Photo: Joe Moore Details from The Trenton Monitor: St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, was filled with relatives, friends and clergy who were on hand to witness the ordination of 13 permanent deacons by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., May 10. “We come for a holy purpose: to ordain these 13 men – your husbands, your fathers, your relatives and friends – to the order of deacon,” said Bishop O’Connell. “They have prayed and listened and learned what that... Read more
Details from The Tablet: A pregnant Christian mother was sentenced to death for apostasy and 100 lashes for adultery by a court in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum on Sunday. The ecumenical religious freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) described Meriam Yahia Ibrahim’s sentence by the Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif as “inhumane, unwarranted and unacceptable”. The court informed Mrs Ibrahim, 27, she had until 15 May to convert to Islam, implying that her sentence could be annulled or... Read more
From The New York Times: For the Rev. Juan M. Solana, it was the spiritual equivalent of striking oil. When he set out to develop a resort for Christian pilgrims in Galilee, he unearthed a holy site: the presumed hometown of Mary Magdalene and an ancient synagogue where experts say Jesus may well have taught. The project, which Father Solana, a Roman Catholic priest, describes as “providential,” will be blessed by Pope Francis during his visit to the Holy Land... Read more
Details: The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office has identified the climber who fell about 1,000 feet on Mount Hood Tuesday morning as a Catholic priest from New Jersey. They say 57-year-old Rev. Robert J. Cormier was from Jersey City, New Jersey. From the air rescuers said they saw no signs of life from Cormier and he is believed to be dead. Hood River County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Pete Hughes said rescuers will wait until next week to recover the... Read more
A little history was made in the Diocese of Brooklyn last night, as Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio dedicated the new Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph on Pacific Street, just a stone’s throw (or a long free shot) from the shiny new Barclay Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets. The 100-year-old parish church has been freshly renovated—stunningly so, in fact—and will serve to host some of the diocese’s larger liturgical functions, such as the annual Chrism Mass and ordinations. St. Joe’s seats close... Read more
From The Washington Post: The author of the thriller “The Exorcist” says he has new hope he has put the fear of God in Georgetown University. William Peter Blatty, a Georgetown graduate, submitted to the Vatican last fall a petition with some 2,000 signatures calling for the school to be stripped of the labels Catholic and Jesuit. The petition said neither the faculty nor the student body were sufficiently Catholic, and Blatty complained that the school had invited to speak... Read more
Details: In what some might see as an oxymoron, an advocacy group apparently is preparing to ask the Defense Department to appoint a chaplain — for atheists. A source tells Fox News that the Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers plans to make the request on Tuesday, floating its president Jason Torpy as the proposed chaplain. Asked for comment, the association referred FoxNews.com to its position in support of a prior bid to name a “humanist” chaplain. But a... Read more
With the 20th anniversary of her death approaching, suddenly, Jackie O is popping up everywhere. The Washington Post offers us this insight into her life, culled from letters to a priest she only met twice: For more than a decade, Jacqueline Kennedy revealed pieces of her life in ink that she never spoke of — feelings about John F. Kennedy’s womanizing, political aspirations and assassination that, she wrote, made her “bitter against God.” She said she was overcome by ambition,... Read more
Some details of last night’s prayer vigil from The Harvard Crimson: Seats in St. Paul, which sits at the intersection of Bow and Arrow streets, were quickly filled as the crowd reached the church and the prayer service began. Among those in attendance were University President Drew G. Faust, Reverend Jonathan L. Walton, Pusey Minister in Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, as well as clergy and laymen from around the Boston area. Michael E. Drea, the pastor... Read more
Someone is raising that question, and Ed Peters answers it: Any talk of Jackie’s excommunication centers on her October 1968 wedding to Aristotle Onassis. At the time, Jackie was (tragically of course) a free-to-marry Roman Catholic. Ari was a baptized non-Catholic divorced from another woman and thus not free to marry (1917 CIC 1069). The Jackie-Ari wedding took place on a private island and, as near I can tell, disregarded canonical form (1917 CIC 1094). In two respects, then, Ari’s presumptively... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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