By Craig Bannister, MRC TV – On Wednesday, the Supreme Court denied a last-ditch effort to stop Louisiana from immediately complying with the High Court’s ruling requiring redistricting to erase the state’s race-based map, setting the stage for the redistricting effort to begin on Friday… “A Louisiana legislative committee that oversees redistricting will meet Friday to hear public comments on a new congressional district map after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to overturn the existing version,” Louisiana Illuminator reported Monday, citing State Senator Caleb Kleinpeter (R-Port Allen) …

By Kennedy Hall, Crisis Magazine – The word “prudent” gets thrown around a lot, and it is often misused. Recently, a friend posed a question to me about the prudence of the forthcoming SSPX consecrations, and it was not the first time I had been asked. There are, of course, many people who are sympathetic to the Society of St. Pius X to varying degrees. The consecration of bishops without papal approval, however, is something that troubles many consciences, for obvious reasons.

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – John 15:12-17 – 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. …

By Justin Logan and Sumantra Maitra, The Federalist – President Trump is right to withdraw troops from Germany and from Europe. Neocon Republicans and Democrats are wrong. There is already a template for a rapid withdrawal from Europe: the one that took place after the end of the Cold War — incidentally, also the last era when the U.S. had a balanced budget. Our only criticism is that Trump’s current withdrawal numbers don’t go far enough. (In fairness, the president promised on Saturday that he is “going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.”)

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – Secretary of State Marco Rubio met privately with Pope Leo XIV and other Vatican officials May 7 to discuss the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and the need to promote peace and human dignity, according to statements from the Vatican and U.S. officials… The discussions reaffirmed the “shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America,” according to a translation of the Vatican statement. …

By Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Contributor, The Daily Signal – Gerrymandering, or the protocol where states allot congressional seats by population, is in the news recently, and some states do it transparently politically, depending on the makeup of their state legislatures. Others go through the operation, sometimes genuine, sometimes not so much, of having a nonpartisan body redistrict… Now we’re in a gerrymandering war where some of the states are trying to redistrict and improve either the Democratic or Republican turnout. …

By Michael Haynes, European Conservative – The Catholic Church’s prohibition on the use of contraception is clear and unchanging, yet the tragic demise of the Vatican academy tasked with examining such matters is so great that its president remains unable to say whether he agrees with Church teaching or not… In a world heavily permeated by sexual proclivity and the complete degradation of morals and ethics relating to the sanctity of life, the clear guiding hand of the Church is sorely needed. Her teachings on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and sexuality are widely unpopular but increasingly serve as the last bastion in the defense of life.

By Bellarmine Forum – By Bellarmine Forum – Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel – IT is manifested, from the holy Scriptures, that God is pleased to make frequent use of the ministry of the heavenly spirits in the dispensations of His providence in this world, and especially towards man. Hence the name of Angel (which is not properly a denomination of nature, but office) has been appropriated to them. The angels are all pure spirits; they are, by a property of their nature, immortal, as every spirit is.

By Filip Mazurczak, Catholic World Report – “Compared to most other bishops in communist Poland and likely much of the world at the time, Wojtyła’s response to sexual abuse was exemplary,” says journalist and canon lawyer Tomasz Krzyżak… Tomasz Krzyżak, an expert in canon law and journalist who has conducted research in Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance and the newly opened archives of the Archdiocese of Kraków, disagrees with those claims. He says that the future Pope St. John Paul II, “dealt with sexual abuse seriously, applied the provisions of canon law, and never covered anything up.”

By Jonah McKeown, National Catholic Register – Kaminski, Sinha, and Murphy founded Petrine based on their own experiences of the positive effects of Catholic men living together… The idea for Petrine, the founders told the Register, was born from the founders’ recognition that amidst the well-documented modern epidemic of loneliness among young men, bringing young Catholics together under one roof is a powerful way to prepare those men for their future vocations …

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – What does the Pope think about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran? We don’t know; he hasn’t said. Complain about that if you like. Pope Leo has made it clear that he opposes the US war against Iran, but he has not said what American action, if any, would be justified… Pope Leo has said—as has every other Roman Pontiff of the nuclear era—that he longs for a world in which no country, including the US, has nuclear weapons. It follows, therefore, that he does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. So Trump’s complaint is false.

By Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness – Today’s Democratic Party has abandoned its traditional working-class, patriotic roots and embraced a radical Jacobin ideology built on division, coercion, and political extremism… For the past century, the agendas of the Dem. Party were predictable. They professed concern for working Americans and supported blue-collar unions…  Unemployment insurance, a 40-hour work week, disability insurance, and Social Security… Still, many Democrats were socially conservative.

By Breccan F. Thies, The Federalist – The American medical establishment has been working for over 100 years to fabricate a mental health crisis, but with contemporary perceptions of depression and sadness at all-time highs, coupled with prescription drug use run rampant, they may have created a real one… An enormous amount of Americans are diagnosed with some form of mental illness, invariably leading them to be prescribed intense regimens of drugs that manufacturers and doctors claim will resolve the issues.

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – The U.S. Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling on Louisiana v. Callais has sparked a wave of redistricting activity in Republican-led states, with Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi moving to reshape congressional maps… As Zeale News previously reported, the high court’s 6-3 ruling struck down Louisiana’s congressional map, which included a second majority-black district, as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. That decision narrowed when states may intentionally draw majority-minority districts under the Voting Rights Act.

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing – If I were created a Cardinal and dispensed from the canonical requirement to be ordained a deacon or priest – my vocation is as a layperson – this is how I would counsel the Holy Father on the first anniversary of his pontificate… “Holy Father, the first thing you must do is correct Francis, because only the pope may aptly correct a pope.  There is no need to judge his motives.  But he often caused confusion and distress, and his attempts to unify often seemed rather to divide.