Catholic Nutshell News: Monday 8/10/26
Catholics should know: Pope anxious for peace in Ukraine; Religious texts in public education; Baltimore deacon arrested; & Catholic social doctrine defies easy labels
“Worth your weight in walnuts”
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CRUX
Pope’s latest appeal to Russia for peace in Ukraine
By Crux Now Staff, August 9, 2026
Pope Leo XIV appealed for peace in Ukraine on Sunday, noting “painful reports” of innocent people killed and injured in both Ukraine and Russia. “Tragic incidents continue,” Leo said, “indeed, they are multiplying, resulting in ever-increasing civilian casualties, including children.” The latest reports say Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and civilian-populated areas in several Ukrainian cities killed at least a dozen people and wounded dozens more overnight. Russia’s official TASS news agency reported three civilians killed by Ukrainian drone attacks in the Russian city of Novgorod. The pope made his appeal in remarks to pilgrims and tourists following the traditional Angelus prayer on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square. The pontiff said he stands “with the families of the victims, the injured, and all those suffering as a result of the ongoing conflict. War only begets more war and causes enormous suffering.”
National Catholic Register
Texas steps up to include religious texts in public education
By Andrea M. Picciotti-Bayer, August 3, 2026
The Texas State Board of Education approved a required reading list for the state’s 5.4 million public school students, kindergarten through 12th grade, on June 26. Alongside classic literature, students will encounter selections from Scripture: Jonah and David and Goliath in the early grades, building later to Job and the Sermon on the Mount, most drawn from the King James Version. The move follows, by less than a year, Texas’ law requiring the Ten Commandments displayed in every public school classroom, a law recently upheld by the entire Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Nathan v. Alamo Heights ISD. Together, the two make Texas the state farthest along in welcoming back the presence of religious texts in public education. Critics compare the reading list to Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case where the Supreme Court held that Montgomery County could not compel young children to sit through LGBTQ-themed storybook instruction without giving parents notice or an opportunity to opt out.
Related: Texas and CT Chart Different Paths on Religion in Public Schools, Bonnie Kristian, Christianity Today, August 10, 2026
EWTN News
Pope Leo is both head of state and head of the Church
By Amira Abuzeid, August 10, 2026
Unique among world leaders, the pope serves simultaneously as the universal spiritual head of the Catholic Church and as the head of the Holy See, a distinct sovereign entity under international law that serves as the central government of the Catholic Church. So what do these multiple roles mean in the context of a pope’s day-to-day work as the visible leader of the world’s Catholics? Andreas Widmer, a former Pontifical Swiss Guard who served St. John Paul II and now teaches at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., told EWTN News that the Papal States once formed a substantial territorial kingdom in central Italy, with the pope as its temporal ruler. The 1929 Lateran Treaty formalized the creation of Vatican City State — a tiny sovereign territory of approximately 109 acres centered on Vatican Hill — providing the pope with just enough independence to exercise his universal ministry free from external coercion. “From then on, the pope filled two distinct roles,” Widmer said.
PIMA asia news
Maldives to develop industry, livestock on uninhabited islands
By Maria Casadei, August 8, 2026
The Maldivian government has submitted a bill to parliament to change the 28-year-old Uninhabited Islands Act. The new legislation would give the president a central role in defining the use of the archipelago’s uninhabited islands and lagoons, introducing provisions on awards, concession duration, and leasing fees. Among the main changes is the possibility of leasing uninhabited islands and lagoons for purposes other than tourism, paving the way for industrial, farming, fishing, social, and public activities. Uninhabited islands designated for commercial purposes may be leased to companies and individuals registered in the Maldives, as well as to foreigners operating in the country. For other uses, leases will be reserved for Maldivian citizens, businesses, and associations. The opening of uninhabited islands to industrial activities and foreign investors also raises concerns about the protection of the archipelago's ecosystems and the transparency of concession awards.
The Pillar
Baltimore deacon arrest was part of ‘Takedown’ TV effort
By The Pillar, August 7, 2026
A Baltimore deacon charged with sexually soliciting a minor was discovered in a partnership between local sheriffs and a streaming predator investigation television program. “We heard that there are rumors that Chris Hansen of ‘Takedown’ was back in Harford County,” Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler wrote in an Aug. 7 Facebook post. “Well, the rumors are true.” “In partnership with Chris Hansen’s team, we just completed a week of filming here, and what our joint operation uncovered should concern every parent in our community. Throughout this effort, investigators encountered multiple individuals from within Harford County attempting to communicate with who they believed were children.” Goedeke, 45, is a deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, ordained in 2023, who has been both employed since 2005 at several Catholic parishes and — from 2020 until February 2026 — at a local Catholic high school.
Zeale
Calls for ‘church-free’ state at Indian political event alarm Christians
By Zeale News Team, August 7, 2026
Speakers at a July 28 gathering attended by the top elected official in Odisha, an eastern Indian state, called for the region to become “church-free,” alarming Christian advocates in an area scarred by one of India’s worst outbreaks of deadly anti-Christian violence in 2008. The gathering in Bhubaneswar featured Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who belongs to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose governments have faced criticism from religious-freedom monitors over their treatment of Christians and other religious minorities. Kandhamal — a rural district in Odisha that became the center of anti-Christian violence in 2008 — is called a “laboratory” whose model should be replicated across India. Organizers reportedly urged Hindu religious leaders to visit every village in the district and asked participants to help complete what they described as Saraswati’s “unfinished work.”
Aleteia
The religious texts in public education
By D. R. Esparza, August 10, 2026
Catholic social teaching is one of the richest and least-read bodies of thought the Church has produced. Most Catholics have heard the term; far fewer have spent time with the actual documents — the encyclicals, apostolic letters, and papal addresses that have been developing the tradition since 1891. Those who do read them tend to come away with the same reaction: this is more complex, more demanding, and more interesting than they expected. It does not confirm what they already believed. It asks them to think harder. Catholic social teaching is not a political program. It does not map onto the left-right spectrum — not because it is timid or evasive, but because it begins from a place that neither contemporary liberalism nor contemporary conservatism fully occupies: the conviction that the human person has an inviolable dignity, given by God, that precedes and supersedes every political arrangement. From that single starting point, conclusions follow that will make almost everyone uncomfortable at some point.
ZENIT
Another change: Leo completely replaces Francis’s Vatican law
By Zenit Staff, August 8, 2026
Pope Leo XIV has done something unusual for the Vatican: only three years after Pope Francis substantially rewrote the constitutional framework of the Vatican City State, he has replaced it again. The new Fundamental Law, promulgated on July 31, 2026, entered into force immediately, without the customary period between promulgation and implementation. It is the fourth constitutional text in the history of the modern Vatican state, following the law promulgated by Pius XI in 1929 after the Lateran Pacts, the revision approved by John Paul II in 2000 and Francis’ constitution of 2023. The significance of Leo’s intervention lies in a handful of precise corrections — how the Vatican understands the source of the Pope’s temporal authority. The most consequential alteration concerns the idea that the Pope governs Vatican City “by virtue of the Petrine office.” Francis’ 2023 Fundamental Law explicitly connected the Pope’s sovereignty over the state to his office as successor of Saint Peter. The new constitution removes that formulation.
Keep informed - 8/10/26 news for Catholics:
Snippets: EWTN News, Catholic World Report, & Catholic World News
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — August 10, 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.
Nigerian bishop in Muslim-majority region says being ‘creative minority’ is key to diocese’s mission - By Nicholas Waigwa - At the SIGNIS World Congress, Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa said the young Katsina Diocese in northwestern Nigeria will focus on “transforming society” rather than on the challenges Christians face there.
Denver healing could move a nun jailed by communists toward sainthood - By Bohumil Petrík - “The very fact that the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is dealing with the extraordinary healing through the intercession of Blessed Zdenka Schelingová is a gift from God and a great encouragement,” Zvolenský told EWTN News.
Study shows society’s religious norms can affect children’s anxiety - By Tessa Gervasini - The study, which looked at data over three decades, reports that a country’s religious values may serve as “a protective factor” against anxiety issues in children and adolescents.
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.
On Abortion Pills, Wastewater, and Public Trust - John M. Grondelski, Ph.D. August 9, 2026 - One scandal of the COVID era was the alliance between government and some social media platforms to suppress doubt and dissent about the regime—especially compulsory vaccinations—to control the pandemic. A casualty has been the erosion of trust in what “experts” declare in the name of “public health.”
“I think we’re poised for an amazing time in the Church.” An interview with Bp. Gerard W. Battersby - Jim Graves August 7, 2026 - Regardless of the city’s difficulties, I like to quote what the Psalmist said of Jerusalem: “I love her very stones.” (Psa 102:15) I would also note that other major cities have similar problems … but Detroit seems to get the negative reputation. Detroit is a tragic story, but it has the ability to remake itself. I’m optimistic it will turn things around.
Why I Believe: An Interview by a Respectful Skeptic - Father Jerry J. Pokorsky August 9, 2026 - Most of our knowledge is based on beliefs. Accepting the authority of others is not irrational or unreliable; it is practical and unavoidable. We trust doctors when they prescribe medications because they have studied medicine. We need not repeat the scientific method to validate every belief. Catholics trust the testimony of witnesses whose teaching extends back through the centuries to the Apostles.
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.
Christ walking on water teaches us to avoid presumption and despair, Pope tells pilgrims - In his August 9 Sunday Angelus address (video), Pope Leo XIV reflected on Christ walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee, an event recounted in the Gospel reading of the day (Matthew 14:22-23). The miracle “teaches us something important,” Pope Leo told pilgrims
Florida’s upside-down dispute over religious freedom - Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier has warned the state’s bishops that Catholic schools could lose public funding. Uthmeier cites the schools’ policy that requires vaccinations for students, and refuses to allow exemptions on religious grounds. The state’s law, Uthmeier points out, requires recipients to allow for exemptions to vaccine mandates.
A social scientist seeking faith - Like so many intellectuals, Charles Murray had been trained to assume that science could ultimately explain everything; he came to suspect that something more was in play. “It was almost as if someone had planned it that way.” Murray’s latest book, Taking Religion Seriously, poses a different sort of challenge, explaining how the author has come to recognize the wisdom of Christianity.
August 10, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
Today’s Catholic commentary:
First Things
Have American Catholics given up on evangelizing?
By Francis X. Maier, August 10, 2025
Here’s a simple, biblical truth: We’re never as smart as we think we are, and we’re never as wise as we need to be. The best intentions can have unintended consequences. Why—as the Pew Research Center reports—are 13% of U.S. adults former Catholics? Put differently, why do 43% of people raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic? And why—if Burge’s data are correct—do only 32% of Catholic priests and the same meager 32% of mainline Protestant pastors believe that it’s important to convert others to their particular Christian path? This, compared to 82% of evangelical pastors. Catholics in this country have always had the uphill task of showing we belong here. As Stanley Hauerwas once observed, the reason so many Catholics in the post–World War II years could be found in the CIA, FBI, and Marines was to prove their loyalty. The Catholic instinct to assimilate and “fit in,” despite the cost, is a dead-end mistake.
Aleteia
What makes society collapse, according to St. John XXIII
By Philip Kosloski, August 10, 2026
St. John XXIII witnessed the atrocities of two World Wars and prayed fervently that society would improve. The outlook at the time didn't look promising, but he hoped the world could change if peace within the family was maintained. In his encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram, he said that peace within the family was the key to peace in the world: “For unless peace, unity, and concord are present in domestic society, how can they exist in civil society?” When the family suffers, the rest of society crumbles. “We earnestly pray God to prevent any damage to this valuable, beneficial, and necessary union. The Christian family is a sacred institution. If it totters, if the norms which the divine Redeemer laid down for it are rejected or ignored, then the very foundations of the state tremble; civil society stands betrayed and in peril. Everyone suffers.”
Our Sunday Visitor
Theologian explains new book, ‘A Catholic Guide to Being Human’
By Charlie Camosy, August 10, 2026
Is society forgetting what it means to be human? In this time of artificial intelligence and new technology, John S. Grabowski, professor of moral theology/ethics at The Catholic University of America, has a new book, “A Catholic Guide to Being Human.” It would be an understandable reaction to think that this topic and a book devoted to it is rather strange. After all, we don’t have to do anything to be human — it’s just what we are. Why indeed would we need some kind of guide? But, in point of fact, we are deeply confused about what it means to be human. Over 60 years ago, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council in the pastoral constitution on the Church “Gaudium et Spes” noted that in spite of our growing scientific knowledge and technological prowess, we do not understand ourselves. As a result, we don’t know how to think about these technologies and how to use them well. The passage of decades and the emergence of new and still more powerful technologies has not changed this situation. It has compounded it.
The Catholic Thing
Jesus’ Transfiguration prepared the apostles for the ‘trial’
By Kristen Ziccarelli, August 6, 2026
August 6, the Feast of the Transfiguration, commemorates one of the most mysterious moments in Christ’s public ministry. Ascending Mount Tabor with Peter, James, and John, Jesus is transfigured before them. His face shines “like the sun,” and His garments become dazzling white, Moses and Elijah appear beside Him, and the Father’s voice declares, “This is my beloved Son. . . .listen to Him.” Why reveal His glory at that particular moment? Archbishop Fulton Sheen offers one illuminating answer in his short book, The Life of Christ: “Peter the ‘rock,’ James, the one destined to be the first Apostle Martyr, and John, the visionary of the future glory of the Apocalypse. Undoubtedly, He chose these three because they most needed strength for the hour of trial.” Christ did not reveal His glory after the Cross as a reward for their fidelity, but before the Cross to strengthen and support them in preparation for it.
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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