Catholics Outraged after Babylon Bee Editor accuses Christians of Supporting Terrorists in Gaza

And we're live. Welcome back to the LOOPcast, of course, brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite morning newsletter. Today, joined by Erika and Josh, we've got a fantastic show for you. First up, I definitely appreciated Pope Leo and Peter Bialik.

Sorry, I can never pronounce his name. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pizza Bola, the pizza, have provided a lot of leadership in regards to the church bombing on Friday, and someone from the Babylon Bee set fire a big controversy by accusing certain Catholics in certain parts of the world not being real Catholics. We're going to get into all that controversy, including the leadership from the church on that, and then also Mike Huckabee taking a trip over to the West Bank. A lot of this is an update to what we talked about last Friday, so if you want all the details on that, It's there for you, but we're going to get into what's going on now.

We also had a release of some files. Not the files that people wanted. Not the Epstein files. Files, nonetheless. So, Trump did release some files through Tulsi Gabbard, specifically on Obama. So, going to be covering that as well, and then also certain birthday letters, whether or not they are true or not. We'll see. We'll find out. And then we get into the lost art of confession at the very end. Very interesting article. But good news, Twilight Zone, always. As to be expected on the show, but before we get into all that, Erika, what do we have?

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Amen to that. Josh, I'm a big fan of yours out in the wild. No. Was it a Yeti? Was that hard? Yeah, well, yeah, it wasn't hard, obviously, because they're all big fans of yours, but shout out Nancy. I met her in Indiana. I was at her daughter's wedding, so congratulations to them. That was awesome, but yeah, big Josh head said, you know, I laugh at what he says, so compliment or making fun of, I'm not sure, but. Oh, no, no.

Nancy's a fan. Thank you, Nancy. Awesome. Well, I say we get into it here. So, at the Angelus address yesterday, I'm going to share the video. Man, it's so cool seeing. Don't worry, I'll get to the Pope merch everywhere, but Pope Leo gave his Angelus address. I have the video here.

And I'll just let that rock while I play it. So, the July 17th attack on Holy Family Parish in Gaza obviously set off a firestorm of reactions all over the world. I've been talking to many people who have emailed in or on social media. Everyone's fighting over it, but during his July 20th Angelus Address from Castle Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV delivered one of his strongest condemnations yet of the war in Gaza, denouncing the violence as, quote, barbarism and mourning the victims.

I'm going to read directly from it. It's been transcribed on the Vatican website. Quote, I express my profound sadness regarding last Thursday's attack by the Israeli army on Catholic parish of Holy Family in Gaza City, which you know killed three Christians and gravely wounded others. I pray for the victims, and I am particularly close to their families and to all the parishioners. Sadly, this act adds to the continuous military attacks against civilian population and places of worship in Gaza. I again call for an immediate halt to the barbarism of the war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

I renew my appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and to respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of the population. To our beloved Middle Eastern Christians, I say, I deeply sympathize with your feeling that you can do little in the face of this grave situation. You are the heart of the Pope and the whole church. Thank you for your witness of faith. May the Virgin Mary, woman of the Levant, Dawn, the new sun that has risen in history, protect you always and accompany the world towards the dawn of peace.

Amen. Amen to that. So I was a little bit surprised then to see tweets like this, which really set it off. This is the Babylon Bee editor, Joel Berry. I might have to zoom in a little bit here. This won't be easy for people to hear, but there are only about 200 professed Catholics living in Gaza, and they all support Hamas.

Below that, true Christian faith still exists in Gaza, but it's all underground. Anyone allowed by Hamas to practice openly is allowed to do so only because they aid and support the terror regime. Again, this was right after the only Catholic parish in Gaza was bombed by the IDF. They apologized, said it was stray. Really hard to imagine it was an accidental bombing of a Catholic church.

But that's where we're at, and killed three people, wounded the pastor, and wounded many others in the community. Josh, do you have any inkling on why this riled people up? Well, I mean, Joel Berry's comment riled people up because it was ugly, bigoted, vile, obnoxious, and completely disrespectful. And I even saw some people online defending Joel Berry. Joel Berry is one of these. There are dispensationalist Christians who believe that, like, we need to rise up the secular Israeli government in order to bring about the end times or something like that.

The second coming, right. There's this really bizarre, bad theology that leads them to bad foreign policy. I just cannot believe what's going on with this, because it's like, you know, and I have to say, in fairness, not all Protestants believe this kind of garbage, but this guy was absolutely vulgar, gross, despicable, and he was doubling down, tripling down, and he was basically saying, I'm not, you know, he was basically saying there aren't really any good Christians in there, like, just like maybe 12 Protestants.

Quote, quote, real, real Christian. All the Orthodox, all the Catholics weren't Catholic. Weren't Christians, and he was smearing them all. It was absolutely despicable, this guy. Yeah, totally vile, and no wonder people got up in arms, and it was interesting to see everyone, like, some people, like, rush to his defense and say something like, oh, well, you know, he was just saying that if you're there, and you're operating a church, and Hamas hasn't slaughtered you all yet, then you're clearly friends with Hamas, which is why they haven't slaughtered you all yet.

Therefore, what? Like, therefore, it's okay if they get slaughtered, like, by Israelis? There is a guy. By the name of Frank McCormick, and he's like, I'm a Roman Catholic, and allow me to offer a defense to Joel Berry. And I'm like, I'm going to stop you right there. That's a bad idea. This sounds like a bad idea, Gene's commercial. But he's going to do it anyway.

But he goes on, and he was just basically saying, they somehow have an obligation to loudly say how evil Hamas is, even if it meant them all getting killed. And it's like, look, just, you know, martyrdom is, it is true, martyrdom is a supreme witness to the truth of the faith, but it's not obligatory for everyone to do this. Children, you know, moms, every single dad is supposed to be a martyr, and so I just give credit to this woman, Carolina, who just wrote this really great defense, like, listen, Joel Berry slandered Catholics.

By saying all Catholics in Gaza support Hamas, and that is ridiculous, and it's a smear. It's not just hyperbole. It's bearing false witness, and frankly, silence does not mean complicity. The catechism obliges you to resist immoral directives, but prudence guides vulnerable minorities like Gaza's 200 or so Catholics. We oppose Hamas via discreet actions, she says, not rash denunciations. By the way, they're easy to do from your telephone.

Yeah, and the other one on this, too, which frustrated me, I think you guys covered that well. It honestly makes me so angry. I don't even like talking about it, but here's Luke Moon from the Philos Project, which is supposed to be this Christian-Israel combination. It's majority funded by a Zionist billionaire, so take what you want from that. Here's the quote. Catholic churches and Christians are regularly attacked by Islamists around the world. These events are either ignored or presented without blaming anyone.

A church is hit in Gaza, and the cardinal calls it intentional. Church leaders are quick to blame Israel, and Israel has apologized. They never speak so clearly about the Islamists. They're afraid to. It's not courageous to attack the Jews. It's easy. It's been easy for almost 2,000 years. One would think that the leaders of a billion-member church might be so afraid, and yet they are.

Erika, do you have any comments on this? I mean, do I wish there was more attention to persecuted Catholics all over the world from America? Yeah, sure. However, note, in Nigeria, just last week when there was a massive slaughtering of Nigerian Catholics there, the Pope put out a statement on it. He has spoken very movingly about that. Pope Francis spoke meaning movingly about. Persecuted Christians in the Philippines during the attacks that we had there during his tenure.

There is attention being paid to persecuted Christians all over the world. I think it's more likely that Luke Moon is just clued in because it's happening in his corner of the world that he has telescope vision gazing on. And so, I think...

Could we all spend more time remembering that there are persecuted Christians everywhere? Yes, we could definitely take that time. However, for this to be this sort of like no one ever talks about when Islamic terrorists attack Christians, this is just false. No, we have entire ministries. There's entire ministries devoted to that. And there's so many things that frustrate me about the statement, because here's a quick example. I mean, instantly jump from Israel, apologize, and then you go to the full, the Jews, which is...

I don't know if this is on purpose at this point, or it's just semantics. A secular government bombed an innocent Catholic church and killed people inside of it. Unacceptable according to all humanitarian law that we have everywhere. The laws of warfare, it's completely unacceptable and barbaric. The Catholic Church is called it as such, obviously, and it is. And so, there's really no defense, whether it's Joel Berry or this guy, for doing this action. So, to quickly be like, okay, now you're just going to blame the Jews.

You're attacking the Jews. No, we're talking about the secular state of Israel. We're not talking about the Jews. And it's almost happened so much at this point, it feels intentional. I don't know if it is or not. But for Catholics, I'm just telling you, Israel is about to lose Catholics all over the world. It's a bridge too far. Their only friend right now, America, a bridge too far. The billion Catholics you're talking about are rightfully frustrated because somehow a stray tank shell happened to hit a church and kill three fellow Catholics, and are rightfully disturbed with how many holy places are being bombed and desecrated in that area.

The amount of children, the amount of women that are being killed. By a civilized nation that we fund and arm is completely unacceptable. That's why we're frustrating, if you need me to clear it up. And so, smearing Catholics is not the way to go about bringing forward any type of unity and division. I'm completely sympathetic to the need to get back hostages, but you need to now start putting some guardrails. Let's double down attention there, right? Why are we in Syria now?

Why are we doing all these other things? I mean, I can get into many of my criticisms, but one thing you're going to quickly lose Catholics all over the world, especially in America. If you continue to slander on this. That's bottom line.

I get so frustrated in the back and forth, because it seems so obvious to me. Well, right, you can have major problems with the actions of the Israeli government, and still, I don't know, not hate every Jew ever. Like, it's like, very simple. I mean, I have problems with my own government, and I criticize my own government's actions, but I don't have the permission to attack the actions of another government. Oh, no, Josh, you do. You can attack any government in the world, except for this one government.

No, and it's like, we're noticing, and I almost want to move past because this is so frustrating. Everyone will roll in the mud. I think we made our point, but one thing that I've really appreciated is the leadership of Pizza Ball, because what did he do? And first off, Luke Moon, who's attacking a prince of the church, what has he done since this has happened? July 18th, following the strike, he goes into Gaza. He brings the Greek Orthodox patriarch. He visits Gaza to offer condolences and solidarity.

This is Pete Zavala. You made it sound like it was Luke Moon. This is not Luke Moon. No, he's tweeting from his backyard. He's tweeting, yes. He brought tons of food, first aid kits, medical equipment, and facilitated the evacuation of the injured to treatment outside of Gaza. Now, here's a video that, I mean, it brings me chills. Talk about being a hero right now. Here's them celebrating this morning at Holy Family Parish in God's name.

And for the audio, here is a procession inside of the church with incense. It is beautiful. It is stunning. These people have been here for hundreds of years, Christians that are literally blood-related to Jesus in many cases. They are not leaving, and it does not matter if you bomb their church. They have nowhere to go. This is their home, and it just brings me chills that now we are getting the attention from both Pope Leo and Pizza Ball at the international community.

This is what true heroism looks like to me. Well, you're underselling it. Hundreds of years. Dude, 20 centuries Christians have been in the Holy Land. 20 centuries. We have churches in our country that are named after apostles. They have churches started by the apostles. I mean, this is the difference here.

And this idea, that's the problem I have with so much of this. This crazy, bad theology that has permeated a lot of Christian conservatives in the United States, you know, mostly Protestant, and not all of them. I'm not trying to blanket everyone, but it's there. You know, and even Catholics who like working side-by-side with conservatives on many issues, religious freedom, trying to save the unborn children, trying to push back at the, you know, transgender stuff. So, we work arm-in-arm with these guys on a lot of things, and they want to Defend Israel from being wiped off the planet from, you know, bloodthirsty Islamic extremists?

Like, we're sympathetic to that. We don't want to see that happen either, because that doesn't mean we're going to allow everything that the Israeli government does without any, you know, like, whoa, sounds like they're doing some bad stuff here. We got to push back. Oh, you're in favor of Islamic terrorists. Like, I'm having you shut your face. You can actually have several arguments at the same time. Like, I'm so sick of this BS argument. This drives me crazy. Yeah, I really, the point you made, I was actually thinking about this a lot this weekend, Josh, the point you made on Friday about how when you're confronting fanaticism and you're confronting extreme terrorism, that those who are fighting it have to be on guard to not be themselves more, like, destroyed, corrupted by the battle.

Because, again, like, horrible, horrible things happen, those October 7th attacks, like. You cannot think of a more horrible thing to happen to sleeping babies in their mother's arms, being slaughtered like that. But you can't allow that to say then, okay, so that justifies anything, anything and everything that we might do going forward. I think we were talking this morning as well. It was interesting to listen to Kelsey, our new president. Hi, Kelsey. Talk about...

Understanding the actual state of affairs in Israel as well, that Bibi Netanyahu's government is not... Like, the most popular government going on. I mean, he is, every six months, he's on the verge of either being voted out or going to jail, and every time that happens, there's either an escalation or a shifting front or another war starts, and that looking at Israel is like, okay, Netanyahu's actions and his military's actions are somehow the state, they are Israel, is also a highly simplistic.

way of looking at the situation on the ground over there. Same when it comes to the settler attacks, the Israeli settlers attacking Christians, burning Christian churches in the West Bank. I think we're going to play the clip of Huckabee in a few minutes and his reaction to that. But there's so much nuance going on over there that instead of getting online and like shooting off about, okay, you hate all the Jews. Oh, you know, you're pro-Hamas. Maybe we should like Slow down.

Those aren't arguments. Those are attempts to shut down arguments. Yeah. Exactly. And, like, yeah, I made the mistake of, I think someone shared it in the Slack thing, and it just made me so mad. What are you implying?

What are you implying by saying that there's not real Catholics in Gaza or that they support terrorists? You're implying that they deserve somehow to be bombed or killed, and what I'm trying to get across with all of this, that I had my own moments where, so I actually highly encourage, if you're curious more about the state of play in Israel and what they actually think there, there's basically almost a civil war leading up to October 7th, and like Erika said, there's a lot of factions in Israel that are not a fan of what's going on, and there's factions, say, the Jewish Power Party, ...that speak in basically genocidal language.

That is why it keeps getting brought up. Go to the Israeli press and see what they have to say about their own government. You are going to get the best picture, because what ends up getting filtered back here might not be accurate. And everyone has their own moments where they realize, like, oh... The Palestinians that are there, there's Christians there, and even if they're not Christians, they're people that have been there for thousands of years, and the solution is not to plow all of their buildings, destroy their hospitals, churches, mosques, and then move them to America as there was reports of a meeting with a Jewish official saying, hey, you need to take in these Palestinian refugees.

That's not the answer, and if our Pope and Pizzabala, who's on the ground, I have more from Pizzabala. He's not mincing words at this point. Quote, you are not forgotten. You are in the hearts of all churches and Christians around the world. When I get back, I can assure you that we will do all that is possible to stop this senseless war. We will work on it at the end. We will succeed. Let me see if I have more on this.

So, Pope Leo has repeatedly stated that it's time to stop this slaughter, and what has happened is unjustifiable, and that we must ensure there are no more victims. This is straight from the Latin Patriarch. So, the church is becoming unified on this, which is great. I think more of the international community is becoming unified on this. I don't want either side of this to become, as I think Emily said in the chat, monsters in how they're conducting themselves. And that comes from Israel, that comes from what's going on in Palestine.

The answer is lasting peace. And they're not going anywhere. Pizza ball is not going anywhere, and this is going to be something that continues to happen, and I think it's hard to have this conversation because there's a lot of people that are intentionally trying to mislead in language, as I said with the Jew-Israel thing. That being said.

I really encourage people to pray, not just for peace in the region, for the people there, but also for the hearts and minds of people that need to take in that news for the first time and have to deal with years and years and years of propaganda of what they've been told to think about either Israel or Palestine, because there needs to be a real, lasting solution there, and it's important that everyone is On the same page, and I think it's becoming, this is maybe the hardest issue in the world, to be on the same page about here in America, and it's distressing, but I think at minimum, uplifting the voices of the Pope, Pete Zabala, human dignity, to see human dignity in both sides, and to everyone there, including Palestine.

And there should be some things that we all can agree on as we start to look into this more, as we start to learn more about the situation and the facts on the ground. And we think about this terrible bombing of a Christian church in Gaza, and as Sean Davis, the Federalist, said, I thought all of us agreed that bombing churches was bad, except for ISIS in Canada.

You have to realize, wake up if your theology leads you to be flippant or perfectly okay with Christians being murdered or killed, even if it's an accident, recklessly. Dude, maybe you need to take a break. I'm not calling for a boycott of Babylon Bee, but I'm going to tell you, I'm done with them. I haven't. I mean, they were funny at one point. I haven't consumed any of their content in...

Over a year. I don't know when it happened, but something happened and it fell off. It's not as engaging. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what happened, but yeah, certainly. This guy, Joel Berry, on Twitter is like the case example of, bro, you got a lot. So, he's just repugnant. Yeah, like intentionally trying to just be nasty. But one thing I will say I'm encouraged, so update on that all-Christian village in the West Bank, Taiba.

So, Mike Huckabee, which I'm really encouraged about this. Mike Huckabee, definitely of the evangelical stripe. I don't know his thoughts when it comes to that. But he went to go visit, Taiba is a quiet Palestinian Christian village south of Jerusalem with a lot of American citizens that has been vandalized during fires set at an ancient church. I visited there today. Desecrating a church, mosque, or synagogue is a crime against humanity and a crime against God. The church that he's referring to there is, where is this?

I think it's the Church of St. George. Church of St. George, 5th century Church of St. George, set on fire by an arson attack by Israeli settlers, destroyed, and will never be the same. So, and again, it even goes further on this. Not just reprimanded, that's not enough. People need to pay a price for doing something that destroys that which belongs not just to other people, but that which belongs to God. This is sacrilege. This is against the holy. He describes the violence and a growing threat to the last bastions of our civilization, the places where we worship.

Quote, to commit an act of sacrilege by desecrating a place that is supposed to be a place of worship is an act of terror, Huckabee said, and it is a crime. So, I encourage you to reach out to Congress. Really strong words, and strong words to Israel, too. I'm glad he's there now. Like, I'm glad he's in Jerusalem.

And I'm glad he's not blinded by a bad theologian like Joel Berry and other people. We're just nutjobs. 100%. Yeah, and there's going to be a process of people waking up, so I really try to remind me, because I get so fired up about it, just like, you just got to be patient. You got to pray. Yeah. It doesn't happen overnight, and everyone has their own moments. Like, we're seeing it with all the stuff that we post. There's just a lot of nasty infighting in the comments, and it's like, it's just going to take some time.

I think this event was big for a lot of people, opened people's eyes, be like, as you said, Josh, like, if something you support involves bombing a church and being okay with that, like, we got to reevaluate. Yeah. I had one more observation on that, too. There was a beautiful video of Pete Zabola when he's arriving in Gaza, and there's actually the patriarch of, I believe it's the Greek Orthodox community from Jerusalem also went there, and then the Greek Melkite community.

And for those of you who are students of history, the Roman Rite and the Greek Rite and the Greek Melkite, all of the little rites of Christianity there, they're not exactly Right, they aren't like chummy, we'll just say. They have a lot of disagreements historically, a lot of infighting, but. This video of these men, they embraced and they're weeping because of the sacrilege that's happening there, and they're all making joint statements together saying, you know, this is the homeland of Christianity.

This is where Jesus Christ himself walked the earth, and we are here, we are not leaving. But it was a very moving moment, just in terms of church unity and Christian unity as well. So, there is beauty that comes from it at the same time. Absolutely. Okay, on to documents. Oh, boy. When I saw that Trump released documents, I'm like, all right, we're getting some more Epstein stuff, right? No. New documents reveal Obama administration, quote, manufactured and politicized the Trump-Russia narrative.

So, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, released newly declassified documents on Friday, which he said reveals top Obama-era intelligence officials manipulated assessments about Russian election interference. To discredit President Donald Trump's 2016 victory, she has declassified and submitted the documents to the Department of Justice for criminal referral.

Treasonous, years-long coup. The implications of this are frankly nothing short of historic. Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected.

Josh, is this a, not the documents I wanted, is this relevant at all, or does it feel like kind of a, hey, we're going to satisfy some people? It's actually analogous to what you're saying about, like, with the Gaza thing. It's going to take a while for some of these fact points to try to, you know, circulate amongst the American population to be able to do what is necessary, but it may be bad for, you know, it was thought to be bad for the country.

In 1974, we would have Richard Nixon on trial for crimes, so Jerry Ford makes this really difficult decision to pardon him rather than allow him to be prosecuted. Wouldn't it be something if Donald Trump just turned around and pardoned Barack Obama for all these crimes, and then the left has to go, he did community crimes? But honestly, at this point, though, I'd love to provide this information out there because The Russia hoax truly came out of nowhere, and it was like the kind of thing that was easily believable by half of the country.

This would explain how Donald Trump got elected, because there's no reason why people would vote for this guy otherwise. There had to have been international hijinks, Putin trying to put his figure on the scale, and it was all baloney.

These documents were talking about how, like in August, all these things were going to happen, and it was all baloney, and it was all baloney. The intelligence officer is like, yeah, no, we do not see any evidence that Russia is trying to weigh in on this. We do not see any evidence that Russia is trying to do it. That was the truth. Then, in December, then President Obama brings all these guys like Clapper and all these guys in, like, okay. From that point, they create all this body of work where they can claim that this was going on.

Here is the thing. This is why, I mean, I tee up on this more than the Epstein stuff, because there's actual proof. We have records. Let's talk about this now, but ultimately, I have to ask, what is going to come of this? Because if some people don't get some handcuffs, there's going to be a problem. I mean, James Comey deserves to be arrested. Clapper, put him in jail. Like, put him on trial. Whether or not you put Barack Obama on trial is a different question because of how it would look internationally, okay?

But those other guys, they deserve to spend prison time. 100%. Do you think anyone will, though? I'm going to put you on record. Come on, Oracle. No. Yeah. Sad, but... You think no? No. I cannot wait to be... I would love for me to be proven wrong on this one. Me too, but... Yeah. I'm working on that, unfortunately. And it... They had this, by the way.

They chose to release this now. After the Epstein stuff, you're saying? Right, to change the topic. Of course. So, it just feels a little yucky. But it's true. Exactly, it's true, it's true, but I'm just saying. This would have maybe had more impact if it didn't come while certain birthday letters were circulating, which, hey, listen, litigious bunch. Trump is suing the Wall Street Journal over this. I honestly don't even know. You read the language of this. The Wall Street Journal thing, though, is interesting, Tom.

Did you notice that there's a different pattern on this news exclusive that we haven't seen in other ones? Tell me about it. Because usually, when there was some sort of exclusive that was totally damning for Donald Trump, you know, whatever news outlet that would do it, let's say it was ABC News, right? Then every other news media would like flood the zone with follow-up stories and try to advance the story in whatever ways. I have hardly seen anything about this, other than the Wall Street Journal story.

There haven't been a... Like, just an avalanche of other stories from mainstream outlets that said, here's what the Wall Street Journal reported, here's what's going on, and we've asked a bunch of other people about this. It's there. It's not like no one's talking about this story, but it hasn't generated a flood of additional mainstream media outlet stories.

Now, the argument from the left, though, is that it's because Trump has put a chilling effect on the free press and on free speech. And so now, our intrepid media reporters are afraid to jump on stories like this because they don't want to get sued.

The other side of the argument, of course, is that the Wall Street Journal is full of BS. They didn't even display the letter in question that supposedly went to Epstein on the birthday. Immediately, the Trump administration denounced this. J.D. Vance went on the record saying that there is no such thing as the letter. It was all false.

Yes, I think the silence from the other outlets can be played by, interpreted by both sides. Yeah, okay, sorry, we didn't even summarize the story. Essentially, 2003 convicted sex offender and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Ghislaine? Ghislaine? Maxwell? Well, she wasn't then.

Right. Okay. So, it was putting together, in 2003, she put together a gift for Epstein's 50th birthday, collecting letters and photos from friends for an album. Amongst the letters was one from Donald Trump. So, interestingly, the Wall Street Journal did not display the letter, so they didn't just put a picture of it up. They described it in detail, put all the text. It apparently included a back and forth conversation between Epstein and Trump, written in the third person, which included the line, happy birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret.

As well as a Sharpie drawing of a naked woman signed Donald. So, you could see why people are a little bit like, all right, like, you know, why would you not just post the original? And so, Trump immediately got to true social. The Wall Street Journal printed a fake letter, supposedly to Epstein, these are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures, which I think is like hilarious. I don't draw pictures. I don't draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch.

Yep, I told Rupert Murdoch it was a scam. Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal, and he shouldn't print this fake story, but if he did, and now I'm going to sue his. Behind off, and that of his third-rate newspaper, thank you for your attention to this matter. I'm glad we got those back, Donald J. Trump. So, he filed a lawsuit on Friday for defamation, and they're saying it was to malign him, and then the Wall Street Journal says bring it, essentially.

So, we're going to get a lawsuit over this. The interesting thing, though, is the reason why Trump wins on a lot of these lawsuits. Is that, again, there's a high burden for proof, like, you know, if you're going to, and What you end up getting in a case like this is that both sides get to do discovery, and so Trump's team would be able to get discovery and see all the stuff that the Wall Street Journal would have, and that is something that media companies are terrified by because then you might have memos from one journalist to another saying, oh, this edit makes it look horrible.

Let us use it. Then you would be like, oh, wait a minute now. So, they spend tens of millions of dollars like, no, no, no. It's more ugly for us just to take a rap on this than to allow all of our internal documents, which might have really unflattering comments, and show that the media is as biased as they claim. Yeah. So, there's that part of it.

Wait, the media is biased? Oh, man. I will end our coverage of this with this because I've just been so bummed out with many stories going on right now and feel like we're in the wilderness a bit, but Tim Dillon went back and found a VH1 episode of, it was like their version of MTV Cribs with Jeffrey Epstein's house. Oh, no. Truly, the treatment of him at the time, the New Yorker had an article, too, being like the international man of mystery, Jeffrey Epstein.

Like, he flies on private planes, he's yachts, he's so interesting, he's so handsome, he has all these connections. And his parties and stuff. The parties, yeah. Like, the way he was treated in 2003 was insane, because at that time, people had to have known he was a pedophile. In this MTV Cribs-like episode, they highlight his house. Well, that would have been a problem for MTV. No. But they highlight his house, which is the largest residential dwelling in Manhattan. It was a school that he bought and converted to a house.

And they were making jokes about how he couldn't wait to get back in the classroom because he was a teacher at the time. I mean, my observation on all of this, yes, I'm depressed about this news. That type of treatment for anyone, I think, anymore cannot exist with the internet. That you just can't. Like, there's no way you could control narrative and media the way that you could in 2003, and paint this obvious pedophile, spy, sex trafficker, whatever, in such a flattering light to the public to just lap it up and be like, yes, this guy's so cool.

He's a man of mystery. That's actually why the mainstream media hates the internet so much. Totally. Because, you know, they used to dominate the narrative. You know, and that's what is kind of frustrating. Like, my own mother, I love her to pieces, but she watches, you know, the nightly news by the networks and the local news, and it's like, I'm like, you realize you're getting a very sanitized view, pro-corporate view of the world, and they're showing you what they want. They're excluding a lot of information and a lot of...

But this is what they had. They had it. They yearned for the days of Walter Cronkite. Yeah, back when they could marginalize anyone they wanted to. They could smear anyone they wanted to with impunity. They completely dominated the narrative. They owned all the media. They owned all the movies. They owned all of academia, and it is amazing that we have been able to fight this far back. How do we not get extinguished already is amazing.

Yep. A couple of miracles going on. Good news, Erika. All right. So, I have the young people. This is my young people episode. So, here we have good news from Scott Hahn. Those of you in the chat, fans of Scott Hahn, Kimberly Hahn, Steubenville, Ohio. One of their sons, I think another one of their sons, was ordained a Catholic priest in this last month. Punched the ticket? So, yeah, he sure did. He punched that ticket. And I just, I love it.

Obviously, the Hahn story has led to multiple conversions to the Catholic faith, and when he was converting, Scott Hahn, whose whole livelihood was being a Protestant pastor, was like, how am I going to support all these kids and be open to life? And the Lord has just provided, and in turn, the Scott Hahn's have given their children back to the Holy Church. So, congratulations.

Priest and a politician walk into a church. It must be the Hans Church, the Hans Parish. And then the second one, this is a story from my hometown of Plymouth, New Hampshire. So, I got this from a friend of a friend of a parent, and I just wanted to give a shout out to one Leo Ebner, who is currently a student at Boston College, but he went back to his hometown, my hometown, Plymouth, New Hampshire. This summer, to probably do some work, hang out with the family, and he noticed that from our town hall was flying the American flag, but instead of the stripes part of the flag was the trans pride flag, the LGBTQ pride.

So, what did Leo do? This young, enterprising young man writes a letter to the editor, which actually gets published in the local newspaper, and I just wanted to read this because it was great. So, he says, to the editor, as a Plymouth resident for 19 years, his whole life, and after driving downtown this past week, I felt that I need to voice my sadness and disappointment at the alteration of our American flag on the town common. Instead of the patriotic red, white, and blue, the flag displayed the 50 stars accompanied by black and rainbow stripes representing LGBTQ plus AIA pride.

This symbol of American democracy has flown over towns across our nation for almost 250 years. Representing those who have fought and died for this country, and the freedom they fought to protect, the flag isn't open to interpretation, and altering it in this way ignores the ultimate sacrifice of American soldiers and their families. The American flag represents our one nation under God, which includes all Americans. So, why has the Stars and Stripes been changed to only promote one group? There are innumerable ways to demonstrate support for the LGBTQ movement, but out of respect for all Americans, the desecration of the flag Should never be one of those ways.

Our flag is best honored by preserving its integrity and the ideals it represents, not by repurposing it to suit a political agenda. Sincerely, Leo Ebner of Plymouth. So, shout out to the young man. Fantastic. And that reminds me of the last time I can ever think about a liberal justice voting outside of, you know, doctrinaire communism, right?

That was when Justice John Paul Stevens actually voted in favor, I mean, against the Supreme Court when the Supreme Court ruled that it was free speech to burn a flag, and John Paul Stevens, super liberal, was like, he didn't think you should be able to do that. I'm like, whoa, that was kind of amazing. He said it was, you know, the flag's unique status as a symbol of the national unity outweighed symbolic speech concerns.

Do you agree with that generally? Yeah, I don't think we should be able to burn the flag. I think this idea that it's one thing to say that any words are free speech, but it's like, you know, you can make a difference that, okay, setting fire to something isn't necessarily speech or allowable, just like you could say. Would the argument then be expression, quote unquote?

Yeah, I mean, again, we have the right to make some restrictions. It's one thing to say something about sexuality. It's another thing to have distributed pornography, which I don't think should be protected by free speech either. Yeah, I was just curious with the debate line. I 100% do not think you should be able to burn a freaking American flag in this country, let alone if you're here illegally doing it in California. But even if you're a citizen, heck no, you should not be able to burn our flag.

Okay, Josh, you're up. All right, so some good news. I mean, again, I strike this point. I've said this before. Your vote in November mattered. It made a difference, and we are starting to see a lot more of these gender mutilation chop houses shut down. The biggest one in the country was out of LA. Then we have DC Children's National Hospital. Then we have the Rush Medical Center in Chicago, Stanford Medicine. They're all stopping the mutilation of young children. In these, you know, gender-bending stuff, this is the best good news I could think of this year, so far.

This is what I voted for. I'm into that. You're darn right. So, your vote does make a difference. You just needed elected Republicans that actually get things done. Enough of this George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney baloney stuff.

Let's do it. I, uh, for those who are following, they probably know what's coming here, the Scheffler head. Okay, Scott Scheffler dominated the Open, and I mean, come on, this speaks for itself. Look at the baby. Bennett is on the loose.

Bennett is on the loose. Baby down. There he goes. First time learner right there. It's tough, though. It's tough. Daddy. Yay. That is a cute kid. He's got his binky in, too. He's, like, sucking my binky. What's going on? Everyone's clapping for me.

It's going to be a cool shot for him to have forever, about the size of the Claire Joe there. This, of course, was after his... I think I shared it on, like, two shows back. He had his existential crisis press conference about how winning only lasts a couple seconds, and I saw someone made a... They remixed that speech into a Midwest emo banger. So, like, someone just had kind of, like, dramatic, like, punk rock chords over the speech. I love the internet.

That is what the internet is for. That's what we should be using it for. But I'd like to give Nike some credit. This ad is amazing. Yeah. You've already won. Referencing that speech about what's important to him, and this is his son reaching out to a putter on the green, and I mean... Fantastic ad for a company I absolutely despise. Right. Good ad, though. And could you imagine continually losing to this guy? Oh my gosh. It would be so, he shows up to every tournament, he's like, I'm just here to have fun, and being a father is the most important thing, and there's people that are just like, I live and breathe and die on high-performing this golf course, and he crushes you, by orders of magnitude, every time.

That's awesome. Love Scott Shuffman. He's the GOAT. Shout out, the GOAT. He's my GOAT. I attempt to emulate, and I fail spectacularly on the golf course, so maybe one day. Shout out to Scottie Scheffler. What about his dad? Are you as good as him?

I don't even know about that, actually, at this point, so I can try to emulate as well. Shout out to Scottie, though. Okay, so this one was an interesting article. This was written by Matthew Schmitz. He is the editor of First Things, I believe, right?

He's an editor there, yeah. I don't think he's the editor, but yeah. Editor there, how many Hail Marys for a lost sacrament? A new book charts the rise and fall and perhaps disappearance of Catholic confession. I thought a very interesting historical study, so straight from the article, the greatest change in Catholicism since the 1950s has not been the introduction of the new mass, nor the declarations of Vatican II, but the disappearance of confession as a regular part of Catholic life. In 1951, a study of a parish in New Orleans found that 79% of eligible adults confessed at least once a year.

In 2008, a national study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate University of New Orleans found that 79% of eligible adults confessed at least once a year. Found that three-quarters of Catholics confessed less than once a year or not at all. That's crazy.

Wow. A couple of reasons for this, posited by this article I thought was interesting. So, based on this book, For I Have Sinned, by Boston College historian James M. O'Toole, so his rationale was the traditional practices were buffeted by the spread of contraception, the rise of psychology, and growing mistrust in the institutional church. Although society is hardly dispensed with self-accusation, Catholics increasingly felt no need to confess their sins to a priest. He actually went into a historical analysis of the sacrament in America, which I thought was interesting.

Priests would occasionally visit from far-flung congregations. Catholics would line up for a confession, and the mass would begin only after their sins had been heard. As the church grew, these practices were regularized. Confessions were heard at appointed times, generally on Saturday, and immigrant populations not in the habit of frequent confession were encouraged to take up. Now, what was interesting was these traveling priests would come around, and they would give a real fire and brimstone. I fire them up, say, okay, time to go to confession.

They all go to confession. They would do mass, and then the traveling priest would leave, so you would never have to see him again. There is something to that. Now is the time to get ready with God. I am out of here, and they would do it. So, yeah, I guess in general, I thought it was an interesting article. Do you have any thoughts on maybe why confession has kind of disappeared as a regular part of Catholic life?

Oh, I have some thoughts. Gosh, I'm glad you have thoughts. We have many thoughts. Ladies first. Oh, well, thank you. I did think there was another interesting point in the article, and I think I'll get this right, but it was talking about when post-Vatican II, there was a relaxation of a lot of practices that had been considered really, really important to Catholic practice. One of them was meat on Fridays, no meat on Fridays. So, Prior to the relaxation of that rule, a lot of Catholics, rightly or wrongly, it doesn't actually matter for the story, believed that eating meat on Fridays was a mortal sin.

And I think what the article was pointing out about that is, when the church relaxed those rules that were so embedded in the granular practice of the Catholic faith, that a lot of people were like, oh, well, what else is not a mortal sin? And then you couple that with the massive... The backlash against Humanae Vitae over the contraception question and sort of the promise that was... My own grandmother, who died at the age of 103, I spoke to her at length once about the feeling in the 1960s, and she was in Boston, Boston Catholic.

Multiple priests were saying things like, well, the church is just going to change that too. It's going to change this too. This is going to change as well. And to her, once the changes to the mask... It was like, well, nothing's a sin then. All these things that were sacred are no longer here. It's not a sin anymore. And so, you have this whole generation of Catholics who just didn't believe in sin, and you don't need confession if there's no such thing as sin, right?

And my second thought, though, would be, at the same time, the rise of sort of the myth of Catholic guilt, which drives me up the wall, okay? Catholics are the only ones who shouldn't feel guilty, but since we got away from confession being a regular part of Catholic life, we are subsumed with guilt. You know why? Because we don't have absolution anymore. We don't hear about the joys of absolution, so of course Catholics now are subsumed with guilt, because we're hearing all these Old Testament readings.

We're hearing about things that we ought not to do. This myth that, well, now I just feel guilty, so I guess I'll just stop being Catholic. I think of Cade, who I was debating on The Deep a couple weeks ago.

We're the only ones who shouldn't have to carry the guilt around, because we're the ones who have absolution. But again... Oh, Josh. All right, go for it, Josh. I don't know about that. I mean, I do think the meat stuff, there's something to be said for that, because this is one of the reasons why, like my hot take, you know, oh, you know, I must be hardcore, traditionalist, conservative, whatever. My hot take is I have a real hard time making, eating meat on Fridays.

A mortal sin. Like, it just seems to me odd. It should be a practice actively discouraged, but not have a punishment associated with it. Because, like, oh, I ate a hot dog on Friday. Oh, gosh. And it is like, well, if you did not mean to, if it was an accident, like, okay, so it is only if I willfully, like, ha, ha, ha, look at this hamburger. I do not care about the church. Screw you. I mean, wouldn't that be the definition, though, of a mortal sin is full consent?

I know, but again, it strikes me as, you know, it should be that you give graces if you offer it up, and not eat it, and it's regularly supposed to be strongly encouraged, but that there's no punishment, there's no sin attached to it. I've always had a tough time with that. I admit, maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. But in terms of the guilt thing, you know, I've spoken about this a lot. So, I think, you know, look, there is a lot of Irish Catholics in the United States that gave a lot to the church.

They have a very specific, you know, everyone's got their own particular views. There's German Catholics, Italian Catholics, French Catholics, Irish Catholics, Polish Catholics, whatever. The Irish Catholics had an outside influence in the United States precisely because They ended up being 75% of the priests and like 50% of the bishops for like the first 100 years or so. And so, their particular brand of Christianity… Pretty much spread like wildfire to the point where I would run into sweet little old Italian grandmothers who had a theology much similar to actually Ireland than Italians, whereas Italians traditionally understood would be a little bit more like, yeah, well, you know, not that they were, you know, they weren't like diehard rule followers, but this woman was, and I was like, whoa, like she was so, and like her reverence, like, I don't, I'm not a big Pope Francis guy.

But he would always, you know, slam people, don't be so clerical. Man, the Irish Catholics in the United States were so clerical, beyond clerical. And so, I do feel like there's a lot of vestiges of Catholicism in this country that had very weird practices that had to get kind of ironed out. I do think it's not a mistake that the places that had the most amount of Irish influence had the least amount of people coming forward about the sex abuse scandal.

Right, Boston. That is a fact. Boston, Minneapolis. And so, those are things that merit us to think a little bit more about it. Yeah, 100%. I think, though, that the weaknesses of, say, Irish Catholicism and that culture that it engendered of hyper-clericalism, I think that confession, the loss of the practice of going to confession, actually slowed down and even inhibited healing from the weaknesses of those cultures. Yeah, because the loss of confession started right after Vatican II.

Going to, okay, well, there's no such thing as mortal sin anymore, blah, blah, blah. So, they got rid of the baby, and they kept the bathwater, right? They kept the clericalism, and I think it's so important to, yeah, we need to identify in our particular brands of Catholicism, where are our weaknesses, where are our failures, but it is always a failure when confession goes out the door. I mean, I remember when I lived in Washington, D.C., a massive metric. And I was single at the time, and there was a need for frequent confession, just like there is for me now, as a married man.

And it's like, where can you go? Listen, I am not going to rag on priests. I get it. But priests are like, how about, why don't you have confession on a Saturday afternoon? Like, the worst time ever for most people. Like, I am serious. If they would say 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I am like, I would be there. If they said midnight, you know, Thursday night at midnight, I would be there. Saturday afternoon at 3 a.m., what, are you kidding me?

Like, and so I would end up going to confession at The shrine by CUA, because they actually had regular confession times that were not at three in the afternoon. I'm like, thank you. There is something special, too, if you can pull it off, to do it right before Mass, and it actually is more aligned with the historical American Catholicism, where they come, give the firebrand, get right with God, you go to confession, you receive the Eucharist, because it actually is important that you receive it after being examined and you're clean.

That's just my experience. So, I can always speak from my experience. You have a priest that wants to do it, that preaches about it, too. True, and look. Priests are tapped. I'm not here to give any priests our time. It's a tough job, and they're definitely stretched, but I can only speak from my perspective. One element I don't think we've talked about enough was this kind of over-diagnosing the psych, or maybe, what do you call them?

Not a psychologist, but someone you would go see shrink as a slur for it. Okay, a therapist, which, listen, I'm not against therapy per se. I just think in a lot of cases, people have replaced the sacrament of confession for therapy and swapped it out, and there's, oh, there's new scientific, psychological realities that, oh, it's not your fault, or like, you should go there. That's going to be more helpful for you than experiencing love and mercy of Christ. I think for Gen Z and below me, I can only speak from my experience.

What you're discussing with the Irish Catholic influence of before, there's really no, beyond actually believing in the sacraments and being Catholic as a young man, there's no social or cultural benefits to being Catholic, maybe as there was at one time, and to be culturally Catholic, kind of go along with it, that I feel like is, for the most part, dead. I know it exists in some places, and I'm in this very intense, maybe small percentage of the church. I like Mass every Sunday, frequent confession.

Right. Around the sacrament, so I can't speak for everyone. We're in intentional church time now. Right, like I went to a Catholic university, you know, I raised an intentional Catholic family. Like, to me, I see almost always in my conversations, it's almost just implied that people are going to confession or understand it or utilize it frequently, because I think it is actually a key part. I don't know if the internet is something that has to do with this, or that we've kind of grown up in like a post.

Christian culture in a lot of ways, like if you are a Christian, it's just a weapon for you to utilize, and experiencing the love and mercy of Christ is like a necessary part of living a Catholic life. It's felt as necessary and acted on as necessary. You're more likely to see a TV show or a movie mention a confession than to hear a priest mention an homily. I, again, extreme circles, but I disagree. Like we have... That's the experience of most American Catholics over the last 30 years.

Yeah, but as of recent, like all of the churches that are growing and thriving, young families, it's a frequent conversation. Yeah, we're seeing it, which is helpful. Yeah, which is awesome, because to me, I actually couldn't be Catholic without the sacrament of confession. So, it is interesting talking to either other Christians of goodwill, other really sincere Christians that maybe misunderstand the sacrament, or there is the theological disputes. I am like, dude, this is like the best thing ever. Why would anyone not want this?

Do I have time for a story? Do I have time for a story? All right. So, I was in line for a confession on Saturday, because I sin pretty, you know, just if anyone is wondering, I do. Well, Erika, I believe things.

I was in line, and the woman right in front of me in line, there were two priests, okay? So, two priests. A woman right in front of me, she is probably close to 70, mid-60s, close to 70, and I was like standing there trying to examine my conscience, and she leans over, and she is like, where is the confessional? Because the priests are like in the cry rooms, basically, there is not a confessional. I was like, oh, well, it is either one, and so wherever you are in line, when you get there, she is like, oh, thank you.

I was not sure, and it has been a long time, so she is like, I am really nervous, and I was like, oh, my gosh, I am so happy for you. It is going to be great. Don't worry about it. You are going to get absolved. It will be awesome.

The woman, two people in front of her, starts poking the guy in front of her, going, okay, when you get up to front, I have to go to Father Y over here. I can't go to Father Z. He's just awful. He's horrible. So, the poor woman standing next to me suddenly goes, I'm like, don't listen to her. Don't listen to her. I'm like, they're both fine. One of them's all business. One of them's much more conversational, but you're going to get absolved.

That's all that matters, and she's like, I'm really scared now, and I just wanted to go over and biff that other woman. Be like, do you know what you're doing? Right before you got into confession. Confession is therapy for you. So, guys, if you're in line, if you're in confession, Just watch your words, because there could be someone right there who's absolutely terrified, and they need the support. So, the woman, she did persevere. She went into confession, and she came out.

She gave me a hug. Yeah, but that's a part of Catholic canon, like being in two lines for confession and asking which priest is where so that you can ascertain which line to go to. Every Catholic has done that at some point in their life, I think.

Certainly part of Catholic canon. We do it, but maybe don't do it so loudly. Right, yeah. The poor woman was like, I'm going to cry. I'm like, no, absolution will happen. That's the point. Okay, Twadzo now. Josh, what do you got?

Well, there's a little video here to watch. Josh, you chose this? Who do we got? Oh, man, dog. Caption, when will people finally acknowledge the epidemic of men marrying women and being turned gay, is the text for people wondering. Yeah, and so here's this video. Two, one.

I like yours. Hold on. Yours kind of has color. Mine has the wood, but what do you think matches our house better? I don't know. I kind of like mine, I'm not going to lie. Should we do yours? I think we should do mine. Yeah, we should. Three, two, one.

So, now they're comparing drapes, which is the most obviously gay thing, right? No, no, those are throw blankets, Josh. These are not drapes. See, you don't even know. You don't even know. That's the throw, the throw for the couch.

I don't know why anyone needs a throw blanket. What is this? Why is this? No, no, okay, wait. I got to clear it up for the audio. This must be some social media trend where there's a husband and a wife, and they're turned from each other. They turn around to reveal what they select. for home decor. Yeah, like the Marshalls or something. And obviously, what ends up happening is every time... He's like, I really like what I have, but I think maybe yours is a little bit better, and so the conclusion that people are turning is that this guy is just becoming more and more gay.

I'm like, no, he's just being a good husband, and he's basically figuring out what his wife wants and getting that for her, which is not a bad thing. It's like when you're driving out to eat, and you're like, okay, honey, guess where I'm going to be taking you for dinner? She's like, ooh, I don't know. Is it Bob-Omb? I'm like, yes, that's exactly it. Yes! You drive that way. You want to make the lady happy because you don't really care. You'll have a happy hamburger no matter where you go.

But so then, Matt Walsh's take on this, I love Matt Walsh on just about 98% of things, okay? But he said, dudes like this, we're already gay. I've been married for 14 years. I've never been. Home decor shopping, or had an opinion on the subject, except for the one time I had a painting custom-made depicting me meeting a group of space aliens above my fireplace in her home. Okay, listen, I think he's kind of funny here, but again, I think the main thing that's going on...

This is just a man who wants to make his wife happy, and that's fine. It would be like if- Oh, you're on the other end of this. My wife suddenly took an interest in Star Trek or the Minnesota Vikings. I'd be like, oh, wow. After a while, I realized, oh, you want me to- You know, fix the dishwasher? What is going on? Wow, okay. It is a sign you love your spouse, and I have to find out what they find interesting.

So, Josh, can I add to this that loving your spouse is not gay, for the record? Yes, of course. Okay, there you go. Good. But I would also like to say one other thing. I think everyone should follow Pascal Emmanuel Gobry on the internet anyway. He is one of the best followers to follow on X.

And his comment on Matt Walsh, I think, was a home run. Why is it that we associate home decor with being gay? And Pascal writes, because the great destruction of masculinity started with the elites, and the only form of visible masculinity that remained was low class. So, therefore, many people have just become equating masculinity with all sorts of behavior that is just boorish or uneducated. In fact, men can be perfectly masculine and like nice things, like things of great taste, you know, like you can wear a nice suit and you can want things that are beautiful, good, and true.

You don't have to be a slob, right? You can dress nice, like Gary Cooper, his point is. You know, and I think that's a good point, that we should never fall into this thing. It's the same thing with the Gaza. Like, don't allow your enemies to paint you into a corner. Like, no, wait a minute now. And that is full circle. That was full circle, Josh. That was amazing. So, Josh, you're a man of taste. Are you then, therefore, into home decor as a masculine expression of your tastes?

No. Okay. I'm just saying, you know, if I found out that you were fascinated at Home Decor, Tom, I probably would crack a joke or two, but ultimately, I would not see you as being gay. There's no probably about that. Yeah, not that, yeah. Right? Right.

Fischel, fortunately, my wife has great taste, so, but, I mean. My take on all this is, like, do we really got to be recording ourselves in Marshalls? Yeah, I know. You know what I'm saying? Come on, man. Come on. Yeah, I'm out on that, personally.

Like, don't put it out on the internet for everyone to see that you're, you know, it's not true. I'm getting, like, internet fatigue on a lot of this, man. Like, just more footage of Sky Shuffler Sun. Yeah. I don't need more TikTok trends in Marshalls from anyone. But, hey, you know what? You do you. That's the thing. You do you.

That's not inherently wrong, but you probably wouldn't catch me in a Marshalls, probably in general. Erika, what do you have? Mine's just really short, and it's pretty sad, so I just wanted to put out there, asking for prayers, Trent Horn, who we talk about a lot on this show. He has great, I mean, great Catholic apologists, but his wife, they just announced that she was diagnosed with brain cancer. And, yeah, they have a lot of young kids, but just a really...

Beautiful family. When Laura was doing her little YouTube comedy videos, I just watched them. So, I just wanted to use this opportunity to ask everyone to pray for her, pray for everyone who's facing these really difficult diagnoses, but especially the Horn family during this time.

I want to know what you should say, or what can I do when a friend is diagnosed with cancer. In Refine, we actually have a cancer survivor, Lindsay Feddick, wrote an amazing piece for us in the Lifestyle Newsletter for CatholicVote, refinelife.co. You can go check that out, and it is what to say when your friend has cancer. Oh, Josh left. So, yeah, check that out. It is a great piece, and please pray. For the Horn family right now.

Amen. Amen. Back to the loop cast light for my Twilight Zone. Don't worry, mine is short and sweet. Oh, that's great. I mean, feed me all of this content again. Sky Shuffler, one, and then two, Da Pope. Da Pope. Straight from the Pontifex account on Instagram. Oh my gosh, it is. This pick goes so hard. The priest holding up, or no, Pope Leo holding up Da Pope t-shirt. Someone, they all are decked out in two. So, you know he's walking by, and he just saw like Da Pope.

Listen, he's from Chicago. He knows. That's awesome. He gets it. That is so great. I will say just, yeah, a lot of kind of bummer news stuff out there. Feeding all of the Pope-Chicago connection stuff is the most wholesome. I mean, here's a guy Chicago can be really proud of. I just. I just watched this crazy documentary by Steve Cortez on Obama and how he betrayed Chicago. Son of Chicago, he ran on that from the South Side and all this, and how he just never did anything for the city.

But here's a son of Chicago. Head of the Catholic Church. The Pope. He's the man, so be proud. It won't do anything for the Bears, if that's what people are hoping. It won't. No, I don't even think, I just don't, yeah, even divine intervention is not going to do it for the Bears. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, so they're going to need something stronger, but shout out, shout out Pope Leo, shout out Chicago.

Maybe the White Sox, you never know. Yeah. You could pull it out. Amen to that. Okay, so we have, we end in daily prayer. As we do today, we have... We start with a quote from the Sand of the Day. And now we have a prayer. So, this is St. Lawrence of Brindisi. Brindisi. He's a doctor of the church, a very little-known doctor of the church. Do you know stuff about him before I get into it? Not really. He's Franciscan, and he's a doctor of the church.

So, he was smart? I don't know. Okay, you said it like you knew this obscure doctor of the church, which fired me up because I don't yet, but we'll start with a quote. So, quote, Oh, if I were to consider this reality, that God is truly present to us. When we speak to him in prayer, that he truly listens to our prayers, even if we pray only with our hearts and minds, not only is he present and hears us, indeed, he willingly and with the greatest of pleasure wishes to grant our requests, St.

Lawrence of Brindisi. Now, join me in prayer. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. St. Lawrence of Brindisi. Intercede for us and teach us to love sacred scripture, to increase our familiarity with it, and to cultivate daily our friendship with the Lord in prayer, so that our every action, our every activity may have its beginning and its fulfillment in him. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Amen. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen.

Man, thank you guys for joining us today. We talked about it before. It feels like we're in the wilderness a little bit. I'm not super... I have a lot of complicated emotions on the news cycle, and it was easier. I think we were talking about it earlier. When you're unified around a common cause, like the auto pen administration and Kamala Harris, it's all really obvious, clear, present danger. But now we're kind of in the tricky business of trying to promote the common good through governing.

Theoretically, you should be in power, but there's been a lot of things that have just been frustrating me personally everywhere. I don't know if you can sense that in our coverage here, or Erika, I don't know if you feel similar, but I hope that the— What we can provide is good, honest information from our news team here, and then just, really just honesty, authentic reactions, and I really, I forget, I think it was Mark, I have to remember the name, but the person that recommended ending with prayer here, and I already do feel a huge difference in the couple weeks that we've done this, and I hope that, really, if all we can contribute at the end of it is give you some information, and we send you guys off with prayer.

You know, I don't think we do much better than that. So, if you want to help out the show, go check out the YouTube. We have Erika's monologues, The Deep. It's excellent. The last one was very good. If you want to check that out, go subscribe over there. Leave reviews, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, or you can do that. You can email me, LOOPcast at CatholicVote.org. You can join the Champions Club, Best Way to Support Us, CatholicVote.org slash champions is where you can do that.

But we have a great show for you Wednesday waiting for you. We'll be there locked and loaded. Until then. Peace. We'll see you then. Bye.