Earlier, I posted on my visit to St. Monica’s in Dallas, which has just completed a lengthy renovation. It will be rededicated later this month. I paid a visit to the parish Facebook page and found some truly impressive pictures of the renovation in progress. Check ’em out. Read more
From the New York Times, some thoughts from another conclave cardinal: The cavernous nave of St. Peter’s Basilica was nearly empty when Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan arrived Sunday morning, shortly after dawn, a fading moon still hanging in the sky, and red streaks of sunlight illuminating the facade. Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, is a morning person — most days, he likes to get up at 5 and walk or exercise before his morning prayers — and on this last... Read more
One of the cardinals often being mentioned for pope granted an exclusive interview to Reuters recently, and shared his thoughts about the future of the Church: The Roman Catholic Church must open itself up to women in the next pontificate, giving them more leadership positions in the Vatican and beyond, according to a senior cardinal who will be influential in electing the next pope. In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 69, an Argentine, also said the next pope... Read more
Details: Cardinal Keith O’Brien, forced to resign by the pope last week, has admitted to sexual misconduct and issued a sweeping apology to individuals he has “offended” as well as to the Catholic church and Scottish people. In a short statement issued soon after 5pm on Sunday, O’Brien admitted “there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”. The former archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh made... Read more
Just a brief thank you to the good deacons of Dallas, who made me feel so welcome yesterday. I dropped in to speak to their annual Deacon Congress, held at the recently (and beautifully) renovated St. Monica’s Catholic Church. (Check the website for the before and after renovation pictures. Truly impressive!.) Father Stephen Bierschenk, Deacon John O’Leary and Deacon Brian Mitchell made me feel most at home, and Bishop Kevin Farrell stopped by to celebrate the concluding liturgy. Preaching on... Read more
An interesting overview, from a variety of voices (including some cardinals) from the New York Times: The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, who last week renounced what for nearly 600 years has been a lifelong office, will reverberate for years to come and could change the nature of the modern papacy, starting with the election of his successor. Vatican experts and some church leaders said that Benedict’s decision holds the potential to set limits for future popes, to make them more subject... Read more
David Gibson does some digging into the question and finds some interesting nuggets of history: Ghanaian cardinal Peter Turkson is frequently mentioned amid all the speculation about who might succeed Pope Benedict XVI. If picked, some would see him as the first African and the first black pontiff in the nearly 2,000-year history of the papacy. But in all that time has there really never been a black pope? Or an African pope? It depends on what you mean by “black”... Read more
The Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic takes note of recent papal news, waxes nostalgically about his Catholic upbringing (complete with Dominican nuns) and then concludes: I consider myself Catholic, lock, stock and barrel, with this technical loophole: I cannot believe in God. I refuse to call myself an atheist, however, because that indicates too great a certainty about the unknowable. My beliefs were formed long ago from good-hearted Dominican sisters, and many better-qualified RCs might disagree. One of the few Catholic... Read more
From AMERICA magazine: A diaconate for women should be considered as a new role for women in the church. Cardinal Walter Kasper made this proposal during a study day discussing how to involve more women in church life, convened as part of the spring assembly of the German Bishops Conference in the city of Trier, in western Germany, on Feb. 21. Kasper spoke of a “deaconess” role that would be different from the classic deacon but could include pastoral, charitable,... Read more
From Catholic Online: Benedict, who has retained his papal name rather than returning to Ratzinger as expected, spent his first few hours watching television and strolling through the papal villa. After his final goodbye, the Holy Father boarded a helicopter which spirited him away to the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo. After arriving, he ate dinner, then watched television coverage of his departure, which was being broadcast on virtually every channel. “He really appreciated the coverage,” Federico Lombardi, a... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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