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A preliminary hearing date was scheduled in the case of the man suspected in the shooting death of LA Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell in his Hacienda Heights home in February 2023. Carlos Medina, 63, is charged with one felony count of murder and a special allegation that he used a firearm. During a court appearance on Aug. 6, Medina’s preliminary hearing was scheduled for Oct. 17, where a judge will determine if there is enough evidence for Medina to stand trial. O’Connell, the beloved bishop from Ireland, was found dead in his home by a deacon after he was deemed late for a meeting, authorities said. On Feb. 20, 2023, after a six-hour standoff with police, Medina was arrested at his Torrance home. Medina is the husband of Bishop O’Connell’s housekeeper and had done work at his home in H...

There is much more than meets the eye in grandparenting. In grandparenting is perhaps the single greatest instance of the active human life coming to fruition. If this seems an exaggeration, it at least bears closer examination. We should not be misled by a popular caricature of grandparenting, where grandchildren are a pleasant accoutrement in the life of a couple pursuing their golden retirement. The grandparenting of which I speak—which of course for a number of reasons will not be possible for all couples—places significant and at times intense demands on the couple. It is not peripheral to their state in life. It is the natural continuation of what has been central in their identity and commitments, namely the raising of their own children. But doesn’t raising a child come to a kind o...

It was a very strange week for Vatican communications. Pope Francis was badly served in June when his communications chief, Paolo Ruffini, defended his department’s ongoing use of Father Marko Rupnik’s art by invoking the unofficial motto of the pontificate, “Who am I to judge?” Certainly, the Holy Father could not have been pleased that his most famous phrase was being deployed to defend art that, for example, the Knights of Columbus has decided to remove from display. The week after the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremonies ought to have been comparatively easy for Vatican communications to handle. When there is a global denunciation of anti-Christian blasphemy, it ought to be simple for the Vatican to add its voice. But instead, the Holy Father kept silent for eight days, and only released...

It’s déjà vu all over again. Or at least that’s the way the French Olympic controversy feels. Cultural elites mocking Christian symbols? In France? Sacrébleu! How did they come up with something so original? Drag queens? How transgressive! Only the flabby Smurf was new. My first reaction to the silhouette of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” filled in with a tableau of bacchanalia was, I’ll admit, a yawn. It’s only been a few months since transgender activists used St. Patrick’s Cathedral as the backdrop for another vulgar show; the National Endowment for the Arts once funded a photo of a crucifix submerged in urine; I’ve seen Jesus depicted as a bare-chested woman named “Christa.” Yadda, yadda, yadda. Isn’t there a Marvel remake to watch instead? “The Fast and Furious 86”? Anything more creati...

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Jesus brings his listeners to a turning point in his own “Eucharistic Congress” on the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. In five straight Sunday Gospels after the National Eucharistic Congress, the Church is reading from the Sixth Chapter of John’s Gospel. In the first, Jesus took the food a boy gave him and multiplied it like a new manna, to show his power and to prepare for the Eucharist. In the second, he answered the doubts of the crowd with strong testimony suggesting he is a new Moses — and more. He commanded: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” This Sunday is the third in the series, and Jesus starts to spell out something entirely new and shocking. Given that their one job is to believe, Jesus’s audience gets off to a really bad start. The Gospel of ...

Readings:1 Kings 19:4-8Psalm 34:2-9Ephesians 4:30-5:2John 6:41-51 Sometimes we feel like Elijah in today’s First Reading. We want to lie down and die, keenly aware of our failures—that we seem to be getting no better at doing what God wants of us. We can be tempted to despair, as the prophet was on his forty-day journey in the desert. We can be tempted to “murmur” against God, as the Israelites did during their forty years in the desert (see Exodus 16:2, 7, 8; 1 Corinthians 10:10). The Gospel today uses the same word, “murmur,” to describe the crowds, who reenact Israel’s hardheartedness in the desert. Jesus tells them that prophecies are being fulfilled in Him, that they are being taught by God. But they can’t believe it. They can only see His flesh, that He is the “son” of Joseph and Mar...

Does Pope Francis need a new batch of cardinals? Skip to content As the traditionally quiet month of August continues in Rome, Pope Francis is gearing up for a slate of international trips next month, setting off September 2 for a 10-day tour of Asia and Oceania before returning to Europe for a swing through Belgium and Luxembourg. But September is also a traditional month for popes, including Francis, to convene consistories of the college of cardinals and appoint new members.  Consistory for the creation of new Cardinals, Sept. 30, 2023. Image credit: Mazur/cbcew.org.uk Last year, Francis created new cardinals in a consistory meeting scheduled just before the opening of October’s sessions of the synod on synodality, due for its final chapter this autumn. Just over a year ago, the po...

You might not have heard of the “Ghent Altarpiece,” also known as the “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,” but thieves certainly have. Since its completion in 1432, the 12-panel oil painting by Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck has become the most stolen artwork of all time. It’s been taken at least seven times, including by none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. His army helped itself to four panels in 1794, displaying them in the Louvre until his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815; France’s Louis XVIII returned the panels after he retook the throne. The painting has also been burned and nearly blown up on several occasions, most recently during World War II. Advertisement If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, perhaps thievery is high on the list as well. The altarpiece is ...

As Western Civilization proceeds from “dawn to decadence,” here are five movies that may help viewers ponder what went wrong and what they should do at “the end of all things.” 1. The Mosquito Coast (1986) Allie Fox (Harrison Ford in one of his best performances) is an eccentric inventor who is disgusted by the crassness of American consumer culture and alarmed by increasing crime and the looming threat of nuclear war. “Look around you: How did America get this way?” he muses to his oldest son, Charlie (River Phoenix), as they drive in their pickup truck down a main street. “Land of promise, land of opportunity. Give us the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Have a coke. Watch TV. Go on welfare. Get free money. Turn to crime. Crime pays in this country. . . . Buy junk. Sell junk....