[link removed]


** Readers’ Choice: Last Week’s Most Read Articles
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]


** Restoring Holy Family Church: A Bridge of Faith Amid War ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** TIMOTHY MICHAEL CARDINAL DOLAN
------------------------------------------------------------

Sixteen months after my visit to the soil we call holy, the violence and bloodshed persist. Hamas still uses innocent lives as hostages even as the Israeli military continues its onslaught, flattening Gaza.
[link removed]


** Can Transsexuals Be Baptized? ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** ANTHONY R. LUSVARDI, S.J.
------------------------------------------------------------

To administer the sacraments to those who are unprepared or unwilling to live in union with the gospel’s demands may be the path of least resistance for pastors, but it is no great favor to recipients.
[link removed]


** Winners of the Second Annual First Things Poetry Prize ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** THE EDITORS
------------------------------------------------------------

T. O. Brandon has won first place for his poem “Madonna and Child (after Giotto). Brian Brodeur has won second place for “Not Versed in Country Things,” which describes the slow restoration of an old barn.
[link removed]


** Armenia and Azerbaijan’s Uncertain Peace ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** MARK MOVSESIAN
------------------------------------------------------------

With this deal, Armenia seeks to buy time. The concessions it has made are painful, though. It formally accepts Azeri sovereignty over Artsakh, abandoning any claim to the region. The draft makes no reference to the 2023 ethnic cleansing or the possibility that refugees might one day return.
[link removed]


** Immigration Policy Is Hurting Rural Catholic Ministry ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


** ROBERT AARON WESSMAN
------------------------------------------------------------

Like many Catholic religious communities and dioceses, and other Christian and non-Christian religious groups as well, Glenmary depends in part on members from outside the U.S. For instance, two-thirds of our members under fifty years of age are from abroad.
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

Copyright © 2025 First Things, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at www.firstthings.com.

============================================================
Our mailing address is:
First Things
9 East 40th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10016
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.