“Worth your weight in walnuts”
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CRUX
‘Preventing children from going to school is diabolical’
By Ngala Killian Chimtom, September 7, 2026
At the start of the 2026/2027 academic year in Cameroon, the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon, Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt, warns against the forced boycott of schools in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions. For the past ten years, the North West and South West regions have been reeling from a separatist crisis, with the boycott of schools a cornerstone of the separatist strategy. The statistics have been stark. According to UNICEF, the crisis has forced the closure of more than 6,000 schools, affecting more than 800,000 children. A report by Save the Children indicates that, on average, children in the North West region have lost three and a half years of schooling due to the crisis, and that the number of teenage pregnancies in the North West region has increased by 45% because of the crisis. In addition, thousands of teachers have fled the region, with the World Bank reporting that absenteeism rates in both regions are as high as 50%.
National Catholic Register
The dangerous journey home for Christian in Southern Lebanon
By Romy Haber/EWTN News/ACI MENA, September 6, 2026
Along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, three Christian villages have found themselves caught on the front line of a war they neither chose nor supported. Ain Ebel, Rmeich and Debl, known locally as the “Delta of Resilience,” are the last inhabited Christian towns in Lebanon’s border region. Since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into a full-scale war in 2024, residents have endured deaths, destruction and growing isolation from the rest of the country. Today, even returning home has become a grueling journey. With the usual roads damaged or inaccessible, residents must travel in organized convoys through military checkpoints and Israeli-occupied territory, an ordeal some have come to call “road to Calvary.” Convoys travel to the villages almost daily, usually accompanied by Caritas and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). A two-hour trip from Beirut can now take 12 hours or more.
EWTN News
Lebanese men’s small Bible study now largest in the Middle East
By Romy Haber, September 6, 2026
A year ago, three young Lebanese men started a small Bible study group in their parish hall. Today, it has grown into what organizers describe as the largest Bible study initiative in the Middle East, with more than 3,000 people taking part in the gatherings. Each session follows a simple but carefully structured program. It begins with approximately 40 minutes devoted to explaining and exploring a passage from the Bible, followed by approximately 15 minutes of spiritual reflection. Participants then move on to an interactive segment featuring games and questions about the Bible or other topics related to the Christian faith, such as Marian apparitions. The gatherings are free and supervised by Catholic priests. Jimmy Chaaya, one of the initiative’s founders, consults Jewish writings, geography books, papal homilies, and other sources and submits the material to several priests for review
PIMA Asia News
Health crisis kills over 20 children in a tribal India community
By Nirmala Carvalho, September 7, 2026
According to an article published by Dainik Bhaskar, more than 20 tribal boys and girls died in Balaghat, raising serious concerns about government indifference. Five days ago, Adivasi organizations called a general strike. Reports from Balaghat point to a serious outbreak of illnesses among children, particularly in villages inhabited by the Baiga tribal community. Hundreds of children were reportedly hospitalized in recent weeks, while several deaths have raised urgent questions regarding access to early diagnosis, nutrition, transportation, and timely care. The emergency is not simply about identifying a specific disease. A government assessment identified several contributing factors, including measles, malaria, co-infections, respiratory distress, dehydration, malnutrition, anemia, and shock. According to the Archdiocese, Father Cyril Lobo, pioneer of the Garratola mission, learned basic medical knowledge and began treating members of the Gond community with medicines, but it is no substitute for an efficient public healthcare system.
The Pillar
Freedom of religion battle continues in Florida over vaccinations
By Casandra Chesser, September 5, 2026
The state of Florida and the bishops of Florida are embroiled in a heated debate over vaccine policies in the state’s Catholic schools. The state government is expanding religious exemptions to required childhood vaccines, and the attorney general has demanded that Florida’s Catholic schools comply in order to maintain eligibility for state scholarships and vouchers. But the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops says the state is violating its freedom of religion by attempting to dictate its application of Catholic teaching. The new rule, which is pending final approval, would allow exemptions for personal “moral and ethical” objections under the category of “religious exemptions” to vaccine requirements. The state also permits medical exemptions. None of Florida’s seven Catholic dioceses permit religious exemptions from required vaccines, although medical exemptions are allowed.
Zeale
Lower birth rates affecting college enrollments
By David Uebbing, September 4, 2026
Recent headlines have highlighted enrollment challenges hitting smaller and well-known universities alike. The root cause is demographic. Birth rates fell sharply after the 2008 financial crisis, and that smaller generation is now reaching college age. Traditional-age college students will shrink 13% by 2041. Fewer high school graduates are even choosing college in the first place: 70% went straight to a two- or four-year school in 2016, a rate that had fallen to 62% by 2022, according to federal data. To find out how Catholic schools are faring, Zeale News spoke with the chief enrollment officer for Catholic University of America, Mark Ciolli, who said that private schools, with few exceptions, are experiencing similar struggles. “I can't speak for all 230-plus [schools], but we talk about it often among ourselves. I think there are certain places in the country that are somewhat insulated from the demographic shift, so in the South and the Southwest, primarily in maybe a few states here and there due to some intrastate movement.”
Related: Catholic colleges tackle AI as new academic year begins, by Caitlin Bootsma - Aleteia, September 7, 2026
Aleteia
Fio is the new ‘Catholic Spotify’
By Theresa Civantos Barber, September 7, 2026
A new Catholic streaming platform, calling itself “the #1 Catholic alternative to Spotify and Audible,” Fio offers over 100,000 hours of trusted content from more than 1,000 Catholic creators worldwide. It’s comparable to a “Spotify for Catholics” and has quickly become one of the top Catholic streaming platforms. Fio is Latin for “I become,” drawn from St. John Paul II’s admonition to families to “Become what you are.” Peter Buonincontro, co-founder of Fio, said, “Fio is becoming exactly what we had dreamed it would be, a hub for all Catholic voices, artists, authors.” Beyond lacking a way to find Catholic content, secular platforms usually offer Catholic content alongside content that actively conflicts with Catholic beliefs. Catholic creators and organizations have no direct way to reach the audiences they serve. Plus, the minimal royalties most platforms offer creators, co-founders Will Hickl, musician and co-founder of Novum Records, and Matthew Blake, became seriously interested in creating a strong alternative.
Zenit
Beijing has turned the Uyghur childhood into a state project
By ZENIT Staff, September 4, 2026
Beginning in 2014, Akto County merged or closed 63 teaching sites scattered across four remote mountain Uyghur townships. By the time of the report, 3,181 children from farming and pastoral families boarded at the centralized school. Beijing describes such policies as educational equality, poverty alleviation, and modernization. Read together, however, its own documents reveal a much larger project. From preschool language instruction to boarding schools, mainland classes, vocational education, and labor transfer, education was designed not only to teach children but also to reorganize their relationship with family, language, community, and future work. China’s official account begins with autonomy. Yet the same document defines autonomy as operating under the central state’s unified leadership. Local regulations and departures from national policy still require approval from higher authorities.
Keep informed - 9/7/26 news for Catholics:
Snippets: EWTN News, Aleteia, & Catholic World News
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — September 7, 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.
The Catholic Church has a lot to say about Labor Day — why? - By Kevin J. Jones - Catholics have a wealth of resources in biblical interpretation, Church teaching, and social thought which address the nature of work and the worker's place in society and in God’s creation. “All work, no matter what the work is, is essential,” said Father Sinclair Oubre, a priest of the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas.
The Priests: The Irish trio bringing sacred music to the world - By Diego López Marina - From singing together as students at a boarding school in the 1970s to being discovered by Sony in 2008 and making four albums, the priests have always sought to evangelize through sacred music.
7 lesser-known apostles and where Catholics can encounter them today - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - Not many details are known about some of Jesus’ closest followers — here are some of their names and where their relics and tombs can be found today. The Church has continued to remember and honor these apostles through the centuries
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.
Indiana archbishop gives Mass dispensation amid ICE fears - After a big rise in ICE activity, Indiana Archbishop Charles C. Thompson gave dispensation from Mass attendance for those affected for the rest of September. “The recent surge in immigration enforcement activity in Indiana has caused fear and uncertainty for many families, particularly when detention results in the sudden separation of parents and children.”
Spanish married couple to be considered for canonization - The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is currently reviewing the lives of Tomás and Paquita Alvira, a Spanish couple who could be the next canonized married saints. Tomás and Paquita would eventually join Opus Dei, seeking to live out their Catholic faith in their daily lives.
Pray to these saints for farmers, their animals and crops - Farmers, their animals, and their crops have numerous saints they can look to for intercession in their vitally important role of providing food for the world. For instance, St. Isidore worked on the estate of a wealthy landowner, Juan de Vergas, from childhood. He rose early every morning to dedicate time to God in prayer or at Mass before work.
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.
German Catholic & Protestant leaders deplore AfD victory - “Our worst fears have been realized, but the result must be accepted,” said Bishop Heinrich Wilmer, S.C.J., of Münster and the two other Christian leaders. “The churches are particularly concerned about the coexistence and cooperation of the people in Saxony-Anhalt, and especially about respecting the God-given human dignity that belongs unconditionally to everyone. This concern also extends to the free and democratic order in Saxony-Anhalt.”
Fraternal and Paternal Correction - Fr. Jerry Pokorsky - Justice requires us to avoid sin ourselves, but charity and justice can also require us to correct others when they sin: “If you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.” (Ezekiel 33:9) Going straight to the authorities rather than first speaking with the person concerned can be an evasion of honest responsibility. We should have the courage to speak directly to the person concerned.
The treasure the Jesuits squandered - Phil Lawler - By rights, Father Paul Mankowski, [he died six years ago] a brilliant Jesuit scholar and frequent contributor to the CatholicCulture site, should be a household name among American Catholics. But during the most productive years of his life, he was not traveling the lecture circuit, and his essays were not appearing regularly in print, because his Jesuit superiors silenced him, penalizing him for the “offense” of telling inconvenient truths.
September 7, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
First Things
Angry at the Left, the progressives, Germans vote for the AfD
By Christopher Caldwell, September 7, 2025
Naturally, what constitutes the “extreme right” is in the eye of the beholder. The German state has an elaborate constitutional system meant to identify threats from within and snuff them out early. Devised in the late 1940s as Germany was re-establishing its state under Allied tutelage, it is sometimes called wehrhafte Demokratie, an expression coined in the 1930s to describe a fortified democracy, a democracy that can fight back against those who would wreck it. Germany’s version requires parties to get 5% of the vote before they can take seats in the legislature. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now—by far—the most popular party in the country; 28% of voters nationwide say they would vote for it in the next national election, ahead of the 21% who would vote for the Christian Democratic Union. Protesting against certain elements of modern progressivism, the AfD rages against the Left Party, descended from the old Socialist Unity Party of the communist era, which increasingly focuses its wrath on Israel.
Zenit
Spain’s Opus Dei argues: ‘We did not steal the Virgin Mary’
By Zenit Staff, September 5, 2026
A centuries-old Marian image has become the focal point of one of the ecclesial disputes currently facing the Catholic Church in Spain. The controversy surrounding Torreciudad is not, at its core, about who owns the medieval image of Our Lady of the Angels. On that point, the Opus Dei Prelature says there is no disagreement: the Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón owns it. The real conflict concerns a more complicated question: who has the right to decide where the image should remain and how the agreements governing its custody and use should be interpreted. The latest exchange has sharpened the divide between Bishop Ángel Pérez Pueyo of Barbastro-Monzón and the Opus Dei Prelature, while the Holy See still holds the final decision. The dispute has roots stretching back more than six decades.
Our Sunday Visitor
Catholic faith endures at Pentagon, 25 years after 9/11
By Ann Augherton | Arlington Catholic Herald, September 5, 2026
At 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, American Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, killing 184 people — 125 people inside the Pentagon and 53 passengers and six crew members aboard the plane. Twenty-five years later, the repaired facade of the Pentagon still looks a little brighter, and the area outside that part of the building is now the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. There is no central statue. Instead, 184 stainless-steel benches stand, one for each person who lost their life there. Each bench bears the victim's name and age, with a shallow pool of water underneath. Trees, gravel, and dramatic lighting are best seen at night. Interestingly, each bench was placed according to where the victim was — those representing the Pentagon victims are oriented toward the building, while the plane victims are remembered with benches placed in the direction the plane approached the building.
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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