Catholic Nutshell News: Saturday 11/29/25
Topics include: Indonesia island forms hundreds of priests; ‘We shall see,’ on Germany synod; Catholics comprise 19% of US; & Pope Leo does not pray at ‘Blue Mosque’
“We see through new tender verdant pecan leaves”
Today's sources: National Catholic Register, Catholic News Agency, The Pillar, Crux, Our Sunday Visitor, ChurchPOP, & Aleteia. (Catholic Nutshell is a FREE subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)
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Catholic News Agency
Remote island in Indonesia forms hundreds of priests for the world
By Daniel Payne, November 29, 2025
Roughly 500 miles east of Bali lies the island of Flores, a vocational powerhouse that supplies seminarians not only to Indonesia but to Catholic communities around the world. Catholicism arrived here in the 16th century, when Portuguese spice traders brought missionaries to the rugged, mountainous island. Today, the faith is deeply rooted, with more than 80% of the island’s 2 million people being Catholic. Flores hosts several seminaries, most clustered around Maumere on the island’s northern coast. Religious congregations, including the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), the Somascan Fathers, the Rogationists, the Vocationists, and the Carmelites, all operate seminaries there, creating a dense network of vocational formation rarely found elsewhere in Asia. With more than 320 seminarians, resources are often stretched thin. Priests and brothers contribute everything they earn, from teaching to small agricultural projects, while families support the seminary however they can.
The Pillar
Pope Leo said, ‘We shall see,’ to re-elected Germany synod head
By Luke Coppen, November 28, 2025
Irme Stetter-Karp, a key architect of Germany’s controversial synodal way and one of Europe’s most outspoken progressive Catholics, was re-elected Friday as president of the lay Central Committee of German Catholics. Stetter-Karp, who is also at the forefront of a push to establish a permanent new synodal body in Germany, won a second four-year term at the organization’s helm by 127 votes in favor to 31 against, with 11 abstentions. Stetter-Karp, 69, said she intended to lead the body known by its German initials, ZdK, in the years 2025-2029 “with energy and passion … I stand for the belief that democracy and Christianity belong together — in times when the enemies of democracy are growing stronger. We take a stand — for a just society, for cohesion, for the renewal of our Church.” Pope Leo XIV was asked if he intended to approve the synodal conference during the flight from Rome to Turkey. According to German media, he replied: “We shall see.”
CatholicVote
Pew charts Americans’ religious affiliations: Catholics data 19%
By Hannah Hiester, November 21, 2025
Pew Research Center recently explained American adults’ religious affiliations by displaying the data as if the U.S. only had 100 people, finding that 62 of them would be Christians. Pew reported that 23 would be evangelical Protestants, 19 would be Catholics, 11 would be mainline Protestants, five would be from black Protestant denominations, two would be Mormons, and two would be from other Christian groups, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Twenty-nine people would be “nones” — atheists, agnostics, or otherwise religiously indifferent or unaffiliated. Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism would each have one believer, while two would be Jewish and two would belong to other religious groups, such as Sikhs or Wiccans. More Christians would be over 50 than under 50, whereas the opposite would be true for nones. Christians would be the only religious denomination with a significant gender gap. Pew found that 34 of the Christians would be women and 28 men.
National Catholic Register
Dominican, Archbishop Alemany, built Catholic California in 1800’s
By Jennifer Sokol, November 29, 2025
This year, the Western Dominican Province of the United States is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its founding in Monterey, California, by Dominican Father Joseph Alemany, who arrived as a newly appointed bishop to restore and build up the Church during the California Gold Rush. The unexpected news of his episcopal appointment by Pope Pius IX shook him. “You must go to California. Others go there to seek gold; you go to carry the cross.” The state’s first prelate, Francisco García Diego y Moreno, had been appointed in 1842, but died only six years later, overcome by the weight of his responsibilities. Catholics in San Francisco numbered 200, and coexisted with “a wild motley set of all nations and creeds and no one to guide them.” For the next 35 years, Alemany worked through complicated civil litigation to reclaim Church property titles lost to the missions and was at last successful in restoring every mission as a place of prayer and a center of worship.
The Times of Israel
IDF closed military zone after settler attack against Palestinians
By Emanuel Fabian, November 29, 2025
The IDF declared an area near the West Bank city of Bethlehem a closed military zone following a settler attack that left several Palestinians wounded. Soldiers and police officers were dispatched to an area on the outskirts of Bethlehem following reports of a “violent confrontation” between Israelis and Palestinians, the army says. The military says it also received reports of stone-throwing between the Israelis and Palestinians, and gunfire directed at the Palestinians. The Palestine Red Crescent reported that 10 Palestinians were wounded in the attack, including one by gunfire. The army says troops used riot dispersal means, a move that is likely to restrict the movement of Palestinians living in the area. Several Israelis were also wounded, but “refused medical attention,” the IDF says. The incident is under investigation by the Israel Police.
PIME asianews
1,000 AIDS deaths in 2024, down 9% in one year for Cambodia
By PIME asianews, November 29, 2025
HIV/AIDS killed about 1,000 people in Cambodia in 2024, a 9% decrease from 1,100 the previous year. This was reported by Prime Minister Hun Manet on the eve of World AIDS Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, adding that there were about 1,200 new HIV infections, a 20% decrease from 1,500 in 2023. To date, there are about 76,000 HIV-positive people, of whom 71,716 have received antiretroviral drugs. The head of government then stated that the goal is to reduce new infections to just over 200 cases and deaths to less than 200 per year. By the end of 2025, Phnom Penh aimed to achieve the 95-95-95 HIV treatment targets by the end of 2025, according to the National AIDS Authority.
CRUX
Pope Leo visits Istanbul’s ‘Blue Mosque’ but does not pray there
By Elise Ann Allen, November 29, 2025
Leo XIV continues to develop his own personal style. On Saturday, he paid a brief visit to Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque, had a short tour, but did not pray. He was welcomed by Turkey’s minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy; the provincial mufti of Istanbul, Emrullah Tuncel; and the Grand Imam of Sultan Ahmed, Kurra Hafız Fatih Kaya. After removing his shoes prior to entering the mosque, displaying a pair of white socks, he was given a brief tour of the inside of the mosque, asking questions about the architecture and design. However, unlike his two predecessors, he chose not to pray during the brief visit, opting instead to give an explanation of the mosque. Aşgın Musa Tunca, the muezzin, the Muslim man who recites the call to prayer, said he told the pope that, “if you want you can worship here, but [the pope] said, ‘that’s okay’. He wanted to see the mosque, to feel the atmosphere of the mosque, and I think he was very pleased with the atmosphere.”
Aleteia
At Nicaea again, the schismatic Churches unite in one Creed
By Kathleen N. Hattrup, November 28, 2025
Down through the centuries, the same Nicene Creed has been recited in East and in West, surviving on both sides of the Great Schism that split Catholic from Orthodox, and even surviving in many of the communities born of the Reformation. November 28, in the 1,700th year after that momentous gathering of Christendom at Nicaea, the successors of those bishops, in the persons of Pope Leo and Patriarch Bartholomew, stood on a footbridge constructed on now dry lands of Lake Iznik, with the uncovered remains of the basilica before them, and they said the Creed together. Both Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Leo gave addresses on the need to forge ahead in seeking unity. The Gospel was read, from John’s account of the Last Supper, Jesus’ words to the Father: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”
Big Pulpit, aciafrica, & ChurchPOP for 11/29/25
Big Pulpit
Tito Edwards Catholic site: November 29, 2025
The Big Pulpit website is a news aggregator that gathers quality insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide.
Pope Leo XIV Makes Clear What The Catholic Church Believes. . . – Fr. Allan J. McDonald
A Blessing on this Place: The Jesse Tree – Denise Trull at The Inscapist
A Very Useful New Piece of Liturgical Scholarship from Sharon Kabel – Gregory DiPippo at NLM
Video: Cardinal Zen Calls For The End Of The Synodal Revolution – Anthony Stine, Ph.D.
aciafrica
aciafrica’s top headlines — November 29, 2025
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 words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See.
“Something is in the way we are living wrong”: President of Zambia Catholic Bishops’ Conference on State of Nation - Nov 29, 2025 - By Nicholas Waigwa - The President of the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) has expressed concern that “division and anger” are slowly replacing the Southern African nation’s cohesion.
Today, November 29, We Celebrate All Saints of the Seraphic Order (Feast) - Nov 29, 2025 - On November 29, the Church celebrates the many Franciscan saints who followed in the footsteps of St. Francis. It is a special day for all Franciscans to celebrate the feast of ‘All the Saints of the Seraphic Order.’
Amid Military Takeover in Guinea-Bissau, Catholic Bishops Appeal for “peace, respect for human life” - Nov 28, 2025 - By João Vissesse - Catholic Bishops in Guinea-Bissau have appealed for peace, national unity, and strict respect for human life and fundamental rights following the military takeover that has plunged the West African nation into renewed uncertainty.
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - November 29, 2025
Need a Christmas Miracle? How to Pray the Never-Failing Saint Andrew Christmas Novena - Are you praying the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena this year? It is so powerful, and a great way to prepare your heart for Christmas!
Is Hell an Actual Place? Exorcist Unveils the Reality of Hell In Viral Shawn Ryan Video - During their conversation, exorcist Father Dan Reehil gives what the show believes is the scariest explanation of Hell you may ever
Priest Recreates Saint John Vianney’s Bedroom in Rectory to Inspire His Own Sainthood - “Saint John Vianney is my favorite saint…he just taught me how to be a priest.”
Nutshell reflections for 11/29/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection: AUDIO - November 29, 2025
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Vatican News
Pope Leo: Differences create a catholicity that unites
By Kielce Gussie, November 29, 2025
On his third day in Türkiye, Pope Leo XIV presided at Holy Mass in the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul with hundreds of people “on the eve of the day on which the Church commemorates Saint Andrew, Apostle and Patron of this land.” The prophet Isaiah describes it as a time when swords will become plowshares, spears used as pruning hooks, and no one shall take up swords against one another. “How urgent this call is for us today,” Pope Leo noted, inviting everyone to ask themselves how they can contribute to achieving peace, unity, and reconciliation in the world. The Holy Father used the example of the logo for this Apostolic Journey, which features a bridge, recalling the large viaduct or bridge spanning the Bosporus Strait between the Asian and European continents. Two more crossings have been built, making communication and encounters possible. The first bond of unity is within the Catholic Church, which includes several liturgical traditions: Latin, Armenian, Chaldean, and Syriac. “Each contributes its own spiritual, historical, and ecclesial richness.” When we appreciate the differences, we create a catholicity that unites.
First Things
British Catholicism’s bright and various future
By John Duggan, November 28, 2025
In the last few weeks,” the theologian Jacob Phillips recently remarked, “I’ve spoken at various Catholic events which were full to the brim with recent converts in the 18-30 age range, mostly young men. Priest after priest has told me that it’s gone from [one or two] adult converts a year to numbers of 20-30 each Easter, and they’re in double figures for new inquirers already since then. As it was eloquently put by a dear old reverend father I’ve known for many years: ‘wtf is going on??’” The priest in question might do well to pick up a copy of a new book from the Catholic Truth Society called After Secularisation. Written by Bernadette Durcan, Hannah Vaughan-Spruce, and Stephen Bullivant, it is not a book specifically about young adult male conversions, but it does inquire into some of the energy sources that are currently causing many more to quietly wonder what, indeed, is going on in England, Mary’s Dowry.
The Catholic Thing
In search of the historical St. Francis of Assisi
By Robert Royal, November 26, 2025
Augustine Thompson O.P.’s Francis of Assisi: A New Biography is “new” not only because it’s relatively recent, but in that it takes an interesting path towards identifying the “historical Francis.” We can reconstruct him from reliable sources, amid the traditional myths and recent “Francises”: the hippie Francis, the Francis of a poor stripped-down Church, the environmentalist Francis, etc. While Thompson doesn’t entirely dismiss the old stories or modern romanticized versions, he offers correctives. Clearly, it’s not easy to map what Francis did in the thirteenth century onto our current age. But there are multiple interesting points of contact. For instance, as per the “Francis Prayer” [which he did not write], the saint did seek “peace” among the Italians of his day, who were almost perpetually at war, not only among the different city-states (in which Francis had fought himself), but also between highly polarized factions within cities, Assisi among them. Francis focused more on bringing individuals into a condition of peace than on a political program.
Catholic World Report
Time to cure the contagion of ingratitude
By Dr. R. Jared Staudt, November 27, 2025
“What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:6). Western society has lived in open revolt against authority and tradition since the 1960s. Among the many causes and dispositions that underlie this societal rebellion, ingratitude stands at the very top. Just as a teenager might retort to their parents, so our society has said to our cultural heritage and faith: “I don’t need you. I know better than you. It’s time to get rid of the outdated ways of doing things.” And while we might posit this disposition at the societal level, the attitude of ingratitude has permeated how we think. “I deserve better than this. Everything is someone else’s fault. I don’t owe anything to anyone. I have rights that must be respected.” Rather than gratitude for the gift of life and all that we have received, we foster a spirit of entitlement and self-focused gratification.
Image of Coconut by Celio Nicoli from Pixabay
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