Catholic Nutshell News: Thursday 10/23/25
Topics include: Diocese extends Latin Mass; French movie of Sacred Heart surprise hit; Efforts to claim Pope Leo; & Newman’s ‘Second Spring’ in full bloom
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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
Cleveland Diocese extends Latin Mass, while in other places …
By Amira Abuzeid, October 22, 2025
The Diocese of Cleveland has confirmed that the Vatican granted permission to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at two diocesan churches for an additional 2 years. The extension of the TLM in Cleveland comes even as other dioceses are seeing its cancellation. In the Diocese of Knoxville last week, Bishop Mark Beckman informed the TLM community in an Oct. 14 letter that “by Jan. 1, 2026, every Latin Mass in the diocese will be celebrated using the 2002 Roman Missal …” In the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, Bishop Michael Martin said in September that the TLM would cease at four parishes and would only be permitted at one chapel. “Why is going to the Latin Mass a bad thing? It’s no different from the Ordinariate, or Byzantine, or any other rite. It’s all still Catholic,” said Brian Williams, a leader of the TLM community in Charlotte.
Aleteia
French movie about Sacred Heart a surprise box office hit
By Aleteia - Anne-Sophie Retailleau, October 23, 2025
A married couple, Sabrina and Steven J. Gunnel, have made a film about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 350 years after the apparitions received by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial. The 90-minute docudrama traces the history of the Sacred Heart Devotion from the centuries to the present day. Now in its third week of release, the film Sacré Cœur has racked up 74,688 ticket sales, according to figures provided by Saje Distribution to Aleteia. In a single day (Tuesday, October 21), 10,108 ticket sales were recorded throughout France. Since its theatrical release on October 1, the film has sold 195,023 tickets and could reach 200,000 by Thursday. The film will be shown in 347 French theaters this week, compared to only 155 when it was first released.
National Catholic Reporter
Progressive efforts to claim Pope Leo misunderstand his mission
By John Grosso, October 23, 2025
Christopher Hale, former candidate for Congress in Tennessee, a political consultant, liberal social media personality, and a Catholic, has a Substack entitled “Letters from Leo - the American Pope and US Politics“ which describes itself as a chronicle of how Pope Leo XIV’s papacy intersects with American politics, faith, and the digital age during the presidency of Donald Trump. The only problem? This is a version of Leo that does not exist — and one that the pope explicitly rejects. “I don’t plan to get involved in partisan politics. That’s not what the church is about,” Leo said in his first major interview with Crux. Occupy Democrats, a prominent progressive media outlet, has become a champion of Leo, posting videos of the pontiff with inaccurate clickbait titles like “Pope Leo DROPS TUESDAY BOMB on Trump and Republicans.” Pope Leo’s response to such claims? Not a word about Trump. Not a word about Republicans. Just clear, nuanced, thoughtful commentary from a man clearly intent on seeing unity amid the divisiveness in the church.
CatholicVote
Virginia Democrat Jay Jones touts his Catholicism to save face
By CV News Feed, October 22, 2025
Facing dismal polling odds two weeks after the publication of his murderous texts from 2022, Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones met with pastors on Oct. 22 and touted his self-proclaimed status as a Catholic. “It was an honor to meet with pastors from across Hampton Roads this morning,” Jones posted on X. “As a Catholic, I’ve always drawn strength from faith and community — the same values that guide me in this campaign and in service.” In his published texts, Jones mused that if he had two bullets and faced a choice between shooting then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, Adolf Hitler, or Pol Pot, Gilbert “gets two bullets to the head.” Jones also suggested to Coyner that he would like to see Gilbert’s children die in their mother’s arms, later explaining: “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” A Virginia Commonwealth University poll released Oct. 21 found incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, leading Jones by three percentage points, 45% to 42%. The same survey had Jones leading Miyares 47% to 41% in September.
Crux
Citizens against construction of garbage facility near Church
By Stephan Uttom Rozario, October 22, 2025
In Bangladesh, On October 21, the human chain held in front of De Mazenod Church and St. Eugene’s School called on the authorities of the Dhaka North City Corporation to immediately stop and relocate the construction of a garbage disposal facility. The protest was composed of the parish priest, schoolteachers, students, guardians, leaders of various organizations, and local citizens, who opposed the construction of a garbage disposal facility directly in front of De Mazenod Catholic Church and St. Eugene’s School in the center of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. “This kind of construction in front of a church and school is completely unreasonable, which will increase the health risk of our students, and it is also a neglect and insult to the religious sentiments of the Christian community,” said Oblate Father Pintu Luis Costa, headmaster of St. Eugene’s School.
National Catholic Register
St. John Henry Newman’s ‘Second Spring’ in full bloom
By Father Raymond J. de Souza, October 22, 2025
Once barred from Oxford for his faith, the English convert who preached of a ‘second spring’ now joins the ranks of Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom and Athanasius. Pope Leo XIV will declare St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the Church on Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day, capping off a remarkable few weeks for Catholics in his native England — weeks that illustrated how far their present position has changed since the mid-19th century. Newman is being made a doctor for his theological work, but the timing emphasizes the historical shifts of which he was both a participant and a witness. In 1845, when Newman became Catholic, he had to leave his academic life at Oxford; Catholics were not eligible to be professors or students. The future doctor of the Church was not permitted to teach at a Christian (Anglican) university.
Related: What is a Doctor of the Church?, October 2, 2024, by Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
The Pillar
Venezuelan Mass celebrating canonizations canceled
By Edgar Beltrán, October 22, 2025
The Archdiocese of Caracas announced the suspension of a massive thanksgiving Mass for the canonizations of Saint José Gregorio Hernández and Saint Carmen Rendiles, the first Venezuelan saints. Hernández and Rendiles were canonized on October 19. An official statement from the archdiocese said the cancellation was due to lack of space and security reasons. But sources close to the situation told The Pillar that the Mass was canceled because the Venezuelan regime had attempted to turn the Mass into a rally for President Nicolás Maduro by filling the stadium with government supporters. “The government was planning to send thousands of regime supporters from all over the country in buses to the Mass to prevent actual Catholics from going to the Mass and fill it with their people … Once the bishops found out, they decided to cancel the Mass,” a source told The Pillar.
UCA News
Diwali’s celebration of light over darkness fitting for Christians
By John Singarayar, October 17, 2025
Every autumn, when millions of clay lamps flicker across India’s rooftops and courtyards, a beautiful paradox unfolds in the homes of Indian Christians. While their Hindu neighbors celebrate Diwali with prayers to Lakshmi and stories of Rama’s return, these followers of Christ find themselves navigating a delicate dance between faith and culture, between standing apart and belonging together. The question that haunts many Christian families during this season is not whether to celebrate, but how to honor their beliefs while living authentically in the land they call home. Some see Diwali’s rituals as incompatible with their faith, choosing instead to retreat into quiet prayer while the world outside bursts into celebration. Others light their own lamps, not in worship of Hindu deities, but as a cultural embrace of the community around them. Diwali’s celebration of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair resonates with truths that any believer in Christ can affirm without compromise.
CatholicVote, CNA & ChurchPOP for 10/23/25
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.”
GENOCIDE IN NIGERIA? 2 US MISSIONARIES TESTIFY - Two American missionaries are raising alarm over what they describe as a systematic, government-enabled genocide of Christians in Nigeria. “They separate Christian and Muslim men and women first. They kill the Christian men and tell the Muslim men that they must either join them or die, and they kill all the ones who don’t join them and sell the women into sex slavery.”
AMERICAN PUBLIC GETTING RELIGION? - New levels of Americans say that religion is gaining influence in society, and the majority of adults say that religion has a positive influence on American culture, a recent Pew Research Center report discovered. Here are the numbers.
ANALYSIS: CATHOLICISM AND IMMIGRATION - Catholic writer Francis Maier recently examined how Catholics can apply their beliefs to immigration issues. “In serving the needs and championing the rights of new immigrants, church leaders have often been seen as downplaying or ignoring the just concerns of their own people,” Maier wrote in part. “And most of their people are not reactionary nativists or right-wing bigots but ordinary men and women.
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — October 23, 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 activities of the Holy See, available to anyone with internet access.
St. John of Capistrano: Franciscan priest and missionary who achieved military victory - Oct 23, 2025 - By CNA Staff - On Oct. 23, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of St. John of Capistrano, St. John of Capistrano, a Franciscan priest whose life included a political career, extensive missionary journeys, efforts to reunite separated Eastern Christians with Rome, and a historically important turn at military leadership.
Military archdiocese: Army’s response to canceled religious contracts ‘inadequate’ - Oct 22, 2025 - By Tyler Arnold - Elizabeth A. Tomlin, a lawyer for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, told CNA that the Army’s response is “wholly inadequate” and “demonstrates the spokesperson’s total lack of understanding of the issue.”
Bishop Bullock, local Jesuits criticize Hegseth’s honor of Wounded Knee soldiers - Oct 22, 2025 - By Tyler Arnold - Rapid City Bishop Scott Bullock and South Dakota Jesuit leaders criticized U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for honoring U.S. soldiers who carried out an 1890 assault on a Lakota reservation near the Wounded Knee Creek.
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - October 23, 2025
We publish inspiring daily stories, fun, shareable, faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.
NBA Coach Joe Mazzulla Reveals He Wants to Become a Catholic Deacon - “I just became eligible to be a deacon, which I’ve always wanted to do.”
10 Beautiful Life Lessons from Saint John Paul II: ‘It is Jesus You Seek When You Dream of Happiness’ - “he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you...”
Catholic Influencers Call for Worldwide Fast on Oct. 22 Amid Increased Tragedies - The global fast will take place on October 22, 2025, the feast day of Pope John Paul II, in honor of the saint’s legacy of defending life and urging spiritual renewal.
Nutshell reflections for 10/23/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - October 23, 2025
Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Church Life Journal
The massive enviromental problem in Africa
By Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor, October 20, 2023
As Monique Walker puts it, the tragic dilemma is that “although Africa is the continent that contributes to the earth’s environmental change, it is the most vulnerable to its impact.”[1] This impact is felt across health, the economy, society, politics, national security, and stability. This is to say that for Africa, discussions about climate change and strategies to combat it have existential dimensions that can sometimes be far more serious than is the case anywhere else. Africa’s urban poor are more likely to live in high-risk zones and are less able to move in the event of a natural disaster. In a 2016/2017 global report on the environment, several cities in Nigeria were voted the most polluted cities on earth. Human activity brought us this far in this situation, and human action must help us reverse the course. We have no option. These truths are as true in Africa as everywhere else.
Imaginative Conservative
Public screens and background music mandate a climate
By Marc Barnes, October 13, 2025
My wife and I have a wonderful marriage, with only one major difficulty: myself. And one of the ways I prove difficult is a constitutional inability to ignore any screen that happens to be shining in my direction. God has made me this way to humiliate me. I can’t be all that great: I can be distracted from my vocation by a muted rerun of Gilmore Girls. But I hope I can help others with my weakness. What little I have learned from being so pathetic is this: public screens and background music are a form of theft. They are a way of enclosing common spaces. They ordain a mood and mandate a climate, which would not be so bad if making a climate were not a particular (and wonderful) power of each and every man. We have a power over the air that surrounds us. We create, out of postures, glances, sighs, and words, a climate in which some activities flourish and others wither.
Crisis Magazine
The cross of poverty isn’t a path to heaven
By John Mac Ghlionn, October 23, 2025
We weren’t poor, but we were acquainted with struggle. So when Pope Leo recently declared that “love for the poor—whatever the form their poverty may take—is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God,” I felt something between irritation and déjà vu. It’s not that I disagree with loving the poor. It’s that many Catholics seem to have mistaken poverty for holiness itself. It’s an old Catholic habit, this romanticizing of suffering. Somewhere between St. Francis stripping naked in the square and the endless talk of “blessed are the meek,” the Church began confusing destitution with decency, as if the less you own, the more your soul shines. It’s a comforting fantasy, especially for those sitting in marble halls. But equating poverty with purity is as false as equating wealth with wickedness. The poor can be cruel, the rich can be kind, and goodness cannot be measured by one’s bank balance or battered boots.
Wild at Heart
God is captivating beauty
By John Eldredge, October 23, 2025
Is there any doubt that the God John beheld (Rev. 4:3, 6) was beautiful beyond description? But of course. God must be even more glorious than this glorious creation, for it “foretells” or “displays” the glory that is God’s. John said God was as radiant as gemstones, richly adorned in golds and reds and greens and blues, shimmering as crystal. Why, these are the very things that Cinderella is given — the very things women still prefer to adorn themselves with when they want to look their finest. Hmmm. And isn’t that just what a woman longs to hear? “You are radiant this evening. You are absolutely breathtaking.” Saints from ages past would speak of the highest pleasures of heaven as simply beholding the beauty of God, the “beatific vision.” The reason a woman wants a beauty to unveil, the reason she asks, Do you delight in me? is simply that God does as well. God is captivating beauty.
Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay
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