A huge h/t to The Anchoress for bringing this to my attention. It drives home, with blinding clarity, the fact that the issue of the HHS mandate is not about contraception. I mentioned that when I preached on this topic some weeks back, and it cannot be said enough. This goes far beyond pills and condoms and tubal ligation. It goes to the heart of who we are as a people. From Charles Kadlec, writing in Forbes: Before our very... Read more
New York’s new cardinal shared some thoughts on his new title in an exclusive column in this morning’s New York Post (which put the archbishop on its front page yesterday, below). Take it away, Cardinal Dolan: Most people have heard the famous story of Christ washing the feet of his apostles at the Last Supper. Jesus said to these 12, his closest friends and followers, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash... Read more
From Abilene, KS comes this intriguing look at how preachers of various denominations — including Catholic — sometimes adjust their sermons, depending on the congregation: For churches with more than one Sunday worship service, the sermon doesn’t change much from one service to the next. While the basic message stays the same, there are subtle changes in the sermon and its delivery to fit the different audiences that each service attracts, several local pastors said. “The sermon is the same... Read more
From the Philadelphia Inquirer: U.S. Catholic bishops have vowed to fight the Obama administration’s compromise on insurance coverage for contraception and sterilization, denouncing it as “coercive,” “insulting,” “unconstitutional,” “belligerent,” and “dangerous.” Yet there is evidence the sterilization services the bishops oppose have been provided by many Catholic hospitals across the country, including a few in the Philadelphia area. Some evidence comes from news reports about bishops cracking down. In Texas in 2008, for example, two hospitals were ordered to stop... Read more
It’s a question a lot of people are pondering these days, and Terry Mattingly chatted recently with a leading church architect who’s given it some serious attention: ”It would be hard to imagine a more symbolic project than this one,” said Matthew Alderman, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s classical design program and an architect at Cram and Ferguson Architects in Concord, Mass. The firm specializes in traditional church designs. ”What we are going to see at the... Read more
During our trip last week, we visited the Basilica Shrine of Mary Queen of the Universe, just outside Disney World, and I noticed this unusual crest hanging in the narthex: The Latin translates as “The Love of Christ urges us on.” And the predominant image just above that is Joseph, Mary and Jesus journeying to Egypt — a fitting motif for a shrine that was established to serve the millions of travelers who pass through central Florida every year. Read more
Remember St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis? They launched an extraordinary hospitality campaign during the Super Bowl, opening their doors to anyone and everyone. How’d it go? Take a look. Read more
Some happy news from across the pond: A few years ago he was a roadie with a band, living what he admits was a rock’n’roll lifestyle. Today, 42-year-old Rob Hunt is training for the Catholic priesthood in a seminary in central London. It’s a very different way of life from what he’s been used to. Having been raised a Catholic, he stopped going to Mass for a long time. There were, he says, “a few relationships”, including one with a... Read more
[Click here for readings.] Audio: click green arrow to listen. [audio:http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/deaconsbench/files/2012/02/HOMILY021912.mp3|titles=HOMILY021912] His name was Andrew Horton. Chances are, most New Yorkers would never have heard of him. But he gained some attention a couple of weeks ago for the tragic way in which he died. Firefighters discovered his body in the rubble of a subway tunnel fire near Lexington and 63rd in early February. They quickly learned his identity — that he was 43 years old, had grown up in... Read more
This statistic should raise a few eyebrows: It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage. Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women... Read more
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