AngelaHartwell

Theology of the Body Marriage and Family Specialist & Creative Writer

[AngelaHartwell @AngelaCalabro]

♥️

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Here are some thoughts on Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical, Magnifica humanitas.

[EWTN Vatican @EWTNVatican]

Produced by the Dicastery for Integral Human Development and EWTN a video reflection on Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, opened the historic launch event on May 25, 2026 in the Vatican.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

As evidenced by the unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity, we are truly experiencing an eclipse of the sense of what it means to be human. It is imperative to recover an understanding of the true meaning and grandeur of humanity as intended by God. It is in this sense that the challenge we currently face is not technological, but anthropological, and it is my hope that the Encyclical Letter to be published within a few days will contribute to answering this challenge.

[Penguin Books USA @penguinusa]

Don't let anyone talk you out of buying that 1 book at the bookstore. Those 3 books could be the most life-changing 10 books you've ever gotten.

[CatholicVote @CatholicVote]

Forty-five years after the assassination attempt against Pope St. John Paul II—an event he credited to Our Lady’s protection—Pope Leo XIV stopped to pray at the site of the shooting in St. Peter’s Square on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.

[CatholicVote @CatholicVote]

Pope Leo pauses to pray at the spot where St. John Paul II was shot 45 years ago today.

[Sachin Jose @Sachinettiyil]

The Archdiocese of Atlanta in Georgia has over 50 seminarians currently preparing for the Catholic priesthood.

Image: Archdiocese of Atlanta

[Kelsey (Wicks) Reinhardt @catholickelsey]

There is no doubt that President Trump’s post insulting Pope Leo crossed, again, a line of decorum that plays an important part in diplomacy and sets the temperature for interactions between the two. Calls for an apology are well founded.

But we also need to reasonably evaluate the Vatican-vs.-Trump narrative: too many people are trying to turn a public disagreement into a grand showdown between the two.

That is false, and Catholics should reject it.

Archbishop Paul Coakley and Pope Leo himself, this morning, made the key point clear: the Pope is not a politician, not a partisan operator, and not a rival to the President of the United States. He is the Vicar of Christ. His role is to speak moral truth, defend human dignity, and call leaders to pursue peace.

The President needs to hear that in a way he understands.

Of course, some of the Pope’s statements may sound out of step with the tone, assumptions, or priorities of American politics. Fine. That does not mean he is “anti-American.” It does not mean he is attacking the United States. And it certainly does not mean Catholics should be manipulated into choosing between the Church and their country.

The Pope also needs to understand that many Americans view his interventions as overtly political and aligned with one side of the political spectrum. Catholics who have been paying attention note that no such condemnation of the loss of life through abortion ever came from Rome to Catholic President Joe Biden during the last pontificate, despite that evil ending millions of lives.

Enter Ambassador Brian Burch. As the founder and first president of CatholicVote, and now as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Burch is uniquely positioned to serve as a credible bridge between Washington and Rome. He understands the convictions, language, and concerns on both sides, and that gives him an especially important role at a moment when honest mediation, fair translation, and cooler heads are urgently needed.

What American Catholics should oppose is the deliberate effort to manufacture a large-scale confrontation between the Vatican and the United States, between Pope Leo and President Trump, or between fidelity to the Holy Father and love of country. Parts of the media are pushing that narrative. So are identifiable bad actors, including some inside the Church. They want conflict. They feed on confusion. And they benefit from division.

Catholics should be smarter than that.

There is no reason this disagreement should become a larger rupture. But it will if reckless voices keep treating every papal statement as a partisan attack and every political disagreement as proof of betrayal.

Once again, we must delineate between moral principles and the realm of politics.

But for now, let’s pray for wisdom for both leaders. And do not let others manufacture a conflict that does not have to exist.

[ZitoSalena @ZitoSalena]

@NASA has me all

[Chris Stefanick @ChrisStefanick]

Pope John Paul II called the day that he canonized St. Faustina "the happiest day of my life." As a young adult and seminarian in Krakow, living under the shadow of communist oppression, he also regularly passed under the shadow of a convent where, inside the walls and unknown to him, another Saint was being made.

St. Faustina had received extraordinary visions and message from Jesus about divine mercy. To sum up those messages: The mercy of God is like the ocean and our trust is a bucket. The larger our bucket, the more mercy we get. No limits.

But one of the great legacies of John Paul II was not only the canonization of St. Faustina, but the implementation of what one of her visions called for: Divine Mercy Sunday—the first Sunday after Easter.

We rarely talk about indulgences any more unless we're referring to the malpractice that they had been “sold” as a fund raising tool hundreds of years ago; something that has been thoroughly corrected since!

But an indulgence is about some devotion or holy act the Church wants to encourage you to do. And with her authority, she attaches the reward to that practice that, "If you do this, it will reduce your time in purgatory."

Seen in the wrong light you might understand an indulgence as God keeping a score card, but the reality is that God, in his infinite mercy, has given the leaders of His Church THAT MUCH authority to bless us. (See Matthew 16:19.)

And a “plenary indulgence” is next-level. That is the wiping away of ALL the time waiting for you in purgatory, or all the time remaining for whomever you gift that plenary indulgence to, after you “earned” it. So you can give it to a loved one who has died.

But here is the catch with a plenary indulgence verses a partial indulgence: in order to receive it, it requires being completely detached from sin at the time.
That’s hard.

It’s said that St. Philip Neri had a vision one night when a group was gathered at a cathedral. 1,200 people were there praying a devotion with a plenary indulgence attached to it. And only 2 of the 1,200 present were in the right state of soul to receive that grace. I'm sure God gave them other graces for showing up, but not that one!

The difference with Divine Mercy Sunday is that this requirement is waived, for the first time in the history of the Church. All you have to do is go to confession some time 20 days before or after Divine Mercy Sunday, receive Holy Communion at Mass that Sunday (or the Saturday vigil), and say a prayer for the pope.

BOOM. Your slate is wiped clean.
Do it!

And happy Divine Mercy Sunday.

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[Megan Basham @megbasham]

OK, once again, on the record sources beat anonymous sources. And multiple official sources, including those at the Vatican, have now made it clear that the “Avignon Papacy” story was entirely false, and NO threat of any kind was made.

I can certainly imagine it might be a tense meeting, but a tense meeting is understandable given the difference of views. Administrations have many tense meetings all the time. It’s part of being a world leader.

So once again, this is a false story from beginning to end and they are still trying to push it with anonymous claims.

Here is reporting from The Pillar, which Catholics have told me is the gold standard on Catholic reporting.

[Ambassador Brian Burch @BrianBurchUSA]

I was pleased to speak today with His Eminence, Cardinal Christophe Pierre.  As expected, he confirmed that recent media characterizations of his meeting with Undersecretary Colby are “fabrications” that were “just invented.” Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I was likewise not suprised when His Eminence acknowledged there were no threats of any kind in the meeting.  “It was a frank and cordial meeting that took place two months ago.”  Threat of Avignon? “None.”

[Franciscan University @FranciscanU]

In the past few days, we’ve been given a glimpse of creation unlike ever before.

With Artemis II traveling farther than any human has ever gone, we see the moon, the earth, the stars, the vastness and greatness of it all.

It reminds us that God is the creator of it all. He breathed out the stars and formed planets with his hands.

And yet, even out in space, at the edge of what has been seen and known, the deepest desire of our hearts remains.

Just before losing communication with NASA, pilot Victor Glover said, “As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and the farthest point from Earth… I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love.”

Creation itself points back to it. The sun, the moon, the stars, they aren’t just wonders to behold, but signs of the One who made them.

All of creation is made by God out of love, reminding us of his love and calling us deeper into it.

We at Franciscan University follow in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, seeing God in creation and how his love for us is greater than any planet, any star, any moon or sun.

📸: NASA

[Karoline Leavitt @PressSec]

🚨Statement from President Donald J. Trump

[Katie Prejean McGrady @KatiePMcGrady]

GOLD

[Jane Austen First Drafts @Austen1stDrafts]

All of us during the Olympics:

[McNeil @REFLOG18]

“It shall be called the Super Bowl and will be a huge national event played deep into the night on Sunday when everyone must go into work on Monday.”

“Why not play it on Saturday?”

“Nobody knows.”

[Airshow News @NewsAirshow]

That moment when you nail the Super Bowl LX flyover with your buddies. #SuperBowlLX

[Vice President JD Vance @VP]

“Saint Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God. Let all of us put on that armor and commit ourselves to the cause for which Charlie gave his life, to rebuild a UNITED States of America, and to do it by telling the truth.”

- Vice President JD Vance🇺🇸

[AngelaHartwell @AngelaCalabro]

@matthewdmarsden I unfortunately haven’t been blessed with children. But I’ve always said that there are only a handful that I would allow them to go…FUS, Benedictine, TAC, UD, and Ave Maria.