The Deacon's Bench
Below, the first pictures of the recent ordination of deacons in the Diocese of Toledo. You can read and see more at this link. Congratulations! Ad multos annos! Photos by Laurie Stevens Bertke Read more
Below, the first pictures of the recent ordination of deacons in the Diocese of Toledo. You can read and see more at this link. Congratulations! Ad multos annos! Photos by Laurie Stevens Bertke Read more
Really? Seems so. Details: A Catholic priest from a small Mexican town has turned on his own congregation armed with a watergun which was loaded with holy water. Father Juan Ramon Hernandez gives mass at a church in Acatlan. He became so saddened by the seemingly daily drug-related killings and violence he decided to take a stand… with a water gun. “Let’s pray to change the heart of the people who use violence and kill other people,” he said. “Let’s... Read more
Below, the first pictures of the recent ordination of deacons in the Diocese of Toledo. You can read and see more at this link. Congratulations! Ad multos annos! Photos by Laurie Stevens Bertke Read more
“Viewing life as a “zero sum” game, in which advancing one’s interests requires putting aside the needs of others, can lead to callous unconcern for anyone who is especially weak, defenseless, and in need of our help. The unborn child, the aging parent who some call a “burden” on our medical system, the allegedly “excess” embryo in the fertility clinic, the person with a disability, the cognitively impaired accident victim who needs assistance in receiving food and water to live—each... Read more
The following was sent to me and Deacon Bill Ditewig via Facebook from Brian Gadbois in Charlton, Massachusetts: I read Deacon Greg’s blog article yesterday — “Where Do Deacons Come From?” — in which he quoted Deacon Bill as saying “that the diaconate will only become fully accepted as a vocation when young people say, “When I grow up I want to be a deacon.” I wanted to let you know that God willing, I will become a Deacon next... Read more
Details: A new sex abuse lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is one of the first involving abuse by nuns toward Native American children, the plaintiffs’ attorney said. The latest suit, which also names the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province as a defendant, is the second in as many weeks that claims child rape and molestation at the hands of clergy decades ago in western Montana. It alleges the mother superior and three nuns at the Ursuline... Read more
That’s what he posted to his Facebook page and on Twitter this morning, responding to the “charge” that he places too much of a priority on fighting abortion. Meanwhile, Dr. Ed Peters continues to question Fr. Pavone’s approach in his ongoing dispute with Amarillo Bishop Zurek: Pavone’s diminished appreciation of diocesan priestly work, coupled with his own sense of importance in the pro-life movement (whether that sense is accurate, I do not know), leads to his apparent negative view of... Read more
“Baseball is a game of inches. And hours. And in those moments between release and resolution are contained particles of infinity—the space between a prayer of supplication and the surrender of “Amen”; the whisper of intention that brings what is empty and void into fullness. The hope for redemption. We can relate to that just as we can identify with pitcher and batter; the individual confronting a full team of resistance with the humblest of weapons—a ball, a stick—speaks to... Read more
Check this out: Two thousand years after they were written and decades after they were found in desert caves, some of the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls went online for the first time on Monday in a project launched by Israel’s national museum and web giant Google. The appearance of five of the most important Dead Sea scrolls on the Internet is part of a broader attempt by the custodians of the celebrated manuscripts — who were once criticized for allowing... Read more
What was it like to be one of the first permanent deacons in the United States? The Catholic Review chats with surviving members of the class of ’71: After Cardinal Lawrence Shehan ordained Deacon George Evans as one of the first permanent deacons in the United States 40 years ago, a lot of people didn’t know what to make of the new clergyman. “It was a struggle in the first few years,” remembered Deacon Evans, now retired but still assisting... Read more
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