Author Don Schwager, Servants of the Word – Matthew 20:17-28 – 17 And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, 19 and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”…

By Dan Hart, LifeNews – Data continues to show that red states are attracting more families with young children who move there as a result of more affordable housing and larger job growth than blue states, according to a new Institute for Family Studies (IFS) analysis… As reported by IFS Thursday, an “increasing correlation” is developing between how family-friendly a state’s policies are and how many families are forming within that state. As Ethics and Public Policy Center Fellow Patrick T. Brown observes, blue states are seeing a significant uptick in young people and families leaving and moving to red states, particularly in the years following the COVID pandemic.

By Lloyd Billingsley, Chronicles – (Here is a quote from Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger in her 1648-word response to President Trump’s State of the Union speech last week) “Here’s the truth: over the last year, through DOGE, mass firings, and the appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation’s most serious positions, our president has endangered the long and storied history of the United States of America being a force for good.”

By Thomas V. Mirus, Catholic Culture – Last week the USCCB filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, objecting to President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens as “immoral”. Phil Lawler has already commented on the incoherence of the USCCB’s arguments… Over the weekend, the well-liked Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas weighed in to defend the brief against widespread criticism, while also perhaps tacitly admitting that its theological arguments are weak.

By Carole Novielli, Live Action News – Though the U.S. FDA developed a safety system to monitor adverse events from the abortion pill, it appears no one is overseeing prescribers to ensure they are following the rules… Key Takeaways: The abortion pill, mifepristone, was placed under the FDA’s REMS safety guidelines to protect women… The safety requirements have been relaxed in recent years, which has led to confusion about the safety of the abortion pill.

Catholic Apostolate Center – Patron Saint of Lithuania – St. Casimir was born into a royal family in the 15th century. Although he was in line to be king, he remained committed to his faith, especially through a life of prayer. He rejected the luxuries of a royal family, even sometimes opting to sleep on the floor. St. Casimir died when he was 25, but even in his young life, his piety left a lasting impact. He is remembered as a patron saint of Lithuania and Poland, and even today there are many celebrations in the Lithuanian capital for his feast.

By John Cassara, Crisis Magazine – Organs have become a commodity to be bought and sold. There are networks of organ brokers, transplant teams including physicians, nurses, lab technicians, and even hospitals and other medical facilities engaged in the illegal trade. It is estimated that illicitly acquired organs are involved in up to 10 percent of all transplants. Worldwide, black market organ trafficking generates $840 million to $1.7 billion annually. Organ harvesting in China is estimated to be at least a $1 billion per year business.

By Steve Postal, The American Spectator – As the United States and Israel have claimed air superiority over the skies of Iran, American and Israeli strikes continue to degrade the Islamic Republic. The justification for the recent military action against Iran further increased as it was recently made public that Iran had bragged to U.S. negotiators mere days ago that it had enough uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs. Satellite imagery has confirmed that either the US or Israel has hit the Natanz nuclear facility in recent days.

By Victoria Cardona, Catholic Exchange – Whether you’re Catholic with Evangelical roots, or if you’ve ever been challenged with the question, “but where is that in the Bible?” then this article is for you… For many Christians, the opinion that the Bible is the best and only source of religious knowledge feels natural, even obvious. However, the Catholic Church holds onto something more rich and nutritious than only relying on scripture. It is about the Word of God which stems from Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.

By Scott McKay, The American Spectator – A 47-year war comes to a head — and a wary nation waits… Initially, there was polling which indicated that more Americans were for the airstrike campaign, which took out Iranian tyrant Ali Khamenei and several of his top lieutenants, not to mention a host of key political, military, and intelligence facilities, and continues in a clear effort to facilitate regime change in that beleaguered country… But polling since indicates that isn’t the consensus. More respondents indicate they’re opposed to President Trump’s decision to unleash the whirlwind on the Iranian regime than for it.

By John Daniel Davidson, The Federalist – It appears that President Trump allowed Israel, our purported ally, to drag the United States into war against Iran… After several days of shifting and sometimes contradictory justifications from the Trump administration for why it launched a war against Iran over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday finally gave the real reason: Israel forced us into it… “It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone, the U.S. or Israel or anyone, they were going to respond against the United States,” Rubio said. But later he added this: “We knew there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher numbers of those killed. And then we would all be answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”

By James Kalb, Catholic World Report – We can only do what is possible. We cannot solve global poverty, war, and tyranny by moving the poor and oppressed to rich and peaceful countries… Effectively, open borders are a bad idea. That’s true whether they result from explicit policy or from failure to enforce the law effectively… The population of the world outside the United States is about 8 billion. Of that number, it appears that about a billion and a quarter would like to emigrate from their home countries, with around 230 million picking the United States as their top destination. A great many more would no doubt accept the United States as a second, third, or fourth choice.

By Kathy Schiffer, Catholic World Report – When pizza magnate Tom Monaghan founded Legatus in 1987, its members had as their mission to “study, live and spread the Catholic faith” in their families, businesses, and communities… Today, almost 40 years later, that mission has attracted more than 5,500 Catholic business leaders and their spouses in more than 90 chapters across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, who gather each month for prayer and fellowship.

By Chris Jackson, Hiraeth In Exile, Substack – A Church that cannot speak with the authority of God eventually starts speaking with the voice of the age. The age currently wants climate liturgies, indigenous “wisdom,” migration talking points, and a priesthood domesticated into administration… So yes, the whale belongs in this story. It is not a random German eccentricity. It is a sacramental sign of the new religion, a religion that uses Catholic architecture as a shell while catechizing the faithful in a different gospel… And Aparecida, under an Amazon Synod archbishop, is the other half of the same picture: the revolution moving from the periphery to the shrine.

By Allen West, American Greatness – I have written and spoken on many occasions about the Marxist leftist enemy within our Republic and its persistent effort to capture the hearts and minds of American families through institutions such as PBS, NPR, MSNBC, and whatever rebranded iteration of progressive media emerges next. I have also written and spoken about the creeping advance of Sharia law advanced by the Muslim Brotherhood and the expansive ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party to shape a world ordered not by liberty, but by centralized control… Now we find ourselves confronting a convergence of these forces. The Red-Green alliance is real. ….