From the Catholic Courier’s Facebook page: Bishop Salvatore R. Matano ordained seven men to the order of deacon during a Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral (Rochester, New York) May 27. In the picture above: Bishop Salvatore R. Matano and Deacon John Brasley, director of deacon personnel and deacon formation, with the newly ordained deacons. (From left to right: Deacon Jeff Serbicki, Deacon Dermot Loughran, Deacon Timothy Hebding, Deacon Marcelo DeRisio, Bishop Salvatore R. Matano, Deacon James Briars, Deacon Jeffrey Chichester,... Read more

Details, from CNN: A hard-hitting video advertisement of a suicide bomber being challenged by victims of terrorism has gone viral in the Middle East. Kuwaiti telecom company Zain launched the TV ad on Saturday at the start of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Muslim calendar, in an effort to counter terrorism. Since then, the three minute music video has been viewed nearly 2.4 million times on YouTube. The opening scenes show a man manufacturing a suicide belt, with the... Read more

From The New York Times:  Federal officials, following through on a pledge by President Trump, have drafted a rule to roll back a federal requirement that many religious employers provide birth control coverage in health insurance plans. The mandate for free contraceptive coverage was one of the most hotly contested Obama administration policies adopted under the Affordable Care Act, and it generated scores of lawsuits by employers that had religious objections to it. On its website, the White House Office... Read more

In The New York Times, a moving account of the three men who stood up to hate speech in Portland: An Army veteran, a recent college graduate and a student who once won a poetry contest by condemning prejudice stirred up by the Sept. 11 attacks intervened as a man screamed anti-Muslim insults at two women in Portland, Ore., on Friday. In the days that followed, the three men were hailed as heroes. Two of the men — Taliesin Myrddin... Read more

From CNA:  Priests in Iraq are helping reconstruct around 13,000 homes in the Plain of Nineveh which have been damaged or destroyed by ISIS so that Christians will have a place to come back to. To accomplish this, the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has created a Commission for the Reconstruction of Nineveh. Besides celebrating Mass, the priests also serve as surveyors and obtain electric service and materials for the reconstruction of homes. The first work... Read more

Prayer of the Ordained Heavenly Father, You who ordered the universe Have also ordained the universe. You have ordained that the stars follow their course, That the seasons follow Your plan That the oceans and tides obey Your rhythms. And now you have ordained us in Your service, as Deacons. Make of us instruments of Your holy will — Rinse away the useless clay, and leave behind new creations, polished at Your wheel, shaped by Your fingers, dried in the... Read more

From the diocese’s Facebook page: Our warmest congratulations to Kevin Harmon, Gerald Peterson, Daniel Satterlee and Joseph Yochim, who were ordained to the permanent diaconate at St. Peter Cathedral in Erie last evening. Our heartfelt prayers also go to their wives, Jeanne Harmon, Kathleen Peterson, Janet Satterlee and Carlee Yochim, as well as their families. May their ministries be fruitful and life-giving. Amen! Congratulations, brothers, and welcome. Ad multos annos!  Read more

From CNA, a timely and poignant reminder on this holiday weekend of remembrance: As military veterans and victims of violence are treated for psychological trauma, the emotional wounds of missionaries and military chaplains might be overlooked, but are just as present. And with mass shootings, suicides, and acts of terrorism on the rise, more and more first responders like policemen, firemen, hospital workers, and clergy will “continually bear the brunt” of experiencing these horrors. That’s according to Monsignor Stephen Rosetti,... Read more

I’m pleased and proud to have been there at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph to cheer on a guy from the home team: Thomas Jorge (now Deacon Thomas Jorge), whom I mentored and supported throughout his formation at our parish Our Lady Queen of Martyrs.  [img attachment=”194914″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” /] He is very much a home-grown vocation: he grew up in the parish, attended the school, served as an altar boy and has been a faithful parishioner for decades. [img... Read more

From The New York Times:  Zbigniew Brzezinski, the hawkish strategic theorist who was national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter in the tumultuous years of the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s, died on Friday at a hospital in Virginia. He was 89. His death, at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, was announced on Friday by his daughter, Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of the MSNBC program “Morning Joe.” Like his predecessor Henry... Read more