Pat Summerall Visits His Hometown

Of Lake City, Florida...nice piece about his liver transplant

From the Gainesville Sun:

Pat walks on an artificial knee. A recovering alcoholic, he's into a 15th year without a drink. Pat's liver became diseased, so in 2004 one of the best-liked sportscasters ever needed a transplant. With those unmistakable pipes, Summerall speaks of the experience with high humility and deep appreciation.

"My new liver came from a 13-year-old African-American boy," Pat said. "A young man from Pine Bluff, Ark., who suffered an aneurism in phys ed class. I later met his mother and it was hugely emotional for both of us.

"She hugged me real tight, saying 'I feel as though I am holding part of my child,' What a powerful, heart-tugging feeling; knowing somebody had to die far too young for an old guy to keep on breathing."""

Nelson Tightens Editorial Standards for Authors

From Publisher's Weekly Religion Bookline:

While the company will honor all existing contracts with previously
acquired authors, future contracts will require authors—even those writing in
non-religion categories like business—to signal their agreement with both the
Nicene Creed (recognized by most Protestant and Catholic, and some Orthodox,
Christians) and Philippians 4:8 from the New Testament.

Rationale...

Nelson's decision is not just about belief, but about the bottom line. Hyatt noted that as part of the company's preparation for this decision, it evaluated the marketplace success of recent Nelson titles that would have either passed or failed the new editorial standards. "In that study, we discovered that projects that didn't meet up to our new standards accounted for only 2% of our total 12-month revenue," he said. "Worse, titles that would not have met our standards sold, on average, 47% fewer copies than titles that met our standards."

Hyatt asserts that even with the heightened theological filter, no topic will be unpublishable for Nelson's authors. "We want to encourage them to write across a broad spectrum of categories," he said. "Some books will be explicitly Christian; some implicitly Christian. But all will be written from a broad Christian perspective. That's the unique contribution we feel called to make."

Pope: In mosque I prayed to the one God for all mankind

From Asia News Italy:

The prayer in Istanbul’s Blue Mosque was “not initially planned but it
turned out to be very meaningful”. It was a prayer to the “one Lord of heaven
and earth, merciful father of all mankind”. Addressing today’s general audience,
this was how Benedict XVI described his silent prayer on 30 November in
Istanbul.
The Pope “thanked divine Providence for this” and said: “May all believers identify themselves with the one God and bear witness to true brotherhood.”
The Pontiff augured that Turkey “will be a bridge of friendship and collaboration between East and West” and he thanked the Turkish people “for the cordiality and sympathy” they showed him throughout his stay, when “he felt loved and understood”.
For Benedict XVI, in secular Turkey, “the distinction between civil and religious spheres constitutes a principle and the State should guarantee effective religious freedom.” At the same time, he continued, “Christians and Muslims should collaborate together on issues like justice, peace and life.”
The Pope then prayed to God, so that He may “help the Turkish people, their rulers and representatives of different religions to build a future of peace together” and so that He may “make this apostolic journey fruitful and animate across the world the Church’s mission to announce to all nations the Gospel of truth, peace and love.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, dwelt on the same subject during a speech delivered after last Sunday’s function. He said: “We are sure that the voyage of the Holy Father to the Ecumenical Patriarchate will bear fruits for dialogue between Christian churches, especially between the Catholic and Orthodox
Churches, and more generally to inter-religious dialogue. This real improvement
in our ties will contribute to peace on our planet.”
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, he added, “has long been an initiator and promoter of dialogue between religions and civilizations: it sees with great satisfaction the desire for improvement in interpersonal relations worldwide.”

The Real St. Nick

The Real Saint Nick Fought Prostitution

and the beautiful site

Saint Nicholas: The Truth About Santa Clause

The Culture Wars and Christmas

From Father Benedict Groeschel:

As most of you know, on my recent program on EWTN, I made an appeal along with Bill Donohue of The Catholic League to get people to identify stores and other merchants and agencies that refuse to acknowledge Christmas. I have to say we’ve been extremely successful. One lady who attends our conferences in Manhattan got a hundred of her friends to cut up their credit cards to Macy’s and send them back, so Macy’s, I understand, is even playing Christmas carols when you call in on the phone. As they said in the Second World War, “sub sighted, sank same”. I understand also that various other big companies are changing the anti-Christmas policy.

If you happen to know any companies or merchants that are telling you that their employees can’t say “Merry Christmas” or not carrying Christmas items, or others that are outlawing Christmas, be sure to report them to the Catholic League website. We are preparing to identify people as “Grinches of the Year”.

This is really not a light-hearted attempt. Ninety-seven percent of the people in the United States think that the celebration of Christmas is appropriate; eighty-five percent consider themselves Christian in some way or another. Why can’t we have some recognition of our holiday?

If anybody says to you “Happy Holidays”, say back “Merry Christmas”. If the person is not a Christian, you can say “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays”, but don’t leave Christmas out. A kind of funny detail came through: one of the big chains of stores now has their phone message on, and in a slightly different voice, which has obviously been tacked on, and they say “Merry Christmas.” Keep plugging and who knows, we may even keep this a basically Christian country. God bless.

Othodox Priest and Family Perish in Russian Fire

That looks to be a case of arson...

From The Raw Story:

The religious website Orthodoxy and Peace reported arsonists blocked the
door to the family's home with a steel pipe to prevent the family from escaping.
The home's windows had been barred by Nikolayev himself after a recent arson
attempt.

Russia's Interior Ministry on Monday said it had formed and deployed an
investigative squad to the village.

What Book is Endorsed by...

Tom Monaghan, Gerry Faust and Dick Vitale?

Find out here