The Rise of Religious Orders, 3 Very Different Roads that Led to Rome, Choose Your Pope and More!

The Best in Catholic Blogging

The Rise of Religious Orders by E. Neubauer - Big Pulpit

Three Very Different Roads that Led to Rome – Jim Graves, The Catholic World Report

Choose Your Pope! – D. McClarey, The American Catholic

Five Ways Catholics Can Make a Difference – Randy Hain, Integrated Catholic Life™

Are You Swatting at Flies? – P. D. Yoko, Catholic Stand

Abstinence from Meat and Family Gatherings After Death of Loved One – Jimmy Akin, Catholic Answers

Eavesdropping on the Sacra Conversazione – Emi Parker, Ignitum Today

Forgiveness and the Gospel of Life – Roland Millare, Truth and Charity Forum

Pope Benedict XVI Experienced Hatred on Twitter – Big Pulpit

And Still They Come to Be Catholic – Marc Cardaronella, Evangelizing Catechesis

St. Robert Southwell: Poet and Martyr – Dr. R. Jared Staudt, Crisis Magazine

Fromm Here to Eternity – Kevin O’Brien, Waiting for Godot to Leave

Signs and Sacraments – Kevin M. Tierney, Catholic Lane

Bishop Morlino: This isn’t Religion of our Time, It’s a Battleship – Ben Yanke, From the Ordinary to the Extraordinary

On the Requirement to Raise Children as Muslims – Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture/On the Culture

When Does Accommodating People Become A Sin? – David L. Gray, DavidLGray.info

Aggressive Incrementalism: Winning Strategy for Pro-Lifers – Pete Spiliakos MA, First Things/On the Square

The Boy Who Lived: Pro-Life; Pro-Choice; Pro-Conversion – Anthony Cavaliere, Sitz im Leben

We Call Priests ‘Fathers,’ No, Not Violating Mt. 23:9 – Answering Protestants

Garry Wills’ Sour Screed Against the Priesthood – Anne Hendershott, The CWR Blog

Euthanasia’s Euphemisms – Wesley J. Smith, First Things/On the Square

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