Maike Hickson Resigns from LifeSite News: Who's Next?

You are a great gift to the Church Dr. Hickson! Your sacrifices and sufferings for the Truth of Christ are an inspiration to me. https://t.co/yWDCeLhufW

— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) July 11, 2025

I've known Maike Hickson for years. She's been a huge grace to LifeSite News with her interviews and her excellent articles. That she has chosen to resign in solidarity with John-Henry Westen is a significant blow to the organization in my opinion. Her action also highlights the loss of credibility surrounding the announcement and the subsequent spin by Jalsevac about the reasons. 

Sunday Meditation: A Mini Retreat on Prayer and Contemplation

 Fr. David Torkington is a cancelled priest, driven out for exposing sex abuse in his religious order decades ago. He tells us we must return to the early Christian prayer practices which encompassed four principles.

No Grass Growing under John-Henry's Feet!

God bless John-Henry. May his new apostolate grow and thrive. Hat tip to the reader who posted the link in the comment section.

Bishop Strickland's Follow-Up on Bishop Elect Thomas Hennen

A number of Pope Leo's appointments are concerning. One addressed by Bishop Joseph Strickland is Bishop Elect Thomas Hennen to the diocese of Baker. Strickland recently tweeted:

@Hennen, bishop-elect, as bishop of Baker...instead of correcting...Francis, Pope Leo XIV is doubling down on it...Hennen...work with Davenport’s LGBTQ+ directive...Fiducia Supplicans green-lighted blessings same-sex unions...No more more blessings without conversion.

An article followed. Here's the beginning:

"Vestments soothe, but appointments alarm." John Henry Westen

When Pope Leo walked out on the balcony in Rome clothed in the traditional vestments, one hoped that the exterior matched the interior. Did we have a pope who would restore the faith of our fathers and set us back on the right track? Or would we soon be disillusioned and see that we had a man walking in the footsteps of Francis. 

Was the Survey of the Bishops a Primary Cause for Traditionis Custodes?

Some are saying that the survey of the bishops played almost no role in Pope  Francis issuing  Traditionis Custodes (TC) and the accompanying letter. Vatican correspondent, Diane Montagna, continues to investigate and posted additional evidence on her substack forum yesterday:

New Evidence Confirms CDF Report, Erodes Vatican Narrative...

Quoting Francis' own letter indicates that he used the survey to justify his draconian restrictions. As the pope of synodality, it isn't surprising to find him pretending that he acted in union with the bishops. Here's an excerpt from the letter:

The Latest from the LifeSite News Soap Opera

John-Henry Westen and Stev Jalsevac

The new head of LifeSite News is its co-founder Steve Jalsevac who sent out the message below. Is this the whole story? I doubt it and I suspect there are other issues. I was once involved with a contentious fight over who would run a pro-life organization. We ended up in arbitration. The primary issue had nothing to do with the focus of the organization. It was management style and personality conflicts. I'm wondering how much of that played into Westen's firing. 

The Israel Wars: Of Cancelling, Banning, and Ending Friendships

NEWS ALERT: A few minutes after writing this column, I learned that John Henry Weston, co-founder of  LifeSite News and a courageous voice for truth, has been fired by the board in a narrow 5-4 vote. Why? Not for scandals, doctrinal error, or mismanagement, but because he criticized some of the actions of Pope Leo XIV, actions which are indeed problematic. One of LifeSite's reporters was also fired for the same reason. Read The Purge at LifeSite News. This is one more example of what Paul Gottfried describes in his article on Israel and it has broad implications for the future of those who defend orthodoxy even against high ecclesial authority. This is a developing story and I'll be writing further about it in the days ahead.

The Israel Wars

As I've said often in the past, I'm a big fan of Chronicles Magazine. Sometimes an article is spot on! Paul Gottfried pegged it in more ways than one in the article linked below. I agree with him 100%! But even if I didn't, I'd be happy to be friends and engage in spirited Socratic argument -- and do it with a smile.

Zionism Should Not Be a Conservative Sine Qua Non

"No One Wanted a War" against the Traditional Latin Mass

Msgr. Nicola Bux

The article below (Google translation from Italian) includes an interview with respected liturgist Don Nicola Bux, co-author of the recently released book (in Italian),  The Liturgy Is Not a Show: The Questionnaire to Bishops on the Old Rite — A Weapon of Mass Destruction?  

THE INTERVIEW / MGR. NICOLA BUX
War on the ancient rite, it was not the bishops who started it 

It was not the world episcopate that asked to "cage" the Mass in the ancient rite, as Pope Francis instead claimed, declaring that the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes was the response to a specific request from the bishops consulted on the matter.

Monday Morning Musing: An Examination to Guide Your Week

Christ desires us to bring forth the fruits of a holy life, i.e., He wishes us gradually to improve, to grow more just and charitable in our dealings with others, more humble and severe in judging ourselves. Do those who call themselves Christians invariably display these characteristics? If you are uncharitable, irritable, untrustworthy, harsh toward others, self-satisfied and self-indulgent, there is much reason to fear that your profession of Christianity is vain, and that you do not possess the Holy Spirit and are not united with Christ in the Spirit.

    Knud Karl Krogh-Tonning (+1911), Norwegian theologian, convert from Lutherinism

Note that we are encouraged to "gradually improve." God is patient with us giving us a model of how to be patient with others. I plan to read this every day this week as an examination of conscience. Lord, bless this week and make each of us better at the end of it than we were at the beginning.

Chesterton and his Tremendous Trifles

a tremendous trifle

 G.K. Chesterton could write about almost everything and make it... entertaining...amusing... profound,,,.mysterious...and, yes, sometimes a little weird. In one essay, he imagined lying in bed and drawing on the ceiling. In another, he filled his pockets with colored chalk, got some brown paper from the old woman in the kitchen, and went out walking and drawing. Speaking of pockets, he once wrote an entire essay on the contents of his pockets. Once he was challenged by the police as he stopped in the woods and practiced knife throwing at a tree. He mostly missed. And then there was the weird tale of his ride on a train carrying a dead body. His book of essays, Tremendouos Trifles, is filled with essays about nothing and everything and is, indeed, "tremendous" and one of my favorites!

The Legacy of Pope Francis: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Diane Montagna's recent blockbuster exposé illustrates what we all know. Pope Francis was a liar and a tyrant, bent on eliminating the TLM (Traditional Latin Mass). He didn't mind breaking the 8th Commandment to do it. 

Journalist Obtains Exclusive Access to World Report on Summorum Pontificum: Francis' Restrictions Based on Lies

Pope Francis lied to the world about the bishops' responses to the survey about implementing the TLM in their dioceses. The survey responses almost universally showed a positive impact with recommendations to leave Summorum Pontificum alone. Parishes using both forms, the TLM and the Novus Ordo, had little or no division among parishioners and the TLM tended to increase reverence at the Novus Ordo. That didn't stop lying Francis from issuing Traditiones Custodes with its draconian repressions.

Remembering my dad on his entry into eternal life.

Today is the anniversary of my Dad's death. He died in 1985 at the age of 67 -- too young, too soon to say goodbye. I still miss him. I still ask him to forgive me for not being a better daughter. I was with him when he died. In fact, at least four of his ten children were in the house at the time and several grandchildren. My sister Peggy and I were with Daddy when he died. He was sitting in a chair leaning against the bed and we were stroking his back and talking quietly when we realized he wasn't breathing. The blood had already begun to pool at the pressure point on his forehead.

The Heresy of Americanism and the Serious Sin of Abandoning the Great Commission

The Exhortation to the Apostles -- James Tissot (1836-1902)

This was the lead article from the Spring issue of the Les Femmes newsletter. Vol 21 #1  2016. I'm republishing it here because so many people have been sucked in by the heresy of Americanism and the rather arrogant belief in American Exceptionalism. Both of these beliefs have as their foundation the false beliefs of the French Revolution. And many Catholic prelates including Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore Catechism fame, who promoted Elizabeth Seton's educational efforts, got caught up in the enthusiasm and desire to be politically accepted. The desire for human respect is a trap that catches many. July 4th seems a good day to reprint it.

Heresy, the American Experiment, and the Great Commission of Christ

Have a Blessed Independence Day!

 

I plan to read the Declaration of Independence while I watch fireworks on my computer. Too hot to go see the real thing, especially after we did the honey harvest yesterday which is always a hot job. I'm sure we'll have some sparklers and Roman candles after sunset. Hope all my readers have a fun day planned and may God bless and protect you on this last 4th before we celebrate our 250th year as a nation next 4th of July. Let us pray with zeal for our country and her political leaders that they may be men and women after God's own heart.

Goodbye, Straight Men: Homosexuality in U.S. Seminaries

I would very much like to believe that the homosexual problem in the Church is over, that Michael Rose's 2002 exposé Goodbye, Good Men, caused major reform. But did it? I'm not so sure.

When you see men like Robert McElroy, who covered up for a notorious clerical sex abuser, appointed to a plum see like Washington, D.C. you know the elephant is still in the room. How many D.C. seminarians will be recruited who are, shall I say, light in the loafers? The priesthood can be a cushy job. Remember Bishop Michael Bransfield of Wheeling, WV, my husband's home town, who lived like a king. His behavior was no secret, but he enjoyed wining and dining himself for thirteen years on the faithful's dime. It was so bad I did a series with an anonymous priest, Nabi, who detailed the scandals. [See a recent local story from the Weirton Daily Times, Ex-Bishop Michael Bransfield’s ‘creepy’ behavior detailed.] How many bishops like Bransfield still rule dioceses in the U.S.? Many I fear.

The Impact on the Catholic Church from Division: Not Pretty!

At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed that all might be one. That reality seems further away than ever. It's easy to understand how the division between religions is disastrous for the world. Religious wars throughout the millennia illustrate that so clearly no one with eyes and ears can miss it. What's more difficult to understand on a spiritual level is the division among Catholics who claim the same religion, but are more and more divided.

The Forgotten Minority in the Holy Land

Most of the debate over the Middle East is about the conflict between Jews and Muslims. Another group seems mostly invisible. While gallons of ink are poured out about Hamas and Israel, Judaism and Islam, you hear very little about these forgotten people who are rapidly disappearing from the Land of Christ's birth -- the Christians.

In 2019 The Catholic Register described their plight in an article titled Holy Land Christians: Threatened With Extinction, but Still Bearing Witness:

...the Christians of the Holy Land — who are often forgotten in this crisis, as they are ignored by worldwide media, and whose number has been reduced to an alarming level — struggle every day for their own religious identity.