How conservative Catholics became supreme on GOP’s court (CNN) President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett continues the GOP’s remarkable streak of selecting Catholic jurists for the Supreme Court and underscores the enduring impact of the alliance between conservative Catholics and evangelical Protestants, which has transformed the Republican coalition…

Black Pentecostal leaders: Barrett being ‘persecuted’ for faith (CNA) A letter released Friday by Black Pentecostal and charismatic Christian leaders has decried criticisms of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s charismatic Catholicism, ahead of her possible appointment to the Supreme Court. “Today we stand with, and speak in defense of, Judge Amy Coney Barrett,” the Sept. 25 letter said…

Trump and Biden court Catholic vote, but in different ways (The New York Times) In recent years, the majority of white Catholics have leaned Republican and Hispanic Catholics tilted Democratic. This year, even as Mr. Trump trails in many polls, each campaign sees opportunities to reduce the other’s margins with Catholic voters — enough, they hope, to tip key states their way. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump have vastly different political bases, but both are battling over more conservative, religious Latinos in places like Florida and Arizona…

Bishop Parkes asks for prayers as he begins ministry in Savannah (CNS) As he became the new bishop of Savannah, Bishop Stephen D. Parkes said prayers from the faithful of the diocese will help. “I ask you for your prayers each day,” he told the congregation near the end of his two-and-half-hour ordination ceremony at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist Sept. 23…

Minneapolis priest told to refrain from COVID ‘scam’ preaching (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) A Twin Cities priest who had preached that COVID-19 was a man-made scam has been told by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to refrain from talking about such matters from the pulpit. The Rev. Robert Altier had delivered a 20-minute sermon Sept. 6, claiming COVID-19 was concocted in laboratories in the United States and China and that it was a “lie” that tens of thousands of people are dying from it. A YouTube version of the sermon has been viewed more than 412,000 times…

Support The Deacon’s Bench! Get cool stuff!

Become a Patron!