If you’re dreading what you’ll hear proclaimed Sunday, you have plenty of company. From George Miller, at Catholic Online: As a past lector ministry head, I can recall times where my pastor agreed to make regular lector training and enrichment meetings mandatory. And when only half the lectors showed up despite his requirement, the reaction among the church’s hierarchy was, “Oh well. It is what it is.” Mediocrity is the norm for lectors in too many churches. There are usually... Read more
…and it’s right here in New York City. At the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, they’re recreated the gardens that inspired the great French impressionist. Below, a replica of Monet’s home sits in the middle of a garden display. Read more here. Read more
The Chicago Tribune looks this weekend at some trends in Catholic education — and finds, despite the hurdles, hope: If what has happened to St. Scholastica Academy in Rogers Park illustrates the grand rise and decline of Catholic schooling over the past century, supporters hope Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Pilsen is more telling of its future. St. Scholastica, a girls Catholic high school founded in the 1860s, has struggled for years with low enrollment and will close this week after... Read more
The iconic photo on the right was first published 40 years ago, on 8 June 1972. On the left is the little girl Kim Phuc today. Read what happened to her. Read more
[Click here for readings.] For the audio recording of this homily, click the green arrow below. [audio:http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/deaconsbench/files/2012/06/HOMILY060312.mp3|titles=HOMILY060312] This is graduation season, and you see a lot in the news about commencement speeches. Last week, I spent some time watching videos of some of the speeches online. There were the usual famous names – mostly TV personalities who make a living by speaking: people like Oprah Winfrey, Brian Williams, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric. Virtually every one of them said some variation... Read more
Details: A standing-room-only crowd gathered for Mass at Saint Lawrence Mission on May 27, not only to celebrate Pentecost but also in memory of Deacon Aniceto Armendariz, who was murdered seven years ago. “He was an example to us of the faithful in God in his ministry,” said Father Stanislaw Herba, pastor of the mission as well as Saint Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Park City. Deacon Armendariz was shot to death on Sept. 25, 2005 as he... Read more
Just in time for summer: take a look at the shocking full-face picture here, and read the account in the New England Journal of Medicine of the 69-year-old truck driver shown above: Ultraviolet A (UVA) rays transmit through window glass, penetrating the epidermis and upper layers of dermis. Chronic UVA exposure can result in thickening of the epidermis and stratum corneum, as well as destruction of elastic fibers. This photoaging effect of UVA is contrasted with photocarcinogenesis. Although exposure to... Read more
Details: The 13th annual West Coast Muslim-Catholic Dialogue continued its study of sacred texts with presentations on the prophets Hud and Habbakuk as well as a joint discussion on the qualities of the believer in Islam and Catholicism. The meeting was held at the Center for Spiritual Development in Orange, California on May 22-23. Bishop Carlos Sevilla, S.J., retired bishop of Yakima, Washington, and Imam Muzammil H. Siddiqi, Ph.D., of the Islamic Society of Orange County, presided. Siddiqi lectured on... Read more
That’s how Michael Gerson begins this surprisingly sympathetic piece in this morning’s Washington Post, and he adds: Sometimes he is gaffe-prone comic relief. Sometimes he is the possessor of the worst geopolitical judgment in Washington — as when he opposed the Osama bin Laden raid or advocated the partition of Iraq. And sometimes he seems to be the last genuine human being in American politics. This peculiar humanness was on display just before Memorial Day, when Biden spoke to a... Read more
The group released a statement this morning, which is reproduced below in its entirety from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious website: The national board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) held a special meeting in Washington, DC from May 29-31 to review, and plan a response to, the report issued to LCWR by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The board members raised concerns about both the content of the doctrinal assessment and the process by... Read more
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