In this issue: Cardinal George: ‘This Easter, encourage someone who normally does not go to Mass on Sunday to go to the Easter Mass and enter again into the habit of the Sunday Eucharistic celebration.’ Tom Sheridan: Journey to faith: “Journey” is one of those words used so frequently about things religious that it’s very nearly a cliche. And why not? “Journey” implies movement, change of perspective, seeing something new. Read Observations.

God, Europe and the pope
Debating religion’s role in the EU constitution
Despite Pope John Paul II’s call for a new European Union constitution to recognize the continent’s 2,000-year-old Christian heritage, the union would do best by following the American policy of separation of church and state, said John B. Richardson, the EU ambassador to the United Nations.

Chicago-area Catholics pray for U.S., Iraqi victims
When St. Benedict parishioner Douglass W. Cassel approached the ambo, he read the names, ages and home towns of the first 40 U.S. soldiers killed in the war in Iraq, speaking of the tragedy of so many young people—some still in their teens—who would never come home, and praying for their souls and for their families.

Honoring religious jubilarians
For decades, thousands of men and women from scores of religious orders were the backbone of the church’s untiring efforts in education, health care and other vital ministries.

Happy 40th, Cardinal George
Cardinal George, a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, marks his 40th jubilee as a priest this year.

When Jackie Pokorny took on the job of director of religious education at St. Stephen Protomartyr Parish in Des Plaines in 1987, the archdiocese was just beginning to teach parish leaders how to implement the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.