Faith Watch

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The European Court of Human Rights has declined to hear a case brought by a Christian couple seeking the return of their two daughters, who were taken into state custody by Swedish authorities in 2022 following allegations of abuse and concerns about religious extremism.

Daniel and Bianca Samson have spent more than three years attempting to regain custody of their daughters, Sara, then 11, and Tiana, 10. According to the family’s legal representative, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the case was “inadmissible” because the parents had not exhausted all available legal remedies in Sweden. ADF International disputed that conclusion, saying in a statement that “there were no further options for domestic recourse.”

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OPINION 

Homosexuals and gender-confused individuals should embrace “queer joy” as a way to withstand attacks from “white Christian nationalists,” according to a University of Kansas law professor.

“I contend that queer joy as resistance is just one strategy for resistance, one that ought to be pursued alongside other tactics of resistance,” Professor Kyle Velte argues in a paper published on SSRN.

Velte lists a number of supposed infringements on the “rights” of LGBT people.

Among these are Supreme Court rulings that found artists, such as bakers and website designers, cannot be forced by the state to use their skills to promote so-called same-sex “marriage.” The law professor also criticized the 2021 case Fulton v. City of Philadelphia which affirmed social service providers cannot be forced to place kids in same-sex households.

“The impact of these decision[s] means that some vendors and faith-based social service agencies may refuse to serve LGBTQ people,” Velte wrote.

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As everyone knew he would, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has appealed Marion County Judge Christina R. Klineman’s “absurd” ruling that the state’s 2022 abortion law violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“We disagree with the court’s decision and have already appealed,” an offices spokesman said. “As we have with every challenge against our pro-life law, we’ll continue fighting to protect the lives of the unborn.”

Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter said, “We are encouraged by Attorney General Todd Rokita’s immediate move to appeal this injunction.” He called the 17-page decision “a perversion of the law’s intent.”

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The end times are not announced by earthquakes or wars alone. The greatest sign, Fr. James Altman warns, is the apostasy unfolding inside the Church itself.

Joining John-Henry Westen, Fr. Altman draws on the warnings of Our Lady’s apparitions, Quito, La Salette, Garabandal, and the testimony of exorcists like Fr. Gabriel Amorth, who witnessed Padre Pio’s anguish over the loss of faith spreading through the Church’s own leadership. The crisis is not external. It is internal. And it has now reached the papacy.

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ABUJA, Nigeria — Conservative Anglican leaders have restructured their organization, signaling a break from the traditions of the historic Anglican Communion as they seek to reorder the 400-year-old church group.

The Global Anglican Future Conference, or Gafcon, dissolved its Gafcon Primates Council and replaced it with the Global Anglican Council.

The new council will include primates, advisers and guarantors, made up of bishops, clergy and lay members, each with full voting privileges, Gafcon general secretary The Right Reverend Paul Donison said in a statement.

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(LifeSiteNews) — On this same issue of homosexuality as presented in Part 4 of this series, we must also consider what has been taking place publicly with bishops throughout the world, and with Pope Leo XIV, in recent months. Two examples follow.

First, the German bishops. On October 30, 2025, the German Bishops’ Conference released the document “Created, Redeemed and Loved: Visibility and Recognition of the Diversity of Sexual Identities in the School,” which boldly asserts that “the diversity of sexual identities is a fact,” and instructs that in Catholic schools, teachers not only must accept whatever gender with which a student identifies, but also must address students with gender-affirming pronouns. Moreover, teachers are required to present Catholic teaching on human sexuality as “disputed” and open to debate. As Dr. Steven Mosher, President of Population Research Institute, noted:

[W]hile the Vatican has, in the past, repeatedly condemned gender ideology as an attack on the God-given differences between men and women, as well as on the anthropological foundation of the family, it has taken no disciplinary action against the German episcopate for promoting it.[1]

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CNN is known for feeding red meat — perhaps blue meat? — to their left-of-center followers by showing them “scary” content about the other side of the aisle.

From wall-to-wall Jan. 6 coverage to constant whining about President Donald Trump, CNN is one of the most notorious purveyors of leftist narrative framing.

Now the propaganda machine is churning out new content about “Christian Nationalism” — the apparently radical idea that America is a historically Christian people, and would be blessed by honoring God and His Word.

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The SSPX has announced it will proceed with episcopal consecrations on July 1, defying Vatican objections and declaring the Church in a state of emergency. Cardinal Robert Sarah and Cardinal Walter Brandmüller have issued public rebukes, demanding obedience to Pope Leo. Bishop Athanasius Schneider has offered support. The battle lines are drawn, not over rebellion, but over whether the crisis within the Church justifies extraordinary measures to preserve the priesthood and the faith.

Pope Leo’s recent episcopal appointments have placed men supportive of same-sex blessings into positions of authority, elevated figures entangled in Freemasonry controversies, and advanced leaders shaped by Germany’s Synodal Way. The pattern is not accidental. It is a deliberate reshaping of the hierarchy in Rome’s own image.

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WASHINGTON — One of the most dangerous places for Christians worldwide is Nigeria. More than a decade of deadly violence has drawn international scrutiny, prompted U.S. military action, and fueled debate over whether Africa’s most populous nation is facing genocide.

In an exclusive interview with CBN News, Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, pushed back on claims that Christians are being systematically exterminated.

“I don’t think so,” Tinubu offered repeatedly when asked whether genocide is taking place. Instead, she described the violence as rooted in long-standing regional conflicts, poverty, terrorism, and political instability — particularly as the country approaches an election year in 2027.

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On February 12, the EU legislative body adopted the text by 502 votes in favor, two against, and 59 abstentions, demonstrating broad cross-party consensus on the issue.

The resolution said Turkey is expelling Christians missionaries under an opaque “national security” pretext. It urged the government to uphold freedom of religion and allow the expelled Christians to return to the country.

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The Vatican will not join President Donald Trump’s newly formed Board of Peace, its top diplomatic official said Tuesday, signaling reluctance from the Holy See to take part in the post-war initiative.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States,” the Vatican’s official news outlet reported.

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The Vatican has rejected an invitation to participate in President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which was recently formed to rebuild war-ravaged Gaza.

The Holy See’s top diplomatic official confirmed the rejection on Tuesday.

The refusal to join the international effort signals hesitation from the Catholic Church’s leadership toward the post-war initiative.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States,” according to the Vatican’s official news outlet.

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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced on Monday that it was launching an investigation after a Catholic school in Long Beach, California, was broken into and vandalized.

“The @CivilRights will open an investigation into this awful crime,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said on X.

The Holy Innocents Catholic School was desecrated after its assembly hall, chapel and classrooms were broken into, school officials said.

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Over the last 25 years, gunmen and gunwomen have launched around two dozen fatal attacks at Christian churches across the nation. As demonstrated by the invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota last month, even congregations that haven’t encountered an armed threat still face mounting hostility against their faith and parishioners.

There’s no denying houses of worship are targets for violence. There’s also no denying that death tolls in church shootings were kept at a minimum thanks to the heroic actions of good guys with guns like Jack WilsonCaleb Engle, and Jeanne Assam.

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[UPDATE] Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that religious organizations such as Yakima Union Gospel Mission are free to make hiring decisions based on an applicant’s alignment with the organization’s religious beliefs, affirming an injunction granted to Yakima Union Gospel Mission by a district court.

Yakima Union Gospel Mission is a Christian organization that helps needy people through its homeless shelter and many other charitable services, while sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In a 3-0 decision, the panel found that Yakima had more than a right to consider religion when hiring religious teachers, a legal doctrine known as the ministerial exception, but it also had a right to make all of its hiring decisions based on its religious beliefs due to the church autonomy doctrine.

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Pope Leo XIV has appointed a San Diego auxiliary bishop who celebrated an “All are Welcome” LGBT “Pride” Mass – during which a drag queen activist was permitted to speak – as the new bishop of Monterey, California. 

Bishop Ramón Bejarano was the celebrant of the July 13 Sunday Mass, which was organized by St. John’s “LGBTQ Ministry” and had the full backing of the Diocese of San Diego under Bishop Michael Pham, one of Pope Leo XIV’s first episcopal appointments.

“I apologize for the pain and distress that I and the Church have caused to many of you,” Bishop Bejarano reportedly said in a 2024 “All are Welcome Mass” sermon at the same parish. “I apologize for the stigmatization and trauma we have caused to others because we have told them that they are not valued and that they are not worthy of the love of God. There are many others out there who feel rejected and unvalued.” 

Bejarano was also among the 68 American bishops who in 2021 signed a letter asking the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to end discussions on prohibiting then-President Joe Biden and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians from receiving Holy Communion.

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While Europe refuses to fortify its borders against mass migration, European cities are now forced to put up security barriers, concrete blocks, and even tank traps to prevent Islamic terrorists from driving vehicles into Christmas markets.

Writing for The Spectator magazine (UK), Druin Burch noted recently how the Islamic “terror triumphed at the Christmas market” this festive season. A visitor to “Christmas markets in Berlin, London or Strasbourg” would see them “surrounded by steel posts, truck-proof planters, and one-way systems designed to stop SUVs achieving murderous velocities before hitting crash barriers,” he adds.

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Why this matters for Egyptian history

The Second Intermediate Period, dated roughly 1782–1550 BCE, has long been understood as a time of political fragmentation, military innovation and shifting power. It saw the introduction of new technologies such as the horse-drawn chariot, multiple competing capitals, and weakened central authority. If this period lasted longer than previously thought, historians must rethink how quickly Egypt recovered from collapse, how long the Hyksos ruled, and how the early New Kingdom developed its military and administrative strength. Just as importantly, the revised dating helps resolve a decades-old problem in Mediterranean archaeology: how Egyptian history lines up with Minoan, Levantine and Aegean chronologies. By placing the Thera eruption firmly before Ahmose’s reign, the study removes one of the most persistent points of chronological tension between Egypt and its neighbours.

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A conservative Christian woman from Alabama has been identified as one of the two fatalities from Saturday’s shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island that left at least nine others wounded.

Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore at Brown, was a parishioner at Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama, where Rev. Craig Smalley made the announcement during his Sunday service.

“Some of you haven’t heard, a lot of you have heard … [about] the tragedy yesterday at Brown University, the shooting of a number of people,” Smalley said.. “Tragically, one of our parishioners, Ella Cook, was one of those who was killed yesterday.”

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The Little Sisters of the Poor have again asked a federal appeals court late Friday to block a nationwide ruling that rejected their protection from the federal government’s contraceptive mandate. Represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Clement Murphy, the Little Sisters have spent more than a decade in court fighting to defend their ministry from a federal mandate forcing them to either provide contraceptives in their healthcare plan or pay tens of millions of dollars in fines.

They have already prevailed twice at the Supreme Court, including a 2020 ruling that upheld the federal conscience rule shielding them from the mandate. But Pennsylvania and New Jersey have fought in court to strip the Little Sisters of that protection. Earlier this year, a federal district court sided with the states, forcing the Little Sisters back to federal appeals court yet again.