Details: A Catholic priest in Australia has publicly admitted that he has been married for a year and claimed “there are more like me.” “So I’ve fallen in love and I’ve got married and it’s outside of most people’s awareness, but I’m sure people within the church could have had a suspicion,” Father Kevin Lee told Australia’s 7News, a partner of NBC News. Lee, a priest for 20 years, told his congregation that he had been living a secret double life... Read more
That’s the side-splitting punchline Kathleen Turner delivers in the new movie “The Perfect Family.” Are you laughing yet? [Crickets chirping.] Judging from the trailer, the movie traffics in stereotypical insults and anti-Catholic bigotry that would be offensive if they weren’t so predictable, cliched and obvious. But don’t take my word for it. See the clip below. It opens Friday. (Awaiting Bill Donohue’s press release on this in 3, 2, 1…) UPDATE: Variety has a review, with more details: Although peppered... Read more
You may remember the story about Msgr. Frank Bognanno, who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro recently. He’s also a cancer survivor. Now he’s in the news again: Three weeks after the Iowa Senate rejected a Dubuque anti-abortion activist for a seat on Iowa Board of Medicine, Gov. Terry Branstad has nominated a prominent Catholic priest for the spot. Msgr. Frank Bognanno, the pastor at Des Moines’ Christ the King Catholic Church, has spoken against abortion, which his faith condemns. The medical board,... Read more
A recent study from CARA says, “Yes”: With accumulated educational debt increasing by five percent yearly in the United States, the research was designed with two main goals: 1) to learn more about the impact of student loans on the men and women who are coming to religious life today. 2) to learn about the policy and practices of the religious institutes regarding educational debt and to learn from their experiences. The study has found that our national educational debt problem... Read more
From John Allen: A Rome conference in late April hinted that the Vatican may be moving towards a more restrictive posture on annulments, the procedure in church law for declaring a marriage null and void, which some critics refer to as “Catholic divorce.” If so, the fallout could have special significance for the United States, home to just 6 percent of the world’s Catholic population but accounting for roughly two-thirds of the 60,000 annulments issued by church courts each year.... Read more
And one of them, Bishop-elect Paul Sanchez, is not only the territorial vicar for my parish; he’s also the son of a deacon. The press release: Pope Benedict XVI has appointed two priests of the Diocese of Brooklyn – Msgr. Raymond Chappetto, 66, and Msgr. Paul Sanchez, 65 – as auxiliary bishops of Brooklyn. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, made the announcement public today in Washington, D.C. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will ordain the new bishops... Read more
God bless you, Peggy McAlpine. Read her story here. And watch her break a world record below. Read more
I got an email the other day alerting me to a music institute happening on Long Island next month and, while I’m not in the habit of plugging this sort of thing here, this time I’ll make an exception because I know it’s just got to be good. Because: one of the teachers is the music director at my parish, David Close (a.k.a. The Maestro). Enough said. (Just ask anyone who’s heard our choir or attended one of our Christmas... Read more
Good luck. You’re in my prayers. Read more
This morning Mark Shea tackled a tough subject with a kind of grace and compassion that couldn’t help but leave me impressed. There’s a benevolent wisdom here, and mercy, too: One of the people I admire most in the world, who I regard as an inspiration and, very likely, as a saint was a gay guy who lived here in Seattle named Perry Lorenzo. You can get something of a sense of the man from his blog. Dunno if he was... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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