Magnifica Humanitas

 

Dr. E. Michael Jones is a prolific Catholic writer, lecturer, journalist, and Editor of Culture Wars Magazine who seeks to defend traditional Catholic teachings and values from those seeking to undermine them.

Pope demands AI weapons be ‘disarmed’

 

The technology must not be allowed to kill autonomously, the pontiff has warned

Pope Leo XIV has delivered a stark warning on artificial intelligence, claiming that the technology is aiding the “normalization of war” and transferring powers of life and death to unaccountable “technological actors.”

The American-born pontiff presented his warning on Monday in an encyclical titled ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (Magnificent Humanity). In the 42,000-word document, Leo highlighted how the “growth of the military-industrial complex has become a defining feature of the current political landscape,” leading to “a troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics.”

In this environment, “the development and use of AI in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints, to guarantee respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life and to avoid a race to develop such arms,” he continued.

Popes typically use encyclicals to lay out their teachings on the social issues of their times. Pope Leo XIII, who inspired the current pontiff’s name, addressed the industrial revolution and inequality between the ownership and working classes in 1891’s ‘Rerum Novarum’, for example, while Pope Francis tackled climate change in 2015’s ‘Laudato Si’.

Since his election last May, Leo XIV has repeatedly warned of the destructive power of technology, describing AI as a potential threat to “human dignity, justice, and labor” in an address to cardinals last year. His encyclical goes a step further, calling for a global treaty to “disarm” the technology in order to prevent it from “dominating humanity.”  (more...)

Pope demands AI weapons be ‘disarmed’

Pope condemns ‘dizzying profits’ behind pollution in Acerra visit

 

Pope Leo denounces corporate greed driving environmental destruction during a visit to Italy’s “Land of Fires,” urging accountability over decades of toxic waste dumping.

Pope Leo XIV has condemned the “dizzying” profits earned by companies responsible for environmental pollution during a visit to Acerra in southern Italy, a region long associated with illegal toxic waste dumping and public health crises.

Speaking in the so-called “Land of Fires,” about 220 kilometres south of Rome, he urged a rejection of “temptations of power and enrichment linked to practices that pollute the land, water, air, and social coexistence.”

The area near Naples has faced decades of environmental degradation linked to illegal dumping networks. In 2025, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italian authorities had failed to protect residents from toxic waste exposure dating back to at least 1988.

Residents greeted the pope as he arrived by popemobile, with crowds waving Vatican flags and displaying photographs of relatives who died from illnesses linked to pollution, according to local reports.  (more...)

Pope condemns ‘dizzying profits’ behind pollution in Acerra visit

Pezeshkian hails Pope’s ‘moral stance’ against US-Israeli war on Iran

 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed gratitude for Pope Leo’s “moral stance” against the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, while urging the international community to adopt a realistic and fair approach to counter the “illegal demands and adventurous, dangerous policies” of the United States.

In a message addressed to the leader of the world’s Catholics, Pezeshkian stated that the “destructive approach” of the United States and Israel, along with their “illegitimate attacks,” are not directed solely against Iran.

He argued that they are an assault on the rule of law at the global level, international law, human values, and the teachings of divine religions, adding that the costs of this dangerous approach will inevitably be borne by the entire international community.

The criminal US-Israeli aggression against Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Iranian Armed Forces responded by launching daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in the Israeli-occupied territories as well as US military bases and assets across the region.

The president emphasized that Iran has consistently proven its commitment to diplomacy and peaceful solutions for resolving issues, including with the US government.  (more...)

Pezeshkian hails Pope’s ‘moral stance’ against US-Israeli war on Iran

Pope slams Europe’s military buildup as ‘betrayal’ of diplomacy

 

The pontiff has decried rising European military spending, which saw its sharpest increase since the Cold War last year

Pope Leo XIV has condemned rising European military spending, warning that rearmament betrays diplomacy and fuels tensions in a world already being “maimed by wars.”

Global military spending approached a record $3 trillion in 2025 despite lower US outlays, according to a SIPRI report released last month, with Europe recording the sharpest regional increase. SIPRI linked the surge to the Ukraine conflict, tensions with Russia, and growing US pressure for greater NATO burden sharing.

Pope Leo argued that such policies should not be described as defense, but as dangerous rearmament. Addressing students at Rome’s Sapienza University on Thursday, he said that young people were asking older generations what kind of world they would leave behind.

“A world unfortunately maimed by wars… In the last year, the growth in military spending worldwide, and particularly in Europe, has been enormous,” the pontiff said. “Let’s not call ‘defense’ a rearmament that increases tensions and insecurity, depletes investments in education and healthcare, undermines trust in diplomacy, and enriches elites who care nothing for the common good.”

He also warned about the growing use of artificial intelligence in warfare, citing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran as evidence of “the inhumane evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation.”  (more...)

Pope slams Europe’s military buildup as ‘betrayal’ of diplomacy

Can the Vatican and the US repair relations?

 

As Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first anniversary as pontiff, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, visited the Vatican, reportedly to smooth strained relations between Donald Trump and the Roman Catholic leader

Pope Leo has emerged as one of the more vocal critics of the US war on Iran, repeatedly calling for peace and challenging the Trump administration’s approach. So, where do the US and the Vatican’s relations go from here?

This week on UpFront, Redi Tlhabi speaks with Kim Daniels, Director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.

Pope: We Must 'Reject Everything That Mortifies Life and Prevents Its Development'

 

On the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the Vatican, Pope Leo stated clearly his approach for the poor and underprivileged of the world. At his General Audience on May 6, he said:

“As the guardian of a hope that enlightens the path, the Church is also invested with the mission of speaking clearly to reject everything that mortifies life and prevents its development, and to take a position in favor of the poor, the exploited, the victims of violence and war, and all those who suffer in body and in spirit. From this perspective, the Church is called to recognize humbly the human fragility and transience of Her own institutions which, despite being at the service of the Kingdom of God, bear the fleeting image of this world…. Jesus initiated the Church precisely by proclaiming this Kingdom of love, justice and peace,” and therefore, the Pope said, “We are therefore called to consider the community and cosmic dimension of salvation in Christ and to turn our eyes to this final horizon, to measure and evaluate everything from this perspective.”

Vatican News chose to highlight its coverage with the opening summary: “Pope Leo XIV reflects on the eschatological dimension of the Church as presented in ‘Lumen gentium,’ and in this context, reiterates that Jesus has given the Church the mission of leading the faithful toward salvation, and that accordingly the Church has been ‘invested with the mission of speaking clearly to reject everything that mortifies life and prevents its development’ and to ‘denounce evil in all its forms'.”  (more...)

Pope: We Must 'Reject Everything That Mortifies Life and Prevents Its Development'

MARK OF THE BEAST: On Lady Bishops and Other Antichrists

 

What if I told you that in a few years that vast majority of Americans will be unemployed because money itself will be no more?

“No man will buy or sell, unless he has the mark of the beast, or the number of his name.”  

But what is the Antichrist? Is it a person? A state? A global technocracy ruled by artificial intelligence?

Whatever it is, politics, culture, and the Church seem to be hastening the rise of the Antichrist… 

Everything, that is, except for the one thing that defied the Revolution and that will soon defy the Antichrist itself.

This episode answers:

• Why did the Trump administration just automate the draft for young men? (Meanwhile, gas hits wartime high of five dollars per gallon.)
• What’s up with the new Vatican alliance that seeks to grant Mother Earth legal rights?
• Why did Elon Musk say that within a few years employment will be optional?
• What exactly is post humanism?
• What is Antichrist?

The Hidden History Behind The Charismatic Movement And The NAR

 

John and Bob examine how anti-Catholic activism, fraternal politics, and extremist religious networks intersected with early Pentecostal and Latter Rain history. The discussion follows Roy E. Davis, William Branham, Indiana political influence, Methodist participation, and the broader climate that helped shape later restorationist and charismatic movements.

The conversation also explores how propaganda, civic clubs, religious identity, and power structures overlapped in twentieth-century America. Along the way, John and Bob connect those older patterns to later movements, including Christian Identity, the New Order of the Latter Rain, and the environment that influenced modern apostolic and prophetic networks.

• Introduction
• Why This Topic Matters
• The Klan As A Religious And Anti-Catholic Movement
• Roy E. Davis, William Branham, And The Indiana Klan
• Methodism, Protestant Culture, And Klan Expansion
• The Klan As A Christian Fraternal And Civic System
• Money, Marketing, And Power
• Roy Davis In California, Front Organizations, And Propaganda Networks
• Pulling Back The Curtain On Religious Power
• JFK, Anti-Catholicism, And Militant Reorganization
• Why The Same Religious Patterns Still Matter

Trump’s Christianity: Why Real Conservatives are Leaving MAGA

 

As Italian soldiers restore the crucifix smashed by Israeli soldiers, why are Republican elites calling Tucker Carlson a Nazi?

Speaking of Nazis, what if I told you that the Bush family financed the rise of Adolf Hitler?

By the way, we started opposing Israel’s wars back in 2003 when Malachi Martin said it was all about the New World Order.

Plus, Pope Leo speaks on homosexual blessings, so why is Father Jimmy unhappy? Speaking of the Devil, do we have an unhealthy obsession with exorcism?

And finally, why did this man make Rosaries out of breadcrumbs in the Hanoi Hilton? The answer will bring tears to your eyes.

The Catholic-Muslim Alliance

 

Persia is again God's instrument in history

Report: Trump Administration Is Spying on Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican

 

An independent journalist with a record of leaked-FBI scoops has documented that the Vatican is being targeted by US intelligence services.

Ken Klippenstein has published a report confirming that U.S. intelligence agencies have, for years, been spying on the Vatican — and that President Donald Trump’s April 12 broadside against Pope Leo XIV has now turned that surveillance into an operational priority.

According to Klippenstein’s reporting, when Trump declared Leo “terrible for foreign policy,” “the U.S. intelligence community took the president’s remarks as a directive to prioritize spying on the Vatican.”

The CIA, he writes, “has human spies working inside the Holy See bureaucracy.” The NSA and CIA seek to intercept Vatican telecommunications, emails, and texts. The State Department circulates a daily Vatican news digest. The U.S. military maintains a distinct linguistic capability code — “QLE” — for Ecclesiastical Latin.

Klippenstein’s record makes the report difficult to dismiss.

He left The Intercept in April 2024 to build one of the most influential independent newsrooms in American journalism, with more than 200,000 subscribers and a deep bench of national security sources.

His prior reporting includes the leaked FBI report admitting the Bureau had “no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement” in the May 2020 George Floyd protests, the hacked JD Vance opposition dossier the corporate press refused to publish in September 2024, and a steady stream of disclosures about the U.S. national security state that no one else is consistently breaking.

When he writes that “sources tell me” the United States has been spying on the Vatican “for years,” the sentence carries the weight of a journalist whose bombshells routinely survive scrutiny.

The trigger for the new prioritization is now part of the public record. On April 12, in a Truth Social post I covered at the time, Trump called Leo “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” citing the pope’s criticism of the Iran war.

The first American pope, a U.S. citizen by birth, responded the next day with three words: “I am not afraid.”  (more...)

Report: Trump Administration Is Spying on Pope Leo XIV’s Vatican

Pope Leo criticizes ‘colonization’ of African resources

 

The proliferation of armed conflicts is often driven by the exploitation of oil and mineral deposits, the pontiff has said

Pope Leo XIV has criticized the “colonization” of Africa’s mineral resources in a speech in Equatorial Guinea, one of the continent’s top oil producers, where nearly half of the population still lives in poverty.

The pontiff arrived in the central African nation on Tuesday for the final leg of his 11-day tour of the continent, having previously visited Algeria, Cameroon, and Angola. He was warmly welcomed by flag-waving and cheering crowds in the administrative capital, Malabo.

In his address to Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and other officials, Pope Leo echoed the words of Pope Francis, who passed away one year ago, stating, “We must also say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”

“It is clear today that the proliferation of armed conflicts is often driven by the exploitation of oil and mineral deposits, with no regard for international law or the self-determination of peoples,” he said.  (more...)

Pope Leo criticizes ‘colonization’ of African resources

Catholics, Trump, and War

 

A growing rift is emerging between US President Donald Trump and Catholic voters, as US-backed wars in Gaza and against Iran collide with core Church teachings on war, morality, and the protection of civilians.

Once a reliable base, many Catholics are increasingly questioning the use of religious rhetoric to justify military escalation, while the Vatican continues to call for ceasefires and restraint.

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Donald Trump vs. Pope Leo: Which Deep State is Pushing War on Iran?

 

What if the biggest stories you believe right now… aren’t true? In this episode, Michael Matt exposes the rise of Orwell’s “Blackwhite” in modern life, from Iran war propaganda to media-controlled narratives, from Trump’s latest controversy to growing attacks on the papacy. As truth, faith, and politics collide, one question becomes unavoidable: have we traded truth for tribalism… and do we even realize it?

• Intro: “Are Conservative Voices Controlled?”
• Breaking News & Iran Ceasefire Chaos
• Orwell’s “Blackwhite” Explained
• atrick Buchanan’s Warning on War Propaganda
• Recycling Enemies: Saddam to Iran
• Just War Theory vs Modern Warfare
• Should the Pope “Stay in His Lane”?
• Free Speech & Antisemitism Laws
• Tucker Carlson Controversy
• Trump Accused of Mocking Christianity
• Political Leaders vs Moral Authority
• Pope Leo vs Trump
• Pope Pius XII & WWII Lessons
• Salem Media & Narrative Control
• Protests: Real or Engineered?
• Reports from Lebanon
• Tribalism & Social Conditioning
• Reagan & Moral Voting Standards
• Mother Teresa on Abortion & Peace
• Voting for the “Lesser Evil”
• Martyrs vs Politicians: Who Changes History?
• The “Uniparty” and Walking Away
• Choosing God Over Politics (Conclusion)

News from Nowhere: Idolatry

 

When Donald J. Trump starts casting himself as a messiah while threatening bombs in the same breath, even parts of his own base seem to be asking: Is this strategy or spectacle?

Will someone please explain to Donald J. Trump that his middle initial doesn't actually stand for 'Jesus'?

Following the obscenities and blasphemies of his recent rants against Iran and Islam, the increasingly demented president has fractured his own Christian-Nationalist support base by posting an AI-generated picture of himself as their Messiah, healing the sick as warplanes soar overhead, and his followers worship at his feet.

(It has also been pointed out by the kind of people who comment on such things that the sick man being healed or resurrected by Mr. Trump's holy touch bears a passing resemblance to his dead old friend, the convicted child-abuser Jeffrey Epstein, a figure of such ill repute that the president's famously taciturn wife has just broken her habitual silence to announce that he's never been her friend.)

There are those who have supposed that Mr. Trump's frenetic vacillations between violent fits of pique and pious calls for peace have been cunningly calculated to make billions on the global commodities markets, with claims that anonymous individuals have consistently been buying or shorting oil immediately before each of his announcements has sent the price of a barrel either surging or tumbling, depending on which way his latest mood has swung him.

When last May he posted an AI-generated image of himself in the robes of the Pope, Baby Donnie Tantrump provoked the anger of American Catholics, but this latest outrage has also riled some of his most ardent supporters down among the evangelical Protestants of the Bible Belt of the southern United States.

He was trying to troll the Pope – the planet's most prominent American citizen – who had been calling for peace and speaking out against what he called those "discourses of death" that have been drowning out more reasonable voices and against that "delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive."  (more...)

News from Nowhere: Idolatry

MAGA vs Catholicism: The Republican believers backing Trump over spat with Pope

 

While many GOP players have rallied behind his attacks on the Vatican, a handful have shunned the president

US President Donald Trump’s war of words with Pope Leo XIV appears to have split his own MAGA movement. While a number of prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from the exchange, others have stepped in to reassure him of their continued support.

The feud erupted after Pope Leo, the first American‑born pontiff, publicly criticized the US‑Israeli war on Iran, calling Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable” and stating that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” The pontiff has also expressed concern over the Trump administration’s handling of immigration.

Trump responded with a social media tirade, calling the Pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” and posting an AI‑generated image of himself as a Jesus‑like figure, robed in white, healing a sick man while surrounded by fighter jets and US flags.

Here are the Republican believers who have come out of left field:  (more...)

MAGA vs Catholicism: The Republican believers backing Trump over spat with Pope

Trump Continues Attacks on Italy’s Meloni

 

U.S. President Donald Trump is on the verge of destroying his relationship with Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who merely expressed disagreement at Trump’s repeated attacks on Pope Leo XIV. “I find President Trump’s words toward the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni said on April 14. She had been one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, and was the only European head of government to attend Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

Trump said the next day that he was “shocked” by Meloni’s rebuke: “Do Italians like the fact that your prime minister isn’t giving us any help to get oil? Do people like her? I can’t imagine. I’m shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong,” he said. “She is the one who is unacceptable,” he went on, “Because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if she had the chance.”

When asked if the U.S. still has the same relationship with Italy during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on April 15, Trump replied: “No. She’s been negative. Anybody that turned us down for helping with this Iran situation, we do not have the same relationship.”

Later on April 15, in remarks to reporters, Meloni reiterated her opinion, saying that Trump’s comments were “unacceptable.” “I expressed my solidarity with Pope Leo. I will tell you more: I would not feel comfortable in a society where religious leaders do as they are told by politicians, not in this part of the world, so I disagreed and said so.”  (more...)

Trump Continues Attacks on Italy’s Meloni

Bomb Threat Against Pope Leo's Brother

 

The testy confrontation by the White House over Pope Leo XIV’s stating the obvious about unjustified war on Iran has apparently branched out into outright nastiness.

Last night, Pope Leo’s brother John Prevost was forced to evacuate his Illinois home south of Chicago due to a bomb threat. The New Lenox (Illinois) Police Department issued a statement confirming the bomb threat. They carried out an extensive search and determined the threat had been made without a bomb actually having been placed. They allowed people in the neighborhood to return to their homes and stated: “The incident remains under investigation as authorities work to determine the origin of the report. Making false reports of this nature is a serious offense and may result in criminal charges.”

Also on April 15, as reported by the Miami Herald, the Trump administration ended the funding for a Catholic Church-based charity that shelters immigrant children. The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami said the White House had pulled a longstanding $11 million contract from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for a program that provides specialized services for unaccompanied and undocumented minors who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Miami’s Archbishop Thomas Wensky told the Herald: “The U.S. government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship … and [the services] will be forced to shut down within three months…. [The] services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country. Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched.”

Washington’s Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman Emily Hilliard attributed the closing to downsizing, saying that the average daily population of unaccompanied migrant children was down to 1,900, so ORR’s previous services are being cut back.  (more...)

Bomb Threat Against Pope Leo's Brother

Trump's attacks on Pope reveal crisis of faith and anger over defeat to Iran: Priest

 

After Pope Leo XIV denounced what he called a “delusion of omnipotence” behind US aggression against Iran, a Catholic priest and researcher said President Donald Trump’s attacks on him reveal both a crisis of faith and a strategic failure.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Christopher Clohessy pointed to the “anger” of the US president over his failure in the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which led him to launch a verbal attack on Pope Leo XIV after the latter slammed the aggression.

“Donald Trump, like many of those around him, claims Christianity as his faith and way of life, but this is a massively questionable claim considering his words and actions,” he said.

“Quite clearly, he knows that America has not won its war against Iran – in fact, it is Iran who is at this moment victorious,” he said, adding that Iran’s victory is “morally and from the point of view of what is right and just, and also because against all odds it held out against an unjust attack.”

The unprovoked US-Israeli aggression on Iran, which began on February 28 with airstrikes assassinating senior Iranian officials and expanded to target schools, hospitals, energy and road infrastructure, and residential areas, drew sharp condemnation from the Vatican.  (more...)

Trump's attacks on Pope reveal crisis of faith and anger over defeat to Iran: Priest

Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani hails Pope Leo's 'courageous stance' against US arrogance, Zionismhttps://t.co/HvCd0gnIP6

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) April 13, 2026