[Click here for the readings] This weekend in Sacramento, they inducted several people into the California Hall of Fame – including, the Beach Boys, Magic Johnson and now, for the first time, a Catholic priest. His name is Fr. Gregory Boyle. Fr. Greg grew up in Los Angeles. In 1984, he was ordained a Jesuit and a few years later became pastor of an inner city parish. Not long after, he had to confront a reality of life in the... Read more
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and at least one historian has taken the time to look at religion’s role in the war: “One of the things that surprised me was that there were certain dominant ideas, regardless of particular religious affiliation. Ideas about providence, ideas about sin, ideas about judgment. Those were common themes that crossed religious traditions,” George C. Rable, a history professor at the University of Alabama, told CNA on... Read more
It was 70 years ago today — December 10, 1941 — that Thomas Merton arrived at the gatehouse of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky (pictured above much the way it looked then). He wrote about that moment in “The Seven Storey Mountain”: “The Bardstown bus was half full, and I found a somewhat dilapidated seat, and we rode out into the wintry country, the last lap of my journey into the desert…I could not get my... Read more
This year’s anti-Christmas billboard may have touched a nerve — but at least they’re responding creatively. The Catholic League’s press release: Catholic League president Bill Donohue explains why the Catholic League is starting a new initiative aimed at atheists: Approximately 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 96 percent celebrate Christmas. Of the 20 percent who are not Christian, non-believers make up the largest segment, though the number of self-identified atheists is tiny. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, knows... Read more
Take 10 minutes and just watch. Looking for something to connect to this Sunday’s readings? I think this does it, beautifully. Here are glad tidings being proclaimed, and the brokenhearted being healed, in a moving and inspiring way you might not expect. Thank you, Patrick Madrid! Read more
As a New York Times columnist puts it: “For the first time in American history, a major political party may be choosing between two leading presidential candidates neither of whom is Protestant. If current polling holds through the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and beyond, the Republican nomination will come down to a choice between a Latter-day Saint, or Mormon, and a Roman Catholic.” What are the implications of that? Read on: On the one hand, the Mitt Romney/ Newt Gingrich... Read more
At the rate things are going, by the end of this decade a majority of Americans will choose cremation. Details: As Toni Kelly battled lymphoma, first with a bone marrow transplant and then with brutal rounds of chemotherapy, she worried obsessively that her four-year struggle would destroy her family’s finances. Her husband, Doug, refused to consider her pleas to stop pursuing costly therapies. But she knew that after she died, which she did on Sept. 29, there was one way... Read more
It’s a popular fixture in Catholic churches and homes, but the Advent wreath comes with a long history and rich meaning. From the Catholic Sentinel in Portland, OR: Advent is about more than marking an event 2,000 years ago and the wreaths help make that clear. Progressive lighting of candles symbolizes a two-part hope surrounding Jesus’s first coming into the world but also the anticipation of his second coming to judge the living and the dead, says the U.S. bishops’... Read more
You can read all about it here. Evidently, he opted for a Sony S, rather than iPad which he’d used earlier in the year. See for yourself below. Read more
As is the custom in the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre, they ordained transitional deacons today, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, at the 80-year-old facility shared by the two dioceses, the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, New York. The occasion was beautiful but bittersweet: this will likely be the last ordination in that chapel for a long time. The seminary program is merging with the Archdiocese of New York and formation will continue there, beginning next... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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