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The Deacon's Bench

To mark the 30th anniversary of the John Belushi classic — which contains the immortal line, “We’re on a mission from God” — the Vatican newspaper devotes a whole page, from editor Gian Maria Vian, to celebrating the film’s Catholicity. National Catholic Register’s Edward Pentin explains: It’s the newspaper’s latest foray into pop culture which,…

From suburban Maryland comes this story of how the murder of a priest inspired his nephew to pursue his own vocation: Monsignor Thomas Wells will not be in the crowd Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception when his nephew, Deacon David Wells, is ordained as a Catholic priest. A…

The bus ads from the Freedom From Religion Foundation that have cropped up in Europe are now appearing in Chicago, encouraging people not to go to church: The Freedom From Religion Foundation plastered more signs on 75 Chicago buses this week encouraging Chicagoans to skip church and sleep in on Sundays. But that’s just the…

A couple weeks back, I posted about Archbishop Philip Hannan’s new memoir. Now, excerpts are trickling out. The bishop who delivered the eulogy at John F. Kennedy’s funeral is sharing some details that have never been revealed before — including a glimpse at Jacqueline Kennedy’s own private grief: In “The Archbishop Wore Combat Boots,” Hannan…

It turns out, more people are saying “No.” A blog at the New York Times takes note: One of the more surprising trends in marriage during the past 20 years is the fact that most couples no longer view children as essential to a happy relationship. A few years ago, the Pew Research Center released…

Amazing, but true.  This comes from the Kuala Lumpur Desk (a sleepy little outpost of the Deacon’s Bench) — where that corner of the world is about to get a second deacon.  And he’s so young, he’ll require a dispensation to be ordained. From UCA News: Malaysia is set to have its first permanent deacon…

How can you encourage vocations? Someone had a great idea in Albany, and posted about the experience at the blog for Our Sunday Visitor: For the past nine months I’ve been working with eight Boy Scouts from my parish, including my own 13-year-old son, toward the completion of their Ad Altare Dei medal, a fairly…

Short answer, in my opinion: yes. The car company is running the ad below during the World Cup soccer coverage. One observer wrote: I don’t understand the rationale behind companies running ads to sell stuff that offends potential customers. Hyundai has an ad running during the world cup that shows a wedding in a Church…

What a great witness. H/T via Facebook and Deacon Scott Dodge.

That’s the idea behind this op-ed piece by Ramesh Ponnuru in the New York Times: When President George W. Bush signed the bill banning partial-birth abortion in 2003, supportive legislators gathered around for a photograph. All of them were men. Nancy Pelosi, then the House minority leader, called the image “a slap in the face…
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