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The Deacon's Bench

And in a big way. A lot of you have seen the great ads produced by a group called Catholics Come Home. The ads, evidently, are working. And spreading. From the Los Angeles Times: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is home to nearly 1 million Catholics. On a typical Sunday, less than 137,000 can…

Play this video, and close your eyes. In a few seconds, you’ll want to check and make sure you didn’t leave a window open. Prepare to get drenched — in imagination and a little bit of genius. You just have to watch it for a moment to get it. Enjoy.

A priest in Allentown, Pennsylvania sent this to me, and it’s just swell: Allentown’s new Bishop, John Barres, offering a little play-by-play at a recent baseball game. (Meantime, I gotta say that I’m delighted to discover that the Diocese of Allentown actually has its own YouTube channel. How cool is that??) Enjoy.

Here’s something pretty great, sent in by a reader:

The image below is not a photograph. It’s a painting. Yes. That’s right. A painting. Same with this picture, too: Amazed? I know I am. Is it art? Well, it’s definitely…something. Read more about it and see other examples right here.

Like many dioceses today, Detroit is feeling the pinch of hard times — and the squeeze is now affecting huge numbers of archdiocesan staff. About a third of those on the payroll are being given their walking papers: It will reduce its central staff from 264 to 187, one of the biggest reductions in years,…

How’s this for a dying art: a glimpse at the exotic and often-misunderstood world of bell ringing: Twelve people stood in a circle in a tower high above Wall Street. Eyes flitted from side to side, watching, concentrating, as arms rose and fell to a cascading cacophony of bells, bells, bells. One shook her head…

Is the blogosphere big enough for two of these?

I imagine if Jesus were to perform a miracle today like the one in this gospel, the first public reaction would probably be: “Eeeewwwwwww.” He spit and touched a stranger’s mouth? He stuck his fingers into his ears? Isn’t he worried about swine flu? In fact, this surprising act raises at least one provocative question:…

Few love stories could be as joyous and poignant as this one, about a couple who discovered love, despite physical limitations: It was always among the first things Dan Powell wrote in e-mails to prospective dates — that he was in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down. “It’s one of those things that shouldn’t…
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