Catholic Nutshell News: Monday 6/22/26
Catholics should know: Zahm Hall’s Notre Dame mess; DOJ joins nuns’ New York lawsuit; Child Brides in Cambodia; & 1 million babies legally killed in 2023
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Your 5-minute daily Catholic briefing. Today's sources: National Catholic Register, EWTN News, The Pillar, Crux, First Things, Zenit, & Aleteia. (Catholic Nutshell is a FREE subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)
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National Catholic Register
Zahm Hall’s history at Notre Dame is a tale of controversy
By Matthew McDonald, June 22, 2026
For decades, students at the University of Notre Dame reacted instantly when someone said he lived in Zahm Hall, aware of the dorm’s reputation for disorderly behavior. But in recent months, distaste has turned to outrage and dismay over allegations that a priest who led the dorm for 17 years sexually abused some of the undergraduates who lived there. Many former residents say they had no idea what Holy Cross Father Thomas King was reportedly doing to some of their fellow students. But they acknowledge that Zahm’s reputation for debauchery and antiestablishment behavior predated Father King’s leadership of the dorm from 1980 to 1997 and lingered long after him. Zahm Hall — “Zahm House” to many of its later alumni; “Zahm Zoo” to many others — lasted almost a quarter century after Father King left. The university stopped using it as a traditional residence in 2021, citing its ungovernability.
EWTN News
Justice Department joins Catholic nuns’ lawsuit against New York
By Tyler Arnold, June 19, 2026
The Department of Justice (DOJ) joined in a lawsuit filed by Catholic nuns against a New York law that forces nursing facilities to require that women’s units accommodate transgender women, who are biologically male. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who have cared for terminal cancer patients at no charge for 125 years, sued the state after the New York Department of Health sent them three warnings about not following the transgender policies. One letter warns about “refusing to assign a room to a resident other than in accordance with the resident’s gender identity,” “prohibiting a resident from using a restroom available to other persons of the same gender identity,” and “willfully and repeatedly failing to use a resident’s preferred name or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.”
PIMA asia news
Child Brides: Cambodia still suffers the practice
By Terry Friel, June 22, 2026
Buoyed by the outstanding success of some pilot projects to fight child marriage in remote villages, Cambodia is accelerating its efforts to stamp out a practice that disproportionately impacts girls as young as 13 in indigenous and isolated communities. One in five girls in the Buddhist kingdom is married off before they turn the legal age of 18. But the rate soars to one in every two among indigenous tribes, known as the Khmer Loeu (Upland Khmer), in the remote, mountainous northeast corner bordering Laos and Vietnam. Cambodia is not alone. “Child marriage is a global issue. It is fuelled by gender inequality, poverty, social norms, and insecurity, and has devastating consequences all over the world," says Girls Not Brides, a global network of more than 1,400 civil society groups.
The Pillar
Promise for new clerical abuse policies not being implemented
By JD Flynn, June 19, 2026
Seven years ago this month, a new set of policies came into effect in the Church, promulgated by Pope Francis and intended to address the problems of both clerical sexual misconduct and episcopal negligence in addressing or assessing allegations of sexual abuse and coercion. The policies, documented in the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi, represented at the time the promise of a new approach to a serious problem, which had come to the fore with the McCarrick scandals of 2018, subsequent grand jury reports, and emerging accounts from Catholics who said they’d manifested concerns to bishops, and been met with silence, or with the appearance of cover-ups. Transparency has not been a feature of Vos estis’ implementation in the U.S., and as a result, it is nearly impossible to assess whether the goal of internal accountability has been achieved.
aciafrica
Bishops warn Tongo’s constitutional change triggers violence
By Jude Atemanke, June 20, 2026
Catholic Bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have warned that efforts to amend the country's Constitution risk plunging the nation into deeper instability, including the possibility of renewed civil war. Members of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) say they see “neither the necessity, nor the urgency, nor the appropriateness” of changing the Constitution, specifically removing Article 220. “Article 220 represents a genuine safeguard against dictatorship and the privatization of the State,” CENCO members said. CENCO members express concern about what they describe as a campaign by the ruling Majority to revise the 2006 Constitution, alleging that the process is being conducted in an atmosphere that discourages opposing views. “Article 220 represents a genuine safeguard against dictatorship and the privatization of the State,” CENCO members say.
Zeale
More countries experienced religious hostility in 2023
By Elizabeth Ervin, June 22, 2026
The number of countries experiencing high or very high levels of religious social hostility increased for the third consecutive year in 2023, according to a June 15 report from the Pew Research Center. Pew Research, covering 198 countries and territories, found that in 2023, the most recent year with available data, 55 countries had elevated levels of social and religious hostility. Pew attributed the increase in part to findings of rising harassment of religious minorities. According to the study, countries with very high levels of social hostility involving religion included Nigeria, India, Israel, Syria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The findings come as concerns persist over religious freedom in countries such as Nigeria and India, where Christians and other religious minorities face violence and discrimination, as Zeale News previously reported.
ZENIT
More than 1 million babies were legally killed in the U.S. in 2025
By Tim Daniels, June 13, 2026
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 through its landmark Dobbs decision, many observers predicted that abortion numbers would decline substantially as states regained authority to regulate or prohibit the procedure. Four years later, a new set of figures suggests a far more complex reality. According to the latest estimates released by the Society of Family Planning’s #WeCount project, approximately 1,126,760 abortions were performed in the formal U.S. healthcare system during 2025. That represents a 1.6% increase compared with 2024 and places the annual total above pre-Dobbs levels, despite the enactment of abortion restrictions in numerous states. The most significant finding is not merely the overall number of abortions but the growing role of remote abortion services. By the end of 2025, nearly three out of every ten abortions in the United States—29%—were obtained through telemedicine.
CRUX
The Catholic Church actively supports Brazil’s Yanomami people
By Eduardo Campos Lima, June 22, 2026
Pope Leo XIV has lent his support to the Yanomani people as they work with partners to recover from a humanitarian crisis and attendant challenges in the Amazon. The pontiff sent a message on June 17 to the Amazonian Indigenous group, which held a general assembly last week to discuss ongoing challenges as the people continue working to recover from a severe humanitarian crisis over the past three years. Hutukara has been on the front line in denouncing invasions of Yanomami territory, especially during the 2019-2023 crisis. During those years, a combination of widespread malaria and other diseases, along with the contamination of local waterways and soil by toxic chemicals, led to widespread hunger and numerous deaths. At least 538 children under the age of 5 died during that period, and nearly 500 of those deaths were considered preventable.
Keep informed - 6/22/26 news for Catholics:
Snippets: EWTN News, Catholic World Report, & Catholic World News
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — June 22, 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.
‘Chant GPT’: How Catholics are responding to AI-generated Gregorian chant - By Kate Quiñones - As AI encroaches on sacred music, Catholics still hold true to Gregorian chant, a historical form of sacred music that is still alive today. “Even with AI aside, one of the dangers of chant recordings is that singers often aim to present pristine, errorless, and sublime sounds. But such perfection is not often reflective of a life that worships regularly with chant.”
Cleveland father and son live out sacrificial faith after mother’s near-death illness - By Amira Abuzeid - After his mother’s serious illness, Jake, almost entirely by himself, built her a sauna and exercise room. Joe, the CEO of a marketing company, called Prayer At The Heart, said, “Out of that hardship, I have found a woman who is incredibly holy.”
‘Europe needs missionaries’: New program forms lay leaders for the Church - By Martin Barillas - Students from across Europe are preparing for missionary service through the European Mission Campus that combines spiritual formation, community life, and practical ministry training.
Catholic World Report
CWR’s Columns, Analysis, & Features
Catholic World Report is a free online magazine that examines the news from a faithful Catholic perspective.
Celebrating Islam in an Archdiocese of Decline - Timothy D. Lusch, June 21, 2026 - On the evening of June 6th—the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ—Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger joined Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Imam Fadhel Al-Sahlani (representative of the Shia Grand Ayatollah.
The challenge of applying Catholic social teaching - James Kalb, June 18, 2026 - Christ told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world, which, he had prophesied, was doomed to end in catastrophe. He lived without worldly ties: without a job, wife, children, or a steady source of income. And us?
Second volume of Justice Scalia biography portrays a unique “founder” - Austin Ruse, June 16, 2026 - The founding of America was not a single event. It was a process that began long before the documents that broke us away from Great Britain and the documents that established our government.
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.
European court upholds right to peaceful missionary activity - The European Court of Human Rights, in a June 9 decision, upheld the right to peaceful missionary activity. The court ruled that a ban on door-to-door evangelization in Shumen, Bulgaria, violated the European Convention on Human Rights.
Over 1 million venerate Virgin Mary’s cincture in Belgrade - Over 1.1 million people in Belgrade, Serbia, recently venerated the cincture of the Blessed Virgin Mary over a ten-day period. It was the first time in 650 years that the cincture, housed at Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, was venerated in Serbia. Other Marian cincture relics are venerated in Syria and in Prato, Italy.
41% of the world’s permanent deacons serve in the United States - An estimated 21,562 of the world’s permanent deacons serve in dioceses of the United States, which has 6% of the world’s Catholic population, according to a newly-released survey conducted for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by the Center for Applied Research
June 22, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
Aleteia
The hood of a friar’s habit becomes a nesting spot for a bird
By Cerith Gardiner, June 22, 2026
A small bird in southern India recently made a housing decision that St. Francis of Assisi would almost certainly have approved of. Faced with all the trees, ledges, branches, and hiding places available around a Capuchin monastery in Kerala, a bulbul bird carefully selected the hood of a friar’s habit as the ideal place to raise her family. And you have to admire her taste. The discovery was made by Fr. Jinu Mandiyil after he hung his habit out to dry and returned a few days later, expecting to find a clean robe. Instead, he found a nest tucked inside the hood, complete with tiny chicks waiting for their next meal. Rather than evict his unexpected tenants, Fr. Jinu decided to leave the habit exactly where it was. The Capuchin community watched as the mother bird returned again and again to feed her young, disappearing into the folds of the garment before darting away once more.
Our Sunday Visitor
Miracle 20 years ago may help Father Kapaun’s sainthood
By Katie Yoder, June 4, 2026
When Chase Kear first learned about Father Emil J. Kapaun in eighth grade, he had no idea that the Kansas military chaplain on the path to sainthood would change his life forever. “He’s been around me in one way or another my whole life,” the 37-year-old from Colwich, Kansas, told OSV News. “And I never knew it.” Nearly 20 years ago, Kear was in a life-threatening pole vaulting accident. He unexpectedly survived after his family, parish, and people worldwide prayed for the intercession of Father Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain in World War II and in the Korean War. Their prayers came after Father Kapaun’s cause for sainthood opened in 1993. Today, Kear’s recovery could contribute to the cause of Father Kapuan, who was declared “Venerable” last year. For the next step — beatification — he needs a miracle accepted by the church as having occurred through his intercession.
First Things
The love of others is not based on comprehension
By Ephraim Radner, June 1, 2025
At some point, we must give up trying to understand other people. Love them, surely. But recognize that such a love cannot be based on comprehension. We always need to remember that our love is carried on some great tide of divine demand. And we must throw ourselves into its current. We must be honest: We cannot grasp what is going on in other people’s minds. Nor they in ours. To acknowledge this fact is a good that is achievable, both easily received and morally protective, even freeing. Call it a dreadful humility. Something else is going on as we try to plan our futures and make our agreements with neighbors, enemies, commanders, presidents, peasants. Something else that keeps pushing underneath our figuring and relating. The moral life, our life with God, is tethered here, each of us grasped by a silent movement to which our thoughts, useless on their own, must learn to bow.
The Catholic Thing
The opportunity for authentic Catholic education is here
By Robert Royal, June 22, 2026
The U.S. Department of Education – an unconstitutional agency (education is not among the “enumerated powers” allotted by the Constitution to the Federal government) – is downsizing and offloading various activities to other agencies. The DOE’s enormous bureaucracy and budget ($250 billion a year) couldn’t help but do some good over the decades, of course. But since it got “woke,” it has also trespassed constitutional limits intended to prevent precisely such abuses: politicizing learning and inserting itself into everything from obsessing over racism in U.S. history to pushing LGBT activism. Authentic Catholic education is “a restauratio, healing the wounds of sin to reorder the soul in an ascent from dispersion to unity.” Patrick Reilly, the Cardinal Newman Society’s president, quoted the great saint to a similar end in remarks at the CNS Leaders’ Summit: “the church’s objective for education,” [Newman] said, is “to reunite things which were in the beginning joined by God and have been put asunder by man.”
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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