Poll: Obama holds lead among Catholics

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

This, from the Daily Caller: A new poll by a Catholic advocacy group shows President Barack Obama has a slight lead over Gov. Mitt Romney among non-Hispanic Catholics, despite the stalled economy and his 2012 establishment of church regulations requiring them to fund contraception and abortion-related services that they abhor. The poll of 2,629 likely Catholic voters, an unusually large sample, showed that 46.5 percent of non-Hispanic Catholics support Obama, while 45.6 percent support Romney. The poll was commissioned by The... Read more

Best love letter. To Michigan. Ever.

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

I’ve never even been to Michigan, and I’m in love with it. Check out this delightful sing-a-long video produced to promote the state, shot in 50 cities with a gazillion or so people and a whole lotta heart. (And get a load of the altar servers!) Read more

Sign of the times: a new monthly magazine devoted to exorcism

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Who says publishing is a dying industry? Details: With exorcism booming in Poland, Roman Catholic priests have joined forces with a publisher to launch what they claim is the world’s first monthly magazine focused exclusively on chasing out the devil. “The rise in the number or exorcists from four to more than 120 over the course of 15 years in Poland is telling,” Father Aleksander Posacki, a professor of philosophy, theology and leading demonologist and exorcist told reporters in Warsaw... Read more

40 years on: the permanent deacons of Canada

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:56 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Our friends in Canada are marking an auspicious event: the 40th anniversary of the first class of permanent deacons beginning their formation. The Catholic Register has more: Forty years ago this month, the permanent diaconate came to English Canada with the launch of a deacons’ program in the archdiocese of Toronto. That followed the launch of similar programs in the United States, Europe and other countries. The ministry of deacons, which had been important in the early Church, was revived... Read more

40 years on: the permanent deacons of Canada

Last updated on: September 11, 2012 at 10:26 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

Five words, two numbers: how a father’s note on 9/11 reached his family

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

A heartrending new take on September 11, from the Stamford Advocate: The note is just five words and two numbers. Randy Scott scrawled these five words and two numbers on a piece of paper on Sept. 11, 2001, while at work at Euro Brokers Inc. in the World Trade Center. But if a picture is worth a thousand words, these five words and two numbers have changed the picture completely for Scott’s family. Family members refer to it simply as “the note.” The note... Read more

Homily at Fr. Mychal Judge’s funeral: “He is going to be on the other side of death”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

“You know when you step back and see how my friend Mychal died, I’m sure that when we finish grieving, when all this is over and we can put things in perspective, look how that man died. He was right where the action was, where he always wanted to be. He was praying, because in the ritual for anointing, we’re always saying, Jesus come, Jesus forgive, Jesus save. He was talking to God, and he was helping someone. Can you... Read more

Pat Robertson urges man to become Muslim so he can beat his wife

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

It sounds like another headline from The Onion, but no. My conclusion: this is Robertson’s “Benedict Groeschel moment,” and he should quietly unplug his microphone. Details: Once again, Pat Robertson has said something ridiculously offensive and cruel. Past targets have included gays, feminists and pagans, atheists, people with Alzheimer’s, adoptive parents, Haitians and people who don’t pray enough. This time, the televangelist focused his ire on wives who fail to properly obey their husbands. On Monday’s broadcast of Robertson’s television show “The 700 Club,” he answered a question... Read more

“More young men are coming to the diocese to enter seminary than in two generations”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

The story may be different on the coasts. But in Missouri and Kansas, it seems, vocations are going strong: Seven men were ordained this year in the diocese, the largest single-year number in the last 30, said a somewhat mystified but definitely pleased Monsignor Bradley Offutt, diocesan vicar general. Also, 10 men are beginning studying for the priesthood this year. “Here we are in a period of unprecedented upheaval in the diocese. Yet more young men are coming to the... Read more

“Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears…”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Photo: Robert Johnson / Business Insider Read more