Pope Leo’s important address to Vatican Diplomat Corp.

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I love it. “Peter among us.” this is from The Pillar, a Catholic online publication. —Pope Leo XIV gave last week his first annual address to the Vatican’s diplomatic corps — a speech which customarily sets out diplomatic priorities for the year, and is the pope’s “state of the world” address. Edgar Beltran broke down … Read more

NYT: “U.S. and Venezuela Explore Restoring Diplomatic Ties”

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This is good. She sees the handwriting on the wall. “The move embodied the contradictions and fast-changing nature of the two countries’ relationship.” Less than a week after the United States snatched its president under cover of night, Venezuela said it was exploring restoring diplomatic ties and sending a delegation to Washington to check on … Read more

CNBC: Tom Friedman on Venezuela, Trump & next steps

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Friedman is skeptical that Venezuelan oil can be restarted without a change of regime, which he thinks will require boots on the ground. But see the NYT article below the video. Venezuela is not Libya and the new leader – Delcy Rodriguez – is super-ambitious and if it’s in her self interest to suddenly become … Read more

Sunday wordle – 51 in a row

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I am an everyday wordle kind of guy with a 96% success rate. And now I’m on a “quest” to break my old record of 77. A good friend of ours had something like 133 in a row before she (women are smarter than men of course) by haphazard neglect missed doing it on a … Read more

Kentucky bishops: Nations have right to borders, but actions in US causing ‘hostility, anxiety, and fear’

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This is from CatholicVote “Nations have a right and responsibility to control their borders and to enforce laws meant to protect the population, but all laws must be enforced in a just and predictable manner that respects the God-given dignity of each human person,” the bishops wrote in the statement. The bishops quoted Pope Leo’s … Read more