Catholic Nutshell News: Thursday 10/30/25
Topics include: Catholics support Trump’s immigration efforts; Remaining clandestine Chinese bishop dies; The nation’s changing presbyterate; & Church is ‘dying’ in Syria
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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
U.S. Catholics support Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts
By Madalaine Elhabbal, October 29, 2025
Catholics who do not gather for anti-enforcement rallies organized by high-ranking Catholic prelates are a “silent majority,” according to conservative Catholic immigration experts. As the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts continue to intensify, Catholics across the country have committed to observing days of prayer and public witness for migrants through efforts such as the One Church One Family initiative spearheaded by the Western Jesuits. “I think that there are a large number of American Catholics who are supportive of what the president is doing with respect to immigration,” Center for Immigration Studies Resident Fellow in Law and Policy Andrew Arthur told CNA. “Especially younger Catholics are more conservative, and therefore, more in line with law enforcement, generally, and immigration enforcement, in particular. But there’s no reason to form a group to support what the administration is actually doing.”
UCA News
Chinese ‘underground,’ still clandestine, bishop dies at 91
By UCA News reporter, October 30, 2025
Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, a prominent leader of China’s underground Catholic Church who spent years in prison for his loyalty to the Vatican, died on Oct. 29 of age-related illness. He was 91. Born in Wuqiu Village, Jinzhou, Bishop Jia was first imprisoned in 1963 and spent around 15 years behind bars for refusing to renounce his allegiance to the Pope. He was ordained a priest in 1980 and clandestinely consecrated as bishop of Zhengding a year later by Bishop Joseph Fan Xueyan of Baoding. Throughout his ministry, Bishop Jia resisted pressure to join the state-managed Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), established by the government to oversee Catholics independent of the Vatican. He was detained again in 2008, 2009, and most recently in August 2020, days before the Feast of the Assumption. The diocese remains part of the “underground Church,” which continues to operate without official recognition despite the 2018 Vatican agreement.
National Catholic Reporter
An important window into the nation’s changing presbyterate
By Michael Sean Winters, October 24, 2025
Younger priests grew up in a time that was in many ways a reaction to the social activism of the 1960s and ‘70s. The promise of racial equality receded, an all-volunteer army fought new wars, and the battle over Roe placed Catholics on the right, rather than the left, of a searing political and cultural debate. Most of all, conservative families still encourage and produce vocations to the priesthood. The Catholic left has failed by comparison to produce vocations, and some live in a fantasy world that thinks fewer vocations would lead to a greater push for ordaining women. According to the 2025 National Study of Catholic Priests, 88% of priests ordained after 2000 identified eucharistic devotion as a pastoral priority, compared to 66% of clergy ordained between 1980 and 1999, and 57% of those ordained before 1980.
CatholicVote
Israel resumes ceasefire
By Elise Winland, October 29, 2025
Israel said it had resumed its ceasefire in Gaza on Oct. 29 after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a wave of overnight airstrikes that left several dead amid mounting criticism from the international community. The IDF said, alongside the Israel Security Agency, it “struck 30 terrorists holding command positions within the terrorist organizations operating in Gaza,” and said Israel “will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.” The military also released a list of Hamas militants it killed. Reuters reported that the strikes killed 104 people — including 46 children and 20 women — according to Gaza’s health authorities. Another 253 people were reportedly injured. Later that day, Israel announced it had carried out another strike in northern Gaza, claiming it targeted a weapons cache “intended for an imminent attack on IDF soldiers and the State of Israel.” According to Reuters, local medics said two people were killed in that strike.
Crux
Archbishop says Church is ‘dying’ in Syria
By Crux Staff, October 30, 2025
According to Catholic Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, Hama, and al-Nabek, the Church is dying in Syria. Christians in Syria are living in anxiety as the nation suffers after recent political changes happened over years of civil war. Sunni Islamists took over the country after they toppled President Bashar al-Assad last year. The new regime has promised to treat religious minorities well, but there have been many attacks on non-Sunnis, many of whom have been accused of supporting the Assad regime. According to ACN estimates, 2.1 million Christians lived in Syria in 2011. In 2024, the number decreased to 540,000. “None of the efforts by the Universal Church or the local Church managed to stem the tide of the exodus, because the causes are not related to the Church, but rather to the country’s disastrous political and economic situation,” the archbishop said.
National Catholic Register
The war on pro-life pregnancy centers
By Alyssa Murphy, October 29, 2025
In 2022, more than 100 pro-life pregnancy centers were attacked. Within hours of the release of the Dobbs decision on June 24, 2022, a pro-life pregnancy-resource center (PRC) in Salt Lake City was vandalized. A sign was taped to the front of the door that read: “If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you.” A documentary by Cindy Morales, Fake Clinics?, will air on EWTN this Friday. “The attack on PRCs for being ‘fake clinics’ is not new, but after the Dobbs decision, they really ramped up,” said Morales. “State and federal legislators introduced bills claiming PRCs engaged in false advertising and tried to force them to tell their clients where to get an abortion.” The documentary not only exposes the smear attacks, vandalism, and dangerous legislation being deployed by pro-abortion states across the country, but it also weaves in insights from the real people running these centers and the women they serve.
The Pillar
The 1755 earthquake changed Europe’s theological narrative
By Filipe d’Avillez, October 29, 2025
On October 31, 1755, Lisbon was a crown jewel of the Christian world. For more than two centuries, the Portuguese had been carving out an overseas empire that spanned from Brazil to India. Lisbon was a port of entry for fabulous wealth into Europe and had become beautiful and prosperous. With the Reformation well established in large parts of Europe, Lisbon was also a key ally of Rome. “Religion was everywhere. There were processions every week,” said Cardinal Manuel Clemente, Patriarch emeritus of Lisbon and Church historian. On November 1, 1755, disaster struck. The 1755 quake is regarded as one of the most devastating in modern history, estimated at a magnitude of 8.5 or 9. 60,000 people were killed in Lisbon, and 200,000 killed across the Iberian Peninsula and in North Africa. It also shook the very foundations of the era’s theological and philosophical thought, in a way that would affect the course of European history.
Aleteia
Details about Satan & demons you may not know
By Philip Kosloski, October 24, 2025
Scripture has much to tell us about Satan and his minions, and over the centuries, the Church has grown in its understanding of these malevolent spiritual beings. The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms, “The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God” (CCC 391). He is traditionally named Lucifer, or “light bearer,” when he was a bright angel of light (cf. Isaiah 14:12-15). Fallen angels (as well as good angels) do not have access to the future unless God reveals it to them. As Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark, “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). Most of the time, demons perform visual tricks by negatively influencing our minds with illusions. All angels are pure spirits, meaning they do not possess a physical body; however, at times, they can appear as humans or other creatures. Satan can not cast/force people into Hell. We choose to go there out of our own rejection of God.
CatholicVote, CNA & ChurchPOP for 10/30/25
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.”
BIDEN ADMIN FBI TARGETED HUNDREDS OF REPUBLICANS - The Biden administration’s FBI targeted hundreds of Republican figures and organizations, according to 197 subpoenas made public by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
EVEN PRO-ABORTION ACTIVISTS KNOW MIFEPRISTONE NEEDS REGULATION - Even abortion supporters now say Mifepristone — the drug responsible for more than half of U.S. abortions — lacks proper safety oversight, according to an Oct. 28 Federalist report.
CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT APPS UNITE FOR BIBLE MONTH - Three leading Christian apps — two Protestant and one Catholic — are working together to challenge people to spend time with Scripture each day during November, which is Global Bible Month.
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — October 30, 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.
Vatican to weigh in on Mary’s role in salvation with doctrine document on Nov. 4 - Oct 30, 2025 - By Hannah Brockhaus - The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will release a document on Nov. 4 about titles of Mary that refer to her “cooperation in the work of salvation.”
Texas private school bans social media, sees students thrive with parent support - Oct 30, 2025 - By Amira Abuzeid - Faustina Academy, a K–12 private, independent Catholic school in Irving, Texas, asked parents to formally commit to the school’s social media ban policy, and they did.
Archbishop Gänswein echoes Pope Benedict XVI’s warning on ‘dictatorship of relativism’ - Oct 29, 2025 - By Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves - Archbishop Georg Gänswein has reminded Christians of the dangers of relativism, echoing Pope Benedict XVI’s famous warning two decades earlier.
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - October 30, 2025
We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.
‘Triumph Over Evil’: New Catholic Film Unmasks Exorcists’ Powerful Work Against Satanic Forces - The new film, “Triumph Over Evil: Battle of the Exorcists,” will hit theaters for one day only, today, October 30, 2025. Tickets available through Fathom Entertainment.
‘The Weapon for These Times’: 13 Saint Quotes on the Supernatural Power of the Rosary - “Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” — Pope Pius IX
‘His Heart Will Conquer the Devil’: How Jesus Appointed Saint Jude as ‘Patron of the Impossible’ - “...the purity of his heart will undoubtedly conquer the devil.”
Nutshell reflections for 10/30/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - October 30, 2025
Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Church Life Journal
Bob the Pope: The guy from my German existentialism class
By Tim Kelleher, October 30, 2023
I remember joking with others from that time about the technical possibility, if enormous improbability, of Robert Prevost emerging from the conclave dressed in white. We were just tickled he had any chance at all. We both went to the school in the Augustinian pre-novitiate program. The thrill has hardly faded. Just recounting the experience raises goosebumps. This election has refreshed the awareness that, if he can do it, I can do it. Not become pope, of course, but rather, what any pope should, and every Christian can, become—someone moved by awe, gratitude, and love, to walk with Jesus; to be his eyes and hands in this world. As I look eagerly to a new chapter in my own ordained ministry, being just slightly younger than Leo, it has been a boon to hear so many commentators refer to him as “young.”
Imaginative Conservative
Barnabas Collins, the unlikely moral conscience of the sixties
By Adam Fuller, October 29, 2025
I watched all 1,225 episodes of Dark Shadows, the campy gothic soap opera that appeared every weekday on ABC television from 1966 to 1971. I am fascinated by television history. Dark Shadows, despite being a series about vampires, witches, werewolves, and a fictional haunted house called Collinwood, revealed the true dark shadows in American life hovering over the big manor of Collinwood. When framed within the backdrop of the countercultural milieu of the 1960s, the show exhibits a certain conservatism, revealing a commentary that is more about the real world than the fantasy world portrayed on the TV screen. Jonathan Frid played the vampire Barnabas Collins, the central character on Dark Shadows. Kirk was the “reluctant vampire” who eschewed his own evil nature and fought against it to live his life as a moral being. He does not want to be a vampire at all. He badly longs to either return to being a living, moral man or move on finally to a restful death.
Crisis Magazine
Properly understood, freedom orients us to Heaven
By Veronica Burchard, October 30, 2025
In South Florida, in the wake of the Mariel Boatlift, there was strong anti-Cuban sentiment. My teacher, in all charity and goodwill, admonished a student who teased a Cuban child, and explained that immigrants had come to the United States seeking a better life. That afternoon, when I relayed this story to my mother, she became indignant. Her family had not come seeking a better life, she said. Then she nailed it: “We came seeking freedom.” That distinction always stuck with me, well before I knew why. In the late 1950s, my teenage parents left Cuba with their families before Castro locked the island down. Years later, they met in college in Florida, married, and had me. Some believe the blessings of liberty—a phrase which comes from the Preamble to our Constitution—are represented by the Statue of Liberty. Should exiles “yearning to breathe free” be evaluated differently as possible new American citizens from those seeking “a better life?” For freedom Christ has set us free. Properly understood, freedom orients us to Heaven.
Wild at Heart
We know we are sojourners
By John Eldredge, October 30, 2025
I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name (Isa. 45:2-3). God’s imagery of going before us lets us know that he desires us to go on a journey. This is not so frightening. Most of us are aware that the Christian life requires a pilgrimage of some sort. We know we are sojourners. What we have sometimes not given much thought to is the kind of journey we are to take. Not realizing it is a journey of the heart that is called for, we make a crucial mistake. We come to a place in our spiritual life where we hear God calling us. We know he is calling us to give up the less-wild lovers that have become so much a part of our identity, embrace our nakedness, and trust in his goodness.
Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay
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