The following comment arrived this afternoon, related to this post about the ongoing debate about married deacons and sex. I thought I’d post it here because I think it deserves a wider airing, and might merit some comment from those who have been following this issue. I have no idea if the gentleman in question is, in fact, a seminarian. But, I’m assuming he is. Here: Canon Law is Canon Law. Obey it! I’m a seminarian studying for the priesthood... Read more
Caught this over at Elizabeth Scalia’s joint, and it’s the first commercial in a long time that made me laugh out loud. Enjoy. 🙂 Read more
This story somehow follows nicely on this post, and tells of a deacon being taken where he never expected — or wanted — to go. From the Georgia Bulletin: When Lilburn resident Bob Hauert was asked to find a ministry in which to serve as part of his diaconate formation for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, he knew right away he did not want to work in hospice care. “I will do anything but hospice,” he told himself. But just a... Read more
Don’t you wish you had a famous announcer for a friend? A fellow named Chase happens to know a guy who knows the announcer from “Law & Order.” So: get a load of the voice mail message that greets Chase’s callers. Read more
A number of years ago, my father-in-law gave me a copy of what he said had become one of his favorite books: “The Gift of Peace,” by Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. In it, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, dying from rapidly advancing pancreatic cancer, writes with tender mercy about his approaching death. He also writes about the scandal that enveloped the last years of his life: the man who accused him of sexual abuse, later recanted, dropped the charges, and made... Read more
Really. It came out last summer but, as interest in the missal has picked up, so has curiosity about the app. Details: An iPhone has been launched to help people understand the new translation of the Mass. The New Mass app, which costs 59p in Britain, has been endorsed by Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto. Created by Cale Clarke, from Unionville, Toronto, it offers the new text of each major section of the Mass alongside the current translation, and includes... Read more
Classic moments from a favorite movie that has a sneaky way of saying a lot about transformation, conversion, and redemption — you know, all the usual stuff in a Bill Murray comedy. Enjoy. 🙂 Read more
It often has a profound impact on the one who is already Catholic… Check this out, from the Catholic Sentinel: Sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing until someone brings your attention back to it. That’s what Jackie San Nicolas discovered when her longtime boyfriend Matt Covington decided to become a Catholic before their wedding Sept. 18. Through her difficult life journeys, San Nicolas had always turned to her faith to guide her. But in the past few years, she’d... Read more
A powerful and painful piece of history is now available online. Details, from the New Orleans Times-Picayune: The Archdiocese of New Orleans on Tuesday unveiled an internet database listing the baptisms of thousands of slaves and other persons of color at St. Louis Cathedral beginning in 1777 — deploying a tool church officials said would help countless genealogy buffs pull their forebears out of near anonymity. Times-Picayune archiveArchbishop Gregory Aymond hopes the list of baptisms will offer a belated measure... Read more
Tomorrow is the big day, and lots of folks are getting ready… From the In My Backyard Desk…a colorful look at preparations underway in Brooklyn, courtesy the New York Times: Norma Castro laid the familiar figure on the counter before her, next to a basket of poblano peppers. Then, ignoring the twangy bachata music that blared from a nearby market stall, she furrowed her brow, delicately plucked it up and admired it. Behold, the baby Jesus — away from his... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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