Pope Leo's Ideal Was Not State Control; Go Ahead and Chant, It's Ascension and Much More!

The Best in Catholic Blogging

Pope Leo’s Ideal Was Not State Control by Anthony Esolen of Crisis - Big Pulpit

Go Ahead and Chant, It’s Ascension! – Adam Wood, The Chant Café

A Case Against Abstinence - Stephanie Calis, Ignitum Today

Popes’ Great Address to International Leaders of Women Religious – Fr. Z's Blog

My Encounter with God - Marcus Allen Steele, Catholic Stand

Do Catholics Represent Evangelicals in U. S.’s Legal Elite? – Mark Movsesian, First Things/First Thoughts

Gendercide Must Be Protected as Matter of Women’s Rights – DarwinCatholic, The American Catholic

Why It’s Harder to Become a Catholic Than a Protestant – Francis Phillips, Catholic Herald

The “God-of-the-Gaps” – Trent Horn, Catholic Answers

Speaking Out Against Slave Labor of Sweatshop System – Joe Heschmeyer, Shameless Popery

Same-Sex “Marriage”: Why We Don’t Fight – John Zmirak, Aleteia

The Russian Orthodox Church. . . in Florence – Shawn Tribe, New Liturgical Movement

For the latest on the Best Punditry and Analysis in the Catholic Blogosphere click on Big Pulpit.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis