Catholic Nutshell News: Saturday 9/20/25
Topics include: Appeal to Pope Leo on Church teaching; Kirk was close to becoming Catholic; Martyrdom assures our salvation; & Cardinal David warns of ‘spiritual crocodile’
“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
25 Catholic Associations appeal to Pope Leo on Church teaching
By Edward Pentin, September 18, 2025
A coalition of Catholic associations has submitted a “filial appeal” to Pope Leo XIV, respectfully calling on him to “confirm and reaffirm” the Church’s perennial teaching on homosexual relationships and unions in the face of a “powerful lobby” that is seeking their moral legitimization within the Church. The group further calls on Pope Leo to annul a 2017 papal edict on the issue of allowing divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion, and to revoke the 2023 Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans that allowed non-liturgical blessings of same-sex couples. Signed by 25 national associations that trace their inspiration to the Brazilian Catholic leader Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, the appeal was dated Sept. 15, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, and delivered to the Holy Father by courier yesterday morning.
Catholic News Agency
Charlie Kirk was ‘this close’ to becoming Catholic
By Daniel Payne, September 19, 2025
Slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk was reportedly strongly considering becoming Catholic just prior to his assassination, according to Robert Brennan, a Los Angeles-based writer and the brother of Fresno, California, Bishop Joseph Brennan, who spoke to him shortly before his killing. Robert wrote in a Sept. 18 column in the Los Angeles archdiocesan newspaper Angelus that Kirk had a “personal exchange” with the California prelate. He said his brother, Bishop Brennan, permitted him to share the story, writing that Kirk had spoken to the prelate at a prayer breakfast in Visalia. The conservative activist “told the bishop about his Catholic wife and children and how he attended Mass with them.” Kirk acknowledged “speculation” about his interest in becoming Catholic, telling Bishop Brennan: “I’m this close” to converting.
Agenzia Fides
Martyrdom assures our salvation
By Agenzia Fides, September 14, 2025
Jesus promises that martyrdom assures our salvation, as indicated in Luke’s Gospel, “whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Luke 9:34), and in Matthew’s Gospel, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt 5:10-12). Indeed, the martyr bears witness to Christ and is saved from eternal death and separation from God just as Christ witnessed to the world and opened the gates of heaven through his Passion and death. It is precisely God’s grace that is central to our understanding of martyrdom, a virtue that is not achieved through one's own efforts, as a personal achievement, but received and nurtured as a gift of grace.
Aleteia
Waiting on updated reports for Holy Family Parish in Gaza
By Christine Rousselle, September 17, 2015
Around 11 p.m. on Monday, September 15, the Israeli army began its invasion of Gaza City. Media in the Gaza Strip reported there were 37 attacks in the first 20 minutes, and much of the population of northwestern Gaza City left the area, said Vatican News. Tuesday morning, Fr. Romanelli told Pope Leo XIV that the parish "continues to assist the approximately 450 people who have taken refuge there and those who turn to them, distributing meals and water and keeping the internal pharmacy open." The conversation was recounted by Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See's press office. Earlier in September, leaders of the Orthodox and Catholic communities in Gaza confirmed they would not be able to comply with the evacuation order ahead of the invasion. Evacuating the grounds would be extremely difficult, as the nuns in the compound care for 60 to 70 Gazans with special needs.
Related: Despite Gaza City fighting, source at city’s only Catholic church says no plans to leave, The Times of Israel, by Lazar Berman 16 September 2025
CBCPNEWS
Cardinal David warns of ‘spiritual crocodile’ devouring Philippines
By Roy Lagarde, September 16, 2025
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan has called for intense prayer as he warned that the Philippines is being devoured by a “spiritual crocodile” at work in corrupt politicians. In his homily at a Mass with the Filipino community in the US city of Los Angeles, he criticized politicians, engineers, and contractors who “shamelessly plunder public funds while the poor are drowning in the floodwaters of corruption.” “My dear fellow Filipinos, please pray hard for our country. We are presently in a deep state of political crisis,” said David, who presided at the annual Virgen de los Remedios Mass on Sept. 14 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (Sept. 15 in the Philippines). He urged Filipinos to turn to the Virgin Mary for protection in what he described as a worsening political crisis. “We commend our country to the Virgen de los Remedios … the one who leads us to follow not Satan’s way, not my way, but God’s way,” he said.
CRUX
Faith-based support is helping Scouting America stabilize
By David Crary, AP, September 20, 2025
For the Boy Scouts of America — recently renamed Scouting America — the past 12 years have been arduous. Opening its programs to gay people, and later to girls, sparked dismay in some quarters. Its 2020 bankruptcy declaration led to prolonged wrangling over compensation for thousands of men claiming they were sexually abused as scouts. Yet the 115-year-old organization — though serving far fewer youths than at its peak decades ago — seems to be stabilizing, with a slight uptick in membership last year. A key factor is the enduring loyalty of major religious denominations, which still view Scouting’s mission as uniquely in tune with their own. “I tell parents this is the best time to be involved with Scouting America, and the best time to be involved through a Catholic unit,” said Bill Guglielmi, who chairs the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. “There is a hunger out there now for finding a values-based organization.”
The PILLAR
Nuncio to Spain appointed amid tensions with the government
By Edgar Beltrán, September 16, 2025
The Pillar reported last month that Archbishop Piero Pioppo was the Vatican’s pick for apostolic nuncio to Spain, but the government was delaying the process in protest over recent tensions with the Spanish bishops’ conference. The Holy See announced Monday that the appointment of Archbishop Piero Pioppo was finally confirmed. In June, Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference, publicly urged Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call early elections over recent corruption scandals involving government officials — a suggestion many bishops endorsed. Argüello’s call was widely seen as a vote of no confidence in the Spanish government. Spanish civic officials were believed to be slow-walking the approval to show the government’s displeasure with the local hierarchy. Tensions have been high between the Spanish government and the hierarchy for months.
CatholicVote
Pro-abortion legislator to receive award from Chicago archdiocese
By Mary Stroka, September 19, 2025
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Catholic whose record on abortion legislation is abysmal, is set to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Archdiocese of Chicago for “support to immigrants.” Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich is hosting the Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity (OHDS) Immigration Ministry event, which will take place Nov. 3 at Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, the archdiocese’s webpage about the event said. Eighty percent of the benefit proceeds from tickets will support the archdiocese’s local immigration ministry, and the rest will benefit the archdiocese’s national pastoral migratoria. The migratoria, an immigrant leadership ministry, began in Chicago in 2008 and is now in parish communities across the US. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has given Durbin, who is the Senate Democratic Whip, an “F” on its National Pro-Life Scorecard.
CNA, Pro-Life, & Marriage tips for 9/20/25
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — September 20, 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.
Clinician says Minnesota law harms kids struggling with sexual orientation, gender identity - Sep 20, 2025 - By Amira Abuzeid - A Minnesota law has created a new minority: young people with same-sex attraction who do not want it.
Massive mural honoring New York City migrants unveiled at St. Patrick’s Cathedral - Sep 19, 2025 - By Madalaine Elhabbal - St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan has unveiled a 25-foot-tall mural honoring migrants to New York City.
Anti-assisted-suicide group says suicide laws expanding throughout U.S. in 2025 - Sep 19, 2025 - By Tessa Gervasini - Patients Rights Action Fund coalitions director Jessica Rodgers explained that most states that allow assisted suicide follow the “Oregon model.”
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:
TRUMP TARGETS H-1B WORKER VISAS TO BOOST AMERICAN JOB MARKET - President Donald Trump signed a proclamation yesterday imposing a $100,000 application fee on H-1B visas, which tech companies heavily use to hire foreign workers. The White House says the move will encourage American companies to hire US graduates instead of foreign workers.
CATHOLICVOTE BACKS STUDENT IN FREE SPEECH BATTLE - CatholicVote filed a friend-of-the-court brief with an appeals court yesterday backing an Indiana student whose high school suppressed her pro-life club and free speech over flyers it said were “political.”
TEXAS PASSES BILL CRACKING DOWN ON ABORTION PILLS - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a pro-life bill into law this week, empowering citizens to sue companies shipping abortion drugs into the state. CatholicVote’s Director of Government Affairs Tom McClusky urged Congress to follow Texas’ lead. “It is past time Congress do what Texas just did and protect all women and children from those who would prey on them," he said.
Aleteia
6 Really bad reasons to get married — be careful!
By Mathilde De Robien, September 20, 2025
Marriage mustn't be based on bad reasons, or you both will regret it later.
Fear of causing pain - don't get married to please your fiancé or your family.
Fear of remaining single - prepare for marriage by learning to be happy on your own
To leave family structure and escape from authoritarian parents or some other difficult home situation.
Fearing scandal, or wanting to provide a united front for an unplanned pregnancy
Getting married to “save” the other person, or at least to help them.
People with mental health problems (depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc.) who think marriage will be a cure.
Nutshell reflections for 9/20/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - September 20, 2025
Memorial of Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs
First Things
David’s psalm: ‘I hate them with a perfect hatred’
By Peter J. Leithart, September 19, 2025
God hates, but he isn’t hate. God is love, and his hatred expresses the love he is. His wrath breaks out against rebels to guard and avenge the holiness of his own name, and his fire consumes enemies to protect and restore his people and his world. The consuming fire of God is love stronger than death, more jealous than the grave. His hatred of sin comes to a cunning climax in the cross, when he overthrows sin, death, and Satan in the very act of submitting to their assaults. Properly, for both God and for us, hate flows from love, as the zealous readiness to kill and die for what and whom we love. Love, and the hatreds that accompany it, take different forms in different settings. Civil authorities love their people by firmly opposing evils that threaten them. Love doesn’t tolerate or accommodate to evil. Our hatred is disciplined when we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We need to hate evil enough to take up a cross.
The Catholic Thing
Christian exits are from the dissolution of Catholic identity
By Robert Lazu Kmita, September 20, 2025
The exodus of adults, and especially of adolescents and young people from the Church, is one of the most troubling symptoms of the deep crisis in Christian life, not only within our Church but in our whole culture. I believe that the most terrible and widespread malady is the contraceptive mentality, but also the abortion regime to which it leads. All other problems reflect this slow suicide of communities in the Western world that have ceased to procreate. I dare to say that the Catholic identity of a frighteningly large number of believers today is in dissolution. Catholics today no longer believe – like Saint Cyprian – that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus). Inter-religious dialogue and ecumenism, the practical pluralism of today’s world, and the lack of authentic Christian evangelization and catechesis have generated indifference and even hostility toward any “firm” value.
Bishop Barron
Blindness and the willful refusal to see
By Bishop Robert Barron, September 20, 2025
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus explains the purpose of the parables: “Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.” The use of the word “para” in the New Testament (translated as “beside,” “against,” “contrary to,” etc.) signals the failure to see at various levels. The great metaphor here is blindness, a blindness which is identified with disobedience. The parables of Christ are meant to highlight and point out this blindness, this willful refusal to see. They themselves, in their peculiar form, are judgments on those who cannot see in them signs of salvation. And we would be greatly remiss if we did not attend to the instruction that emerges from those startling, funny, off-putting, and strangely enlightening stories that Jesus loved to tell.
Exaudi
The drama of a man who suffers with bewilderment
By Jesús Ortiz López, September 19, 2025
The question of evil in the world runs throughout human history. Why? We all encounter some manifestations of evil sooner or later, but not absolute evil. And thank God, because we couldn’t bear it. The Church celebrates the feast of the Cross of Jesus Christ with the great hope that comes from God and inspires our lives amidst hardships and suffering, showing that humanity exists for love and that evil does not have the last word. The Book of Job expresses the drama of a man who suffers with bewilderment, filled with questions that his friends only aggravate with their clumsy answers. He denies his existence and wishes for death. And yet, he manages to see a glimmer of hope because he knows God and knows that He cannot be evil, that all this suffering has a meaning. The gods created by men and their tragedies do not count on freedom, but rather determine the course of poor humankind.
Image of Pecans by tseiu from Pixabay
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