Travellers on the 7.02 a.m. train from Le Havre to Paris had a big scare on Monday morning. As their regional train (TER) arrived in the Paris suburbs, one of the passengers from Seine-Saint-Denis shouted ‘Allahu akbar’ several times into the train, asserted that he had placed explosives on the train and threatened to detonate them. Some passengers, frightened by the man’s behaviour, ran to the front of the train. The person, who suffers from a mental disorder, was to be committed to a psychiatric hospital.
At 9.20 a.m., police officers incapacitated the 56-year-old man at Achères – Grand Cormier station with a weapon. The man was taken into police custody for ‘glorification of terrorism’. Following a psychiatric assessment, he was finally declared not criminally responsible. The 56-year-old, who had not previously attracted the attention of the police and suffers from psychiatric disorders, was apparently mentally unbalanced. He had to be compulsorily committed.
The new German federal government is planning hundreds of billions of euros in new debt. With this, Germany joins the ranks of the heavily indebted states of the euro zone. Officially, the funds are intended for military capability and infrastructure development. But what strategy is the government really pursuing? The coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD is prepared to burden German taxpayers with over one trillion euros in debt. That’s a steep price for a policy that continues the stagnation of the Merkel years: no economic reforms to promote the private sector, but instead a push for greater centralization.
Germany’s fiscal turnaround signals a small revolution in the bond market. Massive bond issuances are already driving interest rates upward. The announcement of the debt program caused yields on ten-year government bonds to surge by 40 basis points. The return of the bond vigilantes looms—those investors who critically scrutinize the debt positions of struggling debtors. For decades, German government bonds were synonymous with stability. But with public debt projected to rise from 63% to as much as 95% of GDP—barring a deeper recession—that image is starting to crumble.
It was Bloomberg that revealed the secret: Until now, Germany’s relatively conservative debt policy made it an unlikely candidate for the role of a reserve asse—a product that banks and investors can use as collateral to secure liquidity and credit. In Europe, that role was ironically filled by Italy, which, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 140%, offers a sizable bond market. Now, however, Bloomberg suggests German government bonds could become an alternative to the globally dominant system of U.S. Treasuries. The idea is enticing: a liquid market of euro-denominated securities offering investors a hedge while the U.S. pushes its own fiscal and monetary limits.
But will international investors actually accept German government bonds as credit collateral? That’s highly doubtful, given the economic and fiscal troubles of the euro zone. The urgency has grown since the U.S. Federal Reserve rapidly raised interest rates and shows no willingness to follow the swift easing course of its European, Japanese, and Chinese counterparts. Investors will carefully consider whether they can trust these new European securities amid the Ukraine crisis, energy problems in Europe, and the EU’s reluctance to embrace market-oriented reforms.
But behind the façade of fiscal responsibility, the euro zone’s paper empire relies on fragile trust—and Germany is printing its way into the heart of it. The credibility of euro-denominated debt rests less on sound economics than on political cohesion and institutional promises. In such a system, any serious deviation—economic, geopolitical, or fiscal—could trigger a confidence shock with far-reaching consequences.
Germany’s rising debt is not an isolated event. It fits into a long history of European debt policy that relies on state intervention rather than reform. The tariffs introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump give the EU an excuse to further centralize political power and meddle in markets. Brussels dreams of grandeur while the coffers run dry—a prime example is the air taxi startup Volocopter, which, despite €150 million in subsidies from the federal government and Bavaria, filed for insolvency in December 2024 because neither the market nor investors believed in the vision. Yet these measures fall short of securing Europe’s competitiveness. Europe continues to lose direct investments to the U.S.; in 2023 alone, a net total of around €20 billion in investment capital flowed from Europe to North America. Jobs are being created there in the private sector, while Europe relies on state subsidies and believes the government can efficiently allocate capital.
A look at the numbers reinforces the skepticism. While the U.S. benefits from its role as the world’s reserve currency and a dynamic economy despite high debt (over 120% of GDP), the euro zone struggles with stagnation. Germany may create a larger bond market with its new debt, but it lacks credibility. Yields on ten-year U.S. Treasuries currently stand at around 4%, while German bonds, despite a recent uptick, barely exceed 2%. For investors seeking safety and liquidity, the dollar remains more appealing—not least due to Europe’s geopolitical uncertainties.
German government bonds will only add to Europe’s debt mountain. Without far-reaching social reforms and a return to market-oriented policies, the EU faces significant socioeconomic tensions. The momentum cannot be underestimated once citizens realize their money is losing purchasing power faster than the EU can point to external culprits. The federal government hopes its debt programs will secure Germany a new role in the global financial system. But the reality is sobering: without fundamental reforms, Germany—and with it the euro zone—will continue to lose ground. The bond vigilantes are watching, and markets don’t forgive illusions. German government bonds as an alternative to US Treasuries? A bold hypothesis that, in practice, is likely to falter on Europe’s weaknesses.
When British PM Keir Starmer visited the White House, he rejected J.D. Vance’s claim that free speech is restricted in Britain. “We’ve had free speech for a very long time in the UK,” Starmer retorted, “and it will last for a very long time”.
Unfortunately, Starmer’s Home Office seems not to have taken notice. Because it has just blocked a famous French writer from entering the UK to give a speech on the dangers of mass immigration, while in the courts British lawyers are trying to legalise Hamas.
The writer is Renaud Camus, 78, author of “Le Grand Remplacement” (The Great Replacement). British officials have informed Camus that his “presence in the UK” is “not considered to be beneficial to the public good”.
So it seems the UK can control its borders whenever it wants to do so, after all.
1984 hasn’t been literature for a long time.
Never before has a European government blocked a writer, a man of letters, from entering the UK because he expresses non-violent ideas that the mainstream doesn’t like. And I remember that Voltaire found asylum and exile in England, because of his controversial writings and clashes with the French authorities, between 1726 and 1728.
“They seem to fear that I may replace the British people, and yet I am 78 years old and gay,” wrote Renaud Camus with no small amount of irony. “I would have gone to England despite the ban, but I would be annoyed to give Macron and his Foreign Minister the worry of a second French writer in his eighties with cancer imprisoned in a Muslim country.” A reference to Boualem Sansal in Algeria.
For years, Camus, who was about to replace Julien Green among the “immortals” of the Académie française before risking his career and name by attacking mass immigration, has isolated himself in the castle of Plieux in the Pyrenees, the land that gave birth to D’Artagnan (he self-published his books after the big publishers abandoned him). From up there, the libertine writer casts a pessimistic glance at the fate of Europe and is also evoked by Emmanuel Macron. Camus has few defenders and friends, and one is the Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut.
From this fortified castle atop a hill overlooking rolling fields dotted with groves and farms, Camus issues dire warnings about the demographic catastrophe of Europe.
Camus today is like Oriana Fallaci twenty years ago, when she shouted her anger at Islamic aggression and her pride in defending the dignity of the West.
Even the UN Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has denounced Camus’ theory “Great Replacement,” or the upheaval of mass immigration, as dangerous.
This is why the Associated Press – the most important agency in the world – has gone so far as to prohibit journalists from using the expression “illegal immigrant.” They want to sweeten, rewrite and repress reality.
And so the Iranian dissident Maryam Namazie was banned from some English universities, because her defense of free speech would have “offended” students of the Islamic faith.
And so the Iranian dissident exile Niyak Ghorbani was arrested in London for interfering in pro-Hamas protests by holding a sign that said “Hamas are terrorists.”
In the meantime, however, the volumes of jihadist imams find a place on the shelves of British public libraries.
In the meantime, the protesters who were filmed while waving the flag used by Al Qaeda, al Shabab, Boko Haram, Jabhat al Nusra, Hizb al Tahrir and the Islamic State during a march in central London “have not committed any crime”, say the police.
It had already happened. In May 2023, when Camus was supposed to march through the streets of the Brussels municipality of Saint-Josse, the march ultimately did not take place. Mayor Emir Kir, a Turkish socialist who denies the Armenian genocide, issued an order banning Camus from attending. “Saint-Josse symbolizes the Great Enrichment, not the Great Replacement,” the mayor said. “We are proud of the mosaic of nationalities in our municipality”.
Interesting, the “Great Enrichment” and the “mosaic”. Let’s look at the data, which even goes back a few years. Saint-Josse is already 49 percent Islamic. But the problem is a Camus walk…
A series of personalities who are critical of Islamism and who live under the protection of the police are banned from the English capital. Like Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician protected by a military unit of the Dutch army generally responsible for ensuring the security of an embassy in Afghanistan. He too has been denied entry to London. Like Robert Spencer, the founder of Jihad Watch.
London, where extremist imams are free to foment a “holy war” against the West and parliamentarians are killed even inside churches, is becoming a truly strange place…
When he arrived at Heathrow Airport, Wilders was greeted by two plainclothes English officers who put him back on a flight to Amsterdam. “So Britain welcomes a democrat?” Wilders said. “I was invited by one of your members of Parliament. I am a representative, an elected political representative. I am a democrat. I use my freedom of speech.” Yes, freedom of speech…
It is not looking good in England when even the head of MI6 (the British secret service), Sir John Sawers, has recommended self-censorship, warning the British not to offend Islam if they want to prevent terrorists from launching further attacks in the country: “If you show disrespect for the fundamental values of others, then you are going to provoke an angry reaction. We in the West must be moderate.”
For the same reason, Britain refused to offer asylum to Asia Bibi because it could cause “violent uprisings” by the Muslim population of England. Asia Bibi is the living definition of someone who needs asylum: a woman in danger, threatened with death, who has spent ten years in prison for no other reason than because she follows the Christian faith and has been the target of an insulting accusation of “blasphemy against Mohammed.” Countries that profess to be liberal should have competed to offer a safe haven to this persecuted Christian. Yet London said “no” to Bibi’s arrival in the UK because it “would risk inflaming community tensions.” To preserve Britain’s multicultural peace, Bibi must be kept out. And Camus must stay in his castle.
This is why Islam gets preferential treatment. A teacher in Batley was forced to leave his school and home after receiving death threats for showing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons during a lesson on freedom of expression. Now the professor, who was also suspended from school, lives in a “safe house” with his wife and children. We are talking about the country of the Magna Carta, a country where, due to accusations of “Islamophobia”, the book of a journalist like Julie Burchill was sent to the shredder and where “museums and libraries house dozens of images of Mohammed, but they remain out of reach of the public”, as the Guardian explained.
This is the tragic truth: some European governments are realizing that their fifth column is now too big to be governed and are using the repression of critics as appeasement.
This is why Sweden had tried and decided to deport the Iraqi Christian refugee Salwan Momika (this before an Islamist entered his home and killed him in front of the cameras). A murder that has fallen under a silence that not even the Soviet Union achieved at the time of Chernobyl.
Eighty years ago, “Radio London” was broadcast throughout Europe under the grip of Nazism. The broadcasts began with “London speaks,” not with “We are moderate.” Today it might begin like this: “Londonistan speaks, we are submissive.”
As for Mr. Camus, he could forgo the Eurostar from Paris to London in favor of a dinghy. In that case, the English authorities would welcome him with open arms, Amnesty International would make him a testimonial, and the newspapers would fight for him. And if, before setting sail from Calais, he remembered to throw away his passport and declare himself a “refugee,” he could stay in England as long as he wants.
US Vice President JD Vance meeting Pope Francis at the Casa Santa Marta a day before his death (Credit: Vatican)
Pope Francis has died today, aged 88.
Pope Francis’s health had been steadily declining in recent months. He had suffered persistent breathing problems through the winter and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 for bronchitis but was then diagnosed with double pneumonia in what was first described as a “complex” then a “critical” medical scenario. He suffered a number of respiratory crises and failures and presented with symptoms of “mild” kidney failure during his hospitalization. Discharged back to the Vatican after 38-days, Francis began a 2-month convalescence as his doctors revealed he nearly lost his life twice in the spring hospitalization.
He was last in public on Easter Sunday to give the Urbi et Orbi blessing, but looked notably weak, being barely able to raise his arms and with a particularly strained voice.
The Argentinian prelate had led the Catholic Church as Pope since March 13, 2013. He emerged to the world as a surprise successor to Benedict XVI, following the German Pope’s shock resignation in February 2013.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was ordained on December 13, 1969 and was raised to become Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in May 1992, before assuming control of the see in 1998. Created cardinal by Pope John Paul II in February 2001, he served as the vice-president and then president of the episcopal conference of Argentina from 2002 – 2011.
In the papal conclave following Benedict XVI’s resignation, Cardinal Bergoglio was elected to the Papal throne on March 13, 2013, at the age of 76.
Styled as the “pope of confusion” by commentators, his reign was marked by a rapid diversion from Catholic teaching on numerous issues, with his pronouncements and writings leading to widespread confusion amongst Catholics on topics such as LGBT issues, divorce and “re-marriage,” nature of the priesthood, role of the laity in ecclesial governance, adherence to Tradition, and the permissibility of the traditional Latin Mass.
Indeed, the issues arising from his pontificate do not end here, since they also include the gutting of the Pontifical Academy for Life and re-filling it with supporters of abortion; the championing of “climate change” and globalist policies; the promotion of taking abortion-tainted COVID-19 injections as a moral duty; pushing an irreligious concept of “human fraternity” which was widely accused of rejecting God and subsequently welcomed by Muslims and Freemasons; being involved in the reported cover-up of a number of high-profile abuse cases, such as Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick; remaking the Vatican curia with individuals noted for their rejection of Catholic teaching on numerous points.
Announced as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected on just the second day of the conclave. Many have argued that his election was a result of a longstanding and coordinated plan by the secretive St. Gallen group or mafia. (More details on his election are provided further below in this obituary).
Citing concern for the poor as his reason, Bergoglio chose the new papal name of Francis in imitation of St. Francis of Assisi, though he had in fact not visited Assisi at that point. Addressing the crowds in St. Peter’s Square on the evening of his ascent to the throne, Francis avoided using the term “Pope,” presenting himself instead as “bishop” of Rome. “You know that it was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one… but here we are… I thank you for your welcome. The diocesan community of Rome now has its Bishop.”
His appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s was notable for is departure from tradition: gone were the Pope’s red shoes which symbolized martyrdom; gone were the Papal pectoral cross and ring, with Bergoglio choosing his own instead; gone also was the traditional red mozzetta.
He also dispensed with the usual order of a papal blessing, asking the assembled crowd to pray for him, before imparting a blessing.
The evening was a revelatory one, with many commentators already remarking on the new Pope’s disregard for customs.
He created over 140 cardinals in nine consistories through his reign, and issued well over 3,500 documents, texts or speeches. Among this number were 4 Encyclicals: Lumen Fidei, largely written by Pope Benedict and finished by Francis; Fratelli Tutti, which expounded a form of irreligious fraternity dubbed as “blasphemous”; Laudato Si’, which advocated for “climate change” measures and formed the basis for his future ecological writings and interventions; Dilexit Nos, on the Sacred Heart.
One of the most notable and impactful aspects of Francis’ tumultuous pontificate is his attack on the Church’s traditional Mass, which was affected over a number of years. His July 16, 2021, motu proprio TraditionisCustodes abrogated Pope Benedict’s 2007 Summorum Pontificum, declaring that the liturgy of Pope Paul VI, or the NovusOrdo, is the “unique expression of the lexorandi of the Roman Rite.”
The immediate fallout of the text saw closure of traditional Masses in various locations around the world. It was supposedly born out of a survey by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which claimed devotees of the traditional Mass fostered “disagreements,” ruptures in the Church, and the “peril of division.”
However, the implementation of the restrictions was not swift or widespread enough, prompting Francis’ perfect of the Congregation for Divine Worship (Cardinal Arthur Roche) to issues increased restrictions in December 2021, followed by yet more restrictions in February 2023. The results of the CDF’s survey were never published, and are believed never to have been seen by Roche’s dicastery implementing the restrictions.
Canonists have argued that Traditionis Custodes itself was not canonically legal, and prelates such as Cardinals Raymond Burke, Robert Sarah and Bishop Athanasius Schneider repeatedly spoke out against the papal moves. Schneider has stated that to comply with the restrictions would be a “false obedience,” Sarah decried them as “diabolical,” and Burke styled them as being a “persecution.”
By virtue of these various documents against the traditional Mass, Francis thus ordered traditional Masses out of parish churches, forbade newly ordained priests from automatically being able to say the traditional Mass, limited the number of priests already with that permission, restricted the use of the traditional sacraments, and removed diocesan bishops’ powers to exempt their priests from the papal restrictions.
In addition to this, the Pontiff repeatedly took aim at devotees of Tradition, describing them as “rigid” and highlighting this as a problem related to “clericalism.” In one such characteristic discussion, Francis argued that devotion to the traditional Mass was a “nostalgic disease” resulting in “indietrism.”
In a quasi-autobiographical book published in January 2025, Francis also accused Catholics who attend the traditional liturgy of having a “mental imbalance, emotional deviation, behavioral difficulties, a personal problem that may be exploited.”
Indeed, further restrictions on the traditional Mass had been rumored to be enacted over the summer of 2024, with Francis reportedly having the document on his desk ready to sign. But following an outpouring of public support from groups and individuals, the rumored text never emerged.
On December 18, 2023, the Vatican published the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which contained approval for “blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex.” Written by CDF prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis, the document caused instant and widespread consternation throughout the global Church.
The Declaration argued that offering blessings to same-sex couples did not change the teaching on marriage, or validate the “status” of such relationships. It came in apparent contradiction to the CDF’s 2021 note which ruled out the possibility of blessings “unions of persons of the same-sex,” stated that blessings could be provided to individuals who came alone, seeking a blessing.
Fiducia Supplicans was swiftly welcomed by LGBT advocates and heterodox clerics, while vocal opposition was found predominantly in Africa along with a steadily growing number of dioceses in the U.S., Europe, the UK, and amongst religious orders.
Notable prelates – Cdls. Müller and Zen and Sarah, Abp. Viganò, Bp. Schneider – all penned their rejection of the document’s proposal for same-sex blessings, many doing so repeatedly. Sarah went so far as to state that FiduciaSupplicans proposes a “heresy that gravely undermines the Church, the Body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and tradition.”
Francis and Fernández defended the document strenuously from critics, with Francis arguing that “those who vehemently protest [FiduciaSupplicans] belong to small ideological groups.”
In one March 2024 interview which exemplified the rationale often used by the Pope, Francis stated that “I do not bless a ‘homosexual marriage,’ I bless two people who love each other and I also ask them to pray for me.”
FiduciaSupplicans’ publication arguably caused one of, if not the greatest, tumult in the Francis pontificate up until that time, with the global backlash against the text on a scale previously unseen in the prior 11 years of Francis’ reign.
The late Pope’s record on homosexuality and apparent promotion of it, is of proportions previously unseen by the Vatican. He was repeatedly praised by LGBT activists for regular comments appearing to break with Church teaching opposing homosexuality and gender ideology.
This record infamously began with his 2013 in-flight comments “who am I to judge” when asked about the existence of a gay lobby within the Vatican and the practice of homosexuality. Such support took a marked increase in the wake of the CDF’s March 2021 responsum condemning same-sex “blessings,” as Pope Francis made numerous public statements praising and supporting advocates of LGBT ideology and same-sex civil unions.
Numerous times he appeared to suggest that homosexuals could present themselves for Holy Communion, though without stating so explicitly. Such statements often took the form of the Pope refusing to answer specific questions with the relevant aspect of Catholic teaching on chastity or the immoral nature of homosexual actions. Notably, when speaking with Portuguese Jesuits in August 2023, he appeared to suggest that homosexual should not be encouraged to practice chastity if “they are not yet mature, or are not capable.”
The Pope also argued strongly against anti-sodomy laws – in contradiction to the teaching of saints and Church Fathers – saying that criminalizing homosexuality is “unjust.” He criticized bishops who supported anti-sodomy laws, calling for them to “undergo a process of change to recognize the dignity of everyone.”
As part of his LGBT advocacy, he repeatedly welcomed prominent LGBT activists at the Vatican, such as Fr. James Martin S.J., along with transgender individuals and groups. He also allegedly told dissident U.S. activist and professor Aaron Bianco, who is in a same-sex “marriage,” to continue his efforts to make the Church more open to homosexual unions.
A duo of pro-LGBT advocates – Sr. Jeannine Gramick and the openly homosexual Juan-Carlos Cruz – respectively claimed that Francis wasn’t aware of the text of the CDF’s 2021 note prohibiting same-sex blessings and that he subsequently fired the officials responsible for the text. {This CDF text was of course contradicted by Fiducia Supplicans in 2024} Cruz himself attested that Francis told him that “God made you gay;” Cruz was brought by Francis to join the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Due to his policy of public inaction against bishops repudiating Catholic teaching on homosexuality, bishops in both Belgium and Germany approved plans and documents for same-sex blessings, despite the church’s prohibition of such. Prior to FiduciaSupplicans’ publication, Belgium’s Bishop Johan Bonny claimed on a number of occasions to have the Pope’s personal approval for the Belgian bishops’ same-sex “blessings,” a statement which supported the German bishops’ approval of same-sex blessings in March 2023.
Such was Francis’ record on LGBT issues, that the CEO of one of the most influential pro-LGBT pressure groups in the U.S. – GLADD, which describes itself as “the world’s largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization” – praised him for his actions, during the 2025 World Economic Forum’s Davos meeting.
The emergence of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia in April 2016 was a seminal moment for the Catholic Church, due to the text’s promotion of Holy Communion for the divorced and ‘re-married.’
In the brief lines of the infamous footnote 351 in Chapter 8, Pope argued for the “integration” of those in “irregular unions” into the life of the Church. In the footnote, he stated that this “integration” can, “in certain cases,” involve admittance to the sacraments, including the Eucharist.
Fielding questions on the text, he answered by saying there is “no other interpretation” of Amoris Laetitiaexcept the one provided by the bishops of Buenos Aires allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried.
The Pope was also asked during an in-flight press conference if the text contained a “change in discipline that governs access to the sacraments” for Catholics who are divorced and “re-married,” Francis replied, “I can say yes, period.”
The document served as a catalyst for many Catholics – clerical and lay – who had hitherto been trying to interpret Francis’ increasingly obvious heterodoxy in line with Tradition. Within months, a group of Catholic scholars issued a letter to all the cardinals and patriarchs, warning that AmorisLaetitia contained “dangers to the faith” and appealing for a correction.
Then on November 14, 2016 four cardinals publicly released a letter, the Dubia, which they had privately sent to the Pope on September 19 but had gone unanswered. The four signatories – Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, and Joachim Meisner – issued the Dubia only ten days after Francis’ comments to the Buenos Aires bishops – an interpretation of Amoris Laetitia which Brandmüller had previously warned would be heretical.
Their Dubia consisted of five questions each requiring a simple answer of “yes” or “no,” and positing Amoris Laetitia in juxtaposition with Catholic Tradition.
The letter was never officially answered, with Caffarra and Meisner dying some years before Francis.
However, responding to aDubia from Cardinal Dominik Duka O.P. on the same issue in 2023, the CDF provided an answer to the 2016 Dubia. Duka asked whether Pope Francis’ response to the Bishops of Buenos Aires – when the Pope stated there was “no other interpretation” of Amoris Laetitiaexcept the one provided by the bishops of Buenos Aires in allowing Communion for the divorced and “re-married” – can be considered “a statement of the ordinary Magisterium of the Church.” Fernández wrote that since Pope Francis’ words were published in the Vatican’s official compilation of documents, the ActaApostolicaeSedes, they were “authentic Magisterium.”
Pope Francis also refused to issue Catholic teaching on the prohibition of Holy Communion for politicians complicit in promoting abortion. He regularly argued “Communion is not a prize for the perfect,” that clergy should not “go condemning” pro-abortion politicians, and that he has never refused Communion to anyone.
Then in October 2021, Francis made waves when he reportedly told the radically pro-abortion U.S. President Joe Biden to “keep receiving Communion,” calling Biden “a good Catholic.”
Some months later, at a Papal Mass, Nancy Pelosi was permitted to receive Communion, despite having only recently been banned by her local bishop {Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone} due to her support for abortion.
Francis’ 2022 Apostolic Letter Desiderio desideravi, in which he reaffirmed his restrictions on the Latin Mass, also contained his argument that Communion was to be offered to all, leaving out the “essential topic of repentance for sin for the worthy reception of the Eucharist.” This prompted a group of prominent bishops, priests and lay scholars to write a statement warning that Francis’ claim of “garment of faith” as the only requirement for the reception of Holy Communion, “contradicts the faith of the Catholic Church.” Their statement went unanswered by the Vatican.
During the 2019 Synod on the Amazon held at the Vatican, Catholics were shocked when pagan idols were afforded center stage in an idolatrous ceremony. One of the offerings made to the idols was later placed on the altar inside St. Peter’s Basilica.
On Friday, October 4, Pope Francis took part in the “highly symbolic tree-planting ceremony” in the Vatican Gardens, during which an Amazonian group prostrated themselves before a number of carvings, including two nearly identical wooden Pachamama statues depicting a naked, pregnant woman. Pope Francis was offered a statue of the image, which he blessed; he then set aside his prepared speech at the event, and instead simply recited an Our Father.
The Pachamama is a pagan goddess of the “figure of life,” an Incan fertility goddess, and is revered among Indigenous groups.
Anastasis, Harrowing of Hell and Resurrection, fresco in Chora Church/Museum, Istanbul, Turkey Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Like bells ringing and echoing through the streets, the same echo can be heard from city to city across Europe: the number of baptisms set to be celebrated on Easter night in 2025 is expected to reach record levels. This is unprecedented in the spiritual desert of our old continent, which for so many years seemed to have succumbed to consumerist materialism and the abandonment of hope.
France, which once adorned itself with the glorious title of eldest daughter of the Church, is leading the movement. According to the Catholic weekly Famille Chrétienne, more than 10,300 adults and 7,400 teenagers will be baptised on Easter night, representing a 45% increase compared to 2024: a figure that confirms the trend observed over the last five years. In 2023, there were 5,463 adult baptisms: in two years, the figure has almost doubled, according to official statistics from the Conference of Bishops of France.
The enthusiasm generated by these figures must be tempered by an important fact: 52% of catechumens grew up in a Christian family without being baptised as children. This means that the significant number of adult baptisms is largely a sign of the failure to pass on the faith: in a way, these are delayed baptisms of children who were not baptised at the time by parents who preferred to let their offspring ‘make their own choice,’ thus depriving them of the treasures of a Christian upbringing. It is fortunate that these future-baptised have managed to get back on track. But how many more have been left by the wayside, in the name of indifference—sometimes encouraged by certain prelates themselves who are reluctant to talk about mission and conversion for fear of being accused of proselytism?
But let us not deny ourselves our pleasure. Times are changing, and for the better, and it would be a sin to welcome this news with lukewarmness or even with the irrepressible bitterness that lies dormant in every conservative who believes in decline.
In England, five hundred years after the schism, the Catholic revival has become a reality. Several dioceses are recording record numbers of baptisms this year: in the diocese of Westminster, the increase in baptisms is 25%, and it peaks at 100% in Cardiff. The Daily Telegraph looked at the profile of the catechumens: they are often young men who are turning to the Catholic Church in search of, in their own words, “coherence” and “consistency.”
Fr. Daniel, from the Oratory Convent in York, analyses the phenomenon as follows: “There is a sense of moral chaos and lack of meaning in today’s society. If people can find something that makes sense, provides meaning, and also gives a community, which the Catholic Church does, they are going to be attracted to this, and I think this is particularly true for young men.” Among the reasons given for this return to faith is an appetite for its sense of the sacred and its beauty.
In other countries, the stirrings, albeit more modest, are clearly there. In Austria, a country with an old Catholic tradition in the midst of a crisis in its relationship with faith, the head of the catechumenate within the Bishops’ Conference also observes a trend towards renewal, particularly among young people. In Vienna, a third of those baptised in 2025 will be under the age of 20. They come from families that have severed ties with the faith. Deep down they recognise that they have always felt they were believers, against all odds.
This return to faith is obviously a kind of miracle, given that everything else is being done to destroy, defile, and sully everything that the Christian faith represents and its vision of man oriented towards a salvation that is not of this world. Even whispered in a weak and hesitant voice by his disciples who today doubt and struggle, even tremble and hide, Christ’s message is powerful enough to still be heard.Behind the path of those who are rediscovering or discovering faith and will receive baptism on Easter night lies a truth that is disturbing to the apostles of progressivism: the substitute affiliations they seek to impose on us by constantly inventing new causes, from wokeness to climate activism, cannot replace the true bonds we have inherited—those of faith, identity, and family—and do not bring happiness. Even as everything seems to point to the triumph of a modern society dominated by the cult of ugliness, the deliberate inversion of norms, and the absence of meaning, a whole section of young people feel an irresistible rebellion rising within them against what is being offered to them, which brings only fleeting excitement and is incapable of quenching their thirst for happiness. They are timidly discovering that there is an alternative: to follow the One who, two thousand years ago, told us that He is the way, the truth, and the life. Laetare, Jerusalem! Let us rejoice!
I’ve had sitting on my computer for a few days an essay by Rod Dreher, an American conservative who now lives in Hungary, the only country in Europe making a stand for traditional values and refusing to accept unlimited Islamic immigration. From his perch in Hungary, Dreher has written about his conversations with ordinary Europeans, who believe that civil war is imminent, a war that will see those who share European values arrayed against those who have embraced leftism and Islam.
Dreher’s essay opens by telling readers about a hugely popular podcast entitled “The Coming British Civil War.” On it, David Betz, a King’s College, London, professor who is an expert on civil wars, opines that the UK is on the verge of a civil war. Writes Dreher:
Betz argues that the United Kingdom now has all the traditional hallmarks of a society on the verge of violent civil conflict. He mentions the collapse of faith in British institutions, the two-tier justice system, Islamic radicalization, and the polarization wrought by official multiculturalism, among other factors.
The UK is not the only European nation that is being driven to the breaking point by the stresses that the ruling elites have placed upon their ancient cultures. The same is true in France, where the ruling class has conveniently decided to lock away Marine Le Pen, the one person who is currently standing athwart the French political system yelling “Stop.”
Meanwhile, in Germany, the AfD party, which opposes unlimited Muslim immigration, is being blackballed, blacklisted, and sidelined. European elites, just like America’s Democrats, believe that “democracy” applies only to votes for their people and policies.
Dreher says that his private conversations reveal that ordinary people agree with Betz:
In a number of private conversations with ordinary French people—this was before the Le Pen verdict—I brought up the Betz interview (none had heard about it), and asked them if they foresaw civil war coming to France. Nearly all of them said yes. They said so with an unnerving sense of calm, as if they accepted it as a matter of course.
Looking at the European landscape, Dreher analogizes the situation to what happened in Eastern Europe after the Soviet Union’s collapse. These were not, he says, formal armed civil wars, with armies facing off against each other. (In other words, not like the American Civil War.) Instead,
These were often spontaneous, undirected spasms of orgiastic violence—exactly what Prof. Betz says civil war in the UK and in Europe would be like. He also says that given mass media, especially social media, a civil war sparking off in one country would likely trigger them almost instantly in others.
As for me, I don’t think there’ll even be a scrambling guerrilla war in Europe. I say that for a few reasons:
1. The European masses have been enervated by socialism, which, unlike religion, is the true opiate of the people. They are so utterly dependent on the government that they cannot rebel against it. Indeed, if you look at the utter passivity / helplessness of ordinary Brits in the face of the mass Muslim rape of their children, you have a microcosm of what the once warlike Europeans have become.
2. What’s going on in Europe has lasted long enough that it is the young people’s normal. They have been brainwashed from the cradle to accept multiculturalism, sexual abnormalities, and open borders as good and inevitable things. While their parents may rebel, the last couple of generations, like good Nazi youth who turned their parents in to the Gestapo, think their parents are wrong and even dangerous. And keep in mind that, thanks to the war on families, the old European lineage is dying out anyway, as native-born women have stopped having children.
3. The Europeans are disarmed. Their government took their weapons away a long time ago. They’re barely allowed to have sporks. And while immigrants haven’t felt constrained by those laws and have maintained access to weapons, the native Europeans smugly handed over their weapons of self-defense, secure in their moral superiority.
4. The civil war, such as it might have been, is already over, and the enemy is already in country. The civil war was fought at the ballot box when leftists became more and more extreme, and the population, hooked on that good socialist opium, kept voting for them. Their numbers are declining, and their values are already broken.
The last gasp was when Angela Merkel opened Europe’s doors to Islam. The ordinary people, cowed and bullied, acquiesced. Indeed, in Germany, they felt that letting in Jew killers was their punishment for killing Jews. (The Germans have always had a twist to the psyches, hence the Holocaust in the first place.)
5. The Barbarians are already in the gate. (Not at the gate, but inside the gate.) Nothing more clearly illustrates this than what’s happened in Vienna. As European history buffs know, in 1683, forces from the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth beat back the seemingly unbeatable Ottoman Empire, which was besieging Vienna from the East. Europe was saved from becoming one more of the Muslim conquests that began when Mohamed’s forces burst out of the Arabian desert a thousand years before.
But beginning in the 1960s, Europeans started inviting in their former enemies. The British took in the Saudis and Pakistanis, the French invited in the Algerians and Moroccans, and the Germans opened their doors to the Turks. The same was true across Europe.
And of course, in 2015, Angela Merkel invited in everyone. Assimilation has not gone well because Muslims don’t believe in assimilation; they have a religious mandate for conquest and, unlike Europeans, they have babies. Lots and lots of babies. By contrast, look at Spain, a one-time defender of Europe against Islam and a nation that had lots of babies, which has effectively stopped reproducing.
For the first time, Muslim students are the largest religious group in Vienna’s schools, underlining the incredible demographic transformation taking place in the Austrian city. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) is now raising the alarm.
Muslim students now account for 41.2 percent of all students, while Christian students fell to 34.5 percent. The trend is only growing, and is accompanied by rising problems, including violence in schools, anti-Semitism, and contempt for women.
Europe, the cradle of Western civilization, is gone. Worse, it didn’t even die from apathy. It actively committed suicide. And no, there won’t be a civil war that can save it. Enoch Powell may not have been politically correct when he gave his Rivers of Blood speech, but he was prescient:
‘Alhamdulillah, the army is growing by the will of Allah. We will soon conquer the world, Inshallah’ – this is the motto of Islamic paramilitary units in Europe that are preparing for jihad to finally take over the West. In the Netherlands, this paramilitary ‘Army of Allah’ is now openly making its appearance. And nobody seems to be stopping them. Watch the video:
BEÄNGSTIGEND❗️
In den Niederlanden trainieren islamische paramilitärische Einheiten.
„Alhamdulillah, die Armee wächst durch Allahs Willen. Wir werden bald die Welt erobern, Inshallah.“
“Alhamdulillah, the army is growing by the will of Allah. We will soon conquer the world, Inshallah.”
These are not empty words. In the Netherlands, Islamic paramilitary groups are openly training — preaching physical, mental, and ideological supremacy. They call themselves “Full Force”—a brotherhood fueled by calisthenics, wrestling, and jihadist vision.
They vow to dominate all fields—physically, mentally, spiritually. They speak of faith, but their goal is power. They glorify October 7, they speak of conquest. They train, not for defense—but for war.
Are they on Ismail Haniyeh’s global schedule?
The man who promised “a million October 7ths” now watches as his ideology spreads across Europe.
The West must wake up. This isn’t fringe anymore. It’s organized. It’s spreading. And it’s coming.
Not a single week goes by without my being grateful I don't live in the Netherlands anymore , and worrying about Dutch Jews, who are their primary target at this point. https://t.co/b6tRUilOu5
Our thanks to European Conservative for permission to post this discussion. Please visit the European Conservative channel here: / @theeuropeanconservative Historian and NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo discusses the war on British history & identity with NCF Fellow Harrison Pitt, host of The Forge on the European Conservative YouTube channel.
Prison officer union bosses say sniffer dogs have been banned from the unit that held terror plotter Hashem Abedi — after terrorists complained they offended their Muslim faith.
Officers at HMP Frankland used the hounds to search inmates as they returned from the exercise yard.
But the head of the prison officers’ union says checks were axed after those held at the unit said coming into contact with the animals was against their religious beliefs.
Mark Fairhurst, national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “When it first opened, every prisoner housed on that unit was thoroughly searched on the unit, and when they left the unit and when they returned to the unit. On occasion, dogs were used.
“The prisoners complained that it interfered with their religious beliefs.
“The management committee overruled the staff and removed the dogs from searching those prisoners.
“We appease these prisoners and pander to them. Why? Why are we so obsessed with upsetting prisoners, terrorist prisoners, whose sole purpose is to murder prison officers?”
Ex prison governor Ian Acheson — who carried out a 2016 review into Islamist extremism — told The Sun on Sunday: “We are putting the security, safety and welfare of front-line staff constantly at risk because we’re pandering to people on the basis that staff fear being accused of racism, or bosses of legal challenge.”
Angered by government plans to cut their pensions, Belgian magistrates will send 4,000 people who received short jail sentences to prison.
Their reaction went against a request by Belgium’s Justice Minister, who had asked not to send people with short sentences to jail because they were overcrowded.
Belgian prisons currently hold around 11,000 inmates despite having a capacity for only 9,000. Rather than expanding prison infrastructure, the government has opted to ease overcrowding by releasing individuals serving short sentences or not sending them to jail to begin with.
Most recently, the current government announced an emergency measure granting early release to undocumented migrants to create more room.
On top of sending 4,000 people to the already overcrowded prison system, the angry magistrates will no longer reply to parliamentary questions or advise the government or parliament.
Frédéric Van Leeuw, the Attorney General of Brussels, speaking on behalf of the College of Public Prosecutors, said their actions come because “the government has simply gone too far. At a certain point, the bucket overflows.”
He told on radio show De Ochtend that the government reforms did not alleviate the already high workload and instead introduced cuts in their pensions, even of some magistrates who were already on retirement, without any consultation with the sector.
Van Leeuw said that the government policies were “disproportional”.
He added that the magistrates only decided to send the 4,000 people to the prisons, but that it was up to the prison directors, who fall under the Minister of Justice, to decide if they would take them in.
Van Leeuw said people should not compare the wages and pensions of magistrates to those of people in the private sector, stressing the need for them to be independent.
He said that most magistrates in Belgium received the maximum pension, more than €8,000 gross per month, the highest possible, but that 30 per cent of it was under threat of being taken away.
This would make jobs in the magistrate unattractive in the future, he claimed.
He said most magistrates had many qualifications and were highly capable people. He said there was a consensus about their pensions being deferred salary.
In the end, he warned, lowering their pensions would threaten their independence. Making the comparison with politicians, he pointed out that people who know they won’t receive a high pension would start to look for other opportunities.
“If magistrates start to do that [look for cushy end-of-career jobs like politicians], it would be a big problem.”
They would go to companies to get a decent pension, just like what many former European Commissioners did, leading to cooling-off period rules, preventing them from paid lobbying or advocacy, for a specified period to avoid conflicts of interest and guarantee their independence.
For magistrates not to fall into the same trap, Van Leeuw argued, they should be able to keep their standard of living intact.
Kathleen Van De Vijver, spokesperson of the prison system, was displeased with the magistrates’ actions, having not been informed in advance and instead learning about the decision through the media.
She said the magistrates’ decision endangered their workers and society as a whole, calling it “totally incomprehensible”.
In Belgium, an employee receives an average pension of €1,634 per month and a self-employed person €1,197.
Magistrates weren’t the only ones taking action in Belgium. The railways have been affected by a wave of strikes in response to reforms and pension changes, including plans to phase out their privileged early retirement scheme, which allowed some workers to retire as early as 55.
