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The Deacon's Bench

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A new front seems to have opened up on the communion wars — and it involves someone who isn’t even Catholic. Fr. James Martin, S.J. has the scoop: In one of the strangest religious stories of the month, Sally Quinn, the longtime Washington Post reporter and co-editor of the Post-Newsweek blog “On Faith” wrote about…

…you will receive communion from the Pope on your knees. That’s the word from the Catholic News Service: Receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling before the pope will become the norm at papal liturgies, said the Vatican’s liturgist. While current norms allow the faithful to receive the Eucharist in the hand while standing,…

I’ve heard of one or two priests who, for relaxation, like to knit. I kid you not. But this the first I’ve heard of a priest who likes to cross-stitch: Who would guess that a brawny, six-foot plus, motorcycle-riding guy would be an accomplished expert at the delicate art of cross-stitch? Father Robert Ruskamp, 53,…

Remember the story of the pregnancy pact that swept the media last week? Um, er, uh…nevermind. As a footnote: could someone, please, slap Chris Cuomo?

The commercial below has stirred up a lot of controversy in the United Kingdom — this article explains why — but you have to see it to believe it. The ad has since been pulled. Frankly, it’s no more shocking than most of what you see on prime time television these days (or, for that…

Well, this is something you don’t see every day: news that an American bishop is going to perform a valuable civic duty, and spend time doing what so many of us dread. I refer, of course, to jury duty. From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Not even bishops can escape jury duty. Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David…

Anyone who has ever climbed into a pulpit to deliver a sermon can appreciate these words from Fr. John F. Kavanaugh, S.J., in America: As a preacher myself, I know there are few moments to compare with the affection and approval of parishioners after Mass, especially if you have been helpful in strengthening their faith.…

Are the U.S. service academies in the business of proselytizing? That seems to be the idea in this article from Wednesday’s New York Times — and, not surprisingly, not everyone is happy about it: Three years after a scandal at the Air Force Academy over the evangelizing of cadets by Christian staff and faculty members,…

Ordinarily, I’d say that any excuse to put Anne Hathaway’s picture on my blog is a good one. But there actually is a good reason for it: her ex-boyfriend is in big trouble, for claiming close connections to the Vatican: Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri, who recently split from long-time girlfriend actress Anne Hathaway, was arrested…
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