The Deacon's Bench
An appropriate snapshot, I think, for this day — which coincides with the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Below, a favorite picture of a young Karol Wojtyla, our worker pope, now Blessed. Read more
An appropriate snapshot, I think, for this day — which coincides with the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Below, a favorite picture of a young Karol Wojtyla, our worker pope, now Blessed. Read more
Plucky Elizabeth Scalia nabbed a seat near the festivities and has been live-blogging the big event. Check out her impressions, updated throughout the day, over at The Anchoress. Read more
With all the attention focused on the royal wedding the last few days, it would be easy to overlook another global event this weekend: the beatification of Pope John Paul. I wanted to spend a little time this morning talking about him – and, in particular, about a key part of his life that I think relates to this Sunday’s gospel. Shortly after Karol Wojtyla was elected, a journalist asked someone in Rome what he thought of this new pope... Read more
The NADD convention wrapped up Friday night with a mass and dinner at the cathedral, capped off by a performance by the great Beth Nielsen Chapman (if memory serves, no less an authority than Elton John has proclaimed her his favorite songwriter.) That’s her below, with her son, who accompanied her on guitar. She may be most famous for co-writing the Faith Hill smash “This Kiss,“ but Ms. Chapman developed a huge following for the great ballad “Sand and Water,”... Read more
You may have noticed things have been quiet around these parts. I spent Friday in Nashville at the annual convention of the National Association of Diaconate Directors (NADD), where I gave a talk on social media and the ministry of charity. It was a great event, with a couple hundred deacons and deacon directors mulling around. I got to rub elbows with a few celebrities (see below) and attend mass at Nashville’s beautiful Cathedral of the Incarnation (a remarkable liturgy... Read more
With all the attention focused on the royal wedding the last few days, it would be easy to overlook another global event this weekend: the beatification of Pope John Paul. I wanted to spend a little time this morning talking about him – and, in particular, about a key part of his life that I think relates to this Sunday’s gospel. Shortly after Karol Wojtyla was elected, a journalist asked someone in Rome what he thought of this new pope... Read more
Beautiful sentiments from the homily at the royal wedding this morning (and if you have to ask “whose wedding?,” roll over and go back to sleep…). From the ever-vigilant Frank Weathers, a snip: “In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future. William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in... Read more
It may be having an impact that extends further, and deeper, than some people realize. The Wall Street Journal notes: Is one really best? New census data from China suggest the economic costs of Beijing’s one-child policy are more serious than the government is prepared to acknowledge. The government claims the fertility rate, the number of children an average woman is expected to have over the course of her life, is 1.8. That is lower than the 2.1 needed to... Read more
They may be looking for bike blessings in New York this weekend, but here’s a priest offering blessings by bike every day: Imagine 150 million people on land the size of Iowa. Part of the country doesn’t have any infrastructure. The people are predominately Muslim with a large Hindu minority in a country that is one of the poorest in the world. It is a perfect place for a Maryknoll priest, his bicycle and a bag containing only a change... Read more
It happened in Connecticut: A Roman Catholic priest from Waterbury who stole more than $1 million in church money and spent it on male escorts, Armani clothes and nights out at gay bars has been sentenced to three years in prison. A plea of no contest was entered on behalf of The Rev. Kevin Gray, 65, and he was sentenced on Wednesday to three years of probation. Gray was accused of stealing the money from Sacred Heart Church. He told his... Read more
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