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Happy Friday friends,
As many of you, I’m not one for public appearances. The truth is, if you take me outside of my narrowly defined comfort zones, like Pillar events and canon law conferences, I get pretty terrible stage fright.
As a result, I tend to send regrets — sincere ones — to most of the occasional invitations I get to speak at one or other kind of event. In some cases though, for some causes, I feel like you just can’t say no, even if you think you’re not the best man for the job.
Last night was one such occasion. Here in Washington I was asked to speak at the kick off for the 40 Days for Life campaign outside a downtown Planned Parenthood facility. Standing in front of strangers and presuming to have something worth their listening to gives me the horrors, but under the circumstances, I felt like I had to do it.
In fact, to not accept felt like shirking the very witness we are all called to make in the cause of life.
It seems to me that the most important work in the witness for life, the most basic and necessary gesture, is for us — all of us — to swallow our fears of appearing ridiculous, of being rejected and disparaged, and speaking the truth we know with love.
Love, its necessity and its intrinsic relationship to life, was what I tried to talk about last night. We talk a lot about fighting for life, and Lord knows it is worth fighting for. But the mothers drawn to those terrible places are not enemy combatants, they are the first casualties, alongside their unborn children, of a terrible failure of love.
They are the victims of a culture of love’s true opposite, wisely described by St. John Paul II not as hate but as use. Abortion is the terrible, logical, inevitable consequence of what happens in a society in which people ultimately exist to be used, not loved.
But those mothers and their children are loved. They are loved in the same way and by the same God whose love gives me dignity and purpose and reason for my being.
In the debate about abortion and life, we speak much of freedoms and rights. But, ultimately, the only truly, objectively unalienable freedom is the freedom to love. And to love those mothers, not in the abstract but individually, is our absolute obligation — and a love which is not expressed directly and out loud is no love at all.
That’s why I went to Planned Parenthood last night: To tell people they are loved.
Now, here’s the news.
The News
Chaldean Catholic Bishop Emanuel Shaleta in California has submitted his resignation amid a Vatican-ordered investigation into allegations of substantial embezzlement and sexual misconduct.
But his resignation has not yet been accepted by the Vatican, and sources say Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Sako is aiming to see the bishop retain a place in Church leadership.
According to documents reviewed by The Pillar, parish finance council members at St. Peter’s Chaldean Cathedral in El Cajon, California, the bishop collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in Church funds in cash, and covered the appropriations with money from the cathedral’s fund for the poor.
Reports from investigators also showed a pattern of behavior by the bishop linked to the missing funds — including regular deposits in the account of a particular woman whose house he was observed frequenting, and trips to a Mexican brothel linked to human trafficking.
You can read the whole story here.
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Venezuelan Catholic politician Juan Pablo Guanipa was put under house arrest just hours after he had been released from jail, where he had been for nine months.
Guanipa, one of the best-known faces of the Venezuelan opposition, and one of the country’s most prominent Catholic political figures, had been originally arrested on May 23, 2025 and accused of conspiracy and terrorism. He had previously spent nine months in hiding.
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For many people, Lent is associated with the giving up of things, but for St. Augustine Lent was a time to recognize the restlessness of the human heart, and to allow God to expand one’s heart and capacity for love.
What exactly does that mean, and how do Augustinians approach Lent? And what would that mean for someone like Pope Leo? To find out, Jack Figge spoke with Father Robert Hagan, OSA, the prior-provincial of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova.
And, since Hagan is also the chaplain of the Villanova men’s basketball team, we also asked about the overlap between Lent and the upcoming March Madness college basketball tournament.
Read the whole interview here.
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With the reform of Opus Dei still under review, and amid allegations of abuse in Argentina, Pope Leo XIV received the personal prelature’s leadership in a private audience this week.
Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz and Msgr. Mariano Fazio, the prelate and auxiliary vicar of Opus Dei, met with the pope on Monday, with the prelature saying afterwards that there was no end in sight for the group’s ongoing canonical restructuring, which began under Pope Francis.
So what’s the status of the reform process, and what are the allegations? Read the whole story here.
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The number of adult baptisms in Belgium is expected to surge again in 2026, after dioceses reported an almost 30% increase in candidates compared to 2025.
The new figures confirm that Belgium, long considered one of Europe’s most secularized nations, is seeing an adult “baptism boom.”
The number of anticipated adult baptisms in 2026 is three times higher than in 2016, when there were 229. After years of steady growth, the figure began to climb steeply in 2024, mirroring the trend in neighboring France.
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Bishop Rick Stika, the emeritus bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville who resigned in 2023, died this week at the age of 68.
Bishop Stika suffered from diabetes and heart problems, including a 2009 heart attack and a 2018 bypass surgery. He led the Diocese of Knoxville for almost 15 years before the Vatican requested his resignation, which was accepted by Pope Francis in June 2023.
Pillar readers know well that his life in recent years has been beset by difficulty.
You can read his full obituary here.
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Although the Vatican announced earlier this month that Pope Leo XIV will not be visiting the United States for the 250th anniversary of independence, nevertheless Leo is expected to maintain a lively travel schedule this year and beyond, with a number of trips confirmed and several others likely.
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A Polish Catholic diocese has defended its bishop’s handling of clerical abuse cases this week as he appeared in court for a landmark trial.
Bishop Andrzej Jeż, who has led the southeastern Diocese of Tarnów since 2012, appeared in district court Feb. 18 on charges of failing to notify law enforcement promptly about allegations against two priests accused of abusing minors under the age of 15, which he denies.
Polish media say the trial of a diocesan bishop on these charges is unprecedented and will be followed closely across the country.
This Lent, join Catholics across the country as we gather again for Bible Across America—the nation’s biggest Catholic Bible study. During our Lenten Bible study, Shane Owens and guests will blend biblical expertise with lived experience, unpacking the Bible’s practical relevance as we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection.
The direction of travel
So, after his meeting with Cardinal Fernandez the other week, the superior of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X has doubled down on plans for his group to proceed with the illicit consecration of several new bishops this summer.
Their most recent missive comes complete with numerous “annexes,” one of which amounts to the most supremely amusing exercise in sophomoric self-justification, circular logic, and canonical magical thinking I have read in quite some time.
Far from a serious engagement with what they propose to do, the SSPX comes off like the ecclesiastical version of those “sovereign citizen” loonies.
But like I said, that is not what I want to talk about. What interests me for the moment is the direction of travel the society has set for itself.
Because, comically grandiose and prolix statements to one side, it’s clear where the SSPX are now headed, and I think it is worth gaming out the consequences for them — and the opportunities that could open up for Pope Leo.