Catholic Nutshell News: Thursday 5/14/26
Topics include: The Bible and young people; USDA secretary sued over Christian messaging; French Senate again rejects assisted suicide; & The Catholic roots of America
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Today's sources include Aleteia, EWTN News, 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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Zenit
The Bible and young people: Striking findings
By Jorge Enrique Mújica, May 13, 2026
Beneath the surface of declining religious institutional affiliation, a surprising spiritual curiosity is emerging among young people — especially around the Bible itself. The newly released Patmos Youth Report, based on data gathered through the Patmos World Survey on attitudes toward the Bible, paints a picture that challenges many assumptions about faith in the twenty-first century. The newly released Patmos Youth Report, based on data gathered through the Patmos World Survey on attitudes toward the Bible, reveals not merely residual religious sentiment but a renewed engagement with Scripture among younger Christians — and even among many who do not identify as religious at all. One of the report’s most striking conclusions is that young Christians, especially those between 18 and 24 years old, often engage with the Bible more actively than older generations. Globally, half of young adult Christians report using the Bible at least weekly.
Related: Social media, situationships, and a ‘ring by spring’ — the complex dating world for Gen Z Catholics, The Pillar, by Jack Figge, May 13, 2026
Religion News Service
Federal employees sue USDA secretary over Christian messaging
By Adelle M. Banks, May 13, 2026
Federal employees are suing Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguing that her use of Christian messaging in the workplace is “unconstitutionally coercive.” The lawsuit, filed Wednesday (May 13) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said Rollins “has adopted a practice of sending increasingly proselytizing communications to the entire USDA workforce, promoting her own preferred brand of Christian beliefs and theology to the captive audience of employees that report to her.” The complaint was filed by the advocacy groups Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Democracy Forward Foundation and the California-based firm Bryan Schwartz Law on behalf of the National Federation of Federal Employees and seven named plaintiffs of a variety of faiths and no faith — including Jewish, Buddhist, pagan, and atheist employees of the USDA, according to the lawsuit.
Crux
French Senate rejects assisted suicide bill again
By Fionn Shiner, May 14, 2026
On Tuesday, the French Senate rejected the assisted suicide bill under debate for the second time, 151 to 118, with the leader of the conservative party, Bruno Retailleau, calling for a referendum on the issue to prevent its approval without the Senate’s approval. The National Assembly – France’s lower house – had already approved the bill twice, but the Senate, made up of more conservative and centrist politicians, rejected a key provision of the bill, which sought to establish a right to assisted suicide. The third reading in the National Assembly could take place in June, while the third reading in the Senate and the final reading in the National Assembly could take place in July. The government, which backs the bill, is hoping it will pass before the summer recess in mid-July. Retailleau opposed the bill's permissive wording. “If tomorrow the text were voted on…on the threshold of death, everyone will have to ask themselves if they are not a dead weight, if they are not a burden for society or for their loved ones.”
The Pillar
Canon law and the Dubuque model
By Ed. Condon, April 21, 2026
The Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, announced this month the clustering of its 160 parishes into 24 “pastorates,” each of which will share a common pastor assisted by one or more assistant priests. The move, announced April 11, is in line with other parish clustering programs undertaken by U.S. dioceses to adequately cover existing territorial parish footprints amid declining Mass attendance and priest shortages. The plan for Dubuque, however, has prompted some objections, especially since it will result in Sunday Mass being discontinued in more than half of the archdiocese’s parish churches. The plan has raised concerns among local Catholics, anticipated by Archbishop Thomas Zinkula, who warned in his message to Catholics that “there are voices and concerns that risk dividing us, particularly around Sunday Mass in some communities.” The Archdiocese of Dubuque’s plan to reorder its 160 parishes into 24 “pastorates” — while maintaining each parish as a separate canonical entity — is a bold proposal.
Aleteia
Skull of St. Zdislava stolen from Czech basilica
By Daniel Esparza, May 14, 2025
Police in the Czech Republic are searching for a man who stole the skull of St. Zdislava from the Basilica of St. Lawrence and St. Zdislava in Jablonné v Podještědí. The theft took place on Tuesday evening shortly before Mass. Dominican Fr. Štěpán Filip, parish vicar at the basilica, was the only eyewitness. In an interview published by the Czech outlet Seznam Zprávy, he said he heard “two blows” before seeing a person run away with the relic. According to Fr. Filip, the thief broke two layers of glass protecting the reliquary, probably with a small emergency-style hammer. The basilica was open at the time, and the alarm connected to that part of the church had been turned off because Mass was about to begin.
Christian Science Monitor
Why does extreme racial inequality persist in Brazil?
By Constance Malleret, May 13, 2026
Brazil’s constitution recognizes racism as a crime without bail or statute of limitations, making it one of the toughest racism laws in the world. And Brazil gained global attention earlier this year when these laws were used to indict an Argentine tourist who made monkey gestures and used racial slurs toward waiters in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s tough anti-racism laws reflect the scars it bears as a majority-Black country built on slavery. Yet the strong laws also belie persistent and deep-rooted racism, visible in the under-representation of Black Brazilians in positions of power, and their over-representation in poverty and violence statistics. Brazil received the highest number of trafficked Africans between the 16th and 19th centuries – an estimated 5.5 million, compared to half a million in the United States. And it was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery, 138 years ago today, May 13, 1888.
National Catholic Register
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: The Catholic roots of America
By Marco Rubio, April 9, 2026
In 1895, Pope Leo XIII penned an encyclical to the Catholic Church in the United States. “All intelligent men are agreed,” he wrote, “that America seems destined for greater things. Now it is our wish that the Catholic Church should not only share in, but help to bring about this perspective greatness.” But as the Holy Father noted, the Church had already been here from the start. Four centuries prior, one Catholic explorer ventured out into the great unknown and returned home with the story, as he wrote in one letter, of a “land more richly endowed than I know or I’m able to say.” Few moments in history have carried more consequence. Christopher Columbus renewed the West’s confidence in itself and launched that great age of discovery, exploration, and expansion from which America was born. Some have claimed that the Catholic faith is a foreign import to our country. Only one of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence was Catholic, but the Catholic faith has always been part of the American story. The first Christian service on our soil was a Catholic Mass.
EWTN News
Legislation for burial or cremation after pregnancy loss
By Tessa Gervasini, May 13, 2026
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said he is introducing legislation to ensure hospitals and freestanding birth centers provide clear information about the rights that grieving parents have regarding the cremation or burial of their miscarried or stillborn child. Marshall, who practiced as an obstetrician-gynecologist for more than 25 years, said he is naming the bill the “Bereaved Parents Rights Act.” Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Florida, who personally suffered an ectopic pregnancy, said she is sponsoring a companion version in the House. Laws on the handling of fetal remains following a miscarriage or stillbirth vary state to state, and many states have no clear legal requirements regarding the disposition of remains, leaving hospitals to rely on internal policies and procedures, according to Marshall. Students for Life Action backs the measure and is leading lobbying on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to back it, said Kristan Hawkins, the organization’s president.
OSV, EWTN News, & ChurchPOP for 5/14/26
OSV News
OSV’s seasoned reporters - May 14, 2026
OSV News — information service and evangelization partner that enables dioceses to connect and boost engagement with the faithful by sharing timely, trustworthy, and accurate content about what is happening in the Church and the world.
New Georgia law praised for criminalizing clergy sex misconduct in pastoral care - May 13, 2026 - The law is drawing praise from Catholic advocates, with one expert calling the legislation both “simply long overdue” and a potential model for other states to follow.
USCCB campaign bolsters Catholic media as ‘critical need’ for its evangelizing mission intensifies - May 13, 2026 - Sharing the Gospel means “we must be present in digital spaces,” and an annual collection by the nation’s Catholic bishops aims to bolster those efforts, said the bishop spearheading the initiative.
New Mexico diocese fights Trump push to seize pilgrimage site for border wall - May 13, 2026 - The Diocese of Las Cruces filed a May 8 response to a federal government lawsuit claiming eminent domain — or government power to seize private property for public use — over 14 acres that include Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — May 14, 2026
EWTN provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, and is available to anyone with internet access.
How Christ’s ascension takes the training wheels off our faith - By Father Roger Landry - Christ’s ascension is meant to help us to grow to full stature in Christ as we respond to his confidence in making us his missionaries, together with the Holy Spirit, to renew the face of the earth.
Inquest finds priest and 4 Catholic civilians shot by British troops ‘unlawfully killed’ - By Patrick J. Passmore - an inquest that found five Belfast Catholics, including a priest, were unlawfully killed by British soldiers in 1972, Bishop Alan McGuckian, SJ, of Down and Connor told Corpus Christi parishioners that the verdict “restores dignity to the deceased.”
Head of French charity warns of existential challenges facing Eastern Christians - By Sanad Sahelia - L’Œuvre d’Orient marks 170 years with an appeal for solidarity with Christians in the East and highlights three major challenges threatening the future of Christians there.
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - May 14, 2026
“We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.”
When Pope Leo Took His Altar Servers to a Rock Concert as a Young Priest in Peru - The boys didn’t just see a priest that day; they saw someone willing to step into their world. And they say Pope Leo had fun!
St. John Paul II Was Shot on Our Lady of Fatima’s Feast—His Blood-Stained Shirt Is Now a Miraculous Relic - It’s the “surviving relic with the most direct contact with Saint John Paul II.”
What Jesus Revealed to Sister Lucia After Fatima: The Little-Known Request Most Catholics Miss - “In 1943, Our Lord appeared to Sister Lucia and told her that what he desired was the fulfillment of one’s duties in life...”
Nutshell reflections for 5/14/26:
USCCB Daily Reflection - VIDEO - May 14, 2026
Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle
Church Life Journal
Solidarity without enemies: Józef Tischner and human labor
By Rowan Williams, May 1, 2026
On 19 October 1980, a large congregation of Polish trade unionists gathered in the chapel of the Wawel Castle in Krakow to hear a sermon from Fr Jozef Tischner—one of Poland’s most prominent thinkers, a philosopher who had trained in Western Europe and also had a reputation as a charismatic pastor. The sermon, on “The spirit of solidarity,” was to become something of a canonical text for the moral and political thinking of the activist and reformists who made up the Solidarnosc movement that had been founded in the same year, and Tischner’s intellectual and moral legacy has continued to play a significant role in Poland and elsewhere. The Polish workers’ movement of the 1980s did a great deal to give fresh currency and fresh immediacy to the language of solidarity in the Western consciousness.
Catholic Culture
The Vatican’s ‘lavender mafia’ strikes again
By Phil Lawler, May 12, 2026
Many faithful Catholics were shocked last week when a Vatican document quoted a man who proclaimed his homosexual inclination a “gift from God.” They were shocked again when they learned that the pop song “Dancing Queen”—widely recognized as a “gay anthem”—had been played by a visiting band at the Pope’s weekly public audience. Was the Vatican showing signs of some significant policy shift? Again, not really. What was happening in Rome last week was the same thing that has been happening for years: Some Vatican officials quietly signaled their support for the homosexual agenda, and no one stopped them. Someone—probably a minor official in the Vatican bureaucracy—authorized the band to play that tune last Wednesday. Was it a deliberate nod to the homosexual lobby? Maybe; maybe not. Many of the people who enjoy the song are unaware that it has been adopted by gay-rights advocates; others are aware of its “anthem” status, but loath to make a fuss about what is, after all, just a pop song.
Caeli
Mary has mothered me
By Maria Mellis, May 13, 2026
While Mary’s journey to Bethlehem was surely uncomfortable and she delivered in a stable, tradition teaches that Mary did not endure the physical pains of labor but was preserved from them through Jesus’ miraculous birth — something that is hardly consoling to most women. (People are often surprised to discover this teaching, but it makes perfect sense when we understand that labor pains were a result of the Fall — see Genesis 3:16. Of course, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception means that Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin, and thus it makes sense that she didn’t endure that effect of the Fall.) The details of my own motherhood seemed wildly different from Mary’s experience. Mary almost assuredly co-slept with her baby, but modern medicine instructs that my babies should lie flat on their backs on a separate surface. Mary absolutely never had to worry about her fertility or tracking her cycles, nor did she have to work through issues of intimacy with her husband, for she was ever-virgin.
Wild at Heart
The thief wants it all
By John Eldredge, May 7, 2026
Any movement toward freedom and life, any movement toward God or others, will be opposed. Marriage, friendship, beauty, rest—the thief wants it all. “So, it becomes the devil’s business to keep the Christian’s spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes. He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage... we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead” (A.W. Tozer). Sadly, many of these accusations will actually be spoken by Christians. The Enemy used David, who apparently wasn’t watching for it, to do his evil. He tried to use Peter too. Some foul spirit whispers, I’m such a stupid idiot, and we agree with it; then we spend months and years trying to sort through feelings of insignificance. We would end our agony if we treat it for the warfare it is, break the agreement we’ve made, and send the Enemy packing.
Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay
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