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The Deacon's Bench

From St. Louis, Missouri comes this unusual story of a priest and his pooch: Our Lady of the Holy Cross Catholic Church got a new priest last summer, the Rev. Don Buhr. With Buhr came Elijah, also known in this North Side parish as the Church Dog. Elijah is a Labrador and border collie mix…

Well, Andrew Sullivan points to this Amazon link as evidence of a lavender underground, but the evidence — like the wafers in question — is thin. From my experience, priests don’t buy communion wafers; sacristans or church secretaries do. And most are purchased from this company in New England, which supplies something like 75% of…

“God of all creation, as we weep with our family in Haiti, console us. In this time of crisis, open our eyes to look beyond the disaster to see Christ in our brothers and sisters in Haiti, as Christ sees us. Be with us as we stand in solidarity with those living and working in…

If you haven’t encountered this yet, pop over to Roger Ebert’s blog and read his harrowing, heartfelt, mystical reflections on what life has been like since he lost the ability to eat or drink. He probably doesn’t realize it, but there is something almost eucharistic in the connections he makes — about the power of…

Disappearing and dying off, according to this assessment from the Wall Street Journal. And the author suggests that this isn’t actually a good thing: Where is the second generation of brilliant progressive Catholic theologians? There are plenty of liberal lay Catholics. The church’s ban on artificial birth control is nearly a dead letter, a majority…

I had the privilege of seeing this video early this morning at the USCCB in Washington. The Archbishop of New York is in Rome, celebrating the anniversary of the North American College. Catholic News Service tracked him down late yesterday and asked him to share his thoughts. Here he is, uncut and unscripted.

Someone recently posted this charming picture of the former Cardinal Ratzinger enjoying a brewski. It made me think that he probably misses the days when he could hoist a stein and kick back with his pals and let forth with a pre-papal belch as he wondered if there was a pub open late where he…

Those powerful words come from the director of the Haitian apostolate in my diocese, Fr. Donelson Thevenin. His interview on “Currents” last night was both potent and poignant. (I just got back from DC and a meeting with the Communications Committee of the USCCB. So, big kudos to my Assistant News Director Shu-Fy Pongnon —…

Over at First Things, Patrick Rostrum has attempted to write what amounts to a review of a church and its mass, with special emphasis on the homily: The pre-service stillness did not last long. With the first note of the processional hymn, Charles Coffin’s “On Jordan’s Bank” (a hymn traditionally reserved for Advent but appropriate…

And now for something a little different: a former Lutheran minister who is now a Catholic priest — in the Eastern Rite. From the Catholic Anchor: A former Lutheran pastor from Northern Michigan now heads St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church in Anchorage. On Oct. 31, Father James Barrand, 52, succeeded just-retired pastor Father…
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