Trump’s would-be assassin sentenced to life in prison; House to vote soon to require citizenship check and photo ID for voting – upping Senate pressure; Homan announces drawdown of federal agents in Minnesota after securing cooperation from local jails; Mass of Reparation offered at desecrated Catholic school in Southern California; Australian boy swims 4 hours to save family, claims God gave him the strength; At least 170 Nigerian Christians killed by Islamists after refusing to submit to Sharia law; Catholics honor St. Agatha’s unyielding faith on her Feast Day; and more —
Trump’s would-be assassin sentenced to life in prison
See @MrAndyNgo
From the DOJ – Ryan Wesley Routh Sentenced to Life in Prison for Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump and Assault of a Federal Law Enforcement Officer
Today, Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, was sentenced to life plus 84 months in federal prison for the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and related violent and firearms offenses. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon for the Southern District of Florida imposed the sentence following Routh’s conviction by a federal jury on all five counts charged in the indictment.
“Ryan Routh’s heinous attempted assassination of President Trump was not only an attack on our President — it was a direct assault against our entire democratic system,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Thanks to our prosecutors in the National Security Division and the Southern District of Florida, Routh will never walk free again.”
“Routh’s plan to kill a major presidential candidate, President Donald Trump, was a despicable attack on our democratic system,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Thanks to the work of the FBI and our Justice Department partners, he will pay a high price for his actions. Today’s sentencing demonstrates the justice system will not tolerate such heinous attacks.”
Read more at U.S. Department of Justice
House to vote next week to require citizenship check and photo ID for voting, upping Senate pressure
See @JustTheNews
Homan announces drawdown of federal agents in Minnesota after securing “unprecedented cooperation” from local jails
See @99JWD
Minnesota schools ask court to block ICE in latest effort to hamper immigration operations
A coalition of local schools and teachers became the latest group to take their issues with the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge to federal court on Wednesday. Since the Trump administration began the immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis area, it has received pushback over its aggressive tactics with a flurry of lawsuits.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota targets the Department of Homeland Security’s decision, on the first day of the Trump administration, to revoke the policy restricting immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations,” including churches and schools. The coalition of school districts and the teachers union argue the policy was unlawfully revoked in January 2025 and cite the “fear” possible enforcement operations at schools has caused students and parents.
“As a result, parents, children, and teachers, regardless of immigration status, reasonably fear going to school,” the lawsuit reads. “School districts and teachers across Minnesota have reported significant reductions in attendance rates since the onset of ‘Operation Metro Su
“Defendants’ actions have caused direct and irreparable harm to the abilities of school districts and educators to fulfill their functions—to educate children and to provide access to educational services and a safe learning environment,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit filed in Minnesota is not the first time the Trump administration’s revocation of the sensitive locations policy has been challenged in federal court.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
Homan on left-wing media using children to protest ICE
Watch @EricLDaugh
Head of ICE/St. Paul disputes claim ICE targets schools
Watch @BreccanFThies
Anti-ICE Activism Represents The Suicide Of Western Civilization – Essay by Casey Chalk
What makes a person forego his or her regular professional or personal routine in order to stalk federal law enforcement? What makes that person agree to put himself in close proximity to those law enforcement officers, in the freezing cold, even after multiple incidents have resulted in the death of similar activists?
It’s a question worthy of serious consideration, given that more than 34,000 Minnesotans have joined various agitator groups to learn to be U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “observers.”
I think I know what James Burnham, one of the most important (if today largely unknown) American thinkers of the 20th century, would say about anti-ICE activism. Burnham would say it’s a clear example of liberals’ attempts to accelerate the suicide of their own civilization.
Read more at The Federalist
[Detroit] Archbishop Weisenburger: ICE violence, child separations put America’s soul in crisis
In the light of recent and tragic immigration enforcement incidents, a great many individuals have asked my opinion of our nation’s immigration procedures.
Actually, they are among the issues that keep me awake at night.
Before I address the question, please allow me to recount a portion of my personal history which — along with the Gospel and Catholic teachings — has profoundly affected my understanding of the situation.
When I served as the Bishop of Tucson, Arizona, my diocese contained the entire Arizona-Mexico border. Working with government entities, Tucson’s Catholic Charities coordinated the reception of thousands of immigrants during my tenure. …
Read more at Detroit Catholic
An NGO with a Steeple: Why the Bishops Can’t Afford to Close the Border – Essay
Tara Lee Rodas thought she was answering a call from God. It was 2021, and the Biden administration had issued a desperate plea for federal employees to volunteer at Emergency Intake Sites for the surge of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) flooding the border. Rodas, a dedicated public servant and a woman of faith, raised her hand. She landed at the Pomona Fairplex in California—a sprawling, makeshift city of cots and confusion.
She arrived expecting to place vulnerable children into loving homes. She expected a rescue mission. What she found was a logistics operation.
Rodas watched as the system—frantic to clear bed space and secure grant metrics—began handing children over to “sponsors” with barely a glance at the vetting paperwork. She saw red flags ignored. She saw children released to addresses linked to labor trafficking rings. And when she blew the whistle, she realized she wasn’t witnessing a glitch. She was witnessing a feature.
In her testimony to Congress, Rodas delivered a line that should haunt every pew-sitting Catholic in America: “We are luring children to the United States to be the white-glove delivery system of these children to known MS-13, 18th Street Gang, Russian Balkan crime syndicates”.
And that ‘we’? It isn’t just the federal government. It’s the Catholic Church.
Read more Between Two Ages
Mass of Reparation offered at desecrated Catholic School in Southern California
See @father_rmv
Australian boy swims 4 hours to save family, claims God gave him the strength to defy the odds
Watch @LilaGraceRose
Scott Jennings: The American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the AMA now admit there’s insufficient evidence to justify irreversible gender transition surgeries for minors
Watch @JenningsShow; read more at Catholics for Catholics
Fallout Continues at Notre Dame Over Pro-Abortion Appointee
Two scholars have resigned their roles at the university’s Asian studies institute, while the student pro-life group has called for the appointment to be withdrawn.
Two scholars have resigned from their roles with the University of Notre Dame’s Asian studies institute because the university has named an outspoken advocate of legal abortion as its next director.
Meanwhile, the head of the university’s pro-life group is calling on Notre Dame to withdraw the appointment.
Robert Gimello, a research professor emeritus of theology who is an expert on Buddhism, and Diane Desierto, a professor of law and of global affairs, told the Register they have cut ties with the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies over the announcement last month that Susan Ostermann will become the institute’s new leader starting July 1.
Gimello, explaining his resignation, called Ostermann “a scholar who has repeatedly, publicly, and adamantly proclaimed her opposition to (verging at times, it seems to me, on contempt for) the Catholic Church’s firm teaching that protection and nourishment of human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is a sacred duty incumbent upon the whole human community.”
Read more at the National Catholic Register
Cardinal Burke – Atheistic promotion of anti-life policies leads to ‘self-destruction’ of nations
Lamenting the widespread push for contraception, abortion and euthanasia, Cardinal Raymond Burke highlighted the link between this attack on the family and the detriments for the Church, whilst urging Catholics to be more active in the pro-life fields.
“Infanticide” and national “self-destruction” was how Cdl. Burke referred to the promotion of abortion recently. “The agents of abortion, the agents of euthanasia, they don’t tell you what the reality is,” he noted.
Speaking to Per Mariam in Rome in January, the American prelate opined on the current push for the varied attacks on the sanctity of life seen in countries around the world, be it at the earliest or the latter stages in life.
Read more at Per Mariam
Pope turns to monastic tradition for the first Lenten retreat of his pontificate
See @dianemontagna; read more at Diane Montagna’s Substack; see also Bp. Erik Varden’s website
US and Hungary Forge Civilizational Alliance to Defend Persecuted Christians and Reject Mass Migration as a False Solution
America and Hungary’s patriotic-conservative governments have taken a decisive step to formalize what leaders on both sides describe as a renewed strategic and civilizational partnership.
This week, the United States and Hungary signed a new memorandum of understanding aimed at coordinating assistance for persecuted Christians and other religious minorities across the globe.
The agreement was signed in Washington on February 4 by Michael J. Rigas, the US Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, and Tristan Azbej, Hungary’s State Secretary responsible for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and the Hungary Helps Program. …
The partnership further cements Hungary’s position as a leading global advocate for Christians under threat. Orbán’s government has made clear that defending Christianity abroad is inseparable from defending national sovereignty at home.
Read more at the Gateway Pundit; see also U.S. Department of State press release; see also @tristan_azbej
Nigerian diocese call for prayers for release of kidnapped Christians
Read @FrUgochukwu
170 Nigerian Christians were executed after they refused to convert to Islam
See @SkyNews; read more at sky news; watch more @Morris_Monye
Today is the Feast Day of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr
Her last words before she was martyred: “Lord, my Creator, you have ever protected me from the cradle; you have taken me from the love of the world, and given me patience to suffer: receive now my soul.”
See @TempusFugit4016; see also @nesci1811
