I wanted to find out who had the idea of filling the canals with inflatable crocodiles, and whether I could take a photo with one of the faux crocs. But the Bezos Party Industrial Complex heard about the crocs and slyly moved the main reception to a new location.
The post A Satirical Journey to the Wedding of the Century appeared first on Jewish Journal.
I wanted to find out who had the idea of filling the canals with inflatable crocodiles, and whether I could take a photo with one of the faux crocs. But the Bezos Party Industrial Complex heard about the crocs and slyly moved the main reception to a new location.
The post Visiting the Satirical Wedding of the Century appeared first on Jewish Journal.
I wanted to find out who had the idea of filling the canals with inflatable crocodiles, and whether I could take a photo with one of the faux crocs. But the Bezos Party Industrial Complex heard about the crocs and slyly moved the main reception to a new location.
The post Imagining the Wedding of the Century appeared first on Jewish Journal.
I wanted to find out who had the idea of filling the canals with inflatable crocodiles, and whether I could take a photo with one of the faux crocs. But the Bezos Party Industrial Complex heard about the crocs and slyly moved the main reception to a new location.
The post My Visit to the Bezos-Sanchez Wedding appeared first on Jewish Journal.
What does falling off a bike have to do with the state of our nation? Is America going through an identity crisis – just like a seventeen-year-old? This week on The State of Belief, these parallels are part of the conversation with host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush and Dr. Robert P. Jones on America’s first 249 years, and what’s to come as the country approaches 250. All while they ask themselves the question: “How Bad Is It?”
On this Independence Day episode, Paul and his guest, who is president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), explore:
Towards the end of the episode, Robby leaves us with a powerful reminder of civic responsibility: “… whether it’s inside a home, inside a business, inside a church or a synagogue or a mosque, there are roles for all of us to play because there is a fight going on, for – I know Biden used this term maybe a little too much, but I do think it’s true – this kind of the soul of America really is, in many ways, at stake right now.”
Where to find Robby Jones:
Have you heard these recent episodes of The State of Belief?
Pro-life demonstrators take part in a rally calling for Planned Parenthood to be defunded in Denton, Texas, Saturday, June 28, 2025 / Credit: Carole Novielli/Live Action
CNA Newsroom, Jun 28, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
Thousands of pro-life advocates rallied at hundreds of locations across the United States on Saturday while taking part in a "single, coordinated day of demonstration" urging Congress to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
The pro-life group Live Action spearheaded the nationwide "Defund Day" event. Group founder Lila Rose told CNA it was the "largest grassroots effort" yet to call for stripping federal funds from Planned Parenthood, which received around $800 million in taxpayer dollars during its most recent fiscal year.
"We’re spearheading an effort with over 200 peaceful rallies across the country in all 48 states where there are Planned Parenthoods," she said. "This is a national call to defund the biggest abortion chain."
Citing Planned Parenthood's hundreds of thousands of abortions per year, as well as other extreme services such as providing cross-sex hormones to minors, Rose said: "Congress has an opportunity to defund. They need to seize it."
Photos and videos flooded social media on Saturday showing demonstrations taking place around the country, including in states such as California, Texas, Kentucky and Georgia, with protesters displaying signs and banners calling for Planned Parenthood to be blocked from federal funds.
More from Marietta, Georgia demanding Congress Defund Planned Parenthood @LiveAction pic.twitter.com/UqdkR1G0fn
— Carole Novielli (@CaroleNovielli) June 28, 2025
Rose told CNA that pro-life advocates are "closer than ever" to defunding the abortion chain.
"We have the opportunity with the [Republican] majority in the House and the Senate, and with an administration that has indicated it would defund," she said.
Dozens in Louisville, Kentucky demand the Senate defund Planned Parenthood!#DefundPlannedParenthood pic.twitter.com/cEAsovDvLL
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) June 28, 2025
Rose said that there are still "significant challenges" to the defunding goal, including the possibility of a filibuster in the Senate blocking any bill to that effect, though she noted that the budget reconciliation process could be used to bypass that obstacle.
If defunding is ultimately accomplished, Rose said, "we need to ensure that it sticks," not just for one budget year but permanently.
Looking forward, she said, "we have to abolish abortion."
"Defunding will weaken abortion, but the main goal is the complete legal protection for the preborn."
"We’re building a groundswell [to abolish abortion]," she added. "It’s going to take time to develop the political infrastructure. But I believe we’ll do it within a decade."
null / Credit: TippaPatt/Shutterstock
ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 28, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).
The last three popes — Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV — have on more than one occasion recommended reading “Lord of the World,” the dystopian science fiction novel written by Robert Hugh Benson in 1907.
This apocalyptic novel depicts the consequences of a society that turned its back on God and presents a social critique of the customs of the West, which has succumbed to capitalism and socialism.
Benson, an Anglican cleric who eventually converted to Catholicism and was ordained a priest in 1904, proposes a reality in which “the forces of secularist materialism, relativism, and state control triumph everywhere.”
This work, praised by the last three popes, also describes the arrival of the Antichrist as a charismatic personality but who also promotes ideals destructive to society.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, cited this work during a lecture he gave at the Catholic University of Milan in February 1992, stating that the work “gives much food for thought.”
It was also one of Pope Francis’ favorite books. During his meeting with the academic and cultural world as part of his apostolic journey to Budapest, Hungary, in April 2023, Francis explained that this work “shows that mechanical complexity is not synonymous with true greatness and that in the most ostentatious exteriority is hidden the most subtle insidiousness.”
For the Argentine pope, the book was “in a certain sense prophetic.” Although it was written more than a century ago, “it describes a future dominated by technology and in which everything, in the name of progress, is standardized; everywhere a new ‘humanism’ is preached that suppresses differences, nullifying the life of peoples and abolishing religions,” he said.
Specifically, he emphasized that in the society described in the book, all differences are eradicated, as opposing ideologies merge in a homogenization resulting in “ideological colonization — as humanity, in a world run by machines, is gradually diminished and life in society becomes sad and rarefied.”
Francis noted that in the novel, “everyone seems listless and passive, it seems obvious that the sick should be gotten rid of and euthanasia practiced, as well as national languages and cultures be abolished in order to achieve a universal peace.”
This idea of peace, however, “is transformed into an oppression based on the imposition of consensus, to the point of making one of the protagonists state that the world seems at the mercy of a perverse vitality, which corrupts and confuses everything,” Francis said in his address in the Hungarian capital.
Also, while criticizing ideological colonization, Pope Francis during a press conference he gave to the media on his flight back to the Vatican after his Apostolic Journey to Manila, Philippines, in 2015 recommended reading the book.
Cardinal Robert Prevost, before being elected Pope Leo XIV, also recommended the book in an interview given to the Augustinians from Rome. “It speaks about what could happen in the world if we lose faith,” Prevost explained.
He emphasized that Benson’s work contains passages that give a lot of food for thought “in terms of the world we are living in,” presenting challenges about the importance of “continuing to live with faith but also to continue to live with a deep appreciation of who we are as human beings, brothers and sisters, but understanding the relationship of ourselves with God and the love of God in our lives.”
Furthermore, the cardinal, who became Leo XIV on May 8, noted that his two predecessors had also cited this book on more than one occasion.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.