Words fail. Details: A devout Catholic deacon was stabbed to death at a Long Island halfway house where he worked for decades trying to help those living on society’s margins, police and friends said Saturday. The violence unfolded Friday night at around 10:20 p.m., when Andre Patton, a resident of the home, Anthony House in Roosevelt, attacked deacon Patrick Logsdon, and then fled, Nassau County police said. Responding officers found Logsdon, 70, unresponsive in a pool of blood, with multiple... Read more

I’m on the road again, headed to the archdiocese where it all began, Washington. It’s the place where I was born, baptized, confirmed, married and received my First Communion. I’ll be speaking to the deacons there at their convocation Saturday morning. It’s a short trip; I’ll be back in New York City, God willing, Saturday night. Pray for us! Pray for me! Read more

He talked about this in an interview a few days ago. Aleteia posted details on Tuesday: “When I pray, sometimes I fall asleep,” Pope Francis confessed during the second episode of the Padre Nostro (“Our Father”) television program on the Italian Catholic television station TV2000, in an excerpt published on YouTube today. “St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus did that too,” the pope recalled. Read more. Hey, it happens to me, too. I often get lulled to sleep praying the... Read more

Details: Tucked in to the last pages of a sweeping Republican tax overhaul bill is a paragraph that would end a 60-year-old ban on clergy preaching partisan politics from the pulpit. President Trump promised repeatedly during the campaign and after his election to repeal the so-called Johnson Amendment, a provision of tax law first adopted in 1954 that prohibits non-profit charitable organizations — called 501(c)(3)s based on the section of the tax code that governs them — from endorsing political candidates. Trump... Read more

Check out this great short video produced by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to celebrate Houston’s World Series win—and remind people that you can find faith in the bleachers at many stadiums. https://www.facebook.com/archgh/videos/1769616253070933/ Read more

This news shouldn’t really surprise anyone, since Francis has said he’s open to considering just such a move. The Anglican Ordinariate includes married priests—as do the Catholic Eastern rites. In all cases (as with married deacons), it follows the timeless tradition of the Church: a married man may be ordained, but an ordained single man can not get married. Details: Pope Francis has requested a debate over allowing married men in the Amazon region of Brazil to become priests, in... Read more

Just stumbled on this: my homily for All Souls Day, 2008: His name was John Robert McGraham. Most of his life was unremarkable. He grew up the second youngest of six children in Cypress Park, in Los Angeles. As a little boy, he loved comic books and he’d sometimes run through the house with a towel tied around his neck pretending to be Superman. When he was in his early 20s, he got a job working at the Biltmore Hotel... Read more

You may remember the stagestruck prelate has done this sort of thing before. Now he’s at it again: Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Orange is cast in Santa Margarita Catholic High School’s fall musical production, “Godspell.” Vann plays the role of a member of the homeless community and has been attending rehearsals on campus to prepare for the production. This is not Vann’s first performance in an SMCHS production. In the spring of 2017, Vann played a Russian... Read more

It’s the holidays on steroids: Starbucks’ years-long war on Christmas is over. The coffee giant wasted no time getting into the Christmas spirit this year, releasing its new holiday-themed cups and holiday beverages on Wednesday. Goodbye, Halloween. Forget Thanksgiving. It’s Christmas time at Starbucks. The new line of festive liquid holders celebrates the 20th anniversary of the holiday cup, and while the company has broken away from Christmas-y themed cups in the past, the 2017 cups feature a Christmas tree,... Read more

From the In My Backyard Desk…here’s a story from our diocesan cable channel, NET in Brooklyn, about my neighbor and diaconal brother Dean Dobbins, who trains kids in karate and is also speaks out against bullying. Kudos, Deacon Dean! Read more