Alleluia! Today Paul charges the elders of Ephesus with the words for the shepherd: "Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers" (Acts 20:28). Then in the Gospel, Jesus prays for his disciples the night before he dies: "Consecrate them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world" (John 17:17-18). Sent into the world, not taken out of it, not protected from it. Sent into it - as shepherds, as witnesses, as people willing to stand between danger and the vulnerable. Three men did that yesterday in San Diego. Their names deserve to be known.

📰 Quick Hits

1. Three Men Drew Gunmen Away from the Children. They Did Not Survive.

On Monday morning, two teenagers who had been radicalized online entered the Islamic Center of San Diego - the largest mosque in the city, where a school for children was in session - and opened fire. Three men in the community stopped them from reaching the children. Amin Abdullah, the center's security guard, immediately engaged the shooters when he saw them run past him. Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad drew the shooters' attention and led them away from the mosque and into the parking lot. All three men were killed. The two teenage suspects were found dead nearby from self-inflicted wounds. The FBI confirmed the teens had been radicalized online, met virtually, then in person. A manifesto was recovered. "They didn't discriminate on who they hated," the FBI's special agent in charge said. An interfaith vigil was held Tuesday night. The mosque's imam said the three men "gave their lives so others could live."

Faith Lens for the Home: The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Three men - not Christians, not soldiers, not trained first responders - stood between a school full of children and two teenagers with guns, and they died doing it. Their names are Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha, and Nader Awad. Tell your children tonight. Ask: "What made these men do what they did? What does it take to be the kind of person who runs toward danger for someone else?" Then ask the harder question: "Two teenagers were radicalized online. What does that tell us about what our kids are finding on their devices - and who is watching?"

2. The Encyclical Arrives Monday - Here Is What to Bring to It

Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, releases Monday May 26. He signed it May 15 - the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII's 1891 letter that answered the industrial revolution by insisting on the dignity of workers and the limits of capital. The choice of date is deliberate: this document belongs in the lineage of Catholic social teaching, not in the category of tech policy. The central question is the same one Rerum Novarum asked about industrialization: what happens to the human person when a powerful new force reorganizes how we live, work, and relate to one another? The San Diego shooting and the encyclical are not unrelated. Two teenagers found each other online, built a shared hatred, and killed three people. Pope Leo has been asking since his election a year ago what we owe each other in an age of AI - and Monday's document might start to crystalize parts of the answer.

Faith Lens for the Home: Before Monday, ask your family: "What does our household believe about technology - not just the rules, but the underlying conviction about what human beings are for?" The encyclical will give you language. Your dinner table conversation this week gives you the question.

3. Two Pro-Life Georgia Justices Reelected Despite Substantial Opposition

Justices Charlie Bethel and Sarah Hawkins Warren were both reelected to the Georgia Supreme Court yesterday. The stakes were direct: the future of Georgia's law protecting unborn children after six weeks of pregnancy depended significantly on the court's composition. Both justices faced well-funded opposition specifically targeting their positions. Both were retained. The Church does not endorse candidates or parties - but it has always maintained that the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death is a matter of justice, not opinion. Yesterday, Georgia voters weighed in on that question. The result is worth noting without triumphalism: one election, one state, two judges - and the work continues.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family: "Why does the Church care so much about who sits on courts? What does it mean that a judicial election can affect whether unborn children are protected?" Keep it simple and factual. The Church's pro-life commitment runs all the way down - from doctrine to dinner table to ballot box. Raise children who understand all three levels.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Bernardine of Siena - May 20

A 15th-century Franciscan friar and one of the great public preachers of the Middle Ages, who traveled across Italy carrying a tablet displaying the monogram IHS - the Holy Name of Jesus - and holding it up for crowds to venerate. He preached reconciliation between warring Italian city-states and believed the spoken word, used rightly, could heal what violence had broken. He died at 64, having walked and preached across Italy for four decades.

Ask at dinner: "St. Bernardine believed that proclaiming the Name of Jesus in public had real power. What would it look like for our family to be less private about our faith - not loudly, but honestly?"

✋ One Simple Action

Pray tonight for the families of Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha, and Nader Awad - three men who gave their lives for children they were protecting. Pray for the Muslim community of San Diego. Pray for the families of the two teenagers who were radicalized and destroyed. Then ask God what Magnifica Humanitas is asking your family to change before Monday arrives.

📚 Read More

• San Diego mosque shooting - the three men: CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/18/us/live-news/san-diego-islamic-center-shooting) and PBS NewsHour (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/san-diego-police-say-they-are-responding-to-an-active-shooter-at-a-local-mosque)
• Online radicalization and the two teenagers: San Diego Union-Tribune / Spokesman (https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/may/19/3-victims-killed-in-san-diego-islamic-center-attac/)
• Magnifica Humanitas - confirmed release May 26: Deacon's Bench (https://thedeaconsbench.com/its-official-vatican-announces-first-encyclical-by-pope-leo-to-be-published-next-week/) and EWTN (https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/vatican-to-publish-pope-leo-xiv-s-first-encyclical-may-25)
• Georgia Supreme Court justices reelected: NCRegister / CNA (https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pro-life-georgia-justices-reelected)
• St. Bernardine of Siena: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-bernardine-of-siena/)

Paul said: keep watch over the flock. Jesus said: I send you into the world. Three men in a mosque parking lot in San Diego did both on Monday. Their names are Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha, and Nader Awad. Keep them.