How awesome is this? H/T Crescat Details, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: By all accounts, Annie Clark, 7, a first-grader at Wilson Christian Academy in West Mifflin, is a hard-working and determined student who makes a point of learning from her mistakes and strives for perfection in her work. So on the surface, it should come as no surprise that she won a national handwriting award from the Zaner-Bloser language arts and reading company. That is, of course, if you didn’t... Read more
A solid, sobering read by Peggy Noonan this Friday — and one that should make a lot of people sit and look around and worry: People in politics talk about the right track/wrong track numbers as an indicator of public mood. This week Gallup had a poll showing only 24% of Americans feel we’re on the right track as a nation. That’s a historic low. Political professionals tend, understandably, to think it’s all about the economy—unemployment, foreclosures, we’re going in the... Read more
It took him two years, working in his living room, but he created a hand-crafted church organ that he plays every Sunday for a Catholic parish in Houston. Details: Ben Crandall gently lifted the hand-carved top off the cherry-wood organ and laid it to the side. He reached in and pulled two flutelike tubes from the 165 wood and metal pipes inside. He took out another smaller pipe and used a knife to gently scrape antimonial lead off the bottom. He... Read more
Deacon Roy Harrington, from Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Seattle, dropped me a line in response to this post and the comments it provoked. I reprint his e-mail here with his permission. Dcn. G. +++ Fr. Tim was ordained for the Archdiocese of Seattle after completing theology at the NAC in Rome. He was our parochial vicar at OLL back in the early 1980’s. He and Archbishop Sartain became good friends in Rome and they continue to... Read more
In the wake of the Romeny/Rosen kerfuffle, Elizabeth Duffy crunches some numbers: My friend, Beth, stays home from work, homeschools her children, and has a Master’s Degree in Biology. Her neighbor, who was going back to work after some time at home, asked Beth if she’d babysit for her son. Thinking it might be good social interaction for her own kids, Beth tentatively agreed. “What do you want to be paid?” her neighbor asked. “What’s the going rate these days?”... Read more
After yesterday’s bombshell, here’s the statement today from Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston: I have been deeply saddened by the priest child abuse scandal that has been connected to a handful of my former colleagues and friends from St. Charles Seminary. Over the years, I have felt devastation for both the victims and the church as I learned about the terrible actions they took with innocent victims. To now be unfairly included in that group and to hear the... Read more
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious just posted the following statement on its website: “The presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was stunned by the conclusions of the doctrinal assessment of LCWR by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Because the leadership of LCWR has the custom of meeting annually with the staff of CDF in Rome and because the conference follows canonically-approved statutes, we were taken by surprise. This is a moment of great import for religious... Read more
That was the headline for the picture above, which was reposted the other day in the excellent website run by Deacon Eric Stoltz, Conciliaria, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. As the post notes: On April 16, after a long period of negotiations with leading conservative segregationists of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, several of whom backed down from their opposition to his plans to integrate the parochial schools, Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel excommunicated three defiant... Read more
“While there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human... Read more
You may remember this post from last month, from a man in formation who expressed his frustration over the classes he was taking. It generated a lot of comments — and now the man himself has added one to that post: Wow! I think that I ignited a firestorm. I am the author of the post which prompted this particular discussion (A man in formation writes: “I’m quickly becoming frustrated…I’m bored to death”). Yep, that’s me. Many of you have... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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