Robert Francis Prevost named first American pope

by The National News Desk Thu, May 8th 2025 at 9:16 AM

Updated Thu, May 8th 2025 at 11:29 AM

Robert Francis Prevost has been named the new pontiff, becoming the first American to hold the position after a two-day conclave. He will go by the name Pope Leo XIV.

His first words greeting his new followers were "Peace be with you" in a speech that shifted from Italian to Spanish and centered on messages of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelization. He will now take over a Catholic Church with some 1.4 billion followers around the world facing decisions on how to move the church forward and whether to continue the path of his predecessor.

“We must try together to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and dialogue,” Pope Leo told his new followers before leading the Hail Mary prayer.

Born in Chicago, Pope Leo XIV spent much of his life outside the United States. He spent two decades in Peru, where he became a bishop and naturalized citizen before being brought to the Vatican by Pope Francis to oversee the office that chooses and manages bishops around the world. His prominence due to his position within the Vatican positioned him as a leading candidate heading into the conclave aside from his nationality.

White smoke rose from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel Thursday evening in Vatican City after just over 24 hours of voting, when Pope Leo XIV earned at least 89 votes from the 133 cardinals participating in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died last month at the age of 88.

A crowded St. Peter's Square cheered as a top cardinal said the words “Habemus Papam!” or “We have a pope!” from the loggia of the basilica. The new pope made his first public appearance and delivered a blessing. He is the 267th holder of the office in a line of pontiffs dating back to St. Peter. The last pope to take the name Leo was Pope Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878 to 1903.

He is expected to be a unifying figure for the Church after years of ideological divides between its progressive and conservative wings. Leo rarely took outspoken stances on some of the most controversial issues.

President Donald Trump congratulated Pope Leo XIV in a post on Truth Social.

"It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!" Trump wrote.

https://katu.com/news/nation-world/white-smoke-rises-above-sistine-chapel-to-signal-new-pope-has-been-chosen-vatican-conclave-cardinals

https://www.facebook.com/katunews/posts/pfbid06Ydt8FueaLmi6iqChGEa72wXA8w4mjpFLM3zFmr8NfvJCQh4AKkRNyo4N4aB4LfUl

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In the 17th century, the Chicago area was inhabited by Native American tribes like the Mascouten and Miami, who interacted with Jesuit missionaries in the region. Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette explored the area in 1673 and 1674, and his journey through the Chicago region marked one of the earliest European encounters with the local Native American populations. The Jesuits later established a presence in Chicago, including the Taylor Street Jesuit Residence and St. Ignatius College (later Loyola University).

Elaboration:

Native American Presence:

Before European colonization, the Chicago area was home to various Algonquian-speaking tribes, including the Mascouten and Miami.

Jesuit Exploration:

Jesuit missionaries, like Father Marquette, were among the first Europeans to explore the Chicago region, encountering the Native American tribes and documenting their presence.

Early Interactions:

Jesuit missionaries, like Father Marquette, traveled among Native American groups, often alone, but did not generally integrate into the local social fabric by marrying and becoming part of the local social fabric.

Jesuit Presence in Chicago:

The Jesuits later established a more permanent presence in Chicago, founding St. Ignatius College, which later became Loyola University.

Taylor Street Jesuit Residence:

The Taylor Street Jesuit Residence, located in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood, has served as a home for hundreds of Jesuits for almost 40 years, offering spiritual support and communal living.

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Marquette University is a Catholic institution operated by the Jesuit order. The law school's mission includes a commitment to the Jesuit idea of cura personalis ("care of the entire person"), a duty to promote diversity, and a goal of encouraging its "students to become agents for positive change in society."[5]

As of the 2016-17 academic year, the school has 575 enrolled students and 98 faculty members and administrators, including 30 full-time faculty members, 10 "deans, librarians, and others who teach," and 58 part-time faculty members.[1] For the fall 2016 entering J.D. class, there were 190 enrolled students (182 full-time and 8 part-time).[1]

Wisconsin, unique among American states, allows graduates of accredited law schools within the state to be admitted to the Wisconsin state bar without taking the state's bar examination if they complete certain requirements in their law school courses and achieve a certain level of performance in those courses, a practice known as the "diploma privilege."[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquette_University_Law_School

The meaning of Marquette is : Land Owner, A French habitational name

https://mylofamily.com/parenting/babynames/meaning-of-marquette-53145

In the United States, the Miranda warning is a type of notification customarily given by police to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) advising them of their right to silence and, in effect, protection from self-incrimination; that is, their right to refuse to answer questions or provide information to law enforcement or other officials. Named for the U.S. Supreme Court's 1966 decision Miranda v. Arizona, these rights are often referred to as Miranda rights. The purpose of such notification is to preserve the admissibility of their statements made during custodial interrogation in later criminal proceedings. The idea came from law professor Yale Kamisar, who subsequently was dubbed "the father of Miranda."

The language used in Miranda warnings derives from the Supreme Court's opinion in its Miranda decision.[1] But the specific language used in the warnings varies between jurisdictions,[2] and the warning is deemed adequate as long as the defendant's rights are properly disclosed such that any waiver of those rights by the defendant is knowing, voluntary, and intelligent.[3] For example, the warning may be phrased as follows:[4]

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.

The Miranda warning is part of a preventive criminal procedure rule that law enforcement are required to administer to protect an individual who is in custody and subject to direct questioning or its functional equivalent from a violation of their Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination. In Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court held that the admission of an elicited incriminating statement by a suspect not informed of these rights violates the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, through the incorporation of these rights into state law.[Note 1] Thus, if law enforcement officials decline to offer a Miranda warning to an individual in their custody, they may interrogate that person and act upon the knowledge gained, but may not ordinarily use that person's statements as evidence against them in a criminal trial.

Origin and development of Miranda rights

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agent reading the Miranda rights to a suspect

The concept of "Miranda rights" was enshrined in U.S. law following the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona Supreme Court decision, which found that the Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights of Ernesto Arturo Miranda had been violated during his arrest and trial for armed robbery, kidnapping, and rape of a young woman.

Miranda was subsequently retried and convicted, based primarily on his estranged ex-partner, who had been tracked down by the original arresting officer via Miranda's own parents, suddenly claiming that Miranda had confessed to her when she had visited him in jail. Miranda's lawyer later confessed that he 'goofed' the case by focusing too much on the constitutional issues (and losing sight of the jury and guilt or innocence).[5]

The circumstances triggering the Miranda safeguards, i.e. Miranda rights, are "custody" and "interrogation". Custody means formal arrest or the deprivation of freedom to an extent associated with formal arrest. Interrogation means explicit questioning or actions that are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. The Supreme Court did not specify the exact wording to use when informing a suspect of their rights. However, the Court did create a set of guidelines that must be followed. The ruling states:

To summarize, we hold that, when an individual is taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom by the authorities in any significant way and is subjected to questioning, the privilege against self-incrimination is jeopardized. Procedural safeguards must be employed to protect the privilege, and unless other fully effective means are adopted to notify the person of his right of silence and to assure that the exercise of the right will be scrupulously honored, the following measures are required. He must be warned prior to any questioning that he has the right to remain silent, that anything he says can be used against him in a court of law, that he has the right to the presence of an attorney, and that, if he cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he so desires. Opportunity to exercise these rights must be afforded to him throughout the interrogation. After such warnings have been given, and such opportunity afforded him, the individual may knowingly and intelligently waive these rights and agree to answer questions or make a statement. But unless and until such warnings and waiver are demonstrated by the prosecution at trial, no evidence obtained as a result of interrogation can be used against him.

From Miranda rights, American English developed the verb Mirandize, meaning "read the Miranda rights to".[6]

In Berkemer v. McCarty (1984),[7] the Supreme Court decided that a person subjected to custodial interrogation is entitled to the benefit of the procedural safeguards enunciated in Miranda, regardless of the nature or severity of the offense of which they are suspected or for which they were arrested.[8]

Notably, the Miranda rights need not be read in any particular order, and they need not precisely match the language of the Miranda case as long as they are adequately and fully conveyed (California v. Prysock, 453 U.S. 355 (1981)[9]).

In Berghuis v. Thompkins (2010),[10] the Supreme Court held that unless a suspect expressly states that they are invoking this right, subsequent voluntary statements made to an officer can be used against them in court, and police can continue to interact with (or question) the alleged criminal.

In Vega v. Tekoh (2022), the Supreme Court held that police may not be sued for failing to administer Miranda warnings, and that the remedy for such a failure is the exclusion of the acquired statements at trial.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_warning

AI Overview

The Four Worlds - Welcome to the International Kabbalah Society

Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, developed in the 12th and 13th centuries in southern France and Spain. It emerged from earlier Jewish mystical traditions and found a more defined form in these regions. The Zohar, a foundational text, was authored in the late 13th century, likely by Moses de León. Later, Isaac Luria in the 16th century, is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah.

Here's a more detailed look at its formation:

Emergence from Existing Mysticism:

Kabbalah built upon earlier Jewish mystical practices, like Merkava mysticism, which focused on ecstatic experiences and contemplation of the divine throne.

Early Centers of Development:

The 12th and 13th centuries saw the formation of Kabbalah in southern France and Spain, particularly in regions like Hakhmei Provence and al-Andalus.

The Zohar's Influence:

The Zohar, a collection of mystical interpretations of the Torah, became a cornerstone of Kabbalah and was attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, though it's now believed to be by Moses de León.

Lurianic Kabbalah:

Isaac Luria, a 16th-century Kabbalist, developed a new system, Lurianic Kabbalah, which emphasized the concept of Tikkun (repair) and the potential for humanity to participate in restoring the broken world.

Spread and Popularization:

Lurianic Kabbalah gained popularity through Hasidic Judaism in the 18th century, further disseminating its teachings.

Generative AI is experimental.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The alumbrados of Castile were a movement that caused much trouble during the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Their ideas were represented by the “Big Three” beatas who, under noble patronage, for at least a decade previous to the arrest in 1524 of the “mother” of the movement (Isabel de la Cruz) had successfully proselytized and spread their ideas throughout Old and New Castile.1

The alumbrados certainly were a charismatic bunch; they enjoyed success with the elites of Castilian society, comuneros, but above all with women and conversos. As a religious movement led by women the alumbrados were part of a growing trend of individual, charismatic female piety. By the time of Cardinal Cisneros’s death in 1517, however, the era of the alumbrados and their grassroots converso spirituality was nearing its end. While the actual heyday of their movement was short-lived the alumbrados made a huge impact upon the minds Prospering in the environment of Catholic spiritual exploration fostered by the personal theological interests of the Archbishop of Toledo Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros the alumbrados presented an interiorized approach to Christianity. Equipped with the meditational practice of dejamiento the alumbrados stressed the importance of an individual, pseudo-mystical “abandonment” to God and His will. They also emphasized the insignificance of external rituals and works, calling them ataduras or “shackles” to the material world, ties that only served to hinder one’s abandonment to God.

of the Inquisitors who prosecuted them and upon the Spanish religious imagination, an impact that would last across seas and time."

EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS

AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA

JAVIER A. MONTOYA

http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041385/montoya_j.pdf

The Order of Assassins (Arabic: حَشّاشِین, romanized: Ḥaššāšīyīn; Persian: حشاشين, romanized: Ḥaššāšīn) were a Nizari Isma'ili order that existed between 1090 and 1275 AD, founded by Hasan al-Sabbah.

During that time, they lived in the mountains of Persia and the Levant, and held a strict subterfuge policy throughout the Middle East, posing a substantial strategic threat to Fatimid, Abbasid, and Seljuk authority, and killing several Christian leaders. Over the course of nearly 200 years, they killed hundreds who were considered enemies of the Nizari Isma'ili state. The modern term assassination is believed to stem from the tactics used by the Assassins.[1]

Contemporaneous historians include ibn al-Qalanisi, Ali ibn al-Athir, and Ata-Malik Juvayni. The former two referred to the Assassins as batiniyya, an epithet widely accepted by Isma'ilis themselves.[2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Assassins

Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأَنْدَلُس, romanized: al-ʾAndalus)[a] was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim[1][2] states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula[3][4][5] as well as Septimania under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed through a series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista,[1][2][6][7][8] eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus

1236

June 29 – Siege of Córdoba: Castilian forces under King Ferdinand III (the Saint) capture Muslim Córdoba from Emir Ibn Hud, as part of the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.[2]

July – At a diet (princely convention) in Piacenza, Emperor Frederick II proclaims his wish to recover all Italy for the Holy Roman Empire.[3]

Pope Gregory IX condemned the links that both the Knights Templer and Knights Hospitaller have with the Assassin fighters in the Middle East. He issues a bull, a formal proclamation issued by the pope, preventing further contact with the Assassins.

May 6 – Roger of Wendover, English Benedictine monk and chronicler, dies at St. Albans Abbey. His chronicle is continued by Matthew of Paris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1236

Atheism: resisting it with all our forces is a special mission given to the Society by the supreme pontiff, 253 2°; a mission which should permeate all forms of our apostolate, 254; our efforts are to be directed toward nonbelievers, ibid.; toward that end, an experience of God must be fostered in ourselves, 223 §§3-4, 224, 247

1° 2° 3° 6°;

and also in others, by means of the Spiritual Exercises, 271

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

The idea of uniting the Templars with the Hospitallers was first argued publicly in a book published in 1305 by Raimon Llull, a renowned illuminatus from Majorca. Llull’s book, Libre de Fine, (“Free At Last”) appeared in the midst of a raging controversy between the French monarchy and the Roman papacy over who held jurisdiction over the Templars. That is the subject of our next chapter.

Rulers of Evil

by F. Tupper Saussy

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/rulers-of-evil-f.-tupper-saussy/Rulers%20of%20Evil%20-%20F.%20Tupper%20Saussy.pdf

As far as Simon Magus goes, even those now considered to be early supporters of the Roman Catholic Church condemned him. Yet, those who claim Christ really should look into whether or not they have adopted the non-biblical heresies that Simon Magus and his later followers adopted. Those wanting to learn more should also consider studying the articles at the The History of Early Christianity page.

We do not know how or when Simon Magus died (there are various legends). Some early reports indicate he was buried in Samaria or in Rome. Some suspect that burial was in Vatican hill.

Notice the following:

Elevating his personal teachings above the Bible, and preaching a "no-works" doctrine of salvation, Simon Magus soon had a universal, popular following. Deified by the Romans, he was buried on Vatican Hill. ...

The records regarding Simon's death vary widely. Many of the stories try to incorporate some fiction from the Greek and Egyptian myths to enhance the reader's interest in this fascinating character. But the earliest records say that he was buried in Rome after a long period of great honour and deification.

It is not clearly known where Simon Magus alias Simon Pater or Simon Jupiter was buried. But this much is known. The place of burial for ALL prophets and holy men of the Romans was in the sacred cemetery on Vatican Hill. This much is certain.

Notice what Werner Keller in his The Bible as History says about the so-called burial of the Catholics' Peter. (Before reading Keller's statement, let us remember that he is a thorough-going Catholic and firmly, himself, believed that the Apostle Peter was buried in Rome.

However, the Bible shows nothing of the kind. Now, let's read Keller's comment — the official comment of the Roman Catholic Church):

"On the night of his death on the cross Peter's followers BURIED his body. As in the case of Jesus on the hill of Calvary it was wrapped in linen and secretly taken to a PAGAN BURIAL GROUND on the Via Cornelia, behind the stone structure of the arena. This PAGAN CEMETERY lay on a knoll called VATICANUS: the Latin word 'vatis' means a 'prophet' or 'SOOTHSAYER'. In days gone by there had been an Etruscan oracle on this spot" (p. 368).

What an admission!

Keller ought to have better sense to know that this Peter buried in this cemetery, of all places, could NOT be the Apostle Peter. In the first place, Peter was a Jew, and they had to be buried in their own cemeteries. And even if by a happen-chance a Jew could be buried in a Roman cemetery, it is most unlikely that a Jew — especially one who attacked the Roman religion as the Apostle Peter did — would ever have been allowed into the most holy of pagan cemeteries! This cemetery was reserved for prophets, soothsayers and the great ones of pagan Rome. (Martin E. SIMON MAGUS SERIES - Simonites Establish UNIVERSAL Church. Good News, August 1964)

When Vatican hill has been excavated, they have found pagan graves and one or more in costly apparel. Perhaps, one in costly apparel was Simon Magus."

Simon Magus, What Did He Teach? (cogwriter.com)

https://www.cogwriter.com/simonmagus.htm

CHAPTER SEVEN – SHABTAI, SHIMON AND SHARON – DESTROYING THE JEWS

ALM 1 - THE DEUTSCH DEVILS

Rabbi Marvin Antelman was right all along. Way back in 1974, he identified the source of all the evil against Jews and humanity but his message and style were too unaccessible to get through to anyone but the most advanced students of antisemitism. What he lacked most was simplicity, a common enough failure of thinkers decades in advance of their contemporaries. What he needed was someone to put out a Cliff's Notes simplified explanation of his thesis...and someone, without intention, just did. The name of the book is, 50 Jewish Messiahs by Jerry Rabow (Gefen Publishing, Jerusalem). It is an informative but shallow overview of just what the title says, but in its shallowness lies vital depth. We begin with Chapter 17, about the "most damaging messiah to the Jewish people," Shabbatai Zvi. First we'll read Rabow and then add commentary opening Rabbi Antelman's work to the wide world. Recall that there are various accepted English spellings for Shabtai Tzvi, and the Sabbataians. The spelling presented depends on the writer:

pp 91 - Shabbatai Zvi was born in Smyrna, Turkey on the ninth of Av, 1626. The ninth day of Av is the day of a triple tragedy for the Jewish nation. According to tradition, the First Temple, the Second Temple and Bar Kokhba's Betar fortress all fell on this day.

pp 93 - He changed the holiday celebrations and violated the dietary prohibitions. All of this followed from his declaration that the usual rules were inapplicable to messianic times.

pp 95 - He declared that the coming of the messianic era meant that the biblical commandments were no longer binding. He proclaimed that God now permitted everything. ** This is Rabbi Antelman's central assertion; that Shabbataism was the polar opposite of Judaism. That Shabbatai Zvi's program was to destroy all the tenets of the Torah and replace them with their opposites. Incredibly, more than half the Jews of the world at the time, believed he would be revealed as their promised messiah: **

pp 101 - Then he finally made the announcement for which the Jewish community had been waiting for 1600 years - he would begin the Redemption on the 15th day of the month of Sivan, June 18, 1666. ** There are many who will recognize the significance of the date. June is the sixth month, 18 divided by three is 6+6+6 and 1666 is clear enough. Either he knew what he was doing or the prophesies of the emergence of an evil false messiah or anti-Christ are right, and Shabbatai Zvi was him. **

pp 110 - Through all of this, Shabbatai continued to issue proclamations of the theological changes wrought by the coming of the messianic age. Shabbatai's new prayer was, "Praised be He who permits the forbidden." Since all things would be permitted in the age of the messiah, Shabbatai declared many of the old restrictions of the Torah no longer applicable. He abolished the laws concerning sexual relationships. He eventually declared that all of the thirty six major biblical sins were now permitted and instructed some of his followers that it was their duty to perform such sins in order to hasten the Redemption.

Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism and the Holocaust

by Barry Chamish

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B66Pc9x2hkIrV2Y3QWxPbkpKYWc/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-5ak831cRNQohyyjZYfFKvw

In a letter dated May 28, 1784 from Hanau, Prince Charles of Hesse wrote thus to

Willermoz, to whom he had just communicated the death of the famous Count of Saint-

Germain, unexpectedly in Feburary 28 th at his home in Gottorp:

“I asked him: Didyou know a certain Marshall of Bieberstain?

“Reply: Y es, verv well...

Where didyou see him?

“-At Varsovia.

Did he know something?

“-Relata refero... Doyou understand me, my child?

“— Yes, my dear Count, I see that that implies he had papers, and that this

instruction could be given by him to others?

" - Exactly that.

“ - The late Hund would not hâve wanted to lie to us, would he?

“ - No, he was a good man.

“I said to him out of the blue:

“— Who was the Marshall’ s predecessor?

“ The response was prompt, without a moment’ s reflection:

"— Baron Rod, from Kœnigsberg.

“Here, of ail the proofs of our lineage, was the only gift 9 10 that I hâve ever had.

But it might not be as convincing to others ; I thought I would amuse you by

communicating this anecdote. ”

Bord, who gave us this letter drawn from the ancient archives in his book

“ Freemasomy in France ”, also gives us the name of the real founder of the “ Templar

Strict Observance” , without doubt around 1620, according to our personal investigations.

In fact, G. Montchal, Honorary Grand Prior of Switzerland, quotes five important

dates in his work “The Independent Grand Priory of Switzerland, Scottish Rectified Rite”,

also reproduced a more ancient text, drawn from the archives of the Priory, and published

for the fîrst time in 1909, but not for public circulation:

1644 In the entourage of James II, gentlemen affiliated with the Order of Scottish Masters

constituted the Order of Scottish Masters of Saint Andrew, which they linked to the

chivalric Order of that name.

1688 H. -G. de Marschall, hereditary Marshal of Thuringe, founded the Scottish Rectified Rite,

Corning out of the Order of Scottish Masters of Saint Andrew.

1730 From this date, we find a Templar Chapter established at Unwurden (Haute-Lusace).

Some historians believe that it was there that the Strict Templar Observance was initiated.

1 741 In 1 741, in Hamburg, a Chapter of Scottish Masters of Saint Andrew was founded in the

Lodge “Judica”. This is a significant fact, since this establishment thus revealed the

existence of a Templar System.

1749 An important date, which marked the official introduction of the Templar Rite, both by

H. -G. de Marschall, hereditary Marshal of Thuringe, and by his friend, Barond von

Hund, in the Lodge of Kittlitz, near Lobau.

9 Bonne - PV.

10 “ Mais elle ne saurait l’être pour d’autresV’ . I’m sure I’ve mistranslated this but I can’t think what else it

might mean.- Pv.

You will note that, geographically speaking, ail these towns are located in the

provinces where the Teutonic Order of olden times had previously flourished. Let us

continue to quote G. de Montchal:

1755 Convent of Dresden, known under the name o/Rectification of Dresden , from which was

created the Rectified Rite of that name, and through which the Templar System was

established in a Masonic Workshop which took the name of Grand Lodge.

1763 Convent of Altenberg, near Iena. There the régime was submitted to a drastic reform,

and ail the Alchemists, Kabbalists and other were chased out. Its administrative

organization, which was that of the old Order of the Temple, was knit even doser still. It

took the name o/’Strict Templar Observance.

How, in a Order which had shown itself so terribly steeped in the aristocratie

morgue (in the words of European Masons), had occultists managed to gain admission?

Montchal tells us that at the Convent of Kohlo in 1742, a fïrst purging had already

occurred. That is a piece of history of secret societies and chivalric Orders which ....

It is very probably by and with the support of the Princes of the House of Hesse-

Cassel...

We know, in fact, from sure historié sources, that William IV of Hesse-Cassel,

called “The Wise ”, was an enlightened sovereign, remarkable for his broad and extended

knowledge, above ail in the realm of occultism.

Born on June 14, 1533, died August 25, 1592, he was the author of Astrological

Tables, and published the resuit of his observations in this area. He possessed an

astronomical observatory where he worked for rnany years with his friends, Christ

Rothmann, the wise Mathematician, and Just Borge, who was the best Physician-Optician

of the âge. He was also the friend and constant protector of Tycho de Brahé.

Now, from the appearance of the heraldry of the House of Hesse-Cassel, we can

note a curious fact. According to the genealogist La Chesnay des Bois, in his

“ Dictionary of Nobility ” (Ed. from 1776), quoting du Buisson, and according to J. B.

Rietstap in his book “General Heraldry”, both famous heraldists, the Princes of Hesse-

Cassel bore shields: “of silver with a red Lating cross with broad ends, with a second

crossbar in red 11 ...”

So the House of Hesse-Cassel bore as the distinctive family emblem the Latin

cross with a second red crossbar, which was the exclusive privilège of the high

dignitaries of the Order of the Temple, of the living Order...

For this red cross was its exclusive privilège, and none other among the knightly

Orders coming from the Crusades was given the right to work under the white mande!

11 “D ’ argent à la Croix pâtée et alésée de gueules, à la double traverse de gueules

This privilège was conceded to the Templars by Pope Eugenius III in 1 146, at the request

of St. Bernard. (Cf. Probst-Biraben, in "The Mystery of the Templars ”, p. 29). As for the

double cross, it was the mark of high dignitaries of the Temple, as John Charpentier tells

us in his work "The Order of the Templars ” (p. 41).

But this is not ail. We hâve mentioned Tycho de Brahé, and here is a still more

surprising fact!

Son of the Grand Bailiff of Scanie, belonging to the oldest Swedish nobility (still

Sweden, or rather already Swedish), Tycho de Brahé had a château constructed which

was devoted to his alchemical and astrological studies, with a splendid library and

observatory, ail narned Uranienborg.

Born in 1 546 in Scanie, Denmark (which State was still a province of Sweden), he

died in Prague in 1601. Note this place, for we will return to it as a meeting place for

Jewish Kabbalists, Alchemists and Rosicrucian Theurgists in the years which follow,

right up to the end of the 18 th Century.

Now, one beautiful day in 1590, which disembarked in Uranienborg? King James

VI of Scotland, (future King of England under the name of James l st ), who had just

legally reinstated the Order of Chardon of Saint Andrew of Scotland, which Order was a

perpétuation of the Templars, as we hâve seen. . . From Uranienborg, the King and Tycho

de Brahé went to Cassel, and stayed near to William IV, the Wise. In 1591, a year later,

James VI published a flrst treatise on pneumatology, in which he treated at length on the

diverse nature of Spirits, developing the théories of his predecessor in this domain,

Reginald Scott, but perhaps also those of his friends: William IV the Wsie and Tycho de

Brahé. This book was “ Daemonologia , hoc est adversus incantationem sive magiam

institutio, auctore serenissimo potentissimioque principe.’’'’

This same sovereign, with the flrst English Rosicrucians, constituted the “ Royal

Rose Croix ”, composed of thirty-two knights (in remembrance of the thirty-two Paths of

Wisdom of the Kabbalah), and who was certainly the point of departure for the Jacobite

Rose-Croix, which became the 18 th Degree of Scottish Masonry of the 19 th Century.

How can one not accept that it was the resurgence of a vast initiatory movement

which perpetuated the Temple, which in one program and towards a coinmon aim was

able to unité these two sovereigns which, being occultists, both at the head of a defunct

Order of the Temple, bearing arms of foreign monks, like those of the high dignitaries of

the Temple for William IV the Wise, and those who took as a collective Symbol of the

Rose-Croix of the 18 th Century, for James VI of Scotland: “silver, with a red St. Andrews

Cross, four red roses in the quarters . . .” ?

“D ’ argent , au sautoir de gueules, cantonné de quatre roses du même”.

13 Which equates, graphically, to a cross of Saint Andrew, with four roses spread across the four angles of

this cross. Valentin Andrea bore this sign on his ring; it figures on a drawing decorating the upper région

of his portrait reproduced in the work by Wittermans: “ History of the Rose-Croix ”, p. 31.

So, according to our own conclusions and to the light which preceded it, this is

the reason for the Alchemists, Kabbalists, Theurgists as well as commoners, entering an

Order as aristocratie as that of the Teutonic Knights or that of the Strict Templar

Observance from which it came.

We note that certain authors, notably Philléas Lebesgue, supported the theory that

Marshall von Ludendorff had been one of the last représentatives of an esoteric Teuronic

kernel, perpetuating certain théories from the Gibelins to exclusively pangennanist ends.

What the famous devise of the Austrian Emperors claimed to affinn with their

“A.E.I.O.U.”, when translated from Latin into English signified something like this:

“Austria is destined to dominate the world”. And it was Ludendorff who made Hitler!

https://archive.org/stream/AmblelainRTemplarsRoseCroix/Amblelain%20R%20Templars%20%26%20Rose%20Croix_djvu.txt

Katharina von Bora (German: [kataˈʁiːnaː fɔn ˈboːʁaː]; 29 January 1499? – 20 December 1552), after her wedding Katharina Luther, also referred to as "die Lutherin" ('the Lutheress'),[1] was the wife of the German reformer Martin Luther and a seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation. Although little is known about her, she is often considered to have been important to the Reformation, her marriage setting a precedent for Protestant family life and clerical marriage.[2]

Ancestry

Katharina von Bora was the daughter to a family of Saxon lesser nobility.[3][4][5] According to common belief, she was born on 29 January 1499 in Lippendorf, but there is no evidence of this in contemporary documents. Due to there being multiple branches in her family and the uncertainty of her birth name, there are diverging theories about her place of birth.[6] One of them proposes that she was born in Hirschfeld and that her parents were Hans von Bora zu Hirschfeld and his wife, born Anna von Haugwitz.[7][8] It is also possible that Katharina was the daughter of Jan von Bora auf Lippendorf and his wife Margarete, both of whom were only mentioned in 1505.[9]

Early life

Her father sent then five-year-old von Bora to a Benedictine convent in Brehna in 1504 to be educated, according to a letter Laurentius Zoch sent to Martin Luther in 1531.[10] At the age of nine, she was moved to Nimbschen Abbey, Cistercian community named Marienthron ('Mary's Throne') near Grimma, where her maternal aunt was a nun.[11] Von Bora's presence is in the financial accounts of 1509/10.[12]

After years of being a nun, von Bora became interested in the growing reform movement and grew dissatisfied with cloistered life. Conspiring with several other sisters, she contacted Luther and begged for his assistance.[13] On 4 April 1523, Holy Saturday, Luther sent Leonhard Köppe, a merchant and councillor of Torgau who regularly delivered herring to the convent. The nuns escaped by hiding in his covered wagon among the fish barrels, and fled to Wittenberg.[14]

Luther asked the family of the nuns to admit them into their houses, but they declined, possibly because this would have made them accomplices to a crime under canon law.[15]

Within two years, Luther was able to arrange marriages or find employment for all of the escaped nuns except von Bora. She was first housed with the family of Philipp Reichenbach, the municipal clerk of Wittenberg, then with Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife, Barbara. Von Bora had a number of suitors, including Hieronymus Baumgartner from Nuremberg, and a pastor, Kaspar Glatz from Orlamünde, but none of the proposals resulted in marriage. She told Luther's friend and fellow reformer, Nicolaus von Amsdorf, that she would be willing to marry only Luther or von Amsdorf.[16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharina_von_Bora

The Cistercian Order

Main article: Cistercians

In 1075 Robert de Molesme, a Benedictine monk from Cluny Abbey, had obtained the permission of Pope Gregory VII to found a monastery at Molesme in Burgundy. At Molesme, Robert tried to restore monastery practice to the simple and severe character of the original Rule of Saint Benedict, called "Strict Observance". Being only partly successful in this at Molesme, Robert in 1098 led a band of 21 monks from their abbey at Molesme to establish a new monastery. The monks acquired a plot of marsh land just south of Dijon called Cîteaux (Latin: "Cistercium") and set about building a new monastery there which became Cîteaux Abbey, the mother Abbey of the newly founded Cistercian Order.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluniac_Reforms

Finally, the Constitutions train us all for perfection, instructing us in the weapons to be used in combatting our three fierce and raging adversaries. They teach us how to counter the lust of the flesh with chastity, the lust of the eyes with poverty, and the pride of life with obedience. I shall say nothing of our observance of chastity (in which we should imitate the purity of the angels so far as our frailty allows), or of our OBSERVANCE of poverty (which is so STRICT that neither churches nor professed houses may acquire any rents, lands, or even perpetual endowments). As for obedience, however, by which we consecrate the chief and noblest part of ourselves to God, our Constitutions require of us that it be so prompt, eager, perfect, and integral that we do not swerve even a hairsbreadth from our superiors commands. In matters falling under obedience, not only must our action be guided by the superior s command and our will by his will, but even something much more difficult our understanding by his understanding.

To sum up: men crucified to the world, and to whom the world itself is crucified[7] such would our Constitutions have us to be; new men, I say, who have put off their affections to put on Christ;[8] dead to themselves to live to justice; who, with St. Paul in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Spirit, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, show themselves ministers of God[9] and by the armor of Justice on the right hand and, on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, by good success finally and ill success, press forward with great strides to their heavenly country. This is the sum and aim of our institute.

And so I beseech you, brothers in the Lord, that we may walk in a manner worthy of our vocation,[10] and, in order to know that vocation, may read and reread these Constitutions that have been bestowed upon us by the gift of God. Let us study them day and night. Let us vie with each other in learning them, pondering them, and keeping them. If we do so, our name will be matched by our lives and our profession made manifest in deed.

Farewell in Christ.

Rome, the house of the Society of Jesus, 1559 [7]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

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SAINT LOUIS, 1996

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Ignatius Loyola, a Catholic Priest, theologian and founder of the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church in the 16th Century, said, among his many inspiring sayings, “Go forth and set the world on fire."

14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"

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Himmler used the Jesuits as the model for the SS, since he found they had the core elements of absolute obedience and the cult of the organisation.[59][60] Hitler is said to have called Himmler "my Ignatius of Loyola".[59] As an order, the SS needed a coherent doctrine that would set it apart.[61] Himmler attempted to construct such an ideology, and deduced a "pseudo-Germanic tradition" from history.[61] Himmler dismissed the image of Christ as a Jew and rejected Christianity's basic doctrine and its institutions.[62] Starting in 1934, the SS hosted "solstice ceremonies" (Sonnenwendfeiern) to increase team spirit within their ranks.[63] In a 1936 memorandum, Himmler set forth a list of approved holidays based on pagan and political precedents meant to wean SS members from their reliance on Christian festivities.[64] In an attempt to replace Christianity and suffuse the SS with a new doctrine, SS-men were able to choose special Lebenslauffeste, substituting common Christian ceremonies such as baptisms, weddings and burials. Since the ceremonies were held in small private circles, it is unknown how many SS-members opted for these kind of celebrations.[65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology_of_the_SS

The large Latin inscription on the façade reads: Clemens XII Pont Max Anno V Christo Salvatori In Hon SS Ioan Bapt et Evang. This abbreviated inscription translates as: "The Supreme Pontiff Clement XII, in the fifth year [of his Pontificate, dedicated this building] to Christ the Savior, in honor of Saints John the Baptist and [John] the Evangelist".[5] The inscription indicates, with its full title (see below), that the archbasilica was originally dedicated to Christ the Savior and, centuries later, rededicated in honor of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist. Christ the Savior remains its primary dedication, and its titular feast day is 6 August, the Transfiguration of Christ. As the cathedral of the pope as bishop of Rome, it ranks superior to all other churches of the Catholic Church, including Saint Peter's Basilica.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbasilica_of_Saint_John_Lateran#Lateran_Palace

From modest beginnings the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons), became a virtual state within a state in Nazi Germany, staffed by men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of Nazi future.

In the Nazi state, the SS assumed leading responsibility for security, identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy, and intelligence collection and analysis. The SS controlled the German police forces and the concentration camp system. The SS conceived and implemented plans designed to restructure the ethnic composition of eastern Europe and the occupied Soviet Union.

From 1939, the SS assumed responsibility for “solving” the so-called Jewish Question; after 1941, its leadership planned, coordinated and directed the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question. This “solution” was the annihilation of the European Jews, which we now refer to as the Holocaust

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss

2 §1. The character and charism of the Society of Jesus arise from the Spiritual Exercises which our holy father Ignatius and his companions went through. Led by this experience, they formed an apostolic group rooted in charity, in which, after they had taken the vows of chastity and poverty and had been raised to the priesthood, they offered themselves as a HOLOCAUST to God,[2] so that serving as soldiers of God beneath the banner of the cross and serving the Lord alone and the Church his spouse under the Roman Pontiff, the vicar of Christ on earth,[3] they would be sent into the entire world[4] for the defense and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine. [5]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

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Inferno (Italian: [iɱˈfɛrno]; Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno describes Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".[1] As an allegory, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul toward God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.[2]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Fire is moreover the "auxiliary of the truth," "and not only, as in the ordeal, of justice and of truth at the same time."[11] In Yasna 31.19, "the man who thinks of aṣ̌a, [...] who uses his tongue in order to speak correctly, [does so] with the aid of brilliant fire". In Yasna 34-44 devotees "ardently desire [Mazda's] mighty fire, through aṣ̌a." In Yasna 43–44, Ahura Mazda "shall come to [Zoroaster] through the splendour of [Mazda's] fire, possessing the strength of (through) aṣ̌a and good mind (=Vohu Manah)." That fire "possesses strength through aṣ̌a" is repeated again in Yasna 43.4. In Yasna 43.9, Zoroaster, wishing to serve fire, gives his attention to aṣ̌a. In Yasna 37.1, in a list of what are otherwise all physical creations, aṣ̌a takes the place of fire.

Asha Vahishta's association with atar is carried forward in the post-Gathic texts, and they are often mentioned together. In Zoroastrian cosmogony, each of the Amesha Spentas represents one aspect of creation and one of seven primordial elements that in Zoroastrian tradition are the basis of that creation. In this matrix, aṣ̌a/arta is the origin of fire, Avestan atar, which permeates through all Creation. The correspondence then is that aṣ̌a/arta "penetrates all ethical life, as fire penetrates all physical being."[12]

In the liturgy Asha Vahishta is frequently invoked together with fire. (Yasna l.4, 2.4, 3.6, 4.9, 6.3, 7.6, 17.3, 22.6, 59.3, 62.3 etc.). In one passage, fire is a protector of aṣ̌a: "when the Evil Spirit assailed the creation of Good Truth, Good Thought and Fire intervened" (Yasht 13.77)

In later Zoroastrian tradition, Asha Vahishta is still at times identified with the fire of the household hearth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha

Nova music festival massacre

On 7 October 2023, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist organization Hamas, initiated a sudden attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 364 individuals, mostly civilians, were killed and many more wounded at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-air music festival during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near kibbutz Re'im. Hamas also took 40 people hostage, and men and women were reportedly subject to sexual and gender-based violence.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_music_festival_massacre

A nova (pl. novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white dwarfs in close binary systems, but causes of the dramatic appearance of a nova vary, depending on the circumstances of the two progenitor stars. The main sub-classes of novae are classical novae, recurrent novae (RNe), and dwarf novae. They are all considered to be cataclysmic variable stars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova

Revelation 16:8

1599 Geneva Bible

8 [a]And the fourth Angel poured out his vial on the sun, and it was given to him to torment men with heat of fire,

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2016%3A8-10&version=GNV

SpaceX Roadster is not a natural celestial object, but rather a man-made object launched by SpaceX in February 2018 as part of the Falcon Heavy test flight. It is a red sports car owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and was launched as a demonstration of the Falcon Heavy's capabilities. The Roadster is not in a stable orbit around the Sun, but is instead on a heliocentric orbit that will take it to the asteroid belt and then back to the inner Solar System in the future. The Roadster also carries a mannequin named Starman, dressed in a spacesuit, in the driver's seat. The name "Roadster" refers to the type of car that is used as the payload for the Falcon Heavy, while "SpaceX" is the name of the private space exploration company founded by Elon Musk in 2002.

https://theskylive.com/roadster-info

416 Finally, those means that are proposed by our holy father Saint Ignatius in Part X of the Constitutions for the preservation and development not only of the body or exterior of the Society but also of its spirit, and for the attainment of the objective it seeks, which is to aid souls to reach their ultimate and supernatural end, [10] are to be observed eagerly and diligently by all, with a truly personal sense of responsibility for its increase and development, for the praise and service of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, and the help of souls.[11]

L. D. S. "

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A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses (M☉)) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around 5,000 K [K] (4,700 °C; 8,500 °F) or lower. The appearance of the red giant is from yellow-white to reddish-orange, including the spectral types K and M, sometimes G, but also class S stars and most carbon stars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_giant

Revelation 16:8

1599 Geneva Bible

8 [a]And the fourth Angel poured out his vial on the sun, and it was given to him to torment men with heat of fire,

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2016%3A8-10&version=GNV

9. Interprovincial Works and Houses in Rome

304 §1. In the spirit of our fourth vow, the Society confirms its commitment to the interprovincial Roman works entrusted to it by the Holy See: the Pontifical Gregorian University and its associated institutes, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, as well as the Pontifical Russicum College, the Vatican Radio, and the Vatican Observatory, all of which are common works of the whole Society, placed directly under the superior general. Recognizing the very valuable service that these institutions have offered and continue to offer today, it calls upon major superiors who share Father General s responsibility for them to continue their help through subsidies and especially by training and offering professors and other personnel to them.

§2. Also recommended to the care of all the provinces are those other works or houses in Rome that render a service to the entire Society, such as the Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus and the international colleges of the Society in Rome.[142]

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Can. 666 In the use of means of social communication, necessary discretion is to be observed and those things are to be avoided which are harmful to one’s vocation and dangerous to the chastity of a consecrated person."

TITLE II. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES (Cann. 607 - 709)

CODE OF CANON LAW

https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann607-709_en.html

Head:

1. See Illness, mental

2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"

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Revelation 13:18

New International Version

18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[a] That number is 666.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 13:18 Or is humanity’s number

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A18&version=NIV

Civil Twilight:

Begins in the morning, or ends in the evening, when the geometric center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. Therefore morning civil twilight begins when the geometric center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon, and ends at sunrise. Evening civil twilight begins at sunset, and ends when the geometric center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. Under these conditions absent fog or other restrictions, the brightest stars and planets can be seen, the horizon and terrestrial objects can be discerned, and in many cases, artificial lighting is not needed. Civil Twilight is also known as Civil Dawn and Civil Dusk.

Nautical Twilight:

Begins in the morning, or ends in the evening, when the geometric center of the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon. In general, the term nautical twilight refers to sailors being able to take reliable readings via well known stars because the horizon is still visible, even under moonless conditions. Absent fog or other restrictions, outlines of terrestrial objects may still be discernible, but detailed outdoor activities are likely curtailed without artificial illumination. Nautical Twilight is also known as Nautical Dawn and Nautical Dusk.

Astronomical Twilight:

Begins in the morning, or ends in the evening, when the geometric center of the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. In astronomical twilight, sky illumination is so faint that most casual observers would regard the sky as fully dark, especially under urban or suburban light pollution. Under astronomical twilight, the horizon is not discernible and moderately faint stars or planets can be observed with the naked eye under a non light polluted sky. But to test the limits of naked eye observations, the sun needs to be more than 18 degrees below the horizon. Point light sources such as stars and planets can be readily studied by astronomers under astronomical twilight. But diffuse light sources such as galaxies, nebula, and globular clusters need to be observed under a totally dark sky, again when the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon.

https://www.weather.gov/fsd/twilight

Alumbrado, (Spanish: “Enlightened”, ) Italian Illuminato, plural Illuminati, a follower of a mystical movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a certain degree of perfection, was permitted a vision of the divine and entered into direct communication with the Holy Spirit. From this state the soul could neither advance nor retrogress. Consequently, participation in the liturgy, good works, and observance of the exterior forms of religious life were unnecessary for those who had received the “light.” The Alumbrados came primarily from among the reformed Franciscans and the Jesuits, but their doctrines seem to have influenced all classes of people. The extravagant claims made for their visions and revelations caused them to be relentlessly persecuted. The Inquisition issued edicts against them on three occasions (1568, 1574, and 1623)."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Alumbrado

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Pali Buddha (“the Awakened One, the Enlightened One”), from buddha (“awakened, enlightened”), from Sanskrit बुद्ध (buddha, “awakened, enlightened”), past participle of बोधति (bodhati, “to wake, to awaken”). Distantly related to English bid and bede. Also cognate with Russian будить (buditʹ, “to wake up”)."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Buddha

Gautama

surname of the Buddha, from Sanskrit Gotamah, properly a patronymic, literally "descendant of the greatest ox," from superlative of gauh "ox, bull, cow."

https://www.etymonline.com/word/buddha

BULL of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries. Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal. This we see very clearly also by the payment, benediction, and consecration of the tithes, but the acceptance of power itself and by the government even of things. For with truth as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgement if it has not been good. Thus is accomplished the prophecy of Jeremias concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power: ‘Behold to-day I have placed you over nations, and over kingdoms‘ and the rest. Therefore, if the terrestrial power err, it will be judged by the spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual power err, it will be judged by a superior spiritual power; but if the highest power of all err, it can be judged only by God, and not by man, according to the testimony of the Apostle: ‘The spiritual man judgeth of all things and he himself is judged by no man‘ [1 Cor 2:15]. This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven‘ etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm

AI Overview

Astronomers estimate that there are about 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. That's 200 sextillion stars, or 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Explanation

To estimate the number of stars in the universe, astronomers:

Measure the color and brightness of starlight from our galaxy, the Milky Way

Use that information to estimate how many stars are in the Milky Way

Multiply the number of stars in the Milky Way by the number of galaxies in the universe

However, this is only a rough estimate because not all galaxies are the same. For example, spiral galaxies can have over a trillion stars, while giant elliptical galaxies can have 100 trillion stars.

Other ways to put it

The number of stars in the universe is so large that it's hard to imagine. It's about 10 times the number of cups of water in all the oceans of Earth.

Missions to learn more

The European Space Agency's Gaia mission is mapping about 1 billion stars in the Milky Way. The mission's data will help astronomers better understand the structure and evolution of our galaxy.

Generative AI is experimental.

In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. On distance scales larger than the string scale, a string acts like a particle, with its mass, charge, and other properties determined by the vibrational state of the string. In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries the gravitational force. Thus, string theory is a theory of quantum gravity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory

A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_reaction

2 Peter 3:10

1599 Geneva Bible

10 [a]But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a [b]noise, and the elements shall melt with heat, and the earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt up.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Peter%203%3A10&version=GNV

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid02pZjzLsA4PRW9ph5GMWFVhCWisN73Av74Qon3r7z6mYUAjeYq1Vr4ks74eHJvraxMl

2030-2031 APPARITION CHARACTERISTICS

Another general rule for predicting oppositions of Mars is from the following: the planet has an approximate 15.8-year periodic opposition cycle, which consists of three or four Aphelic oppositions and three consecutive Perihelic oppositions. Perihelic oppositions are also called "favorable" because the Earth and Mars come closest to each other on those occasions. We sometimes refer to this as the seven Martian synodic periods. This cycle is repeated every 79 years (± 4 to 5 days) and, if one were to live long enough, one would see this cycle nearly replicated in approximately 284 years. The 2031 Mars apparition is considered Transitional (between Aphelic and Perihelic) because the orbital longitude at opposition will be 68.4° from the aphelion longitude of 70° Ls and 111.6° Ls from perihelion (250° Ls).

https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2031_MARS.htm

The Red Jews (German: Rote Juden), a legendary Jewish nation, appear in vernacular sources in Germany during the medieval era, from the 13th to the 15th centuries. These texts portray the Red Jews as an epochal threat to Christendom, one which would invade Europe during the tribulations leading to the end of the world.

A variant counter-story became an element of Yiddish folklore in the 15th century at the latest. Here the red Jews, the royte yidn, were lost tribes and poised to protect the Yiddish Jews from Christian violence. The earliest known references to the counter-story are in German-language reminiscences of Jewish life by converts to Christianity beginning in 1508. The Red Jews are a popular theme in later Yiddish literature, undergoing various mutations—including ultimately e.g. late 19th century and 20th century Zionist versions as a heroic warrior diaspora.

Andrew Gow studied the original German language texts and concluded that the legend of the Red Jews conflated three separate traditions: the biblical prophetic references to Gog and Magog, the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and an episode from the Alexander Romance (3rd century AD), in which Alexander the Great encloses a race of heathens behind a great wall in the Caucasus. These traditions had some overlap already; Gog and Magog are among the nations trapped behind the wall in the Alexander Romance, and the only ones named in the version of the story appearing in Quran Sura al-Kahf (The Cave) 18:89, while the 14th-century work The Travels of Sir John Mandeville explicitly associates the confined nations with the Ten Lost Tribes.

Many pamphlets circulated interpreting such events as the rise of Turkish power in the context of the legendary Red Jews. Both Martin Bucer and Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560), for example, claimed that Muslims were the Red Jews.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Jews

Mark Zuckerberg says he’s no longer an atheist, believes ‘religion is very important’

December 30, 2016

By Julie Zauzmer

The founder of Facebook has found religion, it seems, according to a cheery holiday message he posted on the social network he created.

On Christmas Day, Zuckerberg indicated in a Facebook status that he was “celebrating Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from Priscilla, Max, Beast and me,” he wrote, naming his wife, daughter and dog. Then a commenter asked him: Aren’t you an atheist?

Zuckerberg identified himself as an atheist for years, but on Facebook on Christmas he wrote back: “No. I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important.”

He didn’t answer further questions about what he does believe in. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have publicly discussed their moral values frequently — including in a lengthy letter when their daughter was born a year ago, in which they pledged to donate 99 percent of their Facebook stock, which at about $45 billion at the time was one of the largest philanthropic commitments ever. And they’ve already met one of the world’s most important religious figures: Pope Francis, with whom they discussed bringing communication technology to the world’s poor.

Want more stories about faith? Follow Acts of Faith on Twitter or sign up for our newsletter.

The man billed as the first atheist bound for Congress isn’t actually an atheist at all

Study: Religion contributes more to the U.S. economy than Facebook, Google and Apple combined

How a Facebook comment turned into a nightmare for the ‘evangelical Harvard’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/12/30/mark-zuckerberg-says-hes-no-longer-an-atheist-believes-religion-is-very-important/

Pope Leo XIV[a] (born Robert Francis Prevost;[b] September 14, 1955) is the current head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected during the 2025 papal conclave on May 8, 2025, following the death of Pope Francis.

Born in the US city of Chicago, Prevost dedicated his early clerical career to the Order of Saint Augustine. His service included extensive work in Peru from 1985 to 1986 and 1988 to 1998, where he served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. Elected Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, he later returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo (2015–2023). In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and created him a cardinal the same year. These roles elevated his prominence as a papal candidate.[2]

A citizen of both the United States and Peru, Leo XIV is the first pope born in the United States, the first pope from Peru, and the second from the Americas. He is the first pope from the Order of Saint Augustine and the seventh from orders following the Rule of Saint Augustine.[c]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIV

"Chicago" (often listed as "Chicago / We Can Change the World") is the debut solo single by English singer-songwriter Graham Nash, released in 1971 from his debut solo album Songs for Beginners. The song reached number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 29 on the Cash Box Top 100.[1] It is his highest-charting single. In Canada, "Chicago" peaked at number 19.[2] The song also made the Dutch charts in 1971, peaking at number 5.

Background

The title and lyrics of the song refer to the anti-Vietnam War protests that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the subsequent trial of the Chicago Eight, where protest leaders were charged with conspiracy to incite a riot. The first line of the song, "So your brother's bound and gagged, and they've chained him to a chair", refers to Black Panther leader Bobby Seale,[3] the sole African-American defendant, who was gagged and chained to a chair in the courtroom following repeated outbursts in protest of rulings by Judge Julius Hoffman.

The line "Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing?" refers to Nash pleading with bandmates Stephen Stills and Neil Young to come to Chicago to play a benefit concert for the Chicago 8 defense fund. The chorus contains the lines, "We can change the world / Rearrange the World".

On the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young live album, 4 Way Street (1971), Nash dedicates the song to "Mayor Daley", a sardonic reference to Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley, who was notoriously antagonistic towards anti-war protesters. CSN and CSNY played the song live throughout their career.

In June 2008, in Denver, Colorado, CSN played a slightly rewritten version of the song called "Denver", in anticipation of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_(Graham_Nash_song)

Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and is considered an icon of modern American liberalism.[1]

Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy attended Harvard University, and later received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He began his career as a correspondent for The Boston Post and as a lawyer at the Justice Department, but later resigned to manage his brother John's successful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1952. The following year, Kennedy worked as an assistant counsel to the Senate committee chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He gained national attention as the chief counsel of the Senate Labor Rackets Committee from 1957 to 1959, where he publicly challenged Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa over the union's corrupt practices. Kennedy resigned from the committee to conduct his brother's successful campaign in the 1960 presidential election. He was appointed United States attorney general at the age of 35, one of the youngest cabinet members in American history.[2] Kennedy served as John's closest advisor until the latter's assassination in 1963.[3]

Kennedy's tenure is known for advocating for the civil rights movement, the fight against organized crime, and involvement in U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba.[4] He authored his account of the Cuban Missile Crisis in a book titled Thirteen Days. As attorney general, Kennedy authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to wiretap Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on a limited basis.[5] After his brother's assassination, he remained in office during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson for several months. He left to run for the U.S. Senate from New York in 1964 and defeated Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating, overcoming criticism that he was a "carpetbagger" from Massachusetts.[6][7] In office, Kennedy opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and raised awareness of poverty by sponsoring legislation designed to lure private business to blighted communities (i.e., Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration project). He was an advocate for issues related to human rights and social justice by traveling abroad to eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Africa, and formed working relationships with Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Walter Reuther.

In 1968, Kennedy became a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency by appealing to poor, African American, Hispanic, Catholic, and young voters.[8] His main challenger in the race was Senator Eugene McCarthy. Shortly after winning the California primary around midnight on June 5, 1968, Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, in retaliation for his support of Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. Kennedy died 25 hours later. Sirhan was arrested, tried, and convicted, though Kennedy's assassination, like his brother's, continues to be the subject of widespread analysis and numerous conspiracy theories.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy

RFK Jr. says autism database will use Medicare and Medicaid info

May 8, 20254:57 PM ET

Alana Wise

NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya, left, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speak before a news conference at the Health and Human Services Department on April 22.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The National Institutes of Health will use information from federal health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid to create a "real-world data platform" to determine the cause of autism, the agency announced this week.

Doctor applying a bandage a patient's arm after an immunization.

Shots - Health News

RFK Jr. to require placebo-controlled studies for new vaccines

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Wednesday that the NIH would team up with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to create the database utilizing insurance claims, electronic medical records and data from wearable devices with health sensors, like smartwatches.

"We're using this partnership to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.

HHS said that CMS and NIH would establish a data use agreement focused on Medicare and Medicaid enrollees — about 36% of Americans — and follow autism diagnoses before expanding their research into additional chronic health conditions.

"Using ASD [Autistic Spectrum Disorders] as the pilot research program, teams at CMS and NIH will establish a secure tech-enabled mechanism to enhance this data sharing with timely, privacy and security compliant data exchange," the statement read.

There was outrage last month after NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya told his staff of plans to compile a database of Americans with autism using private data that could be used to create a national autism registry

A severe autism advocate responds to RFK Jr.'s research initiative

Consider This from NPR

A severe autism advocate responds to RFK Jr.'s research initiative

Unnamed HHS sources told multiple news outlets that the agencies are not creating an autism registry and described the effort instead as a real-world data platform linking existing datasets. NPR has not independently confirmed the reporting.

In Wednesday's statement, NIH's Bhattacharya said that the partnership with CMS was "an important step in our commitment to unlocking the power of real-world data to inform public health decisions and improve lives."

"Linking CMS claims data with a secure real-world NIH data platform, fully compliant with privacy and security laws, will unlock landmark research into the complex factors that drive autism and chronic disease — ultimately delivering superior health outcomes to the Americans we serve," he said.

NPR has reached out to HHS, NIH and CMS, but none responded to requests for comment before publication of this story.

The latest details immediately raised more alarm bells for the autistic community and privacy experts, who questioned how this data would be used and how patients' sensitive data would be protected.

Helen Tager-Flusberg is the director of the Center for Autism Research at Boston University and leader of the Coalition of Autism Scientists, an organization formed in response to Kennedy's widely debunked views on autism.

She warned of the potential for information collected in this database to be abused.

"CMS data includes certain information about individuals — age/date of birth, sex, where they live. It is possible to identify a person based on knowledge about these characteristics," Tager-Flusberg said in an email to NPR.

"While the NIH Director provides assurances that privacy protections will be put in place, we have seen other examples of how this administration has given permission to identify people to certain people working for the federal government. How will this registry be protected?" she asked.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives before President Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs Wednesday in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C.

Public Health

Health secretary RFK Jr. endorses the MMR vaccine — stoking fury among his supporters

The heightened public focus on autism comes as Kennedy has repeatedly vowed to identify the cause of the disorder and ultimately eradicate it.

To that end, Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has made a number of baseless, conspiratorial claims about autism, including that it can be traced back to childhood vaccinations and that an "environmental toxin" is to blame for the uptick in autism diagnoses over the years.

He described autism as "a preventable disease" and said his agency would find the root cause of the disorder by September.

The notion that vaccines cause autism has been thoroughly debunked in medical science, and experts say there is likely no single cause for autism. Bhattacharya, the NIH director, pushed back on the September deadline to find a cause and said that a year timeline was more realistic.

And while a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report did find that autism prevalence in the United States had increased from 1 in 36 children five years ago, to 1 in 31 children in 2022, it is more likely that this is due in large part to more comprehensive screening across a broader population.

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5391310/kennedy-autism-registry-database-hhs-nih-medicare-medicaid

Robert IV de Sablé

(Grand Master 1191-1193)

Robert IV de Sablé was Lord of Sablé, the eleventh Grand Master

of the Knights Templar and Lord of Cyprus from. Sablé-sur-Sarthe,

commonly referred to as Sablé, is a commune in the Sarthe department, in the

Pays de la Loire region, in western France.

Robert was born to a respected military family in Anjou and was a leading

Angevin (House of Anjou) vassal of the king. His lordship was based in a cluster

of lands in the River Sarthe valley, which he inherited in the 1160s.

In 1173, Sablé supported Henry the Young King, heir apparent to the throne of

the Kingdom of England and duchy of Normandy, in a revolt against his father

Henry II during the Revolt of 1173-1174. The uprising was crushed but Robert

must have remained in favor with the Angevin kings, as Richard would later be

instrumental in his appointment as Grand Master. He contributed money to

French monastic houses in 1190 as a way of making amends.

Before his election as Grand Master, he led King Richard I's navy from England

and Normandy to the Mediterranean, getting involved in the Reconquista in

passage. The combined might of Richard the Lionheart's strategy, seasoned

troops, and the elite Templar knights scored many victories. During the Third

Crusade, they laid siege to the city of Acre, which soon fell. Throughout August,

1191, they also recaptured many fortresses and cities along the Levantine coast

in the Eastern Mediterranean, which had been lost previously.

The new coalition's finest hour was the Battle of Arsuf, on September 7, 1191.

Saladin's Muslim forces appeared to have become far stronger than the

Christians, and a decisive victory was desperately needed. Pooling all of the

Crusaders' strength, the Knights Hospitaller joined the ranks, plus many knights

from Sablé's native Anjou, Maine, and Brittany. They met Saladin's troops on the

dry plains and soon broke his ranks. Those who stayed to fight were killed, and

the remaining Islamic troops were forced to retreat.

Sablé was lucky to have been Grand Master at all, as at the time of Gerard de

Ridefort's death, he was not a member of the Templar Order. However, the

senior knights had become increasingly opposed to Masters fighting on the front

line, and the capture and beheading of Grand Master Gerard de Ridefort

became the final straw. They delayed elections for over a year so that the rules

regarding active service of Grand Masters could be reviewed. During this hiatus,

Sablé did join the Order, just in time to be considered for election. When he was

made Grand Master, he had been a Templar knight for less than a year.

Robert died in the Holy Land on September 23, 1193. Although there are no

exact records of his birth date, it is believed that he was relatively old at the time

of his death compared to the average life expectancy of the 12th century.

He was succeeded by Gilbert Horal.

https://library.smotj.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Grand-Masters-of-the-Knights-Templar.pdf

Pope Leo XIII (Italian: Leone XIII; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci;[b] 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Apostle, Pius IX (his immediate predecessor) and John Paul II.

He is well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights to property and free enterprise, opposing both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. With that encyclical, he became popularly titled as the "Social Pope" and the "Pope of the Workers", also having created the foundations for modern thinking in the social doctrines of the Catholic Church, influencing the thoughts of his successors. He influenced the Mariology of the Catholic Church and promoted both the rosary and the scapular. Upon his election, he immediately sought to revive Thomism, the theological system of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, desiring to refer to it as the official political, theological and philosophical foundation for the Catholic Church. As a result, he sponsored the Editio Leonina in 1879.

Leo XIII is particularly remembered for his belief that pastoral activity in political sociology was also a vital mission of the church as a vehicle of social justice and maintaining the rights and dignities of the human person. Leo XIII issued a record of eleven papal encyclicals on the rosary, earning him the title of the "Rosary Pope". In addition, he approved two new Marian scapulars. He was the first pope to have never held any control over the Papal States, which had been dissolved by 1870, since Stephen II in the 8th century. Similarly, many of his policies were oriented towards mitigating the loss of the Papal States in an attempt to overcome the loss of temporal power, but nonetheless continuing the Roman Question. After his death in 1903, he was buried in the Vatican Grottoes before his remains were later transferred in 1924 to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.

Early life and education, 1810–1836

The house in Carpineto Romano in which the Pecci brothers grew up

Gioacchino Pecci was born in Carpineto Romano, near Rome, the sixth of the seven children of Count Domenico Ludovico Pecci (2 June 1767 – 8 March 1833), Patrician of Siena, Colonel of the French Army under Napoleon, and his wife Anna Francesca Prosperi-Buzzi (1773 – 9 August 1824).[1] His uncle Giuseppe Pecci was a protonotary apostolic and referendary of the Signature of Justice and died in 1806. His brothers included Giuseppe and Giovanni Battista or Giambattista Pecci (26 October 1802 - 28 March 1882), 1st Count Pecci, who married on 8 August 1851 Angela Salina (7 February 1830 - 9 October 1899) and had issue, and sister Anna Maria Pecci, wife of Michelangelo Pecci. Until 1818, he lived at home with his family "in which religion counted as the highest grace on earth, as through her, salvation can be earned for all eternity".[2] Together with Giuseppe, he studied in the Jesuit College in Viterbo until 1824.[3] He enjoyed Latin and was known to have written his own Latin poems at the age of eleven.[c] Leo was a descendant of the Italian leader Cola di Rienzo on his mother's side.[5]

Count and Countess Pecci, parents

His siblings were:[6]

Carlo (1793–1879)

Anna Maria (1798–1870)

Caterina (1800–1867)

Giovanni Battista (1802–1881)

Giuseppe (1807–1890)

Fernando (1813–1830)

In 1824, he and Giuseppe were called to Rome, where their mother was dying. Count Pecci wanted his children near him after the loss of his wife and so they stayed with him in Rome and attended the Jesuit Collegium Romanum.

In 1828, the 18-year-old Vincenzo decided in favour of secular clergy, and Giuseppe entered the Jesuit order.[7] Vincenzo studied at the Academia dei Nobili, mainly diplomacy and law. In 1834, he gave a student presentation, attended by several cardinals, on papal judgments. For his presentation, he received awards for academic excellence and gained the attention of Vatican officials.[8] Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Lambruschini introduced him to Vatican congregations. During a cholera epidemic in Rome, he assisted Cardinal Giuseppe Antonio Sala in his duties as overseer of all the city hospitals.[9] In 1836, he received his doctorate in theology and doctorates of civil and Canon Law in Rome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIII

The Robertians (sometimes called the Robertines in modern scholarship) are the proposed Frankish family along with the Karlings which are ancestral to the Capetian dynasty, and thus to the royal families of France and of many other countries (currently Spain and Luxembourg). The Capetians appear first in the records as powerful nobles serving under the Carolingian dynasty of Charlemagne in West Francia, which later became France. As their power increased, they came into conflict with the older royal family and attained the crown several times before the eventual start of the continuous rule of the descendants of Hugh Capet (ruled 987–996).

Hugh's paternal ancestral family, the Robertians, appear in documents that trace the family back to his great-grandfather Robert the Strong (d. 866). His origins remain unclear, but medieval records hint at an origin in East Francia, in present-day Germany, an area then still also ruled by the Carolingians. In particular, Regino of Prüm (died 915) states that Robert the Strong's son Odo was said to be a relative (nepos) of a Count Meingaud, count of an area near Worms, who died in 892, and there are indications that Maingaud's family used the names Robert and Odo.

Modern proposals about their ancestry further back are based on the idea that there was one family which frequently named its sons Robert, including Robert III of Worms (800–834), Robert the Strong (d. 866), and Robert I of France (866–923). For example, one proposed ancestor is Robert of Hesbaye (c. 800), about whom there are almost no records.

The Robertian family figured prominently amongst the Carolingian nobility and married into this royal family. Eventually, the Robertians themselves produced Frankish kings such as the brothers Odo (reigned 888–898) and Robert I (r. 922–923), then Hugh Capet (r. 987–996), who ruled from his seat in Paris as the first Capetian king of France.

Although Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223) was officially the last monarch of France with the title "King of the Franks" (rex Francorum) and the first to style himself "King of France" (roi de France), in (systematic application of) historiography, Hugh Capet holds this distinction. He founded the Capetians, the royal dynasty that ruled France until the revolution of the Second French Republic in 1848—save during the interregnum of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Members of the family still reign in Europe today : both King Felipe VI of Spain and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg descend from this family through the Bourbon cadet branch of the dynasty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertians

Poppy Fields in the Tora Bora Region of Afghanistan

405027 04: An Afghan farmer cuts into a poppy bulb to extract the sap, which will be used to make opium, in a field May 6, 2002 in the village of Markhanai in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. Afghanistan once supplied 70 percent of the world's opium. The country's former Taliban rulers banned poppies in 2000, but farmers quickly planted the lucrative crop again after a U.S. bombing campaign helped push the Islamic militia from power late last year. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-afghan-farmer-cuts-into-a-poppy-bulb-to-extract-the-sap-news-photo/1540301

The Battle of Tora Bora was a military engagement that took place in the cave complex of Tora Bora, eastern Afghanistan, from November 30 – December 17, 2001, during the final stages of the United States invasion of Afghanistan. It was launched by the United States and its allies with the objective to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the militant organization al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden were suspected of being responsible for the September 11 attacks three months prior. Tora Bora (Pashto: تورا بورا; Black Cave) is located in the Spīn Ghar mountain range near the Khyber Pass. The U.S. stated that al-Qaeda had its headquarters there and that it was bin Laden's location at the time.

Background

In Operation Cyclone during the early 1980s, CIA officers had assisted the mujahideen fighters in extending and shoring up the caves to use for resistance during the Soviet–Afghan War.[8] The U.S. then supported their effort. Several years later, the Taliban formed and took control of most of the country, enforcing Islamic fundamentalist rule. Several cave areas were used in much earlier periods, as the difficult terrain formed a natural defensive position and had been used by tribal warriors fighting foreign invaders.

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom to dismantle the Taliban regime that had sheltered Osama bin Laden. To achieve this goal, the U.S. military joined forces with the Northern Alliance, a group of rebels who had long been waging a guerrilla war against the Taliban. Through a combination of air strikes and ground operations, the U.S. and its allies quickly gained the upper hand, seizing control of key Taliban strongholds and toppling the regime's grip on power. By November 13, 2001, the Northern Alliance had captured the capital city of Kabul.

The CIA was closely tracking Osama bin Laden's movements, hoping to locate and catch him. On November 10, 2001, he had been spotted near Jalalabad traveling in a convoy of 200 pick-up trucks heading in the direction of his training camp in Tora Bora mountain.[12] The U.S. had expected bin Laden to make a last stand at Tora Bora, hoping to repeat his success against the Soviets in the Battle of Jaji in 1987. Vice President Dick Cheney revealed in a November 29, 2001 television interview that bin Laden was believed to be in the general area of Tora Bora, surrounded by a sizable force of loyal fighters.[4] The CIA lead in the Panjshir, Gary Berntsen, sent a detachment to team up with Afghan tribal militias around Jalalabad who opposed the Taliban.[12] The Americans climbed the mountains guided by the locals who knew the terrain. After a few days of climbing, they arrived at the training camp in Tora Bora where hundreds of Al-Qaeda fighters could be spotted.[13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tora_Bora

Ancestry

Early life

A portrait of Martin Luther in 1526 by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Plaque on the ruins of Nimbschen Abbey, commemorating von Bora's time there and her escape.

Luther asked the family of the nuns to admit them into their houses, but they declined, possibly because this would have made them accomplices to a crime under canon law.[15]

Marriage to Luther

Three depictions of Katharina von Bora

Martin Luther, as well as many of his friends, was at first unsure of whether he should marry. Philip Melanchthon thought that this would hurt the Reformation by causing scandal. Luther eventually decided that his marriage would 'please his father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh, and the devils to weep'.[16] 26-year-old Von Bora and 41-year-old Luther married on 13 June 1525, before witnesses including Justus Jonas, Johannes Bugenhagen, and Barbara and Lucas Cranach.[17] A small wedding breakfast was held the next morning, and a more formal, public ceremony on 27 June, presided over by Bugenhagen.[18]

The couple took up residence in the former dormitory and educational institution of Augustinian friars studying in Wittenberg (known as the 'Black Monastery'), a wedding gift from John, Elector of Saxony, brother of Luther's protector Frederick III, Elector of Saxony.[19] Katharina immediately took on the task of managing the monastery's vast holdings. She bred and sold cattle and ran a brewery to provide for their family, the numerous students who boarded with them, and her husband's visitors. In times of epidemics, she operated a hospital with nurses, working alongside them. Luther called her the 'boss of Zulsdorf', after the farm they owned, and the 'morning star of Wittenberg' for her habit of rising at 4 a.m.[2]

Based on Luther's descriptions, his wife, whom he nicknamed 'Herr Käthe', exerted much control over his life. She might have even influenced his decisions to a degree; Luther said that his wife 'convince[d] [him] of whatever' she pleased', and explicitly afforded her 'complete control' over the household, as long as 'his rights' were 'preserved', since '[f]emale government has never done any good'.[20] She thus assisted her husband with running their estate and directed renovations when necessary.[21] Anecdotal evidence suggests that Katharina Luther played a wife's role as taught by her husband's movement: she depended on him financially (although she also increased their estate's profits), and respected him as a 'higher vessel', always calling him 'Herr Doktor'. He reciprocated by occasionally consulting her on church matters.[22]

Katharina bore six children: Hans (1526–1575), Elisabeth (1527–1528), Magdalena (1529–1542), Martin (1531–1565), Paul (1533–1593), and Margarete (1534–1570). She also suffered a miscarriage on 1 November 1539. The Luthers raised four orphaned children, including Katharina's nephew, Fabian.[23]

Significance of the marriage

The marriage of von Bora to Luther is very important in the history of Protestantism, specifically in regard to the development of its views on marriage and gender roles. While Luther was not the first cleric to marry because of Reformation ideas, he was one of the most prominent. As he argued publicly for clerical marriage and produced much anti-Catholic propaganda, his marriage became a natural target for his enemies.[24]

After Luther's death

von Bora in 1546

von Bora's gravestone engraving at Saint Mary's Church in Torgau, Germany

When Martin Luther died in 1546, Katharina was left in difficult financial straits without Luther's salary as professor and pastor, even though she owned land, properties, and the Black Cloister. She had been counselled by Martin Luther to move out of the old abbey and sell it after his death, and move into much more modest quarters with the children who remained at home, but she refused.[25] Luther had named her his sole heir in his last will. His will could not be executed, however, because it did not conform with Saxon law.[26]

Almost immediately after, Katharina had to leave the Black Cloister, now called Lutherhaus, by herself, at the outbreak of the Schmalkaldic War, fleeing to Magdeburg. After she returned, the approaching war forced another flight in 1547, this time to Braunschweig. In July 1547, at the close of the war, she was able to return to Wittenberg.[citation needed]

After the war, the buildings and lands of the monastery had been torn apart and laid waste. Cattle and other farm animals had been stolen or killed. If she had sold the land and the buildings, she could have had a good financial situation. Financially, they could not remain there. Katharina was able to support herself thanks to the generosity of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, and the princes of Anhalt.[27]

She remained in Wittenberg in poverty until 1552, when an outbreak of the Black Plague and a harvest failure forced her to leave the city once again. She fled to Torgau, where she was thrown from her cart into a watery ditch near the city gates. For three months, she went in and out of consciousness, before dying in Torgau on 20 December 1552, at the age of 53. She was buried at Torgau's Saint Mary's Church, far from her husband's grave in Wittenberg. She is reported to have said on her deathbed, 'I will stick to Christ as a burr to cloth.'[28]

By the time of Katharina's death, the surviving Luther children were adults. After Katharina's death, the Black Cloister was sold back to the university in 1564 by his heirs.[citation needed]

Margareta Luther, born in Wittenberg on 27 December 1534, married into a noble, wealthy Prussian family, to Georg von Kunheim (Wehlau, 1 July 1523 – Mühlhausen [now Gvardeyskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast], 18 October 1611, the son of Georg von Kunheim [1480–1543] and wife Margarethe, Truchsessin von Wetzhausen [1490–1527]) but died in Mühlhausen in 1570 at the age of thirty-six.[29]

Commemoration

Katharina von Bora is commemorated on 20 December in the Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran churches in the United States.[30] In 2022, she was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day on 20 December.[31]

In addition to a statue in Wittenberg and several biographies, an opera of her life now keeps her memory alive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharina_von_Bora

Augustinians and Cistercians | Church and Society in the Medieval West

One newly founded order broke with the rule of Benedict, finding its inspiration in a letter of Augustine is that prescribed simply that monks share all their property, pray together at regular intervals, dress alike, and obey a superior. Some of the “Augustinians,” as they called themselves, interpreted these general rules severely, living in silence, performing manual labor, eating and drinking sparingly, and singing psalms; others ate meat, conversed among themselves, and did not insist on manual labor.

Often beginning as small informal foundations, the Augustinians attracted modest donations from relatively modest donors. Unlike Cluny, with its vast collections of buildings crowned by a great and splendid church, the Augustinian foundations were simple and humble. The Augustinians preached, baptized, heard confessions, and helped the poor unobtrusively. They multiplied rapidly, and in the thirteenth century there were thousands of Augustinian houses in England and on the Continent.

Founded only a little later, the Cistercians abandoned the world instead of living in it. Their original house, Citeaux (Cistercium) in Burgundy, lay in a dismal wasteland far from the distractions of the world. There they pioneered land reclamation and launched a period of agricultural expansion. By the twelfth century the Cistercians were looked to for their knowledge of how to make previously uncultivated lands, often swamps, productive. They considered themselves the only true Benedictines, vet the self-denial, poverty, and wholly spiritual life that the Cistercians adopted was often seen by their contemporaries as arrogant, worldly, and even greedy.

Perhaps the best-known Cistercian leader was Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1091-1153), who in 1115 led a band of Cistercians to a new and remote site from which he influenced worldly affairs to a remarkable degree, preaching for a Second Crusade and attacking the scholastic method of teaching. As he wrote, “There are many who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge: that is curiosity. There are others who desire to know in order that they themselves be known: that is vanity. Others seek knowledge in order to sell it: that is dishonorable. But there are also some who seek knowledge in order to edify others. That is love.” He launched significant reforms in teaching, the observance of church rules, and attitudes toward worship.

In the end, the Cistercians, too, changed. Display conquered austerity, and aristocratic traditions quenched humility. By the thirteenth century, great Cistercian monasteries were wealthy centers of production. The expensive arts of architecture and sculpture were lavished on their buildings. These Cistercian monasteries had become great corporations, thoroughly tied into the increasingly complex web of medieval economic life.

https://bigsiteofhistory.com/augustinians-and-cistercians-church-and-society-in-the-medieval-west

The Cistercian Order

Main article: Cistercians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluniac_Reforms

Farewell in Christ.

Rome, the house of the Society of Jesus, 1559 [7]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Robert Swan Mueller III (/ˈmʌlər/; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013.

A graduate of Princeton University and New York University, Mueller served as a Marine Corps officer during the Vietnam War, receiving a Bronze Star for heroism and a Purple Heart. He subsequently attended the University of Virginia School of Law. Mueller is a registered Republican in Washington, D.C.,[1] and was appointed and reappointed to Senate-confirmed positions by presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.[2][3]

Mueller has served both in government and private practice. He was an assistant United States attorney, a United States attorney, United States assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, a homicide prosecutor in Washington, D.C., acting United States deputy attorney general, partner at D.C. law firm WilmerHale and director of the FBI. He is the only FBI Director that Congress has allowed to serve more than the statutory limit of 10 years since the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972 by giving him a special two-year extension.

On May 17, 2017, Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and related matters.[4] He submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019.[5] On April 18, the Department of Justice released it.[6][7] On May 29, he resigned his post and the Office of the Special Counsel was closed.

Early life and education

Mueller was born on August 7, 1944, at Doctors Hospital in the New York City borough of Manhattan,[8][9] the first child of Alice C. Truesdale (1920–2007) and Robert Swan Mueller Jr. (1916–2007). He has four younger sisters: Susan, Sandra, Joan, and Patricia.[10] His father was an executive with DuPont who had served as a Navy officer in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters during World War II.[10] His father majored in psychology at Princeton University and played varsity lacrosse.

Mueller is of German, English, and Scottish descent. His paternal great-grandfather, Gustave A. Mueller, was a prominent doctor in Pittsburgh, whose own father, August C. E. Müller, had immigrated to the United States in 1855 from the Province of Pomerania in the Kingdom of Prussia (a historical territory whose area included land now part of Poland and the north-eastern edge of Germany).[11] On his mother's side, he is a great-grandson of the railroad executive William Truesdale.[12]

Mueller grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, where he attended Princeton Country Day School (now known as the Princeton Day School). After he completed eighth grade, his family moved to Philadelphia while Mueller himself went on to attend St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire for high school, where he was captain of the soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams and won the Gordon Medal as the school's top athlete in 1962.[13][14] A lacrosse teammate and classmate at St. Paul's School was future Massachusetts Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry.[15]

After graduating from St. Paul's, Mueller entered Princeton University, where he continued to play lacrosse,[16] receiving a Bachelor of Arts in politics in 1966 after completing a senior thesis titled "Acceptance of Jurisdiction in the South West Africa Cases."[17] Mueller was a member of University Cottage Club while he was a student at Princeton.[18] Mueller earned a Master of Arts in international relations from New York University in 1967.

In 1968, Mueller joined the United States Marine Corps.[19] After his military service, he enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law where he served on the Virginia Law Review and graduated in 1973.[20]

United States Marine Corps service

Mueller as a Marine lieutenant

Mueller has cited the combat death of his Princeton lacrosse teammate David Spencer Hackett in the Vietnam War as an influence on his decision to pursue military service.[21] Of his classmate, Mueller has said, "One of the reasons I went into the Marine Corps was because we lost a very good friend, a Marine in Vietnam, who was a year ahead of me at Princeton. There were a number of us who felt we should follow his example and at least go into the service. And it flows from there."[22] Hackett was a Marine Corps first lieutenant in the infantry and was killed in 1967 in Quảng Trị province by small arms fire.[23]

After waiting a year so a knee injury could heal, Mueller was accepted for officer training in the United States Marine Corps in 1968, attending training at Parris Island, Officer Candidate School, Army Ranger School, and Army jump school. Of these, he said later that he considered Ranger School the most valuable because he felt "more than anything teaches you about how you react with no sleep and nothing to eat."[24][25]

In the summer of 1968, he was sent to South Vietnam, where he served as a rifle platoon leader as a second lieutenant with Second Platoon, H Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division.[9][26] On December 11, 1968, during an engagement in Operation Scotland II, he earned the Bronze Star with "V" device for combat valor for rescuing a wounded Marine under enemy fire during an ambush in which he saw half of his platoon become casualties.[27][28] In April 1969, he received an enemy gunshot wound in the thigh, recovered, and returned to lead his platoon until June 1969.[29] For his service in and during the Vietnam War, his military decorations and awards include: the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V", Purple Heart Medal, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals with Combat "V", Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with four service stars, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Parachutist Badge.[9][29][25][30]

After recuperating at a field hospital near Da Nang, Mueller became aide-de-camp to 3rd Marine Division's commanding general, then–Major General William K. Jones, where he "significantly contributed to the rapport" Jones had with other officers, according to one report.[24][31]

Mueller had originally considered making the Marines his career, but he explained later that he found non-combat life in the corps to be unexciting.[25] After returning from South Vietnam, Mueller was briefly stationed at Henderson Hall, before leaving active-duty service in August 1970[31] at the rank of captain.[31]

Reflecting on his service in the Vietnam War, Mueller said, "I consider myself exceptionally lucky to have made it out of Vietnam. There were many—many—who did not. And perhaps because I did survive Vietnam, I have always felt compelled to contribute."[32] In 2009, he told a writer that despite his other accomplishments, he was still "most proud the Marine Corps deemed me worthy of leading other Marines."[25]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mueller

V For Virginia City NV Mail Drop is a photograph by LeeAnn McLaneGoetz McLaneGoetzStudioLLCcom which was uploaded on July 16th, 2011.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/v-for-virginia-city-nv-mail-drop-leeann-mclane-goetz.html

Mueller Water Products, Inc. (MWP) is a publicly traded company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of fire hydrants, gate valves, and other water infrastructure products in North America.[3] MWP is made up of two business units—Mueller Co. and Mueller Technologies—that oversee more than a dozen brands and affiliates, including Echologics and Mueller Systems.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_Water_Products

Draining the Swamp

From the beginning, the creators of Washington, D.C., went to some trouble to conceal that their capital was built on shaky ground.

By Ted Widmer

January 19, 2017

On October 17th, during a speech on ethics reform, Donald Trump announced, “It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.” A day later, he repeated the phrase in a tweet, adding the hashtag #draintheswamp for good measure. It was late in the campaign for a new slogan, but soon audiences were chanting it.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/draining-the-swamp

"Mirror Image" is the twenty-first episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on February 26, 1960, on CBS.

Opening narration

Millicent Barnes, age twenty-five, young woman waiting for a bus on a rainy November night. Not a very imaginative type is Miss Barnes: not given to undue anxiety, or fears, or for that matter even the most temporal flights of fantasy. Like most young career women, she has a generic classification as a, quote, girl with a head on her shoulders, end of quote. All of which is mentioned now because, in just a moment, the head on Miss Barnes' shoulders will be put to a test. Circumstances will assault her sense of reality and a chain of nightmares will put her sanity on a block. Millicent Barnes, who, in one minute, will wonder if she's going mad.

Plot

Millicent Barnes waits in a bus depot in New York for a bus to Cortland, en route to a new job. Looking at a wall clock she notices the bus is late. She asks the ticket agent when the bus will arrive, and he gruffly complains that this is her third time asking. Millicent denies this. While speaking with him, she notices a bag just like hers on the floor behind the desk. She mentions this and the agent responds that it is her bag. She does not believe this until she notices her bag is not beside the bench anymore. She washes her hands in the restroom and the cleaning lady there insists this is her second time there. Again, Millicent denies this. Upon leaving the restroom, she glances in the mirror and sees, in addition to her reflection, an exact copy of herself sitting on the bench outside.

Millicent then meets a genial young man from Binghamton named Paul Grinstead, who is waiting for the same bus. Paul encourages Millicent to tell him what obviously is bothering her, so she explains about encountering her double. Attempting to calm her, Paul says it is either a joke or a misunderstanding caused by a look-alike. When the bus arrives and the two of them prepare to board, Millicent happens to look up at the windows and sees the copy of herself, already seated on the bus with a malevolent look on her face. In shock, Millicent runs back into the depot and faints.

Millicent lies unconscious on a bench inside the depot while Paul and the cleaning lady attend to her. Paul decides to wait for the 7:00 a.m. bus. While they wait, Millicent, now coming to, insists the strange events are caused by an evil double from a parallel world – a nearby, yet distant alternative plane of existence that comes into convergence with this world as a result of powerful forces, or unnatural, unknown events. When these events occur, the impostors enter this realm. Millicent's doppelgänger can survive in this world only by eliminating and replacing her. Paul says the explanation is "a little metaphysical" for him, and believes that Millicent's sanity is beginning to unravel. Paul tells Millicent he will call a friend in Tully who has a car and may be able to drive them to Syracuse. Instead, he calls the police.

After Millicent is taken away by two policemen, Paul settles down. After drinking from a water fountain, Paul notices that his valise is now missing. Looking up toward the doors, Paul notices another man running out the door of the bus depot. Pursuing this individual down the street, Paul discovers that he is chasing his own copy, whose face shows a malevolent delight. His copy disappears as Paul calls out "Where are you?" while looking around in confusion and shock.

Closing narration

Obscure and metaphysical explanation to cover a phenomenon. Reasons dredged out of the shadows to explain away that which cannot be explained. Call it 'parallel planes' or just 'insanity'. Whatever it is, you'll find it in the Twilight Zone.

Episode notes

In a short film pitching the Twilight Zone series to a Dutch television station, creator Rod Serling claimed to have gotten the idea for "Mirror Image" following an encounter at an airport. Serling noticed a man at the other side of the terminal who wore the same clothes and carried the same suitcase as himself; Serling considered what would happen if the man turned around and was revealed to be a duplicate of himself. However, the man turned out to be younger and "more attractive".[1] This episode is one of several episodes from season one with its opening title sequence plastered over with the opening for season two. This was done during the summer of 1961 to help the season one shows blend in with the new look the show would take during the following season.

This episode inspired Jordan Peele's 2019 film Us.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_Image_(The_Twilight_Zone)

Roberts v. United States Jaycees

by William J. Brennan Jr.

July 03, 1984

Edited and introduced by Joseph R. Fornieri

Cite

Image: Official portraits of the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court: Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002721281/

The Judiciary

Study Questions

Related Resources

Why do you think this decision was unanimous? How did Justice Brennan affirm the right to freedom of association under the First Amendment? How did the Court weigh freedom of association against antidiscrimination law? What are the different kinds of associations Justice Brennan described? Explain his statement: “Between these poles, of course, lies a broad range of human relationships that may make greater or lesser claims to constitutional protection from particular incursions by the state.” Why are some associations entitled to more protection than others? Do you agree? What “features” of the Jaycees did not warrant the heightened protection of other kinds of associations?

Compare Brennan’s reasoning in Roberts with Rehnquist’s opinion in Boy Scouts v. Dale. Compare the Court’s opinion in NAACP with Roberts. Why did the claim of association prevail in NAACP but not in Roberts? Do you agree?

Introduction

Established in 1920, the United States Junior Chamber (Jaycees) is a nonprofit, private organization dedicated to assisting young men in philanthropic, educational, and civic enterprises. The by-laws of the national organization stipulated both regular and associate membership. Regular membership, which included privileges of voting and officeholding, was restricted to males age eighteen to thirty-five. Associate membership did not include these privileges but was open to women and older men. In disregard of the national by-laws, the Minnesota chapter admitted women as regular members with voting and officeholding rights. The national organization sought to revoke the chapter’s membership for this infraction. Kathryn R. Roberts, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, sued in defense of the Minnesota chapter. She claimed that the national organization’s ban on women from regular membership violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act as “an unfair discriminatory practice.” The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in favor of the national Jaycees against Roberts.

The Supreme Court reversed in a unanimous 7–0 decision. (Chief Justice Warren Burger [1907–1995] and Justice Harry Blackmun [1908–1999] did not take part in the case.) Roberts v. United States Jaycees was the first case in which the Court sought to balance the group rights of association with the state’s interest in preventing discrimination. In striking this balance, Brennan’s opinion distinguished a broad spectrum of different kinds of associations and their corresponding levels of First Amendment protection. In sum, while affirming that the First Amendment includes a right to association, Justice William J. Brennan (1906–1997) concluded that this right is not absolute.

—Joseph R. Fornieri

Source: 468 U.S. 609, https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/468/609.

JUSTICE BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case requires us to address a conflict between a state’s efforts to eliminate gender-based discrimination against its citizens and the constitutional freedom of association asserted by members of a private organization. In the decision under review, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit concluded that, by requiring the United States Jaycees to admit women as full voting members, the Minnesota Human Rights Act violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the organization’s members. We . . . now reverse. . . .

Our decisions have referred to constitutionally protected “freedom of association” in two distinct senses. In one line of decisions, the Court has concluded that choices to enter into and maintain certain intimate human relationships must be secured against undue intrusion by the state because of the role of such relationships in safeguarding the individual freedom that is central to our constitutional scheme. In this respect, freedom of association receives protection as a fundamental element of personal liberty. In another set of decisions, the Court has recognized a right to associate for the purpose of engaging in those activities protected by the First Amendment—speech, assembly, petition for the redress of grievances, and the exercise of religion. The Constitution guarantees freedom of association of this kind as an indispensable means of preserving other individual liberties. The intrinsic and instrumental features of constitutionally protected association may, of course, coincide. In particular, when the state interferes with individuals’ selection of those with whom they wish to join in a common endeavor, freedom of association in both of its forms may be implicated. The Jaycees contend that this is such a case. Still, the nature and degree of constitutional protection afforded freedom of association may vary depending on the extent to which one or the other aspect of the constitutionally protected liberty is at stake in a given case. We therefore find it useful to consider separately the effect of applying the Minnesota statute to the Jaycees on what could be called its members’ freedom of intimate association and their freedom of expressive association.

The Court has long recognized that, because the Bill of Rights is designed to secure individual liberty, it must afford the formation and preservation of certain kinds of highly personal relationships a substantial measure of sanctuary from unjustified interference by the state (e.g., Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 1925; Meyer v. Nebraska, 1923). Without precisely identifying every consideration that may underlie this type of constitutional protection, we have noted that certain kinds of personal bonds have played a critical role in the culture and traditions of the nation by cultivating and transmitting shared ideals and beliefs; they thereby foster diversity and act as critical buffers between the individual and the power of the state. Moreover, the constitutional shelter afforded such relationships reflects the realization that individuals draw much of their emotional enrichment from close ties with others. Protecting these relationships from unwarranted state interference therefore safeguards the ability independently to define one’s identity that is central to any concept of liberty.

The personal affiliations that exemplify these considerations, and that therefore suggest some relevant limitations on the relationships that might be entitled to this sort of constitutional protection, are those that attend the creation and sustenance of a family—marriage (e.g., Zablocki v. Redhail); childbirth (e.g., Carey v. Population Services International); the raising and education of children (e.g., Smith v. Organization of Foster Families); and cohabitation with one’s relatives (e.g., Moore v. East Cleveland). Family relationships, by their nature, involve deep attachments and commitments to the necessarily few other individuals with whom one shares not only a special community of thoughts, experiences, and beliefs, but also distinctively personal aspects of one’s life. Among other things, therefore, they are distinguished by such attributes as relative smallness, a high degree of selectivity in decisions to begin and maintain the affiliation, and seclusion from others in critical aspects of the relationship. As a general matter, only relationships with these sorts of qualities are likely to reflect the considerations that have led to an understanding of freedom of association as an intrinsic element of personal liberty. Conversely, an association lacking these qualities—such as a large business enterprise—seems remote from the concerns giving rise to this constitutional protection. Accordingly, the Constitution undoubtedly imposes constraints on the state’s power to control the selection of one’s spouse that would not apply to regulations affecting the choice of one’s fellow employees.

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/roberts-v-united-states-jaycees/

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in the United States on November 7, 2028, to elect the president and vice president of the United States for a term of four years.

In the 2024 elections, the Republican Party gained a majority of seats in the House of Representatives and Senate. Incumbent president Donald Trump won a non-consecutive second term; per the limits set by the 22nd Amendment, he is constitutionally barred from being elected president again.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2028_United_States_presidential_election

James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman;[a] August 2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States serving under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 2023 to 2025.

Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio. After high school, Vance joined the Marine Corps, where he served as a military journalist from 2003 to 2007, and was deployed to the Iraq War for six months in 2005. He graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in 2009 and Yale Law School with a law degree in 2013. He practiced briefly as a corporate lawyer before embarking on a career in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. His memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, was published in 2016[2] and adapted into a film in 2020.

Vance won the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio, defeating Democratic nominee Tim Ryan. After initially opposing Donald Trump's candidacy in the 2016 election, Vance became a strong Trump supporter during Trump's first presidency. In July 2024, Trump selected Vance as his running mate before the Republican National Convention. He served as Ohio's senator until his resignation in preparation to assume the vice presidency in January 2025. Vance is the third-youngest vice president in U.S. history, as well as the first millennial to hold the office.

Vance has been characterized as a national conservative and right-wing populist, and he describes himself as a member of the postliberal right. His political positions include opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and gun control. Vance is an outspoken critic of childlessness and has credited the influence of Catholic theology on his sociopolitical positions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_Vance

Politics

Vance says it was "pretty crazy" that he met Pope Francis in his last 24 hours

By Kaia Hubbard

April 23, 2025 / 9:58 AM EDT / CBS News

Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that it was "pretty crazy" that he was among the last officials to meet with Pope Francis before his death earlier this week.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-death-jd-vance-meeting/

EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS

AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA

Javier A. Montoya

May 2010

Chair: Nina Caputo

Major: History

The alumbrados of Spain were a mystical Christian movement that arose in the 1510s. Initially enjoying noble patronage and an environment of spiritual exploration fostered by the reforms of Cardinal Cisneros, the alumbrados spread their ideas throughout Castile. Led by charismatic female spiritual leaders or beatas, the alumbrados’ brief era of success ended when two of its leaders came before the Tribunal of Toledo in 1524. With a membership consisting mostly of second-generation conversos, the alumbrados advocated an interiorized approach to Christianity under the aegis of dejamiento. The meditational practice of dejamiento called upon its practitioners to “abandon” themselves to God and His will effectively releasing themselves from their ties (ataduras) to the material world that included the Church and the priesthood.

By 1525, convinced of the heretical nature of alumbradismo, the Inquisitors published El edicto contra los alumbrados consisting of 48 alumbrado Propositions followed by official Inquisitorial refutation and condemnation. The Edict of 1525 presented the alumbrados as a dangerous group of heretics in its attempt to delegitimize their beliefs.

This study focuses on the Inquisitors’ diction in their responses to and qualifications of the alumbrado Propositions, specifically their usage of the words loca (crazy) and locura

(madness). The usage of loca is then placed within a discourse about the attitudes prevalent in Castilian society towards conversos and beatas with the understanding that stereotyping and general dislike and fear of both groups contributed much to the Inquisitors’ reactions to the alumbrado Propositions. The Edict also reveals the Inquisitors’ interpretative difficulties in classifying alumbradismo and placing it within their continuum of heresy. The usage of loca as a negative qualifier in Inquisitorial responses was meant to highlight the danger the movement posed to Catholic orthodoxy. The alumbrados challenged the Inquisitors’ cosmological views and pre-established categories of heresy. In turn, the Inquisitors designated the alumbrados a novelty placing them in a third space of heresy, one neither crypto-Jewish nor Protestant and lying somewhere between heterodoxy and orthodoxy.

The analysis of the intertwined factors of the Inquisitorial portrayal of the alumbrados and the alumbrados’ status as conversos and women is placed within an overall discourse that addresses the historiographic problems that historians of alumbradismo have faced. As such, the alumbrados are presented as free as possible from labels of heresy or comparison to other contemporary religious movements. Inquisitorial testimonies and documents remain the primary sources of alumbrado history, however, this thesis attempts to set aside the Inquisitors’ interpretation of alumbradismo when representing their ideas. The alumbrados then function as an example of the growing spiritual and religious unrest prevalent in sixteenth century Europe and as an example of a uniquely converso understanding of Christianity.

https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/uf/e0/04/13/85/00001/montoya_j.pdf

Roberto Gualtieri (born 19 July 1966) is an Italian historian, academic and politician of the Democratic Party (PD), incumbent Mayor of Rome since 2021 and Minister of Economy and Finances in the second government of Giuseppe Conte from 2019 until 2021.[1] He previously was a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019, where he chaired the influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee within the Parliament from 2014 until 2019.[2]

Early life and career

Gualtieri was born in Rome in 1966. In 1992 he graduated in Literature and Philology at Sapienza University of Rome.[3] In 1997, he obtained a Ph.D. in history at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Storici di San Marino.[4] Gualtieri later became professor of Contemporary history at Sapienza University of Rome, where he had authored several books and articles on twentieth century Italian history and on the history of European integration.[5]

Political career

Since 2001, Gualtieri has been deputy director of the Gramsci Institute Foundation.[6] In the same year, he became a member of Democrats of the Left (DS), the main social-democratic political party in Italy, direct heir of the Italian Communist Party.

In 2006, Gualtieri was among the founders of the Democratic Party (Congress of Orvieto, October 2006) and he was among the "wise men" who wrote its Manifesto.[7] In 2007 he was elected to the National Assembly of the party and since 2008 he has been a member of its National board, where he was confirmed in 2014.[8] Gualtieri voted against party leader Matteo Renzi in favour of post-communists both in 2013 and 2014 (the year Renzi won the leadership ballot).[9]

From 2008 to 2011, Gualtieri served as director (with José Luis Rhi-Sausi) of the "Annual Report on European Integration" (published by Il Mulino).[10] Since 2009, he is a member of the editorial committee of the Foundation "Italianieuropei" .

Member of the European Parliament

In 2009, Gualtieri was appointed S&D Group coordinator for the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) and standing rapporteur for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) budget in the Committee on Budgets (BUDG). He was also a full member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and substitute of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET).[2] In 2010, he was appointed S&D Group negotiator within the EP negotiating team (with Elmar Brok and Guy Verhofstadt) on the creation of the European External Action Service.[11] In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the parliament's delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly between 2009 and 2014.

Gualtieri as a MEP in 2014

In December 2011, Gualtieri was part of the European Parliament negotiating team (with Brok, Verhofstadt and Daniel Cohn-Bendit) for the establishment of the "Fiscal Compact".[12] In October 2012, he was designated "sherpa" negotiator for the European Parliament (with Brok, Verhofstadt and Cohn-Bendit) in the working group set up by Herman Van Rompuy on a Genuine Economic and Monetary Union.[13] In 2013 he was co-rapporteur of the Report on constitutional problems of a multitier governance in the European Union with Rafał Trzaskowski.[14] In 2013, he participated in the elaboration of the new Treaty for the European Union, with Brok, Verhofstaft, Cohn-Bendit, Andrew Duff and Jo Leinen, promoted by the "Spinelli Group", of which he is a member.[15]

From 2013, Gualtieri was member of the Spinelli Group in the European Parliament,[15] and he has been among the authors of the "Fundamental Law of the European Union" (with Elmar Brok, Guy Verhofstadt, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Andrew Duff and Jo Leinen), published by the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Gualtieri led the EU-Election Observer Missions for the parliamentary election in Kosovo in 2014[16] and the 2013 municipal elections in Kosovo.

Following his re-election as an MEP in July 2014, Gualtieri was elected Chairman of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.[17] On the committee, he served as rapporteur of several files, among which the Annual Banking Union report, statistical files, including the appointments of heads and board members of the European Central Bank, the Single Resolution Board, the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority. He chaired the EP Financial Assistance Working Group, established in 2016 to monitor the implementation of third Greek financial assistance program, and the Committee's Banking Union Working Group.

From 2016, Gualtieri was also a member of the Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion. In addition, he was a member of the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue (TLD),[18] the European Parliament Intergroup on Integrity (Transparency, Anti-Corruption and Organized Crime)[19] and of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights.[20]

Roberto Gualtieri in Estonia, 2017

From 2017, Gualtieri served on the Parliament's so-called Brexit Steering Group, which works under the aegis of the Conference of Presidents and to coordinates Parliament's deliberations, considerations and resolutions on the UK's withdrawal from the EU.[21] Within group, he was – together with Guy Verhofstadt and Elmar Brok – one of the Parliament's representatives at the European Council Sherpa meetings on Brexit.

Following the 2019 elections, Gualtieri was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's five-year work program on economic and fiscal policies as well as trade.[22]

Shortly after, Gualtieri was elected vice-chair of the S&D Group, under the leadership of chairwoman Iratxe García.[23]

Minister of Economy and Finance

Gualtieri with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin

In August 2019 tensions grew within the populist government, leading to the issuing of a motion of no-confidence on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte by the League.[24] After Conte's resignation, the national board of the PD officially opened to the possibility of forming a new cabinet in a coalition with the M5S,[25] based on pro-Europeanism, green economy, sustainable development, fight against economic inequality and a new immigration policy.[26] The party also accepted that Conte may continue at the head of a new government,[27] and on 29 August President Sergio Mattarella formally invested Conte to do so.[28] On 5 September 2019 Gualtieri was appointed Minister of Economy and Finance.[29]

On 26 January 2020, Gualtieri was picked by the centre-left coalition as its candidate at the incoming by-election in the constituency of Rome Quartiere Trionfale for the Chamber of Deputies. The by-election follows the resignation of Paolo Gentiloni from his seat in the Chamber after his appointment as European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs in the von der Leyen Commission.[30]

In July 2020, Gualtieri, along with Prime Minister Conte and Minister Vincenzo Amendola, played a key role in one of the longest European Councils in history. After days of harsh confrontations,[31] the European leaders agreed on a new proposal by the President of the Council, Charles Michel, which provided a budget of €750 billion for the so-called Recovery Fund, composed of €390 billion in grants and €360 billion in loans.[32] Italy would benefit from nearly €82 billion in grants and €127 billion in loans.[33][34]

In January 2021, the centrist party Italia Viva withdrew its support for Conte's government.[35] Although Conte was able to win confidence votes in the Parliament in the subsequent days, he chose to resign after failing to reach an absolute majority in the Senate.[36] When negotiations to form Conte's third cabinet failed, the former President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, formed a national unity government, in which Gualtieri was not confirmed as minister.[37]

Mayor of Rome

On 9 May 2021, Gualtieri officially announced his candidacy as Mayor of Rome in the upcoming election.[38] On 18 October, he defeated the centre-right candidate, Enrico Michetti, with 60.2% of votes.[39] He took office on 21 October 2021.[40]

Political positions

Gualtieri is a social democrat and often describes himself as a Keynesian.[41]

In 2016, the magazine Politico ranked Gualtieri as number 8 among 40 most influential MEPs.[42]

Personal life

Gualtieri is married and he has a son.[43] He was once a semi-professional bossa nova musician who accompanied Brazilian singer Rosalia de Souza when she performed in Italy.[9]

Other activities

European Union institutions

European Investment Bank (EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019–2021)[44]

European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (2019–2021)[45]

International organizations

African Development Bank (AfDB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019–2021)

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019–2021)[46]

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019–2021)[47]

International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2019–2021)[48]

Non-profit organizations

New Pact for Europe, Member of the Advisory Group[49]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Gualtieri

Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri is a fictional character portrayed by Tony Sirico on the HBO series The Sopranos, one of the chief henchmen of series protagonist Tony Soprano. Sirico auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior with Frank Vincent, but Dominic Chianese landed the role. David Chase instead offered him the role of Paulie Gualtieri and Sirico agreed under the condition that his character would not "become a rat".[3][4] Paulie begins the series as a soldier, later becoming a captain in the DiMeo crime family.[5] He is violent, impulsive, quick-witted, sarcastic and paranoid. Billy Magnussen portrays a young Paulie Gualtieri in the 2021 prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark. Paulie Walnuts is one of the most prominent characters in The Sopranos, and one of the viewers' favorites.[6] Sirico's performance has received acclaim from critics and audiences.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulie_Gualtieri