Morning Catholic must-reads: 19/04/12

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has ordered sweeping reform of the US Leadership Conference of Women Religious, saying that “the current doctrinal and pastoral situation of the LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern” (full text).

An excommunicated Chinese bishop has attended an episcopal ordination ceremony in a move likely to strain relations with the Holy See.

John Boehner, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has rejected the US bishops’ criticism of the Republican Party’s deficit-cutting federal budget plan.

Archaeologists have discovered the skeleton of a 12th-century Cistercian abbot holding a silver and gilt crozier at Furness Abbey in northern England.

The Nineteen Sixty-four statistics blog considers whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will win the Catholic vote in November’s presidential election.

Mark Oppenheimer applauds Ross Douthat’s “responsible and fair” new book criticising American Christianity.

Dylan Parry furrows his brow after watching a new BBC documentary about women and religion.

Thomas McDonald marvels at a Lego rosary.

And Fr Ray Blake finds that he can’t give away the new Faith Cards produced by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.