“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”

Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources are the Zeale News, National Catholic Register, EWTN News, The Pillar, Aleteia, and OSV News. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the 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

Pope warns SSPX ordinations risk deepening schism

By Hannah Brockhaus, June 16, 2026

Pope Leo XIV cautioned that the planned ordination of Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) bishops could push the group toward schism, urging them again to stop and remain in communion with the Church. “We have invited them, and I am still considering making another appeal, to say: ‘Do not do this. Let us try to live in communion in the Church.’ But it is their choice. They must understand what it means for them and for the Church,” the pope said, outside Villa Barberini in Castel Gandolfo on June 16. The Society of St. Pius X said it plans to consecrate four priests as bishops on July 1 without the permission of Pope Leo XIV. The Vatican warned on May 13 that doing so without a papal mandate would constitute “a schismatic act” and carry the penalty of excommunication. The consecrations are set to take place at its seminary in Écône, Switzerland. “Certainly, division among Christians is always a painful matter,” the pope said. “But they refuse to accept certain fundamental elements of the Church, beginning with various points of the Second Vatican Council. And if they make those choices, I am sorry. But we must move forward.”

Related: The SSPX Leadership Against Scripture and Tradition - George Weigel Commentaries, National Catholic Register, June 17, 2026

OSV News

Homeboy Industries, Georgetown join for $100 million fund drive

By Kurt Jensen, June 16, 2026

Georgetown University‘s McCourt School of Public Policy in Washington now has a relationship with a $100 million fundraising campaign to expand an acclaimed Los Angeles gang-intervention program founded by Jesuit Father Greg Boyle. Frank McCourt Jr., the billionaire Georgetown alumnus who founded the school in 2013, is leading the Homeboy Industries fundraising, announced in October, with an initial $10 million. The capital drive was promoted on June 11 at the McCourt School as the Global Homeboy Network D.C. Summit. Homeboy Industries was inspired in part by the Ignatian meditation about finding God “in the lowly place,” Father Boyle said. That “is where the joy is.” Hope Village will also redevelop the neighborhood surrounding Men’s Central Jail and The California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities. The plans are for more than 200 units of “supportive and transitional housing.”

National Catholic Register

Ohio Governor DeWine urges the state to abolish the death penalty

By Tessa Gervasini/EWTN News, June 9, 2026

Ohio Governor. Mike DeWine said this week that the state should end the death penalty, with the governor arguing that he no longer believes it is a “deterrent” to murder. “I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty,” the Catholic Republican governor said at a June 16 press conference. “The Legislature can take this action, and I believe they should take this action.” “But if the Legislature does not want to make that decision, they can leave it up to a vote of the people of the state of Ohio,” he said. After DeWine was elected to the state Senate in 1980, he co-sponsored a bill that sought to reinstate the death penalty in Ohio. DeWine supported the policy at the time, believing it would lessen violent crime, he said at the press conference, but he argued, “the moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists.”

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Zeale News

Bible verses on Giants’ Pride Night caps violated the league’s rules

By Mary Rose, June 16, 2026

Major League Baseball (MLB) warned three San Francisco Giants pitchers after they wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night caps during a June 12 game against the Chicago Cubs, saying the markings violated league uniform rules. MLB chief communications officer Pat Courtney said in a statement June 15 that “the writing on the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations.” Giants starter Landen Roupp, 27, pitched nearly five innings with “Gen 9:12-16” written on the front of his Pride Night cap next to the rainbow-colored SF logo. The passage refers to Genesis 9, in which God places a rainbow in the sky as a sign of his covenant with humanity after the flood. Relief pitchers JT Brubaker, 32, and Ryan Walker, 30, also wrote Bible verses on their caps. Brubaker cited Genesis 9:13-15, while Roupp and Walker referenced Genesis 9:12-16. "There's no hate at all. It's just what I stand for, and what I stand on: I believe in God," Roupp said.

The PIllar

Priestly ordinations still declining in Poland

By Luke Coppen, June 16, 2026

A total of 196 new priests are scheduled to be ordained in Poland this year, continuing a long-term decline in numbers — 130 of the candidates will be diocesan priests, and 66 will serve within religious orders. This is expected to be the first year in the 21st century with fewer than 200 priestly ordinations in Poland. There were 208 new priests in 2025 and 235 in 2024. The drop in priestly ordinations is likely to be felt far beyond Poland, because the country has traditionally supplied priests to other European countries, both East and West. Poland has also long been an important source of missionary priests to Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Despite the ongoing decline, Poland remains the European country with the most priestly vocations. In France, for example, there were 90 new priests in 2025. In Germany, there were 25. Poland has a smaller overall population than France or Germany, but it has a larger number of baptized Catholics and a significantly higher Mass attendance rate than either country.

Vatican News

Pope welcomes US-Iran agreement

By Devin Watkins, June 17, 2026

As he held his weekly General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV appealed for Iran and the United States to continue along the path of dialogue and cooperation. The two countries are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday, nearly four months into the war. “I welcome with satisfaction the reaching of an agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, which will be signed on Friday, as an encouraging result of patient work of dialogue and negotiation,” said the Pope. He thanked the third-party countries that have worked to facilitate peace negotiations. “I hope that this agreement may help strengthen mutual trust, security, and stability in the Middle East, promoting paths of dialogue and cooperation among peoples,” he said. Pope Leo XIV invited everyone to pray for an end to the war in Ukraine. “I invite everyone to pray that this war may end,” he said. “Let us ask the Lord to open paths of dialogue, to extinguish hatred, and to make a just and lasting peace possible.”

Related: Trump says if the Iran ‘Memo of Understanding’ is not finalized, US to ‘drop bombs’ if unhappy - The Jerusalem Post, By Richard Offenbacher, James Glenn, June 17, 2026

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Graphs about Religion

Faith and the Voting Booth

By Ryan Burge and Praveen Vissa, June 15, 2026

A growing number of Americans feel negatively toward the other party, not because of their policy positions on things like healthcare or immigration, but simply because they are the other party. A Democrat will demonize or mischaracterize the other side of the argument because this helps them justify their own voting choices. It really goes both ways. It doesn’t take a lot of deduction to figure out the common thread among the groups that whites and Christians are Trump’s base. It’s always been that way. But he’s underwater with all kinds of other religious traditions. Among mainline Protestants, disapproval was 52%, and approval was 46%. His standing with non-white evangelicals is twenty points underwater. It’s even worse with non-white Catholics: 65% disapproval against 31% approval. There are also a few other instances of a drop, most notably among white Catholics. Among the younger set, his approval rating stands at exactly 50% in 2025, while 60.5% supported him in the 2024 race against Kamala Harris. However, looking at this broadly, I just don’t think I can make a strong claim that Trump is doing significantly worse in 2025 than in 2017.

The Jerusalem Post

JD Vance writes of his journey to Catholicism in ‘Communion’

By Meg Kinnard, Mike Catalini, June 16, 2026

Vice President J.D. Vance, a convert to Catholicism whose faith has been central to his adult life, writes about his religious journey in a new book that could ultimately serve as an origin story for a future presidential campaign. “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith” comes out Tuesday from Harper, and The Associated Press obtained a copy ahead of its release. The HarperCollins imprint also put out “Hillbilly Elegy,” the best-selling memoir from 2016 that helped make Vance a national figure. Vance has been working on and off on his new book since then, a tumultuous decade that included a Hollywood movie about his youth, a short stint as a U.S. senator from Ohio, and now vice president to Donald Trump. “Communion” serves as a sort of manifesto for the role of religion in public life. Vance writes about transitioning from Protestant Christianity to atheism to Catholicism, and he credits his faith with giving him a sense of purpose he didn’t find through his education at Yale University or his work in the financial industry.

Keep informed - 6/17/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from Loop, Aleteia, & The Pillar

CatholicVote: 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.” CatholicVote’s advertised mission is “To inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.”

• CV PUTS MLB ON NOTICE FOR THREATENING CHRISTIAN PLAYERS - Major League Baseball (MLB) told three San Francisco Giants pitchers they had violated uniform rules after they wrote Bible verses on their "Pride Night" caps during a June 12 game. CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt stated that CatholicVote "will not stand by while players' religious freedom is chilled or punished." She pointed out that the organization has taken on MLB teams twice before, prevailed both times, and was "prepared to do it again." READ

• EXCLUSIVE: JOE LOMBARDI SHARES HOW FAITH SHAPES HIM - Joe Lombardi, grandson of legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi and a senior offensive assistant with the Baltimore Ravens, told CatholicVote’s Joshua Mercer at the June 13 Zeale for America 250 rally that his grandfather’s “faith, family, and football” creed remains a blueprint for ordering his life as a Catholic and a coach. READ

• UK INQUIRY PUBLISHES SHOCK RAPE GANG REPORT - An independent British inquiry released a 219-page report yesterday, concluding that organized networks of predominantly Pakistani Muslim men sexually exploited as many as 250,000 girls and women across the United Kingdom over several decades while police, social workers, schools, the National Health Service, and politicians repeatedly failed to intervene or suppressed evidence of abuse. READ

Aleteia News

Aleteia’s headlines — June 17, 2026

Aleteia (aleteia.org) is an online publication distributed in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Slovenian). Aleteia reaches more than 10 million readers per month.

• Would alien life shake faith? Catholics aren’t worried - is it true that proof of aliens would “mess up” Christians’ belief systems? We can’t speak to other faith traditions, but for Catholics, the answer is easy: No. “Any entity, no matter how many tentacles it has, has a soul,” said Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory, in a 2010 interview, saying he would be “delighted” if intelligent aliens were found.

• Iran and Ukraine: Pope on pathways to dialogue - I welcome with satisfaction the agreement reached between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, which is to be signed on Friday, as an encouraging outcome of patient dialogue and negotiation. I express my gratitude to the countries that have worked to facilitate the meeting between the parties and make this agreement possible.

• Behind ‘Minisciples’: When faith becomes a family mission - Minisciples is an Instagram account that creates short animated stories based on the Gospels, bringing the Word of God to life in an accessible, highly visual way. Aleteia spoke with Mauricio to learn more about his story, his family dynamic, and the origins of this Catholic project.

The Pillar

Pillar Stories from the May calendar, 6/17/26

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:

• We talked last week with the Korean bishop serving as the general coordinator for World Youth Day 2027. “We will be giving the space for Jesus to work, and he will be drawing [young people] to himself, in a sacramental way,” said Bishop Kyung-Sang Lee, auxiliary of Seoul.

• Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar of the Diocese of Rome, denied last week being part of a criminal investigation into his brother, in a scandal involving several Sicilian politicians and businessmen and a pay-for-access scheme. Or maybe it was just fraternal advice. To be clear, nothing is clear yet.

• Speaking of Italian arrests, Italian police have arrested a woman on suspicion of playing a major role in laundering around 61 million euros (approximately $70 million) embezzled from Caritas Luxembourg. Fraudsters are believed to have extracted an estimated 61 million euros from the charity in more than 100 transactions of less than 500,000 euros ($579,000) between February and July 2024.

June 17, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE or read HERE:

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Crisis Magazine

‘Disclosure Day’ edifies one’s Christian faith

By Scott Ventureyra, June 17, 2026

Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, Disclosure Day, is the culmination of the director’s fascination with alien-themed movies, which has captivated his imagination for half a century. It all started with his first film, Firelight, which he made when he was only 18. Both movies look at them as benevolent creatures. I would argue that in Spielberg’s imagination, extraterrestrials often function as quasi-salvific figures who guide, heal, or elevate humanity. At the movie’s core lies a question that Spielberg has been repeating in numerous interviews leading up to its release: How would humanity react if it learned with certainty that it was not alone in the universe? Against the backdrop or subplot of the movie, such as the mounting geopolitical tensions and the looming threat of nuclear conflict, he views disclosure as a pivotal moment in human history that will drastically change how humanity views its place in the cosmos

The Catholic Weekly

Pew: More governments cracking down on religion

By Gina Christian, June 17, 2026

A new report shows more countries saw spikes in religious hostility by individuals and groups in 2023, the last year for which data is available, with the rise attributable in part to harassment of religious minorities and the ongoing impact of the Israel-Hamas war. At the same time, more governments have been cracking down on religious belief and expression since 2007. The findings were released 15 June by Pew Research Centre in its 16th annual report on global religious restriction levels. Pew researchers Samirah Majumdar and Vivian Jacobs assessed data from 198 countries and territories – representing “all but a tiny fraction of the global population” – drawn from 19 key sources, including countries’ constitutions, the US State Department, the United Nations, the European Union, the FBI, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.

The Obscure, Forgotten, and Undiscovered

Birthplace of a Beat from the Beat Generation

By James K. Hanna, June 13, 2026

Called “tombstone tourism,” I get why people visit the gravesites of the famous. It’s a way for history buffs and others to pay respects or appreciate the lives of the deceased. I read of a person who traveled to France simply to visit the burial site of rocker Jim Morrison of Doors fame. I get that, and I’ve visited many myself—Babe Ruth, FDR, Knute Rockne, Thomas Merton, among them. And then there are those who would rather visit birthplaces. I think that is my preference—where it all began, rather than where it ended. I say so after visiting New York’s Greenwich Village on Thursday. If you’re into the Beats, you know the Village was the hangout for the heavies—Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Corso, and many others. But, to my knowledge, only one was born in the Village—poet Gregory Corso. Corso was born at the intersection of Bleecker and MacDougal and helped give birth to a movement in the same neighborhood. Baptized Nuncio, he later changed to Gregory, his confirmation name. I’ve written about Gregory here.

Catholic 365

Divine Providence stands beside us in our unknowing lives

By Marianne Giltner, June 17, 2025

Divine Providence refers to God’s active, loving intervention, care, and governance of the Universe. God continuously sustains and directs all things. Directed toward a purposeful, ultimate design, He constructs and guides our path to Him through our surrender, allowing Him to lead us. Situations, though sometimes hard to understand or to accept, are always situated in His Divine Providence, to let our lives unfold with much more ease once we resolve to the fact that He “is” the Divine Providence. He loves each and every one of us, and there is no sin so great that He does not forgive, said with true contrition. His Divine Providence stands beside us in our own unknowing lives, just waiting to be unleashed. Sometimes it is unleashed with our awareness, making that which we cannot see, seen. We must trust the visible and invisible, allowing God in His Divine Providence to work through us.

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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, First Things, Big Pulpit, Aleteia, and The Pillars. (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

Russia bombs Ukraine Cathedral: ‘This is certainly deliberate’

By Madalaine Elhabbal, June 16, 2026

Russia’s “true goal” is “a war on Christianity in Ukraine,” Steven Moore, founder of the Ukraine Freedom Project, told “EWTN News Nightly” after the bombing of the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. “This is certainly deliberate,” Moore said, noting that Russia has destroyed 750 churches in Ukraine and killed as many as 80 pastors and priests. The Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, caught fire on June 14 after Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones into several Ukrainian cities, which killed four people and injured 28 others, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “This is one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date,” Ukraine’s leader said about the damage to the Eastern Orthodox cathedral, historically tied to the monastic life of the Lavra.

CBCP News

Palawan bishop flags mass tree cutting for mining projects

By CBCP News, June 5, 2026

In a pastoral letter, Bishop Socrates Mesiona of Puerto Princesa expressed alarm over special tree-cutting and earth-balling permits issued for mining-related activities in several parts of the province. Citing publicly available records and consolidated data, he said the permits cover at least 218,854 trees in areas including the towns of Aborlan, Brooke’s Point, Bataraza, and locations linked to Mt. Bulanjao. “It is troubling that agencies tasked with protecting the environment are perceived as strict with ordinary citizens, yet seem lenient and accommodating toward large mining companies and powerful people,” Mesiona said in Filipino. He also stressed that environmental degradation often harms poor and marginalized populations first, making ecological protection both a social and moral responsibility. Palawan, often described as the country’s last ecological frontier, is home to some of the Philippines’ richest forests, watersheds, and biodiversity hotspots.

National Catholic Register

Priesthood enters the world through the Diaconate

By Deacon Dominic Cerrato Co, June 15, 2026

One of the great dangers facing seminarians is the temptation to see the diaconate merely as a transitional step, a brief stop along the way to “real ministry.” Even when no one says this openly, the mentality can quietly take root. The dalmatic is a vestment worn temporarily until the chasuble arrives. The servant becomes merely a preparation for the priest. Speaking to the priest, “The Church does not first ordain you to the priesthood. The Church first ordains you to Christ the Servant. That is not accidental. It is theological. It reveals something essential about Jesus himself and about the inner nature of the priesthood you are preparing to receive.” The same Lord who wrapped the towel around his waist in the Upper Room is the same Lord who took bread into his hands. His priesthood is revealed precisely through his service. This is why the diaconate matters so profoundly.

Related: Deacons say encouragement from family, clergy plays decisive role in answering vocational call - by Kurt Jensen, OSV News, June 15, 2026

Our Sunday Visitor

Appeal for the right to hire in line with pro-life beliefs

By Simone Orendain, June 15, 2026

A Catholic diocese and an Illinois pregnancy center have turned to a federal appeals court in challenging an Illinois nondiscrimination law that they said would force them to hire workers who do not share their pro-life mission. “We must have the freedom to follow and express our convictions without government interference,” Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield said in a statement announcing the appeal. “Our employees represent the diocese and are expected to uphold our standards of conduct to ensure they align with the doctrine and moral teaching of the Catholic Church,” he said. “However, under the state law, we cannot hire or retain employees based on our deeply held religious beliefs on pro-life teachings without being subject to disciplinary action.” Alliance Defending Freedom, on June 2, filed the opening brief with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, appealing a federal judge’s dismissal of the case on March 31.

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Religion News Service (RNS)

Supreme Court stops execution of inmate

By Chloe Landen, June 12, 2026

The Supreme Court on Thursday (June 11) prevented Alabama from executing a man who became a Christian ministry leader during his 26 years on death row, deciding that killing him using nitrogen gas was unconstitutional. Jeffery Lee, who is imprisoned for the murder of two people, was elected in 2018 to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia over lethal injection. But following the method’s first use in 2024, he was among several Alabama inmates to file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of nitrogen suffocation. After two lower court rulings blocked the method this week, deeming it cruel and unusual punishment, NBC News reported that the Supreme Court denied the state’s request to execute Lee yesterday evening. Lee was convicted of fatally shooting Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a pawn shop robbery outside Selma, Alabama, in 1998. Lee’s trial lasted two days, and in a 7-5 vote, the jury chose a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Yet, in a move that has defined Alabama criminal court proceedings, the presiding judge sentenced Lee to death.

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Creative Minority Report

Think twice before signing on to being an Organ Donor

By Matthew Archbold, June 11, 2026

If you sign the organ donor card on your license, your loved ones have virtually no say in what happens to you. The doctors make the decision. We’ve too often seen doctors a little too eager to bring death for the greater good to others. The Catholic Church has no problem with organ donation per se. The problem is that certain organs have to be cut out of living people, affecting a homicide for “good reasons.” Although a liver or a cornea could be harvested from a cadaver for organ donation from a dead body, a heart is always cut out of a living body in First World countries. The term “Brain Death” was invented by a team of Harvard physicians to redefine death for this very purpose. So-called “brain-death” essentially means that a patient has an active cardio-vascular system, but with reduced activity on the electroencephalogram (EEG). If you put “Yes” on your Driver’s License to organ donation, and if you were to sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury with no damage to your cardiovascular system, you would certainly be a prime candidate to have your heart cut out of your own living body (deemed brain dead because of a reduced EEG).

The Pillar

The Chicago archdiocese can countersue against fake victims

By The Pillar, June 15, 2026

The Archdiocese of Chicago won a court ruling last week that will allow it to proceed with a lawsuit against participants in a scheme to make false claims of clerical sexual abuse. But the archdiocese has also warned that it expects to see an increase in historical abuse claims following a “change in the legal environment.” Cardinal Blase Cupich said, “We are determined to press ahead with our defense against these false claims and the affront they represent to true survivors,” said the cardinal. “These individuals sought to take advantage of the archdiocese’s pastoral response to claims, which is to trust claimants, settle cases with compassion, and support survivors of abuse in their healing.” According to the archdiocese, a group of more than two dozen men, including incarcerated convicts, known gang members, and murderers, conspired for more than a decade to make false accusations of sexual abuse, including recruiting and coaching prospective fake victims.

Zenit News

The Orthodox Schism in the Baltic Region

By ZENIT Staff, June 15, 2026

In recent days, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew (Archontonis), visited Lithuania, whilst the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill (Gundjaev), visited neighboring Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Polish shores of the Baltic Sea, and in Estonia, a law threatening the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church has come into force. The visit to Vilnius by the highest-ranking hierarch of global Orthodoxy completed the canonical process of restoring the territory of Lithuania – part of the ancient Metropolis of Kyiv, annexed by the Patriarchate of Moscow at the end of the 17th century – to its jurisdiction. In a message, Denis Kučinskij, personal representative of the head of the Belarusian transitional cabinet, recalled Belarus’s historic closeness to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a declaration of intent stating that the Belarusian Orthodox Church, following the country’s liberation, would follow the path of independence from Moscow, following the example of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Keep informed - 6/16/26 news for Catholics

Snippets: Pulpit, EWTN, & Aleteia

BIG PULPIT

Tito Edwards’ Catholic blogger site: June 16, 2026

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

• Video: Historic! New Writings of St. Augustine Discovered! – Anthony P. Stine, Ph.D.

• Major Canadian Newspaper Acknowledges Falsehood of Mass Graves – Zenit

• Message for World Day for Grandparents & the Elderly – Pope Leo XIV via The Catholic Thing

• New D.N.A. Results Confirm Shroud of Turin’s Passage Through the Middle East – Gary Isbell at TFP

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — June 16, 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.

• Pope Leo XIV says care for creation is a requirement of faith - By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú - In a video message to the Austrian World Summit, the pope urged believers, wealthy nations, and religious communities to help build a “culture of care” for the environment.

• Church leaders welcome first Catholic Indigenous woman in Bangladesh’s Parliament - By Stephan Uttom Rozario - Anna Minj, nominated to a reserved seat by the governing party, used her first budget session address to urge that new funds actually reach Bangladeshʼs poorest ethnic communities.

• Church in the European Union calls for preserving outer space as the common heritage of humanity - By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú - A conference organized by the Catholic Church emphasized the need to address issues of growing concern as nations and private actors are increasingly involved in space exploration and activities.

Aleteia

Aleteia’s global network of experts, journalists, & contributors

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. Aleteia offers a Christian vision of the world by providing both general and religious content free from ideological influences.

Graduate carries gas cylinder to honor his dad’s sacrifices - Cibele Battistini - 06/16/26 - Two years after it first went viral, a young Brazilian student’s tribute to his father’s hard work continues to move millions around the world. He said, “Dad, there are no words to express how grateful I am for everything you do for me. This cylinder represents your dedication.”

Irish bishops compare COVID response and abortion - Joanne McPortland - 06/16/26 - Irish Catholic bishops noted the sixth anniversary of the country's legalization of abortion with a June 14 statement, "Offering Hope in Crisis," to “encourage Irish people to once again choose life,” support women in crisis.

First woman known to have the stigmata - Philip Kosloski - 06/16/26 - St. Lutgarde of Aywières received the stigmata around the same time as St. Francis of Assisi, and is the first woman known to have borne the wounds of Christ.

June 16, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE - or read HERE:

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Aleteia

When did sacrifice become such an unpopular idea?

By Cerith Gardiner, June 16, 2026

Many people speak about sacrifice as though it were automatically a bad thing, rather like root canal treatment or an unexpected visit from the tax office. And that made me wonder whether sacrifice has developed something of an image problem. The word itself seems to have fallen spectacularly out of fashion. Mention sacrifice and many people immediately picture hair shirts, joyless self-denial, and individuals grimly refusing to enjoy themselves on principle. It sounds faintly medieval, slightly suspicious, and about as appealing as voluntarily spending a weekend assembling flat-pack furniture. Modern culture, by contrast, is much more comfortable talking about self-care. We are encouraged to protect our time, preserve our energy, prioritize our needs, and establish healthy boundaries. Much of that is sensible. Somewhere along the way, we have come to view sacrifice and happiness as natural enemies. Which is rather strange when you think about it, because most of the things we value most in life require sacrifice of one kind or another.

Missio Dei Catholic

A kingdom of priests

By Kaleb Hammond, June 14, 2026

Among other things, the readings for this Sunday focus on one shared theme: the distinction between the ministerial and common or universal priesthood. The same distinction existed in the Mosaic covenant as it does in the new covenant established by Christ. This is why, in the first reading, God calls the Israelites in general “a kingdom of priests”, even though only the Levites have a priestly ministry in the Tabernacle. In the new covenant of the Church, the same structure exists: Christ is our true Shepherd and High Priest, the new Moses; St. Peter is His vicar on Earth, the new Aaron; the bishops and priests of the Church carry on the role of Aaron’s descendants, those who ministered as priests in the Temple; and deacons assist in the Levitical ministry of service to the clergy and laity, acting as a kind of bridge between the two priesthoods.

The Imaginative Conservative

The new creation is a neglected aspect of the Christian faith

By Michael De Sapio, June 14, 2026

New creation is one of the key themes of the Bible as a whole and an often-neglected aspect of the Christian faith. The Bible’s God is the Creator, of course, but his creation is not a finished product; it is an ongoing project. Old Testament prophesies forecast God taking over, confounding the powers of the world, and renewing the created order. In the beginning, the Bible’s image for humanity’s origin and its divine vocation of stewardship is a garden. The climax of the history of redemption also takes place in a garden. And at the end of the story, the final goal for the cosmos and human beings is not simply “heaven,” but a “new heavens and new earth.” Jesus’ teaching was in continuity with the prophesies and expectations of Israel, which foresaw the return of exiles to a new, abundant land. Early church fathers like St. Irenaeus also taught the eventual redemption and restoration of the created order, even plant and animal life.

First Things

The steady, sad, secularization of Sicily

By Jacob Akey, June 16, 2026

According to reports, Italy is secularizing; twenty years ago, 36% of Italians said they attended Mass weekly. Now, it’s 18%. And yet, Italy remains among the most religious countries in western Europe, though it doesn’t take much to be considered very religious these days, and even in Sicily—a land of saints and churches—religious practice is deteriorating. Many churches in heavily touristed areas or historical cores did not offer daily Masses. Within the Punic walls of Erice, the “City of a Hundred Churches” with its dozens of religious buildings, there are some days when no Mass is held at all. Other churches have been so heavily modified as performance or exhibition spaces that I hope they have been deconsecrated. And others still had clearly been deconsecrated, the wound from where their tabernacles were pulled out gaping. Sicilian culture is a Catholic culture. But for all of this enthusiasm and devotion, Sicily is still secularizing.

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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.

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National Catholic Register

Trump announces peace deal with Iran, ending hostilities, but …

By Gigi Duncan, June 8, 2026

President Donald Trump announced on June 14 that the United States and Iran had reached a deal to end months of hostilities that have claimed thousands of lives. A formal signing ceremony is scheduled for June 19 in Switzerland. The pact is expected to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports, and include a 60-day period for further negotiations, particularly on Iran’s nuclear program. The deal only partially addresses the issues that sparked the conflict, which began on Feb. 28 with strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The agreement requires Iran to refrain from producing or acquiring nuclear weapons and to maintain the current nuclear status quo during the 60-day negotiation period, but does not require Iran to halt funding, arming, or directing its network of militant groups, including Hezbollah. Those questions have been deferred for future talks.

Related: Pakistan plays pivotal role in Iran peace agreement - By Crux Now Staff - Jun 15, 2026

EWTN News

Pro-lifers defend unborn Down Syndrome babies after viral abortion

By Kate Quiñones, June 13, 2026

Pro-life advocates are defending unborn children with Down syndrome after a YouTuber told the world that he and his wife aborted their child who had been diagnosed with the condition. YouTube creator Jesse Ridgway went viral for posting about how he and his wife decided to abort their unborn baby after they learned the child would likely have Down syndrome. Advocates on X reacted by sharing posts celebrating the worth of individuals with the medical diagnosis. “Down syndrome shouldn’t mean a death sentence,” Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose said. SBA Pro-Life America posted in response to Ridgway’s post: “This is so sad and awful. We CANʼT stand silently by.” “Research shows 99% of people with Down syndrome are happy with their lives, and their families love them,” the pro-life group continued. “Families deserve truthful information & support. People with Down syndrome deserve to live. They should never be targets for discrimination, inside the womb or out. Period.”

Related: Jérôme Lejeune’s legacy endures as France celebrates 100th birthday of the geneticist - Lejeune identified that an extra chromosome 21 causes Down syndrome - by Caroline de Sury, OSV News, June 15, 2026

PIMA asia news

9,500-year-old village re-emerges beneath Jordan desert

By Giuseppe Caffulli, June 13, 2026

Amid the sands of southern Jordan, where the wind has been sculpting stone arches and rust-colored canyons for millennia, the Wadi Rum desert (one of the most popular destinations on tourist tours of the Hashemite Kingdom) appears to be a landscape frozen in time. Amongst tracks once trodden by Bedouins and rock faces covered in prehistoric engravings, archaeologists have identified one of the most important Neolithic sites in the Middle East: Ayn Abu Nukhayla, a small settlement dating back some 9,500 years that tells, with surprising precision, the story of the birth of human society where the desert now stretches. The ‘Red Desert’ has been known primarily for its rock paintings and petroglyphs scattered across the rocks. The excavations have revealed a village from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, comprising semi-underground oval dwellings, storehouses, communal areas, and animal enclosures. It is surprisingly modern.

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The Pillar

Bishops asked to lead renewal of failed Catholic colleges

By Michelle La Rosa, June 10, 2026

Catholic colleges and universities today are largely failing to fulfill their mission, and the bishops have an important role to play in correcting the problem, Dartmouth College's provost said last Wednesday. Santiago Schnell, a renowned mathematical biologist, spoke to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Orlando. He offered his reflections on the state of Catholic higher education today, 25 years after the conference implemented Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Questions of policy, leadership, and culture at Catholic universities remain points of contention in the United States. This past year, the University of Notre Dame appointed an outspoken abortion advocate to direct one of its academic institutes, still supporting her after she refused the appointment. Schnell said that although Catholics are present in American public life today, they lack a sufficient presence in the institutions that form ideas, language, and imagination. “A massive infrastructure of higher education, with average outcomes.”

aciafrica

‘Spiritans’ (order from five African countries) take their vows

By ACI Africa Staff, June 14, 2026

Thirteen African members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans/Holy Ghost Fathers/CSSp.) made their perpetual profession in Uganda on Saturday, June 13, committing themselves to a life of chastity, poverty, and obedience amid what a Spiritan Superior described as an increasingly complex world marked by rapid technological change, commercialization, and shrinking space for the Church’s prophetic voice. The 13, drawn from five African countries, made their Perpetual Profession during a Eucharistic celebration at St. Theresa Bakka Catholic Parish of Uganda’s Kampala Catholic Archdiocese. Spiritans serve in more than 66 countries and are united by the Spiritan motto, “Cor Unum et Anima Una” (With one heart and one soul). Fr. Kamoga warned that the 13 Spiritans making their Perpetual Profession would carry out their ministry in a society undergoing profound transformation.

Zeale

Michael Knowles: Faith & patriotism are natural allies in America

By Annie Ferguson, June 13, 2026

Conservative commentator and author Michael Knowles said in a Zeale News interview on June 13 that faith and patriotism are not competing loyalties but complementary obligations rooted in the same source: love of God, family, and country. Speaking with Zeale during CatholicVote’s America 250 celebration in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Knowles reflected on the relationship between spiritual and civic life, arguing that religion cannot be separated from public life and that healthy societies depend on moral truths informed by faith. He also discussed the recent consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, calling it a significant moment in the nation’s spiritual history and a reminder of God’s providence throughout the American story. In the interview, Knowles explains why faith and patriotism belong together, how Catholics can live out those principles in daily life, and why he sees renewed public devotion to the Sacred Heart as a hopeful sign for the country’s future.

ZENIT

Diocese of Nottingham launches novel vocation drive

By ZENIT Staff, June 13, 2026

The Diocese of Nottingham held a special event linked to its recently launched Called by Name campaign on June 7. “Priests do not grow on trees,” said Bishop McKinney in the Cathedral Hall, in front of 37 young men. “They do not come out of the clouds. They come from parishes.” The turnout had moved him. “I had no idea how many might come, and this is far more than I thought might come.” Called by Name asks nothing of the men invited by their parish staff, but a willingness to wonder, and to be open to whatever the Lord might be calling them to. “You’ve got nothing to lose,” said the man from Grantham. “It’s been very ‘no pressure’ today. It’s very relaxed.” The men swapped phone numbers, compared parishes, and laughed at the stories of how they’d each ended up there on a Sunday afternoon. None of the 37 has committed to anything, and that’s the point. Called by Name asks nothing of them but a willingness to wonder and to be open to whatever the Lord might be calling them to.

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CRUX

The Catholic Church — there is paperwork involved

By Charles Collins, June 14, 2026

“The Catholic Church: Our Lord is the Way to Eternal Life, but there is paperwork involved.” It was a good line, I thought, certainly worth a chuckle, so I shared it to X. It struck a nerve: 17,000 views and 15 reshares, which is a lot for me, but it wasn’t the biggest social media hit I had all week, not by a long shot. That came from the story to which that quip I just mentioned was a follow-up, my contribution to people’s accounts of “petty tyranny” in the Church, many of them turning on the strict enforcement of mostly bureaucratic procedure that isn’t strictly necessary or even useful. That one — the really big one (for me) — has nearly 170,000 views, more than 70 reposts, and close to 2,000 “likes” to date. The largest complaint is that red tape at the local level is keeping people from the sacraments, especially the ones that are supposed to draw people in.

Keep informed - 6/15/26 news for Catholics:

Snippets: EWTN News, Catholic World Report, & Catholic World News

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — June 15, 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.

• Pakistan government takes over historic Christian college building in Lahore - By Kamran Chaudhry - Punjab authorities have seized Ewing Hall, a century-old building tied to Lahoreʼs Forma’s Forman Christian College, as Christian leaders and rights groups warn it could be lost for good.

• Life is beautiful: Thousands join annual pro-life march in Rome - By Ishmael Adibuah - The participants in the “Scegliamo della Vita” March opposed Italyʼs existing abortion laws and proposals to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. Massimo Gandolfini, spokesperson for the Scegliamo della Vita March, expressed opposition to such laws and discussed the role that men have in promoting a pro-life culture.

• Norway’s March for Life returns after 40 years, uniting Christians for the unborn - By Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves - Catholics, Lutherans, Pentecostals, and evangelicals marched together for the unborn through a rainy Oslo in Norwayʼs first major March for Life in some 40 years.

Catholic World Report

CWR’s Columns, Analysis, & Features

Catholic World Report is a free online magazine that examines the news from a faithful Catholic perspective.

• How the Female Imagination is Being Corrupted - Marcus Peter - June 14, 2026 - Beatrice Scudeler’s recent essay on the Public Discourse about Gen Z women and the internet fascination with “men who yearn” exposes a rather inconvenient truth for a culture that has spent sixty years telling women that marriage is servitude, motherhood is social death, homemaking is wasted talent, and worse.

• Fr. Rossetti, Cardinal McElroy, and the case of unidentified ecclesiastical motives - Eamonn Clark - June 12, 2026 - In a video released May 29, now-former exorcist of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C., Msgr. Stephen Rossetti (a priest from Syracuse, New York) expressed his opinion on UFOs and their possible connection.

• Celebrating 250 Years of American Mythology? - Kenneth Craycraft - June 9, 2026 - As the Fourth of July approaches, we Americans are collectively claiming to be celebrating 250 years of American independence. More accurately, we are commemorating the 250th anniversary of a declaration of, and adherence to, a set of moral and political ideas—some number of “self-evident truths.”

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.

New statutes clarify the relationship between DDF & the Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors - Pope Leo XIV approved new statutes that will provide direction to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors for a three-year trial period. The statutes—announced in Italian and English, but currently published only in Italian—replace the commission’s original statutes, issued in 2015.

“My Will Be Done”: On the SSPX Consecrations - Eamonn Clark, STL - Every schismatic and every disobedient person claims they are acting for the greater good. Yet the greatest good lies in doing the will of God, even when one is the subject of a superior with less talent than oneself, and even when the superior is evil. Even if bad motives enter into a command which is materially legitimate, God’s motives are never bad.

Relationships stabilized by love…and prayer…and grace - Dr. Jeff Mirus - One of the most consistent messages from the opinion-makers in the dominant culture today is that a stable family is irrelevant to human happiness, an attitude which (I suppose) is based on the mistaken belief that happiness depends only upon each individual pursuing his or her own immediate desires. But as St. Paul once said, “You did not learn so in Christ!” (Eph 4:20).

June 15, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Aleteia

Pope Leo on being drawn in by Jesus’ gaze

By Kathleen N. Hattrup, June 14, 2026

Pope Leo noted before praying the midday Angelus on June 14 how the Gospels emphasize the gaze of Jesus: Today’s Gospel (Mt 9:36–10:8) brings us a great gift, for it draws all who hear it into Jesus’ gaze: it is a story that bears witness to the attentiveness of this gaze, as well as telling us what the Lord sees. We read, in fact, that Christ “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless” (v. 36). Having become our brother, the Son of God looks at the people, he looks at humanity: he sees the oppression that burdens and the violence that causes strength to fade. He sees the wounds of war and the emptiness of consumerism. He sees faces reduced to masks, families torn apart by evil, and young people misled by false ideals. Jesus sees and loves. He loves and suffers for and with us: his compassion expresses not only fraternal closeness, but his desire to redeem.

National Catholic Register

How can I forgive… God?

By Greg Popcak, June 12, 2026

In my work with CatholicCounselors.com, I often accompany people who have similar questions: How do I forgive the people who hurt me? And how can I forgive God for letting it happen? St. Augustine and Pope St. John Paul II said that forgiveness is simply the decision to surrender our desire for revenge. Forgiveness doesn’t require us to pretend the offense never happened, or put ourselves in harm’s way again, or refuse to hold the person accountable. It simply means, as the Catechism teaches, that I am committed to giving up my desire to hurt someone for having hurt me (2843). It’s possible for a Christian to forgive someone but not be reconciled to them, especially when the other person remains unrepentant or unsafe. How can I reconcile with God when the things I have suffered cause me to feel that he abandoned me, or worse? It’s based on a misunderstanding of God’s original plan for us, how that plan was destroyed, and what God is doing — even now — to make that plan a reality.

First Things

Pierre Manent and the threat of humanitarianism

By Paul Seaton, June 15, 2025

Pierre Manent is widely recognized as one of the most insightful political philosophers writing today. In an ever-growing corpus, he has deeply considered liberalism (without succumbing to either adulation or undue hostility), the nation-state, modern democracy, and the nature of the EU, with constant attention to the “depoliticization” of Europe, as the self-governing citizen is increasingly sidelined in a postnational, postreligious, technocratic Europe. Manent is one of the most incisive defenders of “man, the social and political animal,” as well as of the Christian understanding of the imago Dei against the effort to subvert and replace both of these constituent foundations of Western civilization with the “religion of humanity.” He speaks of a Europe “sleepwalking through history,” with dire prospects in sight unless it regains a minimal awareness of “the instinct for political existence.”

The Catholic Thing

We need ‘Ars Poetica’ — artful poetry

By Robert Royal, June 15, 2026

The proverbial Martian visiting America in this 250^th year (a whole quarter millennium) of our existence would be struck by many things. But probably by nothing more obvious than the large gap between what, on the one hand, we daily say and do, and on the other, what we would like to be. We’re worried about how technologies like AI are coming to define us, but are mostly blind to how we’ve already defined ourselves – confined ourselves, really, even before the devices took over – to a materially prosperous but flat view of the world and ourselves. The Church, in recent years, has been trying to compensate with terms like Dignitas infinita and Magnifica humanitas, concepts that, in their argumentative way, do try to get at the problem. But they fall well short because what we desperately need now is not yet more arguments, but serious and artful poetry.

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Catholic Nutshell News is a subscription service hosted by SubStack. Get up to a dozen recent articles, Monday-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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Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources: National Catholic Register, EWTN News, The Pillar, Crux, First Things, OSV News, & Aleteia. (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

‘Base editing embryos’ takes a further unethical step

By Joseph Meaney, June 12, 2026

Recent biomedical news headlines have exposed the deadly lack of ethics in research involving human embryos. Dr. Dieter Egli, a Columbia University developmental cell biologist, claims his team successfully “base edited” the genome of several human embryos. Hailed as a scientific milestone rather than a giant ethical violation, as happened when Dr. He Jiankui similarly performed germ-line gene editing of embryos in 2018, Egli, unlike He, had no surviving embryos after his experiments ended. Human embryos are treated as intensely interesting entities available for every sort of deadly manipulation, but the one unforgivable sin of human embryonic research is to allow the subjects to live. He Jiankui used the much less precise CRISPR-Cas9 technique, which, in other experiments, unintentionally damaged or deleted entire chromosomes. His actions led to an international outcry, and consensus among scientists grew that CRISPR-based gene manipulation of embryos could not be done reliably or safely.

Related: Pro-life advocates defend unborn babies with Down syndrome after YouTuber goes public with abortion, By Kate Quiñones, EWTN News, June 13, 2026

EWTN News

Pope Leo XIV commends Becket Fund for ‘noble task’

By Ken Oliver-Méndez, June 12, 2026

Affirming that the right to religious freedom is “the cornerstone of any just society,” Pope Leo XIV praised the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty for more than 30 years of “great efforts to defend this right” in a message to the organization delivered on June 11. The Holy Father offered the commendation to participants at the 2026 Canterbury Medal Gala, an annual event held by the nonprofit law firm that represents clients defending their religious liberty in court. Leo noted that the defense of “religious liberty as an integral part of upholding dignity” acquires “particular significance as the United States of America prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its foundation.” Reflecting on the history of his American homeland, Leo said: “Indeed, we can recognize in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence an expression of the truth regarding the human person. Namely, the innate dignity of every man and woman, created by God in his own image and likeness, and the rights that stem therefrom.”

Aleteia

Journalist’s tale of the Pope’s plane problems

By Cyprien Viet, June 13, 2026

A mechanical problem prevented the papal plane from taking off as planned from Tenerife airport on Friday, June 12, to return to Rome. “Tenerife is no longer responding,” and this incident will go down in the history of papal travels. Flight IB 1477, chartered by the Spanish airline Iberia, was due to depart at 3.20 pm local time (4.20 pm Rome time) from Tenerife Airport in the Canary Islands, for a 4-hour, 40-minute flight to Rome's Fiumicino Airport, thus bringing to an end a seven-day trip to Spain. On board the aircraft were Pope Leo XIV, his delegation, and 80 journalists. The captain announced, in a matter-of-fact tone, that the flight is delayed due to a technical issue. At around 4.30 pm, the Pope returned to the airport tarmac and thus to Spanish soil. “Does this count as a second visit to Spain?” chuckled some seasoned Vatican correspondents. Never before had a technical fault led to the cancellation of a papal flight. Leo left on King Felipe’s royal aircraft at 6 p.m. The rest of the delegation and press flew on a later flight.

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The Pillar

Catholics skeptical: Priest arrested in Mozambique bishop killing

By Filipe d’Avillez, June 12, 2026

Investigators in Mozambique arrested three people in connection with the June 6 killing of Bishop Osório Citara Afonso, leader of the Quelimane diocese. One of the arrested suspects is a Catholic priest. The others are a guard and a gardener who worked in the bishop’s residence. The prospect that the killing was perpetrated by insiders at the bishop’s residence is odd. On the day of Afonso’s killing, suspects reportedly scaled the walls of the building to disable the security system, and statements also said that Afonso had been shot in the chest with a modernized Kalashnikov (AK-M), an assault rifle widely used by government forces in the country. The arrest of the priest has been met with skepticism by local Catholics, according to a source close to the diocese, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the sake of safety. “The bishop had been restructuring the diocese, and that may have rubbed some people the wrong way, but to murder him? And in this way? According to initial reports, this was clearly the work of a death squad.”

Related: Pope Leo XIV Appoints Apostolic Administrators for Beira and Quelimane Dioceses Following Death of Bishop Afonso - Jun 13, 2026 - By Jude Atemanke, aciafrica

Related: Police arrest prime suspect in killing of Kenyan Catholic priest - By Sabrine Amboka, EWTN News, June 13, 2026

OSV News

‘Poignant reminder’ nation is guided by ‘loving hand of God’

By OSV News, June 12, 2026

President Donald Trump, on June 11, called the U.S. Catholic bishops’ consecration of the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for its 250th anniversary “a powerful moment in our national story and a poignant reminder that America has always been guided by the loving hand of God.” “(First lady) Melania and I join in prayer with Catholic Bishops gathered in Orlando, Florida,” he said in a statement issued as the bishops celebrated a Mass of consecration at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe in Orlando. The Mass was celebrated after the bishops concluded the second of two days of public sessions during their June 10-12 spring plenary. “Even in the centuries before the United States was conceived in nationhood, America was a land of prayer, a place of miracles, and home to some of the most faithful and devoted Christians to ever live,” Trump said.

Related: Cardinal Burke consecrates U.S. to Sacred Heart of Jesus, calls on Catholics to consecrate their homes, By McKenna Snow, Zeale News, June 12, 2026

Zeale

USCCB concludes spring plenary assembly in Orlando

By Elise Winland, June 12, 2026

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) concluded its spring plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, after days of meetings that included votes on liturgical texts, updates to the bishops’ child protection charter, and a national consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. According to a USCCB recap, the bishops approved elements of a new edition of the Lectionary for Mass, voting 184-1 with no abstentions. They also voted 187-0 with no abstentions to approve the 2025 Roman Missal-Liturgy of the Hours Supplement. The bishops also approved several updates to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the 2002 framework commonly known as the Dallas Charter, in a 179-22 vote with six abstentions. The updated charter explicitly recognizes an accused cleric’s right to the presumption of innocence while an allegation is under investigation, a right drawn from Book VI of the Code of Canon Law.

Related: FBI fires several analysts tied to disputed ‘Catholic ideology’ memo - By Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press, Jun 6, 2026

PME AsiaNews

Beijing’s new passion for science fiction (as propaganda)

By Andrea Ferrario, June 11, 2026

In the space of a few decades, Chinese science fiction has undergone a transformation that reflects the broader balance of culture and power in the People’s Republic. Until the late 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party classified it as “spiritual pollution”, like other cultural forms deemed incompatible with ideological orthodoxy, and it was therefore banned from both screens and bookstores. In the following decade, a shift allowed science fiction to develop as a literary genre and, eventually, extend to film, a transition completed three decades later, with the first Chinese science fiction film, The Wandering Earth, by Frant Gwo, released in cinemas in 2019. Since then, the rush has been dizzying, and by 2025, China’s science fiction industry generated revenues totaling 126 billion yuan (US$18 billion), up nearly 16% over the previous year. Science fiction is taking on increasing importance as a tool to compete with genres previously dominated by Western production.

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CRUX

A burning cross in a Chicago park shocks residents

By Hallie Golden, AP, June 11, 2026

A historic symbol of hate and intimidation against Black Americans was discovered in a Chicago park where former President Barack Obama famously delivered his acceptance speech when he was elected the nation’s first Black president. Tuesday afternoon’s act sent shock waves through a city where more than one in four people are Black. Some people drove or walked by, staring, and a video of the cross-burning gained traction online. The video, taken by a motorist, shows the wooden cross engulfed in bright orange flames as it leans against a tree in Grant Park, located in the core of the city’s downtown and near Lake Michigan. Police said a person was seen “fleeing from the scene” where an object was constructed and burned in the park. The alert provided no update on the arson investigation. “The burning a cross in Grant Park, personally, does not instill terror,” said Gina Miranda Samuels from the University of Chicago. “If it was on my personal lawn, that would concern me. This doesn’t cause me to want to flee Chicago.”

Keep informed - 6/13/26 matters for Catholics:

Snippets: EWTN News, aciafrica, & Word on Fire

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — June 13, 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.

• Archdiocese of Philadelphia opens new Sacred Heart adoration chapel to ‘bring people to the Lord’ - By Daniel Payne - The Archdiocese of Philadelphia this week opened a new perpetual adoration chapel, one that Archbishop Nelson Pérez said is meant to draw “Catholics and non-Catholics for prayer before Christ” 24 hours a day.

• Irish bishops call for calm in Belfast following racially motivated civil unrest - By Madalaine Elhabbal - Bishops in Northern Ireland call for peace, abuse victims in Australia clash with diocese, anti-Catholic legislation in France fails, Zimbabwe, and more in this week’s Catholic world news roundup.

• St. Anthony of Padua considered ‘all the world as his home’ - By EWTN News Staff - On June 13 the Church celebrates St. Anthony of Padua, whose widespread popularity can be traced to his efforts at reaching out as a neighbor to all.

aciafrica

aciafrica’s top headlines — June 13, 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 words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See.

• “Truth must be sought with patience”: Mozambican Catholic Archbishop at Funeral Mass for Late Bishop Afonso - Jun 12, 2026 - By João Vissesse - The truth surrounding the death of Bishop Osório Citora Afonso of the Catholic Diocese of Quelimane must be pursued “with patience” and respect for the proper course of justice, Archbishop João Carlos Hatoa Nunes.

• “Called and given a mission”: Catholic Sisters in Africa Encouraged to Remain Faithful to their Charisms - Jun 12, 2026 - By Nicholas Waigwa - The Archbishop of Tanzania’s Catholic Archdiocese of Dar-es-Salaam has urged the women Religious in Africa to remain faithful to the charisms of their Congregations, describing them as essential.

• Priest Cautions against “theatrics” in Liturgy as Young Catholics Take Singing to Kenyan Streets - Jun 12, 2026 - By Agnes Aineah - The trendy “Catholic Street Choir” in Kenya risks turning pew singers into theatrical performers out to provide entertainment to crowds of people, a Priest in the East African nation has said, warning that the trend may weaken the sacredness of liturgical music.

Word on Fire

Fresh insights from the Word on Fire Institute - for June 13, 2026

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

Teaching God to Gen Alpha - Sebastian Barros - June 13, 2026 - Synthetic intelligence is the new baseline for Generation Alpha. Their greatest spiritual challenge will be learning to disconnect from the machine and seek truth for themselves. They genuinely believe that our human limits and slowness, our capacity for boredom, our moral hesitation, and our need to dwell in uncertainty are errors better to be programmed out of existence.

‘I Was So Much Older Then, I’m Younger Than That Now’ - Dr. Tod Worner - June 12, 2026 - I tease my medical students that, one day, it dawns on you that the patient you have been seeing for twenty-five years has, inexplicably, become old. And then that unforgiving mirror smiles back at you and insists, “So have you.” Done properly, what accompanies age are memories, experience, wisdom, and insight.

‘Perfect Days’ and Beauty in the Ordinary - Christopher Hazell - June 12, 2026 - Wim Wenders’ 2023 film Perfect Days offers a beautiful, contemplative glimpse into a man’s ordinary and seemingly dull life. The film, which covers only a few days, features a Japanese man named Hirayama (played by Kōji Yakusho) living in Tokyo who cleans public toilets for a living.

June 13, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Catholic Stand

Does eternal law admit subjectivity?

By Rev. Kenneth M. Dos Santos MIC, June 12, 2026

Eternal Law is defined in the Catholic Dictionary as: The plan of divine wisdom, insofar as it directs all the actions and events of the universe. It is, therefore, the unchangeable effective decree of God binding the whole of creation to the fulfillment of its purpose, and to the use of such means for attaining this purpose as are adapted to each nature. God has always existed, remains unchanging, and will never end. Eternal Law is the unchangeable, effective decree of God, which binds the whole of creation to the fulfillment of its purpose. The natural law expresses the original moral sense that enables man to discern, by reason, the good and the evil, the truth and the lie. However, through personal sin, the human intellect can become darkened, obscured, and unreliable in discerning the moral law with clarity. As a result, man has need not only of Divine Law, but of a Sacrament that restores one’s communion with God, illuminating with integrity one’s grasp of moral truth.

George Weigel

The Eucharist and modernity’s crisis of transcendence

By Johan Erlandsson-Diaz, June 5, 2026

The Czech-German poet Rainer Maria Rilke represents longing at its most refined and tragic, a life oriented toward the sacred yet unable to enter it. Maurice Blondel gives philosophical clarity to what Rilke poetically inhabits, the will’s inability to close upon itself. But Blondel’s strength introduces a risk. The crack may begin to look like a bridge, as if transcendence were simply the resolution of a structural lack. Erich Przywara then provides the necessary correction, insisting that the relation between God and creature remains asymmetrical and non-reciprocal even at the height of intimacy, in Deo semper maior, “in God, ever greater.” The Book of Hours (1905), written between 1899 and 1903, is Rilke’s most sustained meditation on the search for God. We have become experts at longing, curators of our own incompleteness.

First Things

Neither girlboss nor tradwife

By Emma Waters, June 12, 2025

I wasn’t supposed to like Yesteryear, which is why I was surprised, and a little embarrassed, to discover how much I enjoyed it—not as a satire of women of faith, but as a dark psychological thriller. By the time most readers cracked the spine, Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel was already on track to be a bestseller, with Amazon purchasing the movie rights and Anne Hathaway angling for the lead. It has been praised in progressive outlets as a reckoning with the performative, superficial, and ultimately “detrimental” nature of the tradwife movement. Burke’s primary audience—liberal, non-religious women—read it as a vindication: Women who choose traditional families, religious faith, and domestic life are either performing or going mad. I found her portrait genuinely convicting—not because she accurately reflects most tradwives or religiously active conservative Christian women, but because she shows in no uncertain terms the depravity of life apart from God

The Catholic Thing

Defeating modernism

By David Warren, June 13, 2026

Among the most distressing things about the Catholic Church is her (really, OUR) failure to take advantage of the many opportunities that the “modern world” accidentally offers us. We have made ourselves smaller and more inconsequential by choice, chiefly by assuming that the times are unpropitious. In fact, the times cry out to be rescued. And this, particularly, in an institutional way. There is a task, quite distinct from that of environmental lunacy, or economic lunacy, or any others of the fashionable lunacies that afflict the world. And this task only occasionally requires a bit of imagination or courage. Why do we run, when either of these qualities are asked for? For that matter, why do we run when any of the seven “lively virtues” — i.e. the seven holy remedies for the seven deadly sins – present themselves, and as more than novel possibilities?

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Zeale News

US bishops in prayer as they consecrate nation to Sacred Heart

By McKenna Snow, June 11, 2026

The White House issued a presidential message on June 11 supporting the U.S. bishops’ consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “Today, Melania and I join in prayer with Catholic Bishops gathered in Orlando, Florida, as they consecrate the United States of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the occasion of our 250th year of American Independence — a powerful moment in our national story and a poignant reminder that America has always been guided by the loving hand of God,” Trump’s message began. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is performing the consecration during their Spring Plenary Assembly this week. June 12 — the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart — marks the anniversary of a historic turning point toward the end of the communist regime, the statement noted. The President’s message also emphasized the importance of recommitment to defending the nation’s spiritual identity and protecting the country against ideologies that currently threaten it.

Related: 5 ways to foster devotion to the Sacred Heart - by Leonard J. DeLorenzo, OSV News, June 11, 2026

OSV News

Christian harassment cases rise in Israel

By Judith Sudilovsky, June 9, 2026

There has been a sharp rise in reported harassment against Christians in Israel, according to new data presented June 4 by the Religious Freedom Data Center. Founder Yisca Harani said more than 88 incidents have already been documented this year, including 63 in the second quarter alone, putting 2026 on pace to exceed last year’s total of 181 cases. “We have surpassed all our numbers, and we haven’t reached the end of June yet,” she said. Most of the incidents, which include spitting and verbal insults, vandalism and desecration of graves, tombstones, statues and crosses, and defacement of signs and graffiti, have taken place in Jerusalem’s Old City, on Mount Zion and near the Armenian Patriarchate — located on one of the routes to the Jewish Quarter, said Harani, a Jewish-Israeli Christian scholar. There have also been cases of harassment, vandalism, and arson at Christian holy sites in northern Israel, she said.

Aleteia

Catholics converts: The story behind the numbers

By Caitlin Bootsma, June 12, 2026

A surge of converts to Catholicism has been in the news lately, but what do the numbers really tell us? The Pew Research Center recently released the results of a comprehensive study of converts to Catholicism in the U.S. The study reports that converts to Catholicism account for 1.5% of U.S. adults. Of approximately 267 million American adults, about 4 million converted to Catholicism at some point in their lives. Converts make up 8% of American Catholics in the United States today; the other 92% are “cradle Catholics,” people born into the Catholic faith. According to the study, many more people have left Catholicism than have joined it, with a ratio of 8.4 people leaving for every one person who has converted. The study also found that the majority of people who switch religions do so before the age of 30. Converts come from a wide variety of religious backgrounds, but the vast majority (59%) come from Protestantism. Another 9% come from other self-identified Christian origins, such as Orthodoxy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism).

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National Catholic Register

Pope Leo entrusts his pontificate to Our Lady of Montserrat

By Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News, June 10, 2026

Pope Leo XIV visited the rugged silhouette of the Montserrat mountain range in Catalonia on June 9. Montserrat, whose name in Catalan means “serrated mountain,” is home to a Benedictine abbey. It rises to over 4,000 feet on the west side of the Llobregat River. In 1025, Abbot Oliba, then superior of the monastery of Ripoll, founded a smaller monastery on the mountain of Montserrat at a site where a small hermitage dedicated to the Virgin already stood. The first image of the Virgin — known in Catalan as “La Mare de Déu de Montserrat” — was discovered in the year 880 by children tending a flock in a cave after seeing a light on the mountain. The image of Mary currently venerated is a 12th-century Romanesque wooden sculpture, just over 3 feet tall, depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. For centuries, faithful from all walks of life have passed through this sanctuary, praying the rosary bead by bead, because Mary, “Mare de Déu,” as the pope said, “is fundamental in the life of every Christian.”

EWTN News

DOJ backs Catholic coach in suing over COVID vaccine mandate

By Daniel Payne, June 11, 2026

Nick Rolovich first sued Washington State University in 2022 after he was dismissed from the school in 2021 for refusing to be vaccinated. He is now being backed by the U.S. Department of Justice in his lawsuit against a public university that fired him for refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine. In his lawsuit, Rolovich said the university failed to uphold its contract with him when it fired him for refusing the shot. The suit alleged that the firing was without “just cause” and that the school violated its contract by dismissing him over the dispute. Rolovich said he “drew upon his study of the Bible, personal prayer, personal experience, personal study, advice from others, advice from a Catholic priest, and the teachings of the Church in concluding that his conscience precluded him from receiving any available COVID-19 vaccine.” A federal district court ruled against Rolovich in 2025. On June 10, the coach and his legal team appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to argue the case.

The CRUX

Ethnic violence in India escalates, with Christians on both sides

By Nirmala Carvalho, June 12, 2026

The bodies of six tribal Naga Christians abducted last month were discovered earlier this week after an intense search. The bodies were discovered in the Kangpokpi district of Manipur State, which borders Nagaland State to the south. The victims’ remains — including those of at least two pastors — were reportedly mutilated and dismembered, sparking massive protests across Naga-inhabited areas. The last 14 Kukis were released on June 9, following a federal government assurance to work out ways to end hostilities that claimed lives on both sides. The Naga peoples are ethnically Tibeto-Burman groups native to northeastern India and northwestern Myanmar, while the Kuki people also live across much of the same area. The death of six Naga men is feared to further escalate tensions among predominantly Christian Kuki and Naga communities, who were already in conflict over the past two months, say local sources.

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Religion News Service

Pope Leo tells human traffickers to ‘repent’ or face God’s judgment

By Claire Giangravè, June 12, 2026

Pope Leo XIV issued a stark warning to human traffickers, telling them to “repent” or face the judgment of God, during a speech to charity workers for the integration of migrants on the Spanish island of Tenerife on Friday (June 12). “I wish to address a clear message to those who take advantage of people’s desperation, to those who organize death routes, traffic in human beings, withhold documents, exploit workers, threaten women, deceive families, and turn the suffering of others into a business. Stop. Repent,” Leo said. The pope said that God hears the suffering of trafficking victims and that the money gained by their exploitation “will bring neither peace, nor honor, nor a future.” He said traffickers “will have to appear before divine justice,” urging them to free and make amends to those they harmed.

Zenit News

The largest congress of Catholics gathers 5,000 in Vilnius

By Valentina di Giorgio, June 3, 2026

For six days this week, Vilnius is becoming a meeting place for the global Catholic community as thousands of pilgrims, clergy, community leaders, and visitors gather in the Lithuanian capital for the 6th World Apostolic Congress on Mercy (WACOM). The congress, organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, is being held in Lithuania for the first time and runs from 7-12 June under the theme “Building the City of Mercy.” The congress officially opened on June 7 and has brought together more than 5,000 participants from 52 countries, making it one of the most significant international Catholic events of the year. The Divine Mercy devotion has become one of the most widespread expressions of modern Catholic spirituality. Today, the image is present in Catholic churches worldwide, while the original painting remains in Vilnius, at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in the Old Town.

Keep informed - 6/12/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from Big Pulpit, EWTN, & the Loop

Big Pulpit

Tito Edwards Catholic site: June 12, 2026

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

• God Isn’t Waiting for You to Be Worthy: A Priest’s Advice to Men Considering Seminary – Church Pop

• Three Key Moments From Leo’s Voyage to Madrid – Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, M.P.A., M.Phil., S.T.L.

• The Moment Spain Realized Leo XIV is Still Catholic – Javier Villamor

• Comparing the New & Old Papal Nuncios is Like Night & Day – Fr. Allan J. McDonald

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — June 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.

• Migrants in Tenerife tell Pope Leo XIV: We do not ask for privileges or compassion - By Victoria Cardiel - At Las Raíces reception center in Spain’s Canary Islands, the pope heard testimonies from migrants who risked their lives crossing the Atlantic and urged a more humane response rooted in dignity.

• Pope tells Catholics to pray for those who ‘have lost their lives at sea’ in Canary Islands visit - By Victoria Cardiel - Referring to the sea surrounding the island, he said it represents the difficulties of life, quoting St. Augustine: “No one is able to cross the sea of this world unless borne by the cross of Christ.”

• Cardinal Koch: ‘Today there are more martyrs than in the early centuries of the Church’ - By Walter Sánchez Silva - “Martyrdom truly belongs to the heart of Christianity,” said the Swiss prelate, who made his remarks in late May during the annual pilgrimage for persecuted Christians organized by the Swiss branch of ACN at the Einsiedeln Benedictine Abbey.

Zeale / Loop / CatholicVote

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.

'CATHOLICS VOTE' GROUP RALLIES CATHOLICS FOR DEMS - A progressive organization has launched what it calls a “first of its kind” national campaign to turn out Catholic voters in competitive congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterms – with the aim of rallying support for Democratic candidates. CatholicVote's Joshua Mercer criticized the campaign, pointing to the many ways in which the Democratic Party has pitted itself against the Church. "Catholics won't be fooled again," he said. READ

ADMIN RECOVERS HORRIBLY ABUSED MIGRANT KIDS LOST UNDER BIDEN - In a shocking announcement that included reports of serial child abuse, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said June 11 that federal agencies have located more than 146,000 of the unaccompanied migrant children that the Biden administration lost track of after they entered the U.S. READ

EUROPEAN WATCHDOG CLOCKS SPIKE IN ANTI-CHRISTIAN ATTACKS - A European religious freedom group recorded 37 verified anti-Christian incidents across 11 countries in the last month alone, including a sharp rise in arson-related attacks targeting churches, parish buildings, and religious items. READ

June 12, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Catholic365

The strange religious meaning of flies

By Gary Sullivan, July 2, 2024

It’s that time of year when we are getting a stray fly in our house here and there. Nothing gives me more pleasure than stalking them with my fly swatter and then, kaboom...dead! I hate flies. So annoying, so persistent, so gross when they land on me or my food. I’m pretty sure everyone hates flies. I mean, flies feast on carcasses, open wounds, and excrement. They seek to bury their eggs in anything moist, decaying, and rotten. They spread germs, and sometimes they’re loud. Why Lord? Why flies? Actually, they do serve a purpose: they help break down trash and excrement. But there's even an esoteric, supernatural purpose that flies serve as symbols and signs of evil. The fly was regarded by the ancient Jews in particular as impure and demonic. "Extremely annoying when one is eating and since it persistently returns even after being driven away it is the emblem of evil desire. The evil spirit lies like a fly at the doors of the human heart."

The PILLAR

‘I’m happy to be here’ says new Nuncio, unlike the U.S.’s last man

By Ed. Condon, June 10, 2026

Arriving from his previous posting at the United Nations, the Milanese Archbishop Gabriele Caccia succeeded Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the decades-long-serving Frenchman, who turned 80 this year. The pope’s new man in Washington sang the praises of continuity yet struck an audibly different tone. His words appeared like a study in contrast to his predecessor’s style and even substance. The previous nuncio had an often fractious relationship with the conference itself and its members, and often used his addresses to issue blunt criticisms of the Church in the United States and the bishops themselves. His successor, instead, introduced himself by quoting Alexis de Tocqueville on America's potential to become the epicenter of global Catholicism, while remarking on the election of the first American Pope. Apart from not mentioning synodality at all, while Pierre seasoned his speeches with quotes from Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution of the Second Vatican Council, Caccia offered the bishops the gift of a pocket edition of Lumen Gentium and Dei Verbum, the council’s dogmatic constitutions.

Aleteia

Have you heard of ‘Summer Lent’?

By Philip Kosloski, June 1, 2026

Most of us are very familiar with Lent and the various fasting requirements for the penitential period leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. Outside of Lent, there are a variety of fasting customs and traditions practiced by Catholics around the world. In recent years, there has been much online talk about “St. Michael’s Lent,” a 40-day preparation for the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, inspired by a practice from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Similarly, there exists a period of fasting in the Eastern Church that many call “Summer Lent,” which follows the celebration of Pentecost. It’s a unique time of fasting, one that has deep roots in apostolic tradition. The Eparchy of Phoenix explains that, "The Apostles’ Fast or 'Summer Lent' is a summer fast that begins after All Saints Sunday (following Pentecost) and concludes on June 29, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. It commemorates the Apostles’ preparation for their missionary work after Pentecost.”

Bishop Barron

The weight of your own sense of self-sufficiency

By Bishop Robert Barron, June 12, 2026

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the Lord offers to relieve our burdens: “Take my yoke upon you . . . and you will find rest for yourselves.” Jesus almost always speaks in paradoxes, and this is another one. “I will put a yoke on you.” Now, if I am burdened, the last thing I want is a yoke that will make my life more burdensome.
But here’s the paradox: What is it that makes our lives heavy and weighed down? Precisely the burden of our own egos, the weight of one’s own self. When I am puffing myself up with my own self-importance, I’m laboring under all that weight. Jesus is saying, “Become a child. Take that weight off your shoulders and put on the weight of my yoke of my obedience to the Father.” Here’s how it works: If you have two animals yoked together when they’re both pulling, they are doing each other’s work. Jesus is saying that if your life is heavy and burdensome, it’s probably because you are caught up under the weight of your own sense of self-sufficiency.

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Zenit

Pope Leo delivers a running series of moving talks in Spain

By ZENIT Staff, June 2, 2026

Zenit news covers Pope Leo XIV’s warmly received talks throughout his visits over the past few days in Spain.

Neither spiritualizing pain nor downplaying suffering: Pope Leo XIV’s powerful response on depression and mental health to a woman who attempted suicide - June 9

Do you need to forgive? Leo XIV’s response to a heartbreaking story of crime, drugs, and neglect that moved Spain - June 9

Nicodemus and the Path of Life: Leo XIV’s Existential Reflection in Barcelona - June 8

The Pope’s powerful homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi: may religiosity not be a museum of the past, but a school of faith from which we can draw inspiration even today - June 7

Related: Pope Leo XIV sidesteps Catalan controversy in Barcelona - By Fionn Shiner, CRUX, June 11, 2026

Our Sunday Visitor

Children, saints, causes, World Youth Day on US bishops’ agenda

By Julie Asher, June 10, 2026

Headlining the June 10 public session of the U.S. bishops’ spring plenary in Orlando were addresses by the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the new apostolic nuncio to the United States, along with a preliminary presentation on proposed updates to the bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” A highlight in the afternoon was a report on World Youth Day 2027, accompanied by a gift of traditional Asian paper fans for each bishop from South Korea — whose capital, Seoul, will host the international event. The bishops also heard from mathematical biologist Santiago Schnell, a Catholic scientist and provost of Dartmouth University. The Catholic imagination needs to be reawakened in academic life to nurture leaders who can become “voices for the Catholic Church,” Schnell advised the nation’s bishops.

Crux

UN admitting Christians are targeted in Nigeria is ‘long overdue’

By Ngala Killian Chimtom, June 11, 2026

For the first time, UN experts have admitted that there are “credible reports of killings, abductions, sexual violence, forced conversion, forced marriage, abductions and acts tantamount to enforced disappearances targeting Christian and other religious minority communities in Nigeria, particularly women and girls.” In a June 8 release, UN experts on religious freedom say the reports are “deeply troubling,” and explain that the “deteriorating security situation in northern Nigeria and the Middle Belt has created an environment in which armed extremist groups, including Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, and radicalized individual herdsmen involved in the ‘farmer-herder’ conflict continue to operate with devastating consequences for civilians, amid persistent reports of impunity, institutional failures, and inadequate protection by authorities.”

The Pillar

Christians among representation in Iraq’s World Cup campaign

By Filipe d’Avillez, June 10, 2026

As national squads begin to arrive in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for the 2026 World Cup, the Iraqi national team is already making headlines. Two of the team’s members – a player and the team photographer – were held and questioned at the Chicago airport for several hours before being released. But Iraq’s team is noteworthy for another reason: four Christians are on the roster of 26 players. That means 15% of the team is Christian, in a country where Christians currently account for less than 1% of the population. Aimar Sher was born in Iraq, but his family moved to Sweden when he was only four. Rebin Sulaka was born in the predominantly Christian suburb of Ankawa in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, and also later moved to Sweden when he was 10 years old. Sulaka is a center-back who currently plays in Thailand. Kevin Yakob was born in Sweden and began playing for Assyriska BK in Gothenburg. Finally, Frans Putros was born in Denmark to Iraqi Christian immigrant parents. He is a defender and currently plays in the Indonesian league.

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Aleteia

What happened when Pope Leo met Bad Bunny?

By Cerith Gardiner, June 11, 2025

Have you heard the one about a pope, a reggaeton superstar, a room full of artists, and a conversation about transcendence? It sounds less like a Vatican event and more like the beginning of a joke, yet that was essentially the scene in Madrid this week when Pope Leo XIV met Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny. Although there were no photos of the meeting, the occasion certainly sparked curiosity. After all, popes and global music stars do not usually occupy the same corners of the cultural imagination. One is associated with cassocks, the other with concert arenas. One speaks in homilies, the other in chart-topping hits. Yet both found themselves participating in a conversation about something surprisingly universal: beauty.

National Catholic Register

America’s consecration to the Sacred Heart

By Msgr. Roger Landry, June 11, 2026

As the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our country, the bishops of the United States, meeting in Orlando, Florida, are solemnly consecrating the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus today. To consecrate the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus means to prayerfully entrust its present and future to Jesus’ sacred humanity and to the divine and human love symbolized by his burning and crucified heart. The consecration was originally proposed to take place tomorrow, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, at the conclusion of the bishops’ spring plenary assembly. But a motion was made during the bishops’ meeting last November to celebrate the consecration the day before, on June 11, so that bishops might return home to their dioceses on the solemnity to consecrate their dioceses to the Sacred Heart.

Zeale News

House passes Rep. Chris Smith’s bill on religious freedom

By Elise Winland, June 10, 2026

The House overwhelmingly passed legislation June 8 to extend the independent federal watchdog that monitors and exposes violations of religious freedom around the world and authorize its annual funding through fiscal year 2028. The measure, H.R. 1744, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Reauthorization Act of 2026, was authored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who is Catholic and is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has also expressed support for USCIRF. “The Catholic Church has long viewed religious freedom as a basic human right since it is rooted in the dignity of the human person and is critical to the health of societies,” the USCCB wrote in a 2024 letter cited by Smith. The bill now heads to the Senate. If signed into law, it would keep the commission authorized through fiscal year 2028.

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EWTN News

A century later, Pope Leo XIV fulfills Gaudí’s dream

By Victoria Cardiel, June 10, 2026

One of the historic milestones of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Spain was the opportunity to realize Antoni Gaudí’s dream: the inauguration and blessing of the Tower of Jesus Christ, coinciding exactly with the centenary of the great architect’s death. “God’s architect” died, leaving behind a vast legacy of art and devotion visible throughout Barcelona — like an open-air Gospel sculpted in stone. The spectacular central spire — crowned by a white cross that makes the basilica the tallest in the world and which will be open to visitors starting in 2028 — is undoubtedly one of them. After Mass, Leo XIV stepped outside to bless and inaugurate the Tower of Jesus Christ — a beautiful ceremony in which the pope, rather than simply putting his stamp on a finished work, charted a course for Christians. “The Sagrada Família is the tallest church in the world — not to stand out in worldly rankings, but to guide the steps of God’s people journeying through this land of Catalonia.”

Keep informed - 6/11/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from OSV, EWTN News, & ChurchPOP

OSV News

OSV’s seasoned reporters - June 11, 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.

• Catholic higher education should form ‘voices for the Church,’ says scholar - June 10, 2026 - The Catholic imagination needs to be reawakened in academic life to nurture leaders who can become “voices for the Catholic Church,” said Mathematical biologist Santiago Schnell, provost of Dartmouth University.

• US bishops show support for local advancement of 2 American canonization causes - June 10, 2026 - Meeting in Orlando for their annual spring plenary assembly, the members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on June 10 gave a unanimous show of support for the advancement of pioneer missionary priest Msgr. Joseph Buh, and entrepreneur-turned-evangelist John Rick Miller.

• Human trafficking prevention advocates share World Cup challenges, opportunities - June 10, 2026 - As the U.S. prepares to host the World Cup, faith leaders and others working to prevent human trafficking are seeking to raise awareness to prevent such abuse. “The full continuum of the pro-life ethic” upholds “the dignity and rights of every person.”

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — June 11, 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.

• Cardinal Kikuchi urges Caritas Asia to stand with the poor as funding shrinks - By Stephan Uttom Rozario - Caritas Asia serves as the regional secretariat for one of the seven regions of the Caritas Internationalis network, said Benedict Alo DʼRozario, president of Caritas Asia, and global funding is gradually decreasing.

• LIVE UPDATES: Pope Leo XIV in the Canary Islands — Day 6 of his visit to Spain - By EWTN News Staff - Stories include: Pope Leo XIV prayed with a young man’s rosary in Barcelona — and gave it back, and he blessed a cross made from the wood of migrant boats.

• European Court of Human Rights rules governments cannot ban evangelization - By Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves - The Strasbourg court found that a Bulgarian cityʼs vaguely worded ban on “religious propaganda” breached the right to freedom of religion under the European Convention.

ChurchPOP Trending

ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - June 11, 2026

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

Pope Leo Played Football? Here’s His Secret to Teamwork Ahead of the World Cup - “Someone who may be a star but never passes the ball does not let others enter the game—and will probably lose.”

The Little-Known Story of Pope St. Paul VI’s First Chasuble, Made From His Mother’s Wedding Dress - Did you know Pope St. Paul VI’s first chasuble was made from his mother’s wedding dress? Here is the fascinating story!

12-Year-Old Boy Makes Rosaries Out of Lily Seeds for Children in Hospitals - “When you visit a child’s room and see that what you’re bringing has made them happier, it makes me happy too,” Samuel said.

June 11, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Live Action News

Catholic bishops in Liberia split with religious council over abortion

By Cassy Cooke, June 10, 2026

The Inter-Religious Council of Liberia (IRCL) has endorsed a draft public health bill now before the Liberian Senate for consideration that would implement sweeping reforms. While some of the reforms are positive, such as increased maternal care and improved disease control frameworks, they would also legalize abortion. As such, it was applauded by pro-abortion groups; currently, in Liberia, abortion is legal in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality, or risk to the woman’s physical or mental health. In cases of rape or incest, proof must be submitted to the court, and two physicians must attest to the medical exemption. Illegal abortions are punishable by up to five years in prison. In a statement, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Liberia (CABICOL) strongly condemned the endorsement, saying that doing so justified abortion. After the CABICOL statement was released, the IRLC reversed course and withdrew its endorsement, specifically saying the Liberian religious community rejects abortion.

National Catholic Register

US Sacred Heart consecration carries echoes of French history

By Joseph Pronechen, June 10, 2026

More than a century before the French Revolution, Visitation Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque wrote to the then-reigning “Sun King” Louis XIV, telling him Jesus had requested that he consecrate France to his Sacred Heart. Centuries later, on June 11, the United States will be consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, fulfilling what France’s monarchs had failed to achieve at the behest of the French saint. The consecration will take place just weeks ahead of the 250th anniversary of American independence, hard-won by a revolution that, in turn, inspired France to follow suit over a decade later. Ironically, this Reign of Terror claimed the life of Louis XVI, who, prior to his execution, had planned to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart, fulfilling the request first made to his predecessor.

Related: The Consecration of the United States to the Sacred Heart - Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing, June 11, 2026

The Catholic Thing/The Catholic Herald

How to make holiness a habit

By David Hahn, The Catholic Herald, June 11, 2026

As we begin the tenth week of Ordinary Time, it is a good time to apply the spiritual equivalent of a tune-up. The afterglow of Easter and Pentecost has, by this time, worn off for most. What was a rich flavour has grown less tasteful, and keen enthusiasm has ebbed. The honeymoon period of Baptism is over, as I heard from a recent OCIA initiate. If this has been happening to you, rest assured, there is a gift hiding in this season – one that is far more profitable than feeling good. God wastes nothing. Yes, this strain reveals the weakness of our love, but, like physical exercise, a muscle can only grow when it is pushed to its limit. God had our weakness in mind when He saved us and gave the Sacrament of Confession as our way to begin again when we have failed. If this Ordinary Time is a time for exercising our wills, then we should not neglect our nutrition. The Eucharist is given ever so generously by Our Lord for us to approach Him. Daily, we must make the effort to meet with God.

Wild at Heart

Are you in the Lord’s army?

By John Eldredge, June 11, 2026

We’ve exchanged that great hymn “Onward, Christian Soldiers” for a subtle but telling substitute, a song that is currently being taught to thousands of children in Sunday school each week, which goes something like this (sung in a very happy, upbeat tune): I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery, I may never fly over the enemy but I’m in the Lord’s army, yes sir! There is no battle, and there is no war, and there is no Enemy, and your life is not at stake, and you are not desperately needed this very hour, but you’re in the Lord’s army? If you want the life and freedom that Jesus offers, then you are going to have to break free of this religious fog in particular. The stream of Spiritual Warfare was essential to Jesus' life and ministry. It follows that it must be essential to us if we are to be his followers.

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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

13,000 gather at Knock in Ireland for ‘All Ireland’ rosary rally

By Patrick J. Passmore, June 10, 2026

In the largest gathering of Catholics in Ireland since Pope Francis’ visit in 2018, the annual All Ireland Rosary brought over 13,000 people to Knock Shrine on June 6 in a joint prayer for peace. Speaking to EWTN News after the rally, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Eamon Martin said: “It was a very special joy for me to preside at the Eucharist in Knock at the rosary rally. I felt a tremendous sense of joy and hope among the people who were gathered there. And it was especially gratifying to see many young people, including the childrenʼs rosary group, who made a very important and beautiful contribution to the day.” Christine O’Hara, a secondary schoolteacher in Cork, Ireland, said: “The rosary rally was a very blessed and grace-filled day, and thereʼs a number of things that weʼre really hoping people will take away from the event. The first being that people will feel inspired to pray the rosary every day.”

OSV News

Housing crunch turns to crisis for families across the country

By Kimberley Heatherington, May 10, 2026

In recent years, the U.S. housing crunch has turned into a housing crisis, particularly among economically vulnerable Americans, with the U.S. Catholic bishops expressing significant concern about the consequences for families. According to a March 2026 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, “Only 35 affordable and available rental homes exist for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. Extremely low-income renters face a shortage in every state and major metropolitan area.” Those hoping to buy a house seemingly don’t fare much better, with the National Association of Home Builders sharing data from March 2025 indicating “76.4 million households — 57% out of a total of 134.3 million — are unable to afford a $300,000 home.” Congress nears possible bipartisan passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which is predicted to be signed by President Donald Trump, and includes 56 provisions related to housing supply.

National Catholic Register

VP Vance says ‘soul-searching’ brought him to Catholic Church

By Daniel Payne/EWTN News, June 9, 2026

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said this week that he was drawn to the Catholic faith in part because of its centuries of tradition and because it “felt like home” to him amid his own faith journey. The vice president told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Jesse Watters Primetime on June 8 that he attended Christian churches while growing up but that he “wasnʼt properly formed in my faith” and that he eventually fell away from Christianity. “I had a lot of people who just did not, I think, properly support me in my own faith journey. And so I kind of just lost it,” he told Watters. “I was professionally very successful. I was making a lot of money. Iʼd gone to all the right schools. I realized that American elite culture was forming me to be kind of a bad person.” Watters noted that he himself is Protestant but that his wife is “kind of trying to get me to convert to Catholicism.” He joked with Vance: “Iʼm not there yet. Maybe Iʼll get there one day.” “Weʼll talk,” Vance replied with a laugh.

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Zeale News

EEOC workplace rules pressure employers into race-based hiring

By Elise Winland, June 9, 2026

Federal workplace discrimination guidelines on “disparate impact” violate the Constitution by pushing employers to make race-based hiring decisions, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a June 9 opinion that officials said will allow businesses to rely more heavily on merit-based employment standards. The opinion, issued by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, targets the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) approach to “disparate impact” liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Disparate impact claims allow employees or job applicants to challenge hiring policies that appear neutral — such as skills tests, background checks, or education requirements — if they lead to unequal outcomes among racial or other protected groups, even without evidence that an employer meant to discriminate. According to the DOJ, the EEOC’s approach can pressure employers to consider race when making hiring or promotion decisions in order to avoid lawsuits.

The PIllar

‘The most beautiful diocese in the world’: Southern Russia

By Luke Coppen, June 9, 2026

For more than two decades, Bishop Clemens Pickel has led a diocese that is larger than Texas and California combined. His Diocese of St. Clement at Saratov covers much of Southern Russia, stretching all the way from the Caucasus to the Ural Mountains. Yet it serves only around 20,000 Catholics. The area in which Pickel served went from being called the Archdiocese of Mohilev in 1990 to the Apostolic Administration of European Russia in 1991 to the Apostolic Administration of Southern European Russia in 1998. Saratov is a major city on the Volga River. Since the 18th century, it has served as the center of the ethnic German community, who settled along the Volga at the invitation of the German-born Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Pickel also has national-level responsibilities within the Catholic Church in Russia. He was first elected president of Russia’s bishops’ conference in 2017.

Related: Migration and Canary Islands: From a port of shame to a port of hope - By Kielce Gussie, Vatican News, 10 June 2026

Vatican News

Brazilian missionaries will help Haitians watch the World Cup

By Eduardo Campos Lima, June 10, 2026

As Haiti prepares to play in the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1974, Brazilian missionaries in the Caribbean nation are planning to help local residents watch the matches – something that can be difficult for most Haitians, given that many have no access to electricity. For both Brazilians and Haitians, soccer is not only a sport but also a major cultural force that fosters a sense of community and national identity. In Haiti, soccer is an omnipresent pastime for children, and many boys and girls dream of one day representing their national team – just as they do in Brazil. While many Haitians are excited about the upcoming tournament, which begins on June 11, the catastrophic wave of violence and the lack of basic infrastructure throughout the country will certainly undermine the festive atmosphere that a World Cup typically brings to nations across the Caribbean and Latin America.

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Graphs about Religion

Religion helps folks believe that living standards will get better

By Ryan Burge and Praveen Vissa, June 8, 2026

Economic optimism remains fairly popular, but it has taken a noticeable dip over the last 15 years or so. In the 1990s, two-thirds of Americans agreed they had a good chance of improving their standard of living. Into the early 2000s, three-quarters of Americans believed their economic future would be better. In the last three waves of the General Social Survey (GSS from 2021-2024), that dropped below 50%. The generation closest to retirement is less likely to agree that their standard of living would rise. Gen X feels pretty good about their ability to improve their financial state, and Gen Z even more so (50%). Those with a graduate degree are incredibly optimistic about the future: almost two-thirds believe that they have a good chance of improving their standard of living. Religiosity is linked to higher levels of optimism and expectations that life will improve, with estimates just above 50%. The lowest score was among Catholics at 49%.

The Jerusalem Post

Knesset advances bill to enshrine Torah study into Basic Law

By Keshet Neev, June 10, 2026

Israel’s Knesset passed in its preliminary reading on Wednesday a bill that seeks to enshrine Torah study in Basic Law, as part of a proposal pushed by haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties that seeks to encourage draft evasion and change the status of Yeshiva students who do not serve, enabling them to continue receiving state benefits. The far-right Religious Zionist Party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said on Tuesday that it would not support a bill that calls for equality of rights between IDF soldiers who serve and haredim who evade military service. Gafni’s bill seeks to enshrine the status of Torah study in the Basic Law as "a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people." Moving forward with the legislation also comes as the High Court of Justice ordered in April that the state take concrete steps to revoke key financial benefits from draft evaders and to move toward criminal enforcement against haredi men who evade military service.

Keep informed - 6/10/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from Loop, Aleteia, & The Pillar

CatholicVote: 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.” CatholicVote’s advertised mission is “To inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.”

• HOUSE PASSES BORDER ENFORCEMENT FUNDING - House Republicans passed the Secure America Act by a 214-212 vote, approving $70 billion over three years for immigration enforcement and border security, including $38 billion for ICE and $26 billion for CBP, with the bill now heading to Trump's desk for his signature. READ

• GALLUP FINDS GROWING DISAPPROVAL OF IMMORAL BEHAVIORS -Americans have become less likely over the past year to view several long-debated social behaviors as morally acceptable, with the sharpest declines on birth control, having a baby outside of marriage, gambling, sex between teenagers, and cloning animals, according to a new Gallup poll. READ

• JURY DEADLOCKS IN CASE AGAINST PRO-LIFE SIDEWALK COUNSELOR - A California jury deadlocked in the case of Anastasia Rogers, a pro-life advocate charged with intimidation under the FACE Act after posting an Instagram video contrasting her sidewalk-counseling efforts with the realities of abortion, with Life Legal reporting that a substantial majority of jurors rejected the prosecution's case. READ

Aleteia News

Aleteia’s headlines — June 10, 2026

Aleteia (aleteia.org) is an online publication distributed in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Slovenian). Aleteia reaches more than 10 million readers per month.

• Prayer warriors assemble with a new platform - A new web app offers a single place to share prayers, encouragement, and donations. Think of the best features of crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe and CaringBridge, but leading with prayer first — and all with a distinctly Catholic approach.

• Are little white lies okay? - The vast, vast majority of lies are completely unnecessary and can be completely avoided without much effort at all. Awkwardness can easily be tolerated; we simply don’t care for it. Self-aggrandizement is a bad habit that, with some conscious intentionality, can be eliminated entirely from our storytelling. If the job is done correctly and the homework finished, we’ll be far more eager to tell the truth about the success rather than lie (no one lies and tells their mother their homework isn’t done).

• Brilliant way parish welcomes families with young children - Carefully curated “busy bags” at St. Leonard Church in Muskego, Wisconsin, contain an assortment of items to help young children participate in the Mass in their own hands-on way. They are arranged in a “library” that families can check out during Mass and return afterward for cleaning and restocking.

The Pillar

Pillar Stories from the May calendar, 6/10/26

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:

• Edgar Beltran has put together a list of the pope’s top moments in the country so far, and the list is worth taking a look at — because everywhere Leo has gone, he’s been more well-received than was expected. The speech he gave on Monday to members of the Spanish legislature will go down in history as one of Leo’s intellectual tentpoles.

• The stories of Major League Baseball chaplains — priests bringing the sacraments to the big leagues. “Most of these guys are in their 20s, early 30s, when a lot of people in the Church tend to step away from their faith,” one clubhouse chaplain told The Pillar.

• A Catholic Charities employee in Charlotte has been charged with embezzlement and money laundering after prosecutors say she used a business credit card for more than $13,000 in personal expenses. It led to questions about hiring practices, after it emerged that the employee was hired to work with vulnerable populations despite having an extensive criminal history

June 10, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE or read HERE:

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Crisis Magazine

The ‘Wealth Tax’ is a covetous policy, not a reformation

By Auguste Meyra, June 10, 2026

This November, Californians will be voting on the “2026 Billionaire Tax Act,” a new wealth tax that would essentially seize 5% of the accumulated wealth of the state’s billionaires. Unlike a tax on income, sales, or property, this tax would target the non-liquid assets where the ultra-wealthy keep their fortunes. Sheer, unbridled envy is the main thrust of the essay, as the economists apply their calculations to other billionaires and stress just how much money the wealth tax could raise. As for the objection that this would drive away California’s richest residents, they respond that the wealth tax would bring in more revenue now than the current tax rate would over 25 years. Therefore, the short-term revenue boost easily offsets the long-term loss of these residents. However, no one ever bothers to demonstrate how or why such fortunes are immoral or what a “fairer” distribution of wealth would be. Most people seem to see free money for the taking rather than a covetous policy that will cripple their economy and prevent necessary reforms.

The Catholic Weekly

When love feels impossible, choose it anyway

By Francine & Byron Pirola, June 10, 2026

It’s easy to love our spouse when the affection is mutual – when our efforts to love are received, acknowledged, and returned. But what about when it isn’t reciprocated? Marriages generally begin when love and affection are at a peak. They rarely stay there. Sooner or later, the valley arrives fast and deep, leading us to question whether we made a mistake. It’s at this crossroad that we have a choice – protest the situation or lean into our vows and choose love. Knowing the intimacy for which we are created, our heavenly Father watches closely as we struggle in our marriage. Although painful and confusing, these times are an invitation to trust in God, to seek his grace, and to keep showing up in love with him. If we can love a stranger who wronged us, how much more should we love the one to whom we promised our life?

The Obscure, Forgotten, and Undiscovered

The ‘Collect’ at Mass can lead to contemplation

By James K. Hanna, June 9, 2026

I came to appreciate The Collect of the Mass when I began, in 2014, to facilitate online courses (twice weekly) for the University of Notre Dame’s Satellite Theology Education Program. Wanting to open each session with a prayer (and acknowledging my laziness in such matters), I decided to use The Collect from the Mass of the particular day. I soon discovered one way liturgy leads to contemplation. The Collect concludes the Introductory Rites of the Mass and precedes the Liturgy of the Word. It is a prayer spoken by the priest that we make our own by proclaiming “Amen.” It should be preceded by a brief period of silence during which we become aware of God’s presence and call to mind our intentions. By ancient tradition, The Collect is usually addressed to God the Father and concludes with a Trinitarian ending. You can find The Collect for each day at the Catholic Culture website here.

Catholic 365

Ways to spend birthdays with Jesus

By The Catholic Nurse, June 10, 2025

A birthday isn’t just a number or date — it’s a tender time to remember how God knit us in our mother’s womb. It’s a time to review our struggles and triumphs -- and see how God intervened in every scrape. When we imagine a birthday with Jesus, the day becomes less about candles and cake. It is a moment to breathe, to find the grace and growth in our lives, and remember how He has been there every step of the way. God’s fingerprints are everywhere, especially in the hardest places. If Jesus were sitting at our birthday dinner, He’d turn the celebration outward. Happiness grows when we share. Reading Scripture on our birthday is like opening a love letter, written to us before we were born. Verses of purpose, identity, and love take on new meaning when we remember that God made us for this era. Jesus loves gatherings, meals, and laughter. Celebrating with Him also means enjoying the life He gifted us.

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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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National Catholic Register

Young Catholic men and women are struggling to connect

By Gigi Duncan, June 8, 2026

“I’ve been on a lot of first dates, but not a lot of second dates,” said Liz Conway. “It can feel demeaning a lot of the time.”Conway’s experience reflects a broader tension playing out across Catholic dating culture. At a time when young men and women in general find themselves deeply divided — over politics, religion, marriage, gender expectations, and commitment itself — many young Catholics say they are encountering another kind of disconnect within their own faith communities. The divide between Catholic men and women is often less about shared beliefs than interpretation and preference, shaped in part by different Catholic subcultures, online influencers, and exacting expectations about what a future spouse should be like. Women describe feeling scrutinized before they are known. Men describe uncertainty about how they will be received. Both sides talk about pressure, assumptions, and the sense that dating begins with analysis rather than encounter.

EWTN News

Pope Leo XIV tells Spain’s parliament to protect every human life

By Victoria Cardiel, June 8, 2026

Pope Leo XIV made history Monday by becoming the first pope to address Spain’s Congress of Deputies, delivering a forceful appeal to the country’s political class to defend human dignity and protect life “from conception to its natural end.” The June 8 address, delivered before about 700 guests amid tight security, drew a standing ovation lasting nearly seven minutes, with shouts of “Long live the pope!” echoing through the chamber. In his speech, Pope Leo warned lawmakers not to subordinate human dignity to “shifting social consensus or the whims of the majority at any given moment,” insisting that “every truly just society is built upon the recognition of the inviolable dignity of the human person.” “In this sense, if life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have?” the pope asked. “Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?”

Related: Pope Leo says we are skilled at producing, lost on the why - Aleteia - Daniel Esparza - 06/08/26

Aleteia

How often should my 8-year-old go to confession?

By Philip Kosloski, May 30, 2026

Parents of First Communicants sometimes ask the question, “How often should my child go to confession?” This question is certainly a valid one, as odds are likely your children won’t be begging you to take them in for the sacrament. They might be conscious of sin, but confession is still new to them and certainly isn’t a habit yet. They realize confession is a good thing, but don’t always think of it. Going to confession regularly (every week or month) is a good habit. This instills in your children a habit they might carry for the rest of their lives. It teaches your children that confession is important and a vital part of the Catholic faith. If children aren't brought to confession on a regular basis (or only when they go to Religious Education classes), they will think that confession is something strange and unnecessary. This will only compound if they do not see their parents go to confession.

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The Pillar

Adult victims of sexual misconduct report abuses, need help

By The Pillar, June 7, 2026

A man who alleges sexual misconduct by his parish priest told The Pillar that he hopes a Vatican-ordered investigation in the Diocese of Baton Rouge will lead to more accountability for bishops, and that the Church will do more to help adult victims of sexual misconduct report abuses and find help. “There’s definitely got to be some changes” in diocesan processes, the man told The Pillar, after meeting with investigators dispatched to Louisiana to conduct a Vos estis lux mundi inquiry into Baton Rouge’s Bishop Michael Duca. The Vos estis investigation was ordered last month, over allegations that Duca did not adequately address complaints, and discouraged a whistleblower from calling the police, after a local priest allegedly admitted to sexual contact with minors. The priest denies the allegation against him, while the Baton Rouge diocese has not responded to questions about the case.

Related: Diocese of Austin had allegations against sex offender priest years before arrest, conviction, By Christopher R. Altieri, June 8, 2026

OSV News

Can Catholics date a person whose marriage has not been annulled?

By Jenna Marie Cooper, June 5, 2026

For a few reasons, it’s hard to determine in the abstract whether or not “dating” a divorced person who has yet to receive a declaration of nullity is strictly speaking a sin per se. However, I would say it is generally a bad idea. Even though the Church is willing to tolerate civil divorce in some cases, at the end of the day, we see divorce as essentially a legal fiction. Our belief in the absolute permanence of marriage is rooted in what Jesus himself taught us in St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 19:8-9). The Church’s nullity process, conducted through marriage tribunals, exists as a way to determine whether one of these invalidating issues was in fact present at the time of the wedding. In and of itself, it’s not necessarily a sin for a man and a woman — even a man and a woman who are married to other people. At the least, it is venial sin if the couple deliberately places themselves into a situation where they know they will be tempted to be unchaste (a “near occasion of sin”), or if their relationship becomes a source of scandal within the community.

Zeale

US bishops placed friendly wagers on NBA Finals, Stanley Cup

By Mary Rose, June 6, 2026

As basketball and hockey fans across the country gear up for championship matchups, several Catholic bishops are adding a little extra incentive to cheer for their hometown teams. Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York and Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio, Texas, have placed a friendly wager on the NBA finals, putting up New York bagels against Texas gift boxes as the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs battle for the championship. Meanwhile, a similar wager took shape on the ice. Archbishop George Leo Thomas of Las Vegas and Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama of Raleigh, North Carolina, have agreed to exchange steakhouse specialties and Carolina barbecue as the Golden Knights and Hurricanes compete for the Stanley Cup. Friendly wagers tied to major sporting events have become a tradition among Catholic bishops in the U.S. Rather than money, the stakes typically involve local foods, regional specialties, or charitable donations, allowing church leaders to celebrate civic pride while promoting good sportsmanship.

ZENIT

Why Washington’s archbishop removed a high-profile Exorcist

By ZENIT Staff, June 8, 2026

A controversy has led to an unusually public disciplinary decision within the Catholic Church. On June 3, Cardinal Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, removed Monsignor Stephen Rossetti from his role as archdiocesan exorcist after the priest publicly suggested that many reported UFO sightings could be manifestations of demonic activity. The Archdiocese of Washington also severed its institutional ties with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, the Washington-based ministry directed by Rossetti and known internationally for its work in spiritual healing, formation programs, and assistance to clergy and laity. In a statement announcing the decision, Cardinal McElroy said that Rossetti’s comments linking UFOs to demonic presence, together with aspects of the center’s recent use of social media, seriously undermined accurate Catholic teaching regarding the devil, demons, and the ministry of exorcism. The Church generally requires prudence when interpreting extraordinary phenomena. Catholic doctrine does not identify UFO reports with demonic activity, nor does it provide an official teaching on extraterrestrial life.

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CRUX

Murder of Mozambique bishop highlights Christian persecution

By Charles Collins, June 7, 2026

On Saturday, Pope Leo XIV said he “learned with sorrow” of the murder of Bishop Osório Cîtora Afonso in Quelimane, the city of which he was bishop in Mozambique. According to a statement from the Holy See press office, the pontiff “joins in prayer with the people of the Dioceses and of Mozambique in this hour of bewilderment, so that the Lord may give them consolation, so that he may guard in his love every man and woman and stop the hand of violence.” Cîtora Afonso, 54, was shot dead at his headquarters. He was appointed bishop of Quelimane only in July of 2025. At the time of his death, he was also the Apostolic Administrator of Beira.

Keep informed - 6/8/26 news for Catholics:

Snippets: EWTN News, aciafrica, & Word on Fire

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — June 8, 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.

• A quarter of Irish Gen Z will have no children, new report says - By Patrick J. Passmore - While current trends show that 1 in 4 young women today will remain childless, Iona Instituteʼs Breda OʼBrien said the huge question is “whether this will be by choice or circumstance.”

• Over 1,000 people process with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist through Washington, D.C. - By Tyler Arnold - The procession offers “public witness to our faith,” Father Charles Trullols said, displaying “the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, body, blood, soul, and divinity” to each person the procession passes by. Dozens of onlookers stopped to watch the procession, with many taking photos and videos.

• ‘You are so loved’: New film reveals enduring power of the Sacred Heart - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - A new movie called “Sacred Heart: His Reign Has No End” will be hitting theaters across the United States this month after experiencing tremendous success in France and other countries.

aciafrica

aciafrica’s top headlines — June 8, 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 words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See.

• World Environment Day: Caritas Zambia Calls for Climate Justice, Urges Response to “cry of the earth, cry of the poor” - Jun 8, 2026 - By Sabrine Amboka - As the world marked World Environment Day on June 5, Caritas Zambia called for urgent climate action that safeguards both the environment and vulnerable communities

• Catholic Church Leaders Across Africa and Vatican Mourn Slain Mozambican Consolata Bishop, Call for Justice - Jun 8, 2026 - By ACI Africa Staff - The Catholic Church’s grief over the killing of Bishop Osório Citora Afonso of Mozambique’s Quelimane Diocese continued to deepen as Pope Leo XIV, Catholic Bishops in Africa, and elsewhere have spoken out.

• Catholic Sisters from Nine African Countries Trained to Amplify Their Voices Through Storytelling - Jun 7, 2026 - By Jude Atemanke Catholic Sisters from nine African countries have completed a communications training workshop aimed at strengthening their storytelling skills and increasing the visibility of their contributions.

Word on Fire

Fresh insights from the Word on Fire Institute - for June 8, 2026

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

Literary Prizes and the Recovery of the Self in the Age of AI - Daniel Fitzpatrick -June 8, 2026 - The literary world has been abubble these recent days with the news that Jamir Nazir’s “The Serpent in the Grove,” which won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and has been published in Granta, seems to have been written by AI.

The Alien in All of Us - Jim Kennedy - June 8, 2026 - Fresh on the chemtrails of the US Department of War’s release of new UFO/UAP files, the advent of Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film, Disclosure Day, is accelerating speculation about aliens into warp drive. One of the most provocative questions is a simple one: Do aliens believe in God?

A New Wave of Anti-Christian Censorship - Dr. Kody W. Cooper - June 6, 2026 - A new wave of anti-Christian censorship is afoot in Europe. The continent and civilization that Hilaire Belloc argued was inextricably linked to the faith has become a principal threat to the faith. While the threat is very real. However, it is not yet time to despair.

June 8, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

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Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

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Catholic Stand

Common sense (and Biblical guidance) in choosing kids’ names

By Gene M. Van Son, June 7, 2026

Some parents spend countless hours trying to come up with just the right name for a son or daughter. But for some parents, it’s easier. Dad names the sons and mom names the daughters. Every once in a while, however, you meet someone and can’t help but wonder, “What were that person’s parents thinking when they gave their kid that name?!” Check out “100 of the Weirdest Baby Names in History,” written by a young lady named Emma Bennett. (Note that this is not an endorsement of Bennett’s website.) Some of the names are pretty far out! According to a recent article at Crisis, “Muhammad is now the most popular baby boy’s name in the United Kingdom.” This shows there are now quite a few Muslims in the UK. It also shows that many Muslims take their religion seriously – something Christians might want to think about. Cardinal Dolan remarked recently that naming children after saints is a Catholic custom worth recovering.

The Abbey of Misrule

Three ancient prophecies about the future ‘soul’ of England

By Paul Kingsnorth, April 23, 2026

I don’t know much about the future of England. Who does? But I do know quite a lot about its past. I offer three prophecies from English history, all of which relate to the country’s Christian soul. Just twelve years before the Normans raged across the English Channel, the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian churches had taken place. The Christian tree had been cut in two, and its two halves were carried far away from each other. They have not been reunited yet. from the Greek saint Arsenius of Paros, is a very simple prophecy, and it seems true: “The Church in The British Isles will only begin to grow when she begins to again venerate her own Saints.” Thirdly, England’s true national saint is not George, but Edmund the Martyr. This early medieval Christian king brings us to our final prophecy. When the relics of St Edmund finally return to Bury St. Edmunds, the spiritual regeneration of the English nation will begin. If there is one thing England needs, it is spiritual regeneration. The good news is that the saints are still waiting, quietly, for us to begin.

First Things

When eugenics goes viral

By Jonathon Van Maren, June 8, 2025

On June 3, a debate about the silent genocide of unborn children with Down syndrome exploded on social media. The unlikely catalyst was an X post by YouTube influencer Jesse “McJuggerNuggets” Ridgway. For months, the Ridgways had been producing and posting news of their pregnancy for a massive online audience, including their pregnancy announcement on March 29, a gender reveal (a boy), ultrasounds, and finally, a disturbingly personal video of the grief-stricken couple finding out their baby likely had Down syndrome. The journey culminated in Ridgway’s announcement that the couple had decided to abort the baby at twenty-one weeks. The post has been viewed over 24 million times and has garnered 18,000 mostly negative comments. Many were livid at Ridgway’s openly eugenic justification for having his unborn son destroyed; hundreds posted stories, photos, and videos of their loved ones with Down syndrome, expressing their gratitude for their love, lives, and contributions.

The Catholic Thing/EWTN

The world is the ‘Womb of Divine Love’

By Randall Smith, June 8, 2026

Some people wonder: Why stick around in this life if the next life is so great? In fact, why has God sent us into this world at all if His ultimate goal for us is union with Him? Why not just get us there? Why send us here, risking the possibility that things might turn out badly? It’s as though God was saying: “I am putting you in this very fragile ethical situation where you’ll be pretty much over your heads, and although I want you to succeed, if you screw up, you’re doomed. Good luck!” Everything about the Christian faith tells us that is not what God is doing. So why are we in this world when we’re meant for the next? Perhaps it will help to engage in a little thought experiment. Love must be received and given freely. So God can’t keep these creatures with Him, “under His wing,” so to speak, because that wouldn’t allow them any real freedom, any more than children kept at home, even with very loving parents, have any real freedom to become who they are meant to become.

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Zenit

180 Christian families in India denied water, economic rights

By ZENIT Staff, June 2, 2026

More than 180 Christian families in 32 villages across Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district in India have reportedly been denied access to communal water sources and livelihood opportunities for the past three weeks as punishment for refusing to leave their Christian faith. Many Christian families in the Antagarh region of the district have been barred from using community rivers, ponds, taps, and hand pumps. At the same time, individuals have been denied work under a government employment scheme, and families have been prevented from collecting and selling forest produce. The Kanker district of central India’s Chhattisgarh state is tribal dominated with vast areas of deciduous forests. The primary sources of livelihood for such tribal communities, also known as Adivasis, are subsistence agriculture and the collection of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs).

Our Sunday Visitor

Priest gets life in prison in Texas for sexual abuse of women

By Gina Christian, June 4, 2026

Father Anthony Odiong, a priest of the Diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, who had once served in the Diocese of Austin and other dioceses in the U.S., has been sentenced in a Texas court to life in prison, as well as to two 20-year prison terms plus $30,000 in fines, for sexually abusing several women under his spiritual care — a felony crime in that state. After listening to graphic testimony from several witnesses, the jury found the 57-year-old priest guilty of one charge of sexual assault in the first degree and two in the second degree, in a May 29 verdict delivered at the 19th State District Court in Waco, Texas. The priest had also fathered at least one child with another woman in Louisiana who had been under his spiritual direction. After deliberating for 90 minutes on June 1, the jury recommended its sentence to presiding Judge Thomas West. Father Odiong — who had pleaded not guilty on May 27 — will serve the two 20-year prison terms concurrently. He cannot seek parole until he has been credited with at least 30 years of his sentence.

Crux

Exorcist priest removed after comments on UFOs and demons

By David Crary, June 4, 2026

The Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy, on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons. McElroy said the archdiocese also was cutting ties with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based nonprofit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti. The archbishop said Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.” “There’s a danger here,” Rossetti said in a May 29 video posted on his Facebook page, addressing UFO sightings and the existence of aliens. “As an exorcist, I wanted to raise that danger. And that is that demons like to hide. … They don’t want us to know what they’re doing because they’re more effective when we don’t realize it.”

The Pillar

Abortion to be decriminalized in Catholic Andorra

By Edgar Beltrán, June 4, 2026

An Andorran minister said Monday that the decriminalization of abortion in the country will be approved before parliamentary elections are held next year, amid negotiations with the Catholic Church in the principality. The Andorran minister of institutional relations, Ladislau Baró, said in a Jun. 1 interview that the proposal to decriminalize abortion in the country is finished, but “thorny negotiations with the Holy See” might delay the bill. 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. By law only one of the country’s two co-princes must sign legislation for it to become law, a step usually left to the French president — the other Andorran co-prince — on contentious matters.

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Aleteia

Catholic prayer warriors assemble in a new online platform

By Theresa Civantos Barber, June 4, 2025

PleasePray is the new intercessory prayer and charitable giving platform for Catholics. Calling themselves “The Communion of the Saints activated in prayer,” PleasePray makes it easy to share an intention and then invite others to accompany you in prayer, while offering a place for almsgiving to lighten financial burdens with dignity and care when needed. The platform offers a 3-step plan to assemble the prayer warriors in your community around an intention: Create a prayer page for any need — healing, discernment, a loved one, a community cause; Invite friends, family, and your parish to join in prayer; and, When a situation also requires material help, the same page can include fundraising so prayer and charity stay connected in one place. Husband and wife Carlos Espinoza Banegas and Carolyn Madigan Espinoza, cofounders of PleasePray, reported that the platform has logged more than 15,000 prayers so far, along with 1,600 users, since it opened four months ago

National Catholic Register

Are women left out of the AI conversation?

By Solène Tadié, June 4, 2026

Women are significantly underrepresented in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), as official figures have consistently demonstrated over the past decade. The Catholic world, typically less concerned with gender parity and more focused on creative complementarity, has so far shown little interest in this absence. Yet the stakes extend far beyond questions of mere representation. The principles now embedded in the DNA of emerging AI technologies will help shape tomorrow's civilization, with technological development driven predominantly by men. If contributions from the “feminine genius” remain underrepresented, what could this mean for the future of humanity? The legitimization of the human in the age of AI depends in part on who is present when fundamental choices are made — and on whether the voices that have historically most often championed human connection, receptiveness, and empathy are truly heard.

Zeale News

Supreme Court to rule on 2 cases regarding women’s sports

By Elise Winland, June 3, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue decisions by late June or early July in two major women’s sports cases that could determine whether dozens of states may enforce laws that bar male athletes from competing against women and girls. Both Little v. Hecox (Idaho) and West Virginia v. B.P.J. ask whether such laws violate the Equal Protection Clause, and the West Virginia case also questions the application of Title IX. The court heard oral arguments in January on the set. As Zeale News previously reported, several justices said during the hearing that biological differences between men and women can affect competition, and reports released at the time suggested the court appeared likely to side with the states. Courts have blocked Idaho from enforcing the law since August 2020, shortly after it passed. West Virginia has also been unable to fully enforce its law amid the legal battle.

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EWTN News

Gaza in need of ‘miracles,’ papal agency says

By Tessa Gervasini, June 3, 2026

“With nothing to do, nowhere to go, no schooling, no commerce,” Gaza is “a very still quiet and dark place,” said Michael La Civita, director of communications at the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). CNEWA is working with numerous Church entities in Gaza, as it is in a “permanent state of waiting,” La Civita told “EWTN News Nightly” on June 2. Pope Pius XI founded CNEWA in 1926 to give pastoral and humanitarian support to northeast Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and India. CNEWA has a worldwide network of people committed to helping those most in need, regardless of where they are. As the conflict in Gaza continues, there are “upwards of 2 million people, most of whom are displaced,” and “their homes have been destroyed,” La Civita said. In Gaza, there is “no school, no shelter,” and “very little … access to food,” he said.

Keep informed - 6/4/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from OSV, EWTN News, & ChurchPOP

OSV News

OSV’s seasoned reporters - June 4, 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.

• DHS chief pushes for more immigration enforcement funds, as US bishops urge key reforms - by Kate Scanlon - June 2, 2026 - DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin testified before a Senate appropriations subcommittee as the U.S. bishops called for changes to an immigration enforcement bill. Mullin’s testimony came as the Senate prepares to again consider the package, which would provide an additional $72 billion for immigration enforcement.

• Rosary service brings ‘prayerful, peaceful presence’ to NJ immigrant detention facility - by John Touhey & Shania Mosquera | Jersey Catholic - June 2, 2026 - “As we saw the violence escalate at Delaney Hall since Memorial Day, the archdiocese wanted to have a prayerful, peaceful presence there.” Delaney Hall, a privately run, 1,000-bed facility, opened in May 2025. It is the largest immigrant detention facility on the East Coast and is operated by the GEO Group under contract for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

• Pope’s slavery apology ‘proper and just,’ says bishop who heads National Black Catholic Congress - by Gina Christian - June 2, 2026 - The mission is to “treat others the way we want to be treated … because quite honestly, we’re all one in Christ,” Bishop Campbell said. Leo warned against AI’s potential to cause “new forms of slavery” — especially by facilitating human trafficking and exploiting laborers, including children, in mining minerals for the technology.

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — June 4, 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.

• June consistory of cardinals will address synod, war, artificial intelligence - By Andrea Gagliarducci - From reflection on the international situation to a possible “updating” of the doctrine of just war, to discussion of the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, to the steps of the synodal process, the cardinals are called upon for broad discussions in multiple sessions. The plans were reported on Thursday by Vatican News.

• Mexican bishop: Lack of mature faith leads Catholics to fall into esotericism - By David Ramos - “Unfortunately, many of our parishioners who are baptized do not live out their faith in an orthodox manner,” and end up seeking a “solution to their difficulties in other areas,” said Bishop José Trinidad Zapata Ortiz.

• Institute on Religion and Democracy launches ecumenical ‘Christians for Capitalism’ project - By Tyler Arnold - “There was concern among a number of Christians in D.C. in the field of economics that there was no ongoing institutional voice in Washington, D.C., for pro-free market Christians, and there are obviously many Christians in D.C. who are pro-free market,” IRD President Mark Tooley told EWTN News.

ChurchPOP Trending

ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - June 4, 2026

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

Catholic Business Owner Consecrates Major Corporation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus - “The company was transformed from that established foundation,” said Alfonso González Arocha, Chairman of the Board of Qualfon Corporation in the Philippines.

A Catholic Contest, ‘Shark Tank’ Style: David Henrie Invites Influencers to Win $100K & an EWTN Premiere - hundreds of Catholic artists, entertainers, and content creators will come to Napa Valley this summer at the Napa Institute’s Arts Festival from July 20-21, 2026. It’s a one-of-a-kind forum where faithful Catholics can collaborate and build community to take back the arts.

Pope Leo just picked the first millennial ever to run a Vatican department - For the first time ever, a millennial is set to lead a Vatican department—Maria Montserrat Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News, as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, with her role beginning November 1.

June 4, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

You can listen HERE — or read HERE:

Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

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Today’s Catholic commentary:

Catholic Culture

The Honeymoon Symphony

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, June 1, 2026

The Blessed Trinity, as expressed in the Creed, is the foundation of the Catholic faith. The perfect love within the Godhead is an impenetrable mystery. Yet love between a man and a woman and within a family provides us with one of the clearest images of God’s interpersonal love. Jesus, the Divine Psychologist, brings out the best in human love, just as He challenges us to love with the sacrificial love that reflects the life of the Blessed Trinity. We send newlywed lovebirds off to their glorious honeymoons, and before long, they begin building a nest of their own. Moms and dads love their babies. The Church loves babies, too. We need babies. By placing the honeymoon in its proper place after the wedding, the boy and girl grow in self-control and virtue. As they grow in self-control, they learn how—after the wedding—they can give themselves in their entirety during the honeymoon. They do not put the honeymoon before the wedding day. Sometimes a good Confession helps restore the proper order of things.

National Catholic Register

The Theology of Presence

By Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer, June 4, 2026

I am in my mid-50s, with more days behind me than ahead and a growing conviction that hard-won wisdom is not mine to keep. The trouble is that it has fewer obvious places to go. My older children are grown and scattered. Young parents, meanwhile, are raising families far from their own parents and the aunts and uncles who once filled the gap. Somewhere between those two facts, there is an opportunity. There is a word for this kind of generous, sustained presence in another’s life: accompaniment. Its model is Mary, who, upon learning that her elderly cousin Elizabeth was expecting, did not send congratulations and move on. She went “in haste” to the hill country and stayed three months. What she brought was not a casserole or a gift card. It was herself — her presence, her prayer, her joy. The child in Elizabeth’s womb leaped at her arrival. Something that simple, that ancient, is still available to us.

The Catholic Thing

The absence of repentance, forgiveness, and reform

By Brad Miner, June 2, 2026

If we were to travel to the distant past, say, way back to 1976, I’m pretty sure we’d find nobody advocating for adults having sex with children. Then came the revolution of 1978. What revolution, you ask? I refer to the founding of the homosexual pedophile group, the National Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). All good reasons to praise the Incarnation, Christ’s ministry, and the birth of the Church. Still, these things – these sins – have gone on, but without the passive toleration, let alone the approbation of society. This is part of what makes the recent clergy sex-abuse crisis so sickening (and costly), even if the majority of those cases involved hebephilia (boys 11-14), ephebophilia (15-19), and just plain old homosexual liaisons with other adult males. Do we say that this last is as sinful as the others? I don’t think that matters, since each is mortally sinful and, therefore, in the absence of repentance, forgiveness, and reform, soul-killing.

Wild at Heart

Truly relish the story of our lives

By John Eldredge, June 4, 2026

Few of us remember the taste of our first ice cream (what flavor was it?), the first book we read ourselves, or our first kiss. We can barely recall that vacation we planned for so many years; it was over in mere weeks. I name this loss because it is loss—tragic, sweeping, and expansive. Your entire life, every dear moment, is currently being swept downstream from you even as you read this sentence. It does such harm to the soul and our life with God. All good things come to an end. I hate that phrase, hate it like the sound of sirens, the sound of dirt falling on a casket. Lest we despair, God has given us “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT), and to be quite specific, it includes the restoration of every precious day of our lives. Heaven is not a memory wipe. It is the time and capacity to truly relish the story of our lives.

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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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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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“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”

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

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“Worth your weight in walnuts”

Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources are Crux, Graphs about Religion, Aleteia, The PILLAR, OSV News, Catholic Culture, & EWTN News. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)

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“We see through new tender verdant pecan leaves”

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Fridays, "Living that coconut kinda life."

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“The greatest thing since peanut butter & jelly”

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Zenit

Leo XIV receives Spain’s atheist president amid a political crisis

By Valentina di Giorgio, May 27, 2026

As Spain enters one of its most politically charged moments in recent years, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez arrived at the Vatican. He came amid judicial controversy at home, growing political pressure, and only days before Pope Leo XIV began what is expected to become a closely watched apostolic journey across Spain. The approximately 45-minute private audience between Sánchez and the Pope unfolded against a turbulent domestic backdrop. On the same day, the Spanish political debate was dominated by developments involving investigations into the Socialist Party and the legal scrutiny of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Yet inside the Apostolic Palace, the conversation appears to have moved onto different terrain: peace, migration, international law, and the relationship between public institutions and civil society.

Religion News Service

Amid protests at Delaney Hall, a Catholic nun’s ‘radical hospitality’

By Fiona Murphy, May 27, 2026

For five days, Delaney Hall, an immigrant detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, has been in the news for large and loud protests over conditions inside the facility. After some 300 detainees began a hunger and labor strike over what they said were inhumane conditions, the protests have grown to include members of Congress, such as Sen. Andy Kim and Rep. Robert Menendez, both Democrats from New Jersey. But for the last year, one woman, Sister Susan Francois, has overseen a “Radical Hospitality” tent outside Delaney Hall, bearing witness and ministering to families and friends visiting detainees. She started coming in May 2025, when there was a major protest over conditions in front of Delaney Hall, and a New Jersey gubernatorial candidate and a member of Congress were arrested. Soon after, Francois started visiting about twice a week and documenting her work on TikTok, hoping to inspire other people to take action and spread hope.

Crux

Silicon Valley priest says big tech is open to Vatican on AI

By Elise Ann Allen, May 27, 2026

A pastor serving in the heart of Silicon Valley has said the Vatican’s efforts to build bridges with major tech giants, while slow-going, are not being ignored, and sees this engagement as key to the future of the artificial intelligence industry. Following the May 25 presentation of Pope Leo’s Magnifica Humanitas on humanity in the era of AI, Father Brendan McGuire said major tech organizations are heeding Vatican warnings in AI, particularly the need to proceed with caution. “I have met with them consistently over many years, and then intensely over this last year, and I will tell you I have seen men and women — and not just Anthropic, of other companies, of AI companies — of genuine goodwill who are trying to do the right thing,” he said. Many involved in developing AI technologies, “see something in what they’re developing that is concerning them. Maybe even frightening them. Maybe even making them in awe because of something brilliant that you have discovered.”

The Pillar

What about the potential excommunication of SSPX laity?

By JD Flynn, May 27, 2026

The most likely scenario for the Switzerland-based Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) over the course of the summer is that its bishops will do what its superior general, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, has said they will do — consecrate bishops despite a papal admonition against the plan. The result will be that the consecrated and consecrators will incur the canonical penalty of excommunication, which Leo has indicated that the Vatican is likely to formally declare — a rare step for the Vatican, but one intended to convey the seriousness of the SSPX’s disobedience, and to call its leadership to return to communion with the successor of St. Peter. In recent weeks, Vatican doctrinal prefect Cardinal Victor Fernandez has suggested the possibility that ordinary priests and even laity could incur and see declared the excommunication likely to be incurred by SSPX leadership. The prospect of declaring that penalty for laity seems unlikely.

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Aleteia

Firefighter finds faith thanks to man he saved

By Anna Ashkova, May 28, 2025

In Lourdes, 532 military personnel received the sacrament of confirmation on Saturday, May 23, during the 66th International Military Pilgrimage (PMI). Among them was Florian, a Paris firefighter. He came to receive the sacrament accompanied by his sponsor, Grégoire. Florian resuscitated Grégoire in the nick of time in 2023 at the Luxembourg Gardens. He had been strolling through the park with his family and friends when he came upon the emergency in progress. “I saved his life, but Grégoire saved me spiritually. In a way, we saved each other.” Three years later, sitting in the Basilica of Saint Pius X in Lourdes, surrounded by thousands of French military personnel attending the pilgrimage, Florian still finds it hard to grasp how far he has come. Two years earlier, this 39-year-old firefighter crossed paths with 43-year-old Grégoire under tragic circumstances. Today, the man he brought back to life is his confirmation sponsor.

National Catholic Register

Churchgoers do hear political & social issues from the pulpit

By Tessa Gervasini/EWTN News, May 27, 2026

A Pew Research Center report found that most Americans who regularly attend religious services hear about political or social issues from their clergy. The May 27 report, “What Political Issues Do Americans Hear About in Church?” found that two-thirds of U.S. adults who regularly attend religious services have heard their clergy speak about at least one political or social issue in the past few months. The data were based on Catholic, white evangelical Protestant, white non-evangelical Protestant, and Black Protestant U.S. adults who reported attending religious services at least once or twice a month. There were not enough respondents from other religious groups, such as Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus, who regularly attend religious services. Of the topics Pew asked about, abortion was the most commonly cited issue with 35% reporting they have heard about it in the past few months.

Zeale News

Archaeologists in Turkey find preserved traces of early Christianity

By McKenna Snow, May 27, 2026

Archeologists have discovered the “best-preserved early image of Christ,” ancient Christian messages, and at least a dozen ancient churches in Turkey in recent years, offering a more robust image of the early Church, the Independent reported May 26. A 2025 excavation in Iznik, which is in western Turkey, revealed an image on the wall of an underground family tomb that depicts Christ carrying a sheep while surrounded by several sheep. According to correspondent and historian David Keys, the image, which dates between the early and mid-third century, “is among the five oldest proper images of Christ, as an adult, ever found anywhere in the world.” The image remains of such high quality because the sealed tomb kept oxygen at bay, preventing the paint from deteriorating, Keys explained. “The newly discovered painting gives historians a detailed understanding of how early Christians perceived Jesus — beardless, short-cropped hair and dressed in posh upper-class Roman clothes,” he writes.

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EWTN News

Commission set to tackle $290 million debt at Padre Pio’s hospital

By Andrea Gagliarducci, May 27, 2026

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday created a commission to identify solutions for long-term sustainability at the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, a major hospital complex founded by St. Pio of Pietrelcina and directly overseen by the Vatican Secretariat of State. The Catholic hospital — which is located in the southern Italian region of Puglia — is facing a debt crisis from which “we will emerge together,” Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said during a May 5 visit to the facility. The hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, where the saint known as Padre Pio lived for most of his life, has debts estimated to run between 250 million and 300 million euros ($290 million to $350 million). The hospital is currently in a dispute with officials from the Puglia region over reimbursements — the regional authority claims it is owed 32 million euros ($37 million) — and is also involved in a conflict over new labor contracts.

Keep informed - 5/28/26 news for Catholics

Snippets from OSV, EWTN News, & ChurchPOP

OSV News

OSV’s seasoned reporters - May 28, 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.

• Facing soaring fuel and fertilizer prices, Catholic farmers lean on faith - by Kimberley Heatherington - May 27, 2026 - Farming is a precarious vocation. It’s dangerous work, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration; it’s economically volatile due to high production costs and market price fluctuations; and there are climate risks from droughts, floods, and pests.

• Why Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a Catholic journey - by Leonard J. DeLorenzo - May 27, 2026 - J.R.R. Tolkien was a serious Catholic; one might assume that religion would be evident in his literary masterpiece. Yet, there is no religion in “The Lord of the Rings,” as Tolkien himself confessed to a (priest-)friend in a letter from 1953. “For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”

• Catholicism in the Lower South: Thriving communities built on French and Spanish foundations - by Father Anthony D. Andreassi - May 5, 2026 - In a continuing series on the origins of Catholicism in the 50 states, the story now turns to the lower South and the states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. What began as a fragile missionary presence with the Spanish and French would only gradually develop into a more established Church.

EWTN News

EWTN’s top headlines — May 28, 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.

• Antoni Gaudí: A model of holiness and dialogue for Spain - By Ishmael Adibuah and Victoria Cardiel - Before Pope Leo’s visit to Barcelona, an architect and a priest discuss Antoni Gaudíʼs holiness and skill, which enabled him to envision Sagrada Família Basilica and transcend deep divisions in Spain.

• Cubans are coming to parishes saying they haven’t eaten in days, bishop laments - By Eduardo Berdejo - In a country where deprivation is the norm, the situation is exacerbated by deteriorating infrastructure and the U.S. fuel embargo. People are hungry, and the Church is striving to meet their needs.

• Young Catholics drive record crowds for Chartres Pilgrimage in France - By Solène Tadié - Nearly 20,000 people from 22 countries took part in the three-day walk. An internal study of this year's pilgrims examined their faith, practices, and motivations.

ChurchPOP Trending

ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - May 28, 2026

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

3 Things Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas Is Asking Every Parent to Do Right Now - In his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” Pope Leo XIV turned directly to parents, and what he said is something every family needs to do, including “Don’t Give Your Child a Phone Too Early.”

Dying Woman Has Vision of Jesus After Man Prays One Hail Mary: ‘You Saved My Life’ - “Jesus said, ‘You were going to die, but because of the prayer of this man, you’re going to live.’”

5 Ways to Celebrate America’s 250th Like a Catholic (Beyond Fireworks and BBQ) - Instead of fireworks and barbecues alone, we can thank God for His blessings, ask forgiveness for our sins as a nation, and pray for a future rooted in Christ.

May 28, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings

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Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

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Catholic Culture

Atheist comedians: Oh dear …

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, May 4, 2026

Reality is often a bitter pill to swallow. A good comedian is very intelligent and has a keen sense of irony. Irony requires the ability to contrast the way things are with the way things should be. Religion has similar qualities. Intelligent irony without faith may be amusing, but often cynical, even vicious. Some comedians challenge the existence of God and His benevolence because of the various difficulties they encounter, particularly in the Old Testament. The brilliant and appropriately censored quips of George Carlin are insightful and hilarious. But he hated the Catholic Church, and his comedic attacks are legendary. Although we continue to encounter many mysterious guardrails of the faith, we have many opportunities to deepen our understanding of the human condition beyond the cynicism of atheist comedians. God rescues us from despair. After the Resurrection, it’s hard for comedians to ridicule the tender words of Jesus that forgive sins and promise everlasting life.

National Catholic Register

After Pakistan mob lynching, Christian Family still seeks justice

By Kamran Chaudhry/EWTN News, May 27, 2026

As Pakistan marks Eid al-Adha, the son of a Christian man killed by a mob over blasphemy allegations says his family has received no compensation and no one has been punished. Nearly 2,000 people attacked Gillʼs family in Sargodha, in northern Punjab province, on May 25, 2024, after allegations emerged that his father, Nazir (Lazar) Masih, had desecrated pages of the Quran. EWTN News covered the attack at the time. The mob ransacked the familyʼs home and shoe factory in Mujahid Colony and later set the business on fire after a mosque announcement reportedly amplified the accusations. Police managed to evacuate nine members of the family, but Masih was caught by the crowd and beaten with stones, bricks, and sticks. The 74-year-old succumbed to his injuries on the night of June 2–3, 2024.

Caeli

A delightful option for early childhood learning

By Maria Mellis, May 28, 2026

I was delighted when I was introduced to a new curriculum, written and illustrated by two Catholic moms, for children ages 3-6: “Consider the Wildflowers: Little Lessons in Language, Nature, and Virtue.” I had to share! This curriculum is a beautiful and intuitive guide to introduce order, intentionality, and learning into life with a little one at home while also allowing for flexibility, whimsy, and space to meet the many other demands of your family’s life. “Consider the Wildflowers” can be used as a homeschool guide for preschool and kindergarten, or by moms sending their children to school who want to add a bit of structured learning to the days at home before official schooling begins. The book is structured into 26 week-long units, with material for four days each week. The content for each week revolves around one letter of the alphabet and includes the following components: an animated alphabet character, the letter-of-the-week in traceable and sign language form, a nursery rhyme, a Scripture verse, a virtue of the week with an accompanying virtue story, and more …

Wild at Heart

Missing the most important thing

By John Eldredge, May 28, 2026

We take folks through a discipleship program whereby they master any number of Christian precepts and miss the most important thing of all, the very thing for which we were created: intimacy with God. There are, after all, those troubling words Jesus spoke to those who were doing all the “right” things: “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you’” (Matthew 7:23). Knowing God. That’s the point. You might recall the old proverb: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The same holds true here. Teach a man a rule and you help him solve a problem; teach a man to walk with God and you help him solve the rest of his life. Only by walking with God can we hope to find the path that leads to life. That is what it means to be a disciple. After all—aren’t we “followers of Christ”? Then by all means, let’s actually follow him. Not ideas about him. Not just his principles. Him.

Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay

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