Marriage

By Jonah McKeown, National Catholic Register – Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding, speaking to the Register, noted that his is a diocese experiencing rapid, large-scale growth — about 1.5% on average per year for the Nashville metro, while the national average is well under 1% — primarily driven by large numbers of people moving into Middle Tennessee. People are primarily moving to the area for economic opportunities, he said, but also because the region is perceived as family-friendly and value-oriented, creating the soil for a vibrant and dynamic Catholic culture to spring up.

By Katherine Matt, The Daily Signal – In recent years, many parents have begun questioning long-standing assumptions about traditional education. Concerns about bureaucracy, one-size-fits-all curricula, and institutional failures have eroded confidence in the public school system for many families… Some parents are also increasingly wary of ideological instruction in public schools, particularly when it comes to gender ideology and sex education… While debate over education is healthy in our society, a growing number of families believe the system has become less responsive to individual needs

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 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 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 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 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 Fr. Nnamdi Moneme, OMV, Catholic Exchange – I used to think that I was humble…until I entered the seminary and started living with people of different temperaments and attitudes. Then I discovered that I had a lot of pride to deal with… I thought I was courageous until I faced the reality of clerical scandals and cover-ups in the Church. Then I discovered how easily I gave in to discouragement… I thought I was patient until I had to drive in traffic. Then I discovered how impatient I was… What was the lesson that I learned from all these? …

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 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 Nathanael Blake, The Federalist – Parents have good reasons to want to keep their kids out of government-run schools. Here in Virginia, the Loudoun County school district notoriously covered up a rape that was ideologically inconvenient. Just before the start of this school year, a Loudoun elementary school teacher was arrested for soliciting a minor. And the school board is being sued over their policy allowing students to use wrong-sex facilities like locker rooms and for punishing kids who object.

By Caroline Manno, Crisis Magazine – If you want the main course and dessert, you really need to read Maria von Trapp’s own writings on her family’s life and deep spirituality. The best place to start is The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949), on which The Sound of Music is based. The film portrays well Maria’s conflict between her desire to be a nun and God’s upending of her plans to fulfill His own—that she marry Georg and raise a family with him. You can see Maria speak briefly about her decision in this interview.

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 Johanna Duncan, Refinelife.co – Traditions don’t just “happen;” they are built consciously, lovingly, and sometimes imperfectly, but consistently year after year. And in a world where culture shifts faster than we can process, traditions matter more than ever. They are the anchors that remind us who we are, where we come from, and who we belong to… The good news? You don’t need a picture-perfect, Hallmark-style family to build meaningful traditions. You don’t need money, matching pajamas, or a cabin in the woods. What you do need is consistency, intention, and the willingness to show up

By John M. Grondelski, Crisis Magazine – The New York Times ran a December 12 feature whose thesis is depressingly simple: American elementary and secondary students no longer read full-length books. The title says it all: “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class.” “Rarely” now means perhaps one or two books a year—four at most. And even those few tend to come from a narrowing, predictable list: To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. Even Shakespeare often gets reduced to the balcony scene.

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 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 Scott Ventureyra, Crisis Magazine – Yet the real wound is not only that these boys are drifting into harder and more chaotic spaces online. The deeper wound is that most Christian leaders have offered them nothing stronger or more hopeful to cling to. Too many churches adopt a soft managerial tone instead of demonstrating genuine pastoral courage. Too many pastors behave like administrators when the moment demands fathers. These young men do not need to be analyzed, reprimanded, or told they are a problem. They need direction. They need presence. They need someone willing to stand in the gap.

By Marcus Peter, Catholic World Report – Modern attention spans resemble the shattered remnants of what earlier generations possessed, and the digital ecosystem accelerates this fragmentation with relentless efficiency… The recent revelation that Meta employees privately compared themselves to drug pushers while the company suppressed evidence of severe mental health harms to children arrives with the subtlety of a fire alarm in a library. After all, nearly every adult with a pulse sensed this trajectory long before any whistleblower confirmed it.

By Amanda Farnum, Crisis Magazine – We have a crisis of decorum in dress in our country. Gone are the days when people took pride in their appearance and dressed well for all occasions. One need only to head to the nearest public space to see evidence of this crisis. What amounts to pajamas is now considered appropriate daily wear. The days of ladies in beautiful dresses and gentlemen in suits for just a normal Tuesday are behind us… U.S. Sec. Transportation, Sean Duffy, shined national attention on this crisis in his interview with Fox News regarding behavior in air travel these days. He said, “People dress up like they’re going to bed when they fly.”

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 Jules Gomes, The Stream – A celibate cleric waxing lyrical about the pleasures of conjugal love may be compared to a congenitally dumb man who miraculously starts speaking Mandarin and Malayalam, both at the same time. Cdl. Victor Manuel Fernández, Rome’s doctrinal rottweiler, is the epitome of such a miracle. When it comes to rhapsodising on the birds and bees, this prince of the church soars on the wings of an eagle… In 1995, the cardinal, who was consecrated to the deity Cupid, penned his own contribution to the anthology of erotica. He wrote a book titled “Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing”. In a chapter on “Male and Female Orgasm,” the vestal virgin of Catholicism assesses male and female orgasm.

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 John M. Grondelski, Crisis Magazine – No small number of contemporary problems, big and small, are related to chastity and its contemporary lack. At the same time, one can imagine the level of global derision the pope would have faced had he actually picked this very pastorally salient topic for a synod… Which makes Sophia’s recent book—Fr. T.G. Morrow’s “Achieving Chastity in an Unchaste World”—all the more germane… Chastity has always been a challenge for human beings because we are bodily beings. Sensory impressions are powerful on bodily-spiritual creatures. …

By Peter Van Buren, The American Conservative – This year, Thanksgiving is ours…. It all starts with a text: “Can’t wait to see everyone for Thanksgiving! Let’s be civil this year!” You remember last year, when someone “accidentally” sent your MAGA cap down the disposal. You know the text was not intended for your cousin who livestreams her dietary needs (“I guess no one remembers—again—I’m vegan.”) The text was aimed squarely at you, the family’s only conservative.

By Nancy Flanders, Live Action News – The dark truth of surrogacy: Creating children with ‘no mother at all’ … A set of twins born in New York in 2023 have lived in a foster home since birth because the Department of Social Services determined they had no mother at all and should be considered wards of the state… MaryBeth Lewis awaited the arrival of twin babies — a boy and a girl — who were being carried by a surrogate in upstate New York. But there were problems. MaryBeth wasn’t actually the biological mother of the babies, and her husband wasn’t the biological father.

By Dave and Debbie Cowden, Catholic Exchange – If I had to summarize my prayer life in one sentence, it would be this: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (see Mt. 26:41). I imagine this is the case for many parents, who feel they are merely “scraping by” or “surviving, not thriving.” Yes, these are clichés. Yes, they ring true… We Cowdens have seen this in our lives. There are seasons when our family prays regularly together and other seasons when we feel we hardly resemble a Catholic family, outside of attending Sunday Mass. …

By John M. Grondelski, The Catholic Thing – Pope Leo XIV has joined the chorus of those lamenting the implosion of global fertility levels. Speaking after a visit with the President of Italy, the Pope urged action to implosion of fertility and the collapse of childbearing. Encouragingly, he specifically extolled gendered names for family members: “‘Father,’ ‘mother,’ ‘son,’ ‘daughter,’ ‘grandfather,’ ‘grandmother’. . .[t]hese are words that in Italian tradition naturally express and evoke sentiments of love, respect, and dedication – sometimes heroic – for the good of the family, community, and therefore for that of society as a whole.”

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 Bishop James D. Conley, The Catholic Thing – President Trump recently announced measures to expand access to and reduce costs associated with in vitro fertilization (IVF). This is being billed as a pro-family and pro-life effort to help “American families have more babies.” While the intention and goal are noble, IVF, in fact, undermines human dignity, marriage, and family life for a variety of reasons… But first, a word to those conceived through IVF, those struggling with infertility and, by extension, those wrestling with this aspect of the Church’s teaching, which can seem counterintuitive, confusing, and even harsh.

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 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 Marcello Riccobaldi, Catholic Exchange – The publication of the summary document of the CEI synodal journey, entitled Lievito di pace e di speranza (“Leaven of Peace and Hope”), is causing quite a stir… The most serious aspect of this situation, apart from the inconsistency of wanting to be Catholic while continuing to live in a state of mortal sin and without the slightest intention of trying to change one’s life, is that it is now clear that among some Catholics, including those at the top of the Vatican hierarchy, the idea has taken hold that there is a homosexual identity… and not a disordered tendency ….

By Christopher Nadon and Kathleen O’Toole, The American Spectator – Last September, professors at elite American colleges finally began to admit what has been apparent for the last dozen years: Their students cannot read. No, they are not illiterate. But they cannot read books, at least not the kind of dense and nourishing fare that once constituted the curriculum for entering freshmen. Their response to this discovery has been to stop teaching them. Professor Andrew Delbanco at Columbia removed Moby Dick to accommodate his students’ inability. Professor Victoria Kahn at Berkeley now requires only excerpts from the Iliad rather than the whole thing. Georgetown English Department Chair Professor Daniel Shore finds his students struggle to focus on the entirety of a fourteen-line sonnet.

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 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 Joseph Reciniello, Catholic Exchange – America is lacking in real men. I’m referring to men who are willing to die to themselves completely and serve. That is what a real man is. Not some clueless guy watching television, drinking a beer, and eating pork rinds. That’s Hollywood’s portrayal… A man cannot be a man unless he knows how to serve. What do I mean by that?  If one is to lead his wife and children properly, such a man first and foremost must kneel before God. Our will must bend completely! When that happens, we will learn by and through the Cross to serve our wives and children the way our Catholic Faith instructs us too.

By Fr. Thomas G. Morrow, Catholic Exchange – A woman once told me, “I don’t love my husband anymore.”… I asked her, “Are you concerned for his good?”… “Yes,” she answered…. “Then you love him.”… “That’s the love you vowed when you married him. That’s the same kind of love we need to be saved. The Greek word for it is agape … It sounds like you don’t like him. You don’t have to like your husband. But if you work hard for his good and try to make him happy as best you can, he just might become more likable. However, that shouldn’t be your primary motive. Your first motive should be to fulfill the vow you made before God to pursue his good.”

By Elle Purnell, The Federalist – Laughing in the face of transgenderism’s propagandists is a fine start. It would be great to live in a society where full-grown men cosplaying as toddler girls are treated with deserved mockery instead of accommodation. Exposing (pardon the poor word choice!) the movement’s absurdity can help deter would-be victims from falling for it. Studies have shown that many young people, particularly young girls, face massive social incentives to adopt LGBT identities. Reversing those incentives would surely slow the mania.

By Katrina Trinko, LifeNews – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy even warned Thursday that the low birth rate poses “a national security threat.”… “When my uncle was president, the fertility rate in this country was 3.5%,” he said. “Today it is 1.6%. The replacement rate—in other words, the amount of fertility that you need in order to keep your population even—is 2.1%. We are below replacement right now. That is a national security threat to our country.”… But while IVF, or in vitro fertilization, gets much of the attention for solutions for infertility, it’s not the only option.

By Matthew McKenna, Catholic Exchange – Recently, one couple shared their story about discerning the morality of embryo adoption and their final decision to go through with it because they are otherwise infertile.  A significant portion of the article centers around the moral reasoning through which they determined that it was an acceptable choice.  Sadly, and despite their best efforts to find moral guidance, there are serious issues with their reasoning and interpretation of Magisterial teachings which have led them, and may lead others, astray.

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 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 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 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 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 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 Bishop Athanasius Schneider – Bishop Schneider leads three other bishops at the CIC Conference in Pennsylvania, USA in making reparation for Vatican desecration. Watch the full CIC Conference HERE. The four bishops: Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary of the diocese of Astana, Kazakhstan; Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, auxiliary of the Diocese of Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands; Bishop Joseph Strickland, emeritus of the Diocese of Tyler, USA; Bishop Marian Eleganti, emeritus auxiliary of the Diocese of Chur, Switzerland ….

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – In our increasingly disturbed, frantic, violent world, many people are looking for grand solutions to our problems. Surely, the United Nations can save us. Or perhaps it will be the NGOs, funded with the money of billionaires, that will implement the systems that will produce peace… Government cannot heal our societies, but the “fundamental cell of society,” the “cradle of the future of humanity” can. And that begins with you, today, in your home, with your children.

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 Jonah McKeown, National Catholic Register – For many parents, the dangers and downsides of giving their children smartphones — the time wasted scrolling online, potential exposure to inappropriate content, and the anxiety and depression that can come from social-media addiction — are obvious… What is far less obvious to many parents, in a society saturated with smartphone use among adults and children alike, is how to say “No” when their son or daughter asks for one… One Catholic-founded Texas-based group is attempting to offer a solution: banding school parents together under a pledge to keep smartphones and social media out of their kids’ hands, based both on a Catholic vision of the human person …

By Rachel Greszler, The Daily Signal – By 2034, there will be more seniors than children for the first time in our country’s history. Meanwhile, the federal debt has exploded and will be the equivalent of a second mortgage for today’s youth… Young people, in turn, will be called on to produce more to support an aging population and will be forced to pay more to cover past and current government largess… Even more troubling, millions of young Americans are drifting without the skills, discipline, and opportunities they need to succeed.

By Salena Zito, Patriot Post – If you were looking for young people distraught over Sept. 10’s brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk here, you were looking in the wrong place… They went to The Sanctuary church by the busloads. Even Pastor Jason Howard was taken aback by the size and scope of the number of young people who came out on Sunday, Sept. 14, for service… “I’ll be honest with you, I am in my forties, so I was caught off guard by the response from people who are in my church in their twenties. They were much more in tune with Charlie’s influence than I was,” he explained. …

By Nathan Kreider, Catholic Exchange – One of the common questions young men are asking today is, “is marriage worth it?” There are countless articles and videos all across the internet arguing that it’s not (or at the very least, that tremendous caution should be taken before entering into it)… This isn’t the place for thoroughly contextualizing some of the statistics regarding happiness, fulfillment, infidelity, and divorce. This is partly because this has already been done elsewhere, but also because the statistics can only say so much. …

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 Mark Haas, Crisis Magazine – Elon Musk may not share the Church’s theological foundations, but his warnings point toward the same reality. A civilization that stops having children has chosen against its own future. In the words of St. John Paul II: “A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the children who are the hope of the future.” The fertility crisis is not only an economic issue but a moral and spiritual one. And here, as so often, the Catholic Church’s perennial wisdom proves both timely and timeless: be open to life, trust in God, and rediscover the joy of the family.

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – Imagine, for a moment, that one day you are going about your business, and you receive a message, on Instagram, from a journalist… The journalist has a question for you: How do you feel about the fact that you have just been charged with a crime that could land you in prison, for 10-25 years?… Now, imagine that this is the very first time that you have even heard about these charges. And then, imagine that the crime for which you are being charged is that you once called a man…a man… This is the Orwellian, but very real situation that a Brazilian woman found herself in three years ago.

By Francis X. Maier, The Catholic Thing – MacIntyre appears in the bibliography of Leah Libresco Sargeant’s new book, The Dignity of Dependence.  He’s referenced by name in the final pages.  And for good reason:  He’s a key resource among the many Sargeant uses to advance what she describes as a new “feminist manifesto.”  That word “feminist” is not a slam-dunk positive for this reviewer.  As a husband and father, I’m old enough to remember, in detail, the 1970s.  That includes the subsequent course of mainstream, secular feminism and the wreckage it too often wrought.

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – The Sunday memorial of slain conservative intellectual Charlie Kirk added a much-needed dose of Christianity into America’s broken culture. And with it came a profound message concerning the nation’s future male leaders… The pivotal moment came during remarks by Vice President J.D. Vance. While eulogizing his deceased friend, the Ohio native cited Christ’s teachings to offer poignant advice for young men seeking some semblance of purpose in life… “It is better to die a young man in this world than to sell your soul for an easy life with no purpose, no risk, no love, and no truth,” Vance said. …

By Austin Ruse, Crisis Magazine – I didn’t stay. On the day of my college graduation, I packed up my car and drove straight through from the University of Missouri to Washington, D.C. I probably stopped for gas… I left behind family and friends and roots. I bounced from D.C. to New York and back again. I returned to Virginia, where I was born, to set down roots with a wife but not until I was 47. At this remove, I ponder deeply the importance of staying put, of stability… When I was 14, my family moved to what I consider my hometown of St. Charles, Missouri; and I recall that all the boys I met had known each other since kindergarten.

By Veronica Burchard, Crisis Magazine – America has long been known as an “experiment” in self-government. Writing to Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay in 1790, George Washington reflected on the meaning of the new Constitution: “The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment, for promoting human happiness, by reasonable compact, in civil Society” (emphasis added)… Note he said America was not just an experiment but the last great one. If that was his conclusion after watching our ally France’s Reign of Terror in the name of “liberté, éqalité and fraternité,” how much more would he be convinced today to watch us trade American founding principles for those same Marxist values, now called “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” …

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion company, is expanding its reach into selling trans hormones by instructing teenagers on evading parental consent and medical safeguards… That’s according to a recent workshop exposed by critics who warn it endangers vulnerable youth. The abortion organization, which operates nearly 600 centers nationwide, has positioned itself as the leading seller of cross-sex hormones for so-called gender transitions, treating 40,000 patients last year alone, with 40% aged 18 to 22.

By Matthew McDonald, The National Catholic Register – Toledo Bishop Daniel Thomas’ new document ‘The Body Reveals the Person’ rejects gender transitioning, but not the gender transitioner… Attempting to change gender is “medically assisted self-harm” and should be rejected, but people experiencing pain over gender identity should know that God loves them and wants to bring them to himself through their sufferings, an Ohio bishop says in a new document.

By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – When tragedy strikes, the most appropriate initial response is to pray. It’s an acknowledgement of our finiteness and reality that ultimately only God is truly in control; only God is sovereign over everything… It was and is fitting for us to pray, to call on God, after this most recent atrocity, the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Indeed, given that he was an outspoken Christian, that is precisely the response Kirk would have wanted.

Fr. Gerald E. Murray, National Catholic Register – In his new book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity (HarperCollins), Jesuit Father James Martin has written a critique of the Catholic Church’s dealings with what he calls the “the LGBT community.”… What is the “LGBT community”? This acronym describes three groups of people: those who engage in, or feel drawn to engage in, homosexual activity (lesbians and gays); those who engage in, or feel drawn to engage in, both heterosexual and homosexual activity (bisexuals); and those persons who reject their sexual identity and think that they are in fact a member of the opposite sex (transsexuals/transgendered persons)… Is this, in fact, a community? Not really.

By Fr. Nick Ward, Crisis Magazine – I’ll never forget the day a student pointed a handgun at my dad’s face, back when he was principal of Bishop Neumann High School in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I was too young to be a student, so I wasn’t there, but the drama of that terrible morning was burned into the collective memory of the whole Catholic community in that town for years to come… That may have been the first (or among the first) Catholic-school shootings in U.S. history. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the last. Many of us are now sadly familiar with the shooting that happened in Minneapolis, where a gunman fired multiple shots from varied weapons into a Catholic Church during a school Mass.

By Marie Tasy, LifeNews – Deep in our souls we grieve over the senseless and horrific tragedy that took place this week at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. Two young schoolchildren were killed and 15 others were wounded by an individual who was clearly in need of major spiritual and psychiatric help. We add our prayers for the many victims and their families who are suffering such uncomprehensible loss… We are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals whose bravery, compassion, and unwavering dedication brought comfort and care to the injured children and to the entire affected community.

By Matthew McKenna, Catholic Exchange – One of the many issues with IVF is that numerous extra embryos are made in order to increase the chances of having a successful birth.  When these additional embryos are produced, they get stored (frozen) or discarded (aborted).  In the United States alone, there are anywhere from one million to ten million frozen embryos in storage.  What are we to do with these frozen embryos? Within Catholic theology there is a debate on this issue, with faithful, orthodox Catholics on both sides.

By Randall Smith,  The Catholic Thing – Imagine you are applying for a highly competitive job, and someone says, “I can tell you how to be more competitive than 98 percent of the other applicants.”  Would you be interested?… Let’s say he adds: “It’s not hard, but you may not like it.”  Perhaps it’s something like wearing a coat and tie to your interview, and you hate wearing a coat and tie.  I’m with you on that, but if you really want the job, wouldn’t you make that little extra effort?  Or would you complain? “Why should I wear a coat and tie?  Coats and ties are stupid!  If they want a coat and tie, the heck with them.”

By Glenn T. Stanton, The Federalist – It has been a long feminist trope that marriage and motherhood are garbage chutes to misery for women. Feminist sociologist Jesse Bernard warned in her 1972 book, The Future of Marriage, “[M]arriage introduced such profound discontinuities into the lives of women as to constitute genuine emotional health hazards.”… It is no wonder that only 32 percent of women believe marriage and motherhood lead to fuller, happier lives for them. And 47 percent of single young women believe singleness is a more direct route to happiness for women than being wed.

By Mary Mobley, The Daily Signal – Cakes could be set to make another Supreme Court appearance: On Tuesday, a Christian baker asked the court to decide whether the First Amendment protects her refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding… This is similar to the 2017 case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado, in which the court held that the First Amendment protected a Christian baker’s right not to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding… Cathy Miller, the owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, California, argues the Masterpiece precedent applies in her case.

By Hélène de Lauzun, The European Conservative – In July, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, presented a report stating that “the practice of surrogacy is characterised by exploitation and violence against women and children, including girls”… This is the first time that an international statement has been made on this sensitive subject in such unequivocal terms… The Casablanca Declaration, an international organisation bringing together associations and experts campaigning for the abolition of surrogacy worldwide, welcomed the report through its spokesman, Olivia Maurel, who was herself born through surrogacy and has made its universal and definitive abolition her cause. 

By Robert Lazu Kmita, PhD, OnePeterFive – I was writing diligently when, during a break, I read a short article by Mr. Phil Lawler on his Substack channel. The title immediately caught my attention: “The exodus of young Catholics. Nine out of ten ‘cradle Catholics’ leave.”[1]… We can do as much theology and philosophy as we like, we can read and quote all the Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church, but if we are unable to seriously and fruitfully discuss such issues, everything is — more or less, perhaps more — useless.

By Bridget Sielicki, Live Action News – Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and longtime pro-life advocate, died Thursday at the age of 89. According to an announcement from Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, he is survived by “his wife of 64 years, Shirley; their children, Danae and Ryan; daughtethe r-in-law Laura; and two beloved grandchildren.”

By Emmy Griffin, Patriot Post – Media outfits such as The Washington Post and Forbes are shocked that mothers are leaving the workforce in record numbers… According to WaPo economics correspondent Abha Bhattarai, “The share of working mothers ages 25 to 44 with young children has fallen nearly every month this year, dropping by nearly 3 percentage points between January and June, to the lowest level in more than three years, according to an analysis of federal data by Misty Heggeness ….

By Alyssa Johnson, Op-ed contributor,  The Christian Post – Alyssa Johnson is the mother of a trans-identified teen in Oregon… I’m the mother of an estranged, gender-confused minor child… I haven’t seen her for years, and Oregon state law has allowed and enabled it. I’m far from the only one to whom it has happened, but here is a glimpse into the state machinery and how it has unfolded for so many of us… First, the worst part about losing your child to this scandalous system is that it profits off them. The next worst part is defending your reputation to everyone involved.

By Debbie Cowden, National Catholic Register – Don’t forget about the most important part of your children’s upbringing: their Catholic faith! Starting a new school year is a great time to introduce new habits so your family can live out the faith more fully. As a mom of four kids, three of whom are school age, I’m proposing realistic, easy-to-implement practices of the faith your family can begin this fall… These back-to-school tips are specifically geared toward supporting the normal rhythm of your day during the school year, whether sending your kids to school or home schooling.

By Carrie Gress, Ph.D., Catholic World Report – In 1917, during one of Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima, the three shepherd children were given a vision of Hell. Our Lady warned that if people didn’t stop offending God then another war would come. In reparation, Our Lady asked “for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays.” She added, “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.”

By Cassy Cooke, Live Action – Safety regulations on abortion pills have been increasingly relaxed in recent years, and now, a group of 22 attorneys general have sent a letter to the FDA asking for the previous protocols to be reinstated… a coalition of 22 Republican attorneys general, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, sent a letter to Kennedy and Makary requesting that the previous REMS requirements be reinstated, citing a recent analysis from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), which found that women experience serious adverse complications at a rate 22 times higher than the rate reported on the FDA label for abortion pills. …

By J.C. Miller, Crisis Magazine – Approximately a quarter of Catholics are married to non-Catholics, even among those married in a Catholic parish. As detailed below, interfaith marriages are more likely to have marital problems and produce children who are less religious. Like anything that involves marriage, this can be a very sensitive topic. Those married to a non-Catholic may view even a discussion of this topic or the data as an assault on them or a criticism of their marriage.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – As the world’s fertility rate plunges toward the replacement level, with every indication that they continue dropping, the mainstream media have belatedly noticed the danger that lies behind that trend. It’s bad for the economy… As we grow older, the workforce will shrink, since there won’t be enough younger people replacing those who retire. That in turn means a shortage of active wage-earners paying into the Social Security system to support the payments to their elders. More ominously, as we older people decline in health, and need more care, there won’t be enough young doctors and nurses to serve us.

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – In a world fractured by individualism, instability, and cultural confusion, it is the family that possesses the power to heal. At least, that’s what the Catholic Church has continually taught, particularly in recent decades as attacks on the family have increased, and as so many families have broken apart, causing untold suffering and confusion… Pope St. John Paul II, in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio, wrote: “The future of humanity passes by way of the family” (no. 86). Elsewhere in the same document he calls the family the “first and vital cell of society” (no. 42). …

By Tyler O’Neil, The Daily Signal – When students return to Christiansburg High School for classes on Wednesday, they’ll find at least one large “open plan” gender-neutral and multiple-stall bathroom… Parents are raising the alarm… “I would have been mortified at that age,” Alecia Vaught, 49, who has two grandchildren at the southwestern Virginia school, told The Daily Signal about the bathroom situation… The Daily Signal obtained photos of signs with symbols depicting a woman, a man, a half-man/half-woman, and a wheelchair. ….

By Emmy Griffin, Patriot Post – Jonathan Haidt, professor of social psychology at New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business, is a crusader for getting kids off screens. As a front-line witness to his students’ social shift from friend groups to being utterly lost in the online world, he has advocated for getting cellphones out of schools. In his most recent published research with Zach Rausch, an NYU colleague, and Lenore Skenazy, co-founder of the nonprofit Let Grow, whose mission is to promote childhood independence, the trio teamed up with Harris Poll to find out what kids desire as an alternative to being on their phones.

By Devin Dwyer, ABC – Ten years after the Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide, the justices this fall will consider for the first time whether to take up a case that explicitly asks them to overturn that decision… Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for six days in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds, is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees… In a petition for writ of certiorari filed last month, Davis argues First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion immunizes her from personal liability for the denial of marriage licenses.

By Devin Schadt,. Catholic Exchange – It was seven years into my marriage and five years into being a father that I realized I didn’t know what I was doing (that’s putting it mildly)… A year prior to being married, I had surrendered my life to Our Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, I worked around the clock to impress my employer while attempting to launch a start-up graphic design agency, and in my “spare time” serve as a part-time youth director at our local parish. Meanwhile, I placed my marriage and new family on the back burner.

By Samantha Flom, The American Spectator – In any other context, the buying and selling of children would be rightly reviled. Yet when it comes to commercial surrogacy, many turn a blind eye… To be clear, babies are certainly worth celebrating — especially in an increasingly selfish society that depicts parenthood as a form of punishment. But not all methods of conception are created equal… With gestational surrogacy, babies created in labs are implanted into the wombs of women who are of no relation to them. Nine months later, the child gets ripped from the arms of the person who has become their entire world and sent home with strangers — people with whom they may share DNA but nothing more.   …

By Daniel Payne, National Catholic Register – Christine Williams… urged young Catholic husbands and wives to “be assured God wants what is good for you and your marriage.”… “Your fertility is a gift,” she said. “To cooperate with God in bringing life into the world is a great, unrepeatable miracle.”… She urged couples to “be open to one more child,” to “study the Church’s teachings,” and to “find a friend group that can be a source of support when days are hard.”… “Hard days will come and go,” she said. “Bring your basket. He will bless your efforts.” ….

By Emmy Griffin, Patriot Post – Being married and owning a home by age 30 is a rarity in 2025. In other words, the American Dream is slipping away. Here’s what happened, as well as some solutions… In the 1950s, being married and owning a home in your 30s was extremely common. The rate of occurrence was over 50%. Since then, however, the rate of homeownership for this demographic has dropped drastically. According to government data, this type of person today is a rarity, only accounting for 15% of the American population.

By Sam Barron, Newsmax – Under the Biden administration, the average American household lost nearly $1,100 of spending power a month, Scott said… “Why? Because the Democrats spent more than $4 trillion trying to solve a problem they created,” Scott said on “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” Ultimately it led to 9% inflation and interest rates so high that today, the average first time home buyer is 38 years old. Having a candidate running here in New York City on socialism is as clearly misguided as their last election attempt.”

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – “Love your spouse and share the Gospel.” Those were the wise words my Poppy uttered to a private dining room packed with his kids, grandkids, and great-grandchild last weekend… For 60 years, my Poppy and Grammy… have not only kept their covenant to cherish each other, but witnessed their legacy of love continue with the weddings of both of their children and four of their 10 grandchildren… They will be the first to tell you that their marriage is not perfect or easy. …

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – In recent years, birth rates all over the globe have been falling precipitously. The drop in birth rates has been especially dramatic in developed nations, many of which fell far below replacement birth rates decades ago… During this time, however, there is one developed nation that conspicuously resisted the trend. In the United States, fertility rates continued to hover near the replacement level throughout the 90s and early 2000s… Sadly, in recent years this has changed…dramatically. …

By Andrew Gondy, The American Spectator – Creating stable marriages and families is the most important way to reclaim our culture. Without these, conservatism is dead… In 1865, William Ross Wallace delivered a succinct and powerful cultural insight: “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” In contemporary American life, the startling emptiness of this cradle is forging a new battlefield for young conservatives… In late July, the CDC reported that U.S. birth rates have fallen to just 1.6 children per woman. This is the lowest recorded fertility rate in American history, and plunges our country well below replacement birth levels.

By Br. Joel Compacion Añasco, SC, Catholic Exchange – Furthermore, death is always difficult. It brings sorrow, longing, and many times confusion. Even Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus (Jn. 11:35). Our faith does not deny the pain of loss. But it does offer us a greater truth—that our suffering is not wasted. In Christ, death becomes not an end but a doorway to eternal life. For those who die in the Lord, death is a homecoming. And for those left behind, it becomes an invitation to trust, to hope, and to draw closer to the One who has conquered death.

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – President Donald Trump spent the last few months of his 2024 campaign promising to force taxpayers to foot the bill for a procedure that routinely destroys human life. His plans to pave the way for Americans to make “more babies” by subsidizing in vitro fertilization, however, are allegedly on hold… The Washington Post reported that as of Sunday, Trump’s White House is allegedly “backing away from proposals discussed internally to mandate IVF coverage for the roughly 50 million people on the Obamacare exchanges.”

By Abigail Nichols, The Federalist – ‘If someone tells you a pill is 100% safe, run for your life,’ he said… During an event challenging the idea that “scientific truth is … achieved by consensus,” Food andDrug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary laid out the agency’s goals to promote nutrition over prescription drug use and expressed concern about how politics have affected the scientific community in recent years.

By Jonah Apel, The American Spectator – Emphasizing the reality of biological sex is of course correct. Trump’s executive order is a significant win, and this answer is miles better than caving to the Left’s assertions or trying to seek some supposed middle ground between truth and falsehood. Men are not women, and in no way should conservatives give in to the Left’s false anthropological delusions… However, conservatives shouldn’t stop there. While affirming biological reality, we shouldn’t make the mistake of reducing the differences between men and women to only biological or chromosomal differences. What a woman is entails much more than just XX chromosomes

By Elise Winland, Catholic Vote – Planned Parenthood’s national service totals and its local affiliate data on the number of “gender-affirming care” services provided nationally don’t line up, according to a new report from The Daily Wire… In a July 24 article, The Daily Wire’s Macy Petty notes that Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report, 2023-24, shows a sharp decline in its “other procedures” subcategory — which includes “transgender” services — despite reports from local affiliates that those services are increasing. The subcategory also includes pediatric care, adult preventative care, and high complexity visits, including infertility services.

By Eric Sammons, Crisis Magazine – Young men: it’s time to step up. Don’t make excuses, don’t be a victim, and don’t let our feminized and destructive culture shape your life… Last week, the popular rapper Zuby, who has amassed a significant following on social media as a self-described “epitome of toxic positivity,” posted an article titled “My Honest Advice For Gen Z Men.” He includes 12 life tips for young men from his perspective as a “successful Millennial.” The article is actually quite good and I recommend young men read it. But as Catholics, we can go deeper. …

By  Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the U.S. birth rate reached a new low, there was much speculation about the culprit — and potential solutions. Instead of investigating those causes, however, Americans who just learned their replacement rate had officially lagged to 1.6 children per woman were bombarded with headlines promoting yet another “promising” new male contraceptive pill.

By John Mac Ghlionn, The American Spectator – The American Academy of Pediatrics lit the fuse in 2023. Their recommendation to use GLP-1 weight-loss drugs in children and adolescents wasn’t just a nod to pharmaceutical innovation — it was a signal flare to industry, a green light to experiment on the developing brain. And experiment they did. A review of more than 310,000 patient records reveals the consequences: a 65 percent surge in prescriptions. Some might call this progress. They’re wrong. This is mass chemical intervention dressed up in a lab coat.

By Casey Chalk, The Catholic Thing – The gym is a near occasion of sexual temptation. At least mine is. Whenever I go, this husband and father of six, who is waging a losing battle against the notorious “dad bod,” has to navigate around scores of attractive twenty- and thirty-something females wearing clothes that in an earlier, more “prudish” age, would have been considered embarrassingly inappropriate for mixed settings. I just do my best to keep focused on the reps and reading my Magnificat between sets.

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – The central purpose of Humanae vitae is easily summarized and is well-known by many. In brief, it reiterates the long-standing Catholic and Christian belief in God’s plan for married love and the transmission of life—reasserting the moral impermissibility of contraception that attacks the procreative nature and unitive aspect of marriage… As Pope Paul VI stated, we cannot morally justify “any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.”

By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data showing that the U.S. dropped to an all-time low birth rate in 2024, as the average number of children a woman gives birth to in the country decreased to 1.6%. That places the U.S. in the same territory as many Western European nations, signaling growing concerns about population decline, as the birth rate required to maintain a stable population is 2.1 children per woman. This is a huge problem … unless you want mass migration.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture – I have been discussing how to draw others to Christ and the Church, but when it comes to forming people as committed Catholics who will devote themselves to doing God’s will throughout their lives, nothing beats the family. It never fails to astonish me how frequently Catholics tend to ignore this fundamental factor in the salvation of their children. The Catholic family is the ultimate school of holiness for any and all paths in life, and young people who start life without a solid formation in both love and grace suffer an enormous disadvantage when navigating the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil.

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – “First world nations are dying,” Pat Buchanan warned in his 2002 book The Death of the West… “They face a mortal crisis, not because of something happening in the Third World, but because of what is not happening at home and in the homes of the First World.”.. And what was not — and still is not — happening at home is childbearing. Buchanan was referring to fertility rates, which have been on the decline for decades.

By Sheryl Collmer, Crisis Magazine – Our collective grief, especially here in Texas where we knew multiple generations of girls who spent the happiest of summer times at Camp Mystic, is a heavy lead blanket. The death toll keeps rising, and there are still so many missing… Texas reels to a slow-motion dirge. What strikes us hardest is the little girls, woken in the sleepiest part of the morning of July 4th, and swept away in the flood surge. …

By Judy Roberts, National Catholic Register – Born to various surrogate mothers using fertilized embryos from Silvia Zhang, 38, and her husband, Guojun Xuan, 65, the children were discovered as part of a police investigation after a 2-month-old from their home was taken to the hospital, the New York Post reported. That child had suffered a brain injury and is believed by police to have been shaken and struck by the family’s nanny (AP)… The other children in the home also are believed to have been abused. All since have been placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – “God’s fidelity to his promises teaches us that there is a blessedness in old age, an authentic evangelical joy inspiring us to break through the barriers of indifference in which the elderly often find themselves enclosed.”  ~Pope Leo XIV, Message for the Fifth Annual Day of Grandparents and the Elderly

By Kevin Lowry, Catholic Exchange – When I told my wife that I wanted to write a book about men honoring their wives, she laughed… To be fair, it wasn’t a scornful laugh. It was more of a “Dude, you haven’t always done the greatest job in that area yourself” laugh of wry amusement. I didn’t quite catch if there was an eyeroll to go along with it… Of course, she’s right. I haven’t always been the best husband. …

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – Researchers in the United Kingdom, which rearranged its laws in 2015 to accommodate the “pronuclear transfer” trials, pitched their “three-person IVF” experiment as a means to lessen the chances of mitochondrial mutations that lead to genetic disorders in infants conceived via IVF… In (one) particular case, the UK researchers’ success in producing live babies born of three people’s DNA no doubt opens the door for bringing more people into the sacred act of reproduction. …

By Scott McKay, The American Spectator – BATON ROUGE — A man claimed he was unfairly fired from his job after he refused to use the pronouns that another employee said they used.
Luke Ash, a former library employee and pastor, said he knows that what he did was against the library’s code of conduct for employees, but he says calling his co-workers by the pronouns they identify with would be against his own beliefs… Ash worked at the library for fewer than six months. He was fired Thursday after having a conversation with a co-worker about another co-worker. In the conversation he refused to refer to the second co-worker by their proper pronouns.

By Craig Bannister, MRC TV – “Changing birth certificates for desired genders is falsifying records,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said, announcing that he is filing motions to intervene in cases where Indiana trial courts have ordered the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) to change the designation of sex on birth certificates to reflect preferred gender identities… “One should have no more ability to change the listed sex on a birth certificate years after the fact than to change the newborn’s listed length or weight,” Rokita explained in his office’s press release.

By Susan Berry, Ph.D., Catholic Vote – A 2012 study that drew a firestorm over its conclusion that children of parents in same-sex relationships fared worse on various social and emotional outcome variables compared with those in other family structure types has now been vindicated… Univ. of Texas at Austin sociologist Mark Regnerus, who conducted the highly disputed study, wrote that, “[w]hen compared with children who grew up in biologically (still) intact, mother-father families, the children of women who reported a same-sex relationship look markedly different on numerous outcomes, including many that are obviously suboptimal (such as education, depression, employment status, or marijuana use).”

By Calvin Freiburger, LifeSiteNews – The latest cinematic iteration of Superman hit theaters last week, and because we live in an era where a superhero can’t just be a superhero anymore, it was accompanied by all-too-familiar chatter about how woke it would be… the film’s director, James Gunn, threw fuel on the fire when he said in a pre-release interview, “Yes, it’s about politics,” and touted it as an “immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.” 

By Jules Gomes, The Stream – Bestselling author accuses Baylor University president of close ties to LGBT-affirming church… The world’s largest Baptist university has reversed its decision to accept a grant of $643,401 to promote LGBT inclusion in churches following intense backlash from Christian leaders… Baylor University, a private Christian school in Texas, announced on July 9 that it would return funding from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, but “remain committed to providing a loving and caring community for all — including our LGBTQIA+ students.”

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – In nine years, the Gaineses went from making traditional marriage the hill they die on to making it the hill they flippantly surrender… America’s favorite home renovation couple is in hot water with their supporters this week after viewers discovered their latest TV endeavor features a homosexual couple who bought their children via surrogacy.

By Rachel Quackenbush, Catholic Vote – Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Bishop Liam Cary, who has led the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, since 2012, and appointed Father Thomas Hennen of Iowa as his successor… Bishop-elect Hennen currently serves as vicar general and rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral in the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa… For more than a decade, Bishop-elect Hennen has been involved with Courage International, a Catholic apostolate offering spiritual support to individuals who experience same-sex attraction. He has served as both diocesan coordinator and chaplain for the local chapter in the Diocese of Davenport.

By Dawn Beutner, Catholic World Report – While Saint Thérèse of Lisieux seemed to live an ordinary life in a middle-class French family, her autobiography is far from ordinary. The Story of a Soul has inspired millions of Catholics to recognize that, for each of us, our “vocation is love!”1 The life stories of Thérèse’s parents, Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, can help us learn how to live our vocations within family life in an extraordinary way.

By Fr. Thomas G. Morrow, Catholic Exchange – The first question we must ask ourselves before diving into this topic is: Do we want to marry for life? In the twenty-first century that’s a tall order. How can we be sure that the person we’re dating is someone with whom we will be able to persevere throughout a lifetime? And how important is that whole perseverance thing?… Well, for a Catholic—indeed for any Christian—it’s extremely important. Jesus said, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her” (Mk. 10:11).

By Joy Pullmann, The Federalist – Over the weekend, CNN published a hysterical feature wailing over feminism’s fading appeal to younger women. It comes a few months after a similar New York Times feature. Of course, the legacy publications ingeniously blame “hatred” and misogyny for younger women seeking life patterns outside feminism. You see, it’s not patronizing or psychotic to tell women we can’t make choices that Cluster B covens don’t approve of.

By Isabel Brown, The Daily Signal – If there’s one thing the corporate media hates more than tradition, it’s motherhood… We’ve seen it time and again, from the glossy magazine covers glorifying “child-free” living to the snide late-night jokes about “breeders” and “stay-at-home moms.” It’s no longer subtle. The war on motherhood is loud, proud, and broadcast 24/7 across every major platform. And make no mistake—this isn’t just about personal choice. It’s a coordinated cultural campaign to devalue perhaps women’s most essential role: being a mother.

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture – Was Independence Day softening us up for the War on Terror, the way other pop culture in the ‘90s softened us up for same-sex marriage? Was Top Gun: Maverick softening us up for Operation Midnight Hammer?… Again, I know it sounds crazy. But are pop culture psy-ops by our national security apparatus really that unfathomable? If the-powers-that-be did seed 1990s pop culture with the antecedents of the coming LGBT revolution, as The Public Discourse alleged in 2010, why would they not do it to us on other issues as well?

By Emily Malloy, National Catholic Register – Laughter and music filled every inch of our house the weekend we moved in. It was a gathering for visiting missionaries during their two-week door-to-door ministry. The delightful sounds arose from 60 people, both parishioners and religious: the Sister Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará and seminarians from the Institute of the Incarnate Word. Prayer, song, food and friendship marked the evening. I am hard-pressed to conceive of a better way to have spent the first weekend in our new home.

By Greg Schlueter, Crisis Magazine – Influencer culture has captured the hearts and minds of our youth—and if we are not watchful, it could capture their souls as well… It began, as it often does, with a teacher’s question… “What do you want to be when you grow up?”… The responses, once peppered with dreams of firefighting, flying, and healing, have given way to a new, disconcerting consensus. The overwhelming answer: “A Social Media Influencer.” …

By Annette Bergeon, Crisis Magazine – In 1995, on the eve of the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women, Pope St. John Paul II offered a tender, clear-sighted reflection titled Letter to Women. In a time marked by ideological division and cultural anxiety, he stepped into the fray not to argue, but to affirm, to thank, and to dignify. His words cut through slogans and stereotypes to acknowledge the full complexity of womanhood in the modern world. …

By Delano Squires, The Daily Signal – Conservatives in politics and culture are wise to make fatherlessness a focal point of their family policy priorities… Children who grow up with both parents are more likely to attend college and less likely to go to prison. Conversely, father absence is linked to poverty, teen pregnancy, youth crime, worse academic outcomes, and substance abuse… But there is something else that a society loses when millions of children grow up without a present father; namely, the power of the family name.

By Jim Daly, The Stream – The Southern Poverty Law Center recently updated its “Hate Map” to include Focus on the Family on its list of hundreds of “hate” organizations alongside racist and white supremacist groups… In particular, the SPLC cites Focus’s online publication, the Daily Citizen, as one of its primary offenders. According to the organization, we “demonize LGBTQ+ people, claiming they are unnatural and un-Christian.” We also “promote anti-trans pseudoscience, such as conversion therapy.”

By Mary Frances Devlin, The American Spectator – If anything has dominated Gen Z’s political experience more than the ascendance of President Donald Trump, it’s been the prominence of LGBTQ issues in every aspect of culture over the past decade… In the first instance, public opinion came first. President Trump’s victory in 2016 was a popular referendum on Obama-era progressivism that promised hope and change but delivered government overreach and overregulation. That Trump won the Republican nomination in the first place was a repudiation of the party’s neoconservative leanings. And nearly a decade after his entrance onto the political scene, American voters once again sent Trump back to the White House with an electoral mandate.

By John Mac Ghlionn, Catholic Herald – Pope Leo XIV recently issued a stark warning that deserves far more attention than it received. Speaking at a conference on AI and ethics, the pontiff warned that artificial intelligence could disrupt the cognitive, emotional and moral growth of young people. Then, without elaboration, he moved on, leaving the audience to quietly wrestle with the weight of what had just been said… This restraint is quintessentially papal – diplomatically measured, carefully worded and devastatingly understated. When the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics expresses concern about something affecting children, the reality is invariably worse than his measured language suggests.

By Leila Miller, Crisis Magazine – Catholic parents, do your daughters know that it’s okay—even good and holy—to desire a life as wife and mother, even above (and even forgoing) all other earthly considerations? Have you told them explicitly that they are free to pursue Holy Matrimony (a woman’s natural vowed state of life) as a goal in itself, bypassing the culture’s worldly expectations for young women today? If you have, praise God! This article is not for you… For the rest, consider these personal stories ….

By John Cuddeback, LifeCraft – Although the lack of manners today is generally noted with disapproval, we often do not think of manners as a central feature of how we raise our children. But manners are arguably the major instance of a concrete, tangible thing we are failing to pass on, to the great detriment of all of us… As a parent I understand why this happens. We focus on the larger things that obviously pertain to a right world-view and good moral standards. Manners—at least beyond the most rudimentary such as ‘please’ and ‘thank you’… —slip under the radar.

By Garrett D. Johnson, Crisis Magazine – Many years ago, I decided to attend daily Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Each morning on my way to Mass, I would drive past a house that flew the flag representing pride in all the different sexual identities that fell under the LGBTQ (this was pre-IA+ times) banner. I didn’t take much notice of it at the time, as these flags were all over the city. But, one day, I noticed the flag was becoming tattered, and I surprisingly felt a sense of joy.

By Elise DeGeeter, Catholic Vote – Since 2021, a remarkable shift has begun to reshape education policy nationwide: growth in the number of states that embrace school choice measures. Last week, New Hampshire became the latest state – and the first in the Northeast – to fully adopt a universal program… On June 10, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed Senate Bill 295, removing income restrictions from the state’s Education Freedom Account program. Families can apply public education funds toward private school tuition, homeschooling, tutoring, and other schooling options.

By Emmy Griffin, Patriot Post – Yet another study proves that screen time has adverse effects on children, including anxiety, emotional irregulation, low self-esteem, aggression, conduct problems, and attention struggles… The American Psychological Association (APA) recently published a meta study that distilled the data from 117 studies involving the screen time usage of 292,000 kids ages 10 and younger. Predictably, the findings were not good.

The abortion pill reversal (APR) drug supplied by Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) has saved the lives of more than 7,000 unborn children since 2007, according to estimates from Heartbeat International… Heartbeat International, a pro-life organization that operates APRN, announced the milestone in a June 12 article posted on “Pregnancy Help News,” a website the organization runs.

By Megan Garcia, Crisis Magazine – After Sewell’s death, I learned that my son had been involved in an intimate relationship with an AI chatbot named “Daenarys,” modeled on a TV character, on a popular platform called Character.AI… My son had become increasingly withdrawn over the months leading up to his death, and as his mother, I worried about him and sought mental health counseling for him to find out why his behavior had so drastically changed. It never quite added up… Only after I discovered his messages with the chatbot was I able to put the pieces together. In richly detailed chats lasting for months, the Character.AI bot manipulated Sewell ….

By Lyndsey Fifield, The Federalist – I wasn’t prepared for the level of rage that washed over my body as I watched this video of a roofing business owner in Florida blubbering over the detention of his illegally employed workforce… I also wasn’t ready for the flashbacks to my childhood it gave me, and my reaction was not kind… I’m still astonished by the attention this little tweet has gotten, but I understand why it has: Many, many Americans can relate.

By Nathanael Blake, The Federalist – The Glamor of the Sexual Revolution Is Fading… Pride seems subdued this year. The month-long celebration of all things gay, queer, trans, and the rest of the endless acronym is still happening, of course. But, the festivities seem muted, and corporations, perhaps chastened by the debacles of Budweiser and Target, seem less inclined to wallow in Pride for a month. The radical rainbow revolution has stalled, and even its prior victories, such as same-sex marriage, may be losing support.

By Caleb Kruse, The Stream – If there’s one thing that everyone, regardless of age, religion, or politics, can agree on, it’s that cell phones have overtaken our lives… That’s why Nebraska’s students, parents, and teachers alike recently welcomed Governor Jim Pillen’s signature banning cell phones in public schools. The bipartisan and nearly unanimously passed legislation aims to eliminate the distractions of cell phones in classrooms, which 72% of high school teachers nationwide say is a “major” problem. …

By Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer, National Catholic Register – The Supreme Court Wednesday morning kept in place a Tennessee law banning medical “gender transitions” on minors… The 6-3 decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti protects vulnerable children from the snares of gender ideology and safeguards our Constitution from being manipulated by this sinister ideology… In 2023, Tennessee restricted medical “transition” treatments for minors, enacting SB1 — the Prohibition on Medical Procedures Performed on Minors Related to Sexual Identity. …

By Steven Thomas, Catholic Exchange – I would like to propose a new title for St. Joseph in his Litany: “Icon of Fatherhood.”  Allow me to explain why this title, and why now… Our world is in the midst of a great turning.  An unseen battle rages, and the speed of degradation visible all around us has increased exponentially… I would posit the breakdown of fatherhood goes hand in hand with the breakdown of society.  Sociological data affirms the importance of fathers on family dynamics and what happens when they are missing. To name only a few of the effects of an absence of one’s father …..

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – Although Pope Leo XIV looked slightly nervous when he first walked out on the Loggia after his election, he seems to have made the transition to pontiff with remarkable grace. As John Pinheiro notes in this analysis of Pope Leo’s first few weeks as pope, the Holy Father seems to be carefully charting a course as a “unifying” figure. Even his choice of name suggests this, as his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII is a remarkably popular pope among both liberals (for his emphasis on social justice) and conservatives (for his doctrinal orthodoxy, and resuscitation of Thomism).

By Francesca Pollio Fenton, CNA – At 8 years old, Minnesota native Joe Masek was exposed to pornography for the first time and went on to struggle with an addiction to it for 23 years. Through a series of actions he finally gained freedom and after experiencing a calling to help other men, he founded a ministry called The Freedom Group in 2023… About 100 men have gone through the ministry’s program each year since then. The group uses  a 12-month training system as well as additional courses and retreats to help men break free from porn addiction.

By Joseph Mattera, The Stream – We live in a cultural moment where confusion around masculinity is reaching a boiling point. As society reacts to decades of emasculation and passive male archetypes, many young men are being swept up by a pendulum swing in the opposite direction — toward a hyper-aggressive, self-exalting, and dehumanizing form of manhood… But the Word of God offers a vastly different — and far more glorious — vision for manhood. There are distinct ways God calls men to reflect His image, not through domination but through service, not by controlling others but by cultivating them.

By Victor Joecks, Patriot Post – The government spent decades trying to make fathers unnecessary. The failure of that experiment put society on the long-term path to collapse… Father’s Day is Sunday. It’s much less popular than Mother’s Day for a sad reason. Fewer fathers are involved in their children’s lives. That’s caused by two main factors, the first being children born to single moms. In 2022, almost 40% of births were to unmarried women, according to the CDC. The second reason is the prevalence of divorce.

By Catherine Maxwell, Daily Wire – Daily Wire host Michael Knowles exposed a Catholic college for teaching psychiatric nurse practitioner students “how to greenlight the castration, sterilization, and mutilation of gender-confused kids and adults” in an exclusive thread on X… Steph Williams, a lecturer who uses he/him and she/her pronouns, taught students at Mount Saint Mary College in New York how to halt puberty in children as young as nine, even if they did not experience gender dysphoria, Knowles revealed, based on a tip from advocacy group Do No Harm.

By Patrick O’Hearn, Crisis Magazine – Modesty is one of the lost virtues of our fallen world. As summer approaches, so begins the real test of the custody of the eyes. But the deeper issue of modesty isn’t primarily about what women wear. It begins and ends with fathers… Sadly, many Catholic fathers want to be liked by their children and so they remain silent when their daughter wears leggings in public and skimpy skirts at Mass. Or maybe we fathers are too busy with our careers and pursuits that our daughters’ emotional needs are neglected. We as men also need to model modesty in how we dress.

By Mark Haas, Catholic Exchange – On this Sunday, dedicated to honoring fathers, the Church has a powerful opportunity—not only to offer thanks for the men who give life, guidance, and protection to their families—but to renew our understanding of the irreplaceable role fathers play in passing on the Catholic Faith.
The Catholic Church has long understood the family as a “domestic church,” a term rooted in the early Church and echoed at the Second Vatican Council (Lumen Gentium, 11). In this domestic church, the father traditionally served as a kind of household priest—leading prayers, teaching the Faith, and modeling virtue.

By Bishop James D. Conley, The Catholic Thing – Today, we are faced with a similar problem, but on a wildly greater scale. Artificial Intelligence and related technologies will now be able to use our reliance on screen-delivered mediating technologies and throw us into something close to total confusion about what is real and what isn’t… Deep-fake videos are now often indistinguishable from real ones. Soon, you won’t know whether you are in a Zoom meeting with a real person or with an AI-created chatbot who looks just like a real person. Voices can now be faked to the point where even family members cannot tell the difference. “Proof of reality” is going to become a thing.

By Patrick Hampton, Patriot Post – My father then explained a fundamental conservative principle: personal responsibility. He believed that relying on government assistance could encourage dependence and discourage working hard. Instead, he emphasized the importance of taking responsibility for oneself and paying for one’s needs through effort and hard work. He explained that we should be self-reliant rather than expecting government programs to support us.

Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – The Catholic Church views the family as a fundamental unit of society and faith. Family roles and responsibilities are shaped by teachings on love, sacrifice, and service. And parents hold a primary duty to raise children in the Catholic faith… This duty goes beyond academic learning to include moral and spiritual formation. Parents are to teach their children about God, prayer, and the sacraments. Parents, as mentioned by Pope Leo, must model virtues like charity, patience, and honesty in daily life – helping their children to follow their example.

By Joshua Monnington, The Federalist – Fathers are some of the hardest people to buy gifts for. Ask them what they want, and they don’t know. They finally figured out something they wanted, but it’s too late for you to gift it — they already went out and bought it, again. Deep down inside, you just want to get the dad in your life a gift that will match his masculinity and not send him digging for the receipt. The bad news is that there’s no foolproof list; the good news is that this is (pretty much) as close as it gets.

By Eduardo J. Echeverria, The Catholic Thing – In light of Pope Leo XIV’s statement that the family is founded on the “stable union between a man and a woman,” the responses of the critics and boosters of the late Pope Francis’s view of conjugal marriage are striking. The former imply that Leo’s view of conjugal marriage as the two-in-one flesh union of a man and a woman reaffirms what Francis had denied, and the latter defend the continuity between Francis and Leo on marriage… On the one hand, the critics are wrong.

By Brad Mattes, LifeNews – New evidence shows a widescale coverup regarding the dangers of chemical abortion pills… A new peer-reviewed study by Charlotte Lozier Institute examined nearly 29,000 visits to emergency rooms by women who within 30 days had undergone either a surgical or chemical abortion… The research revealed widespread miscoding of these ER visits. Women who were suffering serious effects of chemical abortion were often coded as having a miscarriage.

By Joy Pullmann, Ex. Dir., The Federalist – Returning noncitizen children and noncitizen parents to their countries could save taxpayers hundreds of billions, especially in state budgets… A few simple calculations indicate that as much as one-quarter of U.S. public school enrollment could be anchor babies, meaning children with at least one parent illegally present in the United States. This alone amounts to at least $145.6 billion in public resources diverted from U.S. citizens every year.

By Aliyah Cohen, MRC TV – Meet Skye Tooley, a self-proclaimed “anti-bias educator” who once again made headlines for pushing blatant bias in the classroom… In a recent video, the Los Angeles teacher proudly told followers she’s “indoctrinating” her 5th grade students this Pride Month with lessons on queer icons and Pride flags… Tooley may have been awarded with a Human Rights Award by the California Teachers Association in 2023, but a quick scroll through her feed (and her track record) tells a different story. …

By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – What is a family? That simple question has gotten more challenging to answer in the day and age in which we live, and intentionally so. But why?… The 5th Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary’s first definition offered for “family” is as follows: “A fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children.” What is tellingly missing from that definition are the terms “father” and “mother.”… The core family — a father, mother, and their children — has formed the definition of family in the human context since the dawn of time. …

By Aliyah Cohen, MRC TV – Walk into Target this June, and instead of LGBTQ baby clothes or “tuck-friendly” swimsuits for minors, you’re hit with a wave of red, white, and blue. Flags. Fireworks. Father’s Day. The 4th of July — a whole month early… The historic backlash on Target’s 2023 Pride Month merchandise collection was no joke. According to Fox Business, the company lost over $9 billion in market value and saw its first sales decline in six years. …

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – It’s June. You know what that means, right? It means it’s the month of the Sacred Heart, of course!.. Unfortunately, some of my readers will have thought to themselves, with sorrow, “It’s Pride month.”… I don’t blame those who did. That’s how effective the architects of the culture of death are. You have to hand it to them: they are extraordinarily adept at twisting language, using the tools of modern marketing to transform society at the most fundamental level… However, just because the wider society is celebrating so-called “Pride” month, doesn’t mean that we cannot do our own part …

By Jack Rigert, Catholic Exchange – In a world increasingly confused about the meaning of love, identity, and commitment, the Church lifts up marriage not merely as a cultural tradition, but as a divine and sacred reality. Marriage is a sacrament—a visible sign instituted by Christ that communicates grace. But it is more than that: as Pope St. John Paul II taught, marriage is the “primordial sacrament”—the original sign through which God’s plan for humanity was made visible from the very beginning.

By P. Gardner Goldsmith, MRC TV – The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Medicine announced on May 30 that, in compliance with a January Executive Order issued by President Donald Trump, it will “remove access to puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries for individuals under the age of 19,” marking a significant change in policy and procedure and handing a pyrrhic victory to Americans who believe in conservative values and the original intent of the Founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution.

By Mark Swanson, Newsmax – The Department of Education announced Monday that the month of June will now be recognized as “Title IX Month,” commemorating the 53rd anniversary of the federal civil rights measure being signed into law while highlighting how the previous administration undermined efforts to protect girls and women under the law… Title IX Month replaces Pride Month celebrated by the Department of Education under former President Joe Biden, who in 2022 declared June LGBTQ Pride Month. From there, Biden’s DOE Pride Month celebrations focused on gender ideology, critical race theory, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

By Ireland Owens, The Stream – A host of American corporations are backpedaling from their involvement in gay pride events this year amid the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts across the country… A growing number of reports show that organizers of major gay pride parades and festivals across the U.S. are scrambling for funds due to several longtime corporate sponsors scaling back their support of LGBTQ events. Some scholars explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation that news of companies pulling back from pride events may reflect a broader shift away from DEI in corporate America.

By The Ruth Institute, The Stream – One of the most persistent myths promoted by LGBT advocates is that sexual orientation is fixed and cannot change. Research and clinical experience suggest otherwise. In this 39-minute video, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse interviews Dr. Floyd Godfrey, a clinical sexologist and Christian counselor with decades of experience helping individuals overcome pornography addiction, unwanted same-sex attraction, and sexualized attachments.

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture – “Support for same-sex marriage among Republicans has dropped 14 points in the last 3 years, per Gallup.”… First, it’s not just a partisan thing. It’s a generational thing. Generation Z’s support for same-sex marriage has “plummeted” in recent years… Second, well, consider some of the comments in Metzger’s thread. Says Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm: People are starting to see the big picture. SSM was sold on the basis that personal happiness is the greatest good. That was never true, but pretending it is has terrible consequences that we are just beginning to experience and come to terms with….