at
| THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4 |
| KAVANAUGH VOTE SET FOR SATURDAY Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, setting up a Friday procedural vote and a possible Saturday confirmation vote. “There will be plenty of time for Members to review and be briefed on this supplemental material before a Friday cloture vote,” said McConnell. The FBI report is scheduled to be delivered to the Senate this morning. READ |
| EXCITEMENT FOR THE ELECTION Democrats had a 10-point lead in voter enthusiasm back in July, but that’s down to just 2 points in the latest NPR/Marist poll. “The result of [the Kavanaugh] hearings, at least in the short run, is the Republican base was awakened,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. READ |
| JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ORDER A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration’s plan to end Temporary Protected Status (or TPS) for migrants who entered the country and routinely had their status renewed by previous presidential administrations. Among those with TPS status are 200,000 Salvadorans who came to the United States following an earthquake in January 2001. READ |
| ANTI-KAVANAUGH PROTESTER VS. SENATOR Protesters have been encouraged by liberal organizations and even Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, to confront GOP lawmakers to oppose Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination. Well, one Republican senator didn’t duck from the questions and stood his ground. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, said: “Wait a second – are you OK as a person to go ahead and to accept a non-corroborated charge to destroy someone’s life? If it destroyed your life, your son’s life, or your husband’s?” WATCH |
| POLITICS AND VIOLENCE Kelley Paul, wife of Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, calls on Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, to retract his call to have activists ‘get up in the face of congresspeople.’ She writes: “In the last 18 months, our family has experienced violence and threats of violence at a horrifying level. I will never forget the morning of the shooting at the congressional baseball practice, the pure relief and gratitude that flooded me when I realized that Rand was okay. He was not okay last November, when a violent and unstable man attacked him from behind while he was working in our yard, breaking six ribs and leaving him with lung damage and multiple bouts of pneumonia.” READ |
| CONGRESSIONAL STAFFER ARRESTED Capitol Police have arrested a former staffer with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, who publicly posted the private phone and addresses of three GOP lawmakers. READ |
| QUOTE OF THE DAY “People aren’t leaving Christianity. They’re leaving Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” -Fr. Dwight Longenecker |
| CULTURE Pop singer Avril Lavigne has surprisingly recorded a Christian song. READ |
| PRO-LIFE RESPONSE IN MEXICO Mexico City legalized abortion in 2007. Since then, 18 Mexican states have passed constitutional reforms protecting human life from conception. READ |
| SYNOD ON YOUTH BEGINS For the Synod on the Youth, Pope Francis said that he seeks to build an “attitude of listening.” The Holy Father told Synod Fathers: “Let us feel free to welcome and understand others, and therefore to change our convictions and positions.” READ |
| EVANGELIZING DURING CRISIS “Who will convert to the Catholic Church now, given all that’s being revealed?” Benjamin Wiker tackles that question head on. READ |
| SAINT QUOTE “The stench of impurity before God and the angels is so great, that no stench in the world can equal it. -St. Philip Neri |
| SAINT OF THE DAY Saint Francis of Assisi: founder of the Franciscan family, Patron Saint of ecology, inspiration to thousands, claimed by people of all faiths as well as by those with no particular faith, a truly “catholic and apostolic man.” Though born in the 13th century, he belongs to all ages. READ |
| DAILY READINGS “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Ps 27:13) READ |
| TIMELY ADVICE |