Big Summer News

It doesn’t look like the news will slow down this summer. Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been nominated as a new Supreme Court justice. Miguel Díaz of St. John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict in Collegeville, Minn., has been nominated to be Vatican ambassador.

Of the two positions, the Supreme Court justice is by far the more important, and so receives the bulk of the coverage in this issue.

But the ambassadorship is significant, too. The most recent Holy See ambassador was Mary Ann Glendon. The questions swirling around L’Oss-ervatore Romano remind us that Rome and Washington do not always speak the same language. Look to the Register to follow important developments in both.

Testaments to Faith

As the Church prepares to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Father Matteo Ricci, the Register visits Beijing’s South Cathedral, built on the home of the Jesuit missionary.

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