Catholic Nutshell News: Saturday 5/24/25
Topics include: Sing with the Pope, Pope may visit Argentina, Uruguay, & Peru, Eucharistic miracle of Eten, & Rubio, Leo, and the future of the GOP
“We see through new tender verdant pecan leaves”
Today's news sources are Aleteia, CRUX, Catholic News Agency, Our Sunday Visitor, National Catholic Register, Aleteia, and 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
‘Let’s sing with the Pope’: Gregorian chant at Vatican’s school
By Bénédicte Cedergren, May 24, 2025
Pope Leo charmed and inspired the faithful worldwide when he sang the Regina Caeli from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. Now, a Vatican-linked project is producing instructional videos for those who want to emulate the singing Pope. “Let’s Sing With the Pope” — the initiative's name — is hosted by Dominican Father Robert Mehlhart, the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music president. “The Pope appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Square, and he intoned the Regina Caeli, and he intoned it very well,” said Father Mehlhart. This new initiative invites the faithful to raise their voices in song alongside Pope Leo XIV, who has done so himself several times since his election. “He has a lovely voice,” Father Mehlhart said. “He is an experienced singer. He lived most of his life in a monastic community, in a community of friars where singing the office is a daily thing.”
Catholic News Agency
Cardinal Sturla predicts papal trips to Argentina, Uruguay, & Peru
By Walter Sánchez Silva, May 24, 2025
Uruguayan Cardinal Daniel Sturla anticipates Pope Leo XIV’s first visit to Latin America “will include Argentina, Uruguay, and possibly Peru” on his itinerary. In a May 21 interview with Uruguay’s “Radio Carve,” when asked about a possible visit by the Holy Father to that country, the archbishop of Montevideo said the likelihood is “very high” because Pope Leo “is very much aware that Argentina and Uruguay weren’t on Francis’ calendar — not because Francis wanted it that way — but because that’s the way things turned out.” The Uruguayan cardinal participated in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV earlier this month. Sturla said Leo XIV “is a man who listens a lot, speaks little, and who speaks, let’s say, slowly, thinking a lot about what he says.”
Agenzia Fides
Mary Help of Christians celebrate 125 years in Paraguay
By Agenzia Fides, May 14, 2025
On April 29, 2025, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), together with young people, lay people and the Salesian Family, celebrated the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the first nine FMA, who arrived in Paraguay with great zeal and apostolic spirit on April 30, 1900, to dedicate themselves to the education of children. "The first nine missionaries who came to Paraguay were moved by the missionary zeal that Christ had awakened in Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello, and felt the passion and fervent desire to transmit the faith..." said Father Néstor Ledesma, Provincial of the Salesians. Delegates from FMA communities across the country were also present.
Aleteia
Will Leo XIV approve the Eucharistic miracle of Eten?
By Florian Dunoguiez, May 24, 2025
The small town of Eten in the province of Chiclayo, in northern Peru, where Pope Leo served as a missionary, is best known for a purported Eucharistic miracle. The phenomenon is said to have occurred twice, on June 2 and July 22, 1649. On those dates, the face of the Baby Jesus is said to have appeared on a consecrated host during major religious celebrations. Although the Catholic Church has not officially recognized the phenomenon, the election of Pope Leo XIV, former bishop of Chiclayo, has given the population new hope. Many see him as the man designated by Divine Providence to finally bring recognition to this more than three centuries old miracle.
CatholicVote
Charlotte Diocese to end parish-based Latin Mass celebrations
By CV News Feed, May 23, 2025
Bishop Michael Martin, OFM Conv., of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, announced May 23 that, effective July 8, the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will no longer be celebrated in parish churches in the diocese. This comes ahead of the previously granted Vatican permission allowing four parishes to continue the TLM until Oct. 2. “My predecessor, Bishop Peter Jugis, requested and received from the Holy See an extension for the Diocese of Charlotte in order to arrange an orderly transition to the new instructions,” Bishop Martin wrote in a pastoral letter. “That temporary extension expires this year.” The decision completes the diocese’s transition under Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis’ 2021 directive limiting the availability of the TLM. A chapel at 757 Oakridge Farm Highway in Mooresville, North Carolina, will become the designated location for TLM celebrations.
CRUX
Nigerian faith groups have become ‘soft targets’ for terrorists
By Ngala Killian Chimtom, May 24, 2025
Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of the Abuja Archdiocese said faith-based organizations in the Sahel region have become soft targets for extremists. “The number of churches, mosques, Christians, Muslims, priests, pastors, and imams being kidnapped and maimed by these radical extremists is alarming,” Kaigama said. Organizations including Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP), and others have been wreaking havoc across the Sahel, constituted of portions of at least 11 countries — Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. Kaigama explains that terrorism in the region is driven by a broad range of factors, including extreme poverty and a system of exclusion.
The PILLAR
Rubio, Leo, and the future of the GOP
By Michelle La Rosa, May 21, 2025
In his 2019 speech at the Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business, Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State, warned that “[e]conomic stability for working-class families is not a feature of today’s economy.” Rubio said several factors are causing this, but the result is a sharp decline in the “availability of dignified work.” Earlier this week, Rubio met with the newly inaugurated Pope Leo XIV. As a solution, Rubio proposed turning to the Catholic Church’s social teaching for guidance found in Rerum Novarum, called “Common Good Capitalism.” He now has an opportunity to be the standard-bearer for this discussion in a Leo XIV papacy, if he chooses to take it. If Rubio is serious about working to shape the future of the Republican Party and the United States through the lens of Rerum Novarum, he may find in Pope Leo a model and ally.
Catholic Weekly
Sainthood for missionaries killed trying to save the Indigenous
By Carol Glatz, May 23, 2025
Pope Leo XIV has advanced the sainthood causes of two missionaries whose murders in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador led to the protection of remote Indigenous peoples from encroaching extractive industries. Among a series of decrees published by the Vatican 22 May, Pope Leo recognised the sacrifice of Spanish Bishop Alejandro Labaka Ugarte of the Apostolic Vicariate of Aguarico, Ecuador, and Colombian Sister Inés Arango Velásquez, a member of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, as an “offering of life,” a category distinct from martyrdom that Pope Francis established in 2017. The category and its requirements for sainthood are explained in the apostolic letter, Maiorem hac Dilectionem, which established a category of heroically offering one’s life out of loving service to others.
From CNA & Big Pulpit to Satire for 5/24/25
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — May 24, 2025
Catholic News Agency provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See to anyone with access to the internet.
From an exorcist: 5 spiritual weapons to fight the devil - May 24, 2025 - By Walter Sánchez Silva - Father Cristian Meriggi, an exorcist priest of the Archdiocese of Florence, Italy, shares the five spiritual weapons he uses.
Holocaust remembrance center founded by Catholic nuns plants Anne Frank tree - May 24, 2025 - By Kate Quiñones - The National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University held a ceremony to plant the small tree.
Pope Leo XIV biography launches in Rome; book available now from EWTN - May 23, 2025 - By Jonah McKeown - EWTN officially launched the first authoritative biography of Pope Leo XIV during an event at the Vatican on May 22.
The Big Pulpit
Tito Edwards Catholic blogger site: May 24, 2025
The Big Pulpit website is an intelligent news aggregator offering quality insight & analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide. Here are Chief Editor Tito Edward’s top recommendations for today.
Pepe Mujica: The Left Failed to Implement Self-Managing Socialism – Tradition, Family, & Property
Did Jesus Have “Favorite” People? – Eileen Renders at Catholic365
Old Testament God Mean, Jesus Nice? – Luke Lancaster at Catholic Answers Magazine
The Power of Almsgiving: Why Fewer Catholics Do It Today – Terri Thomas at Catholic365
Babylon Bee’s Satire News
Man Considers Himself A Hacker After Guessing His Own Gmail Password On 3rd Try
By Life Staff, May 23, 2024
Local man Harold Dermott initially struggled to access his Gmail on Friday, but after correctly guessing his password on his third try, now considers himself a bona fide hacker. Accomplishing the near-impossible task of determining the password he had set several years ago cemented his status as a world-class computer hacker on par with any cybersecurity expert. "I didn't even have to do the thing where you click 'Forgot Password?' because I'm so elite," Dermott said as he recounted the event for his colleagues. "I don't even see the code anymore. It's all just letters and numbers now. Which, I guess, is what code looks like, but... never mind." However, Dermott could not watch his new favorite film, 1995's Hackers, after he forgot his Netflix password and got locked out of his account.
Nutshell reflections for 5/24/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - May 24, 2025
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Word on Fire
Remembering Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025)
By Dr. Christopher Kaczor, May 22, 2025
For more than seven decades, Alasdair MacIntyre was a prolific and provocative philosopher. The author of over two hundred scholarly articles and more than twenty books, MacIntyre’s best-known work, After Virtue, was described in 1981 by Newsweek as “a stunning new study of ethics by one of the foremost moral philosophers in the English-speaking world.” Conventional wisdom offered the bare alternatives of Kantian duty-based and utilitarian consequentialist ethics. Echoing themes found in Elizabeth Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy,” After Virtue revolutionized the field by reintroducing virtue ethics as a viable alternative and by calling into question modern moral philosophy as an attempt to make sense of the shards left over from the shattered premodern synthesis of Athens and Jerusalem.
Related: Recognizing the Importance of MacIntyre, First Things, by John Haldane, May 23, 2025
The Catholic Thing
Resetting the concept of order in Ordo Amoris, the ‘order of love’
By Daniel B. Gallagher, May 23, 2025
St. Augustine writes that there is only one way out of Original Sin: “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.” This leads Augustine to define “virtue” as simply ordo amoris, the “order of love” (City of God, XV, 22). In other words, when we are truly virtuous, we can arrange the various particular goods in our lives according to their inherent connection to the One Good, God. Thus, to live according to the ordo amoris is not simply to love my family more than my country and my country more than the world. Neither is it a matter of hierarchically arranging a series of distinct and separate loves for x, y, and z. Rather, it is opening myself up to the One Good, acknowledging him to be Jesus Christ, and, by giving myself entirely to Him, allowing Him to order my various and sundry desires for particular goods toward Him alone.
Bishop Barron
We have a place of safety
By Bishop Robert Barron, May 24, 2025
Jesus warns us to expect persecution. But do not be afraid, because in Jesus Christ, we are connected to the very power of God, to that which is here and now creating the universe. No matter how much violence and mayhem is going on, we have a place of safety. How wonderfully Jesus expresses this: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” The body passes, but the soul, where you are in contact with the living God, lasts forever. So get your fears in right order: “Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” None of the great figures lived a serene life free of worry, threat, or persecution. Instead, they found courage in the struggle. Their courage got them through the negativity.
First Things
Montana guarantees kids access to religious instruction
By John M. Grondelski, May 23, 2025
On May 12, Montana Republican Governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation guaranteeing children in the Big Sky State access to religious education. Under the bill, kids across Montana are guaranteed one hour of “released time” to attend catechetical instruction. The bill takes effect July 1. It provides a statewide assurance of released time. Many states allow local school districts to grant release time but do not mandate it. Second, it envisions the possibility of children obtaining academic credit for that instruction. The devil’s in the details. The statute contains various credit eligibility norms, potentially opening the door to state interference. But the precedent that religious education is education and children should be credited for learning regardless of where it occurs is a watershed change.
Image of Pecans by tseiu from Pixabay
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