This all-purpose site offers links to additional Catholic sites, plus its own entertaining and information page. Its alphabetical index contains approximately 5,000 topics with links or direct connections to Web sites around the world. This special page, maintained by the Mary Garden Organization of Philadelphia, describes the historical relevance of these and other sacred flowers and offers practical advice on growing outdoor, dish and windowsill Mary gardens. Beautifully and digitally crafted, their artwork decorates their own Web site and that of the Vatican, among others.
Visitors can view an online portfolio of the monks' most interesting artwork at the site.
Here visitors can find out about current Vatican events through L'Osservatore Romano, the weekly edition of the Vatican newspaper, available in a number of languages. The site, an excellent resource for information about and writings of the current and past popes, is where users can read new writings and view drafts of new encyclicals. History buffs can browse through the site's detailed descriptions of Vatican Museum holdings as well as archives of Vatican documents and the Catechism of the Catholic Church in numerous languages. The Young Saints Club, run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, can save them a lot of time with its offering of bimonthly readings designed to appeal to elementary school children. The Commission of Religious Life and Ministry sponsored a study of religious order sites and discovered that in the last two years, the number of sites has doubled.