A remarkable and inspiring witness, from The Guardian: The test of faith for which Father Bernard Kinvi had waited half his life arrived one January dawn when a heavily armed man with a necklace of talismans pulled up on a motorbike outside the Roman Catholic mission hospital in Bossemptele. Despite being a member of the anti-balaka militia that has slaughtered thousands of Muslims in the Central African Republic (CAR), the rider had come on a mission of mercy. He and his comrades... Read more
From his homily this morning: In the silence of a home, where there may only be 50 cents left until the end of the month, but where there is always prayer, care for children and grandparents, there is the Kingdom of God. Far from the noise of the crowd, because the Kingdom of God “does not attract attention” in the same way a seed that grows underground does not attract [attention]. Pope Francis based his homily on the Gospel of... Read more
Short answer: no. Still, after the recent news about Cardinal Burke, some think so. But Fr. Dwight Longenecker offers some helpful context: This Vatican re-shuffle had been on the cards for months. It may be part of a larger, intentional change of direction on the part of the pontiff, as Fr. Mark Drew observes in an excellent article here at the UK’s Catholic Herald, but set against this opinion is the fact that Cardinal Burke has just completed the usual five year term traditional for... Read more
From the Pew Research Center: Latin America is home to more than 425 million Catholics – nearly 40% of the world’s total Catholic population – and the Roman Catholic Church now has a Latin American pope for the first time in its history. Yet identification with Catholicism has declined throughout the region, according to a major new Pew Research Center survey that examines religious affiliations, beliefs and practices in 18 countries and one U.S. territory (Puerto Rico) across Latin America and... Read more
From Catholic News Agency: While a failure to understand doctrine is present in many segments of the Catholic population, young adults are exhibiting an alarmingly casual attitude towards accepting Church teaching, a study commissioned by the U.S. bishops has found.“They feel completely Catholic even while disagreeing with the Church. We often heard ‘the Pope is entitled to his opinion’,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami stated, summarizing responses given by young people to a survey conducted on behalf of the U.S.... Read more
The Autumn edition of ONE, the magazine of CNEWA, is now online, and the centerpiece is an astonishing and moving glimpse at life for Iraqi Christian refugees in Erbil. Journalist Don Duncan captures it in all its harrowing detail: On talking to many Christian families and individuals who have taken refuge in cities across Iraqi Kurdistan, the master narrative is the same: ISIS, the jihadist Islamic terrorist movement seeking to create a caliphate in Iraq and Syria, had made rapid advances across... Read more
Priests and deacons: try to break this record next Sunday and tell me what happens. From The Christian Post: A Florida Pastor recently broke the Guinness world record for the Longest Speech Marathon by preaching a sermon that lasted 53 hours and 18 minutes from Friday to Sunday. Zach Zehnder, the 31-year-old pastor of theCross Mount Dora in Florida set out to break the previous record of 48 hours and 31 minutes in an effort to raise money for a nonprofit... Read more
From North Texas Catholic, further proof that God writes straight with crooked lines: Deacon Doug Wuenschel, who retired as a deacon five years ago but has worked at Immaculate Conception Church and the University of North Texas in Denton, as well as at the University of Dallas in Irving, said working for a Lutheran company actually brought him closer to his Catholic faith and eventually put him on the path to become a deacon. “After I got out of the... Read more
As someone who grew up in Montgomery County, I can only ask: what the—? Details: Christmas and Easter have been stricken from next year’s school calendar in Montgomery County. So have Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. Montgomery’s Board of Education voted 7 to 1 Tuesday to eliminate references to all religious holidays on the published calendar for 2015-2016, a decision that followed a request from Muslim community leaders to give equal billing to the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha.... Read more
And—big headline here—he mentioned deacons. From Vatican Radio: Pope Francis today urged bishops, priests and deacons always to be humble and to recognize that their ministry is an unmerited gift of God’s mercy. Speaking at the weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope said the Lord continues to shepherd his flock with love through the ordained ministry of bishops, priests and deacons. Recalling the Pastoral Epistles the Apostle Paul sent to his disciples Timothy and Titus in which he highlights... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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