The Deacon's Bench

Don’t pack your bags yet, but some biblically-minded entrepreneurs are planning a Noah-themed tourist attraction: The same group behind the Creation Museum is partnering with another group to build a full-scale version of Noah’s Ark that will anchor a family oriented Bible-theme attraction costing an estimated $150 million. The “Ark Encounter” is scheduled to be…

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord…  To learn more, check out this link or this one. 

Details, from Catholic News Agency: Illinois’ legislature passed a bill on Dec. 1 that will establish same-sex civil unions in state law. While the state’s Catholic governor Pat Quinn said his faith prompted him to support the bill, his bishop has warned that the governor’s actions clearly contradict Church teaching. “If the Governor wishes to…

Hanukkah began last night — and this morning after, the Church is reflecting on four lights that were extinguished 30 years ago in El Salvador.  So, a reminder from the troubadours below, to all of us people of faith: don’t let the light go out.

A new order of sisters is having an impact on campus ministry in California — and what they’re managing to do is impressive. Details, San Francisco Catholic: It’s easy to get lost among the 30,000 students at San Francisco State University. But a small group of Catholics, led by an innovative, relatively new order of…

That was God’s promise to Abraham about the number of his descendants.  And – it turns out – that number may be even bigger than previously thought. From the New York Times: Scientists said Wednesday that the number of stars in the universe had been seriously undercounted, and they estimated that there could be three…

… to those who are wondering why the “comment” feature has disappeared, I wrote about it here. Basically, I decided to close down comments for the first week of Advent, to give everyone (especially me) a breather. This is similar to what I did last spring. Comments will return next Sunday, December 6th — along…

The sad details, from ANSA: An aspiring priest has killed himself after the Vatican cancelled his ordination, his bishop said Wednesday. Luca Seidita, 29, threw himself from a rocky outcrop in this central Italian hilltown Tuesday, shortly after learning that the Holy See had decided not to elevate him from his position as deacon. Local…

This time, from Canada. From The Vancouver Sun: An Anglican parish in Calgary is taking a leap of faith by becoming the first church in Canada to accept an offer from the Vatican to join the Roman Catholic Church. Parishioners of St. John the Evangelist church recently voted 90 per cent in favour of joining…

He’s Bishop Kevin W. Vann, of Fort Worth, and this week he launched his very own weblog, aptly called “Shepherd of Fort Worth.” The good shepherd, of course, joins a number of other merry bishop bloggers, including most notably Boston’s Sean O’Malley (“Cardinal Sean’s Blog”) and New York’s Timothy Dolan (“The Gospel in the Digital…

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