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The Deacon's Bench

Good old Patrick McNamara remembered, and posted on the happy fact that today is Thomas Merton’s birthday: Today marks the birth of Thomas Merton, who writes at the beginning of his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain: “On the last day of January 1915, under the sign of the Water Bearer, in a year of a…

If anyone had any lingering doubts about the peculiar details surrounding the octuplet story, this latest item should put them to rest. This family needs prayers. Lots of ’em.

If the Vatican hoped the controversy about the SSPX would just quietly go away, well, it won’t. The Society’s official website has some eye-opening, jaw-dropping statements that indicate that anti-Semitism isn’t just a passing fancy with one or two members. America’s Jim Martin posted this item this morning: Is anti-Semitism a pattern that pervades the…

A reader in Los Angeles alerted me to this column by LA Times writer Tim Rutten — who finds some interesting connections between two unlikely species: a cardinal and an elephant: What do Billy the elephant and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony have in common? Both are the subject of frivolous, pointlessly distracting governmental deliberations at…

When I was 14 years old, the one movie that I really wanted to see was one that I couldn’t: “The Exorcist.” I was too young. If you want to know the truth, when I finally saw it a few years later, when I was in college, I was still too young to see it.…

The GOP has selected an African-American Catholic to head the Republican National Committee — not only that, but he’s a Marylander (go Terps!) and a former seminarian. From CNA: The Republican National Committee has chosen Michael Steele, a devout Catholic who is well-known for his charisma and strong work ethic, as its new chairman. Steele,…

You never know where deacons will pop up — or what you’ll find them doing. And this item from a paper in upstate New York gives a great example: A trip to Jamaica changed Kevin Carges’ life. There, he saw children eating “cookies” made from mud, bouillon and butter. He met a man who, though…

Some new developments in the still-unfolding SSPX melodrama: In the wake of the firestorm caused by his remarks on Swedish TV, Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) has written a formal letter of apology to Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, who has managed the day-to-day details of the negotiations with SSPX to…

The woman who just had eight babies has a few more at home — which may give new meaning to the phrase “Freedom of choice act.” Her choice was remarkable, in many ways. From the LA Times: The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week already has six young children and never expected that…

As Catholic Schools Week draws to a close, I was delighted to find this piece in the Catholic Standard about my alma mater, St. Vincent Pallotti High School, in bucolic Laurel, Maryland. The school has changed a lot in the 32 years (!!) since I graduated, but I was pleased to see a few familiar…
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