A dire humanitarian crisis demands an American response grounded in both principle and prudence.

Last Friday, Pope Leo XIV reminded the world of what is at stake.

Speaking to representatives of Aid to the Church in Need, the Holy Father declared that religious freedom “is not merely a legal right or a privilege granted to us by governments; it is a foundational condition that makes authentic reconciliation possible.” He continued, “It is therefore a cornerstone of any just society, for it safeguards the moral space in which conscience may be formed and exercised.”

When religious freedom is denied, the Holy Father warned, “trust gives way to fear, suspicion replaces dialogue, and oppression breeds violence.”

Catholics in the United States should take the Holy Father's counsel to heart — as well as know that defending the persecuted is entirely consistent with President Donald Trump's “America First” approach to foreign policy. It means wielding diplomacy, moral clarity and targeted policy tools to protect the innocent and defend the right to religious expression and worship. It means recognizing that nations respecting religious freedom are more stable, more prosperous, and less prone to the violence that threatens American interests.

Continued below.

Now grammatical improved by ChatGPT:

Humans are apparently blinded in many ways.

First, humans are creatures designed to prepare for the future. You find a job to sustain your life tomorrow, and you join a pension plan to cover your expenses after retirement (some governments even require this by law). The future can be divided into two parts: the part before death, which humans can anticipate and prepare for, and the part beyond death, which lies entirely outside human reach. Even science is powerless to explore it — this is your first layer of blindness.

Science depends on experimentation, yet humans lack the ability to step beyond their own realm to conduct experiments or make discoveries there. Therefore, science is incapable of revealing anything that does not exist within our own physical domain.

On the other hand, spirituality — since ancient times — has never been concerned with what lies within our physical world. It has always focused on what lies beyond it. In this regard, science is utterly futile and irrelevant. You must awaken and remove the blindfold placed on your mind by “the god of this world,” who is a powerful but deceptive being.

This is not even comparable to the “red unicorn” case — another layer of blindness. Humans have the means to search every corner of the Earth and conclude with certainty that no red unicorn exists. But humans have absolutely no ability to explore or search any realm beyond their own.
The only way for humans to prepare for a future they cannot access is through a God who already knows it. That is the purpose of religion. Religion is built upon the limitations of human science — it fills the gap where human knowledge ends. Finding God, in this sense, is not so different from finding a job; it is a personal responsibility of every human being.

The next question is: among all the gods of all religions, who is the true God? The answer is actually simple, but another layer of blindness prevents you from recognizing it. It has to do with what can legitimately be considered a reliable means of conveying truth.

A clear analogy can help illustrate this. Consider the 2020 U.S. election — who actually won, Biden or Trump? Only one answer can be true, yet humanity was unable to agree on the truth. People even stormed the Capitol with weapons, showing how human understanding can be clouded by unseen forces. What drives such confusion? If you can discern that, you are close to removing your blindness and seeing the truth.

To explain fully would take time, but one aspect alone can burst the illusion. Think of how a legitimate message should be communicated. If the U.S. government has an urgent message for all its citizens, what would it do? The only effective way is to broadcast the message nationwide — not just to a single village or state — ensuring that every citizen can hear it. This is the most efficient way for a message to reach humanity.

By the same logic, if God has a crucial message for all humankind, how should He deliver it? Ideally, He would appear publicly and speak openly. But there exists a divine Covenant between God and mankind that requires faith for salvation. If God were to appear publicly, no faith would be necessary, and thus no one could be saved. Therefore, God abides by this Covenant and reveals Himself only to chosen witnesses — so that others must believe by faith.

The next most effective way, then, is the “national broadcast” model — delivering the message in a way that reaches all people. Christianity is the only religion that fulfills this model. The gospel — God’s crucial message — is commanded to be preached to all nations, in a truly global and human-facing manner. From the very beginning, Christianity has been devoted to spreading this message to every corner of the Earth. In contrast, other religions limit their teachings to specific regions or peoples.
This is just one of many aspects that reveal what can be considered a legitimate way of conveying truth — yet you remain blinded to recognize it.

To summarize, there are two main layers of blindness implanted in your mind.
First, you fail to see the true nature of religion — that it is humanity’s way of preparing for the unknown future, much like finding a job.

Second, you are blinded to what constitutes a legitimate way of conveying truth — as illustrated by the U.S. government analogy.

This blindness has been prophesied: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of men.”

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Warning!
... deeply disturbing

When we did this years ago, their accompanying 'description' mockingly said

“it could be the second immaculate conception!”

Please read and then help me keep - the - pressure - ON.

I deeply regret to inform you that right nowthere are, once again, pages on Amazonselling immoral, anti-Catholic Halloween costumes.

READ WITH CAUTION: Horrible, immoral description coming up – as ‘sanitized’ as possible.

Our past pressure on Amazon seems to have had some success. The Amazon vendors removed the mind-in-the-gutter, anti-Catholic, and anti-purity/celibacy 'descriptive' text that had accompanied the photos of the two costumes.

Continued below.

eleos1954 said:

Summing up the law does not remove the contents of the Law it is the culmination of all of them. The highest law is Love.

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I have no idea what you mean by this, if you intend to present the Gospel of Christ? If we summarize the Law as "love," as Christ did, we have to ask whether Christ was suggesting obedience to the Law or not? If he was speaking to the present generation of Jews during his earthly ministry he was saying that the entire Law had to be obeyed in love. If he was speaking to future Christians, Jew and Gentile, who were not under the Law, he would be suggesting living a lawful life in him, apart from the Law, but also done in love.

The point is, there is little difference in works, whether under the Law or under the New Covenant, with respect to the *ability to obey.* In either system, obedience was possible and encouraged.

However, under the system of Law, the record of human sin remained, preventing access to Eternal Life. And so, all of the paraphernalia of ceremonies of the Law had to be included in the moral commandments to accomodate faith and the need to confess the need for Christ, beyond works done under the Law.

Now, under the New Covenant, there is no need for all of the paraphernalia of the Law to confess our inadequacy as sinners. We've been forgiven in Christ such that we can maintain our moral lawfulness after his sinless record and not in accord with the hindering works of the Law.

eleos1954 said:

"if you love me, keep my commandments" is a direct quote from Jesus in the Gospel of John (14:15), signifying that obedience to His teachings is a demonstration of love for Him. It is interpreted as a statement that true love is not just an emotion but an active commitment to follow His commands, which are his teachings and the commandments of God.
Faith is seen as being inextricably tied to love, as faith is ultimately rooted in God's love. The relationship between faith and love is a cycle where faith in Christ leads to a life of love, and love is the evidence of a genuine faith.

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Let me put this in my own words. Whether living under the OT system or the NT system works were to be done in faith and in love. There is really no difference between the two systems in this regard except for the fact that under the NT system all of the infrastructure and paraphernalia of the Law goes away, it being no longer needed after the cross of Christ.

Under the Law, the works, both moral and ceremonial, were devised by God to express faith as a hope in redemption, while at the same time it condemned Israel with their then-current record of sin. But after the cross of Christ, Israel could rely on Christ's record of perfection to enable them to dispense with the infrastructure and paraphernalia of the Law expressing hope that sin could be forever forgiven and forgotten.

Christ's unblemished record of sinlessness enabled us to embrace his free gift of righteousness, leading to Eternal Life, because his work of redeeming us could not be disqualified by any sin in him. By contrast, any works Israel had done under the Law disqualified them from Eternal Life with the exception that by their faith and obedience they expressed hope that Christ would eventually pardon them.

The works that we now do under the NT system are done in Christ and modelled after the righteousness of Christ without the infrastructure and paraphernalia of the Law. This would look more like the 10 Commandments, omitting the Sabbath Law, because Christ's life was a moral law and not subject to either the Sabbath Law or any of the requirements of the Law, moral or ceremonial. He was sinless and moral without any attention to the OT system at all, since that system had been for sinners and he was righteous without the Law being in effect in his life.

In reality we are not following a set of laws at all, but rather, following after the record of who Christ was and what he was like. Knowing he fulfilled the Law we know that in following him we will be fulfilling a kind of love that was modelled after the Law. As such, we can be informed by the moral Law that was contained within the Law of Moses as a whole.

FredVB said:

Where were you seeing something said indicating I have some problem I speak of that I am or would be upset? I spoke of the word election in the Bible where it is used. Believers are elected to be conformed to the image of Christ. That is the right application for the word. God chose people of Israel, but that choice was not the salvation of all of them. That choice has the revelation from God come through prophets among them with the revelation from God preserved and passed on so fully, and made available to the world, with the prophesied Christ testified in it who we really need. God does choose among us for those God does save, God is not willing that any would perish but they should come to repentance as in 2 Peter 3:9 with their faith in response to God, it is God's grace that is the basis.

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Ephesians 1 In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

ThatRobGuy said:

Those of us who would like see more stringent and rigorous immigration and asylum requirements reject the notion that we have to do either.

Are you familiar with the concept called "Defensive Democracy"?

Defensive democracy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Numerous democratic countries actually have provisions on the books of that nature (examples outlined in the wiki).


It's a recognition of the reality that democracy can be used against itself, and aims to prevent that.

Or, in other terms, it's an acknowledgment of the possibility that people can "vote their way out of of democracy, and into some other type of system that doesn't provide voting as a mechanism to revert it back", and seeks to prevent that.



What I was referring to, is the fact that the people of San Fran had been dealing with the rising rent costs and pricing pressures that long pre-date the tech boom due to various population influxes.

It was only when an influx starting involving people who weren't necessarily "like-minded" that they started to take a serious issue with it.

The cultural influx of the 60's (Haight Ashbury/The Summer of Love/etc...) brought a lot of new people to the area (something like 80,000 people -- to a city that only had ~650,000 at the time)

In the early 70's, it became something of a "safe haven" for the gay community, and tens of thousands more moved there.

By mid-70's, the median rents in San Fran were upwards of 60% higher than the national median.

Nobody was petitioning local government to stop the influx of people (because the influx involved people who they saw as like-minded, and "fitting in with the overall vibe" of the city).


Compare that to the tech boom era
Around 71,000 net new residents were added over the decade.


So the migration for that wasn't anymore "striking" than the "counterculture/free love" migration in terms of the numbers...so the problem they had with seems like it was more cultural than logistical.


People are allowed to have a preference for what they want the social fabric of their community to be.

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Sure, there is a certain amount of bigotry in all of us, and certainly we like it better when our immediate community reflects our personal values as much as possible. But that is why there are different communities.

What I am getting from you is something rather different. But San Francisco is probably not a good example for us to discuss, because I lived in San Francisco or an immediately adjacent community from before the "Summer of Love" until the mid '70s so it is unlikely we will agree about what happened there.

And yes, I understand defensive democracy. I think we just disagree about what values we should defend ourselves against. But that's why new citizens take an oath, which contains the values we must share.

Hollywood Catholic can confirm through multiple sources that Jim Caviezel will not portray Jesus in the upcoming film, “The Resurrection of the Christ.”

Caviezel starred as Jesus in the “Passion of the Christ,” in 2004. He was again cast as Jesus in Mel Gibson’s “The Resurrection of the Christ,” set to release in 2027.

Jim Caviezel Recast in “The Resurrection of the Christ”​

Reports first surfaced on Friday, October 9, 2025, that Caviezel will be recast.

Page Six first broke the news:​

Continued below.

Jim Caviezel Recast: ‘Passion of the Christ’ Star Will Not Return for ‘Resurrection’ Sequel

Hollywood Catholic can confirm through multiple sources that Jim Caviezel will not portray Jesus in the upcoming film, “The Resurrection of the Christ.”

hollywoodcatholic.com

Aaron112 said:

God's Justice Is In Perfect Agape (Love Beyond all imaginations of men).
Perhaps He May Grant you to see Perfect Harmony Consistently In and Through All of His Word, and His Plan.

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Tell that to the folks who perished in the Flood, not to mention the billions of humans who spend eternity burning in the Lake of Fire.

Risen rivers raucously run riot.

stevevw said:

What context. Archeologist categorising has nothing to do with engineering or forensics on tool marks to determine what caused them. They just attribute artifacts based on form or where they are found or whose name was scratched on them. They have no idea about forensic tooling methods.

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Oh my. Your dismissal of archeology is rather striking. It's archeologists that can tell you if those are pre-dynastic objects, etc. The whole "advanced ancient tech" claim is based entirely on their ability to date the objects.

stevevw said:

Whereas precision tool experts who come from a background in engineering. Reverse engineer the signatures and understand the types to tools that make the different marks on items. Know the tolerances, what can create tight tolerances ect into different kinds of material.

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These experts have a severe case of "hammeritis".

Friendship Press has published an official press release announcing the imprimatur for the NRSVue, Catholic Edition. It includes comments from Dr. Brian Sigmon, CEO of Friendship Press, and Dr. Hugh Page, Jr, chair of the Bible Translation and Utilization Committe of the National Council of Churches (NCC). It also confirms that there are no differences between the NRSVue and the NRSVue-CE except for the inclusion of the deuterocanonical books in the Catholic canonical order (a detail that was originally reported in the comments here on the blog).

Continued below.

living history

Hannah

Now that four centuries have sped since a Ligurian first, under God's guidance, touched shores unknown beyond the Atlantic, the whole world is eager to celebrate the memory of the event, and glorify its author. Nor could a worthier reason be found where through zeal should be kindled. For the exploit is in itself the highest and grandest which any age has ever seen accomplished by man; and he who achieved it, for the greatness of his mind and heart, can be compared to but few in the history of humanity.

By his toil another world emerged from the unsearched bosom of the ocean: hundreds of thousands of mortals have, from a state of blindness, been raised to the common level of the human race, reclaimed from savagery to gentleness and humanity; and, greatest of all,by the acquisition of those blessings of which Jesus Christ is the author, they have been recalled from destruction to eternal life.

Europe, indeed, overpowered at the time by the novelty and strangeness of the discovery, presently came to recognize what was due to Columbus, when, through the numerous colonies shipped to America, through the constant intercourse and interchange of business and the ocean-trade, an incredible addition was made to our knowledge of nature, and to the commonwealth; whilst at the same time the prestige of the European name was marvellously increased.

Therefore, amidst so lavish a display of honour, so unanimous a tribute of congratulations, it is fitting that the Church should not be altogether silent; since she, by custom and precedent, willingly approves and endeavours to forward whatsoever she see, and wherever she see it, that is honourable and praiseworthy. It is true she reserves her special and greatest honours for virtues that most signally proclaim a high morality, for these are directly associated with the salvation of souls; but she does not, therefore, despise or lightly estimate virtues of other kinds. On the contrary, she has ever highly favoured and held in honour those who have deserved well of men in civil society, and have thus attained a lasting name among posterity.

Continued below.

President Donald Trump renewed the focus of Columbus Day to be celebrated on the second Monday of October, reclaiming the explorer’s “extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue,” according to the president’s proclamation.

Since 1971, the second Monday in October has been federally recognized as Columbus Day to commemorate Columbus’ discovery of the Americas in 1492, celebrate Italian-American heritage, and acknowledge the 1891 lynchings of 11 Italian Americans. In 2021, former President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day to be observed on the same day, following backlash toward Columbus.

The “current hostility to him is ill informed,” Felipe Fernández-Armesto, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of “Columbus on Himself,” told CNA. “He was understandably conflicted about the people he encountered on this side of the ocean, but, by the standards of his contemporaries, his most characteristic judgments about them were highly positive.”

“Columbus Day is commendable — instituted in expiation of the worst lynching in U.S. history ... Columbus suited a project of national reconciliation because he was, for most of the history of the U.S., a unifying figure.” Fernández-Armesto added: “He should remain so today.”

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Yusuphhai said:

湘語有9個聲調，這是一位湖南人告訴我的。
Xiangyu has 9 tones, which was told to me by a person from Hunan(Xiang, 湘).

湘语-娄邵片-邵阳话词典 （Xiangyu）​

好多古汉语用词
Many ancient Chinese words

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謝謝您的科普，使我受益良多。我剛剛用AI了解到粵語是比湘語還要接近古漢語。總之謝謝您～

eleos1954 said:

• Matthew 12:31-32:
  "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come".
  
  
• • Mark 3:28-29:
    "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin".
  • Luke 12:10:
    "And to everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven, but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven".
  • 
    
  • • Blasphemy is considered a sin where a person has so hardened their heart against the Holy Spirit's work that they refuse to repent, even when faced with undeniable truth.

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Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is explained in the first part of this article by Dr Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum
http://arielcontent.org/dcs/pdf/mbs003m.pdf

A foreign-born Muslim inmate currently incarcerated in the U.S.’s most severely restrictive prison complex is asking the government to require the prison to accommodate his religious practices under a key federal statute, highlighting the far-reaching and comprehensive nature of religious freedom rules in the United States.

U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer in a Sept. 25 ruling agreed that Mostafa Kamel Mostafa had demonstrated that prison officials at the maximum facility had “substantially burdened the exercise of his religion” by failing to install a special cleaner in one of his cells.

The prison, a “supermax” facility in Colorado commonly known as ADX Florence and colloquially as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” is famous for its near-total state of lockdown.

Housing some of the most dangerous inmates in the U.S. penitentiary system, it features poured concrete cells in which prisoners are confined for most of the day as well as high-level security protocols that include motion detectors, pressure pads, and pits used for exercise.

Continued below.

Postvieww said:

They are not shooting political or ideological leaders.

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Neither are gay Democrats.

Postvieww said:

Pure speculation.

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Just as every point you make is

Postvieww said:

That is not universally true. Some liberals leaders have called for the death of Republicans and some have celebrated the death of Kirk.

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Just as some conservatives, including Charlie Kirk, called for the deaths of liberals, and some celebrated the killing of Melissa Hartman.

Postvieww said:

Public records show he requested a mail in ballot but there is no public record he used it.

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From USA Today:
Routh also wrote in a self-published book in 2023 that he voted for Trump in 2016, but said he later regretted his decision because of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But public records reviewed by USA TODAY last year indicated that Routh had cast ballots in general and municipal elections going back many cycles, including 2008 and 2012 − though not in 2016, when Trump first ran.

Postvieww said:

The facts just don’t support your claim

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Hr wrote that he voted for Trump, though they can't find records to back that up.

Postvieww said:

. It absolutely was not conservative values that shot or tried to shoot other conservatives.

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That's just speculation. Never Trumpers were Republicans.

It's not consistent with liberal values to shoot anyone, though some crazy liberals have done it.

He's not going anywhere. Steve Bannon said he will be on the Ballot in 2028.

bèlla said:

They’re having serious issues now and I wouldn’t use them as an example. Leadership devoid of God will give you a mess like they’re grappling with. And we need to get away from numbers and seek the Lord’s input before we decide. He doesn’t always follow conventions and the best fit may not be someone we’d consider.

Christians should be viewing it as vocations as @Paidiske noted. We want a lot of things God hasn’t sanctioned and He must be in it for us to succeed.

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Ironically the side project I have put on hold could solve many of their problems especially the big ones. I do have some connections with Europe via relatives who are also missionaries who in-turn have connections to the government but it's too soon to contact them yet about the matter.

I also have direct affiliations in the right places like universities from long ago but have lost their contact info. It's only a matter of finding and reconnecting with them. Things are still premature however. But if it works, it can dramatically shift the geopolitics in the region, and I'd be riding a huge wave staying ahead to fund my the next phase of the project. Success or failure.

And instead of feeling threatened by someone’s ascent study them instead, ask questions, pray for them and cheer them on. That’s what’s missing in the church. We should be one another’s biggest cheerleaders and advocates.

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I don't make a big deal of it probably because I don't have aspirations nor see the need to become a leader myself unless I have something to bring to the table. So far, that situation hasn't come and I feel genuinely useless in that situation.

What did you say about your circumstances a few weeks ago? Most of the advice Ai suggested I’d mentioned earlier. But I’m a woman. ;-)

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I forgot! But I remember about AI giving similar solutions you're proposing. I consider AI feminine purely by behavior and nature of replies and mirrors your posts so I'm not mistaken on your gender!

I kept telling chatgpt, I have no time and energy for its solution and then it will come up with possibly easier alternative and I'll make the same reply probably because that's the truth until we hit a wall. Chatgpt almost sounded frustrated but I somehow felt better I was able to let it out. Normally, I'm too embarrassed to talk about it to another person.