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| THURSDAY, APRIL 5 – EASTER THURSDAY |
| STATES GET MORE PRO-LIFE The Missouri House passed a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, when overwhelming evidence suggests that the unborn child feels incredible pain from abortion. READ |
| FACEBOOK APOLOGIZES FOR BLOCKING AD Franciscan University tried to run an ad featuring a San Damiano crucifix, but Facebook rejected the ad for being “excessively violent content.” The story immediately went viral, and Facebook quickly apologized for blocking the ad. Tom Crowe at Franciscan University said: “Facebook approved other ads with the exact same image, which again leads me to believe it wasn’t an algorithm, but was a low-level staffer who skims many, many ads and just had something personal against this one… I’m not claiming systemic religious bigotry.” READ |
| ELECTION 2018 Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said about the midterm elections: “This is going to be a challenging elections year. We know the wind is going to be in our face. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a Category 3, 4, or 5.” READ |
| RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE MILITARY The Air Force has reversed its decision to punish Col. Leland Bohannon after he refused to publicly affirm the same-sex “spouse” of a retiring subordinate. READ |
| QUOTE OF THE DAY Ross Douthat on what he would say to Pope Francis: “I would ask him to show conservative Catholics some of the same fatherly sympathy that he has tried admirably to extend to groups that are more distant from and alienated from the church. There is a sense in which conservatives can fall into the elder brother’s role in the Prodigal Son parable, where conservatives feel unappreciated by a father who is so determined on outreach. But at the same time, if you read the parable, the father does not immediately turn on the elder son and start berating him for being rigid and closed-minded.” READ |
| OPEN TO NEW IDEAS? Liberals are freaking out that The Atlantic hired conservative writer Kevin Williamson. News outlets should be able to hire conservatives without liberals losing their minds. READ |
| SLANTED VIEW GIVEN TO SYNOD The 2018 Synod of Bishops on Youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment is slated to begin in October. Guess what happened when they actually asked the youth what they wanted? “We expressed our affection for the Extraordinary Form and the Church’s hard teachings,” said John Monaco, one of the participants. “The official write-up downplayed both.” READ |
| LUTHERANS AND COMMUNION? Seven German bishops ask the Vatican to block a proposal to allow some Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion — a proposal that was approved by the German bishops’ conference in February. READ |
| BISHOP BLASTS BLASPHEMY The bishop of Worcester, Mass., rebuked the writings of a professor at the College of the Holy Cross who had suggested that Jesus has “queer” desires. Bishop Robert McManus called on the College to ask Professor Tat-siong Benny Liew to clarify his views. READ |
| SEXUAL DESIRE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia says that Pope Paul VI would not be surprised by the #MeToo movement and the difficult realities stemming from the sexual revolution. “The Church in Humanae Vitae identified and rejected sexual exploitation of women years before that message entered the cultural mainstream,” said Chaput. READ |
| SAINT OF THE DAY We presently have two living Popes, but they are not both contending for the papacy. That was not the case in the lifetime of Saint Vincent Ferrer. The two contenders both claimed to be the authentic pope, and this went on for almost 40 years. For most of his life Saint Vincent “backed” the anti-pope. READ |
| DAILY MASS READINGS “O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!” (Ps 8:2) READ |
| NEAT Millions of tourists throw a coin over their shoulder into Rome’s Trevi Fountain — hoping to return to Rome one day. But did you know the money gets scooped out of the fountain every week to help the city’s poor? READ |