Inspiration Faith & Prayer Health & Wellness Entertainment Love & Family
Newsletters Special Offers

The Deacon's Bench

Every now and then, a conversion story hits you so hard you just stop and go “Whoa.” That pretty much sums up my reaction to this remarkable item from the Catholic News Agency. A stringer went over to Iraq and spent some time with a Navy chaplain, Fr. Jose A. Bautista-Rojas: As Fr. Bautista continued…

I suspect that my Methodist-born mother would have been tickled by this bit of news from, of all places, Rome: Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists filled Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls with some of the most famous hymns written by Charles Wesley at a service marking the 300th anniversary of the Methodist reformer’s…

If — like countless Catholics — you have your sock drawer stuffed with torn and crumpled Holy Cards, have no fear. Modern technology is creating a new kind of card, for a new kind of Catholic. You can now get the images sent to your cellphone: A company in Italy started offering the service on…

Two women who were “ordained” last month had their first “mass” last weekend. The Kansas City Star has details: Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie McGrath were ordained Nov. 11 by a bishop of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests group, in defiance of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Hudson and McGrath con-celebrated a late afternoon Mass on…

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe doesn’t happen until next week (December 12), but the Los Angeles Times has laid the groundwork with an interesting piece on how this particular vision of Our Lady is now being seen and celebrated far beyond the barrio: The Virgin of Guadalupe — the beloved brown-skinned image of…

In Great Britain, they’ve found a novel way to use 21st century technology in the service of a 1st century message: ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ is likely to become the most favoured carol in Catholic parishes up and down the country this Christmas. For the first time in England and Wales, hundreds of thousands…

What’s it like to be a seminarian today? This piece from a paper in Salt Lake City profiles one seminarian — who, it turns out, is the son of a deacon: “Whether you’re new or almost finished with your seminary education, you’re always very sensitive to the feeling, the question: ‘Am I supposed to be…

The death of Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins was a shock to fans and friends — and to the other players on the team. How do you cope with a loss like that? The Washington Post spoke with the Redskin chaplains: The three men at the forefront of the grief counseling, team chaplains Lee…

I remember the reports that circulated after the death of New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor: though few people knew about it, he had spent many nights at a local AIDS ward, anonymously, bathing the sick and emptying their bedpans. No one ever knew. It was just something he did, as an act of faith and…

Amid reports that Mitt Romney is poised to give his own “religion speech” — perhaps trying to dispel any lingering misgivings about his Mormon faith — The Boston Globe has just reprinted John F. Kennedy’s own “religion speech” from 1960. You should read the whole thing. But try this on for size: Because I am…
archives most recent
search this blog
More from Beliefnet and our partners