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The Deacon's Bench

On a grim anniversary, the numbers are even grimmer — especially when tallied in regards to race. Take a look at this: Forty years ago today, New York became the first state in the US where abortion was broadly legal. Since then, New York City has become the nation’s undisputed abortion capital, with an overwhelmingly…

Turns out, “Gilligan’s Island” wasn’t as simple as we thought it was: Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of Gilligan’s Island, said he patterned the ‘seven stranded castaways’ after the seven deadly sins but he didn’t admit it until years later in his book about the show. I’m sure you can attribute the sins to the proper…

“The ideas that rage is a sign of authenticity, and the Cause relieves us of our obligation to respect the basic humanity of our opponents, are poisonous ones. People can be wrong without being evil; that’s a truth we’re losing sight of in our political culture, and it’s going to cost us plenty.” — My…

Of course. What part of “love your enemies, pray for your persecutors” isn’t clear? But now that the legendary atheist and Catholic-basher has been stricken with cancer, some are saying we shouldn’t bother. Then there’s this, from London Telegraph: I don’t share Hitchens’s worldview, whose central tenet is captured in the subtitle of his 2007…

The iconic statue of Christ towering over Brazil has re-opened after a four-month-long restoration: The statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro was reinaugurated Wednesday after a renovation costing seven million Brazilian reals, or nearly four million dollars. The renovation of the Christ the Redeemer statue, which has towered over the city for nearly 80…

“For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss–a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity’s mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world’s thirstiest gerbil.” — Molly Ringle, Seattle, WA, winner of the 2010…

A bit fat h/t to Mike “Googling God” Hayes, who is pointing readers to this very good chin-scratcher about what makes for good preaching in the Catholic Church. From the Pray Tell blog: In the midst of all the bustle around the introduction of the new translations of the Mass texts, and how they might…

Fr. Alonzo Cox, Sunday June 27, 2010, at Queen of All Saints Church, in Brooklyn. 

Last week, I posted about the passing of Paul McArdle, hailed as the first permanent deacon in the United States. A day or so later, Deacon Bill Ditewig (Deacon Dr. Ditewig, or Triple D) dropped me a note to set the record straight. Seems there was one other one before Deacon Paul: On 1 June…

I came across this terrific reflection by the Concord Pastor, who offers a probing examination of conscience keyed to the theme of understanding. It strikes me as particularly apt for those who spend time here in the blogosphere: Do I listen with a desire to learn? Do I seek to understand that I might learn…
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