Over at The National Catholic Register, Kevin di Camillo is wondering why more permanent deacons don’t serve Mass in the Extraordinary Form: While the implementation of many, many changes of Vatican II had a tough time of it, as most changes to ancient institutions do, the formation of Deacons is one of the few outright success stories, despite some flaws in the formation process which weren’t fully hammered out until theNational Directory for the Formation, Ministry and Life of Permanent... Read more

From pollster Patrick Murray in The New York Daily News: To date, Trump has actually enjoyed more support from Catholic voters than Protestants. Recent polls conducted by Monmouth University showed him with higher vote shares among followers of the Roman Catholic Church than with other Christians. In Iowa, he pulled 44% support from Catholic caucus-goers compared to 24% from Protestants. In New Hampshire polling, he took 30% of the Catholic vote, which was slightly higher than his 26% share among... Read more

From The Washington Post:  Brian Sandoval, the centrist Republican governor of Nevada, is being vetted by the White House for a possible nomination to the Supreme Court, according to two people familiar with the process. Sandoval is increasingly viewed by some key Democrats as perhaps the only nominee President Obama could select who would be able to break a Republican blockade in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday pledged “no action” on any Supreme Court nomination before... Read more

The New York Times reports on the final farewell to Angela Raiola, niece of Salvatore Lombardi and a larger-than-life star of VH1’s reality series “Mob Wives.” She died last week at 55, from cancer. And she got quite a sendoff: In death, as in life, Ms. Raiola commanded a crowd. Hundreds attended her funeral Mass in the Renaissance Revival sanctuary of the Basilica of Regina Pacis, even two “Mob Wives” co-stars who, by some accounts, had been warned that they... Read more

Details:  Miriam Wuolou was not just any hotel receptionist. The 34-year-old Eritrean, who had Italian citizenship through marriage, was the receptionist at the Domus Santa Marta, the small hotel inside the walls of Vatican City where Pope Francis lives. She was the smiling face he saw morning and night, the one who greeted him with his key and handed him his personal messages. He congratulated her when he found out she was pregnant, and he is said to be terribly... Read more

I confess this political couple hasn’t been very much on my radar screen, but this caught my eye today and it’s the first I’d read about the Vermont senator’s wife and her religion: The average American knows little about Jane Sanders. Of the spouses of presidential candidates, former president Bill Clinton is, of course, already a towering figure in the public eye. Melania Trump is a conventionally attractive former model, and has a delightful rags-to-riches story—not that she has any... Read more

Details:  U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders praises Pope Francis in a new video interview with the Canadian Catholic television network Salt + Light, calling the pontiff a socialist like himself and lauding his critique of the global market system. Sanders, who spoke to the network back in September during the pope’s visit to the U.S., also says Francis is having a “profound impact” on people all over the world. “I think what the pope has done, in a very... Read more

Sad news in Ohio:  The Diocese of Toledo said Monday that all five members of its staff on the Catholic Chronicle would be laid off because the diocese is facing a $1.3 million deficit. The publication would cease operations, effective Friday, closing both the monthly printed newspaper and the publication’s website. “The diocesan website, together with the diocesan social media, will really be our primary medium going forward for sharing news of the diocese,” said Zachary Silka, senior director of... Read more

From Philly.com:  When Lent began earlier this month, Archbishop Chaput wrote a column in which he took on the role of film critic, giving his thoughts on a handful of religiously themed films. He loved, loved, loved Mel Gibson‘s “The Passion of the Christ,” calling it one of “the great biblical screen adaptations.” Chaput said the film was “deeply moving, but it’s also free of the sentimentality that can often ruin movies that deal with saints or faith or Scripture. ... Read more