Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago, the archbishop of Leon, Mexico, has called on Catholics to dress respectfully when attending Mass. He made the request while speaking to reporters this summer after he was asked why posters were placed at the entrances of Leon parishes requesting that women not enter wearing miniskirts, sleeveless shirts or low-cut blouses. The archbishop said, “If you have any respect for [a church], dress appropriately. This is not a misogynist attitude of any sort. I am simply asking for the dignity and decorum that this place calls for, that is all.”

He added that men, too, need to be respectful in their choice of dress before entering a house of worship.

Bishops in other...READ MORE

WASHINGTON — The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA reported a sharp jump this year in the number of seminarians interested in serving as military chaplains. As the 2011-2012 academic year begins, there are 31 military-affiliated seminarians nationwide, up from three just three years ago.

The seminarians are participating in the Chaplain Candidacy Program for one of the branches of the armed forces and must be co-sponsored by a diocesan bishop. Once ordained, the priest must serve three years in a civilian parish and return to his diocese of sponsorship when he retires from active military service.

Conventual Father Kerry Abbott, director of vocations for the archdiocese,...READ MORE

WASHINGTON (EWTN News/CNA)—The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce has launched an investigation into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates to determine whether the organization is violating regulations on taxpayer funding or failing to report criminal activity.

“The committee has questions about the policies in place and actions undertaken by PPFA and its affiliates relating to its use of federal funding and its compliance with federal restrictions on the funding of abortion,” said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, in a Sept. 15 letter to Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.

The committee...READ MORE

What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Funerals - Brian Fraga, Our Sunday Visitor

Sociology and the Life of Virtue - Aaron Urbanczyk, The Catholic Thing

Does Council of Nicea Reject Women’s Ordination to Diaconate? - Joe Heschmeyer, Shameless Popery

Scalia on Natural Law - Donald R. McClarey, The American Catholic

“Enough of the Unnecessary Recourse to the Death Penalty” - Lorenzo Albacete, Ilsussidiario

160 Catholic Scholars Call for End to Death Penalty in America - Cardinal Newman Society/Campus Notes

A More Visible Witness - Trista Garttner, VirtuousPla.net

Christianophobes: Herod’s Modern Offspring - The Ordinary Catholic, Peter’s Barque

Breaking the Spell of Planned...READ MORE

ONTARIO, Canada (EWTN News/CNA)—Joseph Maraachli, the terminally ill 20-month-old known affectionately as “Baby Joesph,” died peacefully at home with his family in Windsor, Ontario, on Sept. 28.

“It seemed like a relaxing breath, like he was okay. It didn’t seem like he struggled,” Joseph’s mother Sana Maraachli told Canada’s CBC News.

Baby Joseph, who suffered from a severe and fatal neurological disorder called Leigh syndrome, was considered to be in a vegetative state by Canadian doctors, who recommended that he have his feeding and breathing tubes removed.

A private funeral service was scheduled for Sept. 28. Baby Joseph was to be buried beside his sister Zina, who passed away from...READ MORE

WASHINGTON — Though crafted for his secularized countrymen, the muscular defense of Catholicism and natural-law principles that defined Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany resonates with American Catholics.

During his four-day state visit, Pope Benedict took every opportunity to openly engage a skeptical culture that questions the very existence of objective truth, repudiates Germany’s Christian heritage as irreparably tainted, and discourages the faithful from advancing the mission of the Church.

The acceptance of secularism and an attendant hostility toward religious authority must be re-examined, he warned, before the nation loses its way, courting a reprise of the neo-pagan ideology...READ MORE

Congress to Investigate Planned Parenthood Abortion Business - Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com

Investigating Federal Funding, Non-Reporting of Sex Trafficking - Thomas Peters, Catholic Vote/American Papist

The Pastoral Response to Homosexuality - Melinda Selmys, First Things/On the Square

Fr. Ray Blake Under Fire - Fr. Tim Finigan, The Hermeneutic of Continuity

The Gospel & the Origin of Christian Monasticism - Carl Olson, Ignatius Insight Scoop

The Tyburn Tree Bears Abundant Fruit - Simon Caldwell, Catholic Herald

St. Wenceslas, Martyr - Mary Kochan, Catholic Lane

The Crown of St. Wenceslas - John Whitehead, Once I Was A Clever Boy

Time for USCCB to Stop Private Negotiations &...READ MORE

VATICAN CITY (EWTN News/CNA)—Pope Benedict XVI said he “was happy to see that the faith in my German homeland has a young face, that it is alive and has a future.” The Pope made his comments at his weekly Wednesday audience held in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.

“This apostolic trip to Germany provided me with an opportunity to meet the faithful of my own homeland, to confirm them in faith, hope and love, to share with them the joy of being Catholic,” said the Pope Sept. 28.

“But my message was also addressed to the German people as a whole, inviting them to look to the future with trust. It is certain that ‘where God is, there is a future.’”

Pope Benedict’s four-day visit, which concluded...READ MORE