By Jeffrey Bruno, National Catholic Register – The Mass was the center, as it must be. Then came the procession. The Blessed Sacrament was carried across the shrine grounds to the Rustic Altar, then to the Historic Chapel, where adoration continued throughout the day. In the blazing heat, people followed. They sang, prayed, knelt, walked, endured, and adored… And Christ was among them… It would have been enough to say that the pilgrimage began in St. Augustine. But that wouldn’t be enough. … Because this was not merely a location. It was a beginning returning to a beginning..
By Lisa Bast, LiveAction – Growing up in a Catholic household, Emily Geiger considered herself pro-life “by default” and never felt convicted to promote pro-life principles actively. She naively believed most Christians were pro-life until she entered St. Olaf College, an institution founded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church… There, she was startled to discover that many young people held passionate pro-choice views.
By Breccan F. Thies, The Federalist – The DHS effort to rein in immigration lawyers committing fraud comes after Trump issued a memorandum in March 2025 recognizing that “the immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief.”
NEWS
Bishop Barron Blasts Catholic Left for ‘Demonization’ of Trump Amid Child Trafficking Crisis, by Peter Pinedo
By Peter Pinedo, Fox News – Bishop Robert Barron said he has been urging Catholics on the left to stop the “demonization” of the Trump administration, even when it comes to highly contentious issues such as immigration and border security… Barron, arguably the most prominent Catholic prelate in America, said that despite criticism within the church of the administration’s immigration policy, “there are darn good reasons, moral reasons, for being concerned about an open border.”… “I don’t think it’s fair to say to a conservative, to a Republican, you’re just being difficult and anti-humanitarian” …
The Choice: Rebuild the Tower of Babel or Rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem, by Dale Ahlquist
By Dale Ahlquist, Catholic World Report – However, I think there are two main omissions in Magnifica Humanitas… First, while Pope Leo points out that our great technical advancements have created new forms of slavery, he misses the main form of slavery condemned by his namesake: wage slavery. One could argue that the main point of Rerum Novarum is that “more workers should become owners.” Leo XIV does not mention this at all. He does not acknowledge the importance of widespread ownership, which for Chesterton and Belloc was the key solution to modern social and economic problems. Subsidiarity is the small shop. Solidarity is the seed planted in the earth.
Saint of the Day: Saint Mariana of Jesus (1618–1645)
By The Dynamic Catholic Institute – Saint Mariana of Jesus discovered God’s dream for her through discussions with her confessor and spiritual director… Mariana was born in 1618 in Quito, Ecuador. She took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience at the age of ten, but she did not enter a convent. Instead, under the guidance of her spiritual director, a Jesuit priest, she became a solitary consecrated woman and lived in her sister’s home. Mariana spent much of her time in the local Jesuit church, and many hours with her spiritual director, who was also her confessor.
TRIBUNE. Crisis of Confidence in the Church, by Martin Grichting
By Martin Grichting, INFOVATICANA – In the Church, the problem of power is even more pressing. There, not all the means mentioned exist to fragment power. Rather, according to the doctrine of the faith and the Code of Canon Law (CIC/1983), the Pope “by virtue of his office possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church” (can. 331). … The Pope therefore possesses absolute power. Does absolute power therefore corrupt absolutely within the Church? If the Church is considered only with human eyes, one would have to say: yes, it does. But if considered with the eyes of faith, this is not true. For there is one single “instrument” to limit papal omnipotence: unconditional obedience to Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, to which the Pope is bound in conscience. …
Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations: What Do You Want Me to Do for You?
Author Don Schwager , Servants of the Word – Mark 10:46-52 – 46 And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” …
Pro-Life Academy Calls for Withdrawal of Synod Report on Same-Sex Relations, by Edward Pentin
By Edward Pentin’s Substack – The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family has issued an open letter sharply criticising the Synod Study Group 9 report on same-sex relations, warning that its proposed “paradigm shift” departs from Catholic teaching and divine Revelation in favour of the “spirit of the age.”… The academy argues that the text is incompatible with the Church’s understanding of Revelation, risks reviving condemned modernist errors, and “touches the very integrity of the Catholic faith,” particularly by appearing to normalise or bless unions based on acts the Catechism calls “intrinsically disordered” ….
Kath.net: Is a Schism in the Air? A Conversation Between Cdl. Gerhard Ludwig Müller & Lothar C. Rilinger
By Kath.net – The decrees of the Second Vatican Council were not accepted by all Catholics. Some were content with critical statements, but Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, who also served as Archbishop of Dakar, rejected even key reforms initiated by the Council, including the declaration Nostra aetate – the declaration that regulates the new relationship between the Church and the Jews. Furthermore, he rejected the 1965 liturgical reforms as well as the ecumenical movement. His strict rejection met with fierce resistance within the Church. To institutionalize his conservative stance, he founded the Society of St. Pius X in 1970.
Texas Children’s Hospital to Create Nation’s First Clinic for Detransitioners, by Elise Winland
By Elise Winland, Zeale News – “I’ve talked with hundreds of detransitioners across America. We’re all heartened by the news out of Texas,” (Chloe Cole — a detransitioner and activist who says she was prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones before undergoing a double mastectomy at age 15) wrote. “But we’re angry, too. It should have never taken this long to create a clinic dedicated to some of America’s most vulnerable young patients. It’s a medical and moral crime that any child was subjected to a sex change in the first place — and that many are still being pushed down this painful road.”
Canada Has Euthanized Almost 100,000 People, by Brittany Campbell
By Brittany Campbell, LiveNews – Canada made a dark choice in 2016… Instead of investing in more care, support, and hope for people who are suffering, the Canadian government legalized assisted suicide through a program called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). From the beginning, it was presented as a “last resort” for people with serious illnesses — treating death as the answer to suffering instead of offering true compassion, care, and support. …
Coherence in Continuity, by Stephen P. White
By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing – This encyclical declares its subject to be “On Safeguarding the Dignity of the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” And while this encyclical certainly deals with AI, the heart of the document is much more a positive defense of human dignity than it is a thoroughgoing or definitive critique of AI… Which brings us to the next observation about this encyclical: Magnifica humanitas is, in a way, as much an encyclical about Catholic Social Teaching as it is a contribution to that corpus of teaching. ….
Trump-Backed Ken Paxton Defeats Incumbent John Cornyn in Texas GOP Senate Runoff, by Jasmyn Jordan
By Jordan, Breitbart News – Trump-backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton decisively defeated John Cornyn, a roughly 23-year Senate incumbent, in Tuesday’s Republican U.S. Senate runoff, advancing to face Democrat James Talarico in November after opening a roughly 25-point lead… Associated Press called the race at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, estimating 49 percent of the vote had been counted. At the time of the call, Paxton led Cornyn 62.5 percent to 37.5 percent, with 505,741 votes to Cornyn’s 303,276.
Forgotten Customs of the Octave of Pentecost, by Matthew Plese
By Matthew Plese, OnePeterFive – The Feast of Pentecost (i.e., White Sunday) is one of the principal feasts in the life of the Church. After Pentecost Sunday and its Octave, we will conclude Pascaltide and begin the Season after Pentecost. Consequently, the Vigil of Pentecost has been a day of required fasting and abstinence for centuries and it was kept as such even through the early 1960s. Catholics should fast and partially abstain from meat on the Vigil of Pentecost to better prepare themselves to celebrate Pentecost.
The Left Don’t Love Leo (They Simply Hate Trump), by J.T. Young
By J.T. Young, The American Spectator – Pope Leo XIV’s honeymoon with the Left has an expiration date… The Left will soon tire of Pope Leo XIV. This is so certain that we can even affix the day by which it will happen: Jan. 20, 2029. That’s the day Donald Trump will no longer be president… Currently, America’s Left is fawning over Pope Leo XIV. They quote him. They extol him. Of course, he is the first American pope. However, it is not patriotism that drives America’s Left to Leo; it is partisanship. In Pope Leo, America’s Left feels they have another foil for President Trump. …
Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations: Are You Able to Drink the Cup That I Drink?
Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Mark 10:32-45 – 32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; 34 and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.”
New Human Matters: Why Couples Shouldn’t Live Together Before Marriage, by Bridget Sielicki
By Bridget Sielicki, Live Action – In the latest episode of Human Matters, host Sami Parker discussed why cohabitation before marriage isn’t a good idea… She pointed to statistics that show that couples who live together before marriage face higher rates of divorce than couples who do not cohabitate… Cohabitating couples and married couples face the same challenges, but those who are married have made a vow and entered into a commitment to stay together, while cohabitating couples don’t have the same levels of commitment.
Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations: What Do You Want Me to Do for You?
Author Don Schwager , Servants of the Word – Mark 10:46-52 – 46 And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” …
Founder’s Quote
Patriot Post – “Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.” —John Adams (1808)
Saint of the Day: Saint Mariana of Jesus (1618–1645)
By The Dynamic Catholic Institute – Saint Mariana of Jesus discovered God’s dream for her through discussions with her confessor and spiritual director… Mariana was born in 1618 in Quito, Ecuador. She took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience at the age of ten, but she did not enter a convent. Instead, under the guidance of her spiritual director, a Jesuit priest, she became a solitary consecrated woman and lived in her sister’s home. Mariana spent much of her time in the local Jesuit church, and many hours with her spiritual director, who was also her confessor.
