The Deacon's Bench
From Catholic News Service comes this excellent video, featuring brief profiles of five of the men who have just arrived at the North American College in Rome to begin studies for the priesthood. Take a look. Read more
From Catholic News Service comes this excellent video, featuring brief profiles of five of the men who have just arrived at the North American College in Rome to begin studies for the priesthood. Take a look. Read more
One-time papal contender Cardinal Martini has died: Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a renowned biblical scholar and former archbishop of Milan, died Aug. 31 at the age of 85 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Pope Benedict XVI met privately with the cardinal during a visit to Milan in June, and was informed of his ailing health Aug. 30, the Vatican press office said. The cardinal was a prolific author whose books were best-sellers in Italy and included everything... Read more
From his blog: With firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, let us pray: Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, we beg your continued blessings on this sanctuary of freedom, and on all of those who proudly call America home. We ask your benediction upon those yet to be born, and on those who are about to see you at the end of this life. Bless those families whose ancestors arrived on these shores generations ago,... Read more
This e-mail arrived today, from a nurse, regarding the Fr. Benedict Groeschel story: I have been thinking of him alot lately– I say the rosary at 9 pm when he leads it on the radio. He reminds me of the sweet religious that I was privileged to take care of at a Dominican nursing facility. The incident re his off-base statement is not uncommon in the elderly, but I found that it is very hard for those without a medical... Read more
New Jersey Star Ledger writer Tris McCall describes what happens in the star’s latest concert: The lights went down, and we were in Troyes Cathedral, or perhaps Fordham University. A gigantic glowing crucifix, several stories high, hung over the stage. It was the centerpiece of a handsome Old World church built of light and shadow on the tall video screens at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Monks in heavy robes chanted as a huge smoking censer swung over the sold-out... Read more
I had meetings at the parish tonight, followed by Benediction, so missed this news when it broke earlier. Hopefully, this brings this whole unhappy chapter to a close. Below is the full statement from the Friars and Fr. Benedict: Statement from the Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal: The Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal sincerely apologizes for the comments made by Fr. Benedict Groeschel in an interview released August 27 by the National Catholic Register. In... Read more
Just posted on their website in place of the Fr. Groeschel interview: Child sexual abuse is never excusable. The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel’s comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our publication of that comment was an editorial mistake, for which we sincerely apologize. Given Father Benedict’s stellar history over many years, we released his... Read more
Following this bombshell, a statement was released this afternoon from Archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling (h/t to Fr. Michael Duffy): “The comments made by Father Benedict Groeschel that appeared on the website of the National Catholic Register are simply wrong. Although he is not a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, what Father Groeschel said cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. The sexual abuse of a minor is a crime, and whoever commits that crime deserves to be prosecuted to... Read more
A compelling read, from First Things: Early in the evening of May 28, 2010, I am attending Mass in the majestic Basilica di Sant’Apollinare next to the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome. From Utah I have come as a scholar to deliver a paper at an international conference on the work of the great Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, and I have come as a tourist to see the Eternal City for the first time. Mass is being... Read more
A look at the man who will be praying at both political conventions this year, from the Washington Post: Catholic bishops in 2010 badly wanted to buff the Church’s battered image. So they ditched their usual succession system and picked the jovial Tim Dolan as their president. Their investment has paid off in spades: Democrats confirmed Tuesday that the cardinal will give the benediction at their convention in Charlotte, N.C., next week — a coveted task Dolan had already agreed to perform for the... Read more
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