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The Deacon's Bench

An American soldier in eastern Afghanistan, late 2007, following a firefight. This image won the top prize today in the World Press Photo Awards. Photo by Tim Hetherington, for Vanity Fair.

A new push for vocations has been launched in Florida, where parishes have started hanging that great recruitment poster you see on the left. Details on a vocations workshop, from the Florida Catholic: Pope John Paul II’s legacy of an energized youth movement in the church and other factors have come together to create a…

For anyone who’s ever wondered who really rings the bells at Notre-Dame, today’s New York Times has the answer: Stéphane Urbain stood leaning against a heavy wood frame high in the north tower of Notre-Dame, wrapped in a navy blue woolen cape against the wind, as he waited for the bells to sound. Mr. Urbain…

For the first Friday of Lent, when so many parishes will begin praying the Stations of the Cross, here’s a glimpse at one man’s vision of that seismic event — and a little piece of movie history, to boot. It’s the very first trailer for “The Passion of the Christ,” back when it was still…

Some interesting numbers here on how Catholics voted in some of Tuesday’s big primaries: Catholic voters backed Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton of New York in many Super Tuesday presidential primaries and caucuses for their respective parties, according to news reports. Deal W. Hudson of InsideCatholic.com reported that exit…

Nothing, I think, is quite as rare as an ordination during Lent. But that’s not stopping the gang down in Atlanta, where a new class of deacons is about to be ordained tomorrow. From the Georgia Bulletin: There will soon be more permanent deacons serving Catholics in the Archdiocese of Atlanta than there are priests.…

Now, for some news from my own backyard: word that the sainthood cause has been opened for the founder of Brooklyn’s first black parish. From CNS and Ed Wilkinson, editor of the Brooklyn Tablet: The process to declare a former Brooklyn pastor a saint has begun. The name of Msgr. Bernard Quinn, founding pastor of…

New Orleans, Ash Wednesday February 6, 2008. The day after Mardi Gras. And the first day of Lent. Photo: by Alex Brandon, AP

I write a lot about late vocations around here — most deacons, after all, become deacons later in life — but a post earlier this week about the diminishing number of nuns and monks prompted this e-mail from one woman: I think it would help if religious orders themselves did not exlude some of their…

Well, now this little posting is pretty interesting: fun facts about Lent and Easter that have always had me scratching my head, and that now make eminent sense. My favorite one is at the end, regarding the 40 days we are about begin: 7. And finally, the final fun fact of the day… …40 days…
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