This past week has been the picture of eclectic news items.

Paris, France: Marine LePen (never described in the media without the prefix “far right” or “firebrand”) lost the French presidency to Emmanuel Macron, a “centrist.”

I confess to knowing too little about the minutiae of the candidates’ positions but I do remember reading what M. Macron said during his campaign: Il n’y a pas de culture Française, Il n’y a pas une culture française, il y a une culture en France et elle est diverse. A fair English equivalent would be: “French culture doesn’t exist in and of itself; there is no such thing as a single French culture. There is culture in France and it is diverse.”

Gee, I wonder if ISIS is happy or sad that Madame LePen (who said “France will be ruled by a woman — either me or Angela Merkel”) lost?

Sacramento, CA: A Democrat Assemblyman in California named Rob Bonta wants a bill to become law that would end the ban on communists in government jobs. Good idea?

Detroit, MI: The Holy See announced Pope Francis’s approval of a miracle attributed to Ven. Solanus Casey, which will jump him forward to Blessed later this year. He will be only the second American-born male to be named Blessed (after the martyr Father Stanley Rother of Oklahoma who will be beatified in September 23 in OK.) This is big news. Next week, I’ll be writing about Father Solanus, who he was, and how I learned about him from his great nephew, Kelly Casey, a fellow Franciscan University alum and friend.