By Matthew McDonald, EWTN News – Father Justin, we hardly knew ye … Less than two days after debuting an artificial intelligence (AI) priest character to overwhelmingly negative reviews, Catholic Answers has given “Father Justin” the virtual heave-ho… The lay-run apologetics and evangelization apostolate, based in El Cajon, California, told the Register that it will replace him on its app with a lay character named “Justin” within a week.

By Kyle Seraphin, The Federalist – In light of the FBI’s anti-Catholic ‘Richmond memo,’ the true new resistance is everyday churchgoing folks with families… Betrayal. If I could sum it all up in one word, it would have to be “betrayal.”.. “This is what being stabbed in the back feels like,” I thought to myself on that winter day when I first laid eyes on the FBI’s anti-Catholic “Richmond memo.”… My reaction was predictable. I am Catholic, and I thought it was appalling, plain and simple.

By Msgr. Richard C. Antall, Crisis Magazine – I think that one aspect of the declaration has been ignored. That is its naiveté about a supposed consensus of moral thinking. In paragraph seven, it reads: “There is widespread agreement today on the importance and normative scope of human dignity and on the unique and transcendent value of every human being.” The endnote for that affirmation refers to the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, a 1966 United Nations “Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” and the 1975 Helsinki “Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.”

By Catholic Vote, CV News Feed – “Of all the groups our top federal law enforcement agency would write an 11-page document targeting, they picked us,” Seraphin, a Catholic, wrote… “With all of the crime going on in the country, especially in the last few years, the FBI decided we Catholics were the problem,” he added… (Seraphin)… also warned that “[t]he FBI is establishing a gateway in what they think is ‘fringe Catholicism,’ as a means to go after Christians in general and declare them to be the real ‘threats’ and ‘potential terrorists’ in the country.”… “Slowly but surely, the FBI is probing its way into all religious communities,” Seraphin explained… “All Christians are in the crosshairs … the idea of them targeting a so-called ‘radical Baptist’ or ‘radical Lutheran’ in the near future is certainly on the table.”

By Thomas D. Williams, Ph. D., Breitbart – Conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was ousted from his Texas diocese by Pope Francis last year, has denounced a “corrupt Vatican.”… “I urge all faithful Catholics to speak up, enough is enough,” Bishop Strickland wrote on X (and) posted together with an image of Jesus throwing money-changers out of the temple… “Enough with silent shepherds, enough with a corrupt Vatican, enough with blasphemies & desecration of Jesus Christ,” the bishop continued. “Let us denounce so called bishops who bless sin & hide wolves among the sheep. ENOUGH!”

By Emily Mangiaracina, LifeSiteNew – Dioceses can shirk financial penalties by filing bankruptcy after sex abuse lawsuits. Roman Catholic Faithful’s Project Rape Accountability would instead force financial accountability in such cases… The watchdog group Roman Catholic Faithful publicly announced on Tuesday its newly launched “Project Rape Accountability” that proposes a federal legislative amendment that would prevent the discharge of dioceses’ debts arising from the sexual abuse of minors.

By Warner Todd Huston, Breitbart – Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio is defending itself after becoming the target of critics who claim that it improperly used federal funds to buy airfare for illegal aliens to fly to their choice of destinations in the U.S… Two South Texas lawmakers blasted the charity on Thursday for using federal funds to purchase the airfare and said that the funds are intended to reimburse nonprofits for food, shelter, and humanitarian expenses, not free travel programs for President Joe Biden’s illegal aliens. … Catholic Charities of San Antonio admitted to the station that it had been allotted $10.8 million in funding to care for migrants in their area and that it used the funds to buy plane tickets for illegals. …

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word -John 12:44-50 – And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If any one hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. ….

By Kevin Beary, The Remnant – Of course, women priests and popes are part of a bigger package containing all sorts of theological surprises… To make the Church less masculine: this is the task that Pope Francis has given the International Theological Commission. Or at least, that is the official translation of the Italian word Francis used, smaschilizzare, which the English-language media rightly translated as “demasculinize”, i.e. “emasculate, castrate”. “Rendere meno maschile,” which Francis did not say, would translate literally as “to make less masculine.”

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will travel to Texas this week, not to make another performative visit to the border he abandoned when he banded with Democrats to pass $95 billion in foreign spending, but to aid a fundraiser for his “endangered” GOP colleague (Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales) who smeared Republicans opposed to the Ukraine package… In return, Johnson will overlook Gonzales’ egregious maligning of conservatives while wining and dining voters in the San Antonio area into throwing more money at the establishment Republican’s reelection campaign.

By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing – As we get older, the temptation to be dissatisfied with our lives can grow.  A fear of aging, along with memories of past failures and mistakes, can obscure the good in the world around us.  A culture of consumption, distractions, and anesthetics, which is what we’ve created, feeds on that restlessness and profits from the anxiety that so often animates our desires.  In the process, it steals something uniquely human from us.  It reduces us to a bundle of material appetites.

By Michael Haynes, LifeSite News – The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has confirmed to LifeSiteNews that the Holy See intends to renew its secretive deal with Communist China later this year… Cardinal Parolin affirmed that the highly controversial Sino-Vatican deal that the Holy See has with the Communist authorities in Beijing is set for renewal this autumn… Parolin stated “with reference to your question about the Holy See’s agreement with China … we hope to renew it.”… “We are also in dialogue on this point with our Chinese interlocutors.” …

By Catholic Vote – President Joe Biden made the Sign of the Cross in response to pro-abortion comments made by Democrat Nikki Fried, who was standing next to the president.
The gesture came while the president was listening to Florida Dem. Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried slam her state’s pro-life law… “Where … 15 weeks wasn’t good enough so we had to go to six weeks,” Fried said, referring to the gestational limit up until abortion is allowed under state law… As soon as Fried said “wasn’t good enough,” Biden began to make a slow sign of the cross ….

By Emma Waters, Daily Signal – In a recent sting operation, the FBI arrested and charged a Chicago man for knowingly distributing material on child sexual assault and boasting about sexually abusing his young nieces and nephews… The man’s arrest came less than a week before he and another man identified as his husband were set to collect their newborn son from a commercial surrogate in California… Commercial surrogacy is a contractual agreement where someone pays a woman to gestate and birth an unrelated child for a fee. …

By Michael Ippolito, Crisis Magazine – No faithful Catholic could look at the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and be proud of that decision… The dropping of the atomic bomb was evil. For the average conservative commentator, this comment automatically causes a knee-jerk reaction with the same old platitudes. For decades, the American Right has been the defender of our usage of the atomic bomb, with either “it saved more American lives” or “it was the lesser of two evils” being some of the strongest candidates.