Ohio Graduation Speaker Dropped Over Support for Gay Marriage

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Details: A local politician says he was asked to step aside as the commencement speaker at a Catholic high school in Columbus because he has been an advocate for same-sex marriage rights. Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady offered the explanation yesterday after a parent told The Dispatch he had failed to show up at Saturday’s graduation at Bishop Ready High School on the Hilltop. O’Grady, a 1982 Ready graduate, said Principal Celene Seamen asked him to give the speech about two months... Read more

Homily for June 9, 2013: 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Last updated on: June 8, 2013 at 4:27 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

[Click here for readings] A few years ago I got an unexpected e-mail from a guy in Virginia who was studying to become a deacon in the Diocese of Richmond. His name was Joe Marotta. Joe had discovered my blog and wanted to ask me some advice about his formation. One e-mail led to another, and in time we ended up forming a long distance e-mail friendship. Over the years, I learned about his family – his wife Katie and... Read more

Why Do We Need Deacons? Here’s One Answer…

Last updated on: June 8, 2013 at 4:19 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

In some rural areas, they comprise a significant part of the clergy population. From the Intermountain Catholic newspaper in Salt Lake City: Deacon Rick Klein’s move from Moab to Fort Collins, Colo. “creates a tremendous ministry hole,” said Father William Wheaton, pastor of the parishes Saint Pius X in Moab and Saint Joseph in Monticello and Sacred Heart Mission in La Sal; he also covers Saint Michael the Archangel Mission in Green River. “Rick has been just a gift here,... Read more

Beautiful Picture: Prayer Before a Wedding

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Since we’re in the middle of wedding season, now seems a good time to post this picture, which apparently caused a sensation when it first appeared online a few months ago. This blog post, by the bride, explains the story behind it: she and her groom holding hands in prayer moments before their wedding, trying not to catch a glimpse of each other before the ceremony: Right around the corner sat my soon to be husband, I so was nervous... Read more

Retired Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn Joseph Sullivan Dies

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

A good man and a great priest. Details: Retired Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, the Most Reverend Joseph M. Sullivan, died June 7, 2013, after a May 30th car accident on the Long Island Expressway in Syosset, New York. Bishop Sullivan was critically injured in the three-car collision and was immediately airlifted to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, New York. He died from injuries sustained from the impact. “We mourn the passing of Bishop Joseph Sullivan,”... Read more

Jim Gaffigan, hipster Catholic

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From Michelle Boorstein in the Washington Post comes this profile of funnyman Jim Gaffigan: Gaffigan seems to effortlessly embody the idea the Catholic Church and other denominations are desperately promoting: You can be a devout member of mainstream American life. You don’t have to leave God in order to live in the regular world. With many Americans bailing on organized religion, the long-popular Christian maxim to “be in the world but not of it” is being promoted a bit less... Read more

Yee haw: Behold, the Texas Bible

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

I kid you not. A gentleman by the name of John Dyer has developed an app that translates the Bible for Texans: Just about any time I teach from the Scriptures I have to point out a place where the English Bible says “you,” but the original Hebrew or Greek indicates you plural rather than you singular. This means the original author was addressing to a group of people, but a modern English reader can’t detect this because in common English we... Read more

When Was the Last Time a Pope Did THIS?—UPDATED

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From CNS, tweeting about the pope’s meeting with students today: Pope ditches prepared speech saying it wud be “too boring.” Opts for 30 min Q&A w/ students from Jesuit schools. Personally, I’m looking forward to the write-through on this one. Meantime, you can read what he was supposed to say here. UPDATE: Vatican Radio now has a report on the Q&A: In a style that seems to have almost become signature of the current pontificate, Pope Francis stepped out... Read more

One Church, Two Paths: Contrasting Chaput and O’Malley—UPDATED

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

Over at NCR, Tom Roberts looks at these two leading American prelates—both Capuchins, former classmates, now among the most prominent archbishops in the United States—and sees two different views of the church. He comes to this conclusion: The contrasts in the two prelates are apparent and have to do with personality as well as ecclesiology and theology. Over the long haul of history, the church perhaps needs all types of leaders, including the exceedingly pessimistic. But given the realities of... Read more

Benedict: “I’m fine. I live like a monk.”

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 4:51 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

A friend visited the retired pope and offered this report about his new life, according to Catholic World News: “I’m fine. I live like a monk,” Benedict XVI told an old German friend who visited him recently at his new residence in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery on the Vatican grounds. Manfred Lutz, a German scholar who is a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Academy for Life, told Bild Zeitung that he found the retired Pontiff “physically... Read more