Morning Catholic must-reads: 04/11/11

Cardinal Seán Brady has expressed “profound disappointment” at the Irish government’s decision to close its embassy to the Holy See (full text).

Pope Benedict celebrated Mass in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday in memory of the cardinals and bishops who have died in 2011 (video).

The Pope has appointed a Dominican priest who represented the Holy See in talks with the Society of St Pius X to lead the diocese that includes the SSPX headquarters in Écône.

Cardinal Bernard Law, the former Archbishop of Boston, celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday and will no longer be able to vote in a papal conclave.

Terry Mattingly argues that the “US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has made a sea change in how it works on religious freedom issues”.

Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany offers a frank assessment of the failings of the American Church.

Alcuin Reid introduces a fascinating exchange between the novelist Evelyn Waugh and Cardinal John Carmel Heenan about post-Vatican II liturgical reforms.

And a priest on the plane that made an emergency landing in Poland has revealed that he held a relic of Blessed Pope John Paul II as he prayed that no would die.