Catholic Nutshell News: Saturday 9/13/25
Topics include: Catholics envision ‘coliving’; U.S. ambassador to the Vatican meets Leo; Catechism in the Arabian Peninsula; & Unique education at Catholic law schools
“We see through new tender verdant pecan leaves”
Today's news sources are Aleteia, CRUX, Catholic News Agency, National Catholic Register, First Things, 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
New startup: The Catholic vision of ‘coliving’
By Susan Klemond, September 13, 2025
Potential tenants in the 22-32 age group, and older applicants, are part of a growing U.S. housing trend seeking affordable housing. Costs of renting and purchasing continue to rise, according to Coliving.com, an online platform offering 38,000 rooms in 1,900 coliving spaces around the world. Coliving provides the benefits of a private apartment, along with the sense of community, cost sharing, and, in some cases, more amenities than other renters might have access to, according to the website. Few developers are building coliving housing, said Catholics Jake and Alex Zikmund, founders of Gro Development. “I don’t think a typical developer would look at building something with 12 toilets and be comfortable with that,” said Jake. “The reason it doesn’t exist is because you’re doing something so abnormal in comparison to what is normal.”
Catholic News Agency
U.S. ambassador to the Vatican presents credentials to pope
By CNA Staff, September 13, 2025
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday morning received Brian Burch, the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace for the formal presentation of his letters of credence. Burch, 50, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Aug. 2 in a 49-44 vote. “In a remarkable coincidence, or what I prefer to attribute to providence, Pope Leo XIV is from Chicago, which is also my hometown,” he said. From 2005 until his confirmation this year, Burch was president of CatholicVote Civic Action and the CatholicVote Education Fund, organizations dedicated to promoting Catholic engagement in public life. Burch emphasized the enduring importance of the U.S.–Holy See relationship, describing it as “one of the most unique in the world,” and highlighting the Catholic Church’s “global reach and moral witness” as vital to America’s diplomatic mission to promote peace, human dignity, and prosperity.
Agenzia Fides
Kate and catechism in the Arabian Peninsula
By Agenzia Fides, September 13, 2025
Her name is Catherine Miles-Flynn, but everyone calls her Kate. For more than twenty years, she has tirelessly dedicated herself to the Christian formation of young people in the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia. On Sunday, September 28, Pope Leo XIV will officially confer the lay Ministry of Catechist on her in Rome, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Catechists. Kate Miles-Flynn, a native of Virginia, heard a priest preach when she was 14. His words about salvation as "loving and being loved" changed her life forever and led her to convert from the Presbyterian Church to Catholicism. In 1995, Kate and her family—her husband, Joseph, and their three children—moved to the United Arab Emirates. They now have eight children. Bishop Giovanni Bernardo Gremoli, Vicar Apostolic of Arabia, established an office for Christian faith formation for the six countries that then constituted the Vicariate of Arabia and asked Kate to lead it.
Aleteia
St. John Chrysostom’s simple advice to parents
By Philip Kosloski, September 13, 2015
What is needed in raising children is not something extraordinary or some secret knowledge, but rather simple things that can impact a child for a lifetime. St. John Chrysostom offers simple and timeless advice in many of his recorded homilies. St. John Chrysostom believed passing on the faith needs to occur at the earliest of ages: Indeed, "it is precisely at this early age that inclinations to vice or virtue are manifest." Thus, God's law must be impressed upon the soul from the outset "as on a wax tablet" (Homily 3, 1 on John's Gospel). He explains how parents need to, "from earliest life encompass them with spiritual armor and instruct them to make the Sign of the Cross on the forehead with the hand.” He added, "Following childhood is the sea of adolescence, where violent winds blow..., for concupiscence... grows within us." We need to plant the seeds early on in our children's development so that they are prepared for the rocky sea of adolescence, when their faith will be tested.
Our Sunday Visitor
At Catholic law schools, you hear religious & moral points of view
By Katie Yoder, September 13, 2025
Nearly three years after being sworn in to serve on the nation’s highest court, she spoke about the significance of Catholic law schools to law students in Washington, D.C. “The topic of what it means to be a Catholic law school — just like what it means to be a Catholic university — is one that we as a faculty talked about a lot at Notre Dame,” said Barrett, a former student and professor at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana. “We’re used to, in universities, having academic freedom and having all viewpoints on the table; and I think at a Catholic school you can feel particularly comfortable about bringing your religious or moral points of view to the table,” she said. “That aspect of it really opens up more lines of inquiry than narrows or shuts them down because it invites, very explicitly, another perspective.” The American Bar Association, the nation’s largest voluntary association of lawyers, recognizes 29 Catholic law schools.
CRUX
Pope hints at Lampedusa visit, a harbor for migrants & refugees
By Crux Staff, September 13, 2025
In another firm echo of the legacy of his predecessor, Pope Leo XIV released a nine-minute video message to the island community of Lampedusa on Friday, praising its efforts to welcome migrants and refugees. He appeared to offer the prospect of an imminent papal visit. “Today we greet each other at a distance, but I hope soon in person,” Leo directed at the people of the island community in support of their bid to become part of the cultural patrimony of humanity recognized by UNESCO. Pope Francis made his first trip outside Rome to Lampedusa, tossing a wreath into the sea to commemorate the tens of thousands of people who had died attempting to cross the Mediterranean during the European refugee crisis. An Italian territory located just 80 miles off the coast of Tunisia, Lampedusa is a primary point of arrival for migrants and refugees attempting to reach Europe. Facilities operated by the Italian government and the church have been overwhelmed trying to meet the demands.
The PILLAR
Vatican signs new controversial agreements with Azerbaijan
By Edgar Beltrán, September 13, 2025
The Vatican signed several new collaborative agreements with Azerbaijan’s government, the latest in a series of controversial arrangements with a government accused of ethnically cleansing Christian minorities within its territory. Signed agreements with the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital and the Vatican Apostolic Library and Apostolic Archives alarm critics who accuse the Azeri regime of human rights abuses against the Armenian minority and practicing “caviar diplomacy” by using its cultural and economic power to shape Vatican policy in the South Caucasus region. This will enhance collaboration in specialized pediatric training and genetic diagnostics. A controversial conference published a summary that claimed Albanians destroyed Caucasian Albanian monuments in the disputed Karabakh region to “falsely present them as Armenian,” and charged that Armenians are “aggressive settlers” in the region.
CatholicVote
Leo stepping up as an ‘interested pastor’ of the German Church
By Natalie K. Watson, September 10, 2025
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, president of the German Bishops' Conference, met with Pope Leo on 4 September. Among the decisions expected from Rome are appointments to the currently vacant dioceses of Münster and Eichstätt and a response to the complaint filed by the German bishops’ Advisory Council for Abuse Survivors against Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne. As prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops before his election to the papacy, Cardinal Robert Prevost was one of three senior Vatican officials who wrote to the German bishops in February 2024, warning that their plans to form a “synodal committee” were in breach of canon law. Thomas Schüller, a canon lawyer and member of the Synodal Committee said the “entire synodal process in Germany is on the brink.” He said bishops are “tired of having to discuss essential issues with the faithful in a synodal – that is, participatory – manner, or even make decisions together with them.”
From CNA, Pro-Life, & Register for 9/13/25
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — September 13, 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 happenings of the Holy See to anyone with internet access.
New Vatican interfaith team to meet Russian patriarch, leading imam in Kazakhstan - Sep 13, 2025 - By Alexey Gotovskiy - Religious leaders from China, Russia, and the Vatican are converging in Kazakhstan on Sept. 17–18 for the Congress of Leaders.
‘Surge of enthusiasm’ among Catholics in Asia after St. Carlo Acutis canonization - Sep 13, 2025 - By Madalaine Elhabbal - Young Catholics in Asia are “experiencing a surge of enthusiasm” from the life of St. Carlo Acutis, said Father Will Conquer, a Paris Foreign Missions Society priest stationed in Cambodia, according to a UCA News report.
Church’s voice ‘vital’ in guiding AI’s future, symposium experts say - Sep 5, 2025 - By Madeleine Teahan - Entrepreneurs, academics, and clergy came together in Scotland’s capital to tackle the ethics of emerging AI technologies.
Catholic Agency News Special Report
A roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news
WHO promotes abortion drugs on essential medicines list - Pro-life leaders are expressing concern after the inclusion of abortion drugs in the World Health Organization (WHO)’s latest annual list of essential medicines, noting that the drugs can be “dangerous.”
California bill allowing anonymous abortion prescriptions awaits signature - The law would allow a pharmacist to dispense abortion drugs “without the name of the patient, the name of the prescriber, or the name and address of the pharmacy, subject to specified requirements,” according to the bill’s text.
New York attorney general intervenes in landmark legal battle over abortion shield laws - Attorney General Letitia James is intervening in a landmark case involving a New York abortionist who allegedly prescribed abortion pills to a patient in Texas, where the drugs are illegal.
National Catholic Register
National Catholic Register for September 13, 2025
The Register offers a perspective on the news of the day as seen through the eyes of the Magisterium. We assist Catholics in engaging the culture with confidence in the saving and sanctifying Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pew Survey: 8 Out of 10 U.S. Catholics View Pope Leo XIV Favorably - Amira Abuzeid/CNA Nation September 12, 2025 - Among U.S. Catholics who attend Mass weekly or more often, 95% say they have a favorable view - Victoria Cardiel/CNA/Aci Prensa Vatican, September 12, 2025
Catholic Journalist in Belarus Released After 5 Years in Prison - Following recent negotiations with the U.S., Belarus freed a total of 52 political prisoners on Sept. 11 - Jonah McKeown World, September 12, 2025
Alveda King Responds to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination: ‘We’ve Got to Care Again’ - King shared about her own experience with political assassinations in her family - Kate Quiñones/CNA Nation, September 12, 2025
Nutshell reflections for 9/13/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - September 13, 2025
Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
First Things
Confusion over St. Paul’s references to the Jews
By Gerald McDermott, September 12, 2025
The writings of the apostle Paul have confused many. Even his fellow apostle St. Peter wrote that Paul is sometimes “hard to understand,” and “the ignorant and unstable” twist his words “to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). The Catholic philosopher Robert Royal recently confessed it was many years before he came to fathom St. Paul’s “mania.” Perhaps the most controverted aspect of Paul’s thought has been his thinking about Judaism and its relation to the Jesus movement. Martin Luther convinced Protestants for centuries that Paul was attacking first-century Judaism for teaching salvation by works. However, the “New Perspective on Paul,” a movement led by James Dunn and N. T. Wright, demonstrated that Jews of Paul’s day adhered to a “covenantal nomism,” whereby God elected Jews by grace but required obedience to remain within the covenant. So Jewish salvation was actually by grace, but faithfulness was necessary to remain in salvation.
The Catholic Thing
We either live in truth or grunt like demons
By Msgr. Charles Fink, September 13, 2025
So much of the modern world behaves as if “everything is politics.” And if politics is the art of the possible, it follows that just about anything goes. Why? Because human beings have an almost infinite capacity for thinking up good reasons to do bad things. If we don’t start with the acknowledgement of some moral absolutes, i.e., boundaries beyond which we must never go. In that case, we will always be able and often inclined to come up with reasons to legitimize doing terrible things to produce possible — and what are deemed good — results. In truth, politics is one small, albeit significant, slice of human interaction. It is morality that comes closer to being everything, morality bounded by absolute prohibitions, within which there is wide latitude for disagreements in the arena of prudential judgements, involving all manner of trade-offs. Within this arena, pragmatism rules; consequentialism holds sway, but is limited by things we must never do, or at least never directly intend.
Bishop Barron
The inevitable trials will come
By Bishop Robert Barron, September 13, 2025
Someone who “comes to me,” Jesus says, who “listens to my words, and acts on them.” That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. This is the heart of it: If you are rooted in God, then you can withstand anything, precisely because you are linked to that power that is creating the cosmos. You will be blessed at that deepest place, and nothing can finally touch you. But the one who does not take Jesus’s words to heart “is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.” When the inevitable trials come, the life built on pleasure, money, power, or fame will give way.
Exaudi
The most populous country persecutes Christians & Muslims
By Exaudi Staff, September 12, 2025
In India, the world’s most populous country, celebrated as the cradle of spirituality, the Christian faith survives under siege: between anti-conversion laws, mobs that attack with impunity, and international silence, the myth of tolerance is crumbling. The situation of Christians in Hindustan is increasingly worrying. Let’s not talk about Pakistan now, where they are clearly persecuted and condemned to terrible sentences for blasphemy. Instead, let’s focus on India, which still retains an undeserved reputation for respect for minorities. This great country is indeed considered a paradise for New Age followers and their gurus, and for all religions within the Hindu cultural sphere, such as Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, and countless other Hindu sects… but it is a hell for the large, increasingly oppressed monotheistic religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians.
Image of Pecans by tseiu from Pixabay
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