The meteoric rise of Patrick Kelly

N.B. How many millions did the K of C spend on the disastrous and scandalous “Rapenik” mosaics covering every wall of their DC JPII chapel, which are now completely covered in shame?

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Leo XIV Appoints to Vatican Former CIA Analyst - $1.9M CEO of Knights of Columbus

Today, Leo XIV has appointed Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, as a member of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life.

Kelly has moved during his career through the U.S. military, congressional intelligence oversight, the State Department.

CIA for Five Years

Kelly worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for five years as an analyst after graduating from Marquette University in 1985.

He subsequently graduated from Marquette Law School, served as a Navy JAG, worked at the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence and Policy Review, and became legislative counsel to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

At the Intelligence Committee, his chief responsibility was the annual Intelligence Authorization Act.

From Washington to Catholic Institutional Leadership

After Kelly's CIA/DOJ/House Intelligence work, he served at the State Department as senior adviser on international religious freedom and was its principal interlocutor with the Holy See. Then, in 2006, he moved directly into the Knights as VP for Public Policy.

Kelly became member of the board of the Knights of Columbus in 2013 and Deputy Supreme Knight in 2017. In 2021, he succeeded Carl Anderson as CEO, completing a 15-year rise through the organization's senior ranks.

Kelly accumulated senior positions in several major American Catholic institutions. He chaired the March for Life Education and Defense Fund from August 2012 until March 2021.

$1.9 Million in Reported Compensation

The latest publicly available IRS-derived filing for the Knights of Columbus reports $1,851,231 in reportable compensation for Kelly as “Director/Supreme Knight,” plus $50,356 in “other compensation”.

His reported compensation has risen considerably since he became Supreme Knight:
2021 $1,159,239
2022 $1,639,096
2023 $1,417,331
2024 $1,851,231

Founded in 1882 as a Catholic fraternal benefit society with a particular mission of protecting widows and orphans, the Knights today combine their activities with a vast insurance and investment operation. The latest filing reports approximately $31.2 billion in assets, $28.1 billion in liabilities and $3.08 billion in net assets.

Seven-figure compensation for the Supreme Knight predates Kelly. His predecessor, Carl Anderson, also received compensation packages reaching or exceeding these levels.

Access to the Vatican

As Supreme Knight, Kelly had regular direct access to Pope Francis: in October 2021, April 2022, April 2023, January 2024 and December 2024. Kelly used the meetings to brief Francis on Knights initiatives including humanitarian relief in Ukraine, evangelization, charitable programs and Catholic formation.

Kelly met the future Leo XIV in 2023, shortly after Prevost became prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

Following Prevost's election on May 8, 2025, Kelly issued an unusually expansive statement of institutional loyalty. Speaking for the Knights, he declared: “I pledge our loyalty to Pope Leo XIV,” and said, “The Knights of Columbus will always stand in solidarity with Pope Leo XIV.” Kelly added the new pope's priorities would shape the organization itself: “As it was with his predecessors, the pastoral priorities of Pope Leo XIV will guide and inform everything we do.”

Leo XIV received Kelly in an audience in July 2025 and again in October.

Harping on Natalie

By Abe Greenwald

When it comes to Donald Trump, there’s no such thing as a small story. Even with the war in Iran, the coming midterms, and the flap over the White House ballroom, Natalie Harp would become a household name. 

All the fuss began a week and a half ago, when Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia made a dig about the two of them. Trump, he said, “wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar." Ossoff was referring to Trump’s covertly switching planes on his return from Turkey in July. The president had left Marco Rubio (and others) on the possibly targeted Air Force One while making off with a small group including Harp.

This became a juicy story for several reasons. Harp is an attractive young woman who's always at Trump’s side, and Ossoff seemed to be insinuating that there’s something inappropriate about their mutual fondness. And when Ossoff, a possible Democratic contender in 2028, then denied that he was implying anything of the sort, a bipartisan game of gotcha was underway. While Republicans voiced their disgust over Ossoff’s innuendo, Democrats and liberal media went digging into Harp.

Which is interesting. Because while the left went looking for dirt in the life and letters and family members of a young woman who had survived bone cancer, lost her father to suicide, and committed the crime of working for Trump, feminists were beginning to organize in support of Lindsay Clancy, a suburban mother who had killed her three small children.  

That’s just an aside I couldn’t resist. What’s more surprising is that the tale of the president and his loyal aide makes Trump look better than any story I’ve ever read about him.

Natalie Harp was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer around 2015, and chemotherapy proved ineffective. In 2018, Trump signed the Right to Try Act, which allows gravely ill patients to try experimental medical treatments that aren’t yet approved by the FDA. Harp availed herself of one of these treatments and credits it (and Trump) with saving her life. 

In 2020, Harp’s father killed himself. She wrote in a 2023 letter to Trump, “Thank you for always being there for me—I’ll never forget when you made that promise to me after losing my Dad...” She doesn’t spell out what the promise was, but later in the same letter, there’s this: “Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.” 

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Trump had promised to look out for Harp after her father died. 

The thing is, he made good on it. Not only is she by his side at the White House, but when the presidential entourage was exposed to potential danger, Trump was sure to include her under his protective umbrella.

Had Donald Trump ever looked so wise, warm, and dependable? He rightly authorized the use of experimental treatments on the seriously ill, seemingly saving Natalie Harp’s life. When she met with further tragedy and lost her father, Trump apparently pledged to step in as a kind of surrogate protector—and, boy, has he followed through. 

The media have made a lot out of the flowery and slavish praise for Trump in Harp’s letters. “You are all that matters to me,” “I never want to bring you anything but joy,” “I don’t want to ever let you down,” and so on. If Trump had done for me all that he’s done for her, my love letters to the man would make hers look like the dashed-off scribblings of an ingrate. 

So, for the love of God, leave the woman alone. 

Abe Greenwald is the executive editor of COMMENTARY.

How the Muslims Impaled the Christian Greeks

 In Constantinople, the French academic doctor Pitton de Tournefort (18th century), witnessed the impalement of the Christian Greeks from the Muslims: "They lay the victim face down, after tying his hands behind his back, place a donkey saddle on his back, and two of the executioner's assistants sit on it to completely immobilize him. Another one holds his head pressed to the ground with both hands. A fourth assistant tears open the back of the victim's trousers with scissors. Then the executioner drives the stake, a wooden spit, as deep as possible. Next, he takes a wooden hammer and strikes the stake until the sharp end emerges at the chest. They then lift the stake upright and plant it in the ground. And as the poor wretch suffers, the Turks mock him, ridicule him, and call on him to convert to Islam and embrace the Muslim faith."    

Pouqueville also recounts the tragic end of the Greek Thymios Vlachavas from Thessaly, following the uprising of 1808. He saw him in Ioannina, bound to a pole in Ali Pasha's courtyard: "calmer than the tyrant who was enjoying his torment, he looked at me with a serene gaze, as if wanting to make me a witness to the triumph of his supreme hour. He endured the executioner's blows without groaning or complaining. And the limbs dragged through the streets of Ioannina showed the terrified Greeks the remains of the last captain of Thessaly."    

Kandyloros reports that the Muslim Kehaya-Bey "disembarked in Kalamata in 1805 carrying twenty thousand stakes for the impalement of the Greeks. He advanced inland, captured and impaled about six hundred of them."    

Another form of torture was "the hooks." They consist of a scaffold erected at the entrance of cities. The executioner hoists the condemned man high on a pole using a pulley. Below the pole are fixed hooks. Then he suddenly releases the rope, and the condemned man falls with all his weight onto the hooks, impaling himself sometimes in the chest, sometimes in the armpits, or elsewhere on the body. And they leave him there to die. Often death comes after three days.    

All these were inflicted on the Greeks who refused to embrace Islam and Muhammadanism.

BREAKING: Netherlands Euthanizes Disabled 2-Year-Old Child

N. B. That the darkness of evil may not also envelope us we must continue to shine the light by speaking the truth. Every human life is sacred. No exceptions.

NEWS

‘Due care’: Netherlands kills disabled 2-year-old child

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A review committee affirmed Netherland’s euthanasia killing of a young child earlier this year, the first case of its kind since the country extended euthanasia to children under 12 in 2024.

A disabled 2-year-old child has been euthanized in the Netherlands, even though the toddler was not dying. But that didn’t stop Dutch officials from confirming that everything was done legally.

A Dutch review committee has concluded that a doctor acted with due care in the country’s first euthanasia of a child under 12: a nearly 2-year-old with severe disabilities whose life was ended late last year.

The child was almost 24 months old and could not communicate. The child did not — and could not — ask to die. 

More: https://www.lifenews.com/2026/09/14/netherlands-euthanizes-disabled-2-year-old-child/

The prayer of the pre-55 Breviary: how and why.

“The pre-1955 Roman Breviary is a superior aid for a Catholic priest because it forms the heart according to the mind of the Church’s great tradition: one of costly praise, transcendent orientation, and readiness for sacrifice — Sursum corda. It rejects the modern idols of brevity and convenience in favor of depth, mystery, and fidelity. Just as medieval cathedrals outshine functional 1960s churches in expressing the Catholic faith, so, too, the older Office surpasses its successor in helping to sanctify the priest. The martyrs portrayed in Un Dios Prohibido stand as testimony: the pre-1955 spirit produced martyrs; the trajectory toward 1961 helped shape reformers. For priests seeking to pray not merely efficiently but to consecrate time, the pre-1955 Breviary is the better choice—a cathedral of the Hours.”

Why Should I As A Priest Pray the Pre-1955 Roman Breviary?

My Response.

RESTLESS HEART MEDIA

MAY 29, 2026

Over the past few months, I’ve been helping Fr. Dave Nix to learn the rubrics for the pre-1955 Divine Office. Recently, I warned him the month of June would make him hate me! We laughed and he asked me for a good reason he should continue to learn to pray the pre-1955 version of the Divine Office during the month of June when there are overlapping octaves that make the rubrics a liturgical nightmare. While I could compare and contrast the different rubrical differences between reforms to demonstrate which version is “better” or “more traditional”, the reason I personally choose to pray the pre-1955 has nothing to do with any of them.

The Roman Breviary, the Church’s official prayer of the Divine Office, has undergone several reforms throughout the twentieth century. Among these, the pre-1955 version—organically developed up through the early reforms of St. Pius X and before the greater simplifications of Pius XII and John XXIII—stands as a richer, more demanding, and ultimately more formative instrument of priestly sanctification than the 1961 version. My reasoning rests not on mere nostalgia for what is “more traditional”, but on the different priorities inspiring each: the pre-1955 Breviary was formed with a view of the liturgy that prioritizes depth, endurance, and transcendence over brevity, simplicity, efficiency, and convenience. This mirrors the profound difference between medieval Gothic cathedrals and the functionalist churches of the 1960s. Ultimately, the older Office formed martyrs, while the newer one shaped the mentality that guided much of the Second Vatican Council and the Church thereafter.

The pre-1955 Breviary demanded more of the priest. Matins often featured longer readings from Scripture and the Fathers; octaves, vigils, preces and suffrages enriched the liturgy, and the rubrics maintained a complexity from centuries of organic development. These were not accidental burdens put on priests, but came from the understanding of the opus dei as a solemn, sacrificial labor offered to God, not a task to be updated for busy schedules. Brevity was not a priority because prayer was understood as participation in the eternal liturgy of heaven, where time yields to the worship of God rather than human productivity and accomplishments. Simplicity was secondary to depth; efficiency yielded to mystery; convenience genuflected before the cross. Priests fell into a rhythm of life that resisted the modern cult of fast-food, cultivating in the heart of the priest the virtues of patience, recollection, and detachment.

In contrast, the 1961 Breviary, promulgated under John XXIII with its simplified rubrics, continued previous trends toward reduction: fewer octaves and commemorations, shortened Matins, and an overall shortening that made the Office more manageable for the pace and obligations of the life of a parish priest. These changes prioritized pastoral practicality for secular clergy. While well-intentioned, they introduced a subtle shift in emphasis—from the Office as an objective sacrifice to a more subjective, humanly sustainable exercise. The spirit of efficiency crept in, reflecting a more modern desire to adapt ancient forms of worship to contemporary life rather than forming contemporary life through ancient worship.

More: 

https://restlessheartmedia.substack.com/p/why-should-i-as-a-priest-pray-the?r=2x82t4&utm_medium=ios

“We are Jesuit” the new battle-cry of evil?

 President of Students for Life American told by pro-abortion students “we are Jesuit”

Thomas Edwards

Sep. 16, 2026

Students carrying “#Iloveabortions” signs protested the arrival of Students for Life America president Kristan Hawkins at Catholic Gonzaga University, where she had been prevented from setting up a pro-life table

The president of Students for Life America, Kristan Hawkins, was greeted by protesting students when she arrived at Gonzaga University in Washington. She had intended to set up a table to promote Students for Life America and speak with students about the pro-life movement. However, she was banned from setting up the table and instead limited to giving a talk which only students who had registered in advance were permitted to attend.

As Hawkins walked towards a university building, she was greeted by a group of students holding signs bearing slogans including “#Iloveabortions”. Among the group was a woman who introduced herself as Brooklyn and described herself as the “reproductive justice president”. The student was carrying a sign stating “let’s talk”, but Hawkins was told that the invitation was aimed at students and that the protesters did not want to speak to her or her team.

When Hawkins pointed out that the students were supporting abortion at a Catholic university, the students burst into laughter and a man among them replied: “We are Jesuit.”

Hawkins responded by explaining that the Jesuits are a Catholic religious order, telling him: “You are actually Catholic.” Another student replied: “Not every order of Catholics focuses on education, and we do.” When the “reproductive justice president” stated that “you can be Catholic and not be pro-life”, Hawkins responded: “Well, then you would be sinning and you would need to go to confession.”

More: https://advaticanum.com/article/president-of-students-for-life-american-told-by-pro-abortion-students-we-are-jesuit

TLM in Amsterdam

Mgr. Hendriks of Haarlem-Amsterdam will celebrate his first Pontifical Latin Mass in the 1962 Rite on the 20th of September in Amsterdam.

@RobbertLeusink