My friend Deacon Stephen Byers from the Diocese of Pittsburgh offers some excellent answers in this week’s edition of the diocesan newspaper: On Saturday, June 15, in a ritual dating back to the time of the apostles, Bishop David Zubik will ordain 25 men at St. Paul Cathedral to the order of deacon for service to the Church of Pittsburgh. Two of the men, Michael Ackerman and Kenneth Marlovits, are seminarians preparing for the priesthood; becoming a deacon is one... Read more
The answer is joy! From this morning’s homily: The Holy Spirit is the “author” of Christian joy and to proclaim the Gospel we need to have joy in our hearts gifted us by the Spirit of God. There is a certain understanding of Christian life that is marked by sadness, but long faces cannot proclaim Jesus. Joy alone and praise of God are the only way to advance the Gospel. This was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily at morning... Read more
Behold: Oklahoma State Rep. Rebecca Hamilton sees no conflict between her pro-life views as a Catholic and being a stalwart Democrat who has served 18 years in the state Legislature. Hamilton, who represents South Oklahoma City, told Catholic News Service during a break this morning in the 2013 National Religious Freedom Conference in Washington that her pro-life stance evolved over time after a “powerful religious experience” in the 1980s. It helped, she said, that she became Catholic in 2002. Hamilton has cemented her... Read more
I’m sure he meant it in jest. Details: The president of Ohio State University said Notre Dame was never invited to join the Big Ten because the university’s priests are not good partners, joking that “those damn Catholics” can’t be trusted, according to a recording of a meeting he attended late last year. At the December meeting of the school’s athletic council, Gordon Gee also took shots at schools in the Southeastern Conference and the University of Louisville, according to... Read more
Is a T-Rex who is eager to catch the bouquet. As a deacon reader noted: “This is another reason why we don’t do garden weddings…” Get a load of this incredible wedding picture below, by the very imaginative J. Quinn Miller. Visit this link to read all about it and catch the funny annotations. Read more
Details: The Rev. Andrew Greeley, the outspoken Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and sociologist known for his deeply researched academic appraisals and sometimes scathing critiques of his church, died Wednesday night, several years after fracturing his skull in a freakish fall. The Rev. Greeley died in his sleep at his apartment at the John Hancock Center, according to his spokeswoman, June Rosner. He was 85. Rosner said the Rev. Greeley had been in poor health since an accident on Nov.... Read more
Today, the Vatican seemed to indicate no. Here’s the statement from Fr. Federico Lombardi: The very great interest aroused by the Pope’s brief homilies in the course of the Masses celebrated every morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, poses and continues to pose often the question from different parts on the possibility to access such celebrations or such homilies fully and not through the syntheses published every day by Vatican Radio and L’Osservatore Romano. The question is... Read more
What a piece of work is man,” wrote Shakespeare. And here’s why. You might be amazed at some of the ingenious ways people have found to incorporate the iPhone case into daily life—making the ubiquitous smartphone even smarter and more useful! From CNET: Apple’s iPhone introduced a whole new category of technology and unlocked an endless stream of applications that put a computer right into our pockets. Today there are apps for banking, sharing, dating, and gaming. Sometimes though, we need something a... Read more
I first posted their biographies last week. Now CNS has posted on its Facebook page some excellent pictures of the ordination by Long Island’s great Gregory Shemitz. As CNS notes: The new face of the U.S. church’s growing Latino makeup was shown in last Saturday’s ordinations for the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. Twelve of the 17 men ordained at a Mass in Brooklyn were born outside the United States, hailing from Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala,... Read more
I first posted their biographies last week. Now CNS has posted on its Facebook page some excellent pictures of the ordination by Long Island’s great Gregory Shemitz. As CNS notes: The new face of the U.S. church’s growing Latino makeup was shown in last Saturday’s ordinations for the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. Twelve of the 17 men ordained at a Mass in Brooklyn were born outside the United States, hailing from Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala,... Read more
The Deacon's Bench
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