The findings of a new poll show a split, with several prominent people in the running, including the pope and the president. Take a look: A new Barna Group study illustrates that no single Christian leader captures the attention of the nation’s population. When asked to identify the single most influential Christian leader in the U.S. today, two out of every five Americans (41%) are unable to think of anyone who would meet that description. Billy Graham is the name... Read more
The editor who pilots The Pilot — the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Boston — was profiled this weekend in the Boston Globe: He published a column two weeks ago suggesting that homosexuality is caused by the devil. The uproar had barely faded when, a week later, The Pilot enraged priest abuse victims with a flattering birthday ode to Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the former Boston archbishop and the public face of the scandal. For the past 10 years, [Antonio]... Read more
A couple weeks ago, after much hemming and hawing, I took the plunge and pre-ordered the much-ballyhooed Kindle Fire. Last week, it arrived. Lots of people have been asking me what I think of it. Here goes. This is my first foray into the world of tablets (aside from the paper kind that I scribbled on in grade school). If your bottom line is the bottom line, there’s no denying: the Fire is a steal. (I used an Amazon... Read more
That’s the trenchant phrase Canadian writer Michael Coren uses to characterize some of the Catholics he encounters online — and I know what he means. Snip: There are those who describe themselves as being Catholic, but reject much if not most of what the Church teaches. They have little influence outside of ostensibly Catholic schools and universities, and I expect these troubled types to be upset at me. They see the emergence of the new orthodoxy and know that their... Read more
One of the most famous — or infamous — leaders of the American Catholic Church has retired: Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as Boston’s archbishop in 2002 after the priest sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States, has retired from his subsequent job as head of a major Roman basilica. The Vatican said Monday that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the 80-year-old Law’s resignation as archpriest of St. Mary Major basilica and had named Spanish Monsignor Santos... Read more
That’s the compelling premise behind a new documentary shown recently in a New York film festival. Details: Imagine you are a Catholic priest in your 30s. Suddenly, at your mother’s deathbed, your world is turned completely upside-down. This was Polish Father Romuald Waszkinel experience when he learned that his real name is Yaacov (Jacob) Weksler and that his birth mother was a Jew. His Jewish Mother, Batia, had given him to Polish Catholic neighbors in order to save him from... Read more
Scholars are starting to pick over that question with a large fork and carving knife. Details, from Religious News Service: Despite their reputation as buckle-belted killjoys, the Puritans and Pilgrims knew how to have a good time. They brewed beer, feasted on fowl and enjoyed sex — all in moderation, of course. That’s why some historians believe the 1621 celebration that’s sometimes dubbed the “First Thanksgiving,” was not actually a “thanksgiving” day at all. In fact, some historians even call... Read more
Maybe. That’s the interesting question at the heart of this piece in OSV: Father Shawn McKnight, executive director of the Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, recently wrote that economic factors and the lack of enough priest-instructors are causing seminaries to merge or close, such as the American College of the Immaculate Conception in Leuven, Belgium. Those pressures are squeezing seminaries at the same time that more men are entering them for... Read more
I found this deeply moving: a short video about Our Lady of the Stars, a small community of young men in France with Down Syndrome. I was unable to find more about this group online. Does anyone know more? UPDATE: A couple readers found a link to their website. Check it out. Read more
If anyone was wondering about that when they attended a recent talk by Bishop R. Walker Nickless in Sioux City, they may have gotten some surprising answers: He provided several examples of his experiences dealing with marriage. “I am one of 10 children. I watched my parents grow in their married love for 57 years,” said Bishop Nickless, whose mom died 10 days after his ordination as a bishop. Being the oldest, he noted that he saw both good and... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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