose, but you’re getting awfully pushy. Maybe this will help answer:

We met in a bar…okay it was an online dating site. And, true, there were a lot of rude jerks on there that put us off the whole thing for awhile. But we eventually found a good match. Now, we can’t imagine ourselves without each other. The world has forever been changed.

We even asked our parents’ permission. And while they may have their understandable and very wise reservations,...READ MORE

Haven’t seen all or any of the CATHOLICISM series episodes by Fr. Barron yet? Well here are 10 sneak previews, one from each episode of the series (watch them below).

These previews have been released individually over the past year and I blogged about them each as they came out. But this is a nice post where you can watch all of the preview clips together in one post.

First, however, I want to encourage you to support the CATHOLICISM series. Not just because I’m a big fan of it, but because I hope we’re all big fans of good Catholic media in general. And this project represents, as George Weigel put it, “the most important media project in the history of the Catholic Church in America.”...READ MORE

Catholics Come Home just announced they’ll be airing their most popular video “commercial” for the Catholic Church on a national, prime-time scale from Dec 16, 2011 through January 8, 2012. It will show on “CBS, NBC, Univision, TBS, USA, TNT, CNN, FoxNews, and other networks during shows like 60 Minutes, NCIS, Kennedy Center Honors, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Jay Leno, O’Reilly, major sports, and highly rated sitcoms.”

They report that the “positive message will reach 250 million television viewers in over 10,000 U.S. cities and every diocese throughout the United States, airing over 400 times during the three-week period spanning before Christmas through the Feast of the Epiphany,...READ MORE