Catholic Nutshell News: Thursday 10/16/25
Topics include: 2,000 faithful bring Eucharist to Times Square; Ancient ‘communion bread’ found in Turkey; Nun arrested for death of sister; & Malaysia stares into its moral abyss
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Today's sources include Aleteia, CNA, National Catholic Register, The Pillar, CatholicVote, John Eldredge, and ChurchPOP. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)
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Catholic News Agency
Over 2,000 faithful bring the Eucharist to Times Square
By Sabrina Ferrisi, October 15, 2025
At the 6th Annual Eucharistic procession organized by the Napa Institute in New York City on Oct. 14, a crowd of 2,000 people gathered in St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a Holy Hour and Mass, followed by a procession to Times Square and returned to the Cathedral. The procession included talks by Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, of the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Father Ambrose Criste, a Norbertine priest from St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California, Jonathon Roumie, the actor who portrays Jesus in the TV series “The Chosen,” and Cardinal Seán O’Malley, the recently retired Cardinal of Boston. Roumie highlighted St. Carlo Acutis’ words that “the Eucharist is my highway to heaven.” The only way that Roumie could sustain himself, he said, shooting ‘The Chosen, Season 6,’ which centers on the crucifixion, was partaking in the Eucharist as often as he could.
Aleteia
Ancient ‘communion bread’ with Jesus image found in Turkey
By Daniel Esparza, October 15, 2025
Archaeologists in Turkey’s Karaman province uncovered five carbonized loaves from the Byzantine era — one stamped with an image of Jesus and a Greek inscription that reads, “With gratitude to the blessed Jesus.” The breads were found at Topraktepe, ancient Eirenopolis, and dated to the 7th–8th centuries A.D. What sets the find apart is the iconography. Instead of the familiar Christ Pantokrator, the image presents Jesus as a sower or farmer. An agrarian motif spoke directly to local communities whose faith, labor, and lands were intertwined. The other loaves bear Maltese cross impressions, strengthening the case that these were used liturgically, likely as communion breads. To survive 1,300 years, researchers point to a rare chain of events: intense heat charred the loaves, then low-oxygen burial and stable temperatures preserved surface details, including the inscription and stamped imagery. Much of today’s Turkey was home to early Christian communities.
National Catholic Reporter
Catholic nun arrested for death of fellow sister in Kenya
By Doreen Ajiambo, October 15, 2025
The arrest of Sr. Caroline Kanjiru in connection with the death of fellow nun, Sr. Anselmina Karimi, 65, who served as the administrator of Nkabune Children’s Home in Meruin, has unsettled the faithful and stirred fresh debate about what happens behind convent walls and whether the church is doing enough to address internal tensions. “It is a very unfortunate event that has left many of us in shock and in deep sorrow,” said a statement released Oct. 15 by the Nazareth Sisters of the Annunciation. Karimi may have been struck with blunt force. Karimi’s phone was switched off around 11 p.m. on the night of her death and remains missing. Kenyan media reports said that Ndegwa emphasized the seriousness of the allegation and noted that detaining Kanjiru would also allow time for emotions within the community to cool. Karimi’s body was found with bruises on her hands and legs and bleeding from her ears and mouth, inconsistent with a natural death.
CatholicVote
Americans identifying as ‘nonbinary’ is in free fall
By Elise Winland, October 15, 2025
The share of young Americans identifying as “nonbinary” fell sharply over the past two years, reversing a trend that had been steadily growing, according to new national survey data analyzed by University of Buckingham politics professor Eric Kaufmann. Kaufmann’s report, “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,” draws on multiple student surveys. FIRE’s 2025 survey of more than 50,000 U.S. undergraduates found that only 3.6% identified as “nonbinary,” down from 5.2% in 2024 and 6.8% in both 2022 and 2023. “In other words, the share of trans-identified students has effectively halved in just two years,” Kaufmann wrote in an Unherd article discussing his findings. Notably, the data does not account for “transgender” individuals who identify as either male or female. The trend was consistent across both high school and college populations. Meanwhile, the number of students identifying as heterosexual increased 10% since 2023, while gay and lesbian identification remained stable.
Crux
Low birthrate affecting Catholic Church in Japan
By Nirmala Carvalho, October 16, 2025
Shortly after Pope Leo XIV lamented the declining birth rate in Europe, the cardinal of Tokyo said Japan is also facing a similar crisis. Speaking to Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Oct. 14, Leo said the decline of the European government's commitment to family efforts is dramatic. Japanese Cardinal Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo said Japan’s birth rate has been significantly low in recent years, with the total fertility rate standing at 1.15 per woman in 2024. Kindergartens and elementary schools are facing a shortage of new entrants. Italy’s birthrate is slightly higher, at 1.20 per woman. “Simultaneously, local communities are eroding, and there is a lack of “young Japanese people working in essential sectors necessary to support the society, such as construction, public services, and retail,” Kikuchi said. This figure has been dropping for a decade. Despite its small size, the Church has 828 Catholic educational institutions in Japan.
National Catholic Register
Women’s ordination: Revisiting what is already settled teaching
By Larry Chapp, October 15, 2025
The Catholic news weekly The Tablet, reviewing Irish Jesuit theologian Father Gerry O’Hanlon, hails the appointment of the first woman Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican Church as a ripe opportunity for the Catholic Church to re-examine the issue of women’s ordination to the priesthood. From his remarks, he thinks the current teaching of the Church rests on flawed theological groundings. He concludes that the non-ordination of women is as great a scandal for the Church as was its previous tolerance for slavery. Yet, Pope St. John Paul II closed the door on this issue, with his definitive decision that the Church has no authority to ordain women and firmly rejects the notion that the non-ordination of women implies that women hold an inferior status to men in the economy of salvation. Pope John Paul II did not issue this decision — reaffirmed by Popes Benedict XVI and Francis — in a theological vacuum. The maleness of Jesus is not a mere epiphenomenal reality
The Pillar
Bishops urge Catholics to oppose Victoria’s euthanasia expansion
By Luke Coppen, October 15, 2025
In an Oct. 14 joint pastoral letter, bishops in the southeastern state said the Voluntary Assisted Dying Amendment Bill 2025 would “further weaken protections for vulnerable patients and reduce protections for medical practitioners who conscientiously object to euthanasia and assisted suicide.” The bill, introduced by the Victorian Labor Party-run state government, would end the 12-month residency requirement for access to “voluntary assisted dying,” known by its acronym VAD. The Catholic Church regards VAD as a euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. The bill would also lift the so-called gag clause, which currently prohibits physicians from initiating discussions about VAD with patients, and require conscientious objectors to provide government-approved information about the practice. There have been 1,683 deaths from the administration of the VAD substance since 2019, including 389 in 2024-25.
UCA News
Malaysia stares into its moral abyss after school girl killing
By Joseph Masilamany, October 16, 2025
What we know so far about the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old schoolgirl this week at a government high school in Bandar Utama is chilling. The alleged attacker, a 14-year-old boy, was not a hardened criminal. He was a child — someone’s son, a pupil, still wearing his school uniform, his mind still forming, his moral compass perhaps never set. The suspect had purchased the weapons — a knife and a kerambit (a curved blade). “Initial investigations found that...he had the weapons for some time,” Shazeli said. Police have since recorded statements from 57 witnesses. The attacker stabbed the victim multiple times in the neck and chest and is in custody. Across Malaysia, a pattern of violence has begun to stain the very fabric of our schools. On Oct. 1, a 10-year-old pupil was found unconscious in a school toilet in Negeri Sembilan and later pronounced dead. Just days later, four teenage boys were detained for allegedly gang-raping a female classmate in a classroom.
CatholicVote, CNA & ChurchPOP for 10/16/25
CatholicVote - The Loop
Read daily news and political impact stories at the “LOOP”
Elections and politics matter. The LOOP gives you daily gems on the news that 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.”
POLL: YOUNG US PRIESTS LEAN RIGHT, EXPRESS HIGH TRUST IN POPE - A new national survey of Catholic priests in the United States found that the more newly ordained continue to be more conservative than their predecessors, and also that Pope Leo enjoys a high degree of trust among the clergy, while American bishops are still regarded somewhat with comparative suspicion.
THE SUPREME COURT CASE THAT COULD RESHAPE 2028 - Republicans could pick up as many as 19 congressional seats if the Supreme Court strikes down a key part of the Voting Rights Act in a major redistricting case argued Oct. 15. A ruling is expected by June 2026. Its outcome will have massive implications for the following elections.
NEW BOOK EXPLAINS SUCCESS OF ABORTION PILL REVERSALS - Dr. George Delgado, the founder of the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN) and a pioneer of the abortion pill reversal, has written a new book documenting its success in empowering women who regret starting chemical abortions.
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — October 16, 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.
Catholic nonprofit’s global religious freedom report to be released Oct. 21 - Oct 16, 2025 - By Hannah Brockhaus - The report, released every two years since 1999, is a global study of religious freedom and persecution across all countries and faith groups. “The situation has steadily worsened, and unfortunately, this negative trend is expected to continue,” Marta Petrosillo, the report’s editor-in-chief.
Book to feature Pope Leo’s writings and meditations as Augustinian prior - Oct 16, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - The tome will include, for the first time, the writings of the current pontiff during his term as prior general.
Pope Leo XIV appoints Cardinal Cupich to Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State - Oct 15, 2025 - By Daniel Payne - The Holy See said Leo also appointed to the commission Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general for the diocese of Rome. The pope further confirmed the commission’s existing membership for the current term on Oct. 15.
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - October 16, 2025
We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.
The Catholic Origins of Pumpkin Spice: How a 12th-Century Saint Inspired the Popular Flavor - Saint Hildegard of Bingen, one of only four female Doctors of the Catholic Church, left behind an engaging introduction to the pumpkin spice flavor we know and love.
Newborn Dressed as Saint Thérèse Melts Hearts in Precious Photoshoot: ‘Our Greatest Treasure’ - “Moments like these remind us that photography is not just about images, but also about memory, prayer, and eternity.”
Words of Wisdom From Saint Teresa of Avila – Mystic, Reformer & Doctor of the Church - “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!” - Saint Teresa of Avila.
Nutshell reflections for 10/16/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - October 16, 2025
Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Church Life Journal
The reception of Vatican II behind the ‘Iron Curtain’
By Piotr Kosicki, October 10, 2023
The bishops sent out fifty-six letters of pastoral greetings in October and November 1965, inviting colleagues from around the world to come to Poland on May 3, 1966, to celebrate the Polish Millennium. Among these letters, the greatest care went into crafting the letter to German bishops. The result, however, was a public scandal that shook Polish Catholicism. The Polish authorities would deny the pope’s visa request, preventing him from making his planned pilgrimage to Poland. “Let us try to forget: no more polemics, no more Cold War, but rather the beginning of a dialogue, such as that which the Council and Pope Paul VI are seeking to foster everywhere,” wrote the Polish Council fathers in a pastoral letter to their German counterparts. The German bishops did not give the Poles what the latter had expected, which was gratitude, forgiveness, and support for Polish claims of sovereignty demarcated by the postwar border on the Oder and Neisse rivers.
Imaginative Conservative
What if the future looked like the 1960s?
By Bradley J. Birzer, October 15, 2025
In his upcoming book, “Futuristic,” Mark Voger explores what might have been had the 1950s and 1960s shaped the aesthetic of space flight and the space age. The book, put, is “retro”: a nostalgic celebration of the Space Age and all its hope and optimism for a better and more humane world. Voger is the best pop-culture historian out there. Not only does he write captivatingly, but he lays out all his books in a way that never fails to astonish me. Futuristic might very well be Mr. Voger’s best, and that’s saying something profound. Voger recounts his memories of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City, and the first episode of the TV show Lost in Space, its early episodes shockingly dark in outlook before it soon became campy. Voger also fondly remembers the TV show, The Land of the Giants, and the DC comic book, Metal Men, all proceeding the first Apollo voyage to the Moon in 1969.
Crisis Magazine
The unspoken trial of the orphaning of our priests
By Kevin Wells, October 16, 2025
Crisis editor Eric Sammons has written and spoken pleas for laity calm in the aftermath of Pope Leo XIV’s odd ice-block blessing and refusal to condemn Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to award a pro-abortion politician with a lifetime achievement honor. Even on gasket-blowing days like yesterday, when the Chicago-native pontiff promoted his fellow Chicagoan Cupich to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State, Sammons’ call for calm is as wise as it is necessary. Beneath the weight of what might best be described as a priestly anti-fatherhood episcopate—bishops who relate to their priests not as spiritual fathers, but as absent or even abusive ones—countless priests in America are left to live their vocations in silent despair. The spiritual orphaning of dutiful and once-vibrant priests can’t be measured. Still, its consequences are unmistakable: It has crippled the Church from within by accelerating the exodus of Catholics over the past fifteen years, including countless millions of the Church’s youth.
Wild at Heart
The life we long for is coming
By John Eldredge, October 16, 2025
Our hope is meant to be the anchor of our souls, to keep us steady in the middle of the storms of life. It is set firmly within the truth that Jesus is trustworthy. He has promised us that He is returning and that, when He does, He will make all things right, all things well, and all things new. He will bring us home, to the true home our hearts long for. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1–3). We received Christ by faith, and we are meant to enjoy Him utterly. We can live with a defiant joy because our happily ever after is on its way. In Jesus, our life is unending and, at the renewal of all things, the life we long for is coming.
Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay
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