By Russell Shaw, OSV News Service – H.L. Mencken — writer, journalist and prominent iconoclast of the century past — took a generally dim view of the clergy (along with many other things). But his view of Cardinal James Gibbons, archbishop of Mencken’s Baltimore for 44 crucial years, was different… Writing after the cardinal’s death in 1921, the Sage of Baltimore — Mencken, that is — remarked that “more presidents than one sought the counsel of Cardinal Gibbons … a man of the highest sagacity, a politician in the best sense.”

By Dr. R. Jared Staudt, Catholic World Report – The 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States is a time to reflect on America’s role in pioneering religious freedom. Catholics have contributed to this development while also courageously offering witness in the face of persecution. The promise and peril of this history should inspire us to continue to fight for the legitimate right to religious freedom while we boldly and charitably share the invitation of the Gospel.

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – Four years ago, the Supreme Court effectively ended 50 years of bad law and handed abortion regulation back to the American “people and their elected representatives.” All of the doom and gloom the corporate media swore would happen because of this 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, it turns out, was a lie… Media spent the months leading up to the decision mocking pro-lifers and their policies. When the Dobbs ruling was leaked and then officially posted, those same outlets insisted that the Supreme Court’s confirmation that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion created a “dystopian American reality.” 

By Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition – Jesus Christ gave the Church its mission: the Great Commission, the spreading of the Gospel to bring souls to Christ. Pope Leo XIV announced a different mission before the UN.

By John Melnikov, Catholic Exchange – The world today seems to want to tamp down joy. If the world had its way, Jesus’ story would have ended on Golgotha. However, it most assuredly did not. Christianity does not end with the Cross, but thrives in His resurrection. In a world that is convinced that joy is fragile, temporary, and even improper and pretentious, Catholics proclaim something astonishing: joy has a name. It is Jesus. And He is still alive.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – St. Thomas teaches that love for a community, a state, or a nation is a matter of natural justice, an aspect of pietas. The pride that we feel for our communities reinforces that moral duty. So it is a healthy thing for the Scots to come cheer for their national soccer team, and a healthy thing that they wanted Bostonians to dance to their hornpipes and reels and strathspeys… Similarly it is healthy for Bostonians to challenge the Tartan Army to try the local clam chowder, and be gratified when the Scots loved it.

By Fr. Peter M. Stravinskas, Crisis Magazine – “It is indeed the gravest of questions whether our people are to commence life with or without adequate instruction in those all-important truths which ought to colour all thought and to direct all action;—whether they are or are not to accept this visible world for their God and their all, its teaching as their only truth, and its prizes as their highest aims;—for, if they do not gain, when young, that sacred knowledge which comes to us from Revelation, when will they acquire it?” ~Archbishop of Sydney in 1879, St. John Henry Cardinal Newman

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – A federal judge on June 24 permanently barred the Trump administration from implementing key provisions of a March 2025 executive order aimed at tightening federal election rules, including a directive requiring voters to provide documentation proving U.S. citizenship when they register to vote… U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued the ruling, converting a preliminary injunction she granted in 2025 into a permanent bar on most of the challenged provisions. …

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Matthew 7:21-29 – 21 “Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’ …

By Charles A. Coulombe, OnePeterFive – … as with everything Catholic in the Americas, devotion to the Sacred Heart long predates the United States.  Although Spain opened up the Evangelisation of the Western Hemisphere, it was in New France that this devotion took root, with the arrival of St. Marie de l’Incarnation, who founded the Ursuline Order in Canada in 1632, half a century before Our Lord began appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.  Nine years later, Catherine Symon de Longpré, Mother Catherine of Saint Augustine in religion, brought devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary to Canada,

By St. Augustine, Posted on The Catholic Thing – Behold, pay more attention to this, my brothers; pay more attention to this, I beg you, which the Lord Christ said, extending His hand over His disciples: “These are my mother and my brothers; and whoever does the will of My Father who sent Me, he is My brother and sister and mother.” Did not the Virgin Mary do the will of the Father, who believed in faith, conceived in faith, was chosen from whom salvation would be born among men, was created by Christ before Christ was created in her?

By Msgr. Charles Fink, The Catholic Thing – It’s a commonplace observation that most people think more readily in pictures than in abstract concepts, and that stories move and transform us in ways that logical arguments often don’t.  God, who of course knows this, therefore has revealed Himself to us, as C.S. Lewis put it, by writing Himself into a part in our story – at once author of the whole and character in the play, so to speak – and over the centuries, bequeathing to us a series of vivid images

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Matthew 7:15-20 – 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. 18 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ….

By Fr. Robert McTeigue, The Catholic Current – Fr. Robert McTeigue examines Fulton Sheen’s warnings about a counterfeit “ape of the Church” that imitates Christianity while rejecting God, and the ways in which social morality can supplant personal repentance in modern culture. Father concludes with Weekend Readiness to help prepare you for Sunday Mass.

By Anna Callahan, LifeNews – A coalition of 83 state and national pro-life groups, led by SBA Pro-life America, sent a letter to Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche urging the Department of Justice to resolve the Louisiana v. FDA lawsuit by agreeing to a court-ordered consent decree that would get abortion drugs out of the mail immediately while the FDA completes a prompt, rigorous safety review.