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Catholic priest ambushed, stabbed multiple times in ‘frenzied’ attack

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Fr. Paul Murphy, Irish Army Chaplain (credit: Catholic Arena / X)

From LifeSiteNews

By Frank Wright

There are now concerns that the teenager became radicalized online and that he had a specific grievance and plan to target Defence Forces members. 

A Catholic priest, who serves as a chaplain in the Irish Army, was ambushed and stabbed “multiple times” in a “frenzied attack” on Thursday night in Galway, Ireland – which saw Irish soldiers open fire in response. Initial reports said a “teenage male youth” had been detained, who reportedly “uttered statements about Irish military involvement in the Middle East.”

Virgin Media News issued the following report on the violent assault today: 

Father Paul Murphy, a 52 year old Chaplain with the Irish Army, was stabbed outside Renmore Barracks, Galway in the West of Ireland at around 10:45 p.m. last night as he arrived for duty in his car. 

Fr. Paul Murphy, Irish Army Chaplain (credit: Catholic Arena / X)

Fr. Murphy was seriously injured, but survived the attack – sending a message from Galway’s University Hospital as he awaits surgery.  

He thanked people in a Facebook post on Friday for their “prayers, love and concern.”

I’m doing okay: just awaiting surgery. All will be well.

According to the Irish Mirror, police are investigating whether the incident was terror related. 

The Special Detective Unit of An Garda Síochána [Irish police] is involved in this investigation. One line of enquiry is to establish if this attack had a terrorism motivation.

Irish Mirror journalist Paul Healy reported details of the attack:

It is understood Fr. Murphy was sitting in his car waiting for the barracks gates to open when the attacker approached him.  

Sources say the chaplain lowered his window and the attacker immediately stabbed him multiple times. 

Healy goes on to recount how Fr. Murphy tried to escape, stating:

The gates of the barracks then opened and Fr. Murphy is understood to have driven forward in an effort to get away from the stabber. 

The attacker however clung onto the vehicle and continued to try and attack Fr. Murphy. 

Sources say Gardaí [police] have since searched the suspect’s address in the Galway area and a number of items of interest, including radicalized ‘literature’ were recovered. 

There are now concerns that the teenager became radicalized online and that he had a specific grievance and plan to target Defence Forces members. 

Healy further reports that “online social media posts” made by the suspect are now being reviewed. 

The suspect, described as “Irish” and said to be 16-years-old, “remains in detention and is being questioned in a Gardaí station in the North Western region,” according to the Irish Examiner.  

Their report says how “sentries overpowered the youth and detained him” until police arrived, noting that, “Fr. Murphy was provided with first aid at the scene before being taken to hospital where he received further treatment.” 

A soldier who had served with Fr. Murphy on a tour of duty in Lebanon responded with shock and words of admiration for the Padre. 

Brendan Cruise said on X:

I was fortunate enough to have served in Lebanon with Fr Paul Murphy who was the battalion padre. He was absolutely brilliant on the tour, he had time for everyone & a smile for all. Wishing him a full recovery.

Simon Harris, the Taoiseach [Irish Prime Minister] said his “thoughts are with the victim” and thanked the Defence Forces and Gardaí for their action and response in a post on X.  

Irish users of the social media platform responded angrily, with many holding Harris and the government responsible. 

One user replied to Harris saying, “You’ve brought terror back to this Island, after we fought 800 years to live in peace.”

Others noted the Godlessness of the modern Irish state, remarking the deliberate omission of the fact that the victim is a Catholic priest and that no prayers were being offered by the leader of the Catholic nation.  

“Very telling you won’t say a Catholic priest was attacked and you offer no prayers for him.”  

The sentiment in the replies to the Irish Prime Minister were perhaps summarized best in this meme:

Attacks on Catholics and their places of worship have been on the rise in Ireland. A spate of anti-Catholic crime in County Donegal over the summer saw many churches burgled, with damage and attempted arson occuring. One church in Lifford had been targeted three times in six weeks.  

The Protestant Church of Ireland has also been targeted, with historic and “irreplaceable” mummies damaged following a break-in and attempted arson in St Michan’s Church, Dublin in June.  

The vandalism, according to Dublin Live, is believed to have ruined the mummified remains of five Catholics “including an 800-year-old artifact known as ‘The Crusader.’” A Romanian national was found guilty of the damage. 

Yet the attacks have also been linked to hate speech – not online – but made by Irish politicians themselves.  

In April, reporting on arson attacks on two County Meath churches, Catholic Arena alleged:

Hate speech by politicians against Catholics has been a major factor in the recent rise in crime against Catholic. 

The attempts to burn down these two churches came shortly after an Irish Member of Parliament (TD) was “mocked for her Catholic faith” by her fellow members during a speech given in the Parliament itself, known as the Dáil. 

Gript reported on March 23 how Deputy Carol Nolan’s warning that mass migration policies of the Irish government had created chaos in the country.

“We have an immigration system and an immigrant homeless situation that are nothing short of spiralling social sabotage,” Nolan said. 

“This Government has no answers for one simple reason, it is because it does not ask the right questions and it does not listen.”  

Nolan was reportedly “sniggered at” at by members she referred to as “communists,” who she says derided her and other members for their Christian faith – whilst refusing to acknowledge the chaos their open borders policies were causing.  

“I could hear the comments and the muttering – some TDs were definitely mocking our Catholic faith”  

Nolan claimed the anti-Catholic rhetoric emerged over Ireland’s referendum on abortion, when she says was targeted for being pro-life. She explained: 

Unfortunately, I had this trouble before the abortion referendum, and when I called for a ‘No’ vote [to legalising abortion]…so it’s not the first time I have borne the brunt of that type of sentiment.

Nolan said:

I would get a lot of it, and I got a lot of it because it was evident I was pro-life and because of my beliefs.

She remained defiant in the face of this “bullying,” saying Parliament refused to reflect a majority of Irish people whose lives and livelihoods in tourism have been blighted by uncontrolled mass migration.  

“In advance of Holy Week, we will take no lectures from the hard left and the looney left who will not face the people.” 

The comments in the Irish Parliament came weeks after a priest’s house was set ablaze “intentionally” in Kildare, destroying outbuildings at St Brigid’s Cathedral. 

The attacks on the Catholic faith and on Christianity in Ireland have now seemingly escalated to the attempted murder of a priest.

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conflict

Trump has started negotiations to end the war in Ukraine

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For the first time since Russian soldiers entered Ukraine in February 2022, the US is negotiating with Vladimir Putin.  Surprisingly it’s not President Biden’s team at work, but President Elect Donald Trump.  Trump has been working through Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.  President Orban traveled to the US to meet with Trump a day before he had an hour long phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Clearly Trump is looking for at least a quick de-escalation if not an all out end to the conflict in Ukraine.  Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris of The Duran podcast explain the current situation.

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Sending arms to Ukraine is unnecessarily placing American lives in danger

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U.S. President Joe Biden signs the guest book during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Ukrainian presidential palace on February 20, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine

From LifeSiteNews

By Bob Marshall

Joe Biden’s direct military support, coupled with ignoring peace efforts and sidelining containment principles, could spark global conflict.

To understand why a congressional budget fight over continuing or possibly expanding the Ukraine-Russia war is so fraught with dangers, some background of the relevant history and politics must be considered.

Ukraine-Russian hostilities

On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated what he designated as his “special military operation.” He undertook this action in Ukraine which was an extension of the hostile acts that started in February 2014 with a U.S.-supported coup of the Ukraine government. But, recall that Putin approached Biden in late December 2021 through mid-February 2022 with proposals to forestall or avoid Russian military action mainly centering around assurances that Ukraine and other countries would not join NATO, an expansion policy which had its proximate beginnings at the end of the Cold War right after the reunification of Germany.

Putin did not approach Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with such proposals because the United States, and specifically President Biden, was the sine qua non for making such a decision regarding Ukraine’s entrance into NATO both for the U.S. and NATO. Basically, Biden told Putin there was nothing to talk about, especially with regard to reaching any agreement on Ukraine not entering NATO.

Biden rejects Ukraine-Russia peace agreement

Biden and British Prime Minister Johnson refused to accept bona fide peace agreements reached and worked out between Ukraine and Russia during the first weeks of this unnecessary conflict achieved  with the assistance of Israel’s 13th prime minister, Naftali Bennett. Former Fox News commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano wrote that Biden and Johnson urged Zelensky to reject a more than 100-page peace treaty, “each page of which had been initialed by both sides, and its essence accepted by the Kremlin and by Kyiv,” and that by trusting the U.S. and Britain for military assistance, eastern Ukraine could be protected and Ukraine would not have to make concessions to Putin.

For these reasons, Biden and Great Britain own this war and bear partial responsibility for the Ukraine, Russian, and other lives lost as well as other war costs incurred after the treaty’s rejection.

So, American, Russian, and Ukrainian citizens now suffer the political, economic, and military consequences of the myopic and imprudent judgments of Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, and perhaps much less so by Volodymyr Zelensky who apparently believed promises of continued economic and military support from Biden and Johnson.

Biden trashes Kennan Containment Doctrine

Containment worked! America avoided nuclear war.

Direct U.S./NATO Attacks on Russia

The headlines, of course, say that “Ukraine fires UK-made missiles” and that “Russia says Ukraine attacked it using U.S. long-range missiles.” Not so fast. Zelensky may have given the order to fire, or maybe even pushed the buttons, but the White House needs to explain to the American voters who paid for these weapons, who guided the missiles to their targets in the Russian homeland, and why it is not constitutionally and morally irresponsible for Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to risk a much wider or even a worldwide nuclear holocaust to call Vladimir Putin’s bluff.

On November 24, Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official, told Fox News that “we are now on the escalation ladder inching towards a nuclear war. Those ATACMS do not fire by themselves.”

Even if Ukrainian soldiers technically pushed the button, “the targeting of the weapons systems, ensuring that there is a proper flight trajectory of the missile, that it destroys the right target, and the actual battle damage it achieved that we wanted it to achieve, all requires U.S. personnel and U.S. satellites. This is why the Russians have stated that the United States and European targets are now in the crosshairs. In every wargame that we conducted back in the intelligence community ended up in a nuclear war.”

This is direct engagement.

In September, Vladimir Putin explained why a decision like Biden’s is radically different from all other “redlines.”

[T]his is not a question of whether the Kiev regime is allowed or not allowed to strike targets on Russian territory. It is already carrying out strikes … using Western-made long-range precision weapons. … This can only be done using the European Union’s satellites, or U.S. satellites. … [O]nly NATO military personnel can assign flight missions to these missile systems. … Therefore … It is about deciding whether NATO countries become directly involved in the military conflict or not. If this decision is made … this will mean that NATO countries – the United States and European countries – are at war with Russia.

Biden finesses radical policy change

Biden has still refused to take public ownership of his radical departure from George Kennan’s Cold War containment policy of communist powers when he committed the one cardinal sin of American diplomacy: authorizing the direct military attack of a nuclear opponent, however “small.”

The initial press coverage from the Associated Press on November 17 announced that President Biden had authorized Ukraine, for the first time, to use U.S.-made long-range missiles for use by Ukraine inside Russia, “according to a U.S. official and three people familiar with the matter…. The official and the people familiar with the matter were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.”

The stark refusal of even one Biden official to put their name to this monumentally dangerous and radical policy change is astonishing. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) noted on X that, “Joe Biden just set the stage for World War III[.] Let’s all pray it doesn’t come to that[.] Otherwise, we may never forget where we were [t]he moment we received this news.”

AP also noted that “Biden did not mention the decision during a speech at a stop to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil on his way to the Group of 20 summit.”

Press disguises Biden policy switch

Biden’s “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” approach to not acknowledging the political-military consequences of his own actions was received with favorable “silent” coverage from the nation’s compliant mainstream media.

Indeed, none of the following news organizations told readers that Biden has converted American military personnel and civilian employees into warfighters who are directly engaging Russian troops, equipment, buildings, and territory by his direction: Associated PressNew York TimesNBC-WashingtonLos Angeles TimesBloomberg NewsABC-NewsPublic BroadcastingSeattle TimesMinnesota Star TribuneMiami Herald, and The Hill.

Checking the White House, the State Department, and the Defense Department websites for this period reveals no press releases, fact sheets, or acknowledgments about the unprecedented and radical missile policy change with Ukraine or any of its particulars. However, Biden’s White House website posted a note on November 20 expressing sympathy with the Transgender Day of Remembrance but is silent on the possible escalation toward World War III.

Even a week later, National Security Advisor John Kirby still did not acknowledge that Biden has authorized direct attacks on Russia in obvious disregard of Kennan’s successful policy of avoiding nuclear war by avoiding direct military to military conflict with nuclear powers. Below is an exchange between National Security Advisor John Kirby and a reporter at an “on the record” press gaggle:

QUESTION: In the past, you kind of downplayed [the] potential impact of the ATACMS on the battlefield and warned that allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia could lead to escalation by the Kremlin. How do you see it now?

KIRBY: Right now, they are able to use ATACMS to defend themselves, you know, in an immediate-need basis. And right now, you know, understandably, that’s taking place in and around Kursk, in the Kursk Oblast. I’d let the Ukrainians speak to their use of ATACMS and their targeting procedures and what they’re using them for and how well they’re doing. But nothing has changed about the – well, obviously we did change the guidance and gave them guidance that they could use them, you know, to strike these particular types of targets.

Biden’s war escalation ladder

At this point, in light of the grim statistics about a completely avoidable war killing and maiming young men and women, Americans are entitled to the truth, not to a rehash of tired legalisms about Ukraine’s right to defend itself.

On November 25, Judge Andrew Napolitano cited 27-year veteran former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, a frequent guest on Napolitano’s “Judging Freedom” podcast, as confirming that Biden made the decision to let Ukraine use the ATACMS missiles without any input from his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, which is highly unusual.

Biden and weakening Russia

Previously, Austin admitted on April 25, 2022 that the point of the war is “to see Russia weakened,” and Zelensky told The Economist on March 27, 2022, that “there are those in the West who don’t mind a long war because it would mean exhausting Russia, even if this means the demise of Ukraine and comes at the cost of Ukrainian lives.” As Leonid Ragozin wrote in May 2024:

The West has crossed many red lines and is willing to try even more, but it is impossible to predict how the close-knit group of criminally inclined individuals which rules Russia will act if their country begins losing. It has always been a tough proposition to play chess with a guy who is holding a hand grenade. And it makes no sense, as Biden’s predecessors knew very well during the Cold War.

Biden initiated direct but “lower level” hostilities with Russia on November 19, and Biden ally, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, followed suit with similar hostile bombardments of Russia on November 20, partially fulfilling the goal of British and American war hawks attempting to push Russia into larger hostilities under Biden’s lead, or that of his “handlers,” to turn the second cold war with Russia – the aspirations of Washington and London’s armchair generals – into a conflict more likely in their minds of bringing Putin into a more contentious and uncontrollable situation that would relieve Putin of power.

This article is reprinted with permission from the Family Research Council, publishers of The Washington Stand at washingtonstand.com.

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