I want to talk about fathers. I want to talk about fathers because — despite what one might garner from nearly every aspect of popular culture — they matter. They matter profoundly. I want to talk about fathers today because it is the Feast of St. Joseph and the day in which our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, will celebrate his installation.

We have a new pope and Fr. Jack Collins, CSP, hits the streets to find out what people know of the new pontiff, asking about his name and origins as well as their hopes and advice for the new head of the Church.

With all the excitement surrounding the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI’s successor, I was reminded of a certain fictional depiction of a papal conclave: Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons, specifically the 2009 film version directed by Ron Howard.

In Angels & Demons, Brown’s Robert Langdon (who is also the protagonist of The Da Vinci Code) finds himself once again embroiled in controversy regarding the Catholic Church, this time in connection with the death of the pope and a bomb threat against the conclave and Vatican City.

Although Brown has been criticized for misrepresenting the Church, when recently re-watching Angels & Demons, I actually found that he isn’t that far off in regard to certain traditions, specifically some elements of his portrayal of the conclave. That’s not to say, though, that Dan Brown is always right — the man makes his errors, too. To help you sort out fact from fiction, here’s a breakdown of some story points from the movie and how they relate to Conclave 2013.

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“Pope Colbert” by Kevin SylvesterHabemus falsum papam!
We have a fake pope!

Though voting was tight most of yesterday between the final two Papal Madness competitors, Stephen Colbert ultimately triumphed over His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan by approximately 50 votes, making him the winner of this bracket and naming him Pope Stephen XI (a.k.a. Pope Suburban I, as coined by Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, in a recent Colbert Report appearance.) Now, we won’t get into the specifics of whether Colbert is actually the 10th or 11th pope to be named Stephen, we’ll just congratulate him on his win and wish the Cardinals as much success in their conclave as we’ve had in ours.

Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in knowing how they will truly elect the pope, (and no, it’s not a bracket contest), check out our informative short video.

Thanks for playing everyone! Below is a little wisdom from our new fake pope on the Catholic faith….

Having just won two Oscars for Best Original Song and Best Sound Editing (and recently out on DVD, the James Bond film Skyfall is certainly in the midst of some media spotlight at the moment. But there’s another reason that Skyfall is particularly relevant right now — the way its themes coincide with the season of Lent.

It’s the last day of Papal Madness and your last chance to participate. Vote now!

This year I’m not fasting during Lent. Period. Not because I’ve given up on the concept of fasting as spiritually edifying. Not because I’m the worst faster in the long and storied history of fasting (which, by the way, I am). Not because I have a tendency to be rebellious, defiant, and stubborn (me, me, and — let’s face it — me).

Visit our Facebook page and vote on who you want to see go head-to-head in the last round of Papal Madness…

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It’s Day 5 of Papal Madness and we’re perplexed: Do people really like Mark Wahlberg this much, or are Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney just not as popular as we believed? Meanwhile, the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Dolan, took Busted Halo‘s® very own Fr. Dave Dwyer, CSP, to the cleaners; Stephen Colbert triumphed over Conan O’Brien; and Martin Sheen made quick work out of Jim Caviezel.

If you haven’t already, go to our Facebook page and vote on today’s matchups.

Well, we’ve arrived at the Faithful Four. In the top part of the bracket it should be no surprise that we have our two No. 1 seeds from the Media/Politics and the Hollywood regions facing off as the always hilarious and devout pundit Stephen Colbert takes on beloved Catholic actor Martin Sheen. And in the bottom half it’s No. 3 seed His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan vs. No. 4 Marky Mark Wahlberg. Who will we see in tomorrow’s final matchup? Could …

Visit our Facebook page right now and scroll down to vote on who will be in the Final Four of Papal Madness…

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Stephen Colbert absolutely obliterated MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during yesterday’s “Spiritual Sixteen,” with Matthews only getting 4.3% of the total vote — the biggest deficit Papal Madness has seen to date. Upsets of the day included actor Jim Caviezel prevailing over director Martin Scorsese, and the surprising win of Mark Wahlberg over Bruce Springsteen. (How did that happen?!!!) Jesuit fans out there will be sad to say goodbye to Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, who lost to none other than His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan.

If you haven’t already, head over to our Facebook page to vote on the “Ecclesiastical Eight.”

Today’s matchups leave nothing to be desired: Two of the most Catholic actors in Hollywood face-off when No. 1 seed Martin Sheen takes on No. 6 Jim Caviezel. In the Media/Politics region, No. 1 Stephen Colbert goes head-to-head with fellow comedian Conan O’Brien, and No. 2 seed in the Music region, Sir Paul …

If you’re interested in a fun and creative way of selecting the next pope, go vote in Day 3 of our Papal Madness bracket.

As Congress struggles with how to create a national budget, and with hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts to the military, federal agencies, and social service programs looming, a group of religious leaders released a letter this week reminding elected officials of their duty to the poor and marginalized.

(Go to our Facebook page and scroll down to keep voting in our Papal Madness bracket…)

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Papal Madness got off to a terrific start yesterday in Day 1 of our contest. We had some exciting matchups, even though they had some fairly predictable outcomes: top seed Stephen Colbert trounced fellow pundit Bill O’Reilly, Bruce Springsteen destroyed Morrissey, and Sir Paul McCartney routed Eddie Van Halen. It’s been a big week for Canada, first with Ben Affleck’s name drop during his Oscar acceptance speech, and now in Papal Madness with Canadian crooner, Michael Bublé, overcoming the very talented, Jack White. (We’ll see how well Bublé fairs tomorrow against fellow subject of the crown, Sir Paul McCartney.) The closest contest by far was former rapper turned actor, Mark Wahlberg, defeating smooth singer and pianist, Harry Connick, Jr. (Perhaps the voters went with acting talent over musical faculties?) Other winners included Joe Biden over John Kerry, Conan O’Brien over Marco Rubio, and Chris Matthews over Sean Hannity.

And now, Day 2 begins. Head over to our Facebook page now to vote on the Hollywood and Friends of Busted Halo® regionals …

(Go to our Facebook page to begin voting in our Papal Madness bracket right now…)

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Well, it’s that time of the century, where the election of a new pope coincides with March’s NCAA basketball tournament. The cardinals will soon gather for the papal conclave in Rome, most likely to choose someone from within their own ranks to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. However, there’s always the remote chance they look outside of the College of Cardinals for a successor — because technically you don’t have to be a cardinal, bishop or even a priest to be elected pope. Any baptized, single, male Catholic can be chosen, who would then need to be ordained a priest and then ordained a bishop in order to accept his new title as Bishop of Rome.

With that we present you the chance to help select the next pope with Busted Halo’s® Papal Madness, a bracket contest of baptized Catholics, who are all technically eligible to take up the chair of St. Peter (except, in some cases, for that whole being single part…oh well). It’s up to you to help us figure out which …

Daniel Day-Lewis has long been one of my favorite actors, and I’m not alone. This year he’s sweeping the awards circuit and taking home every best actor prize (and will most likely take home the Oscar this Sunday) for his portrayal of the 16th president of the United States in Lincoln.

Day-Lewis becomes Abraham Lincoln on screen. We aren’t that familiar with what Lincoln was actually like because he wasn’t president in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. Reporters didn’t blog about him, replay or even play sound bites from his speeches. He was the first president (along with the first family) to be widely photographed, though it was nothing like the White House Flickr page.

What happens when a bookworm sees a novel-inspired movie? Personally, I get very nervous. I don’t like to see my favorite books exploited by Hollywood to attract large crowds to the box office. Many times directors lose sight of important aspects of the book and focus on sensational visual effects. Having read the novel by Yann Matel, I think Life of Pi was a perfect balance of effects and the original story. The movie was also able to capture the spiritual and religious significance of the book — what to me made Life of Pi a moving read.

Simply put, Life of Pi is a story about a boy who really just wants to love God. We learn that Pi was first introduced to God through Hinduism; however, he yearns to understand many religions. He meets people who share Christianity and Islam with him. I found this so interesting because most people are born into their parents’ faith and go their whole lives practicing it without questioning it. I have always been curious about other faiths, and I’ve enjoyed learning about them in the various theology classes I’ve taken. But I …

Imagine a life without hearing the words, “Is that for here or to go?” No coffee to go. No drive-thrus. No take-out containers.

Imagine walking into a coffee shop where no one is staring at a piece of technology. Instead everyone is either engaged in conversation or silently taking in the scene around them.

Impossible? Maybe in this country. But such was my life along the Camino. For 37 days my only option was to sit down and enjoy my beverage or my meal. Instead of assuming I wanted everything in a disposable container “to go,” it was assumed I was sticking around and thus everything was served on real plates with utensils made from something other than plastic. Takeout was not even an option.

Walking into any cafe along the Camino, I rarely saw people staring into the screen of their laptops, or scrolling through the Internet on their phones. I saw something that used to be common in coffee shops: people gathered talking to each other.

I loved this single-focus mindset. It was impossible to drink coffee while walking on the Camino — they were two independent tasks, …

For the past 700 years or so, the election of a new Pope was always preceded by the death of another, and so it meant, presumably, that Catholics would spend some time mourning the loss of their spiritual leader before considering who might serve next.

February 14th — why is it known as Valentine’s Day? Why do those in love send each other valentines? And what feast does the Catholic Church celebrate on this day? Think you know the answers? Think again, because the truth is a lot more surprising than you’d imagine. Watch friend of Busted Halo, Fr. Jack Collins, CSP, wander the streets of New York asking the city’s star-crossed lovers if they know why we celebrate Valentine’s Day.

What is Lent? What are the three practices the Church suggests we do during Lent based on the teachings of Jesus? Why do Catholics eat fish on Fridays and why is it called “Good” Friday, anyway? Fr. Jack Collins, CSP, is once again hitting the streets, this time on Ash Wednesday near St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, asking these questions and more.

Your favorite convert comes to the rescue with the basics for Lenten newbies and some words of comfort for the journey.