The Deacon's Bench
Why God Made Copy Editors, Reason #8,435. Spotted on Twitter this morning. Read more
Why God Made Copy Editors, Reason #8,435. Spotted on Twitter this morning. Read more
So, what happened yesterday at the USCCB meeting in Baltimore? Here’s a very good assessment from John Allen at Crux: In the run-up to the U.S. bishop’s fall meeting this week in Baltimore, the expectation – to be clear, the expectation of the bishops themselves – was that they’d be making some important decisions on the clerical sexual abuse crisis that’s rocked the Church for the last six months. Instead, what unfolded Monday morning basically sucked all the oxygen out... Read more
Details: A Catholic priest accused of child abuse was not reported to police despite apparently admitting he ordered a group of Scouts to strip naked, an independent inquiry has been told. Father John Tolkien, son of The Hobbit author JRR Tolkien, returned to active ministry after allegedly being ‘sent for treatment’ by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham in the late 1960s. A week-long series of hearings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is examining the archdiocese’s response to allegations... Read more
From CNA: Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference has told the American bishops that they will not vote on two key proposals which had been expected to form the basis for the Church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis. The news came at the beginning of the U.S. bishops’ conference fall general assembly, meeting in Baltimore Nov. 12-14. The instruction to delay consideration of a new code of conduct for bishops and the creation of a lay-led... Read more
An amazing saga, via Denver Catholic: Witold Engel was living his Catholic faith at the age of nine years old in a place no one could ever imagine — Auschwitz concentration camp. As a prisoner during the Holocaust, Witold watched as a priest who had smuggled in a rosary was beaten to death by an S.S. soldier in the camp. A Jewish man close to the scene yelled at the S.S. man to put the dying priest out of his... Read more
A sad sign of the times: The power of prayer can now be measured by caliber. While a Queens synagogue has hired a heat-packing, off-duty cop to protect its congregation on the Sabbath, Catholic churches have been taking live-shooter training and mulling armed ushers at Mass. “It’s really all about survival,” said Elie Meskin, president of The Utopia Jewish Center in Fresh Meadows. “We are living in a crazy era. It’s frightening and we have to protect ourselves.” …The New... Read more
The unfailingly creative and generous Father Jim Sichko — who has made a few appearances in my blog over the years, and made headlines with his charitable work — is at it again, and this may be one of his biggest undertakings yet. Remember “Newman’s Own”? Think of this as “Sichko’s Own.” From CNS: When Father Jim Sichko recalls Tuesdays during his childhood in Orange, Texas, he can almost smell the aroma of his mother’s homemade tomato sauce wafting through... Read more
We never learn her name. We never find out where she comes from, what she does, or even how old she is. We don’t know if she has a family. Some images show her with a small child. But we don’t know if she has children or not – if she has other mouths to feed. We don’t know where she lives, or if she even has a roof over her head. Perhaps she lives on the streets, begging. We... Read more
Who deserves to live? Who deserves to die? Who should be … chosen? That’s the implicit message behind this cynical ad by Planned Parenthood, which uses an adorable baby in a bid to support “choice.” Read more
Yesterday, I reported on concerns that the ongoing sex abuse crisis will affect Catholic giving. It’s already happening in Buffalo, according to CNN: In the deeply Catholic Rust Belt community of Buffalo, New York, some parishioners are using the Sunday collection basket to ask embattled Bishop Richard Malone to resign. Instead of giving money, some faithful are leaving handwritten messages giving the church an ultimatum. “We will resume our weekly offering when the Bishop resigns or is removed,” read one... Read more
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