By Angeline Tan, LiveAction – US marriage rates have dropped drastically over the past five decades, and a new Heritage Foundation report found that the main causes of marriage decline are cultural changes toward sexuality and childbirth outside of marriage, together with escalating financial and lifestyle expectations linked to marriage… Though earnings for men in their 20s and 30s have remained stable, marriage rates have plummeted, weakening the argument that poor economics are responsible for the decline. …

Catholic Culture – Justin, the son of Priscus, was a Greek by race, and was born at Nablus in Palestine. He passed his youth in the study of letters. When he grew to manhood he was so taken with the love of philosophy and the desire of truth, that he became a student of philosphy and examined the teaching of all the philosophers. He found in them only deceitful wisdom and error. He received the light of heaven from a venerable old man, who was a stranger to him, and embraced the philosophy of the true Christian faith.

By Mary Rose, Zeale News – President Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV’s meeting with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on May 30… (Trump wrote) the mayor is “useless” and reiterating his opposition to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon… “Someone should explain to the Pope that the Mayor of Chicago is useless, and that Iran cannot have a Nuclear Weapon!” Trump wrote, attaching screenshots of social media posts showing Johnson with the Pontiff… As Zeale News reported, Johnson met privately with Pope Leo at the Vatican on May 28, where the two discussed social justice issues. The mayor also invited the Chicago-born pontiff to visit the city in 2027 and celebrate Mass in Grant Park.

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – Hungary’s former ambassador to the Holy See, who has written a new booklet, recalls his first disorienting encounter with the old rite and explains how with this new work he aims to help others approach it with understanding and peace… The traditional Latin Mass has become a point of both devotion and controversy in recent years, drawing growing numbers of young faithful even in the face of restrictions from Rome. …

By Francis P. Sempa, The American Spectator – When Whittaker Chambers abandoned atheistic communism for Christianity in the late 1930s, he told his wife that they were joining the losing side in what he viewed as a great spiritual struggle. Later… wrote (in) his magnificent autobiography… which he described the struggle between communism and Western civilization as a battle between those who believe that “Man” is the center of the universe and those who believe that God is the center of the universe. Communism… is “man’s second oldest faith” whose “promise was whispered in the first days of Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: ‘Ye shall be as gods.’” Artificial Intelligence (AI) whispers the same promise as the Serpent made to Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden.

By Jimmy Akin, Catholic World Report – The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith. But how much do we know about this mystery? What is its history? What does it mean? And how can it be proved?… Here are 12 things to know and to share… 1. Where does the word “Trinity” come from?… It comes from the Latin word “trinitas,” which means “three” or “triad.” The Greek equivalent is “triados.”

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture – Papal documents are not above criticism. But the criticisms from major right-leaning commentators, in outlets both secular and Catholic, were not always this silly. After 12 years of Francis, the office of the papacy no longer commands quite the same Olympian height of moral certitude in people’s minds than it once did under, say, John Paul II. That may be part of it. Traditionalists all along warned conservatives like, well, me, that “papalotry”—making a sort of oracle out of the Pope—would be our undoing, and that correction now seems to have arrived.

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Mark 12:1-12 – 1 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. 2 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 …

By Kristen Ziccarelli, The Catholic Thing – And yet, the most important thing about Joan was … the fact that she was obsessed with the will of God. As Alexandre Havard writes from her perspective in “Coached by Joan of Arc: Lessons in Virtuous Leadership”, “my love for France was not the fruit of an extreme patriotism. It is true that my father was a patriot. However, what obsessed me was the will of God. My patriotism did not give birth to my visions; my visions gave birth to my patriotism. My voices advised me to do things I could not imagine; they commanded me to do things I found repugnant. I felt sorry for the French because God felt sorry for them. I loved France for God.” …

By Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, Bishop Emeritus, Pillars of Faith – There are certain sounds that stay with us all our lives… Many of us remember nursery rhymes and lullabies long after we have forgotten so many other things. There is something about the voice of a mother that settles deeply into the soul. Even elderly men and women, after long lives and many years, will sometimes call out for their mother in moments of sickness or fear. Because somewhere deep within us is the memory of what it felt like to be protected – to be watched over – to belong completely to someone who loved us before we had done anything to deserve it. …

By Kate Scanlon, OSV News, (Complicit Clergy) – A group of U.S. bishops, most from the U.S.-Mexico border region, wrote a May 20 letter to members of Congress expressing “grave concern” with budget legislation that would provide an additional $72 billion for immigration enforcement… The letter came the same day Senate Republicans on the Budget Committee advanced the measure, and the day after it was advanced by the Senate Homeland Security and ‌Governmental Affairs Committee.

By Susan Ciancio, Catholic World Report – Mary continually offers herself as the mother we can strive to emulate, and every time she appears to us, she makes known her immense love… Our Blessed Mother constantly looks out for us, even when we aren’t thinking about her… I was reminded of this fact recently when I chanced upon Mary under the title of Our Lady of Charity. I had never heard of this specific title, so I searched the Internet and found a beautiful story of our heavenly mother’s protection and love. ..

By Daniel J. Flynn, The American Spectator – Where do the hearts of Democratic Party primary voters lie? With AOC… AOC looks like the kid in the square on Sesame Street that’s doing her own thing. When one needs to separate from the pack, separating from the pack seems like the smart move. AOC stands out. The rest try — and they have been trying all their life — to fit in. That’s their basic problem. …

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Mark 11:27-33 – 27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you a question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. …

By Gayle Somers, Catholic Exchange – Sunday’s Gospel is different from any we have seen during the long seasons of Lent and Easter.  On Sunday after Sunday, the Gospels have reported actions of Jesus.  They have been passages full of conversations and events that moved His story along, culminating in His Ascension into Heaven and His promise to send the Holy Spirit.  This day, however, St. John gives us a kind of summary.  It’s simple, but what a sweep it has!