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The Deacon's Bench

This is the graphic appearing on the sides of buses in Washington, DC: h/t to The American Papist.

I remember going to the Mall in Washington to see Pope John Paul II on his first trip to the United States, nearly 30 years ago. Vendors sold tee shirts saying “I Got A Peek At The Pope.” They’ve gotten a little more creative this time around. The Washington Post has a handy guide to…

If anyone wants to know what’s wrong with our culture these days, here’s exhibit A. It’s a commentary from the Washington Post. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Read on: My husband and I are getting ready to do what many couples in these brink-of-recessionary times would consider unthinkable. No, we’re not buying a Martha’s Vineyard…

Hot on the heels of the news out of Camden, another diocese — in fact, an archdiocese — is bracing for massive “restructuring,” i.e., parish closings and mergers. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune: Archbishop Alfred Hughes on Saturday began asking Catholics across metropolitan New Orleans, including those far from the flood zone, to prepare for…

Here’s a corner of Catholicism we don’t often hear about: Japan. The New York Times reports on how the faith there is surviving, even as churches are dwindling: Fringed with sheer cliffs and the narrowest strips of flat land, covered in mountains of dense forest, the islands of the Goto Archipelago of Japan are some…

Leave it to a commentator in Los Angeles — where trends begin and fashion queens reign — to understand, better than his counterparts in the East, that some of the pontiff’s most important pronouncements aren’t made with phrases, but with fabric. From the LA Times: Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States later this…

It may have not made big headlines, but I have no doubt it stunned a good many people in the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey: a massive restructuring of the diocese that will see fully half of the parishes shuttered. Details below, from the Inquirer: As Bishop Joseph A. Galante braced for the grief he…

It’s no secret the Church is looking for a few good men. And it’s found some novel ways to recruit them. From the Kansas City Star: On the door of his room at Conception Seminary College in northwest Missouri, Adam Haake has a poster that reminds him of the other local men walking the same…

This terrific video was produced by Roger Aguinaldo, one of our parish’s trustees, to plug our Parish Expo next weekend. It’s geared to the theme of stewardship, and the idea that “All is gift, all is given.” It’s a nifty tour of the parish and its people — and you’ll see a couple shots of…

At his diocese’s Chrism Mass, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida offered some stirring words to his priests and deacons about the importance of preaching. I thought it worth sharing: Without abusing the privilege of preaching, we must reclaim the challenge of prophecy. Jesus walked into that synagogue, sat among his friends and recalled…
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