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The Deacon's Bench

The picture below was posted at David Kuo’s Beliefnet blog, J-Walking. Overlooking its artistic merits (or lack thereof), I was curious to see what others thought. I can appreciate the point it makes, but I have misgivings about the theology behind it. Are we to wash the feet of everyone, even those whose stated desire…

A few weeks ago, I attended a Theology on Tap by Mike Hayes, of the Paulist online magazine Busted Halo, where he offered a preview of his upcoming book, Googling God, all about Generation X and faith. I’d been raving about some of his insights to people — and now folks can see for themselves…

It’s because I get to post stuff like this. I was delighted to learn that My Close Personal Friend Stephen Colbert had a chat last night on his show with another friend of mine, Fr. James Martin. The interview, about Mother Teresa, is below. Enjoy. (And, a tip of the biretta, by the way, to…

Here’s something relatively new that I suspect we’ll be hearing about more and more: men and women who are not priests who are assigned to work as pastoral associates at a parish. The Tidings in Los Angeles more: “God is asking for the freedom to re-arrange the pieces of our lives,” Cardinal Roger Mahony told…

News reports of Jane Wyman’s funeral have mentioned her devout Cathoicism — and a detail that may surprise some people: she was buried in a habit. This, from a local TV station: Adopted son Michael Reagan attended the service with his wife and their daughter, Ashley, and son, Cameron, who was a pallbearer. When he…

This piece ran nearly a month ago on a little blog run by Tony Rossi, The Intersection, but it’s too good to pass up. It’s a compelling and actually inspiring interview with singer-songwriter Kathy Mattea, who talks about her Catholic upbringing and her own faith journey through a lot of peaks and, lately, some very…

The always-reliable and alert Amy Welborn, over at Charlotte Was Both, has reminded us that today is the feast of St. John Chrysostom — his last name meaning “golden mouth,” celebrated for his gift for preaching. She quotes from today’s Office of Readings, which gives a small glimpse at his remarkable talent: If Christ is…

In what it bills as a “Web Exclusive,” Newsweek has just posted an interview with a 25-year-old woman named Jessica Rowley, who last week was “ordained” a priest in Missouri. At one point, she emphasizes that she did all the things that men do to become priests — including spending 10 months as a deacon…

The other day, I posted the item from the Washington Post about the implicit (or even explicit) Catholicism of rock and roll. Now, as kind of a sideways addendum, there’s this interesting piece of news about one of the people mentioned in the essay, Bono: Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a self-proclaimed nonpartisan,…

Here’s something exciting: an Episcopalian priest converts to Catholicism — and brings a big part of his flock with him. Oh, and he’s married with kids, too: For the Rev. Eric L. Bergman, the duties of a Roman Catholic priest mean including his wife and four children whenever possible. While Roman Catholic priests may not…
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