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The Deacon's Bench

A reader asked me if I was nominated in more than one category and, by golly, it looks like I am. How’d that happen?? You can click on the buttons below to cast your vote. (So far, that wily Fr. Z seems to have greased a lot of palms, and at this moment is waaaay…

If you visit the NOW website, you can buy this charming souvenir. Oh, and there’s also this one, if you’re on a women’s ordination kick.

Over the last 48 hours, there’s been considerable slinging of mud and whispering of innuendo about Sarah Palin and her youngest child. Now comes the surprising news that the vice presidential candidate’s 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant. In the middle of all this melodrama, I found this beautiful and inspiring report. After being bomarded…

Over at The New Yorker this week, Peter Boyer has a long and interesting look at the Democrats’ struggle to capture religious voters, and plant their flag squarely on their turf. But it’s just as much about the Republican toe-hold on that precious territory. The piece, titled “Party Faithful”, has a cast of thousands that…

I plan to spend this Labor Day doing as little labor as possible. But I wanted to post this nugget from Saturday’s New York Times. It’s an interview by Peter Steinfels with Douglas Kmiec, the now-notorious Republican lawyer who, despite his opposition to abortion, is supporting Barack Obama. An excerpt: Q. What is your position…

Karol Wojtyla, as a young factory worker in Poland. “I come from your midst. I come from the quarries of Zakrzowek, from the Solvay furnaces in Borek Falecki, and then from Nowa Huta. Through all these surroundings, through my own experience of work, I boldly say that I learned the gospel anew.” — Pope John…

A fellow blogger sent his my way, and it’s too good and too rare to pass up. It’s the story of a teenager who is planning to become — are you sitting down? — a nun. From The Catholic Globe newspaper of Sioux City, Iowa: At 19 years of age, to the world, Emily Morse…

Periodically, people ask me what my Sunday is like. It varies week to week, but most of the time it has this common theme: it’s not a day of rest. This weekend was a little different, because it was a long holiday weekend, which meant masses were less crowded and one of our priests was…

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has a high-profile priest (who is also the son of a deacon) who is planning to do a little field work in the months ahead. But his field will be an airfield. This comes to us from St. Louis Review: Former vocations director Father Michael T. Butler may be answering…

Multiple sources say John McCain’s running mate was baptized Catholic, but after that it gets murky. One blogger put it this way: Like most Pentecostal denominations, going all the way back to the Azusa Revival a century ago, the Assemblies of God ordains women as pastors. Palin, born a Catholic, left a denomination that denied…
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