Almost three months since Pope Leo’s election, he has appeared about as rarely in the news as a new pope can.

VATICAN CITY — The moment it was announced from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica that the College of Cardinals had chosen their Chicago-born confrere Robert Prevost as pope, I shared the widespread excitement of my fellow journalists, Catholic and otherwise — most of all, the Americans.

The result was even more newsworthy than if the cardinals had picked an African or Asian, as thrilling as those outcomes would have been. From a purely journalistic point of view, the election of a U.S.-born pope — something that conventional wisdom had said was impossible right up to the moment we learned it had happened — seemed like the discovery of a gold mine.


Americans would, for the first time, hear the leader of the Catholic Church speak English as his native tongue, and his every utterance would be parsed, justifiably or not, as commentary on the actions of President Donald Trump, himself a one-man jobs program for reporters. The two men would appear almost constantly on a figurative, and at times literal, split screen. Rome would become a media capital to rival Washington and New York.

Or so many of us thought.

Today, almost three months since the election of Pope Leo XIV, the media reality defies those expectations. Apart from Catholic outlets such as the National Catholic Register, which have naturally covered him with the intensity and enthusiasm demanded by their mission and audience, Leo has appeared about as rarely in the news as a new pope can.

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Israeli settlers attacked the Christian town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, early Monday in what has become part of a rising wave of violence sweeping through the West Bank.

According to eyewitnesses, a group of settlers infiltrated one of the town’s neighborhoods around 2 a.m. on July 28, set two civilian vehicles on fire, and spray-painted Hebrew graffiti on walls. One message read: “Mughayyir, you will regret it” — a reference to a Palestinian village that was previously targeted in a similar attack.

Jeries Azar, a journalist and one of the victims of the attack, told ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that flames consumed his car parked outside the house while his family was asleep.

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trophy33 said:

The EU also committed to buy $750 billion of liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels from the United States – split equally over three years – to replace Russian energy sources.

And it will pour $600 billion more in additional investments in the United States.

Trump said EU countries – which recently pledged to ramp up their defence spending within NATO – would be purchasing “hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment”.

Von der Leyen and Trump strike EU-US deal with 15% tariff for the bloc

The trade deal will introduce a 15% tariff for the vast majority of EU products. But some will benefit from a "zero-for-zero" scheme. #EuropeNews

www.euronews.com

Key takeaways from the EU-US trade deal

EU head Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump on Sunday struck a deal on tariffs, just days before the August 1 deadline when Trump had threatened to impose steep levies on European goods…

www.france24.com

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Huh.
I must have missed the sea change in the EU that put governments in charge of the private companies that would actually purchase these fine American products.

Hentenza said:

Biden created fast food jobs?

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You say it like it's a bad thing.

Reuters: This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE.​

Rawstory version

In an interview with Reuters published Monday, construction site superintendent Robby Robertson expressed frustration at the way the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies have impacted his business.

He said that trouble at his site began in late May, shortly after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a construction site in Tallahassee, Florida, which he said scared off nearly his entire workforce for several days afterward. Even though nearly two months have passed since then, he said a little more than half of his workforce has come back.

[Even legal Hispanic ones.] "They are scared they look the part," Robertson explained.

"I'm a Trump supporter," Robertson told Reuters. "But I just don't think the raids are the answer."

"The contractor world is full of Republicans," explained [construction company CEO] Harrison in an interview with Reuters. "I'm not anti-ICE. We're supportive of what the president is trying to do. But the reality of it is our industry has to have the Hispanic immigrant-based workers in it."

durangodawood said:

Orange mixed with blue makes a reddish mud color. Side by side the contrast looks pretty great tho.

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That totally depends on the proportions. You can get anywhere from a burnt orange, brown, gray, to a dull blue. It's one of my favorite portrait palettes as the range is both wide and pleasing. It's cool to see how side by side juxtapositions alter the perception of the actual color.

Yes, I know it's not everyone's preferred source...nor is it mine. However, there aren't any mainstream outlets actually discussing this story.

State documents indicate that Mitchell, age 30 at the time, was arrested and charged in early February 2016 with three felony counts of possession of child pornography; endangering the welfare of children; corruption of a minor; felony sexual abuse of a minor; and felony photographing/videotaping sexual acts in Chester County, Pennsylvania.











Now, to be clear, I don't have any personal issues with gay couples adopting kids. Obviously forum rules would dictate that one can't advocate for that sort of thing -- so that's not what I'm doing, but I have mentioned in the past that being adopted to a two-parent home is preferable to getting bounced around from foster home to foster home for 18 years.


My main issue is it sounds like Pennsylvania has some weakly structured laws, where a man who would've been totally ineligible to adopt a child into their custody, is granted a loophole due to surrogacy situations being treated differently.

"The couple obtained legal parentage of their child through a pre-birth order, which bypasses adoption checks that would have flagged the conviction"


It could also potentially be a black eye for GoFundMe (they've since taken down the campaign, but the screenshot of it is above and is still accessible through the web archives)


Should surrogacy options be off the table for these types of situations if they're not going to go through the same vetting procedures that adoption would provide? They're both creating the same end result -- being a person gaining custody of child that they wouldn't have had otherwise.

And that doesn't even delve into the well known challenges regarding babies being separated from their biological mothers.

Valletta said:

There again you assume Trump, a guy who has made an effort to fulfill so many campaign promises when compared with other politicians, is not telling it straight. We'll have to see if the U.S. gets 90%.
Remember we just got rid of an administration involved in numerous hoaxes perpetrated against the American people as well as no serious effort to fulfill a number of campaign promises.

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President Trump may be accurately stating that the Japanese Prime Minister has provided assurance that Japan will invest $550 billion in the United States.

However, assurances from the Prime Minister do not guarantee outcomes. Anyone familiar with democracy and capitalism knows that while Japan's Prime Minister can make promises in bilateral agreements, they lack the legal power to direct Japanese companies on investment decisions.

Is that you call “ Trump bashing”?

The Vatican’s doctrinal office has expressed reservations about an alleged Marian apparition site in southern Italy, permitting only private devotion and warning that claims that a deceased woman has communicated messages through a guardian angel “require further study.”

Sant’Onofrio is a mountain in the southern Italian region of Molise, close to the town of Agnone. Since 2009, a resident of the area, Michelino Marcovecchio, has claimed to receive visions of the Virgin Mary and messages from her.

He has also claimed to hear the voice of his deceased mother-in-law, Livia Casciano, through his guardian angel.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) gave the alleged supernatural experiences at Mount Sant’Onofrio a judgment of “prae oculis habeatur” (“let it be held before the eyes”), meaning there are “important positive signs” but “some aspects of confusion or potential risk are also perceived,” and “doctrinal clarification might be necessary.”

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“Why does it seem that wherever the government is, God can’t be? Why is it that hurting kids can’t turn to the healing power of the Bible during the school day?”

That’s the question posed by a new documentary that examines the growing movement to bring Bible-based education back to students in public schools.

Produced by Ohio-based LifeWise Academy in partnership with Fathom Entertainment, “Off School Property: Solving the Separation of Church and State,” directed by Nate Lundquist, delves into the historic role of the Bible in American public education and its removal in the 1960s, exploring the societal impacts and the push for its return through released time religious instruction (RTRI).

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Richard T said:

Perhaps your cessionist and thats fine if you wish to limit visions. My personal experience says otherwise.

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I had a dream I knew was legitimate, so I tried to keep my mouth shut about it, i made it 3 weeks.

The dream was very simple, I saw a woman (not identifiable) walk up to me and ask permission to pray for me.

3 weeks later at a youthgroup, a friend walks up to me, and I tell her that 3 weeks ago I had a dream of a woman walked up to me to ask permission to pray for me. -the Spirit had just directly told her to pray for me. she was overjoyed, we went outside.

She remains the only person at that youth group who even attempted to pray for me, and whos prayers were immediately effective.

I am working on a website collecting details on places and objects for self-guided American Church history tours. It has been encouraging to find so much remains that our government has not removed or been destroyed by time.
I have found when I search online for this topic the Latter-Day Saints have cornered the market for church history tours, and they are promoting faithful evangelicals as their forefathers and retelling the story. I would love to hear some resources, blogs, websites, professors, etc. I could use as I do my research and also to connect with those who may have interest in this topic.

Here is my website if this interests anyone. Beside Old Hearthstones - An American Evangelical Church History Tour Thanks in advance!

Would have thought such estimates would be straight forward. It was known relatively soon after the pandemic began that some age groups were more adversely impacted than others. So you look at the mortality rate due to the virus in each age group, breaking it down between vaccinated and unvaccinated. The difference between the two would be the decrease in mortality due to the vaccine. Apply that rate to the number of vaccinated in each group and it should be possible to come up with an estimate of lives saved due to the vaccine. Such data was available prior to Omicron, and the significant difference in my demographic is what convinced me to get vaccinated. But if someone applied the same morality rate across all age groups, that could inflate the numbers because some age groups didn't have the same mortality rates.

CoreyD said:

I'm tempted to give a thorough response, but since getting into this might be considered off topic, could you please take a look at 2 Thessalonians 2:6, 7, and the surrounding verses, as well as Acts 20:29, 30, as soon as you get opportunity. ...and can you please consider when these words were written, and when the writer died.
From those words would it have taken 400 years or more like 40... or even 4... if we consider 2 Peter 2:1 and 1 John 2:18, 19?

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Well at frist is was being stamped out. But as time progressed stuff got incorporated.

Tuur said:

Off topic comment ahead: Maybe I need to take a break. I saw Scotus and thought "What does the US Supreme Court have to do with theology?"

Sigh.

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They will soon weigh in also.

Bradskii said:

I guess you don't play golf. Cheating in the game is considered to be an undeniable reflection of your character. You simply don't do it. Even if you're playing alone. That Trump cheats doesn't surprise me in the slightest. In fact, based on his character, it would be something I'd assume he does regularly. It epitomises him.

If he lies, you can say he was mistaken or that it was an 'alternative fact'. If he says something crude or racist or misogynist then you can say it was taken out of context. If he makes a remarkably stupid claim like dropping drug prices by 1700% then you can call it exaggeration for effect. But if he cheats at golf, his true character - or rather his lack of character, is there for all the world to see. That one simple act sums up the man.

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Americans are coming around to the morality of whatever you can get away with.

Thought for the Day​

Cardinal Sarah delivered a STIRRING speech today in France:

'Too often in the West, religion is presented as an activity in the service of human well-being. Religion is equated with humanitarian efforts, acts of charity, the welcoming of migrants and the homeless, the promotion of universal fraternity and peace in the world. Even if these matters are important, this vision of religion is false. Religion is not a matter of food or humanitarian action. In the desert, this was the first temptation that Jesus rejected'

“I want to say once again ... how very sorry I am for my past actions.”​

A North Carolina priest has resigned his parish, after news reporting detailed allegations of sexual and spiritual manipulation in the context of spiritual direction.

The priest, who has been banned from a Catholic university in Virginia over the allegations against him, was made last month administrator of St. Paul Parish in New Bern, North Carolina, and resigned from the office Friday evening.



St. Paul Catholic Church, New Bern, North Carolina. Courtesy photo.

“After a recent news publication, I will be voluntarily stepping away from ministry at St. Paul and St. Peter the Fisherman and moving away from New Bern,” wrote Fr. Steven Costello in a July 25 email to parishioners, obtained on Saturday by The Pillar.

“I want to say once again as I did when I returned here in October how very sorry I am for my past actions.” I will say that it was certainly the worst mistake of my life,” the priest added.

—
Costello’s resignation came one day after The Pillar reported that a former spiritual directee had alleged against him a three-year period of abuse and manipulation, during which he reportedly said that God had given them a unique relationship, which he allegedly characterized as “spousal friendship.”

In the context of that relationship — during which he allegedly manipulated the woman’s emotional vulnerabilities disclosed in spiritual direction — the priest often told the woman he loved her, initiated hand-holding and cuddling sessions, touched her breasts, discussed his sexual desire for her, and disclosed to her that he had [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] while texting her, or during a FaceTime Call.

The priest allegedly analogized the couple’s relationship to the mystical spirituality of St. Theresa of Avila, while urging the woman to be “discreet,” because others, including her husband, would not “understand” the nature of their relationship.

According to the woman, the priest also disclosed to her that he had engaged in three similar relationships with women in the past.

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TRUEPeace said:

God speaks to your heart not your head. You will know when it's God speaking and when it is something else.

God bless

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I'm glad for you that it's a simple distinction, but that's not always the case for all of us. Some of us have to learn to listen to how God speaks to us, and some of us have a lot of noise in our heads and hearts. I recently had a conversation with a friend about computers and he and I can discuss things that most people don't have the capacity to follow. It comes naturally to us. Some people discern God's voice more easily than others. You sound like you are one of those, and that's great!

Not to mention, Jesus would have prayed the psalms regularly, as do many mainline Protestants do.

Glory to God!

Glory to God! May God increase their number!

Lord have mercy!