Jeanie Hannaman

Fr. Kevin Drew, Catholic Exchange - In 1949 the Englishman George Orwell wrote a book titled 1984.  It was about life in a totalitarian state—one that held total control over peoples’ lives.  Orwell invented terms used in the book that resonate today: Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak.  Today the term Orwellian is used to describe official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of the past.  One famous quote from 1984 is: “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”... In 1968 students in the city of Krakow, Poland, organized an unofficial lecture titled “Orwell’s 1984 and Poland today.”

By Francesca Pollio Fenton - Cardinals from around the world have made their way to the Vatican to participate in a centuries-old tradition known as a conclave — a meeting in which the College of Cardinals gathers to elect a new pope... The Catholic Church currently has 252 cardinals; however, only 135 of these cardinals can vote in the conclave because a cardinal must be younger than 80 years old to vote... Pope Francis during his pontificate appointed 108 of the 135 cardinal electors. ...

By Dawn Beutner, Catholic World Report - ...throughout history, there have been four men who have reigned in such an extraordinary way that the Catholic laity have spontaneously given them the title of “the Great” after their deaths... the great popes can teach us important lessons about how an ordinary man can become an extraordinary pope, by God’s grace. Specifically, Popes Leo I, Gregory I, Nicholas I, and John Paul II show that a man can be a strong leader, a great man, and a faithful Catholic while bearing the heavy responsibility of being the chief shepherd of the Church of Jesus Christ.