Top Five Dating Tips for Men - Amy Bonaccorso, Catholic Lane

Is Anointing the Sacrament of the Dying? Yes & No - Fr. Ryan Erlenbush, New Theological Movement

The Bishops Supported ObamaCare in Principle - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, What Does The Prayer Really Say?

American Bishops Need To Extend Mercy To Nancy Pelosi & Company - The Ordinary Catholic, Peter’s Barque

First We Were Weak, Now We’re Stupid - Br. Thomas More Garrett OP, Dominica

Eschatology According to Jacques Maritain - Alice von Hildebrand PhD, New Oxford Review

About Attending Non-Catholic Weddings - Super Trad Mum, Etheldredasplace

Pimp My (Free) Ride - Tiffany Borges, Lox Populi

The Urgently Relevant Pope Leo XIII -...READ MORE

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News)—Christian families should be a happy and loving environment in which young people can discern calls to the priesthood or religious life, Pope Benedict XVI says in his message for the World Day of Prayers for Vocations.

“Families are not only the privileged place for human and Christian formation; they can also be ‘the primary and most excellent seed bed of vocations to a life of consecration to the Kingdom of God,’ by helping their members to see, precisely within the family, the beauty and the importance of the priesthood and the consecrated life,” the Pope said on Feb. 13.

The 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be celebrated on April 29 with the...READ MORE

Catholic Books On Kindle Meme - Jeffrey Miller, The Curt Jester

Liberated Love, Same-Sex Attraction - Jim Graves, Catholic World Report

Surfer-Priest Related Dramatic Conversion - Maryann Gogniat Eidemiller, OSV Newsweekly

Vichy Catholics - Donald R. McClarey, The American Catholic

Celibate but Not Chase? Chaste but Not Celibate? SSA Theology - Richard Evans, Catholic Boy Richard

If You Think a Young Man May Have Vocation to Priesthood, Tell Him So - Webster Bull, Witness

How to Consecrate Yourself to the Immaculate Mary - Dr. Taylor Marshall, Canterbury Tales

The Holy See & Israel Negotiating Over The Upper Room - Giorgio Bernardelli, La Stampa/Vatican Insider

The Intercession of...READ MORE

WASHINGTON — After President Obama announced accommodations to the controversial Health and Human Services mandate that stirred a backlash from Catholics, Christians, Orthodox Jews and others, responses rolled in.

They range from caution to rejection.

As the official statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was readied and released, some individual bishops remained studying the government’s “accommodation” before commenting on it, while some began to weigh in on the matter quickly.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput rejected the Obama administration’s attempt to revise its contraception mandate, saying the rule remained “insulting” and “dangerous” to believers’...READ MORE

UPDATE: On Feb. 12, the White House Blog posted “What They Are Saying: Preventive Health Care and Religious Institutions,” which included positive statements from several Catholic organizations, including the Catholic Health Association and Catholic Charities USA.

“Catholic Charities USA welcomes the administration’s attempt to meet the concerns of the religious community, and we look forward to reviewing the final language. We are hopeful that this is a step in the right direction and are committed to continuing our work to ensure that our religious institutions will continue to be granted the freedom to remain faithful to our beliefs, while also being committed to providing access to...READ MORE

The winter is a perfect time for kids to sip cocoa and nestle up with their favorite reads. Here are some suggestions that make for a wintry mix of titles for this time of year: a few books set in the chilly, winter weather, a few to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, and a couple of timeless titles to warm children’s spiritual hearts, too.

I Am Small

Written and illustrated by Emma Dodd

Scholastic, 2010

22 pages, $8.99

A baby penguin looks around and sees that he is very small compared to the big, fast-paced world around him. In his littleness, he notices that crowds are large, winds are cold, oceans are deep, and mountains are steep. But he doesn’t mind — because he knows that he is always loved...READ MORE

VATICAN CITY (EWTN NEWS/CNA)—Jesus Christ’s healing of the leper in the Gospel of Mark encapsulates the whole history of salvation, said Pope Benedict XVI in his Sunday Angelus address Feb. 12.

When Jesus met the leper, he came into contact with a form of illness “considered at that time the most serious, enough to render a person ‘impure’ and to exclude (him) from the society,” the Pope explained to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

There was even special legislation that reserved to Jewish priests “the task of declaring the person leprous; that is, impure,” he said. It was the job of the Jewish priests to decide if and when to re-admit the sufferer to society after he had been deemed...READ MORE