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The Deacon's Bench

The ink is starting to flow, and the analysis of the papal visit is going to be thick (and probably inaccurate). But over at Pajamas Media, The Anchoress has placed Pope Benedict in an interesting context. Seems all those nervous Nellies who predicted he’d be a character closer to Stalin than St. Peter were, in…

One of the stops Pope Benedict will be making this week is at the seminary for the Archdiocese of New York. And the New York Times has a compelling look at how vocations are doing there (hint: not great) and the ongoing effort to recruit more young men: The banners hanging in the main corridor…

While much of Catholic America is fixing its gaze on the pontiff, as he speeds his way to the U.S., this remarkable story from today’s New York Times caught my eye. It’s timed to another significant event, tomorrow’s one year anniversary of the massacre at Virginia Tech: After their daughter, Austin, was killed in the…

What do you give the man who has everything? Some Catholic schools came up with a wonderful idea for the pope’s birthday: Pope Benedict XVI turns 81 on Wednesday during his stop in Washington, D.C., and Catholic school students say they have found the perfect present for which size and color don’t matter, and the…

Everybody wants the Catholic vote, and now Barack Obama has even formed a Catholic advisory committee, according to the blog at America magazine: Here’s Obama’s Catholic Kitchen Cabinet: National Co-Chairs Senator Bob Casey; Representative Patrick Murphy (PA-08); Former Congressman Tim Roemer, President of the Center for National Policy; Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas; Governor Tim…

One of the best writers at the New York Times, Dan Barry, has composed a thoughtful, honest and unfailingly down-to-earth essay this Sunday on his experience as an American Catholic. Some Catholics, I know, will question whether he is really all that Catholic to begin with. But I others will recognize his voice as, in…

By and large, yes. Days before the pope hits the States, a new survey takes the temperature of his American flock: According to the survey, eight out of 10 people are very satisfied or at least somewhat satisfied with how Pope Benedict leads the Roman Catholic Church. However, the study also found out that, although…

It’s not often that you see the diaconate celebrated in the Catholic press, or celebrated by pastors. But — in a convergence that must be unprecedented — both those remarkable phenomena can be found in this week’s St. Louis Review: Parishes across the Archdiocese of St. Louis are served by permanent deacons, a ministry directly…

Jesus only had to feed 5,000. The pope has to contend with 57,000, or more, at the massive mass planned for next weekend at Yankee Stadium. (Your Humble Blogger, with Spouse, will be there.) How do you pull off something like that? The New York Times offers a peek: The pope will straddle second base…

A pal sent this my way: a fascinating piece on George Bush and Catholicism from the Religion News Service, reprinted in tomorrow’s edition of the Washington Post: Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI’s election in 2005, President Bush met with a small circle of advisers in the Oval Office. As some mentioned their own religious backgrounds,…
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