Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world
Well, 52 years ago yesterday, I was pulled screaming into the world. Last night, I stopped screaming long enough to have pie. A lot of people made a fuss — see here and here — and I got a TON of emails and messages on Facebook. I can’t possibly respond to every one individually, but [...]
Following the news I posted yesterday, about the deacon candidate who withdrew from his scheduled ordination, a reader alerted me to this posting below — the remarks the candidate’s pastor made at mass last weekend: Jim decided that he could not just go through the motions of the ordination rite in which he would have [...]
And the numbers continue to grow. Welcome, brothers! Details, from the Catholic Standard & Times: The Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul was jammed June 4, as family, friends, clergy and fellow parishioners turned out for the ordination by Cardinal Justin Rigali of 19 men for the permanent diaconate. Preaching at a ceremony strikingly [...]
Here name is Christie, described as a convert from New Age philosophy and Neopaganism. Read her account of what led her to the Catholic Church, and marvel anew at the ways God works: I was an arrogant fool sitting in on my very first Mass and watching it like I’d watch a National Geographic nature [...]
Eons ago, when the family television was a grainy box with three stations and rabbit ears, my mother made me put on a blazer and tie and took me down to the local NBC-TV studios in Washington, DC to appear, with about a dozen other kids, as an extra on an obscure and short-lived TV [...]
Were you slapped at your confirmation? We don’t do that anymore and, in this week’s All Things New, I wonder if we need to bring back the slap: Earlier this month, I was serving as deacon at our parish confirmation in Queens. The bishop anointed each of the kids as they came forward and then—I [...]
Would you believe…2003? It’s an Anglican Catholic Our Lady of Walsingham Church near Houston. And this one below? 2008. It’s St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Farragut, Tennessee. Both are part of a growing trend toward more traditional church architecture, according to this piece in the National Catholic Register: “That is an enormous change from [...]
This guy showed up on “Korea’s Got Talent” — yes, there really is such a thing — and just blew people away. It’s not just his singing. It’s also his story. Watch Sung-bong Choi, and be amazed and moved. Footnote: I’m told that the music he is performing was featured in Roland Joffe’s great movie [...]
In fact, the story behind this picture is told right here. As the father pictured above put it: “I’ve always been a religious person, so I pray every day — and that helps me. My family is the light of my life.” Read the story to understand what that means. And keep this family in [...]
“There exists a Christian way of being present in the digital world: this takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others. To proclaim the Gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms, but also to witness consistently, in [...]
A reader sent me the link to this bulletin, which carries the note below from a deacon candidate responding to the disturbing news in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. He was scheduled to be ordained a deacon last weekend, but withdrew at the last minute. His statement: Dear Holy Family Parish: After a great deal [...]
They were ordained Saturday. Details, from the Catholic Courier: As four new permanent deacons in the diocese of Rochester sat down before a round of applause for them had ended, Bishop Matthew H. Clark joked that they lived out Jesus’ words a little too well. “You really should never sit down before the applause is [...]
“We are assessing what went wrong and applying our analysis as we move forward. This past week, I met with our Independent Review Board chairman and discussed the objectivity of our decision processes. I have also met with parishioners, our priests and Chancery staff, as well as the media. These meetings and discussions will continue. [...]
That seems to be the unfortunate thinking among many priests (and, supposedly, deacons), according to this observer from the United Kingdom: I once asked an old faithful Catholic why so few people went to confession these days, and he replied at once: “Because we are never exhorted to do so from the pulpit.” This set [...]
That’s the happy headline from the website for St. Luke’s Episcopal Parish in Bladensburg, Maryland (not far from where I grew up, actually). The website notes: It is with great joy St. Luke’s announces its intention to join the Personal Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. We have been discerning the leading of the Holy [...]
A priest bounded into my cubicle this morning with his iPad. ”You have to see this,” he said breathlessly. He’d downloaded this app, and was almost giddy with excitement. Could we do something like this with the magazine?, he wondered. As he flipped through the pages and fingered the pictures and expanded and compressed graphs, [...]
Ad multos annos, y’all! Details: The new deacons underwent an extensive application and interview process, psychological evaluations and screenings before beginning classes in January 2007. Four and a half years later, they will bring the number of deacons to 53 in the Catholic Diocese of Amarillo. “There are multiple requirements each man must meet before [...]
Several months ago, I posted an item on this man’s unusual journey to the priesthood. Now, his journey is complete. He was ordained with two other men this weekend: A Protestant convert to Catholicism has become the first married priest in the Diocese of Sacramento. He was among three men ordained by Bishop Jaime Soto [...]
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