Catholics are in a unique position to offer the common good a rich heritage of wisdom, experience and grace. If only Catholics were fully Catholic!

The Gloria that we now use at Mass was originally prayed outside of Mass. The Apostolic Constitutions, a manual for clergy coming from Syria, contains the Gloria as a morning prayer. As the sun was rising, Christians would voice their praise to God who sent his Son to dispel the darkness of sin.

Before Abraham Lincoln was president, only two national holidays were celebrated in the United States. They were Washington's Birthday and Independence Day. Then along came Sarah Josepha Hale.

One of the most beautiful prayers in the Mass is the Gloria. Monks chant it. Composers today, like Vivaldi and Bach in the past, set it to music. Christians echo its sentiments when they sing the popular Christmas carols Angels We Have Heard on High and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

Along Rome’s Via Appia are perhaps the best known and most visited graves of early Christians: the catacombs. Christians living in ancient Rome tunneled through soft tufa rock outside the city and carved out graves for their dead, since Roman law did not allow burial within the city limits.

Ever since 1999, Americans have witnessed a decline in median incomes. In fact, Americans are watching the gradual disappearance of the middle class. With the recent housing bubble, many working families had been able to purchase a home.

The country music sound of Kenny Rogers singing Always and Forever, like the soft, easy notes of Nat King Cole crooning When I Fall in Love, strikes a universal chord that resonates in the heart. True love is forever.

Last year, amidst the contentious debates surrounding Obamacare, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops spoke strongly in favor of a reform of our health care system. The bishops stressed that the measure of any health care reform should be twofold.

On September 21, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Large majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate supported the law. This federal law upholds the definition of marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman.

The news recently carried the story of an unusual lawsuit. George Washington University Law Professor John Banzhaf has announced his intention to sue Catholic University of America. The university is returning to a former policy of gender-segregated dorms. Professor Banzhaf claims this is discriminatory.

In the 1920’s, at the peak of his professional life, Clarence Darrow was the most famous trial lawyer in the United States. He championed the underdog and stridently spoke out against capital punishment. With one single exception, in more than a hundred murder cases, he was always able to win mercy for his client. Such was the power of his words before the court.

During the industrial revolution in America, Paterson attracted worldwide attention and fame. Here the first cotton duck cloth for sails and the first continuous sheet paper were manufactured. Here Samuel Colt produced his first firearms and John Holland, the first practical submarines.