FROM THE FOUNDER: After twenty years of faithful service, Brown Pelican Society of Louisiana announces a new chapter in its Mission.  After the celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Country, July 4, 2026, Brown Pelican Society of Louisiana website will be discontinued as we transition from online news and commentary to addressing unmet needs within the Catholic Church, primarily in South Louisiana, but supporting Catholic apostolates both Nationally and Internationally.

By Tessa Gervasini, EWTN News – A Pew Research Center study found that more adults leave the Catholic Church than enter it in most countries, but Catholics still make up the majority of the population in a number of countries analyzed… The research released April 23 found that Christianity has experienced some of the largest losses of followers due to religious switching, when people identify with a different religion in adulthood than they were raised in as a child, compared with other faith groups around the world.

By John Zmirak, Chronicles – A new film from the Discovery Institute, The Story of Everything, opens nationwide on April 30. Based on philosopher of science Stephen Meyer’s The Return of the God Hypothesis, the film’s ambition matches its title. It scrutinizes scientific materialism’s claims at every pivotal point, marshaling physicists to show the theistic implications of the Big Bang. Those implications so troubled scientists such as Fred Hubble and Albert Einstein that for years they refused to accept the evidence that kept trickling in to prove that the universe had a definite beginning, as the Book of Genesis teaches.

By Casey Chalk, Catholic World Report – A review of Raymond Ibrahim’s The Two Swords of Christ: Five Centuries of War Between Islam and the Warrior Monks of Christendom… since the Roman emperor Constantine legalized and patronized Christianity, our Faith has regularly been tied up with men (and some women) willing to fight and die to protect the Faith. Indeed, the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, which the Church celebrates every October 7th, commemorates the victory at Lepanto, where the Holy League, a coalition of European Catholic states, defeated an invading Ottoman navy whose ultimate purpose was to further Muslim conquests deep into Italy and beyond. ….

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – John 10:11-18 – 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, 15 as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. …

By Bellarmine Forum – ZITA lived for forty-eight years in the service of Fatinelli, a citizen of Lucca. During this time she rose each morning, while the household were asleep, to hear Mass, and then toiled incessantly till night came, doing the work of others as well as her own. Once Zita, absorbed in prayer, remained in church past the usual hour of her bread-making. She hastened home, reproaching herself with neglect of duty, and found the bread made and ready for the oven.

By Phillip Campbell, Catholic Exchange – One of the great monarchs of Christendom was the pious King of France, St. Louis IX. Reigning from 1226 until his death in 1270 during the Eighth Crusade, St. Louis was a model of Christian chivalry whose virtuous reign set the standard for Christian kingship in the 13th century… It is not Louis’s reign we are concerned with here, however, but his observations on the matter of propriety of dress as it relates to one’s station in life. It seems that Catholics are perpetually disputing about dress: what is appropriate for Mass, what is modest attire for various occasions, pants vs. dresses for women ….

By Catholic World News – In an April 23 letter to members of Congress, the USCCB and CRS called for $26.9 billion in funding for various international humanitarian assistance programs.
Congress appropriated $26.0 billion for these programs in the current fiscal year: President Donald Trump has proposed $11.9 billion in funding for the upcoming fiscal year… The joint letter was signed by the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration and Committee on International Justice and Peace, and by the president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services. …

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture – It’s their big moment. They have been waiting for it for a long time. And they think it may finally be here. I am talking about Catholics who believe Catholic support for Donald Trump to be some sort of abomination… They come in different shades. The Catholic Left, of course, despises Catholic support for almost any Republican. But Catholic NeverTrumpers affiliated with the pre-Trump GOP have also been against Trump from Day One. Add to these two groups a Catholic segment of Benedict Option (BenOp) enthusiasts who practice a Christian retreat from politics that seems to go beyond what Rod Dreher had in mind.

By Fr. John A. Perricone, Crisis Magazine – For well over a half century this once formidable order (the Jesuits) has been attempting to reconfigure the Roman Catholic Church after the fashion of a United Nations NGO. …. With this snapshot, you can appreciate Fr. Reese’s alarm at this nationwide surge of converts. All of them were defying the revisionist Catholicism that he and his order have been peddling for over half a century.

By Kate Quiñones, EWTN News – “We’ve now seen a rise of people with eating disorders that are given access to assisted suicide, and this is just wrong a multitude of ways,” Lankford added… “What is HHS doing to protect those with disabilities that may be targeted by those assisted suicide laws?” Lankford asked… “To me, I think those laws are abhorrent,” Kennedy responded. “And we just see in Canada today, I think the No. 1 cause of death is assisted suicide, and as you say, it targets people with disabilities and people who are struggling in their lives.”

By Carl E. Olson, Catholic World Report – Verena Stefanie Shälter.. (Asks Pope Leo XIV).. I would like to know how you assess the decision of Cdl. Reinhardt Marx, Abp. of Munich and Freising, that he gave permission to the blessing of same-sex couples in his diocese, and in light of different cultural and theological perspectives, especially in Africa, how do you intend to preserve the unity of the global Church on that particular matter?… his answer raises some questions, not least about how, in fact, he may proceed in addressing the troubling position taken by Cardinal Marx (and others) ….

By Derek Rotty, Catholic Exchange – These are contingencies of contentment, statements we make thinking of the possibility of happiness and joy. For most of our lives, so far as we can remember, a seemingly infinite litany of these statements infiltrates our thoughts and desires. Many, if not most, of us exhibit a proclivity to not being or remaining content, because, you know, “the grass is always greener.” But how do these contingencies affect our interior spiritual lives,

By Elizabeth Weiss, Zeale – Catholics gather in protest against a Satanic-themed circus event in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Sept. 20, 2024. (American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property website)… The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), is sponsoring a rosary rally in reparation for a May 1 Satanic Temple event in Baltimore, where attendees are “required to surrender their souls to Satan.”

By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing – Rome, if not quite the “Eternal City,” is nearly 2,800 years old and counting. I first encountered it in the 1970s, visiting my wife’s uncle, a priest who served in the Congregation (now the Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith. What I remember most vividly from those few days is a Fellini-esque evening performance of the opera Aida with live elephants in the Baths of Caracalla, followed by a hair-raising drive home through Roman traffic.