Cathy Rusin

Loves travel, Jesus, family, & reading- not necessarily in that order.

[Papa Leone XIV @Pontifex_it]

Rinnovo il mio appello affinché cessino le ripetute violenze contro la popolazione civile palestinese in Cisgiordania e chiedo con urgenza alla comunità internazionale di fare in modo che progredisca la soluzione a due Stati, per una pace giusta e duratura.

[Cathy Rusin @CRusinDC]

@waitmaya 31

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

If the two disciples of Emmaus recognize Jesus when He breaks the bread for them, we too should recognize Him in this way. Not just in the Eucharist, but wherever there is a life that becomes broken bread, wherever someone makes a compassionate gift of themselves, like He did. With the grace of the Risen Christ, we can become this broken bread that transforms reality. #GospelOfTheDay (Lk 24:13–35) #ApostolicJourney #Angola

[Amigo de Frodo @bpdflores]

Public officials may opine about theology, as is their right.
The Successor of Peter teaches. This is his office.
If what he teaches doesn’t sound like what we want to hear, we should admit the likelihood that the problem is in what we want to hear, and not in what he teaches.

[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops @USCCB]

Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, Archbishop of Oklahoma City and President of the USCCB, joins his voice to Pope Leo XIV's call for dialogue and peace amid reports of increased threats of military action in Iran, including targeting of civilian infrastructure.
"Let us entrust to the Lord all hearts that suffer and await the true peace that only He can give. Let us entrust ourselves to Him and open our hearts to Him! He is the only one who makes all things new."
Pope Leo has invited everyone to join him in a prayer vigil for peace on Saturday, April 11. Archbishop Coakley makes a special plea to all people yearning for peace to join the Holy Father's Vigil for Peace this Easter Season.

Read @ArchbishopOKC's full statement at: https://t.co/qEC1A1lwAJ

[Cathy Rusin @CRusinDC]

@NASA @NASAArtemis Why did you need to subject these heroes to the felon war criminal at the end of an incredible day? Artemis has been a reprise from the horror that 47 embodies.

[Cathy Rusin @CRusinDC]

@ChristopherHale I work at this parish! Glad you celebrated with us. Happy Easter, @ChristopherHale

[Rich Raho @RichRaho]

After being denied entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Israeli police earlier today, in powerful moment, Cardinal Pizzaballa blessed the city of Jerusalem with a relic of the Holy Cross; the brief service took place at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

Lazarus came out still wrapped in burial cloths. He did not emerge perfected. He stumbled out messy, blinking, needing others to unwrap him.

Pope Leo XIV reminds us this is the Church at its best — a community of people who have heard their names called and walked into the light still bound by the things that once held them, needing each other to get free. https://t.co/Cydc1dldp7

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican newspaper is the only publication in the Western world to run the photograph of 150 Iranian girls' graves — killed in President Trump's military strikes — on its front page.

[Cathy Rusin @CRusinDC]

@frscottmccue Such a loss. Matt Doyle also died recently, a very gifted writer.

[Sr. Theresa Aletheia @pursuedbytruth]

We perceive in the ashes imposed on us the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war. … the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples, the ashes of critical thinking & ancient local wisdom, the ashes of that sense of the sacred — Pope Leo XIV

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

Oh, be careful, Merriam-Webster, lest we suffer vertigo from the dizzying heights of our lexical ground.

[Four Seasons Total Landscaping @TotalSeasons]

Another world exclusive happened today in our famous Four Seasons Total Landscaping lot!!!

We gathered together all the people who have gone to see the Melania movie. Here’s a photo to prove it.

[Joe Kennedy III @joekennedy]

There is so much demanding our outrage right now. So many injustices competing for our attention. And that isn’t an accident.

The goal is to exhaust us. To make it all blur together. To make us look away.

So as we push forward, keep this image in your mind:

A five-year-old child detained by ICE in Minnesota.

Not a statistic.
Not a policy debate.
A kid.

This is what our choices look like when they land on the smallest shoulders.

And if we let ourselves stop paying attention—and stop standing up—this becomes normal.

https://t.co/PSWbV6PDNc

[Amanda Gorman @TheAmandaGorman]

For Renee Nicole Good
Killed by I.C.E. on January 7, 2026

by Amanda Gorman

They say she is no more,
That there her absence roars,
Blood-blown like a rose.
Iced wheels flinched & froze.
Now, bare riot of candles,
Dark fury of flowers,
Pure howling of hymns.

If for us she arose,
Somewhere, in the pitched deep of our grief,
Crouches our power,
The howl where we begin,
Straining upon the edge of the crooked crater
Of the worst of what we’ve been.

Change is only possible,
& all the greater,
When the labour
& bitter anger of our neighbors
Is moved by the love 
& better angels of our nature.

What they call death & void,
We know is breath & voice; 
In the end, gorgeously, 
Endures our enormity. 

You could believe departed to be the dawn
When the blank night has so long stood.
But our bright-fled angels will never be fully gone,
When they forever are so fiercely Good.

[Catholic News Service @CatholicNewsSvc]

Looking beyond the Jubilee, #PopeLeo prays:
"After the holy doors, may other doors now open:
doors of homes and oases of peace
where dignity may flower again,
where nonviolence is taught,
where the art of reconciliation is learned."

[Gloria Purvis @gloria_purvis]

Mr. Kirk positioned himself as defending white people from “replacement,” claimed white families face existential threats and argued that qualified white people are losing opportunities to undeserving Black people. https://t.co/lptiXXdRdQ

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The world is a wonderful gift made up of different forms of life, given to us so that we might help and complete one another. Differences are not an obstacle, but rather an invitation to build harmony to reveal the beauty of creation. #SeasonOfCreation

[melinda ribnek @MRibnek]

Trump’s “Pope image” wasn’t just trolling—though it certainly was that. It was also a display of narcissistic power. A message: I can mock your faith, and you’ll still serve me. He’s made his disdain for Christians clear over the years. He sees them as tools—for votes, for image, for loyalty. He finds them laughable, but useful. That post wasn’t made from conviction or even ideological contempt—it was made because he knew he could get away with it.

This wasn’t just about provoking liberals. It was about asserting dominance over his own supporters—especially the Catholics who populate his staff, his voter base, and much of the conservative movement. It was a calculated humiliation. He knows they won’t push back. He can post something that openly mocks the Pope, and instead of rebuke, he gets silence. That’s narcissistic control. That’s power. He’s testing how far he can go in mocking them, and they keep proving they’ll take anything.

Let’s also be honest: the same White House account has posted content far more morally grotesque. The ASMR migrant video didn’t just cross a line—it dehumanized people. It mocked the suffering of the vulnerable through dystopian theatrics—stylized, manipulative, and grotesquely disconnected from human dignity. And they did it proudly. That video, far more than a meme, should offend the conscience of every Christian. It should move us not just to critique, but to lament and protest

Of course we should point out the hypocrisy. Prominent Catholic figures—like Bishop Barron—have loudly condemned liberals for offenses a fraction, a hundredth, as serious as these. We’ve seen outrage over vague gestures or artistic missteps. But when Trump or his White House engages in direct mockery of the sacred, they go silent. And not just silence, complicity. Their outrage is selective. Their principles are conditional. Their witness crumbles in the presence of power.

But here’s the deeper truth: both of these images—the Pope and the migrants—represent the sacred. The Pope is a visible, overt sign of the sacred in our tradition. That’s why the meme was so brazen. But the migrant, the refugee, the vulnerable—they too are sacred. Perhaps not as visibly or ceremonially, but sacred in the most profound sense. We are called not just to recognize that sacredness, but to seek it out in them. And when the state mocks their suffering, it’s not just offensive—it’s sacrilegious.

I love Pope Francis. I mourn his death. I have deep reverence for the papacy and the Church. But when cruelty is aimed at the most vulnerable—when the sacred is desecrated not in symbol but in personhood—it strikes even deeper. That’s where offense becomes moral emergency. And when the loudest voices in our faith community stay silent—not just about a meme, but about the abuse of the sacred in human form—we see clearly what has been lost.

Because at the end of the day, we’re being shown something chilling: not just Trump’s cruelty, but the loyalty of those who refuse to challenge it. Even when their own faith is on the line. That’s power. That’s control. And it’s control based not just on fear, but on complicity.

This isn’t just about disrespect or trolling. It’s about power. It’s about a narcissist demonstrating he can mock both the overtly sacred and the quietly sacred—and no one close to him will dare object. That’s not strength. That’s a collapse of moral courage. And it’s not just politics—it’s spiritual failure.