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The Deacon's Bench

That Happy Catholic, Julie, has posted a wondrous meditation on conversion, quoting among others, the papal preacher, who says: I was reading recently the story of the famous convert of the 19th century, Hermann Cohen,* a brilliant musician, idolized as a the young prodigy of his time in the salons of central Europe: a kind…

I’m sure this will make Rocco’s heart leap. Those of us who are just a short train ride away will be joining him in the City of Brotherly Love to share the joy — and be a little indulgent: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia is honoring its 200th anniversary by offering its members a…

The Marist Brothers, like so many religious orders, have been seeing their enrollment plummet, so they decided to try something both creative and catholic (small c). They asked themselves: WWJD? And they found their answer on the computer screen: The brothers hired an advertising agency to help channel their efforts online and meet their target…

Well, the papal preacher isn’t visiting Medjugorje, but a lot of other people are. This morning’s Washington Post has an overview of where modern pilgrims are headed –and why. And one of their leading destinations is that little town in the Croatian hillside: People have been coming to this rocky slope since June 24, 1981,…

That seems to be the gist of this piece in the New York Times from over the weekend. The controversial lay group, Voice of the Faithful, blossomed amid all the, um, fertilizer that piled up during the priest sex scandals in 2002. But the Voice has lately been all but mute. And now they’re running…

Not too long ago, they ripped up the old carpeting in the pulpit of my parish church in Queens. The rug was almost threadbare, and the workers determined it must have been the original stuff, put down in the early 1940’s. I told someone they should have saved the carpet and cut it up to…

Cover your children’s eyes. I’m told: this rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: sex (2x) steal (1x) Gasp.

This newly ordained priest, from the Diocese of Rockville Center (Long Island), has an interesting tale to tell. At one time Fr. Joseph Fitzgerald was an Olympic athlete, playing handball: Father Fitzgerald participated in the World Cup and the Pan American Games, as well as the Summer Olympics. He described the sport in a 2001…

Last year, I had the good fortune to see this video, and someone has finally posted it on YouTube. It’s called “Fishers of Men,” and it’s a stirring and brilliantly produced vocations video from the USCCB. You can order copies of it from Grassroots Films. Below is part one, which runs about eight minutes… …and…

Catholic America got a little bigger last year, according to USA Today. The official Catholic Directory, due out this week, counts just over 64 million of us. Give or take: There are probably “ghosts” in the lists, says demographer Mary Gautier, senior researcher for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, in Washington, D.C.…
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