In the first half of today’s program, National Catholic Register correspondent Victor Gaetan spoke about Pope Benedict XVI’s recent pilgrimage to Cuba. Gaetan identified the highpoint as the Papal Mass in Santiago de Cuba. “To see 200,000 Cubans celebrate Mass was very unique,” said Gaetan. “The Church has been persecuted since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. There is hope that they can still believe to achieve freedom.”

Gaetan added that there are two attitudes present in Cuba. One is demonstrated by the Ladies in White, a group of wives, sisters and mothers, who oppose the Castro regime and demonstrate weekly outside a Catholic Church in Havana. The other is the Castro regime, which...READ MORE

At noon, rallies standing up for religious freedom, took place across the country. Three rallies protesting the HHS mandate were held in the State of Minnesota. One in St. Paul, another in Duluth, and a third in St. Cloud.

Gathered beneath the arches, marked by granite images of the four Gospel writers, on the stairs of St. Mary’s Cathedral in St. Cloud, Minn. a little more than 350 people gathered for a prayerful and peaceful demonstration. Holding homemade signs that read: “Washington D.C.‘s Pharoah’s: Let My People Go,” “Nurse’s Conscience Rights,” and “Respect Religious Rights,” the rally was attended by families, doctors, nurses, business owners, retirees, Catholics and non-Catholics,...READ MORE

Today on Register Radio, the first guest was Ann Carey, author of Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women’s Religious Communities. She spoke about her recent National Catholic Register article, “Who is Sister Carol Keehan?” Carey described Sister Keehan’s role in supporting Obamacare.

“She was the public face for Catholic health care,” said Carey. “She really provided moral cover for some Democractic congressmen who voted for it.”

Pointed out Carey, “She took advantage of her identity. Being a vowed religious doesn’t give someone the ability to speak for the Church as the ultimate authority.”

Furthermore, Carey demonstrated how Sister Keehan repeatedly became “the public face...READ MORE

The Attorney General of the State of Alabama filed documents today in US District Court in Birmingham to join EWTN Global Catholic Network as a plaintiff in its lawsuit against the Obama Administration’s contraception mandate. EWTN filed its lawsuit on February 9, asking the federal courts to overturn the new rules which require most U.S. employers to provide contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their health plans even if it violates their conscience.

“The freedom of religion, and to believe as one sees fit, is our ‘first freedom’ under the United States Constitution,” said Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. “The people of Alabama have recognized the importance...READ MORE

About.com has been running its Catholicism Readers’ Choice Awards over the past three weeks. If you haven’t voted yet, time is running out. Finalists have been named in 10 different categories and readers can vote in each category once a day. There are only five days left, as voting closes on March 21.

EWTN and the National Catholic Register have been named in several categories, including Best Website, Best Newspaper, Best Radio Show, Best Twitter, and Best Facebook Page. If you’re so inclined, please visit and vote in these, and all of the, categories.

You’ll also find the Register’s own blogger Jennifer Fulwiler in the Best Catholic blog category.

The interim results will let you...READ MORE

On today’s Register Radio, National Catholic Register correspondent Gerald Russello talks about his recent article “Would Obama’s Mandate Fly With the Founding Fathers?” Russello provided a fascinating historical perspective on our nation’s founding.

“Governments cannot create civil rights like healthcare while at the same time failing to secure the pre-existing natural right to exercise your faith,” said Russello. “We’re beginning to lose the distinction between rights that cannot be infringed upon, and other rights. The founders wouldn’t have found healthcare to be a right at all, or for the government to coerce and force people to act contrary to their faith. This is not an appropriate...READ MORE

Who should make the list of “12 Most Influential American Catholics”? Stephen Prothero has compiled an interesting, but flawed, list.

Prothero is a professor at Boston University and a blogger for CNN’s Belief Blog. Here’s his list. I spoke about it on yesterday’s Drew Mariani show on Relevant Radio.

Stephen Prothero’s List of 12 Most Influential American Catholics
1-6. Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor
7. Speaker of the House John Boehner
8. Vice President Joe Biden
9. Rick Santorum, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
10. Cardinal Timothy Dolan
11. Stephen Colbert
12. Andrew Sullivan...READ MORE

In the first half of Register Radio, technologist in molecular biology, Rebecca Taylor spoke about her recent National Catholic Register article “Morally Tainted: Products Made Possible by the Killing of Innocent Human Life.”

She carefully explained how biotechnology companies and others are using decades-old cell lines and tissue that has come from aborted children to test products, vaccines, and flavor enhancers.

Asked what we can do about it, she counseled that, “We do have to be morally outraged, but we can’t become hysterical either. We need to let the FDA, the companies, and doctors know that this is something we can’t live with,” said Taylor. “We need to let them know that we want...READ MORE