Catholic Nutshell News: Friday 6/26/26
Catholics should know: Religious discrimination claims revived; Pope 'asks' not 'commands'; Villanova ‘Won’ the NBA championship; Supreme Court 'only branch functioning properly'
Fridays, "Living that coconut kinda life."
Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources: National Catholic Register, EWTN News, OSV News, Zeale, Bishop Barron, & Aleteia. (Catholic Nutshell is a FREE subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)
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Zeale News
Ninth Circuit revives religious discrimination claims
By Elise Winland, June 25, 2026
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled June 24 that two former Alaska Airlines flight attendants may proceed with their religious discrimination claims to trial, marking a significant reversal from a lower court’s 2024 decision that had dismissed the case before a jury could hear it. A three-judge panel held that Marli Brown and Lacey Smith, both Christians, presented enough evidence for a jury to decide whether the airline and their union, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA AFL-CIO (AFA), discriminated against them under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and state laws. The case stems from an Alaska Airlines internal employee forum post announcing the company’s support for the Equality Act, federal legislation that would extend federal nondiscrimination requirements to sexual orientation and “gender identity.” Critics of the measure have warned that it could endanger women by allowing men in women’s spaces and violate religious accommodations and conscience protections.
Related: Religious freedom ‘rooted in human dignity,’ says expert ahead of US bishops’ observance - by Gina Christian, OSV News - June 18, 2026 -
OSV News
Deacons, detailed in new report, are ‘icons of Christ the Servant’
By Gina Christian, June 25, 2026
Catholic permanent deacons — who in 2025 numbered more than 21,000 in the U.S., with close to 15,000 in active ministry — “bring a spirit of renewal and encouragement to the missionary ministry of the Church,” said Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. The archbishop shared his thoughts in a June 22 press release unveiling the committee’s 2025 annual survey of the permanent diaconate in the U.S. Catholic Church. The Archdiocese of Chicago (812) topped the list for the most permanent deacons in 2025, followed by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas (686); the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (507); the Archdiocese of San Antonio (427); and the Archdiocese of New York (362). The total 2025 U.S. permanent diaconate ordinations are 570. During the same year, 494 deacons retired from active ministry, and another 390 died.
Aleteia
Pope to cardinals: I’m one who asks, not commands
By Kathleen N. Hattrup, June 26, 2026
“Therefore, in helping me in the exercise of the Petrine ministry, you will find in me one who asks, not commands. Moreover, the authority of primacy belongs to the one who listens and only then leads, to the one who learns and only then teaches, always following the one and only Teacher.” This was the conclusion of Pope Leo’s homily this June 26, at the opening Mass of the gathering of the world’s cardinals. One of the issues on the cardinals' agenda is a discussion of the criteria for just war, criteria that were proposed precisely by Pope Leo's spiritual father, St. Augustine, in the 400s. In his encyclical released in March, the Pope suggested that the concept of just war is out of date, in a world of nuclear weapons and AI killing. “As she proclaims the Gospel, amid both joys and persecutions, the Church is never partial, since she is for everyone, and to each she addresses the same message of conversion and salvation,” said Leo.
National Catholic Register
Villanova: The Catholic college that ‘Won’ the NBA championship
By Gigi Duncan, June 24, 2026
Having one of its alumni elected Pope was the kind of visibility no university could plan for. When Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova graduate and Augustinian friar, was elected in May 2025, the university found itself at the center of global headlines. The surge extended well beyond web traffic. The Augustinian institution later reported 28,515 applications for the incoming Fall 2026 class. The New York Knicks won the NBA championship on June 13 — the franchise’s first title in more than 50 years — and three of the team’s key contributors shared a Villanova connection. Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges were teammates on Villanova’s 2016 NCAA national championship team. Also unprecedented: three college teammates who won a national championship together, reunited on the same NBA team to win a professional championship years later.
EWTN News
U.S. emergency response teams in Venezuela after earthquakes
By Madalaine Elhabbal, June 25, 2026
The Trump administration is deploying U.S. emergency response teams to Venezuela in the wake of two high-magnitude earthquakes as local Catholic leaders mobilize the Church’s support network. “Weʼre already deploying search and rescue teams from Fairfax County [Virginia] and Los Angeles,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters June 25. “There will be some others weʼll add,” Rubio said. “Thatʼs their most immediate need right now, is search-and-rescue efforts: They have [many] collapsed buildings. And so theyʼll need a lot of help in terms of digging through that.” The earthquakes occurred on June 24, with the first 7.2-magnitude earthquake recorded at 6:04 p.m. local time and the second 7.5-magnitude earthquake occurring just 39 seconds later, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Related: Pope Leo XIV sends 100K euros to Venezuela for humanitarian aid after major earthquakes, by Almudena Martínez-Bordiú, EWTN News, June 26, 2026
The CRUX
Pakistani Christian acquitted of blasphemy after a year behind bars
By Nirmala Carvalho, June 26, 2026
A Pakistani trial court acquitted a blind Christian man who spent 10 months in jail after being charged with blasphemy, an offense that carries a mandatory death sentence under the country’s laws. The director of the UK-based Minority Concern Pakistan, Aftab Alexander Mughal, told Crux Now the acquittal is an encouraging development, but warned that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are still being abused to harass and threaten the innocent. “Since the blasphemy laws were strengthened under the military rule of General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s,” Mughal said, “they have been widely misused to settle personal disputes and enmities.” Authorities in Pakistan had charged 51-year-old Nadeem Masih, blind since birth, under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, criminalizing acts of insult to Muhammad, the founder of Islam, mandating the death penalty upon conviction. The court in Lahore ruled that prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the allegations.
Related: The Business of Blasphemy: Accusations for Profit in Pakistan, ZENIT, June 25, 2026, by Zenit Staff
National Catholic Reporter
Mary’s Immaculate Conception: Patron saint of US in the 1840s
By Stephanie Shreffler & Bridget Retzloff, June 19, 2026
Every year in March, tens of thousands of Americans take to the streets — and bars — to celebrate St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Similarly, Mexican Americans celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint, in December. But did you know that the U.S. has its own patron saint? Nearly 200 years ago, in May 1846, Catholic priests and bishops named the Virgin Mary patroness of the United States of America — specifically, under her title as the Immaculate Conception, referring to the belief she was conceived without sin. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which summarizes doctrine, a saint is a holy person who “leads a life in union with God through the grace of Christ and receives the reward of eternal life.” Catholics may venerate saints and ask them to intercede with God on their behalf.
The PILLAR
Former diocesan employee guilty in $150k gift card scheme
By Jack Figge, June 25, 2026
Jeremy Lillig, a former employee of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph, pleaded guilty in Missouri last week to stealing more than $150,000 from a Catholic scholarship fund by illicitly buying and misusing gift cards. A former IRS investigator told The Pillar that theft by gift card is a growing problem and requires careful attention. Lilling misused his diocesan-issued credit card to purchase more than $150,000 in gift cards between 2018 and 2021. Between 2017 and 2023, Lilling was the director of stewardship for the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph and the executive director of the Bright Futures Fund, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to students attending three urban Catholic schools in Kansas City. Lillig took grant money given to the Bright Futures Fund and used it to purchase more than 400 Visa gift cards, submitting falsified expense reports to hide his actions.
Keep informed - 6/26/26 news for Catholics
Snippets from Big Pulpit, EWTN, & the Loop
Big Pulpit
Tito Edwards Catholic site: June 26, 2026
The Big Pulpit website is a news aggregator that gathers quality insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide.
Four of America’s Holiest Men & Women Every U.S. Catholic Should Know About – Church Pop
Why Some People Believe & Some Refuse – Fr. Henry James Coleridge, S.J.
Silencing Our Architects – Sarah Cain at Homefront Crusade
Catholic Stats with Dr. Darrick Taylor of Controversies in Church History – Grain Of Wheat
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — June 26, 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.
Christian communities in Middle East face mounting pressure, bishop says - By Katherine Matt - War, economic instability, and emigration are driving a decline in Christian communities across the Holy Land, said Bishop Iyad Akram Twal, auxiliary bishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Choir sets the Parable of the Prodigal Son to Gregorian chant - By Walter Sánchez Silva - The parable of the prodigal son has been depicted many times in art. Recently, the choir Harpa Dei, made up of three siblings, released a Gregorian chant video that tells this story of “the Father’s mercy and his great longing for lost children to return home.”
Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump’s asylum policies that bishops opposed - By Tyler Arnold - One ruling allows the Department of Homeland Security to end “temporary protected status” for Haitians and Syrians, who can now be deported. The other allows the government to turn away asylum seekers at the southern border by limiting the number of claims they will process each day.
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.
ABORTION BALLOT MEASURES TO TEST GOP RESOLVE IN MIDTERMS - Voters in at least two battleground states will face direct questions on abortion in November, putting new pressure on Republican candidates to take clearer positions on an issue many GOP campaigns have tried to subordinate to immigration, election integrity, deportations, government spending, and President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to a June 21 Politico report. READ
POLLING SHOWS SHRINKING SUPPORT FOR GENDER IDEOLOGY - After years of growing support for LGBT issues, a recent Gallup poll shows U.S. public opinion has shifted modestly in the other direction, with support for legal same-sex marriage, moral acceptance of gay and lesbian relations, and approval of gender “transitions” all down from peaks recorded in the early 2020s. READ
USPS PLANS TO WITHHOLD BALLOTS FROM NONCOMPLIANT STATES - The head of the U.S. Postal Service testified June 24 that USPS will not deliver mail-in ballots in states that refuse to hand over voter rolls tied to absentee ballot distribution in keeping with an election integrity order from President Donald Trump. READ
June 26, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
Catholic365
Can Catholics accept military deception?
By Aaron Schuck, June 25, 2024
Western militaries, according to the report The Future of Deception in War: Lessons from Ukraine, may be falling behind authoritarian powers in the use of deception. The authors call this a “deception gap” and argue that the United States and NATO should take deception more seriously across doctrine, training, technology, leadership, and military culture. That argument raises a specifically Catholic question because Christians cannot judge war only by whether a tactic works. Before Catholics ask whether deception helps win battles, shorten wars, or save soldiers’ lives, we have to ask whether deliberately misleading another person can be reconciled with the moral law. If the answer is assumed too quickly, then the whole discussion becomes merely strategic. The Catholic tradition requires something deeper because war, even when necessary, remains subject to truth, justice, and divine judgment.
Zenit News
The Bryce case: Can God call someone at 10 years old?
By Alma Delia Recinas, June 24, 2026
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative U.S. organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk; it has student chapters at numerous universities and high schools across the United States. During these campus stops, various events are typically held, including talks by conservative leaders and debates on politics, culture, and social issues, among other activities. At one of these events, a 10-year-old boy told Matt Walsh — an interviewer and moderator — that he wants to become a priest because he feels God is calling him. Walsh asked the boy why he had decided to become a priest. “Because God is calling me,” Bryce replied. Knowles described his aspiration as the “ultimate white pill” — that is, a source of hope. “The culture is dying. No one holds the right ideas anymore,” Knowles said. “And then you meet a boy who says, ‘I want to serve God and become a priest,’ and you think, ‘We’re going to make it!'“
National Catholic Register
Supreme Court: The only branch of government functioning properly
By George Weigel, June 24, 2026
Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the Supreme Court, is the shortest of the three articles that define the institutions and powers of the three branches of the United States Government. That brevity underscores, somewhat ironically, what many would regard as a self-evident contemporary fact: The Supreme Court today is the only one of the three branches functioning properly. The Supreme Court, on the other hand, regularly does its constitutional duty and is governed by reason and serious debate, not by partisan political calculations or the justices’ mood of the day. It is my privilege to know several members of the current Supreme Court. And on the basis of four decades of Washington experience, I can say, without any fear of exaggeration, that these are among the finest public servants I have ever met. They do their jobs without fear or favor.
Bishop Barron
‘Thy will be done’ is always the right attitude in prayer
By Bishop Robert Barron, June 26, 2026
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus heals a leper. In our sickness, our weakness, our shame, our sin, our oddness, many of us feel like this leper. We feel as though we’re just not worthy, that we should keep our distance. That the leper came to Jesus tells us the world about this man’s courage, determination, and perhaps his desperation. He was an outsider, a despised figure—yet he came to Jesus. Once in the Lord’s presence, the leper “did him homage”—he worshipped him. The suffering man realizes who Jesus is. This is the key step in getting our lives in order: right praise. Then comes the beautiful phrase, essential in any act of petitionary prayer: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” He is not demanding; he is acknowledging the lordship of Jesus, his sovereignty. “Thy will be done” is always the right attitude in any prayer.
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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