Showing posts with label PROPAGANDA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PROPAGANDA. Show all posts

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Dr. Anthony Fauci's Jesuit Education Helped Prepare Him for This AMDG: A Jesuit Podvast



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As the COVID-19 pandemic has descended upon the United States over the past three months, today's guest, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has become a household name thanks to his expertise and his clear and calm communication style.

Though many of us have just learned about his work recently, Dr. Fauci has been in public service for decades, directing the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. If there’s been a widespread infectious disease you’ve heard about, Dr. Fauci worked on it, from HIV to Ebola to Zika. His impact on public health both here and around the world is incalculable.

Dr. Fauci is also a product of Jesuit education, and he credits his years at Regis High School in New York City and the College of the Holy Cross as helping to lay the groundwork for his career. Host Mike Jordan Laskey asks him what he found distinctive about his Jesuit education, what his typical day looks like mid-pandemic, and where we stand right now in our fight against this dreadful disease.

Conversation recorded June 16, 2020.

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Sunday, February 01, 2026

The first refugee to lead the UN refugee agency meets the pope


By Trisha Thomas,
Associated Press
Jan 27, 2026|Associated Press



Barham Salih, President of Iraq addresses the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, on Sept. 23, 2021. (Credit: Timothy A. Clary/Pool Photo via AP.)
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ROME — The first refugee to lead the U.N. refugee agency said Monday the world faces “a very difficult moment in history” and is appealing to a common humanity amid dramatic change.

Repression of immigrants is growing, and the funding to protect them is plummeting. Without ever mentioning the Trump administration or its policies directly, Barham Salih in an interview with The Associated Press said his office will have to be inventive to confront the crisis, which includes losing well over $1 billion in U.S. support.

“Of course it’s a fight, undeniably so, but I think also I’m hopeful and confident that there is enough humanity out there to really enable us to do that,” said Salih, a former president of Iraq.

He also was adamant on the need to safeguard the 1951 refugee convention as the Trump administration campaigns for other governments to join it in upending a decades-old system and redefining asylum rules.

Salih, who took up his role as high commissioner for refugees on Jan. 1, described it as an international legal responsibility and a moral responsibility.

According to his agency also known as UNHCR, there are 117.3 million forcibly displaced people around the world from 194 countries. Salih’s challenge is supporting some 30 million refugees with significantly less funds.

In 2024 and 2025, funding from the U.S. dropped from $2.1 billion to $800 million, and yet the country remains UNHCR’s largest donor.

Sunday, December 07, 2025

End of Climate Catastrophism Is Good for Prosperity



By Josh Hammer  December 05, 2025



Fré Sonneveld


Is the American Left finally waking up from its decadeslong climate catastrophism stupor? For years, climate alarmism has reigned as political catechism: The planet is burning, and only drastic action -- deindustrialization, draconian regulation, even ceasing childbearing -- could forestall certain apocalypse. Now, at least some signs are emerging that both the broader public and leading liberal voices may be recoiling from the doom and gloom.

First, recent polling shows that the intensity of climate dread is weakening. According to a July 2025 report from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, while a majority (69%) of Americans still say global warming is happening, only 60% say it's "mostly human-caused"; 28% attribute it mostly to natural environmental changes. A similar October 2025 study from the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute found that "belief in human-driven climate change declined overall" since 2017. Interestingly, Democrats and political independents, not Republicans, were primarily responsible for the decline.

Moreover, public willingness to countenance personal sacrifice in the name of saving the planet seems to be plummeting: An earlier October 2024 poll from the Pew Research Center found that only 45% said human activity contributes "a great deal" to climate change. Another 29% said it contributes "some" -- while a quarter said human influence was minimal or nonexistent.

The moral panic is slowly evaporating. Millions of Americans may still believe warming exists, but far fewer view it as an imminent existential threat -- let alone embrace sweeping upheavals in energy policy and personal lifestyle.

Thursday, April 03, 2025

Catholic News Agency: “Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists Gathered to Pray Together for the Holy Father’s Speedy Recovery”


March 28, 2025 by Andy Roman


Pope Francis has emerged as the most celebrated and universally revered figure in the world, as people of all faiths—Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others—unite in prayer for his swift recovery. His message on interfaith unity and cooperation contained in Fratelli Tutti has inspired millions to see the Vatican as a symbol of peace and moral leadership in these last days. In an unprecedented show of global support, people of all faiths, including political leaders, have offered prayers and well-wishes for the ailing pontiff. This is proof that Bible prophecy is on track to its ultimate completion as more and more faith traditions recognize the Pope of Rome not just as the leader of the Catholic Church, but as the guiding light for a world yearning for unity and hope.

On March 12, 2025, Catholic News Agency published the following news about how the religious world is worried about the Pope’s health:
• “The Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, said with emotion that most of the Iraqi population has been distressed by Pope Francis’ extended hospitalization and that even Muslims are praying for his recovery.” [1]

• “The cardinal emphasized that Muslims, too, have wanted to show their closeness to him. ‘Many Muslims contact me every day to find out how he is,’ he continued, adding that they hold dear the memory of the Holy Father’s visit to this country four years ago.” [1]

• “Everywhere there were pictures of the Holy Father and the Vatican flag,’ he added.” [1]

• “In addition, young Indonesians of different faiths have also wanted to join the prayers arriving from around the world to the 10th floor of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where the pontiff remains hospitalized with double pneumonia.” [1]

• “In a gesture of unity and hope, young people and leaders of different religions gathered at Hati Indonesia.” [1]

• “On this occasion, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists gathered to pray together for the Holy Father’s speedy recovery.” [1]

Monday, February 24, 2025

The rise and fall of Catholic wins at the Oscars

February 21, 2025


Meg Tilly in “Agnes of God” (IMDB)



John Dougherty

At this year’s Academy Awards, Edward Berger’s twisty Vatican drama “Conclave” has eight nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Barry Fitzgerald, who played Father Fitzgibbon. (He was also nominated for Best Actor; the only time an actor has been nominated twice for playing the same character in the same film.)


That same year, Ingrid Bergman was nominated for playing Sister Mary Benedict in “The Bells of St. Mary’s” and Gregory Peck for playing a priest in “The Keys of the Kingdom” (1944). A few years later, Bergman would marry Italian director Roberto Rossellini (following a brief and scandalous affair), and they had three children—including Isabella Rossellini.

In these films and others of the time, priests were portrayed as “virile, athletic, compassionate, wise,” according to Charles R. Morris in American Catholic. The fact that they were celibate didn’t prevent them from being inspirational figures, played by some of the most famous (and desirable) men in Hollywood. The films portrayed religious life as one of immense sacrifice and meaning. “These are talented, attractive people who have made big sacrifices for the love of God,” Morris writes, “and they are better than the rest of us for it.”

This mid-century popularity of Catholic films in Hollywood occurred thanks to several factors, including the still-exotic nature of Catholicism to majority-non-Catholic audiences and the dynamically cinematic elements of Catholic religious practice. It is also meaningful that this period coincided with the heyday of the Production Code, a censorship document that determined what got made in Hollywood. In American Catholic, Morris (in line with other scholars) suggests that the deluge of positive Catholic films may have been an attempt by the studios to stay in the good graces of the Production Code Administration’s vigilant and pugnacious director: devout Catholic Joseph Ignatius Breen.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Francis reveals himself to be a pope of two halves


14 January 2025, 5:09pm



Pope Francis (Credit: Getty images)


The Pope’s autobiography is out and it’s still not entirely clear why. Carlo Musso, the ‘co-author’ of Hope: The Autobiography, says that it was originally intended to be published after his death, but on account of ‘the new Jubilee of Hope’ (the Jubilee Year), and the ‘circumstances of this moment’ (i.e. him not dying), it’s been brought forward.

Truth to tell it reads a bit scrappily, more like a series of interviews, with occasional errors – the Arian heresy, for instance, is not the ‘Aryan’ heresy, presumably a Hitlerian thing. The book is up to date, taking on board his encounter with clerical sex abuse survivors in Belgium last year (he doesn’t mention his brutal going-over by his horrible Belgian hosts) and his meeting a few months ago with transexuals.

When he’s good, he’s very, very good, and when he’s bad, he’s horrid

For all that, the book covers quite a lot that he’s talked about before, but there are things of interest here. In case you are wondering, he has put a resignation letter in the hands of a papal chamberlain for such time as he is medically unfit to do the job, as Paul VI did, apparently, and would in that case remain in Rome, like Benedict, as pope emeritus.