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

The Deacon's Bench

That’s the story of one new deacon profiled this week in the Western Catholic Reporter in Canada. The Archdiocese of Edmonton just ordained three deacons — and the paper profiles each of them. A snip: Weeks went by. Then months. And Bill Bell felt a ripple of relief as he thought to himself, “Maybe I…

Not long ago, I posted about a teenager suspended for wearing a rosary to school — which some considered a gang symbol. Now an update: Raymond Hosier is wearing his purple rosary beads to school again. A day after a federal judge ordered a New York middle school to reinstate the seventh-grader, who was suspended…

That’s one surprising finding from a new study: Today’s teenagers are increasingly likely to use the rhythm method to prevent pregnancy and to have relaxed attitudes about unwed motherhood, a new government teen sex survey has found. The results, released Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics, found that 17 percent of 15- to…

More priests are using the Internet to do their job, according to Zenit: A new study about the use of digital technology by priests worldwide shows that the Internet has become a frequently utilized tool in homily preparation, evangelization and pastoral support. The PICTURE (Priests’ Information and Communication Technologies Use in Their Religious Experience) study…

The Catholic priest who made headlines last year is ministering again — and expecting his first child with his new wife. From the Miami Herald: As he stood in front of dozens of reporters a year ago to say he was leaving the Roman Catholic Church and marrying, celebrity priest Alberto Cutié took a plunge,…

That’s the question my friend David Gibson is posing over at dotCommonweal, citing the recent CARA study about the permanent diaconate, which notes that — surprise — deacons usually aren’t paid: I know deacons have other jobs, or are very often older, retired, and/or have working spouses, or other forms of support. But that level…

That influence, The Anchoress suggests, might well be the Holy Spirit: Mrs. Pelosi may seem confused to some; perhaps she is. I prefer to believe that her seeming inability to stop herself from conflating her religion and her politics is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working upon her-that perhaps her photo-op-free meeting with Pope…

That’s the gist of a typically powerful and provocative address by New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan: The archbishop of New York is urging priests to remember that their vocation is an identity, not simply a career, and thus it must be lived with holiness. Archbishop Timothy Dolan affirmed this in a lecture he gave Thursday…

A whopping 33 new permanent deacons — plus three transitional deacons — were ordained in Cincinnati last month, and this is the official class picture.  A full write up is right here. Congratulations! And, of course, ad multos annos!

Two high-profile prelates of Irish descent will be part of the team looking into the scandal that’s devastated Ireland: In one of his most concrete actions since a sexual abuse scandal began sweeping the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, Pope Benedict XVI on Monday appointed a high-profile team of prelates, including the archbishop of New…
archives most recent
search this blog
More from Beliefnet and our partners