Dominican Sister Throws First Pitch at White Sox Pope Night | Shalom World News Dominican Sister Mary Jo Sobieck threw the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday at the Chicago White Sox’s “Pope Hat” night honoring Pope Leo. Sister Mary Jo became a viral sensation in 2018 when she bounced the ball off her arm before throwing a strike at a White Sox game. She returned to the mound seven years later as the team celebrated its Chicago-born fan who became pope. The pregame ceremony also included a $14,000 donation from White Sox Charities to the Midwest Province of the Order of St. Augustine, the religious order Pope Leo once led.
Bishop Christopher Saunders, the former leader of the Australian Diocese of Broome, has been convicted of 13 counts of sexual abuse — including against a canonical minor.
Today, Bishop Emeritus Christopher Saunders, 76, of Broome was convicted of 13 homosexual offences against two young Indigenous men in Western Australia. A jury in the District Court of Western Australia found Saunders guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual penetration without consent. The jury acquitted him on six other charges. The offences for which Saunders was convicted occurred between 2008 and 2019, while he was serving as Bishop of Broome. Saunders was also convicted of offences against a second man, including sexual penetration without consent. The jury deliberated for approximately seven hours before returning the verdicts. Earlier in the trial, the judge instructed the jury that it was not necessary to return verdicts on seven charges and to disregard them because there was insufficient evidence to convict. Saunders pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied the allegations. He did not give evidence during the trial. He is due to face a sentencing …More
On August 13, Pope Leo XIV appointed Francesco Cesareo, 67, president emeritus of Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts, to the Vatican Committee for Historical Sciences. He was appointed alongside Umberto Longo, who is apparently a Freemason, and Polish historian Anna Barańska. Cesareo is married and the father of three adult children. From 2007 until 2022, he served as president of Assumption University. He left to live closer to his family and first grandchild and now teaches at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Pennsylvania. "LGBTQ-Friendly" University President During Cesareo's presidency, Assumption University recognized the homosexual student organization AU Allies and was listed as “LGBTQ-friendly” by the homosexual group 'New Ways Ministry'. The clearest controversy arose in 2020. Assumption's Campus Ministry circulated the U.S. bishops' document 'Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship'. The document called for protecting marriage as the lifelong union of …More
Mary, Star of Heaven - Song for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Lyrics: O sweet Mother of ours All pure and beautiful You who know this life Because you lived it here Do not leave us alone In our daily struggles On the roads of the world Hold us by the hand Mary, Star of Heaven Flower of Carmel Mirror of Love Immaculate Heart Queen of Paradise Hold us in your arms Before your sweet smile The night will fade away Guide us with your love In all of our sorrows Sustain our hearts When the pain comes And if our faith should die Come and rescue us O Queen of Angels Never leave our side Mary, Star of Heaven Flower of Carmel Mirror of Love Immaculate Heart Queen of Paradise Hold us in your arms Before your sweet smile The night will fade away Teach us everything O sweetest Virgin How to please our God As you have always done We want to follow you We who are your children And hear your gentle voice Comfort upon the cross Mary, Star of Heaven Flower of Carmel Mirror of Love Immaculate Heart …More
On August 13, Leo XIV appointed Umberto Longo, Director of the Italian Historical Institute for the Middle Ages in Rome and Professor of Medieval History at the secular Sapienza University of Rome, as a member of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences. The online footprint of Umberto Longo repeatedly places that name - and, in later cases, an identifiable Professor Longo - within the institutional environment of Italian Freemasonry and the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The examples span a decade. 2013 - Scottish Rite, Lazio: The Masonic publication LOGOS identifies a certain “Fr. Oratore Umberto Longo 4°” as an officer of the Loggia di Perfezione Maestri Segreti “Giano” in Rome. The publication introduces a series of texts under the heading: “Le Tavole del Fr. Oratore Umberto Longo 4°.” The abbreviation Fr. is used throughout for Fratello - “Brother” - while the number identifies the Scottish Rite degree. More importantly, the issue contains the official 2013 officers …More
Israel Evicted Settlers Besieging Palestinian Homes. Hours Later, They Were Back. The military’s failure to keep extremists away from two Palestinian families trapped in their West Bank homes made clear the chaos gripping the Israeli-occupied territory. nytimes.com/…d/middleeast/west-bank-siege-israeli… By Natan Odenheimer and Fatima AbdulKarim Natan Odenheimer reported from Jerusalem and Fatima AbdulKarim from Bir Zeit, in the West Bank. Aug. 13, 2026 The Israeli military evicted on Thursday about a dozen settlers who had besieged two Palestinian families in their West Bank homes, but several hours later settlers returned. The Palestinian families had been trapped in their homes since Sunday by Israeli settlers, who had erected a tent nearby and, residents said, attacked them, including with rocks. On Thursday morning, Israeli soldiers dismantled structures set up in the area by the settlers, confiscated some equipment, detained one settler and dispersed the rest, according to a military …More
Life in the Making It all begins in silence: one cell meets another, and in an instant, a new, unique, and unrepeatable life emerges. The imagery unfolds ceaselessly—division, form, heartbeat—until there is no longer any doubt about what we are seeing: not a mass of tissue, but a tiny body, joined to its mother by a cord that serves as both bridge and lifeline. Hands reaching out, legs curled up, a face settling into sleep just as any human being does. And therein lies the wrenching realization: that very being—already capable of movement, sensation, and resembling us—is the one whose life is chosen to be ended in a late-term abortion. It is not an abstract cell that is being stopped; it is a story that already possessed form, expression, and a heartbeat of its own. That is why those who defend life from conception describe such a decision—particularly in the later stages—as an act of special cruelty: because the biological development itself, revealed without filters, leaves little room …More
Vida en construcción Todo empieza en silencio: una célula se encuentra con otra y, en un instante, surge una vida nueva, única, irrepetible. La imagen avanza sin pausa —división, forma, latido— hasta que ya no queda duda de lo que estamos viendo: no una masa de tejido, sino un cuerpo pequeño, unido a su madre por un cordón que es puente y sustento a la vez. Manos que se buscan, piernas recogidas, un rostro que empieza a dormir como duerme cualquier ser humano. Y ahí está el desgarro: ese mismo ser, capaz ya de moverse, de sentir, de parecerse a nosotros, es el que en un aborto a término se decide interrumpir. No es una célula abstracta lo que se detiene: es una historia que ya tenía forma, gesto, latido propio. Por eso quienes defienden la vida desde la concepción llaman a esa decisión, en sus etapas más avanzadas, un acto especialmente cruel: porque el propio desarrollo biológico, mostrado sin filtros, deja poco espacio para la indiferencia. Quien defiende el valor de la vida desde la …More
About 14 years ago, when I belonged to a Fraternity of St Peter parish community, all couples planning to be married had to attend Novus Ordo classes in the neighboring city. No exceptions. If the Fathers did not cooperate, they were in danger of losing their faculties for performing marriages all-together. It's just the way it is in the FSSP. And, we all know that in most cases their main mission is to draw the faithful away from a nearby SSPX chapel. Every sermon must include some condemnation of the SSPX - it's mandatory and expected. At least those are the conclusions I've come to over the years. Parish life is so much more peaceful and sublime with the FSSPX, where the politics of Rome don't mess everything up.