In midtown Manhattan, near my office, there’s a huge public school on East 56th Street. For the last two months, that stretch of the street has been a beautiful oasis—almost completely deserted. That changed this week. The kids are back in school. Around 8:30, the sidewalks are absolutely mobbed. It’s wall-to-wall kids, from grade school up to junior high. Wednesday, I had to walk in the middle of the street just to make it to the next block. And for several... Read more
After New York’s volley yesterday, here comes a response. From the Diocese of Peoria: After an outpouring of great support for the actions taken by Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., Bishop of the Diocese of Peoria regarding the suspension of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Cause of Sainthood, the Diocese is providing additional clarifications. According to the Chancellor of the Diocese of Peoria, Patricia Gibson, who has worked with the Cause from the beginning, “Bishop Jenky only agreed to pursue... Read more
The forest has lost another redwood. A great broadcast writer has died: Bruce Morton, former CBS News and CNN correspondent, died at his home in Washington, DC Thursday. Morton, a Harvard graduate and U.S. Army Veteran, joined ABC News in 1962. He left for CBS News two years later where he would stay for 29 years. For most of that time, Morton was a congressional correspondent, but also anchored the “CBS Morning News” from 1974 to 1977. After leaving CBS in... Read more
An interesting development, courtesy CNN’s Beliefs blog: The challenge was directed at the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But the impassioned message, laced with Islamic phrases, sought a much wider audience. The statement came from Barak Barfi, a spokesman for the family of slain American journalist Steve Sotloff. Sotloff, who reported for Time and other publications, was beheaded in a video ISIS released on Tuesday. Barfi is a research fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, where he... Read more
Details: Venezuela’s Roman Catholic church has admonished the ruling Socialist party for rewriting the Lord’s Prayer into an ode to its beloved late leader Hugo Chávez. “The Lord’s Prayer, the typical prayer for Christians around the world, comes from the very lips of our Lord Jesus Christ … and is therefore untouchable,” the local Catholic church said in a statement. A party member introduced the prayer on the podium of the party congress on Monday, imploring Chávez for protection from... Read more
I like this new video from the Diocese of Charleston in South Carolina. It’s theme underscores the universal vocation of each of us—and the video nicely reflects all vocations, from the priesthood to religious life and marriage. (They don’t explicitly show a deacon. But I’m going to assume, cough, that at least one of the men pictured is a deacon. But a glimpse of someone in dalmatic and stole would be helpful…just sayin’.) Anyway: take a look. Read more
This email arrived in my in box a few moments ago: Joseph Zwilling, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of New York, released the following statement today on behalf of the archdiocese, in an attempt to clarify certain questions concerning the cause of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. “The Archdiocese of New York joins Bishop Daniel Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria in his invitation to prayer that “God’s will be made manifest” concerning the cause for sainthood of Venerable... Read more
CNS visits a church in Baltimore, St. Vincent de Paul, doing some extraordinary outreach and support among the homeless. And one of those in charge: a deacon. The story: Father Dick Lawrence doesn’t see homeless people through rose-colored glasses, but he doesn’t close his eyes to them either.“They didn’t get there overnight and you’re not going to get them out (of homelessness) overnight,” said the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in downtown Baltimore. “Sometimes the best you can... Read more
Details: Efforts to canonize Archbishop Fulton Sheen have been suspended indefinitely, the Catholic Diocese of Peoria announced Wednesday afternoon. In a statement, the diocese said that the process leading to beatification and canonization was being halted, despite having been moving smoothly up until now. In fact, expectations were for a beatification ceremony as soon as next year, following only a vote by the College of Cardinals and approval by Pope Francis after a 12-year-long effort by the Archbishop Fulton J.... Read more
Here is devotion, fidelity, humility and faith. From The Washington Post: The secrets that couldn’t be known about beheaded journalist Steven Sotloff during his captivity were revealed in detail Wednesday: The 31-year-old was Jewish, had dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship and apparently maintained his Jewish ritual life while being held by ISIS. The Forward, a major U.S. news organization covering Jewish issues, said it was among the media and Jewish organizations that honored the request by Sotloff’s family not to reveal his Jewish... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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