The lead paragraph from the AP report on a priest in Sioux City: A Roman Catholic diocese on Wednesday defended its decision to continue employing a priest who told police he was trying to rape a woman when he was arrested naked in an Iowa mall in 2013. You’ll want to read the whole story, which describes how this priest met with a woman at a bakery, announced he was going to masturbate, took of his pants, and chased the woman... Read more
There are still places in the United States where deacons are minimized, marginalized, dismissed or, even, ignored. So to find an archdiocese not only honoring the diaconate on the 50th anniversary of its restoration but even celebrating it is something exceptional and gratifying. It is a sign of hope. A write up from the Georgia Bulletin: In a September letter to pastors in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, urged parishes to celebrate the anniversary of the restoration... Read more
Seriously: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the father of Baroque painting, shocked the upper class aesthetes of his day by drafting prostitutes and proletariats as models for his primarily Biblical subjects. Ten years ago, under the direction of founder Ludovica Rambelli, eight members of the Italian company, Malatheatre, discovered first hand the insanely rigorous poses Caravaggio demanded of his models, creating 23 tableaux vivants inspired by the master’s oeuvre. The company sought less to reproduce the paintings than the scene Caravaggio would have gazed on from behind... Read more
Sainthood could be coming soon, if reports are accurate: Blessed John Henry Newman could be canonised as early as next year after a second miracle was approved, the Catholic Herald has learned. Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth said in an email newsletter last week that it “looks now as if Newman might be canonised, all being well, later next year.” Fr Ignatius Harrison, the Postulator of the Cause, confirmed to the Catholic Herald that there were now just “two more hoops” for the... Read more
An excellent report by Crux’s Christopher White lays out the facts behind the sudden and headline-grabbing departure of Bishop Martin Holley. In the first of a three-part series, he writes: In a sense, this story is bigger than Holley and Memphis. It’s about how quickly an apparently well-functioning diocese can be thrown into turmoil when a new bishop, for whatever reason, struggles to bring his priests and people in line with his vision – and thus, perhaps, an object lesson... Read more
This video from Rome Reports is priceless: The explanation: This little boy had no concerns about passing security and walking up the steps of Paul VI Audience Hall to check whether the Swiss guard was real or a statue. His mother tried to come and take him away but the little boy did not want to. “He’s Argentinian, undisciplined,” the pope joked. The boy then called his sister and they began to run around the stage. The monsignor who was... Read more
It happened outside Baltimore. From The Catholic Review: Apparent Good Samaritans turned out to be nothing of the sort after allegedly stealing Christmas presents from two Little Sisters of the Poor outside the Costco in Columbia Nov. 26. Mother Superior Joseph Caroline Beutler and Sister Bernadette Mary Wilson, who care for the elderly poor at St. Martin’s Home for the Aged in Catonsville, were taking advantage of holiday sales to purchase $510 worth of items, including blankets and socks they... Read more
From AFP — and note the surprising reference to Martha and deacons: Tired of seeing their holy texts used to justify the subjugation of women, a group of feminist theologians from across the Protestant-Catholic divide have joined forces to draft “A Women’s Bible”. As the #MeToo movement continues to expose sexual abuse across cultures and industries, some scholars of Christianity are clamouring for a reckoning with biblical interpretations they say have entrenched negative images of women. The women we know... Read more
From Catholic News Agency: The Diocese of Brownsville, Texas is pushing back against a government effort to use Church property to aid in the construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. David Garza, a lawyer for the diocese in South Texas, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that “it goes against the First Amendment, freedom of religion.” The federal government has informed the dioceses that it plans to survey an estimated 67 acres of property where La Lomita Mission,... Read more
A great journey, via Elizabeth Fisher in Catholic Philly: Richard Malamut was raised in the Jewish tradition, worshiped with his family at the Oxford Circle Jewish Community Center in Northeast Philadelphia, attended Hebrew school and went through the Bar Mitzvah ceremony. By the age of 13, his devotion led his family and friends to believe that he was destined to be a rabbi. Neither they nor he could envision that his future lay in the diaconate of the Roman Catholic Church.... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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