Catholic Nutshell News: Friday 11/7/25
Topics include: Historic land returned to Native American tribe; Why Mamdani’s message resonated; Catholic view of death; & The Church is wrong about climate change
Fridays, "Living that coconut kinda life."
Today's sources: National Catholic Register, Catholic News Agency, Word on Fire, Our Sunday Visitor, ChurchPOP, & Aleteia. (Catholic Nutshell is a FREE subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)
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Catholic News Agency
Sisters’ historic land return to Wisconsin Native American tribe
By Daniel Payne, October 7, 2025
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, which has run hospitals and schools in Wisconsin and sponsored medical clinics and mission schools abroad, announced the transfer of its land holdings in an Oct. 31 news release. The community is located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, near the state’s border with Minnesota. This is the first known instance of a Catholic group returning land to a Native American tribe, hailing it as a move made in the “spirit of relationship and healing.” The sisters had purchased the land from the Lac du Flambeau Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa tribe in 1966 for $30,000 and used the property for its Marywood Franciscan Spirituality Center. They sold the land for the same amount. “Today, the tribe’s reservation represents only a fraction of [its] traditional territories,” the news release said. “Rebuilding and protecting tribal land bases is vital to sustaining sovereignty — for self-determination, cultural preservation, and community development.”
The Pillar
Kansas City diocesan employee accused of stealing $155,000
By Michelle La Rosa, November 6, 2025
A former employee of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Jeremy Lillig, 44, has been accused of stealing $155,000 intended for financial assistance at urban Catholic schools – almost 10 times the average annual income of the families he was hired to serve. Lillig served as the director of stewardship for the diocese and was also the executive director of the Bright Futures Fund, which provides financial assistance to students attending three urban Catholic schools in Kansas City. According to prosecutors, Lillig took grant money intended for the fund and used it to purchase more than 400 Visa gift cards, which he then used for his own benefit and that of others, submitting falsified expense reports to conceal his actions. Court documents allege that Lillig stole $155,000 from 2017-21. But he is only facing one charge of wire fraud, for a single $500 gift card he allegedly purchased. The court documents did not explain the discrepancy between the total amount allegedly stolen and the amount in the charges.
CatholicVote
Why Mamdani’s message resonated with young voters
By Elise Winland, November 6, 2025
In a Nov. 5 RealClear Politics commentary titled “Explaining Mamdani’s Appeal to the Young, With Polling,” CatholicVote Senior Political Advisor Steve Cortes argued that while Mamdani’s “Marxist answers are wrong and immoral,” his rise reflects voters’ economic frustration and disillusionment with the political establishment. Cortes argued that while Mamdani’s “Marxist answers are wrong and immoral,” his rise reflects voters’ economic frustration and disillusionment with the political establishment. “It’s a sad day for the de facto capital of the world, New York City,” Cortes wrote, adding that “those of us on the populist right should not merely shake our heads and bemoan the extremism of Mamdani.” Instead, he said, conservatives must “understand his appeal” to “counter his un-American ideas and continue to build on our 2024 triumph — to earn further big gains nationally among young voters for patriotic populism.”
National Catholic Register
Catholic view of death is anything but dark
By The Editors, November 6, 2025
In addition to the back-to-back Solemnities of All Saints and All Souls to begin the month, the Church’s Scripture readings in November, in preparation for Advent, direct our attention to the “four last things”: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The Register will launch its first-ever “Death Issue,” featuring an eclectic mix of content on that theme available both online and in our Nov. 16 print edition. If a “Death Issue” sounds dreadfully morose to you, well, good, that means we were right in thinking that we probably all could use a refresher on the Catholic view of death, because it’s anything but dark. It’s the Good News: By his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has conquered death so that, through faith in him, we might live with him forever in heaven. Pope Leo XIV reiterated this life-giving message on All Souls’ Day. “The Lord awaits us,” the Holy Father said, “and when we finally meet him at the end of our earthly journey, we shall rejoice with him and with our loved ones who have gone before us.”
The Times of Israel
Despite Israel’s bid to shut it, UNRWA resumes teaching in Gaza
By Nurit Yohanan, November 7, 2025
The agency long accused of using antisemitic content, UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, returns to in-person education. In contrast, expensive private schools and others try to fill the gap left by the still-closed Hamas-run system. Gazan children have begun returning to school following two years of war in which education in the Strip was largely shut down, with tens of thousands back in classes managed by the same United Nations agency that critics say has for decades indoctrinated Palestinians to hate Israel. Some 30,000 students have resumed in-person learning through schools run by UNRWA, according to Adnan Abu Hasna, the spokesperson for the Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza. A report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council last June found that over 90 percent of universities and schools in Gaza were damaged or completely destroyed by Israeli actions – through airstrikes, shelling, fires, and controlled demolitions.
Catholic World Report
Catholicism and the problem of political extremism
By James Kalb, November 6, 2025
Modern politics go to extremes. There are several reasons for that. One is that modern thought likes to draw far-reaching conclusions from a few simple principles. In the natural sciences, where exact verification is possible, it has been highly productive. In politics, it leads to insanity. That’s what has happened to liberalism. It once seemed moderate, practical, and reform-minded. Belief in the rule of law and constitutional protections for individual rights seemed part of that. But the logic of those principles said otherwise. Liberal rights famously evolve, and they trump practical considerations, so the liberal right to equal freedom eventually comes to require the eradication of all traditionally accepted human distinctions. The result — liberal rationality has gone insane, and liberalism itself has become extreme and illiberal. A decade ago, illiberalism reached its peak. In 2020, the collapse of liberal moderation in favor of progressive radicalism dominated respectable opinion. The latter has softened a bit, at least temporarily, but the former seems unlikely to return.
CRUX
Document about ‘Co-redemptrix’ opens hornet’s nest
By Charles Collins, November 7, 2025
This week’s announcement by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that we should not use “Co-redemptrix” as a title of the Virgin Mary has left observers with several questions, among them: “Why this?” and “Why now?” Several previous popes, including Pope St. John Paul II, had used the title. Pope Benedict XVI expressed serious reservations about the title and refused requests to define it, while Pope Francis objected to its use it. The main objection was that some supporters of the Marian title seemed almost to deify Mary, detracting from the unique role of Jesus Christ. “However, I don’t think that it is pastorally prudent to prohibit the use of the title at this point, because, frankly, the toothpaste is already out of the tube on this. It’s a title that is not limited to excessive popular devotion, but it has been very carefully discussed and explained,” said Dominican Father Peter Totleben.
Vatican News
Charta Oecumenica shows shared journey of European Churches
By Devin Watkins, November 30, 2025
Pope Leo XIV met on Thursday with members of the Joint Committee of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE). The papal audience came a day after the representatives of Christian Churches in Europe signed the new Charta Oecumenica, a document that acts as a cornerstone of European ecumenical cooperation, at the Abbey of the Three Fountains in Rome. In his address, the Pope said the updated document—signed 25 years after the first Ecumenical Charter—seeks to address the constantly evolving ecumenical journey of Christians in Europe, while responding to contemporary concerns in proclaiming the Gospel. He noted that Europe has seen new generations born and people arrive from distant lands who bring with them “varied histories and cultural expressions.”
Big Pulpit, CNA & ChurchPOP for 11/7/25
Big Pulpit
Tito Edwards Catholic site: November 7, 2025
The Big Pulpit website is a news aggregator that gathers quality insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide.
CCHD Caught Again Funding Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Campaigns – Michael Hichborn at Lepanto Institute
Is Mary Still Mediatrix of Graces? – Joshua Mazrin at Catholic Answers Magazine
Mediatrix: Mary’s Distribution of Grace (Garrigou-Lagrange) – The WM Review
The Vatican & The Trolls – Philip F. Lawler, Ph.D.
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — November 7, 2025
Catholic News Agency provides reliable and free up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, with updates on the words of the Holy Father and the Holy See.
Vatican confirms French bishop’s resignation linked to inappropriate conduct toward women - Nov 6, 2025 - By Solène Tadié - In a statement issued Nov. 4, the apostolic nunciature in France said it had received “information concerning relationships toward women.
Texas bishops issue statement expressing solidarity with immigrants ahead of court order - Nov 6, 2025 - By Amira Abuzeid - In a statement released Nov. 4, the Texas bishops called the looming implementation of the court ruling in the case.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts issues apology for controversial video - Nov 6, 2025 - By Madalaine Elhabbal - Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts has issued an apology following his controversial defense of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes.
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - November 7, 2025
‘His Armor’: Charlie Kirk ‘Loved Saint Michael,’ Widow Erika Reveals in Fox News Interview - “He loved Saint Michael. So every time he put this on, he felt like it was his armor.”
‘We Must Empty Purgatory’: 10 Saint Quotes on the Power of Praying for Departed Souls - “In our prayers, let us not forget sinners and the poor souls in Purgatory, especially our poor relatives.” - Saint Bernadette
The Chapel Veil is Back: 3 Beautiful Reasons Some Catholic Women Are Veiling at Mass Again - “A woman is marked by her mantilla as belonging to God. We are veiled because we belong, not to a pretentious patriarchal hierarchy.”
Nutshell reflections for 11/7/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection: AUDIO - November 7, 2025
Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Climate Depot
The Church was wrong about Galileo, and is wrong again
By Howard Thomas Brady, October 27, 2025
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences has become a narrow-minded bastion for IPCC climate science and seems unaware that the foundations of IPCC climate science are on shaky ground. Challenging the climate narrative of the IPCC are discovered facts, some known for many years, new scientific articles that describe historical temperature changes that undermine its assumptions about a present hothouse, and scientific articles that dispute the carbon dioxide narrative that has buttressed IPCC climate science since the first IPCC report in 1992. The narrative about the frequency and severity of storms, storm surges, and droughts is not supported by statistics gathered by national weather bureaus or even by the IPCC. Its oft-quoted narrative about today’s record hottest temperatures is being undermined by historical research on regional temperatures. They are wrong.
Aleteia
Little known saint shows the way to unshakable peace
By Theresa Civantos Barber, November 7, 2025
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, a Carmelite nun, is considered a “spiritual sister” of St. Therese of Lisieux. Her feast day is November 8. If you love Therese’s Story of a Soul, you will love the writings of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. Start with her writings with Claire Dwyer’s This Present Paradise, a beautiful devotional based on her spirituality. (And here’s our interview with the author!) The heart of her mission can be summed up in Dwyer’s words: St. Elizabeth’s specific mission is to help us discover the love of the Trinity dwelling in souls — our heaven, beginning even now on earth. Or as St. Elizabeth herself said shortly before her death at age 26: I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them go out of themselves to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within that will allow God to communicate Himself to them and transform them into Himself.
Word on Fire
Jesus was a master storyteller, but some are harder than others
By Mark Bradford, November 6, 2025
Jesus was a master storyteller, but the morals of his stories were sometimes lost on his listeners. Sometimes when we read them, we’re left bewildered, too. Even his disciples had to ask him to explain their meaning, and once they asked him why he spoke in parables at all (see Matt 13:10). Parables can be confusing. A good example of a story that may leave us confused is in Luke 16. There, we read the parable of the unjust steward, where Jesus seems to approve of a servant defrauding his master. However, there is no confusion in a parable Luke records later in the same chapter. It is the parable of the rich man, Dives, and Lazarus (16:19–31). The Pharisees couldn’t have missed the story’s searing implication, and we can’t miss it either. We can see in our imaginations Dives and his buddies as they step over Lazarus at the gate on their way to their feasts: Lazarus lying there, starving and invisible to them, begging with an outstretched hand as “dogs came and licked his sores” (16:21).
Catholic365
Choose the Good, the Beautiful, and the True
By BJ Gonzalvo, November 6, 2025
Free will has been one of those perennial questions that thinkers and philosophers have tackled for ages. Free will is simple, and yet, how easy it is for us to be enslaved by the choices we make. God has given us free will to choose the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, and choosing them always sets us free. Thanks to the giants of the Church, the saints and doctors of the Church, who have broken it down for us because it really is simple. But may God grant us, laypersons, the grace and the space to understand what free will is and why God has given us free will. Choose what is Good because choosing the opposite leads to the not-so-good. Choose truth because it is simply easier to defend truth than a lie. Choose the beautiful, because “Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.” - St. Thomas Aquinas
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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