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VATICAN CITY — Two close associates of Pope Francis have accused American Catholic ultraconservatives of making an alliance of “hate” with evangelical Christians to back President Trump, further alienating a group already out of the Vatican’s good graces. The authors, writing in a Vatican-vetted journal, singled out Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, as a “supporter of an apocalyptic geopolitics” that has stymied action against climate change and exploited fears of migrants and Muslims with calls for “walls and purifying deportations.” The article warns that conservative American Catholics have strayed dangerously into the deepening political polarization in the United...

Her wealth eclipses J.K. Rowling and the Queen’s combined, but you might not have heard of Britain’s richest woman. An astounding fortune of £11.5 billion makes 46-year-old Kirsty Bertarelli the wealthiest woman in the UK. And she has the superyacht to prove it. The vessel costs £250,000 just to refuel and was commissioned for the former beauty queen by her billionaire husband Ernesto, 51. The couple, who have three children, enjoy an extremely luxurious lifestyle and spend months on their £100 million superyacht, a 314ft-long Vava II. The couple were spotted relaxing on the top deck of their yacht taking...

Dozens of people filled the room where the Denver City Council met on Wednesday to consider taking a stance on protecting immigrants from federal agents. The safety committee passed the ordinance by a vote of 6-1.

Editor’s note: The following comes from Domingo Caro, a contributor well versed in politics and the Church in South America.Colombia has been terrorized and turned into a drug-dealing country by communist subversion for decades. The worst force in this regard has a name: the “Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia” (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), or FARC. After President Uribe (2002-2010) struck them hard, they decided to change their strategy and secure power through elections, as Hugo Chávez himself did in neighboring Venezuela.Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has played an active role in this strategy. Last year, he signed a “peace”...

Above and beyond of the tens of thousands of incriminating emails already discovered last year, a new batch of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails reveal a more extensive abuse of classified information – along with more evidence that she gave donors favors for their generous contributions to the Clinton Foundation. The government watchdog group Judicial Watch’s lawsuit has released a new batch of Clinton’s emails – communications that reveal more proof that Clinton Foundation donors consistently received special favors from her staff, and that her top aide, Huma Abedin, routinely sent information that was classified through a non-secure...

Firing the Mooch. BIG MISTAKE. I do not care what anyone says. He was brilliant at the press conferences. And as Diamond and Silk pointed out, for the 10-11 days he was on, Russia was not the narrative and the swamp was only starting to get drained. The moment he was fired and General Kelly came on board: more leaks than with Priebus in charge!!! And swamp creatures getting a free pass galore. The next few weeks is going to be a dark period for the White House until President Trump gets his bearings and trusts his instincts again rather...

At training camp this week, Tennessee Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews unveiled a large tattoo portrait of former President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama inked on his leg. Speaking to The Tennessean, Matthews explained his decision. "The first president I voted for, first black president, first black first lady. Myself being African American, they're obviously great role models and they let the black community and minorities, in general, know that the sky is the limit if you put your mind to it,” Matthews said. The second-year player from Santa Ana, California, continued, “My kids are minorities, and we...

Today's commentary is brought to you by Matthew Henry. Proverb 3:1-6 Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible We are here taught to live a life of communion with God; and without controversy great is this mystery of godliness, and of great consequence to us, and, as is here shown, will be of unspeakable advantage. --I )We must have a continual regard to God's precepts, Pro_3:1, Pro_3:2. -----[1.] We must, --------(A) Fix God's law, and his commandments, as our rule, by which we will in every thing be ruled and to which we will yield obedience. --------(B) We must...

The Cold Civil War While leaving Obama-era holdovers in place, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster continues his purge of Trump Administration officials viewed as pro-Israel and loyal to the president. According to Caroline Glick, McMaster refers to Israel as an "occupying power."Special Counsel Robert Mueller picks yet another Obama appointee to the investigation into Russia's purported efforts to influence the presidential election. Mueller has packed his team with Obama appointees and contributors to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the troubled Clinton Foundation.U.S. Congressman Trent Franks declared that Mueller's conflict of interest is in violation of the law and that Mueller...

The Dafferner family received a message Wednesday asking about their eight-legged intruder. They said a 9-year-old girl in the neighborhood is excited to take ownership of the giant spider. “The private message was ‘can we have it?’ Who am I to say no?" Hannah's mom Alli Dafferner said. "Happily.” Tarantulas are known to live in San Diego County and throughout Southern California. According to several websites about the eight-legged creature, they are members of Aphonopelma, ground-dwelling hunting spiders. The California tarantula is nocturnal for most of its life, leaving its hole at night to hunt for beetles, grasshoppers, lizards, mice,...

Former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power is believed to have made "hundreds" of unmasking requests to identify individuals named in classified intelligence community reports related to Trump and his presidential transition team, according to multiple sources who said the behavior is unprecedented for an official in her position. Power was first identified by the Washington Free Beacon last month as a central figure in a congressional investigation into efforts by senior Obama administration officials to obtain classified intelligence information in what many allege was an effort to undermine President Donald Trump and his incoming national security team.

Seattle, Washington, with its highest-in-the-nation minimum wage, has discovered how high is too high. In January 2016, Seattle’s minimum wage jumped to $13 an hour from $11 for large companies. New research released in late June by a team of economists at the University of Washington points to the wage hike having come at a significant cost to low wage employees: The increase led to steep declines in employment for low-wage workers and a drop in hours for those who kept their jobs. The slashing of jobs and hours resulted in, on average, $125 less per month because of the...

“I just focused on my word and tried to spell it right,” she said. The 12-year-old spelled “marocain,” which is a dress fabric that is made with a warp of silk or rayon and a filling of other yarns. “It’s a like a dream come true. I am so happy right now,” she said. She rocked side-to-side, without completing a smile that began and went away, until her dad rushed to hug her. As the rest of her family joined her, the new champ finally let her happiness show. ... The winner receives a $40,000 grand prize and plenty of...

In a newspaper piece about a White House in turmoil, a prominent paper described an atmosphere of beleaguered aides confused by their unscripted boss, a man who needed a "rudder on what many believed was a loose and listing ship." This is not from a recent piece about President Donald Trump's White House. The Washington Post, in 1997, wrote this about President Bill Clinton and the state of his presidency in mid-1994. The White House staff, wrote the Post, "was suffering from what increasingly looked to be callowness and naivete." Enter veteran congressman and new chief of staff Leon Panetta,...

At a hearing Tuesday for five of President Trump’s nominees at the Department of Health and Human Services, a long contentious issue briefly flared: the public health threat posed by gun violence. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) asked Dr. Jerome Adams, Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, what the surgeon general can do to stem gun violence. It was a notable moment because Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former surgeon general, saw his confirmation delayed for a year because of his support for gun-control laws. In response, Adams, the Indiana health commissioner, sought to separate gun violence from guns themselves. “Guns and gun...

Jim Marrs, Texas-based conspiracy theorist and author, dies at 73 By Craig Hlavaty, Chron.com / Houston Chronicle Published 8:27 am, Thursday, August 3, 2017 Jim Marrs, best-known for his work researching the various theories surrounding the JFK assassination and UFOs and a guest on many talk shows, died this week at the age of 73. According to his official Facebook page he died of a heart attack on Wednesday. He had recently been put on dialysis. The Fort Worth-native was a mainstay on late-night radio show "Coast to Coast AM" and the "Alex Jones' Infowars" program.

Set to be launched in 2018 from Kourou, French Guiana, the JWST will embark on a journey to unravel the universe’s mysteries, "from discovering the first stars and galaxies" to "studying the atmospheres of alien planets around other stars." “This was the first time all the different parts worked together at the same time, and this was the first time it was tested against the actual spacecraft flight hardware,” explained Alan Johns, ground segment and operations manager for the Webb telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. NASA called, and the Webb telescope responded. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently...

The Knights of Columbus are to raise and donate $2 million to help save Karemlash, a predominantly Christian town on Iraq’s Nineveh Plain that was invaded and ransacked by ISIS before being liberated by coalition forces last November.

McMaster had purged Derek Harvey, one of the NSC's best people on the Middle East, for trying to fire Obama holdovers. "In the late 1980s, Harvey traveled throughout Iraq by taxicab—500 miles, village to village—interviewing locals, sleeping on mud floors with a shower curtain for a door. He [was] full of questions, intensely curious and entirely nonthreatening. After the 1991 Gulf War, when the CIA was predicting the inevitable fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Harvey, then a major, insisted that Hussein would survive because members of the Sunni community knew their fortunes were tied to his. He was right....

Training for Testimony is Missing in Many Parishes Msgr. Charles Pope • August 2, 2017 • 2 Comments credit – Jaclyn Lippelmann, Catholic StandardCatholicism has glorious liturgical and intellectual traditions, but because we have not excelled in training Catholics to give joyful witness to wonder of the Lord and our faith, they are among the best kept secrets around.In certain denominations, giving witness is a major focus, and congregants are well-trained for it both through personal testimony (witness talks are common in Protestant liturgies) and in their musical tradition. Pastoring in African-American parishes for most of my priesthood has...