Rubio meets with Pope for 2½ hours, gifts Pontiff with crystal football; Washington Examiner columnist: ‘Abortion is the central organizing principle of today’s Democratic Party’; Karoline Leavitt announces daughter’s birth; Trump meets with Lincoln Memorial workers, scorches reporter criticizing beautification efforts; Republican mayoral candidate gains ground in LA; Finnish MP Päivi Päivi Räsänen – convicted of hate speech – appeals to European Court of Human Rights; Christians killed in Nigeria faster than news can report; Remaining Christians in West Bank fear erasure; Cdl. Burke issues prayer campaign for 1st anniversary of Pope Leo’s election; Today marks birthdays of St. Charbel, worker of a reported 30,000 miracles, and Venerable Fulton Sheen, pioneering media evangelist; and more —
Rubio meets with Pope Leo at Vatican to discuss Middle East, international situation
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met privately with Pope Leo XIV and other Vatican officials May 7 to discuss the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and the need to promote peace and human dignity, according to statements from the Vatican and U.S. officials.
In a statement released after the meeting, the Vatican said the “cordial discussions” first took place between Rubio and Pope Leo before later talks involving Rubio, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations. …
“There was also an exchange of views regarding the regional and international situation,” the statement [XXX], “with particular attention given to countries marked by war, political tensions, and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as to the need to work tirelessly in support of peace.”
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Rubio and the Pope discussed the “situation” in the Middle East and topics “of mutual interest” in the Western Hemisphere. The meeting “underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he said. Rubio later met with Cardinal Parolin to discuss “mutual cooperation and pressing international issues,” according to Pigott.
Read more at Zeale; see also @EricLDaugh
Rubio’s remarks upon return to the US from Rome
Watch @StateDept
Secretary Rubio shares pics of the meeting with Pope Leo
See @SecRubio
Video of Rubio meeting Pope Leo, gifting him with crystal football
Watch @CatholicVote
Sec. Rubio meets PM Meloni
Watch @EricLDaugh
When California Republicans Run Against Democrats, They’re Running Against The Government by Chris Bray
Non-governmental organizations frequently aren’t non-governmental. Instead, they’re government cut-outs, state funding moved to private bank accounts for private activity.
California government is the Democrat Party, and NGOs are the bridge. It’s like looking at a ball of yarn: The threads wrap together.
That long-understood interconnection has just resurfaced in the form of a new allegation. In California this week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton made a claim that didn’t really surprise anyone.
The conservative California journalist Jennifer Van Laar has been reporting for years, using financial data compiled by the Bay Area lawyer Laura Powell, that the large and omnipresent Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) is a government-fed activist group …
Read more at The Federalist
Spencer Pratt confident of winning LA mayoral race, says only communists will not vote for him
Watch @sgtnewsnetwork
Latinos for Spencer Platt release new video – ‘Spencer, Saca La Basura!‘
We need a new vision for the city of Los Angeles, and Spencer Pratt is the right man for the job! He’s not in it for anything other than to clean up his hometown, and make sure the people that let his house burn pay the price. Saca la Bassura, Karen Bass, Spencer, and let’s get this city back on top!
Watch at Latinos Por Pratt
Trump shakes hands with Lincoln Memorial project workers
Watch @nicksortor
Trump scorches journalist criticizing ‘Make DC Beautiful Again’ efforts
Watch @EricLDaugh
Press secretary gives birth to baby girl
See @karolineleavitt
The Democrat-Abortion Axis by Timothy P. Carney
There may be no relationship more intimate in all of Washington than the affair between the Democratic Party and the abortion lobby. Democrats’ one non-negotiable stance is their defense of abortion — not merely keeping it legal, but using taxpayer money to subsidize the industry and using law enforcement to persecute its enemies.
The Trump Justice Department just shone a light on one corner of this abortion-Democrat combine, as part of its 880-page report on the Biden administration’s persecution of pro-lifers.
The report documents how Biden officials, in their effort to prosecute every pro-lifer they could, relied on the abortion lobby to find targets. But one newly unearthed detail, not directly related to persecution or prosecution, highlights the coziness.
When an abortion group was seeking a foundation grant, officials seeking a reference turned to Biden’s prosecutors — and the prosecutors assented, in essence becoming fundraisers for abortion.
Read more at AEI; read also ‘More examples of the Democrat-Abortion axis’ at the Washington Examiner
Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen convicted of hate speech ups the ante, appeals to European Court of Human Rights
Watch @ADFIntl
Today the Pontiff celebrates the 1st anniversary of his election
See @USinHolySee; watch @CatholicArena
Cdl. Burke issues prayer campaign for 1st anniversary of Pope’s election
Watch @MLJHaynes
Pope Leo XIV Sought a Pastoral Role in His First Year, but Verbal Sparring with Trump Intervened
Pope Leo XIV had tried during his first year as pontiff to insist that his essential role was that of a pastor accompanying his flock. President Donald Trump’s continuing criticisms – and Leo’s increasingly bold retorts – complicated the effort and overshadowed Friday’s anniversary of Leo’s election.
Leo spent the eve of the 1-year mark meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had come to the Vatican on a fence-mending visit. Trump’s repeated broadsides against history’s first U.S. pope created an unprecedented back-and-forth on issues of the Iran war and peace that strained U.S.-Holy See relations.
By the end of the visit, both the Vatican and the State Department stressed their strong bilateral ties. But the episode nevertheless pushed Leo out of his comfort zone and onto the global stage to make zingers like the one this week, after Trump’s latest misrepresentation of his views. “If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo said.
Read more at NEWSMAX
Nigeria Exclusive: Christians Killed Faster Than News Can Report – Antonio Graceffo
On May 8, while sitting at a Christian conference in Nigeria preparing to interview victims of Fulani and jihadist attacks, I received a message from one of the local men helping me during my mission that 10 Christians had been killed in the Miango community, where I had visited just two days earlier to report on previous murders and kidnappings.
Just minutes later, a member of the Palace Alliance, which is co-sponsoring the event with the Christian Awareness Initiative of Nigeria (CHAIN), came and told me that three Christians had recently been kidnapped and that one had escaped. The escapee reportedly said that one of the others had been killed, the body hacked apart, and the two remaining survivors forced to eat the raw meat.
We were waiting to verify the story before I left the conference to interview the survivor at a hospital 35 minutes away.
A similar situation occurred just two days earlier when I woke up to find out that Christians had been killed in a nearby community. While I was writing up the story, reports came in that the funeral had been attacked. Simultaneously, the Fulani launched an attack on a different village that I had not yet visited or even heard of.
Read more at The Gateway Pundit; read also ‘Jihad Rising in Africa While the West Averts its Eyes’ at the Gatestone Institute
WV lawmaker calls for US to defend Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria
I am asking the Trump Administration to take forceful action to defend our innocent brothers and sisters in Christ in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, the epicenter of an ongoing Christian genocide.
See @RepRileyMoore
Bishop calls for prayers for release of Nigerian priest and parishioners
See @CatholicArena
Remaining Christians in West Bank fear erasure
See @JasonJonesVPP
Today is the Birthday of St. Charbel
Today, we celebrate the birth of Saint Charbel. He was born on May 8, 1828, in Bqaa Kafra! To mark the 198th anniversary of his birth, rediscover the story of Lebanon’s patron saint with nearly 30,000 miracles.
Watch @OuevredOrient (in French); see also ‘St. Charbel: The Hermit Whose Miracles Still Stun the World’ here (in English)
May 8 is also the Birthday of Venerable Fulton Sheen
See at CatholicArena
Litany of the Virgin Mary in Aramaic, Our Lord’s Language
Listen @AramaicWire
