Study: parishes that offered online Masses doing better financially (The Washington Post) The coronavirus shutdown is affecting giving to Catholic parishes around the country in dramatically different ways, data shows, with some expected to see their offertory — parishioners’ donations, typically given at weekly services — down 50 percent, while others have had an increase. A study says a big factor is whether parishes switched to online services or decided to wait the virus out…
Remembering Father Michel (Aiken Standard) Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnson told the Georgetown Times/Post and Courier that Father Michel was positive for COVID-19, but an autopsy Wednesday confirmed his death appeared to be from a self-inflicted wound. Johnson said the priest left a note. Other aspects of the investigation are ongoing, and the coroner said he expected to have more information by the first part of this week. Father Michel was known during his time in Aiken for his joyful disposition and for the connection he made with the church’s youth…
Five years later: archdiocese’s first deacons look back (B.C. Catholic) Those deacons, having just now celebrated their fifth anniversary, are serving all over the Lower Mainland, in parishes, hospitals, prisons, ports, cemeteries, and First Nations reserves. Msgr. Gregory Smith, permanent diaconate program director, said in the five years since ordaining Vancouver’s first permanent deacons, he’s been surprised at the enthusiasm of the deacons and their wives for this new ministry…
Meet the Palestinian Catholic bringing Santa to Jerusalem’s Old City (CNS) Walk down St. Peter Street from the Old City’s New Gate, past some shuttered shops and the closed Knight’s Palace hotel, continue down through the winding stone-paved alleyway of the Christian Quarter and soon you will hit “Santa Lane,” where in December you can find the festively decorated and lit Santa’s House, replete with a big red Santa mailbox next to the door. For three years, Palestinian Catholic and well-known former basketball player Issa Kassissieh has been dressing up as the Jerusalem Santa and decorating his family’s traditional 14th-century home at the junction of St. Peter Street and Latin Patriarchate Road…
