“We see through new tender verdant pecan leaves”
Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources: National Catholic Register, EWTN News, The Pillar, First Things, & Aleteia. Please support their ministries and apostolates. (Catholic Nutshell is a FREE subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)
Please support the following Catholic news services and spiritual support sites. Click here to view this email on the Catholic Nutshell News website. Today’s Catholic Nutshell News audio podcast is available on the Substack App.
National Catholic Register
Montse Alvarado named Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication
By Interviews, October 24, 2026
How did Miss Montse Alvarado get her new assignment? “I mean, the reality is that as a communications professional for Becket (Catholic law firm) and a management professional, I certainly was not on the radar of the Holy See or had any working relationship with the Vatican. That all came out of EWTN and through a couple of favors, and trying to support the work of the Holy Father, which EWTN always has done. I had the opportunity to meet with a couple of cardinals, then eventually with the Holy Father, thanks to Archbishop [Nelson] Perez. So in doing some work, the collaborations in Indianapolis, where we had 16,000 young people in a live dialogue, first ever live dialogue with the Holy Father. That was November of 2025.” She added, “I'm succeeding a lay man who is married, right. So his vocation is marriage. There are other prefects who are religious sisters, women in habits, consecrated. But you've never had someone who has a lay vocation.”
EWTN News
Bishop slams ‘clownish irrelevance’ of German Catholic academy
By Daniel Payne, October 23, 2026
Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron issued a sharply critical statement this week about what he described as an “inane” controversy involving a German Catholic institution that awarded him a prize in 2025. Barron received the Josef Pieper Prize in Münster in July 2025, a decision that generated protests from Catholic groups and political organizations. The protesters criticized the bishop for promoting “exclusionary identity politics,” among other allegations. The German news website katholisch.de reported on Oct. 21 that Barron’s 2025 receipt of the award was “still having repercussions.” It cited the Josef Pieper Foundation as reportedly having “acknowledged mistakes” in how it handled the controversy; the foundation is also reportedly developing a conference “on Barron and his theology.” “If you have any doubt that the German Catholic academy has fallen into clownish irrelevance, look no further than this inane and ginned-up ‘controversy,’” the Chicago-born prelate wrote.
Aleteia
Why the ideology of AI looks so much like religion
By Daniel Esparza, October 24, 2026
In 2017, Anthony Levandowski — former Google and Uber engineer, later convicted of trade-secret theft — filed paperwork in California to establish a religious organization. Named Way of the Future, its stated purpose was to develop and worship an artificial superintelligence he called “the Godhead.” The church has since dissolved, but the impulse behind it has not. Effective altruism, in several of its iterations, functions as a redemption narrative — the faithful calculate and donate in hope of a technologically secured future. The language of sacrifice, mission, and ultimate stakes runs through AI discourse in ways its practitioners rarely pause to examine. The Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor spent several decades building the tools to explain why this was always going to happen. In A Secular Age (2007), Taylor argues that modernity's biggest change is not the loss of belief in God but a transformation in the very structure of the self.
The Pillar
Knoxville bishop says, ‘Not appropriate’ to add prayers to Mass
By The Pillar, October 23, 2026
The bishop of Knoxville, Tennessee, told The Pillar this week that a plan to curtail the St. Michael prayer and other public devotions before and after Masses in his diocese is meant to ensure respect for Catholics wishing to pray silently in parish churches, and that he hopes priests will offer “good catechesis” amid the change on prayer and the Church’s liturgy. In an October 16 column, Bishop Mark Beckman wrote that he had noticed in some Knoxville parishes that “additional prayers, including the Prayer to St. Michael, the ‘Prayer of St. Francis,’ a Prayer to the Holy Spirit, and others have been added regularly to the liturgy—recited together, sometimes before the entrance hymn, or immediately after the dismissal.” He explained, “Having reflected on the importance of celebrating the liturgy in accordance with the mind of the Church, I do not think it appropriate to add additional prayers associated with the celebration of the Mass itself.”
OSV News
Scandinavian Catholics address new wave of conversions
By Jonathan Luxmoore, October 24, 2026
As the northern winter approaches, Scandinavia’s Catholic Church is witnessing unprecedented growth, with more people turning to the faith in reaction to the region’s highly secularized culture. Many young people have discovered the faith after “terrifying experiences” of pagan and New Age practices, adding that Norway’s Church was now seeing a significant rise in confirmations and adult initiation courses. “The Church is gaining strength thanks to an upsurge in Catholic conversions,” explained Ragnhild Aadland Høen, public affairs officer for Norway’s Council of Catholic Bishops. “And where there was once anti-Catholic feeling, public prejudices are now much diminished. Young people are finding each other in parishes across the country, while others show a positive interest in ways we haven’t seen before,” she said. “The growth isn’t as pronounced here as in Norway and Sweden,” said Nik Bredholt, parish council chairman at St. Ansgar’s Cathedral in Copenhagen.
Zeale
First Lady secures ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine
By McKenna Snow, October 23, 2026
The White House announced Oct. 23 that First Lady Melania Trump has secured a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow for civilians to safely evacuate and receive humanitarian aid. The urgency of the circumstances in Oleshky — which has suffered from limited food access, as well as unstable power, water, and heating — came to Melania Trump’s attention during a private discussion at her event during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in late September, according to the White House. The first lady said that upon learning of the situation, she and her representative, who was not named in the statement, used the communication channels established with both countries during her previous reunification efforts for war-affected children. “Both nations promptly assigned teams to coordinate the complex mechanics involved, including demining. All parties have worked around the clock since that moment,” she said.
Zenit
Controversy over a video of Trump praying with American bishops
By ZENIT Staff, October 23, 2026
The image was striking: President Donald Trump seated in the Oval Office, his head bowed as Catholic bishops gathered around him in prayer. Yet the October 22 encounter's significance extended well beyond its faith symbolism. With the November 3 midterm elections approaching, the meeting has reopened a delicate question for the American Church: how can bishops defend the principles they consider essential to public life without letting partisan politics draw them into their pastoral mission? The White House Office of Faith, led by Jenny Korn, presented the encounter as an opportunity for substantive engagement between religious leaders and the administration. According to Korn, the discussions addressed religious freedom, school choice, religious visas, tax credits for families, and life-related policies. The meeting concluded with a collective prayer for the president. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) explicitly distanced the conference from the event. This matters. The American episcopate and the federal government ordinarily communicate through established institutional channels.
Pima Asia News
Beijing using AI to monitor religions
By Francesco Graffagnino, October 24, 2026
Files in Chinese have been compiled for Catholic cardinals in Asia, the leadership of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Tibetan Buddhist civil society groups and the Tibetan government-in-exile, as well as Falun Gong practitioners and their affiliated media. For each target, the team gathered information on their China-related activities, any potential scandals, and possible points of leverage. According to Anthropic, an intelligence operation focused on religious affairs and aligned with the Chinese government tasked Claude, the artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by the US-based company, with this work. Anthropic detailed the case in a report titled Detecting and Countering Misuse of AI: September 2026, released on 10 September. The document examines instances of misuse of its models that were identified and countered between December 2025 and August 2026. The company has since blocked accounts and strengthened its systems to detect such abuse.
Keep informed - 10/24/26 matters for Catholics:
Snippets: EWTN News, aciafrica, & Word on Fire
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — October 24, 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.
How to face tragedy and still affirm God is your friend? The answer of a Venezuelan mother - By Andrés Henríquez - “I fought with God. I was filled with rage. ‘Why did you leave me here? Am I so bad that I have to stay here?’ Yet, I surrendered all my suffering to God for the sanctification of their souls,” she shared. Her greatest refuge has always been faith.
Suspect arrested after fire at Virgin Mary Church in Egypt’s Giza - By Souhail Lawand - The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Central Giza announced that a small fire broke out inside the Church of the Virgin Mary in the Barak al-Khiyam area of Giza in Egypt on Thursday, Oct. 22, after a man entered the church and set fire to some of its furnishings.
Korean bishops elect new president, approve guidelines on sexual violence - By Madalaine Elhabbal - After electing Bishop Augustine Kim Jong-su of Daejeon as its new president, bishops also approved a question-and-answer guide on artificial intelligence and a sign-language Order of Mass. Asked about potential plans to introduce abortion pills in South Korea, Kim told reporters that people have “no right to lay a hand on life itself.”
aciafrica
aciafrica’s top headlines — October 24, 2026
ACI Africa was founded in 2019 to provide free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Catholic Church in Africa, with particular emphasis on the Holy Father's words and the Holy See's activities.
Training of 1,000 Seminarians Kicks off in Nigeria - Already reaching more than 260 seminarians at St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in Makurdi, Benue State, the Church seeks to prepare 1000 future priests to recognize different forms of abuse, support survivors and promote safer communities through their pastoral ministry.
Catholic Bishop in Mozambique Challenges Faithful to Turn Works of Mercy into Sustained Service - Bishop Atanasio Amisse Canira of Mozambique’s Catholic Diocese of Lichinga said, “The gifts received must not be wasted, but placed at the service of our brothers and sisters, through initiatives that respond to the needs of the communities.”
Catholic Church in Burundi Supporting Over 80,000 Congolese Refugee - The conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has roots stretching back to the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, which drove large numbers of refugees, including former combatants, into the Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
Word on Fire
Fresh insights from the Word on Fire Institute - October 24, 2026
Word on Fire reaches millions each year by sharing the Gospel through podcasts, videos, books, articles, Scripture studies, and Gospel meditations.
On Patriotism, Telephone Companies, and Gratitude - Dr. Christopher Kaczor - Failure to love one’s country and take action to aid one’s nation is ingratitude and a lack of ordered love. Alasdair MacIntyre wrote that to be asked to die for the modern state is like being asked to die for the telephone company. Reducing our nation to a bureaucratic service provider does not do justice to its history, culture, and creed.
A Tragedy in Education - Henry T. Edmondson III - Hannah-Jones, a New York Times writer and the progenitor of the infamous 1619 Project, a distortion of American history that argues the driving force behind the founding of America was the desire to preserve slavery.
The Culture of Death Is on the Ballot This November - Dr. Kody W. Cooper - Nearly half of American voters say that abortion will be a “very important” issue to them come election day. And indeed, abortion is on the ballot in a handful of states that could determine the fate of thousands of babies in the coming years.
October 24, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
National Catholic Register
Liechtenstein’s prince vetoes bill to legalize abortion
By EWTN News Staff, October 23, 2026
Liechtensteinʼs Hereditary Prince Alois has vetoed a bill that would have legalized abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, blocking a measure the tiny European countryʼs parliament passed by a single vote. The Princely House said in an Oct. 20 statement that the prince “will therefore withhold” approval of the bill adopted by the principalityʼs parliament. Under Liechtensteinʼs constitution—a nation of about 40,000 people between Switzerland and Austria—no law takes effect without the reigning princeʼs approval. The statement said Alois “remains convinced that the proposed reform is not compatible with ensuring adequate protection of unborn life as a fundamental legal value.” The statement added that Alois supports better information, counseling, and support for women before, during, and after pregnancy. The bill would have allowed abortion up to 12 weeks. The activists behind the initiative pushing for legalization also sought to lift the advertising ban and have health insurance cover abortions.
First Things
100 years later: Foucault’s idol of nothingness
By Carl R. Trueman, October 15, 2026
Today marks the 100th anniversary of Michel Foucault's birth. He was influential in his lifetime, but forty-two years after his death, Foucault remains a force academics must reckon with. From postcolonialism to queer theory, he remains one of the most cited and influential figures in the humanities. Indeed, he remade them in his own image. After Foucault, we are more aware of the cultural factors that shape what constitutes knowledge, more sensitive to how histories of the past serve (and are shaped by) political purposes in the present, and more suspicious of how power is pervasive, omnipresent, often invisible, and impossible to resist in any final or decisive way. Of course, the world of talented intellectuals is replete with figures whose private lives were marked by libidinous excess. But Foucault still seems extreme. A deep nihilism also underpinned his thought, precluding any sense of moral values. In his lifetime, he appeared to be a man of the left, but that was a product of context, not conviction.
The Imaginative Conservative
The problem for Pope John Paul II
By Br. Barnabas Wilson, October 21, 2026
From the time of the fall, man was disordered—self-inclined, and unaware of the great value placed within him. This was the problem of the pope. Under the Roman sun, thousands listened for the pope’s answer. So, he preached. The pope knew Who, not what, was the answer—and it was not himself. The pope was not new to preaching. The preacher, if he is to preach authentically, could not depend on his own power or authority, but only on the strength of another through hours of prayer. The preacher must be a friend of God—for we can only speak truly and lovingly of our friends. John Paul II knew he was an instrument. He could not personally stir faith and love in the hearts of his hearers, but he knew someone who could. The pope wanted to say—if you are to be good, true, and happy—you must have a new organizing principle. You must be a Person of God. Sin blinds us to who we are and what we are made for: we are made for God.
The Catholic Thing
Bring back the betrothal rite within marriage preparation
By K.E. Colombini, October 24, 2026
It is easy to understand concerns about marriage prep when one looks at divorce or annulment rates of Catholics in the United States. Historically, America has seen more annulments than any other country, and fewer than 10% of applications are rejected. This says something about the state of marriage preparation, and it's not good. The traditional betrothal ceremony would be a smart addition to marriage prep and should certainly be offered and encouraged, at the very least, by priests and others tasked with helping engaged couples. The couple exchanges a promise that is not unlike the marriage vows they will make some months down the road. Even before the Second Vatican Council, the betrothal rite was not a common experience for Catholics in America, but that certainly is no reason to discourage its expanded use today. “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote in a 2007 letter to bishops accompanying his Summorum pontificum, which allowed for greater use of the traditional rites.
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
Listen to an audio podcast of today’s Catholic Nutshell News on the Substack App!
At the top of your phone, while in the app and reading a post, you can press the ▶️ play button and have Catholic Nutshell News read to you every day …
