An inspirational story of the season from Chicago: The Rev. Daniel Mallette, the 80-year-old South Side priest beaten and robbed in his church’s rectory earlier this month, joked and handed out gifts to children this morning and declared, “It feels great being back.” With Mallette sitting in a chair, much like Santa Claus, the children approached one by one to receive a Christmas gift and exchange a few words with the priest. “This is the job I always wanted,” he told... Read more
With Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha about to be declared a saint, new attention is focusing on the American boy whose miraculous healing is making that possible: Pope Benedict XVI has decreed that a Sandy Point boy’s recovery from the flesh-eating bacteria that nearly killed him in 2006 is a miracle that can be attributed to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha’s help, making possible the canonization of the first American Indian saint in the Catholic Church. Monsignor Paul A. Lenz, the vice postulator for... Read more
Details, from a new Pew study: The study finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages in more than 200 countries around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 6.9 billion 2010 global population. Christians are so geographically widespread that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity. In 1910, two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe (according to historical data from the Center for the Study of... Read more
This will be big news, especially in my neck of the woods. Blessed Kateri was a New Yorker — okay, she was from upstate — but a small statue of her is prominent in the raredos behind our altar in Queens. (That’s particularly unusual, because our church was dedicated in 1940, three years before she was declared “venerable.”) I have to wonder: how long until girls begin choosing “Kateri” for their confirmation name? (Or have they already started? I haven’t... Read more
It’s named Siri. Still stuck for a (pricey) stocking stuffer? Get a load of Apple’s Christmas ad for the iPhone. Read more
…with this very clever “Angry Birds” – themed light display. As the YouTube posting notes: Running on two computers and 10 Light-o-rama 16 channel controllers, uses more than 20,000 lights and less than one cent of electricity per game. Audio is broadcast on 99.1FM, and the controller has a long enough cord for people to play in their cars on the street. Easier than the iPhone version, and bigger too. What ever happened to “Peace on earth, good will to... Read more
It’s a journey more and more Holocaust survivors are undertaking: As Nazi troops imposed their terror on Warsaw, an 18-year-old Polish girl slipped into a Warsaw church with an elderly rabbi to teach him how to dip his hand in holy water and cross himself. The rabbi, his newly shaven beard leaving his cheeks white, approached the lesson with gravity, skimming the water in the church font and crossing himself with slow reverence, hoping this would help him pass as... Read more
It begins with the creator of this popular British series — and it will become a part of the storyline in the upcoming season: Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes has become Vice President of the Catholic Association of Performing Arts. The announcement was made during a special centenary dinner at Alan Hall in Chelsea. During the evening, Lord Fellowes said that Catholicism would be entering the storyline of his popular ITV series “Downton Abbey” at some point in the near future.... Read more
This is what happens when a group of senior citizens decides to be cool. Place: a Target Store in Lawrence, Kansas. Music: “Last Christmas,” from the cast of “Glee.” Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Read more
[Click here for readings] Someone once told me that this event we have just heard in the gospel has been depicted in art more than any other in scripture, with the possible exception of the crucifixion. I’m not surprised. The Annunciation stirs the imagination in powerful ways – the human intersecting with the Divine in a moment unlike any other in history. It almost defies illustration. But countless artists have tried. Very often, you will see Annunciation in a painting... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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