Prayers for the Dead: Memorial Day in 2 Maccabees - Joe Heschmeyer, Shameless Popery

. . . Donald R. McClarey: Battle Hymn of the Republic. . .

iPhone App Review: 1962 Roman Breviary - Father John Zuhlsdorf, What Does The Prayer Really Say?

400,000 Registered for World Youth Day - Zenit

Papal Latin Mass in Constantinople (Pope Saint John I) - Taylor Marshall, Canterbury Tales

Canterbury: William Shakespeare Was Probably a Catholic - Anita Singh, The Telegraph

What Would Saint Augustine Say About the Ordinariate? - John Whitehead, Once I Was A Clever Boy

Extraordinary Jewish Converts Arrested and Sent to Auschwitz - Tancred, The Eponymous Flower

Growing Faith Shapes Catholic School...READ MORE

Yesterday, Cardinal Francis George spoke to Register correspondent Matthew A. Rarey about his new book, God in Action: How Faith in God Can Address the Challenges of the World. Today, we continue that conversation, which took place in his residence May 5.

Your Eminence, in your book, you note that the law in the past 100 years has radically shifted from a Burkean, common-law tradition to that of law by judicial fiat. For quite some time the American people have been given laws that don’t arise from “we the people” — laws issuing from culture and actual human experience — but from judges and legislators who have personal ideological agendas which tend to be anti-Christian. Speaking of...READ MORE

Saint Bakhita - Sister Lisa Marie Doty F.D.C.C., Nunspeak

I Am Always Worrying that God is Not Happy With Me… - Trent Beattie, Catholic Spiritual Direction

Navigating the Scylla & Charybdis of Biblical Interpretation - Eric Sammons, The Divine Life

Nihil Sub Sole Novum . . . Unless, of Course, It’s New to Me - Will, Catholic Phoenix

Ronald Knox and the Eucharist - Father Milton Walsh, Ignatius Insight

Is America a “No-Vacation Nation?”, God’s Command that We Rest - Monsignor Charles Pope, Archdiocese of Washington

War and Moral Sanity: Nuclear Attacks - William Doino Jr., Public Discourse

Shaw: A guide to ‘Good Enough’ Parenting - Russell Shaw, Our Sunday Visitor

Theologian...READ MORE

The implementation of the new civil-union law in Illinois is leading to a showdown between Catholic Charities as a provider of adoption services for children and a state law that places the private interest of adults over the human rights of children. Catholic Charities will actually be put in jeopardy of lawsuits and losing public funds to serve the poor if they refuse to deprive children they serve of married mothers and fathers. How crazy is that?

Catholic Charities sought an exemption from the law for religious organizations as a matter of conscience, but the bill is bottled up in committee and not likely to pass before June 1, when the civil-union law takes effect. As the clock ticks...READ MORE

Have you ever thought of becoming a saint, only to find physical or mental suffering get in your way? 

“If only this backache were gone, I could volunteer more, but I’m useless now.” 

This is not how the saints think.

The saints, as bestselling author Joan Carroll Cruz shows us in Saints for the Sick: Heavenly Help for Those Who Suffer, embrace sufferings in order to become more Christ-like. After all, Jesus did not come to earth to engage in pleasant community-building activities, but to suffer and die for us.

Our salvation is worked out in suffering, first and foremost in that of Jesus Christ, and secondarily in our own. In 1 Peter 4:13 we are told: “If you partake of the...READ MORE

There was an added joy in the Diocese of Birmingham, Ala., during Lent and the Easter Octave as the members of the formerly schismatic Christ the King Monastery in Cullman were reconciled with the Catholic Church.

After years of discussion between Birmingham’s bishops and the monastery, on May 1 Bishop Robert Baker received the two remaining monks’ vows as Benedictine hermits.

The road hasn’t been without its difficulties.

Christ the King Abbey was founded around 1984 by Benedictine Father Leonard Giardina, formerly a member of the St. Bernard Monastery in Cullman. In the 1980s he had contact with the Society of Saint Pius X but ended the association in late 1989, then explored other...READ MORE

A Mouse That Roars: The Incredible Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska - Father Simon Henry, Offerimus Tibi Domine

The Trinity: Three Persons in One Nature - Frank Sheed, Ignatius Insight

. . .Frank Sheed: The Argument from Contingency. . .

Franciscan Art and Spirituality - John Whitehead, Once I Was A Clever Boy

God in the Midst of the Storm: The Mystery of God’s Providence - Monsignor Charles Pope, Archdiocese of Washington

Six Reasons to Keep Meatless Fridays - Taylor Marshall, Canterbury Tales

. . .Francis X. Rocca of The Wall Street Journal:  The Return of Meatless Friday. . .

As the Family Goes, So Goes the Economy - Carolyn Moynihan, MercatorNet

How Necessary is...READ MORE

Cardinal Francis George recently celebrated his 14th anniversary as archbishop of Chicago. Almost simultaneously, he published his third book, God in Action: How Faith in God Can Address the Challenges of the World.

The 74-year-old cardinal, a native of the Windy City, was formerly archbishop of Portland, Ore., and bishop of Yakima, Wash. He is a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2007 until 2010.

Register correspondent Matthew A. Rarey spoke to the leader of Chicago’s 2.3 million Catholics at the cardinal’s residence May 5.

Why this book? Why now?

In a certain sense, it’s a follow-up on the book I...READ MORE