By Brian Flood, Fox News – “60 Minutes” teed up a trio of progressive American cardinals to discuss how Pope Leo XIV and the church have emerged as a voice of opposition to the war with Iran and President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in a segment that aired last week… “Liberal TV networks find organized religion useful only so much as it helps sell the liberal view. They want to add the moral authority of organized religion to their viewpoint,” Media Research Center executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital.

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – John 6:44-51 – 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. …

By Chris Bray, The Federalist – Consider two numbers, side by side, and keep them in mind as you read news stories about fraud in government-funded services… First number, from a news headline last week: “New DOJ fraud division thwarted $340M in benefit schemes during first week.” That’s M for million… Second number, released by the Government Accounting Office during the same week: “In 2024, we estimated that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, based on data for fiscal years 2018 through 2022.” ….

By Hannah Hiester, Zeale – SPLC is also known for designating conservative or religious organizations as “hate groups.” Family Research Council (FRC), a conservative think tank and advocacy organization, said a gunman attacked its office more than 10 years ago due to SPLC’s narrative. In a statement on the indictment, President Tony Perkins said the violence FRC experienced indicates that SPLC’s actions have serious implications… “We’ve talked with the FBI to help them understand how these designations have real-world consequences. ..”

By Paul Senz, Catholic World Report – The medical profession naturally involves encountering people at their most vulnerable and dealing with some of the most profound suffering that humans face. But it can also be an experience of profound joy, as when a child is born or when cancer is beaten. It is a life of hard conversations, breaking bad news, but also seeing the depth of God’s love and mercy in the face of these heavy crosses we bear.

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – On April 9, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its provisional birth data for 2025. The numbers are sobering… How Bad Is It?… To grasp just how serious this situation is, consider that earlier this year the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that, beginning in 2030 – just four years from now! – the annual number of deaths in the United States will exceed the annual number of births.

By Nick Hallett, European Conservative – Cardinal Reinhard Marx has moved decisively to normalise the blessing of same-sex couples in his Archdiocese of Munich and Freising—an intervention that lays bare the deepening doctrinal confusion at the heart of the Catholic Church in Germany… Marx instructed that the pastoral guideline ‘Blessing Strengthens Love’ should serve as the “foundation of pastoral practice.” The document, a product of Germany’s long-running Synodal Path, explicitly provides for the blessing of couples who cannot receive the sacrament of marriage, including homosexual couples and divorced-and-remarried Catholics. …

By OSV News – Ahead of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s Sept. 24 beatification, the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, recently released a schedule of events, inviting those who plan to travel to The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri, for the beatification to “go deeper” and “transform your trip into a sacred journey.”… “The Sheen Pilgrimage is a spiritual experience centered around prayer, reflection, and celebration,” the diocese said. “Beginning in Peoria, IL, on September 15, this pilgrimage includes the anniversary of Sheen’s ordination ….

By Brandon Harvey, Catholic Exchange – Did you know that the apostles had students? The New Testament was not the only thing being written in those early years. We have writings from Christians that either existed during the time of the New Testament or immediately following. Those that wrote some of these texts personally knew apostles. They heard them preach, they followed them as students, some may have been baptized by them, and some became the next generation of leaders.

By Elise Winland, Zeale – A Virginia circuit court judge on April 22 blocked the state’s newly approved congressional redistricting map, issuing an injunction that prevents state officials from “certifying the results” and from taking “any actions to give effect to the proposed constitutional amendment.”… In a decision issued one day after voters passed the new map, Judge Jack Hurley of the Tazewell County Circuit Court declared the amendment and the referendum “void ab initio” (“void from the start”) and deemed “any and all votes for or against” the proposed measure “ineffective.”

By Gina Christian, OSV News – On March 24, the Guttmacher Institute, a national policy and research firm that supports legalized abortion, released data from its “Monthly Abortion Provision Study” for calendar year 2025… Guttmacher found that the 2025 figures were “largely unchanged from 2024,” when the institute counted 1.124 million clinician-provided abortions… The 2025 estimate marks a 21% increase from 2020, which Guttmacher said was “the last year of comprehensive national estimates” before the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case overturned the 1973 rulings that legalized abortion in the U.S.

By Fr. Kevin Drew, Catholic Exchange – The early Christians called the sacred mysteries Christ commanded them to celebrate “the breaking of the bread.” Why? Probably because they couldn’t think of anything better to call them. Bread and wine became Christ’s Body and Blood. How were they to put that into words?… Today we call it Holy Mass… What does Mass mean, anyway? It’s from the Latin missa, which means “Go, you are dismissed.” Speaking of “going,” listen to a short, 19th century poem in which Christ tells us to “Go”…

By Gabriella Hoffman and Sydney Rodman, The American Spectator – A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. Scientific models and predictions can’t be taken as fact. This is true of the late biologist and alarmist Paul Ehrlich, whose lies and doomsday predictions about population growth and natural resource depletion traveled the world and negatively influenced people. Arguing for the suppression of the human population was Ehrlich’s unashamed stance behind everything he said.

By Robert Orlando, Catholic Exchange – If we begin where Protestants themselves insist we begin—with the Bible—the prominence of Peter becomes immediately clear. The most famous passage appears in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus says to Simon: And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 16:18–19)

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – John 6:35-40 – 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; …