By Cassy Cooke, Live Action News – On July 4, 2026, America will celebrate the 250th anniversary of her founding — but unless Congress votes to continue banning federal Medicaid dollars from abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, July 4 will also be the day that America’s most prolific killer of preborn children will see those taxpayer dollars once again pouring into its bank accounts… Planned Parenthood deserves to be permanently defunded — and Live Action News’ series, ‘DEFUND 250,’ plans to remind the public of many reasons why.

By Matthew McDonald, National Catholic Register – The announcement Thursday that an advocate of legal abortion won’t take a leadership position at Notre Dame pleased pro-life critics of the appointment, though they still have serious concerns about what they see as the university’s drift away from its Catholic identity… A candlelight student protest planned for Friday night is still going ahead, organizers told the Register, even after the withdrawal of Susan Ostermann, who was to have taken over as director of the university’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies starting July 1.

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Matthew 5:43-48 – 43 “You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? ….

By Anne Hendershott, Crisis Magazine – For years, most universities have cast themselves as moral sentinels of American life. They were the first to police speech, enforce ideological conformity, and dismiss ideas that challenge the dominant progressive orthodoxy on campus. Institutions that championed DEI frameworks have often treated conservative ideas with open suspicion, if not outright hostility, positioning themselves as arbiters of cultural virtue rather than as forums for genuine debate. Yet the release of the Epstein files has revealed a striking reversal: the same institutions that cast themselves as guardians of integrity now find their own leaders entangled in scandals they once felt safely distant from.

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture – As the month winds down, I’m sure my fellow Catholics are still basking in the afterglow of the week that was. After all, the fourth week of February began with February 22nd—and you know what that means! It’s Fertility Awareness Week in the Catholic Church!… Why, your parishes must have been overflowing with FA Week posters, bulletin inserts, liturgical prayers, articles, couples’ testimonies, Church teaching summaries, and resources for finding a fertility awareness class in person or online. …

By Gayle Somers, Catholic Exchange – The meaning of this Sunday’s Gospel is greatly enriched if we understand the context in which it appears, both within Matthew’s Gospel and the larger story of salvation history.  Time spent on this will bear good fruit… In Matthew 16, after Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the apostles get a nasty shock.  Jesus tells them that He is destined for suffering and death.  When Peter resists, Jesus sharply rebukes him (“Get behind Me, Satan!” in 16:23) for thinking as men do about suffering, not as God does.  …

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – In the amicus brief urging the US Supreme Court to restore the “birthright citizenship” policy that was ended by a Trump executive order, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) argues that the key consideration is “whether the law will protect the human dignity of all God’s children.”… So is birthright citizenship—that is, the longstanding American policy offering citizenship to anyone born on US soil—an absolute requirement for human dignity? If birthright citizenship is a fundamental human right, why has it not been recognized by most other nations? Why is it not accepted in Vatican City?

By Anthony Esolen, The American Spectator – But the utilitarianism that English professors now decry is only a different form of what they themselves have been peddling, in my experience, for at least 40 years. Every course in “Shakespeare and,” subordinating Shakespeare to some political or sexual preoccupation the professor wishes to promote, turns Shakespeare into a mere utensil, a gear or a lever. The aim is never to employ, in criticism, that breadth of human imagination that Keats, thinking of the poet, called “negative capability,” the large-hearted willingness to set aside, at least provisionally, one’s own beliefs and desires, in order to listen to what someone else has to teach, to illustrate, to reveal, or merely to suggest.

By Kenneth Joe Galloway, Catholic Exchange – Among all symbols that have passed through human history, none is more paradoxical than the Christian cross. During the Roman Empire of the first century, the cross was not a religious emblem. It was an instrument of state-sanctioned terror—a humiliating form of death reserved only for the most despised of criminals. Furthermore, it was intended to break not just the body but also the human spirit, crushing all hope in the population.

By Scott McKay, The American Spectator – Republicans, do your damned job!… Starting with that wimp who runs the GOP caucus in the Senate… John Thune Fools Nobody… The Senate’s majority leader — who seems like he’d rather be the minority leader, just like his mentor Mitch McConnell spent the better part of 20 years trying to make himself, often with success — had a big announcement on Thursday about the SAVE America Act… That sure sounds like a big deal, right?

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Matthew 5:20-26 – 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 21 “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, `You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, `You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. …

By Kate Quiñones, Catholic News Agency – Evangelist and theologian Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s response to modern culture continues to resonate today, according to those who have studied his life… Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895–1979) was an award-winning radio and television personality who, amid fame and success, kept Christ at the center of his life… Now, he’s on the path to sainthood, with the Vatican recently announcing that his beatification — the second of three major steps in the canonization process — will be moving forward following a six-year delay.

By Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer, EWTN News – Rooted in first principles, these students are reshaping campus debates through moral courage rather than outrage… There is a new kind of radical on college campuses today, and they look nothing like what we have come to expect… They are not barricading buildings or shouting down speakers. They are not demanding the overthrow of institutions or vilifying those who disagree with them. Instead, they are challenging institutional decisions and the dominant culture of their peers while living according to their deepest Christian beliefs. …

By Carole Novielli, Live Action News – The State of Louisiana faced off against the FDA in a US District Court this week over mail-order access to the abortion pill. The State is seeking a preliminary injunction against the FDA’s 2023 REMS safety protocol changes, which included the removal of in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion pill mifepristone (200mg)… The State argues that allowing the abortion pill to be dispensed via the mail violates the Comstock Act, causes sovereign harm by facilitating illegal abortions, and causes economic harm by increasing Louisiana’s Medicaid costs. …

By Daniel Payne, EWTN News – A pro-abortion professor at the University of Notre Dame is turning down a leadership appointment there after weeks of backlash that included more than a dozen U.S. bishops criticizing the school for its decision… Mary Gallagher, the dean of the university’s Keough School of Global Affairs, wrote in an email on Feb. 26 that Professor Susan Ostermann “has decided not to move forward as director” of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.