I can’t recall anything quite like this. From CNA: This Friday Pope Francis will give a live interview on an Argentine radio station that he helped raise the money to found while Archbishop of Buenos Aires.Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., confirmed the event, telling CNA Aug. 4 that although he doesn’t know exactly how it will be done, most likely “the Pope will make a telephone call to the local radio, and this will be aired on the radio... Read more
A shocking confession: Catholic blogger Anselm Gregory Benedictus Ambrose Tiberius Athanasius, who writes at “Ex Ore Dei” under the pseudonym “Pepe”, admitted to his readers yesterday that writing negative posts about Pope Francis for forty consecutive days has turned him into “a miserable SOB”. In a post titled “Pope Posts: Day 41″, Pepe wrote: “What began as a crusade for Truth ended as a victory for self-discovery. And what I’ve discovered after forty consecutive days of complaining about how Pope... Read more
From CNS: A German cardinal warned that the number of Catholics leaving his country’s church is “alarmingly high” and urged an end to “scandals and vexations” involving clergy.“There’s no doubt these figures must make us think. We’ve obviously suffered a loss of trust and credibility which has rarely happened so violently,” Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz wrote in a column published in the Aug. 3 issue of Faith and Life, the diocese’s weekly newspaper. “The church isn’t just another club,... Read more
“Let us offer one another a sign of peace.” With those words just before communion, the deacon or priest invites the faithful to take part in a liturgical gesture that has lately gotten a lot of ink—and sparked no small amount of debate. What hasn’t gotten as much attention, though, is the significance of this gesture and why we do it. Searching around, I found an excellent explanation from a few years ago by Australian Benedictine Fr. Hugh Somerville-Knapman,... Read more
From The Catholic News Herald: The Diocese of Nashville this summer has witnessed an explosion of vocations, with a record number of men being ordained to the priesthood and the permanent diaconate and the continuing growth of the Nashville congregation of Dominican sisters. On July 26, nine men were ordained as priests for the diocese in the Cathedral of the Incarnation. It was the largest class of new priests to be ordained in a single Mass in the diocese’s 177-year... Read more
Oh, yeah… Read more
…and where they live…here’s one, hanging out where he lives. This picture is suddenly making the rounds again (I wonder why?), but dates from May 2013. Nice. But between the long robe, dangling cross and sandals, maybe not a poster child for lawn care safety… Read more
Back to the future? Not so long ago, this would have been unthinkable. Details: Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for two monasteries and a church that were demolished during Soviet times to be rebuilt in the Kremlin, the largest overhaul of the site’s architectural landscape in nearly a century. Putin has cultivated strong ties with Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, adopting more conservative policies and prompting some critics to suggest the line separating state and... Read more
Details: James Brady, the spokesman for former President Ronald Reagan who was shot during a 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, has died at the age of 73, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence confirmed to CBS News. The gunshot wound that nearly killed him and left him paralyzed on his left side spurred Brady and his wife to spend the next three decades-plus advocating for stricter gun control. “We are heartbroken to share the news that our beloved Jim... Read more
A few people sent me this link from CNN yesterday, forwarding it with a mix of agitation and umbrage. I meant to get to it and post on it, but stuff—including three Masses and 10 baptisms—kept me occupied most of the day. The piece notes, with a tone of forehead-slapping disbelief, that archbishops tend to live in big houses. Very big: A CNN investigation found that at least 10 of the 34 active archbishops in the United States live in buildings... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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