From this morning: “A servant of Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:10). We have listened to these words that the Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians, uses to describe himself. At the beginning of his Letter, he had presented himself as “an apostle” by the will of the Lord Jesus (cf. Gal1:1). These two terms – apostle and servant – go together. They can never be separated. They are like the two sides of a medal. Those who proclaim Jesus are called to serve,... Read more
My friend Deacon Doug Breckenridge from Dallas and I paid a visit to Vatican Radio on Saturday and sat down for a chat with Christopher Altieri: “I think – and I think many people would agree with this – it is one of the great success stories of Vatican II,” said Deacon Kandra (of the Diocese of Brooklyn, NY, who, in “civilian” life, was a producer for CBS News, and who now works closely with the Catholic Near East Welfare... Read more
For those who want to hear first-hand what Pope Francis has to say about deacons, you can watch the Holy Father’s Mass for the Jubilee of Deacons live from St. Peter’s Square on EWTN at 4:30 a.m., Eastern time. I’ll be there, along with about 2,000 other deacons from around the world, plus wives and families. I don’t know yet if the network plans to rebroadcast it later in the day. This is why God made TiVo. Read more
From Catholic News Service, a report by Cindy Wooden on the little event I took part in today in Rome: Thousands of permanent deacons and their wives began their Year of Mercy celebration by cutting straight to the heart of what it means to be a deacon, how the ministry impacts their families and the challenge of explaining their vocation to others, including bishops and priests. The pilgrims divided into language groups and hundreds of English-, German- and Portuguese-speaking deacons... Read more
If you’re in Rome on a Wednesday, you just have to take in a General Audience with the pope. We did it the last two times we visited Rome, in 2000 and 2004, so this was a tradition we needed to continue. We made online reservations for tickets at Santa Susanna, the American parish in Rome. We went to pick up the tickets Tuesday afternoon. I’m glad we did. You can also try and get tickets Wednesday morning at the... Read more
In a nice bit of synchronicity, as the Jubilee for Deacons gets underway here in Rome, my pal Kevin di Camillo has a helpful primer on deacons who have been declared saints. From the National Catholic Register: 1. St. Stephen (1st century A.D.). St. Stephen was the Protomartyr, the first to die a martyr’s death for the Christian faith. We can read all about the passion of St. Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 6: 8-7:60)—the longest single discourse... Read more
Siobhain and I arrived early for our appointed time. The friendly yellow-vested volunteers pointed us through the walkway snaking through the collonade and into St. Peter’s Square, eventually leading us up the main steps of St. Peter’s and, with no fanfare, right through the Holy Door. [img attachment=”104084″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”IMG_5373″ /] Security was pretty tight: we had to pass our bags through a TSA-style conveyer belt scanner, and walk through an x-ray screener. And a security guy barked at... Read more
We started the day with a hearty Italian breakfast at Casa Bonus Pastor: bread, bread, more bread, and strong coffee. [img attachment=”104020″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”PicMonkey Collage” /] Then we hiked down the Via Aurelia to St. Peter’s. After being re-routed a couple times, we found the correct entrance to attend Mass. (They have Mass almost every hour in one of the side chapels.) Along the way, we passed the spot where Pope John Paul II was shot—a place, I suspect,... Read more
After a long but uneventful flight from JFK—and a much shorter-than-expected trip through the TSA screening—we arrived in Rome early this morning. Very early. Around 6:30. We managed to breeze through the passport check, grabbed our bags almost immediately, and quickly made our way to the taxi stand. Why isn’t it this easy in New York? The morning rush hour traffic wasn’t too bad, and we arrived at our hotel, Casa Bonus Pastor, a little after 8. [img attachment=”103951″ align=”aligncenter”... Read more
From The New York Times: With an increasing number of Americans leaving religion behind, theUniversity of Miami received a donation in late April from a wealthy atheist to endow what it says is the nation’s first academic chair “for the study of atheism, humanism and secular ethics.” The chair has been established after years of discussion with a $2.2 million donation from Louis J. Appignani, a retired businessman and former president and chairman of the modeling school Barbizon International, who... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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