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The Deacon's Bench

Let the countdown begin! From the Hollywood Reporter: AMC will premiere Season 4 of “Mad Men” on Sunday, July 25, answering fans’ burning questions from last season’s cliffhanger finale. With the disbanding of ad agency Sterling Cooper and the marital split of the Drapers (played by Jon Hamm and January Jones), the upcoming premiere will…

The sex abuse scandal in the Catholic world may be sending out ripples to other faiths, according to AFP: Publicity around paedophilia in the Catholic Church has prompted victims of sexual abuse in Finland’s Evangelical Lutheran Church to speak out, the Finnish church says. “Some of these cases are very old,” Martti Esko, director of…

A deacon in Alaska sent me the letter below and, with his permission, I’m printing it here in full. I’d like to hear what readers, especially deacons and priests, think of this proposal for public penance: As I know you have, I’ve been following the heartbreaking news as it has broken regarding the clerical sex…

Those words conclude this remarkable speech, delivered by a non-Catholic businessman in Ohio way back in 2003!   You’ll want to read it all, but here’s a sample: The Church today, and when I say the Church keep in mind I am talking about the Catholic Church, is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that…

Could those familiar words of the Act of Contrition help the Church to heal itself? Over at the Huffington Post, Fr. James Martin goes on at great length on the subject of penance, finally concluding: What would a real penance look like? What kind of penance would “correspond,” to use the Catechism’s language, with these…

Those of us who saw and loved “Into Great Silence” may also want to check out a new documentary about Carmelite nuns, “No Greater Love.” The Anchoress found an enthusiastic review, and I discovered a trailer for the film on YouTube, below. Also, check out the new film’s website.

With various legal cases pending against the pope and the Vatican in the United States, it would make sense for the pontiff to have his own lawyer in this country. Well, he does. From the Washington Post: This is a bad time for Jeffrey Lena to have quit caffeine. In Kentucky, the 51-year-old attorney is…

Details are sketchy, but I expect we’ll learn more soon. From the BBC bulletin: Pope Benedict XVI has met alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests in Malta, saying the Church will do all in its power to punish abusers. The Pope also “expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have…

Over at the Times, Maureen Dowd is resting this sabbath, and so her colleague Nicholas Kristof picks up where she left off, with a litany of complaints about the all-male hierarchy. Then, near the end, he offers this tribute to the Catholic Church as the world’s most dynamic and effective social service organization: In my…

Here’s further evidence that deacons come from every walk of life. Check this out, from Arizona: In retirement, Mario Ortega does more in a week than many people do in months. This dedicated public servant is both a deacon for Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church and a detective with the Maricopa Police Department. Ortega…
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