From The Hill: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s new campaign CEO, previously accused Catholics of supporting Hispanic immigration to prop up the church’s numbers on his radio program in the spring. “I understand why Catholics want as many Hispanics in this country as possible, because the church is dying in this country, right? If it was not for the Hispanics,” Bannon told Robert P. George, a Princeton law professor who, along with dozens of other leaders, wrote an open letter to... Read more
Details: Exasperated by nearly two months of defiance of a court order to supply details about people making sexual abuse claims against a St. Louis priest, U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson dealt a heavy blow this week to the advocacy group SNAP and others. In an order filed Monday in a suit by the Rev. Xiu Hui “Joseph” Jiang, Jackson says that the SNAP defendants did conspire together “to obtain plaintiff’s conviction on sexual abuse charges” and that it... Read more
Details: The number of Americans who identify as Catholic has shrunk in recent years, and Connecticut leads the nation in that decline. While Norwalk is no exception to the trend — cumulative parish registration is down 11 percent and mass attendance has declined 20 percent across the city’s seven Catholic churches — one Norwalk church has found a way to grow. Saint Ladislaus Parish, located in South Norwalk, is the only Norwalk church that has seen an increase in both... Read more
The folks at Pew have some insight, from Catholics and others: About half of U.S. adults have looked for a new religious congregation at some point in their lives, most commonly because they have moved. And when they search for a new house of worship, a new Pew Research Center study shows, Americans look first and foremost for a place where they like the preaching and the tone set by the congregation’s leaders. Fully 83% of Americans who have looked... Read more
From the Facebook page of the Quincy, MA police department: On Sunday, August 21, 2016 at approximately 2:05PM, Officer Ken Wood responded to a report of an armed robbery. Officer Wood spoke to the victim, a Sister at The Daughters of Mary of Nazareth Convent. The victim stated that she was walking, in civilian clothing, on Phipps St, by Water St, when a female approached her and attempted to take a small satchel out of her left hand. She told... Read more
He made the announcement late today on his Facebook page: A Message About The Jim Gaffigan Show After months of discussion Jeannie and I have decided to make season 2 of The Jim Gaffigan Show the final season. We realize this may surprise some and we don’t make this decision lightly. It is hard to say goodbye to this highly personal passion project, which we have nurtured and poured our hearts into for over five years. Jeannie and I are... Read more
In a continuing series, The New York Times has been asking notable people: if you could share a meal with someone who is no longer with us, who would it be? Champion gymnast Dominque Dawes had an answer that may have surprised the Times: If I could choose to have dinner with somebody who has passed away, I would choose to dine with Mother Angelica. Mother Angelica was the nun who founded the largest religious network, Eternal Word Television Network, starting with... Read more
Details via KGO-TV: Officials are searching for an ancient, religious artifact that was allegedly stolen from a Catholic church in San Francisco. Church leaders are heartbroken and parishioners are praying for the safe return of a relic, which is a prized and sacred possession at Dominic’s Catholic Church. The relic is believed to be part of the cross where Christ was crucified. Sunday mass at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church is a time for prayer and reflection. But on Sunday, there... Read more
Details: The first communion Mass in Alqosh was an historic moment for a “frontier town” that has been under threat from the militants of the Islamic State (IS) for a long time. Now it can “hope for peace and normalcy” around these hundred children, said Mgr Basil Yaldo, auxiliary bishop of Baghdad and close associate of the Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako. The Chaldean primate presided over the ceremony that was attended by “all the priests of the city, the nuns... Read more
Details from The Record, from the Archdiocese of Louisville: Eighteen men with a wide variety of backgrounds will be ordained to a common ministry Aug. 20, that of the diaconate. Each has “committed to a deeper relationship with Christ” that centers on service to the church and becoming “a bridge to Christ,” said Deacon Denny Nash, director of the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Diaconate Office. The ordination will be at St. Patrick Church in Eastwood at 11 a.m. “I’m extremely proud of... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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