Long before Vice President JD Vance was received into the Catholic Church in 2019, his spiritual journey took a dramatic, quiet turn along a winding mountain pass between eastern Kentucky and North Carolina. A young Marine preparing to deploy to Iraq, he was grieving the loss of his beloved grandmother — Mawmaw, the matriarch who had raised him. Driving back toward his military base, his car hit a curve in the road and began spinning out of control toward the edge of a mountain drop-off. “It's one of these roads where there is no — you know, you go off the side of the mountain and you're probably not going to make it,” Vance told Raymond Arroyo in an interview that aired Oct. 22 on EWTN’s The World Over. “And just like right at that point where I'm like, ‘All right, I'm about to go over the side of the mountain,’ the car just comes to a completely restful stop. Like God put His hand on that car and made it stop.” To Vance, the moment carried an undeniable weight: churchpop.com/how-a-near-cra…

How does a family navigate the heartbreaking loss of a nine-year-old child without falling into despair? For Laura and her husband, the answer lay in the remarkable faith, humor, and boundless imagination of their young son, Francisco. To those who loved him, Francisco was a boy filled with joy and a profound fascination with the cosmos. His eyes were constantly fixed on the stars, dreaming of galaxies far beyond our own. But in May 2023, his family’s world was shattered when Francisco received a devastating medical diagnosis. It began with a subtle change in his vision. After noticing minor difficulties during a routine day, medical evaluations revealed every parent’s worst nightmare: Francisco was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare and aggressive pediatric brain tumor. Because of the tumor’s location in the brainstem, DIPG presents an agonizing reality for families — it is inoperable, and modern medicine can only do so much to slow its progression. Suddenly, Laura and her husband found themselves facing a road marked by profound grief and anguish.  Yet, from the very beginning of his diagnosis, Francisco chose a path that astonished everyone around him. Rather than letting fear or sadness consume his days, he met his illness with humor, patience, and a deep, childlike trust in God, all helped along by some very special chats.  Read more at Churchpop.com! ✍🏻 Alyssa Murphy 📹: Laura Fredrickson