The comedy icon and treasure died today at the wondrous age of 90. There’s was more to her than what folks saw every week on “All in the Family.” Below, a delightful example from “The Muppet Show” that proves she really had a lovely singing voice (despite what we heard on “Those Were the Days”) and a real flair for musical comedy. God bless you, Jean Stapleton, and thank you. Read more
[Click here for readings] Last week, my wife and I traveled to California. One of the places we visited for Mass was the cathedral in Los Angeles: Our Lady of the Angels, now marking its ten-year anniversary. It’s truly an amazing place: a fortress, really, designed to withstand the strongest California earthquake. As such, it doesn’t have delicate stained glass windows like we have here, depicting the saints. Instead, the thick stone walls are lined with what may be the... Read more
Over on his Facebook page, Fr. James Martin has some ideas: The best gift of all is your love and prayers, but in case you want to supplement that, the most useful gifts (in my experience) are as follows, in order of cost. (By the way, none of the following companies put me up to this!) First, the various “rites books,” which the priest can use for weddings, baptisms or funerals (normally a soon-to-be-ordained priest will already have the Roman... Read more
[Click here for readings] Last week, my wife and I traveled to California. One of the places we visited for Mass was the cathedral in Los Angeles: Our Lady of the Angels, now marking its ten-year anniversary. It’s truly an amazing place: a fortress, really, designed to withstand the strongest California earthquake. As such, it doesn’t have delicate stained glass windows like we have here, depicting the saints. Instead, the thick stone walls are lined with what may be the... Read more
A fascinating case worthy of “Law and Order,” via CNN: All evidence pointed police to one conclusion: A priest had killed a beautiful 25-year-old schoolteacher. Searchers had found the lifeless body of former Miss South Texas, Irene Garza, face down in a canal in her hometown of McAllen. She’d disappeared on the day before Easter after going to Sacred Heart Catholic Church for confession. An autopsy determined Garza had been raped while in a coma, and then had died from... Read more
It’s a weird thing to do, but I have to start this post on the evil of idols by talking about my idol. Her name is Elizabeth Scalia. She’ll hate that. She can’t stand it when people make a fuss over her. And she’ll be the first to tell you she’s a miserable, worthless, slobbering old sinner, not really prime idol material. No. She’s wrong. Truth be told, she is someone the world needs to hear—someone who defies labels (and,... Read more
There’s a lot of wisdom here—and a lot of it, I think, could apply to deacons, as well. Since we are smack in the middle of ordination season, here’s some fraternal advice from Rev. Damian J. Ference, a priest of the diocese of Cleveland: I just celebrated my 10th anniversary of ordination two weeks ago, and although I do teach at the seminary, there’s always something in me that thinks, “I am not qualified for such an important mission of forming... Read more
Hard to believe, but on the same day, I encountered these two wildly disparate items. They almost gave me whiplash. First, via Mark Shea, a priest blogger draws a line in the sand: A Boy Scout has to swear, on one’s honor, before God and everyone, to uphold the revised Boy Scout Law of celebrating homosexuality. The BSA has made itself declared public enemies of the Church. So, no, I would not administer Holy Communion to any Boy Scout coming... Read more
“She” is the always-engaging and surprising Eve Tushnet: When I became Catholic in 1998, as a college sophomore, I didn’t know any other gay Christians. I’d been raised in a kind of pointillist Reform Judaism, almost entirely protected from homophobia; when I realized I was gay it was, if anything, a relief. I thought I finally had an explanation for the persistent sense of difference I’d felt since early childhood. This sheltered upbringing may help explain my sunny undergraduate confidence... Read more
Details: When it comes to Venezuela’s growing scarcities, not even the Roman Catholic Church has received a dispensation. Church officials say food shortages and foreign exchange restrictions are causing a lack of ingredients needed to celebrate Mass: altar wine as well as wheat to produce communion wafers. They say the wheat flour used for the sacramental wafers is scarce and the supply of altar wine used for Holy Communion is threatened, which could force them to ration it. “We only... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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