And so what's your take on this? So how did this, how did CTU end up with this guy in the first place, right? Did they think they were just going to sweep all of his bad acts and questionable history under the table?

Well, you know what? It prompted me to go back and look at the Shake Shack report, which was a report that was commissioned by President Bush under the No Child Left Behind Act.

And it was authored.

It's named for the author, Carol Shake Shack, who was a well-known researcher at Hofstra.

And she did basically a large cohort study on sexual abuse or sexual inappropriate behaviors at the public school level and found that 10 percent of all public school students nationwide would either be inappropriately touched, inappropriately reported, or sorry, involved in some way, asked for information that was sexual or outright rape or molestation.

And again, she has no political agenda whatsoever.

She's a widely respected researcher.

Mary, what's going on between Danson Stratton and a real candidate in the race?

And so, I mean, I don't know, how impactful was this four-day visit to France by Pope Leo.

It was extraordinarily impactful, and I don't think you can underestimate the influence that he has now had, and not just in France, but around the world, because, of course, all of those liturgies and masses and talks that he gave were all broadcast internationally.

And to your point, just in 2026 alone, approximately 22,000 young people and adults in France requested to be baptized worldwide.

and almost all of them, 82% of them, were under the age of 40.

So we're definitely seeing, as you put it, a revival of religious fervor, and not just, you know, people coming to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and wanting to have religion as part of their lives, but they're embracing a very traditional kind of form of Catholicism.

Many of these young people are young men.

where they're on their heads when they go to church.

I mean, that's pretty good.

I mean, this is, I hate it when they use this as an excuse.

Yes.

It, it really is very ableist language, right? That because the child has a disability, that somehow makes that child disposable.

And I have always been such a great admirer of you, Jeanne, for choosing life when you were given an adverse diagnosis for your little boy.

And it's, it is of course news that no parent wants to hear, but what, the, there's beautiful alternatives, even in states like Illinois here or at Columbia Hospital in New York, where there are extensive, what they call perinatal palliative care programs.

So if you, if your child is going to be born with a life-limiting condition, they make everything available to you to help you through that time.

There is emotional support for the mother, and counseling for the mother and father together.

Have you heard? Has the Pope weighed in on this at all?

And what's going on with Cardinal Cupich closing down all these Catholic schools when they seem to have more kids in the seats than public schools, especially CPS schools?

Yeah, it's, you know, there's a number of different factors that are at play here.

And of course, us losing in Illinois, that tax credit scholarship did not help matters.

And in fact, it probably led to the six closures that are slated for this year.

And as the late Cardinal George used to say, when you close a Catholic school, you close a child's world and you don't only close their world, that the community that they know, but you also significantly limit what those kids are going to be able to do in the future.

Because, I mean, we all know you discuss it on this show.

They go into the public school system.

Boy, that's a big deal.

Mary, what have you to say about this? Oh, gosh,

Jeannie, what a mess, first of all.

Hi, Jeannie and Amy, good morning.

Thank you for having me again.

The first thing it says to me is that Brandon Johnson must know he's in a lot of trouble because the fact that he has made such a huge media story of the fact that he was going to meet the Holy Father should tell you everything you need to know.

I mean, it's exactly the same trick that Governor Pritzker pulled When he knew he was going to sign the assisted suicide bill into law, he pushed and pushed and pushed to get a private meeting with the Pope so that he could then put out these pictures of himself with Pope Leo and say, you know, we talked about assisted suicide, but because we're different religions, we agreed to disagree.

And, of course, he would have felt comfortable saying that because normally it is not the policy of the Vatican Press Office or the Holy See, excuse me, to comment on private meetings that the Holy Father has, much less private conversations.

How arrogant was that

So, the speculation, who do you hear most talked about as possibly the next pope?

The name I have heard most often mentioned is that of Cardinal Parolin, who is Parolin, I think they say, uh, with the Italian accent, who is the Vatican Secretary of State.

Uh, he has a long diplomatic career and history, uh, working at the Vatican.

Uh, he speaks multiple languages.

He's been entrusted with, uh, varying degrees of responsibility during his career here.

And so, i- he's somebody who could probably do the job on day one, which is an important consideration, right? You don't want someone who won't be able to hit the ground running, so to speak, or who would have a long learning curve getting into the position because it's not just a spiritual one.

Of course you are the center of unity, um, you, you are the person to, who is supposed to be directing every baptized Catholics, uh, towards Christ and towards living out the Gospel in their daily lives, but it's, it's also a, a very large operation to run.

I've heard about someone that I've, has been called, like, the Asian Pope Francis.