Emma’s Plea

Today’s front page is a little different from what you are accustomed to in the Register. We specialize in news, and we don’t often feature a 7-year-old smiling girl on the front page.

But this story was so special — and the picture so beautiful — we felt we had to feature it.

Emma Watson’s 16-year-old birth mother planned to abort her, but at the last minute put her up for adoption. Adoptive parents for a baby with a severe heart defect were hard to find, but John and Pattie Watson were willing to help.

Emma is a little girl with enormous faith. A charity is helping fulfill her long-held wish to see Pope Benedict XVI.

The story is also an example of how our website, NCRegister.com, and our print edition complete each other. Readers of the website got to know part of the story — subscribers get the whole thing, including the new news: Watson has written to President Obama to plead with him to oppose abortion so that more girls like her can live. Enjoy it! God bless.

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