The Roman Catholic Church welcomes thousands of new believers into the faith each year at Easter Vigil. Some are converts from Protestantism, but those who are new Christians make the sacraments of baptism, First Eucharist and confirmation all in one momentous night. Read the blog of a lifelong Methodist who became a Catholic during Easter vigil 2005.

Read a Feb. 17, 2013, New York Times article about the debate over religious federal holidays in the U.S.

A segment on the web site About.com looks at the legal questions surrounding making Good Friday a state holiday.

Read about the decline of Hispanic-Catholic community that was once booming in this Feb. 26, 2013 Public Religion Research Institute article.

Read a New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the history of the Way – or Stations – of the Cross.

Esdras Betancourt is director of the Hispanic Ministries department of the Church of God, in Cleveland, Tenn.

Gerald R. Barnes is executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs, whose mission is to assist the Catholic Church in its efforts to serve the large Hispanic population in the United States.

Read an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story from April 2, 2004 about Archbishop John F. Donoghue order of priests from that archdiocese to not wash women’s feet.

Read an April 10, 2004, Boston Globe story describing how Roman Catholic Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley declined to wash the feet of women on Holy Thursday, saying that Jesus had only male disciples.