Morning Catholic must-reads: 07/06/11

An Episcopal parish in Blandensburg, Maryland, has become the first parish to announce that it will join the Personal Ordinariate in the United States (full parish statement).

A guerilla group in the Central African Republic has released a Catholic bishop it kidnapped on June 2.

The Vatican has announced that the first phase of Apostolic Visitation to Ireland is over.

The Pope has praised the 17th-century Spanish bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, who was beatified on Sunday.

Richard Dawkins has called for the Irish constitution to be re-written to “remove all influence of the Roman Catholic Church“.

Haaretz charts the remarkable rise of Jewish convert to Catholicism Fr David Maria Jaeger.

The Age profiles a bishop who first arrived in Australia as an asylum seeker.

Fr John Zuhlsdorf welcomes a blunt speech by Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Following the death of Jack Kevorkian, Ross Douthat considers what abortion and assisted suicide have in common.

Elizabeth Scalia argues that Maureen Dowd is curiously selective in her criticism of Church leaders.

Dom Mark Daniel Kirby asks if it’s time for a new Motu Proprio on Church music.

And Michael Miller suggests that the new youth catechism, Youcat, “will function as a GPS” for young people.