By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, Catholic Culture – We who subscribe to the Catholic faith are periodically asked a very reasonable question: “What’s in it for me?” At its heart, the Catholic faith does not offer material prosperity or escape. Instead, the faith offers the grace to face suffering honestly and the hope to overcome it with love. It is a faith grounded in seeing reality clearly and finding hope within it.

By R. R. Reno, First Things – What we say matters. And the way we say it matters. This is especially true in times of war, when the moral stakes are high. Which is why I’m troubled by the annihilationist rhetoric coming from the White House. It numbs our souls and corrodes our moral sensibilities… On Easter Sunday, as an often-extended deadline for Iranian acceptance of American terms was approaching, Donald Trump issued a statement on social media threatening the destruction of civilian infrastructure, should their leaders fail to comply.

By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú, EWTN News – A new report published by the French Bishops’ Conference presents the latest statistical data from Easter 2026, during which approximately 8,200 adolescents and 13,200 adults embraced the Catholic faith… The report indicates that the majority of converts are young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, closely followed by the 26-to-40 age group… In general, the new catechumens have no prior religious tradition, driven primarily by difficult life experiences, a profound search for meaning ….

By Randall O’Bannon, Ph.D., LifeNews – Clarification for those who will not have time to read the document. Though the service and financial data from the 2024-2025 Planned Parenthood Annual Report spends a fair amount of time complaining about efforts of the Trump administration to shut them down, data from the 2024-2025 Planned Parenthood Annual Report actually covers only the last half of 2024 and the first half of 2025 before Congress actually defunded the group.

By Romy Haber, EWTN News – Lebanon is asking the Vatican to stand with Christian villages in the southern part of the country. In recent days, these communities were widely praised across Lebanese and international media after residents chose to remain in their homes despite the dangers around them. Caught between Hezbollah infiltrations and Israeli strikes, villagers insisted on staying in their ancestral lands. …

By Brian Lonergan, Chronicles – When the Boston Red Sox’s legendary Fenway Park posted archival footage of 1950s Opening Day last week, the team expected a pleasant wave of nostalgia. But the comments section produced something else… The message was clear: The America in the video exposed the unmistakable decline of our current nation. Millions of viewers saw it and immediately understood why… The video touched a raw nerve not just because it was beautiful but because it showed how far we have fallen in what amounts to the span of a single lifetime. …

By John Daniel Davidson, Sr. Editor, The Federalist – After threatening the death of “a whole civilization” on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump announced a two-week, “double-sided” ceasefire with Iran Tuesday evening, pending the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz… The annihilation of Iran, it seems, was averted by a last-minute deal brokered by Pakistan. In his announcement of the ceasefire, Trump said Pakistan “requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran.”

By Fr. Kevin Drew, Catholic Exchange – Something strange is happening, there is a great stillness on earth today, a great silence and stillness… So states an ancient sermon regarding Christ’s descent into the netherworld. … The earth trembled and is now still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. …

By Catholic Culture, April 9, 2026 – Meditation for the Thursday within the Octave of Easter: Grasping What the Resurrection Means… Keeping in mind the magnitude of the change wrought by the Resurrection—a divine action in history and nature that changed history and nature in a radical way, opening new possibilities of life beyond the reach of death—we can perhaps ponder with a bit more patience yet another gospel reading in which the disciples don’t at first, get it.

By Elise Winland, Zeale – In a Truth Social post the morning of March 30, Trump said the U.S. has made “great progress” in “serious discussions with a new, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME” in Iran. He also threatened the “complete obliteration” of Kharg Island and “all” of the nation’s electric plants, oil wells, and desalination plants unless they immediately open the Strait of Hormuz for business… Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt faced questions about whether Trump’s threat to target desalination plants – which are considered civilian infrastructure because they supply drinking water – amounts to a war crime under international law. Leavitt said that “of course this administration and the United States armed forces will always act within the confines of the law.”

Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – John 13:21-33,36-38 – 21 When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus; 24 so Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, “Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.” 25 So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it.” …

By Samantha Stephenson, Catholic Exchange – Confession and the Garden of the Soul… It was around this time that my daughter received her first Confession, which meant that I found myself coaxing and cajoling a fearful and anxious 8-year-old to our local parish for her second Confession, which held none of the excitement and glamour of the first to obscure the objectively nerve-wracking nature of bearing your weaknesses to a total stranger….

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – The Kansas Legislature on Friday overrode pro-abortion Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of legislation shielding pro-life pregnancy centers from government regulations that could restrict their ability to offer life-affirming support to women… The House voted 87-35 and the Senate voted 30-9 to enact House Bill 2635, the Pregnancy Center Autonomy and Rights of Expression (CARE) Act… The measure protects private, nonprofit pregnancy centers and medical pregnancy centers by exempting them from certain regulations on the information …

By Chris Jackson, Hiraeth In Exile, Substack – That is what Bishop Robert Barron effectively did in his March 29 Fox News column. He acknowledged that the overwhelming theological tradition regarded Judas as damned, then shifted the reader’s attention to the Vézelay image beloved by Francis, floated the hope that Judas might have been saved, invoked postconciliar caution about naming anyone in hell, and folded the whole thing into his familiar theology of overwhelming mercy. Instead of an exhortation to fear betrayal, despair, avarice, sacrilege, and final impenitence, it was another attempt to blunt the edge of Christ’s warnings.

By Francis P. Sempa, The American Spectator – Pope Leo XIV on Palm Sunday announced to the world that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” That statement would have surprised Gen. George Patton and the men of the Third Army who in December 1944 were stalled in their drive to relieve the American paratroopers at Bastogne, and it would have surprised Father James O’Neill, the Chief Chaplain of the Third Army, who responded to Patton’s request for a “weather prayer” by writing one that caused Patton to award him the Bronze Star. Perhaps Pope Leo should take the time to read Alex Kershaw’s book Patton’s Prayer,