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The Deacon's Bench

Feeling guilty about backsliding this Lent? It’s not as bad as you may think: Maybe you gave up chocolate, but no one was watching when you passed the candy dish. Maybe you gave up taking the elevator, but your legs hurt from the stairs. You swore off TV, except for that one episode of Lost.…

This just in, from the Austria Desk: The Archbishop of Vienna today said priestly celibacy could be one of the causes of the sex abuse scandals to hit the Catholic church. In an article for Thema Kirche, his diocesan magazine, Christoph Schonborn became the most senior figure in the Catholic hierarchy to make the connection…

After catching this amazing performance by Michael Lynche last night, I’m starting to think so. Beautiful, haunting, and real. Take a look. mike 16 @ Yahoo! Video UPDATE: For those who are curious, here’s an interesting piece on the story behind Lynche’s song, “This Woman’s Work.”

I don’t know what’s more astonishing: to find this kind of clarion sentiment expressed today, or to find it expressed in the mainstream media: It was a controversy tailor-made for the TV cameras: A lesbian couple in the liberal bastion of Boulder, Colo., had enrolled their children in a Catholic parish school, only to see…

The issue seems to be a defining one for several Democrats in the House: The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News…

Something rare and remarkable, from National Geographic: an all-black penguin. As one expert described it: “Well that is astonishing,” he said. “I’ve never ever seen that before. It’s a one in a zillion kind of mutation somewhere. The animal has lost control of its pigmentation patterns. Presumably it’s some kind of mutation.” He explained that…

H/T The Anchoress EMBED-Awesome News Room Fight on Live TV – Watch more free videos

The Vatican newspaper thinks so. This little item should raise a few eyebrows — and blood pressures: A greater presence of women in decision-making roles in the church might have helped remove the “veil of masculine secrecy” that covered priestly sex abuse cases, a front-page commentary in the Vatican newspaper said. The article said that…

It’s impossible to tell how much influence these figures have, but it’s an interesting group: Near the end of a bumpy first year in office, President Obama readied for a Christmas vacation in Hawaii, but before he left, he called on a group of five ministers for a spiritual recharge. Like previous prayer calls, this…

The Vatican has a suggestion: Homilies should be no longer than eight minutes — a listener’s average attention span, said the head of the synod office. Priests and deacons should also avoid reading straight from a text and instead work from notes so that they can have eye contact with the people in the pews,…
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