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The Deacon's Bench

Further evidence that the great movie “Network” wasn’t a satire, but a prophecy. NBC News correspondent Natalie Morales has lent her name and credibility (whatever is left of it) to “The Marriage Ref,” Jerry Seinfeld’s attempt at reality TV comedy. As the website MediaBistro noted: “Marriage Ref” is a new Jerry Seinfeld-produced reality show where…

From Baltimore comes this wonderful story about an orphan who never forgot where she came from — and 90 years later, is giving something back: Cora Barnes has a deep respect for the upbringing she received at the Baltimore orphanage she knew throughout her youth. She learned her algebra and Roman Catholic Latin hymns. She…

Photo by Matt Labash / The Weekly Standard Images like this don’t pop up on the Evening News. In the above photo, Missionary Vern Conaway offers Hail Mary’s for a dead infant in the hospital morgue in Haiti. It comes from a very good profile by Matt Labash of the legendary Fr. Rick Frechette. Please…

So begins one of the most widely recited prayers in the Catholic Church, the penitential Act of Contrition, said at the conclusion of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Lent is a season for revisiting this sacrament, and for attempting to make what my nuns back in grade school used to call “a good confession.” If anyone…

A bill awaiting the governor’s signature could go further than any other in the country. Details: Last May in a small town in eastern Utah, a 17-year-old girl, seven months pregnant, paid a man she had just met $150 to beat her up in hopes of inducing a miscarriage that would resolve her crisis. He…

What’s it like to be a priest in the remote reaches of Alaska? Meet one of them: a man whose commute from parish to parish involves something uplifting — air travel: Father William Hanrahan was ordained a priest at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey in 1969. He served eight…

Anawim in Florida?  Who knew?! H/T to the indispensable Bill Ditewig: deacon with a sharp eye!  (And a handy cell phone…)

That’s the title of a stem-winder of a rant that is must reading for anyone involved in parish life. It was prompted by this post, wherein the blogger notes a sad state of affairs: Lately I’ve taken to reading the obituaries and I’ve noted how many people seem to have no church burials or services…

Just in time for Lent, an unusual and dramatic exhibit of religious art has just opened at Washington’s National Gallery, and the Washington Post offers an assessment that, among other things, describes the lengths to which some artists will go for their work: Before he started work on a religious piece, the Spanish sculptor Gregorio…

Will it have an impact? Well, it’s already getting people talking: Georgia Right to Life recently sponsored a provocative billboard campaign that says black children are an “endangered species.” The campaign, unique to Georgia, combines the contentious race and abortion issues and has people all over the country discussing both. Steve Osunsami of ABC News…
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