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

The Deacon's Bench

That seems to be the winning formula in Albany, which just ordained its largest number of priests in decades: In this era when vocations to the priesthood are as sluggish as the economy, the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese is celebrating the ordination of five priests, two of whom who entered religious life as a second…

Try living with just six pieces of clothing for a month and see what happens. Truth be told: this just might be the wardrobe for the ’10s — the out-of-work, out-of-money, foreclosed-and-desperate era of the chronically unemployed who find their lives radically simplified (albeit, against their will.) From the New York Times: Imagine that horrible…

The other day, I alerted you to the absorbing series on the Future of Catholicism that Elizabeth “The Anchoress” Scalia has been shepherding over at Patheos. The kindly and humble Ms. A. is too modest to flaunt her own fabulousness — she’ll never achieve full diva-hood with that kind of attitude — so it’s up…

A priest some consider a modern martyr is on the path to sainthood. Fr. Stanley Rother was murdered in Guatemala nearly 30 years ago, and his cause has now been sent to Rome. From Zenit: Father Rother (1935-1981) was a priest of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese sent in 1968 to work in a Guatemala mission…

” … All your dissatisfaction with the Church seems to me to come from an incomplete understanding of’ sin. … what you seem actually to demand is that the Church put the kingdom of heaven on earth right here now, that the Holy Ghost be translated at once into all flesh. The Holy Spirit very…

Well, first of all, don’t try to sell it on eBay. From the Telegraph: The Catholic Church in Vienna has ruled that a former confessional cannot be used as a sauna. Bidding on a confessional described on eBay as ideal for conversion into a one-person sauna, a small bar or a children’s playhouse was ended…

Hot on the heels of the Bristol Palin story comes this item about a store that caters to teens — and is now evidently seeking to exploit an untapped market: teens who are pregnant. Rod Dreher touched on it yesterday. Here’s more, from Salon: Despite all of that success, Forever 21 is still looking to…

A desire to be more open and inclusive is forcing many hospitals to change the design and function of their chapels. An explanation: The shift to meditation rooms mirrors a growing trend among hospitals nationwide as health care centers try to make room for people from a wide variety of faiths, as well as those…

It’s not unusual to still be a pop icon at 70 — think Tony Bennett, among others — but it’s pretty remarkable to reinvent oneself, suddenly, as a soulful interpreter of gospel music. And it’s even more unusual to do it so credibly, and powerfully. Here’s Tom Jones with the first single from his new…

Across the way, over at Patheos, their shiny new Catholic portal-keeper Elizabeth Scalia has launched an ambitious series on the “Future of Catholicism.” It’s part of a larger look at the future of religion, and Elizabeth has collected an impressive lineup of people to write short (500 words or less) head-scratchers about what a future…
archives most recent
search this blog
More from Beliefnet and our partners