By Catholic News Service Writer-director Sam Levinson’s messy teen-age satire devolves into a heavy-handed morality tale about our online lives, dark sexual secrets, scapegoating, public shaming and mass mayhem. The film, which evokes the witch trials in 17th century Massachusetts, stops short of being exploitative, but not by much. The leader (Odessa Young) of a jaded […]
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Catholic musicians Greg Boudreaux, left, and Ben Wagner, right, performed as past of the 177 Project evening at Sacred Heart Church in Rock Island on Sept. 20. They are among 24 musicians taking part in the 177 Project, a nationwide tour of eucharistic adoration and music. In the center, Father Anthony Co elevates a monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament during a Holy Hour that was the focus of the evening. A second evening was scheduled the following night at St. John's Catholic Newman Center in Champaign. (The Catholic Post/Tom Dermody)
ROCK ISLAND — “We need to be here, right?” Catholic musician Greg Boudreaux asked the question moments after 300 people had spent an hour adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at Sacred Heart Church here during a 177 Project event on Thursday evening. “Especially at this point in our church, especially at this moment in […]
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Olivia Wilde and Oscar Isaac star in a scene from the movie "Life Itself." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Amazon Studios)
By Catholic News Service Pretentiousness and sentimentality weigh down this drama from writer-director Dan Fogelman. It’s a collection of interlocking, intergenerational stories that begins with a couple (Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde) happily expecting the arrival of a daughter, then follows the baby’s life as both a child (Kya Kruse) and a grown-up (Olivia Cooke) […]
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Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro and Jack Black star in a scene from the movie "The House With a Clock in Its Walls." The Catholic News Service classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. (CNS/Universal)
By Catholic News Service After his parents are killed in an accident, a 10-year-old boy (Owen Vaccaro) goes to live with his eccentric uncle (Jack Black), who turns out to be a warlock. Having mastered some of the rudiments of his new guardian’s craft, the lad assists him and his best friend (Cate Blanchett), a […]
Continue reading“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” So encourages former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the latest Nike advertising campaign. Kaepernick is a polarizing figure for many, since in 2016 he began the practice of kneeling on one knee rather than standing while the U.S. national anthem is played before sporting events. Others […]
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The Village at Mercy Creek is the first outreach in the Diocese of Peoria for Franciscan Ministries, sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago. (Provided photo)
NORMAL — Franciscan Ministries, sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Chicago, has acquired a senior living community here as its first expansion into the Diocese of Peoria. Now known as The Village at Mercy Creek, the facility near the intersection of Raab and Towanda Barnes roads was built in 2012 and includes 60 one- and […]
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Dr. Clement P. Cunningham
ROCK ISLAND — A Mass of Christian burial was offered Sept. 7 at St. Pius X Church here for Dr. Clement P. Cunningham, a former president of the National Catholic Federation of Catholic Physician Guilds who received papal and diocesan honors but is remembered as a humble man with unwavering faith and conviction. Cunningham, a […]
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Taking shovels in hand, Trost family members Jayden and Addisyn Matthis (with their mother, Heather); Dr. Sharon Weiss, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Peoria; Father Keith Walder, pastor; Lisa Doughan, principal; Dalton Carmien, Student Council president; and parish trustee Jim Deters break ground for the new Trost Learning Center and Gymnasium at St. Thomas School in Philo. (The Catholic Post/Jennifer Willems)
PHILO — “Gratitude” is one of the virtues the students at St. Thomas School are focusing on this year and there was plenty to go around Sept. 13 when ground was blessed and broken for the new Trost Learning Center and Gymnasium. Father Keith Walder, pastor, called it “a monumental day.” “We ask God to […]
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Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively star in a scene from the movie "A Simple Favor. (CNS/Lionsgate)
By Catholic News Service Lurid thriller in which a mild-mannered young widow (Anna Kendrick) strikes up an unlikely friendship with the sophisticated, hard-bitten mother (Blake Lively) of one of her son’s classmates. But when her new pal mysteriously disappears and she tries to track her down, she discovers just how little she really knew about […]
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Richie Merritt and Matthew McConaughey star in a scene from the movie "White Boy Rick." The Catholic News Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. (CNS/Sony)
By Catholic News Service Somber fact-based drama, set in 1980s Detroit, chronicling the unlikely adventures of Rick Wershe (Richie Merritt) who, at the age of 14, became the youngest FBI informant in history, posing as a drug dealer. He then went on to sell narcotics for real in an attempt to break out of the […]
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