Catholic Nutshell News: Monday 11/17/25
Topics include: Notre Dame drops ‘Catholic’; Pope Leo XIV celebrates cinema; Church hospital attacks in Congo; & Bishop Daniel Flores ‘stormed’ to role
“Worth your weight in walnuts”
Today's sources are Catholic News Agency, Graphs about Religion, OSV, Aleteia, Fides, UCA, CWN, National Catholic Register, & Christian Post. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)
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Catholic News Agency
Notre Dame drops ‘Catholic’ from its staffing values
By Madalaine Elhabbal, November 16, 2025
The University of Notre Dame has dropped acceptance and support for its Catholic mission from the list of staff values it has held for the past 20 years. The word “Catholic” is no longer in the mission’s staff language. The university’s leadership announced new updates to its staff values at its Fall 2025 Staff Town Halls on Oct. 29 and 30, according to a press release. Human Resources President Heather Christophersen said the new values were “an expression of how we seek to advance Notre Dame’s mission as a global, Catholic research university.” According to the Notre Dame Observer, Christophersen said in an email to staff that the old values had caused confusion in staff evaluation processes during annual performance reviews and that the school does not monitor religious affiliation for staff in the same way as faculty and students.
CRUX
Pope Leo XIV celebrates cinema with Hollywood stars
By Nicole Winfield AP, November 15, 2025
Pope Leo XIV welcomed Spike Lee, Cate Blanchett, Greta Gerwig and dozens of other Hollywood luminaries to a special Vatican audience Saturday celebrating cinema and its ability to inspire and unite. Leo encouraged the filmmakers and celebrities gathered in a frescoed Vatican audience hall to use their art to include marginal voices, calling film “a popular art in the noblest sense, intended for and accessible to all.” “When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console, but challenges,” he told the stars. “It articulates the questions that dwell within us, and sometimes, even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express.” The encounter, organized by the Vatican’s culture ministry, follows on similar audiences Pope Francis had in recent years with artists and comedians. It’s part of the Vatican’s efforts to reach out beyond the Catholic Church to engage with the secular world.
Aleteia
Church hospital attack shocks the Democratic Republic of Congo
By Daniel Esparza, November 16, 2025
A violent assault on a Church-run hospital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has left around 20 civilians dead and an entire nation in mourning. The attack, carried out late Friday night in the village of Byambwe in North Kivu, targeted a health center managed by the Little Sisters of the Presentation. Patients who were unable to flee were killed in their beds before the building was set on fire. Several women in the maternity ward died in the flames, and witnesses report that the attackers seized newborns. Local authorities and Church officials identify the assailants as militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group aligned with the so-called Islamic State. The ADF has operated across North Kivu and Ituri for years, striking villages, schools, farms, and prayer gatherings with increasing regularity.
Aleteia
Archbishop praises governor for granting man clemency
By Christine Rousselle, November 15, 2025
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City praised the governor of Oklahoma for granting a death row inmate clemency just minutes before his execution was scheduled to begin. “I commend the courage Gov. Stitt has shown to grant clemency in the case involving Tremane Wood,” said Coakley in a November 13 statement published across his social media channels. “The governor’s commitment to balancing justice with mercy and maintaining an opportunity for redemption is laudable.” Wood spent two decades on Oklahoma’s death row for the New Year’s Day 2002 killing of 19-year-old Ronnie Wipf during an attempted robbery. He maintained that his brother, Zjaiton, was the person who actually killed Wip. Zjaiton Wood had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He reportedly confessed to numerous people while in prison that he was the one who killed Wipf.
The Pillar
Brownsville’s Bishop Daniel Flores ‘stormed’ to role of vice president
By Ed. Condon, November 14, 2025
In a much less widely anticipated result of bishop elections in Baltimore last week, Brownsville’s Bishop Daniel Flores stormed to vice president. It was surprising not because anyone doubts the bishop’s intellect or ability — he’s served as chair of the doctrinal committee and been the most prominent U.S. bishop in the global synodal process, something he managed to champion articulately even while defusing its more eccentric and contentious pretensions. But, as I pointed out in an analysis following his election, Flores has always appeared to be something of a man without a tribe in the conference hall, variously looked up on as every liberal’s favorite conservative or the thinking conservative’s preferred liberal.
The Catholic Weekly
New book: ‘Reclaiming the genius of the early church’
By Guest Contributor, November 17, 2025
Greg Sheridan’s latest book, How Christians Can Succeed Today: Reclaiming the genius of the early church, reflects upon the Janus-face of modern Western culture. Whether the future holds peril or promise will depend on which direction we Christians orient our own gaze. The vision we are most familiar with focuses upon the ‘continuing crisis’ of faith as evidenced by various socio-cultural indicators — the much-rehearsed statistical decline in religious practice, the ‘nearly ubiquitous’ rise in either hostility or indifference to the Christian message, and the widespread technocratic assaults on human dignity. As one of Australia’s most perceptive political journalists, Sheridan is acutely aware of such challenges. His book sharpens and deepens this diagnosis in his realisation that our culture is not so much ‘secularising’ as it is ‘paganising’. His appreciation of the difference (perhaps particularly influenced by Ross Douthat on this point) is refreshing, to say the least.
Graphs about Religion
Political divide: Clergy & laity in mainline Protestant Christianity
By Ryan Burge, November 17, 2025
A majority of mainline Protestant Christians voted for Donald Trump in 2024. They also supported him in 2020 and 2016. In fact, even during Barack Obama’s landslide election in 2008, the mainline was evenly divided at the ballot box. There’s a common perception out there that mainline Protestants are a bunch of card-carrying leftists who love to post rainbow flags outside their churches. And while their theology may be to the left of Southern Baptists, their politics are decidedly conservative. The political partisanship of the average mainline pastor diverges significantly from the politics of the folks sitting in their pews. For the ELCA (Lutherans), clergy are 13 points more likely to be Democrats. Among PCUSA (Presbyterian) leaders, 61% are Democrats compared to only 39% of the membership. The biggest gap shows up in the United Church of Christ. Among clergy, 71% are Democrats, while just 46% of the laity identify that way.
The Christian Post
Kennedy Center concert featuring live Nativity scene, Bible readings
By Ryan Foley, November 16, 2025
“Noel: Jesus is Born!” will be held at the Kennedy Center Opera House at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 17 in Washington, D.C., with musical performances by Charles Billingsley and his Yuletide Orchestra as well as Matthew West. Kennedy Center Director Richard Grenell, appointed to his post by President Donald Trump, shared his vision for a “big traditional production to celebrate what we are all celebrating in the world during Christmas time, which is the birth of Christ.” “We are proud to present a meaningful, faith-filled experience for families to immerse themselves in the Christmas story at America’s cultural center,” Kennedy Center Vice President of Public Relations Roma Daravi told The Christian Post. “Tis the season to create cherished memories and celebrate the sacred alongside the festive.”
Related: Kennedy Center revival signals a new cultural wave of faith and family, DC Brief, September 7, 2025
CatholicVote
Belmont Abbey College achieves record enrollment
By Mary Rose Hokanson, November 14, 2025
North Carolina’s Belmont Abbey College is celebrating a landmark year, posting record enrollment and unveiling a slate of new academic, campus, and community initiatives that signal continued growth for the Benedictine liberal arts institution. The college announced in a Nov. 12 emailed press release that the 1,741 students enrolled for Fall 2025 marks a 3.2% increase from the previous year. The incoming class, 741, was also the college’s second-largest ever. Belmont Abbey’s student body now represents 48 states and 26 countries, who participate in a range of programs. The college offers traditional undergraduate degrees, online offerings, dual-enrollment courses, non-degree study, and an expanding set of graduate programs. Academically, Belmont Abbey has launched seven new programs in the past year alone, bringing its total number of master’s programs to eight.
CNA, UCA, and CNW News for 11/17/25
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — November 17, 2025
The Catholic News Agency provides reliable, free, and up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the happenings of the Holy See to anyone with internet access.
CNA explains: Why does the Catholic Church prohibit ‘gay marriage’? - Nov 17, 2025 - By Daniel Payne - The Catholic Church has continued to affirm the definition of marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman.
Pope Leo XIV shares lunch with more than 1,300 people in need at the Vatican - Nov 16, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - Pope Leo XIV had lunch on Sunday with more than 1,300 people experiencing poverty and social exclusion, and gathering with them.
Sacred music is good for the brain as well as the soul, neuroscientist says
Nov 16, 2025 - By Terry O’Neill - Scientific research shows that those who sing, perform, or listen to music also enrich and strengthen their brain, according to Catholic neuroscientist Kathlyn Gan.
UCA News
The Union of Catholic Asian World News - 11/17/25
UCA News (UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic media service from Asia, with a convergent media approach that couples traditional journalistic practices with multimedia and social media
Cash reward offered for reporting ‘conversions’ in India’s Punjab - November 17, 2025 - To counter the growing influence of Christian preachers among socially poor Hindus and Sikhs, a right-wing group in India’s northern Punjab state has announced a cash reward of 200,000 rupees (about US$2,250) for anyone who provides “information with proof” of illegal conversions to Christianity.
Bangladesh sentences ex-PM Sheikh Hasina to death - November 17, 2025 - The highly anticipated verdict for crimes against humanity intensifies the nation’s political unrest. Hasina was “found guilty on three counts,” including incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, said judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder, who read the verdict to the packed court in Dhaka.
Filipino sect draws huge crowd to anti-corruption rally - November 17, 2025 - A powerful Philippine religious sect, the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), rallied in Manila on Nov. 16, calling for accountability over a spiralling flood control scandal involving officials and lawmakers, with police estimating a crowd in the hundreds of thousands.
Catholic World News
CatholicCulture.org from Trinity Communications
Catholic World News (CWN) is an independent Catholic news service staffed by lay Catholic journalists, dedicated to providing accurate global news from a distinctly Catholic perspective.
New USCCB leader, Coakley, called ‘conservative culture warrior’ - This week when the US bishops voted to make Archbishop Paul Coakley the next president of their episcopal conference, AP report described the new leader as a “conservative culture warrior.” The description stuck. The New York Times chose not to pursue the “culture warrior” theme, merely identifying Archbishop Coakley as an “institutionalist with ties to the church’s right wing.”
They ‘got rid of texts that smacked of a negative spirituality’ inherited from the Middle Ages, said Archbishop Annibale Bugnini. Since medieval times, the Mass for All Souls’ Day, and every Requiem Mass, included the pre-Gospel sequence called Dies Irae. The lengthy hymn includes alarming verses. The Dies Irae’s opening notes are still the go-to sound of doom in countless movie scores, but it is missing from the post-1970 liturgy.
Pope challenges Pontifical Lateran University to address cultural emptiness - “By its nature and mission,” the Pontiff said at the Pontifical Lateran University’s opening of its 253rd academic year, the university “constitutes a privileged center where the teaching of the universal Church is elaborated, received, developed and contextualized. From this point of view, it is an institution to which even the Roman Curia can refer for its daily work.”
Nutshell reflections for 11/17/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO - November 17, 2025
Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious
Vatican News
Human dignity is a gift, & ‘cannot be obtained by merit or force’
By Devin Watkins, November 17, 2025
God bestows every human being with dignity, Pope Leo said to participants in a conference entitled “Building Communities that Safeguard Dignity,” promoted by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He said human dignity is a gift and cannot be obtained by merit or force. “It is born from the loving gaze with which God has willed each of us, one by one, and with which He continues to will us,” he said. “In every human face—even when marked by fatigue or pain—there is the reflection of the Creator’s goodness, a light that no darkness can extinguish.” Pope Leo called on consecrated religious to draw near to others with respect and tenderness, in order to share their burdens and hopes. “It is in taking responsibility for the life of our neighbor that we learn true freedom, the kind that does not dominate but serves, does not possess but accompanies.”
National Catholic Register
Catholics should frame life as a ‘passage to the promised land’
By Msgr. Charles Pope, November 14, 2025
During the month of November, the Church has us ponder the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. In this Sunday’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus gives us a kind of road map through the passing and perilous nature of this world. Jesus warns of four perils on the passage to the promised land of heaven. “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!” A false messiah is anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ telling us how to organize our lives. Before Christ can reign unambiguously in our lives, false powers and influences have to go. Persecution is an expected part of the Christian journey. Christ tells us not to worry about such things because they are part of the normal Christian life. The world can only harm our bodies; it cannot harm our souls, unless we allow it to do so.
George Weigel
The UK debate on euthanasia: ‘Dying from compassion’
By George Weigel, October 22, 2025
The “Mother of Parliaments”—that’s the one in London—has been embroiled for months in a debate over “assisted dying,” which is euphemized elsewhere under other Orwellian monikers: “Medical Assistance in Dying,” “Physician Assisted Suicide,” “Physician Assisted Dying,” and so forth. The bill legalizing this odious practice narrowly passed the House of Commons on June 20 and has been subsequently debated in the House of Lords. Writing in the Spectator, columnist Douglas Murray noted, correctly, that “there is no country in which euthanasia has been introduced in which the slope from the arena of palliative care has not slipped into the killing of the mentally ill, the young, and those who feel they have become a burden on their families or the state.” And Lord Moore notes, “Offered the right mix of professionalism [in counseling] and human kindness, people change their minds.”
Bishop Barron Reflections
Why doesn’t Jesus simply cure everyone?
By Bishop Robert Barron, November 17, 2025
Friends, today in the Gospel passage, we see Jesus’s mercy toward the blind man as a hallmark of his ministry. Jesus comes as healer, savior, inaugurator of the kingdom. He is the embodiment of hope. Jesus wanted to connect human suffering to the very source of life and health. The energy of God pours through him to the needy. Now, I realize a question may be forming in your mind: “Well, why doesn’t he simply cure everyone then?” The answer is obviously wrapped up in the mystery of God’s will, but the important point is this: Jesus is healer in many senses, but ultimately in the sense that he heals us from sin and death, not only physical maladies. What appears historically in Jesus is an eschatological anticipation, a hint and foreshadowing of what is coming in God’s time and in God’s way.
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