Politics

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal – Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration has created a new assistant attorney general position to crack down on fraud nationwide… The new official will have “nationwide jurisdiction over the issue of fraud,” Vance said at Thursday’s White House press briefing… “Unfortunately, the American people have been defrauded in a very nationwide way,” Vance said… Federal prosecutors have estimated that welfare fraud in the state could have topped $9 billion, and more than 90 individuals have been charged in connection to fraud schemes there.

By John Daniel Davidson, the Federalist – Forget January 6. It turns out January 7 might go down as the date when insurrection really arrived in America — not from the MAGA right, but from the anti-Trump left… In the aftermath of the fatal shooting Wednesday in Minneapolis of a woman who appears to have tried to ram an ICE agent with her vehicle, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced at a press conference that he had issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard to mobilize to “protect Minnesotans” from “rogue ICE agents.”… Walz said, “We’ve never been at war with our federal government,” and at one point told Minnesotans, “do not allow them to deploy federal troops here.” …

By Greg Piper, Just the News – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s in-house publication gave mainstream media ammunition to attack Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s scrutiny on vaccine safety and efficacy, running a study that implies COVID vaccines saved healthy kids from serious outcomes last season… The research appeared in the CDC’s Dec. 11 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is not peer-reviewed and was accused of publishing methodologically weak research upholding COVID dogma between President Trump’s terms. …

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – In remarks at a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) policy celebration Jan. 8, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused major health organizations of promoting nutrition advice shaped by corporate interests… Speaking one day after HHS unveiled the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, Kennedy argued that long-standing federal warnings against saturated fat reflected conflicts of interest rather than settled science… He singled out the American Heart Association, saying it “was and continues to accept millions of dollars from the biggest processed food makers in this country” ….

By Srdja Trifkovic, Chronicles – Operation Absolute Resolve in the early hours of Jan. 3 showcased military professionalism bolstered by first-class intelligence. It opened with shock-and-awe air strikes that neutralized Venezuela’s air defenses and provided the cover for the Delta Force raid on President Nicolás Maduro’s compound and his prompt transfer to USS Iwo Jima… It was a truly unprecedented event: a de facto extradition of a head of state, with the objective of effecting major policy changes by his successors. … This was a clear demonstration, on (Jan. 3, 2026), that the world has moved beyond those nebulous and inherently dangerous constructs of Team Biden’s “rules-based international order.” …

By Anne Hendershott, Catholic World Report – Too many in the media try to force a long tradition of papal diplomacy into the narrow world of American politics while ignoring the centuries of Catholic teachings on war, peace, and justice… Pope Leo’s recent comments on the United States military operation in Venezuela were quickly labeled left‑leaning by some media outlets, including The Daily Beast, Yahoo News, and a growing list of syndicated sites… But that framing misses the point. It forces a long tradition of papal diplomacy into the narrow world of American politics while ignoring the centuries of Catholic teachings on war, peace, and justice.

By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register – Some cardinals and faithful who have a devotion to the traditional Roman rite have expressed concern that the liturgy appears to be sidelined in the extraordinary consistory currently underway at the Vatican after the cardinals voted to give priority to other issues on the agenda… In his opening address to the consistory yesterday, Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed to the cardinal participants that they will have the opportunity to “engage in a communal reflection” on four themes already pre-announced to be on the meeting’s agenda. …

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – Since Wednesday’s shooting of a violent anti-ICE demonstrator at the hands of U.S. immigration officials in Minneapolis, Democrats and their left-wing lackies have taken to doing what they do best: lying… Within hours, these self-professed “misinformation” experts spread disinformation of their own by claiming that the now-deceased woman — who is on video obstructing law enforcement operations and accelerating her vehicle at an ICE agent — was nothing more than an innocent “legal observer.” …

By Ryan Neuhaus, Chronicles – Politicos keep talking about an affordability crisis, and they’re not wrong; there clearly is one. But the price pressures everyone is obsessing about sit atop something deeper. The truth is that the affordability crisis is the result of choices, policy decisions made over decades, that reshaped the country in ways that no longer reward responsible behavior. The crisis is not primarily about inflation or deregulation or unemployment, or any other economic metric. It is about a generation of young Americans waking up and realizing that the path they were told to take no longer leads where they were told it would. …

By John Solomon, Just the News – Officials say movement of cash out of Minnesota was substantially abnormal and should have raised red flags during the Biden administration… Homeland Security Dept. officials said the statistics they have gathered in recent weeks show the movement of cash out of Minnesota was substantially abnormal and should have raised red flags during the Biden administration, long before the Trump administration began investigating it as part of a major fraud scheme that stole billions from taxpayers in the state.

By Matt Kittle, The Federalist – Assaults on ICE agents have exploded over the past year. In November, DHS reported that “sanctuary politicians’ rhetoric” fueled a 1,150 percent “increase in violence against ICE law enforcement.” In light of last month’s Operation Metro Surge, an ICE enforcement effort targeting “the worst of the worst who flock to Minnesota because they know sanctuary politicians will protect them,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the liberal politicians were only making things tougher for law enforcement officials.

By Dr. R. Jared Staudt, Catholic World Report – What would the collapse of civilization look like?… We might immediately think of cutoff utilities, disruptions in the supply chain, violence in the streets, and the lack of functional government. While it’s true these might serve as external indicators of a functioning modern society, they do not constitute the essence of civilization. A civilized person doesn’t just live in the city (the civitas that gives civilization its name) but conforms to an ideal of culture. A barbarian lives for immediate needs and wants …

By Craig Bannister, MRC TV – “I’ve issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard. We have soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed, if necessary,” Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Walz threatened Wednesday, denouncing the federal government’s efforts to enforce U.S. immigration law in his state… Gov. Walz made the apparent threat during a press conference following the death of a Minnesota anti-immigration enforcement protester who was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent as she, according to video of the incident, drove her vehicle into the agent. …

By Nancy Flanders, Live Action News – According to new reports, Canada is allowing prisoners to end their lives through assisted suicide despite having banned capital punishment decades ago… Canada fully banned capital punishment — the death penalty — in 1998… Medical Assistance in Dying was approved in Canada in 2016… From 2016 to 2025, at least 67 prisoners in Canada have requested assisted death, with at least 15 approved and killed. …

By Randall O’Bannon, Ph.D., LifeNews – Since the Dobbs decision, the Guttmacher Institute has been publishing monthly abortion estimates based on data submitted from a national sample of abortionists. In the last few weeks, it has compiled these monthly totals and published a new estimate for abortions in 2024 – 1,126,970… Guttmacher says this number reflects 1,050,660 abortions “provided by clinicians in U.S. states without a total ban in 2024″ plus an additional 76,310 “provided via telehealth to states with total bans in 2024,” according to estimates Guttmacher takes from the Society of Family Planning (SFP). …

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal – When Rep. Mary Miller saw President Donald Trump’s announcement of plans to ban large investors from buying single-family homes, she immediately volunteered to introduce a bill to codify it, she said… “It’s been an issue that the Family Caucus has been discussing, and I’m thrilled to see President Trump’s tweet and that he’s making this a priority,” Miller (said)… Miller expects Trump to sign an executive order banning large investors from buying single-family homes, and then her bill will codify that policy into law. ….

By Eddie Scarry, The Federalist – That Tim Walz is abandoning his reelection campaign for Minnesota governor amid a maddening multibillion-dollar welfare fraud scandal should serve as a big reminder: Democrats are robbing you every day and hardly even trying to hide it… Recall Walz as the stereotypical self-abasing Democrat white male, presumably heterosexual, who was inexplicably chosen to be Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 election. His stint in that role was the equivalent of a 300-pound belly flop into a pool full of sand ….

By Max Dublin, The American Spectator – South America is moving on from socialist fantasies, just as the North begins to embrace them… With all the hullabaloo relating to the extraction and arrest of Venezuelan narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro, it is easy to forget that in recent years — and even recent months — good things have been happening in the southern hemisphere without America’s helping hand… Shortly before the recent election in Chile, I visited that country to attend a wedding. …

By Edward Welsch, Chronicles – Unlike my ancestors, the Somalis did not come to the United States to work. They came to America to become government dependents and clients of the Democratic Party… They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you, okay? Someone will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks and we don’t want them in our country.

By Tyler Arnold, Catholic News Agency – “Now you have to be a little flexible on Hyde,” the president said. “You know that you got to be a little flexible. You got to work something [out]. You got to use ingenuity. You got to work. We’re all big fans of everything, but you got to be flexible. You have to have flexibility.”… Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, criticized Trump for urging flexibility on the provision, calling its support “an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party.”

By Ryan Colby, LifeNews – The State of Colorado must pay $5.4 million in attorneys’ fees to Becket following the state’s unconstitutional effort to outlaw abortion pill reversal. Becket represented Bella Health and Wellness, a Denver-area Catholic pro-life healthcare clinic, defending them against Colorado’s attempt to make it illegal for doctors and nurses to help women who take the first abortion pill but then decide to continue their pregnancies.

Patriot Post, Headlines – Maduro update: Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro appeared in a New York City court on Monday following his arrest by U.S. forces in Caracas over the weekend. Wearing a prison uniform, Maduro pleaded not guilty to charges connected to narco-terrorism, contending that he was “a decent man” and that he was “innocent” and “not guilty of anything that is mentioned here.” His wife, Cilia Flores, who was arrested and charged with him, also entered a not-guilty plea. …

By John Cassara, Crisis Magazine – Greed is part of the human condition. It has always been with us. Yet in our progressive, post-Christian, materialistic, and debased culture, it seems like we are seeing more and more instances of egregious criminality based on greed… For example, Minnesota’s Somali community has recently faced scrutiny over major fraud cases, particularly the multimillion-dollar “Feeding Our Future” scandal. It involved Covid pandemic food aid and other forms of government assistance, including Medicaid fraud, child care, housing, and autism programs. Estimates of the fraud vary from between $9 and $18 billion. …

By Katy Faust, The Federalist – Then there is Elon Musk, who has openly declared that having many children is a moral duty to save civilization. Musk has at least 14 publicly known children, many conceived through IVF, surrogacy, or relationships intentionally structured around reproduction rather than marriage. He has said that “smart people” need to have more kids — and has used reproductive technologies to curate which women will bear them. …

By Christopher Jacobs, The Federalist – I could go on (and on and on), but I won’t. Here’s hoping that, regardless of what happens with the upcoming vote in the House, Republicans stop playing into Democrats’ hands and start turning their attention toward reducing the underlying cost of health care, rather than throwing good taxpayer money over bad at a failing Obamacare program.

By Cassy Cooke, Live Action News – If 2025 proved one thing, it’s that the pro-life movement is not slowing down. And Live Action continues to lead where culture, truth, and accountability meet… Here are some of the biggest victories the pro-life movement celebrated in 2025… Defunding Big Abortion of an estimated $700 million… This summer, the reconciliation bill known as the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed Congress and was subsequently signed by President Trump on July 4.

By Fr. Mario Alexis Portella, Crisis Magazine – The era of socialism in New York City has begun as Mayor Zohran Mamdani was ceremoniously sworn in by the socialist Democrat Senator of Vermont, Bernie Sanders. In his inauguration speech on New Year’s Day, the new mayor said: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism…. I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist.”… Mamdani, aside from seeking to freeze rent on the city’s nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments as part of his socialist agenda, has also vowed to implement city-owned grocery stores.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Radical pro-abortion Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who signed a law allowing infanticide by letting babies die who survive abortions, announced Monday he will not seek reelection amid an ongoing fraud scandal plaguing his administration… Walz, a pro-abortion Democrat who initially launched his bid for a historic third term in September, reversed course, citing the need to focus on combating widespread fraud in state programs rather than campaigning.”

By David Catron, The American Spectator – The 1973 War Powers Resolution allows him to deploy military forces without prior approval of Congress… It was hardly necessary to consult the Delphic Oracle to know that every Democrat within reach of a microphone would denounce President Trump’s military action against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. It was, however, surprising to discover how ignorant the Democrats are about the President’s authority to deploy military forces. …

By Srdja Trifkovic, Chronicles – In this hope, Maurras was disappointed: Pétain was outwitted by outright Nazi collaborationists. His turn of phrase nevertheless describes President Donald Trump’s December 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) for those who hope America can be once again a regular nation in its foreign affairs: powerful, secure, and focused on its pragmatic interests, in the realist tradition…. The president prefaced the 33-page document as “a roadmap to ensure America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history and the home of freedom on earth.”

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Louisiana is pushing to temporarily reinstate an in-person requirement for dispensing abortion pills in a federal lawsuit that could protect thousands of unborn babies from chemical abortions enabled by a Biden administration rule… The state’s motion, filed December 17 in U.S. District Court, challenges the 2023 Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy rule from the Food and Drug Administration, which allows remote prescription and mailing of the abortion drug mifepristone. A hearing on the request to restore the in-person safeguard is set for February 24.

By Nathanael Blake, The Federalist – Americans do not need illegal immigrants to raise our children… Atlantic writer Olga Khazan disagrees. She is angry at President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration because it is disrupting the easily exploited servant class that provides cheap childcare. As she explains, “Millions of parents in the United States … rely on immigrants to take care of their kids. … Immigrants make up at least 21 percent of the child-care workforce — and this may be an undercount.”… Fertility is about priorities and character, not immigration policy. The birth rate will go up if Americans prioritize having and raising their own children, not because they are offered a supply of cheap, easily exploited foreign women to change diapers.

By Mary Stroka, Catholic Vote – Since then, significant related developments have unfolded, including the following… Rubio explains U.S. policy in Venezuela.. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Kristen Welker of NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S. is at war with drug trafficking organizations, not Venezuela. He told Welker after she asked about President Donald Trump’s statement “We’re going to run the country” that the U.S. is “running policy” regarding changes in Venezuela.

By CNA Staff, Catholic World Report, Catholic News Agency – President Donald Trump announced Saturday that U.S. forces have “captured” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro following a “large-scale strike” on the South American nation… “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump wrote.

By Casey Chalk, The Federalist – No one looms larger in the story of our nation’s struggle for independence than George Washington, who today seems almost mythical… There are many things to celebrate during our nation’s semiquincentennial celebrations, and many men to honor for their part in our country’s birth: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock among them. But no one looms larger than George Washington, who today seems almost mythical. At Washington’s funeral, Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee famously eulogized Washington as, “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” In 2026, it is our duty to ensure that honorific remains as true as when it was first spoken.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Federal authorities are ramping up investigations into alleged fraud tied to Minnesota’s child care and nutrition programs, bringing new charges and convictions in what prosecutors have described as one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in U.S. history… The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Dec. 29 X post that prosecutors have now charged 98 individuals in connection with the case, with more than 60 defendants having pleaded guilty or been convicted. In a separate Dec. 29 post, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that 85 of the 98 individuals charged are of Somali descent.

By James H. McGee, The American Spectator – On Christmas night, the U.S. delivered a long-called for and long-hoped for present to Nigeria’s Christians. More than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles, fired from a U.S. Navy destroyer off the coast of Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea, struck ISIS terrorist bases in the Sokoto state in northern Nigeria, a region increasingly dominated by ISIS. According to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), a significant number of terrorists were killed, and operational support facilities destroyed. Nigerian authorities confirmed that the strikes were coordinated with the Nigerian government.

By Amanda Prestigiacomo, DailyWire – A new childhood vaccination schedule under Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could look a lot more like Denmark’s schedule — meaning more parental control, fewer overall shots, and nixing very early doses… Kennedy has made it clear that he wants to overhaul how vaccines are recommended — and mandated — in the United States. So far, the secretary has handpicked a new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) panel and green-lighted changes to the Hep B and COVID vaccines.

By Bring Me The News, (Complicit Clergy) – Archbishop Hebda just directly associated himself with arguably the most radical, corrupt Governor in the nation… Joined by faith leaders and Twin Cities mayors, Governor Tim Walz addressed ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and federal immigration enforcement across the Twin Cities at a joint news conference on Tuesday… Federal officials began “Operation Metro Surge” on Dec. 1, with the Department of Homeland Security claiming they have arrested “the worst criminal illegal aliens, including child sex offenders, domestic abusers, and violent gang members” across Minnesota.

By S.A. McCarthy, The Daily Signal – Hundreds of Christians in China will likely spend Christmas in jail this year, according to a recent report. Starting on Dec. 13, the Chinese Communist Party mobilized “more than a thousand police officers, SWAT units, anti-riot forces, and firefighters” in the Zhejiang Province’s Yayang Town in Wenzhou City, raiding churches and conducting mass arrests of Christians, ChinaAid reported Friday… “Belongings of relevant individuals were illegally confiscated, roads leading to the church were completely blocked by police, and Christians in Yayang Town were unable to enter the Yayang church.

By Salena Zito, Patriot Post – After surviving two assassination attempts, one of which nearly killed him, and seeing the brutal murder of his friend Charlie Kirk, Trump recognizes that returning to huge outdoor rallies is impossible. Kirk’s death, he says, has changed him, shaping not only how he thinks about security but affecting him personally as well… After surviving two assassination attempts, one of which nearly killed him, and seeing the brutal murder of his friend Charlie Kirk, Trump recognizes that returning to huge outdoor rallies is impossible. Kirk’s death, he says, has changed him, shaping not only how he thinks about security but affecting him personally as well.

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal – The Department of Justice has reversed the Biden administration’s decision to allow Department of Veterans Affairs doctors to perform abortions on the taxpayers’ dime… After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration told Veterans Affairs doctors that they could perform abortions, even though federal law prohibits taxpayers from funding abortion… In 2022, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel advised that federal law authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs and its employees to provide abortion services.

By Alex Nitzberg Fox News – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is offering to pay illegal aliens $3,000 and provide a free plane ticket out of the U.S. if they register by the end of the year for self-deportation on the CBP One app…. “Self-deportation through the CBP Home app is the best gift that an illegal alien can give themselves and their families this holiday season,” the release asserts. “Those illegal aliens who don’t take advantage of this special offer today have only one alternative: They will be arrested, deported, and they will never be able to return to the United States.”

By Samantha Flom, The American Spectator – We are either all created equal with the unalienable rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” or we are not. There is no single point during pregnancy when a human being suddenly becomes a person worthy of those rights. There is no magic in the birth canal that transforms a “fetus” into a “baby” deserving of legal protection… The only qualification for human rights should be humanity. Here’s hoping that this time around, it doesn’t take another bloody war for the United States to acknowledge that.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – A pro-life activist was arrested while distributing pregnancy resource pamphlets on a public sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion center in San Francisco… The arrested is being called a violation of First Amendment rights of pro-life Americans to protest abortion or help women find alternatives… Anastasia Rogers, an organizer with the pro-life group Survivors San Francisco, was handcuffed and taken into custody Thursday after a security guard at the abortion giant alleged “threatening language” in an Instagram post she made about her sidewalk outreach, Pro-Life San Francisco said in a statement. 

By Casey Chalk, Crisis Magazine – Surely one of the most provocative conversations this year has been that sparked by conservative essayist Helen Andrews, whose October essay “The Great Feminization”—which censured what she describes as the feminization of Western institutions—went so viral that even liberal corporate media couldn’t ignore it. The New York Times welcomed her to write an op-ed on her thesis, and conservative Catholic columnist Ross Douthat brought Andrews onto The New York Times podcast to discuss it with conservative Catholic feminist Leah Libresco Sargeant. …

By Carole Novielli, Live Action News – The State of Louisiana and coerced abortion victim Rosalie Markezich have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) enforcement of the 2023 REMS safety protocols, which removed in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion pill mifepristone (200mg)… The lawsuit contends that the 2023 REMS “unlawfully remov[ed] the in-person dispensing requirement for the sole purpose of allowing out-of-state doctors to facilitate illegal mail order abortions in pro-life states like Louisiana.”…

By  M.D. Kittle, The Federalist – A jury late Thursday found Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of felony obstruction but determined there wasn’t enough evidence to convict her on a misdemeanor charge of concealing an individual from arrest… But the jury determined Dugan, who previously served as executive director of illegal immigrant advocate Catholic Charities, broke the law. … Dugan faces up to five years in prison on the obstruction conviction, but she is unlikely to be given that maximum penalty. Adelman, a leftist judge who has himself been publicly censured, will ultimately decide the judge’s sentence.

By David Catron, The American Spectator – If you have struggled to find any reason to support the Democratic Party, you are by no means alone. A new Quinnipiac poll revealed last week that 73 percent of voters disapprove of the way the Democrats in Congress are handling their job. Yet, somehow, the party’s candidates managed to overperform its 2024 margins in all five House special elections this year. How did they work this miracle? One clue can perhaps be found in the recent revelations about election “irregularities” in Fulton County, Georgia.

By Rep. Paul Gosar, Chronicles – When insurers deny care, manipulate rules, extract taxpayer subsidies, and reward executives handsomely for it, Congress cannot look away. Healthcare CEOs should not be shielded from scrutiny simply because their industry is powerful. Instead, they should be required to appear before Congress, answer hard questions, and explain—under oath—why an industry built on public support has completely failed the public it is meant to serve.

By Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal – ICE agents are “maxed out,” a senior Trump administration official told The Daily Signal, and yet there is “frustration” within the administration that deportation numbers aren’t higher… “I think it is just an enormous challenge to get 20 million people out of this country,” the official said, referring to an estimation of the number of illegal aliens living in the U.S. …

By Craig Bannister, CNS News – Three House Democrats voted Wednesday to protect children from transgender procedures, passing a bill that would otherwise have failed because four Republicans voted against it… The “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” (H.R. 3492) passed 216-to-211. Without the help of the three Democrats, the bill would’ve failed, 214-213… Two of the three Democrats voting for the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” represent districts in Texas ….

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – The Trump administration on Dec. 18 took its most aggressive federal action yet against “transgender” medical interventions for minors, with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing six regulatory and administrative moves aimed at ending what he called “sex-rejecting procedures” for children… The actions target hospitals, federal health programs, drug manufacturers, and research funding tied to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and related interventions often termed “gender-affirming care.”

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – How many innocent civilians have to be senselessly murdered before Western powers admit that mass importation of Third-World migrants was a mistake? Apparently, the answer is: many more… most Americans have heard of the horrific terrorist attack that occurred at Bondi Beach in Australia over the weekend, in which two Islamists opened fire on a crowd of Jewish festivalgoers… The prime minister all but admitted the attack was “driven by” radical Islamic ideology.

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal – President Donald Trump touted his 2025 accomplishments in a national address Wednesday night… “Tonight, after 11 months, our border is secure, inflation is stopped, wages are up, prices are down, our nation is strong, America is respected, and our country is back,” he said, “Stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.”… 1. Lowering Prices… Trump said the Biden administration “looted the Treasury,” driving up prices, but he is bringing them down. …

By Anna Callahan, LifeNews – In response to GOP Reps. Fitzpatrick, Lawler, Bresnahan and Mackenzie partnering with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ push to force a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies without Hyde protections, SBA Pro-Life America issued the following statement: “The GOP cannot afford to take its pro-life base for granted heading into 2026,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dan …

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – The Little Sisters of the Poor have appealed a federal court’s decision that would require them to offer coverage for contraception and abortion in health-care plans for their employees… Upon reading the sentence above, you might double-check the date, and ask, “Didn’t the Little Sisters of the Poor already win that case? Didn’t the Supreme Court rule in their favor?”.. Yes, the Supreme Court did find in favor of the Little Sisters— twice, in fact. Yet here they are, facing yet another legal challenge.

By Greg Maresca, The American Spectator – (recently a) discerning headline ran in the Wall Street Journal: “The Chinese Billionaires Having Dozens of U.S.-Born Babies Via Surrogate.” Chinese billionaires are using surrogacy laws in the U.S. to construct family dynasties, while raising significant ethical, legal, and national security concerns in the process… The most prolific case that highlighted this growing and largely unregulated surrogacy marketplace was that of Xu Bo, a billionaire Chinese video game mogul who has fathered over 100 children… Yes, you read that right.

By Marcus Peter, Crisis Magazine – When a public figure speaks harshly during a season of grief, even when the target represents ideological opposition, the moment presents an opportunity for Christians to demonstrate a distinct moral grammar… The latest social media flare involving Donald Trump and filmmaker Rob Reiner arrived with a predictability that modern political culture has trained everyone to expect. Upon the news of Reiner’s passing from suspected homicide, a sharp post appeared, the tone was dismissive, and the timing coincided with a moment of public mourning connected to Reiner’s family. …

Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – Why Canada Is an Outlier on Late-Term Abortion Laws… When, very occasionally, the topic of abortion comes up, the almost uniformly pro-abortion media is effective at throwing sand in the eyes of their readers. They will dutifully quote pro-abortion propaganda claiming that while it is “technically” true that Canada has no abortion law, no late-term abortions actually occur in Canada. …

By Ngala Killian Chimtom, Catholic World Report – Fr. Augustine Anwuchie: Of course, it would be an oversimplification to describe the violence as a purely anti-Christian genocide because terrorism in Nigeria does not always distinguish between Christian and Muslim victims. Yet, there are undeniable patterns that make the charge of genocide against Christians difficult to dismiss… to understand this, one must grasp the historical roots of Islam in Northern Nigeria. …

By John J. Waters and Adam Ellwanger, Chronicles – In retrospect (of Sept. 11, 2001), Donald Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign was the true start of the 21st century. He was the first political figure to offer a coherent account of where America had gone wrong—and the first to propose a genuinely different prescription for fixing the rot in our institutions. More than that though, he restored national pride to the center of politics. Approximately 80 percent of Americans said they were proud of their country in January 2001. …

By Anne Hendershott, Crisis Magazine – Jimmy Lai, the Catholic Hong Kong media tycoon and outspoken critic of Beijing, has just been convicted in what many observers are calling a “show trial” under China’s sweeping National Security Law. The trial of the 78-year-old Lai, which was conducted without a jury and overseen by three government‑appointed judges, ended with guilty verdicts on charges of collusion with foreign forces and sedition—offenses that could keep him imprisoned for the rest of his life.

By Raimundo Rojas, LifeNews – Last week at the United Nations, the American delegation did something no U.S. administration had ever done. It walked straight into the middle of the UN’s flagship humanitarian debate and said, in clear diplomatic language, that killing unborn children is not humanitarian work and never will be… The General Assembly was considering its yearly resolution, “Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations.” For more than thirty years, this omnibus text sailed through by consensus.

By Dee Morrison, Michigan Public Radio – A 300-page report released by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel Monday details accusations of sexual misconduct against both adults and children by Catholic clergy in the Grand Rapids area since 1950… Of the 51 priests accused, 37 have died, and none of the remaining 14 is active in ministry in the diocese, said the AG’s office and the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids… The report is the fifth in a seven-part series on allegations of abuse in each of the six Catholic dioceses in Michigan and the Archdiocese of Detroit. …

By Sarah Neely, LifeNews – Operation Rescue’s 2025 survey of every abortion clinic in America revealed 54 clinics that have closed or halted abortions — the highest number of closures since 2022, when Operation Rescue verified 88 closures following the fall of Roe… Of those 54 closures, 36 were Planned Parenthood abortion facilities. However, Planned Parenthood also closed an additional 28 referral locations since OR’s last survey, which amounts to a record total of 64 Planned Parenthood closures in one year.

By Mary Rose, Catholic Vote – Jimmy Lai, the outspoken pro-democracy media tycoon whose rise and fall have drawn attention to Hong Kong’s shrinking political freedoms, was convicted Dec. 15 in a landmark national security trial that could see him spend the rest of his life in prison… Lai, 78, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and conspiring to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. The verdict was delivered by three government-vetted judges in a non-jury trial, according to AP News.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Dec. 15 that designates illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction, citing the drug’s role in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans… “No bomb does what this is doing: 200,000 to 300,000 people die every year that we know of,” Trump said at the White House before signing the order. “So we’re formally classifying it a weapon of mass destruction.” …

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – At least 15 people were murdered at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia on Sunday after two alleged Islamic terrorists opened fire… One of the suspects, Sajid Akram, moved to Australia in 1998 on a student visa before becoming a permanent resident, while his son, Naveed Akram, was born in Australia, according to Sky News. Authorities previously investigated the son “on the basis of being associated with” alleged terrorists, but authorities ultimately determined “there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” according to the report. …

By Lloyd Billingsley, The American Spectator – At Branham High School in San Jose this month, eight students formed a human swastika on the football field. A photo of the formation was posted online with a quote from Adolf Hitler: I want to be a prophet again today. If international financial Jews inside and outside Europe were to succeed in plunging nations into a world war once again, the result will not be Bolshevization of the earth and thus a victory for Judaism, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. ….

By Jonathan Liedl, National Catholic Register – Another criticism is that the bishops do not acknowledge the impact that historically unprecedented levels of undocumented immigration are having on members of American society, including the less privileged. As one commenter on a recent article said, “Where is the equal compassion and consideration for all the millions of legal citizens whose health care, social security benefits, schools, housing, personal safety, etc. have been vitally impacted by the sudden influx?” What is your response to this kind of critique? Should these kinds of considerations be factored into immigration policy?

By Greg Piper, Just the News – Citing the unanimous SCOTUS ruling against Wisconsin in the Catholic Charities tax fight, the brief says the contraceptive mandate makes distinctions between religious groups based on “theological lines” and thus constitutes a “paradigmatic form of denominational discrimination.” Both involve governments requiring “exclusively religious” activities for exemptions… The mandate also violates the nondelegation doctrine because Obamacare does not limit or inform “how the HRSA is to exercise its plenary delegated authority to decide what services are covered under the ACA,” the nuns’ lawyers said.

By George Caldwell, The Daily Signal – The Republican bill is not a highly ambitious repeal, reform, or restructuring of Obamacare. Rather, it is a bundle of focused tweaks to the health insurance system that aims to lower health care costs, instead of the government’s current strategy, which has been to have government subsidize an increasingly unaffordable health care system… The bill’s lack of highly controversial provisions is by design, as Republicans will need to rally their narrow majority in the House and pick up at least seven Democrat votes in the Senate to have any chance of the bill reaching the president’s desk before the credit expiration date. …

By McKenna Snow, Catholic Vote – A Dec. 20 breakout session at a conservative organization’s sold-out annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona, is set to include a period of Eucharistic adoration — an act of devotion one advocate says is key to renewal in the country… “Though our hearts are heavy, we do not grieve as those without hope,” TPUSA states on AmFest’s website. “Charlie’s legacy endures in his family, in Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action, and in every person he inspired to live with conviction.”

By Christine Chen, Scott Murdoch, Renju Jose, The Daily Signal – Two alleged gunmen who killed 15 people at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach were a father and son, police said on Monday… The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in a critical condition in hospital, police said at a press conference on Monday. Officials have described Sunday’s shooting as a targeted antisemitic attack.

Guest Column, by Elizabeth Sutcliffe, Live Action News – As a Canadian author, Catholic speaker, and post-abortive advocate, I am writing to my American neighbors with a sincere warning. What has unfolded in Canada over the past several decades is not simply political drift or cultural confusion — it is what happens when protections for the most vulnerable are stripped away, when moral boundaries are dismissed, and when good people do not rise up to defend life… Canada has become the canary in the coal mine, and what has happened here will happen elsewhere when truth is abandoned.

By Braden Hock, Crisis Magazine – On November 26, 2014, a post was made on what was then Twitter by the user @dril (one of the individuals at the forefront of what was affectionately referred to as “weird Twitter”): “my big sons have made a mess of the garage again after being riled up by the good word of the Lord.”… Truly, is there any simpler way to sum up the burgeoning influence of Gen Z (the “Zoomers”) on culture, economics, society, and religion? …

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – And then there is the question of massive immigration. Much of Europe is now waking up to the unwisdom of admitting millions of Muslims whose culture cannot be squared with Western mores… Islam itself is, in large historical perspective and despite all the necessary qualifications, a threat to Western ways. The question of relations with Islam cannot be resolved by simply repeating the false mantra that it’s a “religion of peace.” It is, but only after conversion, conquest, or submission… The pope, like his predecessor, has a soft spot for migrants. And both have encouraged a new title for the Virgin Mary, Comfort of Migrants. ….

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a key provision of President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, allowing the administration to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business… The One Big Beautiful Bill that Trump signed this summer withholds Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood and other major abortion sellers, delivering a major victory to pro-life advocates seeking to end taxpayer support for organizations that kill babies in abortions. …

By Professor Timothy O’Donnell, Corpus Christi for Unity and Peace Team – Catholic tradition, from the Catechism to Popes Pius XII, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, has always taught both the duty to welcome migrants and the equal duty of nations to regulate their borders for the sake of the common good; open-border ideology is therefore contradicts, rather than fulfills, authentic Church teaching. The uncontrolled influx of millions of illegal immigrants in recent years has produced grave evils: 400,000+ unaccompanied minors lost in the system, record fentanyl deaths, surging human trafficking and sexual exploitation, violent crime by criminal aliens, and massive welfare strain on American citizens—harms that ordered charity seeks to prevent, not enable.

By Lou Aguilar, The American Spectator – It’s a divisive Christmastime on the Right. Just over a year after Donald Trump won the biggest Republican electoral victory in 20 years, and two months since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, conservatives are squabbling like the First Triumvirate. This was the unofficial alliance between Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus that boosted the supremacy of Rome, only to end in civil war when Pompey backed the Senate against Caesar… It took less time to fracture the American Right, and potentially destroy the country.

By Anne Hendershott, The American Spectator – In the end, the Vatican meeting between Pope Leo and Governor Pritzker illustrates the peril of selective alliances. While agreement on immigration may appear noble, it risks obscuring the governor’s radical opposition to Catholic teaching on life itself. By lending moral credibility to a politician so deeply invested in the culture of death, the Church jeopardizes its witness, leaving the faithful to question whether its defense of human dignity is consistent or compromised.

Complicit Clergy, by Staff – Days After Meeting With Pope Leo, Governor Pritzker Signs Euthanasia Bill Into Law – X Post by Mary Miller – @Miller_Congress – Every human life has dignity and value, no matter their age, illness, or circumstance… JB Pritzker just signed a bill that tells the sick, the elderly, and the disabled that their lives are expendable… This is a complete and total moral failure. Government should NEVER offer death as a solution.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – The House passed the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Dec. 10, approving a roughly $900 billion military spending blueprint that includes millions in security assistance for Ukraine and Israel… The measure, which sets policy and funding priorities for the Pentagon, advanced by a vote of 312-112 and now heads to the Senate for consideration. While the bill authorizes Pentagon programs, it does not provide money for them; Congress must still pass a separate spending bill for the fiscal year ending September 2026, according to Reuters.

By Jan Bentz, Catholic Herald – In this wide-ranging conversation, Cardinal Müller reflects on the true nature of Advent as a time of purification and hope, offers counsel for resisting the noise of consumer culture, and examines Europe’s paradoxical blend of secularism and religious revival. He speaks candidly about Vatican II, the challenges posed by the SSPX, and the turbulence of the German Synodal Path. What emerges is a bracing and luminous vision of the faith — one grounded in Christ, rooted in the Tradition, and unflinching in the face of the Church’s present trials.

By Jarrett Stepman, The Daily Signal – But Scott said the Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, has been an “absolute disaster” that turned out to be based on “complete lies.”… “Oh, you’re going to keep your doctor. That was a complete lie. Oh, you get to keep your plan. Lie,” he said. “Oh, you’re going to save $2,500 per family. Lie. And so, what’s frustrating is it’s been sold on a lie.”… What’s happened since the passage of Obamacare is that “costs have skyrocketed,” Scott said. He explained that a high-deductible plan has risen in price from around $3,000 to “$6,500, $10,000, $15,000.

By Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune – Over the last two years, Paxton has launched investigations into at least a dozen companies, mostly immigrant-serving nonprofits, claiming they were breaking the law, or in some cases, their own corporate charters. None of these allegations have yet been proven in court… What two key Texas courts and a federal appeals court have said, though, is that Paxton has wide authority to demand internal corporate records and file lawsuits to revoke a company’s right to do business in Texas if he believes they are violating the law. He can bring these legal actions without offering evidence to back up his claims, a Texas appeals court ruled. …

By Tyler O’Neil, LifeNews – Senate Democrats today blocked a Republican health plan that would defund abortion by ensuring that Obamacare subsidies are not used to fund killing babies in abortions… Democrats blocked the Crapo Cassidy bill on a 51 to 48 vote, with 60 votes necessary for the measure to move forward for debate and a final vote… The vote was remarkable in the sense that over 50 Republican Senators agreed to the pro-life healthcare plan that would ensure that abortions are not funded with taxpayer dollars.

By Greg Piper, Just the News – “He is swayed by data, the scientific method, and clinical experience” but a mob got Kirk Milhoan fired because he leads a CDC advisory body, wife says. Elite American magazine admits COVID vaccines “may” have killed kids, as vaccines chief says… Can medical professionals work with the Trump administration and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services without risking their careers, even as articles of faith in public health fail under the evidence?

By Ethan Savka, Crisis Magazine – Over the past five years, conservative constitutional theory has fractured over two competing visions: the dominant originalism and textualism seen across the federal courts, and the rising common good constitutionalism movement rooted in the classical legal tradition and Catholic natural law teachings. Although the conversations remain mostly esoteric, in recent months, the divide between originalists who prefer the traditional textualist ….

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – In a major win for the Trump administration, a federal appellate court upheld the Pentagon’s prohibition on trans-identifying individuals from serving in the military on Tuesday… In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals fully paused a March injunction issued by Biden-appointed District Judge Ana Reyes that sought to prevent the aforementioned policy from going into effect. As The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann previously reported, Reyes “identifies as some variety of LGBT, is a longtime Democrat Party donor ….

By Doug Bandow, The American Spectator – Religious persecution remains a global scourge, and America’s nominal friends are sometimes as bad as its adversaries. Such as India, in which religious minorities suffer greatly under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The country’s underlying intolerant attitudes have been highlighted by recent Hindu nationalist criticism of Vice President JD Vance’s Catholic faith.

By James Finn, Nola – The Archdiocese of New Orleans is allowing Catholics who are fearful of leaving their homes to miss Mass while U.S. Border Patrol agents fan out across the city in the second week of an immigration enforcement operation… Archbishop Gregory Aymond granted the dispensation for Catholics who are “rightfully afraid to participate in Mass” due to the sweeps… The dispensation will be valid “until the individual Catholic determines it is safe to attend Mass again or this dispensation is revoked or amended,” Aymond said in a letter Monday to New Orleans’ Catholic clergy.

By Jeff Minick, Intellectual Takeout 2024 – So ran the chorus to Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit song “Chain of Fools.”… One hundred twenty years earlier, the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proclaimed: “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”… The chains of Franklin’s song and those of the Marxist slogan are linked by one word: fools… For over 175 years, believers have bought into Marxist visions of utopia. From the European revolutions of 1848 to the 2025 election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, devotees of communism …

By John Zmirak, The Stream – You might not have heard about it, but the Trump administration recently issued an historic policy paper on U.S. strategy toward the world, but especially a European Union where most of the countries are technically our allies, allegedly pledged to the same values. On paper, that is. But with Britain arresting dozens of citizens each day for social media posts, when they complain about the mass importation of Third World “refugees” at public expense, and France and Germany trying to outlaw opposition parties, while Muslim mobs shut down Christmas markets and the EU threatens massive fines if Elon Musk won’t censor X … you really have to wonder. Are we on the same page as Europe?

By Kevin Finn, American Thinker – Catholic NGOs accepted millions in federal tax dollars trafficking unaccompanied children… In the history of American governance, few chapters will stain the pages as darkly as the utter failure of the Biden-Harris administration to safeguard unaccompanied migrant children. I must ask this question: If their goal was to intentionally traffic children into sexual slavery and forced labor, how would their actions have been any different?

By Mary Rose, Catholic Vote – A new NFL  promotional spot titled “Baby Mafia || You Better Believe It” turned the sacrament of Baptism into a punchline, Catholic commentator Tom Nash argues in a recent Catholic Answers article… Since the early 2010s, tailgating Buffalo Bills fans have a tradition of diving onto folding tables in exuberant displays of team loyalty. That same tradition now anchors a new parody “baptism,” with the Bills Mafia, the team’s fanbase, adapting it into a baby-safe initiation ritual.

The Editors, National Catholic Register – A White House message marking the Immaculate Conception repeated a common misunderstanding about when the Incarnation began — a truth central to the Church’s pro-life witness… The White House marked the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — the first of two major Marian feasts this week with a direct connection to the sanctity of unborn human life — with a presidential message celebrating the occasion…

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – The U.S. Supreme Court signaled on Monday that it’s prepared to recognize what the Constitution has unequivocally held for centuries — that the president controls the executive branch of government… During oral arguments for Trump v. Slaughter, a majority of justices appeared favorable to the Trump administration’s arguments regarding President Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). …

By Jack Rigert, Crisis Magazine – Something remarkable is happening across America’s cities. Young adults—often bright, compassionate, and idealistic—are voting for leaders who openly identify as socialists or even Marxists. Places like New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle, once known for their entrepreneurial energy, have embraced movements that have failed everywhere they have been tried… It is easy, from a distance, to dismiss these young people as misguided or naïve. But that would be a profound mistake. They are responding to something real—something older generations do not always see.

By Maisey Jefferson, The Federalist – The Holy Family fleeing from one Roman-controlled region to another in the first century is in no way a mandate on whether America has a right to enforce immigration laws… Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem in accordance with the law to be counted as members of the “Roman world,” not to evade it or escape (Luke 2:1-15). Jesus was born in a stable, not because the Holy Family was homeless or displaced, but because “there was no guest room available for them” during their census trip to the City of David.

By Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness – A border abandoned and laws ignored have turned public frustration into a sweeping backlash that now threatens even legal immigration… It is hard now even for Democrats to defend illegal immigration, given that the Biden administration allowed in more than 10 million entrants. Among them were an estimated 500,000 criminals. No one believes that was wise or should ever be repeated… Worse, the message went out that there would be few, if any, deportations and no real ICE kinetic activity beyond the border.

By  Beth Brelje, The Federalist – A review of recent federal grants reveals that taxpayers are on the hook for more than $32 million in funding for programs for Somalis in Minnesota… The Somali population explosion has rendered parts of Minneapolis unrecognizable as they impose a decidedly non-American culture on every aspect of the city. Somalis are members of the police force, city council, state legislature, and even Congress, still speaking their own language in those positions and, at times, cutting English speakers out of the loop. Their business signs are not in English. To the Western eye, their women’s clothing looks oppressive on a hot day. The Muslim call to prayer can be broadcast across Minneapolis five times a day. …

By Scott McKay, The American Spectator – As many of our readers know, the month of December has brought on Operation Swamp Sweep, which is a joint effort by several federal agencies to clear as many illegal aliens, and in particular criminal illegal aliens (before you offer up all your semantic objections, we’re using “criminal illegal aliens” to refer to people who not only broke the law to get here but also committed crimes while here or had criminal records back home), out of southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi. …

By Tyler Arnold, CNA – President Donald Trump honored the feast of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, which appears to be the first time an American president formally recognized the Catholic holy day… The presidential statement recognized the role Mary played in the salvation of humanity and the importance she has in American history. The statement does, however, contain one theological error about the Incarnation. It says God became man when Christ was born, although Catholic doctrine recognizes God becoming man at the Incarnation: when Mary conceived him.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – In a second extraordinary journalistic scoop, The Dallas Express released another letter from a former high-ranking official of the Venezuelan regime that President Donald Trump is trying to topple — partly to stop massive drug imports to the U.S., and partly to obtain hard proof of massive election fraud in America, using software originating in Caracas that has corrupted U.S. votes for almost 20 years. The letter reads, in part: My name is Cliver Antonio Alcalá Cordones, retired Major General of the Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela. I address you with respect and in a spirit of cooperation to share information that I consider relevant to the national security of the United States a ….

By Gary Bauer, Patriot Post – With each passing year that Donald Trump has been president of the United States, from his first term to now, he has become an increasingly bold and direct defender of the Gospel of Jesus Christ… This is what President Trump said Thursday night on nationwide TV about the birth of Christ: “During this holy season, Christians everywhere rejoice at the miracle in Bethlehem, more than 2,000 years ago, when the Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, came down from heaven to be with us. Full of grace and truth, He brought the gift of God’s love into the world and the promise of salvation for every person and every nation…”

By Michael Dorgan, Fox News – A series of sprawling fraud schemes involving hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Minnesota taxpayers — from COVID-relief programs to housing and autism services — have placed the state’s Somali community under a renewed, intense spotlight, raising uncomfortable questions about whether some who found refuge here are robbing their new neighbors blind… These swirling fraud cases — and claims that some ill-gotten gains were diverted to the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab — have now prompted a House investigation, a Treasury Department probe and mounting political pressure on state leaders ….

By Jed Babbin, The American Spectator – So the question in Barbara v. US can be resolved either way. A person who is born to illegal aliens should — by virtue of their illegal presence in the U.S. — not be counted as a citizen. It will depend on the justices’ determination of what the word “jurisdiction” means in the 14th Amendment… We know how the liberals on the Supreme Court will vote. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson will seek to affirm that birthright citizenship includes the children of illegal aliens. It may well come down to how the weaker conservatives vote… (Roberts, Barrett) vote with the liberals, we will continue to have the children of illegal aliens as U.S. citizens.

By Mark Wiltz, Live Action News – For 50 years, the pro-life movement fought to return abortion law to the states by ending Roe v. Wade. That goal was achieved. Yet this week, a ruling from a federal courtroom in Boston revealed a harder truth: while abortion policy may now rest with the states, the systems that fund and normalize abortion remain firmly under federal control… At the center of that struggle sits Planned Parenthood and the question that has defined this movement for decades: Should American taxpayers be forced to subsidize an industry built on the destruction of unborn human lives?

By Maureen Mullarkey, The Federalist – In November, the USCCB prepared for Advent by declaring war on the Trump administration with a “Special Pastoral Message on Immigration.” The insurrectionist tenor of this rare “special message” places the globalist conceits — and monetary interests — of the hierarchy ahead of the just laws of their own country. … Larded with scriptural citations isolated from historical context, the declaration erases distinctions between lawful immigration and waves of illicit, unvetted migrants. The term illegal does not appear. This is a calculated omission for emotional effect. …

By Stephen B. Presser, Chronicles – The questions at the oral argument in Calais seemed to indicate that a majority of the justices were skeptical of permitting racial redistricting without limit. A clear rejection of racially based redistricting in the Calais case would not only be a step toward the restoration of Justice Harlan’s vision but also the beginning of a restoration of the Constitution itself and a long-overdue correction of judicial usurpation of power within the American political system. 

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture – “Trump Administration Says Europe Faces ‘Civilizational Erasure,’” reads a headline in the New York Times yesterday. According to the subheading, “America’s goal should be ‘to help Europe correct its current trajectory,’ the administration said in its new National Security Strategy.”… Leaders in Europe are not happy to see the unpleasant truths about them spoken aloud in the new U.S. Strategy. But I am. This has been decades in the making. They should have listened to Pope St. John Paul II when they had the chance.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Pro-life advocates are bracing for a pivotal battle in 2026 as voters in seven states prepare to weigh in on ballot measures that could either safeguard legal protections for the unborn or create a fake right to kill babies in abortions… With two measures already certified for the November 3 election and five others possibly advancing toward ballots, the elections represent a critical front in the fight to protect babies from abortions… These initiatives, particularly those backed by abortion groups, threaten to undermine parental rights, medical ethics and the moral fabric of communities by prioritizing killing babies …

By Lawrence Reed, The Stream – The Declaration of Independence and the subsequent Constitution set the stage but not even the Founders believed those documents were the end of the story. Many of them were, in fact, impatient that liberty’s business was yet unfinished. But America’s birth meant that we could grow and, in time, fulfill the promise of liberty for all. So even if you think the Founding generation did not go far enough, you can be grateful that its men and women took us further in the right direction than any other generation, anywhere… I wish I could go back in a time machine to that emotional moment at Fraunces Tavern on December 4, 1783. I would shed tears just as Washington did. …

By Breccan F. Thies, The Federalist – If America’s corporate media truly cared about the truth, they would stop hyperventilating about their self-made “Signalgate” distraction and start demanding accountability for every person responsible for lying about vetting tens of thousands of Afghans… Instead, corporate media outlets are triumphantly heralding an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report that essentially draws the conclusion that the fake Signalgate non-scandal may have, possibly, perhaps had some distant chance of putting U.S. troops in danger. .

By Brian Mark Weber, Patriot Post – For years now, conservative Californians have left the state in droves to escape the radical social and economic policies of Governor Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats in the state legislature. Likewise, with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani promising socialism for the Big Apple, residents are considering moving out of New York to find a place where they can afford to make a living. Across the country, Americans are voting with their feet to avoid politicians who no longer represent their core values or care about their economic well-being.

By Josh Hammer, The American Spectator – The public has grown skeptical, especially when faced with real problems like the cost of living… Is the American Left finally waking up from its decades-long climate catastrophism stupor? For years, climate alarmism has reigned as political catechism: The planet is burning, and only drastic action — deindustrialization, draconian regulation, even ceasing childbearing — could forestall certain apocalypse. Now, at least some signs are emerging that both the broader public and leading liberal voices may be recoiling from the doom and gloom.

By Felix Miller, Catholic Vote – After half a decade of legal battles, 18 students and employees of the University of Colorado’s Anschutz School of Medicine will be awarded $10.3 million in damages, tuition, and lawyers’ fees after they were denied religious accommodations to mandatory vaccination for COVID-19… This payout follows a 2024 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The decision ruled that the university’s medical school had violated the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights. …

By Adam Johnston, The Federalist – The Afghan ambush and the Somali fraud scandal reveal a truth elites don’t want to admit: the myth of assimilation has collapsed… Recently, the Trump administration announced that it had not only paused processing all immigration applications from Afghanistan, but also halted immigration applications of people from 19 countries subject to travel restrictions earlier this year. Officials are also seeking to remove legal immigrants who were born in countries the White House deemed “high risk.”

By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – Speaking to a local news station, Mamdani said, “I’ve said time and again that I believe this is a city of international law, and being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law. And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they’re for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin.”… When an anti-Israel mob surrounded Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue last week, harassed Jewish attendees, and chanted “Death to the IDF,” Mamdani’s press secretary defended the mob by claiming that the synagogue “should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.” …

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from cutting off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood in 22 states and Washington, D.C… The decision hands a temporary victory to the abortion business and Democrat-led states challenging the policy as unconstitutional… U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee in Massachusetts, issued a preliminary injunction against a provision in the Republican-led Congress’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act …

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – President Donald Trump warned Dec. 2 that land-based U.S. military strikes against drug operations in Venezuela may come “very soon,” further escalating his pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. has identified as the leader of Cartel de los Soles, a designated foreign terrorist organization… Hours earlier, Pope Leo XIV — speaking to reporters while returning from Beirut — cautioned the U.S. against moving toward an invasion and instead urged a path of dialogue.

By Complicit Clergy, Staff – Minnesota has one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the U.S., with an estimated 80,000–100,000 Somali Americans, primarily in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area.. Resettlement began in the early 1990s under the Clinton administration, driven by federal refugee programs and local voluntary agencies like Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities… As those who have been following our reporting in recent years will know, Catholic NGOs are some of the largest resettlement agencies in the nation. We have exposed how these Catholic NGOs received over $3 billion during the Biden administration helping illegal aliens invade our nation.

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D., Live Action News – More governments than ever voted for eliminating controversial language related to abortion and LGBT issues in the ongoing UN General Assembly… In the Third Committee of the General Assembly, forty-eight governments voted in favor of removing “sexual and reproductive health” language from a resolution on children. Seventy governments voted to remove “sexual orientation and gender identity” from a resolution on persons with disabilities.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Abortions funded through the U.S. military’s TRICARE health care system have plunged to their lowest levels in five years, with fewer babies killed in abortions… The sharp decline is attributed to President Donald Trump’s reversal of Biden-era policies that expanded access to abortions, according to Defense Health Agency records released this month.

By Scott Richert, Catholic Answers – As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes: Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws, and to assist in carrying civic burdens (CCC 2241).

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – The same corporate media and “expert” class that cheered censorship and did their best to “fact-check” dissent out of the discussion during the peak of Covid panic are on edge after a top U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official pledged to revamp the vaccine approval process. His commitment to reform comes on the heels of an unreleased report that found children died after receiving the Covid jab.

By Elias Turk, CNA/ACI – Pope Leo XIV has begun conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the need to halt violence and seek solutions in the Middle East, the Pope told journalists on his Tuesday flight from Beirut to Rome… The wide-ranging news conference also touched on Ukraine, the Catholic Church in Germany, and Leo’s own election as pope, among other topics.

By Michael Smith, Patriot Post – The challenge, then, is not merely to resist imported extremism or domestic radicalism, but to restore the nation’s confidence in the principles that once unified a diverse people. A republic endures only when its citizens — native and immigrant alike — agree that its foundational rules are worth upholding. Liberty, in the American sense, is not self-sustaining. It must be chosen, taught, reaffirmed, and defended against the ideologies that inevitably emerge when a people forget what made them free in the first place.

By John and Andy Schlafly, The Federalist – President Trump is ending the gravy train of fraud in Minnesota, much of it perpetrated by Somalis who have been relocated here and who have allegedly used some of the money to fund terrorism back in Africa. Trump vows to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis, which has lasted many years longer than it should have… Joseph H. Thompson, who served as Trump’s acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota until October, recently indicted six individuals from Somalia and two others for wire fraud. They allegedly defrauded Minnesota’s Medicaid-funded housing stabilization program.

By John Mac Ghlionn, The American Spectator – Trump’s instinct — to slam the brakes after the horrific National Guard shooting by an Afghan migrant — is understandable. Any leader with a conscience wants to shield his people. The country is rattled, grieving, and wondering how a young man welcomed into America’s care ended up turning his weapon on Americans. Trump sensed that fear and moved swiftly, promising a halt to migration from all “third-world countries.” It’s blunt, straightforward, and politically explosive. But good instinct isn’t the same as good judgment, and this is where his approach deserves scrutiny.

By Greg Maresca, The American Spectator – America’s highways, already a patchwork of potholes and billboards, face a deeper crisis with illegal drivers. This made headlines before quickly vanishing from the mainstream news’ cycle after a series of deadly crashes involving tractor-trailers… From coast to coast, these tragedies have claimed lives and revealed that illegal immigrants who obtained commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) illegally were the cause of these accidents.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – Import the Third World, become the Third World. Immigrants are human beings, not blank slates that get erased when they touch America’s magic soil. And those who come from countries riven by tribalism, jihad, and corruption bring those phenemona in with them — especially now that our institutions have ceased even to try assimilating them. Indeed, school curricula pushed by teachers unions instruct young people that expecting newcomers to assimilate, much less dissolve in the “Melting Pot,” is … drumroll please as we await the magic word that wins every arguement … racist… Remember when the Smithsonian was teaching that honesty, professionalism, monogamy, and even punctuality were part of toxic “white culture”?

By Jeff Cassman, Crisis Magazine – In a recent article at Crisis Magazine, my friend Mike Parrott sounded the alarm about Trump’s floated idea of a 50-year mortgage. He called it “economic poison,” a tool of financial captivity that will inflate home prices, trap families in debt, and help usher in the “you will own nothing and be happy” future. He frames the product as intrinsically anti-family and contrary to Catholic social teaching.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Pro-life advocates are urging Congress to broaden the reach of the Hyde Amendment to prevent taxpayer dollars from subsidizing abortions through Obamacare… They are warning that the health care law represents the largest expansion of abortion funding in decades and are accusing Democrats of spreading misinformation about its protections…

UPI – President Donald Trump on Saturday morning warned that airspace over and around Venezuela is “closed in its entirety” as he mulls whether to strike the country amid a U.S. military build-up off its shore… The move comes after massing naval vessels in the Caribbean, including the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group, and for weeks blowing boats out of the water that are allegedly being used for trafficking drugs… “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social early Saturday ….

By Amy Mek, From X, (Complicit Clergy) – When Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City bragged on EWTN about resettling more Afghans than any other Catholic Charities office in America, they wrapped it in warm language about “the stranger,” “the common good,” and “serving our brothers and sisters.”… But the truth is simple: This wasn’t Christian duty… This was a federal business operation… THIS WAS NEVER ABOUT CHARITY – IT WAS ABOUT MONEY …

By Brian Lonergan, Chronicles – Importing tens of thousands to a community in just a decade, via family reunification chains rather than merit-based selection, overwhelms all prospects of integration. Large numbers of immigrants eliminate incentives to learn English, fostering enclaves where Sharia sympathies and clan feuds supersede the Constitution. Good people get lost in the tide, and those in the criminal fringe—gangbangers, fraudsters, even Al-Shabaab recruiters—thrive. …

By Michael Sinkewicz, Fox News – Trump’s comments come after two National Guard members were shot just blocks from the White House in what officials called a “targeted” attack. One of the guardsman, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of West Virginia, has died, Trump announced earlier on Thursday… (a) second service member wounded in the attack, Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still “fighting for his life.”… The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is also in serious condition… (he) entered the U.S. legally in 2021 under humanitarian parole as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

By Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal – So what’s happening, all you people in Arizona, Florida, Wyoming, Utah, you’re having like two to three kids, and four million people a year are joining you. And you people in blue states, like where I am, we’re having about 1.4 kids and nobody’s coming here. Everybody’s leaving. Our congressional districts, we’re going to surrender unless we cheat… We’re going to lose all of our congressional districts, and our economies are going to be backward… But we’ve got to keep doing it. We’ve got to keep getting left, left, left, left. Climate, climate, climate. …

By Josh Hammer, The American Spectator – This holiday season, I’m thankful for my family — above all, my wife and our beautiful daughter, who is about to turn 1. I’m thankful for having found in recent years a resurgent commitment to the ancient religion of my forefathers. I’m thankful for my wonderful friends, who have helped serve as a stabilizing counter to the destructive political and social maladies of the day — some conspiratorial elements of which have targeted me personally. And I’m thankful to live in what still is, warts and all, the greatest country in the history of mankind.

By Charles Coulombe, Crisis Magazine – But we must place the National Socialists in their correct place historically and ideologically. Theirs was a movement not of the Right, but of the Left. “Brown-Shirted Bolsheviks” was a not inaccurate summation of them. It must also be insisted upon that—until the invasion of Russia in 1941—the Communists of each country invaded by Germany and its allies collaborated with the occupiers. It was only with the German attack on the Soviet Motherland that the local Communists suddenly decided they were really patriots and joined the resistance—then attempting to dominate it.

By Reid Smith, The American Conservative – An imperfect peace is better than a worsening war… What has been lost in the noise surrounding the Trump administration’s proposed peace plan is the recognition that the bargain at hand accomplishes the primary objective: It ends the war. Moreover, it preserves a sovereign Ukrainian state and establishes a U.S.-backed security guarantee reflecting the strongest commitment Kiev might expect to receive from the West. …

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – Every fact in the story underscores the massive cost and toll of illegal immigration… But before you start thinking that perhaps there was a paperwork blunder in which the government erroneously handed out the same Social Security number to two Americans and chaos transpired, I’ll save you the suspense… This was full-on identity theft by an illegal alien who had repeatedly broken into the country. Under the stolen identity of Dan Kluver, this illegal alien racked up DUIs, other offenses, giant tax bills (for the real Kluver), and fatally struck a grandfather with his vehicle.

By Mike Parrott, Crisis Magazine – GOP opposition to Trump is rare these days. But Marjorie Taylor Greene’s recent resignation may be a reflection of where the lines are drawn… As the old saying goes, there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. But that formulation has been outdated for centuries. Since the 1694 founding of the Bank of England, there have really been three certainties: death, taxes, and debt. Lots of debt… Debt permeates all aspects of modern life, leaving no one unlevered. Every single American is under permanent financial surveillance, with the Fair Isaac Corporation infiltrating everyone’s financial position, analyzing each citizen’s debt-worthiness, and rendering an all-important FICO score. ….

By Paul du Quenoy, Chronicles – President Trump was understandably infuriated by this attempt by political opponents to undermine the constitutional chain of command. In a series of posts, he described their conduct as “seditious behavior at the highest level” and stated that “each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.” He later added that the behavior, if found to be treasonous, was “punishable by DEATH!” and reshared a post proclaiming: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!” ….

By Jeffrey Lord, The American Spectator – The holiday unique to America… it’s Turkey Time in America again… Yes, every Thanksgiving holiday — which usually extends into a long weekend — I open the pages written by that Pilgrim-era governor of the then-newly declared New World countryside called Massachusetts- William Bradford… Having been born and raised in Massachusetts until I was not quite 15, this is a habit I picked up early in life, as the story of the Pilgrims and their adventures on their decidedly lonely ship, the Mayflower, which took them from England to America ….

Catholic Vote News Feed – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Nov. 24 directing the Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury to begin the process of designating some chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations… “This order sets in motion a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood shall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations … and specially designated global terrorists ” …

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Planned Parenthood has shuttered its Bixby Health Center abortion facility in Los Angeles, marking the 44th such closure nationwide this year amid federal defunding of the abortion giant… The facility at 1057 Kingston Ave. in the Boyle Heights neighborhood is no longer listed on the organization’s website or Google Maps, pro-life advocate Katie Xavios announced Monday on X. The closure comes even after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he was spending $140 million to fund the abortion corporation.

By John Mac Ghlionn, Crisis Magazine – It would be comical if it weren’t so serious. Notre Dame eventually returned the Catholic mission to its core values, but only after enormous pressure. The reversal was forced, not heartfelt, and it doesn’t diminish the severity of the original sin… And the seriousness becomes even clearer when you look at what was happening well before the Catholic-mission debacle. In recent years, Notre Dame has swollen its diversity, equity, and inclusion machinery with the eagerness of a school chasing applause from people who want nothing to do with its faith.

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture – The phrase, “Christ is King!” is very close to my heart. Pope Pius XI instituted the feast in the 1920s to remind the world that Christ, not the state, is King. Here in North America, “¡Viva, Cristo Rey!” (“Christ is King!”) was the battle cry of the Cristeros. They were Catholic freedom-fighters who were martyred for their faith while fighting a tyrannical anti-Catholic government in Mexico in the early 20th century. … Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled “with power and great glory” by the King’s return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover.

By Angeline Tan, Live Action News – In view of the U.S. bishops’ yearly fall meeting conducted recently in Baltimore, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, who presently chairs the bishops’ pro-life committee, showcased the key role that the post-abortion ministry, Project Rachel, has in boosting pro-life efforts across the country… Project Rachel is a ministry focusing on post-abortive women… Though the Catholic Church acknowledges abortion as a sin, it likewise believes in God’s mercy… Bishop Thomas argued that compassion must lead the fight to win hearts and minds.

By Rachel Greszler, The Daily Signal – The crux of socialism is that central government planners believe they know better than individual people how to allocate resources across an economy… That is why the newly elected New York City mayor, self-proclaimed Democrat socialist Zohran Mamdani, believes the wealthiest people should pay more than half of what they earn to the government. While defending his proposed 54% top marginal income tax rate in a recent Fox News interview, Mamdani said: “My point is this. If you are making $1 million in New York City, or more than that, you can afford to pay 2% more, and the reasons you can afford to do so is because that money will be used to better your quality of life as well.”

By Julia Smucker, LifeNews – Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas once wrote, “My Uncle Charlie is not much of a person but he is still my Uncle Charlie.”… This striking sentence introduced his argument on the limits of “personhood” language in medical contexts. Yet it also captures the power of having known a human being as a person, a subjective but universal human experience that belies attempts to categorize certain humans as nonpersons… It’s subjective not in the sense of being a mere matter of personal opinion, but of being rooted in personal experience (the experience of the subject). In Hauerwas’ example, I’ve experienced Uncle Charlie as a person because I’ve known him as a human individual with a name, a relationship to me, and human traits specific to him, and no ethical or philosophical abstraction can undo this.

By Thaddeus G. McCotter, Chronicles – Let’s look at illegal immigration and a hypothetical Catholic Democrat politician whom we shall call “Joe.”.. Joe spends all his time in the media and the marbled corridors of power denouncing the Trump administration’s “inhumane” treatment of “migrants.” His use of the term “migrants” when he is speaking of “illegal immigrants” further blurs the line between lawful and illegal entrants into America. Further, in decrying this allegedly inhumane treatment, Joe cites disinformation, misinformation, and exaggerates—but the one thing he never manages to provide in his descriptions of what constitutes humane treatment of illegal immigrants. …

By Clark S. Judge, The American Spectator – (Bill Buckley) introduced a Catholic perspective into the American discourse at the same moment that the old Protestant establishment’s confidence in the American experiment and America’s place in the world was wavering.  And through that Catholic sensibility, he brought clarity to the great issues of his time… Clarity about the moral nature of the struggle with communism… Clarity about the moral superiority of free markets to collectivism… Clarity about the essential link between a traditional moral order and the long-term prospects for democracy and freedom. ….

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – A pro-life pregnancy center is gearing up to fight back against New Jersey Democrats’ lawfare at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court early next month… “Our state has done everything they could to make New Jersey a sanctuary state for abortion. Since pregnancy centers like ours do not perform or refer for abortions, we are targets for a government that disagrees with our views,” First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Executive Director Aimee Huber said during a Thursday press conference. “If our attorney general can bully us, it can happen in other states that promote abortion.

By Phil Lawler, Complicit Clergy, (Catholic Culture) – Let’s look at the bishops’ statement on US immigration policy from a completely different angle… Forget the arguments for and against unrestricted immigration, for and against the Trump administration’s crackdown. Instead ask this question: Why are the bishops making any statement at all?.. We can all agree, regardless of our political perspectives, that the immigration problem in the US today is severe. We may disagree about the causes of that problem and about the appropriate remedies. Those are political issues, best resolved in political debates—which are not the bishops’ primary concern.

By John Zmirak, Sr. Editor, The Stream – Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch. And the media, duty-bound by progressive pieties, refuse to connect the dots… In many cases, the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota’s sizeable Somali community. Federal counterterrorism sources confirm that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab. As one confidential source put it: “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”

By Douglas Andrews, Patriot Post – A network of Somalis is defrauding the state’s Medicaid program and sending some of the funds to an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group back home…
“the state’s largest city, Minneapolis, resoundingly calls its Muslims to prayer five times a day and is represented in Congress by a Jew-hating Muslim leftist who may have married her brother to skirt our nation’s immigration laws… “Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the admin. of Gov. Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch. And the media, duty-bound by progressive pieties, refuse to connect the dots.”

By Tyler Arnold, Catholic News Agency – Nathaniel Madden (Dep. Asst. Sec. for communications at DHS) said… that when considering that verse, one should recognize “a key distinction” in how to demonstrate charity “when you’re talking about people who have knowingly broken laws to get somewhere” as opposed to “a much different situation than dealing with the blameless poor who are citizens of the same country.”… St. Augustine in “City of God” on the compatibility of both justice and mercy (stated) the two are not contradictory… (said) in some cases, DHS has to deal with “severe criminals,” and in all cases, “illegal immigration is itself illegal.”… “We have to take into account that laws were broken,” Madden said. He said authorities do ensure the “human dignity” of migrants is protected.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee held a private July meeting at the American Embassy in Jerusalem with Jonathan Pollard — the former Navy intelligence analyst who served 30 years in prison for spying on the U.S. on behalf of Israel — according to a New York Times report published Nov. 20… Pollard confirmed the meeting in an interview with the Times after the outlet learned of it from three anonymous U.S. officials. He reportedly said he initiated the conversation to thank Huckabee for publicly supporting his release.

By Matt Boose, Chronicles – Instead of leaving the affordability issue to regressive socialists, Trump and his team should focus on fulfilling his promise to drastically reduce immigration and argue that a less crowded America will be more livable and harmonious… There is no denying that the artificially high demand from Third World immigration is placing enormous stress on mortgage and rental costs. It is simple supply and demand. Immigration also reduces housing options by negatively affecting the desirability of neighborhoods and driving people to leave places they now consider “foreign” in search of the familiar.

By Carole Novielli, Live Action News – Abortion numbers are increasing, nearing levels we have not seen in the U.S. since 2011 — and recently revised statistics from the Guttmacher Institute reveal they’re increasing more than we were originally told… We now end the lives of nearly 3,000 preborn babies by abortion every day in America, but that death toll is likely far greater, given the large numbers of uncounted chemical abortions happening across the country, even in pro-life states. …

By Ellie Gardey Holmes, The American Spectator – Average Americans have moved on from climate change, and the Left is pretending to not care either… No one cares about climate change anymore… The decline also shows up in Google searches for “climate change,” which have also decreased by half since 2023… People, it seems, have simply gotten tired of the same old story of doom and gloom and melting ice caps. The fact that life has gone on normally — with GDPs continuing to increase and heat deaths decreasing — despite the fact that we’ve surpassed date after date of proclaimed catastrophic “tipping points” isn’t helping climate change activists, either. ….

Rev. Jim Harden, LifeNews – Zohran Mamdani is now the Mayor-elect of New York City. During his campaign, he “vowed to ‘protect New Yorkers from’ pro-life pregnancy centers which he accused of spreading ‘false or deceptive information.’” His threat refers directly to CompassCare. CompassCare runs the only three pro-life medical pregnancy centers in all of New York City. His threat mimics the lawsuit brought by pro-abortion activist Letitia James, New York’s Attorney General, who endorsed Mamdani’s mayoral bid. …

By Mark Hemingway, The Federalist – Democrats have a long history of defending and electing party leaders engaged in the worst behavior imaginable, while Republican voters are still rejecting extremists… While liberal America is justifiably triumphant about Tuesday night’s election results, a lot of professionals are quietly worried about extremism infecting the party. Certainly, electing a mayor of New York who’s an unfortunate hellbroth of communism, Islamism, and “defund the police,” is not someone you want defining your party nationally. …

By Grayson Quay, Catholic Exchange – Transhumanism did not originate with the invention of CRISPR, IVF, or NeuraLink. It is not primarily a technological phenomenon, but a spiritual one… The transhumanist temptation is as old as Eden. By this, I do not mean merely that it shows up in the most ancient stories human cultures have told themselves. I mean that demonic beings literal disembodied entities have intervened in history to spread Satan’s false promises and to goad us into becoming like them… In fact, if we take Christian tradition seriously, they’ve come close to accomplishing that goal once already.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – President Donald Trump pledged Nov. 5 that the U.S. stands “ready, willing, and able to save” Christians in countries where they are being slaughtered… “We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world. This is not going to happen,” Trump said in a video message from the White House. “The killing of Christians is not going to happen.”… Trump said Christians in Nigeria face especially severe persecution as Islamist extremists continue to massacre thousands for their faith. ….

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Airlines and travelers are rushing to adjust plans after U.S. transportation officials announced a 10% reduction in flight traffic at 40 major airports beginning Nov. 7. The officials cited safety concerns related to the government shutdown as it drags into its second month… Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Nov. 5 that the cuts, coordinated through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will “lead to more cancellations” but are necessary to maintain safety.

By Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal – President Donald Trump is drawing attention to the persecution of Christians in Africa, which has created a moment of “leverage” and momentum for “real action,” according to a new report from The Heritage Foundation… “Human rights attacks against Christians occur too often, though [they] escape mainstream America, given unfamiliarity, distance, and competing priorities,” Ned Rauch-Mannino, a visiting fellow for The Heritage Foundation’s Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for National Security, wrote in the report.

By Joshua Monnington, The Federalist – But to imply that the problem of leftist extremists in political office is limited to Mamdani and Jones would be inaccurate. There is, of course, Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, “a big supporter of infamous anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan,” who has been accused of physical abuse by multiple women. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat congresswoman from Minnesota, has blamed Charlie Kirk for his assassination and said that on 9/11 “some people did something.” Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Maxine Waters have been anything but shy about inciting intimidation and violence against their political opponents.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois has issued an urgent plea for Catholics and all people to contact Gov. J.B. Pritzker and demand he veto a controversial assisted suicide bill that pro-life advocates say would endanger vulnerable residents and undermine the sanctity of human life… The call to action comes just days after the Illinois State Senate approved Senate Bill 1950 in a surprise early-morning vote on October 31, amending the measure onto an unrelated food sanitation bill to legalize the use of lethal drugs for assisted suicide.

By James Kalb, Catholic World Report – Compared with secular and certain other religious tendencies, Catholics and Catholic organizations seem unusually resistant to the appeal of political violence… But what about Catholic political behavior when aligned with power?… Integralism, which might be defined as the view that Catholicism ought to play a political role rather like that now played by the liberal conception of human rights, is commonly considered extreme. And indeed a pope like Innocent III exercised extensive political power—organizing crusades, intervening in the choice of emperors, annulling Magna Carta, and so on.

By Gregory Lyakhov, Patriot Post – If the GOP wants to recover in 2026, it must rediscover its purpose and learn how to communicate it. Voters must see Democrats for what they have become — a party increasingly defined by socialism, anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and identity politics. Democrats across the country, from mainstream leaders to grassroots organizers, supported Mamdani and others like him. That alignment gives Republicans a moral and political opening.

By Stephen Moore, The Daily Signal –
You’ve probably heard by now the blockbuster news that Microsoft founder Bill Gates, one of the richest people to ever walk the planet, has had a change of heart on climate change… For several decades, Gates poured billions of dollars into the climate-industrial complex and was howling that “the end is nigh” unless we stop using fossil fuels, cars, air conditioning, and general anesthesia… Now, he says he rejects the “doomsday” predictions of the more extreme global warming prophets.

By Anne Hendershott, Crisis Magazine – Every social institution is buckling under the strain imposed by the tens of millions of illegal immigrants now residing in the United States. At the center of this collapse lies Obamacare… While the government shutdown continues and health-care reform remains gridlocked, Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) burdens taxpayers with out-of-control costs. For more than a decade, Obamacare has been riddled with systemic fraud that has been denied by Democratic Party bureaucrats, ignored by much of the media, and paid for by weary taxpayers.
Built on lies including “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” Catholics continue to bitterly recall the duplicitous role that Sr. Carol Keehan, CEO of the Catholic Healthcare Association …

By Betsy McCaughey, Patriot Post – New Yorkers, brace yourselves for crazy laws and huge tax hikes… Zohran Mamdani’s win Tuesday should send tremors far beyond New York City. A Mamdani victory will ignite wholesale legislative attacks on property owners, charter schools, law enforcement and businesses all across New York state. From Buffalo to Amagansett, nothing will be spared… In New York, the big decisions about criminal law, education, rent laws and taxation are legislated at the state level, not locally. Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America will be calling the shots in Albany as well as at City Hall. …

By Daniel McCarthy, Chronicles – In times of national emergency, should the Supreme Court dictate America’s grand strategy and international economic policies?… This question confronts the justices this week in Learning Resources v. Trump, a case that puts the president’s tariff powers to the test. If President Donald Trump loses, the Treasury faces having to refund more than $100 billion in tariff revenue, and the president’s trade strategy will be thrown into chaos… Businesses that have already changed their operations because of the tariffs, drawing jobs and supply chains back to America, will be subject to grave new uncertainties …

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Democrat Abigail Spanberger is projected to be elected Virginia’s first female governor Tuesday, defeating pro-life Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in a contest that pro-life advocates warned could transform the state into the “abortion capital of the South.” With exit polling data and early precincts reporting, the abortion activist is projected to become Virginia’s next governor and the first woman to hold the state’s highest office, according to Decision Desk HQ.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Democrats scored a string of victories Nov. 4, winning several closely watched gubernatorial and municipal races in contests seen as bellwethers ahead of the 2026 midterms… In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to succeed term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin. With an estimated 98% of votes counted, Spanberger was ahead 57.6% to Earle-Sears’ 42.2%, according to the Associated Press… Meanwhile, Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares lost his re-election bid to Democrat Jay Jones, who overcame weeks of controversy over resurfaced violent text messages in which Jones mused about the deaths of Republicans. …

By John Zmirak, The Stream – Last night’s election was a wipeout for Republican candidates in almost every important race. It’s a wake-up call and a warning before next year’s midterm congressional contest… What happened? All politics is local, so different factors decided the various races. But a common theme was this: Without Donald Trump on the ballot, Republicans seem unable to overcome the advantages Democrats baked into the system — from massive Third World immigration that transformed local electorates, and still-intact corruption in vote-counting software, to the deep divisions that still plague the GOP between diehard anti-Trump elitists and populists who follow his model. …

By Bradley Devlin, The Daily Signal – The conservative chattering class will lament loudly and profusely about Tuesday’s results, not only because it is good for business, but because it’s their elections. Virginia, New Jersey, New York City—these are the places they call home, and they expect too much of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah. Which I only feel comfortable saying because I’m from California, a modern-day Capernaum… Certainly, the temptation to get swept up in the punishment about to be exacted on these places is strong. In New York City, Democrat Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s policies will destroy what’s left of the city’s independent working class.

By: Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – Furthering the Big Apple’s descent into communism, New York City voters elected radical Democrat Zohran Mamdani to be their next mayor on Tuesday… According to several media outlets, the Ugandan-born Mamdani is projected to defeat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the race to lead one of America’s most populous cities… As of publication, preliminary results show Mamdani winning 50.4 percent of the electorate with 90 percent of votes tabulated. Meanwhile, Cuomo and Sliwa are projected to receive 41.6 percent and 7.1 percent of the vote …

By John Zmirak, The Stream  – A few weeks ago, we posted the thoughtful review by survivor of Chinese Communist persecution Chenyuan Snider of the new movie One Battle After Another, which is a powerfully crafted recruitment film for Antifa terrorists. It got lavished with praise by Hollywood, and doubtless some unhinged souls were triggered by it to engage in future violence… A small consolation is that the movie had few viewers and will lose tens of millions of dollars. So did most of the other politicized, weird, or out-of-touch films released this year. In fact, a review of 2025 could be titled One Flop After Another, as Breitbart reports:

By Catholic Vote News Feed – A Nigerian bishop recently described the devastating reality that Islamist Fulani terrorists are committing a genocide against Christians, and he called on the world to respond… The genocide in Nigeria “should be the concern of every other human being, everybody, man and woman, of goodwill,” Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the diocese of Makurdi, in Benue State of Nigeria, told CatholicVote in an interview this week.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Voters across the country will head to the polls Nov. 4 in elections that many see as early tests of the political landscape nearly a year into President Donald Trump’s second term and one year ahead of the midterms… Here are the top races drawing national attention: Virginia, New Jersey, New York and California proposition ….

By SBA ProLife, LifeNews – Virginia is one of two states holding regularly scheduled state legislative elections in 2025, making it one of the most watched “off-year” elections leading up to midterms next year. Voters will select all 100 members of the House of Delegates Tuesday, as well as the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. Party control of the House especially will set the course of the battle for life in the largest southeastern state that has not enacted protections for unborn babies and mothers in the law after Dobbs ….

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – Nearly half a dozen foreign charities have dumped more than a billion dollars into numerous U.S.-based leftist organizations and causes in recent years, according to a new investigative report… Released on Friday, the new analysis by Americans for Public Trust (APT) shows how five overseas charities have collectively funneled almost $2 billion into left-wing groups, policy fights, and more “to advance their extreme, foreign, activist agenda” in America. These causes, according to the report, range from funding climate alarmist demonstrations and campaigns to environmental-related litigation.

By Eric Sammons,  Crisis Magazine – A schism threatens to tear apart the Right, one whose epicenter lies not in America but in Israel… With last November’s election, the conservative Right in this country secured a massive victory. Donald Trump won the presidency handily, the GOP gained control of both the House and the Senate, and the Democratic Party was in disarray, with no one to bring them back to prominence. It appeared clear that the nation could look forward to years of Republican dominance… That’s not so clear anymore, because a schism threatens to tear apart the Right, one whose epicenter lies not in America but in Israel. …

By Steven Richards, Just the News – The Republican and Democratic Parties look to Election Day 2025 as a bellwether for their national chances in the upcoming midterms and are making their final pushes to get their candidates across the finish line in Virginia and New Jersey… Both parties are looking to the races as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s second term in order to glean how well both parties may expect to perform in next year’s midterm elections.

By Deroy Murdock, The American Spectator – If New Yorkers foolishly elect Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Kwame Mamdani, they should expect the agenda of Karl Marx and the work ethic of Joe Biden. Mamdani’s tenure in the New York State Assembly suggests as much… The Ugandan-born, Israel-loathing, antisemite routinely sounds like an audio edition of Das Kapital… Citing a guiding principle of Communism, Mamdani told his fellow members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in 2021 that their “end goal” should be “seizing the means of production.” Mamdani proudly wears the far-far Left DSA’s seal of approval.. (one of his ) top endorsements….

By Beth Brelje, The Federalist – Many illegal aliens who are not eligible for SNAP benefits were nonetheless saved from scrambling for food Friday when a judge forced funding for the program to continue in November… Both the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) have been under threat as the budget impasse in Congress continues. SNAP was slated for suspension on Nov. 1 when the federal SNAP funding mechanism ran out. An appropriation bill must be passed to fund it.

By Pete Connolly, The American Spectator – I’m a proud Gen Xer — not because we were so great, but because we are the last generation still attached to old school. We were raised at the tail end of an America that still had connections to the texture and oddity of what Greil Marcus called that “Old, Weird America.” We still listen to classic rock on vinyl without irony, but we also knew who Glenn Miller and Perry Como were. Sinatra was still touring and still mattered. We watched old movies, lots of them — Angels with Dirty Faces, The Ox-Bow Incident, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy. ..

By Lorenzo Prieto, The Daily Signal – President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that the U.S. will take the crisis into its own hands if local authorities do not… “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the president declared on Truth Social. 

By J.T. Young, LifeNews – Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial races show the Republican candidates currently matching or beating Donald Trump’s past presidential margins. This is big for these state races and for gauging the overall country’s mood. It could be bigger still if it presages a Republican threat to Democrats’ “second blue wall” in 2026 and 2028… In Virginia, the Republican, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, has been trailing the Democrat, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, by double digits as recently as the beginning of October.

By Gaetano Masciullo, Crisis Magazine – The Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, caused a deep rupture in Western public opinion, polarizing the debate between supporters of Israel and advocates of the Palestinian cause. Yet the stakes go far beyond the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the historical tensions of the Middle East: what is emerging is a strategic confrontation between blocs of power… And as long as peoples seek security in borders rather than in the pierced Heart of the Savior, they will continue to raise walls where they ought to erect altars.

Catholic Vote – President Donald Trump declared Nigeria a “country of particular concern” Oct. 31, answering calls from Catholic and other leaders for the U.S. government to confront the persecution of Christians there… “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump said in a strongly worded statement posted to Truth Social. “I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’…”… “But that is the least of it. … When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!”

By Matt Boose, Chronicles – Mamdani belongs to a generation of leftist politicians with tenuous ties to the nation they inhabit and would presume to rule. Mamdani, at least according to his mother, is “not American at all.” To his credit Mamdani has charisma … Mamdani’s parents came to the US legally in 1998, although their move clearly did nothing to inculcate a sense of loyalty or national pride in them or their then-seven-year-old son… Demographic change has transformed America since the immigration reforms of the 1960s. The Trump administration is now trying to play catch up for decades of mistakes, and is facing serious obstruction carrying out promised mass deportations. …

By Joy Pullmann, The Federalist – According to demographer Nicholas Eberstadt, for the first time in human history since the bubonic plague in the medieval 1300s, global population is declining. The world’s fertility rate just hit a 60-year low, and it’s set to keep decreasing. The nations with replacement-rate fertility are largely terrible places where people die young, such as Somalia, the Congo, and Afghanistan.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Speaking to more than 10,000 students at the University of Mississippi Oct. 29, Vice President JD Vance offered a defense of Christianity’s role in American public life and urged students to strengthen the nation’s culture through marriage and family — echoing the message of the late Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk… “I could just hear Charlie in my heart,” Erika Kirk said, opening the night. “I could just hear him say, go reclaim that territory, babe. Go to the battles that God’s love conquers. …

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Some of the nation’s top airlines are calling on Congress to end the government shutdown and pay air traffic controllers, joining Republican lawmakers in pressing Democrats to vote with the GOP for a “clean continuing resolution” (CR) and reopen the government… Speaking outside the White House Oct. 30, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said lawmakers need to “get into a room behind closed doors and negotiate hard on real substantive issues that the American people want our politicians on both sides of the aisle to solve.”

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that the state will redirect more than $35 million in taxpayer funds to the Planned Parenthood Abortion business to offset federal Medicaid cuts, a move pro-life advocates decried as a blatant subsidy for the nation’s largest abortion company at the expense of vulnerable women and unborn children. The funding, allocated across five Planned Parenthood affiliates operating 47 clinics statewide, aims to sustain the abortion giant after defending under the bill Congress passed this year.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – But the climate in our country is more toxic and divisive than it has been since the Vietnam War. That’s not because Trump’s actions have been outside of presidential norms, but because his political enemies decided on election night 2016 to treat him and his supporters like Nazis, and don the mantle of the “Resistance.” You see, Barack Obama’s election was meant (in his own words) to “fundamentally transform” America. To redeem it, if you will, from its foul and immoral heritage, and render it (again in Obama’s words) a “normal country,” like … Belgium.

By M.D. Kittle, The Federalist – ‘Autopen by Default’… Titled, “The Biden Autopen Presidency: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House,” the report provides copious evidence of the former president’s incredibly shrinking cognitive and physical abilities, his “inner circle of loyalists attempting to mislead the nation to ignore what people’s eyes plainly showed them,” and the constitutional crisis his decline and the cover-up created… Ultimately, the committee report concluded that all of Biden’s executive actions signed by the autopen “without proper, corresponding, contemporaneous, written approval traceable to the president’s own consent” are “void.”

By Brian Lonergan, Chronicles – SNAP was not designed as a global buffet for recent illegal border-crossers; it’s a taxpayer-funded safety net created explicitly for U.S. citizens and legal residents in genuine need. Federal law bars illegal aliens from direct eligibility, a rule enshrined since the 1996 welfare reforms and reaffirmed in 2025 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidance: “SNAP is not and has never been available to undocumented non-citizens.”… The program’s architects intended that it should combat domestic food insecurity, not subsidize lawbreaking or reward evasion of immigration laws. Benefits are calculated based on eligible household members only: specifically, U.S.-born children or qualified legal immigrants. But here’s the rub: loopholes and lax enforcement have turned this safeguard into a sieve, draining billions from coffers meant for struggling Americans.

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – Arctic Frost was an investigation led by the Biden administration to, as The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland explained, “target Republicans in key battleground states.” Then FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a memorandum to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland claiming that “fraudulent certificates of electors’ votes were submitted to the Archivist of the United States” for Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Wray also asserted that these votes were part of a grand conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election. …

By Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal Media – The old guard of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi are very worried about this young group of more radical, Jacobin, younger people who want to shut down the government… That was the impetus behind the shutdown: “Do not cooperate whatsoever with President Donald Trump. And then, take the House and the Senate.”… The problem that these people have is they are not in the mainstream of American politics.

By Catholic Herald,  by Staff – Chicago’s Blase Cupich has asserted that the Traditional Latin Mass was “more of a spectacle rather than the active participation of all the baptised”… In a reflection on the liturgical reforms which came from Sacrosanctum Concilium, one of the four constitutions of the Second Vatican Council, the cardinal argued that the document drew on scholarly research which revealed “adaptations that were introduced over time, which incorporated elements from imperial and royal courts.” …

Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – A recent headline on an article published by the BBC is astonishing. “China offers parents $1,500 in bid to boost births,” it reads… Wait a minute. China’s Communist government is now paying for couples to have children? The same Communist Party that, for decades, enforced the most brutal population control regime on earth?… It’s worth briefly reminding ourselves of just how extreme, how barbaric, how iron-clad China’s population control measures were.

By Fr. David Nix, Padre Peregrino – There’s a few things to notice here. First, all three Chicagoans, Cardinal Bernadin (top left) and Bishop Prevost (middle) and Cardinal Cupich (top-right) all promoted the “Seamless Garment” theology of bioethics, also called “the consistent ethic of life.” This is not merely my suspicion or a conspiracy theory. You can hear that Prevost literally promotes “Bernadin” and “Cupich” and “consistent ethic of life” in the above two links and quotes with those exact words in bold.

By Madalaine Elhabbal, Catholic News Agency – Catholics who do not gather for anti-enforcement rallies organized by high-ranking Catholic prelates are a “silent majority,” according to conservative Catholic immigration experts… As the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts continue to intensify, Catholics across the country have committed to observe days of prayer and public witness for migrants through efforts such as the One Church One Family initiative spearheaded by the western Jesuits. However, according to some conservative Catholic immigration experts, the number of Catholics who are opting out of such vigils are “a silent majority.”

By John Zmirak, Chronicles – The demon Screwtape depicted by C. S. Lewis wants us at each other’s throats in this world and in eternal flames in the next, so he plays both extremes like a fiddle. He urges us to dive in and recklessly indulge our fallen passions. When that results in the inevitable dire consequences, he goads us to the opposite error and demands we just suppress them. Sooner or later, that fails, and he nimbly reminds us that wallowing is still an option. And round and round we go.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – “Nigeria is the most deadly place in the world to be a Christian,” says Jeff King, the president of International Christian Concern (ICC), a group that tracks religious-freedom violations. According to ICC, at least 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since the start of the 21st century… Robert Royal, the author of The Martyrs of the New Millenium, provides equally stunning figures: “from 2019 to 2023, 33,000 Christians of various denominations and several thousand moderate Muslims were killed by Islamic extremists…”

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Seven Democrat states have pledged tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to prop up Planned Parenthood amid federal defunding under Congress and President Donald Trump. The move is drawing sharp condemnation from pro-life advocates who say the states are propping up the nation’s biggest abortion company… The taxpayer-funding commitments from New York, California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts and Hawaii come in response to a one-year moratorium on Medicaid reimbursements for nonprofits that kill babies in abortions, enacted as part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” signed in July.

By Cassy Cooke, Live Action News – In a Stat News op-ed, Arthur Caplan expressed horror that every one of the women’s rights groups with whom he met in an online Zoom conference opposed surrogacy… “Every single speaker condemned the practice as exploitative, coercive, and inconsistent with the view that the birth mother is the ‘real’ mother of every baby,” he said. “I later found out more than 250 women’s organizations from 18 countries have called for a total ban on surrogacy — even altruistic surrogacy, when a sister, family member, or close friend assists for free.”

By John Zmirak. The Stream – Remember when the presidential autopen signed thousands of pardons in the name of a checked-out President Joe Biden, protecting Anthony Fauci, Chinese spies, and child pornography addicts? Yeah, maybe all that wasn’t kosher. Or even halal. That’s the conclusion of the House Oversight Committee, as Gateway Pundit reports: The Biden autopen scandal has taken a new turn, and the Department of Justice may soon get involved. … The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), released a 100-page report today declaring all of Biden’s autopen executive actions “null and void.”…

By Robert Royal, The Catholic Thing – And on the less scandal-sheet level, consider the recent controversy over Cardinal Parolin’s remarks about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. A spokeswoman for Aid to the Church in Need, which issued a report last week on the persecution of Catholics around the world, defended the Cardinal’s contention that Nigerian Catholics were often the victims of social – not religious – conflict. (the spokeswoman) characterized this as an off-the-cuff remark, just intended to acknowledge the complexity of the situation… it’s precisely what a person in a high position of responsibility – Parolin  is the Vatican’s Secretary of State – says almost randomly that’s revealing.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military Oct. 28 to immediately launch “powerful” strikes on Gaza, threatening to unravel the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas… “Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military echelon to carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip immediately,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement posted to X.

By  S.A. McCarthy, LifeNews – President Donald Trump and his administration are undoing a Biden-era immigration provision that would have facilitated abortions for children. The Daily Signal reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is terminating rules and programs that violate the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal taxpayer dollars for abortions… The move includes ending a rule change from 2022 affecting the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a division of HHS that deals with unaccompanied children (UACs) encountered crossing the border.

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, LifeNews – Trump administration officials committed to “protect unborn life at all stages” at the five-year anniversary event of a 40-nation coalition of countries that declare that there is no international right to abortion… The Geneva Consensus Declaration “seeks to expand health and thriving for women, and protect the sovereign right of nations to support health, life, and family through national policy and legislation.” The Institute of Women’s Health hosted members of Congress, Trump administration officials, and global leaders to celebrate the anniversary.

By Mollie Hemingway, Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – “The majority of Americans believe we need more restrictions on the abortion pill,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. said in a statement to The Federalist. “Mifepristone is extremely dangerous and even deadly for women, with nearly 11 percent of women who take it experiencing an adverse health event – sometimes serious enough to send them to the emergency room. Not to mention, the drug is 100 percent lethal to the child. It’s time for the FDA to restore common-sense safety standards to the chemical abortion drug immediately.”

By Scott McKay, The American Spectator – Hakeem “Temu Obama” Jeffries, the House Minority Leader and a congressman from New York City, did not want to endorse Zohran Mamdani… Jeffries especially didn’t want to endorse Mamdani in the middle of a government shutdown that his party caused by filibustering a short-term budget continuing resolution that, in a few days, will result in missed paychecks for essential federal workers and a suspension of benefits for recipients of programs like SNAP, which is what the old food stamp program has become.

By Michael Smith, Patriot Post – Like Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings,” we may not always want to confront the challenges of our time, but the choice we face is what to do with those trials… I tend to look at accusations from the Left about us, Donald Trump, and America, and test my perceptions and logic against them to validate what I think, say, and write. Let’s consider the Left’s accusations of Trump wanting to be a dictator, not for the throwaway, joking quote leftists always screws themselves into a pretzel about, but why they have any basis for it. …

By Auguste Meyrat, The Federalist – As for Pope Leo and other leftist Christians who want to help Muslim immigrants and eliminate borders, they need to honestly reckon with the carnage, destruction, and exploitation that they’ve mindlessly helped to encourage. They don’t necessarily need to launch a new crusade, but neither do they need to apologize for crusades in the past — there is a good reason they happened. Rather, these pastors need to defend their flocks, come to terms with reality, and preach the Gospel for a change. 

By Craig Bannister, Media Research Center – The virulently anti-Trump American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE) is now calling on Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown by voting to pass a continuing resolution that would temporarily extend funding at previously-approved levels… “Both political parties have made their point,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said… “[I]t’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today.”… The federal government has been shuttered since October 1 because Senate Democrats are filibustering a “clean” (unchanged) bill that would keep funding the same as the continuing resolution they voted for the last time funding was about to expire.

By Mike McCormick,  Midnight in the Laptop of Good and Evil, Substack – Before tens of thousands of Nigerian Catholics were murdered, there was Parolin… Before millions of illegals immigrants—adults and children—were trafficked through Mexico, there was Parolin… Before the thousands of tons of cocaine and fentanyl were smuggled into the West from Venezuela, there was Parolin… And now that King Charles and Pope Leo have papered over 500 years of Freemason treachery with a meeting in the Vatican, there is Parolin… Please allow me to introduce this cardinal, he’s a man of wealth and taste. He’s been around for a long, long year, stole many a man’s soul and faith.

By Gregory Lyakhov, Patriot Post – Survivors of communism repeatedly warn Americans not to underestimate how quickly promises of equality can turn into authoritarianism… Zohran Mamdani, a leading figure in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and now the frontrunner for New York City mayor, calls himself a socialist. His appointments argue he is a communist, and the evidence supports that conclusion… The DSA’s charter makes clear that its goal is not reforming capitalism but dismantling it entirely. …

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – CatholicVote has joined more than 50 pro-life leaders in a joint letter urging the Trump administration to permanently block Planned Parenthood from any taxpayer-funded program…. Students for Life Action spearheaded the Oct. 22 letter, which thanked the administration for previous efforts to cut abortion funding but urged a final step: formally debarring Planned Parenthood from every federal program. The coalition included CatholicVote, the American Life League, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life, and the Family Research Council.

By Catherine Gripp, The Federalist – “Even my teacher at the first day of class, she said, ‘everything is political,’ and I didn’t understand what she meant until I started doing the content.”… Adrianna Mobley should have been excited to be accepted to Michigan State University’s elementary education program, ranked the top elementary program in the nation. Excited, that is, until she stepped into her “Social Foundations of Justice and Equity in Education” class this fall. Required for all elementary education majors, the class dives deep into the demonization of free market principles, meritocracy, and American values.

By Lorenzo Prieto, The Daily Signal – President Donald Trump’s plans to build a new White House ballroom continue to send Democrats and the Left into full meltdown mode… Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is the latest to suffer from what Republicans are calling Ballroom Derangement Syndrome…. Swalwell blasted the ballroom construction on X, demanding that Democrat presidential candidates vow to destroy the building at first opportunity. “Don’t even think of seeking the Democratic nomination for president unless you pledge to take a wrecking ball to the Trump Ballroom on DAY ONE.”

By Madison LaClare, LifeNews – A letter signed by more than 100 pro-life organizations urged lawmakers to end the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) so-called “COVID subsidies” that bypassed long-standing protections against taxpayer-funded abortion… These subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year, have become a sticking point in the ongoing government funding debate… As the government shutdown drags on with no near end in sight, members of Congress need to ask themselves what the ACA subsidies mean to them. Democratic leaders in Congress are using the extension of these subsidies as leverage to keep the government shut down. They know that Republicans have never voted for the ACA and are unlikely to do so now ….

By John Zmirak, The Stream – The Democrats in America are nothing special. They share with the global Left an embrace of open borders, human traffickers, and plans to replace the native populations of Western countries with docile foreign colonists… You’ve read here how more than a dozen Britons each day are arrested and prosecuted for their social media posts, mostly complaints about Islam, immigration, and anti-white bias in government. That crackdown began after one of the thousands of “refugees” recklessly imported and dumped on the public raped a local blue collar girl. …

By Craig Bannister,  Media Research Center – In a viral video, Democrat Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) says that, while Democrats’ government shutdown will cause American families to suffer, it’s worth it because it gives her party leverage to pass its political agenda… “Utterly shameful! The Democrats OPENLY ADMIT they are causing the shutdown—and using hardworking American families as their LEVERAGE,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote Wednesday, responding to a social media post of Clark’s statement.

(On) Oct. 23, Pope Leo decried policies that treat migrants “like garbage” and lamented the deadly trafficking of fentanyl, particularly in the U.S… “Ever more inhuman measures are being adopted – even celebrated politically – that treat these ‘undesirables’ [migrants, ed.] as if they were garbage and not human beings,” he added, according to Vatican News. “Christianity, on the other hand, refers to the God who is love, who creates us and calls us to live as brothers and sisters.” …

By Tyler O’Neil, Sr Editor, The Daily Signal – Major tech companies are distancing themselves from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leftist group that demonizes conservatives and Christians, after facing pressure over previous relationships with the SPLC in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination … Kirk’s alleged murderer said he killed the Turning Point USA founder because he “spreads too much hate.” The assassination took place two months after the SPLC put Turning Point USA on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan—a “hate map” that had inspired a terrorist attack in 2012. ….

By M.D. Kittle, The Federalist – The fingerprints of top deep-staters in President Joe Biden’s weaponized DOJ all over the launch of the corrupt “Arctic Frost” investigation, according to a document just dropped by Sen. Chuck Grassley… “Just received this doc from DOJ Proof that Biden Atty General Merrick Garland+ Deputy Atty General Lisa Monaco+ FBI Dir Chris Wray all PERSONALLY APPROVED opening Arctic Frost” … “This investigation unleashed unchecked govt power at the highest levels. My oversight will continue,” Grassley added.

By David Clements, The Stream – In this powerful 30-minute video essay, former prosecutor and longtime election integrity crusader David Clements examines the legal and historical precedents which President Trump could use against states that refuse to run honest elections, enforce immigration laws, or respect the Constitutional authority of his office.

By Olivia Gans Turner, LifeNews – Never has this been the norm in our society, but it has become so in Virginia during this off-year election cycle… “How has this happened?” many of us ask. Why has the Democratic candidate for Virginia Attorney General, Jay Jones, been given a pass by his running mates after it was brought to light that he had texted a colleague about his fantasies involving shooting the Republican House Speaker, as well as his young children?  Is his limp semi-apology enough to make him eligible to be the state law enforcement officer? These are questions only the voters of Virginia can answer this month. ….

By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – This (2nd) time around, at least so far, Democrats are shouldering most of the blame. Indeed, Trump’s polling numbers have actually risen slightly, with a slim majority blaming Democrats for the shutdown… The pressure to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the government before negotiating new budget items has placed Democrats in an unusual situation, in which they are the ones making demands while simultaneously blaming Republicans for the government shutdown. What continues to make that a hard sell is that Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been holding votes to report the government, which Democrats continue to vote down.

By John Daniel Davidson, The Federalist – The most important debate in America today is not about immigration policy but about what it means to be an American. Our immigration debate is of course a proxy for that. It’s easier to argue over asylum policy, or ICE enforcement protocols, than it is to tackle the fraught question of who is an American and who isn’t, who really belongs here and who doesn’t… At the heart of this debate are competing historical narratives about our heritage. On the right, there’s a growing willingness to argue straightforwardly and unapologetically that America isn’t just a creed or a proposition but a nation with a shared history and culture.

By John Clark, National Catholic Register – One would be hard-pressed to find an error that has been condemned more often, more strongly, by more popes, for more serious reasons, than socialism… Recently in “America” magazine, there appeared an article titled, “Yes, democratic socialism is compatible with Catholic social teaching.” While it may be exasperating to see pro-socialism columns like these appear again and again, it’s not surprising. As it turns out, the core philosophy we now call “socialism” has been one of the most persistent errors in Church history… While the word “socialism” only found its way into common parlance in the 19th century, its underlying philosophy dates back several millennia.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – I’ve been reporting here regularly on the two-front battle that President Donald Trump and his team are waging against America’s most deadly enemy… It’s slick-looking men with impressive degrees and hefty resumes, whose contacts extend to both parties, who look at their fellow Americans with the steely eyes of secret policemen in East Berlin or Bucharest… They are the biggest threats to American freedom on earth, and we’re still paying most of them salaries. …

By John J. Waters and Adam Ellwanger, Chronicles – On July 4, 2020, facing a cultural revolution that would transform our country by destroying its monuments, Trump stood before Mount Rushmore and declared: This monument will never be desecrated, these heroes will never be defaced, their legacy will never, ever be destroyed, their achievements will never be forgotten, and Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and to our freedom… It was a watershed moment in the history of American conservatism, where ideas had always been the center of politics. Trump said the radicals of 2020 wanted not just to tear down statues and memorials, but to “tear down the beliefs, the culture, and identity that have made America.” ….

By Chris Bray, The Federalist – Look again at the picture of the minister in Planned Parenthood vestments. She has the cultural authority of the pulpit, and she’s telling you, as a religious authority, that opposition to abortion is ungodly. God wants you to abort your children. Do you submit? She’s wearing a clerical collar, so you agree? “Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”… That’s how important the long march through the institutions has turned out to be.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Vance emphasized the situation remains “difficult” and “unpredictable,” and he urged everyone involved to stay “a little bit flexible” about the timeline for Hamas’ disarmament… Concluding his remarks, Vance said he hopes to visit Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which marks the site where Christ was crucified. He asked believers to pray that Christ, “the Prince of Peace, can continue to work a miracle in this region of the world.”

By Michael Swartz, Patriot Post – After pushback from the Trump administration, the United Nations decided — for now — not to pursue its latest climate change income redistribution scheme… After a little-noticed UN proposal for “international tax cooperation” sponsored by African nations passed last year, some of its initial fruit was a proposal to enact a global tax on shipping… “It’s an attempt by climate-obsessed politicians to entrench their agenda before voters in democracies can kill it,” argues the Journal. While even Greta Thunberg has lost interest in the global warming cause now, having sold out for “Palestine” instead, it only takes one vote by the nations of the world that still bow at the altar of Gaia to stick the world’s hands in our wallets yet again.

By Ellie Gardey Holmes,  The American Spectator – Things could have been quite different had former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe not uttered these damning words during his gubernatorial debate with now Governor Glenn Youngkin: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”… Those words came on Sept. 28, 2021, with just weeks to go before the election. The arrogant words flipped all momentum in Youngkin’s favor at a time when many were frustrated with the public school system, and when Youngkin, with his usual earnestness and affable persona, was promising reform.

By Sheena Rodriguez, Live Action – Created by Elon Musk, xAI’s Grok has introduced AI ‘companions’ — and one of them targeted toward children refers users to Planned Parenthood, likening abortion to simply “turning off a light.”… 72% of teens report using AI companions with 33% reporting to have a perceived “relationship” with the technology. The American Academy of Pediatrics also reports an increased use among young children and teens, noting that chatbots “may tell kids false, harmful, highly sexual, or violent things.” 

By Elizabeth Troutman, The Daily Signal – President Donald Trump said Tuesday that independent New York mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo has a chance of winning against socialist Zohran Mamdani if the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, drops out… “If he dropped out, maybe Cuomo would have a little bit of a chance, but not much, because it looks like, it’s not a great lead, but it’s big enough that [Mamdani] should be able to win”… “So, I don’t know that I want to get involved. It’s really a question of would I rather have a Democrat or a communist, and I would rather have a Democrat than a communist.”

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – Don’t blame the enforcement of the law; blame the Democrat lawlessness that made enforcement necessary… It’s apparently “cruel” to enforce immigration law, at least that’s what the left has been telling us for months now… “Instead of targeting real threats, this administration is carrying out a cruel agenda that will disrupt our economy, further erode trust in law enforcement, and sow chaos and fear,” Peters continued… It’s the same narrative we hear time and time again, that enforcing immigration law is inherently “cruel” — not because the laws have changed, but simply because the laws are being enforced.

By Lawrence Reed, The Stream – British economist and charlatan John Maynard Keynes once smugly declared, “In the long run, we’re all dead anyway.” More sage advice came from the likes of American economist Howard E. Kershner: “When a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare.”… When partisans of the political Left talk about environmental issues, they harp on the theme of “sustainability.” We shouldn’t do things to air and water that can’t last, they argue. Sounds reasonable. The problem is that those very same people usually support costly welfare state programs and that’s when they toss “sustainability” to the wind.

By Matt Boose, Chronicles – Democrats cannot plausibly deny their party’s support for favorable treatment for illegal aliens, typified by their support of free healthcare for this group. Even the most politically disengaged know that Democrats support illegal immigrants and oppose the government’s earnest efforts to deport them. More than a dozen blue states provide health benefits to illegal immigrants. The immense financial burden of this largesse has even led some ambitious Democratic governors, like Gavin Newsom of California and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, to backtrack a bit on the scope of the free healthcare. Nevertheless,  they continue to provide these benefits, costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

By Steven Ertelt , LifeNews – Planned Parenthood’s abortion empire continued its downward spiral as the abortion organization announced the closure of seven centers in California… That pushes the total number of its facilities shuttered across the country this year to 50 and highlights the mounting financial toll of federal defunding efforts championed by pro-life advocates. Planned Parenthood clearly relies on our tax dollars to prop up its abortion business.

By Carole Novielli, LiveAction – A recent release published at Newsweek noted that the $8 million given to Afaxys came from well-known abortion pill investor, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and an “anonymous” foundation. Where we see Packard funding, we often also see funding from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (Warren Buffett), which has been frequently revealed later as the “anonymous” donor… The release also stated that Christian Bloomgren, a “former general manager at Planned Parenthood Federation North America,” will “take over” Afaxys — and he is not the first executive with ties to both Planned Parenthood and Afaxys.

By William Kilpatrick, Turning Point Project – In my last piece I discussed the Church’s latest act of appeasement toward Islam—namely, the U.S. bishops’ guide to Islamophobia. The guide is, to say the least, poorly timed. At a time when most of the world is leaning over backward to avoid offending Islam, the guide urges Catholics to lean even more… One way to avoid offending Islam is to refrain from talking about the bad things that are done in the name of Islam… Another way to placate the many sensitivities of Islam is to talk non-stop about the bad things that are done to Muslim—to portray Muslims as victims of widespread bigotry and persecution. This media tactic also helps to divert attention away  from persecuted Christians. ….

By Melissa O’Rourke, LifeNews – The Trump administration is looking to slash an office at the HHS whose critics say has been a major driver of gender ideology and abortion policies in the federal government… The Office of Population Affairs (OPA) saw roughly 30 employees issued reduction-in-force (RIF) notices Oct. 10, effectively sidelining most of the agency’s staff, individuals familiar with the matter told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The cuts come as White House officials repeatedly warned that staffing reductions could occur if Democrats continue to refuse to reopen the government.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Kehoe rejected the criticism, saying his pro-life position remains unshaken… “I’ve said forever that I’m a defender of innocent life,” the governor said, according to the outlet. “Those young babies that have never had the chance to make any decisions that unfortunately become the victim of abortions, I’ll always stick up for that life as long as I’m in this office and anywhere else. I think that’s much different than somebody who murdered in cold blood a law enforcement officer, a hero in our state.”

By John Zmirak, The Stream – Nobody flooded the streets when Barack Obama killed an American citizen by drone strike, because of alleged terrorist ties. No one called it “authoritarian” when the Former Joe Biden’s autopen freed hundreds of criminals, including child porn collectors and Chinese spies. But when President Trump tries to do the federal government’s job of removing illegal aliens, state governors turn Confederate and treat ICE facilities like Fort Sumter.

By Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal – Victor Davis Hanson: I predict. The Europeans are very volatile. We forget about that. They have no history of a multiracial society like we do, and they’re not capitalist countries anymore, so they don’t have fluidity of class… So, when you bring in people who are antithetical in terms of values, religion from a different region, and they’re not European-looking, they have all these things that are challenges that need to be assimilated, and they can’t or won’t do it. And the people coming in have no desire to do it.

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – Today this may mean visiting a mosque. Tomorrow that could mean adopting policies or positions that conflict with the moral and legal frameworks that underpin the nation. Mass migration, combined with limited to no assimilation, risks gradually bending political norms to accommodate values and belief systems that were never intended to govern America… Measuring political legitimacy by a prerequisite of pandering to religious frameworks that are incompatible with republican self-government illustrates how mass migration without assimilation can create systemic pressure on the very foundations of our country. …

By Clifford Angell Bates, Jr., Chronicles – The mechanisms are consistent across these contexts: moral absolutism, cognitive rigidity, and the desire for control. Good intentions, when detached from prudence and responsibility, create tyranny. This is why both large-scale utopian projects and small-scale moral policing are forces of social destruction rather than renewal… The alternative is not to abandon morality but to temper it with humility, realism, and an ethic of responsibility. Healthy political and social communities are built not by imposing utopias but by nurturing voluntary associations, pluralism, and incremental reform.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – There are, to be sure, passages in the document that will grate on the raw sensibilities of faithful Catholics who have felt the lash of Vatican rhetoric over the course of the past decade. Particularly on the issue of immigration—which American secular reporters quickly chose for their headline stories, Dilexi Te misses some crucial distinctions… Yes, both the Old Testament and the New warn believers that they, and the societies in which they live, will be judged on their treatment of strangers in need. But this apostolic exhortation, like so many recent Vatican pronouncements, makes short shrift of a society’s legitimate right to protect its own culture and enforce its own laws.

By Jeffrey Mirus, Catholic Culture – the Christian understanding of the human person has long since disappeared from the dominant cultures of our world today. The result is that no significant political, economic, or social barriers any longer stand in the way of the long series of cultural shifts in favor of ever-deeper human depravities—evil done in the name of good—which is both the ancient and the modern hallmark of diabolical influence. …

By Fr. David Nix, Complicit Clergy, (Padre Peregrino) – The author (of ” Dilexi Te”) then misappropriates the Holy Family to argue for open-borders. Clearly, the Bible and the Catholic Church have always opposed chaos on national borders, as the true God is a God of order. But manipulating the Holy Family’s desperate flight to Egypt is also a trick of the leftists so predictable that I wrote against it even months before Dilexi Te was released. …

By Tessa Gervasini, National Catholic Register, (Complicit Clergy) – The Diocese of Lexington has developed an ambitious plan to make all of its buildings net-zero by 2030 because, it noted, as Scripture says: “The earth and all in it belongs to God.” The plan includes all buildings of the 59 parishes in the diocese, spanning over 50 counties in central and eastern Kentucky… The plan is a direct response to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’  (“On Care for Our Common Home”), which called on the global Catholic Church to engage in dialogue about the future of the planet. Within the writings, Pope Francis urged the Church to acknowledge environmental challenges.

News by National Catholic Register (EWTN) – Christians in Gaza are relieved by the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 13 between Israel and Hamas, but they understand that hostilities could break out again at any time, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told Vatican Radio in an Oct. 15 interview… “We are in daily contact with them. They keep writing that they still cannot believe they were able to sleep through the night without hearing the sound of bombs,” the patriarch said during a visit to Rome …

By John M. Grondelski, Crisis Magazine – In the end, Dilexi Te’s treatment of migration leaves Catholics with serious unanswered questions. The Church may and must remind believers of the moral dignity of every person. But she cannot call Catholics to actions that imply contempt for lawful authority, nor can she treat the existence of sovereign states as a regrettable accident of history. If Rome wishes to speak credibly about migration, it must do so in full awareness that the world of Abraham and Moses is not the world of passports, borders, and visas—and that Catholics, while bound by charity, are also citizens. Between God and Caesar, the Exhortation seems to have forgotten that both still have legitimate claims upon us.

By Beth Brelje, The Federalist – President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton was indicted Thursday on 18 charges related to his alleged leaking of national secrets while he wrote a book about his work in the White House… The charges include eight counts of transmission of national defense information and ten counts of retention of national defense information… Bolton was the national security advisor from April 9, 2018, through Sept. 10, 2019, during which time he had access to some of the nation’s most highly classified and sensitive national secrets.

By Kate Quiñones, CNA – President Donald Trump is expanding access to in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments by partnering with pharmaceutical companies and expanding insurance options… According to a White House announcement on Oct. 16, the Trump administration is working with major pharmaceutical companies to bring IVF drugs to the U.S. at lower prices. The administration is also expanding insurance coverage for fertility care… The agreement with leading pharmaceutical group EMD Serono will make IVF drugs available “at very, very heavily reduced prices — prices that you won’t even believe…”

By Kenneth Craycraft, Catholic World Report – In his very brief tenure as Supreme Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV has demonstrated that he—the first American pope—is not an Americanist pope. Yes, he is America’s pope, but not any more or less than he is the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. As such, he is no less suspicious of American tendencies to compromise the Faith than his illustrious predecessor. The manifestation of Americanist impulses in 2025 is somewhat different from that of the late 19th century. …

By Thaddeus G. McCotter, Chronicles – With so much of their dark money and Big Tech contributions gone, Democrats—who eschew thoughts and prayers—can only cling to hope. Beyond that, expect no detours from the old strategy of deflection, projection, twisting and redefining language and standards, and, of course, blaming Trump.

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch got a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to all but admit support for states intentionally discriminating on the basis of race in the redistricting process… The moment came during (SCOTUS’) Wednesday oral arguments for a pair of cases known as Louisiana v. Callais and Robinson v. Callais, which center on the Louisiana Legislature’s use of race when creating its recent congressional map… the matter first arose “following ‘a previous lawsuit … where plaintiffs argued that the prior map’ put forward by the state ‘violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting minority votes,’ according to Oyez.”

By Dan Hart, LifeNews – As the federal government shutdown stretches into its 14th day, reports from Capitol Hill and the White House suggest that the impasse won’t end anytime soon, with the Trump administration refusing to budge on the Democrats’ demands of expanding COVID-era Obamacare subsidies and other spending by $1.5 trillion. … One Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official told Punchbowl that the agency is “making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats’ intransigence. Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs [reduction in force], and wait.”

By Sophie Starkova, Patriot Post – Radical Islamist violence in Nigeria is getting renewed attention from the West as more reports come out. As World magazine’s article on the plight of Christians in that country recounts, “This year, Nigerian Christians have faced increasing attacks from jihadist groups. According to the Nigeria-based nonprofit InterSociety, Islamists murdered more than 7,000 Christians — and kidnapped 7,800 — in the country between January and August. This latest violence has refocused international attention on Nigeria over the ongoing attacks and persecution.”

By Tyler O’Neil, The Stream – The Left has abetted a massive lawlessness crisis that has divided and likely radicalized Americans… Democrats may want us to throw the George Floyd riots of 2020 down the memory hole, but we should remember that those riots cost more than $2 billion in damage and took the lives of at least 26 Americans. The left-leaning media described the riots as “mostly peaceful,” while Democrats demonized even calls for law and order from the president.

The Editors, National Catholic Register – When the president of the United States says he doesn’t think ‘anything’ can get him into heaven, it’s a teachable moment — a chance to remind him, and ourselves, that Divine Mercy is greater than any human achievement… Trump possesses such heaping reserves of self-confidence that there isn’t a skyscraper on the planet tall enough to contain it. This exasperates his critics, of course. Even some of his most ardent supporters occasionally cringe at his braggadocio… There is, to cite one example, his expressed wish to have his likeness added to Mount Rushmore. “Outrageous!” we might think. …

By Robert G. Marshall, Catholic Culture – The State of Virginia’s 2025 General Assembly passed a proposed so-called Reproductive Freedom Constitutional Amendment (RFCA) to Virginia’s Constitution (S.J.Res 247) which will be on Virginia’s November, 2026 ballot if passed a second time by Virginia’s 2026 legislature. Other states have faced or will face similar challenges, so the Virginia experience should put all American citizens on their guard.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – During his first official visit with Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Oct. 14, Pope Leo XIV lamented Europe’s falling birth rates and invited renewed efforts to protect and promote the family… “In recent decades, we have witnessed in Europe as we have seen a notable decline in the birth rate,” the Pope said in a speech after the visit. “This calls for a concerted effort to promote choices at all levels in favor of the family, supporting its efforts, promoting its values, and protecting its needs and rights.”

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Tuesday, hailing the slain Turning Point USA founder as a “giant of his generation” whose unyielding defense of faith, family and American liberty will echo through history… The ceremony, held in the White House Rose Garden to accommodate a swelling crowd of supporters, fell on what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday.

By Jeffrey Lord, The American Spectator – President Trump has made history — major league world history. One can only pray that the Middle East is on its way out of the horrific decades of mass violence that arose with the formalization of the Jewish state in May of 1948… All of which leads to the obvious question: Can the rest of the world imagine a world without ongoing violence in the Middle East?… The answer to that question is, one suspects, that it has taken President Trump, the man who has made a career of envisioning everything from buildings to the results of presidential elections to peace agreements that the world’s collective political leaders could not envision themselves.

By Gregory Lyakhov, Patriot Post – While Democrats try to deny it, the reason Washington is shut down comes down to a single question: Should Medicaid, a program meant for low-income Americans, be used to subsidize healthcare for people who entered the country illegally?… The fight began with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this year. One of its key reforms ended a Medicaid loophole that allowed states to pass the cost of covering illegal immigrants on to federal taxpayers. The law required states to pay those costs themselves, cutting off a practice that blurred eligibility lines and drained billions.

By Ben Johnson, The Stream – Faithful Roman Catholics hoped the first American pope, Leo XIV, would make a decisive break with Pope Francis, but he is already continuing one of his predecessor’s worst habits: putting the moral authority of world’s largest church behind illegal immigration. So far, Pope Leo XIV’s actions and statements signal that he will offer Americans more baptized lawlessness on the border… America First Policies Threaten the the U.S. Bishops’ Taxpayer Subsidies…

By Tony Perkins, LifeNews – When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision in June 2022, many in Washington and the media declared that abortion was now a matter for the states. While the ruling did not explicitly say abortion was a state issue, it did affirm that states have the authority to regulate abortion — and in doing so, it appeared to cut the strings of federal control, freeing states to protect the unborn.

By John Kainer, The American Spectator – Kirk, therefore, offered a service to universities that they were loathe to offer themselves — a religiously informed defense of America’s founding ideals and principles. Kirk was fearless in saying what he believed to be true given his considerable time spent reading, thinking, and writing about political, cultural, and religious issues. He could have chosen death for his opponents, but he chose dialogue instead. After Auschwitz, that is the responsibility of all people who would live in a free society.

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – For years, the Presidential Medal of Freedom has been awarded to celebrities and political allies. But on Tuesday, President Donald Trump will posthumously award Charlie Kirk the highest civilian honor, reviving the medal’s original intent of recognizing those who have made extraordinary contributions to the security, ideals, and freedoms of the country.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – The latest blasphemous stunt by a Catholic priest to promote open borders ought to outrage anyone with respect for the Eucharist, much less for our country’s sovereignty and laws. Left-wing activist Rev. Larry Dowling organized a formal eucharistic procession, complete with smells and bells, and marched it up to the locked gates of an ICE facility on a Sunday, without notifying anyone in advance. Then he made a little scene in front of the fence, as if wicked Donald Trump were intentionally keeping Jesus away from the migrants, or some such nonsense.

By Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal – After 738 days in Hamas captivity, the final 20 living hostages crossed the border from Gaza back into Israel. Images of fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, and sisters embracing their loved ones after two years of separation flooded social media… Bar Kupershtein, 23, cried as he embraced his mother. He was working at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas launched its terrorist attack on Israel killing 1,200 and taking another 251, including Kupershtein, hostage.

By Tessa Gervasini, Catholic News Agency – President Donald Trump renewed the focus of Columbus Day to be celebrated on the second Monday of October, reclaiming the explorer’s “extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue,” according to the president’s proclamation… Since 1971, the second Monday in October has been federally recognized as Columbus Day to commemorate Columbus’ discovery of the Americas in 1492, celebrate Italian-American heritage, and acknowledge the 1891 lynchings of 11 Italian Americans. In 2021, former President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day to be observed on the same day, following backlash toward Columbus.

By Kristen Ziccarelli and Joshua Treviño, The Federalsit – If we are to properly set the conditions for a civilizational rebirth, we must accept that realistic rhetoric is the statecraft needed for renewal… Last week, President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had signed off on the first phase of his Gaza peace plan — one of the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in years. For our nation and the world, this was a moment of rare convergence, of both clarity and action.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – While Democrats addicted to ideological rage who approve of political violence paint targets on President Donald Trump and his team by labeling them “fascists,” let’s check in on what the embattled Jews of Israel have to say. It’s “Thank you, Trump!” chanted by thousands of grateful Israelis at different events in the streets of Tel Aviv, after the signing of a deal to return Israeli hostages seized by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023: President Trump, I say this as a scholar who has published books on fascism and its enemies: You’re doing fascism wrong. ….

By Douglas Andrews, Patriot Post – How did Trump do it? First, by establishing his credibility. And that means saying what he means and meaning what he says. That means greasing Soleimani and obliterating Iran’s nuclear sites, but it also means playing hardball with Bibi Netanyahu… As former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman put it yesterday: “The Biden and the Obama administrations had a series of perpetual red lines that were made to be breached, and in the Middle East, you can’t do that. Nobody took them seriously. In the Middle East … people look at you and they ask, ‘Does this guy mean what he says? Does he have the courage of his convictions?’ And with President Trump … that’s a guy that means what he says, that you should pay attention to.

By Nathanael Blake, The Federalist – We were told that the LGBT movement was about adults — giving everyone equal rights and getting the government out of the bedrooms of consenting adults. But this was a lie; LGBT activists were always coming for the children… Just look at the recent kerfuffle over Netflix. Right-wing influencers and activists have drawn attention to the many Netflix shows promoting LGBT content for very young children… Prominent figures such as Elon Musk and Utah Sen. Mike Lee have joined in the denunciations, and the backlash seems to have hurt the company’s stock price.

By Matthew Plese, The Fatima Center – The Errors of Socialism – The Catholic Church has condemned Socialism in all its forms – so-called Christian Socialism as well as atheistic Socialism – without exception. But why? What is the error of Socialism? Is not Socialism about caring for the poor and eradicating evils like poverty? No, it is not… Socialism advances the error that private property is not a human right but can be taken away from individuals by the state and given to others… Socialism, like Communism, advances the view of the state as the supreme authority and therefore inevitably persecutes religion.

By Bruce Bawer, The American Spectator – No, it’s not over yet. The trans lobby is still raking in donor money, still has a lockhold on the Democratic Party, and is still regarded as authoritative by the mainstream media. Many circuit court judges, in acts that palpably extend beyond the reach of their powers, have sought to block Trump’s actions. Then there are judges like the one in New Hampshire who ruled in April for a school district that had jettisoned two men from their daughters’ soccer game for wearing “XX” wristbands to protest “trans male” athletes.

By Adam Ellwanger, Chronicles – Over the course of my nearly 20-year career as a professor of rhetoric, I’ve learned that—stripped to its essence—rhetoric is symbolic force. Not all language is forceful. A statement like “His new car is red,” is descriptive, but it exerts no force on the audience. Rhetoric is the type of communication that aims at producing a tangible effect on something real; something outside the self, beyond the symbolic realm of discourse… The left has now spent decades asserting that offensive speech is violence. They are half right: rhetoric, like a punch, is an application of force. But rhetorical force, under the right circumstances, serves as a useful alternative to physical violence. Thus, persuasive force cannot be the same as violence.

By Liberty Counsel, LfeNews – This week, Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for allowing dangerous abortion pills to be mailed nationwide which undermines federal law, the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, and state pro-life abortion laws. Louisiana, and a state resident who survived abortion pill poisoning, are petitioning for the FDA to reinstate a rule that only allows the abortion pill Mifepristone to be dispensed in person. From 2016 to 2021, the FDA under the Obama and Biden administrations deregulated Mifepristone removing nearly all safeguards, including the in-person dispensary requirement under Biden, despite the drug’s questionable safety record.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the arrests of eight individuals Wednesday in a sweeping crackdown on a network of unlicensed abortion centers in the Houston area… “This cabal of abortion-loving radicals has been running illegal clinics staffed with unlicensed individuals who endangered the very people they pretended to help. Beyond being illegal, it is evil. These dens of fake doctors will not be allowed to operate in Texas. Those responsible will be held accountable. I will always protect innocent life and use every tool to enforce Texas’s pro-life laws,” Paxton said in a statement.

By Brian Mark Weber, Patriot Post – Democrats like Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson want the rest of the country to think ICE agents are targeting the innocent for simply being, you guessed it, black or brown… Since the George Floyd riots broke out across the country in 2020, Democrats have made it clear that they’re opposed to the very notion of the Rule of Law. Then, they told us violence was an acceptable remedy for injustice. Now, they’re taking issue with President Donald Trump enforcing federal immigration law by sending agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement into cities across the country.

By Alyssa Murphy, National Catholic Register – Within a 41-second clip, Netflix is promoting not only transgenderism, but also the spirit world, complete with an animated demon. All for 7-year-olds… It all started with one show… Just last week, the internet was abuzz with an animated show apparently with a target audience of 7-year-olds showing a character all punked out with short blue hair, an earring, and looking ever so androgynous explaining to her friend that she was “trans” now. …

By Angeline Tan, Live Action News – Key Takeaways: A group of House Republicans have reacted to the FDA’s approval of a new generic abortion pill by calling for top FDA officials to be fired… Pro-life groups and others view the move as a betrayal of HHS and FDA’s promise to review the abortion pill mifepristone’s safety… The Trump administration has attempted to explain the generic approval by claiming that they were simply following what is required by law.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Fifty-one Republican senators are calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reconsider their approval of a new generic version of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone… In a letter sent Oct. 9 to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, the lawmakers — led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. — warned that they are “deeply concerned” by the drug’s approval and urged the agencies to suspend further authorizations until a full safety review is completed.

By Larry Elder, Chronicles – One more time: There is no such thing as free lunch. Government has no money. It acquires the money used to pay for things one of three ways: taxing, borrowing or printing… Democrat senators, with three exceptions, voted against keeping the federal government fully running because they want to add back spending reduced under the so-called Big Beautiful Bill; they want to spend even more; and they want to extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies.

By Lawrence Reed, The Stream – Two weeks since the murder of Charlie Kirk, the tragedy is still sinking in. I knew Charlie Kirk. In 2015, when he was just 21, he wrote, “Mr. Reed’s lecture on Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations is still one of my favorite to date. It really changed the way I look at the free market and economics.” He reserved the highest praise for the work of the Foundation for Economic Education, the organization I have been closely associated with for half a century. He encouraged students to attend FEE programs, and I spoke at several of Charlie’s Turning Point conferences and chapter events.

By Casey Chalk, The Catholic Thing – There was a time when German Catholics fought for the faith. One hundred and fifty years ago, half the bishops of Prussia were imprisoned, as were hundreds of parish priests, leaving more than a thousand parishes orphaned. All of them had refused to cooperate with various Prussian laws, often called “May Laws,” intended to suffocate the independence of the Catholic Church in favor of an “ecumenical” brand of Protestantism. German lay Catholics responded by providing hiding places for clergy, paying fines clergymen incurred from the state, and purchasing bishops’ furniture at auction. And they were just getting started.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Hours after announcing that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a Gaza peace plan, President Donald Trump said Oct. 9 that all remaining hostages could be released as early as Oct. 13… Trump first announced the agreement Oct. 8 on Truth Social, saying it ensures that “ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.”… (On) Oct. 9 White House Cabinet meeting, Trump said, “We ended the war in Gaza and on a much bigger basis, created peace, and I think it’s going to be a lasting peace.”

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – A Virginia grand jury indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, according to reports… A jury of her peers in the Eastern District of Virginia made the decision to indict James, and while the details of James’ indictment were not immediately available, Reuters reported James was indicted for bank fraud, citing a source familiar with the matter… Notably, James was hit with a criminal referral just recently for alleged mortgage fraud.

By Perkin Amlaraj, Daily Mail – A Peruvian bishop accused of having 17 secret mistresses has handed in his resignation after reportedly being exposed by his cleaning lady… Ciro Quispe López, 51, the bishop of Juli in Peru, resigned his prestigious post following an investigation by the Vatican that revealed some of the women nearly physically fought each other after finding out the truth… Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist, said: ‘A nun who was one of Quispe’s lovers was jealous of a lawyer the bishop was also seeing and sent information about his affairs to a third lover who got into a fight with the lawyer.’

By Pedro Gonzalez, Chronicles – An old colleague I had not heard from in a long while added me to a group chat on Wednesday. The members were all people who had been in my cohort for the Claremont Institute’s Lincoln Fellowship in 2021, a mixture of media figures, analysts, and activists. Although the group sort of fragmented later, I did make a few good friends with whom I kept in touch even after I began removing myself from that social circle. Still, I thought it was odd. Why now, and why add me after years of silence?… “Charlie got shot.”

By Elizabeth Troutman, The Daily Signal – The White House is exposing Democrats’ efforts to give illegal immigrants access to health care under the Biden administration… “This memo discusses specific actions taken by the Biden administration to provide Obamacare and Medicaid benefits to illegal immigrants,” the document says… President Donald Trump’s administration issued the memo on the seventh day of the government shutdown, which Republicans say has been caused by Senate Democrats’ unwillingness to pass a clean budgetary continuing resolution that doesn’t restore funding of health care for illegal immigrants.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will convene next month to elect a new president and six committee chairmen, a routine vote overshadowed by a recent uproar over the Archdiocese of Chicago’s plan to honor pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin with a lifetime achievement award… The plenary assembly, set for November 10-12 in Baltimore, comes amid lingering fallout from the controversy, which drew sharp rebukes from several bishops who decried the recognition as a scandal undermining the church’s core teachings on the sanctity of life.

By Sophie Starkova, Patriot Post – Nicholas Roske turned himself in for attempting to murder a Supreme Court justice, but now he claims he’s a woman named Sophie, and the left-wing judge let him off easy… In yet another middle finger in the face of justice, a federal judge handed down a mere eight-year sentence for Nicholas Roske for the attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the weeks leading up to the Dobbs decision in 2022. Judge Deborah Boardman didn’t even attempt to find a middle ground between the prosecution’s request of 30 years and the defense’s plea for eight. …

By Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit – The entire world knew Joe Biden was corrupt and conflicted… Now, finally, those in the know are beginning to speak out… Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev told reporters former US President Joe Biden “provoked the war in Ukraine to cover up his family’s corruption.”… Kirill added, “The truth is coming out and justice must follow.”… Kirill Dmitriev is the chief of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund since 2011 …

By Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer, National Catholic Register – Oral argument in the ‘Chiles v. Salazar’ case indicates that a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court’s justices believe the ban is a violation of the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee… After Tuesday morning’s oral argument in Chiles v. Salazar, it is clear that a majority — if not all nine justices — agree that an exacting review known as “strict scrutiny” should apply to Colorado’s ban on so-called “conversion therapy,” given its profound impact on the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee.

By Mat Staver, LifeNews – Hiding behind PR-polished talking points, the Democrats’ highest priority is to USE OUR TAX DOLLARS TO PAY FOR ELECTIVE ABORTIONS… AOC and Chuck Schumer are willing to hurt Americans and leave families without paychecks, all so that they can demand we pay for federally funded abortion in Obamacare… Most Americans oppose taxpayer-funded, elective abortions.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – Responding today to Cardinal Pietro Parolin’s latest criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the Israeli embassy to the Vatican complained that the cardinal “focuses on criticizing Israel while overlooking Hamas’ continued refusal to release hostages or stop the violence.” That complaint should sound familiar; it has become the standard response to any question about Israel’s war tactics.

By The Stream – At first, digital IDs are promoted as convenience and security — making life easier, preventing fraud, and modernizing services. But when government holds all the keys — your money, your health, your travel, even your ability to speak freely — it opens the door to control and punishment at the flip of a switch… In this six-minute video, Vlad Savchuk discusses how digital IDs and CBDCs may feel like dress rehearsals, conditioning people to accept government-controlled systems..

By Paul Gottfried, Editor in chief, Chronicles – This identification of black South African tyranny with “the country’s cursed racial logic” rests on a fallacy. It is one driven by political correctness among journalists and historians on both the establishment right and left. The disorder and violence that has come from black majority rule in South Africa are entirely consistent with black rule elsewhere, including in American cities, where black majority governments have done pitifully little to control crime and graft and have routinely engaged in antiwhite rhetoric. …

By Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Sept. 30, 2025 – An entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that “our diversity is our strength.” Of course, we know our unity is our strength. They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQI+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal… They were told that we need a green fleet and electric tanks. They were told to kick out Americans who refused an emergency vaccine. They followed civilian policies set by foolish and reckless political leaders. …

By Paul Gottfried, Chief of Chronicles – In his most recent column, Douglas Murray tells us that “Democrats are driving young men to kill ‘Nazis’ who aren’t Nazis.” Murray then goes on to show how one of our two national parties is inciting violence to bring down the Trump administration… The problem is even worse than Murray describes. The European press, particularly the German “antifascist” media, slavishly follows the Democratic Party playbook to smear opponents as “Nazis.” The echoing effect of this incendiary language is designed to lend international respectability to the murderous tactics that Democratic politicians continue to pursue.

By Jim Hᴏft, The Gateway Pundit – Woke Pope Leo XIV blessed a block of ice during an event south of Rome while presiding over what looked more like a pagan Earth-worship ritual than a Catholic gathering… “We will raise hope by demanding that leaders act with courage, not delay,” Pope Leo declared as he blessed the frozen water, before asking the audience: “Will you join with us?”… The theatrics were part of the Vatican’s 10th-anniversary celebration of Pope Francis’ 2015 climate encyclical Laudato Si’, a manifesto that helped launch a global “green theology” movement.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Virginia Democrats are standing by their nominee for attorney general, Jay Jones, even after revelations that he fantasized in text messages about shooting a Republican lawmaker and wishing harm on the politician’s children… The disturbing messages, sent in August 2022 to former Republican Del. Carrie Coyner, surfaced amid Jones’ bid to unseat incumbent pro-life Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares in the 2025 election, with early voting underway as of September 19.

By Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal – President Donald Trump is sending federalized troops into Portland, Oregon, because the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center and headquarters there is under veritable assault, especially in the night hours… In other words, Antifa-like protesters surround the facility. They make it almost impossible to drive in and out. And they’re trying to disrupt the idea itself that the federal government has a right to apprehend illegal aliens that have warrants out for their deportation.

By Nancy Flanders, Live Action – While preliminary data from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute estimates that in the first six months of 2025, there was a five percent (5%) decline in “clinician-provided abortions” in states that do not have laws protecting all children from abortion, there is good reason to doubt these numbers… The preliminary data estimates (collected far differently than before the reversal of Roe v. Wade) also show an eight percent (8%) decline in abortions in pro-abortion states for women traveling from pro-life states.

By Nate Jackson, Patriot Post – Given the choice between supporting violent criminals and Donald Trump, Democrats are choosing the violent criminals every time… Democrats are not serious about fighting crime. Donald Trump is… We can certainly debate the merits of Trump’s decisions to deploy the National Guard to help combat crime in Washington, DC, Memphis, Portland, and Chicago. Democrats are absolutely litigating Trump’s moves, fighting harder against that than they do against the crime running rampant on their streets.

By Tracey Rowland, Catholic World Report – Perplexing choices for performers – First, there was someone whose stage name is “Jelly Roll,” a rapper who was once convicted for aggravated robbery and drug dealing, but by age 39… “Bam Bam.” Another Google search revealed that Bam Bam is a Thai rapper and singer based in South Korea, and a member of the South Korean boy band Got7… To me, as someone who remembers the 1970s, this has the hallmarks of a warmed-up correlationism—the idea that the best way to evangelize the world is to correlate the faith to whatever is regarded as fashionable.

By Catholic Vote, by Staff – NBC News reported Oct. 2 that Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin was “overwhelmed” by Pope Leo’s comments about the Archdiocese of Chicago’s plans to award the pro-abortion politician with a lifetime achievement award… The outlet claimed the Holy Father had offered “support” for Durbin amid widespread criticism from bishops and faithful Catholics, who opposed Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to honor Durbin despite his rejection of Church teaching on the sanctity of life.

By Catholic Vote – A New Jersey man was arrested early Sunday, Oct. 5, on the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Northwest Washington, DC, hours before the city’s annual Red Mass, after police say they discovered he had suspicious items and potential explosives… As first reported by 4News Washington, officers of the Metropolitan Police Department assigned to provide security at the cathedral confronted the man, identified as 41-year-old Louis Geri of Vineland, NJ, at around 6 a.m. after he refused to leave the property. Geri was reportedly attempting to set up a tent on the cathedral steps. He had previously been barred from the site.

By Edward Welsch, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture – The American right has tried talking with the left; the left has responded with violence. This was demonstrated in gruesome detail last month in Utah, when a young man radicalized online by left-wing, trans ideology murdered Charlie Kirk, the most prominent conservative practitioner of peaceful dialogue, in front of a stadium full of students… A long trail of left-wing violence precedes that shocking event. Just days before, another trans ideologue shot up a church full of children in Minneapolis, killing two kids. And, just days after, a rooftop sniper who left behind anti-ICE messages opened fire on the Dallas ICE detention center, shooting three people and killing one.

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – There are significant consequences that come with importing masses of foreign nationals from cultures incompatible with Western Civilization. Yet, Europeans seem content with learning this lesson the hard way… On Thursday, the United Kingdom experienced a tragic terror attack when 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie allegedly rammed his truck into a crowd at a Manchester synagogue before getting out and stabbing Jewish congregants. Al-Shamie is of Syrian descent and became a British citizen in 2006 after entering the country as a young child, according to Fox News.

By Nancy Flanders, Live Action News – The FDA has just approved a new generic version of the Mifeprex (mifepristone 200mg) abortion pill, as evidenced by a letter sent to Evita Solutions, LLC, on September 30…. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the principal for Evita Solutions — a pharmaceutical manufacturer — is Robert Patane, and the business is located in Glen Allen, Virginia. According to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Evita Solutions describes its mission as one to “normalize abortion” and make it “accessible to all.”

By Virginia Grace McKinnon, LifeNews – With less than five weeks before Virginia’s statewide elections, a new poll finds the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, trending upward and closing the gap with her opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger… The poll conducted by A2 Insights found Earle-Sears trailing Spanberger, a former three-term member of Congress, by 3.1 points—marking the closest margin Virginians have seen in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – Sometimes reality is at once so horrifying and so … on the nose and heavy-handed, that you wonder if God is winking at us. Yesterday saw a sickening terror attack in Britain that sums up what’s wrecking that country in a manner that beggars comment… Yesterday, on the high Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, a Syrian Muslim colonist — sorry, “British citizen of Syrian descent” — contributed to British society in the way that only Muslims can. He committed a jihad attack. The target was a synagogue thronged with worshipers, who tragically thought they lived in a land with religious freedom for all. The BBC reports: ….

By Daniel J. Flynn, The American Spectator – The group Third Way released a memorandum late this summer to “All Who Wish to Stop Donald Trump and MAGA” titled “Was It Something I Said?”. It overflows with what Democrats lack: common sense… “For a party that spends billions of dollars trying to find the perfect language to connect to voters,” the memo begins, “Democrats and their allies use an awful lot of words and phrases no ordinary person would ever dream of saying.”… The unsolicited advice concedes that such words, which were intended to “broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace,” have instead unleashed the opposite effect. 

By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency – Pope Leo XIV encouraged the world to unify around care for the planet as he took the stage at a climate justice conference headlined by actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger outside of Rome on Wednesday… “We are one family, with one Father, who makes the sun to rise and sends rain on everyone (Mt 5:45),” Leo said Oct. 1 at a conference center in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. “We inhabit the same planet and must care for it together. I therefore renew my strong appeal for unity around integral ecology and for peace!”… The pontiff and Schwarzenegger addressed the opening day of the Oct. 1–3 “Raising Hope for Climate Justice” conference, held at a center near the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo. …

By Nate Jackson, Patriot Post – As Democrats force a government shutdown over extending “emergency” ObamaCare spending, the comedian-in-chief does some epic trolling to make fun of them… Democrats are always shrieking with indignant self-righteous outrage about something, and this time, it’s a couple of AI videos President Donald Trump posted on social media… Dems have been calling Republicans Nazis and fascists for decades, leading to not one but two assassination attempts on Trump and a successful assassination of Charlie Kirk, but they’re upset over a humor video? Give me a break.

By Catholic Vote – Durbin, “one of the highest-ranking Democratic Catholics in U.S. office, told NBC News on Wednesday that he was ‘overwhelmed’ by the support he received from Pope Leo XIV… Durbin told NBC news he had chosen to decline the award “because the reaction has been so controversial against the Cardinal who proposed it, and I see no point in going forward with that.”… As CatholicVote reported, Pope Leo suggested Sept. 30 that, “while he was not very familiar with the controversy, it seemed suitable to honor Durbin for his 40 years of public service unrelated to abortion.”

By Mark Wiltz, LiveAction – As the possibility of a government shutdown looms, the real battle is not about procedure or partisan politics but about whether taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortion coverage and radical gender interventions under the guise of health care… At the center of the fight are proposals to extend and expand Obamacare’s “premium tax credits.” Supporters claim these credits are necessary to make health insurance more affordable. But in practice, they open the door for federal subsidies to flow into health plans that include elective abortion and ‘gender-affirming’ procedures.

By Daniel Payne, Catholic News Agency –  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week approved a new abortion pill made by a company that explicitly says it seeks to “normalize” abortion… A Sept. 30 letter obtained from the office of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said the FDA approved the abbreviated new drug application for “mifepristone tablets” from Evita Solutions, a Virginia-based pharmaceutical company. …

By The Stream – This 48-minute video from Salem Media features the late Voddie Baucham, the martyred Charlie Kirk, and the memorable Eric Metaxas at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in 2021, debunking the fashionable idea that the Church’s job is to promote leftist notions of “social justice.” Instead, we must fight for Biblical justice, which (as they explain) is a very different thing. …

Posted on X by Complicit Clergy, October 1, 2025 – Here’s a sampling of some of the reactions on social media to Pope Leo blessing a block of ice at the Vatican’s Raising Hope for Climate Justice Conference.

By Mary Stroka, Catholic Vote – Israel has warned residents in Gaza to flee or become military targets… Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said in a post on X at 8:07 a.m. ET, Oct. 1, that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had surrounded Gaza City. Anyone leaving southward will be “required to pass through the IDF’s inspection checkpoints,” Katz warned, adding: “This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City itself, facing the IDF’s ongoing operations at full force. Those who remain in Gaza will be considered terrorists and terror supporters.”

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal – Democrats shut down the government because Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is afraid he will lose his Senate seat to radical leftist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a party primary, Vice President JD Vance said at a Wednesday press briefing… “Why did this happen? Why did the Democrats shut down the government despite, as [White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt] said, voting on the exact same piece of legislation six months ago?” Vance asked rhetorically.

By Melissa O’Rourke, LifeNews – Planned Parenthood officially shut down its last two clinics in Louisiana on Tuesday, leaving the state as the most populous in the country without any of the abortion provider’s locations… With the closures in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana joins Wyoming, North Dakota, and Mississippi as the only states without any Planned Parenthood clinics. The shutdowns follow major federal funding cuts for abortion providers under the Republican-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

By Sophie Starkova, Patriot Post – Since the 1960s and accelerating with the late ‘70s establishment of the Department of Education — federally funded education nationwide — the education system has been in devastating decline and infiltrated from the very beginning with deceptive dogma. Many of the very same revolutionaries from the 1960s, steeped in Marxism, even those who had served time for crime, later became teachers in public schools and professors in higher education. Academic measures were then allowed to suffer because it was essential to re-educate in the “acceptable” dogmas of the day, which were secularism and Marxism.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – As Democrat mayors praise cop-killing terrorists and the Democrat governor of California paints an assassination target on a White House aide, the Left’s street militias are arming themselves and conducting riots against federal law enforcement. And the Trump administration is responding with something more than “thoughts and prayers” such as Democrats like to mock. It’s cracking down on sedition, which in the short run is likely to provoke even more violence — so get ready, fellow citizens. There’s a bumpy ride ahead.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Congressional leaders have been trading blame over the likely Oct. 1 government shutdown, with Republicans pushing for a short-term funding bill through Nov. 21 and Democrats demanding long-term health care provisions. But many Americans likely view the whole debate with some confusion. Here are a few points of clarity… A government shutdown happens when Congress fails to pass either all the usual annual appropriations bills (or a continuing resolution to temporarily extend funding while budget work continues).

By John Daniel Davidson, The Federalist – A recent news article about Britain’s National Health Service managed, in a few lines, to capture just how dire the situation is in that country and how divorced from reality its political leadership has become… The article was about guidance the NHS published recently, “extolling the benefits of first-cousin marriage despite the increased risk of birth defects.”… the NHS England’s Genomics Education Programme seemed to endorse incest, saying first-cousin marriage is linked to “stronger extended family support systems and economic advantages.”

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – In rolling out the shopworn “seamless garment” approach, the Pope suggested that some other unnamed politicians should not be classified as pro-life. American Catholics have been debating that issue for 40 years. But right now the issue is not the status of those other hypothetical politicians. The question is whether Durbin is pro-life. By the Pope’s own statement, he is not. “The Church teaching on each one of those issues is very clear.” Therefore Durbin should not be honored by a Catholic institution. Case closed.

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – In a Sept. 30 address delivered to hundreds of senior military leaders, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth unveiled major changes to internal military policy, declaring an end to diversity programs and promising to restore a “warrior ethos” across U.S. armed forces… Speaking in Quantico, Virginia, before a packed hall, Hegseth repeatedly denounced what he described as years of “decay” brought on by weakened standards, political agendas, and diversity mandates… “We became the woke department. But not anymore,” Hegseth said, later adding, “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. We are done with that.” ….

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – The Planned Parenthood abortion business will close two centers in Louisiana today – making it so the southern state is totally free of the nation’s biggest abortion business… Both Planned Parenthood facilities in Louisiana will close their doors effective today… Notably, the New Orleans facility was constructed with the stated goal of becoming a regional abortion center, intending to perform nearly 2,844 abortions per year. With Louisiana banning abortions and a new federal law defunding Planned Parenthood, babies across the state are protected and that goal was not achieved.

By Natalia Mittelstadt, Just The News – As many as 400 Iranians will be deported from the U.S. back to Iran in the coming weeks, according to the country’s foreign ministry on Tuesday… Iranian state television cited director-general for parliamentary affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Hossein Noushabadi, regarding the 400 Iranians that will return to Iran as part of the deal with the U.S. Noushabadi said the majority of those Iranians had crossed into the U.S. from Mexico illegally, while some faced other immigration issues.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Archbishop Joseph Naumann is the latest Catholic leader to condemn the award Cardinal Blasé Cupich is giving to pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin… As LifeNews has extensively reported, Cupich faces heavy criticism from millions of Catholics and even fellow Catholic Church leaders for his decision to bestow a Lifetime Achievement Award on Durbin… In a statement released to the National Catholic Register, Naumann said it is a “source of scandal” to give an award to Dubin and reward him for his decades-long promotion of abortion, calling it a case of “pastoral neglect.”

By Kevin & Theresa Burke, Catholic Exchange – Prolifers see the issue of protecting human life in the womb as the foundation of all social justice. This leads them to support conservative candidates and policies that limit abortion and reject the public funding of abortion services… Sadly, viewing these two valid Catholic perspectives as opposed to one other has led us to esteem our political affiliations more than the profound communion we share as brothers and sisters in Christ… Is there a way to embrace a third perspective—one that sees the issue of abortion from both a social justice and a prolife perspective?

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – Charlie Kirk was murdered less than three weeks ago by a deranged leftist who inscribed anti-fascist slogans on bullet casings. Kirk’s murder should have been a wake-up call that inflammatory rhetoric smearing conservatives as “fascists” or “Nazis” or “Hitler” has deadly consequences. Instead, it’s only emboldened the left to increase such rhetoric… Nowhere is that more apparent than California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s official press account, which spent the weekend calling White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller a “fascist” and demanding Miller kowtow to the left if he wants to stop being slandered.

By Robert P. George, The Catholic Thing – As the Pope makes clear in Evangelium Vitae, the pro-life imperative also entails political responsibilities. This is most evident in the case of public officials—legislators, judges, and others charged to shape and apply our laws. Public officials are bound to act in conformity with the great truth of our Declaration of Independence that all human beings are “created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,” including, in the very first place, the “right to life.” “As far as the right to life is concerned,” Pope John Paul II writes, “every innocent human being is absolutely equal to all others”

By Douglas Andrews, Patriot Post – When a woefully unpopular political party runs out of ideas, all it can do is lie and smear and demonize the opposition — in this case, with a term bereft of its meaning… Time was when Republican presidents were supposedly either stupid or evil. Ike and Reagan and W were stupid. Nixon and Trump were evil… Those were the days — the days when Democrats restricted their petty and pathetic name-calling to either of two convenient categories. Donald Trump, though, has flummoxed the Democrats by defying that easy categorization. …

By Randall Smith,  The Catholic Thing – So, Cardinal Cupich has decided to honor pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin. The chancery office says that they are honoring him for things other than his support for abortion, but that’s like honoring Bill Cosby for the wonderful things he did other than his mistreatment of women. No one would accept that. The obvious conclusion would be that you just don’t care about the mistreatment of women – or at least not as much as you should… there should be no real mystery about what the Cardinal has done. He is like the unfaithful steward in Luke 16 who, realizing that he is soon to be out of a job, does some favors for his master’s debtors to gain their favor after his dismissal. …

By Fr. Kevin Drew, Crisis Magazine – My friends, we are not Quakers. When our homes, families, or churches are attacked, we have a duty to defend those things. It is not mercy to stand by and watch good things be destroyed, it is cowardice. A Christian puts a stop to mindless evil destruction. Then he forgives. For he desires that all men, friend and foe alike, attain eternal life… Christ told us to conquer the world by baptizing it. Christ did so first, conquering Satan with the same weapon Satan used to trap our first parents—a tree. So, we glory in that tree. We glory in the Cross of Jesus Christ. We glory in the sweet wood and the sweet nails that deliver us and set us free.

By John Horvat II, Chronicles – Historically, the left thrived by crafting words and expressions that resonated with the public, inflamed passions, and engendered sympathy for their cause. Their ideological wordsmiths understood the importance of using words to mask their dark agenda… However, something has recently changed in the American left; they no longer express themselves well. Their expressions offend and belittle ordinary citizens. They push their unattractive programs without bothering to mask their intentions.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – This political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically. Instead, it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society. A new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required. …

By Newsmax – YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit that President Donald Trump brought against the company over the suspension of his account following the January 2021 U.S. Capitol breach, a court filing showed on Monday… The deal makes Google the last of the three big tech companies to resolve lawsuits Trump brought in July 2021 accusing them of unlawfully silencing conservative viewpoints… Trump had also sued Twitter, now known as X, and Facebook owner Meta, as well as Alphabet’s Google ….

By Shannon Mullen, National Catholic Register – Another U.S. bishop has publicly rebuked Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich for his plan to honor pro-abortion Sen. Richard Durbin with a lifetime achievement award… In a statement released to the Register on Saturday, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, the recently retired ordinary of Kansas City, Kansas, said it is a “source of scandal” for the cardinal to recognize the Illinois senator in this way, calling it a case of “pastoral neglect.”… Archbishop Naumann is the latest American prelate to chastise Cardinal Cupich for deciding to honor Durbin — a Catholic politician whose own bishop banned him from receiving Communion in the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois …

By Parker Thayer, The Federalist – In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, conservatives and moderates alike are crying out for the decimation of hyper-politicized nonprofit organizations and the “NGO complex” that many believe enables and encourages left-wing extremism. The sentiment is correct, but the righteous anger is currently directionless, leading to dubious comments about “hate speech,” vague notions of charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and talk of investigations into Antifa funding, with no real sense of where to strike first.

By Anne Hendershott, Catholic World Report – Earlier this month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed new anti-abortion legislation to end the availability of the “abortion pill” in his state. Acknowledging that more than 19,000 abortion pills are shipped into Texas each year—with many of them used to circumvent the state’s heartbeat law and other protections—the Governor signed HB-7, a bill known as the “Woman and Child Protection Act.”

By by Bridget Sielicki, Live Action News – In May, two abortion businesses filed a lawsuit to overturn several pro-life protections in the state. They argued that a state amendment passed last fall in which abortion was enshrined as a constitutional “right” means that there should be no restrictions on abortion at all… The lawsuit targeted a number of laws, including those that prohibit abortion due to the preborn child having genetic anomalies, informed consent laws requiring a 24-hour waiting period and an ultrasound prior to the abortion, and laws prohibiting mail-order abortion pills. …

By John Zmirak, The Stream – Rhetoric Has Consequences: Now we have Democrat politicians calling ICE agents “the Gestapo,” and equating their use of masks (to protect their families from harassment) with the crimes of the Ku Klux Klan. Catholic bishops are comparing ICE officers (I wish I were making this up) to Nazi war criminals and slavecatchers — who presumably deserve to be resisted by violent force. What happens when putative authorities issue such blank checks for illegal violence? Here are just a few of the most recent atrocities:

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy has sent a letter to the governors of 22 states, who are worried about the dangers of the abortion drug mifepristone, telling them he has opened a “real-world” review of it. The high-level study of the drug was initially announced earlier in the week… The abortion pill has killed dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more – and of course it has killed millions of babies… Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary wrote to 22 Republican attorneys general informing them of the review, which they said will examine “real-world outcomes and evidence, relating to the safety and efficacy of the drug.”

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – The Russia collusion hoax is arguably one of the most harmful and damning scandals in U.S. history — and none of it would have been made possible without corrupt intel hacks like Comey… Thursday’s indictment is welcome news for Americans who still care about the rule of law and delivering justice for those engaged in wrongdoing. Let’s hope these are but a few of the many charges awaiting Russiagate’s other key players, whose damaging antics must be held to account.

By Tyler O’Neil, The Daily Signal – Hillary Clinton’s secret to a “more perfect union”? Marginalize conservative Christian white men…. When MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski asked the former first lady and secretary of state whether America is “still headed toward a ‘more perfect union’” on Wednesday, Clinton attacked conservatives as the reason why the country’s progress is “on pause.”… “The idea of ‘We the People,’ that all men and women are created equal, that seems to be in the crosshairs of those on the Right who want to turn the clock back on the progress that has been made, writing out huge chunks of our history ….

By Breccan F. Thies, The Federalist – ‘It is alarming that both private companies and public institutions alike appear to be using foreign workers to work in [DEI] roles — placing non-Americans in positions where they are tasked with policing the speech and thought of our own citizens.’… American companies and institutions have utilized the notoriously abused H-1B work visa program to staff diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices, according to documents released by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.

By John Stonestreet , LifeNews – A whistleblower lawsuit against Planned Parenthood under the federal False Claims Act could force the nation’s largest abortion business to repay as much as $1.8 billion in fraudulent Medicaid claims… The lawsuit, filed in 2021 by an anonymous whistleblower identified only as “Doe,” accuses Planned Parenthood of continuing to bill Medicaid for services in Texas and Louisiana even after those states revoked the abortion organization’s eligibility in 2015. The revocations followed undercover videos released by pro-life activist David Daleiden that showed Planned Parenthood altering abortion procedures to harvest and sell aborted baby parts.

By Anne Hendershott, Crisis Magazine – Cardinal Cupich must know—as all faithful Catholics have known for decades—that Sen. Durbin could be counted on for voting in favor of the most radical abortion policies. Most recently, on January 22, 2025, Durbin voted against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act which would require medical intervention for infants who survive an attempted abortion. Later in the year, Durbin voted against defunding Planned Parenthood. The previous July, Durbin voted in favor of the Reproductive Freedom for Women Act. And two years earlier, Durbin supported late-term abortion by voting against the Kennedy Amendment 3758 which would have banned abortion after 20 weeks.

By Nate Jackson, Patriot Post – Words are not violence, but words certainly can incite violence… Across the street from the Dallas ICE facility, the assailant, 29-year old Joshua Jahn, was found dead of suicide with a bolt-action rifle similar to the one used to assassinate Charlie Kirk. A stripper clip with rifle rounds included one with “ANTI-ICE” written on the casing, and similar messages on other casings. Authorities say he “fired indiscriminately,” hitting both the ICE building and an unmarked transport van, holding the detainee victims. …

By Tyler O’Neil, The Daily Signal – President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Thursday directing an “all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism” and Antifa… “These are professional agitators, these are bad people and they’re paid a lot of money by rich people, some of whom we know,” Trump said of Antifa… White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called the move “historic.”… “This is the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism, to dismantle Antifa, to dismantle the organizations that have been carrying out these acts of political violence and terrorism,” he said. …..

By John M. Grondelski, The Catholic Thing – “Sanctuary” has returned to the American political vocabulary, especially in the context of cities and states declaring they will not allow local resources – police or social services – to cooperate with federal authorities in identifying or detaining illegal aliens… Contemporary Polish political philosopher Zbigniew Stawrowski argues that part of our modern problem is philosophical bait-and-switch: terms have been coopted by the Left, emptied of their original meaning, and replaced with new notions unmoored from the original.  We see this in words like “rights,” “justice,” and “marriage.”  We also see it with “sanctuary.” …

By Rachel Quackenbush, Catholic Vote – Courage International, a Catholic apostolate that ministers to individuals who experience same-sex attraction, will commemorate the 45th anniversary of its founding Sept. 26… Father Brian Gannon, who serves as executive director, reflected on the anniversary by citing Psalm 125: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”… “We thank God for the pastoral courage of Father Harvey, who, reading the signs of the times, began this beautiful apostolate,” …

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Sept. 25 on the long-anticipated deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S., followed by signing directives on capital punishment in Washington, D.C., and on launching a federal crackdown on domestic terrorism… Signing the TikTok order from the Oval Office, Trump said the new arrangement would create a U.S.-based entity valued at about $14 billion and emphasized that U.S. investors will control the app’s algorithm to prevent foreign manipulation. …

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – A grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday on two counts: false statements within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch and obstruction of a congressional proceeding… The indictment, which was brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, centers on alleged false testimony Comey provided to Congress in September of 2020 about his handling of the Russia collusion hoax… “On or about September 30, 2020, in the Eastern District of Virginia, the defendant, JAMES B. COMEY JR., did willfully and knowingly make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement ….

Source: X by Staff – Today Bishop Michael Olson, Bishop of Fort Worth, became the publicly called on Cardinal Cupich to cancel his plan to award Senator Dick Durbin a lifetime achievement award with a post on X: “At every Mass we ask the Lord Jesus for the gifts of peace and unity in his Church, and at this time of strife and division, Cardinal Cupich could promote peace and unity by withdrawing the invitation to Senator Durbin to receive an award and instead use the event to highlight – “

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Catholic bishop, Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin is the latest bishop to oppose the award – saying that nothing makes up for Durbin’s longstanding pro-abortion record to make him deserving of such an honor… Ricken wrote on X that the Archdiocese of Chicago’s plan to honor Senator Durbin is “untenable” – writing that Cupuich’s honoring of Durbin’s work on immigration and his decades of voting for abortions up to birth “are not mutually exclusive but must be inclusive.” ….

By Carrie Gress, The Federalist – Is there someone who can tell (Gen Z women in both parties) to “woman up?” As Erika Kirk takes the helm at Turning Point, many have suggested she could do for young women what her husband has done for young men… Kirk is a woman of remarkable talent and grace, who has made it clear that she isn’t hemmed in by feminist tropes. “Women,” she said at her husband’s memorial service, “I have a challenge for you too. Be virtuous. Our strength is found in God’s design for our role. We are the guardians. We are the encouragers. We are the preservers. Guard your heart. Everything you do flows from it.”

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – Two people are dead after a shooter whose bullet casings reportedly had “anti-ICE messages” on them targeted an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas. Just hours earlier, California Gov. Gavin Newsom described immigration enforcement as “authoritarian” and suggested people would “push back” in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert… At least two individuals were killed with a third injured after a gunman opened fire on an ICE transportation vehicle in Dallas early Wednesday morning.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – Predictably, Cardinal Blase Cupich has defended his decision to honor Senator Richard Durbin despite criticism by Bishop Thomas Paprocki. Phil Lawler and I both wrote about this yesterday at about the same time, so I decided to wait another day to post my thoughts. Phil emphasized “The Cupich assault on episcopal unity”, making excellent points. But I want to to draw attention to the old bugbear that has caused such convenient confusion over the past generation and more, namely the “seamless garment” theory of morality.

By Newsmax – The White House budget office is instructing federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans for mass firings during a possible U.S. government shutdown, Politico reported on Wednesday… The Office of Management and Budget is set to send a memo to federal agencies on Wednesday night to prepare to permanently reduce government workforce if there is a shutdown, according to Politico… The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. …

By Judie Brown, LifeNews – Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago announced his intent to award Senator Dick Durbin a “Lifetime Achievement Award” for Dick’s work on immigration… Senator Dick Durbin, who calls himself a Catholic, has served in the U.S. Congress since 1983. For over 40 years, Dick has not only supported abortion and worked to protect this heinous act, but he has protected Planned Parenthood and worked to enshrine abortion as a “constitutional right.” That’s more than 60,000,000 dead children, with his full support. Dick could not be further from Christ.

By John Zmirak, The Stream – One ICE detainee was killed and two others were wounded after a shooter “opened fire” on a Dallas ICE facility Wednesday morning, Department of Homeland Security officials said… The shooter later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a statement from ICE officials. … No law enforcement officers were injured the shooting, which unfolded around 6:40 a.m. Wednesday at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at 8101 North Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, off Interstate 35E…

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing – Solzhenitsyn went on to say, “There remain many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.”   Charlie Kirk’s life, at last, proved Solzhenitsyn wrong. And Charlie’s death is now being called a “hinge” point, a tipping point, indeed a turning point… The signs of the times. We are supposed to look for them, as Catholics.  It’s what we do:  we see the good in something not our own, sort out the good from the bad, and then appropriate it.  So then, how are we doing so with Charlie Kirk and his movement?

By Madalaine Elhabbal, Catholic News Agency – Opposition is mounting against Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to honor U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, with a “lifetime achievement award” for his work surrounding immigration policy despite his long pro-abortion voting record… Following Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois’ denunciation of the decision, additional bishops have followed suit in speaking out against the upcoming ceremony honoring Durbin, scheduled to take place in November. …

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – A third Catholic bishop has stood up to oppose a decision by Cardinal Blasé Cupich to give an award to pro-abortion Senator Dick Durbin… Cupich, head of the Archdiocese of Chicago, plans to honor the radically pro-abortion senator with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the “Keep Hope Alive” Benefit on November 3… Now, Bishop James Conley of Nebraska has spoken out against the decision… Cardinal Cupich’s decision to honor Durbin has reignited scrutiny of his approach to abortion, particularly after he delivered the opening prayer at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where support for abortion has been a party platform staple since 1980.

By Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal – In any time in a society, you get an ology or an idea or a pretext to excuse behavior, you’re gonna get more of it. Let’s take the trans shooter, Audrey Hale, in Tennessee. She obviously acted out of hatred because she felt her gender dysphoria was oppressed by organized religion. She wrote a manifesto. We didn’t get the manifesto. In fact, we heard more about her trans problems than we did the actual reason why she went out to kill these people. ….

By John Zmirak, The Stream – (The Charlie Kirk Memorial) was a powerful moment for the Church in America, which is very good news for the country — since our Republic can only stay free if its people practice the virtues, as each of our Founding Fathers warned… A vice-ridden populace can only be controlled by a bureaucratic tyranny, and nobody can practice even the natural virtues (prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude) for long without God’s grace. That comes through the Church. So the Church’s future and freedom’s survival aren’t just intertwining issues. ….

By Ben Whedon, Just the News – Pres. Donald Trump’s Tuesday speech to the UN General Assembly saw him excoriate the international body as ineffective and forecast Washington putting more distance between itself and the UN… Trump accused the UN of leaving the job of peacekeeping to him, highlighting the many global conflicts that he resolved in the first seven months of his presidency… “I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal,” he lamented. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”