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The Deacon's Bench

A reader dropped the following note to Rod Dreher, and he posted it on his Beliefnet blog. It speaks for itself. Beautifully. (And it doesn’t hurt that the author evidently likes Merton.) Take a look: I’m a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma and though I grew up Southern Baptist (and I still have strong…

According to CNS, reports that the Vatican has rejected several Obama picks for Ambassador to the Holy See are wrong: A Vatican spokesman dismissed reports that the Holy See has rejected several candidates for U.S. ambassador to the Vatican because of their support for legal abortion. “No proposals about the new ambassador of the United…

This day, many of us will celebrate one of the most haunting liturgies in the church. I spoke about it in my Good Friday homily from last year: In one sense, of course, we are remembering an event that seems hopeless — the agony and death of Jesus Christ. Today, in this liturgy, we re-read…

“On the eve of my priestly ordination, fifty-eight years ago, I opened the Sacred Scripture, because I wanted to receive once more a word from the Lord for that day and for my future journey as a priest. My gaze fell on this passage: ‘Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth’. Then I…

I won’t be preaching tonight, but I thought I’d toss up here part of my homily from last year: Do this in remembrance of me. Jesus is saying: This is how I want to be remembered. In the gospel, John doesn’t even mention the meal, or the institution of the Eucharist. But he finds something…

The Pittsburgh papers have published a full account of the “service of apology” that unfolded there Tuesday. It sounds like it was wrenching and — in every sense — extraordinary: n an emotional “service of apology,” Bishop David A. Zubik apologized last night for sins including sexual abuse by clergy and other representatives of the…

“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,…

America’s most famous new Catholic appeared on FOX News the other day (what a surprise!) to chat with Greta Van Susteren about a whole raftload of issues, including the ongoing Notre Dame story. A snip: VAN SUSTEREN: We continue now with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Mr. Speaker, at Notre Dame, there’s a…

A commenter wondered if a commencement address had ever provoked a “teachable moment” like the one some hope will occur when President Obama is honored at Notre Dame next month. I decided to do a little Googling and found this account, of George W. Bush speaking at the college in 2001. I’ve been less successful…

A brother deacon in the diocese passed this along, and it offers yet another point of view on the Notre Dame story, from the London Tablet: Two questions arise, both of principle. First, is it correct to regard abortion as so crucial an issue to relations between Catholics and a secular government that no other…
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