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The Deacon's Bench

In certain quarters, some are arguing that the holy French priest selected as the ideal for the Year for Priests isn’t necessarily the best model for the vocation in the 21st century. From the Christian Science Monitor: “Vianney is thought to be a useful model for many new Catholic priests in rural or developing nations,”…

While various commentators take a less-than-favorable view of the Catholic hierarchy these days, that hasn’t stopped some prominent Anglicans from dipping their toes in the Tiber to see if they’d like to swim across: Three Church of England bishops traveled to Rome last week for talks with Vatican officials about joining the Catholic Church, according…

That’s the question that kicks off Nicholas Kristof’s column in the Times this morning, and it’s a must-read: The Vatican believes that this newspaper and other news organizations have been unfair and overzealous in excavating the church’s cover-ups of child rape. I see the opposite. No organization has done more to elevate the moral stature…

“The continuous media coverage of this case is damaging the relationship between the clergy and the laity, and it is tragic. But we must not blame the media for covering the story. There are, as I see it, three motives driving the coverage. The first is truth, and as in all cases of sexual abuse…

Friday night, I watched the rehearsal for this weekend’s confirmation. It was a little different from what I remember from my own confirmation almost 40 years ago. But one thing hasn’t changed – the “confirmation name.” Young people still choose a confirmation name, a patron saint to model themselves after, and to give them inspiration.…

O Glorious St. Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations, to work with gratitude and joy, in a spirit of penance for the remission of my sins, considering it an honor to employ and develop…

Certainly, I’ve done my part to prove that, haven’t I? But don’t take my word for it: check out what my friend Mike Hayes says on the topic over at his fine blog Googling God: Since I started a media ministry (BustedHalo.com) and now have this blog, I have come to wonder if there is…

Some fascinating possibilities, from John Allen, in NCR: First, the Catholic population of the future in the United States, like the country as a whole, will be older. The most rapidly growing demographic sub-segment of the American population is actually not immigrants, legal or undocumented, but the elderly. In 2005, there were 34.7 million Americans who…

The startling picture above was e-mailed to me this morning, with the following message: This was taken at the baptism of Valentino Mora, son of Erica, a single mom of 21 who asked the photographer to take a picture of her son for free. The photo of the baptism of Valentino Mora is sweeping the…

Some provocative food for thought from Msgr. Charles Pope on the question of what the modern microphone has done to the art of preaching: I have discussed with brother priests before the concern I have at how too much microphone harms our preaching. Too much microphone causes the priest to adopt a gentle, lyrical style…
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