Earlier this month, Google Surveys asked 1,000 people what their resolutions were for 2019 – and, believe it or not, they are virtually the same as the ones for 2018: #1: Exercise and lose weight. #2: Save money. #3: Travel. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I suspect we’ll be making the same resolutions next December for 2020. For all our missteps and mistakes, we are creatures who never give up. Despite the evidence on the scale and in... Read more
This is huge. The unexpected announcement came via tweet this morning, noting that both Burke and his deputy would be departing tomorrow. Burke, you may recall, was a veteran American journalist who came to work at the Vatican after years at Fox News. His Wikipedia entry notes: He was the Director of the Holy See Press Office. He was formerly a correspondent for the Fox News Channel, and for Time Magazine, based in Rome. In June 2012 it was announced he would be taking... Read more
This lead story in The Washington Post caught my eye this morning, and also caught me by surprise. I didn’t know the United States fertility regulations were so loose: Danielle Lloyd, a former Miss Great Britain and celebrity mother of four boys, wants to guarantee that her next baby will be a girl. So, she revealed in a TV interview last year, she’s planning to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization. The news sparked an uproar in Britain, where screening... Read more
Check out this video from Robert Duncan at CNS. This offers a glimpse at some of the more memorable moments in the life of Pope Francis from this year. Read more
This story from CBS News’s Steve Hartman is just fantastic. Just watch. Read more
Details: A conservative Episcopal priest, who is a top administrator in the Tennessee diocese, is leaving the church to become a Roman Catholic. Andrew Petiprin recently announced his plans to change his religious tradition and resign his post as the Episcopal diocese’s canon to the ordinary. He wraps up his job on New Year’s Eve, and Petiprin and his family will start 2019 in the Catholic Church. “I’m not really running away from the Episcopal Church, but running toward the Catholic Church,” Petiprin said in an interview. Since... Read more
It happens every year around this time, so now seems as good a time as any to remind everyone that the popular myth now making the rounds again just isn’t true. In case you missed it, here’s what countless people believe and share on social media: “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written in England as one of the “catechism songs” to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith – a memory aid, when to be caught with... Read more
Details: Members of Our Lady of Lavang Parish in Portland, Oregon did not let an attack stall their Christmas observances. Volunteers at the Vietnamese Catholic community gathered Christmas Eve, tools in hand, to repair their church, which had been seriously damaged when a man intentionally drove his SUV into the worship space and repeatedly crashed through the pews. In addition to the pews, walls and doors were heavily damaged. By late afternoon, neat walls of plywood covered most of the... Read more
This bears watching. From The Washington Post: In response to recent Catholic Church clergy sex abuse scandals, lawmakers in the District and Virginia say they will soon propose legislation that adds clergy to the list of people mandated by law to report child abuse or neglect. Both efforts hit at the hot-button intersection of child protection and religious liberty, but lawmakers are expected to give them an open reception at a time when recent sexual abuse scandals in churches and... Read more
“Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of his soldier. Yesterday our king, clothed in his robe of flesh, left his place in the virgin’s womb and graciously visited the world. Today his soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven. Our king, despite his exalted majesty, came in humility for our sake; yet he did not come empty-handed. He brought his soldiers a great gift... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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