By Casey Chalk, Crisis Magazine – I confess that I sometimes allow myself to be deceived. When things are going well professionally, when election results go the way I hoped, when I seem to be getting along with everyone I know—I can be disarmed into thinking that I am at peace with the world. Then, like a thunderclap, I’m jolted back to the truth of the matter: the world is not my friend.

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – The company responsible for manufacturing the most popular abortion pill on the market are more concerned about its profits than the harm its drugs are inflicting on women and babies… The confession from mifepristone maker Danco Laboratories came in its defense against Louisiana’s landmark lawsuit targeting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “mail-order abortion scheme.” The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously granted Louisiana’s request for a stay, effectively pausing the FDA’s mail-order abortion drug permissions ….

By Dan Hart, LifeNews – As the U.S. birth rate continues to plummet to record lows, data shows that a significant percentage of liberals are deprioritizing the importance of marriage and having children, especially among teens. Among conservatives, however, the phenomenon does not appear to be occurring… In an article published Friday by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), sociologists Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey highlight how the aspirations that many liberals claim to have about marrying and having children are not lining up with their real-world behavior, which appears to be heavily influenced by negative media narratives. …

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – John 15:1-8 – 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. 2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ….

Catholic Culture – The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Peter Nolasco (1182-1258), born in France, but later settled in Barcelona, Spain. After taking part in the Crusades against the Albigensians, he used his inheritance to free Christian prisoners held by the Moors. He later founded the Order of Our Lady of Mercy (Mercedarians) beginning in 1218 devoted to ransoming Christians.

By M.D. Kittle, The Federalist – Indiana conservatives just sent a message to RINOs everywhere: FAFO. These voters are mad as hell and they’re not going to vote for spineless Republicans anymore… Hopefully GOP senators performing in the failure theater production of “debating” the SAVE America Act heard Indiana’s message loud and clear… Most of the Republican Indiana state Senate candidates endorsed by President Donald Trump won primary races Tuesday against incumbents who voted with Democrats to stop a congressional redistricting bill. …

By Dr. Donald DeMarco, Catholic Exchange – A metaphor needs a ground, just as an airplane needs a runway.  It has no meaning when it is separated from the base from which it is launched.  Marriage cannot be detached from its mooring and most assuredly not for political reasons.  Beautiful things will derive from a good marriage, and they will be properly honored in poetical verse.  But the genesis of marriage, that two-in-one intimacy between a man and a woman, will always be the way it is divinely described in the Book of Genesis.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – This summer Pope Leo will face two serious challenges to his authority: one from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which has announced plans to consecrate new bishops without a papal mandate; the other from the German bishops’ conference, which is introducing a ritual for the blessing of illicit conjugal unions. On paper the two cases are quite different, involving distinct theological and canonical principles. But the Vatican’s treatment of the two wayward groups will surely invite comparisons, for two reasons. …

By Regis Martin, National Catholic Register – A young man, alone and forlorn following a late-night revel that has left him empty and unfulfilled, wanders into a darkened church that appears to be no less empty than the party he just left. Seeing that he is the only one there, he sits down and, amid the surrounding silence, stares into the darkness… He sees a light flickering in the distance. It is the light coming from the sanctuary lamp, upon which he fixes his gaze. It occurs to him in a single lightning stroke that if that light is true, if it actually signifies something real ….

By Steve Cortes, The Daily Signal – Despite this litany of abuses and clear anti-Catholic bias in the ongoing War on Faith, bishops continually insist on inserting themselves into highly partisan U.S. politics to side very publicly with Democrats. From the bishop of Rome himself, Pope Leo XIV, to various American bishops, on certain issues, these prelates seemingly take every opportunity possible to attack the church’s political protectors and join in league with the oppressors of Catholics.

By Paul Gottfried, Chronicles – Recently, I forced myself to reread (despite the accompanying torture) Lillian Hellman’s 1976 memoir, Scoundrel Time. Since its publication, this memoir has offered readers a progressive view of the film industry in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Hellman was a politically outspoken Hollywood scriptwriter who produced scripts for such films as Watch on the Rhine and Little Foxes, and was the longtime lover of fiction writer Dashiell Hammett.

By Steven Ertelt , LifeNews – The Supreme Court has restored mail-order abortions while the lawsuit from Louisiana and multiple states continues. This means babies will continue dying and women will continue being injured by the dangerous abortion pill… Responding to requests from two makers of the dangerous abortion pill, the Supreme Court reversed the block on mail-order abortions the 5th Circuit Appeals Court put in place late Friday… The high court’s order temporarily allows the Biden mail-order abortion rule to continue.

Fr. Mario Alexis Portella, Crisis Magazine – It would have been beneficial to Sarah Mullally had Pope Leo said the same thing—that the Church of England is merely an ecclesiastical community that needs to be in full harmony with the Roman Pontiff. Or if he had mentioned that Cardinal John Henry Newman, after his conversion to Catholicism, never engaged in any “dialogue,” for he knew that full communion could only be found within the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Catholic Church.

By Auguste Meyrat, The Catholic Thing – Although the idea of a midlife crisis feels like an outdated concept these days, there is still something to be said about it. It may look different for men today, but they are still forced to confront certain personal challenges that arise around their forties… This is because men at this point in their lives often must assume responsibility for everything and everyone everywhere: at home, at work, and in the community.

By Victor Davis Hanson,. The Daily Signal – We’re in the eighth week of the Iran waropens in a new tab, and things are starting to heat up even though there’s not kinetic action. What do I mean by heating up? The Iranian government has ceased to exist. We don’t know, and the Iranians don’t know who holds power… There is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. There is the theocracy, there is the elected people in Parliament, and there is a regular military. And those four groups operate in schizophrenic fashion.