From the National Catholic Register: The games were revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1896 and staged, appropriately, in Athens. His inspirational words have been repeated in every succeeding Olympiad: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well.” A French Catholic priest and personal friend... Read more
Details: At 7 on Monday morning, a priest in black robes approached a portal on Second Avenue that dropped down into an underground cavern. Accompanied by about 10 men in safety vests and hard hats, the priest donned similar gear and stepped into a steel mesh cage. As the cage was lowered into the hole, the priest was sweating; he clutched his prayer book to his chest. He stepped out of the cage onto the wet, gritty dirt and looked... Read more
You might be surprised. America magazine has a closer look at a recent CARA study: Some commentators have made assertions about the demographics of religious life in the United States that are not based in fact. Regrettably, such misinformed statements create dichotomies that not only mask the complexity of religious reality, but are patently false. In an article entitled “The Sisters: Two Views,” published in June on the Ethics and Public Policy Center Web site, for example, George Weigel wrote:... Read more
When it involves the fabled Al Smith Dinner in New York, all you have to do is invite President Obama: By tradition, the storied Al Smith Dinner has provided a few hours of comic relief from the angry volleys of the campaign trail — a white-tie charity banquet held in the weeks before Election Day, hosted by the archbishop of New York and featuring speeches by the two presidential candidates on the condition that they lob nothing more than good-natured... Read more
Another visitor from the East popped into our office today: Major Archbishop Baselios Mar Cleemis of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in India. Lovely man. Awesome beard, too. Read more
Details, from Vatican Radio: The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs expressed the bishops’ prayerful solidarity with the Sikh community in the United States following the August 5 shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. “In this time of grief, we Catholics mourn with our Sikh brothers and sisters,” said Bishop Denis Madden, auxiliary bishop of Baltimore. “We share a warm and fruitful friendship, as well as a love of God and a belief in... Read more
They aren’t just playing. They’re praying: The Catholic Church of England and Wales is taking advantage of the Olympic Games to evangelize London locals, the thousands of tourists in the city for the events, and the athletes as well. Speaking to Vatican Radio, James Parker, Catholic executive coordinator for the Olympic Games, reported that not only is daily Mass celebrated within the Olympic Village, it also has the “highest attendance at any of the religious services.” “There are a number... Read more
Yesterday, I posted on the deacon who was going to emcee this historic gathering. Now, the Los Angeles Times has a wrapup of the event: Touted as the “largest celebration of the Virgin Mary in a generation,” tens of thousands of believers filled the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday afternoon to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe, the long-revered symbol of the Catholic Church. Co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Knights of Columbus, the roughly three-hour long,... Read more
Details, from the Ventura County Star in California: Each time Pat Coulter steps before an audience to speak, he takes three deep breaths and says a prayer taught to him by the late actor and speaker Pat Buttram. “Lord, give me the wisdom to say the right stuff, then nudge me when I’ve said enough,” Coulter, an ordained deacon at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Moorpark, said silently as he stepped from the pulpit during the 8 a.m. Mass Friday morning. Standing... Read more
This eye-roll-inducing item comes from my blog neighbor Joanne McPortland, who is much more charitable and forgiving than I am: “Sikhism is a religion that originated about 500 years ago in Italy [sic].” ~ CBS This Morning reporter on the shootings at a Wisconsin Sikh temple I’ve been bemoaning the media’s inability to get Catholicism right for a very long time, but it struck me this morning that maybe there really isn’t a specifically anti-Catholic bias out there in journalism land. The media’s... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In