Fridays, "Living that coconut kinda life."
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Crux
Oregon officials back off ‘gender ideology mandate’
By Tyler Arnold, September 17, 2026
The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) agreed they will not “categorically disqualify” a Christian woman from adopting or fostering children based on her religious beliefs about gender and human sexuality, which settles a three-and-a-half-year legal battle. ODHS agreed to a settlement with Jessica Bates, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). It affirms the department will not consider her religious beliefs when evaluating her application for a certification to adopt children and will not attempt to regulate her speech about gender and sexuality. “Every child deserves a loving home, and children suffer when the government excludes people of faith from foster care because of the state’s own ideological crusade,” ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse said in a statement following the Sept. 9 settlement.
Zeale News
US child poverty rate falls to historic low in 2025
By Elise Winland, September 17, 2026
The official U.S. child poverty rate fell to a historic low in 2025, while the nation’s overall poverty rate declined to one of its lowest levels on record and inflation-adjusted median household income reached a record high, according to figures released by the Census Bureau Sept. 15. The data show the share of children under 18 living in poverty dropped by 1 percentage point, from 14.4% in 2024 to 13.4% in 2025. The figure was the lowest on record under the official measure, which compares a family’s pretax money income with a threshold adjusted for family size and composition. The overall official poverty rate also fell by 0.5 percentage points to 10.2% in 2025, marking its third consecutive annual decline and the lowest numerical rate in Census Bureau data dating to 1959. About 34.5 million Americans lived below the official poverty line. In its report, the bureau described the rate as “one of the lowest rates on record” because it was not statistically different from the previous low of 10.5% recorded in 2019.
OSV News
Priest charged with abuse still honored for his Church mosaics
By Junno Arocho Esteves, September 17, 2026
While France’s Lourdes shrine moves to cover mosaics by Father Marko Rupnik, Brazil’s National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in São Paulo celebrated new installations by the artist, who faces decades of allegations of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse. Much like its elaborate inauguration ceremony in May 2025 for the shrine’s eastern facade, the celebration, which included music, prayers, biblical dramatizations, and fireworks, was held Sept. 12 for the western facade. The installation, which surrounds the entire basilica, is credited to the Centro Aletti, the art studio founded by Father Rupnik, whose canonical trial is still under review by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. However, a recent video posted online raised questions regarding the controversial priest’s participation in installing the mosaics despite the accusations of abusing women while working on similar projects in the past.
Related: Fatima to keep Rupnik mosaic despite possible 2027 papal visit, Filipe d’Avillez, The Pillar, September 17, 2026
Aleteia
The daily habit behind Fulton Sheen’s life of holiness
By Philip Kosloski, September 18, 2026
Archbishop Fulton Sheen was an extraordinary evangelist who lived constantly united to Jesus Christ and his Mother. When researching his life to discover what fueled his ministry, its obvious which daily habit gave him a spiritual boost each day. He received requests for speaking engagements across the United States and often traveled to give spiritual guidance to a variety of people. Yet Fulton Sheen knew that to be a faithful priest and bishop, shepherding his flock, he needed to spend time in silence and solitude with Jesus. In fact, on the day of his ordination, he resolved to make a Eucharistic holy hour a priority. He wrote in Treasure in Clay, “I resolved also to spend a continuous Holy Hour every day in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.” For a busy bishop and popular speaker like Fulton Sheen, this was no easy task. He admits that it was difficult, but he remained faithful to it, no matter what came up on his schedule.
National Catholic Register
Theologian suspended: Essay on past practice of executing heretics
By Edward Pentin, September 17, 2026
Father Wolfgang Klausnitzer, rector of the Benedict XVI Philosophical-Theological University in Heiligenkreuz, Austria, has received both criticism and support after being suspended from his teaching position for comments defending past popes for executing heretics — despite his insistence that he does not advocate such a punishment today. Father Klausnitzer called Father Waldstein’s comments “unspeakable,” adding that he would not accept such theological principles from a first-year student. According to the rector, Father Waldstein did not withdraw the comments when the rector asked for a scholarly explanation; the Austrian priest was on leave when the rector’s decision was reported. After calling for prudence when tending to the baptized, he wrote that sometimes, to protect the common good, punishment is required for those who “violate their baptismal obligations,” while also being careful “not to scrape off the rust too violently, lest she break the vessel.”
Zeale News
EPA to screen America’s drinking water for abortion drugs
By Elise Winland, September 17, 2026
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Sept. 9 that it will screen drinking water samples for more than 1,400 potential contaminants, including the two drugs commonly used in a chemical abortion. The announcement came less than two months after a pre-print study reported anti-progesterone activity in water samples from three U.S. cities. “We have heard loud and clear that Americans are concerned about potential unknown pollutants lurking in their drinking water,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said. EPA scientists will use non-targeted analysis, a method that lets researchers screen water samples for thousands of potential pollutants rather than testing only a small group of predetermined chemicals, the agency said in the release. The study will collect samples from several locations in different metropolitan areas.
The Pillar
Are pro-abortion politicians canonical ‘accomplices’?
By The Pillar, August 18, 2026
CatholicVote, a Catholic advocacy group, made headlines last month, as it called for the excommunication of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. The governor signed legislation in August giving physicians legal latitude to perform late-term abortions in the state. But while the call for excommunication has gained attention, it seems unlikely to gain any traction with the Archdiocese of Boston, where Healey lives. Why not? The CatholicVote statement cited canon 1329, which provides for the possibility of a latae sententiae excommunication for the accomplices to several canonical crimes, including the procurement of a completed abortion, “if, without their assistance, the crime would not have been committed.” In short, the group said, because Healey had signed into law a bill that creates the conditions for more abortions to legally occur, she should be regarded as a formal accomplice to all those abortions which might follow, and thus be declared excommunicated. Since Healey’s cooperation was remote and not tied to a particular abortion, Canon law, for a politician who voted an abortion-permissive law, even though they created the circumstances by which the procural of abortions was possible, is not fully guilty.
Zenit
U.S. has the most Vatican permits to celebrate the traditional Mass
By ZENIT Staff, September 15, 2026
The Holy See authorized the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal in parishes in 34 dioceses worldwide during 2025, according to the annual decree index published by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The figures offer a rare official glimpse into how the Vatican is applying Pope Francis’ 2021 restrictions on the «older» form of the Roman liturgy. They also show that, despite the tighter rules surrounding the traditional Latin Mass, requests for its continued celebration are still being examined individually rather than treated as a matter settled by a blanket prohibition. Of the 34 decrees recorded for 2025, 29 renewed existing permissions for a further two years. In several cases, a single decree covered more than one parish within the same diocese. The remaining authorizations concerned new or otherwise distinct permissions, although the published index does not explain every case in detail.
Keep informed - 9/18/26 news for Catholics
Snippets from Big Pulpit, EWTN, & the Loop
Big Pulpit
Tito Edwards Catholic site: September 18, 2026
The Big Pulpit website is a news aggregator that gathers quality insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide.
Before & After: Church of the Assumption in Nashville, Tennessee – Liturgical Arts Journal
Inside the Unconventional Lives of the Carmelite Daughters – Cincinnati City Beat
Surprising Results of the Excavations & Restoration of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem – Zenit
ArchbishopHigh Priestess of Canterbury in Bin Laden Controversy – Gavin R.P. Ashenden, Ph.D.
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — September 18, 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.
Vatican tells UN: Hate speech is poison that leads to violence and persecution - By Ishmael Adibuah - “Hate speech — whether directed against individuals or communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, or any other characteristic — contradicts the commandment to love one’s neighbor, poisons public discourse, inflames division, and too often prepares the ground for violence and persecution,” El-Kassis stated in his remarks.
White House touts list of ‘victories’ for people of faith - By Tessa Gervasini and Ken Oliver-Méndez - White House correspondent Owen Jensen, White House Faith Office Director Jenny Korn emphasized the importance of having “a White House Faith Office that the president put in the West Wing as a direct report to him to work on policy that affects religious institutions and people of faith in their daily lives.”
Caritas Cuba to receive more humanitarian aid from U.S. in coming weeks - By Eduardo Berdejo - The U.S. Embassy in Cuba announced that more humanitarian aid will arrive in the coming weeks for Caritas to distribute to the most vulnerable people in five of the countryʼs provinces. The embassy made the announcement following a meeting between U.S. Chargé dʼAffaires Mike Hammer and the director of Caritas Cuba, Carmen María Nodal Martínez.
The Loop
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.
EXCLUSIVE: FEDERAL TAX CREDIT COULD MARK ‘GOLDEN AGE’ FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION - Catholic education is uniquely poised to transform society, and the Education Freedom Tax Credit taking effect January 2027 could be instrumental in supporting it, according to the CEO of the Catholic Education Fund. The tax credit “is one of the most important things that’s ever happened for Catholic education,” he told Zeale News, “because it’s basically a federal voucher.”
REPORT: DEMOCRAT-ALIGNED FUNDRAISING MACHINE IS RIFE WITH FRAUD - The Democratic Party-aligned fundraising giant ActBlue likely committed widespread fraud and knowingly accepted donations from foreign sources, a bombshell congressional report concluded. Supervisors instructed employees to ignore clear red flags and even retaliated against whistleblowers.
DEMOCRATS TRY TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM ‘TRANSGENDER’ RHETORIC - With midterm elections on the horizon, some Democrats are pivoting away from their party’s radical adherence to transgender ideology and voicing support for a broadly popular measure to protect girls’ and women’s sports. CatholicVote’s Joshua Mercer warned voters not to “be deceived by these last-minute fake conversions.”
September 18, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
Catholic365
Time to change the bumper sticker
By Tom Klocek, September 18, 2024
From the Christian perspective, to be Christian is to die to oneself. If you are not willing to sacrifice for the baby in your womb, you are killing that child for your own pleasure, comfort, desire, etc. You love yourself to the hatred of another life. Jesus told us to love one another and specifically pointed to the children. “Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” (Matthew 19:14) In the Old Testament, we regularly hear about civilizations and even Jewish leaders who were condemned because they sacrificed their children to other gods. That is what abortion is: sacrificing one’s child to the god of self. The First Commandment says, “I am the LORD your God, ... You shall not have other gods beside me.” And yet we regularly hear of people professing to be Christian and even trying to justify abortion with Sacred Scripture.
Catholic World Report
Are you a good listener?
By Laura Stanko Britto, December, 2025
Whether we are listening to a child, a spouse, a friend, a stranger, or God, listening requires our full presence. My daughter Michelle taught me this lesson when she was 4 and said she had to talk to me. I said, “OK,” and turned to face her. She looked at me and said, “Mom, you can’t listen to me if the TV is on.” I learned. The first question asked in the Sacrament of Baptism is “What name do you give your child?” We are then baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Generally, we like to be called by our names (unless we are in trouble). Throughout Scripture, we have stories of when someone was called by name. For instance, a voice calls Saul’s name, and he is blinded and knocked over. Wouldn’t it be easier to hear God’s voice calling us in such a dramatic way?
Catholic Exchange
Why Catholics need Catholic therapists
By Donald Froyd, September 18, 2026
I have practiced psychotherapy for more than three decades, treating individuals, couples, and families across a wide range of presenting problems. In recent years, I have semi‑retired from clinical practice and now teach in a graduate counseling program—work I deeply enjoy, especially helping students prepare to serve those who suffer. Over time, I discovered something that genuinely shocked me: I am one of only two Catholic therapists in one of the largest dioceses in the United States. The more I reflected on this, the more urgent the issue became. This is not merely surprising—it is pastorally dangerous. Most people who reach out for therapy are already in a vulnerable state. They are experiencing shame, confusion, fear, or emotional pain. Worldview matters—especially when the soul is wounded. What the Church needs, especially in my diocese, is a mental‑health framework that aligns with Catholic anthropology—the Church’s understanding of the human person, the soul, and the path to God.
Bishop Barron
The first witnesses of the resurrection were women
By Bishop Robert Barron, September 18, 2026
Friends, our Gospel today celebrates the female disciples of Jesus. One of the principal marks of Jesus’s teaching is the overturning of social conventions. In service of what he calls the kingdom of God, God’s way of ordering the world, he says and does all sorts of outrageous things. And one of the most striking and surprising of Jesus’s moves is a radical inclusion of women. He allows women into his inner circle (practically unheard of for a rabbi). He speaks publicly to the woman at the well. He engages with the Syrophoenician woman. He forgives the woman caught in adultery. And the first witnesses of the resurrection are women. Luke, who told this story, was a companion of Paul, and his Gospel reflects many of Paul’s themes. Paul famously says that in Christ, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female.” This was very radical stuff in those times, for these were some of the most basic social divisions of the ancient world.
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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