via CNS: For young men and women, competitive sports like soccer not only help strengthen their bodies, but also help strengthen their souls in creating last bonds of friendship through teamwork, Pope Francis said. Speaking to 6,000 young people at a gathering co-sponsored by the Italian Gaming Federation of Soccer May 24, the pope encouraged… Read More Pope Francis: Soccer Offers an Alternative to Isolation and Self-Centeredness

via PBS NewsHour: While one phrase of Syria’s brutal nine-year civil war may be concluding, the systemic forced disappearance, torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of Syrians has not ceased. Amna Nawaz talks to Anne Barnard of the Council on Foreign Relations and formerly The New York Times about the staggering inhumanity of Bashar… Read More More Than 100,000 Have Entered Assad’s Prisons — And Never Returned

A new pledge from the Whole Life Movement that many Millennial readers may be interested in exploring and signing (via Whole Life: Pro-life Democrats, Progressives, and Feminists): The Whole Life Movement is committed to: A comprehensive approach to abortion that includes legal protections for unborn children and adequate support for pregnant women and families so… Read More The Whole Life Pledge

Kelly Sankowski writes: “In my life, Christus Vivit affirms that the dreams and desires I have as a young adult Catholic are the ways in which God is calling me to deeper relationship with Him – my vocation and my holiness are not just things that unfold outside of myself and my experience, but are… Read More Millennial Catholics on Christus Vivit

Michael Gerson writes: Donald Trump’s reelection would entrench a particularly vicious brand of know-nothingism, advocated with tireless arrogance, combined with resolute ignorance, enabled by steadfast sycophancy…. In most of Europe (and Latin America), an alternative would be obvious: a movement known as “Christian democracy.” This approach emerged under mainly Catholic influence in the 19th century.… Read More Is There a Political Home for Those Who Seek Solidarity Not Sectarian Supremacy?

via Reuters: A close aide to Pope Francis has drawn the ire of Italy’s anti-immigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini by climbing down a manhole to restore electricity to hundreds of homeless people living in an occupied building. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, 55, whose job is to distribute the pope’s charity funds, went to the disused state-owned… Read More The ‘Pope’s Robin Hood’ Illegally Restores Electricity for the Homeless