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The Deacon's Bench

An alert reader spotted this in a Texas newspaper and thought it deserved a wider audience. I agree. It’s a powerful testimony to perseverance — and it shows how just one person can make a difference in the life of another. At this moment of new beginnings, it’s a wonderful pick-me-up, too. Take a look:…

On a summer’s day in 1879, an amateur archeologist named Marcelino de Satuola went into a cave in Altamira, Spain, looking for prehistoric artifacts. He’d been there several times before, and hadn’t found much of interest. But this day, he brought with him his five-year-old daughter. The two of them began to explore the cave.…

Catholic Google. It looks just like the other one…but with some significant differences. A description, from TechCrunch: CatholicGoogle, a new site based on Google’s custom search, is “striving to provide an easy to use resource to anyone wanting to learn more about Catholicism and provide a safer way for good Catholics to surf the web.”…

What do you get when you combine 1 grandmother + 1 Instamatic camera + 1 nine-year-old in a new sweater? This:

With another Kennedy poised to enter politics (and declaring support for abortion part of her platform), a writer in the the Wall Street Journal takes an interesting historical look at how the most celebrated Catholic family in America became a leading defender of abortion: Caroline Kennedy knows that any Kennedy desiring higher office in the…

There’s a renewed push in many parishes to lure back Catholics who have wandered away from the faith. And this item, about one deacon’s efforts, illustrates one move underway in Memphis: Dressed in cream-colored robes, beneath a portrait of the crucifixion, Deacon Jack Conrad radiates religious devotion. Assisting with a recent service at St. Ann…

Jeff Miller, the Curt Jester, notes the following: Using just anecdotal evidence I wonder if today’s Holy Day of Obligation is the least attended. Year after year no matter what parish I might go to on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God there is but half the people there you would see on a…

A local station here in New York has been running a “Honeymooners” marathon all day today — and I was lucky enough to catch this episode, which always just slays me. I’ve seen at least a dozen times, and it gets me every time. Enjoy. And Happy New Year!

We come like the magi,as wise and as foolish men and women to kneel before the Christ child.We bring our regrets from the past year,our shame, our guilt,acknowledging our failures and ready to begin afresh. Touch us with your hand of forgiveness.Help us also to forgive ourselves. We come like the shepherds,from out on the…

A Catholic school teacher in Texas has just lost her job — and is now considering suing the school. The issue: an annulment. Or lack thereof. The local paper has the story: Less than a week before Marquis LaFortune was supposed to marry her fiance, the principal of the downtown Catholic high school where she…
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