Headlines and James Talarico on Abortion

James Shea (0:00)

The issues that matter most, right here.

Wendy Wilmowski (0:03)

The Drew Mariani Show. On Relevant Radio.

SPEAKER_3 (0:16)

Well, good afternoon and welcome.

Drew Mariani (0:17)

It's good to be here with you again today. Thanks for hanging out with me and tuning in to Relevant Radio. If you are new to the network, stay tuned all day. Great lineup of programming, if you miss anything that we're gonna be talking about today, don't forget to hit the podcast. It's a great way to listen to something again and to share it with someone else. And we've got a mixed bag today. I saw a very disturbing video, and I thank a friend who sent it over to me, of a Baptist pastor letting these kids come up. Did you see this one? Get up on stage and with a hammer and gloves, smash statues of the Virgin Mary. I mean, really, it was very troubling. We could talk about that. Plus, the Texas Bishop, I'll tell you who it was, responded to Talarico's abortion exchange. That's another great conversation we're gonna have. That's all coming up in just a couple of minutes here. Right now, though, let me bring you up to speed on what's happening in the news. And there has been some developments. Oh, we'll talk housing market, too. I should fill you in on that, too. I wanna get into the housing market with you, as well. Because there's some big developments there. But some brief news here today. Pope Leo XVI, XVI, and then it's prophetic. Pope Leo XIV. I mentioned yesterday he had a call with Vladimir Putin when he was in the hospital. He had already reached out to the Russian leader. I just found out today that he also had a call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday. So he reached out personally to both of these leaders, and he's highlighting the grave concern that he has right now in the situation, right now in the Russian-occupied city of Oreshki. And recent reports are indicating that this area where there's a lot of people, no stable power at all. The Russians have been hitting these power grids. No water, no heating. We're getting to some very cold temperatures right now, and even the main route out of the city, well, it's laced with land mines. So access to food is heavily limited, and there's a lot of suffering going on. So the Holy Father, being a shepherd for all, reached out to these two world leaders. What he said, I would love to know, but Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner told the Financial Times, I think is where I saw that, that evacuation talks are moving towards an agreement, as Russia had taken Ukraine's proposal in the consideration. We'll see what happens. This year, though, another news. Of course, I've talked a lot about St. Francis of Assisi, right? He marked the 800th anniversary of his death, and many of you I know love him. He's a beloved saint. Next month, you know what it'll be?

It will be the 400th anniversary of the dedication of St. Peter's Basilica. And that is magnificent. If you've never been to Rome, I would suggest you go ahead and do that. To help celebrate that, the Vatican is releasing a new documentary. Guess who's in it? Well, Pope Leo XIV will be featured in it, along with Chris Pratt. And it's called Discovering the Origins. And I think the Latin title was Petrosani, meaning Peter is here. And that's the inscription you also find, believe it or not, on top of a sepulcher, directly below the main altar in St. Peter's. It was there that archaeologists discovered St. Peter's bones. It's a fascinating story. I've talked about it many times. How they found the bones of Peter is well worth a documentary meter. So I'm glad they're doing it. I like Chris Pratt. Pratt actually told, I think it was Vatican news, he says, and I'll quote him here. Here's a line or two I saw him. He said, quote, what I like audiences to understand about Peter after watching the documentary is that he was an imperfect man. He was a weak man. He was a human being. He says, I believe we're all broken, imperfect and weak, but his strength lies in the grace of Jesus and his faith in God. With that strength through grace and faith, you can be incredibly strong. And I love that. For Chris Pratt to say that, fantastic. God bless you. I hope the documentary does incredibly well, and it really is true. We're all flawed, right? Look at Peter.

He was a weak man. He was an imperfect man. I'm a weak man. I'm an imperfect man. Take a look at David. Take a look at so many of the people that Christ sometimes taps to do his work.