All Roads Bleed to Rome

Until recently, my understanding of the battle for Italy from 1943-44 was straightforward: After landing in Sicily, U.S. and British forces hopped across to Salerno, then Anzio, working their way up the boot until they reached Rome. I hadn’t given much thought about the terrain, the logistics of a multinational force that included New Zealanders, Poles, Moroccans, and Indians, not to mention the miserable weather and the strategic errors that cost countless lives. This lack of appreciation was a concern even at the time. In a letter to his family, Lawrence Franklyn-Vaile of the 38th Irish Brigade wrote in part, "There is also a strong feeling that the Second Front is being so glamourised that, when it does commence, people will forget all about this campaign and will be saying afterwards, ‘What, were you not in the Second Front, oh Italy, that was nothing.’"

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Mel Gibson's long-awaited biblical sequel is finally happening



Fans of actor and producer Mel Gibson can finally start getting excited to feast their eyes on an epic sequel to one of his most iconic films.

In fact, fans will actually get two sequels within a matter of months, according to a new announcement by Lionsgate Films, which teased the release of a new film in May. At that point, fans neither had a release date nor an indication that Gibson had an ace up his sleeve regarding the planned release.

'The ancient stone towns and landscapes evoke the biblical world while also echoing the early church's rise from suffering to glory.'

Now we know that Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" is officially getting the trilogy treatment, Newsmax reported. The sequels will hit theaters approximately six weeks apart in the first half of 2027.

Lionsgate released a teaser revealing the films "The Resurrection of the Christ" parts one and two, with a planned release date on Good Friday, March 26, 2027, for part one and May 6, 2027, for part two. The latter marks Ascension Day, which celebrates Jesus Christ's ascension into heaven.

The two films will likely explore Christ's descent into the underworld to redeem souls, also known as the Harrowing of Hell, according to Newsmax. Inside sources also told the outlet about the estimated budgets for the films, which could be more than three times that of the original film.

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"The Passion of The Christ" took in more than $80 million on its opening weekend against a $30 million budget in 2004, with Box Office Mojo stats showing the film took in a whopping $600 million worldwide.

Insiders told Newsmax the budget for the two new films could exceed $100 million. Filming is set to begin in Rome; other planned filming locations reportedly include the southern Italian towns of Altamura, Ginosa, Gravina, Laterza, and Matera.

The rich history of the region is integral to the story Gibson is trying to tell, Blaze Media faith editor Chris Enloe explained.

"These specific filming locations give Gibson's movies a physical and spiritual authenticity that few places on earth can offer," he said. "The ancient stone towns and landscapes evoke the biblical world while also echoing the early church's rise from suffering to glory. Gibson isn't just telling a story. He's inviting viewers into a space where history, faith, and cinematic vision converge."

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Cinerama Dome Entertainment Center on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, February 25, 2004. Photo by David LEFRANC/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Gibson was named by President-elect Donald Trump as a special ambassador to Hollywood in January shortly after Gibson's 69th birthday.

Trump said he hoped Gibson, along with fellow appointees Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, would help make the "very troubled" Hollywood great again.

"These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest," Trump said at the time, per Variety.

Trump promised the ambassadors would help return Hollywood to its "golden age."

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Waste management, Italian-style



Did you know ancient Rome was "sustainable"?

Romans probably didn't use that exact buzzword, but apparently, they were recycling pioneers. When they weren't creating a mountain made out of garbage, that is.

In Italy, you don’t have one trash can in your house, you have five. Yes, five separate trash cans for the different kinds of trash you accumulate throughout your day.

As someone who's been to Italy recently, I can tell you that that legacy of recycling lives on. Frankly, it's a mixed bag.

If fact, the convoluted waste disposal system in that beautiful Mediterranean peninsula is the perfect embodiment of the current state of Europe.

Garbage in, garbage out

In America, you take your trash, and you throw it in the can underneath the kitchen sink. Then, when that bag is full, you take it out and throw it in the big can that you set out next to your driveway every week. It’s a simple system. Understandable and logical.

In Italy, you can’t just throw your trash — any trash! — in the bin next to the fridge.

No, in Italy you don’t have one trash can in your house, you have five. Yes, five separate trash cans for the different kinds of trash you accumulate throughout your day. You have one for carta (paper), one for umido (organic materials), one for plastica (plastic), one for vetro (glass), and one for barattoli (metals).

Of course, five different trash cans means five different trash days. Better not miss!

But the fun doesn't stop there: The days aren’t the same every week.

Trash talk

In some towns, they are in a state of continual change. Just when you've gotten used to Monday being umido day, they switch it up to vetro. Until they decide it should be plastica.

Not to worry. You can always print out a schedule from the local trash office. Just remember to dispose of it on carta day.

In Italy, managing your garbage is basically a part-time job.

And it’s not only the trash. There are a bunch of other systems and regulations that basically force you to waste time doing pedantic, pointless tasks, filling out some arbitrary paperwork that will be read by no one but you are legally required to file anyway, or going to the doctor to get a note verifying that you are healthy enough to go to the gym (yes, this is a real requirement to sign up for a gym membership in Italy).

All these reasons, and many more, are why they don’t get anything done there.

Come si dice 'start-up'?

I love Italy. It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite places to visit. But it’s just the truth that Italians don’t really get anything done these days. Their economy is in a perpetual state of struggle, no one has kids, and I am not even sure there is a word for entrepreneur or start-up in Italian.

This isn’t just speculation. A good friend in Italy has informed me that the official position of the government is to, more or less, discourage small business and further entrench the larger established corporations started more than half a century ago.

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Athanasios Gioumpasis/Getty Images

Europe today is basically a museum. It’s the most beautiful museum there is, but it’s a museum. It’s not because the people are actually incapable of doing anything. It’s not because Europe as an entity is inherently incapable of seizing its destiny. All our Western history and culture up to a certain point came from Europe. America sprouted from Europe.

But no one in Europe can do anything today because everyone there suffers under an obscene, time-wasting, Kafkaesque bureaucracy perfectly exemplified by the ludicrous trash system in Italy.

One big museum

Yes, of course, many there are content with this system. Quite a few really do believe that separating the trash into five bins is a normal part of life and a sign that a society cares for the environment, the future, the children, and Mother Earth ... or something like that.

You might be thinking that separating the trash doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. You might be of the opinion that I’m just a stick-in-the-mud, resisting something just because it’s new. You might imagine that it can’t really take that long. You may say, “So big deal, you just take a little longer with the garbage, you just plan ahead a little more.”

That might sound right if you are doing this whole separating business one time as a fluke, but when you apply this system to everyday life, over and over again, with no escape, it wears people down.

That’s one of the ways European over-regulation turns society into an ossified museum. It’s not just the fact that it is legally difficult to do many things that should not be legally difficult to do. It’s that the pointless inconveniences created by the over-regulation wear people down mentally. At scale, over time, the trash (and every other absurd system similar to the trash) takes a toll on people. The very spirit of a people becomes different.

Move slow and repair stuff

Many of the regulations in Europe are designed to protect something. Sometimes it’s the environment, sometimes it’s the traditional architecture, sometimes it’s the people. Those things are all fine. Most of us care about protecting those things to some degree.

But you can take protection too far, and if you protect too many things too much, society ends up feeling like a museum where you look but don’t touch. That’s kind of how it feels for many Europeans.

You know those speed bumps they put on residential roads so that you slow down? Imagine if those were everywhere, on every road. That’s kind of what all the overbearing regulations feel like. That’s the general kind of system at every level.

If “move fast and break things” is American, “move slow and sometimes repair stuff” is European. It’s good to repair stuff, it’s nice that Europe maintains much of its cultural inheritance. Perhaps, that’s its role in our era, one of a museum curator. And the Italian trash system and its demand that you fastidiously separate your waste is, in some strange way, related to that spirit.

But that’s not our role in America. That’s not our spirit. We aren’t a museum, we look and touch and change. We don’t have time to waste separating the trash. We have things to do, stuff to build, a future to seize. And the truth is, I’m not sure you can do any of those things if you spend all your time and energy separating your trash into five careful little bins.

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Pope Francis 'returned to the house of his Father' at 88



Pope Francis, certain of the empty tomb, went with hope to his own on Easter Monday at the age of 88. The bells of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome began to toll at the news of the Roman pontiff's passing. In short order, all of the bells in the Italian capital followed suit.

Hours earlier, Pope Francis — born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina — met with Catholic U.S. Vice President JD Vance, rode through St. Peter's Square to greet the faithful, and gave his Easter blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world).

The pope, greatly weakened by his bout with pneumonia and able only to raise his hands enough to make the sign of the cross, noted in his Easter message, "All those who put their hope in God place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey."

'In his eyes, every life is precious!'

"Together with the risen Jesus," wrote the pope, those who trust in God "become pilgrims of hope, witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of life."

Pope Francis also conveyed in his message, which was read by Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, master of pontifical liturgical celebrations of the supreme pontiff, that "God created us for life and wants the human family to rise again."

"In his eyes, every life is precious! The life of a child in the mother's womb, as well as the lives of the elderly and the sick, who in more and more countries are looked upon as people to be discarded," wrote the pope.

Pope Francis condemned anti-Semitism and the "great thirst for death" seen around the world and drew attention in particular to "the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation."

"I appeal to the warring parties: Call a ceasefire, release the hostages, and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace," added the pope.

The pope underscored that Jesus "is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us."

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, speaking in Vatican City, indicated that Pope Francis "returned to the house of the Father" at 7:35 a.m. Monday morning.

"His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church," said Farrell. "He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God."

The Vatican noted that Pope Francis, who wrote and published four papal encyclicals, approved an updated edition of the liturgical book for papal funeral rites in April 2024.

"The renewed rite," said Archbishop Ravelli, "seeks to emphasize even more that the funeral of the Roman Pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world."

Pope Francis — who once stated that humility "saves us from the evil one and from the danger of becoming his accomplices" — apparently desired a simplification of the funeral rites and a focus on expressing the faith of the Catholic Church in the risen body of Christ.

After the pope's funeral and nine days of mourning, cardinals will convene in Rome to elect Pope Francis' successor.

Pope Francis, born to Italian immigrants in 1936, entered the Society of Jesus at age 21 and was ordained a priest in 1969. After serving as a Jesuit provincial, seminary rector, and professor, Bergoglio was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires by St. John Paul II in 1992. Six years later he became archbishop of the city, cardinal in 2001, then pope in 2013 at the age of 76, following the unprecedented resignation of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

The Catholic News Agency noted that he was the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first to adopt the name Francis — a name he chose on account of St. Francis of Assisi's devotion to creation, peace, and poverty.

During his papacy, Pope Francis — who suffered from lung issues for decades — created 163 new cardinals, canonized 942 saints, and issued 75 motu proprio documents.

Pope Francis often frustrated liberals and conservative Catholics alike, either going what was perceived to be too far in one direction or not far enough in the other.

'Nobody, absolutely nobody, has managed to understand him.'

For instance, he did not depreciate the sacrament of marriage to accommodate the desires of non-straight activists inside or outside the church, and he refrained from removing barriers to female priests. But he also restricted the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and was often critical of Western nations, particularly the United States and its policies.

Dan Hitchens, writing for First Things, indicated that "he began the decade being hero-worshipped by the world's media and ended it being denounced by Jordan Peterson. Books, articles, Twitter threads have poured forth from overheated brains. And yet — and I include myself in this — nobody, absolutely nobody, has managed to understand him."

Hitchens rebuffed cynical readings of Francis' papacy and intentions, especially since his pontificate was, at times, "the opposite of cynical: above all, when the pope has returned to his great theme of 'the throwaway society,' his lonely stand against a global system which, from the sweatshops to the euthanasia clinics, treats the vulnerable not as the image of Christ but as useless trash. That magnificent critique will be one of his most significant legacies."

World leaders celebrated Pope Francis' life and impact.

Argentina President Javier Milei wrote, "Despite differences that seem minor today, having been able to know him in his kindness and wisdom was a true honor for me. As President, as an Argentine, and, fundamentally, as a man of faith, I bid farewell to the Holy Father and stand with all of us who are today dealing with this sad news."

'May God rest his soul.'

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Pope Francis will always be remembered as a beacon of compassion, humility and spiritual courage by millions across the world. From a young age, he devoted himself towards realising the ideals of Lord Christ. He diligently served the poor and downtrodden. For those who were suffering, he ignited a spirit of hope."

Pierre Poilievre, head of the Canadian Conservative Party, stated, "His humility, compassion, and steadfast faith had a profound impact on millions of Canadians and others around the world from every faith background."

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement, "Pope Francis' love for humanity was powerful and profound. The memory and example of his compassion will long endure."

"I was happy to see him yesterday," wrote Vice President Vance. "My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him. I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I'll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul."

"Pope Francis will long be remembered for his outreach to those on the margins of the Church and of society," Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement. "He renewed for us the mission to bring the Gospel out to the ends of the earth and offer divine mercy to all. He has also taken advantage of the present Jubilee to call us to a profound hope: one that is not an empty or naïve hope, but one grounded in the promise of Almighty God to be with us always."

In his first address as Roman pontiff, Francis stated:

Now let us begin this journey, the Bishop and people, this journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust. Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world that there might be a great sense of brotherhood. My hope is that this journey of the Church that we begin today, together with help of my Cardinal Vicar, be fruitful for the evangelization of this beautiful city. And now I would like to give the blessing, but first I want to ask you a favor. Before the bishop blesses the people, I ask that you would pray to the Lord to bless me — the prayer of the people for their Bishop.

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