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Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources are the Zeale News, National Catholic Register, EWTN News, The Pillar, Zeale, and Augustine Institute (Formed). Please support their ministries and apostolates. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)

Click here to view this email on the Catholic Nutshell News website. Today’s Catholic Nutshell News audio podcast is available on the Substack App.

EWTN News

Docs say: Eastern & Western spirituality heal the whole person

By Amira Abuzeid, September 15, 2026

For the first time in its nearly 100-year history, the Catholic Medical Association is focusing on how the Eastern Catholic Church’s emphasis on mystery, united with the Western Church’s emphasis on reason, can give a more comprehensive view of human identity and help Western medicine promote human flourishing. “We’re embodied spirits, not just physical bodies,” she said at the opening. Healing, she added, “is a return to humanity’s original creation in the image and likeness of God.” The conference theme was “Mysteries and Miracles: Restoring the Practice of Medicine to Heal the Whole Person.” Setting the tone, Father Andriy Chirovsky, a theologian and priest of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome, and psychiatrist Dr. Donna C. Dobrowolsky shared the first plenary. Chirovsky said. “Healing requires a true anthropology.”

aciafrica

AI cannot answer humanity’s questions on suffering

By Silas Isenjia, September 15, 2026

Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot be regarded as a means of resolving deeper human questions surrounding suffering, Fr. Melchior Marandu, author of “A Theology of Suffering: Quest for Meaning”, argued. His book explores the limits of technological advances in addressing humanity’s questions about painful aspects of life such as sickness and death; despite technological and scientific advances, suffering and death remain unresolved. “What is the meaning and cause of suffering and evil, death, that technological and scientific advances cannot eliminate?” The Tanzanian Jesuit Priest said suffering calls for examining human responsibility rather than placing blame entirely on God. “Why do seemingly good people make others suffer? We have seen people, we even call them holy, walking saints, aren't they? But in their own communities, they are making others suffer. Why?” he asked.

National Catholic Register

After 30 years, religious sisters return to New York catholic school

By Gigi Duncan, September 8, 2026

The first morning of school brought the familiar sights and sounds back to St. Mary’s Academy in Glen Falls, New York: students filing in with backpacks, classrooms filling, and school-year routines beginning once again. But this year, Sister of the Resurrection Laurie-Marie Parisi greeted students on the first day, Sept. 10, welcoming them into the pre-K-to-8 academy where she now serves as principal. It marked the return of something St. Mary’s has not seen in more than three decades: religious sisters living and serving in the school and parish. With two other Sisters of the Resurrection, Sister Angela Marie Leo and Sister Mary Lucille Borowski, Parisi lives at a newly established convent on the parish’s property. For Father Scott VanDerveer, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, the arrival of the religious sisters is the culmination of a long-shot effort to restore something he and other parish and school leaders believed the academy had been missing.

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Zeale News

Planned Parenthood challenges Wisconsin laws on abortion

By Elizabeth Ervin, September 15, 2026

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Sept. 10 seeking to overturn two state restrictions on abortion and establish abortion as a right under the Wisconsin Constitution. The lawsuit challenges a Wisconsin law making it a Class I felony for anyone other than a physician to perform an abortion and a requirement that women generally wait at least 24 hours after an in-person consultation before obtaining an abortion. Planned Parenthood argued that the Wisconsin Constitution protects the freedom to end an unborn child’s life through abortion, citing the document’s promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said, “These laws don’t make patient care better. They simply make abortion harder to access. And politicians should not get to put barriers between a patient and their health care provider.”

The PIllar

Are larger families actually more religious?

By Brendan Hodge, September 11, 2026

In a society where artificial birth control is widely available and accepted, having a large family is increasingly seen as a choice taken primarily by people outside the mainstream, often for religious reasons. But is that actually the case? Among married people aged 40-55 who have no children, 17% attend religious services at least once a week, a rate virtually identical to unmarried people with no children (16%). Sociologist Ryan Burge recently looked at the question on his site, Graphs About Religion, and concluded: “It’s fair to say that large families are more likely to go to church, but not by that much.” He found that 33% of families with four or more kids went to church at least weekly, while among families with any number of children, 29% went to church that often. Among married couples, the most common number of children is two. For large families, 5.1% of married couples have five or more children, while 2.9% of unmarried couples have that many.

Pime Asia News

Fifty years of charity: An encounter between a priest & a beggar

By Pime Asia News, September 12, 2026

Launched in 1976 by Father Oh Woong-jin, the "Village of Flowers" is now South Korea's largest Catholic social welfare complex. From the first "House of Love" for the homeless, a religious congregation has emerged with missions in several countries, including the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Pope Francis visited the community in 2014. It all began with a providential meeting between Father Oh Woong-jin and Choi Gwi-dong, an elderly beggar with a disability who had spent over 40 years caring for other marginalized people in even more dire straits than himself. That chance encounter between strangers gave rise to Kkottongnae, South Korea’s largest Catholic social welfare complex, which today celebrates the 50^th anniversary of that event, which took place on 12 September 1976, in the Diocese of Cheongju. A decisive turning point came on 8 September 1986, with the founding of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Jesus of the Flower Village, religious communities that added a spiritual dimension to the organization's welfare activities.

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Graphs about Religion

Praying daily much more common than Church attendance

By Ryan Burge, September 14, 2026

A quarter of Americans report attending a house of worship at least a couple of times per month, and about 40% are unlikely to go to a church, synagogue, or mosque at all in the next 12 months. We measure American religion through three dimensions: belief, belonging, and behavior. Social scientists almost always measure behavior through the lens of religious attendance. It’s just the simplest, most straightforward way to do it. Prayer frequency is another way to measure religious behavior, and it specifically asks folks to exclude prayer as part of religious services. Over a quarter of Americans say they pray multiple times per day, and another 16% say they pray by themselves every single day. In total, a majority of Americans say they pray at least a couple of times per week. In contrast, few adults say they don’t pray much at all.

Aleteia

Parish is the ‘Church’s most important institution’

By Jenny Lark Snarski, September 16, 2026

The leaders of the Amazing Parish movement firmly believe in the power of courageous leadership and cultural change to bring about parish transformation from the inside out. They announced a record attendance of 1,100 participants at their August summit held in Houston, Texas. The crowd included pastors, seminarians, diocesan staff, and lay leaders from 88 dioceses across 44 states and four countries, including the Archbishop of Fiji. This gathering, the first in two years, brought together well-known Catholic personalities “as equals” with those working for the Church whose names might never appear on an event flyer or book cover.

Keep informed - 9/16/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from Loop, Formed, & The Pillar

Zeale’s LOOP

Read daily news and political impact stories at the “LOOP”

Elections and politics matter. The LOOP gives you daily gems on the news that seek “to renew our country and culture.”

• DEMOCRATS SUE DHS TO KEEP GIVING WELFARE FUNDS TO FOREIGN NATIONALS - New York was joined by 21 other states and the District of Columbia in filing a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s new restrictions on green cards for foreign nationals who rely on taxpayer-funded welfare programs.

• MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE EL-SAYED PROTESTED AGAINST ‘EX-TERRORISTS’ WHO CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY - Socialist-adjacent Democratic Senate nominee for Michigan Abdul El-Sayed reportedly protested against a 2007 event featuring three converts from Islam to Christianity who claimed to be former affiliates of Islamic terrorist organizations.

• POLL: AMERICANS’ SATISFACTION WITH K-12 EDUCATION HITS RECORD LOW - According to a September Gallup survey, fewer than one-third of Americans are happy with the quality of K-12 education, the lowest share recorded by the polling and research firm in nearly 30 years of study.

Augustine Institute

Formed Series Programs

Formed guides Catholics and those they evangelize to a fully Catholic life through faith-informed content and draws people closer to Christ. The Formed platform provides a captivating experience that empowers and satisfies curiosity by forming Catholics for life.

• In the beginning, God... (Gen 1:1) | Verbum Dei Podcast - Fr. John Ignatius teaches that despite various creation myths, the God who has revealed himself in Scripture is a Who and not simply a “what”. God’s first action toward us as living beings is to bless us.

• The Crucifixion - Jesus enters the darkest moment in history to reveal the Father’s unfathomable love. What God did over 2,000 years ago, He desires to do in your life today. He continues to descend into our darkest moments to offer us forgiveness.

• How to Cultivate Silence for a Better Prayer Life - On this episode of Practicing Catholic, hosts Taylor Kemp and Dr. Scott Hefelfinger tackle a challenge almost every praying Catholic knows well: sitting down for prayer only to find that silence is anything but quiet inside. Drawing on a year of listener responses to their episodes on prayer, Taylor and Scott turn to the question underneath it — why cultivating real silence is so difficult, and why it's essential to the spiritual life anyway.

The Pillar

Pillar Stories from the July calendar, 9/16/26

The Pillar offers a news summary and a capsule take on Catholic News. Here are news stories from the past few weeks in the Pillar Post:

• Morocco’s Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero is sidelined right now, as the prelate faces investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct, including three women who say the cardinal acted inappropriately in the confessional. The Archdiocese of Rabat got a coadjutor bishop yesterday, who will take over governance of the diocese immediately whenever López Romero resigns, is removed, or retires.

• The Vatican announced Monday a major leadership transition in a small but historically significant community within the Catholic Church in Belarus.

  The Belarusian Greek Catholic Church is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome. It has around 5,000 members in Belarus, as well as thousands more living in the diaspora.

• The Diocese of Fall River, Mass., announced Friday that Msgr. Roger Landry has been restricted from public ministry after allegations of misconduct were made against the priest by “multiple individuals.” Landry, who was due to be a headliner at the beatification of Fulton Sheen next week, has said that the allegations do not involve sexual misconduct, and that he has not been suitably informed about what canonical crimes he may have committed.

September 16, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE or read HERE:

Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

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Crisis Magazine

Modern fashion: No dignity for the pregnant woman

By Andrea Madrigal, September 16, 2026

Horrifying as it might be, the modern woman’s hatred for her very own childbearing abilities—abilities which used to be treasured and esteemed so highly—is a fascinating phenomenon that deserves to be examined. Why, and how, did we get here? There are certainly many possible explanations and theories, all of which point to one ideology whose effects on society have not left any room to doubt that it originated from the very pit of Hell: feminism. Its influence is everywhere—from the entertainment she is exposed to when she is a girl to the education system, which is steeped in turning women away from their natural inclinations, one of which is motherhood, and instead convincing them that a life of slavery to the corporate world (or, even worse, of individualistic success in the corporate world) is the epitome of female liberty.

The Catholic Weekly

How will the church thrive in secular Australia?

By Dr Philippa Martyr, September 16, 2026

When I was a kid, the basics of Christianity were still assumed and factored into our laws on working, shopping, eating, and drinking. Not anymore. Some changes feel harder than others — like the decision to hold major entertainment and sporting events on Good Friday. I really felt that one. Can we do anything about this? Is this a hill you’d be prepared to die on? I suspect not. Does that make you a bad Catholic? I don’t think so. I know some readers would disagree, because they’re keen for Catholics to be at the forefront of social action. It’s hard to accept that the number of committed Catholics in Australia has fallen drastically. It’s equally hard to accept that our church has been publicly disgraced, and with just cause. We don’t have the social and political clout that we used to have. Perhaps the great weakening of the church in Australia is a case of having talents taken off you when they’re not used for God’s purposes (Matt 25:29).

The Jerusalem Post

Among Christian zionists: Marco Rubio is No. 1

By Jerusalem Post Staff, September 10, 2026

As America's chief diplomat and National Security Adviser, Marco Rubio has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to the US-Israel alliance and to the security of the Jewish state. Throughout his years in public service, including his tenure in the US Senate, Rubio has been a vocal advocate for Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism and regional threats, while supporting efforts to strengthen strategic cooperation between the two nations. As the son of Cuban immigrants who fled communism, Rubio was raised with a deep appreciation for freedom, democracy, and the dangers of authoritarianism. His family's experience, coupled with his Christian faith, shaped his conviction that America should stand firmly with democratic allies such as Israel and defend religious liberty around the world. His leadership has reflected a broader commitment to confronting anti-Semitism, promoting religious freedom, and affirming the enduring partnership between the American and Israeli people.

Church Life Journal

Battle between Traditional Latin Mass & the Vatican is power

By Shaun Blanchard, September 11, 2026

The real dispute over the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes (TC) was ecclesiological, not liturgical. Put the controversy in historical context beyond the issues Pope Francis and his supporters and critics typically circled around: Vatican II and its implementation/reception, Lefebvrist and traditionalist resistance to the Council, and whether Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum had been good or bad for the Church. The most outspoken advocate for the TLM in the hierarchy is definitely still Cardinal Burke, and while he is obviously deeply, piously devoted to the old liturgy, it is no accident that he also led the charge against Pope Francis’s “ambiguities” in general and synodality in particular, finally generating the formal Roman response to his dubia he so desired. Indeed, it is now difficult to see much theological (as opposed to prudential or disciplinary) difference between SSPX and the leading traditionalist spokesmen, or at least the ones who make the most noise.

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Catholic Nutshell News is a subscription service hosted by SubStack. Get up to a dozen recent articles from Monday to Saturday to review regarding newsworthy issues. An easy way to browse top Catholic news and information services on the net. Edited by John Pearring.

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“I’ll pray for thee from my pistachio tree”

Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources are OSV News, EWTN, Catholic Stand, Big Pulpit, Aleteia, and The Pillar. Please support their ministries and apostolates. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)

Click here to view this email on the Catholic Nutshell News website. Today’s Catholic Nutshell News audio podcast is also available on the Substack App.

Our Sunday Visitor

Trump backs Irish unification, bucking US neutrality

By Kate Scanlon, September 14, 2026

President Donald Trump backed Irish unification during a meeting Sept. 12 with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin, a move that drew praise from a U.S. Irish Catholic fraternal organization, but bucked several decades of precedent for the U.S.’s officially neutral position on the question. Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom since 1921, after the Government of Ireland Act 1920 divided the island into two parts amid the 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence. Divisions became hardened after the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty led to Southern Ireland becoming the majority-Catholic Irish Free State, while Northern Ireland, with its unionist Protestant majority and nationalist Catholic minority, remained in the United Kingdom. The U.S. has supported the Good Friday Agreement — the historic 1998 accord that the Clinton administration helped broker — that effectively ended three decades of violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, often referred to as “the Troubles.”

Zeale

Catholic parents fight for custody of socially ‘transitioned’ daughter

By Elizabeth Ervin, September 14, 2026

Catholic parents in Massachusetts are fighting to regain custody of their teenage daughter after her public school allegedly began socially “transitioning” her without their knowledge and state officials subsequently removed her from their home. Joseph and Arlene Kutzko said the state’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) removed their then-15-year-old daughter, Sophie, from their home in late 2024 after they refused, because of their Catholic faith, to refer to her as a boy, according to a Sept. 13 episode of Fox News’ “Lighthouse Faith” podcast with religion correspondent Lauren Green. The parents — who spoke on the podcast alongside their attorney, Vernadette Broyles — alleged that the removal came shortly after staff at Algonquin Regional High School in Southborough, Massachusetts, began referring to Sophie by a male name and using male pronouns for her without informing them.

EWTN News

Church documents 304 martyrs in Latin America so far this century

By Victoria Cardiel, September 15, 2026

The Catholic Church has documented 304 martyrs in Latin America so far this century. These are men and women killed not only for professing their faith but also for defending the poor, confronting organized crime, and protecting creation. Their stories are part of a global catalog of martyrs promoted by the Vatican that already exceeds 1,700 documented cases. Many were murdered for reasons related to drug trafficking, deforestation, or for opposing the exploitation of natural resources,” explained Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The cardinal noted that while many were missionaries, the group also included lay faithful who gave their lives defending the Gospel and denouncing drug traffickers, protecting Indigenous territories from deforestation, or fighting the illegal exploitation of natural resources. The martyrs became “inconvenient” to those controlling illicit activities, Semararo said. Their Gospel witness clashed directly with economic interests and criminal structures.

Related: ‘Century of martyrdom’: Vatican commission has recorded death of over 1700 martyrs in the 21st century, By Crux Now Staff, September 15, 2026

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CBCP News

Archbishop calls digital world new mission territory

By CBCP News, September 12, 2026

The digital world is a ‘new mission territory’ where people already live, work and search for meaning, a Philippine archbishop said Saturday. Archbishop Rex Andrew Alarcon of Caceres urged Catholic digital missionaries across Asia to bring the Gospel into online spaces with discernment, critical thinking and a strong sense of community. “The new mission territory is not the seas, not the air, but the digital sphere,” Alarcon said. “Not a parallel world, but a world where we live in. We are already there.” Alarcon said digital spaces have become places where people form opinions, build relationships, encounter information and search for meaning, making them part of everyday human life. He warned that rapid technological change, particularly artificial intelligence, raises new ethical questions and should not replace human judgment. “We are now outsourcing our intelligence,” Alarcon said, urging digital missionaries not to “relegate our thinking to the machines.”

UCA News

Franciscans report three Christian civilians killed in Indonesia

By UCA News reporter, September 7, 2026

“Following yet another massacre, there is an urgent need to protect civilians, respect international humanitarian law and reduce the presence of Indonesian army troops. At the same time, humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach more than 100,000 displaced persons,” said Fr. Alexandro Rangga OFM, director of the Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation in the Indonesian province of West Papua. Rangga confirmed that three Christian employees of the agricultural office in Jayawijaya Regency were killed in an ambush on 9 September, once again raising the issue of the safety of civilians amid the long-running conflict in Papua. According to reports, the armed group West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Movement (TPNPB-OPM) stopped the convoy and separated indigenous Papuans from non-native people, who were then killed. the situation of civilians in conflict-affected areas of Papua has deteriorated, as they face attacks by both separatist groups (TPNPB-OPM) and operations by Indonesian security forces.

Zenit

‘Entrepreneurial nuns’ serve God with ‘pray and work’

By Alma Recinas, September 14, 2026

Certain women religious are not abandoning the traditional “ora et labora”; rather, they are bringing the ancient Benedictine principle — “pray and work“ — into the 21st century. They are engaging in online stores, social media, marketing, sustainable agriculture, artisanal products, and business management, yet with a purpose distinct from that of conventional business: sustaining a community, preserving a heritage, and continuing a mission. Considered “entrepreneurial nuns“ — though entrepreneurial women religious or social entrepreneurs may be more accurate — their goal is not personal enrichment, but sustaining the community, preserving convents, and funding apostolic and social works. In Spain, Benedictine Sister Marta González is a master brewer who has produced beer for the convent for decades; L’Osservatore Romano reported an annual production of 3,000 hectoliters. She believes brewing beer serves God, breaking the stereotype that a nun must limit herself to activities traditionally considered “religious.“

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The Pillar

Pope Leo gave Eastern Churches the power to remove patriarchs

By John D Faris, September 8, 2026

By the motu proprio Mutua concordia, issued on 29 August 2026, Pope Leo amended canons 106 and 126 of the Eastern code to empower a synod of bishops, the highest governing body of a patriarchal Church, to remove its own patriarch from office in an orderly fashion. Twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. Six are headed by a patriarch (Coptic, Syriac, Melkite Greek, Maronite, Chaldean, and Armenian Catholic Churches). Four more are headed by a major archbishop, an office that carries substantially the powers of a patriarch under a different title. These ten Churches are not dioceses of the Latin Church. Each governs itself through its own synod of bishops, elects its own head, and legislates its own particular law. That self-governance is not a courtesy extended by Rome. It is a right recognized in the universal Church’s own legislation for the Eastern Churches, the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, promulgated in 1990. Self-governance, however, had a gap in it, until now. Canon 1060 §1, n. 1 reserved to the Roman Pontiff alone the right to judge a patriarch. A synod could disagree with its patriarch, and could say so, but it could not act.

Crux

Ecuador Catholics believe assisted reproduction bill can be defeated

By Eduardo Campos Lima, September 13, 2026

Catholic pro-life activists are confident a bill aimed at regulating assisted reproduction – and containing several provisions that go against Church teaching – may be shelved by a majority of lawmakers in Ecuador. The bill, which was about to be put to a vote but had its consideration suspended at the end of July, is part of what pro-life movements describe as an offensive by various sectors of society to promote legislation contrary to the defense of life in the Andean nation. Three legislative proposals were combined and introduced as a single bill on assisted reproduction in the Ecuadorian Congress earlier this year. Lawmakers advocating its approval argue that assisted reproduction has been practiced in Ecuador for several years without regulation or state oversight, and that it is therefore time to establish legislation governing such practices. But the bill contains a number of provisions that pro-lifers in general, and the Catholic Church in particular, cannot accept.

Keep informed - 9/15/26 news for Catholics

Snippets: Pulpit, EWTN, & Aleteia

BIG PULPIT

Tito Edwards’ Catholic blogger site: September 15, 2026

The Big Pulpit website is an intelligent news aggregator offering insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide. Here are Chief Editor Tito Edwards’ top recommendations for today.

• Pope Leo XIV Abrogates Yet Another Francis Document – Rorate Cæli

• God Raises Up His Champions – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American Catholic

• Human Women Turned Into Vending Machines is. . .Progress? – Creative Minority Report

• Sobering Spiritual Truths According to St. John of the Cross – Msgr. Charles Pope at CIM

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 15, 2026

EWTN News provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, and is available to anyone with internet access.

• Daughter of imprisoned Christian Syrian urges Trump to intervene - By Emma R.C. Lyons - The family of Suleiman Khalil, a former mayor in Sadad, Syria, is urging U.S. officials to intervene after he spent 19 months in detention without charges under the Syrian transitional government. Khalil was arrested and detained Feb. 8, 2025. His daughter and advocacy group Christian Solidarity International (CSI) have urged U.S. governmental intervention.

• ‘Daniel and the Fiery Furnace’ brings biblical story of faith under pressure to big screen - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - A new biblical drama is bringing the story of the prophet Daniel to the big screen, depicting his rise in the Babylonian Empire and the faith of three men who chose death rather than bow to a king who demanded they worship him.

• Study: Doctors don’t screen for abortion coercion — and it hurts women - By Kate Quiñones - A recent study highlights that when women are coerced or pressured into abortion, they are at high risk for negative outcomes — but abortion providers rarely screen for abortion coercion. The authors, David C. Reardon, Dr. Martha W. Shuping, and Dr. Patricia K. Giebink, called the failure to screen for this “medical negligence.”

Aleteia

Aleteia’s global network reports for September 15, 2026

Aleteia (aleteia.org) is an online publication distributed in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Slovenian). Launched in 2013, it is one of the world’s leading news websites with content free from ideological influences.

Vatican Library needs to be bigger, Pope Leo decides - The Holy Father signed a document ordering the construction of a new building inside the Vatican to expand the Vatican Apostolic Library (BAV) and the Vatican Apostolic Archives. The expansion aims to meet the growing needs of the bibliographic heritage housed in the world’s smallest state.

Diocese to explore canonization process for heroic dad - Philip Kosloski - n September 10, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, has posted an official edict that seeks to explore a canonization process for Thomas Vander Woude. Thomas died in Nokesville, Virginia, while saving the life of his youngest son, who had fallen into a septic tank on the family property.

Pope Leo’s first book published today - ‘Freedom Under Grace’ is a collection of the Holy Father’s writings from his years as head of the Augustinian Order. It's not just his first book as pope, but his first book ever. Not organized by theme, but rather chronologically, specifically covering the future pope's writings from when he was head of the Augustinian order, the book covers homilies from the years 2001-2013.

September 15, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE - or read HERE:

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

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Dominica

A Time for War

By Br. Gabriel Dobrozsi, O.P., September 15, 2026

In Narnia’s Perelandra, C.S. Lewis is bringing to the surface the incarnate nature of spiritual combat. This is reflected in Ransom’s critical realization: it is a trick of the Devil to think that “spiritual combat” means only using the part of us that is spiritual. God made us soul and body, and while the body is what makes us weaker than the Enemy by nature, it is also the precise instrument by which we are meant to overcome him. In many of our struggles with sin there comes a certain decisive moment. Up to this point, it seems we have already exhausted all our resources: our willpower has not been strong enough; our spiritual reading, while enlightening, has failed to produce the virtue we lacked; even our prayer has not turned things around. Eventually, we reach a fateful junction, a fork in the road. The truth forces itself upon us, and something escapes from the depths: “This can’t go on.”

Missio Dei Catholic

Children’s’ Limbo’ and the theological virtue of hope

By Andrew McGovern, Th.D., September 15, 2026

One of the heaviest crosses that a married couple will ever have to carry is that of the death of a child. As humans, we are programmed to expect that our children will bury us, not the other way around. And so when a parent encounters the tragedy of having to bury their child, there is an overwhelming sense of grief that takes hold. Within this spectrum of tragedies lies the reality of miscarriage. This is, I think, a unique experience. One that is not more or less injurious to the parents, but one that comes with a unique and important question: what of the salvation of my child? Is there hope for a child who dies without baptism? Many have sought to answer this question, and the Church, in Her love for Her children, is not silent. First, a child being condemned to the Hell of the Damned is not permitted. St. Thomas Aquinas said that since there is not a supernatural knowledge for the innocent child, there is no interior affliction in being deprived of the beatific vision.

The Obscure, Forgotten, and Undiscovered

When pressed on Jesus, Kerouac said, ‘all I write about is Jesus’

By James K. Hanna, September 10, 2026

The poet Robert Lax (1915-2000)—not only a friend to Jack Keroauc, but an admirer of the Beat writer’s literary production—once wrote to Kerouac, “… i think it is the heart not head that talks in your writing, and the heart is no dummy.” Contrast that with Truman Capote’s assessment that Kerouac’s production was not writing at all but “just typing.” Lax said of Merton, “…the whole vocabulary of your heart is christian and Catholic.” Those lines of Lax led me to speculate briefly on the meaning—his meaning, of “heart” in Kerouac’s writing. This speculation is rooted in the fact that Lax was raised Jewish, a convert to Catholicism in 1943 at age 28, five years after the conversion of his Columbia University classmate and friend, Thomas Merton. When asked by a reporter, “How come you’ve never written about Jesus? You’ve written about Buddha. Wasn’t Jesus a great guy too?,” Kerouac replied: “I’ve never written about Jesus? In other words, you’re an insane phoney who comes to my house … and … all I write about is Jesus. I am Everard Mercurian, General of the Jesuit Army.”

Catholic Stand

The silence is not empty

By Taylor Willis, September 12, 2026

We live in a world that rarely becomes quiet. There is always something demanding our attention—a notification on our phone, a conversation waiting to happen, a responsibility that needs to be finished, or a worry occupying our thoughts. Even when the world around us is silent, our minds can remain incredibly loud. In the middle of all that noise, we can begin to wonder: Where is God? Is He speaking, and have I simply forgotten how to listen? Scripture gives us a beautiful invitation: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:11). These words are simple, but living them can be difficult. Stillness requires us to put down the things that constantly compete for our attention and make room for God. In a world that tells us to keep moving, silence asks us to stop. It asks us to listen. Silence can feel uncomfortable at first. When we finally put away our phones, turn off the music, and allow ourselves to sit quietly, we may discover just how restless our hearts have become.

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Catholic Nutshell News is a subscription service hosted by SubStack. Get up to a dozen recent articles from Monday to Saturday to review newsworthy issues. An easy way to browse top Catholic news and information services on the net. Edited by John Pearring.

Listen to an audio podcast of today’s Catholic Nutshell News on the Substack App!

At the top of your phone, while in the Substack app to read our post, you can press the ▶️ play button and have Catholic Nutshell News read to you daily …

Unless otherwise noted, the bible references linked in the posts are from the USCCB website online publication of the Books of the Bible.

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Your 5-minute daily Catholic briefing. Today's sources: National Catholic Register, EWTN News, The Pillar, Crux, First Things, Zeale, & Aleteia. Please support their ministries and apostolates. (Catholic Nutshell is a FREE subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)

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CRUX

Last vestige of anti-Catholic laws in Britain might be ending

By Charles Collins, September 13, 2026

Last week, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he will ask Parliament to end the ban on Catholic members advising the Sovereign on appointing bishops in the Church of England. Since the Reformation came to England in the 1500s, the King or ruling Queen has been the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and oversees the appointment of bishops. However, as the power of Parliament has grown, the prime minister has “advised” the monarch — in other words, has a major role in appointing bishops. He is the first Catholic to become prime minister in Britain, but he doesn’t have the same authority as his predecessors. “Restrictions set out in the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and the Jews Relief Act 1858 prevent persons professing the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths only from advising the Sovereign on appointments to the Church of England and Church of Scotland,” he explained. He added that he is currently giving that responsibility to advise the Sovereign on Church appointments to Alex Norris, the Lord Chancellor.

National Catholic Register

To save a Catholic church in Detroit, the archdiocese let it go

By Matthew McDonald, September 6, 2026

Msgr. Chuck Kosanke ran out of options. He was pastor of a parish now known as the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit in 2016, trying to save the twin-spire, brick-and-stone Gothic-Revival church built in 1886, which, after years of deferred maintenance, was in tough shape. His nickname in the Archdiocese of Detroit is “Mr. Fix-It.” He raised only about $5 million of a projected $26 million needed to restore the church. The growing parish was poor and unable to contribute much. “Now, even though I pray before the Blessed Sacrament every morning, I finally had to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with Jesus,” referring to the spring of 2022. The well-known Detroit Pulte family made an unusual offer: "We’ll give more money than you asked for, but the Catholic Church can’t own the property." The archdiocese transferred ownership of the buildings and grounds, giving the archdiocese a 200-year renewable lease to run the property as a Catholic parish for $1 a year.

EWTN News

Leo XIV repeals COVID-era pay cuts to Vatican cardinals

By Ishmael Adibuah, September 14, 2026

Pope Leo XIV has officially repealed the salary cuts Pope Francis imposed on cardinals and other senior officials working in the Roman Curia. In a decree published by the Vatican on Sept. 14, the pontiff canceled the cost-cutting measures Francis had established in 2021 to address the Vatican’s financial deficit that year, projected at $60 million. A Vatican cardinal’s monthly stipend is about $5,768 (5,000 euros). Under those measures, the Vatican cut cardinals’ stipends by 10%. Those measures, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, also reduced the pay of other senior officials and employees of the Holy See and Vatican City State by 8%. Clergy and religious employed by the Vatican saw their salaries reduced by 3%. Leo stated in his motu proprio that those salary cuts “may now be set aside.”

PIMA Asia News

40 digital missionaries heading to Seoul World Youth Day

By Santosh Digal, September 14, 2026

The first Asian Assembly of Catholic Digital Missionaries was held in Manila from 10 to 13 September, centered on the topic “Influencers to Witnesses: Synodal Way for Digital Mission in Asia”. About a hundred Catholic digital missionaries from across the continent took part in the four-day event to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of evangelization in the digital realm. To this end, some “40 Pairs of Eyes” or Catholic influencers will tell the story of World Youth Day (WYD) 2027 in Seoul in a fresh, new way. Catholic influencers will thus try to capture and share the insights, experiences, and moments young people and communities will partake in South Korea in August 2027, and share them with Catholics across Asia. “We realized that the digital world is already a mission field, especially for the young people of Asia,” noted Father John Mi Shen, head of the Office of Social Communication of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), speaking to AsiaNews.

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The Pillar

The Vatican and Beijing’s long-term bets against each other

By Ed. Condon, September 2, 2026

Both the Vatican and the Communist Party of China (CPC) appear to have settled for an unhappy present while pressing, or praying, for future victory. The Vatican announced two weeks ago a growing list of bishops selected and installed under the norms of the 2018 agreement with the Chinese government on episcopal appointments. Bishop Paul Liu Honggang was consecrated Aug. 31 and installed as the new head of the Diocese of Datong, vacant for 75 years. Liu is the latest in a queue of relatively smooth episcopal appointments for the Chinese mainland since the election of Pope Leo XIV last year. After years of dysfunction, with mainland authorities choosing and installing bishops without reference, or even prior notice, to the Vatican, the 2018 Vatican-China deal appears to be working, at least technically. Candidates are selected internally via the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, submitted to Rome for approval and then installed and announced on a schedule coordinated between Beijing and the Vatican.

Zeale

DOJ sues more states & DC for in-state illegal immigrant tuition

By David Uebbing, September 14, 2026

The Justice Department sued Hawaii, Arkansas, Utah, and the District of Columbia on Sept. 10, accusing each of violating federal law by offering reduced college tuition to students living in the country illegally while charging full, out-of-state rates to U.S. citizens who live elsewhere. The four lawsuits bring the total number of such cases the department has filed nationwide to 25. In-state tuition rates violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause and a federal law barring states from granting postsecondary education benefits to people in the country illegally unless the same benefit is available to any U.S. citizen, regardless of which state they live in. The lawsuits extend a legal strategy that has already produced rulings against several states, most recently Nebraska, where a federal judge in June permanently barred the state from enforcing a 2006 law that let immigrant students without legal status qualify for in-state tuition if they had graduated from a Nebraska high school and lived in the state at least three years.

Aleteia

Gen Z convert boom is also happening in Scotland

By Theresa Civantos Barber, September 14, 2026

As churches across Scotland celebrated the Easter Vigil earlier this year, the country saw an incredible 549 people received into the Church. This presents a spiritual spectacle that hasn’t been seen before. In the Archdiocese of St. Andrew’s and Edinburgh, the Jesuit Church of the Sacred Heart sees roughly 100 young adults at Sunday evening Mass, and a WhatsApp forum has 200+ members. While this evidence shows the city’s young people expressing interest in Roman Catholicism, the entire nation is home to many recent converts. From Aberdeen, Scotland, 27-year-old Aaron Johnstone was baptized and received into the Church in 2024. With a secular background, he wasn’t familiar with the Mass or Catholic traditions, but as a teenager, found his niche in philosophy. Reading St. Augustine’s works served as the catalyst for Aaron’s conversion. What remains to be seen is if this upward trajectory continues, and how the Church can harness new youthful connections.

Zenit

Argentina names two Catholic shrines as protected sites

By Enrique Villegas, September 14, 2026

Argentina is formally recognizing two very different expressions of Catholic heritage: a 240-kilometer pilgrimage route associated with a 19th-century priest and a small Marian sanctuary in Misiones whose walls were built by the local community. The law declaring the Camino de Brochero an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Argentina. The approximately 240-kilometer route links places associated with the life and pastoral mission of St. José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, the Argentine priest popularly remembered as the “Gaucho Priest.” Much of his ministry unfolded in the Traslasierra region of Córdoba, where he travelled difficult terrain, often by mule, to bring the sacraments to isolated communities, encourage people to make spiritual retreats and accompany families. The new national designation goes beyond protecting a road or collection of sites. It covers the celebrations, traditions, knowledge, communal practices and expressions of popular devotion.

Related: Colombian President Announces Funding for the Restoration of a Major Church Damaged by the Earthquake, ZENIT Staff, Zenit, September 12, 2026

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Keep informed - 9/14/26 news for Catholics:

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EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 14, 2026

EWTN News provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, with updates on the Holy Father's words and the Holy See.

• Vatican Latin Mass permissions steady across papal transition - By Victoria Cardiel - Thirty-four dioceses received permission for celebrations in parish churches in 2025 — unchanged from 2024 — with the United States accounting for 24 of the 34 decrees.

• Capuchin bishops reflect on dual calling as friars and diocesan shepherds - By Emmanuel Ogacheko Idakwo - According to Vatican statistics, there are 5,525 Catholic bishops worldwide. 78.4%, are diocesan bishops formed within the secular clergy, while 21.6%, are members of institutes of consecrated life, including Capuchins, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Salesians. The Capuchin order counts more than 74 bishops among its members.

• ‘Love is a decision’: Husband loves his wife even more after early-onset Alzheimer’s - By Diego López Marina - A husband shares his struggles, his faith, and his undying commitment as he cares for his wife as she suffers from a debilitating, progressive, fatal illness.

Aleteia

Aleteia’s free access to Catholic news

Launched in 2013, Aleteia is a free online daily news publication. The site is available in six languages (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and Slovenian). Aleteia reaches nearly 50 million people worldwide, making it one of the leading online Catholic media outlets.

• Bishops: Ask your senators to extend protection for Haitians - A House bill grants a 3-year reprieve from deportation to refugees who escaped Haiti’s ongoing violence. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to approve the extension. Catholic bishops are urging the Senate to approve a House bill extending temporary protected status (TPS) to some 350,000 Haitian refugees now living in the US,

• Should we be afraid of AI destroying us in the next decade? - Former AI researchers continue to raise the alarm, warning us that the AI race could have major consequences. In many ways, this seems as if it's out of a science fiction novel, and has raised many people's anxiety levels, making people ask, "Could humanity be wiped out by an insidious AI agent?"

• Where are you going, humanity? The Church’s answer in 5 points - The International Theological Commission’s major document on transhumanism and posthumanism is the most ambitious Catholic statement on the future of the human person in decades. Technology is not the enemy — but it carries ambivalence from the start

Catholic World News

CatholicCulture.org from Trinity Communications

Catholic World News (CWN) is an independent Catholic news service staffed by lay Catholic journalists, dedicated to providing accurate global news from a distinctly Catholic perspective.

‘Gift and forgiveness are the foundation of our existence,’ Pope tells pilgrims - Jesus “reminds us that gift and forgiveness are the foundation of our existence,” Pope Leo XIV said on September 13 to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address (video). Pope Leo said that “all things are given to us by God out of pure love, and none of us can claim to be perfect in responding to such goodness.”

English bishops welcome defeat of assisted-suicide legislation - The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales welcomed the defeat of assisted-suicide legislation in a 286-270 vote. “I would like to express my gratitude to those MPs who voted against the Bill and the many people from across society who made their voices heard—doctors, legal professionals, disability groups, other faith communities and those of no faith who stood up for the dignity and sanctity of every life,” said Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool.

Leading Nigerian prelate calls on priests to be politically non-partisan, charitable on social media - Addressing a meeting between the nation’s bishops and the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria discussed five pillars on pastoral renewal and ministerial integrity, including non-partisanship and responsibility on social media. “The priest’s role is not partisan,” said Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso of Kaduna said on September 11. “He is not a campaign agent or political broker.”

September 14, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

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Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

First Things

The fraying fabric of the Church of England

By Stephen Daisley, September 14, 2025

St. Paul’s Cathedral has come up with a novel way to fill the pews: It is becoming a concert venue. Under a newly inked agreement, London nightclub Fabric will be the “exclusive partner for contemporary music events” at Christopher Wren’s masterwork to God’s glory, or, as St. Paul’s describes itself in a press release, “one of London’s most iconic spaces.” Critics who fear a repeat of the silent disco at Canterbury Cathedral, dubbed “the rave in the nave,” have been assured that events on Ludgate Hill will be “done respectfully,” with the cathedral’s director of visitor engagement, Sandra Lynes Timbrell, telling Church Times the plan is for “seated concerts” with “minimal amplification.” The partnership deal has drawn admonishment from Robert Barron, the Roman Catholic bishop of Winona–Rochester, Minnesota, who accuses the Anglican leadership of having “lost any sense of the crucial distinction between the sacred and the secular.”

Zenit

Father sues school for denying opt-out from LGBTQ instruction

By Zenit Staff, September 11, 2026

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit last week against the Lake Washington School District on behalf of a Washington father who has repeatedly asked to opt his son out of LGBTQ instruction only to be refused. Konstantin Averkiev is a Christian with sincere religious beliefs about sex, gender, and marriage that he seeks to instill in his young son, who attends an elementary school in the Lake Washington School District. The district covers Kirkland and Redmond, east of Seattle. The district implements LGBTQ “inclusive curricula” and requirements that conflict with Averkiev’s faith. Averkiev met with his son’s teacher and asked that his son be excused from all LGBTQ instruction based on his religious beliefs. The teacher agreed. Yet in June of this year, Averkiev discovered that his son received a Pride Month lesson that discussed gender-change surgery. The district rejected nearly all of his requests. The only opt-out the district granted—for sex-education curriculum and surveys—are required by state law.

Our Sunday Visitor

Pondering what Gloria Steinem now knows

By Elizabeth Scalia, September 4, 2026

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. Neither of those feminist slogans originated with Gloria Steinem, who credited writer Irina Dunn with the first and “an old Irish woman taxi driver in Boston” with the second. It is understandable that so many attributed the words to Steinem, who died Sept. 2 at age 92; not only did she gleefully repeat them, her own rhetoric echoed or expanded on the sentiments as she became the face of second wave feminism for six decades. Those who believe in an afterlife can understandably hope that [the aborted child of Gloria] there, within the “tunnel of light” so commonly described in near-death experiences, as Steinem passed over. While emphatically making no judgement on the state of her soul because God understands all of us more than we ever can, and loves all of us, despite ourselves — even (perhaps especially) those we don’t like very much, at all — one hopes that Ms. Steinem’s sure knowledge, peddled so widely while she lived, is now enlightened and complete.

The Catholic Thing

Most adults are ignorant of the art of conversation and manners

By Robert Lazu Kmita, September 5, 2026

We should not be surprised that educating children and adolescents today is more difficult than cracking open a coconut. But who is to form the younger generation when most adults themselves are ignorant of the art of conversation and manners? I have spent many years reading not only treatises on theology and philosophy, or comforting works of literature and poetry, but also old, tattered volumes in which authors from centuries past tell the story of a better world, one in which people knew what it meant to be well-mannered. One such book, written by an anonymous British duke, gave me not only some of the finest lessons in practical Christianity but also a great surprise. The central principle stated from the very beginning by this aristocrat, whose name we may never know, sounds strikingly evangelical: “Treat others as you would wish others to treat you.”

Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay

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“We see through new tender verdant pecan leaves”

Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources: National Catholic Register, EWTN News, The Pillar, First Things, & Aleteia. Please support their ministries and apostolates. (Catholic Nutshell is a FREE subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)

Please support the following Catholic news services and spiritual support sites. Click here to view this email on the Catholic Nutshell News website. Today’s Catholic Nutshell News audio podcast is available on the Substack App.

National Catholic Register

Why the Pro-Life movement is gaining ground

By Shawn Carney, September 12, 2026

After the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many pro-life advocates started preaching — and falsely continue to preach — that we are worse off than ever before in the pro-life movement. This is certainly not accurate. Just ask Planned Parenthood. The abortion giant closed a record number of facilities in 2025 and continues to close more in 2026. Many pro-life advocates contend this simply reflects a market shift to pill-induced abortions. But according to the abortion-advocacy organization Guttmacher Institute, 73% of abortions are still distributed through brick-and-mortar facilities rather than ordered through the mail. Furthermore, as the largest distributor of abortion pills, Planned Parenthood should benefit from the proliferation of abortion pills — and hasn’t. For the past 19 years, 40 Days for Life has stood toe-to-toe with the culture of death. Dozens of states have since implemented pro-life laws and only six enshrined abortion in their constitutions, ending any possibility of state-level legal victories there.

EWTN News

Apostolic nuncio calls for ‘moral voice’ in AI development

By Tyler Arnold, September 11, 2026

Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the United States, discussed the need for a “moral voice” in artificial intelligence (AI) development during a panel discussion hosted by Georgetown University on Sept. 9. Speakers noted that the Holy Father’s encyclical stopped short of prescribing specific policy ideas for addressing the moral and ethical concerns, but the nuncio said “there is the perception that we need a moral voice” on the subject. “A moral voice is what?” he said. “Not everything which is possible to be done should be done. Not everything that technology offers should be taken. This is a moral choice.” Caccia stressed that decisions affecting human lives should not be handed over to AI, citing distinctions between AI algorithms and the human conscience, as the Holy Father discussed in Magnifica Humanitas. In the encyclical, Leo distinguished between artificial intelligence and human intelligence, focusing on how each approaches moral questions and rejected ideas of “artificial moral agents.”

Related: Catholic tech leaders urge ethical boundaries for AI - By Emma R.C. Lyons, EWTN News, September 11, 2026

Aleteia

The oldest Bible text ever found fits in your palm

By D. R. Esparza, September 12, 2026

On the western slope of the valley southwest of Jerusalem’s Old City, below the Scottish Church of St. Andrew, a 13-year-old volunteer on the dig, exploring a narrow chamber, discovered a cache of artifacts that had been missed by looters: pottery, jewelry, arrowheads — and two small rolled pieces of silver, corroded and fragile. Both scrolls contain versions of the Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” The scrolls date to the late 7th or early 6th century BC — roughly 600 BC, in the final decades before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. This makes them about 400 years older than the oldest Dead Sea Scrolls and roughly 1,000 years older than the Masoretic manuscripts that form the basis of most modern Old Testament translations. The scrolls also demonstrate a remarkable textual stability. The Priestly Blessing as inscribed on the Ketef Hinnom amulets is recognizably the same text found in the Hebrew Bible today.

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The Pillar

Prominent U.S. priest restricted from ministry

By The Pillar, September 11, 2026

The Diocese of Fall River, Mass., announced Friday that Msgr. Roger Landry has been restricted from public ministry after allegations of misconduct were made against the priest by “multiple individuals.” There are no allegations involving minors, the diocese emphasized, but he has been accused of “violations of the Codes of Conduct for Priests for both the Diocese of Fall River and Archdiocese of New York.” Landry, 55, is a widely respected and influential figure in the Church in the United States. The priest serves as the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. He was appointed to the role in 2024, when he was also granted the title of Monsignor. He previously served for seven years as an attaché to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps as the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York, and he is a regular speaker, media commentator, and contributor to Catholic publications on Church news and events.

OSV News

Ballot access for eligible voters part of faithful citizenship

By Kate Scanlon, September 11, 2026

Participation in elections is a key component of faithful citizenship for U.S. Catholics, as is advocating for free and fair elections, Catholic leaders said Sept. 11. At a press briefing that also included theologians and representatives of Catholic advocacy organizations and religious orders, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami pointed to the U.S. bishops’ document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” as a reference point for Catholic voters this November. “We have to just keep on telling people in the pews to vote,” Archbishop Wenski said. “A significant percentage of American citizens who can vote don’t vote, and we have to tell everybody that they have to be faithful citizens by exercising their right to vote.” Only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections in the U.S. under federal law. Hardline immigration enforcement actions have left some immigrants — naturalized U.S. citizens and eligible to vote — concerned over immigration enforcement efforts at polling places, where they might be mistakenly included in those actions.

Zeale

UK parliament rejects assisted suicide bill after 2-year debate

By McKenna Snow, September 11, 2026

The UK House of Commons voted against a bill to legalize assisted suicide for terminally ill people Sept. 11, bringing to a close a multi-year debate on the issue that has concerned disability advocates, pro-life witnesses, Catholics, and many others wanting to protect human life. The Members of Parliament (MPs) voted 286-270 to reject the bill after a four-hour debate in the House of Commons. In June 2025, the House of Commons had voted 314-291 in favor of legalizing assisted suicide, as Zeale News reported. The “End of Life” bill's progress ended in the House of Lords, where some peers tabled hundreds of amendments and effectively talked it out. One Labour MP, Janet Darby, reversed her position on the issue after initially voting in favor of it. The BBC reported Darby changed her mind after having “nightmares about dying and death” following her initial vote.

Related: Scotland was the first country to allow abortion until the baby Is born - Elizabeth Owens, Zenit - September 10, 2026

Related: Scottish bishop tells Crux Now proposed change to Scotland’s abortion law could limit conscientious objection - By Charles Collins, CRUX, September 11, 2026

Zenit

Nigeria: 3,000 people killed and 3,000 kidnapped

By Elizabeth Owens, September 10, 2026

Nigeria’s Christian communities are facing another devastating year of bloodshed, according to a new report claiming that at least 3,083 Christians were killed and 3,193 abducted during the first eight months of 2026. The organization also reported attacks on 400 churches and said that 25 priests and pastors were killed or abducted between January and August. In July and August, 437 Christians were reportedly killed and 393 kidnapped. The statistics are difficult to verify independently in every individual case, but they add to an increasingly urgent body of evidence documenting the extraordinary vulnerability of Christian communities in Africa’s most populous country. Few places illustrate the scale of the crisis more starkly than the Diocese of Wukari in Taraba State. Between September 2025 and August 2026, nearly 239 churches were reportedly attacked or destroyed there, while almost 100,000 worshippers were forced from their communities. More than 200 Christian settlements were said to have been raided, with 16 Catholic priests fleeing their homes and eight priests’ residences destroyed.

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Rod Dreher’s Diary

Jonathan Cahn’s report of Arthur Lundeen’s demon on flight 618

By Rod Dreher, September 8, 2026

Pastor Jonathan Cahn released a video yesterday identifying “what precipitated the violent outburst” on flight 618 that ended with duct taping and zip-tying Arthur Lundeen, 67, into his seat on the airplane. His account is chilling. Cahn said Lundeen started a pleasant, if distracting, conversation about what he does for a living. When Cahn told him he is a Christian (Messianic Jewish) pastor who writes books, Lundeen said he’s an atheist. Lundeen began behaving violently, blaspheming, cursing, and using racial epithets. Cahn was working on his laptop on his latest book, The Altar Of Pergamon, a fantasy mystery novel about a famous ancient pagan relic. It had been published a day or so earlier. When Lundeen touched the screen, blackness spread all over it, so that Cahn couldn’t work anymore. Lundeen later broke Cahn’s laptop and injured his arm before passengers intervened to restrain him.

Keep informed - 9/12/26 matters for Catholics:

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EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 12, 2026

EWTN News provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, with updates on the Holy Father's words and the Holy See.

• Catholic professor calls families to reclaim the home in a technological age - By Madalaine Elhabbal - Christendom College professor John Cuddeback spoke to EWTN News about his new book “The Intentional Household: Living as if People Matter,” and treating our homes as places of human flourishing.

• Filmmakers bet on human craft over AI for animated St. Francis musical - By Aaron Leong - A 3D animated musical trilogy on St. Francis of Assisi is taking shape in Singapore, with its creators choosing a human-led animation process over AI at a moment when the industry is racing toward it. Director Benjamin Tanaka, executive producer Gabriel Patrick, and composer Ethan Hsu call the project “The Francis Chronicles.”

• Aparecida shrine in Brazil set to unveil more artwork linked to Rupnik - By Nathália Queiroz - Rupnik faces accusations of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse against dozens of nuns — incidents that, in some cases, occurred within the context of his artistic work. He was expelled from the Society of Jesus in June 2023 for disobeying a superiorʼs order not to preach publicly and is currently facing a canonical trial.

aciafrica

aciafrica’s top headlines — September 12, 2026

ACI Africa was founded in 2019 to provide free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Catholic Church in Africa, with particular emphasis on the Holy Father's words and the Holy See's activities.

• Nigeria’s Enugu Diocese Dissociates from Society of Saint Pius X, Urges Faithful to Remain United with Pope - The Catholic Diocese of Enugu in Nigeria has dissociated itself from the activities of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) within its jurisdiction. The traditionalist group, which incurred excommunication in July, is not in full communion with the Catholic Church.

• Missing Zimbabwean Catholic Priest Found Dead at Harare Hospital Mortuary - According to recent police sources, Fr. Chikuni is believed to have been involved in a hit-and-run road accident near the intersection of Prince Edward Road and Samora Machel Avenue in Harare while attempting to cross the road. Police sources said the vehicle involved was a Honda Fit.

• Cardinal Onaiyekan Proposes Stronger Discernment Processes for Young Men Entering the Priesthood in Nigeria - Not every young man who enters the priesthood in Nigeria does so with the right intentions, John Cardinal Onaiyekan has said, underlining the need for formators to intensify the processes for those entering Seminaries.

Word on Fire

Fresh insights from the Word on Fire Institute - September 12, 2026

Word on Fire reaches millions every year by effectively sharing the Gospel via podcasts, videos, books, articles, Scripture studies, and Gospel meditations.

An Alternative to Helicopter Parenting - Sarah Larkin - Many are choosing not to have a second child, and I suspect one major factor is that parents are often exhausted from micromanaging their first one. Helicopter parenting is hard work. Having a couple of kids is not the end of an enjoyable life, as many believe.

The Virtue of Stability in the Vocation of the Writer - Peter Keepman - A hidden gem of O’Connor’s corpus, however, is her own thought on the vocation of the fiction writer, a vocation animated by an almost Benedictine spirit of stability. In a post-modern milieu where genius is associated with madness and those who pursue writing, art, music, or poetry are characterized by eccentricity, O’Connor reveals a different model for the Catholic creative and intellectual.

The Danger of Theologianology - Jack F. Trent - Theology’s God-centered nature can be subtly replaced by a theologian-centered nature. Instead of studying God (i.e., doing theology), we may become content to merely study theologians (i.e., doing theologianology). This subtle change is a tragic problem.

September 12, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Saturday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

National Catholic Register

How will Pope Leo XIV respond to the culture of death?

By Andrea Gagliarducci, September 10, 2026

One theme lingers in the background of all the major debates surrounding the Catholic Church: Life. The question of life is so powerful and compelling that it cannot be ignored, and certainly will not be ignored by Leo XIV. The political agendas surrounding end-of-life care extend beyond the EU, such as Canada’s MAID program, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives by euthanasia since its 2016 legalization. In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, assisted suicide remains illegal. In France, where Pope Leo is set to land on Sept. 25, the bishops took to the front lines against the country’s end-of-life legislation, facing a political agenda that was difficult to dismantle. In his visit to a country that is weeks out from legalizing assisted suicide, how will Leo address the topic of human dignity at all stages of life? So far, Leo XIV has been very clear on the issue, but also very cautious.

First Things

The seismic shift in Southern Baptist baptisms

By R. Albert Mohler Jr. September 11, 2026

Recent statistical reports indicate that baptisms in Southern Baptist congregations rose for a fifth consecutive year, with 263,075 recorded in 2025. That is sweet news for the SBC, but it needs context. In the 1950s, the SBC was growing like the nation, fast and furiously. The largest share of those baptized today are adults aged thirty and older. To outsiders, this must be interesting news. In an increasingly secular age, how do we account for this many adults professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and then obeying and testifying of Christ in the waters of baptism? And, keep in mind, these are baptisms by immersion. Baptists believe that obedience to Christ requires a whole lot of water—not just a little bit. Southern Baptists do not baptize infants, who cannot make a personal confession of faith in Christ Jesus. But, over the course of the twentieth century, Southern Baptists did baptize a lot of children and teenagers—millions of them.

The Imaginative Conservative

In defense of those who protect us

By Louis Marko, September 10, 2026

In the beautiful and heroic but dangerous and elegiac world of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Tolkien takes his time developing his epic fantasy, allowing his readers to fall in love with the Shire, the pastoral home of the hobbits. Though perhaps a bit too bourgeois and self-satisfied in their creature comforts, the hobbits nevertheless lead a charmed life that allows them to take full enjoyment in what Tolkien, in his Prologue, tells us they most love: “peace and quiet and good tilled earth.” The Shire is a safe haven protected from the pains and hazards of the wide world. Though the hobbits do not know it, and though they feel no gratitude for it, their idyllic existence relies upon the vigilance and military prowess of the Rangers, descendants of the Men of the West who, under the leadership of Aragorn, the rightful king of Middle-earth, patrol the borders of the Shire and of the neighboring town of Bree. Tolkien, like his friend C.S. Lewis, fought in World War I, and both were apologists for the medieval knight—including that most misunderstood of knights, the crusader—who dedicated his life to patrolling the perilous borders of civilization.

The Catholic Thing

Harken to the sorrows of young Zoomers

By Auguste Meyrat, September 11, 2026

With many members of the Gen Z cohort (b. 1997-2012) coming of age and entering public life, it behooves older generations to understand them better. Unfortunately, with Gen Z, the differences may be so vast and deep that understanding them will prove more difficult. So much of their formative experience is unprecedented. Not only have they grown up with smartphones, high-speed Internet, and now AI, but they have also experienced a number of widespread social disruptions, including the COVID lockdowns. Altogether, this makes their integration into adult life especially challenging – and I say this as a teacher who has worked closely with Zoomers for decades. On the outside, they have the world's knowledge at their fingertips. And they enjoy countless amenities. Inside, many still feel empty and resentful. In response, Jeremy Adams, in his book Hollowed Out, calls for a nationwide intervention to help these youths discover the blessings of American democracy and Western wisdom.

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Crux

Regenerative agriculture: More than soil health — it’s spiritual

By Jessie Wardarski, September 11, 2026

The Midwest 63 acres (25 hectares) of land was once a conventional row crop farm. Transformed by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, an agronomist and regenerative farmer who grew up in the northern Guatemalan rainforest, Salvatierra Farms embraces crop diversity and natural solutions. No herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers — for its poultry or other operations. Drawing on his formal agricultural education and the wisdom of his Indigenous elders, Haslett-Marroquin’s approach to farming has brought together an unlikely network of Midwesterners dedicated to caring for the Earth for spiritual reasons. They include Lakota tribal members, former large-scale farmers, and Catholic sisters. “These dark green spiritualities — the ones that have a kind of sense of the intrinsic value of nature, of our belonging to it and not superiority over it — are growing rapidly around the world,” said University of Florida environmental studies professor Bron Taylor.

Zeale News

120 million taxpayers could claim education freedom tax credit

By Elise Winland, September 10, 2026

An estimated 121.5 million Americans could qualify to use a new federal tax credit that rewards taxpayers for donating to K-12 scholarship programs beginning in 2027, according to a new report from the American Federation for Children (AFC) Growth Fund. The figure represents 74% of U.S. tax filers and is more than double some earlier estimates of the potential donor pool, the school choice organization said in its Sept. 9 analysis. Enacted in 2025 as part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” it allows individual taxpayers to claim a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 when they donate to approved scholarship granting organizations (SGOs). Those nonprofit organizations use the donations to provide K-12 scholarships that can cover eligible education expenses, including expenses for private school and homeschooling. The credit takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

OSV News

Support for democracy rises in Americas, but concerns remain

By Kate Scanlon, September 10, 2026

Support for democracy has begun a modest recovery across the Americas, according to the 2026 Pulse of Democracy report by the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs and Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy. However, researchers also expressed concern about the rise of authoritarianism. Two-thirds of Latin Americans supported democracy in 2026, up 6 percentage points from 2023. Support increased in nearly every country, across age groups and educational levels, suggesting a trend that is not driven by any single demographic group. “The findings offer some encouraging signs, but they also underscore the work that remains,” said Ann Mische, acting director of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies. “Improving people’s daily lives matters, but strengthening democracy also requires institutions that people trust.” Mariana Rodríguez Vargas, director of research and engagement at Vanderbilt’s Center for Global Democracy, said, “65% of adults in Latin America now agree that democracy, whatever its problems, is better than any form of government.”

Aleteia

Jesus in Hollywood: Streets fill for Eucharistic procession

By Theresa Civantos Barber, September 11, 2026

Hollywood, California, the heart of the American film industry, is a high-energy town whose streets have seen all kinds of stars on the Walk of Fame. But a different scene filled its streets — a scene of quiet prayer and worship, and peaceful singing — on September 9, when Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles led hundreds of the faithful in a Eucharistic Procession. The procession drew more than 1,000 participants, according to the archdiocese, who did not let the humidity and heat deter them. Blessed Sacrament Church was completely filled with approximately 1,000 attendees — nuns, priests, families with children, and people of all ages — as Archbishop Gomez, Fr. Paul Sustayta, and Deacon Steve Greco led a program. After carrying Our Lord in the Eucharist through the streets of Hollywood and past some of Hollywood’s most recognizable landmarks, the procession returned to the church for a Silent Eucharistic Adoration Holy Hour.

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National Catholic Register

Catholic theologian joins Trump’s Department of Homeland Security

By Zelda Caldwell, September 10, 2026

Chad Pecknold, a longtime professor at The Catholic University of America and prominent Catholic theologian, has begun working for the government agency that oversees immigration enforcement. Pecknold is now the principal director of public outreach for DHS’ Office of Public Engagement. “It is truly an honor to serve my country in this capacity,” he said. The Catholic theologian’s appointment to DHS comes amid ongoing clashes between the U.S. bishops and the Trump administration over immigration enforcement. The DHS has prioritized curbing illegal immigration, including carrying out a mass deportation campaign, securing the border, and making legal immigration and asylum claims more selective and difficult. Pecknold has consistently argued that defending the country’s borders does not contradict Catholic teaching. Rather, he argues, it is necessary to achieve the common good.

EWTN News

Synod’s Group 6: ‘Gender-equality mechanisms’ in workplaces

By Victoria Cardiel, September 10, 2026

The General Secretariat of the Synod on Tuesday, Sept. 8, published the final report of Study Group 6, which presents concrete proposals for renewing relations among bishops, consecrated life, and ecclesial associations, including specific mechanisms to promote greater equality between men and women in Church workplaces. The report does not specify the mechanisms by which this participation would be implemented. One of the report’s main conclusions is that the Church should move toward broader participation by consecrated men and women in discernment and decision-making processes. It calls on Church leaders to “strengthen the relationship between the conferences of major superiors and the episcopal conferences to include consecrated persons in decision-making processes.” The experts consider the distinctive charisms of religious life an indispensable contribution to the Church’s evangelizing mission and argue that consecrated people should have a greater presence in bodies that make pastoral decisions.

The Pillar

Andorran PM says abortion to be legal by April, ignoring the Vatican

By The Pillar, September 3, 2026

The Andorran Prime Minister, Xavier Espot, has announced a plan to decriminalize abortion in the microstate by April next year “whether the Holy See likes it or not,” despite a Catholic bishop serving as co-head of state. After years of tense talks with the Vatican on the issue of abortion, dialogue with the Holy See will continue, but “with our sights set on the upcoming parliamentary session and, therefore, with the assurance that we can pass legislation to decriminalize abortion.” The country’s co-head of state is Bishop Josep Lluís Serrano Pentinat of Urgell. Andorra has an unusual political arrangement, with two co-princes serving as heads of state: the president of France and the Bishop of Urgell. As a result, legalizing any measure contrary to Catholic teaching can involve delicate political and ecclesial tensions, as a change in the law could theoretically involve the bishop. The Urgell diocese dates to the fifth century and serves 212,000 Catholics from its center in La Seu d’Urgell, a town in Spanish Catalonia.

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Zenit

Battle ahead: Catholic Church in Poland takes stand on Surrogacy

By Joachin Meisner Hertz, September 9, 2026

Poland’s Catholic bishops have opened the new academic year with strong warnings on two fronts that, at first sight, may appear unrelated: the commercialization of human reproduction and the shrinking space for religion in public education. Behind both controversies lies a broader question that has become increasingly important in Poland’s cultural and political debate: what place should human dignity, parental rights and religious conviction occupy in a rapidly changing society? The Bioethics Expert Team of the Polish Bishops’ Conference described surrogacy as “gravely immoral” and called for decisive action to prevent Polish citizens from using the practice, whether at home or abroad. The bishops’ objection goes far beyond surrogacy's legal status. Their central concern is that the arrangement risks transforming both motherhood and childhood into objects of a contractual transaction. A procedure that cannot be justified at home, they argue, does not become ethically acceptable simply because it is carried out in another jurisdiction.

Keep informed - 9/11/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from Big Pulpit, EWTN, & the Loop

Big Pulpit

Tito Edwards Catholic site: September 11, 2026

The Big Pulpit website is a news aggregator that gathers quality insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide.

• It’s Not They Don’t Like the Rites, They Don’t Like the People Who Like the Rites – Fr. Z’s Blog

• Will Leo Issue a Strong Motu Proprio Stopping Liturgical Abuses? – Fr. Allan J. McDonald

• Why Did Muslim Terrorists Pick the Date 9/11 & How Mary & Tolkien Involved – S. Smith, Esq.

• Rome Pilgrimage for Christ the King: No Mass in St. Peter’s This Year – Rorate Cæli

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 11, 2026

EWTN News provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, with updates on the Holy Father's words and the Holy See.

• 25 years after 9/11: How heroic faith inspired conversion and hope in Christ - By Colm Flynn - In 2001, there were relatively few cellphones and no social media. People watching news coverage of the attacks on television in Australia knew more about what was happening than those inside the towers.

• Brazilian bishop bans alcohol, bingo, and cash raffles at events throughout his diocese - By Monasa Narjara - “It is the Church’s mission to exhort the faithful to bear witness to the virtues and to avoid vices,” Bishop Francisco Cota declared.

• Bishop Boxie addresses why the U.S. has so few Black Catholic bishops - By Tessa Gervasini - “The last time that an African American bishop had been ordained was 10 years prior. When I was appointed a couple of months ago, I became the second African American bishop in the entire United States,” Boxie explained in an interview with “Vatican Access,” a Catholic News Service podcast.

The Loop

Zeale is CatholicVote, hosting the LOOP

Over half a million people receive the LOOP news rundown six days a week. Zeale is the new home of the LOOP. Zeale is a project of CatholicVote, America’s top Catholic advocacy organization leading the fight for faith, family, and freedom.

REPUBLICANS RALLY SUPPORT AT GOP MIDTERM CONVENTION - Republicans gathered in Dallas this week for a first-of-its-kind midterm convention, with President Trump urging turnout and pledging to campaign nationwide. Vice President JD Vance closed the event by drawing a sharp contrast with Democrats, as speakers also marked the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and warned that November will decide whether the “common sense revolution” holds.

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS HIGHLIGHTS 9/11 ACTS OF HEROISM - The Knights of Columbus is marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by remembering 46 members killed that day — including 12 firefighters, six law enforcement officers, and an elevator mechanic, who ran toward the towers to help others escape. The day after the attacks, the Knights launched a $1 million Heroes Fund for 419 families and later provided Catholic college tuition aid for children of deceased or disabled first-responder Knights.

TALARICO BACKS MINOR SURGERY BAN, WALKS BACK ‘SIX SEXES’ COMMENT - Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico said he would “absolutely” vote for a national ban on “transgender” surgeries for minors and now says “there are two” sexes, walking back a 2021 claim that modern science recognized six. The shift comes in the final stretch of a dead-heat race against Attorney General Ken Paxton.

September 11, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Catholic365

When God feels far away

By E V, September 10, 2024

Over the years, there have been moments when the emotional strength of certain encounters has felt like being drawn deeply into the very heart of the Lord. There have also been moments when, from a distance, His presence seemed to be miles and miles away. No matter how much I tried to draw closer, He seemed to become more distant. Perhaps God wasn't asking me to pray differently just for the sake of doing something different. Perhaps He was lovingly calling my attention back to Him and reminding me that He does not simply want me to be a person who prays to Him, He wants me to be a person who prays with Him. There is a profound difference. Prayer is not merely a routine I perform so that I can feel close to God. It is a relationship. It is an encounter. It is a conversation in which I learn not only to speak, but also to listen; not only to ask, but also to remain; not only to seek answers, but to remain with Him even when the answers do not come.

Catholic World Report

The Mass: Intimate encounter with the transcendent Lord

By BishopJames Conley, September 8, 2026

All of us, whether religious or not, long for transcendence because the human heart was made for it. By transcendence I mean the awareness of something greater than ourselves; something bigger than us. It’s that experience of something so beautiful, so powerful that words fail and our hearts are stirred. Perhaps you’ve felt this while gazing at a star-filled night sky, hiking the Ozarks, or entering a breathtakingly beautiful cathedral. Such natural experiences of transcendence are gifts that point us toward the transcendent God. God is wholly other—He is uncreated, infinitely holy, and beyond human comprehension. He is also far more unlike us than like us, and yet God made us in His image for relationship with Him. So, while the human heart longs for all kinds of encounters with something greater than itself, it yearns particularly for an encounter with the God of the universe.

Catholic Exchange

Would the Resurrection survive cross-examination?

By Peter Dominic Martino, September 11, 2026

The question posed starts with the standard of proof. A civil verdict requires only a preponderance of the evidence, a fraction over half. However, the test I applied in my book, Resurrection on Trial, is explanatory adequacy, used by historians and forensic investigators for events long past. Does the Christian claim of the Resurrection explain the full record more completely and coherently than every rival explanation, and does it resist displacement by them? That is a higher bar. An account does not clear this higher bar by merely edging out the competition. It must leave the fewest questions unexplained. It does not require absolute certainty, which no claim about antiquity can meet. We do not demand it of Alexander, Caesar, or Socrates. So, let’s legally test the claim of the Resurrection.

Bishop Barron

‘Who are you to tell me how to behave?’

By Bishop Robert Barron, September 11, 2026

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us to stop judging others. He asks, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” We are exceptionally good at seeing faults in others, but we are equally adept at ignoring them in ourselves. A very popular book came out when I was a teenager. It was called I’m OK—You’re OK. It represented a culture of exculpation and feel-good self-affirmation. Not many years ago, Christina Aguilera crooned, “I am beautiful in every single way, and words can’t bring me down.” Look at so many debates today; the attitude that is winning is self-invention and self-assertion. “Who are you to tell me how to behave?” In all of this, we are fundamentally looking away from our guilt, our fault, our darkness. We are effectively drugging ourselves, dulling the pain of real self-consciousness. In the process, we turn ourselves into God, pretending to be absolute, flawless, and impervious to criticism.

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Zeale News

UK order denies ‘disabled’ man food, water until he dies

By Elizabeth Ervin, September 9, 2026

A UK court order denying nutrition and hydration until death to a 28-year-old man who sustained a brain injury in 2020 is drawing criticism from an organization that advocates for medically vulnerable patients. U.S.-based Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network identified the man as Fahim and called on UK authorities to reverse the ruling, according to a Sept. 8 press release published by Christian Newswire. “This case represents the tragic consequences of allowing courts or medical authorities to determine that a person’s cognitive disability makes his life no longer worth living,” Schindler said. “Fahim is not a diagnosis, a disability, or a medical condition. He is a human being whose life possesses God-given, inherent dignity and value.” Fahim’s mother, Farah, said in a video included in a Sept. 8 press release from the Christian Defense Coalition published by Standard Newswire that her son had been progressing under her care before he was removed from her home.

Our Sunday Visitor

Court declines woman’s religious exception to school vaccine

By Kate Scanlon, September 9, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8 declined a case from a New York Catholic woman seeking to send her son to kindergarten without the vaccines the state requires for public school. In its rejection of the case, the high court did not offer an explanation for the decision, which is typical for rulings on the court’s emergency docket. All states require children to be vaccinated against certain diseases in order to attend public schools, although policies for religious or medical exemptions vary. Four states — California, Connecticut, Maine, and New York — only allow medical exemptions, according to KFF. In court filings, Jane Doe identified herself as “a lifelong practicing Roman Catholic” and argued her religious beliefs prevent her from undergoing vaccination herself or allowing her son to be vaccinated.

Related: Florida’s Catholic School Vaccine Fight Doesn’t Need a Winner and a Loser, Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer, National Catholic Register, September 9, 2026

Crux

Holy Land situation ‘not positive,’ due to internal battles in Islam

By Fionn Shiner, September 10, 2026

The situation in the Holy Land is particularly grave, said António de-Almeida-Ribeiro, acting general secretary of the Lisbon-based King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), noting that the crisis also underscores the urgent need for more dialogue. “I think the situation is not positive for the region and in the whole area in particular,” he said, “but that’s one more reason for us to do more and to put people together around the same table.” The challenges present themselves not only in Europe but also in areas where Islam has been present for centuries, including the Arab world in which the religion was founded and from which it spread. “It’s not easy sometimes, but I think it’s possible,” he told Crux Now. We know that there is a big division between Muslims, Shias and Sunnis. But it’s important to try to find some common ground of understanding between them. That’s what we do in KAICIID.”

Related: Cardinal Pizzaballa launches an initiative for a Jerusalem open to all, ZENIT, ZENIT Staff, September 9, 2026

National Catholic Register

US bishops step into the ‘semiautomatic weapons’ debate

By Daniel Payne/EWTN News, September 1, 2026

The Supreme Court is set to consider whether or not Americans are permitted to possess AR-15 rifles and similar firearms. The case before the high court, Viramontes v. Cook County, concerns a regulation enacted by Cook County, Illinois, banning more than 100 types of semiautomatic weapons, including the popular AR-15 platform. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow local communities to regulate firearm ownership, weighing in on a high-profile federal case that could significantly reshape the nation’s gun laws. The “autonomy of local authority” is a significant part of “America’s historical tradition of federalism,” the bishops write, comparing it to the long-standing Catholic principle of subsidiarity, which holds that the authority closest to a local need is best suited to tackle the issue.

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Aleteia

Don’t say ‘God’: New rule for Canada military chaplains

By Theresa Civantos Barber, September 10, 2025

Since 2019, Quebec has banned public sector employees in positions of authority — including teachers, police officers, judges, and Crown prosecutors — from wearing visible religious symbols, including hijabs, turbans, yarmulkes, and Christian crosses. Now, Canada has gone a step farther. Members of the military, particularly chaplains, throughout all of Canada are forbidden from mentioning the word “God” or other religious words at mandatory military public events, such as graduation parades, ribbon-cuttings, ship commissionings, and Remembrance Day ceremonies. In Canada, chaplains are now banned from publicly talking about God. The directive isn't limited just to chaplains: All Canadian Armed Forces members, including volunteers, students, casual workers, and contractors, may not use religious language in public remarks.

Vatican News

Thousands of West Africa’s young at first-ever youth gathering

By Gabriel Asempa Antwi, September 8, 2026

The first-ever West Africa Youth Days (WAYD) 2026, the meeting of thousands of young people in Accra, is a call for young people to become “actors and agents of peace and hope” in a region confronting profound social, political and security challenges. WAYD 2026 is taking place in Accra from 7 September to 11 September, with the main activities happening at Achimota School. Nearly 4,000 young Catholics from the countries represented by the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) are in attendance. West Africa is a region where millions of young people are growing up amid political uncertainty, violent extremism, communal tensions, economic hardship, unemployment, migration pressures and an increasingly contested information environment. For a young Catholic in Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo or any of the other countries represented at the gathering, peace is not an abstract theological concept. It can mean living alongside people of different ethnicities and political loyalties.

Zenit

Netherlands records its first case of child euthanasia

By ZENIT Staff, September 9, 2026

The Netherlands has recorded the first case of euthanasia performed on a child between the ages of one and twelve since the 2024 entry into force of regulations allowing the procedure for minors with incurable illnesses causing suffering deemed unbearable and with no possibility of improvement. The procedure requires parental consent and an assessment by at least one independent physician. This commission reviewed the child’s case file, heard from the attending physician, and submitted its findings to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which must determine whether the physician acted in accordance with current legislation. Neither the minor’s age nor the illness suffered has been made public. This is the first case file received in the Netherlands requesting euthanasia for children since the expansion of euthanasia legislation in 2024. Previously, euthanasia could already be requested for infants under one year of age and for children over the age of 12.

Related: Twice, they offered to end my son’s life, By David Closson, Christian Post, September 10, 2026

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EWTN News

Spain: A doctor and a biologist embrace life as consecrated virgins

By Nicolás de Cárdenas, September 9, 2026

The bishop of Getafe in Spain, Ginés García Beltrán, performed the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity for Christ for two women: Ana Isabel García, a biologist, and Estefanía Ibáñez, a physician, for service to the Church and in a constant missionary spirit. “This is a wedding; it is a marriage in the fullest sense of the word. It is a betrothal to Christ, to whom you give yourselves in faithfulness, giving yourselves forever.” He explained that “the Bridegroom invites you to become beautiful, immaculate, and holy,” not only through personal commitment to Christ but also through a strong sense of mission: “You are born into the Church and born for the service of the Church,” specifically within the diocese and with the bishop as the virgin’s spiritual father in the consecrated life. In the days before her consecration, García said she hoped the event would serve “to make this vocation known,” while Ibáñez wished for “a moment in which God makes himself present to everyone there, revealing his presence and companionship in their lives.”

Keep informed - 9/10/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from OSV, EWTN News, & ChurchPOP

OSV News

OSV’s seasoned reporters - September 10, 2026

OSV News — information service and evangelization partner that enables dioceses to connect and boost engagement with the faithful by sharing timely, trustworthy, and accurate content about what is happening in the Church and the world.

• ‘Etched in our minds’: Bishops offer Masses, reflections on landmark anniversary of 9/11 attacks - Gina Christian - Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a Sept. 9 statement that “faith lifted us up and sustained us” during the attack and its aftermath.

• Illinois diocese puts brakes on eulogies and wakes in church before funeral Mass - An Illinois diocese has ended eulogies during funeral Masses and visitation of the deceased in the church immediately before the Mass. “The vigil by definition is the night before,” said Bishop Paprocki. “So the vigil prayers will be prayed then by the priest or deacon even if there is no public visitation.”

• Peruvian city to unveil world’s tallest statue of Pope Leo for trip to South America - David Agren - The Peruvian city of Callao announced an unusual tribute to Pope Leo XIV ahead of his November visit to the South American country: the largest statue of the pontiff in the world. The 45.9-foot-tall statue of Pope Leo will grace a seafront park overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Callao, located in the northern suburbs of Lima, the national capital.

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 10, 2026

EWTN provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, and is available to anyone with internet access.

• New EWTN travel series takes viewers to the birthplace of Christianity - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - On Sept. 17, a new travel show by EWTN Studios will take viewers on a journey to key places where Christianity began. The series, “The Road Less Traveled,” is hosted by Dave Stotts, and its first season takes place in Turkey — Antioch, the birthplace of Christianity, the underground cities of Cappadocia, Ephesus, Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), and other key spots where the early Church was formed.

• Love is not a feeling but a decision, Pope Leo XIV tells couples - By Nicolás de Cárdenas - Pope Leo XIV reflects on human love in the prologue to the new edition of “YouCat: Love Forever,” emphasizing that it is not a fleeting feeling but rather “a decision, a journey, and a lifelong covenant.” This version of the catechism, aimed at young people preparing for the vocation of marriage, is scheduled for release in November.

• Why St. Nicholas of Tolentino is the patron of souls in purgatory - By Jonah McKeown - The Catholic Church’s teaching on purgatory — the “cleansing fire” that prepares the elect for heaven — can be difficult to understand. But for one saint, the Catholic imperative to pray for the dead was made very real to him when, according to the story, one of his deceased friends appeared to him asking for prayers.

ChurchPOP Trending

ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - September 10, 2026

“We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.”

Triplets Go to Mass for the First Time—and Get the Sweetest Parish Welcome - The family shared a video on social media showing everything from getting ready at home to the moment the three little ones were introduced during the celebration at Our Lady Undoer of Knots Church.

Young Woman Enters Monastery to Discern Her Vocation—The Nuns’ Welcome Is Pure Joy - Her arrival was greeted with special joy by the nuns, and the moment quickly drew attention on social media. The video has surpassed 6,000 likes and 144,000 views, receiving numerous comments from people offering prayers for Ruth, that she may discover God’s calling for her life.

Her Faith Went Viral: Her Premature Twins Survived, and She Kept Her Promise to Bring Them to St. Francis - “I promised St. Francis that, if I was able to bring my children home alive, I would return to thank him and present them to him.” Antônia Keliane’s babies were born at just 28 weeks of pregnancy.

September 10, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

National Catholic Register

Freemasons in France take aim at Catholic education

By Solène Tadié, September 9, 2026

Just days after the Catholic funeral of a prominent Freemason and former senator sparked controversy among French Catholics, the newly reelected head of France’s largest Masonic organization reignited a long-running fault line between French Freemasonry and Catholic education. Most of the non-contract schools targeted by Trichard are officially nondenominational, but many are founded by Catholic communities, often of a traditionalist bent, that choose not to register with the Church to avoid both diocesan and state scrutiny. “Everyone knows the role Freemasons played in the Jules Ferry laws [the 1881-1882 laws that made French primary education free, mandatory and secular], but I believe non-contract private schools have no place in the Republic,” Guillaume Trichard, reelected grand master of the Grand Orient de France (GODF), said. The reaction from Catholic commentators was swift, with several accusing the GODF of attempting to interfere in societal issues.

Christian Post

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell declares ‘enough is enough’

By Leonardo Blair, September 09, 2026

Lorenzo Sewell, senior pastor of 180 Church in Detroit, Michigan, spoke at the GOP party’s first-ever midterm convention with a quick sermon he called “Enough is Enough.” Sewell, whose appearance at the podium lasted about 2.5 minutes, rounded out his patriotic sermon encouraging Republicans to “fight, fight, fight for the soul of a nation.” “How many know that we are saying today, not today, Satan? You will not steal our country. You will not have our children. You will not have our families; enough is enough! I know I got somebody in this room that believes in the King of Glory, the one who is strong and mighty, the one who is mighty in battle,” he declared, alluding to Scriptures like Psalm 24 and Acts 4:12. “He’s got the only name given among men whereby we must be saved, and that’s the name of Jesus,” he said. “If you believe in that name, put your hands back on and give your great God great glory! … Look at somebody and say ‘enough is enough, enough is enough.’ Devil, you won’t have the land where my fathers died.”

Catholics for the Common Good

Rome advances Dorothy Day toward Sainthood: Some object

By Michael Fox, August 30, 2026

Cardinal John O’Connor petitioned Rome to open Day’s cause in February 2000, and the ruling of no objection came the following month, weeks before he died. Day became a Servant of God. She has held that first rank for twenty-six years. On July 15, 2026, Casey Mullaney wrote to the members of the Dorothy Day Guild, the New York organization that promotes her cause, with news from Rome. The Vatican office that handles every sainthood case in the world, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, has approved the first portion of the file assembled to make Dorothy Day a saint. Day wrote a column in The Catholic Worker for close to fifty years and kept a diary for most of her life. Theologians appointed to examine her writings must read every page, looking for anything contrary to Catholic faith and morals. The Church never asks the candidate for consent. The Dicastery asks whether she practiced the virtues to a heroic degree and whether the faithful venerate her.

Wild at Heart

Do we obligate God to grant us exemption from the arrows?

By John Eldredge, September 10, 2026

The Religious Man or Woman is a popular story option in which we try to reduce the wildness of life by constructing a system of promises and rewards, a contract that will obligate God to grant us exemption from the Arrows. It doesn't matter what the particular group bargain is—doctrinal adherence, moral living, or some sort of spiritual experience—the desire is the same: taming God to tame life. Never mind those deep yearnings of the soul; never mind the nagging awareness that God is not cooperating. If the system isn't working, it's because we're not doing it right. There's always something to work on, with the promise of abundant life just around the corner. Plenty of churches and leaders are ready to show you how to cut a deal. Our loss of confidence in a Larger Story is the reason we demand immediate gratification. We need to feel alive now, for now is all we have. Stories offer a taste of meaning, adventure, or connectedness. But none of them offer the real thing; they aren't large enough.

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Catholic Nutshell News is a subscription service hosted by Substack. Get up to a dozen recent articles, Monday through Saturday, to review regarding newsworthy issues. An easy way to browse top Catholic news and information services on the net. Edited by John Pearring.

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EWTN News

Catholics in Congress speak about their Catholic faith

By Tessa Gervasini, September 8, 2026

For many of the 150 Catholics serving in the 119th Congress, faith plays an important role in their lives and work. The current number of Catholic lawmakers on Capitol Hill is slightly higher than the previous Congress, with Catholics accounting for more than 28% of the members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate. Of the Catholic members, 126 serve in the House and 24 in the Senate, according to a report from the Pew Research Center. On busy days on the Hill, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, said he looks to prayer. “Iʼll listen to a podcast by Bishop [Robert] Barron or Father Michael Schmitz,” he said. “I think technology now too has allowed a different avenue for people to … maintain their faith and grow their faith.” Rep. John Rutherford, R-Florida, also spoke about leaning on his faith when working in a hectic position, often by attending Mass and saying the rosary. “In Ephesians 2:10, it says, ‘for we are all Godʼs workmanship, created in the image of Christ Jesus to do good work,’ which he prepared … in advance for us to do.’”

aciafrica

Africa’s Spiritans see Mary as a bridge in interfaith dialogue

By Silas Isenjia, September 7, 2026

Members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans/Holy Ghost Fathers/CSSp.) from across Africa gathered for their Interfaith Dialogue Workshop in Kenya and were challenged to leave with renewed commitment and practical ideas for promoting dialogue among people of different faiths. The Nairobi workshop is organized in partnership with EFESIA, a Belgium-based association dedicated to Christian–Muslim encounter and friendship. EFESIA is known in particular for the “Together with Mary” (Ensemble avec Marie) initiative, which brings Christians and Muslims together around the figure of Mary as a bridge between the two traditions. Participants are also expected to assess their understanding of African Traditional Religions (ATR), Islam and Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB).

National Catholic Register

Why Gen Z Catholics are falling for Fulton Sheen

By Gigi Duncan, September 8, 2026

Among Gen Z Catholics, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is experiencing something of a second life. A generation with no firsthand memory of his television fame is seeking out his teachings on marriage, family, and the spiritual life. Sheen is reaching a new audience through a medium he could never have imagined: social media. Clips from Life Is Worth Living regularly appear on TikTok and Instagram (likely through EWTN posts) with tens of thousands of likes, where young viewers notice his distinctive style. “The holy drip,” one Gen Z commenter wrote, referring to Sheen’s attire, “is absolutely unreal.” “The cloak was peak,” said another, praising the prelate’s posh ferraiolo cape, which “gives him holy aura,” another admirer observed. In Gen Z slang, that’s a good thing, in case you’re wondering. Even non-Catholics have taken notice. “Not Catholic, but I love everything I’ve heard him say on these reels,” one commenter wrote. Another asked, “How is it that this man is so relevant in modern times?”

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Zeale News

Trump’s $9,000 child subsidy for married stay-at-home parents

By Elise Winland, September 8, 2026

The Trump administration is drafting a rule that would allow certain married couples with a stay-at-home parent to qualify for about $9,000 per child in federal child care assistance annually, according to people familiar with the discussions who spoke with The New York Times. The reported proposal would expand eligibility under the Child Care and Development Fund, a roughly $12 billion Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) program that currently subsidizes care for children from low- and moderate-income parents while their parents work, attend school, or participate in job training. Under the draft rule, a new category of “parent-based child care” would allow one married parent to receive assistance to care for the couple’s child while the other spouse works at least 35 hours a week, according to the Times. The payments would come from the program’s existing funding, not a new congressional appropriation.

The PIllar

Bishop’s required ad limina visits to Rome getting a serious review

By Luke Coppen, September 8, 2026

The world’s ad limina visits by bishops may be revised. The Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod produced a paper on the visits that regional groupings of bishops must make to Rome roughly every five years. The document notes that, “because of the pope’s increased commitments and the growth in the number of local Churches throughout the world,” it is no longer possible for ad limina visits to take place every five years. It expresses hope that the trips will take place “at least every eight years.” The document urges bishops to report back to the local Church on the outcome of their ad limina visits “through one or more public meetings.” The General Secretariat of the Synod released one other study group report Sept. 8. The final report of Study Group 6 addresses relations between bishops, consecrated life, and ecclesial associations.

Fides News Agency

Bishops warned against tribalism, casteism, and racism

By Fides News Agency, September 6, 2026

Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization, addressed newly ordained bishops taking part in a formation course in Rome, helping them address “Tribalism, Casteism, Racism and Exclusive Regionalism.” The Archbishop described tribalism, casteism, racism and exclusive regionalism as distinct forms of exclusion stemming from the same temptation: making a particular identity — tribe, caste, race, region, language, family or social standing — more decisive than the common Christian identity rooted in belonging to Christ. He said the problem arises “when ‘ours’ becomes synonymous with ‘better,’ and ‘others’ becomes synonymous with ‘foreign’ and ‘unacceptable.’” Nwachukwu referred to the “Son of the Soil” syndrome: the assumption that those born in a certain territory have a natural priority for leadership there. A Bishop may come to think, “‘This is my diocese.’ But in truth, it is not ‘mine.’ It is Christ’s.”

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Graphs about Religion

Is it OK to ‘shout down’ visiting speakers on campus?

By Ryan Burge, September 3, 2026

Free speech is tested on college campuses thousands of times each academic year when student groups invite speakers to give addresses, lectures, or colloquiums on hot-button issues. Should someone be able to come to an institute of higher learning and advocate for a very fringe belief? Or is it necessary and prudent for students to stop that event by whatever means necessary? Regarding “blocking other students from attending a campus speech,” 22% of respondents said that action was sometimes or always acceptable. On the issue of using violence to stop a speech, that figure was 15%. Conservatives are more likely to say that blocking students from attending a speech or shouting down a speaker is never acceptable on their campus. For instance, in the “shouting down” scenario, 39% of conservative students said that this should never happen; it’s only 21% of liberal students. Which groups are the least supportive of shouting down a speaker? It’s Latter-day Saints. Among the LDS, 38% say it’s never an acceptable behavior – that’s the highest of any religious group.

Religion News Service

Hate crimes up: On Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Latinos, & Blacks

By Yonat Shimron & Bob Smietana, September 8, 2026

RNS and many others have reported on the fact that in 2025, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) logged 8,683 anti-Muslim complaints, the most in the 30 years of recordkeeping. And the Anti-Defamation League counted 6,274 antisemitic incidents in 2025, the third-worst year since tracking began in 1979. In New York City, anti-Jewish crimes account for more than half of all confirmed hate crimes through August of 2026. And hate crimes against Black Americans have been the most common for as long as the FBI has kept count. In 2024, anti-Black incidents made up more than half of all racial and ethnic hate crimes. Preliminary FBI data put anti-Latino hate crimes at 1,014 in 2025, a record that moved them into the top three most-targeted groups for the first time in 34 years of tracking.

Keep informed - 9/9/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from Loop, Formed, & The Pillar

Zeale’s LOOP

Read daily news and political impact stories at the “LOOP”

Elections and politics matter. The LOOP gives you daily gems on the news that seek “to renew our country and culture.”

• ILLINOIS MOTHER WHO CLOSELY FOLLOWED CLANCY TRIAL DETAINED FOR 2-YEAR-OLD SON’S MURDER - A court ordered Corie Walsh to remain detained after she allegedly hanged her toddler. Witnesses said that Walsh had “recently become very invested” in the high-profile trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of strangling her three children to death.

• DHS SEEKS EARLY DISMISSAL OF WEAK ASYLUM CLAIMS - In an effort to clear out a massive backlog of asylum claims, the DHS reportedly directed its attorneys to seek the dismissal of legally deficient asylum claims even before they proceed to full hearings in court.

• ANALYSIS: UNDERSTANDING THE MOST INTERESTING CASES ON THE SUPREME COURT’S DOCKET - From immigration and asylum disputes to religious liberty and parental rights questions, the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term will see the justices address a wide range of issues. Zeale News has compiled a list of the most interesting cases the Court will consider.

Augustine Institute

Formed Series Programs

Formed guides Catholics and those they evangelize to a fully Catholic life through faith-informed content and draws people closer to Christ. The Formed platform provides a captivating experience that empowers and satisfies curiosity by forming Catholics for life.

• The Boy from Milan: Stories of Carlo Acutis - The inspiring story of Carlo Acutis, the young boy from Milan on the path to sainthood — the sneaker-wearing, computer-loving "gamer saint" of our time. Beyond the headlines and hashtags, Carlo's real story runs deeper. Known for his deep love of God, devotion to the Eucharist, and quiet acts of charity, Carlo’s life testified to everyday holiness.

• The Violinist: Stories of Solanus Casey - A documentary that chronicles the inspiring life of Blessed Solanus Casey, a humble Capuchin friar known for his deep faith, simplicity, and profound impact on those he served. Featuring personal stories from the people who knew him, the film showcases his remarkable ability to inspire others through his gentle presence and love for God.

• Pier Giorgio Frassati: If I Didn’t Have Love - A classic Italian movie re-mastered and re-released to celebrate the canonization in 2025 of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925). Frassati was a handsome, athletic, fun-loving young man from a rich, aristocratic Italian family who turned from a life of privilege to one devoted to working with the poor, suffering, and homeless, and who courageously witnessed to the Christian faith and charity for many others.

The Pillar

Pillar Stories from the July calendar, 9/9/26

The Pillar offers a news summary and a capsule take on Catholic News. Here are news stories from the past few weeks in the Pillar Post:

• Bishop Heiner Wilmer joined Protestant and ecumenical officials Monday in declaring that “grave fears have become reality” following the Alternative for Germany’s landslide victory in the Saxony-Anhalt state election. German bishops unanimously declared in 2024 that Catholics could not vote for the AfD as it had undergone “several waves of radicalization” and was now “dominated by a racial-nationalist attitude.”

• An upcoming ruling by the European Union’s top court on whether a Belgian diocese must erase baptismal register data on request could have significant implications for the Church’s autonomy and institutional freedom of religion. That’s the contention of a position paper issued Sept. 4 by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, or COMECE.

• Just one month ahead of a global meeting of bishops in the Vatican on Amoris laetitia, some episcopal leaders have told The Pillar that they have not received information about what to expect or how to prepare, and are eager to learn the pope’s plans for the scope and approach to the discussion.

September 9, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE or read HERE:

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest

[In the Dioceses of the United States]

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Crisis Magazine

The consequences of compassion in illegal immigration

By John Cassara, September 9, 2026

Naivety and emotionalism are even more pronounced when they collide with real data and the perspective of time. In 2017, shortly after the first inauguration of President Trump, Dominican Sister Donna Markham, then president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, said in a statement, “Pope Francis has urged people not to close the door on migrants and refugees…In concert with the Holy Father, we believe we must move from attitudes of defensiveness and fear to acceptance, compassion and encounter.” As the CEO of Catholic charities (now retired) noted, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)—in both rhetoric and policy—has sided with illegal immigration. Estimates of illegals crossing our borders vary widely. However, it is generally accepted that at least 11 million crossed. Included in the illegal aliens crossing the border during the Biden administration were roughly 480,000 unaccompanied minors. These victim children were subjected to physical and sexual abuse and labor exploitation.

The Catholic Weekly

Telehealth for assisted dying is too dangerous

By John Obeid, September 8, 2026

The Northern Territory parliament recently passed legislation to legalize voluntary assisted dying (VAD), making it the last jurisdiction in the country to do so. But supporters say too many barriers still prevent people from accessing VAD. Currently, Federal law prohibits using a carriage service, such as a phone, video link or email, to counsel or incite suicide or provide instructions on a method of suicide, where the required intention exists. Supporters of telehealth VAD are therefore lobbying Federal Parliament to permit telehealth VAD. Despite the attempts to sanitize the language used to describe it, voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is in fact just another form of suicide. In most overseas jurisdictions, VAD is called “physician-assisted suicide.” The concern for doctors is that extending care services (such as telehealth) to VAD will induce more people to end their own lives.

Related: Assisted suicide and the normalization of tragedy, David Albert Jones, September 2026, The Tablet

The Jerusalem Post

Israel’s population grows to over 10 million

By Shir Perets, September 9, 2026

Israel's population stands at an estimated 10.305 million ahead of Rosh Hashanah, after growing by approximately 124,000 people over the past year, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. The annual population growth rate was 1.2%, according to the CBS figures. Of the country's residents, about 7.828 million are Jews and others, representing 78.3% of the Israeli population, while approximately 2.173 million are Arabs, or 21.7%. Another 304,000 residents are foreign nationals. The figures show that approximately 182,000 babies were born over the past year, while around 50,000 people died. At the same time, Israel recorded a negative international migration balance, with roughly 8,000 people deducted from the Israeli population through migration. Approximately 21,000 Israelis who had previously emigrated returned to the country, while some 57,000 Israelis left after being classified as having emigrated abroad, according to the CBS.

Church Life Journal

Whew: Augustine won the free will battle with Pelagius

By Jeremy Wilkins and Jean-Paul Juge, September 8, 2026

Anselm in the early eleventh century contrasted the issues of his day to Augustine’s contest with Pelagius six centuries prior. Considering it repugnant to the nature of free will for God to move the heart directly, Pelagius asserted the sovereignty of human freedom to determine its own fate, whether to life or to death. “God,” he reasoned, “decided to give rational creatures the gift of good will and the power of free choice. By making a person naturally capable of good and evil, so that he could do both and would direct his own will to either, God arranged that what an individual actually chose would be properly his own.” Against this thesis, Augustine asserted God's sovereignty over the inmost movements of the heart. Even the sinner’s desire to be converted, he argued, arose from God’s direct operation on the radical orientation of the will. So thorough was Augustine’s triumph over Pelagius that Anselm found it had become exigent to defend human free will by showing its harmony with divine foreknowledge, predestination, and the interior action of grace.

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Catholic Nutshell News is a subscription service hosted by SubStack. Get up to a dozen recent articles from Monday to Saturday to review regarding newsworthy issues. An easy way to browse top Catholic news and information services on the net. Edited by John Pearring.

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Unless otherwise noted, the bible references linked in the posts are from the USCCB website online publication of the Books of the Bible.

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Our Sunday Visitor

Pope Leo hopeful Ukraine, Russia negotiations bear fruit

By Junno Arocho Esteves, September 7, 2026

“I hope that the efforts undertaken in these days to resume negotiations will bear concrete fruit and open space for diplomacy,” he said. Pope Leo XIV once again appealed for peace in Ukraine and prayed that U.S.-led negotiation efforts would finally bring an end to the death and destruction caused by the conflict now in its fourth year. “I renew my appeal to put an end to the violence, to stop the destruction and to open hearts to dialogue and peace,” the pope said Sept. 6 after leading pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square in praying the Angelus. In his appeal, Pope Leo said he followed news of the violent attacks in Ukraine “with a sorrowful heart,” while lamenting the “deaths of innocent people.” Both countries temporarily halted strikes when U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow Sept. 5 for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the following day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zeale

Mother’s mission for orphaned children in memory of adopted son

By Elizabeth Ervin, September 5, 2026

After her adopted son died 19 days after heart surgery, a mother drew on her faith to found a nonprofit that provides medical care and adoption assistance to orphaned and abandoned children. Founded by Lisa Murphy in 2016, the Christian organization Open Hearts for Orphans has helped more than 170 families adopt children with special needs from 27 countries, according to a report published by Atlantic Avenue Magazine. Murphy shares the work with two other adoptive mothers who lost young daughters with heart conditions — Ann Bartlinski, the organization’s director of medical intervention, and Mary Sammons, its director of adoption programs. Open Hearts for Orphans grew out of Murphy’s adoption of Daniel, a 2-year-old boy from China whose severe heart condition improved temporarily with medication, but he later died just days after open-heart surgery in 2010. The organization described Daniel as its “real founder.”

EWTN News

The quiet celebration of Mother Mary’s birth, nativity

By EWTN News Staff, September 8, 2026

The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of Sept. 8, nine months after the Dec. 8 celebration of her immaculate conception as the child of Sts. Joachim and Anne. The Bible does not directly record the circumstances of the Virgin Mary’s infancy and early life, but some of the earliest Christian writers cite other documents, legends, and traditions describing her birth. These accounts are not included in the canon of Scripture and thus lack authority, but they reflect some of the Church’s traditional beliefs about Mary's birth. One such non-Scriptural source is the early second-century “Protoevangelium of James,” an infancy gospel offering pious legends about Mary that nevertheless affirms some of the Church's earliest teachings on the Blessed Mother.

Related: Leo XIV: Mary’s Simple Presence — and Her Son Within Her — Moves All of History, Angela Ambrogetti/EWTN News/ACI Stampa, Vatican, September 8, 2026

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CBCP News

Congregations join in ‘shared elder care’ as members age

By CBCP News, September 7, 2026

Catholic religious congregations in the Philippines pledged Saturday to develop shared elder-care programs after a survey highlighted growing pressure to care for aging members. The 233 consecrated women and men representing 159 congregations said the findings underscored the need for closer cooperation as members age and resources decline. In a statement issued at the close of the second convention of the Conference of Major Superiors in the Philippines, the religious leaders pledged to care for aging members “with dignity through sustainable care, caregiver formation, shared resources, and inter-congregational initiatives.” The survey found that about 70% of members in 45 women’s congregations are 50 or older, while nearly 48% are over 60. About 24% are at least 70. Sister Thu Do of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Hanoi presented the findings Thursday during the convention in Zamboanga City.

Related: Our Daughter Left Everything to Follow Christ. Then It Was Our Turn to Let Go - Terry Polakovic, September 7, 2026 – National Catholic Register

UCA News

Lawyer for Chinese underground church flees to Taiwan

By UCA News reporter, September 7, 2026

A Beijing lawyer who represented an underground church in China has landed safely in Taiwan and been granted temporary accommodation amid a crackdown on unofficial worship, which has resulted in the detention of eight pastors from the Zion Church. Wang Xiahong, also known as Ruth Wang, fled mainland China with her two children on Sept. 2 amid increased government pressure related to her legal work with detained Zion Church leaders known as the Zion 8, ChinaAid said in a statement. The Zion 8 initially faced charges of “illegal use of information networks” under the “Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals” after they were detained in a broader crackdown last October. But authorities have since upgraded the charges to include fraud and illegal business operations tied to their ministry and the sale of online religious courses. The church has rejected the allegations.

Zenit

Bill against religious conversions in Goa, India withdrawn

By ZENIT Staff, September 2, 2026

The Goa government has withdrawn the controversial bill, which aimed to criminalize certain religious conversions, from the local parliament’s agenda after objections from some MPs in the ruling coalition and criticism from opposition parties. The withdrawal represents a setback for a measure that the government had presented as an effort to prevent religious conversions obtained through force, coercion, undue influence, enticement, fraudulent means or marriage. Concerns had been raised that broadly worded restrictions on conversion could be used to interfere with the freedom to embrace, practice and share one’s faith. Among its most severe provisions were penalties that could include life imprisonment and a minimum fine of 50,000 rupees for those convicted of conversion. It also provided for compensation of up to 500,000 rupees for those identified as victims.

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The Pillar

Steady drumbeat of new bishops under the Vatican-China deal

By Ed. Condon, September 72 2026

Both the Vatican and the CCP appear to have settled for an unhappy present while pressing, or praying, for future victory. On Monday, August 31, the most recent in a growing list of bishops selected and installed under the norms of the 2018 agreement with the Chinese government on episcopal appointments. Bishop Paul Liu Honggang was consecrated Aug. 31 and installed as the new head of the Diocese of Datong, which had gone more than three-quarters of a century without a publicly acknowledged leader. The latest in a growing queue of relatively smooth episcopal appointments for the Chinese mainland, since the election of Pope Leo XIV last year, after years of dysfunction, with mainland authorities choosing and installing bishops without reference, or even prior notice, to the Vatican, the 2018 Vatican-China deal appears to be working, at least at the technical level. Candidates are selected internally via the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, submitted to Rome for approval and then installed and announced on a schedule coordinated between Beijing and the Vatican.

Crux

Body of war criminal Mladic lies in state at Orthodox church in Serbia

By Dusan Stojanovic, Jovana Gec, September 7, 2026

The body of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander who died while serving a life sentence for war crimes, lay in state on Monday as Serbia defied European Union warnings against allowing public homage to the man found guilty in the continent’s first case of genocide since World War II. Thousands of mourners arrived early at the small Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Luke in Belgrade to honor Mladic, who is still viewed as a hero by many Serbs. Pro-government media in Serbia reported that Mladic will receive full military honors while the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, will lead the funeral service. Serbia is a candidate nation for European Union membership and has faced strong criticism for honoring Mladic after his death. Marta Kos, the commissioner for the bloc, canceled a visit to Serbia in protest, arguing that “the glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built.”

Keep informed - 9/8/26 news for Catholics

Snippets: Pulpit, EWTN, & Aleteia

BIG PULPIT

Tito Edwards’ Catholic blogger site: September 8, 2026

The Big Pulpit website is an intelligent news aggregator offering insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide. Here are Chief Editor Tito Edwards’ top recommendations for today.

• Why Did Vatican II Declare Religious Freedom? – Rory Fox at Catholic Stand Magazine

• German Bishops Terrified By Potential Loss Of Tax Revenues – Complicit Clergy

• No Contact: Why Families Are Breaking Apart & What It Takes to Repair Them – Noelle Mering

• The Unraveling of America’s Healthcare System – Dave Griffey at Daffey Thoughts

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 8, 2026

EWTN News provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, and is available to anyone with internet access.

• Mother Teresa documentary premieres in Kolkata on her feast day - By EWTN News Staff - “Mother Teresa – Prophet of Compassion” premiered Sept. 5 in Kolkata, India, drawing more than 200 people, including dozens of Missionaries of Charity (MC) nuns and novices.

• Thousands attend annual pro-life March For Life UK event in London - By Elliot Hartley - The march comes amid an ongoing debate over abortion law in England, Scotland and Wales, with pro-life campaigners calling for greater restrictions on abortion.

• Accused killer of Kansas priest declared not competent at murder trial - By Daniel Payne - Gary Hermesch was declared incompetent to stand trial in Nemaha County Court on Sept. 3. Hermesch had been charged with first-degree murder in the April 3, 2025 shooting death of Father Arul Carasala in the small city of Seneca.

Aleteia

Aleteia’s global network reports for September 8, 2026

Aleteia (aleteia.org) is an online publication distributed in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Slovenian). Launched in 2013, it is one of the world’s leading news websites with content free from ideological influences.

Only 3 birthdays are celebrated on the Church’s calendar - 09/03/26 - The Church celebrates saints’ feast days throughout the liturgical year, and the date generally marks the day the saint died and entered into eternity. The Church does celebrate three nativities in the liturgy: Jesus’ birth (December 25); Mary’s birth (September 8); and John the Baptist’s birth (June 24)

Carlo Acutis’ mother: Testimonies arrive almost daily - 09/08/26 - One year after Carlo Acutis was canonized by Pope Leo XIV, his mother, Antonia Salzano, reflects on the impact of his sainthood and the testimonies received. “Since Carlo’s death, we’ve received many signs, as well as testimonies of miracles and conversions.”

Instead of asking ‘How are you?’ try this instead - 09/07/26 - This Suicide Prevention Month, a small change in how we check in with someone could open the door to a conversation that really matters. How to recognize when someone may be struggling, and where to find help. One part of prevention is something considerably less clinical: connection.

September 8, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE - or read HERE:

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Dominica

What do nuns do every day?

By Br. Roland Wakefield, O.P., September 3, 2026

Few things are quite so mysterious as the life of a Catholic nun. We know nuns wear special clothes and live in a monastery, but what exactly do they do every day? In Joy Within His House, Sister Mary Magdalene of the Immaculate Conception, O.P., answers just that question as she shares some of the joys, routines, and oddities of living as a cloistered Dominican nun. But this book is not just for religious brothers and sisters. Sister Mary Magdalene is keen to show how monastic wisdom matters to all Catholics. Throughout the Church’s history, monasteries have always been centers of Catholic learning and spirituality. As monks and nuns drink from the streams of divine grace and wisdom, they bear spiritual fruit, which they hand on to the world. Sister Mary Magdalene demonstrates this tradition perfectly in her book. She writes, “But lay people can and should also carve out a ‘sacred space’ for prayer, a place where you can be alone to encounter the Word, free from worldly distractions.

Missio Dei Catholic

God’s true intention for the Sabbath - to save life

By Ana Luque, September 6, 2026

In Sept. 7’s Gospel reading, Jesus went to the synagogue to teach. Coincidentally, there was a man with a withered hand there, as were the Pharisees. Though the word withered might mean “dry” today, back then it meant someone was paralyzed or deformed, impoverishing them and making them rely on others for charity. Simply put, they were constantly discriminated against. So, the Pharisees, eager to find a way to accuse Jesus of something, watched on “to see if he would cure on the sabbath.” If He did, they would then blame Him for breaking God’s law. St. Luke also notes that Jesus knew their thoughts and quickly realized their intentions. “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” To save life. That is God’s true intention for the Sabbath! To save. To save us.

The Obscure, Forgotten, and Undiscovered

Catholic Phil Lamantia: Poet of the ‘Beat Generation’

By James K. Hanna, September 4, 2026

Philip Lamantia (1927-2005), a poet of the Beat Generation literary movement—and so much more. Philip’s life and art are fodder for a long-form essay, actually many essays. Much has been written about this complex character, but there are angles yet to be explored—not only angles, but angels. To wit, Jack Kerouac concluded his famous 1958 New York Post interview with Mike Wallace by saying as he departed, “You must meet my friend Philip Lamantia. He was knocked off a bench by an angel last week.” Lamantia was the first poet to read (after being introduced by emcee Rexroth) at the famous 6 Gallery reading in 1955. The reading where Ginsberg read “Howl.” He and Kerouac, fellow Catholics, were close friends then, when Kerouac was studying Buddhist doctrine. They spent hours discussing religion, with Kerouac later writing that Lamantia “really dented my brain with his enthusiastic, passionate and brilliant expositions of the Universal Orthodoxy.”

Catholic Stand

A pinched nerve in the Body of Christ

By Nathan Krupa, September 8, 2026

June’s “Unity Forum” in Augusta, GA, gathered leaders and laypeople from many Christian denominations to discuss the scandal of division within the Body of Christ and look with hope toward Christian unity. The charismatic, ecumenical Alleluia Community hosted the forum. This year’s conference focused on the writings and life’s work of Fr. Peter Hocken (d. 2017), a British theologian and member of the Theology Commission of Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Author of more than 17 books on the Charismatic Renewal and the ecumenical movement, Fr. Hocken sought to understand the various outpourings of the Holy Spirit during the 20th Century. About a year ago, I pinched a nerve in my back after an unfortunate jiu-jitsu accident. My physician explained that the technical term for injuries obtained while trying to learn a combat sport at age 47 is “stupidity.” This pinched nerve is an image for disunity in the body of Christ. I can’t always feel my toes, but they are still my toes.

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CRUX

‘Preventing children from going to school is diabolical’

By Ngala Killian Chimtom, September 7, 2026

At the start of the 2026/2027 academic year in Cameroon, the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt, warns against the forced boycott of schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions. For the past ten years, the North West and South West regions have been reeling from a separatist crisis, with the boycott of schools a cornerstone of the separatist strategy. The statistics have been stark. According to UNICEF, the crisis has forced the closure of more than 6,000 schools, affecting more than 800,000 children. A report by Save the Children indicates that, on average, children in the North West region have lost three and a half years of schooling due to the crisis, and that the number of teenage pregnancies in the North West region has increased by 45% because of the crisis. In addition, thousands of teachers have fled the region, with the World Bank reporting that absenteeism rates in both regions are as high as 50%.

National Catholic Register

The dangerous journey home for Christian in Southern Lebanon

By Romy Haber/EWTN News/ACI MENA, September 6, 2026

Along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, three Christian villages have found themselves caught on the front line of a war they neither chose nor supported. Ain Ebel, Rmeich and Debl, known locally as the “Delta of Resilience,” are the last inhabited Christian towns in Lebanon’s border region. Since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into a full-scale war in 2024, residents have endured deaths, destruction and growing isolation from the rest of the country. Today, even returning home has become a grueling journey. With the usual roads damaged or inaccessible, residents must travel in organized convoys through military checkpoints and Israeli-occupied territory, an ordeal some have come to call “road to Calvary.” Convoys travel to the villages almost daily, usually accompanied by Caritas and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). A two-hour trip from Beirut can now take 12 hours or more.

EWTN News

Lebanese men’s small Bible study now largest in the Middle East

By Romy Haber, September 6, 2026

A year ago, three young Lebanese men started a small Bible study group in their parish hall. Today, it has grown into what organizers describe as the largest Bible study initiative in the Middle East, with more than 3,000 people taking part in the gatherings. Each session follows a simple but carefully structured program. It begins with approximately 40 minutes devoted to explaining and exploring a passage from the Bible, followed by approximately 15 minutes of spiritual reflection. Participants then move on to an interactive segment featuring games and questions about the Bible or other topics related to the Christian faith, such as Marian apparitions. The gatherings are free and supervised by Catholic priests. Jimmy Chaaya, one of the initiative’s founders, consults Jewish writings, geography books, papal homilies, and other sources and submits the material to several priests for review

PIMA Asia News

Health crisis kills over 20 children in a tribal India community

By Nirmala Carvalho, September 7, 2026

According to an article published by Dainik Bhaskar, more than 20 tribal boys and girls died in Balaghat, raising serious concerns about government indifference. Five days ago, Adivasi organizations called a general strike. Reports from Balaghat point to a serious outbreak of illnesses among children, particularly in villages inhabited by the Baiga tribal community. Hundreds of children were reportedly hospitalized in recent weeks, while several deaths have raised urgent questions regarding access to early diagnosis, nutrition, transportation, and timely care. The emergency is not simply about identifying a specific disease. A government assessment identified several contributing factors, including measles, malaria, co-infections, respiratory distress, dehydration, malnutrition, anemia, and shock. According to the Archdiocese, Father Cyril Lobo, pioneer of the Garratola mission, learned basic medical knowledge and began treating members of the Gond community with medicines, but it is no substitute for an efficient public healthcare system.

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The Pillar

Freedom of religion battle continues in Florida over vaccinations

By Casandra Chesser, September 5, 2026

The state of Florida and the bishops of Florida are embroiled in a heated debate over vaccine policies in the state’s Catholic schools. The state government is expanding religious exemptions to required childhood vaccines, and the attorney general has demanded that Florida’s Catholic schools comply in order to maintain eligibility for state scholarships and vouchers. But the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops says the state is violating its freedom of religion by attempting to dictate its application of Catholic teaching. The new rule, which is pending final approval, would allow exemptions for personal “moral and ethical” objections under the category of “religious exemptions” to vaccine requirements. The state also permits medical exemptions. None of Florida’s seven Catholic dioceses permit religious exemptions from required vaccines, although medical exemptions are allowed.

Zeale

Lower birth rates affecting college enrollments

By David Uebbing, September 4, 2026

Recent headlines have highlighted enrollment challenges hitting smaller and well-known universities alike. The root cause is demographic. Birth rates fell sharply after the 2008 financial crisis, and that smaller generation is now reaching college age. Traditional-age college students will shrink 13% by 2041. Fewer high school graduates are even choosing college in the first place: 70% went straight to a two- or four-year school in 2016, a rate that had fallen to 62% by 2022, according to federal data. To find out how Catholic schools are faring, Zeale News spoke with the chief enrollment officer for Catholic University of America, Mark Ciolli, who said that private schools, with few exceptions, are experiencing similar struggles. “I can't speak for all 230-plus [schools], but we talk about it often among ourselves. I think there are certain places in the country that are somewhat insulated from the demographic shift, so in the South and the Southwest, primarily in maybe a few states here and there due to some intrastate movement.”

Related: Catholic colleges tackle AI as new academic year begins, by Caitlin Bootsma - Aleteia, September 7, 2026

Aleteia

Fio is the new ‘Catholic Spotify’

By Theresa Civantos Barber, September 7, 2026

A new Catholic streaming platform, calling itself “the #1 Catholic alternative to Spotify and Audible,” Fio offers over 100,000 hours of trusted content from more than 1,000 Catholic creators worldwide. It’s comparable to a “Spotify for Catholics” and has quickly become one of the top Catholic streaming platforms. Fio is Latin for “I become,” drawn from St. John Paul II’s admonition to families to “Become what you are.” Peter Buonincontro, co-founder of Fio, said, “Fio is becoming exactly what we had dreamed it would be, a hub for all Catholic voices, artists, authors.” Beyond lacking a way to find Catholic content, secular platforms usually offer Catholic content alongside content that actively conflicts with Catholic beliefs. Catholic creators and organizations have no direct way to reach the audiences they serve. Plus, the minimal royalties most platforms offer creators, co-founders Will Hickl, musician and co-founder of Novum Records, and Matthew Blake, became seriously interested in creating a strong alternative.

Zenit

Beijing has turned the Uyghur childhood into a state project

By ZENIT Staff, September 4, 2026

Beginning in 2014, Akto County merged or closed 63 teaching sites scattered across four remote mountain Uyghur townships. By the time of the report, 3,181 children from farming and pastoral families boarded at the centralized school. Beijing describes such policies as educational equality, poverty alleviation, and modernization. Read together, however, its own documents reveal a much larger project. From preschool language instruction to boarding schools, mainland classes, vocational education, and labor transfer, education was designed not only to teach children but also to reorganize their relationship with family, language, community, and future work. China’s official account begins with autonomy. Yet the same document defines autonomy as operating under the central state’s unified leadership. Local regulations and departures from national policy still require approval from higher authorities.

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Snippets: EWTN News, Aleteia, & Catholic World News

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 7, 2026

EWTN News provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, with updates on the Holy Father's words and the Holy See.

• The Catholic Church has a lot to say about Labor Day — why? - By Kevin J. Jones - Catholics have a wealth of resources in biblical interpretation, Church teaching, and social thought which address the nature of work and the worker's place in society and in God’s creation. “All work, no matter what the work is, is essential,” said Father Sinclair Oubre, a priest of the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas.

• The Priests: The Irish trio bringing sacred music to the world - By Diego López Marina - From singing together as students at a boarding school in the 1970s to being discovered by Sony in 2008 and making four albums, the priests have always sought to evangelize through sacred music.

• 7 lesser-known apostles and where Catholics can encounter them today - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - Not many details are known about some of Jesus’ closest followers — here are some of their names and where their relics and tombs can be found today. The Church has continued to remember and honor these apostles through the centuries

Aleteia

Aleteia’s free access to Catholic news

Launched in 2013, Aleteia is a free online daily news publication. The site is available in six languages (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and Slovenian). Aleteia reaches nearly 50 million people worldwide, making it one of the leading online Catholic media outlets.

• Indiana archbishop gives Mass dispensation amid ICE fears - After a big rise in ICE activity, Indiana Archbishop Charles C. Thompson gave dispensation from Mass attendance for those affected for the rest of September. “The recent surge in immigration enforcement activity in Indiana has caused fear and uncertainty for many families, particularly when detention results in the sudden separation of parents and children.”

• Spanish married couple to be considered for canonization - The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is currently reviewing the lives of Tomás and Paquita Alvira, a Spanish couple who could be the next canonized married saints. Tomás and Paquita would eventually join Opus Dei, seeking to live out their Catholic faith in their daily lives.

• Pray to these saints for farmers, their animals and crops - Farmers, their animals, and their crops have numerous saints they can look to for intercession in their vitally important role of providing food for the world. For instance, St. Isidore worked on the estate of a wealthy landowner, Juan de Vergas, from childhood. He rose early every morning to dedicate time to God in prayer or at Mass before work.

Catholic World News

CatholicCulture.org from Trinity Communications

Catholic World News (CWN) is an independent Catholic news service staffed by lay Catholic journalists, dedicated to providing accurate global news from a distinctly Catholic perspective.

German Catholic & Protestant leaders deplore AfD victory - “Our worst fears have been realized, but the result must be accepted,” said Bishop Heinrich Wilmer, S.C.J., of Münster and the two other Christian leaders. “The churches are particularly concerned about the coexistence and cooperation of the people in Saxony-Anhalt, and especially about respecting the God-given human dignity that belongs unconditionally to everyone. This concern also extends to the free and democratic order in Saxony-Anhalt.”

Fraternal and Paternal Correction - Fr. Jerry Pokorsky - Justice requires us to avoid sin ourselves, but charity and justice can also require us to correct others when they sin: “If you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.” (Ezekiel 33:9) Going straight to the authorities rather than first speaking with the person concerned can be an evasion of honest responsibility. We should have the courage to speak directly to the person concerned.

The treasure the Jesuits squandered - Phil Lawler - By rights, Father Paul Mankowski, [he died six years ago] a brilliant Jesuit scholar and frequent contributor to the CatholicCulture site, should be a household name among American Catholics. But during the most productive years of his life, he was not traveling the lecture circuit, and his essays were not appearing regularly in print, because his Jesuit superiors silenced him, penalizing him for the “offense” of telling inconvenient truths.

September 7, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

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Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

First Things

Angry at the Left, the progressives, Germans vote for the AfD

By Christopher Caldwell, September 7, 2025

Naturally, what constitutes the “extreme right” is in the eye of the beholder. The German state has an elaborate constitutional system meant to identify threats from within and snuff them out early. Devised in the late 1940s as Germany was re-establishing its state under Allied tutelage, it is sometimes called wehrhafte Demokratie, an expression coined in the 1930s to describe a fortified democracy, a democracy that can fight back against those who would wreck it. Germany’s version requires parties to get 5% of the vote before they can take seats in the legislature. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now—by far—the most popular party in the country; 28% of voters nationwide say they would vote for it in the next national election, ahead of the 21% who would vote for the Christian Democratic Union. Protesting against certain elements of modern progressivism, the AfD rages against the Left Party, descended from the old Socialist Unity Party of the communist era, which increasingly focuses its wrath on Israel.

Zenit

Spain’s Opus Dei argues: ‘We did not steal the Virgin Mary’

By Zenit Staff, September 5, 2026

A centuries-old Marian image has become the focal point of one of the ecclesial disputes currently facing the Catholic Church in Spain. The controversy surrounding Torreciudad is not, at its core, about who owns the medieval image of Our Lady of the Angels. On that point, the Opus Dei Prelature says there is no disagreement: the Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón owns it. The real conflict concerns a more complicated question: who has the right to decide where the image should remain and how the agreements governing its custody and use should be interpreted. The latest exchange has sharpened the divide between Bishop Ángel Pérez Pueyo of Barbastro-Monzón and the Opus Dei Prelature, while the Holy See still holds the final decision. The dispute has roots stretching back more than six decades.

Our Sunday Visitor

Catholic faith endures at Pentagon, 25 years after 9/11

By Ann Augherton | Arlington Catholic Herald, September 5, 2026

At 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, American Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, killing 184 people — 125 people inside the Pentagon and 53 passengers and six crew members aboard the plane. Twenty-five years later, the repaired facade of the Pentagon still looks a little brighter, and the area outside that part of the building is now the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. There is no central statue. Instead, 184 stainless-steel benches stand, one for each person who lost their life there. Each bench bears the victim's name and age, with a shallow pool of water underneath. Trees, gravel, and dramatic lighting are best seen at night. Interestingly, each bench was placed according to where the victim was — those representing the Pentagon victims are oriented toward the building, while the plane victims are remembered with benches placed in the direction the plane approached the building.

The Catholic Thing

Most adults are ignorant of the art of conversation and manners

By Robert Lazu Kmita, September 5, 2026

We should not be surprised that educating children and adolescents today is more difficult than cracking open a coconut. But who is to form the younger generation when most adults themselves are ignorant of the art of conversation and manners? I have spent many years reading not only treatises on theology and philosophy, or comforting works of literature and poetry, but also old, tattered volumes in which authors from centuries past tell the story of a better world, one in which people knew what it meant to be well-mannered. One such book, written by an anonymous British duke, gave me not only some of the finest lessons in practical Christianity but also a great surprise. The central principle stated from the very beginning by this aristocrat, whose name we may never know, sounds strikingly evangelical: “Treat others as you would wish others to treat you.”

Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay

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Zeale News

Disruptions at New Mexico parishes prompt security concerns

By David Uebbing, September 3, 2026

A man was charged with disturbing the peace after police said he pushed his way into the sanctuary during Mass at Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The incident marks the second time in the past two months that police have been called to an Albuquerque-area Catholic parish, following a gunpoint dispute in July. Michael Chmura strode into the sanctuary and began shouting objections to the Catholic faith as he approached the priest before Communion was distributed. A deacon serving the Mass told KOB 4 that he stepped between Chmura and the priest as other parishioners moved in. The Rio Rancho incident followed a more serious confrontation weeks earlier at St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Catholic Church, just 10 miles south of St. Thomas Aquinas. The altercation stemmed from a months-long dispute over a proposed North Valley mosque that has drawn broader interfaith attention in the city.

Our Sunday Visitor

Jerusalem schools suspended after teacher permits denied

By Junno Arocho Esteves, September 2, 2026

Israeli authorities denied entry permits for dozens of teachers and administrative staff, forcing Christian schools in Jerusalem to suspend the start of the academic year. In a statement released Sept. 1 by the Custody of the Holy Land, the General Secretariat for Christian Educational Institutions in Jerusalem said the non-renewal of entry permits for more than 70 teachers and employees “occurred suddenly and without prior notice.” “Accordingly, following consultation and coordination with the relevant authorities, representatives of parents, and Jerusalem schools, it has been decided to suspend school attendance in the schools of the city of Jerusalem,” the statement read, indicating suspension would begin Sept. 1 and last “until the necessary permits for teachers and staff are reissued and renewed, thereby ensuring that the educational process can proceed safely and properly.”

Crux

Vance on ‘end times’ amid attempted assassination of Trump

By Nicholas Riccardi, September 2, 2026

Vice President JD Vance said in a podcast released Tuesday that if a 2024 assassination attempt had killed Donald Trump, he would have always wondered if it was part of a conspiracy and might not have accepted even another Republican as the next president. Vance made the statement during a conversation with Christian podcaster Bryce Crawford. The vice president, who recently released a book detailing his own journey to Catholicism, also defended President Trump for posting an image of himself as Jesus and mused about whether artificial intelligence was a sign of the end times. The conversation kicked off with a discussion of faith and the rush to scientifically explain away events that may be divinely touched. Vance cited the July 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, during which a bullet nicked Trump’s ear and a supporter was killed. Trump has long described his survival as divinely guided, a theme Vance echoed.

Related: Spidey’s Sense: Andrew Garfield Discusses Faith, Grief and ‘Falling in Love With Jesus’ - Alyssa Murphy, National Catholic Register, September 2, 2026

National Catholic Register

Is Leo XIV presenting a new diplomacy?

By Andrea Gagliarducci, September 1, 2026

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher’s trip to Moscow marked a definitive paradigm shift in the Holy See’s diplomacy regarding the situation in Ukraine. Much can be gleaned from the opening remarks by both the Holy See and the Russian delegation ahead of the meeting and at the press conference that followed, which the Russian Foreign Ministry broadcast on video. Archbishop Gallagher is the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, a position comparable to that of a foreign minister within the Holy See. The meetings are the first of their kind under the new pontificate. Leo XIV has not changed the Holy See’s diplomatic line: It promotes peace and dialogue and never interrupts diplomatic relations, even in difficult situations. Nonetheless, Leo has introduced a different, more “diplomatic” strategy, if one could call it that—a conventional, institutional approach with keen attention to detail and the conviction that peace cannot be achieved without clarity.

Related: Pope Leo moves on to next Vatican II document - On events of our times are part of "the mysterious plans of Divine Providence" - Aleteia, 09/02/26, Kathleen N. Hattrup

Related: ‘International Theological Commission’ publishes document on the Trinity and ecology, Catholic World News, September 03, 2026

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Aleteia

Yale’s most popular history course is not what you might expect

By Rose Bryan, August 31, 2025

Yale University, voted fourth place as the best National University in the U.S. News and World Report 2026, has a top-enrolled history course, and it’s not the history of law, for which Yale is most famous. Instead, Yale history instructor Sergio Infante writes in Slate that the most-enrolled history class at Yale is called “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition.” This popular course welcomed 85 students last spring. It surveys Catholic thinking and writing throughout the Church's 2,000-year history. This interest in Catholic courses reflects findings from recent surveys by Harvard University’s Cooperative Election Study (CES), the Barna Group, and the Gallup poll, among others, showing a rise in Catholicism among Gen Zs. Just a decade earlier, “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition” course enrolled a meager 13 students. Anthony Gross, a Gen Z Catholic influencer, is just one person noting how more and more young people are drawn to the Catholic Church.

Vatican News

Poland’s parents oppose changes to religious education rules

By Fr. Łukasz Bankowski, September 2, 2026

Poland’s new rules on religion classes in public schools are raising concerns among parents, catechists, and bishops, who say the changes could make it harder for students to attend. Although religious education is optional in Polish public schools, 75.6% of students attended religion classes during the 2024/2025 school year, according to the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics (ISKK). “The decisions of the Ministry of National Education concerning religion classes are unfair,” Bishop Wojciech Osial wrote in a message marking the beginning of the school year. He explained that if even one student in a class does not attend religion, the lesson for the others must normally be scheduled before or after regular classes. “There is an attempt, at all costs — including through deceptive means and violations of the law — to remove religion from schools.”

Zenit

Remarkable case of Asian diocese surpassing 1,000 Priests

By Alma Recinas, August 31, 2026

While numerous European dioceses are merging and closing seminaries, one diocese in Korea has reached the milestone of 1,000 priests, supported by a vast community praying for vocations. The figure was made public as 2025 marked the 50th anniversary of the Archdiocese’s Association for the Support of Vocations, founded in 1975. During the thanksgiving Mass, Monsignor Soon-taick emphasized that this achievement is not the result of a pastoral plan devised in an office, but rather the fruit of the sustained effort of the faithful over the course of half a century. The first Korean priest, Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon, was ordained one hundred and eighty years ago, in 1845, and died a martyr shortly after his Ordination. Today, he is the patron of the Korean clergy, and his figure remains a vital point of reference for the country’s seminarians.

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EWTN News

Abuse settlement in Diocese of Ogdensburg will total $83 million

By Daniel Payne, September 2, 2026

The Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York, is moving to settle its long-running bankruptcy proceedings with an $83 million fund for abuse victims, Bishop Terry LaValley has announced, with a significant portion of that amount coming from insurance providers. The bishop announced the proposed settlement in an Aug. 25 letter to the diocese. The diocese had earlier announced a $45 million agreement in May. A diocesan spokeswoman confirmed that the additional roughly $38 million would come from insurance contributions. The Ogdensburg Diocese filed for bankruptcy in July 2023, the sixth diocese in New York State to do so. The diocese will undergo a notable bankruptcy proceeding called “rapid pre-pack Chapter 11,” one that will settle current abuse allegations while protecting parishes from future litigation.

Keep informed - 9/3/26 news for Catholics

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OSV News

OSV’s seasoned reporters - September 3, 2026

OSV News — information service and evangelization partner that enables dioceses to connect and boost engagement with the faithful by sharing timely, trustworthy, and accurate content about what is happening in the Church and the world.

• Housing, gender, abortion policies among state ballot measures in 2026 - Kate Scanlon - Voters in multiple states will consider ballot measures on topics ranging from abortion and gender policy to housing and tax policy in November.

  State ballot measures ask voters to weigh in directly on a policy item, law or regulation, sometimes in lieu of or alongside the legislative process. Rules and procedures for their inclusion on ballots vary by state.

• Vatican theological commission defines ‘sin against creation and the Creator’ in new document - Courtney Mares - More than a decade after the release of Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical “Laudato Si’,” the theological commission goes beyond Pope Francis’ use of the phrase “ecological sin” by proposing what it describes as more precise terminology: “sin against creation and the Creator.”

• Catholic aid worker in Nepal sees ‘long road’ to recovery after ‘unprecedented’ disaster for region - Gina Christian - Devastation from Aug. 26 flooding and mudslides along the Nepal-China border is staggering, and the road to recovery will be long, a Catholic aid worker now on the ground in Nepal.

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — September 3, 2026

EWTN provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, and is available to anyone with internet access.

• ‘God is good’: One of the internet’s most popular nonbelievers announces his return to the Church - By Daniel Payne - Joe Schmid ran a highly popular agnostic YouTube channel for years, but “a gift of God’s grace” has led him back to the faith. “Big news. God exists. Christ is Lord, and he established the Catholic Church.”

• International apostolate seeks to consecrate businesses to Sacred Heart in Bridgeport Diocese - By Tessa Gervasini - The diocesan partnership was conceived by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano with the goal of transforming the workplace with the help of His Way At Work, an international apostolate inspiring business owners to consecrate their companies to the Sacred Heart and place God at the center.

• Catholic Church weighs legal challenge to new anti-conversion law in India - By Anto Akkara - The Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act, passed by the state assembly in March under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government, took effect four days after 20 civil rights, secular, and Christian groups made a final plea for its repeal at a press conference in Mumbai, the state capital.

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ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - September 3, 2026

“We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.”

Is Gen Z Actually Becoming Catholic, Or Is the Media Finally Noticing? - The short answer is that a lot of young people are genuinely coming home to the Church. You can see it in conversion stories, campus ministries, young-adult communities, and packed Eucharistic adoration nights.

The Church Was Flooded, but This Catholic Couple Still Made Their Wedding Happen - This wedding is going viral for all the right reasons—and the photos and video are 100% real. A Catholic couple in the Philippines did not let severe floodwaters keep them from the altar. Galang had her gown repaired and shortened so it would not hinder her as she made her way through the flooded church toward the altar.

The First TV Star on the Altars: 12 Things to Know About Soon‑to‑Be Blessed Archbishop Fulton Sheen - The Holy See approved Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification cause. Here are 12 things to know about this soon-to-be Blessed!

September 3, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

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Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

National Catholic Register

Bishop Daly’s ‘Front Royal Statement’ is excellent on Catholic Ed.

By George Weigel, September 2, 2026

Long after she went home to the Lord, Sister Miriam Jude [my first grade teacher] came to mind when I read the recent Front Royal Statement, a reaffirmation of the seven classic principles of Catholic primary and secondary education and a reform manifesto I think she would have approved. So would the bishops who, meeting in 1884 at Baltimore’s Old Cathedral, the basilica of which I have such fond memories, mandated a Catholic school in every U.S. parish. That is not possible today. But the Catholic schools we have must be authentically and unapologetically Catholic, transmitting the faith and the great Western civilizational tradition in the arts and sciences, for the sake of young souls and the renewal of our national culture. You can read the Front Royal Statement here. Get the new school year off to a good start by sharing it with the pastors and principals of every Catholic school with which you’re in contact.

Christian Post

Iran kills, imprisons dozens of Christians as persecution rises

By Anugrah Kumar, August 31, 2026

A widening crackdown on Christians in Iran has reportedly resulted in the deaths of at least 33 Christian ministers and the detention of more than 130 others in recent months, according to Iran Alive Ministries, a Texas-based organization supporting underground house churches in the country. Hormoz Shariat, founder of Iran Alive Ministries, told Baptist Press that at least 33 Christian ministers associated with the ministry had been killed amid intensified government pressure on Christians linked to the underground church movement. The ministry provided names of 20 people it said had been persecuted, including four who died, while saying it was unable to identify 156 others. Of the 131 Christians reportedly arrested, 14 remain in prison, with some allegedly facing the death penalty. The reported persecution follows civilian protests in January and a subsequent government crackdown. Iran Alive Ministries estimates that between 40,000 and 50,000 people were killed during the crackdown, although estimates from other sources differ significantly.

The Pillar

Second German bishop in two weeks resigns

By Luke Coppen, September 2, 2026

Pope Leo XIV accepted Wednesday another early resignation of a German diocesan bishop, who cited the toll of office as a reason for stepping down. Timmerevers’ departure came exactly two weeks after the Aug. 19 resignation of 66-year-old Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer. Wiesemann cited “psychological strain” as the reason he resigned almost 10 years early. Timmerevers, a supporter of Germany’s controversial synodal way, said he had submitted his resignation to Rome months earlier and discussed the matter at a private audience with Leo XIV. Timmerevers and Wiesemann are not the only German diocesan bishops to have stepped down early, citing leadership strains. In June 2025, Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke resigned as Bishop of Eichstätt at age 70. Hanke, a critic of the synodal way, said he had asked to retire five years before the customary resignation age of 75 because of “inner fatigue” caused by “the many challenges, scandals, and unresolved conflicts” that marked his term in office.

Wild at Heart

The number one thing that gets in the way is ‘your way’

By John Eldredge, September 3, 2026

We all have a way that we do life. We might call it our personality, or our natural bent — the way we handle pressure, the way we listen, the way we look for happiness, the way we control our world. We didn’t sit down one day and willfully choose to adopt it, but it remains a choice nonetheless. Call it your style of relating. It is a carefully crafted approach to life — and especially to relationships — that colors how we work, how we love, how we respond, and how we simply have a conversation with people. This can be quite an epiphany — you have a style of relating designed to make life work for you! Our style of relating comes from brokenness and sin, and it is the number one thing that gets in the way of real love and companionship, the shared adventure, and all the beauty of marriage. It’s really this simple—the number one thing that gets in the way is your way.

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Catholic Nutshell News is a subscription service hosted by Substack. Get up to a dozen recent articles, Monday through Saturday, to review regarding newsworthy issues. An easy way to browse top Catholic news and information services on the net. Edited by John Pearring.

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CRUX

‘Their lands are coveted’: Amazon Cardinal on Indigenous

By Eduardo Campos Lima, August 30, 2026

The Cardinal Archbishop of Manaus has decried a startling increase in violence against indigenous persons in Brazil, as Indigenous communities face various attempts to drive them off what little they still hold of their ancient lands and further into marginalization. “Our society is experiencing tremendous tension when it comes to human dignity,” Cardinal Leonardo Steiner told Crux Now, “and Indigenous people, of course, suffer because their lands are coveted.” A Franciscan friar since 1976 and a bishop since 2005, Steiner was appointed by Pope Francis to lead the Manaus archdiocese in 2019. Francis created him a cardinal – the first from the Amazon region – in 2022. In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with Crux Now, Steiner also shared his view of upcoming general elections, praising the accomplishments of President Lula da Silva’s administration and lamenting legislative obstruction, especially on measures favoring Indigenous rights and dignity.

National Catholic Register

China pressures Catholic group to censor Chinese speaker

By Zelda Caldwell, August 31, 2026

They complied. The U.S.-China Catholic Association (USCCA) yielded to pressure from Chinese government officials to cancel a prominent professor’s invitation to speak at its conference, emails obtained by the Register show. Fenggang Yang, a Chinese-born sociology professor at Purdue University and director of the Center on Religion and the Global East, was informed by USCCA in June that he would no longer be giving the keynote address at the organization’s biennial conference at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Yang, a Protestant scholar who has expressed support for religious groups not sanctioned by the Chinese government, several members of the USCCA’s board of directors and leadership explained that Chinese government officials requested his removal from the program and that organizers feared a backlash. “We are afraid of being blacklisted and not allowed to visit China again. We also have two Board members in China. They could get into trouble,” said Peter Tan, chair of the USCCA’s board.

EWTN News

Dangerous lack of guardrails for abortion pill prescriptions

By Kate Quiñones, August 29, 2026

A five-month-long investigation by Republicans in the U.S. Senate found that abortion pill manufacturing companies are falling short on critical oversight while bringing in millions of dollars in revenue. The manufacturers are not fulfilling their obligation to oversee prescribers while making tens of millions of dollars each year, according to the report released by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana). The investigation also found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “lack of guardrails ensuring a sufficient provider-patient relationship creates accountability gaps for a product that carries risks of significant adverse health outcomes,” according to the report. Three companies, Danco Laboratories, GenBioPro, and Evita Solutions, reportedly did not provide details on how they followed existing federal regulations.

PIMA asia news

After four years, the conciliar rite returns to Ernakulam Cathedral

By Nirmala Carvalho, August 31, 2026

In the long-running dispute over the liturgy that has long divided the Syro-Malabar Church in India, an important step towards reconciliation was taken yesterday. At the Cathedral Basilica of St Mary in Kochi, in the Archieparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, on Sunday 30 August, for the first time in four years, the Eucharist was once again celebrated with the celebrant facing the congregation, as part of a compromise solution which, whilst safeguarding the ‘unified rite’ decided by the Synod, has allowed for certain exceptions. The crisis began in November 2021 when the collegial body governing the Syro-Malabar Church – seeking to resolve the existing situation in which some communities celebrated the Holy Qurbana (the Eucharistic rite of this Eastern Church) with the priest facing the altar whilst others followed the conciliar form – had adopted a mixed solution in which the celebrant faced the altar throughout the entire Eucharistic prayer.

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The Pillar

‘Growing aggression’ between Ukrainians and Poles

By Luke Coppen, August 28, 2026

Polish bishops appealed this week for reconciliation amid what they described as “cases of growing aggression between Ukrainians and Poles.” Poland welcomed 1.7 million refugees after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The refugees, some of whom traveled on to other European Union countries, joined a pre-existing Ukrainian population of around 1.3 million people, many of whom had sought work in Poland. The Polish bishops’ permanent council urged the authorities Aug. 26 to step up efforts to prevent “incidents motivated by national animosity,” which have reportedly occurred amid political tensions between Poland and Ukraine. “We appeal to believers and non-believers alike, and to all people of goodwill in Poland, to seek above all a spirit of reconciliation and Christian love in Polish-Ukrainian relations,” the bishops said. According to figures cited by Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 77% of Poles actively helped Ukrainian refugees, with 7% offering shelter in their homes.

Zeale

Singles go to Fulton Sheen beatification in hopes of future spouses

By Elizabeth Ervin, August 28, 2026

Amid reports of growing dating app fatigue, a community for unmarried Catholics is organizing a five-day pilgrimage to Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification, where participants can meet others who hope to build a marriage rooted in their faith. In an Aug. 27 press release, 365 Catholic Singles Community invited unmarried Catholics weary of dating apps to attend a five-day pilgrimage to Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s beatification, saying the trip encourages greater trust in God’s providence when seeking a spouse. “If we profess trust in God’s providence, we have to do the work of attending in-person events with fellow Catholics. We spend years filtering people out on screens by arbitrary traits, forgetting to leave room for the Holy Spirit to act as matchmaker,” Kline said. “God cannot work through your journey if you remain isolated at home scrolling apps alone.”

Aleteia

St. Raymond Nonnatus is a patron saint of childbirth

By Philip Kosloski, August 31, 2026

St. Raymond Nonnatus has a unique name, directly tied to how he came into this world. "Nonnatus," is Latin and is often translated as "no birth." It refers to his own birth, which did not end well for his mother. St. Raymond had to be forcibly removed from his mother’s womb, as she died during childbirth. He was able to survive, but his mother did not. Thankfully, modern medicine has improved the chances of survival for both mother and child during childbirth, and the chances of dying are small in most countries. Childbirth is a stressful experience, especially with a complicated birth that does not happen as it normally should. In such times, it’s helpful to turn to God and to invoke the heavenly court for aid. St. Raymond Nonnatus is one of those individuals who looks tenderly upon all pregnant women, interceding for them before God, asking for a smooth delivery.

Zenit

Mexican bishop imposes restrictions on lay presiding at liturgies

By ZENIT Staff, August 28, 2026

The Diocese of Texcoco has drawn a firm line between lay participation and the functions reserved to ordained ministers, with Bishop Carlos Enrique Samaniego López issuing a decree intended to confront what he describes as growing confusion over who may legitimately preside over Catholic rites. The measure does more than regulate who can lead a particular ceremony. It addresses a broader pastoral problem: the risk that Catholics may no longer be able to distinguish between legitimate lay ministries, the ordained priesthood, and unauthorized individuals presenting themselves as religious celebrants. Under the new provisions, laypeople who have not been instituted in the stable ministry of acolyte may not preside over celebrations of the Word, funeral rites, sacramentals or other liturgical acts proper to ordained ministers. The restriction applies not only inside diocesan churches but also when such ceremonies are attempted elsewhere.

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EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — August 31, 2026

EWTN News provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, with updates on the Holy Father's words and the Holy See.

• Sixth Chinese bishop ordained under Pope Leo XIV - By Victoria Cardiel & Rose Bryan - The ordination is the third episcopal consecration in China in just two months and the sixth to take place during Leo’s pontificate, although not all six episcopal appointments originated under the current pope.

• Cenotaphs: Street memorials and signs of hope after a violent death - By Diego López Colín - Makeshift public memorials are a way for friends and family to commemorate a loved one who died at that location, often a street or road, and in the case of murder, can serve as a call for justice.

• Department of Justice says government can’t restrict funding based on religious status - By Daniel Payne - The U.S. Department of Justice this week said that the government’s practice of restricting federal funding from religious activities is “presumptively unconstitutional,” paving the way for greater public funding of religious groups.

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Aleteia

Aleteia’s free access to Catholic news

Launched in 2013, Aleteia is a free online daily news publication. The site is available in six languages (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and Slovenian). Aleteia reaches nearly 50 million people worldwide, making it one of the leading online Catholic media outlets.

• How Prom night can help you understand Purgatory - 08/31/26 - Rose Bryan - When explaining Purgatory, you can’t escape that suffering is caused by sin, all the way back to Eden. Teens do understand well that choices have consequences. So many ridiculous Hollywood movies have convinced them the Prom dance will be the great coming-of-age moment

• Should a saint be called a “founding mother” of the USA? - 08/30/26 - Jenny Lark Snarski - Nations are not sustained by constitutions alone. The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s shrine staff have had and continue to host multiple initiatives this year, showing the links between Mother Seton and the founding of the United States.

• Ratzinger’s insight into why the Beast has a number, not a name - 03/05/18 - D. R. Esparza - God’s antagonist, “this Beast,” Ratzinger explains, “does not have a name, but a number. The Beast is a number and transforms into numbers.” The watchful presence of God reveals itself with a name and, one might even argue, in a name.

Catholic World News

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Catholic World News (CWN) is an independent Catholic news service staffed by lay Catholic journalists, dedicated to providing accurate global news from a distinctly Catholic perspective.

Imitate St. Peter’s sincerity and docility, Pope tells pilgrims - Reflecting on the Sunday Gospel reading (Matthew 16:21-27), in which St. Peter rebuked Jesus, Pope Leo XIV said that “it is not always easy to understand and accept God’s ways, especially when they are very far from our own. Then the temptation arises—against all the reasoning of faith.”

Sensational report from China: a new split in the Church? - If secret episcopal ordinations are occurring more frequently than the “official” ordinations authorized through the mysterious and awkward provisions of the Beijing-Vatican accord, then that agreement is a farce.

The temptation to ‘tell no one’ - When Jesus tells the disciples “to tell no one,” Jesus is asking them to act against the prompting of human nature to share an amazing story. Our Lord makes some similar requests at other times recorded in the Gospels. He reveals his mission only to those who are ready to believe.

August 31, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

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Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

First Things

The England I knew is gone

By Carl R. Trueman, August 27, 2025

My annual visit to the land of my childhood and youth exposed me to a culture very different from the one that nurtured me. Growing up as a grammar schoolboy in 1970s and ’80s England, I absorbed the importance of personal restraint; emotional self-control in public; privacy; acting with honesty and fairness, even to one’s own hurt; and respecting others regardless of their social status or opinions. At the level of society, such personal values promoted freedoms—of speech, of religion, of expression. All of that is gone, at least from the class that presumes to define the country’s mores and morals. In retrospect, I see that I grew up at a breaking point in English culture. I was (perhaps symbolically) the last person at my school to study Latin and the last not to take computer science. The ancient disciplines were already on life support, and the technocrats were waiting in the wings. Yesterday’s virtues have become today’s oppressive vices, as the moral register has shifted in a psychological direction—most notably in the trivialization of trauma.

Zenit

Why so many Americans no longer feel free to speak their minds

By Zenit Staff, August 29, 2026

The most revealing number in a new survey on free expression in the United States may also be the simplest: just 32% of Americans say they feel “very comfortable” expressing their views about abortion rights without fear of repercussions. The finding comes from the August 2026 National Speech Index, produced by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and conducted by Dartmouth’s Polarization Research Lab. Its results offer a troubling measure not necessarily of what Americans believe, but of what they believe they can safely say. The figures become more complicated when political identity is considered. Among respondents describing themselves as very liberal, 55% said they were very comfortable discussing the subject. Among the very conservative, the figure was 52%. By contrast, comfort fell to roughly one quarter among those in the middle.

Our Sunday Visitor

The women behind Archbishop Sheen’s missionary work

By Ines San Martin, August 18, 2026

When Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis, attention will rightly fall on the celebrated television preacher whose broadcasts brought Catholic teaching into millions of American homes. But for almost two decades, behind Archbishop Sheen’s extraordinary reach stood a largely unknown group of women who opened thousands of letters, recorded donations, thanked contributors, and helped transform his words into material support for missionaries and young churches around the world. This responsibility was central to Archbishop Sheen’s priesthood and public ministry. Alongside his radio and television work, he traveled, preached missionary appeals, and served as editor of MISSION Magazine, which the national office of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith began publishing in 1951. Envelopes poured into the society’s national office in New York. Some contained large checks. Behind the scenes, a small army of women opened those envelopes, recorded the offerings, and made sure the donors received a response.

The Catholic Thing

The Bible was born into the Church, authoritatively confirmed

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky, August 30, 2026

From a Bible-alone perspective (what Luther codified as sola Scriptura), it’s an inconvenient truth. Why was a Church necessary in the first place? And if it was necessary, couldn’t He have done better with a qualified, highly educated man, sophisticated in the ways of the world, and relating well to the Jewish elites? Why did Jesus need to identify a mere mortal – and a fisherman at that – as his vicar? Yet after the Resurrection, at Pentecost, the Church emerges publicly under Peter’s apostolic leadership. Peter’s ministry abruptly ended in Rome, where he was crucified. For a couple of hundred years, his successors suffered similar fates. Yet somehow, the gates of Hell didn’t prevail over the infant Church. That Bible didn’t float down from heaven. It was born into the Church, recognized within the Church, and authoritatively confirmed by her bishops and popes. Church history is distressing. Yet, year after year, century after century, Church teaching somehow remains consistent while developing organically in depth and understanding.

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Zeale News

Islamic leaders and political office in America

By RealClearInvestigations, August 26, 2026

Some Islamic leaders and political organizations are increasingly using elections, campaign spending, and other parts of the American political system to build influence and advance objectives that critics argue conflict with American laws and institutions, according to an Aug. 18 RealClearInvestigations report. “In one sense, this is just the continuation of the country’s deep tradition of offering newcomers the opportunity to contribute their own customs to American society. But some critics say this iteration of the immigrant story offers a distinct challenge,” investigative reporter Paul Sperry wrote. Sperry reported that at least $315,000 from donors he characterized as tied to Muslim Brotherhood–linked organizations supported El-Sayed during his successful Democratic primary campaign. El-Sayed, who won the nomination Aug. 4, will face Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November.

Our Sunday Visitor

Judge temporarily blocks Illinois assisted suicide law

By Simone Orendain, August 27, 2026

Illinois’ physician-assisted suicide law, effective Sept. 12, has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge for specific individuals. The order applies to “Catholic health care entities” under the authority of Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, four Catholic doctors, and Lutheran Care Center, a nursing home in south-central Illinois. (Two Catholic hospital systems, the Hospital Sisters Health System and OSF Healthcare’s Springfield campus, are in the diocese). The Thomas More Society announced U.S. District Court Judge Franklin Valderrama placed the temporary restraining order on the End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act on Aug. 21, noting, for now, the state cannot force its clients “to tout the alleged ‘benefits’ of assisted suicide, refer patients to someone willing to prescribe lethal drugs, log those requests in a way that triggers the state’s suicide ‘qualification’ process, avoid engaging in whatever the state decides is ‘misinformation’ about suicide, or falsify death certificates to conceal how a patient died.”

Crux

Record-high number of assisted suicides in California

By Crux Now Staff, August 27, 2026

As the US state of California reports a dramatic increase in assisted suicides, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is working on different fronts to foster support for the vulnerable and to educate the faithful. Released earlier this month, the California End of Life Option Act 2025 Data Report shows a record-high 1,235 deaths by assisted suicide, a nearly 11% increase over the past year. Over the five-year period from 2020 to 2025, the report shows a nearly 150% increase. Esmeralda Sosa of the Los Angeles archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice, and Peace told Crux Now that the statistics are more than sobering and a call to action. “It is both concerning and heartbreaking to look at the 2025 data and see the continued increase in people seeking prescriptions to end their lives,” Sosa said.

National Catholic Register

US dioceses vary in granting, denying exemptions to vaccines

By Matthew McDonald, August 25, 2026

What should Catholic schools do when parents object to vaccinating their children on religious grounds? U.S. Catholic bishops don’t agree. Prompted by a conflict in Florida between the state attorney general and local bishops, the Register recently obtained vaccination policies from 28 Catholic dioceses in 19 states covering all major regions of the country. A comparison shows that vaccination requirements vary widely among Catholic schools, depending on state laws and how individual bishops interpret Catholic teachings on individual conscience and the common good. 16% of dioceses in the United States say they ordinarily require vaccinations for students and allow exemptions if a vaccine would harm a particular child's health. That’s the law in all 50 states for children who attend school, whether public or private, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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Aleteia

Confessional at the County Fair? Is this a trend?

By Philip Kosloski, August 27, 2025

Despite sweltering triple-digit heat, an annual county fair buzzed with activities in the quaint town of Washington, Missouri. The Washington Town and Country Fair has been held for nearly 100 years, starting in 1929, and includes livestock shows, carnival rides, and booths much like those you’d see at farmers' markets or craft shows. However, this year had a rather unusual booth: a Catholic Country Confessional started by Fr. Ryan Truss. The priest is the associate pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes in Washington and St. John the Baptist-Gildehaus, and chaplain at St. Francis Borgia High School. The idea came while Fr. Truss was at the fair last year and spoke with someone who said they hadn't been to the Sacrament of Reconciliation in a long time. Fr. Truss gained support from other priests, including Fr. Nick Winker, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes; Fr. Jeff Maassen, pastor of St. Francis Borgia Parish and Assumption in New Haven; and others.

Vatican News

Cardinal Pizzaballa: The West Bank is a ‘lawless land’

By Vatican News, August 27, 2026

The West Bank has now become “a lawless land,” and tensions between settlers and the Palestinian population are continually rising. The situation is ongoing “without any effective security or legal restraints.” “The fact that there is a situation of continuous aggression by settlers is well established.” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, spoke on the final day of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in Rimini, first meeting with journalists and then engaging in a dialogue with a group of young people. “The West must help raise its gaze somewhat, create perspectives, and also help calm this continuing downward spiral through ever greater diplomatic efforts,” the Cardinal stressed. He pointed to diplomacy, despite “all its weakness,” as “the only way to try to resolve the conflict while avoiding the use of weapons, violence and military force.” The Patriarch also turned his attention to Gaza, where the situation “has deteriorated enormously” and remains “very devastated from a human point of view.”

Zenit

Pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago breaking records again

By Zenit Staff, August 25, 2026

The Camino de Santiago is approaching a remarkable milestone: the pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint James appears poised to set another annual record in 2026, even before the Catholic world turns its attention to what could be an extraordinary Holy Year in Compostela in 2027. More than 363,000 pilgrims have already received the Compostela this year, 2026, according to the official figures recorded by the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago de Compostela. The figure counts those who formally collect the certificate after completing the requirements for one of the routes leading to the Galician city. At the current pace, 2026 could surpass last year’s unprecedented total of 530,724 officially certified pilgrims. The number is already about 6% higher than at the same point in 2025, pointing toward a fifth consecutive annual record if the trend continues.

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EWTN News

Communion Project to heal ‘toxic polarization’ within U.S. Church

By Tessa Gervasini, August 27, 2026

The Communion Project initiative hopes to repair polarization in the U.S. Church and help the Church offer a better, more joyful witness in a divided country, organizers said. “Unfortunately, too often Catholics and Catholic leaders are acting more like thermometers instead of thermostats,” Jonathan Lewis, mission strategy officer for the Paulist Fathers and co-director of the Communion Project, told EWTN News. “Weʼre reading the temperature of the room or the culture, instead of setting the temperature according to our values and the truths of the Church,” he said. “So, part of what this effort is aimed to do is to lower the temperature of division and distrust, starting with those of us Catholics who call ourselves brothers and sisters, who are a real spiritual family,” Lewis said.

Keep informed - 8/27/26 news for Catholics

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OSV News

OSV’s seasoned reporters - August 27, 2026

OSV News — information service and evangelization partner that enables dioceses to connect and boost engagement with the faithful by sharing timely, trustworthy, and accurate content about what is happening in the Church and the world.

• Faithful across Honolulu Diocese rally after devastating hurricane - August 26, 2026 - As Hurricane Lala barreled across the Hawaiian Islands Aug. 15-16, several Catholic organizations kept close watch over one of the hardest-hit areas — Hawaii Island’s Kau district, home to Sacred Heart Church in Naalehu and Holy Rosary Church in Pahala.

• Archbishop urges US to ‘rethink’ Haiti deportations after mass kidnapping, massacre - August 26, 2026 - A deadly gang attack near Haiti’s capital that saw dozens killed and kidnapped should cause the U.S. to “rethink” its ending of deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami told OSV News.

• What young Catholics say draws their peers to the Church and gives them a reason to stay - August 24, 2026 - They talked about friends who invited them, Catholics they admired, communities where they felt at home, and moments that helped the faith become their own. For many, those experiences helped them come to know Christ personally.

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — August 27, 2026

EWTN provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, and is available to anyone with internet access.

• Norway’s bishops seek papal jubilee for 2030-2031 to spark spiritual renewal in the north - By Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves - The upcoming 2030 millennium commemorates 1,000 years since the pivotal Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, where King Olav Haraldsson was martyred.

• Possible Eucharistic miracle in Guatemala: Church urges ‘prudence and restraint’ - By Diego López Colín - As in all such cases of an apparent manifestation of the Real Presence, the local Church is duly investigating the phenomenon and urging the faithful not to draw any conclusions. A fallen host was placed in water to dissolve, and “the following Thursday [Aug. 13], while cleaning the chapel, a parish volunteer noticed that the host had not dissolved and bore red stains that could be blood.”

• Muslim Senate candidate faces backlash for comparing sharia law to canon law - Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing backlash after comments he made during a television interview comparing Muslim sharia law to Catholic canon law.

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ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - August 27, 2026

“We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.”

Have Your Loved Ones Left the Church? Look to St. Monica: Keep praying. Keep loving. Keep hoping - Do you have a loved one who has fallen away from the faith? Consider turning to the saintly intercession and holy testimony of Saint Monica!

This Archbishop’s “Conversion Story” Has the Internet Laughing - Australian Archbishop Anthony Fisher is going viral for a humorous reflection on faith with an unexpected punchline! “I was extremely selfish. The universe was about me,” he said. “But then, at three weeks old, I was baptized.”

From Dressing Up as a Blues Brother to Becoming Pope: Leo Has Full-Circle Moment Over the Weekend - Pope Leo XIV had a full-circle Blues Brothers moment in Rimini, Italy, meeting “Blue Lou” Marini—the saxophonist known for performing with the legendary Blues Brothers band.

August 27, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

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Exaudi News

‘Rebuilding’ movie: The indestructible when everything collapses

By Amparo Aygües, August 26, 2026

What remains when a catastrophe destroys everything upon which we build our identity? The film Rebuilding, by filmmaker Max Walker-Silverman, invites profound reflection on loss and human resilience, emerging from the question of the value of the imperishable and the distinction between rebuilding and recovering. What begins as a forced coexistence after the catastrophe becomes an unexpected network of community support. Survival becomes more humane as they share food, memories, life plans from before the fire, and the possibilities of an uncertain future. Reconstruction arises precisely from the discovery of the indestructible, the value of the imperishable that belongs to the deepest dimension of the person and that the fire has not been able to consume.

The Catholic Gentlemen

Necessities to a successful Catholic marriage

By John Heinen, August 26, 2026

Get Devin Schadt’s new book The Marriage Gap. There is always the temptation to keep score. Every little disagreement becomes a legal discussion, and you try so hard to win the case and walk away victorious. But it costs you. 74% of divorced people say their spouse should have worked harder. 73% say they’d already done enough. Both cannot be true. Today we discuss the importance of not making your marriage a constant battle to win and how wanting to win can cost you your marriage. We learn to listen to our spouse’s heart, not just their words, and to recognize that our needs are God-given. Devin and Kim Schadt have been married thirty years, through cancer, poverty, miscarriage, and a daughter’s brain injury. In their new book The Marriage Gap, they lay out the three things every thriving marriage does.

The Pillar

German AfD seeking to curb national church funding program

By Luke Coppen, August 26, 2026

The Catholic Church in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt is urging voters to shun the Alternative for Germany party when they head to the ballot box Sept. 6. With polls suggesting the AfD could secure its first outright majority at the state level, the Diocese of Magdeburg has launched an initiative urging citizens to “vote consciously” in the upcoming election. The Bewusst Wählen! initiative, spearheaded by the local Bishop Gerhard Feige, is appealing to the more than 2 million residents of the eastern state to prioritize charity, dialogue, human dignity, and solidarity when they cast their votes. The diocese believes that the Church itself could face dire consequences if the AfD, which seeks to curb immigration, wins enough votes to lead the state government in Saxony-Anhalt. The party’s manifesto, released in July, promises to overhaul Church funding mechanisms if the AfD secures power.

Wild at Heart

You must not go alone

By John Eldredge, August 26, 2026

When Neo is set free from the Matrix, he joins the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar — the little hovercraft that is the headquarters and ship of the small fellowship called to set the captives free. There are nine of them in all, each a character in his own way, but nonetheless a company of the heart, a “band of brothers,” a family bound together in a single fate. Together, they train for battle. Together, they plan their path. When they go back into the Matrix to set others free, each one has a role, a gifting, a glory. They function as a team. And they watch each other’s backs. Neo is fast, really fast, but he still would have been taken out if it hadn’t been for Trinity. Morpheus is more gifted than any of them, but it took the others to rescue him. And, of course, Jesus had the Twelve. This is written so deeply on our hearts: You must not go alone. The Scriptures are full of such warnings, but until we see our desperate situation, we hear it as an optional religious assembly for an hour on Sunday mornings.

Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay

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