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The Deacon's Bench

Does Rudy Giuliani have a religion problem? This piece from Salon seems to say: yes. And it’s not an insignificant one: Late last spring, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence opened his mail to find an invitation to a local fundraising event for Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. Tobin made…

You’d think, after following that star from the East, the wise men would want to rest a while. But no. The journey of the magi isn’t over. They’re visiting Arizona this week, where fragments of the relics of the three wise men will be in Tucson: The Catholic relics tour, titled “Come Let Us Adore…

Conveniently — and meaningfully — the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts ordained new deacons yesterday, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception: Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell ordained six men as permanent deacons of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield during a ceremony yesterday St. Michael’s Cathedral. Ordained were Gary Doane of the Bondsville section…

A house in the beautiful borough of Brooklyn, with a few tasteful holiday decorations. Featured on HGTV’s special “What’s With That Decked Out Christmas House?” Image: from HGTV

This is a time rich with Marian feasts, beginning with today (the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception) and ending with January 1 (Mary the Mother of God.) In the middle, of course, come two great feasts that prominently feature Mary — Christmas, and the Feast of the Holy Family. But next week comes a Marian…

Last Sunday, on “60 Minutes,” there was an alarming report about the plight of Christians in Iraq. They interviewed the Anglican vicar for Baghdad, who said it has never been a worse time to be a Christian there. Most, he said, have either fled the country or been killed. Those left behind live in fear…

Those original gift-givers of Christmas — the magi — are back in the news. If you’re wondering just who those “wise men from the East” might have been, the Religion News Service has done a little digging: They came. They saw. They gifted. That’s about all we know of the foreign visitors who traveled to…

Let us pray,[on this feast of Mary,who experienced the perfection of God’s saving power.]Father,the image of the Virgin is found in the Church.Mary had a faith that your Spirit preparedand a love that never knew sin,for you kept her sinlessfrom the moment of her conception.Trace in our actions the lines of her love,in our hearts…

An unidentified mourner at a Creighton University memorial service for the victims of the Omaha mall massacre. Photo: by Michael McNamara,Lincoln Journal Star/Reuters

The Vatican is poised to make a big push for Eucharistic adoration — and John Allen has the very creative details: As part of a broad initiative to promote Eucharistic adoration, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy is proposing that religious women “spiritually adopt priests” through prayer before the Eucharist, and, more generally, that Catholics from…
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