Photo by Michael Alexander / Georgia Bulletin From the Georgia Bulletin comes this beautiful tribute to a priest, written by a man on Death Row: I actually cannot remember the first time we met, but the years have been long since his arrival to Death Row. Our deacon was Mr. Tom Silvestri, and at the time we had no priest to say Mass. Instead the bishop would come in a couple of times a year and at times we’d be... Read more
“The normal Catholic response to sin, per se, is repentance and Confession, not loss of employment. A woman comes to the sacrament and confesses embezzlement. A priest will advise restitution, but he will not say “You must resign your job.” One can be truly repentant of most sins (including, one might surmise, of sins among the oldest in history) without suffering drastic temporal consequences for them. Especially where such consequences might serve as an inducement to avoid them by comitting still greater sins. To... Read more
From The New York Daily News: President Obama and the First Lady joined thousands from the Washington elite early Thursday for the National Prayer Breakfast, an event that hit a decidedly more spiritual tone in 2014 than the highly politicized spirit at the 2013 occasion. The first couple was joined by Vice President Joe Biden for the annual affair, with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah slated as the keynote speaker. During Obama’s message, the President highlighted the peril of those enduring... Read more
From the CNS blog: A Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide that Pope Francis put up for auction went for a hefty $326,500 today, demolishing its pre-sale appraisal of $16,000. The record sale was the hit of the day as hundreds of bidders and spectators attending the Paris auction “erupted into applause when the hammer came down,” according to the Bonhams auction house. Bidding was fierce, Bonhams said, and lasted a full six minutes. The 2013 autographed bike went to “a private European buyer” who... Read more
Mary DeTurris Poust adds her voice to the debate about that Montana school teacher, and echoes what many have been saying: Either we’re pro-life or we’re not pro-life, and firing an unwed pregnant Catholic school teacher is not pro-life no matter how you slice it. I don’t care what her contract said. I don’t buy the notion that children will be scandalized. None of it washes. Let’s face facts. We are all sinners. Some of us, unfortunately, sin in ways that are... Read more
He released his message for this year’s World Youth Day, and his main theme is poverty, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” An excerpt from Vatican Radio: The first Beatitude, our theme for the next World Youth Day, says that the poor in spirit are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. At a time when so many people are suffering as a result of the financial crisis, it might seem strange to link poverty and happiness. How can we... Read more
Details, from Religion News Service: Philomena Lee, the real-life Irish woman whose life story is the center of the Oscar-nominated film “Philomena,” met Pope Francis on Wednesday. The film has earned four Oscar nominations, including best picture, and Stephen Frears, the film’s director, expressed hope Pope Francis would watch the feel-good film, which some critics say is rife with anti-Catholic undertones. But the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, recently quashed that speculation. “The Holy Father does not see... Read more
Details from The Montana Standard: Shaela Evenson “made a willful decision to violate the terms of her contract,” which requires her to follow Catholic teachings in both her personal and professional life, Superintendent Patrick Haggarty said Tuesday. “It’s a sensitive issue, and it’s unfortunate all around.” This morning, Haggarty defended the decision in a new interview with The Montana Standard. “It’s not easy being a Christian or a Catholic in today’s world,” Haggarty said. “Our faith asks us to do... Read more
So a school teacher in Montana has been fired for conceiving a child out of wedlock—evidently violating the terms of her contract. I’ve argued on Facebook that there was a better way to handle this, and someone asked me how. Okay. The next time something like this happens, and the school decides the only recourse is termination, and it looks like it’s going to generate a lot of bad publicity, the principal of the school should call a press conference.... Read more
Believe it or not, Lent starts just a month from now, on March 5. And the folks at CRS Rice Bowl are already on top of it. They’ve got an app for Lent—available for both Android and iPhone—to help make Lent more meaningful. According to their publicist, the app includes: Prayerful reflection for each day of Lent Customizable tool to set Lenten sacrifice goal and track progress towards its achievement Meatless recipes for Fridays during Lent Stories and videos of... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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