Quote of the Day

"The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will fall under President Trump's second administration. I know from my service on the 1776 Commission, during his first administration, that he will wish to celebrate it with a loud voice and a full throat. May we all go from strength to strength in recovering the meaning of that document and restoring the Constitution that enabled us to make America great in the first place."

--Larry P. Arnn, Imprimis, November 2024

Reflection for Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

"In Christ, God has truly come into the world, he has entered into our history, he has set his dwelling among us, thus fulfilling the deepest desire of human beings that the world may truly become a home worthy of humanity. On the other hand, when God is put aside, the world becomes an inhospitable place for man, and frustrates creation’s true vocation to be a space for the covenant, for the 'Yes' to the love between God and humanity who responds to him. Mary did so as the first fruit of believers with her unreserved 'Yes' to the Lord....

"Dear brothers and sisters, today we praise the Most Holy Virgin for her faith, and with Saint Elizabeth we too say, 'Blessed is she who believed' (Luke 1:45). As Saint Augustine said, Mary conceived Christ by faith in her heart before she conceived him physically in her womb; Mary believed and what she believed was came to be in her (cf. Sermon 215, 4: PL 38, 1074). Let us ask the Lord to strengthen our faith, to make it active and fruitful in love. Let us implore him that, like her, we may welcome the word of God into our hearts, and carry it out with docility and constancy."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, March 27, 2012

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord

"In imitation of the shepherds, we too move spiritually towards Bethlehem, where Mary gave birth to the Child in a stable, “because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). Christmas has become a universal feast, and even those who do not believe perceive the appeal of this occasion. The Christian, however, knows that Christmas is a decisive event, an eternal fire that God has kindled in the world, and must not be confused with ephemeral things. It is important that it should not be reduced to a merely sentimental or consumerist festival... Therefore, it is necessary to curb a certain worldly mentality, incapable of grasping the incandescent core of our faith, which is this: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14). And this is the kernel of Christmas; rather, it is the truth of Christmas; there is no other.

"God did not look down on us from afar, He did not pass us by, He was not repulsed by our misery, He did not clothe Himself only superficially in a body, but rather He fully assumed our nature and our human condition. He left nothing out except sin: the only thing He does not have. All humanity is in Him. He took all that we are, just as we are. This is essential for understanding the Christian faith. Saint Augustine, reflecting on his journey of conversion, writes in his Confessions: “For I did not hold to my Lord Jesus Christ, I, humbled, to the Humble; nor knew I yet whereto His infirmity would guide us” (VII, 8). And what is Jesus’ “infirmity”? The “infirmity” of Jesus is a “teaching”! Because it reveals to us the love of God. Christmas is the feast of Love incarnate, of love born for us in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the light of mankind shining in the darkness, giving meaning to human existence and to the whole of history."

--Pope Francis, General Audience, December 23, 2020

Quote of the Day

"The Word of God who unites us is Christ the Lord, the desired of the nations. It is He who rises from the East as the rising sun, He whom America met and embraced five hundred years ago, thanks to the maternal tenderness of Mary who deigned to manifest herself to Juan Diego with the Indian features of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Touched to the heart by the divine mercy revealed in these features, from that moment on, America marches forward in the hope of the God who comes in Christ, in the midst of the hopes and challenges of the present time."

--Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Homily, December 10, 2012

Quote of the Day

"Let us ask ourselves: is my heart weighed down by fear, worries and anxieties about the future? Do I know how to look at daily events and the vicissitudes of history with God’s eyes, in prayer, with a broader horizon? Or do I let myself be overcome by despondency? May this Advent season be a precious opportunity to lift our gaze to Him, who lightens our hearts and sustains us on our way."

--Pope Francis, Angelus, December 1, 2024

Election Watch 2024: Morning in America

by Justin Soutar

Forty-plus years ago, one of our nation’s greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan, famously remarked that it was “morning again in America.” What he meant was that our country was emerging from a dark period of economic stagnation, bloated government, military weakness, and international turmoil, and was entering a new era of prosperity, freedom, security, and peace. This quote from Reagan leaped into my mind as I got out of bed on the morning after the historic Election Day of November 5, 2024 and saw the sun shining brightly. Like tens of millions of other Americans, I had stayed up late the night before watching TV newscasts to see the results of the 2024 presidential, senatorial, and congressional elections—or, at least, the results that would emerge that night. (In this new age of massive voter turnout and mail-in ballots, the results of close election contests are often not determined until a week or two after Election Day.)

To witness the spectacular triple victory of “former” President Donald Trump and his vice-presidential running mate J. D. Vance handily winning the electoral and national popular vote; Republicans winning majority control of the Senate; and Republicans on track to retain their majority control of the House of Representatives, all in a single night, flooded my heart with a sea of joy unlike anything I had experienced with any previous election. It brought to mind that memorable scene in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings in which the Ring is finally destroyed and Sauron’s mighty fortresses come crashing down. Corrupt and radically secularist Vice President Kamala Harris, her Democratic Party cronies in the Washington swamp, and their Big Media and Big Tech allies had done everything possible to destroy Trump and retain their grip on power, to no avail. After the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him, and from the American people, through massive voter fraud during COVID, and after somehow surviving four years of being mocked, ridiculed, attacked, vilified, censored, accused, arrested, jailed, investigated, sued, charged, sentenced, and even shot at, Trump, a victim of so much injustice, managed to unite and expand the ranks of the Republican Party, and ultimately and decisively emerged victorious in the 2024 presidential election. Without question, this is the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States. 

How did Trump accomplish this astounding feat? It’s really pretty simple. First, he spent his four years in the political wilderness wisely by giving speeches and raising money for his third presidential campaign. He’s a good speaker and communicator (famous for not needing a teleprompter), and as a hard worker and a successful businessman, he knows how to effectively promote his brand (MAGA) and raise money for it. He even turned the unjustified attacks on himself into marketing and fundraising opportunities, with phenomenal success. Second, Trump stayed laser-focused and maintained clear and consistent positions on the issues that mattered most to the largest number of voters: the struggling economy, persistent inflation, high taxes, unsustainable national debt, Social Security going bankrupt, illegal immigration, soaring crime rates, attempts to defund the police, Critical Race Theory and gender ideology in schools, voter fraud, loss of government respect for basic human rights and liberties, the Chinese Communist threat to our national security, and violent conflicts in the Middle East and Europe. Third, he spoke the honest truth about the critical situation our country is in, and the truth is a powerful force which tends to unite people. Fourth, Trump is a man of great courage and determination who persevered with his campaign and continued fighting for the average American despite incessant attacks by his enemies. Fifth and finally, at a time of widespread political corruption, he remained a humble and selfless servant leader of the American people, totally dedicated to public service for the true good of our nation. In short, Trump resonated and connected with voters.

Contrast this authentic grassroots candidate with his radical elitist opponent, Harris, who was anointed (not elected) the Democratic presidential candidate in a back-room maneuver in July, had all of three and a half months to campaign and squandered much of that time with useless celebrity photo ops, ran on “abortion rights” and identity politics, tried to buy the election with a billion dirty dollars from the D.C. swamp, steadfastly avoided media appearances, was teleprompter dependent, failed to articulate clear positions on any of the issues that mattered to voters, told frequent outright lies about herself and Trump, and obviously cared only about money and power. Despite favorable Big Media coverage and fake polls that appeared to give her a real shot at winning the presidency, she proved to be no match for a massive and energized national MAGA movement that was eight years in the making.

Way back in March 2022, I bought a “TRUMP 2024” bumper sticker on eBay and put it on my car. I’ve known deep down all along that Trump could pull off a return from political exile to serve a second term as President of the United States. The uncertainty, and thus the drama, lay in whether any of the unjustified attacks on him might be successful, effectively preventing him from winning the Republican nomination for president, and if not, whether voter fraud might again be successfully employed in swing states to steal another election from Donald Trump. Thankfully, the answer to both questions turned out to be no. Against the odds, Trump survived every single attack and won “bigly,” making the election results “too big to rig.”

History repeats itself. Yes, it is “morning again in America.” With the election of a conservative Republican President, Senate, and House of Representatives, “we the people” have taken our country back. The merciful guiding hand of Divine Providence is clearly evident in all of this. Trump was humiliated by his (our) enemies for four years, but God exalted him and saved his life because it is His will that he serve a second term as our president. During the next four years, he will work with Congress to unite and heal and strengthen our divided and wounded and weakened nation, rescuing us from perilous decline and restoring our former greatness so that we can rise to meet new challenges head-on. Our country is emerging from a dark night of economic recession, Orwellian government, military unpreparedness, and international conflict into a brilliant new day of prosperity, freedom, security, and peace. Thanks be to God!


Copyright © 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote for Thanksgiving Day

Photo by Justin Soutar

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

--Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863

Quote of the Day

"Mary is so interwoven in the great mystery of the Church that she and the Church are inseparable, just as she and Christ are inseparable. Mary mirrors the Church, anticipates the Church in her person, and in all the turbulence that affects the suffering, struggling Church she always remains the Star of salvation."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, December 8, 2005

Quote of the Day

"As sailors are guided by star to the port, so are Christians guided to Heaven by Mary."

--Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Reflection for the Solemnity of All Saints

"We can enter heaven only thanks to the blood of the Lamb, thanks to the blood of Christ. Christ’s own blood has justified us, which has opened for us the gates of heaven. And if today we remember our brothers and sisters who have gone before us in life and are in Heaven, it is because they have been washed in the blood of Christ. This is our hope: the hope of Christ's blood! It is a hope that does not disappoint. If we walk with the Lord in life, he will never disappoint us!....

"The first Christians depicted hope with an anchor, as though life were an anchor cast on Heaven’s shores and all of us journeying to that shore, clinging to the anchor’s rope. This is a beautiful image of hope: to have our hearts anchored there, where our beloved predecessors are, where the Saints are, where Jesus is, where God is. This is the hope that does not disappoint; today and tomorrow are days of hope.

"Hope is a little like leaven that expands our souls. There are difficult moments in life, but with hope the soul goes forward and looks ahead to what awaits us. Today is a day of hope. Our brothers and sisters are in the presence of God and we shall also be there, through the pure grace of the Lord, if we walk along the way of Jesus."

--Pope Francis, Homily, November 1, 2013

Quote of the Day

"The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility."

--Pope Saint John Paul II, Homily, July 28, 2002

Election Watch 2024: Good News for Trump

by Justin Soutar

There has been a great deal of encouraging news lately for "former" President Donald Trump's re-election bid. 

First, his campaign continues its now longstanding but still remarkable pattern of setting and breaking new fundraising records on a monthly basis, and this almost entirely with one, two, and three-figure donations from ordinary, working-class Americans. Unlike illegitimate Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, which is being largely underwritten by George Soros, Planned Parenthood, and the Washington, D.C. swamp, Trump's campaign is primarily a grassroots one funded by "we the people," that is, by tens of millions of ordinary, hardworking American citizens who steadfastly support him because of his record and his common-sense positions on the issues that are important to them.

Second, national polls clearly indicate that Trump is slowly but steadily continuing to win over additional new supporters in key demographic groups. For example, his lead over Harris with independent voters, who will decide the election in crucial battleground states such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina, has grown to twenty-five points. Trump is also faring considerably better with Hispanic and Black voters than he did eight years ago; in fact, it appears very likely that he will win a plurality of the Hispanic vote and at least 30 percent of the Black vote. Furthermore, whereas a majority of blue-collar workers in the rust-belt states and nationwide were formerly Democratic, they are now Republican. Perhaps most surprising and encouraging is the news that 25 percent of Democrats have decided to break with their party and vote for Trump instead!

Third, it was just revealed a few days ago that the total number of registered Republican voters in the United States now exceeds the total number of registered Democratic voters for the first time since the 1980s. This, and all of the foregoing good news, is a tribute to the fact that Donald Trump has brought more new people into the Republican party than any other American political figure since Ronald Reagan. He has accomplished this by establishing a successful record on the economy, taxes, Supreme Court appointments, crime, illegal immigration, the military, and foreign policy during his administration; by maintaining clear and consistent positions on these issues; and by his generally strong support for traditional values, including the right to life, religious liberty, marriage, and parental rights in education.

Fourth and finally, last week, the corrupt Biden-Harris Department of Justice sued the Commonwealth of Virginia and our Republican Governor, Glenn Youngkin, for mandating the removal of illegal aliens and foreign nationals from our state's voter rolls as required by state and federal law. How ironic it is that our governor is being sued for acting in accordance with the law, not for breaking it. This is a sign of just how desperate Kamala Harris is to win the most powerful political office in the world by any means necessary, including dark money and election fraud. If there was any doubt whatsoever that Harris can win this presidential election without fraud, it is gone. 

But why has Virginia specifically been targeted, and why is this good news for Trump? Because, although corrupt Democrats have successfully bought out our state for the past twenty years, they realize that the pendulum of momentum is now swinging back to the Republicans. No longer a reliably blue state, Virginia has joined the ranks of the battleground states that are up for grabs. The Biden-Harris cartel is afraid that they may very well lose Virginia to Trump without hundreds of thousands of illegal votes in their favor. In other words, they fear that Trump will win Virginia if the election here is free of fraud. They wouldn't be afraid of something that had no real chance of happening. The prospect of Donald Trump becoming the first presidential candidate to carry the Old Dominion since George W. Bush in 2004 is an exciting one!

Add to this recent good news the important fact that Judicial Watch has forced many states, including Pennsylvania, to clean up their voter rolls in accordance with state and federal election laws in the past four years since Joe Biden fraudulently won the 2020 election. It is reasonable to conclude from all of this that the 2024 presidential election will be an electoral and popular vote landslide for Donald Trump. May God and his angels continue to protect him from harm, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary intercede for his victory in this crucial election, for the good of our country and for a more secure, free, and peaceful world.

Copyright 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his Blood, which is love incorruptible."

--Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans

Quote of the Day

"Let us pray tirelessly for the conversion of hearts and for the triumph of a culture of life, reconciliation and fraternal love between all men and women, with respect for differences and diverse religious traditions, in the effort to build a future of unity and cooperation between all people of good will."

--Pope Francis, Homily, March 7, 2021

Quote of the Day

"Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you."

--Saint Francis de Sales

Quote of the Day

"For many people today, practical atheism is the normal rule of life. Maybe there is something or someone, they think, who once set the world in motion eons ago, but he does not matter to us at all. If this attitude becomes a general existential position, then freedom no longer has any standards, then everything is possible and permissible. That is why it is so urgent also to bring the question about God back into the center. Of course, this does not mean a God who exists in some way or other, but rather a God who knows us, speaks to us, and approaches us--and who is then our judge also."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times: A Conversation with Peter Seewald (Ignatius Press, 2010), p. 49

Election Watch 2024: Donald Trump v. Kamala Harris

by Justin Soutar

A lot has happened in the two and a half months since I wrote the first essay for this series back in mid-June. On the 27th, "former" U.S. President Donald Trump easily won his first and only televised public debate with Sleepy "President" Joe Biden, and it was embarrassingly obvious to tens of millions of people in our country and around the world that the latter is mentally unfit to serve as President of the United States. Two and a half weeks later, on July 13th, while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump was shot in the right ear by a would-be assassin after his Secret Service guards inexplicably failed to notice that a gunman was on the roof of a neighboring building, or to act on the nearby crowd's warning to that effect. Photos of a bleeding Trump courageously raising his fist in the air and shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" as his security detail prepared to whisk him off to the emergency room were immediately seared into the national consciousness. For many days prior to this assassination attempt, I had a nagging intuition that if all other efforts to prevent Trump from running for president failed, his enemies would resort to trying to kill him. Consequently, I began praying regularly for his safety. The narrowness of Trump's escape from death that summer evening, and the possible consequences for the presidential election and for the nation had he not survived, are frightening to consider. If he had turned his head just half an inch more to the right when the bullet hit, he would have been killed. It was clear to me that God saved Trump's life for a reason: he wants him to be president again to save our country from economic, military, legal, social, moral, and religious disintegration.

Five days after being shot, on July 18th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States. Because of the assassination attempt, he decided not to deliver the address he had originally prepared for the occasion. His actual televised ninety-minute acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that evening, entirely unaided by notes or teleprompter, will likely go down in history as one of the greatest such addresses ever given. He publicly credited "the grace of Almighty God" for allowing him to be present at the Convention; confidently shared what "we will do" to restore America's stability and greatness; and reminded his listeners that every moment of life is a gift from God. I was deeply struck by the positive change in Trump himself after the incident. He was a remarkably happier, calmer, humbler, more relaxed, and more peaceful man than he was before. The majority of his words were uttered in a calm, conversational tone of voice. What made his speech so powerful and memorable was that it was not about him. He was just the spokesman and representative of a grassroots national movement to Make America Great Again, and he plainly understood that. He used the word "we" much more frequently than "I." Furthermore, to say that Trump's live audience was receptive would be an understatement. He and they were one, perfectly united in an unbreakable bond of fellowship and mission. Trump was aware of this unique atmosphere too, remarking early on about "the love in the room." This has never been the case with any other presidential nominee. It was clear that Trump is not running for president for money or power, but to unite and heal our fractured and wounded nation. It was equally clear that God, family, and patriotism are the driving forces of MAGA, which is a movement of truth and love. Trump's historic address united the country even more solidly around him, and his already favorable poll numbers soared to new heights.

Three days later, Joe Biden publicly announced that he would not seek re-election, and in August, illegitimate "Vice President" Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's nominee for president. The Democrats obviously believe that her chances of defeating Trump are better than Biden's, even though she has been his accomplice in crime and has historically been even less popular than Crooked Joe due to her flippancy, speech gaffes, and radical socialist politics. Much ado has been made of the fact that her poll numbers have risen above Trump's in key battleground states in recent weeks, but keep in mind that the Washington, D.C. swamp has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into advertising for her presidential campaign to shore up her image and get more voters on her side. They and their corrupt media allies are not above manipulating survey results and using fake polls to try to discourage Trump supporters. Bear in mind also that polls continue to show Trump maintaining a clear lead with independent voters, a growing demographic that will tip the vote balance his way in key battleground states. Seemingly favorable overall numbers can easily hide the fact that Harris' support is considerably less secure than Trump's, who has firmly won over tens of millions of Americans based on his clear and consistent positions on major national issues and his refusal to back down despite endless attacks by his powerful enemies. At a time of unprecedented national crisis, Harris brings nothing positive to the table; offers the prospect of four more years of Biden's corrupt and radically secularist regime but on steroids; and is morally unqualified to serve as president of a Christian nation.

Voters will cast their ballots in the eerily decisive 2024 presidential election based on whom they trust to govern our country. For the majority of voters, this will be an easy decision. Trump represents them, has gone through Orwellian junk and nonsense for them, and has even taken a bullet for them. Harris is a money- and power-hungry politician who represents the abortion cartel (Planned Parenthood) and the Chinese Communist Party, not the American people. As Crooked Joe did four years ago, she will use every dirty trick at her disposal to try to seize the presidency, but it won't work this time. God has brought Trump through many dangers to save America from total destruction, and he will. Please join me in praying for his safety and his victory this November.

Copyright 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"'The times are bad! The times are troublesome!' This is what humans say. But we are our times. Let us live well and our times will be good. Such as we are, such are our times."

--Saint Augustine of Hippo

Radical Zionism Is the Greatest Threat to Peace in the Holy Land

by Justin Soutar

It's hard to believe that I've been writing about this topic for almost twenty years now. As a young and idealistic new freelance writer way back in 2005, I undertook a broad and intense study of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and related Middle Eastern history and culture in order to arrive at the objective truth of the situation. Two years prior, in 2003, Pope John Paul II's strong opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had cracked and broken the glass dome of my neat and tidy view of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that had been shaped by President Bush, Republican politicians, and conservative political commentators, alerting me that something was drastically wrong with that view. So I decided to re-examine the subject with an open mind to determine the root causes of this historic conflict and how it could be resolved. I read almost everything I could get my hands on by a wide variety of authors on all sides of the issue, including historians, journalists, diplomats, and conservative and liberal political commentators, interpreting it all from the perspective of Catholic doctrine and the stated positions of recent popes, especially John Paul II and Benedict XVI. As a result, the realities of the conflict and the necessary steps to a peaceful resolution emerged with crystal clarity. It did not matter one bit that my resulting position on the issue was nearly identical with that of liberal Democratic commentators. What mattered was that I had discovered vital truths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that few people in the U.S. seemed to be aware of, as they were getting lost in partisan political squabbles, and that the dominant conservative Republican view of the conflict was so ideologically biased and riddled with factual errors that it was an obstacle to peace in and of itself. So, in an attempt to remedy this situation, I wrote and published the book America's Back-Door Enemy: Unmasking the Unknown Terrorists (Tate Publishing, 2009), which is now out of print. (If you would like a used copy, please contact me.)

One of the most important things I learned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has long been and continues to be ignored and dismissed by ideologically blind conservative commentators in the U.S., was the existence and activity of the radical Zionist movement. This small but vicious group of pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian, European Jewish terrorists and settlers has been around since well before the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, and has grown larger, bolder, more powerful, more cunning, more sophisticated, and more violent in recent years. It has infiltrated and influenced the Israeli military, government, courts, economy, and society through the decades and is currently in control of the Israeli government. It has committed murderous terrorist attacks against tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians and has unjustly evicted tens of thousands more, including many Christians, from their ancestral homes in the Holy Land and surrounding Palestinian territories. Radical Zionist operatives from Israel's intelligence agency Mossad orchestrated the dramatic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States, which was a "false flag" operation carefully designed to appear carried out by Arab "Islamic" terrorists. The aim of these attacks was to get American policy, and specifically American military involvement, in the Middle East unequivocally on Israel's side. The radical Zionists were successful in getting the U.S. to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power, although there was insufficient moral justification for doing so. Pope John Paul's prediction that the resulting power vacuum would be filled by Islamic fundamentalists came true as ISIS unleashed a devastating reign of terror across Iraq from 2014 until 2021.

The goal of the radical Zionist movement, which is one of the most dangerous international terrorist organizations on the planet, is to restore the biblical Greater Israel (Eretz Yisrael) that will stretch eastward to the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq and include Jordan and part of Syria as well. This demonic movement will not hesitate to use any and all means necessary, up to and including the forced displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people, in order to achieve its utopian dream. 

There is extensive media coverage and conservative commentary in the U.S. of terrorist attacks by the radical fringe of Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians and allegedly justified Israeli military responses to these crimes, but we hear precious little about the radical Zionist terrorism and land theft being committed against innocent Palestinian Jewish, Christian, and Muslim civilians with impunity, and when we do, it is not identified as radical Zionist. While the latter crimes provoke the former and the former crimes are used to justify the latter in a perpetual vicious cycle of violence, the radical Zionist movement is the fundamental root cause of the entire conflict. Its utterly godless members refuse to recognize that the Palestinian people have any rights whatsoever, seeing them merely as an obstacle to be eliminated in order to create their own paradise on earth. And they view the surrounding Arab countries as evil enemies of Israel because they acknowledge and uphold the basic human rights of the Palestinian people, their fellow Arabs.

As all recent popes have stated, there can be no peace without justice. Radical Zionism is the greatest threat to justice and peace in the Holy Land and surrounding Israel and Palestine. Therefore, this evil movement must be defeated by prayer, fasting, and the arrest and prosecution of its members. Both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples have the right to a state within clearly defined borders established by international law. The Israelis have had one for 76 years, but despite their relatively low population, at the urging of radical Zionists, they have been illegally and unjustly attempting to expand their state's territory at the expense of the Palestinians. The Palestinians, despite their much higher population, still don't have a state. The following steps are absolutely necessary for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 

1. Both sides must renounce the use of violence in any form as a means to achieve their goals. 

2. Israel must withdraw within and officially accept its borders established by the U.N. in 1948. 

3. The long overdue state of Palestine must be established and officially recognized by Israel.

4. The Old City of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount which is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, must be placed in the international zone established by the U.N. in 1948. 

 

Copyright © 2024 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"As Christ, the new Adam, must be called a King not merely because He is Son of God, but also because He is our Redeemer, so, analogously, the Most Blessed Virgin is queen not only because she is Mother of God, but also because, as the new Eve, she was associated with the new Adam....For from her union with Christ she attains a radiant eminence transcending that of any other creature; from her union with Christ she receives the royal right to dispose of the treasures of the Divine Redeemer's Kingdom; from her union with Christ finally is derived the inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father."

--Venerable Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginam, #38--39