Catholic Nutshell News: Thursday 12/18/25
Topics include: Reforms coming to Chaplain Corps; Bishop Ronald Hicks replaces Dolan; The return of confession; & Vatican is reinvesting in Christian archaeology
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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
Reforms coming to U.S. military’s Chaplain Corps
By Amira Abuzeid, December 17, 2025
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that he has issued a directive aimed at reforming the military’s Chaplain Corps, beginning with the elimination of the U.S. Army’s current Spiritual Fitness Guide. In a video post, Hegseth described a “real problem” facing the nation’s military forces: “the weakening of our Chaplain corps” that has “been going on for far too long.” “In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists. Instead of ministers,” he said. “Faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care.” In what he described as an “ongoing war on warriors” in recent years, Hegseth said the role of chaplains “has been degraded.” He cited the current Army Spiritual Fitness Guide, which he says mentions God only once and has “zero” references to virtue, relying instead “on New Age notions.”
Crux
Bishop Ronald Hicks replaces Dolan as new archbishop of New York
By Nicole Winfield, AP, December 18, 2025
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday made his most important U.S. appointment to date, naming a fellow Chicagoan as the next archbishop of New York to lead one of the biggest U.S. archdioceses as it navigates relations with the Trump administration and its immigration crackdown. Bishop Ronald Hicks, the current bishop of Joliet, Illinois, replaces the retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a prominent conservative figure in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy. Hicks takes over after Dolan last week finalized a plan to establish a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who had sued the archdiocese. Dolan had submitted his resignation in February, as required when he turned 75. Leo and the U.S. hierarchy have already shown willingness to challenge the Trump administration on immigration and other issues, and Hicks is seen as very much a Leo-style bishop.
Related: 5 Things to Know about Bishop Ronald Hicks, CatholicVote, by Mary Rose, December 18, 2025
UCA News
Bombay court cancels forged probate to grab prime Church land
By UCA News reporter, December 18, 2025
The top court in the western Indian state of Maharashtra has cancelled a forged probate through which fraudsters illegally took possession of land worth an estimated 6 billion rupees (US$72 million) that had been willed to the Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay for charitable purposes. In a Dec. 11 order, made public on Dec. 16, the Bombay High Court cancelled the fraudulent probate prepared in 2017 to usurp Marina Manor, a bungalow spanning about 45 cents in the upscale Bandra area of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital. A probate is a legal process through which a deceased person’s will is validated, and their assets, including land, are formally transferred to the rightful beneficiaries. The single-judge bench of Justice Sharmila U. Deshmukh ruled that the probate was forged and set it aside.
Zenit
The return of confession: a sacrament regaining its place
By ZENIT Staff, December 12, 2025
In a country long regarded as a laboratory of Western secularization, an unexpected signal is emerging from within French Catholic life: the sacrament of confession, or reconciliation, appears to be regaining ground, not as a mass practice, but as a defining marker of an increasingly committed minority. These figures challenge a narrative that has dominated discussions of Western Catholicism for decades: that confession is in irreversible decline. Historians have documented a steep fall in the practice beginning in the mid-1960s in France and the 1970s in the United States. The new data do not erase that history, but they complicate it, suggesting not extinction but transformation. Sociologists argue that this apparent paradox—decline paired with intensity—is central to understanding contemporary French Catholicism. Yann Raison du Cleuziou, who analyzed the survey’s findings, describes a Church that is shrinking numerically while consolidating around a highly engaged core.
CatholicVote
North Carolina bishop issues new Eucharistic norms
By Annie Ferguson, December 17, 2025
On Dec. 17, Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, formally outlined updated liturgical norms for the reception of Holy Communion at Catholic churches in the western half of the state. The norms — a version of which was previously leaked in draft form — sparked significant debate and controversy in May shortly after Bishop Martin announced his plans to end parish-based offerings of the Traditional Latin Mass in the diocese, developments CatholicVote has followed closely. The letter affirms that in the United States, the normative posture for receiving Holy Communion is standing, accompanied by a reverent bow. However, individuals may choose to kneel, and they may not be denied Communion for doing so — a protection codified in Redemptionis Sacramentum (n. 91). Bishop Martin warns against pastors or catechists promoting kneeling as “better,” however. He also encouraged the restoration of the reception of the Precious Blood as a “fuller sign” of the Eucharist.
Related: Charlotte bishop bans altar rails, kneelers for communion, The Pillar, by Michelle La Rosa, Dec 17, 2025
National Catholic Register
Catholic bishops speak out on New York Assisted Suicide Bill
By Nation, December 17, 2025
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign an assisted suicide bill that Catholic leaders have ardently opposed, making New York the 13th state to allow the practice. Hochul, who called it an “incredibly difficult decision,” said she will sign the bill after lawmakers add some “guardrails.” The bill allows doctors to give terminally ill patients drugs to end their lives. Hochul’s additions to the law include requiring a waiting period, a recorded oral request for death, and a health evaluation. The law will go into effect six months after signing. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and other New York bishops have been outspoken against the bill, issuing several statements opposing it. Earlier this week, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a similar assisted suicide bill. Other jurisdictions that permit assisted suicide include: California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
The Pillar
Poland sees rise in Sunday Mass attendance
By Luke Coppen, December 17, 2025
Poland’s Institute for Catholic Church Statistics announced Dec. 16 that the proportion of Sunday Massgoers increased to 29.6% in 2024, a 0.57% gain compared to the previous year. But the institute’s director, Marcin Jewdokimow, noted that the 2024 percentages remained well below the figures before the pandemic, when the dominicantes rate was 36.9% and the communicantes rate was 16.7%. The new figure is included in the 2024 edition of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae in Polonia, a yearly numerical overview of Poland’s Catholic Church published by the institute. Each year since 1980, the institute has reported the percentage of dominicantes (Sunday Massgoers) and communicantes (recipients of Holy Communion) from the number of baptized Catholics who can fulfill the obligation to attend weekly Mass on Sunday. The proportion of communicantes also rose in 2024, to 14.6%, an increase of 0.64% from the previous year.
Aleteia
The Vatican is reinvesting in Christian archaeology
By Daniel Esparza, December 18, 2025
In an apostolic letter dated December 11, 2025, Pope Leo XIV has placed Christian archaeology at the core of the Church’s intellectual and pastoral mission. Issued for the centenary of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, the text is less a commemorative document than a programmatic statement: Memory, the Pope argues, is essential for hope — especially in a fractured world marked by war, technological acceleration, and cultural amnesia. The timing matters. As Pope Leo notes, the centenary coincides with another Jubilee year, once again unfolding amid global conflict. Archaeology, he suggests, offers the Church a way to speak credibly to a wounded humanity by grounding faith in history rather than abstraction. “Christianity was not born from an idea,” the Pope writes, but through “a womb, a body, and a tomb.”
CatholicVote, CNA & ChurchPOP for 12/18/25
CatholicVote - The Loop
Read daily news and political impact stories at the “LOOP”
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CARDINAL DOLAN: A TITANIC CAREER IN THE CHURCH - With the retirement of Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan as archbishop of New York, the Catholic Church in the United States closes the chapter of one of the most consequential episcopal careers of the last 25 years. Few American prelates have shaped the Church’s internal governance, public witness, and political engagement as visibly as Cardinal Dolan has since the turn of the millennium.
CARDINAL CUPICH LEADS CHARGE AGAINST ABORTION MANDATE - “The Church’s pro-life mission is under attack in Illinois. The State is pushing an aggressive mandate seeking to punish healthcare workers who refuse to aid and abet abortion,” Cardinal Blase Cupich wrote in a strongly worded statement this week. “The Catholic bishops of Illinois are standing side by side with these conscientious objectors to stop this inhumane mandate.”
WHY PEOPLE KEEP THEIR CHILDHOOD RELIGION - Following a survey that found about one in 10 adults globally leave their childhood religion, the Pew Research Center questioned why most people stay with the beliefs they were raised with. Here’s what they found out.
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — December 18, 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.
Countdown to the closing of the jubilee: When, who will close the Holy Doors in Rome? - Dec 18, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - Inaugurated by Pope Francis on Dec. 24, 2024, on Jan. 6, 2026, Pope Leo XIV will be the one to close the enormous bronze door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, through which nearly 30 million pilgrims have passed during the last 12 months seeking a plenary indulgence.
Dublin Archdiocese dispels doubts, concerns about its financial position - Dec 18, 2025 - By Patrick J. Passmore - The archdiocese explained to CNA the context of its 2024 financial statements, which were the subject of a recent Irish Times report that has raised concern among the faithful in Ireland’s largest diocese, predicting it will go broke in 2041.
Catholic leaders back pregnancy centers, doctors in federal suit over abortion referrals - Dec 17, 2025 - By Daniel Payne - The lawsuit challenges a 2016 Illinois rule that requires health care providers who refuse to perform abortions to refer women to abortion providers even if they object to the procedure on religious grounds.
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - December 18, 2025
“We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.”
How ‘Home Alone’ Points Catholics to Confession: The Sacramental Message Hidden in the Classic Film - “Home Alone” subtly mirrors a central truth of the Catholic faith: our need for healing, mercy, and reunion through the Sacrament of Confession.
Feeling Rushed this Advent? Try This Priest’s 3 Simple Ways to Prepare Your Heart for Christmas - Amid the busyness that often defines December, this priest provides three Advent customs families can embrace as they prepare for the coming of Jesus.
5,000 Drones Create Image of the Holy Family in Stunning Sky Display - Using 5,000 drones, the company Sky Elements lit up the night sky over Mansfield, Texas, recreating the image of the Holy Family.
Nutshell reflections for 12/18/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection - AUDIO - December 18, 2025
Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
Church Life Journal
Pope Leo XIV: His early life, career, and the Catholic reform
By Christopher Altieri, November 18, 2023
The story of Robert Francis Prevost is at once commonplace and fascinating, even uncanny, precisely because it is so very much the story of a mid-century boy of the midwestern U.S., born into a middle-class family that lived in the middle of a postwar suburban development. The times of the Prevost family in Robert’s generation were heady, indeed — explosive economic growth, and also social unrest as intolerable racial divisions began finally to sear the national conscience after centuries of lacerating the nation in body and soul. Around the world, Europe was experiencing the Cold War—think of the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968—while people and political societies throughout the global south were agitating for independence from their erstwhile European colonial rulers. Catholic culture in the United States was approaching its zenith, driven in part by the baby boom and in part by the prosperity the second, third, and fourth generations of Catholic immigrants were achieving.
Catholic Culture
What sort of bullies pick on the Little Sisters of the Poor?
By Phil Lawler, December 17, 2025
The Little Sisters of the Poor have appealed a federal court’s decision that would require them to offer coverage for contraception and abortion in health-care plans for their employees. “Didn’t the Little Sisters of the Poor already win that case? Didn’t the Supreme Court rule in their favor?” Yes, the Supreme Court did find in favor of the Little Sisters— twice, in fact. Yet here they are, facing yet another legal challenge. The legal ground for these cases has varied, but the same fundamental issue is at stake: Can the government require a religious employer to violate its moral principles? The opponents of religious freedom do not give up easily. They brought a new case, challenging the exemptions Uncle Sam had provided for religious employers. That case, too, wound its way—slowly, expensively—to the Supreme Court, where once again the Little Sisters were vindicated. Still, the battle is not over. In January, the attorneys general of thirteen states (plus the District of Columbia) filed yet another lawsuit challenging the exemptions.
Crisis Magazine
Trump’s response to Rob Reiner’s passing missed the mark
By Marcus Peter, December 18, 2025
The latest social media flare involving Donald Trump and filmmaker Rob Reiner arrived with a predictability that modern political culture has trained everyone to expect. Upon the news of Reiner’s passing from a suspected homicide, a sharp post appeared from Trump. The tone was dismissive, and the timing coincided with a moment of public mourning connected to Reiner’s family. Immediately, the familiar cycle followed: outrage accelerated, defenses hardened, and the public square once again resembled a shouting match staged not for the good of the republic. Therefore, while many voices rushed either to excuse or to amplify the insult, a more serious question quietly pressed itself upon Christians and social conservatives who wish to shape culture rather than merely react to it. Political life, properly understood, exists to move society toward the good and the true through prudential judgment and moral clarity. This particular episode carried an added moral weight because it unfolded amid mourning.
Wild at Heart
And this is the secret: ‘Christ lives in you’
By John Eldredge, December 18, 2025
How do we explain the on-again, off-again experience most people have in their search for God? Sometimes God seems so near, but not always. It’s hard on the heart and soul. I do say seems to, for God never really vanishes. He’s always, always near: Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20 NLT). Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28 NIV). God is by your side right this very moment, as you read this sentence. Despite this reality, we don’t always feel him near. Some people rarely experience his presence. It can be so disheartening. I don’t think we understand what’s happening. We believe God either presents himself to us or doesn’t, according to some rules of the spiritual game we aren’t entirely sure of, waiting for God’s next appearance, like people who missed the 5:15 train and are milling about till another one arrives. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you (Colossians 1:27).
Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay
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