Today

Pope Leo Confronts Abuse at Lourdes as a Vatican Trial Looms

By The FaithDaily Desk

Good morning. The day's most consequential story came from Lourdes, France, where Pope Leo used a visit to the Catholic healing shrine to address what Religion News Service called the "wounds" of clerical abuse. According to RNS, the pope encouraged the church to "have the courage" to recognize its failures, and called on bishops to remain vigilant. RNS reported that the visit was shadowed by ongoing clerical abuse scandals and by the Vatican trial of the Rev. Marko Rupnik.

Two items turned to how Christians speak and are spoken about. Religion News Service published a conversation, hosted by the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, with the religion scholar Dr. Matthew D. Taylor about his new book, "Defying Tyrants: Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists." RNS framed the discussion around Taylor's account of what he terms "Christian antichrists." Separately, The Gospel Coalition made the case for what it called, at least sometimes, wordless evangelism. In the essay, the writer describes seeking to love a server well for Christ's sake, and argues that the server saw the beauty of the gospel in that wordless proclamation. The Gospel Coalition offered the account as an argument for witness carried by conduct rather than speech.

Charisma News carried two further reports. In the first, the outlet said the State Department has begun using the phrase "super intelligence" in place of "artificial intelligence." Charisma cited an email obtained by the Associated Press and attributed to Michael Drager, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

In the second, Charisma News reported the death of Jim Copenhaver, one of two attendees shot during the 2024 assassination attempt on President Trump at Butler, Pennsylvania. According to the outlet, Copenhaver was struck by two bullets and, while he lived, was left with bullet fragments in his body and nerve damage. Charisma reported that President Trump paid tribute to him following his death.

Together the reports move from Rome to Washington and Butler: a church weighing its failures, a scholar naming a danger from within, and a plain argument that a life can preach before a word is said.