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The Deacon's Bench

The brilliant humorist’s annual look back at the Year That Was remains one of the highlights of the holiday season — almost edging out my mother-in-law’s incredible chocolate mousse — and he doesn’t disappoint this year, either: It was a year of hope — at first in the sense of, “I feel hopeful!” and later…

With a huge h/t to American Papist, who touts this as an exclusive. Take a look. It happens at about the :48 mark.

For those who need any reminding…

Crank up the volume and enjoy this special treat. A blessed and Merry Christmas to you all, from Your Humble Blogger and the staff of The Bench!

Incredible, but true. The New York Times dispatched a team of readers to pore over the original, hand-scribbled manuscript of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” A key finding: (Declan) Kiely (curator at the Morgan Library) said he was impressed that (reader Hilary Johnson) noticed that the author appeared to have renamed Tiny Tim, even if she…

My pastor has elected to preach at Midnight Mass, so I won’t be burning up my Mac tonight, polishing up a homily of my own. But if anyone’s curious, or really REALLY bored, here’s what I had to say in years past: 2007. 2008. Merry Christmas — and good luck and prayerful good wishes to…

A classic that never grows old…

As the number of Christians dwindles in that beleaguered country, reports suggest that the celebrations of Christ’s birth are diminishing, too: Christians in Iraq are preparing for a muted holiday season, with one bishop in the southern city of Basra calling for a ban on public festivities while other congregations across the country have canceled…

The decree, from the Vatican newspaper: L’Osservatore Romano on Tuesday congratulated the show on its 20th anniversary, praising its philosophical leanings as well as its stinging and often irreverent take on religion. Without Homer Simpson and the other yellow-skinned characters “many today wouldn’t know how to laugh,” said the article titled “Aristotle’s Virtues and Homer’s…

It happened so quietly, nobody noticed. But the New York Times has the obituary: For more than three decades, they sang Mozart in Latin, Bach in German, and Cole Porter and Stevie Wonder in English, from Alice Tully Hall in New York to Royal Albert Hall in London. Uniforms used by the Boys Choir of…
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