From Long Island Catholic: Bishop John Barres ordained 11 men to the diaconate on Saturday, June 3, at the Cathedral of Saint Agnes, Rockville Centre. The newly ordained are:  Ralph Colon, Jose Avillo Contreras, Ferdinando Ferrara, Michael Gambardella, Mario Gomez, Edward Grieb, John Hogan, Lawrence McPartland, Robert Reed, Jr., Gerard Rorke and Stephen Yusko.  Brief profiles of each deacon appeared in the May 2017 issue of The Long Island Catholic. Check out more, including a slideshow, here.  Ad multos annos, brothers!... Read more

An interesting observation from CNA:  There are few Catholic ministries that exist today that minister particularly to those struggling with transgenderism and gender dysphoria. Other than a handful of local ministries, Courage – the Church’s outreach to people with same-sex attraction – is one of the few ministries addressing the issue of transgenderism on a national and international level. “Until recently, pastoral care to individuals who struggle with their sexual identities as male or female has largely occurred at a... Read more

Details: Devotees of St. John Bosco, the legendary 19th century Italian pastor who founded the Salesian religious order, are expressing shock and outrage over the theft of a reliquary from a church dedicated to his memory in northern Italy that contained a small piece of the saint’s brain. “The news of the theft of a reliquary of St. John Bosco from the church of Castelnuovo is one of those things you never wanted to hear,” said Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of... Read more

This Sunday, my wife and I decided to do something altogether different during our vacation: we stopped by St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Orlando, the Byzantine home of my friend Deacon Daniel Dozier. [img attachment=”197189″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” /] It doesn’t look even remotely Byzantine—and for good reason. It’s a former Protestant church. But the interior is distinctly Catholic. [img attachment=”197190″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” /] It has an icon of St. Nicholas that is about 300 years old. [img attachment=”197191″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full”... Read more

The Holy Spirit has been busy! Vocations are booming in Brooklyn, with 12 men ordained to the diaconate last weekend, and 10 to the priesthood this weekend. The crop of new priests represents the third largest ordination class in the United States. The press release:  On Saturday, June 3, at 11 a.m., Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will ordain 10 men to the priesthood for the Diocese of Brooklyn. Once again this year, the diocese ranks among the top in the country in the number... Read more

A beautiful must-read from Wisconsin: Timothy Decker, once a successful wire sculptor who died indigent in Milwaukee County after living in the shadows of near isolation, was buried in bright sunshine Friday at Holy Cross Cemetery. “This beautiful day reminds us of the dignity of human life,” Father Tim Kitzke said during a graveside service just several yards from the fast-paced traffic on W. Appleton Ave. A hearse delivered Decker’s body to the gravesite following a slow procession through the cemetery. Several... Read more

Some of the most potent passages of scripture are also the pithiest. “Thy will be done.” “Go and do likewise.” “Love one another.” And here, in this Gospel, we encounter another: “You follow me.” It’s not just the brevity that packs a punch—it’s the declarative force of it. Coming as it does in the final part of St. John’s Gospel, it offers us one last command. This is all that matters. The context is specific—but universal. Peter speculates aloud about... Read more

A friend posted this on her Facebook page this morning, and it offers wisdom to many of us in ministry:  “Service is not the same as helping. Helping is based on inequality, it’s not a relationship between equals. When you help, you use your own strength to help someone with less strength. It’s a one up, one down relationship, and people feel this inequality. When we help, we may inadvertently take away more than we give, diminishing the person’s sense... Read more

This is beyond words. Just watch. The miracle of medicine never ceases to amaze. God bless him. And her. Read more

Details:  A Roman Catholic priest seized by militants loyal to the Islamic State has been shown in a video making an appeal to President Rodrigo Duterte to halt a weeklong military offensive that has devastated this southern Philippine city. The military said on Wednesday that it was analyzing the video, which was released on social media on Tuesday. It shows the priest, the Rev. Teresito Suganob, who was abducted by gunmen last week with some parishioners, appealing for the group’s... Read more