This news made my week: The internet is abuzz today with a photo of Candy Corn Oreos making the rounds. The Oreo camp has confirmed to HuffPost Food that they are indeed real and they will be available exclusively at Target starting next week for a suggested retail price of $3.59. I can’t put it any better than this: Read more
From the Associated Press: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is selling a property known as the cardinal’s residence to an adjacent Roman Catholic university for $10 million. Saint Joseph’s University announced Friday that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire the nearly 9-acre estate. The purchase will close in a few weeks. The property includes a massive three-story main building and two other structures. The university did not specify long-term plans for the land. The residence is one of... Read more
Details: Catholics in England and Wales are being invited to pause for a moment of prayer every first Friday of the month as an act of faith and public witness. The invitation has been made by Rt Rev Kieran Conry, Bishop of Arundel and Brighton and Chair of the Bishops’ Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis. Speaking ahead of Home Mission Sunday, which falls on 16 September 2012, he said: “On Home Mission Sunday we reflect on our role in the mission of... Read more
Details: A local Catholic church appears to have violated IRS rules — and Catholic doctrine — by endorsing a presidential candidate in a church bulletin. St. Raphael Catholic Church on the city’s East Side might have violated an Internal Revenue Service rule that prohibits tax-exempt churches from taking sides when it comes to candidates seeking political office in its Aug. 5 bulletin. “I am asking all of you to go to the polls and be united in replacing our present... Read more
In case you missed it Thursday night, video below. Text follows. Text, courtesy Fr. Mike (thanks!) With a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” let us close this convention by praying for this land that we so cherish and love: Let us Pray. Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank you for showering your blessings upon this our beloved nation. Bless all here present, and... Read more
That’s the impression you get from Rebecca Hamilton, who talks about what it’s like to be thought of as “extinct”: It is not possible to be a pro-life Democrat and be well-liked or supported by your party. The pressures other Democrats put on pro life Democrats to compromise their beliefs are enough to squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond. Unfortunately what happens in practice is that they far too often manage to squeeze the diamond of a pro... Read more
Details: Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn today became the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official convicted during the church’s decades-long child sexual abuse scandal. Following a short non-jury trial, Jackson County Circuit Court Judge John Torrence convicted Finn of one misdemeanor count of failing to report suspicions of child abuse but acquitted him on another count of failing to report. Torrence sentenced Finn to two years of probation then suspended the sentence, meaning that if Finn completes the unsupervised probation without any... Read more
In today’s New York Times, Margaret Carlson captures an experience all-too-familiar to many of us: packing up the family home to sell it. It’s gorgeous and heart-breaking. Carlson has the makings here of a great memoir: I had left the house exactly as it was and exactly as they wished, with my brother, Jimmy, brain-damaged by an epileptic seizure at birth, at the center of it. My parents had created a world in a quiet suburb of Harrisburg, Pa., in... Read more
That would be Art Modell, one-time owner of the Baltimore Ravens, who died this week at the age of 87. George P. Matysek, Jr. of the Catholic Review remembers him: A few days before the then-owner of the Baltimore Ravens was to be honored by the National Catholic Educational Association in 2003, I was assigned to find out why this Jewish businessman from Brooklyn, N.Y., was spending part of his fortune boosting Catholic schools in inner-city Baltimore. Shortly after moving... Read more
They’ve given us everything from fruitcake and fudge to candy and soap and even bonsai trees and caskets. (Of course, let’s not forget ale!) Now, the Trappists are getting into the ice cream business. Details: Scrumptious cookies, artisan butter, and fine butter-based candies: these are some of the products of Hokkaido’s Trappist abbey for male Religious, and they are famous throughout Japan. Last year, these Trappists launched a new line of soft-serve ice cream. At 320 yen (about US$4),... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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