Behold, the Golf Board: From the website: The most innovative invention for golf since the advent of the graphite shaft, the GolfBoard is going to change the way you experience the game of golf forever. The easy to ride, lithium-ion battery powered transport adds a new level of fun and excitement never before seen on a golf course. Young or old, every golfer will now have the opportunity to enjoy golf in a whole new direction. The GolfBoard speeds up... Read more
I’ve never see this done in parishes around the United States, but Fr. Z took note of this practice during yesterday’s big wedding Mass at St. Peter’s: His Holiness, again, did not seem to distribute Communion. He doesn’t, you know. However, deacons distributed under both kinds and by intinction. Thus, no Communion in the hand. Nota bene: they are kneeling. Picture below. You can read more about the practice of intinction here. Additional information and insight here. Once in a great while—it’s... Read more
A new documentary evidently makes a persuasive argument: One of the most astonishing things about how Catholic schools educate kids in our country’s worst neighborhoods is that they’re by and large serving a population that isn’t Catholic. It didn’t have to be this way. In fact, it almost wasn’t. That’s one bottom line of the powerful new film “The Rule,” from Jerome Bongiorno and Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno of Newark. Released last week, “The Rule” is a documentary about St. Benedict’s, a... Read more
An overview on the results of a recent archdiocesan synod, from The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Catholic laity — the people in the pews — will play a more prominent role in the life of the church in southeastern Wisconsin in the coming years, according to a declaration issued Sunday by Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. And local bishops will lend their voices to the social justice issues that disproportionately affect minorities in the 10-county archdiocese, such as poverty, immigration and gun violence,... Read more
A reader sent along this homily that was delivered today by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend for the ordination of deacons who will one day be priests for the Congregation of Holy Cross. It ties in beautifully with the feast we celebrate this day—and it offers some thoughtful insight into diakonia and Holy Orders. It’s really superb. An excerpt: It is a privilege to ordain you permanent deacons. No, I didn’t make a mistake. Don’t worry:... Read more
From Vatican Radio: To the simple strains of a harp, twenty grooms made their way up the central nave of St Peter’s Basilica with their mothers, followed by twenty brides dressed in white accompanied by their fathers. All of the couples were from the diocese of Rome and had come to be married, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, by the Pope himself. In his Homily, which preceded the Rite of Marriage, the Holy Father, taking... Read more
Details: The Islamic State has released a video claiming to show the beheading of British captive David Haines. The father-of-two, an aid worker, was abducted by militants in Syria last year. He appeared at the end of a video showing the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff earlier this month. In the video, which has been posted on sites such as YouTube, the extremists also threaten to execute another Briton. Islamic State (IS) extremists had threatened to kill Mr Haines... Read more
Here’s a humbling profile of a deacon who is serving in ways most of us can’t fathom. From The Rhode Island Catholic: According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has infected at least 4,269 people, and claimed the lives of 2,288 as of Tuesday. It is the worst Ebola epidemic in history. WebMD reports that the disease, also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever or Ebola virus, kills up to 90 percent of infected individuals. To help... Read more
Details from AP: A television news anchorman fighting brain cancer in Illinois told viewers he has only four to six months to live, but he hopes to work as long as he can. During a newscast on Thursday, Dave Benton told viewers of WCIA-TV in Champaign that doctors recently told him that his brain tumor is too large for surgery or radiation. The 51-year-old says he’ll try a new treatment to slow the tumor’s growth, but that his goal is... Read more
He made his comments during a visit to a memorial to soldiers killed in World War I. Details from AP: Pope Francis urged the world Saturday to shed its apathy in the face of what he characterizes as a third world war, intoning “war is madness” at the foot of a grandiose monument to soldiers killed in World War I. Francis’ aim in recalling those who died in the Great War that broke out 100 years ago was to honor... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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