According to the Annual Persecution Report of ChinaAid, a non-governmental Christian non-profit that focuses on human rights abuses and religious freedom in China, government pressure on Christian churches and faithful to yield to political ideology has only increased since the signing of the 2018 agreement between the Holy See and Beijing.

In 2015, Cardinal Erdő was chosen to give the opening remarks at the Synod on the Family in Vatican City. The Cardinal, to the disappointment of progressive churchmen, reaffirmed the importance of the divine doctrine and reality of indissolubility in marriage.

It is quite clear that the Ukrainians would have never survived this long against the Russian aggression without the financial and military assistance of the US. Yet the Biden administration has thus far offered no strategic argument on behalf of the costs and risks, let alone what is the overall end objective of the war.

‘Could Biden’s token [of shaking hands only with Orbán when arriving for the NATO group photo in Vilnius], as some experts suspect, have been an invitation to the Hungarian government to hop on board the US geopolitical bandwagon and forget the Chinese and Russian ones?’

‘With in vitro fertilisation, conception takes place outside the mother’s body, rendering the natural conjugal act between husband and wife in itself as alien to the institution of the family. Man and woman no longer come together as one, but are rather utilised in the creation of human embryos…This not only harms that unitive act of marriage between husband and wife, but it reduces the child to a mere group of cells.’

Notwithstanding his many political failures, such as the Crusade to Nicopolis in 1396, the involvement of Sigismund of Luxembourg in the short-lived, but nevertheless historical reunification of the Christian Churches cannot be discounted.

‘There is also a way to deal with the world’s largest economy, for the US Dollar (USD) is not going to decline anytime soon. Those who claim that the USD is in decline often argue that for centuries, reserve currencies have risen and fallen in tandem with their home economies. As the US’ share of the global economy diminishes, economists argue, so too will the USD and its global hegemony. A fascinating yet hardly conclusive argument since there has never been a dominant global reserve currency prior to the USD. Quite the contrary, the USD is the only currency ever to have played such a pivotal role in international commerce.’

Given Erdoğan’s pro-Ottoman policies, many were a bit surprised that the first to congratulate him in his victory, even two weeks before the runoff when he was projected as the frontrunner, was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The paradox in this is that both are ardent defenders of their respective faiths that have historically been in conflict with each other.

The US became an imperial power in its own right by the end of the nineteenth century, specifically from 1898 to 1901, when it claimed territory or influence over no fewer than five islands outside its territorial boundaries: Cuba, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines…Under the guise that is was America’s duty to spread the light of civilisation and democracy to the ‘backward’ people of the world, the former British colony took it upon itself to govern the peoples of Latin America and the Pacific—whether they wanted it or not.

I personally believe Putin would have invaded the Ukraine, as he did Crimea in 2014, whether he felt ‘provoked’ or not, especially after he lamented the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [twentieth] century’. One can conclude that the former KGB colonel, with his reverie to rebuild the former Soviet empire, was looking for an excuse to do so. And the US-led West provided it to him.

In his homily on Pentecost Sunday in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI said that ‘Pentecost is distinguished from all the Solemnities by its importance since what Jesus Himself had announced as the purpose of the whole of his mission on earth is brought about in it. Indeed, on his way up to Jerusalem he had declared to his disciples: ‘I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!’ (Luke 12, 49)

‘The real crisis is neither at the US-Mexican nor at the European borders. Instead, it stems from Central America. Crime, violence, corruption, and economic devastation in the region have propelled people to the border. In terms of Europe, it is the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East that have propelled their citizens to flee inhumane situations.’

The truth of the matter is that AI is here to stay. It is the future. While we may be some time away before, and if, we are confronted with a ‘HAL’ as the astronauts in Discover One, AI could be apocalyptic if it is under the wrong hands. At the same time, would anyone care to tell us whose are the right hands?

There is a myth, to be dispelled, that the Romans were always cruel conquerors. In truth, those who lived under the rule of the Caesars had plenty autonomy, be it in the public or private sector of society. It was that rationality and pragmatism of Roman law, which regulated regulated the lives of the conquered peoples, that structured Western culture as  is evident from a host of historical, cultural, political, and societal elements.

A major problem with the structure of the EU is that it is not fully based on representative democracy. A case in point, notwithstanding the fact that EU Parliament members are elected by the citizens of the member states, EU leaders picked Ursula von her Leyen to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as the leader of the European Union’s executive branch behind closed doors.

In the face of the challenges of the modern world, the Pope warned against the two contrary temptations of ‘bleak defeatism’ and ‘worldly conformism’.

Christians in Jerusalem have for decades been targeted by fundamentalist Jews…Christian leaders in Jerusalem say never have Israeli attackers felt more emboldened than under Netanyahu’s far-right ruling coalition.

Holy Week provides us Christians the opportunity to relive the Paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, specifically with the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, so that we may fully partake of the passion, death, and Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.

‘Let us not forget that while most of the world has rightly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, twenty years ago the United States invaded Iraq on false information that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein not only possessed weapons of mass destruction, but that he had a direct link to and was harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists…The tragic results cost several thousand US soldiers’ lives.’

In essence, Orbán’s government is signalling a willingness to cooperate with the internationally sanctioned Iranian regime even in areas such as nuclear policy. 

Diplomacy has always been a complicated game of chess, not every move is going to be a winning one. It goes without say that there are advantages in implementing realpolitik, even with oppressive regimes. The paradox is that it can also make them even stronger.

Viktor Orbán, having being faced with the reality of this unprecedented inundation of Muslim migrants in Europe, has adamantly refused to accept such ‘refugees’, enduring criticism from the European community…Why has Orbán taken such a position? It is because he understands quite well what Islam is all about and has acted properly to keep Hungary as secure as possible.

The seeds of Hungarian humanism were sown by Matthias Corvinus, which helped the Jagiellonian kings pave the way to embedding humanism into Hungarian culture.

‘The right to free worship, a bulwark of Hungarian society, is due to the religious freedom conferred by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790).’

Regrettably, the US-led West’s  ‘war fever’ Orbán spoke about has profound roots. A clear example of this was what led to the First World War.

Today, law has taken on a legalistic attribute, consequently shunning the spirit of the law, or rather, Roman jurisprudence.

Planned Parenthood was founded by enthusiastic eugenicist Margaret Sanger in 1916. Sanger’s racist views were well-established, declaring that ‘minorities (including most of America’s immigrants) are inferior in the human race, as are the physically and mentally handicapped.’

‘God transcends His creation and He must be accepted as He has revealed Himself in Holy Writ. This means that it is not up to human beings to adapt its terminology to what is trendy or politically correct, especially if the substance of revealed truths, as we Christians—and I also speak as a Roman Catholic priest—hold dear, are altered.’

In other words, this book is an indoctrination of the LGTBQ+ lifestyle aimed at children with the intention to destroy their childhood in the most deceitful and perverse manner.

Like Christians, Yazidis too underwent brutal torments by the ISIS jihadists, yet their stories hardly get any coverage in the West.

The debate here is not one of having a strong military, which, to borrow President Woodrow Wilson’s famous phrase, is necessary to make ‘the world safe for democracy’. Rather, it is how military expenditure, or militarism, becomes an end in itself.