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[Catholic Caucus] The Next Pope Needs a Better China Policyeforming the Vatican’s policy on China should be a priority of the next papacy. The current approach is defined by the Vatican’s controversial 2018 agreement with China to share power with Beijing in the appointment of Catholic bishops. It severely compromises the Catholic Church in China and erodes papal religious and moral authority.Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Cardinal Parolin is the architect of the China deal and its chief enthusiast. Beijing has not-so-subtly signaled that he is China’s top pick for the next pope. At a press conference on April 22—one...

[Catholic Caucus] Chinese Catholics plead with cardinals: ‘Do not let our suffering be in vain’(Stella Maris Media) — First and foremost, the Church in China mourns the loss of our Holy Father, Pope Francis. Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.Now that the pontificate of Pope Francis has come to an end, and the cardinals are preparing to gather in conclave to elect the next Holy Pontiff, I write this open letter to you – cardinal electors – with a burdened conscience and a deep sense of urgency.This is not a letter campaigning for...

[Catholic Caucus] The Lefebvre/Mindszenty ConnectionEditor’s Note: I am pleased to present Father Wilson’s crucial historical observation about the context of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s reservations where trusting the Vatican in 1988 was concerned. With rumors flying today that Francis is allegedly claiming the “SSPX is not in schism” and that he may even be planning to confirm a SSPX bishop or two, I can’t help but to ask the obvious question: Do those celebrating this rumor somehow imagine that the Vatican hadn’t offered Lefebvre the same deal in 1988? I lived through that drama. I remember it well. It wasn’t that...

Not one inch. The GOP better not give up one single inch on gun freedom. The Democrats are giddy. They were hoping that SCOTUS putting the kibosh on kid killing was going to save them from annihilation in November. That did not work – Americans were less interested in preserving a non-existent right to snuff out a life two minutes from crowning than in $6 gas. But this scumbag’s murder rampage in Texas has given them new hope, they think. All the GOP has to do is be spineless and stupid. So, they’re feeling pretty confident. We could discuss the...

Tom Giovanetti is president of the Institute for Policy Innovation. In this corner: A number of employers, particularly tech companies, who claim they have a large number of unfilled positions and can’t find enough skilled American workers to fill all their needs, and thus need to attract skilled foreign workers through an expanded H-1B visa program. In the opposite corner: Immigration skeptics, including probably every unemployed programmer in the country, who think tech companies simply prefer to hire cheaper imported labor rather than more expensive American workers. From this perspective, even one unemployed American tech worker is proof that the...

It’s one of those things you “can’t not know.” The New York Times, Don of the Media Hit Squad, despises the Bush Administration and on a more stealth (but more longstanding) level, loathes the U.S. Armed Forces. The latest ugly example came July 7 in what is more accurately described as a press release for a far Left organization than a news story. The sole source for John Kifner’s piece, “Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Says,” is a sloppy document released by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The obnoxious report, the title of which is a gratuitous slap...