The Deacon's Bench
Call me crazy, but I thought this was sweet and unexpectedly uplifting. Read more
Call me crazy, but I thought this was sweet and unexpectedly uplifting. Read more
I saw this last night on a friend’s Facebook page and spent part of the morning trying, without success, to find the artist. It may be the most striking, moving, uplifting and utterly human depiction of The Visitation I’ve ever seen. As we prepare for Christ’s coming, shouldn’t we all be feeling this way? This is Advent. UPDATE: Well, part of the mystery of the picture’s origin has been solved. Searching in Google, I found the shot below, which I... Read more
It’s almost time for one of the biggest Marian feasts on the calendar, and in parts of Texas that will bring people into the streets for a colorful celebration: Wearing an emblem of the Virgin Mary on the front of their elaborate costumes and a guardian angel on the back, young dancers kick, march, stomp and swing their arms along with the beat of a tip-tapping drum. “Each step is like praying the rosary,” said Manuel Sanchez, leader of a 40-person... Read more
How’s this for a cute riff on the Christmas story: a nod to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but with an evangelical twist. Enjoy. Read more
It’s happening at a Catholic school in Canada: First it was playground balls, and then it was kilts. Now another Ontario school has joined the bandwagon of proposed bans by saying no to tight-fitting Lululemon yoga pants. Some students at St. Joseph Catholic High School in Ottawa have kept wearing the yoga pants, even after the school told them this week they do not meet its dress code. Students turned to Facebook in their campaign, urging classmates to keep wearing... Read more
Here’s something we don’t encounter very often: a story about seminarians preparing to get married. They are Greek Catholic, in Ukraine, and the story comes from the pages of the current issue of ONE magazine: In the Greek Catholic tradition, seminarians are permitted to marry prior to ordination. But some still choose a life of celibacy; if they do, they cannot marry after they are ordained. All the Kosylivtsi priests decided to remain celibate, including Father Holiney and the newly... Read more
That’s according to recommendations presented to the bishop yesterday. Details: In a sweeping reorganization of Catholic parish life that will hit the suburbs as well as landmark churches in Detroit’s urban core, the Archdiocese of Detroit unveiled tentative proposals Wednesday night to cluster, close and merge some four dozen parishes in the next five years. Several Detroit-area Catholic landmark churches are threatened with closure in the next several years, based on recommendations made by a layperson’s panel to Archbishop Allen... Read more
Or, in this case, perhaps it’s “wurst nativity set.” Check out this site for more — including one made of SPAM. Read more
Details: Catholic University is allowed to segregate students’ living quarters into same-sex dormitories, according to a ruling handed down Tuesday. The District’s Office of Human Rights said that same-sex dorms do not constitute discrimination or disparate treatment of either sex. The controversy over same-sex dorms erupted this summer when Catholic University President John Garvey announced plans to implement a same-sex policy for the schools 17 dorms, saying he hoped to reduce incidents of binge drinking and casual sexual hookups. Law... Read more
Hot on the heels of the new Roman Missal translation, the Bishop of Covington, Roger J. Foys, has issued a decree clarifying the proper gestures and postures for Mass, according to rubrics laid out in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. As he notes: The rituals of the Roman Church, of which we are a part, call for specific words to be used as well as particular actions and gestures, both on the part of the priest and the... Read more
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