Observers: ‘Pope’s visit has lifted the nation of Lebanon’; 120,000 Lebanese attend Mass with Pope Leo XIV in Beirut; National Guardsman Andrew Wolfe now awake and responsive; Walz in more trouble – with Transportation Secretary; North Carolina passes tough-on-crime legislation; Trump reportedly offers Maduro a chance to leave Venezuela safely; FLOTUS releases video showcasing 2025 White House Christmas decorations; Catholic writer: Roman hierarchy should discipline NYC Church for confirming unrepentant gay TV anchor; and more —
Pope Leo offers Lebanon a way to hope ‘even when surrounded by the sound of weapons’
Pope Leo XIV told Lebanon’s bishops, clergy, and pastoral workers on Monday that Christians can remain steadfast in hope “even when surrounded by the sound of weapons,” urging them to look to the Virgin Mary as a model of faith in dark and uncertain times.
Meeting them at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa on the second day of his apostolic visit, the pope said that Mary teaches believers how to persevere when daily life becomes a struggle. “It is in being with Mary at the foot of Jesus’ cross that our prayer, that invisible bridge which unites hearts, gives us the strength to continue to hope and work,” he said.
Leo recalled St. John Paul II’s words to the Lebanese — “In the Lebanon of today, you are the ones responsible for hope” — and urged believers to nurture a climate of fraternity wherever they live and work. He stressed the need to trust one another so that “the regenerative power of forgiveness and mercy may triumph,” adding that the fruits of this message are visible in Lebanon’s resilience.
Read more at the Catholic News Agency; see also @marionawfal
‘Pope’s visit has lifted the nation of Lebanon’
Watch @Catholic Arena
Pope delivers powerful message to youth in Lebanon
Watch @VaticanNews
Roman Hierarchy Should Discipline NYC Church For Confirming Unrepentant Gay TV Anchor
Gio Benitez, an openly gay-identified ABC News anchor, was recently confirmed into the Catholic Church, accompanied by his “husband” — who served as his “sponsor.”
The confirmation Mass took place last month at the brazenly pro-LGBT Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan. The historic landmark is the mother church of the Paulist Fathers – a, as writer Glenn Stanton noted, “rapidly dying” liberal order of priests. There were 98 active Paulist priests in 2004 and only 50 as of 2024. …
Orthodox Catholics — indeed, all orthodox Christians — know the spectacle at St. Paul the Apostle is nothing less than an affront to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, an abuse of the sacraments, a direct challenge to the Catholic Church’s eminently clear teaching on homosexuality, and an intentional test of faithful priests and bishops.
Will lay Catholics and ecclesiastics sweep the event under the rug, acting as if nothing blasphemous happened? Or will the event rightly merit a needed rebuke and correction? Perhaps even excommunication?
Read more at The Federalist
WV Governor gives promising news about wounded national guardsman
Watch @EricLDaugh
Summary of President Trump’s MRI Scan
Read @RapidResponse47
Treasury Department to investigate Minnesotans’ tax dollars being diverted to Al-Shabaab
Read more @SecScottBessent
Transportation Secretary warns Walz to revoke illegally issued CDLs or lose funding
Read more @SecDuffy
How Catholic Charities Turned Mass Afghan Resettlement Into a Federal Cash Pipeline
Read/watch @JackPosobiec and @AmyMek; see also @WallStreetApes
Report: Trump gives Nicholas Maduro an ‘out’
Read more @DailySignal; see also MEMRI
North Carolina passes tough-on-crime legislation
Read more @DailySignal
Important election in Tennessee today
Read @realDailyWire
Pro-Life Nuns Join Effort To Send Christmas Cards To Every Abortion Facilitator In The Country
A beautiful, behind-the-scenes project has been taking place during the Christmas season for the past five years.
Religious sisters from convents across the country have been sending Christmas cards to abortion centers, letting the staff there know they are prayed for, and that help is available if they’re interested in finding other work.
Sr. Christina Nazareth, a Capuchin Sister who lives in a Williamsport, Pennsylvania convent, received a letter from And Then There Were None, an organization that helps abortion workers leave the industry. With no computers, website, or email, the letter was the first the five nuns there had heard of the ministry.
Read more at The Federalist
North Dakota’s anti-abortion legislation should be a model for other states
The North Dakota Supreme Court reinstated the state’s expansive abortion ban last month. The law only allows abortion up to six weeks in cases of rape or incest and when the life of the mother is in danger. Unlike proposed pro-life legislation in other states, the North Dakota law places the punishment for abortion where it belongs. And that’s not with the mother.
As PBS reports, “The law makes it a felony crime for anyone to perform an abortion, though it specifically protects patients from prosecution. Doctors could be prosecuted and penalized by as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.”
Protecting post-abortive women from prosecution may be a controversial feature of the law to certain actors on the Right. But in reality, it is in keeping with the pro-life movement. This doesn’t mean an unborn child’s life is valueless. Instead, it is a tacit admission that women who have abortions are also victims. Quite often, these women are pressured, have no personal support, or do not understand the life-affirming options available to them.
On the other hand, doctors who perform abortions are both emotionally removed from the decision and are perhaps repeat offenders who view abortions as routine, money-making transactions. The North Dakota law is clear about the sanctity of life and soberly applies the blame.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
First Lady Melania Trump releases video showcasing the 2025 White House Christmas decorations
Watch @FLOTUS
Melania and Usha remember the deployed troops for Christmas
Watch @WhiteHouse
Social media users are asking prayers for the repose of the soul of Rev. Edwin Achi
See @ericschurchnst8
Pope Leo prays at St. Charbel’s tomb
Read more @EdwardPentin
Read about St. Charbel’s Miracles
Saint Charbel has performed well over 30,000 recorded miracles when he was alive as a Catholic Maronite Monk and Hermit, after his death on December 24, 1898 and to this current day in over 133 countries around the world. St Charbel has performed miracles to people that are sick, disabled, mentally ill and dying from various religions including Christians, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindus, Jewish, Druze, Alawites, Atheists to just name a few.
St Maroun’s Monastery in Annaya, Mount Lebanon receives hundreds of thousands of letters every year from people who want to share the great news of miracles, cures and wonders performed by St Charbel. This figure does not include the hundreds of thousands of email, phone calls, texts, facebook messages received by the monastery. It will be virtually impossible to write and describe every miracle that St Charbel has performed during and after his life on this website but here is just a few miracles …
Read more at St. Charbel Lebanon website
Rainbow surrounds statue of Our Lady of Lebanon
Watch @Tornielli
A Christmas Reminder –
See @sscjusa
