The Deacon's Bench
From Nicole and John Grosso’s nuptials in April, witnessed by Bridgeport’s Bishop Frank Caggiano. Excuse me. Must get Kleenex… Congratulations, guys! Read more
From Nicole and John Grosso’s nuptials in April, witnessed by Bridgeport’s Bishop Frank Caggiano. Excuse me. Must get Kleenex… Congratulations, guys! Read more
Heading to the beach this summer? Don’t forget God. A priest on Long Island is doing that in a very direct way: Every Sunday, in July and August, several hundred people gather on the beach for Mass. The Mass has brought many in the community back to the Catholic Faith. The Beach Mass, formally known as “God at the Beach,” is a powerful public witness of our faith in Long Beach. The Mass is a missionary celebration of the Eucharist;... Read more
This is worth your time, a lesson for us all from Larry Denninger at A Catholic Misfit: I have an adoration hour Tuesday nights at my parish’s Perpetual Adoration chapel. This week I witnessed the saddest and bizarrest thing in my 15+ years as an adorer, and a vivid example of how *not* to Catholic. Our chapel can comfortably accommodate 7 adorers – two rows of chairs+kneelers, with a pew along the back wall that seats three, plus kneelers. I... Read more
There’s a lot that’s just heartbreaking about this case. What can you do with a situation like this? From The Washington Post: Jimmy Aldaoud crouched on a sidewalk, miserable, hungry and short on insulin. The 41-year-old with diabetes and severe mental illness had spent nearly his whole life in Detroit until just over two months ago, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Iraq — a country he’d never set foot in. “I don’t understand the language,” Aldaoud said in... Read more
Take a few minutes and give a listen: Albany’s Bishop Ed Scharfenberger and Marko Pranic performing “Time to Say Goodbye” last night at a fundraiser for vocations. Watch out, Andrea Bocelli. It’s good to know that if this bishop thing doesn’t work out, Scharfenberger has something else to fall back on. This is something special. Really. Read more
They released the trailer to his new movie, “American Dreamer,” this week, and it may shock people. This is not the funny guy we all know from his TV shows and concerts. The trailer is unsettling and provocative — and shows something a lot of us have suspected: Gaffigan has some serious acting chops. Take a look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAJjQxDp5tc Read more
Evil knows no bounds. From The Washington Post: A group of lawyers is claiming to have uncovered hundreds of previously unreported cases of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Pennsylvania. The plaintiff in the case, named only as S.D. to keep his identity private, is alleging that he was assaulted “hundreds” of times by a scout leader in Pennsylvania over the course of about four years in the 1970s. The lawsuit alleges that... Read more
Deacons, take note! Fascinating stuff, via Gregory DiPippo at the New Liturgical Movement: Today [August 3] is traditionally celebrated as the feast of the Finding of St Stephen the First Martyr. This took place in the year 415, when the teacher of St Paul, Gamaliel, who is named twice in the Acts of the Apostles (5, 34-40 and 22, 3) appeared in a vision to a priest of Jerusalem named Lucian, on three successive Fridays, and named the location of... Read more
The CNN anchor began his closing remarks Monday night by holding up an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, given to him by a woman in El Paso. I can’t remember ever seeing something like that on a network newscast. The man who attended Immaculate Conception School in Queens clearly hasn’t forgotten a few things he learned in school. Read more
The acclaimed author of “Beloved” — and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature — has died. She was 88. What many may not know is that she was baptized Catholic. From an interview with Terri Gross on NPR: GROSS: So your birth name is Chloe Wofford. Morrison was your married name when you were married, but you’ve been divorced a long time – since 1974. And Toni was shortened from Anthony, which was the name when you were… MORRISON:... Read more
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