More resources for the year of St. Paul

Last week we passed along some resources for marking the year of St. Paul, which opened Saturday. Here are some other items worth your time:
– For a good primer on who St. Paul was and why Pope Benedict is putting the spotlight on him for the next 12 months, read — and link to — CNS Rome [...]

Permanent diaconate growing

While much has been made about the shortage of priests in the last decade, the number of men committing themselves to the permanent diaconate seems to be doing well.
Many dioceses are ordaining permanent deacons in excess of 20 a year. Here’s a look at some of the permanent diaconate classes making the news:
– Over the [...]

Don’t forget trinkets for World Youth Day

Heading out to World Youth Day? Don’t forget to pack some small flags, pins, stickers, bracelets, pens, key chains, rosaries, prayer cards … really, anything that says something about you or where you come from.
Covering several World Youth Days over the years (my first was in 1993 in Denver), I’ve been amazed by the type [...]

A hat by any other name … is still a hat

VATICAN CITY — Journalists have been involved in an underground battle ever since Pope Benedict XVI turned up for his Sept. 6, 2006, general audience in St. Peter’s Square wearing for the first time in public a wide-brimmed red straw hat that had often been worn by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI.
I was covering the audience that [...]

Resources for the year of St. Paul

With the year dedicated to St. Paul about to begin in Rome this weekend, several CNS clients have special sections dedicated to the observance. Some examples:
– Our Sunday Visitor has a new page with a massive collection of ideas for celebrating the year and numerous links providing additional information on the saint.
– St. Anthony Messenger [...]

Sainthood causes in the news

Yesterday at the conclusion of a Mass celebrated at the John Paul II Cultural Center, everyone attending was invited to join in a prayer for the sainthood cause of Pope John Paul II.
The Mass was celebrated in honor of Pope John Paul’s Marian spirituality by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland, and Cardinals Adam Maida of [...]

The priest who ran for president

Church law these days forbids clerics to run for public office. But before that rule was laid down in the 1980s, priests sometimes ran — and won — races for seats in the U.S. Congress, state assemblies and city councils across America.
One was audacious enough to run for president.
Although Father James Cox didn’t win the Oval [...]

More multimedia

In response to my post on Monday on The Pilot’s multimedia coverage of the permanent diaconate ordination in Boston, we received some more examples from the Florida Catholic. The paper has some similar multimedia packages covering priesthood ordinations in the Archdiocese of Miami and the Diocese of St. Petersburg. Both are worthy of attention.
As mentioned in a [...]

To see or not to see?

To see or not to see? That is the question many Catholics are asking themselves as the Body Worlds exhibit makes its way across the country and into their area.
There are many arguments being made on both sides. One thing for sure: It is certainly a complicated set of issues.
Here at CNS there have been some stories [...]

Salt Lake City deacon says ministry makes him a better parent

A Salt Lake City deacon finds that his commitment to his growing family has provided him with the values that make him a better servant to his ministry, according to this story in the Intermountain Catholic diocesan newspaper.
Though juggling a full-time job, graduate studies and the responsibility that comes with fatherhood, this convert to Catholicism [...]