Remembering Pope John Paul II

The Anchoress is remembering Pope John Paul II on the first anniversary of his death. A terrific roundup of posts on the legacy of John Paul II and remarkable papacy of Pope Benedic XVI (who intervened in the release of the Afghan Christian convert Abdul Rahman). Highly recommended.

Protesting “The DaVinci Code”

Barbara Nicolosi, Hollywood screenwriter and practicing Catholic, offers great advice for Christians concerned about the release of the movie, The DaVinci Code. Instead of voting with their feet and boycotting all movies that weekend, she suggests that Christians vote with their wallets instead and choose another movie. She advises

everybody to turn out to see another movie to skew the box office away from the blasphemy movie as a signal to the industry. There is a fun little animated family movie by Dreamworks called Over the Hedge. We want everybody in the business to wake up Monday morning and see that this little silly movie won the weekend – or at least ate a chunk of the tally from DVC.

If we take all of our kids and ourselves intentionally to Over the Hedge, and we let the industry know we are going to see this other movie on purpose as a way to register our vote, we can make a much more impressive statement that if we all just stay away from the theaters that weekend. But if we just ignore The Da Vinci Code and let your kids go, then you are voting for that kind of movie to be made. If the “Jesus is a fraud and the Church is a corporate criminal movie” is a huge hit, we will see 10-12 clones of it before too long. Why? Because that is the kind of movie Hollywood wants to make anyway, and hit status will give them economic affirmation as well.

She also comments on violence in the movies and the failure of modern writers to create real comedy. Do yourself a favor and read the entire interview.

What can you do with that major?

In conjunction with the Career Fair, the library recommends the following books, all available on the first floor Career Development section:

What you can do with a major in education? – HF 5382.5 U5 H815 2005
What you can do with a major in biology? – QH 314 A88 2005
What you can do with a major in English? – HF 5382.7 O33 2005
What you can do with a major in psychology? – BF 76 O43 2005
What you can do with a major in business? – HF 5381 W436 2005
Great jobs for sociology majors – HM 585 L24 2003
Great jobs for theater majors – PN 2074 G66 2005
Best entry-level jobs – HF 5382.7 L54 2006

The Gospel of Judas?

Off the Record: Notes from the Newsroom (CWNews.com)  predicts a PR blitz for Judas will accompany the more traditional Easter newspaper features this year. The document, written in Coptic, discovered in Egypt and dating from the 4th century, is said to offer a sympathetic portrait of Jesus’ betrayer. This is noteworthy, according to Off the Record because, “If the document is authentic, then Judas is that rarest of men: a criminal who says he’s not guilty.”

Do yourself a favor and subscribe to Off the Record. Always a delight.

 

Copyrights, comic books and fair use

The Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain explains the problems with copyright and fair use in the comic book Bound by Law? Trapped in a Struggle She Didn’t Understand. The book shows how current copyright laws make it nearly impossible to film a documentary about life in New York City.  A cell phone ring tone that plays the theme from “Rocky?” That music’s covered by copyright. The film clip where it’s playing can’t be used without permission. A scene where a television – in the background – is showing “The Simpson’s?” Can’t use that either, not without permission. There are even more examples like this where seemingly trivial things become large copyright nightmares. It’s amazing what you can’t do because of legal restrictions.

The book is clear, informative and fun to read. Best of all, because it’s covered by the Creative Commons license, it’s available from free. You can download the file as a PDF, Flash animation or html.

From the web site Neat New Stuff I Found on the Internet this Week

“God remakes the world with our deeds, not our intentions”

These words begin Archbishop Chaput’s column for the second week of Lent. He continues:

What distinguishes real faith from surface piety is whether we actually do what we say we believe.

Our mission as disciples is not simply to pass along good morals to our children, or convey a sense of God’s hand in the world. These things are vital, of course, but they don’t exhaust our vocation. Our mission is to bring the world to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ to the world. Each of us is a missionary, and our primary work is the conversion of our own hearts and the hearts of others so that someday the whole world will acknowledge Jesus Christ as humanity’s only savior and Lord.

That’s a big task. We can’t do it by just “dialoguing” about it, any more than Christ could redeem us by writing an essay on sin.

Read more here: Archbishop’s column.

h/t the Curt Jester

Video Picks – Heroes with feet of clay

Not all heroes are perfect. Some have failings that they must overcome in order to do the right thing. Judah ben Hur is nearly destroyed by the hatred that drives him to seek revenge. In Casablanca, Rick must overcome his bitterness to help the Allied war effort.

Some heroes have feet of clay:

Ben-Hur – PN 1997 B368
Casablanca – PN 1997 C352

Some have actual clay feet:

Wallace and Gromit: Three Amazing Adventures – PN 1997.5 W24 2005
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – PN 1997.5 W25

Cardinal Arinze podcasting!

 

Julie at Happy Catholic reports that Cardinal Arinze is podcasting and that he’s terrific!

First, he’s got that fantastic African accent … combined with a command of the English language and vocabulary that is nothing short of astounding.

Second, in all those articles about his orthodoxy and fabulousness, why didn’t anyone mention that he is funny? Listening to him talk about cafeteria Catholics going down the line picking this belief, but not that one … well, I was laughing out loud.

Third, he has an passionate love for our Catholic faith. Even in simple explanations, Cardinal Arinze communicated so well the joy and love that God extends to us through the Church.

Finally, he has a gift for explaining very simply but clearly how the faith is grounded in the truth that is Jesus Christ. Which is quite inspiring.

This podcast and others by Cardinal Arinze are sponsored by Catholic Familyland.

 

 

The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ will be shown in the Anathan Theatre at 8:00 pm this evening, Friday, March 3. This special screening is sponsored by the Fine Arts Society, the Franciscan Film Society, the Drama Program and the Communications Department. This event is open to the public and the cost is $1.00. The theatre opens at 7:30 and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The video, Changed Lives: Miracles of the Passion, is available at the John Paul II Library. This video features the true stories of people whose lives were changed by the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Interviews include testimonies about conversions, reconciliations and miraculous healings linked to this movie.  PN 1997 P355    

 

Books you may have missed

The Day They Shook the Plum Tree – CT 275 G75 L4

Hetty Green was the legendary witch of Wall Street. Her biography makes the current financial movers and shakers seem like timid mice compared to her roaring lion. One of her favorite pastimes was foreclosing on church mortgages. Unfortunately, she had a son and a daughter, both of whom suffered all their lives from her dysfunctional parenting. Highly recommended.

– Kathy Donohue, Reference Librarian