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The Deacon's Bench

“You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” — Author Anne Lamott, cited here. “It is a challenge to look past our own comfortable and self-righteous sense that God thinks just as we do, and to let the…

Yep. According to Billboard, priests are boffo in Brazil: According to year-end data reported by Brazil’s Association of Record Producers, Father Fabio de Melo’s 2009 “Iluminar” was the country’s top-selling album of 2009. It was an encore performance; de Melo’s debut album, “Vida,” was the top-selling album of 2008. This time around, the pop-star priest…

Several years ago my wife and I went on vacation to Arlington, Vermont. We stayed at a bed and breakfast, and one afternoon paid a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum. Rockwell spent part of his life in Arlington, and painted some of his most famous work there. The museum has a fair number of…

As a nearly deaf baby who has just received a cochlear implant hears, for the first time, his mother’s voice.

This strikes me as pretty on-target. From the National Catholic Register (H/T New Advent): Blog comments are like the graffiti of the untamed digital continent. Some are helpful, like the spray paint on the fence that says “beware of dog.” Others are very impressive, like a beautiful mural. Some obviously took a lot of time…

These are the general guidelines for comments at The Deacon’s Bench. Violators will be deleted. I regret that I can’t monitor comments 24/7, and my work frequently calls me away from my computer during the day. For the most part, you are on the honor system, until you get caught. I’m exploring ways to ban…

A special event tomorrow at the Vatican will shine a spotlight on eucharistic adoration — and reparation for sex abuse. From CNS: The Vatican is hosting two hours of eucharistic adoration “in reparation for abuses committed by priests and for the healing of this wound within the church.” The service in St. Peter’s Basilica this…

That’s the idea that kicks off this compelling look at priests serving as high school chaplains in Arizona. It’s a message more and more young people need to hear. Take a look: Holiness is possible. That’s the message Jesuit Father Kevin Dilworth left Xavier College Preparatory’s 280 seniors with at their May 3 Baccalaureate Mass.…

The ad below is the first one for abortion services in Great Britain — and it’s set off a firestorm of controversy: The outfit behind it, Marie Stopes International, is one of the biggest abortion providers in the UK. It say the ad is “clear and non-judgemental” “The ad is not about abortion,” Julie Douglas,…

Above, Archbishop Jose Gomez, the future Archbishop of Los Angeles, embraces Cardinal Roger Mahony, the present Archbishop, at Gomez’s Mass of Welcome at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on May 26, 2010. My favorite moment, from the LA Times account: At the end of the two-hour service at the Cathedral of Our…
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