Catholic Nutshell News: Monday 12/29/25
Topics include: U.S. executions rise in 2025; 'Martyrdom is a birth into heaven'; The Fragility of marriage; & The God Gap: Political parties divided on religion
“Worth your weight in walnuts”
Today's sources are Crux, Graphs about Religion, Aleteia, Fides, UCA, Catholic Culture, & Catholic News Agency. (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
U.S. executions rise in 2025 amid shifting public opinion
By Daniel Payne, December 29, 2025
A rise in executions in the United States in 2025 occurred alongside “shifting public opinion” against the death penalty, offering anti-death-penalty advocates a hopeful sign going into 2026 even amid high levels of capital punishment. The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that tracks and catalogs executions in the United States, said in its year-end report that 48 prisoners were executed in the U.S. in 2025, up from 25 the year before. The near-100% increase in executions was driven in large part by Florida, which at 19 executions counted for about 40% of the year’s total, the group noted. South Carolina executed two inmates by firing squad, the first such executions in the U.S. in 15 years. Lawyers alleged that one of those executions was botched, leading to the inmate suffering before dying. The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, “denied every request to stay an execution” in 2025.
CRUX
Pope Leo: Martyrdom is a birth into heaven
By Elise Ann Allen, December 26, 2025
Pope Leo on “Boxing Day” reflected on the death of the church’s first martyr, urging Christians to work for peace and justice in a world often marred by inequality, even when it comes at a cost. “Everywhere in the world, there are those who choose justice even at great cost, those who put peace before their fears, and those who serve the poor instead of themselves. Hope then sprouts, and it makes sense to celebrate despite everything,” he said. Leo spoke on the feast of Saint Stephen, the church’s first martyr, a deacon who is commemorated the day after Christmas and who was accused of blasphemy and stoned to death for preaching that Jesus was the Messiah. “Seeing with the eyes of faith is to see no longer mere darkness, even in death, for Martyrdom is a birth into heaven,” he said.
Related: Pope Saint John Paul II’s radical forgiveness and the meaning of ‘peace on earth’ - CatholicVote - Patrick Novecosky on December 26, 2025
Aleteia
The Church is marking a Jubilee for John of the Cross
By Daniel Esparza, December 29, 2025
From December 2025 through December 2026, the Church is celebrating a Jubilee Year dedicated to John of the Cross, one of Christianity’s most demanding — and enduring — spiritual teachers. Proclaimed by the Discalced Carmelites with papal approval, the jubilee marks two anniversaries: 300 years since his canonization and 100 years since he was named a Doctor of the Church. This jubilee invites Catholics to revisit a message that feels strikingly contemporary: faith does not eliminate darkness, but teaches how to pass through it. The Jubilee draws directly from the Carmelite saint’s central insight: that union with God requires letting go of illusions, attachments, and false securities. John’s writings, including The Dark Night and The Ascent of Mount Carmel, were born not from comfort but from hardship. He wrote some of his most luminous poetry while imprisoned by his own religious brothers.
Agenzia Fides
The Fragility of marriage addressed in Vietnamese dioceses
By Andrew Doan Thanh Phong, December 28, 2025
“Marriage cannot last longer if it is not nurtured every day,” said by Father Peter Nguyen Van Truong to the participants of the 92nd offering of Marriage Renewal, held at Sam Son Parish, Thanh Hoa Diocese, Central Vietnam. Fifty Catholic and non-Catholic couples from various places inside and outside of the country attended that one event. Explicitly organized for married couples, regardless of religion, the sessions address challenges families face in modern life and the role and mission of the family in the life of faith. Truong Van Thom, a participant, said, “The value of marriage in Vietnam is undergoing big changes.” Previously, divorce was considered a loss of happiness, but now many people believe that life is better after divorce. “This view makes people willingly end their present marriage life to seek their new happiness.”
The Pillar
Why the USCCB is considering selling its headquarters
By The Pillar, December 19, 2025
The U.S. bishops’ conference is at the start of a restructuring process that could see its Washington, D.C. headquarters sold or leased, as the conference faces ongoing financial challenges and a recent round of layoffs. The building, with almost 200,000 square feet of floor area, is occupied by only 50%. A task force of bishops was charged last month with leading a process to review the USCCB’s priorities and operations. “Succinctly,” outgoing treasurer Archbishop James Checchio said, “times have changed, but our physical structure has not, and the way we do business largely remains the same.” Since the restructuring of the communications, justice and peace, and now Migration and Refugee Services (MRS), “the cost to maintain our underutilized headquarters building in DC was roughly $4.4 million, which includes insurance, but not capital projects,” the archbishop added. “The question obviously arises: Is that a wise use of our revenues, to fund a building?”
Pime Asia News
Myanmar war not actually a religious conflict
By Ma Phyu Phyu, December 27, 2025
In the city of the “great mountain” (the meaning of the name in Burmese), the refugees come mainly from Loikaw, Demoso, and Pekhon, predominantly Christian regions targeted during the very early stages of the civil war. Those who fled the northern city of Lashio returned home after ethnic militias, under pressure from China, handed over their headquarters to the army. ‘At first, I thought it was persecution of Christians,’ says a university professor who joined the civil disobedience movement and still stands by her choice, even though it means her family has been blacklisted by the army: ‘Then I realised that they are targeting everyone: Buddhists and minorities alike.’ The conflict is not religious, but divides those who support the dictatorship and those who would like a democratic system. Among the very young soldiers guarding checkpoints in flip-flops along the road from Mandalay to Taunggyi, some are seen with crosses tattooed on their necks.
Graphs about Religion
The God Gap: The political parties are deeply divided on religion
By Ryan Burge, December 29, 2025
The political parties in the United States are so incredibly different from each other. I think we all know that. Republicans are a whole lot more white than Democrats. There’s the geographic divide. The GOP is a party of rural America, and the Democrats tend to do much better in densely populated urban cores. The parties are also deeply divided on religion. We’ve got a term for it: The God Gap.
Simply put, religion in the United States (particularly white religion) is now Republican coded. The Democrats, on the other hand, are the party of the nones. The GOP was highly religiously engaged back in the Obama vs. McCain matchup—only 29% said that they attended church less than once a year. In the last two cycles, the share of Republican voters who attend never or seldom has risen to 42%. The share of Republican voters who attend weekly hasn’t changed much; it’s the more than once-a-week people who have started to disappear.
University of Notre Dame
Top stores of 2025 analyzed by Crisis Magazine
By Charles Coulombe, December 29, 2025
“Fast away the old year passes,” as the Christmas carol Deck the Halls warns us—and so it is to be. The year 2025 is fast approaching its end. Semiquincentennial of the start of the American Revolution, bicentennial of the last coronation thus far of a king of France, centennial of the coming of the Charleston dance to Europe, it is about to join its countless forebears in the dead past. The ending of a year always fills one with a certain bittersweet sadness, as regret for the year gone by mingles with hopes for the one to come. As those with a memory shall recall, the political and cultural divide in the United States became too deep to joke about. The retreat of humor is always a bad sign for cultural health. We’ll look at a few of the major stories this past year and see if we can make any sense out of them.
National Catholic Registerhttps://www.ncregister.com/
There is a “God-sized hole” in Europe’s heart
By George Weigel, December 29, 2025
Twenty years ago, in The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God, I argued that Europe was experiencing a crisis of “civilizational morale,” evident in sclerotic governmental bureaucracies, an unwillingness to contribute appropriately to the defense of the West, various forms of what we now call wokery, and collapsing birth rates: a deliberate refusal to create future generations. The demographic situation in Europe has gotten even more challenging. Vast numbers of immigrants from another civilizational orbit — many of whom hold the West in contempt even as they seek shelter from their own failed states — are filling the vacuum left by Europe’s self-induced mass infertility. To borrow from Leon Kass, there is a “God-sized hole” in Europe’s heart, caused by centuries of secularism — and, it must be admitted, much of European Catholicism’s failure to embrace the New Evangelization and get about the conversion to Christian faith of Christianity’s historic heartland.
CNA, UCA, and CW News for 12/29/25
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — December 29, 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.
6 Catholic public figures who made major headlines in 2025 - Dec 29, 2025 - By Diego López Marina - A look at six of this past year’s leading Catholic newsmakers.
Pope Leo XIV sends three truckloads of humanitarian aid to Ukraine - Dec 28, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - Pope Leo XIV has sent three trucks carrying humanitarian aid to parts of Ukraine hit hardest by bombardments.
Vatican expert: Co-Redemptrix title of Mary not absolutely prohibited - Dec 28, 2025 - By Walter Sánchez Silva, Paola Arriaza Flynn - Vatican expert explains that the titles “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix” will no longer be used in the liturgy or official documents.
UCA News
The Union of Catholic Asian World News - 12/29/25
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
Bangladesh student uprising leaders seal poll pact with Islamists - December 29, 2025 - Jamaat-e-Islami appears set to gain a foothold in government, raising fears over democracy and minority rights
Nigerian Church leaders give mixed reaction to US airstrikes - December 27, 2025 - The strikes on ISIS sparked debate over security, violence, and religious framing
Japan stabbing, liquid spray attack injures 15 - December 27, 2025 - Masked attacker targets workers at factory near Tokyo, shocking a country known for low violent crime
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.
Archpriests close jubilee holy doors at Lateran, St. Paul’s basilicas - As the 2025 jubilee year draws to a close, the archpriest of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran closed the holy door there on December 27. The archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls closed the sacred door there the following day.
Pope encourages youth at Taizé meeting to seek Christ - Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, has written a papal message to the 15,000 people taking part in the Taizé Community’s 48th European Youth Meeting, held this year in Paris from December 28 to January 1.
Amid pre-election violence, Ugandan prelate calls for repentance - Amid violence ahead of the 2026 Ugandan general election, the chairman of the Uganda Episcopal Conference called for repentance, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Violence, hatred, and other evils “represent a departure from the commands given by our Lord to his followers,” said Bishop Joseph Anthony Zziwa of Kiyinda-Mityan.
Nutshell reflections for 12/29/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO - December 29, 2025
The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas
Word on Fire
Dumbphones and spirituality
By Richard Taylor, December 24, 2025
A year and a half ago, in my sophomore year of college, I summoned the courage and got a dumbphone—a phone without internet, email, social media, or any other distracting apps. Dumbing down my digital life began out of a desire to minimize distractions from my homework and budding reading habit, but has rekindled my spiritual life from embers at the end of adolescence into a crackling fire in young adulthood. Just as my smartphone once infiltrated many aspects of my life, so too has my dumbphone detoxed my work, my prayer, and everything in between. Life with a dumbphone need not be a monastic life of work and prayer only, nor does it demand ta flight from the world and utter detachment. Instead, living with a dumbphone has freed me to attach myself to the real, authentic, and ordinary world—the world of long conversations and eye contact and close friendships, of sunsets and rustling trees and chirping birds, of silence and prayer, the interior world where the Holy Spirit has been waiting patiently for me
Dominicana
The God who bungee jumps
By Br. Raphael Arteaga, O.P., December 25, 2025
It has been approximately 2025 years since we found out that God can bungee jump. Yes, you read that right: the nativity of Jesus Christ shows us that, to the amazement of men and angels, God can, and does, bungee jump. God’s descent from his heavenly heights into the gorge of creation is the magnum mysterium, the great mystery, that we contemplate and celebrate every Christmas. Though it is surprising to find out that God can and does jump into creation, what is far more awesome is discovering how and why he does so. Without ever leaving his eternal Father and Spirit, the Eternal Son of God, born of the Father before all time, jumped from his heavenly heights and was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin’s womb—he became man. God did this so that by his visible humanity we may be snatched back up with him, body and soul, into his infinite divine friendship.
Omnes
‘I never imagined the depth of the changes … with my conversion’
By Javier García Herrería, December 28, 2025
Tammy Peterson’s path to conversion to Catholicism emerged from the darkness of illness and despair. After being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, Tammy faced months of pain, surgery, and a long recovery. It was during this period of extreme fragility that, on the recommendation of a friend, she began to pray the rosary. What began as a search for comfort turned into a spiritual encounter that culminated in his baptism and full entry into the Catholic Church. “How has my life changed? It's interesting. One day, while my husband Jordan and I were talking about the transformations I had experienced since returning to the faith, we wrote a list of virtues that had emerged in me since my conversion. We came up with a total of thirty virtues that I have received since that moment.”
Bishop Barron Reflections
Does God need this sacrifice? Of course not.
By Bishop Robert Barron, December 29, 2025
Friends, today’s Gospel tells the story of the presentation of Jesus in the temple. The presentation of Jesus, perfected on the cross, is re-presented every time the Mass is celebrated. The Mass is certainly a festive meal, the moment when God feeds his people with his very body and blood; but the Mass is also a sacrifice, for it involves the offering of Jesus’s body and blood to the Father. The Son, bearing the sins of the world, is presented to the Father: “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.” Does God need this sacrifice? Of course not; God needs nothing. But our salvation is effected through this presentation, for we are brought back to the Father through the Son.
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