In some school districts in America, some lucky high-school students in language classes have gotten to go on trips abroad — French student to Paris; Spanish students to Madrid; Italian students to Rome.

Next week, a group of 25 students from the New York-Connecticut area will be practicing their newfound language at World Youth Day in Madrid. And according to those involved, the hundreds of thousands of young people they will encounter from around the world will have no problem understanding.

Spanish? No. Their language is music — the traditional music of the Church, sung in the Church’s mother tongue: Latin.

The Norwalk, Conn.-based St. Mary’s Student Schola is ready and eager to head...READ MORE

World Youth Day App - News.va/Vatican Radio

. . . WYD 2011: ‘Important Energy in the Church’ . . .

. . . WYD and Pope Benedict’s Vision of a “New Evangelization” . . .

. . . Abp. Chaput: Recalling a WYD ’93 Moment of Grace . . .

Technology and the Mass of the Future - Ship of St. Peter

Catholic Bookstores Working Hard to Compete Online - Liz O’Connor, Catholic News Service

Fr. Busa, the Jesuit Who Invented the Hypertext - Andrea Tornielli, La Stampa/Vatican Insider

Catholic New Media Awards for this Year have Opened Voting! - Fr. Zuhlsdorf, WDTPRS?

Storytelling: a Dying Art? Talking with Screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi - Nick Muzekari, Patheos

Bishop Warns of the...READ MORE

As one of the thousands of young people preparing to make the trip to Madrid this year, my excitement continues to build. After all, I have been preparing for this for a year and a half!

When my parish made the decision to take a group to Spain, I had no idea what I was getting into. All the prep, fundraisers, steak dinners, etc. At the time, it is so far away you wonder if it will ever come.

The group I am going with is very small — only 13 people. That’s okay. This is the first time our parish has sent a group. Needless to say, there will be a lot of learning as we go. Thank God we will have a full-time guide the whole time.

Now comes the “fun” part — packing! I am counting on...READ MORE

Creationists and evolutionists both see Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution as the linchpin of all attempts to prove or disprove the existence of God. Darwin’s Pious Idea by Conor Cunningham turns this debate on its head. The subtitle says it all: “Why the ultra-Darwinists and creationists both get it wrong.”

Activist atheists and fundamentalist believers vehemently try to persuade others to adopt their way of thinking. Cunningham argues that both are wasting their time.

Darwin’s theory of evolution, he writes, “is frequently construed, by both its supporters and its opponents, as an attack on the idea of God and an attempted exposé of the frivolity of the piety of religious believers. On...READ MORE

A Different Kind of World Youth Day, Traditional!- Jeffrey A. Tucker, The Chant Café

Over 3,000 British Pilgrims set off for Madrid - Madeleine Teahan, Catholic Herald

Dumb Luck or Design? A Meditation on the Existence of Order - Msgr. Charles Pope, Archdiocese of Washington

I Want to Hold Your Hand - Anthony Buono, 6 Stone Jars

Marriage by God’s Standard - Sr. Lisa Marie Doty FDCC, Nunspeak

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle - John Whitehead, Once I Was A Clever Boy

A Modest (Dress Code) Suggestion - Our Sunday Visitor

Doctrine & Policy: The Authentic Catholic Mind - Dr. Jeff Mirus, CatholicCulture.org/On the Culture

Why did Jesus Call the Canaanite Woman a “Dog”? - Fr. Ryan Erlenbush,...READ MORE

World Youth Day Madrid’s executive director, Yago de la Cierva, has been busily preparing for the Aug. 16-21 festival of Catholic faith.

As the chief organizer, de la Cierva explained, from Rome on June 28, how pilgrims could best prepare for WYD, the reasons for holding the event in Madrid, the Pope’s decision to hear confessions, and how Spain’s secularist government is handling the event.

How have the preparations gone for World Youth Day?
Everything is on schedule, and the preparations are going quite well, both because of the large number of volunteers working on this, but also because of the collaboration from public administration and civil society — sponsors, companies,...READ MORE

The summer of 2011 featured an unprecedented four comic-book superhero movies, all origin stories: X-Men: First Class, Thor, Green Lantern and Captain America: The First Avenger. (That’s not counting the January release The Green Hornet, based on a hero whose origins were not in comic books, but radio serials.)

Next year, besides the Avengers ensemble movie — featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and the Black Widow — the slate includes a new Ghost Rider film, a Spider-Man reboot and the conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Additional Iron Man and Thor sequels are already planned for 2013, along with the return (again) of the hero who started it all, the Man of...READ MORE

BURNABY, British Columbia — A Catholic civil-rights group in Canada has published a parental-rights declaration as a way to assist parents in their struggles with school bureaucracies intent on normalizing homosexuality.

Canada legalized same-sex “marriage” in 2005.

Sean Murphy, British Columbia director of the Canadian Catholic Civil Rights League, published the “Declaration on the Authority of Parents and Guardians in the Education of their Children” on July 6 and distributed it to parents’ groups around the world, several of whom have published it.

Murphy’s move was triggered when parents failed to stop a B.C. public-school district policy promoting homosexuality as a behavior that is...READ MORE