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The Deacon's Bench

I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days, and now I’m finally getting around to it: a nugget from Deacon Tony on a little “help wanted” notice that the Church is posting to anyone, anywhere. They’re looking for priests to come to Lourdes for the big 150th anniversary blowout next year: Lourdes has…

This morning’s Los Angeles Times has an opinion piece by Sheila Rauch Kennedy. The subject, unsurprisingly: annulments. A decade ago, the Catholic Church tried to annul my marriage. My former husband, Joseph Kennedy II, wanted to remarry and stay in the good graces of the church; to do so, he needed the ruling. Despite 12…

A thoughtful reader sent this my way this morning: a great overview on the diaconate, from the diocesan newspaper in Richmond. It offers some sound advice and excellent insight for anyone who might be discerning a vocation: Men who are thinking about beginning the journey for formation to becoming a deacon should first ask themselves…

Over at Busted Halo, they’ve posted this compelling and interesting piece by an Anglican priest (with the compelling and interesting name of Astrid Joy Storm). She writes about the Vatican’s recent document on Catholicism as the “one true Church”: Much of the ecumenical work that is going on—and will continue to go on—at the grassroots…

This article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette may have caused people to raise their eyebrows and scratch their heads: a woman as “parish life collaborator”? Whatzat? The article is a bit vague: Sister Dorothy Pawlus, (pictured on the left), greets friends before her installation yesterday as parish life collaborator at St. Bartholomew Parish in Penn Hills.…

While the Left Coast is reeling from the record-breaking settlement in the sex abuse scandal, the faithful on the East, particularly up in Beantown, are feeling a different disorientation and anguish: some drastic proposals for dealing with the worsening priest shortage in the Archdiocese of Boston: “If no proactive archdiocesan-wide approach to future staffing, guided…

That Czech phrase means “The Lord be with you,” and when I spoke it today at mass, it marked my first attempt to serve as a deacon in a language other than my own. I was invited by the Czech priest in residence at my parish, Fr. Anthony, to serve and preach before his little…

Here’s something you don’t see everyday in the New York Times: an essay by a married woman describing how she unexpectedly got pregnant, wanted an abortion, and then changed her mind: “I don’t want to leave Mexico,” David said. “I don’t want to give up on this before we’ve tried.” “Why do we have to…

A lot of people were expecting the sex abuse settlement in Los Angeles to be huge. Word today indicates it will be even bigger — and worse — than expected: Lawyers for more than 500 victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy members say they are on the verge of settling their lawsuits against…

It’s hard not to love a good vocation story, and the blog Clerical Whispers is offering up this one: Just a few years out of college, Chris Canlas was helping run a Seattle investment firm that managed $100 million in assets. He had a car, house and six-figure salary. Life was good. He was happy.…
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