After yesterday’s ordination of transitional deacons, I decided to rework my homily for this Sunday, with particular attention to a member of the newly ordained who has a strong connection to our parish. Here’s the result. + Yesterday, in the Cathedral Basilica of St. James in Brooklyn, Bishop DiMarzio ordained 10 men as transitional deacons. One of them was the seminarian who spent his pastoral year at our parish, Jeremy Canna. He is now Deacon Jeremy.... Read more
A little diaconal news from my neighbors to north in Toronto, Canada, via theCatholic Register: St. Augustine’s Seminary is not only a training ground for priests but it has been a centre for deacon formation since the permanent diaconate came to Toronto 41 years ago. “It’s been a very good relationship at the seminary because the deacons got a chance to integrate with the priests, the seminarians got a chance to integrate with the deacons,” said Deacon Stephen Pitre, co-ordinator... Read more
Here’s a nice piece of deacon news out of Connecticut: The Anti-Defamation League will honor Deacon Arthur and Sandra Miller and two others at the 2013 Greater Hartford Torch of Liberty Award Reception and Centennial Gala, set to begin at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 24 in West Hartford. Deacon Miller is director of the archdiocesan Office for Black Catholic Ministries. In addition to his assigned parishes, he is the chaplain at Hartford’s Capital Community College. Deacon Miller addresses issues of social... Read more
This gave me a lot to think about, in light of some recent rock-throwing and shin-kicking around the Catholic blogosphere. This comes from Will Duquette and his blog A View from the Foothills: As on-line Catholics, we can spend our time writing about what is true, good, and beautiful, or writing about what is false, bad, and ugly. We can look for uplifting links to share or for horrible things to castigate. I’d like to suggest that we only do... Read more
Today’s scripture readings are about something we don’t hear mentioned very much. Humility. If you go to “Google” and type in the word “humility,” you’ll get about 13 million entries. But if you then go and type “fame,” you’ll get 208 million – about 15 times the amount for humility. That about sums it up. Fame is more interesting to more people than humility. It was that way in Jesus’ day, too – which is why what he has to... Read more
My diocese ordained 10 new deacons this morning, who will by the grace of God become priests next year. I was privileged to attend the ordination and vest Deacon Jeremy Canna. Below are some pictures from this wonderful event. The Church is alive and well in Brooklyn, praise God! Congratulations and welcome, brothers! Ad multos annos! St. James Cathedral, Brooklyn. Commemorative plaque outside. This was about an hour before the ceremony began. Deacon Bill McNamara, the DRE at my parish... Read more
This morning, I’ll be attending the ordination of transitional deacons for the Diocese of Brooklyn, and will have the privilege of vesting one of the new deacons, Jeremy Canna, who served at our parish during his pastoral year. Below is the beautiful prayer of consecration that will be prayed over him: Almighty God, be present with us by your power. You are the source of all honor, you assign to each his rank, you give to each his ministry. You... Read more
From the Vatican news site: Pope Francis named Archbishop Pietro Parolin to succeed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as the Holy See’s Secretary of State. Until now, Archbishop Parolin had been Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela. From 2002 until 2009, he served in the Secretariat of State as Undersecretary for Relations with States. Archbishop Pietro Parolin is fifty-eight years old and has been a priest since 1980. He was ordained bishop in 2009. Statement by Archbishop Pietro Parolin on the occasion of his... Read more
From the YouTube post: A 96-year-old Illinois man wrote a song about his wife of 75 years and when he sent the heart-wrenching ode into a singer-songwriter contest, they decided to produce it for him. When Fred Stobaugh talks about his wife Lorraine now, it’s hard for him to hold back tears after the life they led together he says was ‘like a dream.’ After she died, he was sitting alone in the Peoria home they once shared and for... Read more
Just in time for Labor Day, Michael Voris offers this gift to the workers of the world, especially those he calls “professional Catholics”: My blog neighbor Fr. Dwight Longenecker wasn’t impressed: The most worrying thing about Voris’ attack on Catholic Answers, EWTN and others is that it seems like some kind of sick revenge thing. So the guys at Catholic Answers had just one program criticizing the lunatic fringe of the traditionalist movement and a counter attack is launched? For... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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