It’s not exactly the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the Spanish pilgrimage trail featured in the new Emilio Estevez film The Way. But the road from Peekskill, N.Y., to St. Patrick’s Cathedral can be just as colorful.

Father John Higgins, the 43-year-old pastor of Assumption parish in the Westchester town, will be walking the 58 miles to Manhattan today and tomorrow.

His purpose? To raise money for his struggling parish school.

In a letter to friends, he writes that Assumption School is having difficult times, and many of the parents, hit hard by the economic downturn of the past several years, are struggling to keep their kids in the school.

Father Higgins told me that he plans to...READ MORE

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

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

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

As we approach October, the month of the Holy Rosary, and the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7, there’s a grassroots effort via the Web to remember the origin of the feast and win our country back to Jesus.

The Lepanto Victory Mission Rosary novena wants to enlist people in all 50 states to unite to pray a Rosary for the U.S. during one or more of the 216 hours making up the round-the-clock, nine-day novena leading up to the feast. The intention is “peace and victory of God for our country.”

The Rosary novena begins first thing Sept. 29, the feast of the Archangels, and goes continuously until the end of Oct. 7.

The organization was inspired by the miraculous victory...READ MORE

Irene packed a punch, to be sure. Some 42 people up and down the eastern seaboard died as a result of the hurricane, and millions of folks were affected by property damage, sustained loss of power, severe flooding and interrupted daily living.

I don’t mean to minimize anyone’s hardships, least of all their personal tragedies. Thanks be to God, we had no catastrophes in southern Connecticut.

Inconvenienced? Sure. We’re still without power, stumbling around to find things in the dark, finding ways to keep our food from going bad, having to go out from the home office to find a place with power and an internet connection…

But that’s the extent of our “suffering.” We have had merely a taste...READ MORE

As members of an earlier generation could tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news of JFK’s assassination or the attack on Pearl Harbor, hardly anyone alive today can forget Sept. 11, 2001.

It’s been 10 years, and the Register is preparing special coverage of the anniversary.

But we’d also like to hear from you, our readers. We’d like to hear your recollections of that day or your thoughts about it and the ensuing reaction to the largest attack on American soil. This is your chance to offer your unique perspective, based on your experiences, to the rest of us. We invite you to write considered and respectful short essays, in the comment box below, to help all of us put...READ MORE

As kids across the country head back to school, four recent college grads are preparing to take off for new lives in the missions.

They are being sent by Fidesco, a 30-year-old Paris-based Catholic agency that has a new branch in the United States and is sending Americans abroad for the first time.

Founded in 1981 by the Emmanuel Community, following a meeting at the Vatican with African bishops, Fidesco now operates in 31 countries and sends 250 volunteers every year. Its name is based on the Latin word for faith, fides. The co is for cooperation.
Each volunteer makes a two-year commitment.

Wyoming native Natalie Kean, 28, is headed for a slum outside Manila in the Philippines. An...READ MORE