Catholic Nutshell News: Friday 12/19/25
Topics include: Northern Ireland education ruling; Burkina Faso’s global silence; ‘We should not remain on the sidelines’; & Young conservative at Turning Point
Fridays, "Living that coconut kinda life."
Today's sources: National Catholic Register, Catholic News Agency, Word on Fire, Catholic World Report, Zenit, & 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
Bishops respond to Northern Ireland education ruling
By Patrick J. Passmore, December 17, 2025
A U.K. Supreme Court ruling, which found that Christian religious education taught in schools in Northern Ireland is unlawful, clarified that the judgment states that denominational religious education and collective worship are not prohibited in Catholic-maintained schools. In its judgment, the court found that the current approach lacks an “objective, critical, and pluralistic” framework and leans more toward indoctrination than fostering a diverse understanding of beliefs. Responding to the ruling, which does not apply to Catholic schools, Bishop Alan McGuckian, SJ, of the Down and Connor Diocese, firmly challenged the idea that Christianity should be given no priority in all schools, stating that anyone seeking to do so is “cutting off their nose to spite their face.” McGuckian said: “I want to challenge the principle that people of a secular mindset assert, namely that Christianity should be given no priority in all schools. That principle is simply ungrounded, unreasonable, and illogical.”
aciafrica
Burkina Faso’s Catholic bishops decry global silence
By ACI Africa Staff, December 18, 2025
Christmas celebrations in some parts of Burkina Faso that are experiencing religious extremism may be held early owing to security concerns, a section of Catholic Church leaders in the West African country have said. “The celebrations will begin early to avoid having to move around at night,” explains Bishop Naré of Kaya, who is also apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Ouahigouya. The same will happen for the Diocese of Ouahigouya, according to the Wednesday, December 17 ACN report. Bishop Naré says the faithful, scouts, ‘Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland’ and security forces have been collaborating on big religious festivals, such as Christmas. According to the ACN report, areas served by the Catholic Diocese of Dori are also continuously facing security, humanitarian, and pastoral challenges which the international community seems to ignore. “Either it knows, and it doesn’t react, or it doesn’t act because it doesn’t know,” Bishop Naré said.
CatholicVote
‘We should not remain on the sidelines’
By McKenna Snow, December 18, 2025
Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, this weekend emphatically denounced the recent legalization of physician-assisted suicide in his home state of Illinois, and he urged all Christians to bring the faith to the public square and oppose it. “I wanted to speak out as strongly as I can against a measure that I think is really shameful,” He said in the Dec. 13 X video about the bill. emphasizing that legalized physician-assisted suicide is “the direct killing of the sick and the elderly now officially sponsored by the state.” Advocates of assisted suicide will describe it as a matter of “choice” and honoring someone’s personal decision, Bishop Barron said, but added that people should not be taken advantage of through this tactic, which pro-abortion advocates have used for decades. Pro-abortionists have argued “my body, my choice” to justify abortions, but Bishop Barron emphasized that the issue at hand isn’t choice itself, but what is being chosen.
National Catholic Register
HHS Actions to restrict ‘sex-rejecting procedures’ on minors
By Tyler Arnold/CNA, December 18, 2025
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed regulations today that would seek to end “sex-rejecting procedures” on anyone younger than 18 years old, which includes restrictions on hospitals and retailers. Under one proposal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would withhold all funding through Medicare and Medicaid to any hospital that offers surgeries or drugs to minors as a means to make them resemble the opposite sex. The proposed rules would prohibit federal Medicaid funding for “sex-rejecting procedures” on anyone under 18 and prohibit federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding for the procedures on anyone under 19. This includes surgical operations, such as the removal of healthy genitals to replace them with artificial genitals that resemble the opposite sex, and chest procedures that remove the healthy breasts on girls or implant prosthetic breasts on boys.
The Times of Israel
Israel rejects IPC report of ‘acute food insecurity’ in Gaza
By Jeremy Sharon, December 18, 2025
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories says in response to an IPC famine monitor report on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip that it shows the organization acknowledges there is no famine in the territory. But COGAT, a department of the Defense Ministry, also rejects the new IPC report’s claim that “acute food insecurity’ prevails in the territory, stating that 500,000 tons of food have entered Gaza since the current ceasefire with Hamas began. “COGAT strongly rejects the claims and conclusions presented in the IPC report published today (Friday), which once again portrays a distorted, biased and unfounded picture of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” the agency says of the new study. it misleads the international community, fuels disinformation and presents a false depiction of the reality on the ground,” it charges. COGAT reports that between 600 and 800 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip every day since late October, 70% of which carry food aid.
Catholic World Report
‘When religion becomes a weapon, it blinds the people’
By Ngala Killian Chimtom, December 18, 2025
Across Africa, faith is a profound source of hope, charity, and community. Yet in nations like Nigeria, it has also become the continent’s most volatile political fault line, often manipulated for power and dominance. In a recent essay at VoiceAfrique titled “Faith Weaponized: The Crisis of Religion and Africa’s Deepest Political Fault Line,” Fr. Augustine Anwuchie, a Nigerian priest serving in the Niger Republic, dissects this dangerous paradox, arguing that violence against Christians is not merely extremist terrorism, but a symptom of a systemic crisis — the “politicization of religion and the religionization of politics.” He traces the historical roots of this entanglement from the Fulani Caliphate to modern-day state bias, exposing a complicity that blurs the line between persecution and genocide. Both citizens and international actors need to reclaim faith from those who exploit it as a weapon.
CRUX
Young conservative women find a home in Turning Point
By Sejal Govindarao, AP, December 19, 2025
Camdyn Glover used to be a quiet conservative. She worried about what her teachers would think or if she would lose friends over her convictions. But she said something changed when Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September, and she started crying in her classroom at Indiana University while other students cheered and clapped. “We can’t be silenced,” Glover decided. Although the organization became a political phenomenon with its masculine appeals to college men, it’s also been expanding outreach to young women like Glover. The shift is poised to accelerate now that Turning Point is led by Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow and a Catholic, who has embraced her new role at the helm of a conservative juggernaut with chapters across the country. Turning Point blends traditional values, such as encouraging women to prioritize marriage over careers.
Vatican News
Pope Leo: ‘Enough with these forms of antisemitic violence!’
By Vatican News, December 18, 2025
On Wednesday, December 17, Pope Leo XIV received a telephone call from Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel, as Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas and Jews mark the festival of Hanukkah. According to the Holy See Press Office, the conversation came in light of the recent terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Sydney, Australia. “Enough with these forms of antisemitic violence!” Pope Leo said. “We must eliminate hatred from our hearts.” Pope Leo reiterated the “Catholic Church’s firm condemnation of all forms of antisemitism, which, throughout the world, continues to sow fear in Jewish communities and in society as a whole.” The Pope also renewed his appeal for “perseverance in the various ongoing peace processes in the region, and emphasized the urgency of intensifying and continuing efforts in the area of humanitarian aid.”
Big Pulpit, CNA & Zenit for 12/19/25
Big Pulpit
Tito Edwards Catholic site: December 19, 2025
The Big Pulpit website is a news aggregator that gathers quality insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide.
Bombshell! New Archbishop for New York City: Friendly to Tradition. . . – Fr. Allan J. McDonald
The 10 Most Iconic Photographs in Catholic Church History – Gary Sullivan at Catholic365
How the Liturgy Guides Us to Live the Mass Beyond Sunday – St. Dominic Media
The Peculiar Christmas Custom of the Boy Bishops – Deacon Thomas L. McDonald, M.A., at WC
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — December 19, 2025
Catholic News Agency provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, with updates on the words of the Holy Father and the Holy See.
Top 2025 religious freedom developments included mix of persecution, protection - Dec 19, 2025 - By Tessa Gervasini - President Donald Trump established the White House Religious Liberty Commission in May to report on threats to religious freedom in the U.S. and seek to advance legal protections.
Pope Leo XIV warns against destructive spiral of autonomous weapons and escalation - Dec 18, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - The Pope lamented that, in the face of global challenges, the predominant response is an “enormous economic investment in rearmament.”
Sacramental encounters will help people stay in the Church and fulfill spiritual needs, an apologist says - Dec 18, 2025 - By Tessa Gervasini - Encouraging participation in Mass and making the sacraments more accessible can deepen Catholics' sense of fulfillment, experts say.
Zenit
Zenit - The world seen from Rome - December 19, 2025
Zenit is an international, non-profit news agency staffed by professionals and volunteers to transmit information with fidelity and service to the truth.
“Let no one be lost! Let everyone be saved!” The Pope’s homily that every prisoner (and family member or friend of a prisoner) should read on December 14, 2025
Syria: in 14 years, the Christian presence has fallen by 84%: Overall, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Christians are still in Syria. Of those who remain, more than half are over the age of 50. The community’s age structure is inverted, with far fewer young people able or willing to stay, December 13, 2025
Polls about Catholic support for Trump in the US and his immigration policy - Overall, 52% of Catholic voters report a favorable view of Trump, with 37% holding an unfavorable one. Among white Catholics, approval rises to nearly 58%, while Latino Catholics remain closely divided.
Nutshell reflections for 12/19/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection: AUDIO - December 19, 2025
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Catholic365
Routine destruction or indefinite freezing of unused embryos
By Lloyd Benes, December 19, 2025
Startup companies Nucleus Genomics and Herasight have begun publicly offering genetic predictions of intelligence to help parents choose which embryos to implant during in vitro fertilization (IVF). This process is called preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic traits (PGT-P) and can cost up to $50,000 at Herasight. An example is Simone and Malcolm Collins, former tech and venture-capital professionals, who have had four children through IVF and used Herasight to analyze some of their embryos. Simone is now pregnant with an embryo that showed a low cancer risk, but also because it ranked in “the 99th percentile” for predicted intelligence based on a polygenic score (bit.ly/4p0ymS2). On one hand, this practice is a de facto acknowledgment that even before implantation, an embryo is a distinct human life, with DNA already determining the physical characteristics of the developing child. On the other hand, PGT-P involves testing 10 to 20 fertilized eggs to give parents choices based on desired traits. What happens to the embryos that are not chosen?
Catholic Culture
What Chesterton wrote to his wife when she entered the Church
By Dr. Jeff Mirus, December 18, 2025
In 1901, Gilbert Keith Chesterton married Frances Alice Blogg. Chesterton was a prolific thinker and writer who operated through genius more than well-organized habits, and Frances (who was also a writer) often served as his secretary and kept him on track. When he and Frances married in 1901, neither of them was Catholic. Chesterton became convinced of the veracity of Catholicism and converted about twenty years later, in 1922. When Frances was received into the Church 4 years later, he marked the occasion by writing a poem to her titled “The Two Kinds.”
To others of old I would have said
That dogmas deep as questioning Christendom
Sleep in the sundering of the wine and bread,
And that Incarnate Christ in every crumb.
For you I find words fewer and more human:
Content to say of him that guards the Shrine
“To drink this Wine he has lost the Love of Woman
Yea, even such love as yours: to drink this Wine.”
Aleteia
Court sides with Catholic Charities over ‘conversion therapy’ ban
By Christine Rousselle, December 19, 2025
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit sided with Catholic therapists who counsel young people with gender dysphoria on Wednesday, December 17, blocking a Michigan law that banned so-called "conversion therapy." “This is a victory for children nationwide,” said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the counselors. “Michigan’s law was pushing children toward irreversible medical procedures that cause lasting harms.” “Conversion theory” can mean a variety of things, depending on who uses the term. Under Michigan’s law, therapists and counselors who treated minor patients with gender dysphoria were not permitted to counsel the minors regarding factors that could make them feel at odds with their biological sex. "This ruling ensures that children who want it can receive compassionate, evidence-based counseling that alleviates their distress and helps them embrace their bodies without resorting to irreversible, life-altering medical interventions," said Goodrich.
Word on Fire
When machines take the work, what happens to the soul
By Sebastian Barros, December 17, 2025
Something decisive has shifted in the last twenty-four months. The world’s largest technology companies are entering a wave of labor reductions unmatched in recent memory. Meta announced more than 11,000 cuts in a single round in late 2022, the largest in its history. Amazon has eliminated roughly 27,000 roles across its corporate divisions since 2022. Alphabet eliminated about 12,000 positions in a single major restructuring round. Microsoft followed with about 10,000 cuts across engineering, cloud, and gaming. Salesforce eliminated more than 8,000 roles as part of a broad reset. Cisco reported more than 4,000 cuts. According to layoff trackers, Intel removed more than 15,000 roles in 2024 alone. Even companies that reported solid revenue or rising margins continued to narrow their workforces. Across the United States, more than 95,000 technology-sector workers lost their jobs in 2024, according to major layoff trackers.
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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