The Ministry of Truth or the U.S. Department of Education posted a scene from the 2017 movie Darkest Hour.

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I cannot believe I still feel compelled to write about the president. I won’t stop. TDS, Trump Denial Syndrome, is real.

I cannot stay silent.

I have no idea what the president will say at 9:00 PM ET from the White Hou…

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Dear friends,

I am honored to accept the Liberty Medal of the National Constitution Center in this year that marks the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. On the eve of this momentous occasion, I offer a warm greeting to all those assembled at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As a son of this great country, founded by courageous men and women who dreamed of liberty and of a better life for themselves and for their children, I join you in asking God’s blessings upon America’s future, that the lofty ideals enshrined at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence may continue to guide the flourishing of the nation in unity, justice and peace.

From our youth, most of us have admired the eloquence of those words, with their resounding appeal to the law of nature and to nature’s God as the basis of their assertion that all men and women are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While couched in the language of the Enlightenment, that claim is ultimately grounded in an understanding of the human person inspired by the great biblical vision of man and woman being created in the divine image. It is indeed here that we discover the basis of human dignity; dignity which precedes the establishment of any State, and whose custody constitutes its very purpose.

In these past two-hundred and fifty years, for so many peoples throughout the world, it was the firm resolve to achieve the noble vision of the nation’s founders that made America a byword for freedom, as the country opened its doors to successive waves of immigrants, enabling them and their children to play their part in shaping the future of the nation. It was this same love of freedom that inspired the United States, in the darkest hours of the last century, at the time of the two world wars, to look beyond itself and, at great sacrifice, to champion the cause of freedom beyond its own borders.

As every American knows, however, the path to building a society that would embody those high ideals of liberty and justice for all was not always easy and, in many respects, is still a work in progress. Indeed, the effort to realize this vision is one that must be taken up anew in each generation and in the face of ever new challenges. Today, as we look to the future, this historic anniversary presents us with the opportunity to reflect once again on the nation’s founding principles in the hope that America will remain ever true to the dream that has earned it the title of land of the free and home of the brave.

The first right enshrined by the nation’s founders was the right to life, for no one who is deprived of life can enjoy liberty or pursue happiness. A country’s vitality is deeply tied to the value it affords to human life in every form and condition, acknowledging the dignity endowed upon every human person by virtue of their very existence. The inherent worth of every human life has led the noble hearts of generations to praise the marvelous works of the Creator (cf. Ps 139:14) and stand in reverence before so precious a gift. Indeed, it is precisely this reverence that we must continue to cultivate — one that sways the hearts of individuals and inspires laws that recognize and safeguard the gift from the moment of conception to natural death. Reverence, too, will aid us in discovering that we are guardians and stewards of those entrusted to our care. In this regard, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to support, protect and cherish the lives of all, especially the most vulnerable and those whose worth is questioned.

Following the right to life, liberty was and is preeminent among the principles revered by the men and women who have sought within this nation’s borders a new beginning, often equating it with previously undreamed-of hope. Though frequently understood as the ability to act as one would like, authentic freedom runs much deeper. It is founded upon the human person’s capacity to know the truth and adhere to what is good, even at great cost — a sacrifice well known to many who have labored to shape this country. The desire for truth and freedom, as well as the very pursuit of happiness, continues to inspire people of all generations to ask fundamental questions regarding the meaning of life, our ultimate purpose, and indeed about God, and it is proper for magnanimous hearts to endeavor to answer these questions with sincerity. These answers inevitably determine the direction which we seek to give to our lives, and America has long championed the religious freedom necessary to follow responsibly the dictates of conscience in this regard, free from fear and coercion, as enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

It is this freedom that holds sacred the inner sphere of the person where convictions are formed and where conscience can guide the decisions made in the intimacy of the human heart. This same freedom also ensures the right of every person to worship according to one’s own belief, and of individuals, communities and associations to give public expression to their faith. In fact, religious freedom gave rise to the American tradition of allowing for interfaith dialogue and interreligious cooperation in promoting the public good and enriching the debates on the great moral and ethical issues that have faced the nation and shaped the course of its history. It is my hope that this tradition will continue to bear fruit in a public discourse marked by moderation, respect for the views of others and an ongoing effort to find common ground in promoting the cause of peace and reconciliation, at home and abroad.

The forbearers of this country, men and women of diverse backgrounds, religions and languages, were able to find that common ground and the strength necessary to pursue a better future. The principles that inspired America’s founders, rooted as they are in the truth of the human person, brought them together in a single cause, a common dream. Unity lent strength to that dream, giving rise, under God, to the United States of America. E pluribus unum — out of many, one. In order for a nation to flourish, it must be truly united; united not by goals bound to momentary endeavors, but by ideals that do not fade with the passing of time. May the principles we have reflected upon today — a shared human dignity, equality and the rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence — ever be a source of such unity and a guiding light for the present moment and for the years to come.

In accepting this award, I therefore pray that this, the 250^th anniversary of the founding of this great nation, may be the occasion of a solemn recommitment to these ideals that have made America a country that values peace and prosperity, a country characterized by generosity and nobility of heart. I commend all of you, as well as the future of the Nation, to the One who is himself the source of true freedom and lasting peace, the One whose very name is Peace.

May God bless America! Thank you!

The incident below is taken from an autobiography, To Be a Revolutionary, written by Fr. Jim “Guadalupe” Carney, S.J., a Jesuit priest serving the poor campesinos in Honduras in the 1970s.

Fr. Carney was murdered by Honduran military in 1983. Some accounts have him being thrown from a helicopter alive.

A man telling a woman what she should not do is not …

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We are living in times that are evil.

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On that day, May 8, 2025, American chanceries across the country had their TV monitors on as they anticipated the name of the new Pope.

Their hearts must have stopped, for a moment, as they as the name Prevost was heard around the world.

This is not what they were expecting.

The name Leo XIV was also a shock. In the words of the bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, “oh my goodness.”

We were all shocked, but for me, in a joyful sense. It was an answer to a prayer I made the day before he was elected that I posted on Facebook.

Ok, for what it’s worth. The great Saint worked 27 years, Benedict 8, that is 35 years, versus 12 for Francis…..My sense from what my inside sources tell me is that the Holy Spirit may wish to balance it out a little more, thus, a Pope who will mirror Francis in his own unique way, and someone who will be around for at least 23 years. Then it would be even: JP2/Benedict = 35 years. Francis 12 yrs, New Pope, Francis II, 23 yrs = 35 years. Ven espiritu santo. 🥀🌼 May 7, 2025

The last Leo wrote Rerum Novarum, 1891, which ushered in the age of the Church’s social doctrine. This was a good sign.

Those in the American episcopate knew the name Prevost from his role in the United States beginning in early 2023, when he was given responsibility for the selection of the country’s bishops.

In the two years before becoming pope, Cardinal Prevost was fully immersed in the doings of the American church, having removed one bishop from Tyler, TX, for example, and appointed others to key posts.

I trust Pope Francis made his likes and dislikes known to him considering they had one on one weekly meetings for close to two years. No other prelate had that kind of access.

He was known as “the American,” by other American bishops, but not an American like them. The media dubbed him the “least American among the Americans.”

The mantra heard for ages was that an American would never get elected Pope. Not until the Church went into political decline, per Cardinal Bernadine, would an American be elected.

A number of American bishops also thought that an American would never be elected. They were shocked, per their own telling.

What no one had imagined, is that they would pick an American who was not beholden to the United States Conference of Catholic bishops because he was not one of them.

In this sense, Cardinal Bernadine was correct, the Cardinals would not elect an American from that group of American bishops.

The Cardinals were looking for was a continuity candidate. Someone would continue the path set by Francis, not John Paul II, not Benedict XVI, but Pope Francis, and his vision of a missionary and synodal Church.

It wasn’t clear at the beginning of the conclave, but it became clear the next day. What initiated it was a group of twenty or so Cardinals who saw Prevost as papabali, who had worked with him in the dicastery of bishops, men who knew him up close.

On that first vote, he is one of only three who gets 20+ votes, Erdo of Hungary and Parolin the Italian diplomat are the two others. Thirty others received at least one vote and 100 Cardinals garnered not one single vote.

It soon became clear that among those three, Prevost had the edge, a South American, missionary priest to the poor, born and raised in Chicago, an Augustinian Provincial, doctorate in canon law, a decade + working in Rome, fluent in Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, young, healthy, vigorous.

Once that word got out it began to spread like tongues of fire.

The Holy Spirit was in the room.

What a gift to the Church.

The American Church, at least among those who saw themselves as top brass, were hoping for someone who would bring order to what they considered to be a divided church resulting from Pope Francis’s 12 years in office.

The division was a story they told themselves, unable to reconcile within themselves the ways of a saintly pope with a heart of gold.

Perhaps some wanted a Pope who would affirm their American Catholic worldview, or who would at minimum look away from their “culture warrior” drum beats and perhaps even bless it.

Someone who would elevate bishop Barron to Archbishop of New York City and in the process bless his media empire. Cardinal Erdo, or Stella, would fit the bill.

It was not to be.

What happened was the American bishops received a piece of humble pie none of them knew existed, a “woke” pope who takes the name of Leo, the “lion” who serves as a champion of peace and justice and the people over their rich overlords.

Not exactly what they had envisioned.

It was not supposed to be this way. They had worked hard to form the American church in their image. Their aim was to strengthen Catholic identity, defend traditional teachings, restore liturgical discipline, oppose theological ideas that weakened the faith, and appoint bishops loyal to their platform where power seemed almost as important as faith.

Younger priests had became more cultic and legalistic than the generation before them. Issues like abortion, marriage, sexuality, and religious freedom became central political and cultural battlegrounds.

Catholic media and lay movements grew more openly conservative. EWTN and company dominated the online networks where faith and identity politics were as much a part of their platform as Eucharistic processions.

This is the way it has been in the Church in the United States the last forty years beginning with John Paul II and continuing under Benedict XVI.

Under Francis, the American Catholic Church dug in their heels. Pope Francis was not one of them. He did not understand the cultural catholic ethos of the United States, per their telling.

They would show their respect to the Holy Father, but here, in the United States, the Church would remain in their own unique image.

We learned to live with it, but when June 16, 2015 happened, everything changed. A man enters the scene and slowly for numerous reasons becomes the politico of choice for conservative American Catholics. They loved that he got Roe v Wade overturned. They were all in.

The story is rich, complex, multi layered, but here is my summary. The one they applauded for, cheered for, the one who the priests hinted about in their talks, the one they placed their hopes in turned out to be one who is bad for the Church and the world.

This does not surprise me. Though I could have never predicted that the president would defame the holy father. Though I never thought that he would attack Iran. Though the extent of his involvement with Epstein is not something I could have foreseen.

That all the other points of darkness that have since unfolded in this last year were not named by me, I nevertheless knew, that he was a bad apple, and knew it from the get go.

This is why, on June 1, 2020, my first warning shot was issued, Silence is Golden, on the silence of Catholic leadership in the face of the corruption I was naming at that time.

It’s been five years since I began writing when the beast comes alive again and wins a second term. I along with other progressive Catholics in this country have never stopped being a voice for correction.

That correction has come, he is from Chicago and wears white.

We have duly noted the complicity of the American bishops in the presence of American presidential power gone mad. This will not be forgotten anytime soon.

Their silence has spoken volumes since the time Trump first entered the scene up until the moment of the election of Pope Leo XIV, and in some circles, it continues.

Many of them have turned a corner. The American bishops are standing behind Pope Leo. The American Cardinals, who elected him, are stepping forward and taking the lead. This is good to see. It brings me great joy.

Pope Leo still has a lot to say.

Stay tuned.

His first encyclical on the magnificent dignity of every person is coming out within hours and is sure to rattle the snakes who wander about the world seeking the destruction of souls.

They will be defeated.

Count on it.

On April 12, 2026, the President of the United States, standing on the tarmac outside, in D.C., in an impromptu press scrum, when a Journalist asks:

“Why did you attack Pope Leo on truth social?”

The actual quote I transcribed is below, but what stands out are the words, “he hit us.”

Interesting choice of words.

The bigger point is that he slanders the Holy…

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Easter Sunday, 2026, I say a prayer for the American president.

Here it is:

Dear God. I pray for President Trump. I pray that what I wrote on October 22, 2020, will not come to pass. I pray that your will of Light overcoming the darkness will be welcomed in his heart and in the hearts of those who give him power. Amen

This is what I wrote on October 22, 20…

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Carrie Prejean Boller got it right on this point, the Catholic faith does not hold room for the belief that the political and legal creation of the State of Israel in 1948 is rooted in biblical theology.

The official Vatican position is that both Israel and Palestine have a right to their own homeland, but this is grounded in legal and international principles, not theological ones.

In Carrie’s words, per Tucker Carlson interview:

“Wait a second, you’re saying that if I don’t believe that 1948 Israel, and I said this, people can verify, I don’t believe, as a Catholic that 1948, the modern state of Israel, has any biblical fulfillment, prophesy, at all, meaning at all. I don’t believe that, and I have a right not to believe that.”

Per the Catholic bishop of Scranton, PA, Joseph C. Brambera, in a letter dated March 13, 2026, she is correct, my words. In the summary of essential teaching, he writes:

“Catholics can appreciate the religious attachment that the Jewish people have to the land of Israel, but interpret the re-emergence in 1948 of a Jewish state in the historical rather than theological context.”

In short, the belief that 1948 Israel up to present moment is divine fiat and above reproach is not supported by Catholic teaching.

The Church supports the State of Israel and Palestine in general per legal and political terms, per general principles of human dignity, security, e.g. a two-state solution, regional stability, inter-religious relations, international agreements, but it does not teach that the founding of Israel in 1948 is a fulfillment of biblical teaching and prophesy.

“Aunt Jan, it’s not in the bible. Did you hear that, it’s not in the bible.”

What the Church excludes and condemns is the dynamic of clothing political and partisan ideologies with divine favor and grace.

Vatican II teaches this, in Gaudium et Spes:

“The Church, by reason of her role and competence, is not identified in any way with the political community nor bound to any political system. She is at once a sign and a safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person.”

Pope Leo emphasized this point when in Indianapolis on November, 11, 2025, he said this to thousands of American Catholics:

“Please be careful not to use political categories to speak about faith, to speak about the church. The church does not belong to any political party, rather she helps form your conscience so you can think and act with wisdom and love.”

Think about it, and this is why Carrie is so passionate, and so right, bestowing God’s blessings on partisan politics, on your partisan politics, is contrary to what the Catholic Church teaches and believes.

It is also contrary to human nature, contrary to basic humanitarian law, not to mention anathema to any person of goodwill who operates from rationality and not deficiency.

Carrie is rightly and courageously standing up for the “transcendent character of the human person.”

“No thanks, uncle Dan, you can believe whatever you want, but to impose it on others as God’s plan for humanity, to make it a condition for inclusion, and to say God has your back on this, yeah, that is f*cked up.”

You go Carrie.

Don’t stop.

Anna the prophetess not only has your back but she is also proud of you.

Luke 2:36-38

In my December 19, 2024 work, A Darkness Looms, I begin with these words:

“There is great upheaval and havoc in the world today, a slow dismantling of the world order, an injection of chaos and division unlike anything I have ever witnessed. Russia, the Middle East, Syria, the election of Donald Trump, just to name a few. Today, December 2024, there is a…

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The American ambassador to the Vatican, Brian Burch, recently gave an interview on Crux, published February 25, 2026: “U.S. Ambassador sees opportunity for ‘Catholic Moment’ with Leo.”

To give context to this recent interview with Crux, I take you back to an interview he gave on Fox…

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I trust you know what I am referring to.

We all know what happened.

Not just Cardinal McElroy, but other faith leaders as well.

Statement below.

The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti – two U.S. citizens devoted to civic engagement and to caring for their immigrant neighbors – have left communities in Minneapolis and across the…

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Veruca Salt was the young girl with red hair who was bratty and spoiled on the original Wiley Wonka and the Chocalate Factory.

She wanted a Golden Goose but she also wanted more.

She sings her desire, singing, in part:

I want a golden goose. I want the world. I want the whole world. I want to lock it all up in my pocket. It is my bar of Chocalate. Give it…

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I agree.

It was also something more and with greater significance.

It was an immoral and illegal assault against the United States of America.

The White House appears to have altered the narrative a bit.

See this:

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The perfectly timed unplanned screenshot above is from a You Tube account named Catholic Unscripted.

It is a United Kingdom apostolate founded by Katherine Bennett and Mark Lambert.

This interview took place in November of 2025.

Bishop Joseph Strictland was terminated from his job as the bishop of Tyler, Texas, on November 11, 2023, after he refused to re…

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What can I say?

In the face of such travesty and corruption, it’s easy to be at a loss for words.

Our nation is suffering, its people, its institutions, the rule of law itself is under attack.

I am reminded of a saying: a fish does not realize it is in water until it is taken out.

In this sense, the fish is last to discover water.

Let’s say the water is di…

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These letters from elementary school students have survived to this day.

I was finishing an internship year at a Catholic Church and school. I was 28 and one year away from being ordained a priest.

I had spent the sc…

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In a video clip of a press conference the President held in the Oval Office, he said some things I note for the record, as do others.

I listened to it six times to make sure my transcribing was correct.

Time etches th…

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Pope Leo held a digital conference with 16,000 American Catholic youth and their faith leaders in Indianapolis, IN, on November 21, 2025.

Witnessing an American pope appear in a live video feed, on a large monitor, in an American arena filled with American Catholics was epic.

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On October 23 Leo spoke to participants in the World meeting of popular movements.

He begins with Francis who, he notes, often dialogued “with your reality, shining light on its prophetic importance.”

Turning to his text, I note some hard hitting facts, or better yet, a truth that f*cking needed to be said.

Pope Leo gets it, and he gets it better than any…

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