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Pope Leo just schooled the tech bros on Tolkien

Pope Leo just schooled the tech bros on Tolkien

Miles Klee writes: Nobody was surprised that Pope Leo XIV cited well-known saints and previous pontiffs in his first encyclical, or papal letter of spiritual guidance, “Magnifica humanitas,” released Monday. But the name that immediately jumped out to many readers is one synonymous with high fantasy literature: J.R.R. Tolkien, the Catholic author of The Lord of the Rings. Leo’s letter is concerned with “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” a major theme of his first year…

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Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ and new forms of ‘colonialism’ driving rise of AI

Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ and new forms of ‘colonialism’ driving rise of AI

Pope Leo writes: Even today, colonialism assumes new forms. It no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information. Entire regions, especially those marked by structural fragility and limited geopolitical relevance, are currently subjected to a new mindset of extraction: that of health data, epidemiological profiles, genetic maps and demographic information. These have become the new “rare earths” of power: vital data which, once aggregated and analyzed, can be used to train predictive models, guide…

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Is the far right driving a Christian revival in the UK?

Is the far right driving a Christian revival in the UK?

  For decades, Britain seemed to be leaving Christianity behind. Then a controversial report suggested church attendance was on the rise, published just as far-right figures such as Tommy Robinson began seizing on Christianity as a symbol of national identity. So is the UK really experiencing a Christian revival and to what extent is it being driven by Christian nationalism? To find out, the Guardian visited churches across the country and uncovered a growing schism over how Christianity is being…

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Christian nationalists gather in Washington to wage ‘spiritual war’

Christian nationalists gather in Washington to wage ‘spiritual war’

The New York Times reports: Thousands of people gathered on the National Mall on Sunday for a daylong rally blending Christian prayer and political fervor, a gathering President Trump had touted as an opportunity to “rededicate America as one nation under God.” The crowds came to the heart of Washington to hear from spiritual and elected leaders and members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appeared in a recorded video message, early in the day, exhorting the…

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White House to host 9-hour prayer festival for shameless hucksters promoting Christian nationalism

White House to host 9-hour prayer festival for shameless hucksters promoting Christian nationalism

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is hosting an all-day prayer festival on the National Mall on Sunday that organizers say will reflect the country’s Christian origins and, they hope, spark “a movement of renewal” in America. “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” is partly funded by millions in public dollars earmarked for the nation’s 250th birthday celebration, organizers said. It will feature mostly evangelical Protestant leaders and members of the Trump administration, many of whom…

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Trump accuses Pope Leo of endangering Catholics by opposing war against Iran

Trump accuses Pope Leo of endangering Catholics by opposing war against Iran

The Wall Street Journal reports: President Trump escalated his public feud with Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of endangering Catholics by opposing U.S. military action against Iran. The president’s latest broadside against the pope could complicate Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Rome later this week, where he is due to meet with Pope Leo in a bid to reset U.S.-Vatican relations after months of growing tensions. The Chicago-born pontiff has become one of the most outspoken critics…

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Pope Leo says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

Pope Leo says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

The Guardian reports: Pope Leo XIV has said that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” who spend billions on war, in comments that will be seen as another sharp escalation in his almost week-long feud with the White House over the US-Israel war on Iran. The first American-born pontiff did not mention Donald Trump by name, but used his speech in Cameroon on Thursday to denounce world leaders that invoke religion to justify violence against other…

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Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction

Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction

Richard Luscombe writes: It was perhaps inevitable that a braggadocious Christian nationalist defense secretary elevated from his role as a weekend Fox News television host would pluck a fake Bible verse from a violent Hollywood blockbuster and present it at a Pentagon prayer session to rally the troops for the “holy war” in Iran. Certainly among a glut of stories swirling around Pete Hegseth this week, including articles of impeachment brought against him by a group of ambitious Democratic lawmakers,…

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Amid quarrel with pope, Trump abruptly strips Catholic charity of funding to house migrant children

Amid quarrel with pope, Trump abruptly strips Catholic charity of funding to house migrant children

Miami Herald reports: The Trump administration has abruptly canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities to shelter and care for migrant children who enter the U.S. alone, ending a relationship between the Catholic Church and the U.S. government dating back to the first arrivals of Cuban exiles in South Florida. The development comes amid rising tensions between the administration and American Catholics over President Donald Trump’s heated criticism of the Vatican’s first American pope, Leo XIV. The pontiff has…

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Trump is trying to distract us from Pope Leo’s calls for peace. Don’t take the bait

Trump is trying to distract us from Pope Leo’s calls for peace. Don’t take the bait

Sam Sawyer, S.J., writes: During a weekend full of bad news for Mr. Trump, his post [attacking Pope Leo] followed a lack of progress in negotiations with Iran and the resounding electoral loss of his favorite European leader, Viktor Orban, in Hungary. Relative to the Catholic world, his post came the day after Pope Leo XIV led a prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter’s and was joined in prayer all around the world. It came within hours of a…

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Vance questions the pope on just war theory hours after Leo honored its founder, St. Augustine

Vance questions the pope on just war theory hours after Leo honored its founder, St. Augustine

National Catholic Reporter reports: Hours after Pope Leo XIV paid public homage to St. Augustine, one of the key architects of just war theory, Vice President JD Vance questioned the pontiff’s understanding of the Catholic doctrine for determining whether a war is morally justifiable. “When the pope says that God is never on the side of people who wield the sword, there is more than a 1,000-year tradition of just war theory,” Vance said at a Turning Point USA event…

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Trump’s attack on a pope he cannot control is really a ‘declaration of impotence’

Trump’s attack on a pope he cannot control is really a ‘declaration of impotence’

The Washington Post reports: After white smoke in the rafters of the Sistine Chapel signaled the rise of a new pope last May, President Donald Trump heralded the first U.S.-born leader of the Catholic Church by declaring the choice “a Great Honor for our Country.” But now the two most influential Americans on the world stage — Trump, the leader of 340 million Americans, and Pope Leo XIV, with a global flock of 1.4 billion Catholics — are locked in…

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Pope Leo says ‘delusion of omnipotence’ is fueling U.S.-Israeli war against Iran

Pope Leo says ‘delusion of omnipotence’ is fueling U.S.-Israeli war against Iran

The Associated Press reports: In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace. Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held. History’s first U.S.-born pope didn’t mention the United States or President Donald Trump in…

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Disciples of Christ never side with warmakers, says Pope Leo

Disciples of Christ never side with warmakers, says Pope Leo

The Wall Street Journal reports: Pope Leo XIV appeared to take aim at religious language used by U.S. officials to justify the war in Iran, in the latest salvo between the pontiff and the Trump administration over the conflict. “God does not bless any conflict,” the American pontiff said on X on Friday. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”…

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Pope Leo not planning to visit U.S. after Pentagon officials threatened military force against papacy, reports

Pope Leo not planning to visit U.S. after Pentagon officials threatened military force against papacy, reports

The Catholic Observer reports: The Defense Department summoned the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. to the Pentagon in January and subjected him to a “bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” according to published reports. Elbridge A. Colby, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for policy, summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who had served as the Holy See’s apostolic nuncio to the U.S. for…

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Pope Leo: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down!’

Pope Leo: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down!’

The Washington Post reports: Pope Leo XIV used his first Easter speech Sunday to deliver a resounding call for peace in times of renewed war, declaring, “Let those who have weapons lay them down!” “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” Leo said. “Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them! We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent….

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