The Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church has become the best-selling Catholic book in the world.

The catechism has sold 1.7 million copies. It takes the content  of the Catholic Church  and makes it more accessible to young people.

“1.7 million copies sold worldwide – but that’s just the beginning,” said Father Joseph Fessio, founder and editor of Ignatius Press.

Some of the things the catechism explain are Catholic doctrine, sacraments, morality and prayer.

“It’s been challenging at times to keep YOUCAT in stock,” said Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius, the publisher of the catechism in the U.S .

“YOUCAT is quickly becoming the go-to book for young people to deepen their faith. Pastors, school teachers, and catechists are using it in their religious education classes and Confirmation programs. Parents, grandparents, and godparents are buying it as a gift for young people. YOUCAT is an outstanding gift to the church.”

And work is continuing to expand the reach and impact of this landmark book.

“Young people are evangelizing their peers as well as deepening their own faith.”

“A special institute in Germany, staffed by young Catholics, is organizing international study groups and preparing new YOUCAT-centered activities and publications,” Father Fessio said.

“Like its big brother, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, YOUCAT isn’t a one-time publication. It’s a point of reference for young people around the world and a cornerstone of the New Evangelization.”

(RNS) Bruce Boling will celebrate Easter Sunday this weekend among Southern Baptists, just as he did when he prayed at a tiny Kentucky church where his family filled half the pews.

After decades away from faith, “I slowly began to see what I was missing was the relationship with God that I could find in my church,” said Boling, 45, who has settled in with a little Baptist congregation in Hendersonville, Tenn.

Lydia Scrafano’s heart will again thrill to hear Catholic hymns sounding on a great pipe organ, just as she did as a child in Detroit.

“I missed it all. I missed taking Communion with a priest. I missed the stained glass. I missed the Virgin Mary,” says Scrafano, 55, who has reconnected with her faith through a Catholic church in Williamsburg, Va.

Like many Christians and Jews, Boling and Scrafano drifted — or marched — away from the religion of their childhood. Then, unlike most, they came back.

And they came back to stay, not just to parachute in for the Easter service this Sunday or a Passover seder on Friday night.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, more than half of Americans say they’ve switched religions at least once, but just 9 percent of U.S. adults say they’ve returned to the pews, practices and prayers that shaped them.

They’re not converts; they’re reverts. And religious denominations are stepping up efforts to reclaim, re-energize — and sometimes re-educate — these fallen-away faithful.

Catholic churches are adding adult programs to focus on returnees who often fear their actions or choices will keep them from the sacraments, the essential rites of Catholicism. Evangelical churches steer reverts to Bible study groups to help them establish stronger religious roots.

Rabbis reach out to young adults through a program called “Next Dor” (dor is Hebrew for generation). It’s promoted by Synagogue 3000, a consortium of leaders from Reform and Conservative movements, the two largest branches of Judaism in the U.S.

Several Catholic dioceses have reported post-Christmas or post-Easter attendance bumps after major advertising efforts, such as a “Catholics Come Home” media campaign launched in Phoenix in 2008.

The Archdiocese of Washington pushed to increase confessions during Lent (the 40 days preceding Easter) by opening church and chapel doors on Wednesday evenings. Their advertising slogan: “The Light is ON for You.” Within five years, the campaign spread across the country as more bishops adapted the idea for their dioceses.

But are they staying?

It’s not clear if these coaxed-back Catholics stick around, said Mark Gray, a political scientist with Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which collects and studies statistics related to the Catholic Church.

Gray said some must be back for the long haul because the Catholic share of the U.S. population has held steady at about 25 percent for several years.

“There is not enough immigration to keep it at that if our ‘leavers’ estimates are correct. Some must be ‘coming home.’ The match just does not work otherwise,” Gray said.

At St. Bede’s, a Catholic megachurch of 3,700 families in Williamsburg, Va., Deacon Dominic Cerrato leads a seven-week “Welcome Home” class designed to answer the questions and calm the concerns that kept lapsed believers from church. More than that, the course seeks to draw them into parish life, not just “punching your ticket at Mass,” as he put it.

St. Bede’s was just awarded a grant from Our Sunday Visitor Institute, a Huntington, Ind.-based foundation that supports Catholic education and evangelizing. The church will use the money to produce a multimedia DVD package on its program, so other parishes around the country can emulate it.

The class stresses the joy of following Catholic doctrine. Some of those teachings — on morality, marriage, sexuality and other thorny topics — may have been confusing or difficult for adults who last studied Catholicism when they were children.

“We take a very personal, non-judgmental approach, without ever undercutting church teachings,” Cerrato said. “We put things in context of real life.”

About 250 people have participated in the classes, about 95 percent of which have gone to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as confession is now called. Often — as Scrafano can attest — they emerge with tears of joy and relief.

Her mother led her out of Catholicism to an evangelical Bible church years ago, Scrafano said. She married a deacon in a non-denominational Christian congregation. “But it never felt right. It never felt the same,” said Scrafano, now divorced. Ten years later, while driving around for her job selling produce to area restaurants, Scrafano spotted a “Welcome Home” banner promoting the class at St. Bede’s.

“Three weeks into the class, my mom started coming with me. Now she’s back to the Catholic Church,” said Scrafano, who is sure she’s home to stay.

Synagogue 3000 is looking for similar results. Its research on synagogue life found 70 percent of young Jews are either not affiliated or not engaged with their religion. “And they’re not coming back in significant numbers when they have children,” said CEO Rabbi Aaron Spiegel.

Rabbi Esther Lederman of Temple Micah in Washington finds 20- and 30-something Jews who are curious about exploring meaning in Jewish terms and engaging more in religious practice.

Through enhanced programs and lower initial membership fees in 2009, Temple Micah has seen young adult membership jump from three to 30 in a year. Free services for the autumn High Holy Days— when members typically donate their annual support to the synagogue — prompted a surge of 350 people attending the evening worship for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in 2010 and 2011.

One is Jocelyn Roberts. Roberts’ mother is the daughter of a rabbi, and her father is an atheist ex-Catholic. As a child, Roberts never attended synagogue or church. Yet Roberts, 36, fondly recalled the family lighting Hanukkah candles and singing together.

After doing graduate work in Asian studies — learning about Hinduism, Shintoism and many kinds of Buddhism — “I came home and found myself more curious about Judaism. I felt like I was Jewish, but I didn’t know what being Jewish meant,” she said.

She found Next Dor while living in Seattle and began attending synagogue there. After moving to the nation’s capital for a job as a consultant, Roberts joined Temple Micah’s class for adults who want a Bat or Bar Mitzvah, a life cycle event traditionally marked by a 13-year-old girl or boy. Her Passover Seder Friday night will be at the home of her Jewish boyfriend’s parents.

Bruce Boling was driven away from his family’s small-town Southern Baptist church by his mother’s insistence that he go every Sunday. “Once I grew up and didn’t have to go anymore, I just quit,” he said.

Years of moving between cities and careers didn’t give him any incentive to return, said Boling, a project manager for a contracting company.

His wife, Elizabeth, is Catholic, and though a priest married them, he never converted. The birth of their two children prompted him to rethink his choices.

“I thought if I went back, it would make me a better father,” Boling said. “What I found was it made me a better me.” Now, Bruce and Elizabeth worship on Sunday mornings at Grace Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn. On Sunday nights, they delve into Bible study in a small church group.

His Bible once belonged to his late grandfather. After he’d returned to church and stuck with it for six months, he says, “my mother mailed it to me for my Christmas present.”

DSB/KRE END GROSSMAN

Pope Benedict has issued a rare condemnation of priests who have questioned church teachings on celibacy and ordaining women during a homily in St. Peter’s Basilica on Holy Thursday, when priests recall the promises made when they were ordained.

The pope said a group of priests in a European country recently published an appeal that gave examples of how to be disobedient.

He said the priests called for women to be allowed to join the clergy, but noted that his predecessor, Pope John Paul, said the Catholic church has received no authority from God to ordain women.

His comments were in response to a call to disobedience launched by a group of Austrian priests.

Their appeal comes amid calls for reform in the Catholic church on issues including the ordination of women priests, abolishing celibacy for clergy, divorce and support for victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

(RNS) The nation’s Catholic bishops say the Obama administration’s proposed revisions to a mandate that requires insurers to provide birth control coverage are still unacceptable and even “radically flawed” — signaling a long drawn-out election-year fight between the White House and the Catholic hierarchy.

The bishops also say that they will continue to try to overturn the contraception regulations in Congress and the courts even as the bishops carry on negotiations with the White House.

The critical judgments on the government proposals, which were published by the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services on March 16, are contained in an internal, two-page March 29 memo from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The memo’s contents were first reported Tuesday by Catholic News Service.

The HHS proposals, which invited feedback during a 90-day review period, are an effort to expand the number of faith-based groups that can be exempt from the controversial contraception mandate. Hoping to reach a compromise with the bishops, HHS is proposing that third-party companies administer coverage for self-insured faith-based groups.

The proposals would also allow religious groups — dioceses, denominations and others — to decide which affiliated institutions are “religious” and therefore exempt from the new requirement that employers offer free contraception coverage as part of employee insurance plans.

The March 29 memo from the bishops conference says the mandate’s definition of what constitutes an exempt religious organization is still too narrow and remains “radically flawed” and “unconstitutional.”

The memo also asserts that even though the Obama plan would have insurers or third-parties pay for the birth control coverage – thereby avoiding any involvement by the faith-based employer – the mandate “still forces us to act against our conscience and our teaching.”

But the memo also notes that the 32-page HHS proposal is “both tentative and complex,” and will require further study by the bishops and their staff.

“While USCCB representatives will continue to meet with representatives of the Administration to discuss these new proposals,” the memo concludes, “it must also be very clear that the church, together with other religious groups and faith-based entities, will simultaneously continue to seek relief from the legislature and redress in the courts.”

It appears that legislative action by the bishops’ Republican allies in Congress have stalled. The bishops have some hope that if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Obama’s health care reform law – which provides the legal underpinning for the birth control mandate – then the entire issue will be moot.

NASHVILLE (RNS) One of the largest student religious groups at Vanderbilt University is leaving campus in a dispute over the school’s non-discrimination policy that bars student groups from requiring their leaders to hold specific beliefs.

Leaders of Vanderbilt Catholic, which has 500 members, says the rule make no sense. P.J. Jedlovec, the group’s president, says the group’s meetings are open to all students, but only people who share the group’s beliefs can be leaders.

“If we were open to having non-Catholics lead the organization, we wouldn’t be Catholic anymore,” Jedlovec said.

Vanderbilt Provost Richard McCarty said religious groups are free to choose their leaders but must allow any student to be a member and to run for office, no matter their beliefs. Vanderbilt has ties to the United Methodist Church.

Similar disputes have taken place in California, New York and North Carolina. The University of Buffalo suspended the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in December after a dispute over a gay student member.

The University of North Carolina-Greensboro refused to recognize a Christian group called University of Buffalo suspended the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship because it discriminated on the basis of faith for leaders. The school relented after being sued.

Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund who represented Make Up Your Own Mind, expects conflicts to grow.

“The non-discrimination policies are meant to protect religious groups, but instead, they are being used to discriminate against religious groups,” he said.

The Supreme Court has upheld campus non-discrimination rules, most recently in a 2010 decision known as Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.

That dispute was at Hastings College of Law, part of the University of California. The school has an “all comers” policy, which bans student groups from restricting membership in any way. The campus chapter of the Christian Legal Society sued to challenge the rule and lost.

Vanderbilt has cited the case in defending its non-discrimination policy.

Vanderbilt Catholic isn’t the only religious group at odds with school officials. Four others are on provisional status for violating the policy; the groups must decide in a few weeks whether to drop their faith-based requirements or leave campus.

(Bob Smietana reports for USA Today and The Tennessean in Nashville. Chas Sisk of The Tennessean contributed to this report.)

NEWARK, N.J. (RNS) For nearly a century, the stained glass portrait of St. Patrick looked down on parishioners — as if from the heavens — from the massive nave of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

But the Irish saint, as well as stained-glass depictions of St. Anna, St. Cecelia, Moses and Isaiah, were recently brought down to earth and will now watch over visitors at a new home 30 miles away, the Maryrest Chapel Mausoleum in Mahwah.

The five figures, as well as two circular windows depicting St. Catherine and St. Bridget, have been painstakingly restored and retrofitted for the mausoleum by stained-glass artists Ray Clagnan and Bronna Butler.

“They are spectacular,” Butler said. “The church walls went a bazillion feet up, and you don’t realize how big they are. I think they are more breathtaking in the mausoleum. They are right at your feet and an inch from your nose.”

Five of the seven Sacred Heart windows — removed last year after the church was shuttered by the Archdiocese of Newark — have already been installed at the mausoleum. They will be joined by newly commissioned works from Butler that she and Clagnan are building in Clagnan’s studio in Wall Township, N.J.

It’s an interesting pairing of old and new, and requires Butler and Clagnan to adapt the rich hues and European style of the antique windows into their new glass art.

Archbishop John Myers wanted to preserve the art of Sacred Heart — the largest parish church in the country when it opened in 1929 — by giving it a second life in the mausoleum, which was designed to reflect the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, constructed at the same time as Sacred Heart parish.

“He’s pleased that not only are we saving it, but we are restoring it,” said Andrew Schafer, executive director of Catholic cemeteries for the archdiocese who has led the effort to preserve, restore and reuse about $750,000 worth of artwork from Sacred Heart.

The archdiocese did not release the total cost of the project, but Schafer said restoring and installing the old windows was far less costly than creating all new stained glass.

Schafer brought Clagnan and Butler together for the project, sensing their artistic sensibilities would blend well.

“It’s two new energies coming together,” he said of the pair, who have been working on Maryrest for more than a year. “Together the mystery of the artwork is coming out. We think it’s going to be exceptional.”

Most of the stained glass — including 677 square feet of antique windows and 840 square feet of new commissions — will be finished when the mausoleum opens at the end of April. All of it will be completed by Oct. 13, when Myers presides over the dedication of the chapel.

Butler described the project as a puzzle, as different pieces of old glass and new had to be fit together.

For example, the windows at Maryrest are smaller than those at Sacred Heart, requiring some pieces to be removed. The arches are shaped differently, too, so the artists had to create angular sections that would blend with the old.

Fitting the old windows into new frames is another challenge. After removing the windows from Newark, Clagnan took many of the pieces apart, cleaned the glass and redid the weatherproofing. Some of them had to be cut to fit into the frames of the Maryrest windows. Some of the lead work had to be repaired and some made more stable.

Each task is done by hand in Clagnan’s two-room studio that’s filled with big working tables, light boxes and a glazing bed, a table where the pieces of glass are assembled with the strips of lead.

The pair is featuring many of what Butler calls “15th century special effects” in the new commission, a massive triptych that includes three scenes from Jesus’ life. Silver nitrate will be used on portions of the sky to add light and drama. And three layers of glass — brown for the fish, blue for the water and clear water glass that has a ripple effect — will add life to the pond, where the fish will look like it’s swimming.

Butler’s painting style emulates the early 20th-century style of the Sacred Heart windows, whose exact origins are a mystery. Archdiocese officials have searched the archives for the window’s makers, but found no records. When Clagnan removed the windows, he looked for the “maker’s mark,” a signature or symbol that sometimes was added by the artisans. But none was found.

Though the names are gone, the artists’ talent is obvious, says Butler, who gushes about the scale of the windows, their symbolism, their astonishing colors. Viewed up close, she said, the effect is mystical.

“When the light comes through, it’s just amazing,” she said. “It’s going to look like a jewel box.”

(Peggy McGlone writes for the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

Cuba’s vice president says there will be no political reform in Cuba, despite calls by Pope Benedict XVI for more freedom and openness in the communist-ruled country.

Marino Murillo made his remarks as the pope arrived Tuesday in the capital, Havana, for a meeting with President Raul Castro and possibly with Fidel Castro, the long-time Cuban leader and elder brother of Raul.

“In Cuba, there will be no political reforms.  In Cuba we are talking about the actualization of the Cuban economic model that will make our socialism viable.  This has to do with the well-being of our people,” said Murillo.

On Monday, the pontiff urged thousands of people at a Mass in the city of Santiago to help build a “renewed and open society.”   

Pope Benedict traveled to Havana after paying homage Tuesday to the patron saint of Cuba, the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre.

The pope visited the shrine holding the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre to mark the 400th anniversary of its discovery by fishermen.  The doll-sized wooden statue is revered in Cuba and within the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict told an audience he has prayed for the needs of those who suffer and who are deprived of freedom, as well as those who are separated from their loved ones or are undergoing times of difficulty.

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It is not clear whether the pope will also meet in Havana with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is in Cuba undergoing another round of radiation treatment for cancer.

The pontiff is scheduled to preside over an outdoor Mass Wednesday in Havana’s Revolution Plaza.

The pope is on a three-day visit to Cuba, where his aim is to renew the faith in what was once an atheist state.

Pope Benedict is not expected to meet with Cuban dissidents, including the Ladies in White, a group of wives and mothers of the 75 dissidents who were jailed in a 2003 crackdown on government opponents.

The pope’s visit comes 14 years after his predecessor, John Paul II, made the first papal visit to the communist-run island.  The Roman Catholic Church has since grown to become the most influential institution next to the government.  Cuba was officially an atheist state from 1959 until a constitutional change in 1992 abolished atheism as the state creed and called for separation of church and state.  At that time, the Communist Party also lifted its ban on members with religious beliefs.

Cuba is the last stop on the pontiff’s five-day Latin American trip that began last week in Mexico.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) As part of a survey to understand why they have stopped attending Mass, a few hundred Catholics were asked what issues they would raise if they could speak to the bishop for five minutes.

The bishop would have gotten an earful.

Their reasons ranged from the personal (“the pastor who crowned himself king and looks down on all”) to the political (“eliminate the extreme conservative haranguing”) to the doctrinal (“don’t spend so much time on issues like homosexuality and birth control”).

In addition, they said, they didn’t like the church’s handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal and were upset that divorced and remarried Catholics are unwelcome at Mass.

The findings, based on responses to a survey in the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., are included in a report presented March 22 at the “Lapsed Catholics” conference at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Conducted by Villanova University’s Center for the Study of Church Management, the survey, called “Empty Pews,” asked Catholics in the Trenton Diocese a series of questions about church doctrine and parish life to better understand why they are staying home.

While the study was restricted to one diocese, chances are the responses could come from just about anywhere in the U.S., where a 2007 report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found one-third of Americans were raised Catholic but one-third of those had left the church.

Or, as Villanova’s Charles Zech put it, “These are issues that affect the whole church.”

The responses can be divided into two categories, said Zech, who co-authored the study and is director of the Villanova center. In one category are “the things that can’t change but that we can do a better job explaining.” The other category, he said “are some things that aren’t difficult to fix.”

Zech and the Rev. William Byron, professor of business and society at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, conducted the survey of 298 parishioners who have stopped attending Mass.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents were female, and the median age was 53, two facts that Zech finds troubling. “That’s a critical demographic. If we’re losing the 53-year-old women, we risk losing their children and their grandchildren,” he said.

About a quarter of the respondents said they still consider themselves Catholic despite not attending Mass. About half offered negative comments about their parish priests, whom they described as “arrogant,” “distant” and “insensitive.”

“One respondent said, ‘Ask a question and you get a rule, you don’t get a “let’s sit down and talk about it” response,’” Zech said. “They feel no one is willing to explain things to them.”

Respondents also said they were troubled by the church’s views of gays, same-sex marriage, women priests and the handling of the sex abuse crisis.

Criticism of the sex scandal was predictable, Zech said. “That doesn’t surprise anybody. They did not manage that well, and they are still not managing it well,” Zech said. “It hasn’t gone away.”

The respondents also called for better homilies, better music and more accountability of the church staff.

Trenton Bishop David O’Connell, a former president of Catholic University, declined to be interviewed about the survey’s results, saying through a spokeswoman that he “needed to spend time with the findings and develop his own analysis of them.”

Though the project was undertaken to learn more about why church attendance continues to decline in the Trenton Diocese, it’s findings have broader implications, Zech said. “These are issues that affect the whole church,” he said.

Although it was an anonymous survey, about one in eight respondents said they welcomed a call from a church official and provided their names and contact information for that purpose. Many more indicated they were pleased to be asked for their input.

“The fact that they took the time to respond gives us a chance,” Zech said. “If some things change, or we do a better job of representing the church’s position, we might woo some of them back.”

(Peggy McGlone writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Cuba Monday.  His first stop will be near the eastern city of Santiago to mark the 400th anniversary of a religious icon there.  The Virgin of Charity of El Cobre is venerated by many Cubans, regardless of their faith.  But it is central to the Roman Catholic Church’s strategy for a country where religious restrictions recently have been easing.

A constant stream of pilgrims dressed in bright yellow bring sunflowers and other offerings in the color associated with the Our Lady of Charity.  Four hundred years ago, the statue was found at sea.  And legend has it that her rescue calmed the stormy waters.

The cathedral that houses the icon was built just outside Santiago in the 1920s.  A collection of world championship sports medals and baseball jerseys attests to the credit she gets for spurring her devotees on to great achievements.  Even Ernest Hemingway offered her his 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

After lighting a few yellow candles, Jeanette Galdeano says the Virgin of Charity helps her have faith.  “I pray for peace, for my family, my children and all Cubans.  And I’m thinking about the hope that every day things will get better and we can move forward,” she says.

Few Cubans attend church regularly.  Many more blend Catholic saint veneration with voodoo and other traditions that came to Cuba from Africa hundreds of years ago.

The Rev. Dionisio García Ibáñez is the archbishop of Santiago.  He says the pope is aware that the 400-year-old national patron is a symbol for non-Catholics as well.  “The pope chose to come at this time to celebrate the jubilee year.  And there’s not even the slightest doubt that he understands the spiritual reality of our people,” the archbishop says.

The Vatican hopes that the pope’s visit to the shrine will help revive faith in Cuba.  A glimpse of the future of Catholicism can be seen at the Sagrada Familia Church in Santiago.  Every Saturday, dozens of children receive catechism from a small group of parents and former students.

University student Virgen Angelica Ladron de Guevarra is one of the teachers.  She says Catholic faith is growing in Cuba.  “And with this pope’s visit, I think that both the government and nonbelievers are beginning to show a little more trust in Catholics and in the Church,” she says.

The Roman Catholic Church is the only institution with authority that is not part of the communist system here.  Many Cubans are grateful for its efforts to advance economic liberalization.

Rev. Luis del Castillo came to help the Cuban church after retiring from his bishop’s duties in his native Uruguay.  He says secularism does not have deep roots in Cuba, as it does in some countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America that emerged from communist or authoritarian rule.

“We’re stepping on a very fertile ground, because the people here are very religious, more than in my own country in Uruguay,” Castillo says.  “And I think this good turf will help, that the seeds of the Gospel will give good fruit in the future.”

As they head out into the almost blinding light of Santiago, the children pass a poster welcoming Pope Benedict.  He, too, apparently is hoping that these children will help revive Catholicism in a country that was once an atheist state.