The Deacon's Bench
My blog neighbor and brother in Holy Orders, Fr. Mike Duffy, takes note (and uses duct tape): Read his reflections on this momentous event, as a new priest welcomes a new pope. Read more
My blog neighbor and brother in Holy Orders, Fr. Mike Duffy, takes note (and uses duct tape): Read his reflections on this momentous event, as a new priest welcomes a new pope. Read more
The man we now know as Pope Francis, preaching on Palm Sunday 2008: Today, here in Buenos Aires, like in Jerusalem on that day, the street made way for Jesus. The street received Him properly. The crowd stood, begged for blessings, blessings for their families, blessings for their businesses, their houses, their autos… Blessing, what does that [really] mean? [It means] that Jesus “speak well” of something, that He approach! That He enter families, hearts, homes, autos, businesses…Jesus out in the... Read more
As usual, John Allen has some great parsing of what happened yesterday and how the new pope reached the magic number of 77 votes: First, cardinals who spoke in pre-conclave interviews about the desirability of electing a pope from outside the West probably saw him as their best bet, especially given the strong support he attracted eight years ago, when he was effectively the runner-up to Pope Benedict XVI. It’s reasonable to surmise that once Bergoglio’s candidacy seemed real, he... Read more
A classic headline this morning, from NBC News: Status quo leader: Same-sex marriage, abortion unlikely under Pope Francis Read more
Complete text, via the Vatican News site: In these three readings I see that there is something in common: it is movement. In the first reading, movement is the journey [itself]; in the second reading, movement is in the up-building of the Church. In the third, in the Gospel, the movement is in [the act of] profession: walking, building, professing. Walking: the House of Jacob. “O house of Jacob, Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” This... Read more
An interesting tidbit from Reuters: The new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is not above the passion his countrymen share for soccer and is an avid a fan of San Lorenzo, one of Argentina’s top clubs. Bergoglio, who took the name Pope Francis when he was elected to the post on Wednesday, received his San Lorenzo membership card after saying mass at a sports complex near the team’s stadium. “He says he lives in a permanent state of suffering for San Lorenzo,” said Oscar Lucchini, an architect and fellow... Read more
By bus. Like always. The scoop, from Cardinal Dolan: Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York spoke Wednesday evening with members of the media following the historic election of the Catholic Church’s new leader. And as usual, the head of the New York Archdiocese quickly got everyone’s attention. Dolan, who shared his thoughts on the process and selection of Pope Francis, called Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who became the first pontiff from the Americas, “a wonderfully simple man” with whom he was “impressed.”... Read more
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is shown washing the feet of women at a maternity hospital on Holy Thursday in 2005. And: look closely. The cardinal appears to be wearing a deacon’s stole. Source. Read more
As I mentioned on Facebook: we are in very good hands: Pope Francis is the first ever from the Americas, an austere Jesuit intellectual who modernized Argentina’s conservative Catholic church. Known until Wednesday as Jorge Bergoglio, the 76-year-old is known as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed. He came close to becoming pope last time, reportedly gaining the second-highest vote total in several rounds of voting before he bowed out of... Read more
Those are the words of Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, from today’s briefing to reporters: “We are living a particularly beautiful and intense moment,” Fr. Lombardi said. “We have reached the final stage of the period that begin last month with Benedict XVI’s renunciation and that will conclude with the election of his successor. We can feel the excitement growing: we can see it and feel it. Yesterday evening there was already a large number of people awaiting the “fumata”,... Read more
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