Love of life, the course of journey, and the enjoyment of aliens

Happy Friday associates,

As lots of you, I’m not one for public appearances. The reality is, if you happen to take me exterior of my narrowly outlined consolation zones, like Pillar occasions and canon legislation conferences, I get fairly horrible stage fright.

As a end result, I are likely to ship regrets — honest ones — to many of the occasional invites I get to talk at one or different type of occasion. In some circumstances although, for some causes, I really feel such as you simply can’t say no, even if you happen to suppose you’re not the very best man for the job.

Last night time was one such event. Here in Washington I used to be requested to talk on the kick off for the 40 Days for Life marketing campaign exterior a downtown Planned Parenthood facility. Standing in entrance of strangers and presuming to have one thing value their listening to provides me the horrors, however beneath the circumstances, I felt like I needed to do it.

In truth, to not settle for felt like shirking the very witness we’re all referred to as to make in the reason for life.

It appears to me that a very powerful work within the witness for all times, probably the most fundamental and vital gesture, is for us — all of us — to swallow our fears of showing ridiculous, of being rejected and disparaged, and talking the reality we all know with love.

Love, its necessity and its intrinsic relationship to life, was what I attempted to speak about final night time. We discuss rather a lot about combating for all times, and Lord is aware of it’s value combating for. But the moms drawn to these horrible locations will not be enemy combatants, they’re the primary casualties, alongside their unborn kids, of a horrible failure of affection.

They are the victims of a tradition of affection’s true reverse, correctly described by St. John Paul II not as hate however as use. Abortion is the horrible, logical, inevitable consequence of what occurs in a society during which folks in the end exist for use, not beloved.

But these moms and their kids are beloved. They are beloved in the identical method and by the identical God whose love provides me dignity and goal and motive for my being.

In the controversy about abortion and life, we converse a lot of freedoms and rights. But, in the end, the one actually, objectively unalienable freedom is the liberty to like. And to like these moms, not within the summary however individually, is our absolute obligation — and a love which isn’t expressed instantly and out loud isn’t any love in any respect.

That’s why I went to Planned Parenthood final night time: To inform folks they’re beloved.

Here’s the information.

Chaldean Catholic Bishop Emanuel Shaleta in California has submitted his resignation amid a Vatican-ordered investigation into allegations of considerable embezzlement and sexual misconduct.

But his resignation has not but been accepted by the Vatican, and sources say Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Sako is aiming to see the bishop retain a spot in Church management.

According to paperwork reviewed by The Pillar, parish finance council members at St. Peter’s Chaldean Cathedral in El Cajon, California, the bishop collected lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} in Church funds in money, and coated the appropriations with cash from the cathedral’s fund for the poor.

Reports from investigators additionally confirmed a sample of conduct by the bishop linked to the lacking funds — together with common deposits within the account of a selected lady whose home he was noticed frequenting, and journeys to a Mexican brothel linked to human trafficking.

You can learn the entire story right here.

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Venezuelan Catholic politician Juan Pablo Guanipa was put beneath home arrest simply hours after he had been launched from jail, the place he had been for 9 months.

Guanipa, one of many best-known faces of the Venezuelan opposition, and one of many nation’s most outstanding Catholic political figures, had been initially arrested on May 23, 2025 and accused of conspiracy and terrorism. He had beforehand spent 9 months in hiding.

Read the entire story right here.

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For many individuals, Lent is related to the giving up of issues, however for St. Augustine Lent was a time to acknowledge the restlessness of the human coronary heart, and to permit God to broaden one’s coronary heart and capability for love.

What precisely does that imply, and the way do Augustinians strategy Lent? And what would that imply for somebody like Pope Leo? To discover out, Jack Figge spoke with Father Robert Hagan, OSA, the prior-provincial of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova.

And, since Hagan can be the chaplain of the Villanova males’s basketball crew, we additionally requested concerning the overlap between Lent and the upcoming March Madness school basketball event.

Read the entire interview right here.

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With the reform of Opus Dei nonetheless beneath assessment, and amid allegations of abuse in Argentina, Pope Leo XIV obtained the private prelature’s management in a personal viewers this week.

Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz and Msgr. Mariano Fazio, the prelate and auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei, met with the pope on Monday, with the prelature saying afterwards that there was no finish in sight for the group’s ongoing canonical restructuring, which started beneath Pope Francis.

So what’s the standing of the reform course of, and what are the allegations? Read the entire story right here.

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The variety of grownup baptisms in Belgium is anticipated to surge once more in 2026, after dioceses reported an nearly 30% improve in candidates in comparison with 2025.

The new figures affirm that Belgium, lengthy thought of considered one of Europe’s most secularized nations, is seeing an grownup “baptism boom.”

The variety of anticipated grownup baptisms in 2026 is 3 times increased than in 2016, when there have been 229. After years of regular progress, the determine started to climb steeply in 2024, mirroring the development in neighboring France.

Read all about it proper right here.

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Bishop Rick Stika, the emeritus bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville who resigned in 2023, died this week on the age of 68.

Bishop Stika suffered from diabetes and coronary heart issues, together with a 2009 coronary heart assault and a 2018 bypass surgical procedure. He led the Diocese of Knoxville for nearly 15 years earlier than the Vatican requested his resignation, which was accepted by Pope Francis in June 2023.

Pillar readers know effectively that his life in recent times has been beset by problem.

You can learn his full obituary right here.

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Although the Vatican introduced earlier this month that Pope Leo XIV won’t be visiting the United States for the 250th anniversary of independence, however Leo is anticipated to take care of a full of life journey schedule this yr and past, with numerous journeys confirmed and a number of other others possible.

So, the place is the pope going? When will he journey? And what’s going to he do within the locations he intends to go to? Read all about it proper right here.

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A Polish Catholic diocese has defended its bishop’s dealing with of clerical abuse circumstances this week as he appeared in court docket for a landmark trial.

Bishop Andrzej Jeż, who has led the southeastern Diocese of Tarnów since 2012, appeared in district court docket Feb. 18 on prices of failing to inform legislation enforcement promptly about allegations in opposition to two clergymen accused of abusing minors beneath the age of 15, which he denies.

Polish media say the trial of a diocesan bishop on these prices is unprecedented and can be adopted carefully throughout the nation.

Read the entire story right here.

This Lent, join Catholics across the country as we gather again for Bible Across America—the nation’s biggest Catholic Bible study. During our Lenten Bible study, Shane Owens and guests will blend biblical expertise with lived experience, unpacking the Bible’s practical relevance as we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection.

So, after his assembly with Cardinal Fernandez the opposite week, the superior of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X has doubled down on plans for his group to proceed with the illicit consecration of several new bishops this summer.

I rehearsed the SSPX superior’s rationale for this form of motion two weeks in the past, and I don’t see any have to debunk it yet again for the spurious nonsense it’s.

Their most up-to-date missive comes full with quite a few “annexes,” considered one of which quantities to probably the most supremely amusing train in sophomoric self-justification, round logic, and canonical magical pondering I’ve learn in fairly a while.

Far from a severe engagement with what they suggest to do, the SSPX comes off just like the ecclesiastical model of these “sovereign citizen” loonies.

But like I mentioned, that’s not what I need to speak about. What pursuits me for the second is the course of journey the society has set for itself.

Because, comically grandiose and prolix statements to at least one aspect, it’s clear the place the SSPX at the moment are headed, and I feel it’s value gaming out the implications for them — and the alternatives that might open up for Pope Leo.