Inspiration Faith & Prayer Health & Wellness Entertainment Love & Family
Newsletters Special Offers

The Deacon's Bench

One of the treasures lost to the California fires was a Benedictine monastery. And the New York Times this morning sizes up the aftermath: On Tuesday the monks met with their insurance agent. Like thousands of other residents of Southern California, the seven Benedictine Anglican monks who lived at Mount Calvary Monastery and Retreat House,…

The tough economic times are taking a toll — and churches and synagogues are facing challenges of their own, just trying to offer support. From the New Jersey Star-Ledger: Rabbi Benjamin Adler hasn’t felt particularly helpful lately. Older couples have been talking to him about their vanishing retirement accounts because of the recent havoc in…

You may recall last week’s story about a woman who charged that she was ordered to leave church over the Obama signs on her car. Now the priest at the center of the storm has two words to add: I’m sorry. From the Times Herald paper in California: A Roman Catholic priest who allegedly chased…

A statue of the Blessed Mother is all that is left in the ruins of this mobile home park in Sylmar, California. The fire destroyed nearly 500 homes, according to the Los Angeles Times. Photo: by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty.

Archeologists have discovered evidence that at least one ancient culture, hundreds of years before Christ, believed in the separation of the body and the soul. From the New York Times: In a mountainous kingdom in what is now southeastern Turkey, there lived in the eighth century B.C. a royal official, Kuttamuwa, who oversaw the completion…

The South Carolina priest who made national headlines by calling on Obama voters to go to confession before receiving communion had more to say on the subject this weekend at mass. And he drew quite a crowd of supporters. From the Greenville News: More than 50 people demonstrated outside St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown…

With more Americans facing that harsh reality during these harsh times, a number of Catholic parishes are stepping in with help. A glimpse, from Catholic News Service: The impact of the wave of layoffs in firms, factories, financial companies and the automotive industry can be felt in parish halls or church basements across the country…

How’s this for a touchdown? A thoughtful reader sent this along: a terrific profile of the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, who just happens to be Catholic. From the Catholic Review: Not long ago, John Harbaugh walked into a barbershop near his home off Falls Road. As the wholesome-looking 46-year-old sat in the barber’s…

Grim tidings this morning in the New York Post (does that paper have any other kind of tidings, by the way?) on the state of Catholic schools in New York City: In the Archdiocese of New York – which operates schools in Manhattan, Staten Island, The Bronx and northern suburbs – enrollment at elementary and…

From Texas comes this enlightening and inspiring story of a deacon of many talents — one of them, using a brush and paint: On any afternoon, artist Rolando Lujan could be found working on an art project, whether it’s painting on cantera tile or his latest mural, a Noah’s Ark theme in a new East…
archives most recent
search this blog
More from Beliefnet and our partners