1. Devastating fire in the Bronx:
TREMONT, Bronx (WABC) — Hospitals are desperately working to save the lives of more than a dozen people critically injured by smoke in a fire that killed 17, including eight children, in the Bronx, while the investigation is focused on a door that should have closed automatically but did not.
The identities of those who died have still not been released, but authorities said the children who died were a 4-year-old girl, two 5-year-old girls, a 6-year-old boy, two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy, and one additional child whose age hasn’t been confirmed.
Ten children remain hospitalized in various conditions
2. Pope Sends His Condolences to the Victims of the Fire
3. Pope’s January prayer intention: For those who suffer religious persecution
4. Top 7 Pro-Life Moments of 2021
5. Please pray for this woman and her family:
kissed my baby on the top of his downy little head before I swallowed my mifepristone, played with blocks and sang songs to him as I waited for the misoprostol to dissolve. abortion IS parenthood, babes
— Hannah 🧃 (@hannahmsays) January 7, 2022
6.
Political signs you see in Majority Black working class neighborhoods different from what you see around college campuses pic.twitter.com/ruVeMrjMBg
— Chris Arnade 🐢 (@Chris_arnade) January 7, 2022
7. Despite Censorship, Heartbeat International’s Abortion Pill Reversal Program is Saving Lives
8. When the pandemic began, some reconsidered getting pregnant. The result: 60,000 missing births
9. CDC report: U.S. abortion rate rose for second consecutive year
10. NJ bill protecting abortion rights passes, but some say it doesn’t go far enough
Dubbed the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, the new measure, introduced last week, simply guarantees “the fundamental right of reproductive autonomy.” It does not add a requirement that health insurers cover abortions and birth control at no cost out of pocket, as the original bill did.
It does, however, allow for the possibility of the state requiring insurers to cover abortions if the Department of Banking and Insurance deems it necessary. But there’s no language in the bill requiring the agency to conduct a study.
The bill also allows “all qualified health care professionals,” to conduct abortions. That aligns with new state regulations letting professionals besides doctors, such as advanced practice nurses and midwives, to perform the procedure.
11.
Within the span of 24 hours this weekend, two Colombians became the first people without a terminal illness to be euthanized in the country. https://t.co/RgKIJlbCd6
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) January 10, 2022
12.
Wonderful to hear that Ramy Kamel has been released by #Egypt after two years in pre-trial detention! So much respect for his work advocating for Coptic Christians & others to attain equal rights. https://t.co/g0rAFVeiss
— Nadine Maenza (@nadinemaenza) January 8, 2022
13. India restores Missionaries of Charity foreign funding. But why was it revoked?
14. Missionaries of Charity evicted from property in northern India
15. On LA’s anxious streets, St. Mother Teresa’s missionaries bring life
16.
Israeli president @Isaac_Herzog honors Christian leaders at his home in Jerusalem: “I am wholeheartedly committed to preserving absolute freedom of religion and worship for members of all faiths in this Holy Land…” pic.twitter.com/0pFbqpbBR7
— Robert Nicholson (@rwnicholson_) December 29, 2021
17. European court rejects ‘gay cake’ case as inadmissible; ruling in favor of Christian bakery stands
18. Proposals protecting religious freedom presented to Chile’s constitutional assembly
19. China forbids foreigners from spreading religious content online
20.
It has been almost a year since @amazon censored the @RyanTAnd book “When Harry Became Sally.”
In our new @DailySignal documentary, Anderson says Amazon is “harming people with gender dysphoria who aren’t getting some of the knowledge that they need.” pic.twitter.com/UwuQWhedKf
— Rob Bluey (@RobertBluey) January 10, 2022
21. Francis X. Maier: How Marxism ‘Won’ the War of Ideas
Yet Del Noce’s real genius was his prophetic insight into the rise of Western irreligion. He saw that Marxism “won” the war of ideas, even as it collapsed as a theory, by establishing the economic dimension of man as humanity’s defining reality. For Del Noce, the West “defeated” Marxism not by reaffirming biblical morality or Christian anthropology but by quietly shedding both. Western countries won by outproducing Marxist systems on their own terms, with material results—superior science, superior technology, more and better consumer goods. The dark side of technology, Del Noce argued, is a passion for “total revolution”—permanent revolution against the past doing business as innovation. The byproducts of its success have been religious agnosticism, sexual liberation and radical secularism. By the time of his death, Del Noce viewed much of Western society, despite its Christian residue, as the most thoroughly atheist in history, a feat achieved not by persecuting God, but by ignoring and rendering him irrelevant.
Del Noce was never a Luddite. He respected the good in technology. But he also knew that gnosticism comes in all shapes and sizes, that when we dispense with the God of Abraham, we put other gods in his place, that humans have a bottomless appetite for building heaven on earth, and that we therefore have the unhappy habit of turning our ideas and our tools into objects of obsession and then worship. He knew that idolatry kills.
22. Also by Maier:
The Church of the foreseeable future will be smaller. But she will also be more vigorous, pure, and authentic, and ready to grow again when the false premises of our culture result in its failure. Faith has fertility, and therefore a future. Unbelief is a sterile womb.
4. Conflict is not always bad; some of it is holy and good. It produces clarity; clarity reveals truth; and the truth makes us free. Not comfortable, but free. It forces us to choose where we place our loyalty and to face who and what we really are.
6. Scripture wasn’t kidding: Where evil abounds, grace and goodness abound more. Thousands of good people are doing extraordinary things that secular culture ignores. A core Catholic audience persists that’s thirsty for good writing, good thinking, and encouragement. Renewal begins there.
23. Recovering the Soul of Psychiatry: A Conversation with Johns Hopkins’s Dr. Margaret Chisolm
24. Kathleen Parker: Is Pope Francis right about babies and pets?
We do seem to be obsessed with our animals these days, especially since covid-19 made pet companionship an around-the-clock experience for many of us who started working at home. This is especially true among millennials — the childbearing demographic — who reportedly have more pets than children, according to one study. One in 10 American pet owners are putting off having children (or having more) because of pet expenses, according to the American Pet Products Association (yes, there is one of those, too).
In my experience, very few first-time parents have any idea how much they’re going to love their little peanut. I mean uppercase L-O-V-E.
This observation, I think, corresponds more accurately to the pope’s intentions. Love for one’s child is unexpectedly unselfish. Good parents surrender themselves to the care and nurturing of these helpless, tiny people and suddenly cannot imagine what they did with their lives before. Nothing that mattered, many will say.
25. Kindergartner provides pajamas for children in foster care