What do you get when you team up two pro-lifers, one a former Hollywood filmmaker and the other a Florida songwriter? You get a professional, quality music video that hopes to become the anthem for the unborn.

The song is I Am the Unborn, and the makers chose to premiere it here at the Register.

The filmmaker is Christian Peschken, who has a list of television and film credits to his name — stretching from major shows in his native Germany clear to Hollywood, where he worked with the likes of Martin Sheen. Peschken now focuses his producing/filmmaking talents almost exclusively on Catholic subjects.

The songwriter is Barry David Butler, who wrote a heartfelt song from the point of view...READ MORE

The Family Rosary apostolate has launched its 2012 “Try Prayer! It Works!” contest and is gearing up for a banner year of entries.

For this 17th national contest, Family Rosary is again asking children and teens from all over the country to express their faith through their art, poetry and prose, with a particular theme.

The contest is open to all students in grades K through 12 from Catholic schools, parishes, home schooling, religious-education classes and other Catholic organizations. Depending on the final tally, there is a potential of a total of 36 awards: first, second and third place at each grade level.

This annual national competition regularly draws more than 3,000 entries....READ MORE

Nothing says “Christmas” more clearly at the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, Conn., than its annual crèche exhibit.

In years past, we’ve marveled at crèches from the Vatican, Italy, Europe, Central and South America and Asia.

The seventh-annual exhibit takes visitors to Africa in “Christmas Across Africa.”

More than a dozen countries are represented in this show, where each Nativity scene has been adapted to each country or local culture and customs.

Most of the crèches have European influences. The reason is simple: European countries colonized Africa, especially in the 19th century. Even before that, European missionaries brought Christianity to many places on the African...READ MORE

– Courtesy of the Liberty Counsel

For the ninth year in a row, the Liberty Counsel, a pro-life, pro-family litigation group based in Florida and Washington, is releasing its annual “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign.”

“We’ve seen a major shift in the last several years, and now the ‘Nice’ side outnumbers the ‘Naughty’ side,” said Matthew Staver, Liberty Counsel’s founder and chairman. “For just one example, CVS was historically on the ‘Naughty’ side, but now it’s come over on the ‘Nice’ side.”

Staver noted a major shift came in 2006. In 2005, Walmart “forbade employees even returning ‘Merry Christmas’ when customers initiated (saying) ‘Merry Christmas.’ And they called their trees ‘holiday trees.’ When we pointed that out...READ MORE

Father Robert Barron’s Catholicism series is already being hailed as a major documentary in this country. EWTN is airing six parts of the series, and more than 100 PBS stations across the country, from New York to Los Angeles, are airing four parts of the 10-part series.

Now Catholicism will be broadcast in Germany.

Nanette Noffsinger, the project’s and Father Barron’s public-relations representative, told me the release dates for the German edition haven’t been set yet, but German producer and filmmaker Christian Peschken is busy helping Father Barron’s ministry, Word on Fire, get Catholicism ready for the German people.

Peschken has been doing a lot of German-language adaptations of...READ MORE

– Courtesy of The Basilica Landmark

The bells of St. Mary’s were ringing in Minneapolis on Oct. 14. They were pealing loud and clear to celebrate the huge grant just won by the Basilica of St. Mary.

The victory proved that when Catholics work together, they can accomplish great things.

In this case, it was for the Church and the church. The basilica, which is the co-cathedral church of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese, came in first place in the Partners in Preservation contest, gaining the top award of $109,800 to restore its narthex and sacristy.

How did the Catholic teamwork come about?

The Partners in Preservation program picks an area of the country to run this contest to give preservation grants. The contest...READ MORE

– The Mothers' Saint Facebook page

Just in time for the feast of St. Gerard Majella, Oct. 16, there’s a brand-new website dedicated to this powerful saint for all mothers and mothers-to-be.

The Redemptorists of the Denver Province are calling The Mothers’ Saint the official English-language website dedicated to this wonder-working saint who is one of their own. The site includes a video blessing for mothers. The new website will act as an online community of prayer and support for all mothers, mothers-to-be, and those trying to conceive. It will have resources for women and mothers looking for moral and spiritual guidance.

For more than two centuries, St. Gerard, a simple Redemptorist brother, has been popularly called...READ MORE

Campaign director Shawn Carney was part of 40 Days for Life's presence in Fort Collins, Colo., in front of the Planned Parenthood abortion facility just across the street from Colorado State University.

– 40 Days for Life

The 40 Days for Life fall campaign launched on Sept. 28, and it’s already running ahead of the spring campaign (which turned out to be the largest to date) — it looks like it will be a record-setter.

This morning from North Dakota, campaign director Shawn Carney told me that since fall of 2007, when 40 Days for Life
was launched as a national coordinated effort, usually the fall campaign has been the larger effort.

But the final tallies this past May saw 80,000 participants at a record 247 locations across the United States, plus in Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Spain, Armenia and Georgia. There were 714 lives known to be saved from abortion. Plus 10 workers at abortion facilities...READ MORE