This issue of the Register is devoted partly to religious vocations, and what better model for vocations than Pope John Paul II, who was beatified last week in Rome? Newt Gingrich’s page-one analysis and Colleen Carroll Campbell’s op-ed column on page 7 reflect a man fully committed to his priesthood. On page 4, Father Edwin Barnes, a former Anglican bishop, tells us why he became Catholic.

At World Youth Day in Paris in 1997, John Paul addressed young people who later became religious: “The Church greatly esteems the consecrated life, of which Christ is the model. It is a great grace to have been chosen by the Lord. … You intend to give yourselves to the Lord with an undivided heart (see 1 Corinthians 7:34), like the apostles who left everything to stay with Christ and, like him, to be at the service of God and of the brethren. In this way you will help to manifest the mystery and the mission of the Church by the multiple charisms of spiritual and apostolic life given by the Holy Spirit, and you will make your own contribution to the renewal of society.”

Everyone at EWTN weathered the killer storms that hit Alabama as this issue went to press, but let us keep the South in our prayers. Watch for Register coverage in the next issue and online.