“In the Eucharist, the mysteries of Christ’s life are all found, so to speak, concentrated in the memorial of his sacrifice and in his real presence,” Pope Leo said. “The rosary marks the rhythm of our life, continually bringing it back to Jesus and the Eucharist.”

This is the reality of a successful abortion: It always ends at least one life. And when we know that, perhaps we can also see that abortion demands a response. This is why thousands of pregnancy centers nationwide provide free services to pregnant and parenting women in need.

I wouldn’t want to hold our children back. Or maybe I would, just a little bit, to keep them close a little longer.

The short answer is that while the Latin (a.k.a. “Roman”) Catholic Church normally envisions a bishop as being the minister of confirmation, there are some scenarios where a simple priest is able to celebrate this sacrament.

In a long, fruitful career as leader of the American hierarchy, Cardinal Gibbons combined diplomacy, patriotism and a canny understanding of human nature in a manner that made him the most effective advocate before or since of the Americanization of American Catholicism. To him more than anyone, the Catholic Church owes both the advantages and the unintended consequences of assimilation into American secular culture.

Forever ago—or maybe it was just the other day—I packed a lunchbox for my 4-year-old to take to school.

“I love thinking of how God was watching, guiding us toward one another, always knowing how it would come together. He must have enjoyed seeing how we connected over a much-loved painting of a little girl and a dog.”

Jess Echeverry knows how it feels to face pregnancy and motherhood alone. She experienced trauma, homelessness and three unexpected pregnancies before age 22.

Dorothy Day was co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement and longtime editor of the penny-a-copy newspaper of the same name. From the mid-1930s to the early 1980s, she preached radical Christianity and no less radical social activism to a sometimes appreciative, sometimes puzzled, sometimes angry audience of American Catholics.

Before becoming a mother, I had no idea how important my relationships with other mothers would be.