Catholic Nutshell News: Friday 5/30/25
Topics include: Safety of abortion pill ‘baseless'; Attacks by jihadists worrisome in Benin; Challenges facing Christendom; & Catholics continue to decrease in Peru
Fridays, "Living that coconut kinda life."
Today's sources: National Catholic Register, The UK Tablet, Catholic News Agency, Crux, Word on Fire, CatholicVote, Our Sunday Visitor, & Catholic Stand. (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
Peer-reviewed study finds safety of abortion pill ‘baseless’
By Kate Quiñones, May 30, 2025
The Charlotte Lozier Institute last week published its peer-reviewed article in the journal BioTech challenging the “heavily relied upon talking point” for the abortion industry that abortion drugs are safer than Tylenol. Abortion giant Planned Parenthood on its website claims that medication abortion is safer than Tylenol — the brand name for acetaminophen, which is used for pain relief and to reduce fevers — and other common medicines. But this study found that the claim is not only unsupported and unprovable but also that it ignores “serious adverse events of abortion drugs, such as sepsis and hemorrhage.” The study notes that “while Tylenol-related deaths often result from misuse in a much larger user base, deaths from abortion drugs occur under prescribed use.”
Agenzia Fides
Two bloody attacks by jihadists worry Benin’s population
By Agencia Fides, May 28, 2025
The attack on April 17, the bloodiest since the beginning of Islamist attacks in 2019, shocked the people of Benin. One hundred fighters belonging to the "Group for the Support for Islam and Muslims" (JNIM) on motorcycles simultaneously attacked two army outposts. "The Bishops of Benin express their deepest sympathy to the entire nation and to the grieving families of our soldiers who fell in the line of duty," said the Bishops of Benin on the sidelines of the 75th Plenary Assembly of the Bishops' Conference, which took place from May 21 to 23. The bishops commemorated the 54 soldiers killed in two attacks by an Islamist terrorist group on April 17 in the north of the country. "Aware of the sacrifices made to preserve peace and security in our country, we pray for the eternal rest of these heroes."
The UK Tablet
UK companies ‘outperform’ peers in tackling global slavery
By Ruth Gledhill, Sarah Mac Donald, Ellen Teague, Bess Twiston Davies, May 29, 2025
UK companies are outperforming their global peers in tackling forced labour in their supply chains, as the UK marks 10 years since the landmark Modern Slavery Act, according to a new benchmark from investment manager CCLA. The aim of the benchmark, which assesses the 100 largest global companies, is to empower faith investors and institutions with renewed attention to banish modern slavery. Global firms scored an average of 30/62, compared to 36/62 for UK companies. Dr Martin Buttle, Better Work Lead at CCLA, said: “One of the key questions we had is to what extent foreign domiciled companies respect UK reporting requirements in both letter and spirit? As investors, we expect businesses to undertake human rights due diligence, not merely as part of a tick-box exercise, but dedicating appropriate care and resources to play their part in addressing and preventing modern slavery in their businesses and supply chains.”
National Catholic Register
Patriarch Awa III on challenges facing Christendom for Pope
By Solène Tadié, May 30, 2025
Catholicos-Patriarch Awa III of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East recently visited Budapest with a stark warning: Christianity in the Middle East is vanishing. Entire communities are being erased, while the Western world looks away. Speaking at Pázmány Péter Catholic University on May 21, he testified to the strength and resilience of Christians in the Middle East. He shares not only American nationality, but also the same birthplace, Chicago. Their first private meeting at the Vatican gave the patriarch cause to hope that the ecumenical dialogue between their two Churches would gain momentum. The Assyrian Church of the East is among the world’s most ancient Christian communities, with roots in Mesopotamia. Its current patriarchal seat is located in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
CRUX
Number of Catholics continues to decrease in Peru
By Eduardo Campos Lima, May 29, 2025
After Pope Leo XIV’s election on May 8, a new survey from the Peruvian Studies Institute (known as IEP in Spanish) shows the percentage of Catholics continues to decrease in Peru. In November of 2024, IEP showed that 63.5% of the Peruvian people declared themselves to be Catholic. Six months later — and after Cardinal Robert Prevost, a U.S.-born Peruvian national, was elected as the new pontiff — the percentage of Catholics fell to 60.2%. In the same period, the proportion of Evangelicals grew from 8.4% in 2024 to 11.3% in 2025. The percentage of Peruvians who declared they don’t have any religion also slightly increased to 11.9%. According to experts, the survey’s results were predictable. A religious transition is underway in the South American country, and Prevost’s election can’t significantly impact the scenario to the point of interrupting the current trend, especially in such a short time.
Our Sunday Visitor
Are the Gospels made-up, non-historical accounts?
By Jenna Marie Cooper, May 20, 2025
Some non-Catholics say that most of the Gospel is made up, as the earliest records show Jesus survived the crucifixion, married Mary Magdalene, and moved away, leaving his disciples to carry on their new religious movement. A basic knowledge of history and a bit of logical, common-sense reasoning make such assertions implausible. The books and letters of the New Testament, as well as some of the writings of the early Church Fathers, are our “earliest records” concerning Christianity. The New Testament is generally considered to have been written between the years A.D. 40 and 100, within the lifespan or at least the living memory of the Apostles who knew Jesus personally while he was still on earth. In the Church’s early centuries, numerous spurious Gospel-themed accounts existed, but they held roughly the same status as “fan fiction” today.
The Pillar
Charlotte’s Martin urged to slow down on cathedral project
By The Pillar, May 29, 2025
In a meeting last month with the future Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican urged Bishop Michael Martin to slow his pace on proposed major changes in the Diocese of Charlotte. Martin was advised, especially, to slow down on a plan to relocate the diocesan cathedral, after less than a year leading the North Carolina diocese. The Vatican’s intervention came at the same time that priests in the diocese were pushing back on the bishop’s plan for broad liturgical changes in the diocese, and after a consulting group flagged Martin’s “speed of change” as an area in need of improvement in the Charlotte diocese. Sources in the Charlotte diocese told The Pillar this week that Martin ultimately nixed a task force’s recommendation to build, and instead considered plans to establish an existing parish as the diocesean cathedral. The plan saw mixed reactions in the diocese.
Vatican News
Seminary formation key to Church renewal in Ghana
By Gabriel Asempa Antwi/Accra, May 27, 2025
Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi identified a concerning decline in the Catholic population in Ghana and called on seminarians, formators, and benefactors to spearhead a new evangelizing momentum rooted in pastoral zeal and spiritual renewal. “We need to breed a new group of priests who will make things new,” he declared. Referencing recent census data, the Bishop of Sunyani outlined the troubling trend: “In the year 2000 census, Catholics were 16.4% of the Ghanaian population. In the year 2010, we had become 13.3%. In the recent census 2020, it was 10.1%.” He described the decline as an “existential” threat to the Church’s mission, adding, “We should not be complacent and think everything is okay. Everything is not okay.”
Pillar, CNA & Satire for Friday, May 30, 2025
The Pillar
Pillar Articles for 5/30/25
The Pillar is a Catholic Church news and investigative journalism website founded by J.D. Flynn, former editor-in-chief of CNA and former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Denver; and Ed Condon, former Washington, D.C., bureau editor of CNA.
There’s a lot of conversation about the pope’s leadership record — but for a few reasons, I’m not sure any of it reveals much about how he’ll tackle the Church’s serious crises from the Apostolic Palace.
The Archbishop of Moscow formally closed on Friday the diocesan phase for investigating the possible canonization of Russian martyrs. The martyrs, 10 Servants of God, were killed in odium fidei during the 20th century after the Bolshevik Revolution which led to the creation of the Soviet Union.
How will Leo XIV help the Church in Switzerland to emerge from a crisis its faced since six Swiss bishops fell under formal canonical investigations in 2023? Five are accused of mishandling abuse cases, and another is facing sexual harassment allegations.
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — May 30, 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.
80,000 manuscripts from the Vatican Library to be restored and digitized - May 30, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel -The shelves of the Vatican Library contain a significant portion of humanity’s literary legacy. They include over 82,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed books — 8,000 printed before 1501.
More than 60,000 pilgrims expected for Jubilee of Families, Children, and the Elderly - May 29, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - The event, part of the Jubilee 2025 celebrations, will bring together three generations — parents, children, and grandparents — in one of the major events of the holy year.
Cardinal Sarah to represent Pope Leo XIV at celebrations of apparitions of St. Anne - May 29, 2025 - By Eduardo Berdejo - Pope Leo XIV has appointed Cardinal Robert Sarah as his special envoy for celebrations in France commemorating the 400th anniversary of the apparitions of St. Anne to the Breton peasant Yvon Nicolazic.
Babylon Bee’s Satire News
Elon Musk Leaves Job Of Making Government More Efficient For Much Easier Job Of Sending Humans To Mars
By Celebs Staff, May 29, 2022
Washington was abuzz with the news that Elon Musk had officially stepped down from his duties as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk said he will now spend his time tackling the much easier job of sending human beings to Mars. "Working in government is a far more complicated and challenging job than inventing rockets capable of taking humans to other planets," Musk said of his decision to leave DOGE. "Coming up with ways to make interplanetary travel a reality is one thing, but dealing with senators and congressmen is truly difficult. I look forward to having a more relaxing job of figuring out how to safely transport people to Mars, colonize it, and terraform the planet's surface." Musk was reportedly emboldened to accomplish his quest after realizing colonizing Mars was mankind's only hope to escape government waste.
Nutshell reflections for 5/30/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection: AUDIO - May 30, 2025
Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter
ChurchPOP
The forgotten devotion God gave to a humble nun to fight evil
By Jacqueline Burkepile, May 29, 2025
On August 26, 1843, Jesus appeared to French Carmelite nun Sister Mary of Saint Peter for the first time and presented the Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. He presented this devotion to her for three primary purposes: to make reparation for blasphemy against God, profanation of Sundays and Holy Days, and atheism. The devotion is a powerful weapon against evil, particularly communism and the enemies of God. In one of many promises attached to the Holy Face, Jesus told Sister Mary of Saint Peter, "By offering My Face to My Eternal Father, nothing will be refused, and the conversion of many sinners will be obtained." Pope Leo XIII officially approved the Holy Face Devotion during his pontificate in 1885. He then established the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face, to which Saint Therese of Lisieux’s (or Saint Therese of the Holy Face of Jesus') family belonged, and were some of its first members.
Catholic Exchange
In an isolated and over-sexualized world
By Pamela Patnode, May 30, 2023
In February 2008, a Minnesota couple gained international recognition for their 83-year marriage. Married on February 17th, 1925, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Hugo, MN, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Clarence and Mayme Vail “gained fame . . . with reports that they were the longest-married living couple in the world.” the Catholic Church is not alone in recognizing the value of the committed and sacramental relationship that the Vails embraced. Numerous studies also demonstrate that the kind of marriage that Clarence and Mayme Vail modeled leads to stability, better health outcomes, overall flourishing, and lasting joy for both the couple and their children. Fr. Thomas Morrow’s new book, Marriage for God’s Sake: A Guide for Catholics, offers both Church teaching and practical steps for generating a healthy, faithful, and lasting relationship.
Word on Fire
Martin Scorsese said, ‘Pasolini is never irrelevant’
By Matthew Malone, May 30, 2025
Pier Paolo Pasolini is one of the most controversial and revered polymaths in modern Italian history. He was a poet, critic, linguist, journalist, painter, novelist, playwright, scriptwriter, essayist, art historian, and internationally renowned film director, whose work encompasses the full range of human experience, from the profound to the mundane, and the sublime to the dark. Pasolini’s artistic singularity, humanity, and poetry influenced the likes of Abel Ferrara and Martin Scorsese, who declared, “Pasolini is never irrelevant.” Consider Pasolini’s biography through his complex relationship to Catholicism and his film The Gospel According To Matthew, which was included in the Pontifical Council for Social Communications film list of 1995.
Catholic Stand
Mirror the culture rather than convert it, ‘you wither and die’
By Marty Dybicz, May 30, 2025
The meaning of the Sunday Mass Readings for June 2025 is made clearest by Catholic Doctrine. Doctrines are the essentially unchangeable clarifications of Revelation and Faith that only the pope and bishops have the God-given authority to make, that must be accepted as objectively true in order to be Catholic, and that not even the pope and bishops may contradict. As George Weigel recently wrote: “Christian communities that maintain a clear understanding of their doctrinal and moral identity and boundaries can not only survive the acids of post-modernity; they have a chance to convert the post-modern world. By contrast, Christian communities whose self-identity becomes incoherent, whose boundaries become porous, and who mirror the culture rather than trying to convert it wither and die.”
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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