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Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, is calling on pro-life supporters to contact U.S. senators and demand the defunding of Planned Parenthood as part of a budget reconciliation bill moving through Congress.

The push follows a recent victory in the U.S. House, where a bill aimed at cutting funding to the nation’s largest abortion provider passed, signaling strong pro-life momentum.

“This is a critical moment for the pro-life movement,” Hawkins said in a statement. “The House sent a clear message to the abortion lobby, but now we need to ensure the Senate follows through.”

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Students for Life Action, the advocacy arm of the organization, has identified 12 Republican senators whose votes are seen as pivotal to ensuring the defunding provision remains in the Senate’s version of the bill, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” by President Donald Trump. The targeted senators include Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), John Thune (R-S.D.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.).

Hawkins emphasized that while some of these senators are staunch pro-life allies, others, including Collins and Murkowski, have previously opposed similar measures. She also noted that fiscal concerns, such as debates over state and local tax deductions, could sway some senators, making grassroots pressure essential.

The campaign, launched on June 3 as part of Students for Life Action’s “One Big Beautiful Month of Pro-Life Activism,” has already gained attention, with Politico reporting on its efforts. The group is urging supporters to sign a petition calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, stressing that with a slim 53-seat Republican majority in the Senate, just four dissenting votes could derail the effort.

“Pro-life voters will not forgive or forget if our resources continue to fund Planned Parenthood,” Hawkins said. “Senators need to hear that we mean business.”

The budget reconciliation bill, which requires only a simple majority to pass, is seen as a key opportunity to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood, a long-standing goal of the pro-life movement. Supporters are encouraged to contact their senators, particularly the 12 targeted Republicans, to ensure the provision remains intact.

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Testimony of Sharon Quick, MD, MA (Bioethics)
President, Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation (PCCEF)
In opposition to New York A 136 June 8, 2024

Summary: A 136, like other medically-assisted suicide laws, inevitably violates (rather than upholds) patient autonomy; creates (based on subjective, often inaccurate, criteria) a class of marginalized patients with the disability of terminal illness from whom the standard of medical care can be withheld; allows lethal drugs to unnecessarily substitute for good palliative care and pain control; disproportionately preys on those with mental health problems and disabilities; and destroys the foundation of medical ethics, creating distrust among patients and the health care profession. In addition, A 136 is the most radical policy in the country because it has no waiting period for obtaining lethal drugs.

1. Pain should never be a reason to seek lethal drugs. Complaints of excessive symptoms indicate doctors lack palliative care knowledge, such as when to refer to pain management specialists. Lethal drugs should never be a solution for lack of education. In addition, those in significant pain lack capacity to consent for lethal drugs. Instead, improve palliative care access and expertise, which has been assessed as likely insufficient to meet the needs of New York.(1) There is evidence that minorities, the uninsured, those on Medicaid, and those living in disadvantaged communities may encounter barriers to receiving palliative care.(2) It would be a tragedy for these under served populations if this legislation made lethal prescriptions more accessible than palliative care.

2. This bill has no waiting period to obtain lethal drugs; no other law is so rash. Immediate death does not give adequate time for appropriate discussion and interventions for vulnerable patients who make rash decisions out of fear, depression, embarrassment, subtle pressure by a tired caregiver who makes them feel like a burden, or other reversible or transient concerns. Such patients often change their minds and no longer want to hasten death. Terminal illness is highly associated with depression, and suicidal thinking is highest when cancer is first diagnosed and becomes less frequent as time goes on and patients get support.

3. Physicians may be wrong about a patient’s prognosis, and they often miss depression and compromised decision-making capacity. Patients in WA and OR have died up to 5 years beyond their original “terminal” diagnosis and receipt of lethal drugs. Neither mental health status nor capacity are required to be assessed immediately before a patient ingests lethal drugs, which could be years after initial assessment; there is no guarantee that patients are not compromised at that time. 

4. Lethal drugs are not a proportionate means of achieving palliative care goals but devalue vulnerable patients in a way that violates the very goals palliative care aims to achieve. Assisted suicide is abandonment, not health care, and is not part of palliative medicine. Lethal cocktails are bitter-tasting, sometimes mouth-burning liquids, and patients must ice their mouths with popsicles and take anti-emetics just to get them down. Risks include nausea, vomiting, aspiration, seizures, and not dying. Palliative care can do far better.

5. Lethal drug prescriptions undermine autonomy and discriminate against the disability community. Requests for lethal drugs are not primarily for pain but because of concerns of losing autonomy or abilities or feeling like a burden. These may be symptoms of depression and are usually psychological responses to disabilities developed during terminal illness--which is itself a disability by both social security and ADA criteria. This bill grants new choices and power to health practitioners, not patients, allowing them to treat patients unequally, subjectively placing them into either (1) a protected group (getting standard mental health care) or (2) a marginalized group with the disability of terminal illness (who can be abandoned to lethal drugs). This discriminates against the disability community and undermines autonomy by violating equality of persons. New York does not need a two-tiered health system that devalues those with the disability of terminal illness. 

6. The slippery slope is real. Patients with depression and those with non-terminal diagnoses of anorexia, hernia, arthritis, and “medical complications” have received lethal drugs. Hundreds of doctors’ and patients’ consent forms are missing in Washington and Colorado.

7. There is no mechanism to enforce the law or detect abuse, which is perhaps why no sanctions have been reported. The design of this bill, like other assisted suicide laws, is a set-up for undetected elder abuse, coercion, or murder, given neither capacity re-evaluation nor the presence a neutral party are required when patients ingest lethal drugs (sometimes weeks, months, or years after initial evaluation).

8. Doctors often devalue those with disabilities. Protect the medical profession from acting on that bias by not granting them power to assist the suicides of patients disabled by terminal illness—especially a law with so little oversight that physicians are not disciplined for ending the lives of those with non-terminal illness (like Cody).

9. Protect the medical profession from distrust, both between patients and their doctors and among doctors. Patients in the northwest who are opposed to assisted suicide now have legitimate fears that doctors might overlook depression or compromised capacity, devalue them, and prescribe lethal drugs if they request hastened death while depressed or in a moment of vulnerable weakness. A death request is often a plea for help, and people often change their minds about hastening death with time, treatment, and support. Dr. Bentz lost trust in colleagues after referring a patient to an oncologist who, over Dr. Bentz’ objections, gave lethal drugs to his patient instead of treating his depression.

10. This bill contains potential conscience violations for physicians and health care employers:

11. Finally, participants do not need to be New York residents, which may allow out-of-state residents to obtain lethal drugs. These participants may not receive adequate evaluation, especially of capacity and lack of coercion, by New York physicians who may not know them well. Because non-residents would be forced to take the lethal drugs in New York, it may pressure patients to take the lethal drugs immediately, when many patients hold on to the drugs for weeks, months, and even years, and some decide never to take them. Given the number of people who travel to New York from around the world, this may make it an international assisted suicide tourism destination.

Please vote no on A 136. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,
Sharon Quick, MD, MA (Bioethics)
President, Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation (PCCEF)

1. CAPC. Palliative Care in New York. 2025. (Link).
2. Chambers B. How to Increase Awareness and Reduce Gaps in Palliative Care for Minorities July 9, 2020. (Link) (accessed 9-22-2024).
3. Pope TM, Brodoff L. Medical aid in dying to avoid late-stage dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2024: 1-7. (Link).

Yesterday in Brussels, Belgian police arrested Lois McLatchie Miller, a Senior Legal Communications Officer with ADF International, and Billboard Chris, a Canadian child protection advocate, for peacefully holding a sign that read: “Children are never born in the wrong body.”

An angry mob surrounded them, yet it was the peaceful pair—not the agitators—who police arrested.

They were transported to separate police stations, strip-searched, and detained for several hours. Ultimately, no charges were filed. But even after admitting no crime had been committed, police announced that the signs they had carried – signs peacefully expressing a viewpoint -would be destroyed.

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Let that sink in: No charges. No conviction. But property confiscated and destroyed by the government – all for the “crime” of expressing an inconvenient truth in public.

This happened in Brussels – the very heart of the European Union, not Beijing. In Europe, not North Korea. And it should alarm every American – especially Christians and pro-life advocates.

This is just the latest episode in a disturbing trend sweeping Western Europe. Peaceful, moral, fact-based speech is being punished under the guise of public order or tolerance.

In the United Kingdom, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested – twice – for silently praying outside an abortion facility. Dr. Dermot Kearney faced suspension and investigation for helping women who regretted taking the first abortion pill by offering abortion pill reversal treatment -even though the women he helped thanked him for it. Only after a lengthy legal battle was he fully vindicated.

In Germany and Spain, individuals have been fined for offering support to women facing unexpected pregnancies. And now, in Belgium’s capital, citizens are being arrested, searched, and stripped of their rights – and property – for simply affirming biological reality and the dignity of children.

This is not hypothetical. This is happening now.

In America, our First Amendment protects freedom of speech, religion, and assembly – not as privileges, but as rights given by God and protected by government. The Founders recognized that when government becomes the gatekeeper of truth, freedom dies.

But let’s be honest: the same ideological forces at work in Europe are alive and well here.

Pro-life sidewalk counselors in the U.S. have been arrested under the federal FACE Act for peacefully advocating for women and their unborn children. Others have faced online censorship, vandalism, and government pressure simply for speaking Biblical truth or holding traditional moral views.

But we are not helpless – and we are not without precedent.

For decades, Heartbeat International and the pregnancy help movement have modeled what it means to love boldly, speak truthfully, and serve compassionately. We’ve done so in the face of opposition, misunderstanding, and unjust scrutiny. And still, we’ve grown stronger. Our light has pierced through the darkness of cultural confusion. We’ve shown the world that you can be both unapologetically pro-life and relentlessly compassionate.

Now, with a more religious-liberty-friendly administration in place, we have a renewed opportunity—not just to defend our freedoms, but to affirm them confidently and expand their reach.

Let’s not wait for a crackdown to wake up. Let’s act while the door is open.

Now is the time to be bold. Speak truth in the public square. Pray without apology. Live your faith out loud. Support organizations that uphold life, liberty, and the dignity of every person. And elect leaders who recognize that freedom of speech is not a loophole – it is the bedrock of a free and virtuous society.

And yes, hold our leaders accountable. Even in America, we must remain vigilant. If peaceful signs can be confiscated in Brussels, they can be banned in Boston. If truth can be criminalized there, it can be marginalized here.

Let the arrest and violation of Lois McLatchie Miller and Billboard Chris’s freedom of speech serve as both a warning and a wake-up call. Freedom is fragile. Truth is under fire. But with courage and conviction, we can reclaim the ground where our freedoms are at stake.

LifeNews Note: Andrea Trudden serves as the Vice President of Communications & Marketing at Heartbeat International, overseeing the public presence of the organization and its network of more than 3,600 pregnancy help organizations worldwide. This column originally appeared at Pregnancy Help News.

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Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Last week, I visited Roger Foley at the hospital. During the visit we discussed that he has not received any food since May 6, which was more than a month. Roger is receiving fluids with some sustenance through an IV tube, but that does not provide the necessary nutrition to sustain him.

Yesterday I wrote that Roger, who I have been communicating with for several years, does not want to live in the hospital. Roger has served his time and deserves to be sent home. The catch is that based on his disability he needs significant care.

Roger proposed, from the beginning, that he be sent home with self-directed care, meaning that Roger would hire the care team to provide for his needs. Self-directed care is a program that exists in Ontario, but Roger has been denied access to the program.

Reinl reports Roger as stating:

Reinl explains the stand-off that Foley has with the London Health Sciences Centre:

As I stated in my article yesterday when you do the math, self-directed care is the least expensive and preferable option for care.

The hospital is an incredibly expensive place to care for Roger and he does not want to be there. "Care agencies" bill the government for the cost of the care and the costs associated with the agency.

Self-directed care, whereby Roger would hire his own care team, is the least expensive and the preferable option since most of the cost is limited to the cost of the care team.

It is time to release Roger from the confinement of the hospital room and send him home with self-directed care. Roger has already created a proposed model of care that outlines the requirements of his team and the cost associated with his care.

Roger deserves to be sent home and be approved for self-directed care.

Pope Francis was hailed as a bold reformer – an unexpected aid holds the key for decoding and assessing his complex personality and impact

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets (pseudoprophetae).” Jesus (Luke 6:26 KJV)

When the light of Pope Francis’ earthly journey was extinguished, the overwhelming majority of mainstream commentators lavished unreserved praise on the first Vicar of Christ from Latin America. Much of this acclaim focused on what was heralded – whether deserved or not – as his effort to bring the Church into closer alignment with modern secular trends and contemporary global concerns.

Within this tapestry of supposed triumphs lay the advancement of equitable political governance (notably including democratic reforms instituted within the sacred halls of the Church itself), the pursuit of socio-economic justice (particularly in addressing the protracted migration crisis), a strong commitment to ecological responsibility (with a marked emphasis on environmental stewardship), and charitable pastoral concern and sensitivity towards groups often seen as marginalized and disadvantaged in society (such as women and individuals with non-traditional erotic orientations).

However, in light of Jesus’ solemn admonition against the allure of universal worldly fame, a dispassionate and learned observer ought to feel compelled to scrutinize such ostensibly unanimous approbation. In truth, the prevailing positive “vibe” surrounding his persona - to borrow contemporary parlance - warrants careful examination, in search of delicate yet profound distinctions that carry crucial implications for the destiny of the Church and the entirety of humankind.

Upon closer, nuanced and balanced analysis - guided by an innovative artistic touchstone - it becomes evident that, while endeavoring to shine light on an uplifting redemptive theme at the heart of Christianity, the reformist Head of the Catholic Church inadvertently sowed widespread and profound confusion and division both within his flock and across the broader global community.

In this regard, it is incumbent upon his successor, Leo XIV - with prayerful wisdom and strategic discernment - to identify precisely and carefully weigh both the fruits and failings of the preceding pontificate, distinguishing, as it were, gold from dross. Only through such measured reflection can the new pope hope to usher forth true, meaningful and enduring good on a global scale, and in a manner that is not merely superficially reformative but profoundly transformative.

Curiously, it is not in Rome but in Russia, within the opulent chambers of the storied Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, that one finds an unexpected yet invaluable facilitative aid - a silent interlocutor amidst hallowed treasures of brushstrokes and bronze - to grasping the full scope of his precursor’s legacy.

And so, as we turn first to the genuine merits of the departed Vicar of Christ, let it be declared - once and for all, and with due reverence - that henceforward no longer shall it be (though, as any Shakespearean scholar would attest, it never truly was): “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”!

As regards his positive and constructive legacy, Pope Francis, in his characteristically - though not invariably - gentle yet resolute way, made a concerted effort to reorient and refocus both the Church and the wider world on the core and beating heart of God’s Euangelion - His Good News - which proclaims the Creator’s inexhaustible, unconditional and compassionate love, tender mercy and boundless forgiveness.

In doing so, the pontifical vicar faithfully walked in the footsteps of his master, Jesus Christ, who introduced an innovative approach to bring about transformative spiritual renewal from the inside-out. The beauty and depth of this radical and radiant vision and foundational principle of what I call “inner-to-outer restoration” will become evident in the following “Christianity 101” crash course.

The Nazarene often took the initiative in reaching out to those around Him. He proactively embraced even the outcasts – notorious public sinners whom society shunned - as beloved children of God, in need of healing and redemption.

Among such figures were the much-maligned publicans (in Latin publicanus), who - bartering loyalty for coin - were widely condemned in both contemporary and later sources as complicit and exploitative intermediaries. Situated at the nexus of the Roman imperial administration and local economic ecosystem, these unscrupulous, avaricious and ruthless collaborators levied onerous taxes in service to the occupiers from the Palatine, while routinely leveraging their position to accrue substantial personal wealth at the expense of the kin people they extorted.

By extending an advance offering of unconditional, wholehearted and boundless goodwill towards many a publicanus and other notorious sinners, and building amicable relations with them, the quintessential Good Sheperd was often able to open their hearts to genuine and transformative moral rehabilitation.

An innovative scoresheet from the Hermitage: The Gospel in paint

In what follows, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s transcendent masterpiece The Return of the Prodigal Son - a visual parable that ranks among one of the most sublime works of art ever created (see Figure 1) - will serve as a theologically grounded visual scoresheet and hermeneutic key for the entire journey of interpretive assessment to be embarked on.

It turns out that the splendid chef d’oeuvre, which eruditely reveals the spiritual, psychological and social undercurrents of the human condition, can function as a sharp lens and luminous clue, conspicuously and unequivocally exposing Pope Francis’s multifaceted personality and influence.

Figure 1

Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son” as visual scoresheet and hermeneutic key to assess Pope Francis’ legacy

This artwork, an incandescent triumph of the Dutch Golden Age proudly and prominently exhibited in the Petersburg Hermitage, is a salient distillation of the Gospels in paint, telescoping and compressing key elements of the foundational, profoundly significant and perennially seminal parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) into a single, magical and evocative moment full of light and darkness.

For the purpose of this analysis, the three central figures in the composition - the father and his two sons - will serve as vital reference points and key interpretive clues. Being visual anchors that resonate symbolically, their significance will be illuminated through the prism of pointed exegetical ekphrasis.

Central figure № 1: The compassionate and merciful father

As regards the aforementioned proactive offer of infinite love, the compassionate and merciful father’s embrace of his younger son in the visual narrative serves as a masterful, vivid and compelling pictorial rendering of such kind of openness and eagerness for reconciliation.

In the parable from the Lukan Gospel, the father greets his wayward son not with the sharpness of cold reproach, but with the warmth of his robe, the finest he owns. And that single gesture shifts the narrative axis from judgment to reconciliation, from ruin to return and redemption.

What might have transpired had Jesus – or, in parabolical terms, the father who typifies divine mercy in the gospel pericope – yielded to the harsh dictates of prevailing normative punitive practices of post-exilic Second Temple Judaism (ca. 516 BC-70 AD), centering on public censure and retributive justice? While such severity would have aligned with the sensibilities, doctrinal and moral expectations, and judicial standards upheld by contemporary religious authorities, it would nonetheless almost inevitably have precluded the very possibility of positive transformation.

In particular, merciless judgment, rejection and exclusion, fixated on exposing faults and dispensing sharp condemnation, would have calcified the sinners’ resistance to grace. In such a climate, their hearts, already wounded by guilt, would likely have grown virtually impervious to the light of liberating and empowering truth and flood of boundless grace, ultimately foreclosing authentic and redemptive inner renewal.

A similar dynamic often plays out with children. Confronted by a father’s stern lecture—moralistic, chastising, and rigid—a disobedient and mischievous child is likely to retreat into boredom or rise in outright defiance. But if that same father first shares with his son the simple joy of a ride through the laughter and wonder of an amusement park, something shifts. In the warmth of that shared joy, a trust-based relation grows.

And in the gentle, calm and congenial atmosphere that follows, the father may find his son’s heart open - receptive to truth, responsive to guidance. It is precisely during these magical moments, in the quiet and serene aftermath of joy, that wisdom quietly takes root and transformation begins to unfold. With ease and grace, the father then can impart essential and uplifting lessons to his son, planting seeds of life-changing virtues deep within the boy’s attentive heart, nurturing growth that will continue through the years.

Central figure № 2: The proud and resentful elder brother

Concurrently, Jesus wrestled with the five deeply entrenched and corrosive manifestations of supremacy in creed and cause - pathologies that perennially plague religious and ideological systems and actors - including: (1) triumphalist sanctimony - the ostentatious and performative elevation of one’s moral status above others; (2) self-righteous hypocrisy - the divergence between professed values and actual conduct; (3) judgmental exclusionism - bigoted and callous intolerance directed towards those who deviate from perceived orthodoxy; (4) deontological legalism - the inflexible and casuistic application of prescriptive norms absent ethical, empathetic and contextual discernment; and (5) interest-laden duplicity - the partial and inconsistent enforcement of principles in ways that fortify existing hierarchies or simply promote self-interest.

Religious suprematism is rooted in sacralized pride and engenders the formation of a self-designated in-group that asserts privileged spiritual or moral status. Its adherents haughtily perceive themselves both as divinely sanctioned and inherently superior, defining themselves in juxtaposition to an inferior out-group, deemed spiritually and morally deficient. This binary structure and dynamic process breeds corruption in the form of internal and institutional elitism and hypocrisy.

The recursive process of sectarian fragmentation and sociopolitical alienation perpetuates external antagonism, fueling an escalating cycle of hostility and deepening divisions between the hostile groups. What has begun as an exclusive claim to divine favor often ends in hubris, spiritual blindness, moral decay, perpetual conflict and the betrayal and loss of the very values the elite professes to uphold.

Once more, Rembrandt’s masterful tableau offers a pivotal and vital hermeneutic key to deciphering the deeper contours of this phenomenon and grasping its essence.

Particularly striking is the haunting figure of the elder son, positioned on the right side of the canvas. His solemn yet stern demeanor, marked by an austere countenance and rigid posture, betrays not reverence, but resistance - a quiet disapproval and a latent protest against the father’s affectionate gesture - as he observes the tender embrace not with awe yet with ache.

In the parable, as told in the Gospel of Luke, the elder son is not merely resentful. Unable to accept his father’s warm, generous and forgiving welcome of his younger son, he is described as being incensed by what he perceives as a breach of justice and fairness - a father’s love granted too lavishly, his mercy extended too freely.

Rembrandt’s subtle but expressive rendering brings to life the theological and moral complexities embedded in the Lukan narrative. With poignant clarity, it captures not only the gist of a biblical moment of intimate reunion, but of two enduring human tensions: the struggle between justice required under law and undeserved divine mercy, sustained resentment and liberating reconciliation.

The unyielding elder son faces his father not with love but with a ledger, reckoning worth by cold endurance and stubborn perseverance in terms of mere staying power rather than by the warmth of heartfelt affection. More servant than son, he casts himself as the righteous, ever-faithful, unwaveringly exemplar of filial duty - utterly obedient, diligent and steadfast in service and loyalty through long yet unrewarded years.

Against this backdrop, it is with pointed bitterness that he voices a deep-rooted grievance: the absence of even the smallest reward and token of fatherly appreciation - not even a young goat had been afforded to him for rejoicing with his companions.

Tellingly – and arguably not by accident - the pater familias is conspicuously absent from that imagined revelry. It is framed as an exclusive gathering among peers, yet void of familial warmth and communion - a sterile conception of fleeting joy in a friend-filled space that, in reality, isolates rather than unites.

When considered alongside the elder son’s complete failure to acknowledge or share in his father’s happiness and joy about the return of the lost one, the seemingly inconspicuous yet profoundly striking nonappearance of the familial figurehead in the hypothetical festivity - all evident signs of emotional estrangement and indifference - invite serious doubts. The disjunction prompts the question of whether the elder son truly harbors genuine love and authentic filial affection towards his progenitor or if he merely masks wounded pride behind worn-thin obedience - rooted solely in the self-righteous performance of obligation rather than the substance of empathetic and heartfelt love.

This critical inquiry, then, is existential: Can genuine love exist where shared joy is absent and – and where, in place of a relational ethic, a transactional model prevails, one rooted in the spirit of do ut des (a Latin expression meaning “I give so that you may give”), in which obedience without intimacy is mistakenly considered as ground for favor?

When viewed through a historical-critical lens, the parallels to the legalistic rigidity and resistance of the religious elites at that historical juncture, who prioritized strict legal adherence over relational reconciliation, in response to Jesus’ radical, disruptive and transformative message of love, mercy and grace become strikingly apparent.

In a similar vein, Jesus recounted the profound and arresting parable of a Pharisee and a tax collector who both ascended to the temple to pray (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisee - an exemplar of religious orthodoxy and a scrupulous adherent of the law - offers a prayer not of supplication but of self-congratulation, extolling his own piety and expressing gratitude that he was not as “other men” whom he deems morally inferior.

By contrast, the publican, despised as a collaborator and sinner, stands afar off, his posture lowly, his eyes cast down, his breast struck in sorrow. With unfeigned humility, he contritely confesses his guilt and implores God for mercy.

Jesus, ever the consummate rhetorical craftsman of subversive and peripeteian paradox, concludes with a striking climatic reversal that invites anagnorisis - a seismic moment of profound recognition that may reconfigure moral expectations: Contrary to prevailing assumptions, it is not the ostensibly righteous Pharisee, but the penitent publican who departs justified. At the narrative’s culminative apex, the Nazarene seals the parable with a timeless antithetical aphorism that overturns conventional worldly hierarchies and elevates humility as the pathway to divine favor: “Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14 KJV).

The positive contributions of the first Vicar of Christ from Argentine may be more profoundly apprehended and judiciously evaluated within the intricate splendor of this rich theological landscape and, as its radiant and luminous reflection, the ornate visual tapestry of Rembrandt’s opus magnum.

Papal merit № 1: Emulating the father’s compassionate mercy

In theological terms, Pope Francis’ welcoming and inclusive stance towards so-called LGBTQ+ people may be interpreted as a sweeping pastoral gesture that seeks to mirror the tender heart of Christ, engaging them as the Good Shepherd does: as beloved spiritual children, in need of grace and salvation, gently beckoned to embark on a journey of spiritual renewal.

For example, on the sidelines of the “Synod on Synodality” convened in Vatican City in October 2023, Pope Francis engaged in a private meeting with representatives of New Ways Ministry, a US-based organization that advocates for so-called LGBTQ+ Catholics.

Imbued with a deep-seated and fervent spirit of pastoral outreach and eager commitment to engage in constructive dialogue, the pragmatic pastoral revolutionary occupying the Cathedra Sancti Petri (Chair of St. Peter) evidently was undisturbed by the glaring conceptual dissonance inherent in the group label LGBTQ+ Catholics. A designation that inevitably raises theological eyebrows, it may reasonably be construed as a theological and moral oxymoronic misnomer - a contradiction in terms sharply diverging from the Church’s long-held and well-established understanding of human identity as articulated in traditional ecclesial anthropology.

Even the designation LGBTQ+ itself warrants critical scrutiny, insofar as it reflects a shift toward novel, complex and false ontological assumptions concerning human nature. Significantly, it denotes individuals who, palpably in a distorting tension with fundamental theological anthropology, assert an autonomous identity that is exclusively self-constructed and, at its core, reduces personal essence to fluid, and often affect-driven, erotic inclinations.

Against this backdrop, the Supreme Pontiff’s non-rejectionist and non-confrontational approach - one that consciously forgoes wielding a moral sledgehammer against the public sinners - may be more aptly interpreted as a well-calculated and strategic pastoral initiative.

Manifestly, this inviting posture of papal embrace seeks first to lay relational bridges, cultivate trust-based friendship and foster open dialogue. Presumably, such a prelude is intended to create fertile conditions for authentic conversion in due course. To grasp the logic of this pastoral move, recall the earlier image of the father and son at the amusement park: it is patience, connection, and shared joy that form the soil necessary for meaningful and enduring transformation to unfold.

Had the Holy Father, from the outset, chosen to ostracize, rigorously exclude and thus utterly and irrevocably alienate the doctrinally deviant group of public sinners, its members would likely have responded with yet more obstinate rebellion and deeper resistance. This defiance would have been directed against God’s boundless love - anchored in His liberating and redemptive truth and expressed through His gentle call to change heart.

To catch a glimpse of another facet of Pope Francis’s audacious strategy and intricate methodology, one must turn to a second pivotal figure in Rembrandt’s timeless masterpiece: the enigmatic elder brother.

Papal merit № 2: Check the elder brother’s claim to supremacy

Cold, resentful, morally rigid and alienated from both divine mercy and human community, the elder brother stands as the living emblem of the defiant Pharisaic opposition to gratuitous grace and manifests the very spirit of exclusion that the Successor of St. Peter from Argentine appeared determined to deliberately and daringly confront.

The elder son’s solitary presence, shadowed by contempt and bitterness arising from a profound sense of injustice, functions as a narrative foil to the father’s compassionate embrace and the younger son’s genuine humility, contrition and repentance. In particular, it strikes a sharply resonating theological and moral counterpoint to the “mercy-first” approach of the compassionate father - a dynamic tension that finds an echo in Pope Francis’s own pastoral vision and approach, especially his critique of ecclesial legalism in favor of relational and inclusive evangelization.

As if summoned by the stark pictorial representation of rigid moralism and refusal to partake in the joy of reconciliation, the charitable and seemingly fearless Shepherd of the Catholic fold at the Vatican - ever adept at capturing headlines - consistently and unequivocally warned against self-righteous clerical elitism. In various forms - explicitly or implicitly - Pope Francis denounced the vices that tend to accompany it: haughtiness, hypocrisy, judgmental rejectionism and double standards.

These attitudes, which the Bishop of Rome sought to counter by leading with bold gestures of unreserved mercy and radical inclusion, risk enclosing Church actors within a bubble of ecclesial insularity - what can provocatively be likened to a form of spiritual autism - presenting a formidable hindrance to authentic evangelization.

In 2013, during the inaugural year of his pontificate, the vociferous Successor of St. Peter forcefully and vividly denounced clericalism as “one of the worst evils” and cautioned metaphorically that certain modes of priestly formation risk producing “little monsters”.

In 2024, he critiqued the perceived double standards evident in the reaction surfacing among certain traditionalist sectors of the Church to the blessing of homoerotic couples, which he ostensibly identified as a theologically inconsistent and morally selective response, contending: “Nobody gets scandalized if I give my blessings to a businessman who perhaps exploits people, and this is a very grave sin. But they get scandalized if I give them to a homosexual. This is hypocrisy.”

In this context, it is pertinent to observe that, according to Catholic moral doctrine, every single act of carnal intimacy - understood as a sacred gift requiring proper ordering - outside the life-long, sacramental covenant of biblical marriage bears the weight of constituting objectively grave matter. Unknown to many, this also encompasses the premarital physical union between a boyfriend and girlfriend, a practice that has regrettably become increasingly normalized and prevalent in the cultural milieu of contemporary Western society. When such acts are committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, they fulfill the conditions for mortal sin, which, if left unrepented, results in eternal separation from God in Gehenna, the biblical toponym for the realm of eternal punishment.

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From the theologically guided and visually mediated process of interpretation and assessment, the following interim result emerges: Pope Francis appears to have aligned himself with the silent and implicit messages embodied by at least two of the three central figures in Rembrandt’s profoundly moving visual hymn to unearned grace and unmerited forgiveness, both mirroring the father’s boundless mercy and issuing a pointed critique of the haughty and embittered religious elitism personified by the elder son.

But what of the third and titular protagonist in this deeply human drama - the younger, wayward prodigal son? He may be wordless on canvas, but his evocative presence still demands an answer...

[To be continued]

Last Saturday, the Indiana Department of Health released its “Terminated Pregnancy Report” for the first quarter of 2025, revealing alarming developments.

First, we can’t stress enough how shocking this data is…

Out of 22 abortions reported in the first quarter, only 2 individual Terminated Pregnancy Reports (TPRs) were completed and submitted as required by Indiana state law.  

The Hoosier State’s abortionists are largely ignoring Indiana’s reporting requirements, obscuring their activities in a dark shroud of secrecy.

Our legal team is in the middle of a legal battle against two abortionists who have sued our client, abortion industry watchdog Voices for Life. These abortionists are trying to keep individual TPRs hidden from public review—and this new report reveals that they don’t even bother to follow the law when the public doesn’t hold them accountable.

Second, it’s clear that those reported numbers don’t come close to the true number of abortions happening…

The state’s just-released Complications Report for the first quarter documented 20 complications from abortions in just three months. Of these, 13 were from chemical abortions, with 9 directly linked to the lethal abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol.

The most common complications? Incomplete abortions, accounting for 12 cases, alongside infections, bleeding, and inflammatory diseases… all side effects of chemical abortion pill.

This report dropped just days after Indy 500 race spectators were bombarded with “Abortion Pills By Mail” flyover ads during Memorial Day weekend, promoting the drugs responsible for these horrible complications with the coldness of an insurance agency or ice cream brand advertisement…

These findings underscore the importance of our fight to defend Indiana-based Voices for Life, a courageous nonprofit fighting to restore public access to TPRs—non-patient identifying records that keep women and children safe by keeping the abortion industry in check.

A win for Voices for Life is critical to ensuring accountability and safety, but we face fierce opposition…

A preliminary injunction, secured by two Indiana abortionists in March 2025, currently blocks release of TPRs—and women and children are suffering as a result, and the public is being left in the dark…

As our case grows more urgent, I’m eternally grateful for the support and prayers of pro-life Americans like you, Steven. You fuel our fight against the well-funded abortion industry and its foot soldiers, like the abortionists we’re currently battling in court.

Our legal team is appealing on behalf of Voices for Life to restore transparency through TPRs, but this new report just boosted the stakes even higher in this fight.

Losing isn’t an option, and we won’t stop fighting until the public is once again able to access the public records that they have a right to see. The abortion industry is not above the law.

The post Indiana Abortionists are Breaking the Law to Justify Killing Babies appeared first on LifeNews.com.

First, the central crucifix was replaced with the Processional Cross placed to the side of the altar. It looks so out of place at Saint Peter’s.

But back and forth it went during Pope Francis’ last days as Pope.

That fiddling with the altar arrangement saw a throw-back to St. Pope John Paul II’s days with only four, not six candlesticks on the altar and on the Gospel side the tall crucifix between two of the candlesticks. 

It isn’t horrible, but go back to Pope Benedict’s preference or at least his MC, Msgr.Guido Marini’s preference. 

Facebook points out that at both Sunday’s Mass outdoors and Monday’s Mass indoors, the new altar arrangement seems to have caught Pope Leo off balance which indicates the MC did not communicate this to the Holy Father prior to the Masses! You can see that the Pope is caught off-guard if you view the video of both Mass at the time of incensing the altar. 

And then I noticed at Monday’s Mass in the Basilica for the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, that as Pope Leo incensed the altar, his lips were moving which makes me think he was praying Psalm 140 from the TLM’s rubrics for incensing the offerings. That is good news if indeed that is what he was reciting!

THE  CAMP  OF  THE  SAINTS

I have never understood why rioters, protestors, whatever you want to call them, burn people’s cars.  Insurance seldom covers  such events.  Violent protests harm innocents.

I also don’t understand why the National Guard is called out as they are not permitted to use their weapons.  Try to imagine the National Guard using deadly force to break up looting and burning of property.  In America the defense of property and livelihood plays second fiddle to the lives of criminals.  Property can be protected only as long as the criminals stealing and damaging it are not harmed.

It seems to me that Hispanics have taken back California.  We might as well cede the state back to Mexico.  America, or what is left of it, would be better off as California is a main source of Woke, left-wing, anti-white influence.  America would be much better off without California.  The Democrat governor of California says that the immigrant-invaders are “his people, his community.” https://x.com/DOGE__news/status/1931911364487876934

Indeed, the argument can be made that immigrant-invaders who have been permitted to live in the US for a number of years now have  roots in America and squatters’ rights to citizenship. Squatters’ rights–the legal term is adverse possession–has long been a legitimate legal concept. Adverse possession is a legal doctrine that allows a person to acquire title to real property by continuously occupying it without the owner’s permission for a statutorily defined period. The non-enforcement of borders creates squatters’ rights. There is little doubt that courts would include citizenship as a right of adverse possession.

Without a border a country is just an open area to which anyone can come.  Other states and cities under Democrat control want citizenship given to whoever walks across the non-existing border.  

For now the forces rising to the defense of immigrant-invaders are limited to a small area of Los Angeles.  If the deportation attempts continue, the opposition can spread and become more violent.  White Democrats will join the rising simply because they oppose Trump.

Decades ago President Reagan faced the problem caused by the need by agribusiness and California fruit and vegetable growers and US chicken processors for labor that US citizens did not want to undertake.  Agri-business interests persuaded the Reagan administration to amnesty millions of illegals.  But nothing was done about the border.  Consequently, now the problem is much worse.

It is impossible to have a nation without borders as the nation dissolves into a Tower of Babel, the ever-closer fate of all Western countries.  The US no longer consists of  European ethnicities and enculturated American blacks.  Today there are large and growing populations of Hispanics, Asians, Arabs.  The language and religious base of the country is decaying.  There is no doubt that the United States is transforming into a Tower of Babel.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lunatic-dem-rep-ripped-for-demonic-video-message-demanding-ice-agents-get-the-f-out-amid-ca-chaos 

When you look at the news photos and videos, it is interesting that so many white Americans are in the streets claiming California for immigrant-invaders.

It is likely that America is already lost.  Deportation of millions of illegals is impossible. Israel can’t get rid of 2 million Palestinians with bombs and bullets and is having to impose starvation and disease.  America’s illegals will end up with amnesty.  As soon as the Establishment gets rid of Trump, the border will be reopened.  Jean Raspail’s prediction for the  fate of the Western World is locked into place.  European ethnicities have pissed away their existence.  All Western ethnicities should be labeled “endangered species.”

The FBI has yet to solve at least five cases it opened into arson attacks targeting pro-life pregnancy centers in 2022, according to an investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Biden FBI offered cash rewards in 2022 for information on suspects responsible for firebombings around the country, mainly directed at pro-life facilities, after the preemptive May 2 leak of a Supreme Court ruling that overturned the abortion precedent established by Roe v. Wade. Five local FBI field offices told the DCNF that the bureau is still offering the incentive for cases in Colorado, North Carolina, Washington state, Oregon and New York, indicating suspects were never found or convicted.

The FBI’s Seattle field office told the DCNF that it’s typical for the bureau to update or delete the bulletins asking the public for information if suspects are caught, and if they’re on the website, the FBI is still looking for answers. The FBI’s national press office did not respond to a request for comment.

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‘Enforce The Law Equally’

One targeted facility’s CEO, Jim Harden, told the DCNF he got a phone call from an employee around two in the morning on June 7, 2022, that changed his life. The Amherst, New York, building that was home to his organization CompassCare was set ablaze in what was eventually determined to be arson. The FBI released footage showing what it said were two suspects arriving in a car at night and throwing Molotov cocktails at the building.

Harden’s team had been on high alert that summer, having already contacted the FBI over concerns about a heightened risk of violence. Soon after the fire, he moved with his wife and children to flee an onslaught of threats against them as extremists lashed out at CompassCare, a Christian nonprofit providing free medical care to pregnant mothers to steer them away from abortion.

“Our lives are very different now,” he said in an interview with the DCNF. “We had to relocate our family … we had people riding past our house pointing guns at our kids.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said in April that there were more than 200 cases of pregnancy resource centers “violently attacked by activists with no action by law enforcement, federal or state” in the past several years. Family Research Council documented almost 50 instances of vandalism and other attacks on pregnancy centers and pro-life organization buildings from May through June 2022.

“I can say we are taking them seriously now and will be for the duration,” Dhillon told the DCNF about such cases. Dillon declined to comment about any specific prosecutions that may be ongoing or forthcoming.

“This Department of Justice is committed to protecting crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life organizations and places of worship from targeted acts of violence and will work to ensure justice is served to criminals who engage in this unlawful behavior,” a DOJ spokesperson said in response to questions about the unsolved cases.

The spree of violence even resulted in arson at a Portland pregnancy center run by a self-professed pro-choice woman in July 2022. As in the five cases involving pro-life groups, the FBI told the DCNF it is still offering a reward for information. The Dobbs opinion leak, which was investigated but never solved, also inspired an assassination attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh near his home.

The Portland facility did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The other pregnancy centers with unsolved cases in Longmont, Colorado and Portland did not respond to multiple requests for comment, while one in Seattle declined to comment.

Harden, the CompassCare CEO, said the pro-abortion Biden administration seemed apathetic about solving the cases, despite the FBI interviewing him about the Amherst bombing. He recalled reaching out and asking urgently for updates, leading to a moment when he said an FBI agent “was screaming” over the phone that the bureau was not required to update him.

“Their job was to enforce the law equally,  and it did not appear as if they were doing so,” Harden said.

‘Mountain Of Evidence’

While announcements about pro-abortion vandalism cases were scarce, the Biden administration boasted in press releases about several prosecutions of pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for protesting at abortion clinics. On his first week in office, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen pro-lifers accused of federal crimes.

Former Attorney General Merrick Garland explained the discrepancy in March 2023 by telling Congress that “it is quite easy” to identify and charge pro-lifers protesting in daylight.

“Those who are attacking the pregnancy resources centers, which is a hard thing to do, are doing this at night in the dark,” Garland said.

Harden did not — and does not — buy Garland’s explanation whatsoever.

“There’s a mountain of evidence,” Harden said of the vandals, noting that the authorities can search for license plate numbers, body mechanic imagery and cell phone IP addresses. “It’s just not possible they don’t know who they are. The FBI [is] the most technically advanced law enforcement agency on the planet.”

Some attacks on pro-life centers in 2022 were linked to a leftist group called Jane’s Revenge, with activists posting online threats in response to news about the leaked Dobbs decision. The FBI said the CompassCare vandals left the spray-painted message, “Jane was here.”

Harden told the DCNF his Amherst building was repaired at “miraculous” speed in 52 days thanks in part to volunteer workers, but the damage cost millions of dollars.

The attack inspired Harden to become more outspoken about political issues via media interviews. He also launched a campaign on a pro-life platform to fill Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s House seat in a New York special election. Stefanik announced she would remain in her role in April after Trump pulled her nomination to represent the U.S. in the United Nations.

‘Heart Problem’

Paula McSwain, executive director of the Crisis Pregnancy Center in Lincolnton, North Carolina, told the DCNF she received a letter from the FBI in August 2024 saying its investigation into arson at her building in June 2022 was closed. Surveillance footage showed someone at nighttime throwing what the FBI said was a Molotov cocktail.

The Lincolnton case is one of several for which the FBI is still offering a reward for information on any suspects, according to the bureau’s Charlotte field office.

McSwain said she was fortunate enough to get the pregnancy center up and running fairly easily.

“If they wanted to destroy the building, they could have done a better job,” McSwain told the DCNF.

The pro-life leader decided to respond to her ordeal by limiting public outcry.

“That’s what they were seeking, was attention,” McSwain said of the vandals.

Harden and McSwain said that if they could give any message to their attackers, it would be one of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

“If you throw fire at any building, you’ve got a heart problem and there’s something not right with your life … We don’t seek revenge, we just pray for them,” McSwain said.

“The only reason I can forgive you is because forgiveness has been made available to me, and so I would encourage you to come out of the darkness and into the light,” Harden said his words to the criminals would be.

“Nothing is going to go unpunished if it’s sin,” Harden said.

LifeNews Note: Hudson Crozier writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.

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