Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, Latin for “All for the Greater Glory of God,” is carved right below the pediment on the front of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan.
It’s more than the motto of the Society of Jesus. It describes the interior beauty of the liturgical art and architecture.

On a recent visit to New York City, my wife, Mary, and I found the limestone church with its classic architecture looking every bit the solid anchor of its upper Park Avenue neighborhood. It was dedicated in 1898 after replacing the church originally founded in 1851 as St. Lawrence O’Toole Church.... READ MORE

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s second volume of his book Jesus of Nazareth is expected to challenge modern biblical scholarship and provoke readers into thinking more profoundly about Jesus.

That’s according to the president of Ignatius Press, the book’s appointed English-language publisher.

Mark Brumley told the Register July 30 that he expects the second volume, which will reflect on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to provoke “a great conversation about modern biblical scholarship” not only within the Church, but also between Catholics and Protestants and... READ MORE

When novelist Michael Gruber had his first religious experience, he was in the middle of a personal crisis that produced symptoms of self-destructiveness, hypochondria and agoraphobia, especially on airplanes.

He was also on a flight from New York to Seattle in the middle of a thunderstorm.

“The overhead compartments were popping open, the bags were falling out,” he recalled in a recent interview with the Register, “and I had what I can only call a very profound religious experience. I was aware of a Presence. I was being spoken to by it — and at that moment the turbulence stopped.”

Until... READ MORE

DENVER — Kathryn Tucker has been busy the past few years. As director of legal affairs for Compassion & Choices, she peruses state constitutions and laws to see if they address assisted suicide, which she refers to euphemistically as “aid in dying.”

So far, Washington and Oregon are the only states that have legalized assisted suicide in this country. Some believe that Montana has also, but a legal analysis of two court decisions which supposedly legalize assisted suicide in the state questions that assumption.

For all its efforts, Compassion & Choices, which was once known as the Hemlock Society, has seen more setbacks than successes. But that hasn’t stopped its latest campaign from...READ MORE