‘Given the sexual curiosity of people today, especially among the youth, there is a pressing need for the Church’s shepherds to speak with clarity on such matters. Regrettably, what we often witness is the ostrich effect at the very best—or rather, the application of the legal maxim: “Qui tacet consentire,” that is: “In their silence, they give consent.”’
‘The Kuomintang (KMT)—sole ruling party of the country during its rule from 1927 to 1949—and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had been engaged in armed conflict since 1927. The warring parties had to halt the hostilities and temporarily unite with each other against Japan’s invasion of China in the Second Sino–Japanese War (1937–1945).’
‘Pope Pius X, for us Catholics, is perhaps best remembered for his battle against modernism within the Church when he promulgated his Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907). He is also considered the “Pope of the Eucharist”…Yet, less well known is his crusade for peace and his remarkable political insight, through which he foresaw the outbreak of World War I…years before it erupted.’
‘Hungary, too, was forced to be part of the Soviet bloc when Soviet troops entered the country in 1945. Three years later, the future Cardinal and Primate of Hungary, József Mindszenty, opened the Marian Year to entrust, like King St. Stephen, the fate of Hungary to the intercession of the Blessed Mother…’
‘Bismarck’s campaign for a “good treaty” with Russia reflected the notion that antagonizing the Russians could be as disastrous as waking a bear from hibernation—an apt metaphor for what the U.S.–NATO expansionist approach eventually did…Bismarck emphasized the urgency of not only respecting Russia’s interests but also recognizing it as a crucial player on the global political stage…’
‘The failure of African states to properly address their racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, and economic differences provided a fertile ground for rebel groups, like al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, al-Mulathameen Brigade, and now the Allied Democratic Forces to prosper.’
‘…just recently, during the EU–China summit hosted by Xi, not only was there no Chinese delegation to welcome European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other top EU leaders, but the Chinese autocrat also made them take a bus to reach the summit venue. This does not look like a man who is on his way out.’
‘Christian leaders in Sudan have urgently appealed for help, calling on the global Church and the international community to intervene. Many feel abandoned, with their suffering overshadowed by other global crises. Nevertheless, our Christian brethren continue to hope against all odds—trusting in a loving God who reminds us that the end of all things is not in this world.’
‘Leo XIII hinted…that Christians and non-Christians alike…can only benefit from natural law…because it “is universally valid apart from and above other more debatable beliefs, [and] constitutes the compass by which to take our bearings in legislating and acting, particularly on the delicate and pressing ethical issues that, today more than in the past, regard personal life and privacy.”’
‘In any case, this is not the first time Emperor Joseph II…is presented as an unsentimental authoritarian who deprecated the Catholic Church through his reforms…Yet, if we take the time to research and grasp the historical context in which such reforms were implemented, and contrast them with the secular ones, we arrive at an altogether different conclusion about the man.’
Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the U.S., yet the legacy of human bondage extends far beyond American shores. From African complicity in the slave trade to Black slaveholders in early America, and the persistence of slavery in parts of modern Africa, this article explores the often overlooked complexities of a global and ongoing issue.
‘According to an April 2023 report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, at least 52,250 persecuted Christians have been killed in the past 14 years, simply for the crime of being Christian. In the past five years, violence has spread southwards to the middle belt of Nigeria. In addition, approximately 18,000 churches and 2,500 Christian schools have been attacked…’
‘Baptists plan to vote this week on acting to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex unions ten years ago this month. They would be joining Republican lawmakers from nine states after Congressman Josh Schriver introduced the marriage resolution in his home state of Michigan, saying that the Obergefell ruling “is at odds with the sanctity of marriage…”’
‘The story of Cardinal Kung is that of a faithful shepherd—a saintly figure who refused to renounce God and His Church, despite the consequences of a life sentence imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Three months before his arrest in 1955, then-Bishop Kung stood by his clergy and the faithful in China, rejecting numerous offers of safe passage out of the country.’
‘When countries collectively decide to form a permanent institutional body where divisible sovereignty is the norm, like the EU, it attenuates the ability of those states to make decisions regarding the governance of their own economies and other associated policies. In essence, Hungary must realize that so long as it is a member state of the EU, it delegates certain decision-making to it.’
‘As the Catholic Church teaches, man and woman are made for authentic communion with God and each other…An attachment to a machine, or for that matter, even an affectionate pet, no matter how life-like it may be, cannot fulfill this vocation. It risks becoming an effigy or an impersonation of human relationships, diverting us from the true link for which we were created.’
‘The name “Leo” is a name rooted in tradition. The first Pope Leo, St. Leo the Great, who reigned from 440 to 461, was a contemporary of St. Augustine of Hippo and is known for his zeal for the unity of the Church and orthodoxy, as well as his affirmation of the Petrine primacy and the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline.’
President Trump sparked backlash after posting an AI-generated image of himself as the Pope, drawing outrage from Catholic leaders and public figures alike. While some defended the move as harmless, it can be seen as part of a broader decline in respect for the papacy and its spiritual authority.
‘Having chosen to both forgo the traditional papal attire of his predecessors and to take up residence at the Casa Santa Marta—the five star hotel within the Vatican City walls—instead of the papal palace, Francis presented himself as a populist pope—or, as he was characterized after he died, the “people’s pope”—, vowing to drain the swamp of corruption in the Holy See and revolutionize the Church.’
‘There seems to be a disparity in the character of Pilate according to the Gospels and that of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37/38–100 AD). While both portray him as a complex man caught in a difficult role in difficult times, Josephus stipulates that he was cruel, disrespectful…The Gospels paint a different picture of the Roman governor, being a fair judge, to name an attribute.’
‘President Donald Trump, on his self-proclaimed “liberation day”, imposed sweeping tariffs of at least 10 per cent on almost every product that enters the U.S. from almost every country…with the aim of keeping jobs within the American homeland. What the president has done is reverting to the American “protectionism” of the 19th century, which economists call the Hamiltonian Statecraft.’
‘The UN, unlike the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is a collective security system; the latter is an alliance, which deals with a specific and specified threat and has military forces to address these threats. The UN is juridically neutral, and it is coerced to wait for a threat to emerge before it can consider action.’
‘Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation…34 years ago, on this day, was the death of a Catholic churchman who not only helped build Christendom in the then French-speaking part of Africa, but who was also an apostle against modernism and a champion for traditional Catholicism, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.’
‘Christians are believed to have constituted about 30 per cent of the Syrian population in the 1920s. Before the Syrian civil war, they made up about 10 per cent of Syria’s people, a figure now diminished to about 2.5 per cent, falling from 1.5 million in 2012 to about 300,000 in 2022. Most Christians left for Lebanon, Europe and North America, escaping the war and Syria’s economic straits.’
‘President Donald Trump carried out his promise to impose 25 per cent tariffs with no clear rationale on America’s two biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico. They were first due to take effect last month but then both countries were offered a last-minute reprieve.’
‘It is true that it seemed as if both Trump and Vance berated Zelenskyy as if he were a child who refused to do his homework, saying that he was not grateful enough for U.S. aid. And I do not wish to exonerate their behavior, either, but one has to place things into context: it was Zelenskyy who sparked the fire.’
‘Why then would the U.S. now wish to abandon to uphold and defend the sovereign rights of a free country? Quite simply, because the Ukrainians do not have the manpower anymore to fend off Russian forces, let alone the political clout to regain its lost territories, including Crimea, regardless of European support.’
‘The criminality in all this is that Zelenskyy and the U.S.-led West know that the Ukrainians are not going to win on the battlefield, and that Ukraine has effectively become an economic and politically dysfunctional rump state. Yet both want the war to continue, whether for lucrative reasons or not.’
‘Trump’s actions, like them or not, can be seen as an application of a highly contested “unitary executive theory”—an expansive interpretation of presidential power that aims to centralize greater control over the government in the White House. Trump’s measures, however, reflect the constitutional philosophy of the Founding Father who effectively created the American system, Alexander Hamilton.’
‘The truth of the matter is that the Chinese will not allow themselves to be entrapped by Western and non-Western foreigners alike as they did during the “Century of Humiliation”. Xi is determined more than ever to have China emerge as the greatest power on earth, thus seeing the U.S. not as a partner but as an adversary that is equally determined to do everything it can to ensure he fails.’