With all the controversy surrounding Priests for Life right now, I thought it might be interesting to see what the Better Business Bureau Charity Review has to say about them. The BBB looks at how charities run, where the money goes, and whether or not the agencies operate efficiently. They can tell you, for example, how much of each dollar goes to programs. What did it have to say about Priests for Life? Despite written BBB Wise Giving Alliance requests... Read more
Incredible story of survival and hope. Take a moment, go get a Kleenex, and then watch. You can thank me later. Read more
And now, a little musical interlude for this great feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Here’s one of my favorite hymns. Everybody sing! Read more
A reader alerted me to this and called it “the most stupid marketing decision by anyone!” Details: Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds will move to Friday in 2012, with an April 6 game against the Miami Marlins at Great American Ball Park. Major League Baseball released the Reds’ 2012 schedule today. Click here to download a PDF. For years, Opening Day for the Reds was held on a Monday. The 2011 season was the first year the season opened with the... Read more
A colleague at work passed along an interesting and especially timely email he got this morning. It’s dated yesterday and comes from Priests for Life. Some of you may have gotten it as well. It begins: I’m writing on behalf of Father Frank [Pavone]. My name is Jerry Horn and I am the Senior Vice President for Priests for Life… …Let me tell you why Father asked me to send you this email. On Wednesday, October 5, Priests for Life... Read more
According to reports from Rome, the Vatican has given the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X a formal “doctrinal preamble” listing several principles they must agree with in order to move toward full reconciliation with church. From CNS: U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave the statement to Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the society, Sept. 14 during a meeting at the Vatican that lasted more than two hours. Although the... Read more
A couple of people e-mailed me this afternoon, wondering if I would post on this. I was in meetings all day and just got out, so I’m late getting to it. The Anchoress, however, has a strong wrap-up. The salient point seems to be this letter from the Bishop of Amarillo to his brother bishops: I have decided to suspend Father Frank A. Pavone from public ministry outside of the Diocese of Amarillo to take effect on September 13, 2011.... Read more
This news has to give all of us pause: An Alberta judge has let a woman who strangled her newborn son walk free by arguing that Canada’s absence of a law on abortion signals that Canadians “sympathize” with the mother. “We live in a country where there is no protection for children in the womb right up until birth and now this judge has extended the protection for the perpetrator rather than the victim, even though the child is born... Read more
I saw parts of last night’s debate and was surprised by this response, too: A bit of a startling moment happened near the end of Monday night’s CNN debate when a hypothetical question was posed to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn’t have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? “Are you saying society should just let him die?” Wolf Blitzer asked. “Yeah!” several members of the... Read more
This news comes from the Philippines: A Catholic bishop today called on all clergy to observe the Church’s dress code, especially when they appear in public “as an integral part of priestly decorum.” Bishop Leonardo Medroso of Tagbilaran, a canon lawyer, said ecclesiastical garb is not the external sign of the priesthood but an indicator of the “spiritual and priestly life” of the person concerned. Some “shrink” from wearing the proper attire, he noted, preferring to go around in public... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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