The ubiquitous song by Carly Rae Jepsen that defined the summer is here redefined in a delightful arrangement for choir and orchestra. It’s performed by the 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra, a volunteer pickup ensemble conducted by Arianne Abela in New Haven, Connecticut. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet. As improbable as it seems, this rendition rocks. Enjoy! Read more
Well, you can do that in Minnesota. From the New York Times: If you make a beeline to the stalls, you might miss the pregnancy test dispenser fastened to a wall in the women’s restroom of Pub 500 in Mankato, Minn. There, with the swipe of a credit card, for a $3 fee, you can use a nearby toilet and learn whether you may proceed in good conscience with the martini you were about to order. It is the first... Read more
And the beat goes on. I confess that I haven’t read a lot of Kerouac, and when I did I was in college, using all my free time to stay one step ahead of expulsion (my grades were terrible) and trying much too hard to be the next F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Caffeine, not gin, was my drug of choice.) Anyway, this essay by Robert Dean Lurie makes me think I should revisit Jack: “The Catholic Church is a weird church,”... Read more
Details, from Gazette.net: A complaint filed by an atheist group asking for the removal of Bladensburg’s Peace Cross — a longtime community fixture dedicated to Prince George’s County veterans — has stoked debate and opposition from officials and residents across the county. The Peace Cross was dedicated in 1925 in honor of the Prince George’s County World War I veterans. It stands 40 feet tall with a large gold star in the center. Its base contains the words “Valor,” “Endurance,”... Read more
Author Steven Crowder (shown here with his bride) writes about it all here, but saves a zinger for what happened the morning after Our wedding was perfect. Our wedding night was nothing short of amazing. I write this on a plane heading into a tropical paradise with the most beautiful woman to have walked the planet earth. I know everybody says that their bride was the “most beautiful in the world.” They’re wrong. I win. I’d like to tell you... Read more
Details: Matthew Keyser has been youth minister at Holy Spirit Catholic Church for several years, but he felt called to do more. On Saturday, Keyser was one of 18 men ordained as deacons in the Owensboro Diocese, which covers the Western Kentucky region. The ordination took place at Holy Spirit, which was packed with about 1,000 people for the ceremony. “There’s a lot of excitement,” Keyser said. “I kind of feel like it’s graduation day.” In the Catholic tradition, deacons... Read more
It was five years ago yesterday, 14 September 2007, that Pope Benedict’s motu proprio on the Extraordinary Form of the Mass took effect. Summorum Pontificum was designed to make the Mass in Latin more widely available. So…how’s that working out? One blogger, David Alexander, in the Diocese of Arlington, has taken a pretty exhaustive and detailed look at that question and offers some hard numbers about how many people actually want the “Latin Mass” — and what can be done... Read more
Details, from the New York Daily News: The Archdiocese of New York wants to cash in on a proposed upzoning of midtown by selling the lucrative air rights to its landmark properties, including venerable St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Church officials are lobbying city agencies to be allowed to transfer their development rights to any building in the zone, rather than just to buildings directly adjacent. Developers would pay dearly for the air rights from such landmarked buildings as St. Bartholomew’s and... Read more
[This weekend, we mark the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which serves as the feast day for my parish, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. We are in the middle of a centennial celebration for the parish, so we’re marking that feast in a special way at all the weekend Masses. Below is my homily for the occasion, which has less to do with this weekend’s scripture and more to do with honoring the patroness of our parish — DGK]... Read more
September 15, 2012 by Deacon Greg Kandra With all the news this week about the retirement of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitzof Lincoln, Nebraska, one detail that went largely unmentioned was his diocese’s lack of deacons. The diocese has a significant number of priests, of which the bishop is justly proud. But deacons are another matter. According to the diocesan website, there are 150 priests serving 134 parishes and 96,000 Catholics. There are 44 seminarians and 141 religious sisters. The number of... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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