Luis Leon, 82, lost his wallet which contained his green card issued in 1987 after receiving asylum from Chile post-torture. He went with his wife to an immigration office in Philadelphia for a replacement. From there, he was disappeared.



Chile's Pinochet was famous for disappearing its people. I think he has a modern day rival.

The Metropolitan Cathedral’s communications office in Mexico City expressed its dissatisfaction with the projection of pro-abortion messages on the façade of the church during a show organized by the capital city’s government.

The show, titled “Luminous Memory: Mexico-Tenochtitlan 700 Years,” takes place every night July 11–27 in the capital’s Zócalo (central square). It transforms the National Palace and the Cathedral into monumental screens to visually narrate the history of the capital, from its Aztec origins to the present day.

According to the Mexico City government, the narrative includes episodes such as independence, the Mexican Revolution, and "recent events such as the arrival of the first LGBTIQ+ Pride March to the Zócalo, the decriminalization of abortion, the election of two female heads of government, and the consolidation of a city of rights and freedoms."

Among the images projected onto the façade of the cathedral are women with green neckerchiefs, symbols of the feminist movement, and a sign reading "safe abortion."

Continued below.

The second altar from Jewish Scripture that prefigures the Catholic altar is probably less familiar to most people than the bronze altar we examined in Part 1 of this series. Here in Part 2, we will focus on the “golden table” of the “Bread of the Presence.” 1Like the bronze altar of sacrifice, this golden table was located in the Tabernacle of Moses. Unlike the bronze altar, the “Table of Showbread” (as it is sometimes called) was not in the outer courtyard, but in the inner sanctuary of the Holy Place.

If we examine the golden table on which this bread was placed in light of Jewish Scripture and tradition, we discover that the Bread of the Presence not only prefigures the Eucharist: even more, the golden table on which it was offered prefigures the sacred tableof the Catholic altar, on which is offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Table and Tabernacle

Continued below.

Seminaries are at the healthiest point they have been in for decades in terms of culture and quality of priestly formation, experts say.

For decades, Catholic seminaries — buffeted by the post-Vatican II turmoil of the 1960s and the sex-abuse crisis — have seen the ranks of candidates for the priesthood steadily shrink.

So far, that trend hasn’t changed, but it no longer reflects the reality within seminaries, which are at the healthiest point they have been in for decades in terms of culture and quality of priestly formation, experts say.

“I am convinced that U.S. Catholic seminaries are doing very well, better than they have in many decades. While there are statistics on seminary formation, my own conclusion comes down to personal experience and conversations with many other seminary rectors and formators over the 14 years that I have been doing this work. I would even call this a ‘golden age’ of seminary formation,” said Father Carter Griffin, rector of Saint John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Continued below.

The SkyWest pilot identified the second plane as a B-52 bomber. The Air Force said Sunday evening that it was "looking into" reports of a military aircraft “operating in the same airspace” as a commercial airplane. It added that a B-52 assigned to Minot Air Force Base had conducted a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair on Friday evening.

The pilot says that the ATC tower instructed him to turn right but that when he looked over, he saw a B-52 bomber. He says that he was then instructed to turn left but that at that point, he looked over and "saw the airplane that was kind of coming on a converging course with us."

The second aircraft was moving faster than the SkyWest plane, the pilot says, so he made the decision to turn behind it.

"So, sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise," the pilot says in the video. "This is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up."

In the video, the pilot also mentions that the tower that serves Minot International Airport does not have a radar and that controllers rely only on visuals to make calls.

The Air Force Base nearby does have radar, the pilot says, which causes him to wonder why nobody said, "Hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern."

"There are many small airports across the country that have commercial service that don't have radar. Instead, they'll have some sort of coordinating communication with another radar facility several miles away, perhaps with a military base," [aviation guy] Guzzetti said.

The key question, Guzzetti said, is how much coordination there was between the Air Force base and the airport.

Fire was set to a church and dozens of Christian homes in As-Sawra al-Kabira (Al-Sura al-Kabira), a small village in southern Syria, according to multiple media reports.

Aid to the Church in Need identified the church as St. Michael (Mar Michael), a Melkite Catholicparish, and reported that 38 Christian homes had been destroyed. The homeless Christians took refuge in Shahba, a nearby small city, where “they are currently living in precarious conditions” in a church hall.

Reporting on the July 15 incident, Syriac Press quoted Father Butrus al-Jut, the parish priest:

They didn’t stop at the church. They burned and ransacked our homes. They shattered our windows, stole our belongings, and set our lives aflame ... This church is not made of stones. It is built on faith—faith that still lives in our hearts. And we will rebuild it.

Click to expand...

“The Mar Michael Church, a modest stone structure with deep roots in local tradition, has stood as a spiritual and cultural landmark in Al-Sura al-Kabira for generations,” Syriac Press reported. “More than just a house of worship, it served as a gathering point for community events and a symbol of resilience in a region long known for its religious and ethnic diversity.”

Continued below.

Congressman Clay Higgins’ statement will likely cause some Catholic Bishops to lose sleep. Catholic NGOs collected over $3 billion in federal funds by trafficking illegal aliens under the Biden administration.​

This week, the House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing detailing how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) helped facilitate and benefited from the historic Biden-Harris border crisis, as well as how far-left NGOs are still working to help inadmissible aliens undermine federal immigration law under the Trump administration. Tuesday, Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK) penned an op-ed in the New York Post outlining the importance of this hearing and the Committee’s investigation into these organizations.

Witnesses included Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project; Ali Hopper, president and founder of GUARD Against Trafficking; and Julio Rosas, a national correspondent for Blaze Media––all of whom have investigated or reported on how these organizations work with Democrat officials and open-borders advocates to advance a pro-illegal immigration agenda.

In the hearing, witnesses laid out in detail how NGOs received more than $6 billion from the Biden-Harris administration, including through grants from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and others. They also testified about how the Biden-Harris administration handed over unaccompanied alien children (UACs) to NGOs, primarily at the border, who then delivered them to poorly-vetted sponsors. The Biden-Harris administration then failed to ensure proper follow-up communications to check on the well-being of the children, leading to more than 300,000 children unaccounted for in the interior. Simultaneously, many of these NGOs and their executives enjoyed substantial revenue and salary increases thanks to the grants.

Continue reading at the House Committee on Homeland Security

When was the last time you felt like you could trust your government?

More specifically, when was the last time you felt you might be able to trust a particular politician?

I’d been on a long run of deep cynicism about all of it after the 2020 election. I neither believed that Joe Biden (who barely campaigned and clearly was suffering from the early stages of dementia) won the most votes in history, nor that the Trump camp’s bleating about a stolen election had anything substantial to back it up. I was caught in a web of improbability and lies, and becoming far too cynical to care. I was going through my own personal crisis of faith, and identity, and career, and the last thing I could get myself to care about was politics.

Although everyone’s experiences were different, I know many other Americans felt deeply jaded after the debacle of the 2020 election, the confusing narratives around January 6, and the promise of a “Kraken” that never materialized.

But for many of us, something changed in a very unexpected fashion on July 13, 2024, when Donald Trump, who felt like an at best dark horse comeback candidate at the time, narrowly missed an assassin’s bullet through an uncannily coincidental — some say miraculous — turn of the head.

Rather than be cowed by the ongoing gunfire and chaos, he struggled to his feet, and in one of the most iconic moments ever photographed in world history, raised his fist, and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Continued below.

Nestled within Whistler’s many snow-covered peaks, Our Lady of the Mountains Parish finds itself just months away from the grand opening of its newly renovated church, a multimillion-dollar restoration project five years in the making, which is set to embrace the town’s historic alpine atmosphere.

As the only Catholic church in the popular British Columbia resort town in the Coastal Mountains north of Vancouver, Our Lady of the Mountains’ transformation will see what was once no more than a quaint multipurpose hall become a fully functional sacred space for prayer, service, and evangelization as well as a visual testament to the community’s steadfast faith and perseverance.

Whistler is part of the Diocese of Kamloops but has long been a spiritual home for many Catholics in the wider region who flock there for vacation.

Whistler welcomes around 3 million visitors each year — about 45% in winter and 55% in summer — so thousands of Catholics are served by the parish during ski weekends and summer getaways.

Continued below.

Pope Leo XIV marked the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing with a video call to U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin and a visit to the Vatican Observatory, located on the papal estate of Castel Gandolfo, where he has been staying for two weeks.

According to the Vatican, the pontiff’s July 20 call with the 95-year-old Aldrin, the last surviving Apollo 11 crew member, included reminiscing on the historic 1969 landing and meditating together on the “mystery, greatness, and fragility” of God’s creation as described in Psalm 8.

Earlier in the day, Leo visited the Vatican’s internationally-recognized observatory, called the Specola Vaticana, where he was able to look through the astronomical center’s historic telescopes.

The Vatican Observatory has been located on the papal estate of Castel Gandolfo, around 18 miles southeast of Rome, since the 1930s, but the history of the institution dates to the 18th century. After several years of closure in the late 1800s, Leo’s predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, re-founded the observatory in 1891.

Continued below.

​

Catholic images and crucifixes fill the walls in Times Square Tattoo. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Tommy Houlihan

In the heart of New York City, nestled among the tall buildings of Times Square, sits a small tattoo shop with two 17-inch signs of the Miraculous Medal hanging outside the front door. Inside, walls of rosaries, crucifixes, and religious images greet visitors, while an old church pew serves as a place to sit and wait. A glass jar filled with blessed Miraculous Medals sits on the front desk.

The tattoo parlor, Times Square Tattoo, is more than a tattoo parlor, according to owner Tommy Houlihan, who has a deep devotion to the Miraculous Medal and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The 55-year-old told CNA that he views his shop as a “ministry for the Miraculous Medal.”

Houlihan has been a tattoo artist since 1990. He grew up in a Catholic household in Hell’s Kitchen, a neighborhood on the west side of midtown Manhattan, and by the age of 18 began his career in body art.

An old church pew serves as a waiting area for customers inside Times Square Tattoo. Credit: Photo courtesy of Tommy Houlihan

Continued below.

What does that feel like if our souls cleave to the dust, but we are followers of Christ? It sounds to me like depression. And it could have been brought on by some type of sin or misstep of some nature. So the need for revival could be of a spiritual nature involving repentance. Or it could be a need for restoration and renewal in a mental or emotional state where someone has been brought low and needs to be lifted up, encouraged, and restored.

And if we say that we have told the Lord of our ways, and we want him to teach us his statutes, that could be a confession of sin, and of a desire for renewal in the Spirit, or it could be that we have just called out to God in our difficult circumstances and prayed for guidance and direction in how to move forward and in what to do next. Perhaps we made some wrong choices, which were not sinful, but we need to make better choices in the future.

Either way, we are seeking the Lord for guidance and direction in knowing what to do next, in having a better understanding of what his word teaches us, so that we might make better choices in the future, and to not repeat the same mistakes (or bad or unwise choices). Regardless of the circumstances, we are seeking the counsel of the Lord, and of his word, to guide us and to direct us in the way in which he would have us to go, in order to please him.

But we need to be students of the Scriptures who study them in their correct biblical context, under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, who are seeking to know the will of God for our lives, so that we might do the will of God. We need to be in the Word of God every day seeking his will and purpose for our lives and to know truth so that we can obey the truth. And then we need to be putting the Word of God into daily practice in our lives.

So, if our souls weep because of grief, it could be grief over the loss of a loved one, or it could be grief over the loss of income and not knowing where we will get our next meal, or how we will pay our bills. Or it could be because we were judged falsely and treated badly by others. Or it could be because of sin. But whatever it is, we need the Lord Jesus to give us strength, according to his word, so that we might continue to walk in him.

And for him to remove any false way from us could be about repentance and spiritual renewal, or this could be for him to show us any false ways that we are believing, and to show us the truth, in opposition to the lies we have believed, so that we now follow the truth and not the lies. I know that I grew up believing some lies, and the Lord had to show me the lies I was believing and to reveal to me the truth so I would reject the lies and follow the truth.

But the bottom line here in it all is that this is about a desire to follow the ways of the Lord, and the teachings of the Scriptures, and to do the will of God, and to not go a wrong direction. And so we want to be shown, of the Lord, anything that we have been believing wrong or doing wrong (things we are not already aware of) so that we will no longer head the wrong direction, but now we will be going in the right way, which is the way of God.

As a result of all of this, our hearts and minds will change, we will grow closer to the Lord in our walks of obedience to him, in surrender to his will, and he may call us to a specific ministry we would never have considered previously. And we will be better prepared to answer “Yes, Lord,” and to go with God, because we have a closer more intimate relationship with him, and because we have a better understanding of his will and purpose for our lives.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12]

Lead Me Gently Home, Father

By Will L. Thompson, 1879

Lead me gently home, Father,
Lead me gently home;
When life’s toils are ended,
And parting days have come,
Sin no more shall tempt me,
Ne’er from Thee I’ll roam,
If Thou’ll only lead me, Father,
Lead me gently home.

Lead me gently home, Father,
Lead me gently home;
In life’s darkest hours, Father,
When life’s troubles come,
Keep my feet from wand’ring,
Lest from Thee I roam,
Lest I fall upon the wayside,
Lead me gently home.

Login to view embedded media
Caution: This link may contain ads

My Soul Weeps
An Original Work / July 21, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Hi, I wanted to try out this one trail, I don't know why, because I'm usually petrified of these things alone. I was literally the only person on that trail the entire time. It was so much walking that my head was starting to feel mushy. I had some Gatorade with me (plain water would not have done it for me) but there were no benches around the entire mega loop and I knew where I was thankfully, I wasn't lost, but I was waiting and waiting for the bench to finally show up (it did). The trail started near this small lake and was supposed to end at that same lake (looping back) and I was hoping so bad that the lake would show up again (it did). I have never been so tired in my life. It wasn't real exercise in the sense of brisk walking. I was slow-walking, that was enough. I kind of regret doing it but I had been curious about this place for awhile. I've done all the trails in the park except one.

When I was a very young child my grandmother had a print of a painting of Jesus sitting on hill. I asked her where he was, meaning in that particular picture. She responded; "Jesus is everywhere." I thought that was funny.
I found out later that it was by Josef Untersberger entitled Christ on the Mt of Olives.

I love art. Another one of may favorite is James Tissot

Is beauty intellectual, emotional, or experiential? Or perhaps none of the above?​

We are often told that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder” when confronted with an object whose beauty is open to interpretation. Why are we told this? Is it because beauty is intellectually subjective, or because designating something as ugly may insult the creator of the object, or because beauty is experiential and thus different to all? Some may say “all of the above”.

If all of the above responses applied —that beauty is subjective, personal, and experiential—then would it not mean that other aspects of our reality fall within a similar categorization? Religion is typically discussed in similar terms, making it difficult to reach a consensus. However, if it were true that beauty is highly personal, then why do so many people share an intrinsic understanding that some things are more beautiful than other things?

Continued below.

Love not the world, but love your Lord,
And follow Him in one accord,
Walk in His ways, do what He says,
Give Him your life, in Him invest.

Now do His will, and don’t sit still,
Surrender all, all to His will,
Go where He leads, and speak His words
To all who’re living so absurd.

For Jesus died, he died for all,
That we would on our Savior call,
Repent of sin, obey our Lord,
Now walk with Him in one accord.

Believe in Him, die to your sins,
Commit your life to live for Him,
Submit your all to Him as King,
And praise Him, praise Him, when you sing.

For faith in Christ, not what we say,
But how we live for Him each day,
Denying self, self-sacrifice,
Give all to Him, to be precise.

No longer walking in our sins,
No longer living where we’d been,
For Jesus died to set us free,
So we’d now live in victory.

An Original Work / July 20, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Chesterton was half-right: America is a “nation with the soul of a church.” The other half of the truth is that many of our churches lack basic features of historic churchiness: sacraments, liturgical forms, settled creeds, authority. Like America itself, the American church seems a novus ordo seclorum. Our churchy national soul weirdly inhabits a body of peculiar, borderline-heretical actual churches.

In some respects, our unchurchy churchiness is no surprise. We’re Protestant, and Protestants have always been, as Alec Ryrie writes, radicals, lovers, and fighters, restlessly carrying on a centuries-long “open-ended, ill-disciplined argument,” churning out new ideas and rehabilitating old ones with “a certain generic restlessness, an itchy instability.” A “self-perpetuating dynamo of dissatisfaction and yearning,” the Protestant churches have been “one of the engines driving modern history.”
America was founded as a post-Christendom Christian nation. Christian, yes, profoundly so, but never Christian in the way Europe was Christian. Europe became Christian century after plodding century. We started out Christian. The Reformation battered and splintered European Christendom. Colonists brought their European splits with them, and proceeded to split even more. The church was the unifying reality of medieval Europe; after the Reformation, most European nations established one or another variety of national church. Free church Christianity was a late development in Europe. Free church Christianity is American Christianity. States retained established churches into the early nineteenth century, but that was a long time ago. Our default ecclesiology is Lockean and Baptist.

Continued below.

Explore the intersection of science, history, and faith to uncover the enduring mystery of the Shroud of Turin.

Few artifacts have captured the world’s imagination and inspired centuries of debate like the Shroud of Turin. This linen cloth, believed by many to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth, continues to baffle scientists, theologians, and historians alike. Enigmatic and controversial, the shroud bridges the realms of history, religious tradition, and modern forensic science. Through carbon dating, blood analysis, and image evaluation, researchers strive to unlock its secrets. Despite skepticism and conflicting data, the Shroud of Turin remains one of the most studied (and most mysterious) religious relics in human history.

The Historical Journey of the Shroud of Turin​

Continued below.

Is laughter good medicine? Maybe, but it’s rare that we hear about the laughter of a saint. In our current historical moment, I think we need a saint’s laughter.

In July, we’re celebrating 31 days of St. Ignatius of Loyola, leading up to the anniversary of his death July 31, 1556. People who love Ignatius are always celebrating the important times in his life.

In 2021, we observed a “cannonball year,” commemorating the 500th anniversary of this soldier, then known as Inigo, being severely wounded by a cannonball from the French forces at Pamplona. His long recuperation led to conversion. A man who had dreamed of battlefield glory and winning ladies’ hearts became the man who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and became one of our greatest saints.

But in all the reading I’ve done on Ignatius I’d never heard about laughter. Maybe I’m caught in plaster statue sainthood mode — keeping saints on those pedestals is serious business.

Continued below.

'In the creation of a three-parent baby, two other embryos are destroyed'

The news that eight babies with the DNA of three people have been born in the U.K. has been greeted by some as a great step in the fight against genetic diseases, but others are concerned about the ethical implications, which involve the destruction of two living embryos to create a third.

The eight babies were born in the last five years and were created as part of an attempt to spare them from mitochondrial disease. The disease affects around 1 in 5,000 babies in Britain and can cause developmental, metabolic and neurological disorders.

Only women with a high risk of passing on the disease to their children were eligible to undergo the process of creating a triple DNA baby. In all, 22 women underwent the procedure, but only seven became pregnant, with one having twins, representing a success rate of 36%.

Continued below.

Astronomer CEO Andy Byron resigned Saturday

Christians on social media have weighed in during recent days regarding the married CEO of a tech company drawing widespread rebuke for alleged adultery after going viral for cuddling with his HR chief at a Coldplay concert last week.

Andy Byron, who served as CEO of Astronomer since 2023, resigned from the multibillion-dollar AI company he helped found on Saturday after he was caught on a “kiss cam” with his Chief People Officer, Kristin Cabot, at a Coldplay concert in Boston. Cabot was placed on leave.


“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” lead singer Chris Martin said at the time as Byron ducked in shame and Cabot hid her face. Byron’s wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, with whom he has fathered two children, reportedly removed his last name from her Facebook profile before deleting her account after the moment went viral.

“Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted,” the company said in a statement on Saturday. “The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO.”

Continued below.

Is Libertarianism Consistent With Voting? A Personal View.​

Coercion is the opposite of a live-and-let-live attitude. And our current American governmental coercion enforces subjugation and imposes laws and taxation on unwilling, unconsenting individuals. To vote is to participate in this process, enabling governments to claim a “mandate” for their coercive activities. Thus, voting is inconsistent with libertarian ideas.

“The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men…like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.”
H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun 12 February 1923

Click to expand...

Libertarian voters claim they want to remove government tyranny, but if they attempt to do so via voting then they are forcing their ways on others. Most people do not want liberty or freedom; in fact, they often not only desire to be part of a collective mass of people swayed, manipulated, and “protected” by a “state,” but they also want others forced into the same mold. This is where libertarians should differ from Republicans and Democrats, who do seek to control others.

We universally agree it is immoral if one person forces another to do his will when it is against their own. Unfortunately, this principle is forgotten when election time comes. If someone desires to control another, he can vote, or worse, make a good living by entering politics. Democracy creates an entire tax-funded system of bullying. It is not a loving but a mean system of governance.

To enter into politics via voting, we are joining a war that is opposed to libertarian ideas. To force our ways on others who do not desire it. Even if what we are trying to impose is our view of liberty and freedom, if that is not what they want, it is tyranny; it is government coercion; it is prideful to levy our ways on others. God does not impose His way on us; He gives us the chance to choose Him as Lord.

Democracy indulges the worst part of human nature; the desire to rule others. It brings out the Saruman and Sauron within us as we seek to use the One Ring – or in our case government power – to coerce others to do our bidding. It is a corrupt, backward, and oppressive system.

Voting is not about getting the government you desire; it is more about preventing others from having theirs. It propagates a mindset saying we must fight over Tolkien’s “One Ring to Rule them all.” We puritanically believe we are better than the other dumb peasants, those who do not vote like us. So we must vote to coerce them away from their self-governance and into our mold. Democracy is one big war of people denying each other self-rule.

One thing I won’t be doing is voting or attempting to force my way on others; instead, I will follow the golden rule and treat others the way I want them to treat me. I do not want others to use government coercion and power to force me to do what I don’t desire or support what I would otherwise not, and even though they will continue to do that, from now on I choose to turn the other cheek and not repay evil for evil.

Col. 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking* in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church,
25 of which I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God,
26 the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones,

Click to expand...

How was this interpreted for you - did any preacher say, "It is exactly true just as written, because ..."?
Or, "It really doesn't mean what it seems to be saying because we all know the sacrifice of Jesus was complete in every way. So It's only trying to say...."

Or something else?