Countless analyses have already been written about the causes of Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party’s landslide success and the resulting electoral realignment. Yet, there is a crucial factor that receives relatively little attention: the complete depoliticization of political struggle. The parliamentary elections birthed the newest and most successful product of the 21st-century Hungarian wasteland: anti-politics has become the new politics, a trend that Tisza is now driving to its absolute peak in government.

It is worth observing Péter Magyar’s and his party’s communication. The cornerstone of their rhetoric is that they themselves are not part of the political class in the classical sense. A recurring trope during the election campaign was that the people behind Tisza are not career politicians, but civilians and patriotic professionals. He also stated, “This homeland does not need street fighters or rusted terminators but decent, honest people working so that every Hungarian can feel Hungary is their own.” Or consider another statement: “I didn’t embark on this to topple the entire power elite; I am merely a spark that can start the engine”-all these points in a single direction.

Through a calculated marketing strategy, they have distanced themselves-and continue to distance themselves-from ‘politics’ and the word ‘politician.’

The communication framework employed by Tisza’s politicians appears to be an effective strategy during the post-election honeymoon phase. Yet, simultaneously, they are engaging in a highly classical power game. In his seminal work The Concept of the Political, Carl Schmitt warned that the sharpest and most ruthless political weapon is attempting to depoliticize political struggle while cloaking one’s own position in a veil of morality. According to Schmitt, anyone who claims not to engage in politics but merely represents “the good” or “the pure people” against a “corrupted elite” does not treat their opponent as a rival but brands them a moral monster.

However, this calculated distance creates a trap. As painful as the realization might be for the newly minted representatives and Tisza voters alike, the moment they ran in the elections, secured mandates, and assumed positions of public authority, they, too, became politicians.

This Schmittian strategy can be sold so masterfully in Hungary today because the word ‘politics’ has become irredeemably pejorative-degraded and sullied.

Who will replace the politician?This is exactly where the greatest danger lies. In his classic work In Defence of Politics, British political scientist Bernard Crick warned, among other things, that politics is not a necessary evil, but rather civilization’s greatest achievement—the art of resolving conflicts without violence. Anti-politics ostensibly promises voters an epistocracy (the rule of the knowledgeable, the intelligent, and independent experts) whereby ‘the thoroughly corrupt state apparatus will magically be fixed.’ In reality, if we eliminate politicians, their place can be taken by only two types of people.

For years, domestic research on institutional trust-particularly studies focusing on the post-communist region-has highlighted that confidence in political institutions in these societies, especially in parties and parliament, is drastically low. This is unequivocally a bad sign; when institutional trust erodes to such an extent, a demand inevitably arises for an ‘outsider’ (in politics, not in a partisan sense)-a savior arriving from beyond the existing establishment. When voters feel that the playing field itself is flawed, they no longer simply demand a change in the rules; they want to flip the entire table.

The first is the technocrat, who governs by appealing to their expertise. However, as Max Weber pointed out, these individuals are mere executors who lack both political passion and the sense of responsibility required for a political vision. The second—and more realistic—danger is kakistocracy, or the rule of the incompetent. When political routine, a willingness to compromise, and a knowledge of state administration are stigmatized, amateurism suddenly transforms into a virtue. By repackaging outsider status as freshness and inexperience as innocence, we pave the way for chaos. It is therefore a dangerous illusion to believe that politics can be eradicated or substituted with experts and civilians. Politicians remain a necessity, especially during uncertain times riddled with crises. At present, the duty of citizens is not to abolish politics for good but to continue demanding its responsible and professional practice. The death of politics never brings purification; rather, it spells the end of discourse and the birth of autocracy—or chaos.

Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and Danish PM Mette Frederiksen have made a joint appeal for a tougher European approach to migration, bringing together two leaders from opposite sides of the political divide.  In “A joint message for Europe”, published on August 10, the conservative Italian premier and centre-left Danish leader said Europe must both curb uncontrolled immigration and defend its Christian cultural heritage. “We do not accept uncontrolled immigration to Europe,” they wrote.

The intervention follows a Denmark- and Italy-led letter signed by 22 EU member states after some 60,000 migrants entered Ceuta. That letter criticised Spanish immigration policies and warned that the dispute could threaten the Schengen area.

Meloni and Frederiksen argued that mass migration has increased pressure on public services and contributed to crime, including violent crime, drug dealing and sexual violence, while eroding citizens’ trust in governments and public institutions.

They pointed to efforts to clarify how international human-rights obligations apply to deportations, alongside the recently adopted EU Return Regulation and its provision for return hubs in third countries. They promised to continue pursuing further “innovative solutions”.

The leaders linked migration policy to cultural integration, arguing that people who settle in Europe should respect the values of their host countries. They did not set out a broader test of assimilation.

“We are both proud of the Christian cultural heritage of Europe and we want to protect it,” they wrote. They added that those who make Europe their home should respect European values and not seek to impose ways of life the leaders said they did not share. By presenting tougher border and return policies as inseparable from a defence of Europe’s cultural identity, Meloni and Frederiksen sought to broaden their case beyond immigration control-and to show that the argument now reaches across Europe’s traditional left-right divide.

The recent controversy surrounding German politician Jens Spahn, until recently the parliamentary leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the Bundestag and long regarded as a potential future chancellor, was revealing. Spahn resigned after it emerged that he and his same-sex partner had commissioned an American surrogate mother, despite belonging to a party that has long opposed the encroachment of the market into one of the most fundamental of human relationships: that between a mother and her unborn child. Most commentators treated the affair as a straightforward case of political hypocrisy, while other more opportunistic actors hoped to seize upon it as an opportunity to argue for the liberalization of Germany’s laws governing assisted reproduction. Yet the deeper significance of the episode lies elsewhere.

The Spahn affair is symptomatic of a Christian Democratic tradition that is now Christian largely in name alone. The party founded by Konrad Adenauer sought to rebuild Germany on the moral and spiritual foundations of Christian civilization after the catastrophic rupture that was National Socialism. Over time, however, the CDU has gradually surrendered that inheritance. It has exchanged a confident vision of redemption and renewal for the cautious respectability of a bourgeois party whose primary ambition is the acquisition and preservation of political power. At worst, it risks becoming defined not by resistance but by accommodation – a Vichy-like surrender to the very forces that Pope Benedict XVI, a proud son of Bavaria, warned against as the “dictatorship of relativism.” 

In many respects, Adenauer anticipated the synthesis later articulated by Pope John Paul II in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, which defended the legitimacy of private property and free economic initiative while insisting upon a genuine commitment to social justice. Adenauer sought to ground Germany’s economic reconstruction in the principles of Catholic social teaching. He rejected both socialist collectivism and a purely materialistic conception of capitalism, recognizing that both become reductive when detached from the proper telos of the human person. In other words, while recognizing that man requires his daily bread, bread alone cannot satisfy the deeper spiritual longings that animate human existence. Thus, the CDU’s enduring appeal rests on a fundamentally anthropological claim: that human dignity is rooted in man’s creation in the image of God and that the moral order is not made by politics but precedes it.

If Jens Spahn represents the future of a Christian Democracy untethered from its Christian anthropology, Markus Söder’s Kreuzpflicht reveals the fate of its patrimonial inheritance. The cross endures, but increasingly as an emblem of identity shrouded in vague notions of ‘cultural Christianity’ rather than as the sign of a moral order to which both ruler and citizen are accountable. At best, the cross becomes a political instrument wielded to reclaim cultural ground from the insurgent AfD, a party that now threatens to eclipse the CDU as the principal force on the right side of Germany’s political spectrum. Yet this instrumentalization of Christian heritage-preserving its symbols while severing them from their theological foundations-is not only unprincipled but strategically shortsighted. One can only imagine that Konrad Adenauer, devout Catholic and astute statesman in equal measure, would find little comfort in the trajectory of his party. (Adapted from Joe Wozniak’s article)

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities invites Catholics to pray and act to stop the spread of abortion pills.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities is inviting Catholics to join a focused effort of prayer and action against the spread of abortion pills, starting on August 18 and lasting until October.

“Every abortion involves the death of a child and harm to the mother. Now with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley, USCCB President, and Bishop Daniel Thomas, Chairman of the Conference’s Pro-Life committee, in a joint invitation released on August 18.  The invitation includes a prayer in English and Spanish that can be said for the intercession of St. Joseph, Defender of Life. It also encourages Catholics visit the USCCB’s ‘Respect Life Prayer and Action website’, where they can learn about the danger of abortion pills and send messages to pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies that are involved.

The initiative was launched in order to overlap with the Respect Life Month, which is observed every October by the Catholic Church in the United States. “The Food and Drug Administration has enabled a nationwide mail-order abortion industry by allowing abortion pills to be prescribed in tele-health appointments and sold both at neighbourhood pharmacies and online, circumventing state laws that protect life in the womb,” the Bishops’ invitation explains.

“This leaves women vulnerable to suffering an abortion alone at home, without any medical supervision. It also sets up additional opportunities for exploitation by violent partners or human traffickers.”

In May, the US Supreme Court extended an order that temporarily continues to allow for abortion pills to be prescribed through telemedicine and sent by mail, as a legal dispute over this issue takes place in a lower court.

The Catholic Church in Uganda has intensified its response to the worsening food crisis in Karamoja, a sub-region located in the northeastern corner of Uganda, bordering Kenya and South Sudan. Lira Diocese is mobilising food assistance for the most vulnerable families.

The crisis began to escalate between April and July this year after a prolonged drought destroyed crops, leaving many households without food and severely affecting their livelihoods

In response to the humanitarian situation, the Bishop of Kotido Diocese, Bishop Dominic Eibu, MCCJ, appealed to his brother bishops across the country to support the people of Karamoja through donations of food and other essential supplies.

Following this diocesan appeal, the Chairman of the Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC), Bishop Joseph Anthony Zziwaof Kiyinda-Mityana Diocese, called on all bishops in their respective dioceses to organise relief efforts for the people of Kotido and Moroto dioceses, where thousands of families continue to face acute food shortages.

Responding to this call, Lira Diocese, together with other dioceses across Uganda, has launched a diocesan-wide campaign encouraging Christians to donate food items as an expression of Christian charity and solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Karamoja. The initiative aims to provide immediate relief to families affected by the prolonged drought while demonstrating the Church’s commitment to caring for those most in need.

Lira Diocese’s response

In Lira Diocese, the campaign is being coordinated by Caritas Lira Diocese, the Church’s official charitable and humanitarian arm. Christians in parishes across the diocese are donating food items such as maize flour (Posho), beans, and other non-perishable foods, which will be transported to the affected communities in Karamoja.

Every family in Lira Diocese is being encouraged to contribute whatever they can afford, however small, to help alleviate the suffering. Reports indicate that children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and the elderly are among the most affected by the food crisis, with many showing signs of severe malnutrition.

Speaking during the launch on the diocesan Catholic radio station – Radio Wa, the Vicar General of Lira Diocese, Monsignor Valente Innocent Opio, appealed to the lay faithful to respond generously to the humanitarian call.

“Let every family share whatever it can afford. Feeding the hungry is not only an act of charity but also a command from our Lord Jesus Christ,” Monsignor Opio said, referring to the Gospel of Matthew 25:35, where Christ identifies Himself with those who hunger.

The campaign has already recorded encouraging progress, with thousands of Kilograms of maize and other food items collected from generous Christians across the diocese.

Bishop Valentine Kalumba, OMI, of the Catholic Diocese of Livingstone in Zambia, has urged Zambians to embrace peaceful co-existence among Zambia’s over 73 tribes and languages. The Bishop was speaking to Vatican News in the aftermath of Zambia’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

Reflecting on the just-ended national elections in Zambia, the Bishop of Livingstone said that with the elections over, it was time for a reset, an opportunity for reflection and healing. The Bishop also appealed especially to social media users not to fan the flames of ethnic division.

In his remarks, Bishop Kalumba said it was sad that elections, not only in Zambia but worldwide, have become moments of great tension, stress, and anxiety. Ordinarily, voting in an election should be a celebration of citizens exercising their fundamental rights and making their democratic voices and choices heard, Part of the solution, the Bishop suggested, lies in returning to the Gospel meaning of leadership.  Leadership at all levels of society, he said, should always be about service. The current high stakes of contesting political leadership to amass wealth or resources for one’s family, friends, and tribe run counter to the spirit of Servant Leadership. Notwithstanding all that has happened in recent days, Bishop Kalumba said that, generally, especially in Livingstone Diocese, the voting and the announcement of election results seem to have gone fairly well. According to the Livingstone prelate, there may have been some isolated criminal elements in the City of Livingstone, when some persons sought to take advantage of the election climate to loot and commit acts of vandalism. Still, the authorities were able to deal with these incidents.

The words of Pope Leo XIV at the Meeting in Rimini and his call for the authentic realism of mercy against the false realism that would have us rearm

 “Against the false realism that rearms minds, words, and nations, Catholic culture today must set the realism of mercy, in which there can be no enemies, and all people, even adversaries, are brothers and sisters to be looked in the eye and encountered in truth.”

These are the words Pope Leo XIV addressed to the participants at the Meeting in Rimini, and in particular to the thousands of young people who bring the great end-of-summer gathering to life, a gathering that grew out of the experience of Communion and Liberation. They were not words spoken merely for the occasion, but a precise invitation. First and foremost, an invitation to look at the reality in which we are living.

Already 44 years ago, Saint John Paul II, speaking at the Meeting, had emphasized the beauty of words such as “encounter” and “friendship among peoples” during what he himself called “dramatic moments in the history of the world.”

Today, the international situation is even more uncertain and precarious than it was then: a growing number of conflicts, ongoing massacres of civilians and children—one need only think of Gaza and Ukraine—and the many nations investing ever greater sums in rearming themselves. Faced with all this, the Pope recalls the vocation of the Meeting, which is not to be “a sort of enclave,” but a “crossroads” of encounters and dialogue. 

To follow Christ today, after the tragedies of the twentieth century, means fully recognizing that evil cannot be fought with evil. The only answer, the Christian answer, is love -“the method of redemption,” embodied by the crucified Messiah. And so, to those who today, in the name of a presumed realism-which the Pope did not hesitate to call “false”-would rearm minds, words and nations, Catholic culture responds with an authentic realism: the realism of mercy, “in which there can be no enemies, and all people, even adversaries, are brothers and sisters to be looked in the eye and encountered in truth.”

There is therefore a need for courageous pioneers who will commit themselves concretely to freeing human coexistence from suspicion, work from the idolatry of profit, and technology and finance from the business of death.

Pope Leo calls for the exposure of “unjust power relations” that lie “at the root of poverty and inequality, war and environmental disasters.” This is a strong and consequential appeal from the Successor of Peter, who from the very first day of his pontificate has spoken of “unarmed and disarming” peace, and it should be kept in mind as a criterion for judging the social and even political engagement of all Catholic laypeople.

The Diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta has expressed its concern over the serious migration emergency unfolding in the Spanish autonomous city of Ceuta, offering its cooperation to public authorities and announcing that this weekend’s collections in the city’s parishes will be devoted entirely to meeting the most urgent needs of migrants.

About 60,000 migrants entered the Spanish autonomous city of Ceuta from Morocco over the past 24 hours, according to Ceuta’s President, Juan Jesús Vivas, speaking on Friday. The figure is equivalent to around 70 per cent of the city’s regular population. At least 34 migrants have died while attempting the crossing, highlighting the growing human cost of the unfolding crisis.

Located on the northern coast of Africa and bordering Morocco, Ceuta has for decades been one of the principal entry points into Europe for migrants. In recent days, the growing number of arrivals has led to scenes of thousands of people scaling the border fence or attempting to swim to the Ceuta shoreline from the El Tarajal breakwater. Reception facilities remain overwhelmed.

In response to the scale of the emergency, the Spanish Government ordered the deployment of members of the Armed Forces to reinforce security and support the Civil Guard.

At the same time, the President of the Autonomous City of Ceuta appealed to the central government for urgent assistance, warning that the city’s capacity to respond had reached its limits.

Among those who have arrived are many unaccompanied minors, adding further complexity to reception and protection efforts. Moroccan forces meanwhile reportedly beat back crowds with batons and tear gas at the gates to Ceuta, trying to prevent more from storming across into the tiny Spanish territory that juts on a sliver of sandy land into the Mediterranean from Morocco.

In a statement released on 30 July 2026, the local Church expressed its closeness to all those affected by the crisis and reaffirmed its readiness to work alongside public authorities in responding to the humanitarian emergency.

As an initial concrete measure, the Diocese announced that all collections taken this weekend in Ceuta’s parishes will be allocated to the Diocesan Office for Migrants. The funds will be channelled through the San Antonio Migrant Assistance Centre, which will address the most urgent needs in coordination with the relevant services.

In a video message for Ecuador’s 7th National Youth Day, Pope Leo XIV invites young people to follow Christ, allow the joy of encountering Him to transform their lives and inspire others to seek Him, and to let the Blessed Mother’s example inspire them to embrace God’s plan for their lives.

“An encounter with Jesus Christ fills the heart with joy and gives us the strength to be witnesses of His love and His mercy.”

Pope Leo XIV offered this comforting reminder in a video message he sent to participants in Ecuador’s 7th National Youth Day, taking place in Ibarra this weekend, under the theme, “Take courage; I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).

In his remarks, the Pope stressed that Christ gives their lives meaning.

“I encourage you,” he said, “to listen to the Lord’s call and to follow Him with determination.”

The Holy Father also reminded the young people that they are precious to the Church.

 “The Church needs your joy, your courage, and your witness so that many others may come to know Christ,” he said, adding, “Allow yourselves to be transformed by His love.”

Finally, the Pope called on them to become promoters of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace, and entrusted all the young people of Ecuador to Our Lady of the Presentation. “May Mary,” Pope Leo prayed, “be the model who inspires you to live the Gospel and to dedicate yourselves, as she did, to God’s plan for your lives.”

In a message signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin for the opening of the Youth Festival (Mladifest), held at the shrine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pope Leo XIV urges young people not to be seduced by the illusions of “fleeting happiness.” By following Jesus, even the deepest questions and anxieties of the heart can become “an opportunity for discernment and growth in faith.”

The promises of easy and immediate happiness are attractive, but they often fade away without leaving a lasting mark. What remains are the deeper questions, the anxieties that dwell in the human heart, and the longing for a joy that endures. It is precisely from these vulnerabilities that an authentic journey of faith can begin through an encounter with God, “who quenches every heart and gives the strength to always begin anew.”

This is the heart of the message that Pope Leo XIV, through a message signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, addressed to the young people from 73 countries gathered in Medjugorje for the opening of Mladifest, the international youth festival. Starting in 1989, the festival takes place annually. The Eucharistic celebration takes place at the outdoor altar of Saint James Parish.

Encountering the Lord who quenches every heart

The message was read by Archbishop Aldo Cavalli, the Apostolic Visitor with a special assignment for the Parish of Medjugorje, shortly before the Mass celebrated by Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt, Apostolic Nuncio to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

In his message, the Pope encouraged young people to return ad fontem—to Christ, the source of new life and authentic joy. Through prayer, listening to the Word of God, and the sacraments, he invites them to rediscover “the beauty of a personal encounter with the Lord, who quenches every heart and gives the strength to always begin anew.”

The Pope also encourages young people to seek sincerely “the truth that sets them free,” without allowing themselves to be deceived by “the illusions of a passing happiness.” In following Jesus, he said, everyone can embrace even the most difficult questions and the anxieties of the heart as opportunities for discernment and growth in faith.