By Regis Martin, Crisis Magazine – We live in a country whose citizenry have been, almost from the beginning of the Republic, carefully coached to observe all the requisite protocols. What that means, as a practical matter, is, quite simply, keeping religion and politics in separate compartments. In other words, Church and State must never be seen in the same room. That being the case, the very idea of a confessional society becomes an affront to both law and custom. ..

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Matthew 14:1-12 – 1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus; 2 and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist, he has been raised from the dead; that is why these powers are at work in him.” 3 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison, for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife; 4 because John said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. …

By Jonah Apel, The American Spectator – Emphasizing the reality of biological sex is of course correct. Trump’s executive order is a significant win, and this answer is miles better than caving to the Left’s assertions or trying to seek some supposed middle ground between truth and falsehood. Men are not women, and in no way should conservatives give in to the Left’s false anthropological delusions… However, conservatives shouldn’t stop there. While affirming biological reality, we shouldn’t make the mistake of reducing the differences between men and women to only biological or chromosomal differences. What a woman is entails much more than just XX chromosomes

By Tim Graham, MRC TV – Deadline.com is reporting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shutting down its operations after the loss of federal funding. “The CPB informed employees on Friday that the majority of staff positions will end on Sept. 30, with a small transition team in place through January, 2026.”If this happens, this is not a shutdown of PBS or NPR stations, but a shutdown of the corporation that sends out the taxpayer money to PBS and NPR stations. After all of their protests that their taxpayer funding wasn’t a large portion of their budgets, they are now acting like the defunding is catastrophic to their operations.

By Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Catholic Register – Pope Leo XIV’s first selection for doctor of the Church offers a model of courage and clarity in our time of confusion… Elected to the papacy in 1878 after the long, defensive years of Blessed Pius IX, Pope Leo XIII advised paying close attention to his first cardinals. Included among them would be St. John Henry Newman, the towering intellectual convert who, while accepting the truth of Vatican I’s declaration of papal infallibility, thought it was not opportune to do so.

By Jacob Adams, The Daily Signal – Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is applauding the Trump administration‘s reversal of a Biden-era rule that permitted the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system to perform abortions… On Friday, the administration posted the proposed rule change in the Federal Register, which will be formally published on Monday, to prevent VA-run hospitals and other medical centers from performing abortions in nearly all cases.

 By Franciscan Media – Saint Eusebius of Vercelli’s Story – Someone has said that if there had been no Arian heresy denying Christ’s divinity, it would be very difficult to write the lives of many early saints. Eusebius is another of the defenders of the Church during one of its most trying periods.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Planned Parenthood’s national service totals and its local affiliate data on the number of “gender-affirming care” services provided nationally don’t line up, according to a new report from The Daily Wire… In a July 24 article, The Daily Wire’s Macy Petty notes that Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report, 2023-24, shows a sharp decline in its “other procedures” subcategory — which includes “transgender” services — despite reports from local affiliates that those services are increasing. The subcategory also includes pediatric care, adult preventative care, and high complexity visits, including infertility services.

By Anthony Isacco, National Catholic Register – I recently attended a seminary advisory board meeting, where I was asked to discuss my experience conducting psychological evaluations of seminary applicants. After my brief overview, a bishop bluntly stated, “Back in my day, the psychological evaluations were a joke. We all sat around joking about them. They are certainly not a joke now.”… The bishop’s sentiment is in line with national trends across seminaries. Seminaries routinely use comprehensive psychological evaluations as an important gatekeeping tool. …

By Trent Beattie, Catholic Exchange – Many people think of prayer as a pleasant pastime, an eccentric extra, or a holy hobby. They take it as a vague and poetic view of communication with God, as if there were no objective standards. Prayer is seen as subjective, feelings-based, and even possibly a waste of time—but, hey, if you like it, then go for it… This assessment is woefully inaccurate and highly damaging, St. Alphonsus Liguori would say. For the 18th century founder of the Redemptorists, the choice to pray or not to pray is literally what determines whether a soul ascends to Heaven or descends to Hell.

By Abigail Nichols, The Federalist – The Houston branch of ICE alone arrested 214 “criminal illegal aliens in the past six months who have been charged or convicted of a sex offense involving a minor” … “Of the 214 criminal illegal aliens arrested, 179 had final orders of removal from an immigration judge. 141 have already been removed” … Some of the criminals highlighted by the department range from ages 25-76… One convicted molester, 25-year-old Gabriel Julio Velazquez Lopez from Mexico, “illegally entered the U.S. four times since 2016” until he was arrested and deported in April.

By Kate Quiñones, Catholic News Agency – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating potential “unfair or deceptive trade practices” regarding transgender surgeries and drugs… The launch of the federal inquiry is designed to “gauge the harms consumers may be experiencing” from “false or unsupported claims” about transgender treatment … The agency’s investigation comes after President Donald Trump pledged to end federal support for transition drugs and surgeries in an executive order he issued at the outset of his administration this year.

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Matthew 13:54-58 – 54 and coming to his own country he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” …

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing – There’s no such thing as “the ethics of AI,” because there are different types of AI, and differing visions of the use of AI. And these uses are constantly developing, while diverse ethical concerns appear at the personal, corporate, and societal levels.  In general, “the world” is concerned about control and equality (“How can we regulate it, if we do not even know how it works?” or “Will AI magnify inequalities of wealth and power?”) primarily as they relate to big systems such as the economy.

By Jules Gomes, The Stream – When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni earlier this week blasted France’s decision to recognize Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly as “counterproductive,” the Catholic Church’s second-highest authority responded by calling for the Vatican to follow in France’s footsteps… Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin’s statement to reporters on July 28 is being seen as an attack on Meloni and an endorsement of French President Emmanuel Macron’s support for Palestine. It comes amid rising antisemitism in traditionally Catholic Italy.