GREENVILLE, SC — Sources revealed that the company-wide meeting scheduled today for all SynerTech employees was, in actuality, just for Phil.
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U.S. — After sitting down for an interview with podcaster Candace Owens, Hunter Biden’s reputation was reportedly in ruins.
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This azulejo from the Igreja de São Bento (Ribeira Brava, Madeira, Portugal) depicts Our Lady of Fátima. Today is the feast of Our Lady of Fátima in the Catholic Church and the 110th anniversary of her first apparition to three shepherd children.
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Twenty-one diocesan officials lobbied Congress on housing, food insecurities, and other poverty-related issues.
Amid growth in the Catholic Church in Sweden, EWTN Global Catholic Network has opened a new office in Stockholm to expand reach across northern Europe.
A reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 25:13b-21
King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea
on a visit to Festus.
Since they spent several days there,
Festus referred Paul’s case to the king, saying,
"There is a man here left in custody by Felix.
When I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and the elders of the Jews
brought charges against him and demanded his condemnation.
I answered them that it was not Roman practice
to hand over an accused person before he has faced his accusers
and had the opportunity to defend himself against their charge.
So when they came together here, I made no delay;
the next day I took my seat on the tribunal
and ordered the man to be brought in.
His accusers stood around him,
but did not charge him with any of the crimes I suspected.
Instead they had some issues with him about their own religion
and about a certain Jesus who had died
but who Paul claimed was alive.
Since I was at a loss how to investigate this controversy,
I asked if he were willing to go to Jerusalem
and there stand trial on these charges.
And when Paul appealed that he be held in custody
for the Emperor’s decision,
I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar."
From the Gospel according to John
21:15-19
After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them,
he said to Simon Peter,
"Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
"Simon, son of John, do you love me?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
He said to him, "Tend my sheep."
He said to him the third time,
"Simon, son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time,
"Do you love me?" and he said to him,
"Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."
Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go."
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me."
Jesus asks Peter the first time: "Simon… do you love me (agapas-me)" with this total and unconditional love (Jn 21: 15)? Prior to the experience of betrayal, the Apostle certainly would have said: "I love you (agapo-se) unconditionally". Now that he has known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, he says with humility: "Lord; you know that I love you (filo-se)", that is, "I love you with my poor human love". Christ insists: "Simon, do you love me with this total love that I want?". And Peter repeats the response of his humble human love: "Kyrie, filo-se", "Lord, I love you as I am able to love you". The third time Jesus only says to Simon: "Fileis-me?", "Do you love me?". Simon understands that his poor love is enough for Jesus, it is the only one of which he is capable, nonetheless he is grieved that the Lord spoke to him in this way. He thus replies: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you (filo-se)". This is to say that Jesus has put himself on the level of Peter, rather than Peter on Jesus’ level! It is exactly this divine conformity that gives hope to the Disciple, who experienced the pain of infidelity. From here is born the trust that makes him able to follow [Christ] to the end. (…) Peter succeeded in entrusting himself to that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity of love. And in this way he shows us the way, notwithstanding all of our weakness. We know that Jesus adapts himself to this weakness of ours. (Benedict XVI – General audience, 24 May 2006)
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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveals the lenticular galaxy, NGC 1266. This enigmatic post-starburst galaxy has a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure, yet it holds no discernable spiral arms.
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The grant will facilitate dialogue between Baltimore communities historically divided by race and income.
Beyond the famous European cities, these destinations have ample attractions of their own.
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The court has previously held that people with intellectual disabilities may not be executed under the U.S. Constitution.
Villa Walsh senior chosen one of MCRTL pro-life essay contest winners #Catholic – 
Morris County Right to Life of Morriston, N.J., recently announced the winners of the John E. Mulholland Memorial Pro-Life Essay Contest. The contest was open to all Morris County high school seniors. First place awarded to Anthony Ricardo of Morris Knolls High School, and second place was tied between Amelia Kelinle of Villa Walsh Academy and Brendan Critchley of Morristown High School. First-place winner received $750 and the second-place winners each received $500. John and Mary Ellen Muholland were avid pro-life warriors, and the scholarship has been awarded in their memory.
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– Morris County Right to Life of Morriston, N.J., recently announced the winners of the John E. Mulholland Memorial Pro-Life Essay Contest. The contest was open to all Morris County high school seniors. First place awarded to Anthony Ricardo of Morris Knolls High School, and second place was tied between Amelia Kelinle of Villa Walsh Academy and Brendan Critchley of Morristown High School. First-place winner received $750 and the second-place winners each received $500. John and Mary Ellen Muholland were avid pro-life warriors, and the scholarship has been awarded in their memory. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
A top Vatican official warned of the dangers of AI at a conference ahead of the pope’s upcoming encyclical.
National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s Florida kickoff roots US history in the Mass #Catholic – 
(OSV News) — Before the Declaration of Independence was boldly signed in 1776, before pilgrims feasted at what became popularly regarded as the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621, there was St. Augustine, Florida.
The coastal Florida city was founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholic explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, is celebrated as the longest continually inhabited European-founded city in the U.S., and is home to the United States’ oldest continuously operating parish, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.
It is also the May 24 starting point for the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, themed “One Nation Under God” in honor of America’s 250th year.
The pilgrimage begins on the historic grounds of America’s oldest Marian shrine: the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios, which Bishop Erik T. Pohlmeier of St. Augustine has described as “the oldest site of continuous Catholic presence in the United States.”
With its founding, St. Augustine became the site of an early Mass in what is now the United States, celebrated in 1565 to commemorate the landing of a Spanish explorer, his crew and Catholic clergy.
“As we focus this year on the Declaration of Independence and the 250th anniversary of that, St. Augustine helps us begin not with politics, but with worship,” said Jason Shanks, National Eucharistic Congress president. “And I think that’s critically important.”
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Both the shrine and the mission, its caretakers say, “stand as living witnesses” not just to the founding of St. Augustine, but also to the practice of the Mass in the United States. The site roots its history in the landing of Spanish Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. In 1565, his crew sighted land on Aug. 28, the feast of St. Augustine, and Menéndez came ashore Sept. 8. The admiral claimed the land for Spain, “establishing the settlement that would become the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States,” according to the shrine’s website.
Soon after landfall, the expedition’s chaplain, Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving.
The shrine and mission grounds, known as “The Sacred Acre,” still yield discoveries, said the shrine’s rector, Father Timothy Lindenfelser.
“We’re constantly doing archaeological excavations. Most recently, we found the foundations of the Franciscan church that was on the property. That was found with burials of Indigenous people around it, and then the kitchen that was connected to it,” he said. “Every time we do a renovation or do archaeological digs, we’re always finding new things.”
The mission and shrine’s website describes Father Francisco’s Mass as the “first Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States, establishing the first parish and planting the roots of the Catholic faith in the New World.”
However, “we do not claim to be the first Catholic Mass in what is today the United States,” said Father Lindenfelser. “The first that’s documented would have been in Pensacola in 1559. The Spanish established a settlement there, so we know there were priests and Mass was celebrated. But the settlement didn’t last.”
Kathleen Bagg, the Diocese of St. Augustine’s communications director, elaborated, telling OSV News, “What makes St. Augustine historically significant is that the Sept. 8, 1565, Mass of Thanksgiving was connected to the founding of the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States, and to a Catholic community whose presence has continued into the present day.”
“The phrase ‘first Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States’ is intended as a historical distinction connected to the founding of St. Augustine, rather than a claim that no earlier Masses had ever been celebrated elsewhere in territories that later became part of the United States,” she said.
If the wording seems intentionally careful, it is because there is some historical wrestling over the location of the first Mass celebrated in what would become the United States of America.
“There are a whole series of Spanish expeditions into Florida and elsewhere in the Southeast, long before Pensacola was established in 1559,” said J. Michael Francis, a history professor and chair of Florida studies at the University of South Florida.
He noted expeditions led by Juan Ponce de León — the first of which made landfall in 1513, probably south of Cape Canaveral — as well as subsequent expeditions, and the settlement of San Miguel de Guadalupe.
“It hasn’t been located archaeologically,” Francis told OSV News, “but it was likely somewhere in present-day South Carolina in 1526. That settlement lasted for less than one year — but assuredly there were many Masses said at San Miguel. Then you have the 1539 Hernando de Soto expedition, and there were likely dozens — if not hundreds — of Masses said between 1539 and 1543 during the course of that expedition.
“So,” he emphasized, “this is where it gets really tricky.”
The 1565 Mass at St. Augustine, held on the feast of the Nativity of Mary, “is often attributed to an account written by the priest” — Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales — “who allegedly said that Mass. But he never says that in his account. What he says is that on Sept. 8, 1565 — when Menéndez, the founder of St. Augustine, comes ashore — they greet him singing the ‘Te Deum laudamus,’” a hymn of rejoicing.
Father López, Francis continued, “said Menéndez — and all of the others with him — approached him on their knees, and they kissed the cross. … But he never specifically says, ‘I said Mass.’ He says there were ‘other ceremonies.’ There’s another account — that has been attributed to Pedro Menéndez de Avilés’ brother-in-law — in which he says that on that day, Menéndez ordered that a solemn Mass be said.
“So what often happens with these kind of stories is that different sources get conflated,” Francis stressed.
Bagg pointed out what she described as another “important historical nuance.”
“While St. Augustine remained continuously inhabited as a city, Catholic parish life was interrupted during the British period (1763–1784), when Spanish clergy departed and public Catholic worship ceased until the arrival of the Minorcans and Father Pedro Camps in 1777,” she told OSV News. “Even with that interruption in sacramental life, the broader Catholic presence associated with the founding of St. Augustine and Mission Nombre de Dios remains foundational in American Catholic history.”
Ultimately, the St. Augustine site remains a place of witness. When the tourist trolleys stop at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios, Father Lindenfelser says visitors often find themselves deeply affected.
“Many people have come back to the faith,” he said. “Some people have for the very first time heard the message of the Gospel, just because they were sitting there — and one of the chaplains or one of the staff, we come up and talk to them,” Father Lindenfelser said.
“So, it’s still today a great place of evangelization,” he added, “by just being present to those who come.”
Kimberley Heatherington is a correspondent for OSV News. She writes from Virginia.
– (OSV News) — Before the Declaration of Independence was boldly signed in 1776, before pilgrims feasted at what became popularly regarded as the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621, there was St. Augustine, Florida. The coastal Florida city was founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholic explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, is celebrated as the longest continually inhabited European-founded city in the U.S., and is home to the United States’ oldest continuously operating parish, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. It is also the May 24 starting point for the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, themed “One Nation Under God” in honor of America’s
Papa León: La liturgia sostiene a los fieles, renovándolos en su fe y misión #Catholic – 
CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) — Cristo está presente en la liturgia — en la palabra proclamada, en los sacramentos, en los ministros, en la comunidad y, sobre todo, en la Eucaristía– afirmó el Papa León XIV.
“Dejémonos moldear interiormente por los ritos, por los símbolos, por los gestos y, sobre todo, por la presencia viva de Cristo en la liturgia”, dijo durante su discurso en la audiencia general en la Plaza de San Pedro el 20 de mayo.
Antes de comenzar su catequesis, el Papa dio la bienvenida al Catolicós de la Iglesia armenia, Aram I de Cilicia, quien se sentó a su lado durante la audiencia.
La Gran Casa de Cilicia de la Iglesia Ortodoxa Armenia abarca el Líbano, Siria, Chipre, Kuwait, los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, la región del Golfo, Irán, Grecia y las Américas, por lo que el Papa León hizo un llamado a todos a orar por la paz en el Líbano y en el Medio Oriente, que están “una vez más desgarrados por la violencia y la guerra”.
El Papa León también expresó su alegría por recibir al Catolicós Aram y a su delegación, calificando su visita de “una ocasión importante para fortalecer los lazos de unidad que ya existen entre nosotros, a medida que nos acercamos a la plena comunión entre nuestras Iglesias”.
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En su discurso principal, el Papa León continuó su serie de catequesis sobre el Concilio Vaticano II, pero presentó el siguiente documento conciliar en el que deseaba centrarse: la constitución del concilio sobre la sagrada liturgia, “Sacrosanctum Concilium”.
“Este documento enseña que la liturgia nos sumerge en el misterio de la pasión, muerte, resurrección y glorificación de Cristo”, dijo en su resumen a los fieles de habla inglesa.
“Cristo sigue actuando, presente en la Palabra proclamada, en los sacramentos, en los ministros que celebran, en la comunidad reunida y, sobre todo, en la Eucaristía”, afirmó al leer su resumen a los fieles hispanoparlantes.
Al redactar esta constitución, dijo que “los Padres conciliares quisieron no solo emprender una reforma de los ritos, sino también llevar a la Iglesia a contemplar y profundizar en ese vínculo vivo que la constituye y la une: el misterio de Cristo”.
“La liturgia, en efecto, toca el corazón mismo de este misterio: es a la vez el espacio, el tiempo y el contexto en el que la Iglesia recibe de Cristo su propia vida”, dijo el Papa León en su discurso principal en italiano.
“He aquí, pues, el Misterio cristiano: el acontecimiento pascual, es decir, la pasión, la muerte, la resurrección y la glorificación de Cristo, que precisamente en la liturgia se nos hace sacramentalmente presente, de modo que cada vez que participamos en la asamblea reunida ‘en su nombre’ estamos inmersos en este Misterio”, expresó.
La liturgia ayuda a sostener a los fieles, animándolos y renovándolos “en su compromiso de fe y en su misión”, y contribuye a formar “una comunidad abierta y acogedora para todos”, dijo el Papa León.
La liturgia que se celebra debe traducirse y vivirse en la vida cotidiana, “en una dinámica ética y espiritual”, dijo. Exige “una existencia fiel, capaz de hacer concreto lo que se ha vivido en la celebración: es así como nuestra vida se convierte en ‘sacrificio vivo, santo y agradable a Dios’, realizando nuestro ‘culto espiritual’”.
– CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) — Cristo está presente en la liturgia — en la palabra proclamada, en los sacramentos, en los ministros, en la comunidad y, sobre todo, en la Eucaristía– afirmó el Papa León XIV. “Dejémonos moldear interiormente por los ritos, por los símbolos, por los gestos y, sobre todo, por la presencia viva de Cristo en la liturgia”, dijo durante su discurso en la audiencia general en la Plaza de San Pedro el 20 de mayo. Antes de comenzar su catequesis, el Papa dio la bienvenida al Catolicós de la Iglesia armenia, Aram I de Cilicia, quien se
Assembly speaker explores important issues with N.J. Catholic bishops #Catholic – 
On May 5, the pastoral center of the Metuchen Diocese in Piscataway, N.J., hosted a meeting of the bishops of New Jersey with State Assemblyman Craig J. Coughlin, who also is speaker of the N.J. General Assembly. The bishops hold regular meetings to discuss issues of importance to Catholics in our state. The meeting with Speaker Coughlin covered a number of topics on the state level.
Pictured in the photo (from left) is Bishop Gregory J. Studerus, retired auxiliary bishop of Newark; Bishop Michael A. Saporito, auxiliary bishop of Newark; Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of Paterson; Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R., D.D., archbishop of Newark; Speaker Coughlin; Bishop Joseph A. Williams of Camden; Bishop Pedro Bismarck Chau, auxiliary bishop of Newark; Bishop Elias R. Lorenzo, OSB, auxiliary bishop of Newark; Bishop Manuel A. Cruz, auxiliary bishop of Newark, and Bishop Jonathan S. Toborowsky, administrator of Metuchen.
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– On May 5, the pastoral center of the Metuchen Diocese in Piscataway, N.J., hosted a meeting of the bishops of New Jersey with State Assemblyman Craig J. Coughlin, who also is speaker of the N.J. General Assembly. The bishops hold regular meetings to discuss issues of importance to Catholics in our state. The meeting with Speaker Coughlin covered a number of topics on the state level. Pictured in the photo (from left) is Bishop Gregory J. Studerus, retired auxiliary bishop of Newark; Bishop Michael A. Saporito, auxiliary bishop of Newark; Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney of Paterson; Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R.,