Catholic Nutshell News: Saturday 10/25/25
Topics include: Freedom to make the faith their own; States pour money into Planned Parenthood; ‘Coexistence between Muslims and Christians'; & Eliminating nuclear weapons
“We see through new tender verdant pecan leaves”
Today's news sources are Aleteia, CRUX, Catholic News Agency, National Catholic Register, Bishop Barron, First Things, & The Catholic Thing. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)
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National Catholic Register
Where kids have the freedom to make the faith their own
By Jonah McKeown, October 24, 2025
Many Catholics can only dream — or perhaps reminisce — about having neighbors that they see not only every day on the street, but also in the pews on Sunday; about Masses overflowing with young families and filled with the cries of babies; about a tight-knit Catholic community that has your back when times are tough; about kids who’d rather romp around outdoors until the streetlights come on than stare at screens. But places like that still exist, if you know where to look for them. One of those places is College Hill, a one-square-mile neighborhood of roughly 5,000 residents about a 10-minute drive east of downtown Wichita. College Hill presents a compelling blueprint for other neighborhoods seeking to replicate its success: prioritizing access to Christ through the sacraments, cultivating a welcoming, altruistic atmosphere, and building a safe environment where kids have the freedom to make the faith their own.
Related: The Good News About Vocations in Wichita: Why This Small Kansas Diocese Leads the Country, National Catholic Register - by Jonah McKeown, October 25, 2025
Catholic News Agency
New York, California pour money into Planned Parenthood
By Kate Quiñones, October 25, 2025
New York and California are pouring taxpayer dollars into Planned Parenthood, joining several other states in counteracting the federal defunding of the abortion giant. California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged $140 million to Planned Parenthood locations in California on Oct. 24. On the same day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul committed $35 million in funding to Planned Parenthood locations in New York. Both states are known for their abortion shield laws, which protect abortionists who mail abortion pills into states where they are illegal. Several women are suing California and New York abortionists after being poisoned by or coerced into taking the abortion pill by the fathers of their children. Several other states that have made similar moves in light of the yearlong federal defunding of Planned Parenthood. Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington have all taken similar steps to replace lost federal funding for Planned Parenthood over the past few months.
Agenzia Fides
‘Coexistence between Muslims and Christians is possible’
By Agenzia Fides, October 23, 2025
“In Sokoto, we do not have a problem with persecution, but we do observe restrictions on our freedom,” says Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, in northern Nigeria, in an interview with Fides. Sokoto, the capital of the State of the same name, is a predominantly Muslim area where coexistence with the Christian minority is threatened by the violence from jihadist groups. Despite this, Bishop Kukah offers elements of reflection that allow us to go beyond the narrative of a “clash between religions.” He emphasized that jihadist violence has claimed more lives among Muslims than among Christians. Bishop Matthew said, British colonialism destroyed this Islamic empire and left a legacy of resentment that persists among the local Islamic population to this day. With the British came the Christian faith. Today, ignorance of our country’s history leads many Muslims to associate Christianity with colonialism.”
Aleteia
Documentary on the truth about Satan, exorcism
By Theresa Civantos Barber, October 24, 2025
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” wrote Charles Baudelaire. The devil exists and is active today. Exorcisms still take place regularly: Many Catholic dioceses have a designated exorcist priest. Exorcisms are not just a Hollywood drama, although filmmakers and the general public seem to have an unhealthy fascination with them. Now, the world gets a new movie: Triumph Over Evil: Battle of the Exorcists. You’ll learn how to safeguard yourself and your loved ones from real evil—and find lasting comfort and hope in God’s all-powerful protection. Made in cooperation with the International Association of Exorcists, Triumph Over Evil is the first and only Vatican-approved documentary about exorcisms. Catch it in theaters worldwide on October 30, 2025. You can get tickets here. See the movie trailer here.
CBCPNEWS
CBCP urged faithful to wear white, pray for nation’s renewal
By CBCP News, October 11, 2025
“Let us reiterate our invitation for our people to turn again to God with humble and contrite hearts. Let us reiterate our recently released National Call to Prayer and Public Repentance, asking our people to observe it every Sunday—and, where possible, every day—until the Solemnity of Christ the King, with the tolling of bells. Let it be our collective Miserere, our plea for mercy and renewal as a nation,” wrote Virgilio S. Cardinal David, Bishop of Kalookan and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP). Upon the suggestion of Bishop Jimmy Afable, Cardinal David asked Catholics to wear white clothing on every Sunday in October and November and to display white ribbons in homes, churches, and public places. White is a “sign of our desire for transparency, accountability, and good governance, and as a humble prayer that our nation may be washed clean and renewed in God’s mercy, and spared of further calamities.” White garments are also a symbol of “the purity we seek for our land and our hearts.”
CRUX
Christian pastor arrested in India’s largest state
By Nirmala Carvalho, October 22, 2025
Three people, including a pastor, have been arrested for allegedly luring poor and underprivileged Hindus to convert to Christianity. According to the police, the three were allegedly offering inducements to members of weaker sections to convert, reported Press Trust of India (PTI). Uttar Pradesh, like the national government, is run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization. Hindu nationalists often accuse Christians of using force and surreptitious tactics in pursuing conversions, storming into villages and leading “reconversion” ceremonies in which Christians are compelled to perform Hindu rituals. Pressures on Christians, which also affect Muslims and other religious minorities, are what observers call a broad program for the “saffronization” of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an attempt to impose Hindu values and identity while squeezing out rival faiths.
The PILLAR
New Italian synod document assuages LGBT and ‘marginalized’
By Edgar Beltrán, October 24, 2025
A previous attempt at a vote on a summary document of the country’s three-year synodal process was halted after progressive members of the assembly reportedly threatened to oppose the text, saying it did not adequately discuss the topics of LGBT people and the possibility of ordaining women. The new document includes proposals calling for parishes to support LGBT people and Catholics in irregular unions. The document stops short of explicitly calling for Communion for the divorced and remarried. But it urges local churches and regional bishops’ conferences to promote “paths of accompaniment, discernment, and integration into ordinary pastoral care for those who wish to pursue greater ecclesial integration but are “marginalized.”
CatholicVote
Holy See urges eliminating nuclear weapons
By McKenna Snow, October 24, 2025
The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations stressed at a UN General Assembly in New York this week that the Holy See believes nuclear weapons must be eliminated, especially in light of resurging rhetoric threatening their use. “The Holy See affirms its unwavering conviction that efforts to control, limit, reduce, and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons are not an unrealistic prospect, but a possibility and an urgent moral imperative,” Archbishop Gabriele Caccia said Oct. 21 at the First Committee of the 80th Session of the UN’s General Assembly, according to Vatican News. In August, Pope Leo issued a message for the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, expressing closeness to survivors and calling again for laying down nuclear arms. “Indeed, true peace demands the courageous laying down of weapons — especially those with the power to cause an indescribable catastrophe,” Pope Leo said. “Nuclear arms offend our shared humanity and also betray the dignity of creation, whose harmony we are called to safeguard.”
CNA, The LOOP, & Pillar Posts for 10/25/25
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — October 25, 2025
The Catholic News Agency provides reliable, free, and up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, available to anyone with internet access.
‘My songs will be sung in churches’: A Bangladeshi sister’s living legacy - Oct 25, 2025 - By Sumon Corraya - Sister Amiya spent 42 years as a teacher and has been a passionate composer of sacred music.
How the ‘baseball priest’ uses the sport to spread the Gospel - Oct 25, 2025 - By Tessa Gervasini - Father Burke Masters’ dream was to be a major league baseball player, and baseball became part of his career when he was named the chaplain of the Chicago Cubs in 2013.
‘Every execution should be stopped’: How U.S. bishops work to save prisoners on death row - Oct 25, 2025 - By Daniel Payne - Bishops in multiple U.S. states are leading efforts to spare the lives of condemned prisoners facing execution.
CatholicVote: Daily LOOP
Daily news and political impact stories at the LOOP
Elections and politics matter. The LOOP gives you daily gems on the news, which seek “to renew our country and culture.” CatholicVote’s advertised mission is “To inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.” Today’s Monday topics from the LOOP include:
ANNUNCIATION SURVIVOR SOPHIA FORCHAS COMES HOME - After a two-month uphill battle to recover from a bullet that became lodged in her brain during the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting, 12-year-old Sophia Forchas has been released from the hospital.
PRIESTS MARTYRED UNDER NAZISM AND COMMUNISM TO BE BEATIFIED - Pope Leo XIV has authorized the beatification of two groups of 20th-century martyrs — priests who gave their lives under Nazi and Communist persecution — marking a new chapter in the Church’s remembrance of modern witnesses to the faith.
LIBERAL CATHOLIC PAPER REBUKES LEFT FOR TWISTING POPE’S WORDS - In a surprising twist in the Catholic media landscape, the National Catholic Reporter — long regarded as a flagship of progressive Catholic commentary — has published a pointed critique of how some on the left are “politicizing” Pope Leo.
The Pillar
Ed Condon’s Pillar Post for Friday, 10/24/25
The Pillar offers a daily news summary —its capsule take on Catholic News. Here’s Ed Condon’s analysis of the news from yesterday’s Pillar Post:
GAFCON — the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans — declared it was “now the Global Anglican Communion” - GAFCON claims to represent “the majority of all Anglicans” — a statement contested by liberal Anglicans. Initially launched in 2008 in an effective protest of the installation of the first openly gay bishop in the communion, in an Episcopalian diocese in the U.S., while insisting it was not breaking communion with anyone.
The prefect of the Dicastery for Inter-religious Dialogue, Cardinal George Koovakad, spoke about the importance of Nostra aetate 60 years after its publication, and the role religions can play in defusing global tensions. The cardinal also addressed the ongoing liturgical dispute within his own Syro-Malabar Church and the role of Eastern Catholics in Vatican administration.
German-born Bishop Reinhold Nann resigned last year for “health reasons” at the relatively tender age of 64 - but actually left to pursue a relationship with a woman. Nann alleges that “tens of thousands” of priests are living in clandestine relationships and that sooner rather than later the Church will see mass desertion from ministry over this issue of celibacy.
Nutshell reflections for 10/25/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - October 25, 2025
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
First Things
Grow our souls through growing our square-footage
By Liel Leibovitz, October 17, 2025
Educating Americans to become, quite literally, home-makers—people who think about what they truly value and then invest in homes that reflect these virtues—doesn’t just make for happier consumers. Only half of all Americans, author of the book, The Pursuit of Home, Scott Harris reminds us, are currently satisfied with the homes they have bought; the rest have regrets about their dealings. Home-making, as opposed to real estate dealing, makes for a happier nation, one made up of citizens who feel empowered, engaged, and tethered to the land and to each other. It makes the nation as a whole into our shared and precious home—not some ephemeral idea we can compare online to other options as we pine for a quick fix to all of our yearnings, but a messy, grounded, beloved, and utterly irreplaceable corner of the world that belongs to us. We can learn and grow not only our square footage, but, more importantly, our souls.
The Catholic Thing
Swamped with material comforts and choices without meaning
By Francis X. Maier, October 24, 2025
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Christopher Lasch’s final book. Published just a few months after his death, The Revolt of the Elites (1995) capped a series of five extraordinary works starting with his Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged (1977). An accomplished historian, Lasch was also a penetrating social critic. He was never religious and always a man of the old, democratic left. But he saw the world clearly and wrote about it honestly. As a result, he had many Christian admirers. And much of his work aligns, if imperfectly, with Catholic concerns. Reading him today is like paging through the diary of a fiercely astute prophet. Lasch argues that the appearance of modern life masks its real nature. We’re swamped with material comforts and choices, but they have no higher meaning. He said the rise of the social sciences presumes the inability of most people to understand and manage their own lives, and thus need guidance from a phalanx of expert “helping professions.”
Bishop Barron
The fig tree is not divine vengeance; it is spiritual physics
By Bishop Robert Barron, October 25, 2025
Friends, today’s Gospel includes the parable of a fig tree that bears no fruit. This is a standard trope in the theological literature of Israel: the tree that bears no fruit evokes the moral person who bears no spiritual fruit. Every single person has a mission: to be a conduit of the divine grace into the world. Planted in God—think of Jesus’s image of the vine and the branches—they are meant to bring forth the fruits of love, peace, compassion, justice, and nonviolence. Notice, says Jesus, that this should be effortless. The closer God gets, the more alive we become. But the mystery of sin is that we resist the invasion of God; we prefer to go our own way; we cling to our own prerogatives and our own narrow freedom. And the result is lifelessness. This is the note of urgency that is struck over and again in the Bible. We can run out of time. This is not divine vengeance; it is spiritual physics.
National Catholic Register
JD Vance attended Mass at Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre
By Tyler Arnold/CNA, October 24, 2025
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was constructed in the early fourth century during the reign of Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. It is jointly operated by the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and four Oriental Orthodox churches. According to tradition, the church is built on the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. It is a premier pilgrimage destination for Christians who visit the Holy Land. “What an amazing blessing to have visited the site of Christ’s death and resurrection,” Vance later said in a post on X. “I am immensely grateful to the Greek, Armenian, and Catholic priests who care for this most sacred of places. May the Prince of Peace have mercy on us and bless our efforts for peace.” He also prayed before the Calvary Altar, which is believed to be the precise location where Christ was crucified.
Image of Pecans by tseiu from Pixabay
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