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The Deacon's Bench

While most of the world is turning its attention to what Benedict will be up to when he arrives in America next week, Peggy Noonan is poking around the Vatican, and writing about it with characteristic eloquence and verve: You couldn’t hear Benedict without your eyes going to the small white window in the plain-walled…

The Vatican leaves nothing to chance. They’ve released all the prayers, readings, and even the hymns for the pope’s upcoming visit — and you can even download them. From CWN: The Missal covers each of the major public events on the Pope’s schedule during his visits to Washington and New York: * Evening prayer at…

That would be the fellow on the right. It was only a matter of time before the media zeroed in on one of the pontiff’s more telegenic employees: his secretary. Time magazine has taken up this difficult journalistic task: When Pope Benedict XVI touches down for his first papal visit in the United States next…

A new report paints the clearest picture yet of what is happening in Catholic education — and what isn’t. USA Today has a snapshot: For years, parents at St. Joseph School, a tiny Catholic school in Petersburg, Va., have fretted over just about everything: The 133-year-old school is losing students and faces a debt of…

Looking for a little inspiration? Look no further than your iPod. Downloadable sermons are becoming all the rage, as USA Today reports: The Rev. Bruce Walker preaches to a congregation of fewer than 100 people in Greenville, S.C., but people all over the world listen to his sermons via podcast. Evangelists have long used the…

In its ongoing run-up to the pope’s visit, the Washington Post is taking a look at how some Catholics live, and has discovered — surprise surprise — that some of them really are Catholic: During an era when two-thirds of young Catholics say they can be good Catholics without going to Mass and many believe…

Personally, I think this sounds clever and cute. But others, I guess, disagreed. From the AP: The transportation agency for the nation’s capital has pulled a promotional video from YouTube after the Archdiocese of Washington complained about the star: a Pope Benedict XVI bobblehead doll. The video aimed to encourage people to take Metro to…

What can you say about a man who said everything so remarkably well? This, from Catholic News Service: Mourners remembered William F. Buckley Jr. at an April 4 memorial Mass as a man of deep faith and unfailing confidence in the Catholic Church who brought people to believe in God and inspired vocations to the…

How’s this for 21st century evangelization: an enterprising person has created a website geared specifically to wayward Catholics. And it’s having a phenomenal impact. Check out the story, from Catholic News Agency: In less than three weeks, 3,000 Catholics returned to the Church in the Diocese of Phoenix due to the effort of a new…

You read stories like this and you cannot help but stirred by the human capacity to forgive. It’s from the New York Times, with a big fat hat tip to Rod Dreher at Beliefnet: For more than a quarter mile, Clifford Helm veered in his pickup truck through a grassy median and oncoming traffic. What…
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