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The Telegram founder has accused Paris of pressuring him to interfere in Romanian, Moldovan, and Ukrainian politics

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has doubled down on his claims that France’s foreign intelligence agency pressured him to censor conservative voices on his platform, dismissing their purported law enforcement concerns as a “manipulation tactic.”

On Sunday, Durov accused the head of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), Nicolas Lerner, of asking him to take down Romanian Telegram channels ahead of the country’s presidential runoff.

The DGSE rejected the allegations of political interference, insisting that it had contacted Durov on multiple occasions only to “firmly remind him of his company’s responsibilities, and his own personally, in preventing terrorist and child pornography threats.”

“French foreign intelligence confirmed they met with me – allegedly to fight terrorism and child porn. In reality, child porn was never even mentioned. They did want IPs of terror suspects in France, but their main focus was always geopolitics: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine,” Durov said in a post on X on Monday.

The Russian entrepreneur argued that Telegram has long combated child abuse through “content fingerprint bans, dedicated moderation teams, NGO hotlines, and daily transparency reports on banned content.”

“Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to remove child porn is a manipulation tactic,” he added, insisting that Telegram’s extensive moderation efforts have been “verifiable” since at least 2018.

Durov, whose company is headquartered in Dubai, was arrested in France last August and charged with complicity in crimes allegedly carried out by Telegram users, including extremism and child abuse. He was released on €5 million ($5.46 million) bail and dismissed the charges as baseless. He was eventually permitted to leave France in March after assuring the court that Telegram had increased cooperation with the authorities worldwide.

In September 2024, the encrypted messaging service updated its privacy policy to allow the collection of metadata – such as IP addresses, device information, and username changes – for up to one year. According to the policy, this data may be shared with the “relevant judicial authorities” if a user is suspected of engaging in illicit activity.

Late last year, Telegram channels belonging to major Russian news outlets were rendered inaccessible across the EU. Durov criticized the move, claiming the bloc imposes more censorship and media restrictions than Russia.

The latest controversy emerged as Romania held a runoff presidential election. The vote followed a Constitutional Court ruling that overturned the initial results after right-wing independent candidate Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round. The case was cited by US Vice President J.D. Vance during a speech in Munich in February as an example of EU governments undermining democratic norms.

 Prevost suggests he believes the unrepentant apostate and gay activist Jorge Bergoglio, an enemy of God and the Church, is in Heaven.

Canonizing Confusion - by Chris Jackson - Hireath In Exile

Prevost praises Bergoglio's heretical Abu Dhabi document

Cardinal Prevost is a formal manifest heretic, approves of ‘Fiducia supplicans’ & ‘Amoris Laetitia’ | From Rome

Nine Months Ago: Cardinal Prevost Defends Francis' Judas Heresy – Gloria.tv

Though it happened 1700 years ago, the Council of Nicaea exemplified a principle that is fundamental to certain Christian traditions (e.g., Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy) today: conciliarity.

The occurrence of “ecumenical councils” in the early Christian centuries is familiar to many yet often hard to conceptualize. But there’s good reason to take a moment to examine this phenomenon in our present moment.

A Divine Modus Operandi in History

Let’s begin with a wider historical and theological framework: both Jews and Christians believe that God acts within creation and history to bring about his purposes. As Frederick Bauerschmidt notes in Catholic Theology: An Introduction, “the Judeo-Christian God is the One who, while not bound by history, acts from within history, through specific people and events, for the sake of all humanity.”

This could be illustrated, for instance, by God’s covenant with Abraham, which God initiates and ratifies on his own terms. That covenant describes not only what God will do for Abraham and his descendants, but also that through Abraham “all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12). Second, this collaborative principle continues in all the subsequent covenants that build on the first: God’s saving activity in history occurs in, with, and through human communities. That is, God’s action is humanly mediated. God chooses and enlists particular humans, within particular human communities, as cooperators, collaborators, and co-participants in that work. The Incarnation is, of course, the fullest realization of this principle of God’s self-revealing and saving activity in history in and through the human birth, life, teaching, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

This is all so familiar to us that we often fail to reflect on the fact that it could have been otherwise. God had lots of options! God could have chosen to accomplish his purposes alone, unilaterally, without any human contribution, collaboration, or mediation. God could have chosen to reveal himself to every living person, individually, without any external mediation, in the interiority of their very souls. The entire drama of salvation could have been accomplished privately and internally.

It’s crucial to note that the “Christ-event” (the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus) prompts his earliest followers to begin to reconsider many assumptions about God and his saving relationship to human beings. For example, that God’s power and wisdom could be most apparent in the weakness and absurdity of the crucifixion; or that the oneness of God could encompass the plurality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; or that God’s plan of salvation included not just Jews, but also Gentiles (i.e., non-Jews). In addition to these, another new conviction began to take hold among the earliest Christians, especially as it became apparent that Jesus was not returning immediately to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. It dawned on the early community that God’s saving activity in history had another phase, falling between the Christ-event and his Second Coming. That phase involved what Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians called “the mystery of the church,” a mystery that had been concealed to all earlier generations, being “hidden for ages in God,” but has “now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” At its core, this mystery is that “the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:3-6).

God’s wise and providential plan for universal human salvation is centered on the Church as the divinely chosen instrument and vehicle for this purpose: “so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known.” In the history of God’s covenantal relationship with Israel, Jesus is not the end of history, as they had supposed, but rather the center of it, and “salvation history” is going to continue. Not only that, but the focal point of divine agency in this new phase of salvation history is the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon the Church at Pentecost. Yet true to form, the Spirit intends to accomplish the divine purposes in history in and with human collaboration, and that collaborator is the community of believers, the Church.

The Council of Jerusalem

An initial illustration of how this collaborative effort will proceed is found in the middle of the Book of Acts, the first written history of the Church.

Recall that the mystery of the Church, the reason it exists, is to unite Gentiles with Jews into the one Body of Christ to accomplish God’s universal plan of salvation. So, it would seem that God ought to be very keen about the details of that merger. We might imagine that God would have a clear plan for the Church to follow in bringing all that about. But by the middle of the first century the Church was confronting a fundamental question and major conflict precisely over the issue of how Gentiles were to be incorporated into God’s new plan for Israel: did they need to submit to the Law of Moses? 

This was not a minor or trivial matter. It went to the heart of Jewish and Christian identity and pinpointed the essential meaning of the Gospel. Yet apparently, before Jesus left the scene, he had not informed anyone what God’s will or plan was on this most crucial issue. And, there were, as yet, no Christian Scriptures to consult. So, what to do?

All the leaders of the community, “the apostles and elders,” gathered in Jerusalem to decide what should be required of Gentile converts to the new “way.” That is to say: they held a council. Scholars refer to this as the “Council of Jerusalem” and it seems to have occurred around the year 50. 

Apparently, it was an intense meeting, marked by strong opinions and heated exchanges. But in the end, they reached a momentous agreement that Gentiles were not obligated to submit to the Mosaic Law.

Something crucial happened next: the gathered leaders put their decision into writing so that it could be disseminated and promulgated among all the communities of believers. They expected their decision to be authoritative and binding. And at the end of the letter, they wrote these words: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials” (Acts 15:28).

What emerges here is a crucial principle, a fundamental pattern, a modus operandi, that can be called “conciliarity.” As the Church endeavors to accomplish its divine commission in history, to remain faithful to what it has received (the “deposit of faith”) from the Lord, and to be “led into all truth” by the Spirit, it attempts to discern the truth and to work out the details through special gatherings of its acknowledged leaders, whose decisions, communicated in writing, are recognized as authoritative for the believing community.

Early Catholicity: Formation of a Christian Community

As the Church moved into the second century, a living and organic, but also structured, ecclesial institution began to emerge. Its recognized leaders are the bishops, who have succeeded to the place, i.e., the function and authority, of the apostles. Already by the end of the first century, Ignatius of Antioch began calling this the “Catholic Church.”

Importantly, the role of the bishops was to be the visible sign and also the instrument of Christian unity. So, the catholicity of the Church is deeply bound up with its episcopal nature. Patterned on the “threefold office of Christ” (Prophet, Priest, and King), the bishops had a triplex ministry, which was doctrinal, sacramental, and jurisdictional, namely, to teach, sanctify, and govern.

It also continued the practice of convening councils or, in Greek, “synods,” as the mechanism and instrument by which to resolve debates, settle conflicts, render judgments, and arrive at consensus at the supra-local level. These councils were episcopal, i.e., principally of bishops, who, because they were acting in Christ’s name, had the authority to make decisions binding on the Church. Thus, by the second century, councils had become one of early Christianity’s most characteristic institutions. 

The Council of Nicaea 

In the words of John O’Malley in the book When Bishops Meet, all these early developments 

culminated and received paradigmatic form with the first church-wide council, the Council of Nicaea, 325. The role of Emperor Constantine at it strengthened the analogy between councils and the Roman Senate. The emperor had moved the imperial capital from Rome to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), and he convoked the council to meet under his watchful eye in his palace in nearby Nicaea.

The primary impetus for the Council was a theological dispute threatening to tear the Christian community apart, something neither the bishops nor the emperor wanted—though for very different reasons. The primary focus was the teaching about the second Person of the Trinity, the Son, coming from a presbyter in the great church of Alexandria, Egypt, whose name was Arius. The assembled bishops rendered a judgment regarding Arius and his doctrine, which they expressed in the form of a new literary genre, a “creed:” a written profession of right faith or doctrine.

But the bishops also used the occasion for legislative purposes: they made laws regarding certain behaviors, with penalties attached for non-observance. For instance, they levied penalties against clerics who castrated themselves, they forbade admitting to the clergy converts from paganism until they had undergone a period of testing, and they strictly forbade clergy to bring a woman to live in their household unless she were their mother or sister. In later centuries, such decrees were sometimes called “reform decrees.” The juridical genre the council used to formulate its decrees was the canon, a generally short ordinance proscribing or prescribing certain behaviors, with penalties attached for non-observance. 

Discerning What Is True and Good

Divine activity in salvation history is primarily God’s work: “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail” and the “Spirit will lead you into all truth”; And “lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” But apparently, by divine decision, that work is also, secondarily and derivatively, yet no less truly, one in which the (very) human community, or “people of God,” participates and cooperates.

God’s providential plan is worked out in salvation history, not by sailing above all the messiness, or by showing up, here and there, in a blaze of glory, but rather within, and through, even beneath sinful human beings and their flawed human institutions. This includes the Church, which in its human dimension is always in need of reform.

Viewed from within, accordingly, Church history is complex, ambiguous, perplexing—in a word, messy. Most of the time, there are no bright clear lines, no simple binary between “good guys and bad guys,” heroes and villains—no “history without tears”—without tragedy, without shortcoming, without failure. As Pascal said, specifically in relation to the Church and its failings: “Jesus must be in agony until the end of the world.”

Yet, despite all that, the Christian community is emboldened to press forward with confidence in discerning what is true and good, through the guidance of the Spirit. This conviction underlies and undergirds the conciliar nature of Christian traditions like Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. 

The Council of Nicaea, whose 1700th anniversary is celebrated this year, was the first of seven so-called “ecumenical” or “church-wide” councils of the early (undivided) Church. Today, those early councils and their doctrinal decrees are considered authoritative, to one degree or another, by many (though not all) of the various expressions of Christianity. For Roman Catholics, there have been more than a dozen subsequent councils that are also authoritative, including the two most recent, Vatican I and Vatican II. In these ways, the crucial principle of conciliarity manifests itself. 

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Pregnancy can bring about many emotions; sometimes excitement and fear can be conflated when a woman is left without ample support to contend with these feelings, and result in a heartbreaking decision.

Brittany found herself in this situation, and feeling she had no other choice she took the first abortion pill. Later she became convinced that God interceded on behalf of her baby.

Brittany wrote about what drew her to the decision to take the abortion pill:

“I’ve faced so many challenges in my life, and there are moments when I wonder if I’ll ever catch a break. When I found out I was pregnant, I was sooo excited, but also overwhelming fear. As my hormones shifted, I spiraled into a deep depression. I began experiencing panic attacks multiple times a day, sometimes 4 or 5 in a row.”

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This anxiety left Brittany sleepless, and she would fall to her knees feeling she didn’t want to continue living. This helpless state drove her to decide to have an abortion.

“Feeling like I had no control over anything. I couldn’t take it anymore and I made the decision to terminate my pregnancy,” she said.

Brittany’s fiancé did not want her to end her pregnancy, but he also feared for Brittany’s health and safety due to her state of mind.

“However, I believe in a powerful God, and He intervened,” Brittany said. “After taking the first pill, I went to take a nap before taking the second later that evening.”

She said that it was during that nap that she heard a voice clearly say to her, “Wake up and fix this.”

“I cannot even describe how insane this was,” Brittany said. “I woke up in a panic and immediately called Planned Parenthood, asking if there was any way to reverse what I had done. They told me no, that I would need to take the second pill, but I didn’t give up.”

Brittany searched for answers and found the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN).

Within a few hours, two nurses were sent to her home, and she received an ultrasound through their mobile unit.

“They couldn’t believe how my baby was floating around, completely unaffected, like nothing had happened at all!” Brittany exclaimed.

Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) is an updated application of a decades-old treatment used to combat miscarriage. It offers a woman a second chance at life for her unborn baby when, like Brittany, she has changed her mind regarding abortion after taking the first abortion pill.

Statistics show that to date more than 6,000 lives and counting have been saved through the APRN.

The process has been shown to be safe for mom and the results continue to impact lives around the world.

With each follow-up doctor’s appointment Brittany was overjoyed as the doctor continued to be amazed that everything looked so perfect.

Brittany gave birth to a precious little girl named London Noelle.

She reflected on her second chance for life for her baby.

“My God is mighty,” Brittany said. “I still struggle with guilt, thinking about how my daughter almost wasn’t here, but every day I beyond grateful to be her mama.”

“I could be in a different place right now, without my baby,” she said, “but she’s here, and I’m beyond blessed. So, I’ll take the sleepless nights and all the struggles that come with it.!”

“I’m really enjoying this journey and embracing the challenges,” Brittany noted. “I’m soaking up every moment, being gentle with myself, and learning the importance of patience.”

Brittany was happy to share her story, in the hopes that it could inspire other women who think they have no other choice but abortion.

“If it helps another mama who’s been through what I went through, I would love to share,” she said. “I want her to know that everything will be okay and that reaching out to APR was definitely the right choice.”

To the APRN team, Brittany sent words of love and gratitude, acknowledging the vital role played by staff and nurses as their efforts to rescue and help save her daughter were essential.

“They made me feel heard, supported, and truly cared for,” she said. “I am forever grateful, glory to God!”

LifeNews Note: Kim Hayes is a writer for Pregnancy Help News. She has been a teacher, author, speaker and facilitator for marriage and family issues and married for over 35 years to Jeff, with four grown children. Kim’s counseling experience included 21 years as a volunteer consultant and trainer at Pregnancy Decision Health Centers. She was the Athletic Director of Columbus Crusaders Youth Sports ministry for 15 years. Kim has written several books, including the latest release, Prodigal Rewind: The Grateful Son. This originally appeared at Pregnancy Help News.

The post This Baby Was Saved When Her Mom Changed Her Mind During the Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.

In a shocking turn of events in December 2022, the Vatican dismissed pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone from the Catholic priesthood.

That controversial decision upset many pro-life Catholics who respect Pavone and appreciate his decades of service to the pro-life movement via Priests for Life. And it came on the heels of Pope Francis facing criticism for putting an abortion advocate on the Pontifical Academy for Life, claiming that giving an abortion support a Catholic Church platform helps “dialog.”

Now, with the election of a new Pope to lead the Catholic Church, Pavone tells LifeNews that he is pursuing restoration to the priesthood.

“Now that we have a new Pope, so many people around the world and across the Body of Christ have told me that they are praying that I be reinstated to the priesthood,” Pavone told LifeNews in an email today.

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“First of all, yes, it is possible. What Pope Francis did, Pope Leo XIV can undo,” he explained. “It can certainly happen that I can fully exercise my priestly functions and carry out my pro-life work fulltime, just as I have done since 1993.”

Pavone explained that he is indeed requesting reinstation as a Catholic priest in good standing.

“I have never had one moment’s doubt that I am called to be a priest. After all this happened, I have not joined a different Church; I have not sought marriage. And except for the sacramental duties that only a priest can perform, I have been doing the same fulltime pro-life work as I’ve done for 32 years,” he said.

“Now I am going to ask again for what I asked 32 years ago: the Church’s blessing to do it as a priest,” Pavone continued.

The pro-life leader has already taken a meeting with “one of the highest ranking Cardinals in the Vatican.”

Pavone indicates he has done his best to comply with the limits Pope Francis imposed on him.

“The pope can restrict whether it is exercised publicly, and I have been obedient to all the restrictions he imposed,” he said. “ I’ve been able to continue saving the unborn, electing pro-life candidates, lobbying lawmakers, healing people wounded by abortion, leading marches and prayer vigils, bringing leaders together for strategy meetings, and proclaiming the pro-life message via talks, broadcasts, and writings.”

The post Frank Pavone Seeks Reinstatement to Priesthood Under Pope Leo XIV appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Hundreds of pro-life advocates from across Oregon gathered outside the state Capitol building in Salem on Saturday, May 17 to participate in the annual Oregon March for Life. The theme of this year’s event was Support Her. Protect Them. to emphasize the pro-life movement’s care for both mothers and their babies.

The 2025 March for Life featured speeches by Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample, Oregon Right to Life President Melody Durrett, Road 2 Hope Maternity Home program manager Alayna Garcia and Office and Marketing Coordinator Amber Sipe, Abortion Survivor and Occupational Therapist Amy Miles, Western Seminary Theology Professor and Grace Community Church elder Dr. Gerry Breshears, as well as ORTL Community Outreach Director Makyra Williamson and ORTL Executive Director Lois Anderson.

Oregon Republican Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson emceed the event.

“The March for Life is a powerful coming-together that always renews my sense of optimism for ending abortion and building a culture of life in our state,” Oregon Right to Life executive director Lois Anderson said in a press statement. “It is deeply inspiring and encouraging to gather with so many people committed to compassionately advocating for mothers and their babies and calling on Oregon lawmakers to protect unborn lives.”

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This year, as before every March, Oregon Right to Life displayed an animated counter on a jumbotron that depicted the heart-breaking number of innocent lives lost to abortion since Roe v. Wade: Today, approximately 63 million. As the numbers added up on the screen and the crowd paused in silence, the bell tolled once for every million lives lost.

“It never ceases to have a deep impact on me when we see, visually, the real impact that the tragedy of abortion has had in our country,” Archbishop Sample said in his opening speech.

The Catholic archbishop went on to highlight the fact that even pro-abortion politicians historically used to recognize that abortion was a “sadness” and “not something to be celebrated.” He contrasted that older perspective with the modern radical pro-abortion position, exemplified by Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s proclamation this year declaring March 10 “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day.”

Archbishop Sample has decried the proclamation in a pastoral letter calling out the “spiritual blindness” of such a declaration, while affirming that “life – every life – is a gift” and extending the invitation of the gospel to all, “even for those who have celebrated abortion.”

Following Archbishop Sample’s address and prayer, Oregon Right to Life Board of Directors President Melody Durrett expressed gratitude for the many ways that pro-life advocates take action to protect the unborn and support mothers in their communities.

“You are doing the real work of changing our culture so that abortion is not only illegal, but the reality of it unthinkable as a solution to any problem,” Durrett said. She underscored the fact that abortion is not simply one issue among many, or an individual choice, but a traumatic act that ultimately “sends a subconscious message to every person that human life is expendable.”

In contrast, Durrett said, “the message that we share is bold. It stands in stark contrast to the messages that most people hear often about the meaninglessness of life. We may be the first person to tell someone: ‘Your life matters. You have value.’ More than that, we believe that every human life has value… But the pro-life movement doesn’t just share this powerful message with our culture: we put action behind it.”

One pro-life advocate who has taken meaningful action based on her pro-life convictions is Alayna Garcia, program manager at Road 2 Hope Maternity Homes based in Beaverton. Garcia spoke to marchers about her organization’s work to provide safe housing, along with a robust network of care, support, and direction, for moms in need.

“If we’re truly pro-life, we need maternity homes,” Garcia said. “We need spaces where women can heal, where they can rest, where they can feel safe, and where they can dream again… Because when we choose to stand with them, we stand for more than just a cause. We stand for the promise of new beginnings, for the beauty of motherhood, and the belief that every life is worth fighting for.”

Joining Garcia was Amber Sipe, the organization’s Office and Marketing Coordinator. Prior to taking on her role with Road 2 Hope, Amber had come to the maternity home as a pregnant young woman suffering from abuse, trauma, addiction, homelessness, a past abortion, and the removal of her son into foster care.

“Road 2 Hope didn’t just offer me a bed, or a place to hide while I was pregnant. They fought for me. They believed in me when I had no reason to believe in myself,” Sipe said. “They walked with me through the long, painful road of healing, advocating for me to get my son back, to keep my daughter, and equipping me to be the mother I had always wanted to be but never thought that I could become.”

Oregon occupational therapist Amy Miles also shared her personal story with March attendees, describing learning that her mother had attempted to abort her but the abortion attempt failed. Born alive, Miles was given a loving home by her adoptive family. Now a wife and mother herself, Miles has since become a member of the international Abortion Survivors Network and has extended forgiveness to her birth mother.

“I love how God has redeemed my story,” she said. Miles suffers from cerebral palsy, but her condition doesn’t stop her from her work as an occupational therapist in which she helps children, including those with conditions like her own.

“If I had not been whisked away, as my birth mother reports, to be given life-sustaining care so that I could breathe, I wouldn’t be here today,” she said. “My two children would not be here today.”

“I have the opportunity now to share my story with moms, like my birth mother, and support babies like me,” Miles said.” I’m honored to speak up for our most vulnerable citizens. The ones that cannot speak up for themselves.”

During the speaker program, Makyra Williamson, Oregon Right to Life Community Outreach Director, also shared the results of this year’s March for Life Diaper Drive, which included a partnership with a pro-life diaper company. Nearly 200 boxes of EveryLife diapers, purchased through contributions from supporters, were displayed near the stage.

“We set an initial goal of gathering 10,000 diapers: one diaper to represent each life that was lost to legal abortion in Oregon in 2023,” Williamson said. “And then we partnered with EveryLife, the only pro-life diaper company, to order diapers to give to Oregon pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes. And your response has been incredible.”

“We blew that 10,000 diaper goal out of the water, gathering over 30,000 diapers to benefit women and families,” she said to overwhelming applause from the crowd.

Before giving the closing prayer, Dr. Gerry Breshears shared a story with marchers about a woman in an abusive relationship who had become pregnant and was “abortion-minded.” Breshears, along with other pro-life individuals who wanted to come alongside the young woman, helped to match her with a couple who could provide a loving adoptive home for the baby.

“I’m proud to say that she chose life because a whole circle of people, like many of you, gathered around her to support her in an extremely troubled pregnancy,” he said.

Immediately following the speaker program, participants began the approximately one half mile march around the Capitol, holding signs promoting the dignity and value of every human life, including at the earliest stages of development in the womb.

The crowd was made up of Oregonians of all ages and backgrounds, including parents, grandparents, women who have experienced unsupported or challenging pregnancies, pro-life politicians and candidates, and high school students, all united in a common desire to build a culture of life in Oregon.

March participant Jessie McGriff shared that she’s always been pro-life and decided to come to the Oregon March for Life because “I believe that children in the womb are humans, and I just want to protect and defend them.”

For Avi Kilpatrick, the journey looked somewhat different.

“I never thought I would be at one of these things,” Kilpatrick shared. “I grew up very secular, liberal, so I always thought that ‘pro-life’ was a dirty word… I used to also think that pro-life people didn’t really care about women. But I think, when I accepted Jesus into my heart, I started realizing the dignity of every single person, [and] I realized that that starts at conception. And the pro-life movement doesn’t hate women, it loves them. It’s the only [side] of this conversation that really does radically love women, because it doesn’t lie to them.”

Salem residents Tim and Dinah Smith said this is the third year they’ve come to the Oregon March for Life.

“We came to show our support for the most helpless and those who don’t have a voice,” Tim said. “And if we don’t speak for them, we’ll have to answer for it. So we want to lend our voice to that effort.”

“And because we love God and we love children,” Dinah added.

“All those who are in the womb have rights,” Isaac, a youth participant, told Oregon Right to Life. “In all scenarios, in all circumstances, the right [to life] of the most vulnerable is to be recognized.”

This is the second year the event was held in May, the month that Oregon legalized abortion statewide in 1969. In previous years, the Oregon March for Life took place in January to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (1973) prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of Roe.

Abortion is currently legal until the moment of birth in Oregon, with no protections for unborn human beings or explicit safeguards for newborns who survive abortion attempts. Taxpayer dollars currently pay for more than half of all abortions performed in the state. Oregon Right to Life is dedicated to promoting a culture of life in Oregon through grassroots action, political advocacy, and educational outreach.

LifeNews Note: Ashley Sadler is Communications Director for Oregon Right to Life. Oregon Right to Life Education Foundation is actively involved in connecting churches with pro-life pregnancy resource centers across the state, as well as creating and distributing localized resource guides to ensure that abortion-vulnerable moms and families throughout Oregon have access to life-affirming options.

The post Pro-Life Advocates March for Life in Liberal Oregon to Protest Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.

There’s no chance on Earth that the former US president’s late-stage cancer wasn’t noticed while he was in office

Former US President Joe Biden has revealed a devastating medical diagnosis: an aggressive, metastatic form of prostate cancer. While the diagnosis itself calls for sympathy, the timing of its demands scrutiny.

Too little, too late – or just too convenient?

We are told that Biden’s cancer, discovered following a recent medical exam, has already spread to his bones – a sign of a disease not just aggressive, but advanced. And yet this is the same man who, as we had been constantly reassured during his presidency, was under the most sophisticated and regular medical scrutiny in the world. For someone whose health is of profound national interest, especially given his age, this level of late-stage detection is implausible.

If Biden were an average citizen in a broken healthcare system, such a delay might be tragically understandable. But he is not. He is the former commander-in-chief of a global superpower. His check-ups were comprehensive, frequent, and confidential. Which begs the obvious, unsettling question: Did they already know – and simply not tell us?

The specter of Original Sin

The diagnosis announcement lands with eerie precision, just days ahead of the publication of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, an upcoming book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. The book promises an unflinching account of the inner workings of an administration allegedly defined by obfuscation and denial about the president’s mental and physical decline.

The timing is not a coincidence – it is a strategy. By announcing Biden’s cancer now, his PR team appears to be preemptively rewriting the narrative. When Original Sin raises serious concerns about the former president’s capacity to serve, the public will already be primed to respond not with alarm or anger, but with compassion for a 'sick old man' facing mortality with dignity. In other words: Damage control, not transparency.

A pattern of obfuscation

This is not the first time Biden’s health has been shrouded in mystery. For years, his evident frailty has sparked debates – not just among partisan pundits, but across dinner tables and newsroom panels. Conservative commentators have long floated the idea that what we’re witnessing is less “elder statesmanship” and more a form of elderly exploitation – propping up a figurehead while obscuring the reality behind the curtain.

The jokes about “elder abuse” began as punchlines but are now starting to look like blunt assessments of a harsh truth. The president's health isn’t just a personal matter; it’s a national security concern. And if Biden's cancer was indeed known or suspected months – or years – ago, when he was still in office, the cover-up is not only cynical but deeply irresponsible.

Controlling the narrative, betraying the public

This late-stage disclosure isn’t just about health; it’s about trust. The American people deserve honesty from their leaders, particularly when those leaders ask for our votes while hiding the most consequential truths. The calculated timing of this announcement – designed to dilute the blow of an upcoming exposé – is political cynicism at its worst.

Biden’s diagnosis may elicit sympathy, but it should not elicit forgiveness for deception. The truth appears to have been suppressed until it was strategically useful. And that should outrage every American, regardless of party.

The story here isn’t just about cancer. It’s about a presidency that may have allowed disease to metastasize not just in the body of its leader, but in the moral fabric of its governance.

 The first photo was prior to Pope Leo’s Initiation as the Supreme Pontiff and Vicar of Christ, Successor of Saint Peter. The second photo was as Pope Francis’ body was lying in state. In the second photo, please note the platform that is hiding a significant part of the Confessional of Saint Peter. The first photo, has that platform completely removed revealing the historic look of it. 

The problem with the Modern Papal Mass at this altar is that the Pope’s Chair is placed in front of it and room is needed for the pope and other ministers and those who might approach the pope during the various liturgies.

Prior to the Council, the Pope’s throne was place in the apse of the Basilica under the altar of the Chair of Saint Peter. This configuration remains at St. Paul outside the Walls as well as at the Basilicas of St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major.

There is really no good place for the pope to place his chair for the Modern Rites of Vatican II other than to hide the historic character of the altar and Confessional of Saint Peter. 

Apparently, a high volume abortion facility in Illinois has a big, dirty problem.

This same abortion business is well known for a high number of abortion-related medical emergencies that have sent at least four women to the hospital in March and April alone.

But the Hope Clinic’s latest woes may be part of a nationwide pattern of grisly consequences when conducting the high-volume extermination of unborn children.

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Pro-life activists reported interacting with a representative from Embrich Plumbing outside the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, on the morning of May 3, 2025. The plumber opened a nearby manhole for inspection as his shovel laid at the ready.

According to long-time pro-life activist Rose Wacher, a priest who had been praying outside the Hope Clinic approached the plumber and was told there was a blockage coming from the Hope Clinic and that it would be “very expensive” to unclog it.

While plumbing issues at abortion clinics are a seldom-mentioned “dirty little secret” within the abortion cartel, Operation Rescue has documented several such incidents.

The grisly cause? In most cases, it is aborted baby remains, which are flushed into the sewer system by abortion facilities.

One such example from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is remarkably similar to the incident in Granite City.

Abortionist Kermit Gosnell once ran the Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia. It became known as a “House of Horrors” after police discovered Gosnell was operating an appallingly filthy late-term abortion mill in which babies would often be born alive during incompetently performed abortions, only to be murdered by Gosnell as they struggled for life.

During Gosnell’s abortion murder trial in April 2013, his handyman, Jimmy Johnson, testified about the facility’s often clogged drains.

Johnson testified that toilets in the clinic would back up once or twice a week. This was because clinic workers would wash the contents of the suction machine bottles down the drain, even though Pennsylvania law prohibited it. On one occasion, the clogs were so bad that he was forced to open the cleanout drain on the outside of the building. To his dismay, out gushed material in which he observed tiny arms and other body parts.

Johnson told the court that he went inside to tell Gosnell what happened. Gosnell told him to clean it up, so Johnson took a shovel and scooped the human remains into a plastic bag and put them in the freezer. He had to conduct this unclogging process for the drain over and over.

Another example happened in Wichita, Kansas. In 2006, Operation Rescue purchased and closed the Central Women’s Services abortion facility, which was remodeled and continues to serve as Operation Rescue’s national headquarters.

On the initial walk-through on the first day of possession, Operation Rescue President Troy Newman discovered a small room with a sink where the suction machine bottles holding the remains of aborted babies were cleaned. To his horror, the sink still contained bloody residue and dried bits that appeared to be aborted baby remains. It was connected to a large industrial garbage disposal, which was clogged and no longer worked. It was the source of an overwhelming stench that filled the entire facility.

It is believed that the abortion facility was illegally dumping baby remains into the sink rather than paying for a medical waste disposal service.

Other abortion facilities that have documented similar cases of sewer clogs include Planned Parenthood’s Cincinnati Surgical Center in Ohio and the Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood in Illinois.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, the state government has passed laws that make abortion facilities essentially untouchable and unaccountable. Licensing and inspections are now optional, and complaints about patient injuries from botched abortions go largely unheeded.

Nevertheless, Operation Rescue continues to seek enforcement against abortion facilities like the Hope Clinic, which still maintains a facility license. A complaint has been filed by Sarah Neely, Operation Rescue’s Chief Operating Officer seeking an investigation into the recent spate of botched abortions at Hope Clinic, which conducts abortions up to 28 weeks of pregnancy.

“The misnamed Hope Clinic has richly earned the ‘House of Horror’ moniker with the latest string of botched abortions and apparent flushing of human baby remains into the sewer system,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

He adds, “This is what a state gets when it puts abortion facilities outside the law to commit whatever atrocities they please without accountability. Unfortunately, we expect to see more wounded women – and more sewer issues – at the Hope Clinic in the future. Pray that this untenable situation in Democrat-controlled Illinois changes. That state needs a miracle to persuade it to respect and protect pregnant women and their unborn babies.”

LifeNews Note: This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Cheryl Sullenger, is Operation Rescue Sr. Vice President Emeritus.

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