The Home Front

Show Notes:

Vatican appeal court orders review of financial trial investigation (The Pillar)

Vatican appeals court declares mistrial in the ‘trial of the century’ against a cardinal (AP)

Phil on that New York Times obituary for Paul Erlich

The Resourceful Earth: A Response to Global 2000 (edited by Julian Simon and Herman Kahn) (affiliate link)

The coming population implosion (Phil Lawler)

How does bottle-feeding relate to the extraordinary amplification of Paul Erlich’s Zero Population Growth message? Listen here:

Carrie Gress, Something Wicked: Why Feminism Can’t Be Fused with Christianity (affiliate link)

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Show Notes:

Bishop Robert Barron on the potential closing of La Trappe

Archived version of “I Regret Having Children”

Pope Pius XII on Large Families

Massive funeral in Lebanon for the Maronite priest Pierre El-Raii

“This is our home”: Christians from southern Lebanon resist evacuating the area after the death of Father Pierre el-Raï

Lebanese Foreign Minister requests Holy See’s help for Christians in South (Vatican News)

Cardinal of Tehran evacuates to Rome

What a Session looks like at MacMaster-Leahy house (and it’s very much like the concert!)

Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil: What to listen for.

Lawler Family Book Club - 2026 (here’s our Amazon affiliate link — anything you buy when you open this tab, for 24 hours, sends a little change our way at no cost to you — thank you!)

February: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

April: Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner

June/July: Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

August: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

October: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

December: City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge

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Show Notes:

Exclusive: The Trump-Netanyahu call that changed the Middle East ~ Axios (archived link here).

Iran: Is this war just? The questions are clear; the future is not by Phil Lawler

U.S. Supreme Court Delivers Historic, Groundbreaking Victory for Parental Rights, Dismantles California’s Secret Gender Transition Regime ~ Thomas More Society

Blessed: The martyrs of Compiègne — film by François Lespes with subtitles.

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Show Notes:

What if I’m wrong? Phil’s CatholicCulture column on the SSPX imbroglio. “For all these reasons I deeply regret the SSPX plan to proceed with the episcopal ordinations. But what if I’m wrong?”

The reckoning the SSPX requires by Phil Lawler

Cardinal McElroy’s Conscience Trap (Synodality) by Leila Marie Lawler

Film: For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada (2012)

The Cristero Counterrevolution and the Battle for the Soul of Mexico Os Justi Press

Viva Cristo Rey! The Cristeros Versus the Mexican Revolution (This Rock) by Christopher Check

Catholic World News News Feature: Beatification for Cristeros martyrs September 02, 2005

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Show Notes:

Bishop Rhoades expresses ‘strong opposition’ to pro-abortion professor’s appointment at Notre Dame (EWTN)

Amid criticism by bishops, Notre Dame says pro-abortion professor ‘well prepared’ to lead institute (EWTN)

More bishops call for Notre Dame to drop appointment of pro-abortion professor (EWTN)

Notre Dame must choose courage. An excellent piece by a Notre Dame undergraduate, Liam Kelly, in the independent campus newspaper, The Observer. “Notre Dame is now at a time for choosing. It must decide whether it will remain resolutely and unapologetically a Catholic university or if it will continue down the slow and lamentable drift of secularization.”

Why I’m Done with Notre Dame (Professor Christian Smith in First Things)

The Land O’ Lakes Statement Has Caused Devastation For 50 Years (Essay by Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society, from 2017)

God and Man at Yale, by William F. Buckley, Jr. (1951) (affiliate link)

Josef Pieper, Not Yet the Twilight: An Autobiography 1945-1964 (affiliate link)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s address to the Munich Security Conference

Pope Benedict XVI: The quote about Zionism can be found on pp. 16 and 17.

IHRA working definition of antisemitism. (US Dept. of State)

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Show Notes:

Them Before Us: Katy Faust

Greater Than

Is Germany facing ‘synodal fatigue’? by Luke Coppen

Some favorite history books, military and otherwise (if it’s an Amazon link, a small amount goes to us without costing you more — thank you!):

Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian WarThe Face of Battle by John Keegan (all his books)Shelby Foote: The Civil War (3 volumes)WWI: Barbara Tuchman: The Guns of August; The Sleepwalkers by ChapmanWWII: The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts

Historical fiction:

The Killer Angels by Michael ShaaraIn a Dark Wood Wandering by Hella HaasseThe Red Horse by Eugenio CortiAugust 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Confidential to the commenter who asked about Phil’s history reading recommendations (sorry, it’s impossible to search Notes here and I didn’t record your name, alas): We will get to his list next week!

Show Notes:

Xi Jinping Is Accelerating China’s Collapse by Steven Mosher

China’s demographic crisis threatens the Party’s grand plans by Phil Lawler

Matt Walsh: The Solution To The Immigration Problem That No One Is Talking About (plus a discussion of an AI history series).

Taking Religion Seriously by Charles Murray (affiliate link)

A social scientist seeking faith by Phil Lawler

Netflix: The Seven Dials based on a book by Agatha Christie

The Making of the American Mind: The Story of our Declaration of Independence by Matthew Spalding (affiliate link)

Lawler Family Book Club: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (affiliate link)

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Show Notes:

Minnesota DHS Employee on Welfare Fraud: “This Is Real” - City Journal

THE LAW on “Excessive Use Of Force Claims” -- Public Sentiments Do Not Reflect The Realities Of Legal Principles. (Bio of the author of this post from X: 22 years as DOJ prosecutor; Rep’d 91 Jan 6 clients.)

Tim Walz compares Minnesota ICE actions to Holocaust and Anne Frank: ‘Hiding in their houses’ - Fox News

Federal Affidavit: Church Invaders Blocked Parents from Kids, Told Them Their Parents Were ‘Nazis’

The Bill of Rights: The First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The Making of the American Mind: The Story of our Declaration of Independence by Matthew Spalding (affiliate link)

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

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Show Notes:

{Our apologies for the quality or lack thereof of Leila’s audio. We’ll try to do better next time! Thanks for sticking with us!}

Finland’s president is a bit overconfident about not needing US military help — and immediately contradicts himself!

President Trump’s full speech at Davos — in Leila’s opinion, even the seeming digressions off topic have meaning, and the whole thing will go down in history as a watershed

Emmanuel Macron wants massive Chinese investment

NATO General Secretary declares Trump correct on the need for a strategic reset

New York Times: Top Catholic Clerics Denounce U.S. Foreign Policy (archived here)

Broglio: US troops could refuse Greenland orders (The archbishop’s statement is more nuanced than the headline, but concerning nonetheless for reasons we discuss.)

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Show Notes:

This week, Phil and I are really just talking about larger social issues creating a serious divide in our country, so we don’t have any particular show notes.

Here is the tweet Leila read: Rob Henderson on X: 95% of children in 1960 were raised by two married parents regardless of social class…

For on-the-ground reporting: Andy Ngo is a good source.

Megyn Kelly has lots of information on events in Minneapolis and their effect on the public on her site, including a story about women reacting on social media and losing their minds.

Black Lives Matter Activists Executed A Shocking $83 Billion Shakedown Of American Corporations

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