Author: Brandon Kraft

  • Review – Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People

    Over Spring Break, I read Fr. Martin McGee, OSB‘s latest book, Christian Martyrs for a Muslim People, published by Paulist Press. This is a story of nineteen Catholic martyrs who died, for being Catholic, while serving a virtually completely Muslim population in Algeria. While the land that is now Algeria was once a booming Catholic…

  • New NYC Archbishop Dolan Mentioned Hecker

    Newly-installed Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York mentioned Servant of God Issac Hecker in his opening homily today. Rocco has the full-text on his website.

  • There is a Great Silence

    Today is Holy Saturday. The day Jesus spent in the tomb. For a reflection today, I repost what I wrote in March 2005 in this blog: Today is Holy Saturday. The Church throughout the whole world is silent today. Most all sacramental functions are forbidden- even Holy Communion may only be given as Viaticum. The…

  • Rental Review – Traitor (2008)

    Last week, we watched Traitor (imdb, amazon.com), a Jeffrey Nachmanoff film featuring Don Cheadle (The Oceans 11 series, Hotel Rwanda). The film follows the story of Samir Horn, a defected American solider, devout Muslim, as he begins more involved with a terrorist cell planning an attack on the United States and the government agents trying…

  • No, Thank You

    Dead man’s sperm to be taken by court order On the Austin American-Statesman website, there’s a story about a man, age 20,  who was killed over the weekend whose mother has won a court order requiring sperm to be taken from the deceased to be used with a surrogate mother for a future child. While…

  • Segway + Smart Car = PUMA?

    I saw this today on the Platentizen blog – A two-seater hybrid between a segway and a traditional car. In reality, think two segways fused together, add seats and a little weather shield. See more on Segway’s website.