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CRUX
Last vestige of anti-Catholic laws in Britain might be ending
By Charles Collins, September 13, 2026
Last week, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he will ask Parliament to end the ban on Catholic members advising the Sovereign on appointing bishops in the Church of England. Since the Reformation came to England in the 1500s, the King or ruling Queen has been the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and oversees the appointment of bishops. However, as the power of Parliament has grown, the prime minister has “advised” the monarch — in other words, has a major role in appointing bishops. He is the first Catholic to become prime minister in Britain, but he doesn’t have the same authority as his predecessors. “Restrictions set out in the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and the Jews Relief Act 1858 prevent persons professing the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths only from advising the Sovereign on appointments to the Church of England and Church of Scotland,” he explained. He added that he is currently giving that responsibility to advise the Sovereign on Church appointments to Alex Norris, the Lord Chancellor.
National Catholic Register
To save a Catholic church in Detroit, the archdiocese let it go
By Matthew McDonald, September 6, 2026
Msgr. Chuck Kosanke ran out of options. He was pastor of a parish now known as the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit in 2016, trying to save the twin-spire, brick-and-stone Gothic-Revival church built in 1886, which, after years of deferred maintenance, was in tough shape. His nickname in the Archdiocese of Detroit is “Mr. Fix-It.” He raised only about $5 million of a projected $26 million needed to restore the church. The growing parish was poor and unable to contribute much. “Now, even though I pray before the Blessed Sacrament every morning, I finally had to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with Jesus,” referring to the spring of 2022. The well-known Detroit Pulte family made an unusual offer: "We’ll give more money than you asked for, but the Catholic Church can’t own the property." The archdiocese transferred ownership of the buildings and grounds, giving the archdiocese a 200-year renewable lease to run the property as a Catholic parish for $1 a year.
EWTN News
Leo XIV repeals COVID-era pay cuts to Vatican cardinals
By Ishmael Adibuah, September 14, 2026
Pope Leo XIV has officially repealed the salary cuts Pope Francis imposed on cardinals and other senior officials working in the Roman Curia. In a decree published by the Vatican on Sept. 14, the pontiff canceled the cost-cutting measures Francis had established in 2021 to address the Vatican’s financial deficit that year, projected at $60 million. A Vatican cardinal’s monthly stipend is about $5,768 (5,000 euros). Under those measures, the Vatican cut cardinals’ stipends by 10%. Those measures, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, also reduced the pay of other senior officials and employees of the Holy See and Vatican City State by 8%. Clergy and religious employed by the Vatican saw their salaries reduced by 3%. Leo stated in his motu proprio that those salary cuts “may now be set aside.”
PIMA Asia News
40 digital missionaries heading to Seoul World Youth Day
By Santosh Digal, September 14, 2026
The first Asian Assembly of Catholic Digital Missionaries was held in Manila from 10 to 13 September, centered on the topic “Influencers to Witnesses: Synodal Way for Digital Mission in Asia”. About a hundred Catholic digital missionaries from across the continent took part in the four-day event to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of evangelization in the digital realm. To this end, some “40 Pairs of Eyes” or Catholic influencers will tell the story of World Youth Day (WYD) 2027 in Seoul in a fresh, new way. Catholic influencers will thus try to capture and share the insights, experiences, and moments young people and communities will partake in South Korea in August 2027, and share them with Catholics across Asia. “We realized that the digital world is already a mission field, especially for the young people of Asia,” noted Father John Mi Shen, head of the Office of Social Communication of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), speaking to AsiaNews.
The Pillar
The Vatican and Beijing’s long-term bets against each other
By Ed. Condon, September 2, 2026
Both the Vatican and the Communist Party of China (CPC) appear to have settled for an unhappy present while pressing, or praying, for future victory. The Vatican announced two weeks ago a growing list of bishops selected and installed under the norms of the 2018 agreement with the Chinese government on episcopal appointments. Bishop Paul Liu Honggang was consecrated Aug. 31 and installed as the new head of the Diocese of Datong, vacant for 75 years. Liu is the latest in a queue of relatively smooth episcopal appointments for the Chinese mainland since the election of Pope Leo XIV last year. After years of dysfunction, with mainland authorities choosing and installing bishops without reference, or even prior notice, to the Vatican, the 2018 Vatican-China deal appears to be working, at least technically. Candidates are selected internally via the state-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, submitted to Rome for approval and then installed and announced on a schedule coordinated between Beijing and the Vatican.
Zeale
DOJ sues more states & DC for in-state illegal immigrant tuition
By David Uebbing, September 14, 2026
The Justice Department sued Hawaii, Arkansas, Utah, and the District of Columbia on Sept. 10, accusing each of violating federal law by offering reduced college tuition to students living in the country illegally while charging full, out-of-state rates to U.S. citizens who live elsewhere. The four lawsuits bring the total number of such cases the department has filed nationwide to 25. In-state tuition rates violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause and a federal law barring states from granting postsecondary education benefits to people in the country illegally unless the same benefit is available to any U.S. citizen, regardless of which state they live in. The lawsuits extend a legal strategy that has already produced rulings against several states, most recently Nebraska, where a federal judge in June permanently barred the state from enforcing a 2006 law that let immigrant students without legal status qualify for in-state tuition if they had graduated from a Nebraska high school and lived in the state at least three years.
Aleteia
Gen Z convert boom is also happening in Scotland
By Theresa Civantos Barber, September 14, 2026
As churches across Scotland celebrated the Easter Vigil earlier this year, the country saw an incredible 549 people received into the Church. This presents a spiritual spectacle that hasn’t been seen before. In the Archdiocese of St. Andrew’s and Edinburgh, the Jesuit Church of the Sacred Heart sees roughly 100 young adults at Sunday evening Mass, and a WhatsApp forum has 200+ members. While this evidence shows the city’s young people expressing interest in Roman Catholicism, the entire nation is home to many recent converts. From Aberdeen, Scotland, 27-year-old Aaron Johnstone was baptized and received into the Church in 2024. With a secular background, he wasn’t familiar with the Mass or Catholic traditions, but as a teenager, found his niche in philosophy. Reading St. Augustine’s works served as the catalyst for Aaron’s conversion. What remains to be seen is if this upward trajectory continues, and how the Church can harness new youthful connections.
Zenit
Argentina names two Catholic shrines as protected sites
By Enrique Villegas, September 14, 2026
Argentina is formally recognizing two very different expressions of Catholic heritage: a 240-kilometer pilgrimage route associated with a 19th-century priest and a small Marian sanctuary in Misiones whose walls were built by the local community. The law declaring the Camino de Brochero an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Argentina. The approximately 240-kilometer route links places associated with the life and pastoral mission of St. José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, the Argentine priest popularly remembered as the “Gaucho Priest.” Much of his ministry unfolded in the Traslasierra region of Córdoba, where he travelled difficult terrain, often by mule, to bring the sacraments to isolated communities, encourage people to make spiritual retreats and accompany families. The new national designation goes beyond protecting a road or collection of sites. It covers the celebrations, traditions, knowledge, communal practices and expressions of popular devotion.
Related: Colombian President Announces Funding for the Restoration of a Major Church Damaged by the Earthquake, ZENIT Staff, Zenit, September 12, 2026
Keep informed - 9/14/26 news for Catholics:
Snippets: EWTN News, Aleteia, & Catholic World News
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — September 14, 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 Latin Mass permissions steady across papal transition - By Victoria Cardiel - Thirty-four dioceses received permission for celebrations in parish churches in 2025 — unchanged from 2024 — with the United States accounting for 24 of the 34 decrees.
Capuchin bishops reflect on dual calling as friars and diocesan shepherds - By Emmanuel Ogacheko Idakwo - According to Vatican statistics, there are 5,525 Catholic bishops worldwide. 78.4%, are diocesan bishops formed within the secular clergy, while 21.6%, are members of institutes of consecrated life, including Capuchins, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Salesians. The Capuchin order counts more than 74 bishops among its members.
‘Love is a decision’: Husband loves his wife even more after early-onset Alzheimer’s - By Diego López Marina - A husband shares his struggles, his faith, and his undying commitment as he cares for his wife as she suffers from a debilitating, progressive, fatal illness.
Aleteia
Aleteia’s free access to Catholic news
Launched in 2013, Aleteia is a free online daily news publication. The site is available in six languages (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and Slovenian). Aleteia reaches nearly 50 million people worldwide, making it one of the leading online Catholic media outlets.
Bishops: Ask your senators to extend protection for Haitians - A House bill grants a 3-year reprieve from deportation to refugees who escaped Haiti’s ongoing violence. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to approve the extension. Catholic bishops are urging the Senate to approve a House bill extending temporary protected status (TPS) to some 350,000 Haitian refugees now living in the US,
Should we be afraid of AI destroying us in the next decade? - Former AI researchers continue to raise the alarm, warning us that the AI race could have major consequences. In many ways, this seems as if it's out of a science fiction novel, and has raised many people's anxiety levels, making people ask, "Could humanity be wiped out by an insidious AI agent?"
Where are you going, humanity? The Church’s answer in 5 points - The International Theological Commission’s major document on transhumanism and posthumanism is the most ambitious Catholic statement on the future of the human person in decades. Technology is not the enemy — but it carries ambivalence from the start
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.
‘Gift and forgiveness are the foundation of our existence,’ Pope tells pilgrims - Jesus “reminds us that gift and forgiveness are the foundation of our existence,” Pope Leo XIV said on September 13 to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday Angelus address (video). Pope Leo said that “all things are given to us by God out of pure love, and none of us can claim to be perfect in responding to such goodness.”
English bishops welcome defeat of assisted-suicide legislation - The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales welcomed the defeat of assisted-suicide legislation in a 286-270 vote. “I would like to express my gratitude to those MPs who voted against the Bill and the many people from across society who made their voices heard—doctors, legal professionals, disability groups, other faith communities and those of no faith who stood up for the dignity and sanctity of every life,” said Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool.
Leading Nigerian prelate calls on priests to be politically non-partisan, charitable on social media - Addressing a meeting between the nation’s bishops and the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria discussed five pillars on pastoral renewal and ministerial integrity, including non-partisanship and responsibility on social media. “The priest’s role is not partisan,” said Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso of Kaduna said on September 11. “He is not a campaign agent or political broker.”
September 14, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Today’s Catholic commentary:
First Things
The fraying fabric of the Church of England
By Stephen Daisley, September 14, 2025
St. Paul’s Cathedral has come up with a novel way to fill the pews: It is becoming a concert venue. Under a newly inked agreement, London nightclub Fabric will be the “exclusive partner for contemporary music events” at Christopher Wren’s masterwork to God’s glory, or, as St. Paul’s describes itself in a press release, “one of London’s most iconic spaces.” Critics who fear a repeat of the silent disco at Canterbury Cathedral, dubbed “the rave in the nave,” have been assured that events on Ludgate Hill will be “done respectfully,” with the cathedral’s director of visitor engagement, Sandra Lynes Timbrell, telling Church Times the plan is for “seated concerts” with “minimal amplification.” The partnership deal has drawn admonishment from Robert Barron, the Roman Catholic bishop of Winona–Rochester, Minnesota, who accuses the Anglican leadership of having “lost any sense of the crucial distinction between the sacred and the secular.”
Zenit
Father sues school for denying opt-out from LGBTQ instruction
By Zenit Staff, September 11, 2026
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit last week against the Lake Washington School District on behalf of a Washington father who has repeatedly asked to opt his son out of LGBTQ instruction only to be refused. Konstantin Averkiev is a Christian with sincere religious beliefs about sex, gender, and marriage that he seeks to instill in his young son, who attends an elementary school in the Lake Washington School District. The district covers Kirkland and Redmond, east of Seattle. The district implements LGBTQ “inclusive curricula” and requirements that conflict with Averkiev’s faith. Averkiev met with his son’s teacher and asked that his son be excused from all LGBTQ instruction based on his religious beliefs. The teacher agreed. Yet in June of this year, Averkiev discovered that his son received a Pride Month lesson that discussed gender-change surgery. The district rejected nearly all of his requests. The only opt-out the district granted—for sex-education curriculum and surveys—are required by state law.
Our Sunday Visitor
Pondering what Gloria Steinem now knows
By Elizabeth Scalia, September 4, 2026
A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. Neither of those feminist slogans originated with Gloria Steinem, who credited writer Irina Dunn with the first and “an old Irish woman taxi driver in Boston” with the second. It is understandable that so many attributed the words to Steinem, who died Sept. 2 at age 92; not only did she gleefully repeat them, her own rhetoric echoed or expanded on the sentiments as she became the face of second wave feminism for six decades. Those who believe in an afterlife can understandably hope that [the aborted child of Gloria] there, within the “tunnel of light” so commonly described in near-death experiences, as Steinem passed over. While emphatically making no judgement on the state of her soul because God understands all of us more than we ever can, and loves all of us, despite ourselves — even (perhaps especially) those we don’t like very much, at all — one hopes that Ms. Steinem’s sure knowledge, peddled so widely while she lived, is now enlightened and complete.
The Catholic Thing
Most adults are ignorant of the art of conversation and manners
By Robert Lazu Kmita, September 5, 2026
We should not be surprised that educating children and adolescents today is more difficult than cracking open a coconut. But who is to form the younger generation when most adults themselves are ignorant of the art of conversation and manners? I have spent many years reading not only treatises on theology and philosophy, or comforting works of literature and poetry, but also old, tattered volumes in which authors from centuries past tell the story of a better world, one in which people knew what it meant to be well-mannered. One such book, written by an anonymous British duke, gave me not only some of the finest lessons in practical Christianity but also a great surprise. The central principle stated from the very beginning by this aristocrat, whose name we may never know, sounds strikingly evangelical: “Treat others as you would wish others to treat you.”
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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