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Nicaragua’s Socialist Ortega Regime Declares Bishop Rolando Álvarez ‘Traitor to the Homeland,’ Sentences Him to 26 Years in Prison …
“Let it be declared that Rolando José Álvarez Lagos is guilty for being the author of the crimes of undermining national security and sovereignty, spreading fake news news through information technology, obstructing an official in the performance of his duties, aggravated disobedience or contempt of authority, all committed concurrently and to the detriment of society and the State of the Republic of Nicaragua,” the sentence states. Detailing each of the charges and their respective penalties, the text adds: “The defendant Rolando José Álvarez Lagos is sentenced to 15 years in prison and perpetual disqualification from exercising public office on behalf of or at the service of the State of Nicaragua.” “The loss of the convicted person’s citizen rights is declared, which will be perpe...
Another woman, a former Priests for Life employee, comes forward with further allegations against Frank Pavone…
A former employee says she was serially sexually harassed by Priests for Life director Frank Pavone, while Pavone himself acknowledged that he’s faced sexual misconduct allegations in the past. The woman told The Pillar that she reported Pavone’s harassment both to Priests for Life officials – who excused Pavone’s behavior – and to the Diocese of Amarillo, while Pavone was still incardinated there as a cleric. She is the second woman to come forward in recent weeks, alleging Pavone’s sexual advances, grooming behavior, and unwanted touching of junior employees. For his part, Pavone told The Pillar Wednesday that he is “saddened” by recent reports which “revisit old accusations that contain numerous inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and mistruths.” Those ...
Don’t miss this excellent interview with pro-life Democrat Dan Lipinski, the former Illinois congressman now teaching at the University of Dallas…
Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois, a Catholic, is both taking on a new challenge and returning to his roots as the new Pope Leo XIII Fellow on Social Thought at the University of Dallas. Lipinski served eight terms in Congress as a pro-life Democrat before being defeated in his 2020 primary by pro-abortion challenger Marie Newman, after abortion groups backed her with substantial funding. Prior to his time in Congress, he taught political science at the University of Tennessee and the University of Notre Dame. Lipinski spoke with the Register Monday about his new teaching role and how he views the role of Catholics in today’s divisive political climate. He also discussed the lessons to be learned from the writings of Pope Leo XIII and how pro-life politicians shoul...
Why do horses wear shoes? And what happens to wild horses that don’t?
A thoroughbred horse gets shod. (Image credit: jess311 via Getty Images) Horses have been central to human transportation and agriculture for centuries. These symbols of power and speed require hoof care and new shoes every four to six weeks to stay on the job. But why? Horses (Equus caballus) that are domesticated for human use and selectively bred for performance wear shoes because their feet are delicate and therefore need protection, said Dr. Fernanda Camargo (opens in new tab), a veterinarian and equine extension agent at the University of Kentucky. “Shoes provide protection to some areas of the foot of the horse,” Camargo told Live Science in an email. “They prevent the hooves from wearing out too much, and thus becoming sensitive.” The exterior of the hoof, k...
Latest Turkey-Syria Earthquake Updates: Death Toll Passes 19,000 in What Erdogan Calls the “Disaster of the Century”…
As humanitarian aid trucks rolled into opposition-held northwestern Syria on Thursday bringing the first international relief there since Monday’s devastating earthquake, emergency workers who were racing to reach the last trapped survivors called for more international assistance. Seventy countries offered to send rescue teams or humanitarian assistance to Turkey, the country’s president said this week, but the international response has been markedly different for Syria, a sanctioned pariah state that remains deeply divided after years of civil war. “Our teams have been working nonstop in the past 75 hours with no breaks, no rest,” Mohamed al-Shibli, a member of the White Helmets civil defense group that operates in opposition-held parts of Syria, said in an interview via WhatsApp. The g...
You can’t see atoms, so why can you see stars?
Are you skeptical of what you read? There is an on-line community called HASTRO-L, of historians of astronomy and people with an interest in the history of astronomy. It grew out of the University of Notre Dame’s regular history of astronomy conferences. There is a person who hangs out on HASTRO-L who I would describe as being very skeptical of what he reads and rejecting a lot of the ideas of modern astronomy. He has developed his own cosmology, based on the ideas of the sixteenth-century astronomer Tycho Brahe. I know what you are thinking—“another crank who claims that modern science is wrong”—but bear with me. Sometimes the arguments of such folks are pretty intriguing, and can be educational. This fellow, Simon Shack, calls his cosmology the TYCHOS system...
Exhausted by intractable evil? Our Lord has already won…..
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 07, 2023 The logical follow-up to my commentary last Friday on Tragi-comic news is a more serious consideration of the intractability of evil. For if we are honest, we understand that the sheer weight of evil in this world cannot be thrown off by human means. We will beat our heads against the proverbial wall of evil only to find that, when we have finished, we have not managed to visibly reduce the amount of evil in the world. At best we can suggest to ourselves that there would have been even more evil if we hadn’t tried. This stark reality is actually acknowledged by Christianity, in that the weeds and the wheat are permitted to grow until the time for harvesting. Or, as Jesus Christ explained: “In the world you have tribula...
I suspect that the large crowd of people attending Pope Francis’ Mass in Kinshasa understood forgiveness…..
Pope Francis exhorted the Congolese to forgive on his trip there this past week. How did the Congolese respond? The AP story reporting his homily told of some of the atrocities that the people of Congo suffered in a war between 1998 and 2004 that took the lives of some 5 million people, the largest death toll of any armed conflict since World War II, and have suffered in the years since, even more intensely in recent years. I have not read any reports of reactions to the Pope Francis’s exhortation. Forgiveness is absent from the panoply of practices plied by the “international community” – that vast collection of NGOs, diplomats, relief workers, peacekeepers, human rights activists, and international lawyers – in their efforts to bring peace to countries riven by war and genocide. Th...
This $21 million church in Visalia, California, is the biggest Catholic parish church in North America…
With declining congregations, shuttered chapels and an ever shrinking number of priests, it is easy to assume that church in the US is on the way out for good. As parishes struggle to attract younger generations, and almost a third of Americans now declare no religious affiliation, this one nation under God seems to be rapidly losing its faith. But some regions are bucking the trend, particularly in the south and west. In California’s Central Valley, the agricultural heartland of dairy farms and orchards that sprawl across the state’s flat fertile plains, producing half the country’s fruit and veg, the Catholic population is booming, and busy building. Rising out of the rolling landscape of fruit and nut trees, which march in a mesmerising grid as far as the eye can see, stands a gargantua...
Cardinal McElroy’s recent essay presents a twisted inversion of Vatican II’s “universal call to holiness”…
Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego celebrates Mass on the campus of the University of San Diego during Mass at The Immaculata Catholic Church Sept. 8, 2022. (CNS photo/David Maung) Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, bishop of San Diego, in his widely contested recent essay in America Magazine, wrote, “The heart of Christian discipleship is a relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit rooted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” But the rest of the essay makes me think of the question posed in the famous fast food commercial from my youth: “Where’s the beef?” In his 3,000-word commentary published Jan. 24, Cardinal McElroy expresses many important laments that pertain to the Church’s life and mission today, many of which should be of concern to each one of us. He is...
Catholic school students kicked out of Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC for wearing pro-life beanies…
Why the new Smithsonian Latino exhibit is a ‘travesty:’ Gonzalez What to watch next Click to expand Replay Video UP NEXT The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum kicked out a dozen Catholic high school students and their chaperons for wearing beanies inscribed with pro-life messages. On January 20, students and chaperones from Our Lady of the Rosary School based out of Greenville, South Carolina, traveled to Washington, D.C. for the annual National March for Life. The group was all wearing matching blue beanies with the words “Rosary PRO-LIFE.” The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), representing the parents of some of the students involved, alleged that the museum staff mocked the students, hurled expletives and claimed the museum was a “neutral zone” ...
I must admit that if I thought the way some of my brother bishops think, I would have left the Catholic Church long ago…
Detail from “Christ and the Rich Young Ruler” (1889) by Heinrich Hofmann (WikiCommons) I have written of my concerns in the past with the German Synodal Process, as well as concerns with other bishops and cardinals and their take on the process. They essentially ignore the oft repeated words of Pope Francis, that in the synodal process there must be a deep listening to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and charity that keeps us firmly attached to Jesus Christ. Pope Francis has made it clear that the synod on synodality is not about changing long standing Church teaching and is not a democratic or parliamentary process. In a recent article, my brother bishop, Cardinal Robert McElroy, laid out a vision of the church in the context of synodality calling for “radical inclusion”....
