Alleluia! Three times Jesus asks Peter: "Do you love me?" Three times Peter says yes. Three times Jesus says: "Feed my sheep." Then quietly: "When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will carry you where you do not want to go" (John 21:18). Peter knows what this means, but he follows anyway. This weekend - the eve of Pentecost - that question lands in your home too.

📰 Quick Hits

1. Raul Castro Indicted - and What the Church Has Always Said About Cuba

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted 94-year-old Raul Castro for the 1996 murders of four members of Brothers to the Rescue - Cuban Americans flying unarmed missions to locate refugees fleeing Cuba by sea. Cuban American communities, especially in South Florida, are celebrating. The Church's lens here is not partisan: four men died trying to save refugees, and the Church in Cuba has suffered under the Castro regime for six decades - Mass restricted, seminaries closed, priests imprisoned. Justice for the dead and freedom for the living are not political positions. They are the Gospel's.

Faith Lens for the Home: Do your children know the history of Catholics in Cuba - what they endured and why Cuban American families react the way they do today? Ask tonight: "What does our faith say about governments that restrict how people worship?" That question is not hypothetical. It is happening now in Cuba, China, India, and a dozen other countries.

2. Rep. Smith Urges Rubio: Confront India on Anti-Christian Persecution

Congressman Chris Smith has written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to raise India's record of anti-Christian violence during his upcoming official visit. Last week nine Catholics in Rajasthan were denied bail after a mob stormed their village church during Mass. Attacks on Christians in India have increased sharply over the past several years, often with little legal consequence for perpetrators. Smith calls it "a grave and worsening crisis." Jesus said: feed my sheep - even the ones in Rajasthan.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family: "Why does the Church in one country care about Christians being persecuted in another? What makes us one flock?" Then pray tonight for the nine Catholics in Rajasthan who are still in custody - by location, specifically, even without knowing their names.

3. EU Bans AI Tools for Abuse Imagery - European Bishops Welcome It

The European Union reached a provisional agreement this week banning AI tools used to create nonconsensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material. European bishops and ethicists immediately welcomed the move. Three days before Pope Leo XIV releases Magnifica Humanitas - his first encyclical on AI and the human person - the EU is enacting exactly the kind of protection the Church has been calling for: technology ordered toward human dignity, not against it. This is what "feed my sheep" looks like in a tech policy context.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family: "What do we think technology should be prohibited from doing - and why? Who gets to decide?" The encyclical drops Monday. This weekend is a good time to frame the question before the Church's answer arrives.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Rita of Cascia - May 22

Married at twelve to a violent man. Husband murdered in a political feud. Both sons died of illness before they could take revenge - which she had prayed for. Then she became an Augustinian nun. At sixty, meditating on the Passion, a thorn from Christ's crown pierced her forehead in a wound that remained until she died. Her body is still incorrupt in Cascia, Italy. She is the patron of impossible causes, difficult marriages, and abuse victims - canonized in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII.

Ask at dinner: "St. Rita carried impossibly hard things for decades without giving up. What is the impossible cause in our family right now that we need to bring to God this Pentecost weekend?"

✋ One Simple Action

Pentecost Sunday is tomorrow. Wear red to Mass. Pray Come Holy Spirit before bed tonight with your family. And Monday - read Magnifica Humanitas, or at least the summary. The Spirit who descends Sunday is the same Spirit Leo is writing about.

Enjoy the weekend living the faith in your domestic church. See you Monday.

📚 Read More

• Raul Castro indictment: Miami Herald (https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article306485771.html) and CNA (https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cuba-church-suffering-castro-regime)
• Rep. Smith letter to Rubio on India: CNA/EWTN News (https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/asia-pacific/rep-smith-says-rubio-faces-tall-task-in-india-amid-religious-freedom-concerns)
• EU bans AI abuse imagery tools: NCRegister (https://www.ncregister.com/cna/eu-provisional-agreement-bans-ai-tools-nonconsensual-imagery) and European Bishops' Conference (https://www.ccee.eu/ai-human-dignity-statement-may-2026/)
• St. Rita of Cascia: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-rita-of-cascia/)

Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Peter followed knowing where it led. Rita carried the impossible for forty years. We celebrate the descent of the Spirit again Sunday. Come ready.