Trump says US spared Kharg Island’s oil infrastructure for a future democratic government; Western allies refuse to help US secure Strait of Hormuz; Trump formally names Vance chair of anti-fraud task force; Nick Shirley drops new video on fraud in California; President of Ireland releases non-Irish St. Patrick’s Day greeting; Trump-Vance DOJ sides with abortion industry on mail-order drugs; NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH – DAY EIGHT – happens today; The world celebrates the great St. Patrick; and more —
Trump: One Word Could End Iran Oil Exports on Kharg Island
President Donald Trump said Monday it would take “just one simple word” for the United States to destroy the oil infrastructure on Iran’s Kharg Island, which handles roughly 90% of the Islamic Republic’s crude exports.
On Friday night, the U.S. targeted Iranian military facilities on the five-mile-long coral island about 15 miles off mainland Iran in the northern Persian Gulf.
But Trump said Monday, after a meeting of the board of the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, that the U.S. deliberately spared the island’s oil infrastructure to preserve it for a future democratic government.
Read more at NEWSMAX
‘Allies’ refuse to help US secure Strait of Hormuz
Watch @EricLDaugh
Trump formally names Vance chair of fraud task force — with California, New York among states in crosshairs
Trump joked that Vance would fulfill his fraud-czar duties with greater zeal than former Vice President Kamala Harris embraced her role as President Biden’s border czar.
“This will not be like a Kamala where she was put in charge of the border and she never went there. JD, right, you promise?” the president said, with Vance agreeing.
A document describing the order said that, in addition to Minnesota, “there is strong reason to believe similar vulnerabilities exist in California, Illinois, New York, Maine, and Colorado, where insufficient safeguards and weak oversight increase the risk of large-scale fraud.”
Read more at the New York Post
VP speaks on Anti-Fraud Task Force
Watch @JDVance
Nick Shirley’s latest exposé on fraud in California
Watch @nickshirleyy
First Circuit rules Trump administration can deport illegal migrants to third countries
See @AGPamBondi
Bishop Seitz on Catholic immigration stance: ‘Mercy has to play a role’
El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz released over the weekend a pastoral message calling for an end to the government’s policies of mass detention and deportation.
Detailing the abuses and deaths reported inside the local immigrant detention center, Seitz wrote that “the current national campaign of mass detention and deportations is a grave moral evil, one which must be opposed, with prayer, peaceful action and acts of solidarity with those affected.”
The Pillar spoke with Bishop Seitz, who said he intended his message not as an attack on any individuals of viewpoints, but as a call for further reflection on Church teaching.
In the interview, Seitz highlighted the Catholic understanding of justice, concerns about jobs and national security, and the role of language in the national debate over immigration policy.
Read more at The Pillar
Progress toward passing the SAVE America Act?
See @GCaldwell_news
Trump-Vance DOJ Sides With Abortion Industry on Mail-Order Drugs Twice in a Week
[Last week] the U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss lawsuits brought by Florida and Texas against the Food and Drug Administration – siding with the abortion industry on mail-order drugs against pro-life states for the second time in a week.
In response, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser issued the following statement:
“It’s a disgrace that pro-life states like Florida and Texas are having to fight the Trump-Vance administration in court to uphold their laws and that extremists like Gavin Newsom are being allowed to dictate their policy. The Trump-Vance DOJ has clearly established a policy of siding with the abortion industry as it breaks laws, kills babies and harms women and girls.
“Twenty-one Republican attorneys general including James Uthmeier and Ken Paxton, 51 U.S. senators and 175 members of Congress have repeatedly asked this administration to stand up for their right to enforce laws protecting their people. Florida and Texas are the two biggest pro-life states in the country, with laws that protect more than 100,000 lives a year combined. But these laws cannot protect vulnerable people and the public health as long as the federal government is undermining them by leaving Biden’s mail-order abortion drug rule in place.
Read more at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America
WHAT??? Irish President Catherine Connolly Rewrites the Story of St. Patrick, Says it’s About ‘the Resilience and Courage of Migrants’
[Today] is St. Patrick’s Day, the most widely celebrated Irish holiday, but Catherine Connolly, the President of Ireland, is rewriting and repurposing his story.
St. Patrick was a Roman living in Britain who was captured by raiders and brought to Ireland as a slave. After escaping Ireland and becoming a Catholic priest, he dreamed that the people of Ireland were calling out to him to save them. He traveled back to Ireland and successfully converted the Irish people from paganism to Christianity.
According to President Connolly, St. Patrick’s story is all about how brave migrants are, and how the story reminds us all to be good global citizens. Is she insane?
Also, notice that when she speaks she never refers to St. Patrick as a saint and never describes why he is a saint.
Read more at the Gateway Pundit
President of Ireland’s non-Irish St. Patrick’s Day Greeting
Watch @Politico_loco
Don’t write off Catholic Ireland
See @CatholicArena
St. Patrick Celebration in Ireland
See @RosaryQuotes123
Bishop Barron pains the Catholic Left. He heartens the rest of us – Essay by Peter Wolfgang
Steven Greydanus, a deacon of the Archdiocese of Newark and former film critic for the National Catholic Register, has penned a “longread” Substack article against Bishop Robert Barron. Here’s the short version: Bishop Barron leans right. This pains Catholics like Greydanus, who lean left.
To which I can only say: So what?
I don’t know if Bishop Barron, or his many fans, would agree with Greydanus’ claim that Barron criticizes the left more than he does the right. But I agree with Greydanus. The difference is that Greydanus thinks it’s a bad thing and I think it’s a good thing.
The political left and political right in the United States in 2026 are not morally equivalent. The left is worse. Far worse. That is what I believe. I suspect it is what Bishop Barron believes too, though I don’t expect him to ever say it as explicitly as I just did.
Read more at Catholic Culture
Pro-abortion, pro-population control priest dead at 93
See @EdwardPentin
Lebanon raises a huge statue of Jesus the Redeemer
Watch @Easternchristians
Priest gives his life to save a drowning boy in Ecuador
See @SwPrayer; read more at ‘Father Alfonso Avilés is buried today, who died while rescuing an altar boy in Playas’ at Radio (Translation available)
NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH – DAY EIGHT
See @father_rmv
Today is St. Patrick’s Day!
See @CatholicArena
The Lorica of St. Patrick, also known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate or The Deer’s Cry, is a celebrated 5th-century Celtic prayer attributed to St. Patrick for divine protection against evil, temptations, and physical dangers
Pray @EWTN
An Exorcist explains how the St. Patrick’s Prayer (above) can be used to cast out demons
Read/watch @UcheMaryOkoli
The Story of Ireland’s Patron Saint
Watch at Irish History Podcast
