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The top leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed in a recent interview that the evidence in the suspicious death of sex offender billionaire Jeffrey Epstein pointed to a definitive conclusion.

While the circumstances of Epstein’s death have led many to suspect that he was killed in order to protect those who were complicit in his alleged underage trafficking ring, FBI Director Kash Patel said the evidence supported the official explanation of suicide.

‘You know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.’

Patel made the admission while he and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino were being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business. Video of the interview aired on Sunday.

“You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide,” said Bartiromo. “People don’t believe it.”

“They have a right to their opinion,” Patel replied, “but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor who’s been in that prison system, who’s been in the metropolitan detention center, who’s been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.”

“He killed himself,” Bongino agreed. “Again, I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

Video of the interaction between Bartiromo, Patel, and Bongino was widely circulated on the internet, where it garnered millions of views. Some members of the Trump administration had been criticized for promising to release Epstein files and apparently stalling on the issue.

RELATED: Federal judge orders dozens of names of Jeffrey Epstein associates be unsealed

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck responded to the admission from the FBI on social media.

“FBI Director @Kash_Patel and @dbongino now claim they believe Epstein’s death WAS a suicide,” wrote Beck. “They didn’t used to believe that. I STILL don’t believe that. However, I know Dan Bongino. I think he’s a credible guy. He loves his country. I know Kash Patel. I think he’s an honorable guy. He loves his country.”

Beck listed the evidence that the FBI must release in order to alleviate the suspicions of many who doubt the official story of Epstein’s death.

“I tend to believe Patel and Bongino. I don’t believe there’s some sort of conspiracy inside MAGA,” Beck added. “But I also believe that Epstein didn’t kill himself with a PAPER SHEET. So, show us the facts. We must restore trust.”

One of the Epstein accusers, Virginia Giuffre, died in April from suicide, according to a statement from her family, which sparked even more speculation. The 41-year-old had been in a bus accident and accused her husband of abuse prior to her death. Authorities have initially said the suicide was not suspicious.

RELATED: Pam Bondi says Epstein client list is sitting on her desk ‘right now’ and being reviewed for release

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President Donald Trump stated Monday that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin negotiation talks.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump revealed some details regarding a two-hour call he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that the conversation went “very well.”

‘I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going.’

He announced that Russia and Ukraine would immediately begin talks to reach a ceasefire deal and ultimately agree on an “END to the War.”

“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of. The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later,” Trump wrote.

RELATED: Russia, Ukraine resume talks for first time in years — all thanks to Trump

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The president noted that Putin expressed interest in engaging in “largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over.”

“There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth,” Trump continued. “Its potential is UNLIMITED. Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country.”

Trump further noted that the Vatican had agreed to host the negotiation talks.

RELATED: Trump reveals Ukraine ceasefire challenges and who he blames most

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and Pope Leo XIV. Photo by Simone Risoluti Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also suggested that the Vatican could be the venue for the discussions.

“I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going,” Rubio stated. “So we’ll talk about all of that and obviously always grateful to the Vatican for their willingness to play this constructive and positive role.”

The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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No moment offers a political party a better opportunity for self-examination than losing the White House after a single term. But the Democratic Party refuses to seize that opportunity. Instead, party leaders and media allies have turned their ire toward the one man with no role in shaping the party’s future: Joe Biden.

Yes, Biden’s four years exposed real structural problems worth sorting out. Friday’s release of special counsel Robert Hur’s tapes exposes just how far gone the president was and raises serious questions about how closely he must have been managed.

Tapper, Thompson, and the rest are covering up the Democrats’ own failings, giving them the excuse they need to avoid any real soul-searching.

Then came Sunday’s revelation that Biden is suffering from an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer — two years after he slipped up and said he had it and one year after his doctor publicly presented a clean bill of health (but declined to take questions).

The White House claimed at the time his claim of having cancer referred to skin cancers that were removed (a common procedure for the elderly), but we know for a fact that the White House lied to the public about his mental health, and the Biden family only revealed this information as the country gets ready for another week of scrutiny on the former president.

None of those problems, however, touch the core philosophical rot Democrats must confront. The reality is that Biden didn’t defeat the Democrats; Vice President Kamala Harris did — and she was a candidate more wounded by her ideas than her campaign’s short runway.

Now, ahead of Tuesday’s release of “Original Sin” — the new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson — the salacious details of Biden’s mental and physical decline have become political gossip. But the truth remains unchanged: Everything the book reveals was painfully obvious to anyone not peering through Democrat-colored lenses for the past five years.

We already knew the president couldn’t remember the names of senior staff. We watched him forget his own defense secretary’s name — even when they stood side by side. We saw the signs of dementia. He stood frozen in place, staring blankly into space for minutes at a time. When asked about it, Washington Post “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler shrugged and said Biden just doesn’t dance.

We saw the mumbling, the sudden outbursts of anger, the muttered non sequiturs. We saw it again and again. We saw the physical decline, too — how he abandoned the main stairs of Air Force One, how he fell repeatedly in public. After watching him on camera for decades, we could tell his gait had stiffened and grown unsteady.

The book’s only meaningful new claim is that Biden’s staff believed he might need a wheelchair after the campaign. While historically relevant, that detail pales in comparison to the deterioration the public witnessed in real time. He looked bad even before Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary!

So how did a clearly declining man who handily lost both of these primary races end up reversing the narrative and taking the nomination in a barnstorm? That question points to the party’s structural troubles on the one hand, but also to the pox on Democrat priorities infecting them to this day.

For all their talk, the Democrats have a very top-down party structure. The bosses can really move chips around the table when they need to, as was on display when the full weight and power of the party came down on Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ unsanctioned and insurgent 2016 primary campaign against anointed champion Hillary Clinton. In 2020, we saw these gears turn for Joe Biden — starting first in South Carolina.

Joe Biden wasn’t Barack Obama’s first choice. He wasn’t the Clintons’ either. He stood far from the top of his game. So why did Democratic Party leaders rally behind him? Because he was, quite simply, the least insane option on stage. And that points directly to the party’s deeper sickness.

Think back to that 2020 stage, if you can. You had Bernie Sanders, well past his prime and weakened by his reluctant acceptance of woke ideologies; clucking Harvard professor and scold Elizabeth Warren; New York technocrat Michael Bloomberg; nightmare drunk aunt Amy Klobuchar; tiny town mayor Pete Buttigieg; global warming fanatic and hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer; high school snitch Michael Bennet; latecomer Deval Patrick; unknown tech guy Andrew Yang; and veritable Democratic apostate Tulsi Gabbard.

That doesn’t even include perennial loser Beto O’Rourke, Manhattan cuckold Bill de Blasio, China enthusiast Eric Swalwell, illegal immigrant devotee Julián Castro, séance medium Marianne Williamson, or Kamala Harris — all of whom dropped out before the primary even began.

Early on in the debate, moderators asked the candidates if they would decriminalize illegally crossing the border into the United States. Biden was the only one who actually made it to Iowa who opposed this idea. The only one!

Well, this would not do in November, and so nobody’s first choice to take on Donald Trump was anointed in South Carolina, cruising toward Super Tuesday looking like a moderate and a winner, with no need to hold rallies or even a convention, and a corporate press willing to do anything it needed to in order to defeat the incumbent and see a Democrat in the White House again.

Party leaders saw what everyone else saw: Biden was the only candidate who appealed to the Democratic base and could still sell his platform to the broader public. His scripted rise allowed Democrats to gloss over the mess — open borders and a slate of fringe ideas pushed by nearly every other serious contender.

But once in office, the radicals he had outmaneuvered took control. They implemented the very policies voters had rejected. And four years later, when his debate with Trump showed Democrats the charade was finally, mercifully over, they got their woman.

Really, she
wasn’t their woman. She did not even make it to Iowa in 2020 because people didn’t like her, and she hadn’t improved at all since joining the administration. Democrats can claim Biden’s refusal to bow out in time held stunted her ability to convince voters they liked her, but that doesn’t comport with the facts. She had one of the most high-profile jobs in the world for four years, checked (or at least smudged) all the Democratic boxes for being a woman and whatever ethnicity she is, and had the full power of a media coronation behind her.

Kamala Harris served an administration that had divided the people and weakened the country. She was unwilling to offer either a convincing defense or any alternative to the course we were on, and she hoped she could wall herself off from cross-examination. She had spent more than a decade pronouncing and enacting radical policies, and when she ran for president, she could not escape her record, no matter how many flags they put up for the convention.

Remember how her campaign refused to let her talk to reporters until she was obviously trailing? They can complain all they want about not having the time, but when given time, they left it on the table.

The Republicans, meanwhile, ran against the Democrats’ past record, current policies, and future proposals and won the popular vote for the second time in 36 years. Now Democrats and their friends in the news business had both an important and opportune time for introspection.

They chose to do otherwise.

Tapper, Thompson, and the rest aren’t simply covering up the press’ complicity in the farce of the past decade — they’re covering up the Democrats’ own failings, giving them the excuse they need to avoid any real soul-searching. “It’s not our fault,” you can hear the press saying. “It’s the White House’s fault! They lied to us!”

And the Democrats can’t be to blame for their deep unpopularity, either. “It’s Joe’s fault! He stayed in too long! He was too old! Kamala never stood a chance because of him!”

Well, Joe’s gone now. And it’ll be mighty difficult to pick up the pieces while Democrats and their reporters are pretending nothing is broken.

Blaze News: Democrat lawmakers completely flip on Biden’s mental acuity

Glenn Beck: Biden was a puppet, not a president. So who signed the pardons?

Blaze News: The party of democracy just stole an election from itself

Blaze News: Democrats pick Beijing over Trump in shocking trade war poll

Blaze News: Illegal alien teen in blue state avoids jail time despite killing woman in car crash

Blaze News: Harvard staff fall over each other to aid comedian’s fake deportation claim, offer tips to evade ICE

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Oklahoma might be one of the deepest red states in the country, but that hasn’t stopped woke policies from infiltrating the school system.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is leading the fight against the takeover, and he tells James Poulos on “Zero Hour” just how he plans to win the war for America’s future.

“It’s unreal how bad the problem is,” Walters tells Poulos. “When I first got into office, we banned pornographic material from the classrooms, we banned transgender ideology from the classrooms. I was sued by our own administrators.”

Walters was sued by the administrators to keep the books “Gender Queer” and “Flamer” in grade school classrooms — both of which contain pornographic material depicting homosexual relationships.

“Inclusivity? You want ‘Gender Queer’ and ‘Flamer’ in the classroom? You guys are the same ones that then turned around and sued me to keep the Bible out of the classroom. So it was inclusivity except when it came to the most read book in American history,” Walters says.

But it’s not just the books that has Walters concerned.

“I had two school districts, one of them sent out a handout to a classroom of high school kids asking them about their favorite sexual preferences in graphic detail, about which of these sexual preferences do they have,” he tells Poulos.

“That is completely inappropriate in the classroom,” he continues. “We have pulled over 100 teacher certificates from sending sexually explicit text messages or committing sex acts with kids in the state of Oklahoma.”

“We’ve had to pass all these rules, all these requirements, because of again, people that have crossed the line, people that have indoctrinated kids, and then people who have taken even a step further to engage sexually with kids, and that’s where we have got to protect our young people,” he explains.

And again, this is all happening in Oklahoma, one of, if not, the reddest state in the country.

“If we’re dealing with it in Oklahoma,” Walters warns, “I’m telling you, it’s happening in every state.”

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A fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, was the apparent target of a car bomb on Saturday.

The FBI identified Guy Edward Bartkus, who was killed in the explosion, as the suspect in the attack.

‘I think we need a war against pro-lifers.’

Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, stated that the incident appeared to be “an intentional act of violence.” Davis also referred to the attack as “terrorism,” linking the suspect to “nihilistic ideations.”

“This was a targeted attack against the [in-vitro fertilization] facility,” Davis said. “Make no mistake: We are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”

Interim U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli confirmed that the explosion was intentional.

“My office along with the FBI will be leading the terrorism investigation into this incident. Federal prosecutors and special agents are on scene,” Essayli said. “We do not believe there is any further threat to the public at this time. We will release as much information as possible that does not jeopardize our active investigation.”

The explosion, which occurred in the facility’s parking lot, caused significant damage to American Reproductive Centers and nearby buildings. Bartkus, 25, died in the blast, and at least four others were injured. No embryos were destroyed, according to the clinic.

RELATED: Wyoming abortion ban blocked hours after suspect arrested in connection to clinic fire

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American Reproductive Centers stated in part, “We are immensely grateful to share that no members of the ARC team were harmed, and our lab — including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials — remains fully secure and undamaged. We are heavily conducting a complete safety inspection and have confirmed that our operations and sensitive medical areas were not impacted by the blast.”

The FBI believes that Bartkus had planned to livestream the attack. It is currently investigating “a possible manifesto.”

In an alleged online manifesto, the suspect shared his anti-natalist beliefs.

“The end goal is for the truth (Efilism) to win, and once it does, we can finally begin the process of sterilizing this planet of the disease of life,” it reportedly read. “Life can only continue as long as people hold the delusional belief that it is not a zero sum game causing senseless torture, and messes it can never, or only partially, clean up.”

“I think we need a war against pro-lifers,” it added.

The alleged manifesto also encouraged viewers to “download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic.”

RELATED: War on faith: How anti-Catholic violence is exploding almost unnoticed

On Sunday, KTLA spoke with Bartkus’ father, Richard Bartkus, who claims he had not spoken with his son for over a decade.

He claimed that his son had a history of setting fires, including burning down their family home at 9 years old.

“What my [former] wife, what my daughter knows, I really don’t know. But they had to see a change in him. They don’t just go off like that and nobody sees a change,” he told KTLA.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that she had been briefed about the attack.

“We are working to learn more, but let me be clear: the Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable,” she wrote in a post on X.

— (@)

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday nearly unanimously sided with President Donald Trump on temporary protected status given to migrants from Venezuela.

The ruling will allow Trump to resume plans to deport about 300,000 people who had been given protections under former President Joe Biden.

Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority opinion.

Biden issued parole orders for migrants under the “Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans” action in Jan. 2023.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in the Northern District of California ruled in March that the government had not proven any real harm in allowing the migrants to stay in the U.S. while their legal challenge progressed.

This is a developing story, and additional information may be added.

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After a prison escape late last week in New Orleans that one fed-up lawmaker said resembled scenes from “The Shawshank Redemption,” authorities said seven of the 10 escapees were still on the loose over the weekend — and one of at-large escapees is a convicted murderer.

The inmates were discovered missing during a routine 8:30 a.m. Friday head count at the Orleans Parish Jail, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office told CBS News, adding that they were believed to have escaped sometime just after midnight. They all were considered “armed and dangerous” — and likely had help from the inside, the news network added.

‘This is something out of the “Shawshank Redemption” film, though the escapees are no Andy Dufresne or Red Redding but are dangerous men who pose a serious risk to the safety of citizens in the New Orleans area.’

Derrick Groves is one of the still-escaped inmates, the sheriff’s office said. He was convicted of murder in a 2018 Mardi Gras shooting, CBS News noted.

RELATED: Trump orders restoration of Alcatraz prison to lock up ‘dregs of society’

Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Office

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick asked the public to notify police if they were victims or witnesses at the escapees’ trials so they could get help, CBS News said.

Sheriff Susan Hutson said the inmates pulled a sliding jail cell door off its track around 12:23 a.m. and left the jail by 1:01 a.m. after breaching a wall behind a toilet, the news network said, adding that the toilet and bolts were removed using toiletry items, although Hutson didn’t specify what the items were.

As with “The Shawshank Redemption,” the escapees had a lengthy head start — in this case, about eight hours.

The inmates also scrawled obscene messages for the guards on the wall behind the toilet, CBS News said, adding that one was misspelled; it reads “to easy, LOL.”

RELATED: ‘Inmates escape prison’ using virtual reality program — infraction rate of solitary confinement prisoners drops by 96%

Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Office

The inmates then descended a wall and ran across an interstate highway, CBS News reported.

The sheriff’s office on Friday night released security video of the escape, starting with the door being yanked of its tracks and ending with inmates seen in the distance sprinting across a freeway.

RELATED: Reported illegal immigrant charged with murder of beloved New Orleans French Quarter tour guide

In addition to Groves, the other inmates still on the loose were Corey Boyd, Jermaine Donald, Lenton VanBuren, Antoine Massey, Leo Tate, and Gary Price.

Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Office

Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Office

Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Office

Authorities captured Kendell Myles, Robert Moody, and DKenan Dennis.

Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Office

Image source: Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff’s Office

Louisiana State Police on Saturday said the three captured inmates were taken to a “secure state facility” and “the search remains active with multiple agencies working nonstop” to find the remaining seven escapees.

— (@)

Republican state Rep. Mike Bayham in a statement to Blaze News blasted Sheriff Hutson and the New Orleans criminal justice system:

This is something out of the “Shawshank Redemption” film, though the escapees are no Andy Dufresne or Red Redding but are dangerous men who pose a serious risk to the safety of citizens in the New Orleans area. The voters of Orleans Parish recently sent a message of no confidence in incumbent Susan Hutson at the ballot box when a 10-year millage renewal for sheriff was only passed by two votes out of over 25,000 ballots cast. Dysfunction in the New Orleans criminal system inevitably spills over to neighboring communities when dangerous violent criminals are able to escape confinement. Representative Jason Hughes and Council President Helena Moreno have rightly asked for a security audit at the jail. Sheriff Hutson has no business seeking re-election this November. New Orleans could do better randomly picking a name out of the phone book than Sheriff Hutson.

What else do we know?

In regard to the delay in discovering the jailbreak, Hutson told CBS News that “you gotta go inside the facility to be able to see; they could have been anywhere. Then we had to first prioritize talking to victims to make sure they were safe.”

Hutson added to the news network that it’s believed the escapees received help from jail staff or deputies.

Kirkpatrick added to CBS News that authorities notified some of the victims of the escapees; several of them are facing murder charges or other violent charges. Police moved one family to safety, Kirkpatrick added to the news network.

Kirkpatrick added to CBS News that the escapees probably had help, and it wasn’t likely that they still were wearing their jumpsuits. Kirpatrick also warned the public that those who harbor or help these escapees “will be charged,” the news network also reported.

The sheriff’s office is laying some of the blame for the escape on the city for not funding prison security upgrades, CBS News said, claiming it has been asking for help for five years. Hutson added that replacing the locks alone at the parish’s prison facilities is estimated to cost $5.2 million, the news network said.

RELATED: ‘The rats are eating our marijuana; they’re all high’: Infested New Orleans police evidence room becoming rodent cafeteria

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On May 15, former FBI Director James Comey posted the following strange and cryptic message on his Instagram account:

The post was deleted after it sparked a firestorm of criticism, with many decoding it as a call for violence against President Trump. Comey immediately denied the accusation, insisting he’s opposed to all violence and that he assumed the message was merely political.

Not everyone is convinced, though. Investigative reporter Breanna Morello says there’s no doubt it’s a call for violence.

“Man oh man, do these people love to egg on their radical far-left, mentally unwell supporters to go out there and try to kill the president,” she tells Hilary Kennedy and Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson on an episode of “Blaze News: The Mandate.”

“People use [86] metaphorically, but I think what we could say here is when you are who James Comey is … you were in charge of the most powerful enforcement body in the country; this is obviously a kind of different thing to post,” says Peterson, noting that two assassination attempts plus “the weaponization of the deep state” have led to a heightened sensitivity, and rightly so.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has made it clear she interpreted the message as a direct threat as well. On a recent Fox News segment, she told Jesse Watters that Comey was “issuing a hit on President Trump.”

“That is a ridiculous and insane statement to make certainly within this context, but especially coming from a guy who’s the former director of the FBI, a guy who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters — people who know and execute other humans and use this exact lingo of 86,” she added. “The rule of law says people like him who issue direct threats against the president of the United States, essentially issuing a call to assassinate him, must be held accountable under the law.”

She concluded by saying that she believes Comey should be in jail for this Instagram post.

“Tulsi Gabbard is 100% correct,” says Morello. “People like [Ryan Wesley Routh] are going to see things like what Comey just posted, and they’re going to go all in on this.”

President Trump clearly thought so as well. “That meant assassination,” he told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “He wasn’t very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant.”

To hear more of the conversation and see the footage of Gabbard and President Trump’s comments on Fox, watch the episode above.

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Pope Leo XIV shared his vision to chart a path toward Christian unity during his Monday address to leaders of the church and those of other religions.

The pope called it one of his priorities to pursue “full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

While legacy media leaned into the presumption that the pope would urge solidarity among divisions in the Catholic Church, he used his Monday address to reaffirm his vision for uniting all Christians and fostering peace across faiths.

“Indeed, unity has always been a constant concern of mine, as witnessed by the motto I chose for my episcopal ministry: In Illo uno unum, an expression of Saint Augustine of Hippo that reminds us how we too, although we are many, ‘in the One — that is Christ — we are one,’” the pope said.

His recent message to church representatives amplified his Sunday homily at Saint Peter’s Square, during which he invoked Jesus’ mission to Peter.

RELATED: Together, pope and patriarch return to Nicaea on 1,700th anniversary of defining moment in Christendom

“We see this in today’s Gospel, which takes us to the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus began the mission he received from the Father: to be a ‘fisher’ of humanity in order to draw it up from the waters of evil and death,” the pope stated. “Walking along the shore, he had called Peter and the other first disciples to be, like him, ‘fishers of men.’”

“Now, after the resurrection, it is up to them to carry on this mission, to cast their nets again and again, to bring the hope of the Gospel into the ‘waters’ of the world, to sail the seas of life so that all may experience God’s embrace,” he continued.

During a Monday interview on “The Glenn Beck Program,” Vice President JD Vance highlighted Pope Leo’s recent election as a potential cultural and political turning point.

Vance told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, “[The pope] is the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics.”

The vice president stressed Pope Leo’s “soft influence.”

“He doesn’t have a military; he doesn’t have an army. But he does have a lot of influence through those Catholics,” he continued. “We won a majority of Catholics in the last election.”

However, Vance noted that many Catholics have continued to vote for Democratic candidates.

Vance credited the Vatican for using its influence to promote peace, including attempting to facilitate conversations between Ukraine and Russia.

“The Vatican has already played a very constructive role in some of the peace conversations that we’ve been having all over the world,” he added.

— (@)

Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both practicing Catholics, met with Pope Leo at the Vatican on Monday.

“I was humbled and honored to meet Pope Leo XIV and lead the presidential delegation to Rome for his inaugural mass. We had a great conversation, and I know he is a true servant of God,” Vance stated. “I hope all Americans will join me in praying for the new pope as he begins his ministry.”

The Vatican issued a statement regarding the meeting.

“There was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” the Vatican said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Vance passed along a letter from President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, who is also Catholic, inviting Pope Leo to the White House.

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Angel Reese embodies the “fatigue” pervasive throughout American culture.

The WNBA starlet opened her second season of professional basketball burnishing the entitled, bitter, racist, and profitable brand she’s cultivated at the expense of Caitlin Clark.

Saturday afternoon, down double digits in what would become an embarrassing 35-point loss to the Indiana Fever, Reese played the victim and then unleashed her fear-inspiring, angry-black-woman routine. She tried to pick a fight with her alleged rival and the league’s meal ticket, Caitlin Clark.

Ignoring the consequence of black feminism and matriarchal rulership betrays God, undermines the blessing of American citizenship, and dodges the harmful ramifications of the deconstructed family.

Clark had delivered a “take” foul, striking Reese across her arms as the Chicago Sky forward attempted a layup. Reese flopped to the ground and then immediately sprung to her feet to confront Clark. Separated by a ref and Fever center Aliyah Boston, Reese pointed a finger and shouted profanities at Clark as the Fever guard walked away. The DEI-approved officiating crew huddled, looked at a replay, and somehow concluded that Clark’s common foul would be upgraded to a flagrant one. More confusingly, ESPN broadcasters Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo co-signed the upgrade. Following the game, Reese’s head coach, Tyler Marsh, added his stamp of approval, arguing that Reese’s overheated reaction was justified. A day later, the league office joined the psyop, issuing a statement that it would investigate Indiana Fever fans for hurling racist taunts at Reese.

RELATED: ESPN leaves Caitlin Clark OFF top 5 women’s college basketball players list, relegates her to honorable mention

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Opening weekend of the WNBA perfectly encapsulated the “black fatigue” that all rational Americans have come to feel.

The whole thing started when Reese shoved an Indiana Fever player to secure a rebound. She then cosplayed as victim, overselling Clark’s foul. The people in charge of supervising the game (referees) failed. They let Reese get away with an obvious shove and then over-penalized Clark on a routine play. The media empowered to hold the participants and supervisors accountable (Ruocco and Lobo) failed, too. Two white liberals, Ruocco and Lobo, protected themselves from backlash by protecting Reese. The leader of the Sky (Marsh) protected himself, too. He backed his irrational and emotional player. The league office fell for Reese’s lame excuse/racial hoax and blamed Fever fans.

This is the power we’ve granted angry black women.

Angel Reese epitomizes that power — the abuse of it and its negative outcomes. We’ve erected a system that rationalizes and rewards the irresponsible and angry behavior of black women and exaggerates their contributions to success.

Systemic pandering is destroying America. It’s creating a fatigue that foments racial conflict.

As a black man, I’m not supposed to express my black woman fatigue. It paints me as a sellout and an ally to anti-black bigots. It’s seen as a betrayal to my mother, my grandmother, my sister, my aunts, the wives of my friends and loved ones, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey, and all the other so-called black queens.

Have I sold out? Or have I researched and weighed the consequence of systemic pandering? Have I recognized that the black matriarchy sold out black men 60 years ago when it partnered with white liberal feminists and rejected the nuclear family and the patriarchy?

Ignoring the consequence of black feminism and matriarchal rulership betrays God, undermines the blessing of American citizenship, and dodges the harmful ramifications of the deconstructed family.

I would rather take the risks of exposing the insanity of feminism and correcting the unwise behavior of black women than continue suffering the crippling pathologies resulting from said behavior.

The black woman’s embrace of masculinity, leadership, and loudness makes her position clear. She does not want a man, not a real one. She desires emasculated men, whoredom, and lesbianism. She rejects America’s patriarchal founding and does not value her American citizenship.

She’s entitled, bitter, and racist. At what cost?

The children she raises mostly alone are failing. They mirror her bitterness, entitlement, and bigotry. They’re easily triggered. Academic standards must be lowered to mask their lack of achievement. They’re uninterested in marriage. Highly sexualized dancing is their trademark behavior. Their most marketable skills are complaining about white people on social media, filling a DEI quota, or co-starring in black fatigue videos at airports, Carnival Cruises, school playgrounds, and Frisco, Texas, track meets.

Male basketball players finance the WNBA. The league directly benefits from the patriarchy. But Reese and its players hate the patriarchy.

From Richard Allen’s 1794 founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to Frederick Douglass to Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the black man has stood as this nation’s symbolic moral conscience.

The matriarchy and its offsprings rebranded “black culture” as the hub of sexual degeneracy, materialism, and bigotry.

You think I’m unfair? You think I’m generalizing about a demographic that seeks clout and power from rallying around Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Karmelo Anthony? A demographic that demonizes Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, and Dr. Ben Carson?

More than 90% of black women vote for the Democratic Party in every election. Democratic Party outreach to black voters consists of promoting black victimhood, black entitlement, black bitterness, and justification of anti-white racism.

The three lesbian black women who founded Black Lives Matter normalized ancestor worship and necromancy (communicating with the dead) with the “say his name” chants. Ancestor worship and necromancy are strictly prohibited in the Bible.

“Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19).

“There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination of the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

Black Lives Matter established the custom of the annual celebrations and remembrances of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, etc. This post on X from popular Democratic Party operative Nina Turner is commonplace. It encourages black people to “never forget” victims of a race tragedy.

The practice is not healthy, wise, or biblical. It’s begging people to ingest bitterness and use that as a primary motivation. It’s a mistake that promotes racism. We shouldn’t be surprised to see Angel Reese make that mistake. She’s been programmed by the matriarchy.

RELATED: Angel Reese wants to become an OnlyFans model?

Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Reese perfectly symbolizes the mindset of the typical American black woman. She rejects gratitude and emotes bitterness and entitlement.

In a league that loses millions of dollars every season, Reese believes she’s underpaid. In a league benefitting significantly from Caitlin Clark, Reese hates the one player who might lead the league to profitability. Reese hates the player who has made her rich and famous. Reese is probably the 30th best player in the WNBA. Because of her one-sided feud with Clark, she’s arguably the second-most recognized player in the league and earning millions of dollars off the court.

Male basketball players finance the WNBA. The league directly benefits from the patriarchy. But Reese and its players hate the patriarchy.

Gratitude is at the foundation of a biblical worldview. Under the leadership of the black matriarchy, gratitude has all but disappeared from black culture and has been replaced by entitlement and exaggerated self-importance.

Black women (and men) argue that “we built this country.” It’s an illogical claim from a demographic that has been 9% to 20% of America’s population throughout history. It’s nearly as illogical as the claim that “black women built the WNBA.” They built a league that averages $20 to $40 million in losses each year.

Illogic fuels entitlement, bitterness, and bigotry.

American citizenship is a blessing. People from all over the globe fight for American citizenship. Black Americans pretend our citizenship is a generational curse. American white evangelical Christians promote a religion that de-emphasizes skin color, emphasizes merit, and throws out a welcome mat to all would-be believers. Black Americans en masse support a political ideology that emphasizes skin color, undermines merit, and fights to uproot biblical traditions, principles, and morality.

Anyone unfatigued isn’t paying attention, lives in fear of black women, or is foolish enough to believe white and Hispanic feminism are less deadly.

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The “big, beautiful bill” passed a key vote in the House Budget Committee Sunday night after five spending skeptics initially tanked the bill on Friday.

Rather than derail reconciliation a second time, four Republicans voted “present” to advance the bill in a 17-16 vote on Sunday night. On Friday, Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, and Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania all voted against the bill, resulting in a 16-21 vote.

This time around, Roy, Norman, Clyde, and Brecheen voted “present” to advance the bill, while Smucker voted in favor of it. Notably, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also met with Norman, Clyde, and Brecheen Sunday morning before the vote.

‘This bill is a strong step forward. … But we have to do more to deliver for the American people.’

RELATED: The Republicans who could derail reconciliation

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). Photo by Tom Brenner for the Washington Post via Getty Images

“Tonight, after a great deal of work and engagement over the weekend, the Budget Committee advanced a reconciliation bill that lays the foundation for much-needed tax relief, border security, and important spending reductions and reforms,” Roy said in a statement. “Importantly, the bill now will move Medicaid work requirements forward and reduces the availability of future subsidies under the green new scam.”

Reforms to the Medicaid work requirements were initially set to take effect in 2029, which was not nearly aggressive enough for fiscal hawks like Roy. Johnson reportedly offered the holdouts a 2026 implementation date, which may have swayed many of the holdouts to allow the bill to advance.

“But the bill does not yet meet the moment — leaving almost half of the green new scam subsidies continuing,” Roy added. “More, it fails to end the Medicaid money laundering scam and perverse funding structure that provides seven times more federal dollars for each dollar of state spending for the able-bodied relative to the vulnerable.”

“This all ultimately increases the likelihood of continuing deficits and non-Obamacare-expansion states like Texas expanding in the future,” Roy added. “We can and must do better before we pass the final product.”

RELATED: Vance tells Glenn Beck Congress needs to ‘get serious’ about codifying DOGE cuts

Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The bill can be amended only in the Rules Committee, which will hold its hearing on Wednesday at 1:00 a.m. House Republican leadership members have also said they will refrain from sending lawmakers home for Memorial Day, which was their original target.

“As such, I joined with three of my colleagues to vote ‘present’ out of respect for the Republican Conference and the president to move the bill forward,” Roy said. “It gives us the opportunity to work together this week to get the job done in light of the fact our bond rating was dropped yet again due to historic fiscal mismanagement by both parties.”

“This bill is a strong step forward — and I am proud of Chairman Arrington, the speaker, and my colleagues for the work we did to make progress with the White House,” Roy added. “But we have to do more to deliver for the American people.”

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In the months leading up to the criminal trial of rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, the public was anticipating an Epstein-level spectacle. Diddy had been dubbed “the Epstein of the rap industry,” after all, as it is strongly speculated that he was also running a blackmailing/trafficking operation that involved a long list of celebrities and other elites.

However, we’re now several days into the trial, and it’s been pretty lackluster. The case has focused solely on Diddy’s own degeneracy, especially as it relates to ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.

Glenn Beck’s biggest question is why is no one going after Diddy’s possible accomplices. What about all the celebrities who went to his infamous parties?

Jason Whitlock, host of “Fearless,” has a terrifying theory.

From what he’s seen so far from the trial, Jason says it’s clear they want people to to think “Diddy’s a really bad person; he’s a sexual degenerate; he turns violent against women that he’s dating, but in terms of racketeering or sex trafficking and all that — none of that is being addressed.”

“I’m not sure if they have an interest in even arguing that case at this point,” he tells Glenn.

“I think they raided Diddy’s home to strip him of his power and leverage and blackmail material, and that all this is really about is taking away Diddy’s leverage and handing it over to the Department of Justice or whoever is responsible for this or stripping him of the most damaging information he had on key people that they don’t want harmed,” Jason theorizes.

“So wait a minute, you’re saying that maybe he was an operative, or if he wasn’t an operative, he was collecting stuff on people, and now the government wants that to either protect those people or to have the power over those people?” Glenn asks, shocked.

“And to strip Diddy of his power,” Jason confirms.

“I think that Diddy, being a bit of an idiot, probably got too full of himself and started threatening the wrong people with the information he had, and someone needed to put him in his place — like ‘no, you’re an operative, you’re a tool, you’re an asset; you’re not some ringleader; you haven’t ascended to a place of power where you can actually use this information to start blackmailing people,”’ he explains.

“They raided this guy like he was Pablo Escobar, and now they’re in court arguing that he’s Hugh Hefner. No — that that’s not what we were promised.”

To hear more details of Jason’s theory, watch the clip above.

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Seventeen centuries ago, bishops from around the known world gathered in Nicaea to affirm and codify the core tenets of the Christian faith. Now, as the anniversary of that defining moment in Christendom approaches, leaders on either side of the Great Schism are preparing to return, drawing East and West closer and renewing hope in the promise of Christian unity.

In the year 325, Emperor Constantine I called over 250 bishops — 318,
according to tradition — to convene during the pontificate of Pope Sylvester I in the Bithynian city of Nicaea, 55 miles southeast of present-day Istanbul. It was the largest gathering of bishops in the church’s history up until that time.

While the council would ultimately address a number of practical and ecclesiastic matters, it prioritized tackling the
Arian heresy, which entailed a rebuke and an affirmation of the divinity of Christ — “God from God, light from light, True God from True God, begotten, not made, of the same substance as the Father, by Whom all things were made” — and setting the date on which to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection.

This dogmatic council was of critical importance both then to the unified church and now to Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, and other Protestants, perhaps most notably for its production of the Nicene Creed — a statement of faith, mutually held as authoritative, that predates both the Chalcedonian schism and the Great Schism.

Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople are making a joint trip to the place where their predecessors met 17 centuries earlier. While various obstacles some figured to be insurmountable still stand in the way of full reunification, the meeting of the Christian leaders on this particular anniversary and the anniversary itself have sparked renewed interest in Christian unity and the ground that the faithful share in common.

Of popes and plans

Prior to his passing, Pope Francis proposed celebrating the 1,700th anniversary with Orthodox leaders in a Nov. 30
letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who previously indicated a joint trip was expected to happen in late May.

Pope Francis noted in his letter to the patriarch that the Catholic Church’s “dialogue with the Orthodox Church has been and continues to be particularly fruitful,” yet acknowledged that the “ultimate goal of dialogue, full communion among all Christians, sharing in the one Eucharistic chalice, has not yet been realized with our Orthodox brother and sisters,” which “is not surprising, for divisions dating back a millennium, cannot be resolved within a few decades.”

‘It is good whenever the pope and the patriarch meet.’

Prior to heading back to Toronto from Rome, where he participated in the conclave that elected the new pope, Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Cardinal Collins told Blaze News, “The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is most important for all Christians, because it was there that the bishops clarified the basic Christian faith in the divinity of Christ. The Nicene Creed, from this council and the next one, in Constantinople a few years later, is still the basic expression of our faith in the Trinity.”

RELATED: 2025 will be a landmark year for Christendom — here’s why

First Council of Nicaea. Found in the collection of Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kiev. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

“The division of East and West that occurred much later in 1054 is most unfortunate and has impeded the spread of the gospel,” continued Collins. “But the churches of East and West, while having different theological and liturgical styles, recognize one another’s apostolic succession and, with a few issues still in dispute, basically agree on doctrine as well. One thing that divides us is historical memories, but increased cooperation has brought some healing there.”

‘The remembrance of that important event will surely strengthen the bonds that already exist.’

Cardinal Collins noted further that “it is good whenever the pope and the patriarch meet. All Christians, facing so many
external dangers, need to work together. The anniversary of Nicaea, which occurred long before the division of East and West, is a perfect opportunity to deepen our knowledge and love for one another, but especially Jesus. The closer we are to Him, the closer we will be to one another.”

Pope Francis, then evidently of a similar mind, told Patriarch Bartholomew I that the anniversary would be “another opportunity to bear witness to the growing communion that already exists among all who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

“This anniversary will concern not only the ancient Sees that took part actively in the Council, but all Christians who continue to profess their faith in the words of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed,” wrote Pope Francis. “The remembrance of that important event will surely strengthen the bonds that already exist and encourage all Churches to a renewed witness in today’s world.”

The interest in a joint trip was evidently mutual.

During a March address in Harbiye, Turkey, Patriarch Bartholomew underscored his desire for a joint celebration of the anniversary,
reported the Orthodox Times. He also emphasized the importance of the Council of Nicaea.

“The Council of Nicaea stands as a landmark in the formation of the Church’s doctrinal identity and remains the model for addressing doctrinal and canonical challenges on an ecumenical level,” said Patriarch Bartholomew.

RELATED: Triumph of Orthodoxy? Why young men are embracing ancient faith

Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

Their plans hit a major snag the following month.

Pope Francis died hours after Easter Sunday — the first time the Catholic and Orthodox Churches had celebrated Easter on the same day in eight years.

“He was due to come to our country, and together we would go to Nicaea, where the First Ecumenical Council was convened, to honor the memory of the Holy Fathers and exchange thoughts and wishes for the future of Christianity,” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
said in the wake of Pope Francis’ passing. “All of this, of course, was canceled — or rather postponed.”

‘We are preparing it.’

“I believe that his successor will come, and we will go together to Nicaea to send a message of unity, love, brotherhood, and shared path toward the future of Christianity,” added the patriarch.

It would not be clear for several days whom the papal conclave would elect as Francis’ successor and whether he would have a similar interest in an East-West convention in Nicaea on the anniversary of the council.

The Chicagoan steps up to the plate

Various leaders in the Christian East welcomed the new bishop of Rome following his May 8 election.

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, among them, expressed hope that Pope Leo XIV will “be a dear brother and collaborator … for the rapprochement of our churches, for the unity of the whole Christian family, and for the benefit of humankind,”
reported Vatican News.

Days later, Pope Leo XVI
reportedly stated, “The meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will take place; we are preparing it.”

When asked about the significance of the joint trip, the likelihood of East-West reunification, and Orthodox interest in such reunification, Fr. Barnabas Powell, a parish priest in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America speaking on his own behalf, told Blaze News, “There is simply no way one can be faithful to Christ and not long for the unity of all Christians.”

RELATED: Not Francis 2.0: Why Pope Leo XIV is a problem for the ‘woke’ agenda

Photo (left): Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu via Getty Images; Photo (right): Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

“We Orthodox pray for the unity of the churches in every service. Our Archbishop [Elpidophoros of America] has proven by his prayers and actions that he longs for unity,” said Fr. Powell. “But unity isn’t merely accepting certain propositional proposals. St. Paul said the Church is the bride of Christ, and this profound witness of the identity of the Church is ontologically connected to the mystery of relationship and love. This means we must work to know one another and not merely know about one another.”

“This is hard work in light of the tragic centuries we have been apart. But just because something is difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” added Fr. Powell.

The Greek Orthodox priest expressed optimism about the joint trip to Nicaea, noting that as the “first Nicaea showed us that we are to gather together to struggle and dialogue through our challenges, so this is the normal Christian discipline for us today.”

‘I’m not in the odds-making business, but there is certainly justified hope.’

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
notes on its website that the “anniversary celebration brings together Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants to reflect on the enduring significance of Nicaea, fostering conciliarity, dialogue, prayer, and a renewed commitment to the pursuit of Christian unity, echoing the spirit of the first ecumenical council.”

Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, told Blaze News that over the past six decades, popes and the patriarchs of Constantinople have been regularly “meeting, praying, and slowly working for restored communion, as have the churches they lead.”

Msgr. Landry suggested that “there’s no question” that one of Pope Leo XIV’s top priorities, “as we celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and move toward the 1000th anniversary of the lamentable split between East and West in 1054, will be to take whatever steps, big or small, that will help the church breathe with both lungs again in communion” — a reference to Pope St. John Paul II’s 1995
metaphor of the Western and Eastern churches as two lungs.

Echoing Cardinal Collins and Fr. Powell, Msgr. Landry noted that there remain various obstacles in the way of restoration of full communion — including the date of Easter, the role of the pope, the Filioque controversy, the sacrament of marriage, the respect for the legitimate autonomy of the Eastern churches — but there is nevertheless “a mutual desire for that communion and a mutual humble dependence on God to reveal the path forward.”

“I’m not in the odds-making business, but there is certainly justified hope because the issues that divide us are small in comparison to the faith, sacraments, life, and calling that unite us,” Msgr. Landry told Blaze News. “We are moving together in the right direction.”

In the meantime, he suggested that the ongoing separation “is a scandal that hinders the witness Christians are called to give of God.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s joint trip to Nicaea with Pope Leo XIV is hardly the only celebration of the anniversary that has brought East and West together.

Earlier this month in Freehold, New Jersey, hierarchs, clergy, seminarians, and faithful from Eastern and Western traditions — including elements of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church in America, the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey, the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Eparchy, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn —
participated in an ecumenical prayer service “testifying to the unifying power of the Nicene Creed and the enduring vision of the Council Fathers.”

Similar celebrations have been held
elsewhere across the world.

The Catholic Church’s International Theological Commission stated in a
recent publication concerning the Council of Nicaea and the 1,700th anniversary:

The celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea is a pressing invitation to the Church to rediscover the treasure entrusted to her and to draw from it so as to share it with joy, with a new impetus, indeed in a “new stage of evangelisation.” To proclaim Jesus our Salvation on the basis of the faith expressed at Nicaea, as professed in the Nicene-Constantinople symbol, is first of all to allow ourselves to be amazed by the immensity of Christ, so that all may be amazed, to rekindle the fire of our love for the Lord Jesus, so that all may burn with love for him. Nothing and no one is more beautiful, more life-giving, more necessary than he is.”

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In my previous piece about Pope Leo XIV, I discussed last weekend’s social media buzz around the first American pope’s love of baseball.

Unfortunately, the article went to press before I could confirm one crucial detail: The pope is a White Sox fan.

For every meme of the pope wearing a Sox jersey, someone else is crying because the pope used to go to her high school or speaks with his accent.

“He was never ever a Cubs fan, so I don’t know where that came from. He was always a Sox fan,” the new pope’s younger brother, John Prevost, told WGN TV.

White smoke, White Sox

Footage even emerged on Friday afternoon showing a younger Pope Leo in the stands for Game 1 of the Sox’s historic 2005 World Series sweep of the Houston Astros.

The news was also confirmed by Cincinnati Reds fan Vice President JD Vance, who joked that Pope Leo’s White Sox fandom may be good for his spirituality.

“I had a friend of mine that had a pretty funny take on this,” recalled Vance. “He said, ‘If Pope Leo really is a Chicago White Sox fan, then he’s already actually faced the stress of martyrdom multiple times,’ so maybe we have a real winner in the new Holy Father.”

Sorry, Cubs.

No word on whether club chairman Tom Ricketts’ invitation for Pope Leo to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” at Wrigley Field still stands.

Da memes

Despite enduring some jabs for prematurely claiming Pope Leo as one of their own, Cubs fans seem undeterred, cranking out just as much Leo-themed merchandise and memes as their crosstown rivals.

The sheer number of “da pope” memes, shirts, posters, and bobble-heads that have been made in the past few days shows that Chicagoans love being the hometown of the new Holy Father. One local restaurant chain even named an Italian beef sandwich after the pope, while another local pizza joint is seeing skyrocketing business after it was revealed that the pope ate there. The buzz has yet to die down!

As it turns out, Chicagoans of all baseball persuasions have fallen head over heels for Pope Leo in the past few days.

It all seems a little provincial compared to the significance of the larger milestone: that an American from anywhere in the country made the cut.

American pious

Catholic commentators have long thought the Church would be unlikely ever to choose a leader from a country already so dominant in politics, economics, and culture. Africa or South America, where much of Catholicism’s recent growth has occurred, seemed much more likely candidate pools.

That’s why so many Americans are trying to find a message behind the papal conclave’s choice of Cardinal Prevost. What made an American so uniquely suited to this moment in Catholic history, given America’s history of Protestant anti-clericalism and its dubious distinction of being one of the only countries in history to have a heresy named after it?

Was this a statement about the remarkable revival of the Church in America (through folks like Bishop Barron and Fr. Mike Schmitz) or a warning that its vocal “trad” element needs to be more like the politically moderate Pope Leo XIV?

The Chicago way

Back in my native Chicago, any such speculation seems fairly abstract when compared to the ever-present buzz of excitement. Midwest Americans feel a connection to the pope they’ve never felt before.

This is particularly true in Chicago, where Polish, Irish, German, Slavic, Italian, and Hispanic Catholic communities are deeply rooted in the city’s identity and people. For every meme of the pope wearing a Sox jersey, someone else is crying because the pope used to go to her high school or speaks with his accent, creating a new level of identification they’ve never felt with their spiritual father.

Local clergy and laypeople I’ve spoken to in the last few days are bursting with excitement that a graduate of the South Side’s Catholic Theological Union — and a man with whom they share myriad personal connections — is now the supreme pontiff.

Fellow Chicago native and Catholic apologist Bishop Robert Barron put it well in a video last Friday, reflecting how touching it is to have grown up in the same milieu as Pope Leo. They are only a few years apart in age.

“He’s not only an American; he’s from Chicago. He’s from my hometown,” said Barrron. “In fact, he grew up in Dalton, and I grew up in Western Springs. [In good traffic] I could get to Dalton in 25 minutes.”

Barron couldn’t resist pointing out one crucial way in which he dissents from Pope Leo: “I’m a Cubs fan.”

Chi-town represent

Regardless of team — or even religious affiliation — it’s a powerful thing to see yourself represented in such a significant institution. As my friends have put it, it is both surreal and intensely moving to hear a pope speak English with an American accent.

Especially moved are those who grew up in the neighborhoods that Pope Leo lived and served in. I’m seeing Facebook friends, many who aren’t Catholic, share with obvious pride that their family members went to the same high school as the pope.

As Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says, “This is a tremendous moment for our Catholic community and for all Chicagoans.”

I can’t say I’m not enjoying it myself. However, as much fun as it is to see all the Mike Ditka and “da Bears” jokes, I must admit I am getting queasy from the memes showing the Eucharist replaced with a deep dish pizza. And the wine replaced with Malort.

Setting aside the mild sacrilege, I don’t like the idea of getting a heartburn from holy communion.

​Catholic church, Chicago, Conclave, Vatican, Pope leo xiv 

With accountability and spending restraint more urgent than ever, Congress should shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for good. Eliminating the CFPB would mark a decisive move to protect taxpayers from another bloated, unaccountable government agency. If Republicans, Congress, and President Donald Trump want to keep their promise to rein in Washington’s runaway bureaucracy, they must ensure this agency stays dead — and buried for good.

The CFPB’s unchecked growth and regulatory overreach have raised red flags for years. Born out of the 2008 financial crisis, the agency operates with minimal oversight and has long avoided serious scrutiny. Its expanding budget and vague authority continue to spark legitimate questions about fiscal responsibility and constitutional limits. Closing down the CFPB would end a failed bureaucratic experiment and send a clear message: Every federal agency answers to the taxpayers. No exceptions.

Consumers deserve clear, commonsense policies — especially after years of market confusion driven by the CFPB’s heavy hand.

The CFPB was built to operate independently, beyond the reach of Congress or the president. Lawmakers granted it broad, vague authority — allowing unelected bureaucrats to meddle freely in the U.S. economy. Beyond its track record of economic failure, the CFPB’s structure flatly contradicts the American model of representative government.

President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, acted quickly. They made high-impact decisions to show Americans they were serious about cutting waste, reducing overreach, and eliminating redundancy across the federal bureaucracy. When the CFPB came up for its DOGE review, the administration halted its operations and dismissed hundreds of staff.

That move triggered criticism from the usual quarters, but consumers and lawmakers should look deeper. Ending the CFPB isn’t just about cost-cutting. It signaled a broader plan to streamline the federal government and promote efficiency across every agency.

Still, even the DOGE can’t finish the job without Congress. Only Congress can repeal the statute that established the CFPB — and only Congress can shut the agency down for good. Lawmakers must do so.

The CFPB currently controls its own funding, bypassing the regular appropriations process and evading critical checks and balances. Reclaiming those dollars would help reduce the deficit, and redistributing the CFPB’s limited useful functions to other agencies would ensure continued consumer protections under proper oversight.

The Federal Reserve and other agencies already handle key aspects of financial regulation and could easily absorb the CFPB’s remaining duties. Congress must finally draw the line: no more duplicative mandates, no more unchecked authority, and no more mission creep. If consumer protections matter — and they do — then Congress must deliver them through a structure that answers to the people.

RELATED: Congress claps back at Biden’s ‘junk fee’ crusade

Ployker via iStock/Getty Images

Fortunately, the CFPB has begun scaling back some of its overreach. Earlier this month, the agency dropped its lawsuit against Credit Acceptance Corporation, an auto lender. That move signals a step in the right direction — away from regulatory overreach and toward a more balanced role in the economy.

Every unnecessary enforcement action piles compliance costs on businesses, stifles innovation, and hampers economic growth. Reassessing these missteps marks progress toward a regulatory approach that defends consumers without punishing industry.

Consumers deserve clear, commonsense policies — especially after years of market confusion driven by the CFPB’s heavy hand. They also deserve policies shaped by accountable officials, not by bureaucrats operating in defiance of congressional oversight. Credit access remains essential for Americans seeking financial stability in times of need. Crafting sound regulations — and eliminating those that never made sense — protects both their financial futures and the broader economy.

Consumers also deserve protection they can trust. Creditors need clear, consistent rules to serve their customers without facing unpredictable regulatory entanglements. Any reform bill must address these concerns directly and distribute the CFPB’s remaining legitimate duties across existing, accountable agencies.

As these changes take shape, stakeholders must stay engaged. Reforms should be implemented deliberately and effectively — promoting economic growth while preserving oversight where it’s needed. If President Trump wants to cement his legacy as the president who dismantled the administrative state, he must make sure the CFPB doesn’t just get paused. It must stay gone for good.

​Opinion & analysis, Consumer financial protection bureau, Cfpb, Donald trump, Elon musk, Doge, Department of government efficiency, Budget cuts, Lawsuits, Regulations, Bureaucracy, Administrative state, Banking, Loans, Federal reserve, Credit 

Duke forward Cooper Flagg is projected to be the No. 1 pick for the 2025 NBA Draft. It’s no surprise after his stellar freshman season, where he averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game and earned the Wooden Award as the top college basketball player.

Between his two-way versatility, defensive prowess, and playmaking ability, Flagg will be a franchise cornerstone for the Dallas Mavericks, who won the lottery with a 1.8% chance and are likely to select him on June 25.

But ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says there’s something besides just raw talent behind Flagg’s status as the projected No. 1 draft pick. White privilege is also apparently a factor in the equation.

Jason Whitlock plays the clip of Smith explaining why the Dallas Mavericks have no choice but to draft Cooper Flagg.

“When you got somebody with that kind of potential and they’re white and you are in America, you keep that dude,” said Smith. “Texas is different, and in Dallas, Texas, if you got an opportunity to get Cooper Flagg, you take Cooper Flagg – especially when you just let go of Luka Dončić.”

Smith argued that being a white American superstar in the NBA, a league with few white American stars, makes Flagg highly marketable, drawing parallels to Larry Bird.

“I don’t understand why ESPN allows this other than obviously they’re in the racial division business like a lot of the rest of the media,” says Jason Whitlock.

“There is, for whatever reason, this undeniable urge or push for ESPN to utilize this race-baiting tactics,” adds “Fearless” contributor Jay Skapinac, host of the “Skap Attack.”

“Sports to me are the ultimate merit-based entity really. … The best should be the ones playing; the best should be the ones picked; the best should be the ones dictating the merchandising dollars, and so forth,” he continues, noting that Smith’s suggestion that top-tier white players are rare and therefore valuable falls flat when you consider that “for five years the best player in the NBA has been Nikola Jokić by wide margin.”

To see the footage of Smith’s comments and hear more of Jason and Skap’s conversation, watch the episode above.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Until recently, “woke” was a term that anti-Marxist liberals, nationalists, and conservatives had in common. It was a term we could use to communicate with one another and understand one another in our post-2015 battle against a virulent and ascendant strain of neo-Marxist revolution. In other words, the term “woke” played an important role in building a broad coalition that looked like it could be strong enough to defeat this enemy.

It was a pretty big achievement for such a small word.

But now a handful of anti-woke liberals have decided to turn this formerly unifying, coalition-building term into a weapon to use against the right.

True, some of the most malicious liberals have been intentionally using “woke right” to cover just about the entire nationalist right, whereas other, more naive liberals, having taken the bait, are trying to apply the term “woke right” only to what used to be called the “alt-right” or “white nationalists.”

I get it. I really do. I understand that some of the liberals who’ve been pumping up the term “woke right” are deceitful scoundrels and that others are just honestly, nerdishly trying to work out a way of answering real questions in political theory that bother them.

But for present purposes, it doesn’t matter if you’re a deceitful scoundrel or an earnest nerd. Every liberal using the term “woke right” is being a schmuck.

What they are
all doing is taking a flag and a symbol that for 10 years was highly effective at rallying opposition to the neo-Marxist revolution — and worked well to cement a coalition that could defeat it — and throwing that flag to the ground and trampling on it so it can’t be used any more.

Yes, you schmucks, “woke” always meant exactly one thing: It referred to that part of the neo-Marxist left that liberals, conservatives, nationalists, Christians, and Jews had to join forces to defeat. And by repurposing that term as a weapon against this coalition, you’ve turned it into gall in our mouths. You’ve taken a shared term of discourse, gutted its common and universally accepted meaning, and mangled it so we can’t use it to talk to one another any more.

Targeting the anti-woke coalition

This is why so many on the nationalist right are so amazed by the treachery of certain anti-Marxist liberals who have been promoting the theory of the “woke right” — and by the wretched folly of so many other liberals who have walked right into the trap.

Turning the term “woke” on the nationalist right isn’t just redefining any old term. It’s a betrayal. A betrayal that, if it goes through, will mean the end of the anti-woke coalition that looked, for a few short months, like it could actually win.

Sure, there were always different streams on the right. There was always an “alt-right” (as Richard Spencer called it) or a “white nationalist” right that set itself up in opposition to mainstream nationalist conservatives. There was also the “dissident right,” which had a somewhat broader reach. Then there were mainstream nationalist conservatives (or “NatCons”). These were all well known and reasonably accurate terms for talking about the various movements on the political right. And of course, if you didn’t feel like using reasonably accurate terms, you could always use the corporate left-wing media’s go-to favorites like “illiberal right” and “Christian nationalist right” — typically employed when the idea was to deplore everyone who wasn’t a liberal.

In other words, there were plenty of terms available for those anti-Marxist liberals who just wanted to criticize various factions of the right. Those terms existed, and everyone knew what they were referring to.

Why they’re using this term

So why weren’t all these existing terms good enough? Why did some of the super-geniuses who spend their time competing for the title of grand poobah in the anti-Marxist liberal camp feel like they had to manufacture this entirely new term — “woke right” — and work day and night to get it to take off?

Obviously, it was because, in the eyes of a few anti-Marxist liberals, “woke right” had advantages that more accurate terms like “alt-right” or “white nationalist right” didn’t have. Let’s count the advantages these aspiring poobahs thought they could milk out of using “woke right” instead:

1. “Woke right” is intentionally designed to be humiliating. The whole point of the term “woke right” is to target people who have devoted their best efforts for years — often with serious personal and professional consequences — to mounting a viable opposition to the “woke” left. The whole point is to tell them: Sorry, pal, but you’re not a whit better than the Maoist revolutionaries you were out there fighting. And coming out of the mouths of anti-Marxist liberals who were at least sometimes out there on the barricades with us, that is in fact a pretty demeaning thing to hear.

2. “Woke right” is perfect for virtue-signaling. Because the term “woke right” signals a rupture and a betrayal of the coalition that some anti-Marxist liberals forged with the right, it serves as proof of ideological purity. It says: As for me, I’m still untainted. I will keep delegitimizing and canceling nationalists and conservatives forever.

3. “Woke right” succeeds as a provocation where previous terms of contempt like “illiberal right” and “Christian nationalism” failed. The fact is, the term “woke right” really has outraged many nationalist conservatives. And for a small number of especially thuggish liberal trolls, causing that upset and confusion in the ranks of nationalist conservatives is a good in itself.

4. “Woke right” is a term that neutralizes the power of the term “woke” to forge a broad coalition between anti-Marxist liberals and nationalist conservatives. The term “woke right” destroys the flag and symbol of that broad, anti-Marxist coalition and makes it impossible to rally around it any longer.

5. “Woke right” is a term that actively works to destroy the possibility of mutual respect, political alliance, and friendship between anti-Marxist liberals and the nationalist right. Because of its strong connotations of intentional humiliation and provocation, betrayal, and the destruction of shared symbols, getting this term into wide circulation is the best weapon anyone has come up with yet to ensure that anti-Marxist liberals and nationalist conservatives will truly despise one another and do everything possible to avoid working together going forward.

So that’s a lot of reasons why an anti-Marxist liberal might want to use the term “woke right” instead of more accurate, established terms. But notice that he would only use this new term if his goal was to drive a wedge between liberals and the nationalist right, increase mutual distrust and mutual resentment, and cripple the ability of the two camps to pursue common aims.

That’s why I say that every one of you anti-Marxist liberals using this term is being a schmuck. Because either you are purposely trying to destroy the anti-woke coalition, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, or you are completely clueless about the damage you’re doing to the anti-woke coalition and don’t have the political sense to know when you’re being played like a fiddle and who’s playing you.

Either way, there’s an old political term for what you’re doing. You’re being a schmuck.

A common effort endangered

There are lots of things I find aggravating and distasteful about having to work with liberals to achieve common aims. But probably the worst is the way that certain big-shot liberals continue to find ever-new ways of expressing their disgust and loathing for their nationalist and conservative allies — no matter how much their nationalist and conservative colleagues may have contributed to a common political effort and no matter how recent the memory of it.

Some readers may be too young to remember the end of the Cold War. So for them, let me just add a relevant historical comment. If you want to know what happened in 1989 to transform the victorious anti-communist alliance between liberals and conservatives into a dystopian reality in which liberals worldwide ended up trying to grind their former nationalist and conservative allies into the ground — well, it looked exactly like what we’re seeing with this “woke right” campaign.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a small group of fanatical liberal commissars decided that the victory over communism was the perfect moment to try for a world without nationalists and without real conservatives in any positions of influence anywhere. When they spoke of a “unipolar” world, they didn’t mean that America was going to be the single great power on earth. What they meant was that their liberalism was going to be the single great power on earth, so that no one with any power or influence would ever be anything other than a liberal again. Francis Fukuyama’s grotesque fantasy about banishing anyone driven by “thymos” to jungles at the edges of the political world was only the best known example of this ideal.

It seems like we’re going through an attempted replay of this same liberal fantasy now, although still on a much smaller scale. A small number of fanatical liberal commissars are giddy with the feeling that the Berlin Wall has fallen again. They think (mistakenly) that the war against “woke” is basically over and that our side has already won. They think (mistakenly) that they can safely turn their attention to trying to remove nationalists and genuine conservatives from whatever positions of influence they’ve succeeded in gaining in the last 10 years.

I admit that for now, this effort still looks pathetic. The anti-Marxist liberals who really believe these things are still just a fanatical few. But when you see how quickly they’ve hoodwinked so many in their camp into embarking on an immediate war against their nationalist and conservative coalition partners, it just makes your head spin.

Donald Trump and JD Vance were right to bring anti-Marxist liberals into their coalition and into their administration. They could not have won without broadening their appeal. And that broad coalition will be needed for many years to come if any part of the nationalist and conservative agenda is going to be implemented in reality.

But there won’t be much hope of holding this coalition together if certain fanatical, anti-Marxist liberal commissars continue inflating the lie that nationalist conservatives are an imminent threat to all things good and beautiful — “just like the left.”

Editor’s note: The second edition of Yoram Hazony’s award-winning book, “The Virtue of Nationalism,” will be published in June and is available for pre-order now.

​Opinion & analysis, Woke right, Wokeness, Marxism, Conservatism, Nationalism 

The Los Angeles Chargers’ director of social media defended the team’s right to make humorous content after other teams removed posts that were determined to be “insensitive.”

The controversy started when the Indianapolis Colts took part in what now seems like a tradition for NFL teams to release lighthearted videos to announce their upcoming schedules. The Colts apparently went too far, however, when they turned Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill into a cartoon dolphin and mocked his 2024 run-in with Miami-Dade Police.

‘Luckily we work at a place that values social [media] and the ability to make a joke.’

The perceived backlash — which apparently no one could pinpoint — was enough that the Colts took down their video and issued an apology.

“We removed our schedule release video because it exceeded our rights with Microsoft and included an insensitive clip involving Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill. We sincerely apologize to Microsoft and Tyreek,” the team said in a statement.

The retraction included an apology to Microsoft due to the Colts’ video animation style mimicking Microsoft’s game Minecraft.

In fact, the video seemed strikingly similar to that of the Chargers, who actually acquired permission from Microsoft to use their intellectual property in their schedule release video.

Given the similarity and the subsequent apology, CNN asked the head of the Chargers’ social media about the content of their video and the reaction the Colts had received, wondering, “How far is too far?”

RELATED: Indianapolis Colts cave to invisible mob, delete hilarious video poking fun at Tyreek Hill despite his approval

Allie Raymond (left) and Megan Julian (right) of the Chargers’ social media team. Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Dolphins reporter Joe Schad said the Chargers’ social media head defended making a joke and putting out witty content.

“Luckily we work at a place that values social [media] and the ability to make a joke,” said Megan Julian, director of digital and social media for the Chargers.

“Not everything has to be serious all the time,” she added.

— (@)

It did not take long for fans to react positively to the refreshing take from Julian, which was seemingly the inverse of how the Colts organization handled the situation.

“We desperately need that mind set for the social media team with the Dolphins,” one fan replied.

“Make America joke again!” another fan chimed in.

A photojournalist for a Fox outlet added, “A lot of NFL organizations could learn from this.”

RELATED: NFL cancels DEI event, yet still makes ridiculous diversity statement about its fans and hiring women

The Chargers’ social media team produces content at Chargers HQ on Friday, May 9, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“If you’re going to go for the joke, and take a page from the Chargers’ social media, just go for it,” sports reporter Alejandro Avila told Blaze News.

He added, “I have no idea why the Colts would take that down,” as it did not seem to offend anyone.

Not even Hill, the apparent victim in the ordeal, took offense to the video.

“He laughed about it and didn’t think they needed to take it down on his account,” Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, stated.

The agent noted that his client was also willing to accept the Colts organization’s apology, even though it was not necessary.

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​Fearless, Nfl, Football, Social media, Minecraft, Microsoft, Woke, Cancel culture, Sports, La chargers, Indianapolis colts, Jokes, Humor 

Catholics have a new pope: Leo XIV. Most of the cardinals who elected him were appointed by Pope Francis, and at first glance, the new pontiff appears to share much with his predecessor. But it’s early yet. Catholics should pray that Leo charts a very different course. The reason is simple: The Catholic Church finds itself locked in a battle against three hostile ideologies — globalism, Islam, and communism. And right now, it’s losing on all fronts.

Pope Francis earned the nickname the “People’s Pope,” a title meant to suggest he championed ordinary Catholics. In truth, he aligned more closely with the globalist left. He openly opposed President Trump’s push to restore American borders and criticized similar efforts by European nations to reclaim their sovereignty. Under Francis, the Church’s advocacy of open borders helped dismantle Western Christendom by encouraging the mass migration of Muslims into Europe. Many of these migrants view their secularized Christian hosts with contempt. European leaders, meanwhile, steeped in guilt and detached from the virtues of their own civilization, capitulated. The result: rape, murder, and a continent sinking into self-loathing. Only a radical reformation can pull Europe back from the brink.

Communism and Christianity cannot coexist. The new pope must say so — clearly, unambiguously, and without fear.

Francis also failed pastorally. Faced with the ongoing sexual abuse crisis that has haunted the Church for decades, he refused to lead with transparency or justice. When he became pope, he had the chance to hold predatory priests accountable for their demonic crimes and restore trust among the faithful. Instead, he did next to nothing. His silence signaled to the hierarchy that abuse could still be covered up, even tolerated. That betrayal deepened the wounds of a Church already in crisis and demoralized millions of believers.

Pope Leo XIV now has a moment to break with the past. He must act swiftly and decisively. The Church cannot afford another papacy of retreat and complicity.

A disgraceful bargain

In December 2017, Pope Francis appeared on Italian television and publicly questioned the traditional wording of the Lord’s Prayer. The closing line — “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13, Luke 11:4) — is a direct teaching from Christ. Francis asked, “What kind of Father would lead his children into temptation?”

That question revealed a deeper confusion. The line reflects not divine cruelty but the profound gift of human freedom. God grants mankind free will — the ability to choose between good and evil, between virtue and temptation. The Lord’s Prayer acknowledges that freedom and asks God to help us navigate it. Pope Francis, it seems, struggled to grasp this. His discomfort with the line suggests a broader discomfort with the idea that freedom comes with moral risk — and that risk, in turn, calls for responsibility, discipline, and faith.

At the same time, Francis sent disgraced pedophile Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to Beijing to negotiate a secret deal with the Chinese Communist Party. That deal handed partial control of the Church in China to the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, a CCP-run front established in 1957 to suppress Christianity and replace it with a state-approved imitation.

Religious freedom in communist China remains a fiction. Teaching the faith to children is effectively banned. The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association exists not to protect believers but to pacify the Vatican and deceive the West. It offers a false promise of coexistence — as long as Catholicism conforms to state-imposed restrictions. Some call this process the “Sinicization” of the Church. A more accurate term would be its communization.

RELATED: Not Francis 2.0: Why Pope Leo XIV is a problem for the ‘woke’ agenda

Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

The CCP has not simply demanded obedience — it has altered doctrine and replaced sacred symbols. The crucifix — central to the Christian faith as a reminder of Christ’s suffering — has been replaced in churches with portraits of Xi Jinping. That’s not contextualization. That’s desecration.

McCarrick, a despicable character to be sure, traveled to China at least three times to help broker the Vatican’s secret agreement with the CCP. Those negotiations produced disturbing compromises: among them, a shared arrangement where the Vatican and the Communist Party jointly approve bishops. Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong has condemned the deal as a betrayal of faithful Chinese Catholics — many of whom spent their lives resisting communist persecution.

Even Pope Francis acknowledged that the agreement would cause suffering. He was right. Since its implementation, the CCP’s Ministry of State Security has “disappeared” at least 15 bishops who refused to submit to party rule. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

But the suffering extends further — to millions of Chinese parents forbidden from teaching their children about Jesus. Families must wait until their children turn 18 before they can legally attend church, at which point they don’t approach the altar as supplicants to God but as subjects of the Chinese Communist Party. This forced delay in faith formation is not only spiritually damaging — it is deeply humiliating. It turns the act of worship into a form of ideological submission.

No more submission

Some may argue that Chinese Catholics are better off with a compromised, state-approved church than with no church at all. Pope Francis may have reasoned that accepting the replacement of the cross — the profound symbol of Christ’s suffering — with portraits of the Chinese Communist Party’s first secretary was a small price for institutional survival.

But allowing an atheistic regime to oversee Christian worship amounts to cruelty disguised as prudence. It undermines the very purpose of the church. There is something profoundly demoralizing to the entire world to watch the Holy Roman Catholic Church behave in such a craven manner.

Pope Leo XIV must draw a clear line. He must reject every agreement with the Chinese Communist Party that surrenders human freedom in exchange for bureaucratic recognition. The freedom of conscience, the freedom to worship, and the freedom to speak the truth — these stand at the heart of the Christian mission. In China, the underground church continues to bear witness to that mission. Its members worship in secret, often at great personal risk, defying a regime that demands their silence and obedience. Their defiance reveals a faith rooted in courage and dignity.

The CCP’s version of Catholicism, by contrast, fuses materialism, Maoism, and political submission. No Catholic worthy of the name should pretend that such a hybrid represents anything but ideological fraud. Communism and Christianity cannot coexist. The new pope must say so — clearly, unambiguously, and without fear.

What should alarm the faithful most is the Vatican’s submission to totalitarian rule. Instead of forming a bulwark against tyranny, the Catholic Church has, through its secret pact with Beijing, told its flock to put Caesar before God. That message contradicts the very heart of the faith. The Vatican must repeal its secret agreement with the Chinese Communist Party and make public its contents. Only then can the world see clearly the extent of the CCP’s repression — and the Church’s role in enabling it.

The disaster in China offers a painful reminder: While Christ is king and has conquered sin, Satan still rules the world (John 14:30). That truth remains central to Christian belief. It underscores man’s constant dependence on God — and Satan’s persistent effort to pull mankind away. In China’s repression of believers, its sponsorship of Islamic terrorism, its support for Iran’s nuclear program, and its vicious treatment of its own people, Satan’s fingerprints remain obvious and unhidden.

Catholics and all Christians should pray that Pope Leo XIV receives the grace to lead boldly and reject the globalist path of his predecessor. As an American, he might take inspiration from the words of Thomas Jefferson: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” That counsel has never been more urgent. May the new pope heed it.

​Opinion & analysis, Pope francis, Pope leo xiv, Vatican, Xi jinping, Catholic church, Chinese communist party, Chinese catholic patriotic association, Secret deal, Communism, Islam, Globalism, Joseph zen, Theodore mccarrick, Sexual abuse in the catholic church, Pedophilia, Scandal, Freedom of religion 

On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn interviewed Vice President JD Vance over a range of topics, including Trump’s history-making trip to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, Europe’s social media censorship plans, potential spending cuts in the final version of the “big, beautiful bill,” Trump’s plan to slash regulations on AI and energy companies, why staying ahead of China on AI is a matter of life and death, and, finally, the Vatican’s role in global politics.

In their conversation on the Vatican, Vance, who is scheduled to attend Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration this weekend alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, revealed a fact about the Vatican few know.

“Why does the pope matter so much to the world … beyond faith and religion?” Glenn asked.

“He is the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics, and so there is just a lot of soft influence, right? He doesn’t have a military; he doesn’t have an army, but he does have a lot of influence,” said Vance.

“I think we won a majority of Catholics in the last election, but a lot of those Catholics continue to vote Democratic, and so there is just a natural influence in having the ear of 1.4 billion faithful people, including 100 million or so in the United States,” he continued.

However, it’s not just the Catholic people who are influenced by the pope; global leaders are listening as well.

“You don’t see a lot of headlines about this, but the Vatican has already played a very constructive role in some of the peace conversations that we’ve been having all over the world,” says Vance. “They’ve been trying to facilitate negotiations between the Russians and the Ukrainians; they’ve been trying to facilitate other peaceful negotiations between various countries.”

“They have the ear of those Catholics, but then they also have an ability to use that soft power to play a mediating role in some of these disputes. So while the Pope doesn’t have an F-35 standing behind him, he does have the prayers of a lot of faithful Catholics, and that matters when you try to insert yourself into these conversations,” Vance continued.

Vance added that he and President Trump “welcome that engagement” from the Vatican, as ending wars and promoting peace are pillars in the Trump agenda.

To hear the full interview, watch the clip above.

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