The pontiff has shortlisted Hollywood heavy-hitters for a special meeting at the Vatican this fall. The topic? Improving the church’s portrayal in Western entertainment.

If you’re the kind of person who finds themselves endlessly hitting the snooze button every morning—and putting yourself at risk of being late for work or other obligations in the process—Furze’s “High Voltage Ejector Bed” might be exactly what you need. The somewhat dangerous device is essentially a custom bed frame that uses pressurized air to launch its passenger up and off. MORE

State-run news agency IRNA quoted Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying the new initiative will be submitted to the U.N. chief after “detailed consultations between Tehran and Damascus.” Iran is a key ally of President Bashar Assad’s embattled government. MORE

Painful dollars

The Milwaukee archdiocese has agreed to give survivors of clergy sex abuse $21 million, a move that is expected to end the four and a half years that church has been in bankruptcy court.

In a statement issued by the archdiocese, 330 of the 575 survivors will share in the compensation. They will receive varying amounts to be determined by an outside administrator. There will also be a $500,000 therapy fund established and it will be paid for by all of the parishes in the archdiocese. The agreement otherwise protects parishes and schools from future lawsuits. MORE

On Thursday afternoon, July 30, MassResistance took the fight for medical truth into the streets. A group of protesters gathered during lunchtime outside of one of the busy entrances to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in downtown Boston. MORE

Floods from days of torrential rain have now claimed at least 180 lives in India with one million people sheltering in relief camps after fleeing surging waters, officials said. Rivers have burst their banks, hitting thousands of villages in parts of West Bengal as well as northeastern Manipur state, where roads and bridges have been cut and communications were patchy. Most of those 180 died from drowning, while at least four people have been killed in a landslide that buried a remote village in Manipur bordering Myanmar, where heavy monsoon rains have also wreaked havoc. MORE

August 2015 – TAIWAN – Soudelor is intensifying rapidly over the western Pacific Ocean after raking through Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth in the Northern Mariana Islands, Sunday night and early Monday. Super Typhoon Soudelor became the fifth super typhoon of this year Monday after undergoing a replacement of its eyewall, a process which occurs in all intense tropical cyclones. A super typhoon is defined by sustained wind speeds of at least 150 mph. According to Monday’s 5 p.m. EDT bulletin from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, Soudelor had strengthened into the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (one-minute average) with gusts to 220 mph. MORE

Havana (AFP) – Workers in Cuba have begun building the altar where Pope Francis will deliver mass during a landmark visit next month, placing it just to the left of a giant image of Che Guevara. MORE

The South Bronx Legionnaires’ disease outbreak has now taken the lives of seven people, officials said Monday. MORE

A ferry plows along San Francisco Bay, trailing a tail of churned up salt, sand, and sludge and further fouling the already murky liquid that John Webley intends to turn into drinking water. But Webley, CEO of a Bay Area start-up working on a new, energy-skimping desalination system, isn’t perturbed. MORE

Swarms of locusts are threatening thousands of hectares of farmland in southern Russia, state media said on Friday, broadcasting striking images of what they claim to be the worst locust invasion in years. MORE

Vol 8 Issue 31 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
August 1, 2015 ~ St Peter in Chains

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (27)
2. Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St Alphonsus Ligouri
4. Christ in the Home (2)
5. Articles and notices Continue reading →

Since their December arrival in Vietnam, U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius and his husband have become the most prominent gay couple in the Southeast Asian country.

Osius and Clayton Bond landed with their toddler son shortly before the government abolished its ban on same-sex marriage. Now the couple, who recently adopted an infant girl, find themselves ambassadors of the nascent LGBT rights movement spreading across the country. MORE

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A pair of small explosions just 20 minutes and a few miles apart shocked congregants Sunday morning at two churches in southern New Mexico.

There were no injuries or deaths from the blasts outside Calvary Baptist and Holy Cross Roman Catholic in Las Cruces, Las Cruces police spokesman Danny Trujillo said. Each building sustained minor damage. MORE