How’d he do that? From the In My Backyard Desk, via The New York Daily News: In the face of declining enrollment at Catholic schools throughout the city, Principal Kevin Coyne has built a thriving academy. When the devout Catholic and fan of Pope Francis took over a closing school in the Brooklyn Diocese roughly five years ago and opened Our Lady’s Catholic Academy, he started with around 260 kids in one building. By September, the academy in Ozone Park,... Read more
From the BBC: Fresh allegations of child sex abuse against the Church of England (CofE) are likely to surface, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned. The Most Rev Justin Welby said he was braced for an abuse inquiry to reveal “bad stories” about the Church. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that he dealt with the issue daily and that the Church needed to be transparent. It comes after the Home Office backed Baroness Butler-Sloss as the right person... Read more
With a grateful diaconal bow to my brother Deacon Scott Dodge, I offer these very sensible thoughts, which come from Lutheran blogger Chad Bird: There will come a day, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, when the man in the coffin will be me. They say the dead don’t care, but I’m not dead yet, so as long as I’m still alive, I’d like to have some say in what goes on at my funeral. And, truth be told, I think the... Read more
A deacon friend sent this my way: it’s the text of the funeral homily for Fr. Gerald Robinson, the Ohio priest who was convicted in the 1980 killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. The homily–extraordinary by any measure–was preached by Fr. Thomas Extejt and is reprinted here with his permission. +++ First, I would like to offer a promise of prayers for Father Robinson to his brother and sister-in-law, and to his nephew, aunt and cousins. I am sure that I can... Read more
I raised some questions about this several days back, and now my blog neighbor Fr. Dwight Longenecker—himself, a married priest—weighs in over at Zenit: It would certainly seem, at first glance, to solve a lot of problems, not only in the developed countries where, arguably, the mandatory vow of celibacy is one of the greatest deterrents to increased vocations, but it would also be a great help in Africa where celibacy is culturally unheard of. It might also help to solve... Read more
The story behind a case that made headlines a few months back, from The New York Times: Father and son had always been close, from the moment Tim Schaefer was born, six weeks premature, with blood poisoning, a weak heart and lungs, and a doctor who thought he would not make it through the night. His father, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist minister, thought of his eldest son as a miracle child, saved by some combination of medicine... Read more
It’s not Catholics, whose approval rating is a paltry 44%. Details: President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to 43% from its one-time high of 69% in January 2009, but the president still holds majority favor among one group: Muslim Americans. According to a recent Gallup poll conducted in the first six months of 2014, 72 percent of U.S. Muslims approve of the job President Obama is doing. This is the highest approval rating among religious groups by a huge margin, with the next highest... Read more
From The Pittsburgh Catholic: As the gas and oil industry has brought jobs and environmental controversies to the region, it has also attracted thousands of workers, some uprooted from families far away, many others pulling long stressful shifts near their hometowns. To bring them the Gospel, and help them support each other in following Jesus, a Catholic deacon has become the Pittsburgh-area chaplain of Oilfield Christian Fellowship. The ecumenical, strongly evangelical, group started with a single breakfast meeting 23 years... Read more
From Reuters: The Vatican has appointed the archbishop of Berlin, seen by German media as part of a “new generation” of less dogmatic clergy, to take over the Cologne archdiocese, the largest and richest in Germany, it said on Friday. The move makes Rainer Maria Woelki, who turns 58 next month, one of the most influential Roman Catholic cardinals and is an indication of the type of person Pope Francis wants to see in prominent Church roles. Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper called... Read more
He was arrested in the Philippines: Radical Australian hate preacher Musa Cerantonio has been arrested in the Philippines, exposing as lies his boasts of having joined a new Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. Melbourne-born Cerantonio, regarded as one of the top propagandists for jihadists and the violent Islamic State, is now likely to be deported back to Australia. The 29-year-old, who is under investigation by the Australian Federal Police, was arrested with cash, SIM cards, mobile phones and his... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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