The Deacon's Bench
What do you do when your cymbal breaks during “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Watch and learn. This guy’s great 🙂 Read more
What do you do when your cymbal breaks during “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Watch and learn. This guy’s great 🙂 Read more
Here’s something for every deacon to ponder—and it comes from a woman helping her cousin through childbirth. Elizabeth Duffy expected to be like Mary rushing to the aid of Elizabeth. It didn’t work out that way: As I drove home later that day, assessing the situation in hindsight, it became clear that what I went there looking for was a starring role in her birth story. It was not to be. Instead I went home to prepare for a party... Read more
This happens three or four times a year: someone I don’t know drops me an e-mail asking if I can perform a Catholic wedding in some place other than a church. Outdoors, maybe, or a catering hall. The presumption seems to be that if a priest can’t do it, maybe a deacon will. So it was that I got this query about two weeks ago from a young woman in New York: I am in the process of looking for... Read more
Details: At a time when the dearth of religious vocations to convents and to the priesthood is epidemic, there is one bright ray of hope. Archbishop Charles Chaput ordained 15 married men of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to the permanent diaconate on Saturday, June 1 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. The diaconate, third in rank in ordained ministry behind bishops and priests, is second only to the episcopacy in ancient tradition, tracing back to the choosing... Read more
It will debut next month from studios in Washington, and the Washington Post has a preview: By planting a stake in Washington — in an office space near Capitol Hill — EWTN hopes to raise its profile on issues where religion converges with public affairs: abortion, contraception, stem cell research, immigration, the death penalty, terrorism and repression of Christians abroad. “It’s a deliberate choice to be in the midst of everything,” said Michael P. Warsaw, EWTN’s president and chief executive.... Read more
Some of the Corpus Christi procession from my parish in Forest Hills this afternoon. Photos by Rosalind Chan-Ganzhi. Read more
Details: Opposition is mounting in the Holy See to a spate of recent, ultra-modern churches, in Italy and abroad, by high profile architects. “The lack of integration between the architect and the faith community has at times been negative,” said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican’s Pontificial Council for Culture. “Sometimes it goes wrong.” Cardinal Ravasi said a church built in 2009 in Foligno, Italy (shown above) by the celebrated Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, which resembles a monolithic concrete... Read more
A friend posted this on Facebook, and it’s too good not to share. Details: In the 19th century, the Dutch lived with Pillarisation, a policy which seperated public establishments by religious and political affiliations. Yet Colonel Aeffderson was a Protestant, and Van Gorkum was a Catholic, were married for 40 years, a union that likely caused some scandal in the 19th century Netherlands. The Protestant husband died first, and then Van Gorkum. They wanted to be buried alongside each other,... Read more
From the Sun-Times: Eight men were ordained as deacons to the Roman Catholic Church at Holy Angels Cathedral on Saturday. Seven became traditional deacons in the church in the service conducted by Bishop Dale J. Melczek, while one was ordained as a transitional deacon and will become a priest in 2014. “Deacons are a constant reminder that vocations are not about entitlement but embracing Jesus,” Melczek said. “They do this by encouraging us by their own example.” Miguel Arredondo of... Read more
From the Sun-Times: Eight men were ordained as deacons to the Roman Catholic Church at Holy Angels Cathedral on Saturday. Seven became traditional deacons in the church in the service conducted by Bishop Dale J. Melczek, while one was ordained as a transitional deacon and will become a priest in 2014. “Deacons are a constant reminder that vocations are not about entitlement but embracing Jesus,” Melczek said. “They do this by encouraging us by their own example.” Miguel Arredondo of... Read more
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