Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, part eighteen

There was a joke that made the rounds sixty years ago some months after President Lyndon Baines Johnson had been sworn in on January 20, 1965, to his one and only full presidential term after he had defeated United States Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) in a massive landslide on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Let me give some background to the joke.

Barry Goldwater was a “conservative” of the libertarian mode. Indeed, one can say that he was a libertine in many matters, especially considering the fact that his first wife, Margaret “Peggy” Goldwater, worked closely with Margaret Sanger to open the first “birth control clinic” in the State of Arizona. Lyndon Johnson’s media advisor, Tony Schwartz, who made a point of telling me in 1986 that he was militantly “pro-choice” when I ran into him during my campaign for lieutenant governor of New York on the Right to Life Party line, portrayed Goldwater as a warmonger who would blow up the world if he got elected. Schwartz produced the famous "Daisy" Ad that showed a little girl, three-year-old Monique Cozelius, county petals that she took off a daisy in a field as an ominous voice counted down to the explosion of an atomic bomb, whereupon a speech Johnson had given was played as the mushroom cloud filled the screen. The direct implication was that Goldwater would be trigger-happy, a ploy tried unsuccessfully against then Governor Ronald Wilson Reagan by the desperate demagogue named James Earl Carter, Jr., in 1980.

Goldwater had promised to escalate the Vietnam War in an effort to defeat the Viet Cong in South Vietnam and the forces Ho Chi Minh’s Communist North Vietnamese military. Johnson, though, portrayed himself as an advocate of “peace,” stating famously that “As long as I am your president, not one more American boy will be sent to his death in the rice paddies of southeast Asia.” Johnson was right, of course, as he sent over 500,000 more American boys to fight in those rice paddies without any policy to win an unwinnable war, over 55,000 of whom were killed in action.

Thus, the joke emerged around this time sixty years ago that went along the lines of: “They told me that if I voted for Goldwater we’d be at war in six months. I did, and we are.”

In like manner, Donald John Trump promised us that he wanted to stop the United States of America from being involved in endless wars, each of which has revolved around making the Middle East “safe” for the only “democracy” and this country’s “only friend” in the region, the Zionist State of Israel. Well, Trump, a pragmatic deal-maker who knows nothing of First and Last Things and is consistently inconsistent, bombastic, self-aggrandizing, and utterly incapable of admitting errors or mistaken judgements, has now involved himself in other endless war, the one stated by Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to attack the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran, as he contradicts himself daily about American involvement (“we knew nothing about” Israel’s plans; “I know everything,” etc.) in yet another act of Israeli aggression in its sixty-seven year quest to make itself the master of the Middle Eastern region.

Here is a summary of some of President Trump’s conflicting statements and news stories about them:

Donald Trump is walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations.

The White House’s messaging has shifted quickly from Marco Rubio’s arms-length description of the Israeli attack as a “unilateral action”, to Trump claiming on Friday morning that he was fully in the loop on the operation and that it came at the end of a 60-day ultimatum he had given Iran to “make a deal” on its nuclear programme.

“Today is day 61,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I told [Iran] what to do, but they just couldn’t get there.”

Trump’s framing presents a good cop-bad cop dynamic of his approach with Benjamin Netanyahu, the embattled Israeli leader with whom he has a notoriously combative relationship. The US president has scrambled to now present the Israeli strikes, which he publicly claimed he did not want on Thursday, as a means of continuing his efforts to convince Iran to negotiate.

“They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late,” he said.

 Some of the discordant US response to the strikes, including Rubio’s Thursday evening statement, a hasty evacuation of some US personnel from the region and ambiguity over whether the US provided intelligence or would actively take part in Israel’s defence from a likely counterattack, has raised questions over whether Israel may have moved ahead of the Trump administration as a way to present Washington with a fait accompli.

“They made a bet on President Trump,” said Elliott Abrams, a former diplomat and senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, suggesting that Israel had pushed harder for strikes while the Trump administration had sought to maintain a diplomatic route. “The Israelis struck and then today Trump called it ‘excellent’.”

While Israel had clearly given the United States advanced warning of the strike, claims that it was fully coordinated in Israeli state media have been subject to speculation: was Trump actually on board or was he repositioning himself on Friday in order to present the strikes as part of a coherent strategy.

On Thursday, in remarks from the White House’s East Room, Trump said that strikes on Israel could “blow up” his diplomatic efforts to negotiate with the Iranian leadership and said he “didn’t want them going in”. He defended his decision to begin evacuating personnel because a strike “could well happen”.

“The US started evacuating voluntarily non-essential personnel on Wednesday, barely 24 hours ahead of time, not enough time to really get people out of harm’s way,” said Rosemary Kelanic, the Middle East director for Defense Priorities, a thinktank that pushes for a more restrained US foreign policy. “So the question for me is what did the president know and when did he know it?”

On Friday, Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he was not caught unaware by the strike: “Heads-up? It wasn’t a heads-up. It was, we know what’s going on.” And he indicated that he had been apprised of future Israeli plans, writing that the “next already planned attacks” would be “even more brutal”.

Senior Israeli officials also began to brief media that Trump had only pretended to oppose an Israeli attack and that they in fact had a “green light” for the attack. But Kelanic and others noted that Israel may be seeking a means to “entrap” the US into a war.

In either case, it is doubtful that Israel could have prepared the attack in the past week without US knowledge.

Officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies would have seen the preparations for the airstrike – involving more than 200 Israeli fighter jets striking more than 100 targets across Iran – and probably understood that Israel was planning a major attack against Tehran.

Late on Thursday, administration officials told Fox News that the US had replenished missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-air batteries in recent weeks in preparation for an expected counterattack.

And the US in recent weeks had deployed B-52 bombers to its airbase on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, where multiple B-2 bombers have also been stationed since late March. B-2s stationed at the base took part in airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this year, but the base would also serve as a launching point for airstrikes against Iran if the US were to join the conflict.

But there are other explanations for the resupply of anti-air missiles to Iron Dome, particularly following the unprecedented barrage of ballistic missiles launched by Iran against Israel last year.

And the US could have employed those B-2s and B-52s to strike the Fordow uranium enrichment centre, which is located deep underground and was not apparently struck in Friday morning’s strikes. Still intact, it represents an important element in Iran’s nuclear program that was not eliminated – at least in the first round of the Israeli attacks. (Trump scrambles to claim credit for Israel’s Iran attack he publicly opposed.)

After months of urging Israel not to strike Iran while he worked toward a nuclear deal, US President Donald Trump told Reuters in a phone interview on Friday that he and his team had known the attacks were coming and still saw room for an accord.

“We knew everything, and I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out,” Trump said.

“They can still work out a deal, however, it’s not too late,” he added.

Trump had repeatedly pushed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay an Israeli attack to give diplomacy more time. However, the president himself had threatened to bomb the Gulf nation if nuclear talks failed.

Trump’s shifting stance around the Israeli strikes, which he called “excellent” and “very successful” in a series of media interviews on Friday, offered one of the most striking examples yet of how he conducts high-stakes negotiations through both frank public rhetoric and behind-the-scenes maneuvers.

The US president offered support for Israel’s decision to launch a series of devastating raids in Iran, showing a willingness to embrace the use of military force to set back Tehran’s nuclear program. In contrast, some allies stressed the need for restraint.

Asked if the US would support Israel against Iranian counterattacks, Trump said he supported Israel. He said he was not concerned about a regional war breaking out as a result of Israel’s strikes but did not elaborate.

“We’ve been very close to Israel. We’re their number one ally by far,” Trump told Reuters, adding, “We’ll see what happens.”

ater on Friday, two US officials said the US military had helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed toward Israel.

Talks canceled

Still uncertain is whether Trump’s attempt to reach an agreement with Iran to halt uranium enrichment is still viable, with Iran canceling a sixth round of talks scheduled for Sunday in Oman after the attacks.

In negotiations with Iran, Trump sought to persuade the Iranians to give up uranium enrichment and was awaiting a counter-proposal from Iran. Tehran had balked at giving up enrichment, seemingly leaving little room for an agreement.

“They seek enrichment. We can’t have enrichment,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

As the week wore on, Trump sounded increasingly resigned to the prospect that Israel would strike and hinted that he knew more than he was willing to talk about publicly.

“I don’t want to say it’s imminent, but it looks like something that could very well happen. Look, it’s very simple, not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Other than that, I want them to be successful,” he told reporters on Thursday before the raids began.

Speaking to Reuters on Friday, Trump said he had given the Iranians 60 days to reach an agreement and that the deadline had expired with no deal.

“We knew just about everything,” he said. “We knew enough that we gave Iran 60 days to make a deal, and today is 61, right? So, you know, we knew everything.”

Trump said it was unclear if Iran still has a nuclear program following Israeli strikes on the country.

“Nobody knows. It was a very devastating hit,” Trump said.

rael said it had targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.

Trump said the US still has nuclear talks planned with Iran on Sunday, but he was unsure they would take place. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was scheduled to meet an Iranian delegation in Oman.

“They’re not dead,” Trump said of the US-Iran talks. “We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday.”

The president had convened his top national security advisers at Camp David on Sunday night for what he said were discussions that included Iran, and he spoke to Netanyahu on Monday about Iran.

A White House official said Trump spoke with Netanyahu again on Friday. Trump also held talks about the attacks with his National Security Council in the White House Situation Room. No details of the discussions were immediately available. ('We knew everything': Trump lauds Israeli attack; 'nobody knows' how badly Iran set.)

The USS Nimitz carrier strike group is on its way to the Middle East from the South China Sea, a U.S. official told Fox News. 

The Nimitz strike group was previously scheduled to replace the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group, which has been deployed for several months, but is now heading to the Middle East ahead of schedule. The two will now be in the Middle East at the same time. 

USS Carl Vinson was the only aircraft carrier in the region as of last Friday, U.S. defense officials told Fox News. 

USS Nimitz – commissioned on May 3, 1975 – is the oldest active aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy. This is possibly its final sea voyage, as the Nimitz is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2026. The deployment is significant because the Nimitz was also deployed in 1980 when its helicopters were part of the failed U.S. effort known as Operation Eagle Claw to rescue the American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran. The U.S. has been in a shadow war against Iran ever since. 

USS Nimitz departed the South China Sea on Monday morning and was heading west, Reuters reported, citing data from the ship tracking website Marine Traffic. Two sources, including one diplomat, told Reuters the carrier had been scheduled to attend a formal reception in Danang City, central Vietnam, on June 20. 

It has since been canceled. 

One of the sources said the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi notified him about the reception being called off due to "an emergent operational requirement." 

The United States is shifting military resources, including ships, in the Middle East amid Israel's preemptive attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and leadership and Iran's retaliatory strikes that have been ongoing for four consecutive days. 

American air defense systems and a Navy destroyer helped Israel shoot down ballistic missiles coming in from Iran on Friday, U.S. officials told Fox News.

The U.S. has both ground-based Patriot missile defense systems and Terminal High Altitude Air Defense systems in the Middle East capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.

The U.S. Navy also had the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, which is capable of defending against ballistic missiles, begin sailing from the western Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern Mediterranean, U.S. officials told Fox News. They said the Navy also had directed another destroyer to move forward so it could be available if requested by the White House.

Typically, around 30,000 troops are based in the Middle East, and about 40,000 troops are in the region now, one of the U.S. officials told The Associated Press. That number surged as high as 43,000 last October amid the ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran as well as continuous attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Former President Joe Biden initially surged ships to protect Israel, a close U.S. ally, following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists. It was seen at the time as a deterrent against Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Iran.

On Oct. 1, 2024, U.S. Navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors in defense of Israel as the country came under attack by more than 200 missiles fired by Iran. (U.S. redirects USS Nimitz to Middle East as Israel-Iran conflict intensifies.)

Despite whatever disagreements may exist privately between President Donald John Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump will always stand with Israel when push comes to shove, and Netanyahu is very good at shoving others to get his way. Now, of course, ever mindful of his public defense of everything associated with Talmudism and relationship with its adherents here within the United States of America, Trump is congratulating himself for being with “Bibi” from the very start, but “Bibi” is not interested in any kind of “deal” with Iran that the “master of deal” still thinks can be made as he, Netanyahu, thinks that he can produce “peace” by killing another devil, the equally treacherous Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini upon the latter’s death in 1979:

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would “end the conflict” between the two nations — after President Trump reportedly urged him not to do it.

“It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict,” Netanyahu told ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl in an interview — arguing that Khamenei is “like a modern Hitler.”

Netanyahu said his country was “doing what we need to do” when asked if Israel would target Khamenei — while noting that Iran’s government allegedly plotted to assassinate Trump and himself.

“They actually had their proxy shoot a drone right into my bedroom window,” Netanyahu said.

Israel on Friday began massive airstrikes on Iran — targeting its nuclear sites as well as top scientists and military officials. The two nations have exchanged daily rocket fire since the initial attack.

Trump asked Netanyahu not to kill Khamenei, 86, Axios and Reuters reported Sunday, who has led Iran since its revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989 after toppling the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a decade earlier.

Netanyahu lavished praise on Trump during his ABC interview, while gently disagreeing on the merits of assassinating the Islamic Republic’s leader, and also politely downplaying the US president’s call for negotiations between the parties.

“They don’t want a seat at the table. They want to blow up the table,” Netanyahu said.

“I understand, ‘America First.’ I don’t understand America, dead,” the Israeli leader said. “We’re doing something that is in the service of mankind, of humanity.”

Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social: “Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal… we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.” (Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu won't rule out killing Iran's supreme leader.)

Such hubris.

So many “Hitlers” running around the world today. It’s hard to keep track of them all.

While I carry no brief for Ali Khamenei or any other Mohammedan “holy man” other than to pray for their conversion to the Catholic Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order within nations or a just peace among them, no world leader, including Donald John Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, understand that there can never be any peace in the world unless the souls of men are peace with Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by being in a state of Sanctifying Grace as members of the true Church.

Moreover, there can never be any peace in the world when men are at war with Christ the King by means of their unrepentant Mortal Sins, including the four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance (willful murder, sodomy, withholding the day laborer’s wages, defrauding the widow, that are protected under cover of the civil law and celebrated widely in what passes for “popular culture.”

Thus, I will never tire of reminding the readers of this site (both those who are long time readers or those reading my work for the first time out of curiosity) of the fact that the only true peace is that of the Divine Redeemer Himself, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His Catholic Church. As Pope Pius XI noted in his first encyclical letter, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922, we must pray and work for the Peace of Christ in the Kingship of Christ:

It is possible to sum up all We have said in one word, "the Kingdom of Christ." For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family when it, modeled after the holy ideals of the sacrament of matrimony instituted by Christ, maintains unspotted its true character of sanctuary. In such a sanctuary of love, parental authority is fashioned after the authority of God, the Father, from Whom, as a matter of fact, it originates and after which even it is named. (Ephesians iii, 15) The obedience of the children imitates that of the Divine Child of Nazareth, and the whole family life is inspired by the sacred ideals of the Holy Family. Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects, a duty which cannot but ennoble all who live up to its demands. Christ reigns where the position in society which He Himself has assigned to His Church is recognized, for He bestowed on the Church the status and the constitution of a society which, by reason of the perfect ends which it is called upon to attain, must be held to be supreme in its own sphere; He also made her the depository and interpreter of His divine teachings, and, by consequence, the teacher and guide of every other society whatsoever, not of course in the sense that she should abstract in the least from their authority, each in its own sphere supreme, but that she should really perfect their authority, just as divine grace perfects human nature, and should give to them the assistance necessary for men to attain their true final end, eternal happiness, and by that very fact make them the more deserving and certain promoters of their happiness here below.

It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ -- "the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ." It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace. (Pope Pius XI, Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922.)

Benjamin Netanyahu can drop all the bombs he wants and kill political enemies as well as innocent civilians in the illusory quest for “peace” in the Holy Land, but, instead of “peace,” his preemptive strikes will only raise up more “martyrs” in the future.

While we must pray for an end to these needless hostilities, it should also be noted here, as it has been in most other parts of this continuing series, that any and all versions of Judaism and Mohammedanism are false and thus belong to the kingdom of satan. Unable to see the Divine impress in others because their souls are captive to the devil by means of Original Sin as well as their own Actual Sins, both Jews and Mohammedans seethe with hatred for their enemies and are wont to use violence as a first recourse in an effort to impose their own version of a “final” solution on the other.

In this regard, therefore, it should be remembered that Antichrist will destroy every false religion (including conciliarism, of course, which is not nor can ever be Catholicism), and he delights in setting two devils against each other to do his bidding for them.

Mind you, I am NOT a so-called “end-times prophet” and do not believe the current Israeli-Iranian War will produce the Armageddon. Of course not. However, what I want to point out in this brief commentary is that, despite Trump’s slavish subordination of American national security interests to the desires of the Israelis despite an occasional disagreement or two now and again, the current needless and immoral war started by the Israelis, based as it claims to be on “reliable intelligence” of the sort that presage the immoral, unjust and unconstitutional American invasion and occupation of Iraq that involved the deaths of countless thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and the destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure, which was then “rebuilt” in a slipshod manner by corrupt, politically connected “contractors,” is serving as a distraction as the Israeli Defense Forces continue their genocidal efforts to “finish off” the Palestinians of Gaza:

Israeli raids across Gaza have killed at least 75 Palestinians, with rescuers scrambling to find dozens of bodies under the rubble after the bombing of a residential building in Gaza City described by the enclave’s civil defence as a “full-fledged massacre”.

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basel told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army gave “no warning, no alert” before Saturday’s strike on the house in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City that left at least 16 people dead, including women and children.

“This is truly a full-fledged massacre … a building full of civilians,” said Basel, who added that approximately 85 people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.

“We woke up to the strikes, destruction, yelling, rocks hitting us,” said Hamed Keheel, a displaced Palestinian at the site, noting that the attack had taken place on the second day of Eid al-Adha.

“This is the occupation,” he said. “Instead of waking up to cheer our children and dress them up to enjoy Eid, we wake up to carry women and children’s bodies from under rubble.”

Local resident Hassan Alkhor told Al Jazeera that the building belonged to the Abu Sharia family.

“May God hold the Israeli forces and [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu accountable,” he said.

The Times of Israel newspaper cited the Israeli military as saying that it had killed top Palestinian fighter Asaad Abu Sharia in the attack. Abu Sharia was the leader of the Mujahideen Brigades, who the military claimed had participated in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023.

Hamas confirmed the killing in a statement shared on Telegram, saying that Abu Sharia’s brother, Ahmed Abu Sharia, had also been assassinated in the attack, which it said was “part of a series of brutal massacres against civilians”.

‘A handful of rice for our starving children’

Also on Saturday, Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians waiting near an aid distribution site run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Rafah in southern Gaza. The attack was the latest in a series of deadly incidents around the group’s operations that have killed 118 people and left others missing in less than two weeks.

Gaza resident Samir Abu Hadid told the AFP news agency that thousands of people had gathered at the al-Alam roundabout near the aid site.

“As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli [forces] opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians,” Abu Hadid said.

One woman told Al Jazeera her husband had been killed in the attack after going to the aid point to get “a handful of rice for our starving children”.

“He said he felt he was walking towards death, I begged him not to leave. He insisted to find anything to feed our children,” she said.

The GHF, a shadowy United States-backed private group engaged by Israel to distribute aid under the protection of its troops and security contractors, began operations in late May, replacing existing networks run by the United Nations and charities that have worked for decades.

Critics say the group does not abide by humanitarian principles of neutrality, claiming that its operations weaponise aid, serving Israel’s stated aims of ethnically cleansing large swaths of Gaza and controlling the entire enclave.

GHF said on Saturday that it was unable to distribute any humanitarian relief because Hamas issued “direct threats” against its operations. “These threats made it impossible to proceed today without putting innocent lives at risk,” it said in a statement.

Hamas told the Reuters news agency that it had no knowledge of these “alleged threats”.

The United Nations, which has refused to cooperate with the GHF, has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.

‘Lost future generation’

As Israel continued its attacks amid the looming famine, it emerged that health authorities had recorded more than 300 miscarriages over an 80-day period in the enclave.

Expectant mothers face an increased risk of miscarriage and premature births, with basic medical supplies such as iron supplements and prenatal vitamins impossible to obtain.

Brenda Kelly, a consultant obstetrician at Oxford University Hospital, told Al Jazeera that Gaza was “losing a future generation of children”, alluding to a “staggering rise” in stillbirths, miscarriages and pre-term births.

“What we’re seeing now is the direct fallout of Israel’s weaponising of hunger in Gaza – impacting babies’ growth and growth restriction is one of the leading causes of miscarriages and stillbirth,” she said.

Severe malnutrition among pregnant women is compounded by severe stress and psychological trauma, as well as repeated displacement and a lack of safe shelter, she said.

Those babies that do survive face heightened health risks. “We know that famine experienced in-utero has lifelong consequences for children who then go into adulthood with much higher risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as mental health disorders,” she said. (Israel kills more than 70 in Gaza, including 16 in attack on family home.)

The United Nations human rights chief has condemned Israel’s conduct of its war in the besieged Gaza Strip, where deadly Israeli attacks continue unabated and dozens more Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid as the country exchanges missile attacks with regional foe Iran.

Speaking on Monday, Volker Turk said Israel’s “means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza”, where more than 20 months of Israeli attacks have killed at least 55,362 people, including thousands of children, according to health officials in Gaza.

His comments came as medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 48 Palestinians have been killed since dawn across Gaza on Monday, including 33 seeking aid for their hungry families at distribution points, mostly in the Rafah area in the south. The sites are operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the United States and Israel and operates in areas tightly controlled by the Israeli military.

Two Palestinians trying to get food at the Rafah site, Heba Jouda and Mohammed Abed, told The Associated Press news agency that Israeli forces fired on crowds about 4am (01:00 GMT) at the Flag Roundabout, a traffic circle just metres from the GHF centre, which has repeatedly been the scene of shootings.

Three more aid seekers were reported killed in northern Gaza and two in an attack on Gaza City.

“Israel has weaponised food and blocked lifesaving aid,” Turk said as he presented his annual report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“I urge immediate, impartial investigations into deadly attacks on desperate civilians to reach food distribution centres,” he added. “Disturbing, dehumanising rhetoric from senior Israeli government officials is reminiscent of the gravest of crimes.”

Hungry Palestinians ‘running out of options’

The GHF began distributing a trickle of food aid in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a nearly three-month total blockade on food, medicines and other essential items, leading to fears of famine. No other aid has been allowed in by Israel, which in effect has kept the punishing blockade in place.

The UN and major humanitarian groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, citing concerns that it prioritises Israeli military objectives over humanitarian needs. (OIsrael kills 56 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them desperately seeking aid | Israel-Palestine conflict News.)

Apart from its needless, immoral nature, including of civilians by both the Israelis and the Iranians, perhaps the most evil aspect of Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion,” which is, of course, part of the “Greater Israel” project, is that the world’s attention has been diverted away from the true genocide against the civilian population of Gaza. Talk about Adolf Hitler! Benjamin Netanyahu is just as much as genocidal maniac and racialist as the murderous occultist Hitler himself.

Alas, we must, as Catholics, remain calm in the midst of all the agitation in the world as we seek to make reparation for our sins by offering up all the trials and tribulations of our own lives as the problems caused by the anti-Incarnational lords of Modernity in the world as well as those caused by the lords of Modernism within the counterfeit church of conciliarism who propagate everything condemned by the [First] Vatican Council, Pope Leo XIII in Custodi di Quella Fede, December 8, 1892, Pope Saint Pius X in Pascendi Dominci Gregis, September 8, 1907, and in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910,  by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928, and by Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis, August 12, 1950, to the throne of the Most Holy Trinity as the consecrated slaves of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary as we pray as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.

Perhaps it is redundant to state this, but there can never be true peace, that of Christ the King in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world, until and unless all men everywhere exclaim with love, joy, and gratitude:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dóminus, Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus, qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint John Francis Regis, S.J.

Appendix

On the Feast of Saint John Francis Regis, S.J.

Today, June 16, 2025, is a ferial day on the General Roman Calendar of 1954, but it is the day on which Holy Mother Church permits Masses in some places in honor of Saint Francis Regis, S.J., whose holiness and zeal to souls inspired Saint John Mary Vianney to keep persevering in the pursuit of his priestly vocation despite all the obstacles he keep encountering before he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood.

A fellow Jesuit, Father Francis Xavier Weninger, S.J., wrote the following tribute to Saint John Francis Regis as found on the Catholic Harbor of Faith and Morals website:

In 1737, Pope Clement XII. canonized, with the usual ceremonies, the missionary, John Francis Regis, a priest of the Society of Jesus, celebrated through the whole of France on account of the holiness of his life and the many wonders he wrought.

He was born of noble parents, January 31, 1597, in a village in the diocese of Narbonne, and already in childhood, gave such proofs of piety that the conclusion might be naturally drawn that he was destined to become a great saint. He took no pleasure except in praying, studying, visiting the churches and reading books of devotion. He lived in an angelical retirement, carefully avoiding all occasions of sin; one proof of this is that during his whole life he never said the least word that was not the exact truth. While he was yet studying in the lower classes in a college of the Society of Jesus, he fled the companionship of all those who seemed in the least degree frivolous, and made an alliance with six of his classmates, who appeared to him more inclined to piety than the others, to the end that they would pray and study at appointed times, read a devout book during meals, never say anything that was not strictly honest or useful, daily make an examination of conscience, frequently receive the Holy Communion, hear the word of God on Sundays and holy-days; seldom leave the house and never without need, and shun all opportunities which might lead them to do wrong. These rules, which Francis, then still very young, had prescribed, he himself observed most punctually, and hence he was greatly esteemed by everybody.

In 1616 he entered, at Toulouse, into the Society of Jesus, to which he believed he had a vocation. The two years of his noviciate he spent in such a manner, that no one could find anything in him to blame. On the contrary, he might have served as a model to all of spiritual perfection. Afterwards, when he was sent to Tours to study the higher branches, his fervent zeal for the salvation of others became at once visible; for on Sundays and holy-days, he accompanied the priests, who taught the ignorant in the villages, and was of great service to them.

Still more apparent became his zeal when he was employed in teaching children in the lower classes. By his devout conversations and fatherly admonitions, but still more by the influence of his own example, his ascendancy over them became so great, that they were easily distinguished from the rest by their piety and retirement. When he was ordained priest, his pious zeal knew no bounds. His first opportunity to give a proof of it occurred at Toulouse, which city was, in 1630, ravaged by a terrible plague. At his own request, Francis received the permission of his superiors to nurse those who were stricken down by the dreadful malady, and was most kind and tender in his treatment of them. The same he did in 1640 at Montfaucon. Francis desired to devote his life to so noble a work, but divine Providence preserved him among daily dangers for the salvation of many thousand souls. The ten years which followed from his ordination to his death, he spent mostly in missionary work.

It was his wish to cross the ocean and preach the Gospel to the savages in Canada; but as his superiors did not consent to this, he made Europe the field of his labor to save souls for heaven. All Languedoc, especially the diocese of Viviers and the Velay, were assigned to him, where he did perhaps more than he could have hoped to do among the savages. In the summer time, he occupied himself in the cities, by preaching and instructing, by hearing confessions and visiting the hospitals and prisons, by collecting alms for the poor, especially for the sick whom he served day and night, and with other similar works of charity. The winter he spent in the villages in apostolic missions. He suffered indescribable dangers and hardships not only on account of the many and high mountains, but also from the extreme cold, the rain, snow and other inconveniences of the weather. Often he was seen crawling, rather than walking, over mountains covered with ice and snow, where almost every step endangered his life. At the places where he gave his missions he permitted himself but very little rest. He preached daily at least once, but more frequently twice or three times. More than once he was so exhausted, that he had to be carried home from the pulpit or the confessional. He was occupied in hearing confessions not only during the day, but also many hours during the night. Not until evening did he partake of any refreshment, and often when the number of those around the confessional was very great, he went without any earthly sustenance. He always took so little food that it was hardly enough to sustain life, and he never tasted wine or delicate viands. The bread which he had begged was his principal nourishment. Two or three hours was all the time he allowed himself for rest at night, and this on the bare ground or on a board. He constantly wore a sharp-pointed chain, and pitilessly scourged himself every night.

Such holiness, such entire self-abnegation, procured for the zealous missionary so great a reputation, that he went by no other name than that of "The saint." The conversions of hardened heretics and despairing sinners effected by his sermons, were numberless. The bishops themselves testified, that, in the cities and villages where St. Francis held his missions, the conduct of the inhabitants had entirely changed. A certain vicar-general wrote about him as follows: "I have always looked upon him as an angel, on account of the innocent life he led, and I have honored him as a perfect model of virtue, and on account of his fervent zeal, a worthy brother and follower of St. Francis Xavier. I regarded him as a father of the poor, in consideration of his great love for them; and as a Saint on account of his virtues. He not only was, but still is, esteemed as a Saint by the inhabitants of the city of Puy, and is even considered an apostle, because, both by his example, his sermons, his exhortations and his instructions, he led them to a better life, and, so to speak, made the whole city holy."

For ten years this man of God continued his missionary labors in the same manner. Near the end of his earthly career, he intended to hold a mission at La Louvesc, a small village, situated between high mountains in the diocese of Vienne. But God revealed to him his approaching last hour; hence he went first to the College at Puy, made a general confession, and then repaired to La Louvesc on the 22d of December in the year 1640. Before he left the college, he was asked if he would not be there on New Year's day, at the usual ceremony of renewing the vows. " My companion will be here, but not I,'' was his answer. And so it happened. The road to La Louvesc was over steep mountains, covered with snow and ice, and was indescribably difficult to travel. As the cold was exceedingly severe, the Saint was soon exhausted with fatigue and covered with perspiration from his exertions. Overtaken by the night, he was unable to reach La Louvesc and was obliged to remain in an old hut, open on all sides, where he was seized with pleurisy and subsequently with a burning fever. Exerting all his strength, he arrived the following day at La Louvesc. Seeing the crowd of people waiting for him, he ascended the pulpit and commenced his mission with a fervent sermon. The following day and night he spent in hearing confessions; and this might well be regarded as a miracle, considering the state of his health. On Christmas-day and on the festival of St. Stephen he preached three times, and again returned to the confessional, when suddenly he swooned away and had to be carried into the priest's house. No sooner had he somewhat recovered, than he again heard the confessions of several persons, after which, with deep inward peace, he received Extreme Unction. On the last day of the year he fell into ecstasy while praying, and when he awoke from it he exclaimed in a transport of joy to his companion: "O! dear ! how happy I am to die! Oh! how glad I am to depart! I see Jesus and Mary who come to accompany me into the home of the Elect." After this, he turned his eyes towards heaven and said: "Jesus Christ! My Redeemer! To Thee I commend my soul; into Thy hands I resign myself;" with these words he ended his apostolic life in his 43d year.

An incredible number of people were present at his burial, and deplored his death with many tears. Countless are the miracles with which God immediately honored him at his grave. Twenty-two Archbishops and bishops wrote, in 1704, to the Pope, that they themselves had witnessed miracles which had been wrought at the grave of this faithful servant of God, on the blind, the deaf, the lame, and on persons afflicted with other ills. It is also known that he seldom held a mission, anywhere without working miracles. The greatest miracle was himself, as it was naturally impossible that, with so much rigor towards his body, with so many and such wearisome journeys, and such incessant labor, he should live so long. The mighty hand of the Lord alone upheld him.

I have not yet related anything of the heroic virtues of this Saint, which alone would fill a book. In today's prayer of the Church two are particularly mentioned before all others: his great charity and his invincible patience. Yes, his heart burned with love towards God and men. His love to God he evinced by avoiding even the smallest sin, and by his constant endeavor to prevent others from going astray. He evinced it further by fervent prayers, which he sometimes continued through the greater part of the night or through the whole of it, and during which he was often transported out of himself, so intense was his desire to suffer and die for Christ's sake. His love to his neighbor he manifested by spiritual and corporal works of mercy, on account of which he received the beautiful name of " Father of the Poor." And in truth, he was a most kind and tender father to them.

The Almighty rewarded this love and solicitude with striking miracles. Thus we read that the corn which the good father had begged for the poor was often miraculously multiplied. In regard to the patience of this true servant of God, it may be said that nothing could be more perfect; it was invincible. Among his other deeds of Christian charity, his endeavor to turn wicked women from the path of eternal ruin and lead them to repentance, deserve specially to be mentioned. Who, however, can describe the persecution, the obloquy and wrong he suffered on account of it? One man whom the Saint had thus deprived of his sinful gratification, gave him a blow in the face. The Saint offered him his other cheek, and said he was willing to suffer death, if he were permitted to prevent offences against God. Another thrust him, in the dark, into a pool of mire and stepped upon him. Some others plotted together and beat him almost to death; while some pointed their daggers to his breast and threatened to kill him if he abstained not from his intentions.

But the Saint was always fearless; he disregarded these threats and was not to be deterred from finishing a work which he had commenced to the honor of God and for the salvation of souls. He complained to no one of the wrong done him by these godless people; nay, once, when the authorities were about to punish one of them, he interceded for him and thus averted his well-merited punishment. Many other examples of patience, meekness, humility, obedience, and other virtues are to be found in the circumstantial life of the Saint, but which we, on account of our limited space, are obliged to omit.

Practical Consideration

Great was the love which inflamed the heart of St. Francis, as well towards God as towards his neighbor. He proved his love to God by avoiding even the least sin, and by his unwearied zeal to prevent others from doing evil. His love to men he manifested by the practice of deeds of corporal and spiritual mercy. Should I ask you whether you love God and your neighbor, you would of course answer: "Yes." But how do you manifest your love in deeds? You often have opportunities of doing good to the soul and body of your neighbor, and thus to manifest your love to him, in the practice of divers acts of charity. If you omit these, the love which is only upon your lips will not avail you. "If a brother or sister be naked and want daily food; and one of you say to them: go in peace, be you warmed and filled, yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit?" (James, ii.) Hence, prove your love towards your neighbor by spiritual and corporal works of charity. . . How do you manifest your love to God? The best way is to keep His commandments, and not only to avoid sin yourself, as an offence to the majesty of the Almighty, but also to prevent others from committing it. "If you love me, keep my commandments," says the Lord. (John, xiv.) " You that love the Lord, hate evil," says David. (Psalm xcvi.) " We love God rightly when we keep His commandments," writes St. Ambrose. "Sin is unknown to him who loves Thee, O God," are the words of St. Cyprian. St. Augustine writes: " He who loves God, does not offend Him. If you love God, draw others also to Him." "Whoever loves God seeks to prevent others from offending Him, and if this is impossible, almost dies with anguish, like him who says: "I beheld the transgressors and I pined away" (Psalm cxviii.). Thus speaks St. Francis de Sales.

Invincible was the patience of St. Francis, and neither the cares, labors, nor annoyances of his functions, nor the many afflictions, wrongs and persecutions which he had to endure, forced an impatient word to escape his lips, or restrained him in his apostolic zeal. He never was heard to utter a word of complaint against his persecutors, but prayed for them. He revealed to no one the wrong he suffered, but laid it at the feet of the crucified Lord, whose image he carried almost constantly in his hand or upon his breast. What is your conduct when you have to suffer, or are annoyed in the station you occupy in life? Why do you so quickly lose all patience? Why do you break out into invectives against your enemies, nay, even sometimes against the Almighty Himself? You surely desire to go to heaven, and to the heaven which the Saints entered by patience in crosses and afflictions. But do you wish to enter it without suffering, without persecution, without sorrow? Is that reasonable? Christ Himself chose the way of the cross, as the surest path which leads to heaven. Shall He assign to you a particular road, strewn with roses, and smoothed for your comfort? We have to suffer, and to suffer patiently, if we would gain heaven. "Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God" (Acts xiv.). These tribulations we must suffer with patience. If you suffer them impatiently, what benefit do you derive from them ? " Willing or unwilling, you have to suffer," says St. Chrysostom. If you are willing to bear your cross, you will gain much, but if you are unwilling, the burden will not become less, but your very impatience will help to increase its weight. As you thus see that suffering is the lot of man, consent to suffer : in other words, make a virtue of necessity, and suffer patiently.

Prayer of St. John Francis Regis for Purity to Our Blessed Lady

My Queen and my Mother! to thee I offer myself without any reserve: and to give thee a mark of my devotion, I consecrate to thee during this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, and my whole person: Since I belong to thee, O my good Mother! preserve and defend me as thy property and possession. Amen.

Aspiration in any Temptation

O Domina mea! O Mater mea! memento me esse tuum. Serva me, defende me ut rem et possessionem tuam. Ave Maria.

My Queen and my Mother! remember that I belong to thee: keep me, guard me as thy property and possession. Amen. Hail Mary.

Litany of St. John Francis Regis
 

Lord have mercy on us.

Christ have mercy on us
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ hear us.
Christ graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost,
Have mercy on us Holy Trinity, one God,
Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary conceived without sin,
Pray for us. *

Saint John Francis Regis,*
St. Regis fervent adorer of the Holy Eucharist,*
St. Regis zealous servant of Mary,*
St. Regis worthy son of Saint Ignatius,*
St. Regis faithful imitator of Saint Francis Xaxier,*
St. Regis burning with love for God,*
St. Regis victim of Christian charity,*
St. Regis perfect model of every virtue,*
St. Regis faithful observer of the religious life,*
St. Regis protector of innocence,*
St. Regis ingenious in converting sinners,*
St. Regis who braved many dangers for the salvation of souls,*
St. Regis ministering angels of our families,*
St. Regis honor and glory of the Society of Jesus,*
St. Regis most zealous for the glory of God,*
St. Regis illustrious for many miracles,*
St. Regis powerful intercessor with God,*
St. Regis our model,*
St. Regis our protector and father,*

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world:
Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world:
Graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world:
Have mercy on us

V. Pray for us, blessed Francis Regis:
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

O God, Who, to the end that he might without faltering go through much toilsome work for the salvation of souls, didst endue blessed Francis, Thy confessor, with wonderful charity and with unconquerable patience: grant unto us, we beseech Thee, so to profit by the example he has left us, and so to avail ourselves of his prayers, that we may win the exceeding reward of everlasting life. Through Jesus Christ Thy Son. R. Amen. (As found at: St. Francis Regis, Confessor of the Society of Jesus.)