On the Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday - Pope Francis presides over the Holy Mass for
the Canonization of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II in St.
Peter's Square.
Popes John Paul II, John XXIII officially declared saints
In a packed St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis officially declared former pontiffs John Paul II and John XXIII as Saints.
"For the honor of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and having sought the council of many of our brother Bishops, we declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II be Saints," Pope Francis exclaimed April 27 as the crowds cheered.
"We enroll them among the Saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
Cheers and applause rang out across St. Peter's Square after the historic double papal canonization as many in the crowd fixed their gaze on huge tapestries of the two popes on the facade of the basilica behind Pope Francis. The Vatican said more than 500,000 people filled the basilica area while another 300,000 watched the event on large television screens in nearby piazzas.
Pope Emeritus Benedict did not join the procession of bishops at the start of Mass, but arrived half an hour earlier, wearing white vestments and a bishop's miter and walking with a cane; he sat in a section of the square designated for cardinals. Pope Francis greeted his predecessor with an embrace at the start of the Mass, drawing applause from the crowd, and approached him again at the end.
During the canonization ceremony, which took place at the beginning of the Mass, devotees carried up relics of the new saints in matching silver reliquaries, which Pope Francis kissed before they were placed on a small table for veneration by the congregation.
St. John's relic was a piece of the late pope's skin, removed when his body was transferred to its present tomb in the main sanctuary of St. Peter's Basilica.
Floribeth Mora Diaz, a Costa Rican woman whose recovery from a brain aneurysm was recognized by the church as a miracle attributable to the intercession of St. John Paul, brought up a silver reliquary containing some of the saint's blood, taken from him for medical testing shortly before his death in 2005.
Also read:
Pope: Christ's wounds are sign of God's love
Videos: Four Popes, two saints in Vatican canonization
TV's Andy Levy hosts and welcomes guests Remi Spencer, Sam Morril and Kmele Foster.
The president's adolescent arguments
Recently, President Obama - a Demosthenes determined to elevate our politics from coarseness to elegance; a Pericles sent to ameliorate our rhetorical impoverishment - spoke at the University of Michigan. He came to that very friendly venue (in 2012, he won 67 percent of the vote in Ann Arbor's county) after visiting a local sandwich shop, where a muse must have whispered in the presidential ear.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had recently released his budget, so Obama expressed his disapproval by calling it, for the benefit of his academic audience, a "meanwich" and a "stinkburger."
Try to imagine Franklin Roosevelt or Dwight Eisenhower or John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan talking like that. It is unimaginable that those grownups would resort to japes that fourth-graders wouldn't consider sufficiently clever for use on a playground.
Also read: Obama's Minimum Wage Fallacy
This week's Underwood Award winner lowers the bar even further, and the Supreme Court goes negative on racial preferences. Is this a victory against discrimination? Or a setback for racial equality? Watch John Phillips, Leo Terrell, Tammy Bruce and Scott Ott discuss.
Let the People Decide
Every once in a while a great, conflicted country gets an insoluble problem exactly right. Such is the Supreme Court's ruling this week on affirmative action. It upheld a Michigan referendum prohibiting the state from discriminating either for or against any citizen on the basis of race.
The Schuette ruling is highly significant for two reasons: its lopsided majority of 6-2, including a crucial concurrence from liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, and, even more important, Breyer's rationale. It couldn't be simpler. "The Constitution foresees the ballot box, not the courts, as the normal instrument for resolving differences and debates about the merits of these programs."
Finally. After 36 years since the Bakke case, years of endless pettifoggery - parsing exactly how many spoonfuls of racial discrimination are permitted in exactly which circumstance - the Court has its epiphany: Let the people decide. Not our business. We will not ban affirmative action. But we will not impose it, as the Schuette plaintiffs would have us do by ruling that no state is permitted to ban affirmative action.
Also read: Sonia Sotomayor Through the Looking Glass
Greg welcomes guests Dagen McDowell and Gavin McInnes.
'Black Republicans are like Jewish Nazis' article promoted by Illinois Dem Governor Quinn's campaign
Gov. Pat Quinn, D-Ill., often described as asleep at the wheel, must have been comatose when he allowed staffers to tweet support for an article comparing black Republicans to Nazi lackeys, and invoking despicable Holocaust imagery.
The article included this quote: "As a general rule, individuals will sell out the interests of their groups in return for personal benefit. It isn't just a black thing. Jews collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, helping them to round up their own people in the hopes they'd be the last to go."
Republican National Committee spokesman Raffi Williams advised Quinn to grow up.
"Quinn, like all 2014 Democrats, has nothing but failed policies to run on," Williams said in a written response. "Knowing he cannot possibly win an election by debating his record, he is resorting to same tactics my four-year old nephew does when he is losing an argument – he kicks, screams and calls people names. It is beyond time for Democrats to stop behaving like children and start working with Republicans on job creation, school choice, and energy independence."
Greg welcomes guests Jim Norton and Lisa De Pasquale.
Anti-Gun Harvey Weinstein Opens Checkbook for NRA Member Alison Lundergan Grimes
Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has already opened his checkbook for Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic challenger to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY.
FEC records show that Weinstein donated $2,600 to Grimes last month for her general election campaign, and in February he donated $2,600 for her primary campaign. Weinstein also was one of President Barack Obama's top campaign bundlers and frequently maxes out donations to the Democratic party.
Grimes has tried to portray herself as a pro-gun candidate in Kentucky, boasting that she has a membership with the National Rifle Association. She has even offered to go shooting with McConnell and posted photos of herself holding a gun.
It appears that Weinstein sees through the mirage, donating to a Democratic candidate that would likely vote against the NRA if elected to the Senate.
Earlier this year, Weinstein vowed to target the National Rifle Association with an anti-gun movie starring Meryl Streep.
"They're going to wish they weren't alive when I'm done with them," Weinstein boasted during an interview with Howard Stern in January.
The Hollywood executive has profited heavily from movies that glorify gun violence.
"I don't think we need guns in this country. And I hate it. The NRA is a disaster area," he said during the interview.
I'm going to take this opportunity to pat myself on the back a little bit with regards to this clip of Margaret Sanger. I'm glad that others have stumbled upon it and are giving it much-needed attention. But I have already used it twice already, the first time in a December 16, 2013 post titled "Typical: Proggies Compare Blacks to Chimps" and more recently in "This Day in Twitchy: March 27, 2014."
Naturally, I agree with all the sentiments expressed by the Trifecta crew and have used the clip for the same reasons: it is an excellent reminder (and revelation for those previously unaware) of what a sociopath the founder of Planned Parenthood really was. A racist and eugenicist who was utterly devoted to the prevention of life - through the murder of unborn children and the promotion of contraception, sterilization and voluntary rejection of the maternal instinct. In other words, a classic example of progressivism.
Guest host Brett Winterble and National Review's Jim Geraghty discuss new polls showing tough midterm fights for vulnerable Democrats (particularly Mark Pryor), gripes about Eric Cantor, and generous employee bonuses at the IRS.
Tax delinquents who work for IRS get big bonuses
The gap between the Ruling Class and its faithful servants, versus the citizens of a dwindling American private sector, grows ever wider. Who knows which outrage will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and triggers a widespread citizen revolt against their corrupt and arrogant government?
How about the Internal Revenue Service paying millions of dollars in bonuses to employees with serious disciplinary problems...including employees who didn't pay their taxes?
It's amazing how much of our decrepit Big Government apparatus is literally impossible to justify to any sane adult human being. But that's one of the perks of running an arrogant, aristocratic super-State: it no longer has to explain itself to the peons. Where do we go to vote the executives who authorized these bonuses out of office? What referendum can we sign to abolish the National Treasury Employees Union?
Also read:
Hagan and Landrieu Are In Trouble...But Pryor's Okay?
New Eric Cantor Ad Looks Desperate
