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The Deacon's Bench

Villanova has embarked on something unusual: an M.B.A. program in church management. The Wall Street Journal has the scoop: The reputations of many Roman Catholic parishes have been tarnished in recent years, both by the priest sex-abuse scandals and a growing number of embezzlement cases. That has prompted a burgeoning movement to improve the management…

It’s not exactly the wedding season, but that didn’t stop a Catholic church in Georgia from hosting a mass marriage ceremony with a whopping 31 couples: More than 500 parishioners were in attendance at St. Joseph Church on Dec. 22 for a unique event—one that married 31 couples in one Mass. The Mass was celebrated…

Apparently not. The man who won the Iowa caucus appears to have a bit of a Catholic problem, according to this interesting analysis in the blogosphere. A color coded map at the link tells the stark story: This suggests that Huckabee did very poorly among Catholics. Unfortunately, the entrance poll of caucus-goers only asked about…

A hand-made sign at a Barack Obama rally in New Hampshire, January 7, 2008. I think that sums up why he’s winning in just one word.

Details are trickling out about the papal trip to America this spring — and the Washington Post has some intriguing behind-the-scenes nuggets about his visit to the nation’s capital: Which position will the pope take up at Nationals Park? Second base or center field? Curious questions face organizers preparing for the arrival of Pope Benedict…

Some savvy person decided that Natural Family Planning (NFP) needed a facelift. Or a makeover. Or something. And the Catholic Spirit newspaper is reporting on the results: For years, many of the engaged and newly-married couples receiving instruction in natural family planning from the Couple to Couple League have been crossing their arms and closing…

We hear a lot about returning war veterans broken in body, but less about those who are broken in mind and spirit. But here’s the story of one veteran — who is also a theologian and teacher — who is working to see that those wounded warriors aren’t forgotten: John Zemler had nightmares. For 23…

There’s been a lot of buzz about our eco-friendly pope, and now the Vatican is poised to make a little bit of history with solar power: A German solar company has given Pope Benedict XVI something special for Christmas: an electricity-generating solar rooftop for the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall. The Bonn-based SolarWorld is donating…

Just when it seemed my life was getting a little too frenzied, my favorite blogger from a cloister sent this my way. Thanks. I needed this. (And I think a lot of us do.) It comes from a wonderful web site of videos called Love To Be Catholic. Enjoy.

For those who may be keeping track, this marks the 12th day of Christmas – so there is still time to go out and get those 12 drummers drumming. I think Macy’s is having a sale. This is Epiphany Sunday, and the star of the gospel is – literally – the star. It is the…
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