The Deacon's Bench

Those other Deacons...

2009-07-14T19:38:00.006-04:00

Ever met a Demon Deacon (besides the snarly one in your parish sacristy)?

It's the curious mascot for Wake Forest University, and someone has finally explained the character's origins:

There are some things at Wake Forest that are absolutely unique. The familiar spirited figure in top hat and tails on the sidelines at every game is one - The Wake Forest Demon Deacon.

The tradition of the Deacon began in 1922 when a gentleman named Hank Garrity, Sr. took over the coaching of the college's athletic teams. Wake Forest had fallen on lean years prior to Garrity, but under his tutelage the college experienced a resurgence in school spirit and winning seasons. At that time Wake Forest teams were called the "Baptists" and the "Old Gold and Black."

However, the enterprising editor of the school paper, Mayor Parker '24 of Ahoskie, thought the school needed a unique nickname and, after a particularly devilish win over Trinity (now Duke), created the alliteration, "Demon Deacons." The college's publicity director, Henry Belk, started using the name in his press releases, and soon papers across the country proclaimed the success of the "Demon Deacons."

Demon Deacon - the name was right. It was not until 1941, however, that Wake Forest had a Deacon mascot at its athletic contests. In a dormitory bull session, Jack Baldwin '43 of Greensboro proclaimed the need for a mascot to some of his fraternity brothers and, when one dared him to do it, agreed on the condition that they supply him with a costume.

"We tried to make him a little more dignified than other mascots," Baldwin says. "So we dressed up like you would think an old Baptist Deacon would dress up."

And when Baldwin made his first appearance in top hat, tails, and umbrella, riding the Carolina ram, the Deacon was here to stay.Every succeeding Deacon has flavored the tradition. In the fifties Jim DeVos '55, of Libertyville, Illinois and Ray Whitley '57 of Rochester, New York perfected the fine art of goal post climbing, sitting, hanging and even walking - in cleated football shoes.

DeVos, a lanky basketball player and a master of pantomime, added a new dimension to Deacon antics when he dropped his pants (to revel a pair of Bermuda shorts) at a game in Bowman Gray Stadium.

The most famous Deacon of all time was Bill Shepherd '60 of Linville, North Carolina. Shepherd's fantastic basketball shot at Raleigh is now a Deacon legend. A natural clown, his antics ranged from out-twirling the nation's leading baton twirler at Clemson - with two plumbers' friends - to answering the Auburn fans' cry of "War Eagle" with "Turkey Buzzard," and being soundly thrashed for doing so. But the times Shepherd is most proud of are the ones when he helped prevent fights at the Carolina games.

"I always felt that each of my actions were in the best interest of Wake Forest," Shepherd explains. "And to be the people watching me I was the embodiment of the entire college."

During the Brian Piccolo era in the mid-Sixties, school spirit soared. Leading this spirit was a new Deacon, Hap Bulger '65 of Vienna, Virignia. On the field Bulger was the unicycle-riding Deacon who chased and chided the opposition's mascot, often losing his top hat in the process. Off the field he was very serious about his duty to encourage a winning tradition at Wake Forest. This "Debonair Deacon," as the Student magazine called him, represented a "spirit of spunk and defiance that cannot be contained in one loss or ten."

Well, now you know. As for me, when I'm not feeling like a demon deacon, I'm a Terp (that's terp, without a w...)

But that's another story.

What's the deal-ee-o with the giglio?

2009-07-14T14:43:00.006-04:00

You might find an answer here, with a story we aired last night on "Currents."

And right here we have a profile of the #1 capo.

Ah, Brooklyn! You can also find a write-up in the local paper.

Enjoy.

Famed conductor and wife die at Swiss suicide clinic

2009-07-14T08:23:00.003-04:00

How long until we start seeing more obituaries like this on a daily basis?

Read on, from the BBC:

Renowned British conductor Sir Edward Thomas Downes, CBE, has died at the age of 85, after travelling to the assisted suicide clinic Dignitas with his wife.

He and his 74-year-old wife Joan, who was terminally ill, chose to end their lives at the Swiss clinic, their family said in a statement.

According to the statement, the couple "died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing".

Sir Edward had a 40-year relationship with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

"Our father, who was 85 years old, almost blind and increasingly deaf, had a long, vigorous and distinguished career as a conductor," his family said.

"Our mother, who was 74, started her career as a ballet dancer and subsequently worked as a choreographer and TV producer, before dedicating the last years of her life to working as our father's personal assistant.

"They both lived life to the full and considered themselves to be extremely lucky to have lived such rewarding lives, both professionally and personally.

"After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems."

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said their deaths were being investigated by Greenwich CID.

"It was reported to police on Monday, July 13, that a man and woman from SE3 had died in Switzerland," he said.

"We continue to investigate the circumstances of their deaths. No further details at this stage."

You can read more about his extraordinary life, and death, at the link.

The modern diaconate in America (and, in "America")

2009-07-14T08:00:00.007-04:00

For your summer beach reading...

The Catholic newsweekly America has just published a special issue on the diaconate, which features a thought or two from Your Humble Blogger, along with much saner and smarter people like William Ditewig and Scott Dodge.

Enjoy! It's great to see this vocation getting so much attention.

As an added bonus: they've reprinted this fascinating 1968 article on the restoration of the diaconate.

Obama picks a Catholic as surgeon general

2009-07-13T15:46:00.003-04:00

This is big. And impressive:

Founder of a rural Alabama health clinic for the poor that was devastated three times (twice by hurricanes, once by fire) since its founding in 1990, Dr Regina Benjamin was reelected to a second term on the board of the US' Catholic Health Association at its yearly assembly last month in New Orleans. Even more notably, though, Benjamin's work both at home and nationally were recognized in 2006 when Pope Benedict awarded her the papal cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice ("For the Church and the Pontiff") -- the Roman accolade reserved for laity, religious and permanent deacons who've given distinguished service to the church.

The first African-American woman to lead a state medical association, the 53 year-old nominee -- whose grandmother helped found a Black Catholic parish, its first Masses offered in her living room -- must be confirmed by the Senate before she can become the nation's "top doc."

Rocco has more at the link.

The audacity of the pope

2009-07-13T06:58:00.002-04:00

The New York Times' conservative columnist Ross Douthat has offered his thoughts this morning on the pope's new encylical. What he has to say strikes me as both sensible, and necessary:

When a pope criticizes legalized abortion, liberal Catholics nod and say that yes, they agree, it’s a terrible tragedy ... but of course they can’t impose their religious values on a secular society. When a pope endorses the redistribution of wealth, conservative Catholics stroke their chins and say that yes, they agree, society needs a safety net ... but of course they’re duty-bound to oppose the tyranny of big government. And when the debate isn’t going their way, left and right both fall back on flaccid rhetoric about how the papal message “transcends politics,” and shouldn’t be turned to any partisan purpose.

“Caritas in Veritate” has been no exception. It’s a “social” encyclical, in the church’s parlance, covering issues ranging from globalization and the environment to unions and the welfare state. Inevitably, liberal Catholics spent the past week touting its relevance to the Democratic Party’s policy positions. (A representative blast e-mail: “Pope’s Encyclical on Global Economy Supports the Principles of the Employee Free Choice Act.”) Just as inevitably, conservative Catholics hastened to explain that the encyclical “is not a political document” — to quote a statement co-authored by the House minority leader, John Boehner — and shouldn’t be read as “an endorsement of any political or economic agenda.”

Boehner is half right. The pope is not a Democrat or a Republican, and his vision doesn’t fit the normal categories of American politics.

But Benedict’s encyclical is nothing if not political. “Caritas in Veritate” promotes a vision of economic solidarity rooted in moral conservatism. It links the dignity of labor to the sanctity of marriage. It praises the redistribution of wealth while emphasizing the importance of decentralized governance. It connects the despoiling of the environment to the mass destruction of human embryos.

This is not a message you’re likely to hear in Barack Obama’s next State of the Union, or in the Republican Party’s response. It represents a kind of left-right fusionism with little traction in American politics.

But that’s precisely what makes it so relevant and challenging — for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Continue at the link for the rest.

Buying into the "Prosperity Gospel"

2009-07-12T19:39:00.002-04:00

I'm not a big fan of Joel Osteen -- I once told someone "He's all crown and no cross" -- and there's a lot I find accurate and troubling in this dissection of the "Prosperity Gospel" from Slate.

But I especially appreciate the author's final words:

Who can blame people for flocking to Joel Osteen when he reassures them that "God wants to make your life easier"? Recent news that Americans have become less religiously classifiable doesn't mean a wave of Christopher Hitchenses so much as feel-good cafeteria spirituality stripped of tradition and dogma. It follows that organized religion has its analogue of this syncretism and that its smiling face bares an uncanny resemblance to Osteen's. The Book of Isaiah commands, "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back," and for many Christians, a man who can sell out Yankee Stadium has a very large tent indeed.

Read the rest. Ample food for thought. Or, maybe, indigestion.

The priest shortage hits the military -- UPDATED

2009-07-12T07:29:00.003-04:00

The vocations crisis is sending ripples across all kinds of ministries -- including military chaplaincy. Now the National Guard is feeling the effects:

When patriotism inspired the Rev. Jerry Fehn a decade ago to serve soldiers in combat zones abroad, the 45-year-old was afraid he had waited too long.

He needn't have worried. The National Guard, wrestling with a chronic shortage of priests, cleared the roadblocks that might have kept Fehn out.

"They didn't really want to take someone over 40," Fehn said. "But because there's such a shortage of Catholic priests in the military, they said they would grant me a waiver if I could pass the physical."

Fehn went on to serve in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. Meanwhile, the guard has made significant strides in adding chaplains to its ranks, though many units still struggle to recruit for a position seen as crucial to morale. About 200 positions are open in the Army National Guard and 45 in the Air National Guard.

"It makes it harder to provide religious support," said Chaplain Samuel J.T. Boone, commandant of the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School at Fort Jackson, S.C. "There are some people who we can't provide their religious rites and sacraments as we can back here in the states."

Chaplains serve as more than ministers for guardsmen in harm's way. They are confidants, counselors and arbitrators. In Iraq and Afghanistan, unit commanders have used chaplains to communicate with local leaders and clergy. Many chaplains are embedded with units and travel through war zones, putting them within arm's reach of soldiers.

The chaplain shortage contrasts with general Guard recruiting, which is at capacity. And clergy ranks in full-time military branches remain full.

The guard's shortfall stems primarily from a lack of Roman Catholic priests willing to volunteer. Catholic dioceses that face a national shortage of priests may find it difficult to replace chaplains — even for one weekend a month.

"The priest has those responsibilities on weekends, and two weeks of training," Fehn said. "That impacts the priest's ability to be with the congregation on weekends for weddings and funerals. And then that priest might be gone for deployment."

The Army National Guard has just six rabbis and no imams for its 362,000 guardsmen. Clergy from smaller Christian denominations and other faiths also are needed.

Exactly how many clergy are deemed enough per guard unit varies. The Army National Guard's goal is a chaplain for every battalion, which range from 500 to 700 soldiers. The goal for Air National Guard units is three chaplains and three chaplain assistants per wing; wings generally have about 1,000 members.

Guard units are responsible for their own recruiting, and shortages are worse in some regions. Units in the more Protestant South and Midwest generally fare better, while the Mountain West states and the more Catholic Northeast struggle, according to personnel chaplains for both the Army and Air National Guards.

There's more about this at the link.

UPDATE: After one or two people in the comments section discussed deacons being unable to serve as military chaplains, a deacon wrote in with the following clarification:

In your blog, you mentioned the issue of the military not having deacons is based upon the sacramental need for reconciliation and last rites. That explanation is accurate enough but very superficial and may make sense to someone who has not been in uniformed service. You see, most military chaplains are not Roman Catholic and obviously Protestant clergy do not claim those faculties either.The real issue is ordained Roman Catholic Deacons as uniformed chaplains. That will take the direct involvement of the American Catholic hierarchy. It is possible but not without their support

Deacons can and are used across the military services as "contract civilian chaplains" on a regular basis. In fact, if you log on to the Military Archdiocese, and check their staff page, you will even find a permanently ordained deacon listed on their top staff. I did connect with him once and he assured me that there are now about 50 permanently ordained deacons accredited with their office. Since the Military Archdiocese does not have ordination faculties, they have to beg/borrow/steal clergy (priests and deacons) from other dioceses -- usually on a temporary basis. Like any priest, that transfer has to have the approval of the deacon's home ordinary. None of the fifty permanently ordained deacons, however, are in the uniformed service -- all are "contract civilian chaplains." I know of two:

There is a Archdiocese of Cincinnati deacon who is the paid Pastoral Associate in Marriage and Family Life for the Catholic Chapels at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio

There is also a "Senior Status" deacon of the Diocese of Toledo in Ohio -- what we call a "snow-bird deacon" -- serving as a Pastoral Associate at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Does Obama have a friend in the Vatican?

2009-07-12T07:21:00.002-04:00

Several prominent Catholics commentators, of varying political persuasions, seek to answer that question in this post. It's an interesting Sunday morning conversation-starter.

America's Susan Boyle?

2009-07-11T19:21:00.002-04:00

You decide.

One thing is certain: this guy's got the goods.

Quote of the day

2009-07-11T19:12:00.002-04:00

"The news media, despite their claims of impartiality, and despite the good work they often do accomplish, are just as prone to prejudice, ignorance, bad craftsmanship and tribalism as any other profession. But unlike other professions, the press has constitutional protections. It also has real power in shaping how we think, what we think about and what we like, dislike and ignore. America’s media, including its news media, are the greatest catechetical syndicate in history. And if that kind of power doesn’t make us uneasy, it should at least make us alert."

-- Archbishop Charles Chaput,
offering what may be the most thoughtful analysis of the American media yet penned by a Catholic bishop.

Anybody you know?

2009-07-11T15:26:00.002-04:00

Exhibit A in how not to practice the New Evangelization.

We could all use a little more irony in our diet

2009-07-11T14:56:00.003-04:00

And these ironic ads just might do the trick.

It's amazing how things were sold way-back-when.

Like, for example, cellphone. Perfect for mothering. Or, maybe, smothering?

What if the Beatles were Irish?

2009-07-11T09:09:00.001-04:00

No need to wonder any longer. This guy has it figured out. It's a hoot.

Homily for July 12, 2009: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

2009-07-11T08:54:00.006-04:00

Boston’s Fenway Park has witnessed some great moments in sports history. But I don’t think anything can compare with what happened there two summers ago.

The Red Sox were hosting Disability Awareness Night – to honor and salute fans who might have some kind of handicap. The organizers selected a young man named Peter Rometti, who has autism, to sing the National Anthem. Well, it was clear from the first few notes that this was not Pavarotti. But he was enthusiastic, and gave his all. A few lines into it, he started to stutter. Then he started to laugh. And the crowd, listening, laughed, too. But they laughed with him, not at him. They clapped and cheered him on. And Peter pulled himself together and continued the song.

But then, something remarkable happened. Something nobody quite expected. It started small. A couple of voices could be heard from the stands. They were singing with him. And very quickly those couple of voices became a couple dozen. And then a couple hundred. And then a couple thousand. Soon, the entire stadium was singing with him, and for him – 36-thousand people accompanying him, helping him, carrying him with their voices. He made it to the end – “the land of the free and the home of the brave!” -- and the crowd burst into cheers and applause. And Peter Rometti, the young man with autism, just beamed.

And in a matter of minutes, a crowd of people who had come to watch a baseball game became something more. They became a community. And one of baseball’s most famous cathedrals became home to a congregation of believers. They believed that Peter Rometti could make it. And they helped him get there.

Paul wrote, famously, to the Corinthians that what endures are faith, hope and love. I think that moment at Fenway contained all three. It was the Christian message lived out in a surprising way. And it connects, as well, to this Sunday’s gospel.

Here, Jesus sends out his disciples to begin his work in the world. And the first striking detail is that he doesn’t send them out alone. He sends them “two by two.” You can think of a lot of practical reasons for that. But some of it, I think, is not just practical. It is spiritual. And it lies at the very heart of our faith.

The fact is, Christianity is not a solitary endeavor. “Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am, too,” Jesus says. Christianity requires a community. It demands collaboration. Partnership. A shared experience of prayer, and faith, and sacrifice, and worship, and belief. Love, after all, does not exist in a vacuum. You need another. Those disciples who embarked two by two into the world are the reason we are here, not two by two, but pew by pew – hundreds lifting our voices together in praise and thanksgiving.

In short, we are here to accompany one another – just as those thousands of strangers accompanied Peter Rometti in Fenway Park. Christianity isn’t meant to be kept to ourselves. We practice it, and live it, in the presence of God, and in the presence of others. It is about offering support. Sharing struggles and prayers and hope. It is about lifting our voices together to help one another when the music becomes hard or the words escape us. We do not make the journey alone.

Which brings me to the other telling detail from this gospel. Jesus tells the apostles to “take nothing for the journey.” He asks them to carry only the barest of essentials. But what, exactly, is essential? He tells them to take just two things. Sandals. And a walking stick.

I think, when you consider all this, we can glean two lessons from this gospel. And they are both profound and simple.

First: the gospel is to be shared with another. Don’t go it alone. Go out two by two.

And second: it's got to have legs.

The gospel is meant to be lived on its feet -- taken to others, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. It is to be taken beyond places that are flat, and safe and comfortable, to deserts and mountains and plains, to places where you may find yourself tired, trudging, where the terrain may be rough and the hills steep. The trip won’t necessarily be easy.

But it is one we all are asked to take. It is the great adventure of living the Catholic Christian faith, and taking it into the world.

All you need are sandals. And a walking stick. And someone else to share the journey. Take nothing else. It is the journey itself, and the willingness to make that journey, that matters.

Theologians and scholars have spent centuries untangling the mysteries of our faith. But really, there you have it, in stark and simple terms. Sandals. A walking stick. And someone to share the journey.

During these tough times, maybe we could all do well to remember this gospel passage. Remember that, in Jesus’s eyes, less really is more. Remember what is essential. What matters. What endures.

And remember, too, what Peter Remetti discovered on a warm summer night in Boston, when the words wouldn’t come. 36-thousand voices carried him. 36-thousand hearts uplifted him and saw that he arrived, safely and surely, at the land of the free and the home of the brave.

As we embark on our own journeys of faith, and meet those living lives of struggle, or hardship, or pain, let’s add our voices to the chorus.

Let us renew our commitment…to make the gospel our anthem.

Obama's Catholic spokesman

2009-07-10T23:44:00.005-04:00

Well, here's another of those "I-Had-No-Idea" moments.

I had no idea that President Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, is Catholic.

From U.S. News & World Report:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs is not predisposed to showing his personal side. So I was surprised to hear him invoking his Roman Catholicism in today's White House press briefing in L'Aquila, Italy, on the eve of Obama's first visit with Pope Benedict:
...the question as it relates to the influence of Catholic social teaching on the President, I would say something that I've been quite impacted by myself, I would offer. The President, in both his words and in his deeds, expresses many things that many Catholics recognize as fundamental to our teaching.
I was also surprised by Gibbs's grasp of Catholicism's influence on Obama personally and the way he framed it as a basis for pushing the president's healthcare plan. This is not the kind of thing Democratic press secretaries were doing five years ago:
One is that the President often refers to the fundamental belief that each person is endowed with dignity, and as it relates to the issues I work on most frequently with the President, the President often underscores that dignity of people is a driving goal in what we hope to accomplish in development policy, for example, and in foreign policy. That's one.

Two, I've also heard the President speak very movingly about what Cardinal Bernadin called the seamless garment of Catholic teaching. That garment speaks to not just taking care of the poor and the needy but also investing in the kind of health care infrastructure that would ensure that people like those on the South Side of Chicago, who the President is very familiar with are oftentimes finding their health care not in publicly funded hospitals but in Catholic hospitals, for example.

You can check out more of this at the U.S. News link.

"Truly cordial"

2009-07-10T14:47:00.002-04:00

Those are the two words used by the Vatican to describe the meeting between President Obama and Pope Benedict. NCR's John Allen has details:

When President Barack Obama came calling on Pope Benedict XVI today, the two men enjoyed a “truly cordial” encounter, according to a Vatican spokesperson, but at the same time there was no diplomatic silence from the pontiff about their differences over abortion and other “life issues.”

Not only did Benedict press his pro-life case with his words to the president, but he even found a way to make the point with his gift, offering the president a copy of a recent Vatican document on bioethics. According to a Vatican spokesperson, the pope drew a repetition from Obama of his vow to bring down the actual abortion rate.

Beyond the life issues, the Vatican’s statement indicated that Benedict and Obama also found “general agreement” on the Middle East peace process and other regional situations. The two leaders also touched food security, development aid especially for Africa and Latin America, immigration and drug trafficking, according to the statement.

Coming away from the meeting, however, it was hard to escape the impression that Benedict wanted to use it to deliver a clear pro-life message.

While Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, said after the meeting that it would be wrong to interpret the pope’s message as a “polemic,” he added that the life issues are “important for the American church” and “it would be ambiguous to try to hide these differences, or to put them in second place.”

According to a written statement from the Vatican, the first issues discussed during a 35-minute private meeting this afternoon in the Apostolic Palace were “questions which … constitute a great challenge for the future of every nation and for the true progress of peoples, such as the defense and promotion of human life and the right to abide by one’s conscience.”

The latter phrase was understood as a reference to the current debate in America over protections for health care workers who assert a conscientious objection to participating in abortions or other procedures. During a session with Catholic journalists last week, Obama promised a “robust conscience clause” which would not weaken protections in vigor during the Bush administration.

In a briefing for reporters in Rome, Lombardi said that Benedict XVI said afterwards that Obama had seemed “attentive” to the church’s concerns, and that Obama had reiterated his commitment to adopting policies that will bring down the actual number of abortions.

Lombardi said that Benedict XVI seemed “very satisfied and content” with how the meeting went. Obama left the meeting saying to the pope that he wants to forge “a very strong relationship” with the Vatican.

Visit the NCR link for more.

Stumped: thousands see Mary in a cut willow tree

2009-07-10T11:57:00.003-04:00

From the Marian Oddities Desk, a report that some of the faithful in Ireland are seeing the Blessed Mother in a tree stump:

Thousands of Irish Catholics have flocked this week to a County Limerick church to pray at the stump of a recently cut willow that many observers say, has the silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

The phenomenon at St. Mary's parish church in Rathkeale, population 3,000 or so, harkens back to decades when Catholic devotion and pilgrimages were the dominant feature of rural life in Ireland.

Some are tying the fervor for Rathkeale's "Holy Stump" to Ireland's stunning economic decline over the past year.

"People have been crying out for something good to happen. And this is all good for the soul," said Noel White, who has been overseeing a church project to cut down trees dangerously overhanging the neighboring school playground.

When one willow was felled near the church entrance Monday, he said, a major branch cracked off and made "a funny shape."

One worker cut through the stump at a near-vertical angle, revealing a wooden relief that inspires some to see the Virgin Mary.

"One lad beside the one who'd made the cut immediately saw the outline of Our Lady and blessed himself. It really is unreal. Every one of us could see it," he said.

The workman who made the cut, Anthony Reddin, said he doesn't see the Virgin Mary.

"I see it as the grain of a tree myself," he said.

Nonetheless, word of mouth brought about 100 to inspect and pray at the stump that first night. Numbers swelled to several hundred the next night. By Wednesday, more than a thousand came and went as a makeshift shrine of candles, rosaries and miniature statues of Mary grew. The praying continued past 2 a.m. Thursday.

The parish priest is away on vacation. His summer replacement, the Rev. Willie Russell, is not impressed. He says locals are letting their imagination run wild and threatening to violate the commandment, "Thou shalt not worship a false God."

"It's just a tree. You don't worship a tree," Russell said.

The priest said he saw no harm in saying Hail Mary prayers at the spot — so long as the faithful don't actually find themselves praying to the stump itself. "I don't believe in idolatry. That would be the danger," he said.

PHOTO: from AP

The pope and the president: a first report -- UPDATED

2009-07-10T11:10:00.006-04:00

From Catholic News Service:

Pope Benedict XVI welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama to the Vatican July 10, and the two discussed world issues addressed at the Group of Eight summit.

As they met, Obama told the pope, "It's a great honor; thank you so much."

The two sat down at a desk in the papal library and began discussing the G-8 summit -- the meeting of the world's wealthy industrialized countries, which concluded that morning in L'Aquila, Italy -- and dealt with the economic crisis, climate change and global tensions.

Pope Benedict told the president, "You must be tired after all these discussions."

The president responded that the meetings marked "great progress" and "something concrete," although the precise topic they were discussing at that point was unclear.

Obama arrived at the Vatican shortly before 4 p.m., and a squad of Swiss Guards saluted him in the St. Damasus Courtyard of the Apostolic Palace.

U.S. Archbishop James Harvey, prefect of the papal household, was the first to greet the president, and he accompanied Obama to a meeting with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state.

Among the hundreds of people waiting to see Obama pass by on his way to the papal meeting were two members of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles from Ghana.

One them, Sister Felicia Harry, said: "I think it is good he is visiting the Holy Father. They will get to talk face to face on issues they might not agree on. This is a good opportunity for them to share ideas."

There's much more at the link. The AP has its first write-up as well.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: CNS has more details about the meeting:

The church's position on bioethical issues got marked attention during Pope Benedict XVI's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama July 10.

In addition to giving Obama a copy of his latest encyclical, which the pope had been presenting to visiting heads of state since its release July 7, the pope also presented a copy of the Vatican document on biomedical ethics, "Dignitas Personae" ("The Dignity of a Person").

When presenting the gifts after their 35-minute closed-door meeting, the pope gave Obama a signed, white leather-bound copy of the encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), then indicated the light-green soft-cover instruction on bioethics issued last December by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"Oh, what we discussed earlier," said Obama, referring to their closed-door discussions. "I will have some reading to do on the plane."

Obama was given the instruction to help him better understand the church's position on bioethics, Msgr. Georg Ganswein, papal secretary, told journalists in the pool covering the visit.

Meantime, good old reliable Rocco has the official Vatican communique on the confab.

PHOTO: from Getty

"Behind the Walls with the Man Behind the Stole"

2009-07-10T10:58:00.006-04:00

An alert reader spotted this item and sent it my way: the compelling story of a New York deacon's experiences as a prison chaplain, which he's now chronicled in a book:

David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz attended his first religious seminar at Clinton Correctional Facility escorted by then-chaplain Donald Dashnaw.

"He just wanted to get exposure to the church," remembered Dashnaw, who for 58 years lived in Morrisonville and now resides in South Carolina.

Dashnaw was chaplain in the Dannemora maximum-security prison for three-and-a-half years.

Close-up interaction with inmates made him apprehensive beforehand, a nervousness not allayed by the background checks and fingerprinting he had to have done.

But once behind the walls, Dashnaw saw the incarcerated in a different light.

The inmates, he said, "were very open with me. I could see the humanity."

He remembers one man crying with him.

"He had killed his wife out of jealousy," Dashnaw said.

Before going to confession with the Catholic priest, some inmates would ask to see Dashnaw.

"Just to sort of rehearse, to get their feelings out," he said.

Dashnaw still has three clocks made for him as gifts from inmates.

"They're running beautifully."

It was after some soul searching that Dashnaw entered the deaconate program in 1981. In part, it was to pay back, for he was an outspoken opponent of an abortion clinic that operated in Schuyler Falls in the mid-1970s, and the going was rough. His protests even drew threats, he said.

"I feel God sort of protected me."

Dashnaw wrote about those experiences in an autobiographical work called "Intercessions in the Journey of a Deacon" in 2006. Now he has chronicled his chaplaincy at Clinton Correctional in "Behind the Walls with The Man Behind the Stole."

Dashnaw, 78, included in the 85-page book some photos he found in an out-of-print booklet called "Church of the Good Thief and the Padre of the Thieves."

Some show that church on the prison grounds under construction; another is a reproduction of a Novena to St. Dismas, for whom the church is named.

Dashnaw found the only copy he's ever seen of that booklet in the spire of the church.

"I just loved spending time up there," he reflected. "Up there, I could see Whiteface (mountain), the Green Mountains of Vermont ..."

Dashnaw, who for 18 years taught at Peru Central School, moved with his wife, Leona, to South Carolina in 1989, after his assignment at Clinton ended. There, he put his chaplaincy experience to work as Catholic minister of the Charleston County Detention Center. In 1997, he was named Chaplain of the Year by the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy. For about five years, until 2007, he was coordinator of Prison Ministry of the Diocese of Charleston, which includes more than 20 state institutions and three federal prisons.

"I did the troubleshooting and assisted in the assignment of priests and deacons," he said.

These days, Dashnaw is a crisis responder for an ecumenical organization for such tragedies as murder, suicide and house fires. He also, for his parish, works with the sick and home-bound and in nursing homes.

His tenure as Clinton chaplain changed him, he said.

"I think it made me lose my feeling of superiority," Dashnaw mused. "Everybody is a sinner, that's what we're taught. I always said, 'Except for the grace of God, many of us would be there (incarcerated).'

"I got more humility."

Read the rest. Fascinating stuff.

Take and eat?

2009-07-10T08:11:00.003-04:00

Strange happenings in Austria, where a woman who claims ordination as a Catholic bishop is grabbing the spotlight -- and the Body of Christ.

Read on:

The Sunday worship celebration in the Parish of St. Peter in Linz did not make the excommunicated "Bishop" Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger as happy as she would have wished. Bishop Ludwig Schwarz refused her communion with the Host. Then she took the wafer herself.

400 people joined the celebration of Mass in the Parish of St. Peter on 28 June.. It was held in honour of the church's patron, St. Peter. Among them, high-ranking politicians. But few noticed what happened during the Communion.

Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger was dressed as a Bishop when she appeared at the Mass in official dress with a large pectoral Cross. During the Communion she chose, consciously or unconsciously, the row in which the Diocesan Bishop Ludwig Schwarz distributed communion. The bishop suggested to her that she should not come, because he could not give her Communion. But Mayr-Lumetzberger would not stop. When it came to her, she was not given the Host. According to ecclesiastical law,someone excommunicated may not receive communion.

Mayr-Lumetzberger took the host herself from the ciborium. "I was there for all men and women in a similar situation in life," she says in discussion with OÖN. Is it normal to receive the Host like this? "There are different models of the Communion," she says. What did she feel? "In the first moment, nothing. But now I feel hurt and angry, like a woman who has been beaten for the first time by a man, "says Mayr-Lumetzberger.

Had she expected to receive Communion?" Yes. The Gospel is a higher authority than canon law. "Mayr-Lumetzberger is excommunicated since according to Canon Law ordination of priestesses is prohibited. It had however never happened that she did not receive the Host. The Church of St. Peter is her home parish. "I know Christine a long time. For me, she has never come for Communion. She knows what situation this would put me in "says Parish Priest Franz Zeiger. This Sunday, she came dressed as a Bishop to the Mass.

Quote of the day

2009-07-10T07:36:00.002-04:00

"In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool."

-- Peggy Noonan, eviscerating Sarah Palin.
Read the whole thing. She knows whereof she speaks.

The NEW kings of pop

2009-07-10T00:04:00.001-04:00

While the world was obsessing about the Michael Jackson funeral, Evian unveiled this amazing -- and amazingly freakish -- ad that has apparently taken the internet by storm.

How'd they do that? See below.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Different strokes

2009-07-09T22:07:00.003-04:00

That might be how one could sum up what are seemingly two differing views of President Obama, one from the Vatican and the other from U.S. bishops:

Ever since he took office, President Obama has been given a cold reception by some Roman Catholic bishops in the United States who have repeatedly emphasized their church’s differences with him on abortion, birth control and stem cell research.

But Mr. Obama is likely to receive a much warmer reception in the Vatican on Friday when he meets Pope Benedict XVI for the first time, experts on the church say.

Both the pope and the president recognize that despite their differences, they have an opportunity to join forces on international issues that are mutual priorities: Israel and the Palestinians, climate change, nuclear nonproliferation, increased aid to poor nations and immigration reform.

Their encounter comes just as Mr. Obama leaves the Group of 8 industrialized nations summit meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, and three days after Pope Benedict released a weighty encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” or “Charity in Truth,” which updates Catholic social teaching for the global economic era.

“The pope is trying to engage America’s capacity for good in the world at a time when it’s really critical,” said the Rev. Drew Christensen, editor in chief of America magazine, a national Jesuit weekly, who worked for the church for many years in international relations.

“You’ll never get Rome to admit it,” Father Christensen said, but the Vatican has a different approach than the American bishops to working with governments. “Some of the critics of the president think you have to be at war, and the pope is saying, there’s a different way to proceed here and it’s very essential to the church’s approach, in that what you want is consensus.”

American bishops early on set an adversarial tone with the Obama administration. The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops warned in a letter soon after the election that “aggressive pro-abortion policies” would “be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.”

Dozens of bishops denounced the University of Notre Dame for having Mr. Obama give the commencement speech and receive an honorary degree. Last month, the bishops conference issued a statement supporting Bishop John M. D’Arcy, whose diocese is home to Notre Dame and who led the charge against the university.

The Vatican, by contrast, sent Mr. Obama a congratulatory telegram immediately after his election — a highly unusual gesture, because the Vatican usually waits for the inauguration, experts said. The Vatican sent another telegram for the inauguration, followed by a phone call from the pope.

Check out the link for more comparisons.

An excommunicated nun as a saint?

2009-07-09T17:22:00.002-04:00

Could happen.

Really.

That savvy saint expert, James Martin, S.J. has the following news about one controversial woman headed for sainthood:

Mother Mary McKillop, the foundress of the Australian-based Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, was, in 1871, officially excommunicated by her local bishop, on the grounds that she "'she had incited the sisters to disobedience and defiance." That same church leader, Bishop Sheil, had earlier invited her to work in Adelaide, where she and her sisters would eventually set up schools, a women's shelter and an orphanage, among their many works. But McKillop's independent spirit was a threat to Bishop Sheil, who had her booted out of the church. Yesterday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke with Pope Benedict XVI about McKillop's possible canonization, in a conversation reported in the Brisbane Times here. Just last year, the pope visited McKillop's tomb in Sydney during his visit to Australia for World Youth Day. Prime Minister Rudd said that the visit "left a deep impression on the Holy Father."

In April of this year, in an extraordinary gesture, Bishop's Sheil's successor, the current archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, made a public apology to the Sisters for their foundress's excommunication. Standing before her statue, said that he was "profoundly ashamed of the Bishop's actions in driving the Sisters out onto the streets." McKillop was beatified (the next-to-last step for canonization) by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

The idea of a holy woman who had been at loggerheads with the hierarchy--and was even excommunicated--is not new in the annals of the saints. The most recently named American saint, Mother Theodore Guerin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods, was once locked into a room in a rectory by her bishop, who was infuriated by her (similarly) independent spirit. Around the time of her canonization in 2006, I recounted her story in an op-ed piece in The New York Times here, called "Saints That Weren't." (Their title, not mine.)

It was a tough article for some Catholics to read, and I got letters by the dozens (literally). Half of them praised me for reminding Catholics that being in trouble with the church hierarchy is no barrier for holiness; and the other half expressed fury (again, literally) that I was suggesting that being in conflict with the church was a requirement for holiness. (I was arguing only the former--and from history.)

The canonization of trouble-makers shows that the Vatican typically has a clearer understanding of holiness than do some contemporary Catholics, who sometimes conflate holiness with being unthinking, uncritical or blindly obedient. But popes have often canonized saints who were held in contempt by some church leaders of their time. Here, for example, is part of the hair-raising tale of Mother Guerin's run-in with Bishop de la Hailandiere:

"At the time, the idea of an independent woman deciding where and when to open schools offended Célestine de la Hailandière, the Catholic bishop of Vincennes, Ind. In 1844, when Mother Guérin was away from her convent raising money, the bishop ordered her congregation to elect a new superior, in a bid to eject her from the very order of nuns that she had founded. The independent-minded sisters simply re-elected Mother Guérin. Infuriated, Bishop Hailandière told the future saint that she was forbidden from setting foot in her own convent, since he, the bishop, considered himself its sole proprietor. Three years later, Bishop Hailandière demanded that Mother Guérin resign. When she refused, the bishop told her congregation that she was no longer superior, that she was ordered to leave Indiana, and that she was forbidden from communicating with her sisters. Her sisters replied that they were not willing to obey a dictator. The situation worsened until, just a few weeks later, Bishop Hailandière was suddenly replaced by the Vatican. From then on, the Sisters of Providence flourished. Today its 465 members work in 10 states, the District of Columbia, China and Taiwan."

Musty stories of dead nuns? Not so fast. These stories have profound implications not simply for Catholics in general, but perhaps for those American religious women who are the current focus of the Vatican's investigation--an Apostolic Visitation that is to examine their "quality of life." Some of these sisters, and perhaps even a few congregations, may one day find themselves on the receiving end of some criticism, when the final report is released in a few months, or years. They may take heart in the story of Blessed Mary McKillop and St. Theodore Guerin.

And in the stories of others, too. Check the link for more.