MONTGOMERY, AL — The Southern Poverty Law Center defended itself against reports of controversial spending practices by informing donors that funding the Ku Klux Klan is only 3% of what they do.
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LINDALE, TX — Surprising many, a preacher at New Wine Community Church held up a three-year-old child’s crappy Sunday school drawing and declared that it was pleasing to Jesus.
Read More| Picture of the day |
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Blue shark (Prionace glauca), Faial-Pico Channel, Azores Islands, Portugal. The blue shark is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, that inhabits deep waters (images taken though between 5 and 10 meter below water) averaging around 3.1 m (10 ft) and preferring cooler waters. They can live up to 20 years, can move very quickly and feed primarily on small fish and squid, although they can take larger prey.
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O Almighty God,
Whose great power and eternal
Wisdom embraces the universe,
Watch over all policemen and
Law enforcement officers everywhere.
Protect them from harm
In the performance of their duty
To stop crime, robbery,
Riots and violence.
We pray, help them keep our streets
And homes safe, day and night.
We commend them to your loving care
Because their duty is dangerous.
Grant them strength and courage
In their daily assignments.
Dear God, protect these brave men …
The humanitarian agency stressed the need to protect international food assistance amid growing global hunger and domestic policy debates.
A Reading from the First Letter of St. Peter
5:5b-14
Beloved:
Clothe yourselves with humility
in your dealings with one another, for:
God opposes the proud
but bestows favor on the humble.
So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time.
Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.
Be sober and vigilant.
Your opponent the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, steadfast in faith,
knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the world
undergo the same sufferings.
The God of all grace
who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus
will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you
after you have suffered a little.
To him be dominion forever. Amen.
I write you this briefly through Silvanus,
whom I consider a faithful brother,
exhorting you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.
Remain firm in it.
The chosen one at Babylon sends you greeting, as does Mark, my son.
Greet one another with a loving kiss.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
From the Gospel according to Mark
16:15-20
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
The task which Jesus entrusts to a small group of common men lacking great intellectual capacity seems truly too bold! Yet this small company, insignificant compared to the great powers of the world, is sent to bring the message of Jesus’ love and mercy to every corner of the earth. But this plan of God can be accomplished only with the strength that God himself grants to the Apostles. (…) This is how this mission was able to be accomplished, and the Apostles began this work which was then continued by their successors. The mission that Jesus entrusted to the Apostles has continued through the centuries, and continues still today: it requires the cooperation of all of us. Each one, in fact, by the power of the Baptism that he or she received, is qualified in turn to proclaim the Gospel. (…) On this journey we encounter Christ himself in our brothers and sisters, especially in the poorest, in those who suffer in their very flesh the harsh and humiliating experience of old and new forms of poverty. As at the beginning the Risen Christ sent his Apostles with the power of the Holy Spirit, so too does he send all of us today, with the same power, so as to establish concrete and visible signs of hope. (Pope Francis, Regina Caeli, 13 May 2018)
Read More![British mother to travel to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide after son’s death – #Catholic – A 56-year-old British mother is traveling to Switzerland to end her life by assisted suicide after the death of her only son.Wendy Duffy told the New York Post she paid $13,500 to the Swiss assisted-dying nonprofit the Pegasos clinic.Duffy’s son, Marcus, died at age 23 four years ago after choking on a tomato lodged in his windpipe while sleeping. Nine months later, unable to cope with her grief, she attempted suicide by overdose and was placed on a ventilator for two weeks.She told the Daily Mail suicide is the only way her “spirit can be free.” She also said no amount of medication or therapy can make her whole again, and she “can’t wait” to die. She added: “I could step off a motorway bridge or a tower block but that would leave anyone finding me dealing with that for the rest of their lives.”She said she has chosen her deathbed outfit and requested that Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile” play as she dies. Her belongings will be donated afterward. Duffy said she plans to call her four sisters and two brothers from Switzerland to say goodbye. “It will be a hard call where I’ll say goodbye and thank them,” she said. “But they will get it. They know. Honestly, 100%, they know that I’m not happy, that I don’t want to be here.”Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, even for physically healthy people. On its website, Pegasos says it “believes that it is the human right of every rational adult of sound mind, regardless of state of health, to choose the manner and timing of their death."Duffy’s case follows the recent death by euthanasia of 25-year-old Noelia Castillo in Spain. On March 26, the young woman was euthanized over her father’s objections. The case sparked national debate in Spain, where euthanasia has been legal since 2021.The Church in Spain called Castillo’s death “a societal defeat.”In a statement, members of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference’s Subcommittee for the Family and Defense of Life said Castillo’s “story reflects an accumulation of personal suffering and institutional failings that challenge the whole of society.”Timeʼs up for right-to-die bill in UKMeanwhile, a right-to-die bill has stalled in the U.K. Parliament. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill ran out of parliamentary time and therefore failed in the House of Lords on April 24. The archbishop of Liverpool, John Sherrington, said he was grateful to “all those Parliamentarians who have worked tirelessly to preserve the dignity of every human life and ensure that end-of life care remains rooted in compassion and respect until the natural end of life.”The Catholic Church teaches that suicide and euthanasia are gravely immoral. In a 2024 message to a palliative care symposium, Pope Francis called euthanasia “a failure of love.” He recalled when he said previously that assisted suicide and euthanasia constitute a “false compassion.”“‘[C]ompassion,’ a word that means ‘suffering with,’ does not involve the intentional ending of a life but rather the willingness to share the burdens of those facing the end stages of our earthly pilgrimage,” he said.In St. John Paul II’s 1999 address to the Pontifical Academy for Life, “Love and Solidarity for the Dying,” he said: “No one can arbitrarily choose whether to live or die; the absolute master of such a decision is the Creator alone.”In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, he said: “suicide … involves the rejection of love of self and the renunciation of the obligation of justice and charity towards one’s neighbor … In its deepest reality, suicide represents a rejection of God’s absolute sovereignty over life and death.” Euthanasia is likewise condemned as “a grave violation of the law of God.”He also calls euthanasia “a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing ‘perversion’ of mercy. True ‘compassion’ leads to sharing anotherʼs pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.”He continued: “Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person even in the most painful terminal stages.”While the Church says euthanasia and assisted suicide are never permissible, it supports palliative care. According to Dian Backoff, former executive director of Catholic Hospice for Catholic Health Services, palliative care is meant to address “what the whole patient wants during the treatment of an illness,” whether or not the patient is terminally ill or dealing with a long-term affliction.“Palliative care, then, is a genuine form of compassion, for it responds to suffering, whether physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual, by affirming the fundamental and inviolable dignity of every person, especially the dying, and helping them to accept the inevitable moment of passage from this life to eternal life,” Pope Francis said in 2024.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/british-mother-to-travel-to-switzerland-to-die-by-assisted-suicide-after-sons-death-catholic-a-56-year-old-british-mother-is-traveling-to-switzerland-to-end-her-life-by-assisted-suicide.jpg "British mother to travel to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide after son’s death – #Catholic – A 56-year-old British mother is traveling to Switzerland to end her life by assisted suicide after the death of her only son.Wendy Duffy told the New York Post she paid $13,500 to the Swiss assisted-dying nonprofit the Pegasos clinic.Duffy’s son, Marcus, died at age 23 four years ago after choking on a tomato lodged in his windpipe while sleeping. Nine months later, unable to cope with her grief, she attempted suicide by overdose and was placed on a ventilator for two weeks.She told the Daily Mail suicide is the only way her “spirit can be free.” She also said no amount of medication or therapy can make her whole again, and she “can’t wait” to die. She added: “I could step off a motorway bridge or a tower block but that would leave anyone finding me dealing with that for the rest of their lives.”She said she has chosen her deathbed outfit and requested that Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile” play as she dies. Her belongings will be donated afterward. Duffy said she plans to call her four sisters and two brothers from Switzerland to say goodbye. “It will be a hard call where I’ll say goodbye and thank them,” she said. “But they will get it. They know. Honestly, 100%, they know that I’m not happy, that I don’t want to be here.”Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, even for physically healthy people. On its website, Pegasos says it “believes that it is the human right of every rational adult of sound mind, regardless of state of health, to choose the manner and timing of their death.\"Duffy’s case follows the recent death by euthanasia of 25-year-old Noelia Castillo in Spain. On March 26, the young woman was euthanized over her father’s objections. The case sparked national debate in Spain, where euthanasia has been legal since 2021.The Church in Spain called Castillo’s death “a societal defeat.”In a statement, members of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference’s Subcommittee for the Family and Defense of Life said Castillo’s “story reflects an accumulation of personal suffering and institutional failings that challenge the whole of society.”Timeʼs up for right-to-die bill in UKMeanwhile, a right-to-die bill has stalled in the U.K. Parliament. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill ran out of parliamentary time and therefore failed in the House of Lords on April 24. The archbishop of Liverpool, John Sherrington, said he was grateful to “all those Parliamentarians who have worked tirelessly to preserve the dignity of every human life and ensure that end-of life care remains rooted in compassion and respect until the natural end of life.”The Catholic Church teaches that suicide and euthanasia are gravely immoral. In a 2024 message to a palliative care symposium, Pope Francis called euthanasia “a failure of love.” He recalled when he said previously that assisted suicide and euthanasia constitute a “false compassion.”“‘[C]ompassion,’ a word that means ‘suffering with,’ does not involve the intentional ending of a life but rather the willingness to share the burdens of those facing the end stages of our earthly pilgrimage,” he said.In St. John Paul II’s 1999 address to the Pontifical Academy for Life, “Love and Solidarity for the Dying,” he said: “No one can arbitrarily choose whether to live or die; the absolute master of such a decision is the Creator alone.”In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, he said: “suicide … involves the rejection of love of self and the renunciation of the obligation of justice and charity towards one’s neighbor … In its deepest reality, suicide represents a rejection of God’s absolute sovereignty over life and death.” Euthanasia is likewise condemned as “a grave violation of the law of God.”He also calls euthanasia “a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing ‘perversion’ of mercy. True ‘compassion’ leads to sharing anotherʼs pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.”He continued: “Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person even in the most painful terminal stages.”While the Church says euthanasia and assisted suicide are never permissible, it supports palliative care. According to Dian Backoff, former executive director of Catholic Hospice for Catholic Health Services, palliative care is meant to address “what the whole patient wants during the treatment of an illness,” whether or not the patient is terminally ill or dealing with a long-term affliction.“Palliative care, then, is a genuine form of compassion, for it responds to suffering, whether physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual, by affirming the fundamental and inviolable dignity of every person, especially the dying, and helping them to accept the inevitable moment of passage from this life to eternal life,” Pope Francis said in 2024.")
![White House to bring back firing squads as Pope Leo XIV calls for U.S. death penalty to be abolished – #Catholic – The Trump administration has announced that it will bring back federal firing squad executions in the United States — a move it claims will “strengthen” the national death penalty — while Pope Leo XIV is simultaneously offering support to those seeking to abolish capital punishment in the U.S. and around the world. The U.S. Department of Justice said on April 24 that it was moving to once again “seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences,” restarting the federal death penalty process that had been indefinitely stalled under the Biden administration. Among the measures that the Justice Department said it will take include “expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad” as well as “streamlining” administrative processes to hasten executions by the federal government. The government said it would also seek to restart carrying out lethal injections by pentobarbital, a barbiturate that prisoner advocates have said can cause extreme pain and suffering when used in executions. In an accompanying report released on April 24, the Justice Department called pentobarbital “the gold standard of lethal injection drugs.” It described the drug as “more humane” than other modes of execution and pointed out that it has been used in assisted suicide procedures in the U.S. for those suffering from terminal illnesses. Pope Leo XIV urges abolition of death penaltyThe governmentʼs announcement came roughly at the same time on April 24 that Pope Leo XIV addressed, via video message, a gathering of activists at DePaul University celebrating the 15th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois. The pope in his message noted that the Catholic Church teaches that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." The Holy See updated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to explicitly call for the abolition of capital punishment worldwide. Leo likewise told the pro-life advocates in his hometown of Chicago that the Church “affirm[s] that the dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed.”The Holy Father said he joined the advocates in celebrating the stateʼs 2011 abolition of the death penalty; he wrote that he offered his “support to those who advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States of America and around the world.”“I pray that your efforts will lead to a greater acknowledgement of the dignity of every person and will inspire others to work for the same just cause,” the pope wrote. Leoʼs message comes one day after he spoke out forcefully against executions aboard the papal plane returning from his apostolic visit to Africa. Asked about Iranʼs reported large-scale executions, the pope said: “I condemn the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment. I believe that human life is to be respected and that all people — from conception to natural [death] — their lives should be respected and protected.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/white-house-to-bring-back-firing-squads-as-pope-leo-xiv-calls-for-u-s-death-penalty-to-be-abolished-catholic-the-trump-administration-has-announced-that-it-will-bring-back-federal-firing-squad-e.jpg "White House to bring back firing squads as Pope Leo XIV calls for U.S. death penalty to be abolished – #Catholic – The Trump administration has announced that it will bring back federal firing squad executions in the United States — a move it claims will “strengthen” the national death penalty — while Pope Leo XIV is simultaneously offering support to those seeking to abolish capital punishment in the U.S. and around the world. The U.S. Department of Justice said on April 24 that it was moving to once again “seek, obtain, and implement lawful capital sentences,” restarting the federal death penalty process that had been indefinitely stalled under the Biden administration. Among the measures that the Justice Department said it will take include “expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad” as well as “streamlining” administrative processes to hasten executions by the federal government. The government said it would also seek to restart carrying out lethal injections by pentobarbital, a barbiturate that prisoner advocates have said can cause extreme pain and suffering when used in executions. In an accompanying report released on April 24, the Justice Department called pentobarbital “the gold standard of lethal injection drugs.” It described the drug as “more humane” than other modes of execution and pointed out that it has been used in assisted suicide procedures in the U.S. for those suffering from terminal illnesses. Pope Leo XIV urges abolition of death penaltyThe governmentʼs announcement came roughly at the same time on April 24 that Pope Leo XIV addressed, via video message, a gathering of activists at DePaul University celebrating the 15th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois. The pope in his message noted that the Catholic Church teaches that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.\" The Holy See updated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to explicitly call for the abolition of capital punishment worldwide. Leo likewise told the pro-life advocates in his hometown of Chicago that the Church “affirm[s] that the dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed.”The Holy Father said he joined the advocates in celebrating the stateʼs 2011 abolition of the death penalty; he wrote that he offered his “support to those who advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States of America and around the world.”“I pray that your efforts will lead to a greater acknowledgement of the dignity of every person and will inspire others to work for the same just cause,” the pope wrote. Leoʼs message comes one day after he spoke out forcefully against executions aboard the papal plane returning from his apostolic visit to Africa. Asked about Iranʼs reported large-scale executions, the pope said: “I condemn the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment. I believe that human life is to be respected and that all people — from conception to natural [death] — their lives should be respected and protected.”")
The federal government says it is moving to “strengthen” the federal death penalty while the pope is calling for an end to capital punishment.
![Former Attorney General Bill Barr: U.S military action against Iran meets criteria for ‘just war’ – #Catholic – Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr made the case for Americaʼs war with Iran as meeting Catholic criteria for a just war. Barr, a Catholic, said because Iranʼs potential use of nuclear weapons posed a legitimate threat to the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, the war doesnʼt violate just war doctrine. Barr said the Iran war doesnʼt clearly violate just war doctrine during an April 23 panel discussion hosted by the Napa Institute.“The traditional position of the Church was to exhort leaders to take into account all the factors, but not to say, ‘thatʼs wrong’ unless it clearly violated the just war doctrine, which this obviously doesn’t,” Barr said. Facebook post‘If we allow this window to go by’Barr, a former board member at the Catholic Information Center, said the U.S. faces “difficult questions dealing with nuclear weapons” and argued that allowing the window of opportunity to dismantle Iranʼs nuclear capabilities to pass by would result in grave consequences. “If somethingʼs obviously out of bounds, you can say the Nazis, you know, should not have invaded this, or, you know, Saddam Hussein should not have invaded Kuwait. But thatʼs not the situation we face,” he said. “We face these very difficult questions dealing with nuclear weapons,” Barr said. "We’ve tried for a long time to deal with it, and if we allow this window to go by, the costs in the future are much higher, and the likelihood will be that the people won’t be willing to pay that, and nuclear weapons will be deployed by Iran.”“Youʼre basically weighing these imponderables and risks,” he said. “If the cost of dealing with it later and allowing them more time to reach a certain level of conventional force will make it almost impossible to deal with it without massive losses, including in Europe, certainly in the Middle East and certainly among Americans, then those future costs have to be taken into account and say thereʼs a window now.”“When youʼre faced with some of these difficult issues, itʼs very easy to stand back and say, turn the other cheek, or take an absolutist position [that] ‘you shouldnʼt be violent,’” Barr said. “But that begs the question, that doesnʼt really solve the problem, and deal with the real issue at stake that other people have to deal with.”Barr also said he believed “the primary temptation of religious people is self-righteousness,” which he said Pope Francis “was very good to call attention to.” He said he has seen Catholics on both ends of the political spectrum fall into “virtue signaling,” which he said, “is not coming to grips with the real moral choices and the real practical reality.”Reflecting on his upbringing, Barr said his father got him interested in St. Augustine, the fourth- to fifth-century theologian who developed criteria morally limiting when war may be justified.“My parents always said, ‘Think things through, donʼt just take your belief like itʼs a suit off a rack in a store and say, ”OK, Iʼm putting this coat on, this is what I believe.“ Understand why you believe it,’” he said.Barr’s remarks come as Leo calls for peace and Church officials question the justification of the war on the basis of just war doctrine. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy have said they do not believe the war fits just war criteria.Leo has said the Iran war fails to align with just war theory, citing failure to exhaust all diplomatic resources, disproportionate civilian harm, and lack of clear moral objectives. The U.S. bishops have publicly backed Leo, stating that just war teachings do not morally authorize unchecked military violence.Popes seldom issue blanket rulings but Pope Benedict XV made clear World War I lacked moral legitimacy given its scale, civilian toll, and lack of proportionate ends. Pope John Paul II warned the Gulf War did not meet just war criteria. And the Vatican also formally stated in 2003 the Iraq invasion failed just‑war standards.Pope Leo XIV urges peace The Holy Father has said “God does not bless any conflict” and said that “anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”On Palm Sunday, Leo stated that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood.’”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/former-attorney-general-bill-barr-u-s-military-action-against-iran-meets-criteria-for-just-war-catholic-former-u-s-attorney-general-bill-barr-made-the-case-for-americacabcs.jpg "Former Attorney General Bill Barr: U.S military action against Iran meets criteria for ‘just war’ – #Catholic – Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr made the case for Americaʼs war with Iran as meeting Catholic criteria for a just war. Barr, a Catholic, said because Iranʼs potential use of nuclear weapons posed a legitimate threat to the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, the war doesnʼt violate just war doctrine. Barr said the Iran war doesnʼt clearly violate just war doctrine during an April 23 panel discussion hosted by the Napa Institute.“The traditional position of the Church was to exhort leaders to take into account all the factors, but not to say, ‘thatʼs wrong’ unless it clearly violated the just war doctrine, which this obviously doesn’t,” Barr said. Facebook post‘If we allow this window to go by’Barr, a former board member at the Catholic Information Center, said the U.S. faces “difficult questions dealing with nuclear weapons” and argued that allowing the window of opportunity to dismantle Iranʼs nuclear capabilities to pass by would result in grave consequences. “If somethingʼs obviously out of bounds, you can say the Nazis, you know, should not have invaded this, or, you know, Saddam Hussein should not have invaded Kuwait. But thatʼs not the situation we face,” he said. “We face these very difficult questions dealing with nuclear weapons,” Barr said. \"We’ve tried for a long time to deal with it, and if we allow this window to go by, the costs in the future are much higher, and the likelihood will be that the people won’t be willing to pay that, and nuclear weapons will be deployed by Iran.”“Youʼre basically weighing these imponderables and risks,” he said. “If the cost of dealing with it later and allowing them more time to reach a certain level of conventional force will make it almost impossible to deal with it without massive losses, including in Europe, certainly in the Middle East and certainly among Americans, then those future costs have to be taken into account and say thereʼs a window now.”“When youʼre faced with some of these difficult issues, itʼs very easy to stand back and say, turn the other cheek, or take an absolutist position [that] ‘you shouldnʼt be violent,’” Barr said. “But that begs the question, that doesnʼt really solve the problem, and deal with the real issue at stake that other people have to deal with.”Barr also said he believed “the primary temptation of religious people is self-righteousness,” which he said Pope Francis “was very good to call attention to.” He said he has seen Catholics on both ends of the political spectrum fall into “virtue signaling,” which he said, “is not coming to grips with the real moral choices and the real practical reality.”Reflecting on his upbringing, Barr said his father got him interested in St. Augustine, the fourth- to fifth-century theologian who developed criteria morally limiting when war may be justified.“My parents always said, ‘Think things through, donʼt just take your belief like itʼs a suit off a rack in a store and say, ”OK, Iʼm putting this coat on, this is what I believe.“ Understand why you believe it,’” he said.Barr’s remarks come as Leo calls for peace and Church officials question the justification of the war on the basis of just war doctrine. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy have said they do not believe the war fits just war criteria.Leo has said the Iran war fails to align with just war theory, citing failure to exhaust all diplomatic resources, disproportionate civilian harm, and lack of clear moral objectives. The U.S. bishops have publicly backed Leo, stating that just war teachings do not morally authorize unchecked military violence.Popes seldom issue blanket rulings but Pope Benedict XV made clear World War I lacked moral legitimacy given its scale, civilian toll, and lack of proportionate ends. Pope John Paul II warned the Gulf War did not meet just war criteria. And the Vatican also formally stated in 2003 the Iraq invasion failed just‑war standards.Pope Leo XIV urges peace The Holy Father has said “God does not bless any conflict” and said that “anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”On Palm Sunday, Leo stated that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood.’”")
“Itʼs very easy to stand back and say, turn the other cheek, or take an absolutist position ‘you shouldnʼt be violent,’” Barr said. “But that begs the question, that doesnʼt really solve the problem.”
NASA celebrates Hubble’s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. The telescope leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales with an improved camera.
Read MoreLong before humanity could venture into space, astronomers dreamed of a telescope above Earth’s obscuring atmosphere. In 1962, this dream took a step toward reality when a National Academy of Sciences study group recommended the development of a space telescope. NASA launched two Orbiting Astronomical Observatories in 1968 and 1972. Both produced a wealth ofContinue reading “April 24, 1990: Hubble launches”
The post April 24, 1990: Hubble launches appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
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Seminarians shared their personal stories of hearing and responding to God’s call to the priesthood.
During National Infertility Awareness Week, author Leigh Fitzpatrick Snead shared encouragement and advice for Catholic couples navigating infertility.
Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, April 24Venus passes 0.8° due north of Uranus at 1 A.M. EDT. After their close conjunction yesterday, the two remain within 1.5° of each other in the evening sky tonight, offering a second chance to spot them in a single field of viewContinue reading “The Sky This Week from April 17 to 24: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks”
The post The Sky This Week from April 17 to 24: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
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