Author: Monica McConkey

Monica, mom of 5, is usually blogging about Catholic crafts and family traditions at Equipping Catholic Families. She is the author of A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families, Hand in Hand with Jesus (a Faith Journal through the Sacraments) and a series of paper Cathletics Craft Kits™ and Cathletics™ quizzing cards to help teach the Catholic Faith. The Catholic teaching tools and gifts are available through Arma Dei, the Catholic family publishing company founded with her husband Bill. Monica is also one of the founders of the Catholic Bloggers Network, a venue to link and promote Catholic blogs.

Monthly Round-Up for MAY is up and running!

Posted: by Monica McConkey
Add your posts to the Monthly Round-Up for May!
Join in..adding your posts and visiting the awesome Catholic posts in the different categories of Link-Ups!
May’s Catholic Bloggers BIG CLICKS awards will be posted at the end of the month!  
Will you be one of this month’s winners?

Catholic Bloggers BIG CLICK Report for April!

Posted: by Monica McConkey

These are the Big Clicks Catholic Bloggers  for the month of  April! 
Spread the word!!  Let your friends know about these popular posts on the Catholic Bloggers Network and help promote Catholic Bloggers!
The new Monthly Round-Up for the MAY will be up and running on May 1st!  Make sure that you add your posts and visit often!!
You can also always revisit our Archives!

isn’t that a cool button? 
Feel free to post it as a badge on your blog 
…especially if you are one of our first Big Clicks Catholic Bloggers below 
and have been awarded this prestigious award!



Announcing the Big Clicks Catholic Bloggers!!
In the category of…

Readings and Reflections, the Big Clicks Catholic Blogger is:
Tercets for the post: Thinking about Divine Mercy
Liturgical Calendar Crafts and Homeschooling, the Big Clicks Catholic Blogger is
Life at Le. Rheims for Mary’s Sedative: The Rosary 
Catechism and Apologetics, the Big Clicks Catholic Blogger is
The Breadbox Letters for the post: The Nourishment of Prayer 
Catholic Family Journal, the Big Clicks Catholic Blogger is
The Cloistered Heart for the post: A Seamless Gift 
Catholic Review, the Big Clicks Catholic Bloggers
tied for BIGGEST CLICKS are:
Through My “I”s for the review of The Temperament God gave your Kids
and
Dwell in Glory for the post: Not a Creature was Stirring…

NEW! Catholic Bloggers Big Clicks of the Monthly Round-Up announced!

Posted: by Monica McConkey

The Catholic Bloggers Big Clicks to be announced!

Within the next week, the blog posts linked to the Catholic Bloggers Monthly Round-Up, generating the highest number of “clicks” will be congratulated, at the close of the APRIL Catholic Bloggers Monthly Round-Up.

The Catholic Bloggers Big Clicks 
will be announced for each of the five Link-Up Categories:
Readings & Reflections
Liturgical Calendar Crafts & Homeschooling
Catechism & Apologetics
Catholic Family Journal
Catholic Product & Book Reviews  

It’s not too late to post your favorite April blog posts!  
Visit the other linked posts and recommend them to your friends!  
Help us generate lots of interest in the 
Catholic Bloggers Monthly Round-Up!

**Please visit the Catholic Product & Book Reviews blog posts**  they have received shockingly few clicks!!

Catholic Bloggers Network News Flash April 2012

Posted: by Monica McConkey
Blessings for Holy Week!

For those of you who did not receive a Catholic Bloggers Network News Flash email yesterday, please join our mailing list.  We will be sending infrequent emails updating you about Catholic Bloggers Events, Link-Ups and Features and reminding you about our Monthly Round-Up as it goes live each month. 

Subscribe to our Mailing List for Catholic Bloggers Network News Flash for current events, link-ups and features at Catholic Bloggers Network.

Speaking of which… the
Catholic Bloggers Monthly Round-Up is up and running for April! 
 Add your blog posts where they fit in the different categories. 
We have also added a NEW category for
Product and Book Reviews.
Welcome, Alexander, Kelly and Martianne,
our newest contributors at Catholic Bloggers Network! 

We still have openings!Email mmcconkey{at}rogers{dot}com with subject line: contributors…with your first choice of Catholic Bloggers Network category:

1. Scripture, Sunday Readings & Homilies
2. Catechism & Apologetics & Product Reviews
3. Catholic Family Journal
4. Homeschooling, Crafts & Traditions & Liturgical Calendar
You will receive an invitation via email.

Holy Week is almost here! Special Holy Week Link-Up!

Posted: by Monica McConkey
With Holy Week starting so soon, I just wanted to post a reminder about this special

Post your special Holy Week
reflections, activities and family traditions
…and check out what other Catholic bloggers are writing about!
Scroll down through the Holy Week Link-Up
and check out the Lent Link-Up on the same page…
over 100 ideas, activities and reflections for Lent!
Bookmark or pin the Lent Link-Up for next year!

It’s part of a wonderful initiative called Fiestas de Enlaces, a string of link-up parties for all the big Seasons and Feastdays of the Catholic Liturgical Calendar, hosted by many different Catholic blogs and organized by Familia Católica.  Check it out and join in!

HHS Mandate Sparks Nationwide Demonstrations

Posted: by Monica McConkey

Here’s a post from Tom Ciesielka, one of our own Catholic Bloggers!
President Obama’s HHS Mandate Sparks Nationwide
Demonstrations
Pro-Life and Religious Groups To Gather at Federal
Buildings March 23 in Defense of Religious Liberty
Contact: Tom Ciesielka, 312-422-1333, [email protected] 
Chicago, Illinois—The controversy over President Obama’s HHS
Mandate is now pouring out onto the streets. On March 23, concerned citizens in
over 50 cities—including Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and
San Francisco—will gather at federal buildings for a rally with the theme,
“Stand Up for Religious Freedom—Stop the HHS Mandate!”
Thousands of Americans of all faiths are expected to
participate in these rallies, organized by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and
the Pro-Life Action League, to oppose the new mandate from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services that requires all employers to provide free
contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs through their health
plans. Religious leaders and other public figures will speak out against the
HHS Mandate.
The HHS provided a “religious exemption” so narrow that it
would exclude Catholic hospitals, universities, and charities, forcing these
institutions to act in direct opposition to Catholic teaching through the
health care plans they provide.
“With the HHS Mandate, the Obama administration has presumed
upon itself the authority to decide what counts as a religious institution in
this country,” said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action
League. “This is an unprecedented attack on the free exercise of religious
faith protected by the First Amendment.”
“The Obama mandate is a complete affront to religious
liberty,” said Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.
“Persons of faith or no faith at all should be alarmed at Obama riding
rough-shod over the conscience of American citizens. We are calling on all
people of good will to rise up and vigorously oppose this ruling.”
Scheidler and Miller have formed the Stand Up for Religious
Freedom Coalition, comprised of dozens of local and national pro-life and
pro-family organizations, to fight the HHS Mandate through direct action. The
Coalition declares:

We protest the federal government’s definition of what
constitutes a religious institution through the narrowly constructed
“exemption” to the HHS Mandate, a definition which is both false and
beyond the federal government’s authority to make.

We protest the fact that religious institutions, even
after President Obama’s so-called “accommodation,” are being forced to
facilitate contraception, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs
through the health plans they are mandated to provide.

We protest the Mandate forcing all businesses—not just
religious institutions—to provide coverage of contraception,
sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs, if even doing so violates
their own moral convictions on these matters.

We protest the HHS Mandate because, in requiring all
health plans to provide free contraception, sterilization, and
abortion-inducing drugs as “preventative care,” it treats pregnancy and
childbirth as a disease.

Coalition members and more information about the Nationwide
Rally for Religious Freedom—including rally sites coast to coast—can be found
at www.StandUpForReligiousFreedom.com
Contact Monica M. Miller: 248-444-9096, [email protected]
Contact Eric J. Scheidler: 773-251-8792, [email protected]
About Citizens for a Pro-life Society
Citizens for a Pro-life Society is an activist organization,
founded on Catholic principles of morality and social justice, dedicated to
advocacy of the sanctity of human life, especially protection of the right to
life of unborn children. They organize public demonstrations, educational
programs, literature distribution, and conferences, and offer mothers in crisis
pregnancy material and spiritual aid. For more information, go to www.prolifesociety.com
About the Pro-Life Action League
The Pro-Life Action League was founded by Joe Scheidler in
1980 with the aim of saving babies from abortion through direct action. Not
content to await a political or judicial solution to abortion, the League seeks
to stop the killing of unborn children right now through all available peaceful
means, including public protest, sidewalk counseling, education, youth
outreach, and national leadership.

Happy March! Monthly Blog Round Ups are open!

Posted: by Monica McConkey

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to announce that the Monthly Round-Up has been opened for the month of March!
Link up your March blog posts in any of the FOUR different categories:  Readings & Reflections, Liturgical Calendar Crafts & Homeschooling, Catechism & Apologetics, Catholic Family Journal.

Grab a button and link to this page to show off our Catholic Bloggers posts!  Let’s see if we can get a record number of links for each category for the month of March!
Check out the Monthly Round-Up Archives for our previous Monthly Round-Ups.
Leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a new category.

Catholic Blog Day

Posted: by Monica McConkey


from Catholic Blog Day:

February 22 (Ash Wednesday)
will be the first Catholic Blog Day!

All Catholic bloggers are invited to write on a common theme for the day. By speaking with many voices on a common aspect of the faith, we can help evangelize the digital continent and demonstrate the powerful presence of Catholics online.
The theme for February 22 is: penance.  …You can write about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; a memorable experience in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation; or how accepting the call to repentance has made a difference in your life.

A running list of Catholic Blog Days posts will be available at Catholic Blog Day…
be sure to check it out and submit a link to your Catholic post!

Weekly Round Up is Up and Running, Sorry!

Posted: by Monica McConkey
The Weekly Round Up is up and running!
Sorry, last week’s Weekly Round Up may have been dated incorrectly: sorry for the confusion.
The Link-Ups are now open for an entire month in the 4 different categories:
 Scripture, Sunday Readings and Homilies,
Homeschooling and Liturgical Calendar,
Catechism & Apologetics
and Catholic Family Journal.
Post as often as you like…
let’s see how many posts we get for the month of February!
Come and Link Up and check back often!
Visit the other Catholic Bloggers and leave comments
and subscribe to their blogs to help build a strong
Network of Catholic Bloggers!
For previous posts, check out the Weekly Round Up Archives

Lent Link-Up hosted by Equipping Catholic Families

Posted: by Monica McConkey
Check out the Lent Link-Up hosted by Equipping Catholic Families,
as part of the Fiestas de Enlaces  (Festival of Links)! 
Link up your Lenten traditions, activities, practices, or sacrifices
that will be part of your family Lenten journey, 2012!
Let’s see how many of our Catholic Bloggers blog about LENT!
(Don’t worry…there are still 3 weeks left before Lent starts,
to decide what you’re going to do!)