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Zeale News
Scrutiny on Catholic faith of lone juror holdout in Clancy case
By Elise Winland, September 16, 2026
The lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial belongs to a devout Haitian Catholic family and based his decision on the case’s evidence, according to his brother, who spoke out as the family faced intense scrutiny following the mistrial. “He looked at the case, and he made the call,” the brother told the New York Post in an interview published Sept. 15. “For me, that’s how I would do it. I would just listen to the case with all the evidence, and go from there.” “I don’t think religion had anything to do with it,” he said, disputing claims circulating online about his brother’s reasoning. He added that his brother’s choice “was good for some people, but not good for other people.” Religion surfaced during the trial when prosecution expert Dr. Kirk Heilbrun discussed Clancy’s Catholic background and began recounting a conversation in which he asked whether she understood that suicide constituted a mortal sin. Judge William Sullivan has since ordered the jurors’ identities to remain sealed, citing a “real and present risk” to their safety following threats and attempts to expose their personal information.
Our Sunday Visitor
Bishop Barron named to international religious freedom watchdog
By Kate Scanlon, September 16, 2026
President Donald Trump’s new appointees to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom include Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, the commission said Sept. 16. Spokespersons for USCRIF and other religious freedom advocates previously told OSV News they were eager for Trump to make nominations to the commission after several previous commissioners reached the end of their terms in May. In a statement posted on X, Bishop Barron wrote, “I was honored to accept President Trump’s invitation to serve on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. “This agency, formed by an act of Congress over thirty years ago, is designed to advise both the President and Congress on matters pertaining to the defense and enhancement of religious liberty around the world,” he said. “The Commission, by intention, is strictly bipartisan, its members chosen by leaders of both major political parties.”
Related: Trump asks Cissie Lynch, granddaughter of Billy Graham, to be religious freedom ambassador, By Daniel Payne, September 15, 2026
Crux
Catholicism is a ‘minority religion’ in France, expert says
By Fionn Shiner, September 16, 2026
Ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France in late September, an expert in the history of French Catholicism said a recent increase in adult and adolescent baptisms is a modestly positive sign that doesn’t “compensate for the collapse in infant baptisms.” Leo is set to visit France from Sept. 25-28. In the European country, 21,386 adults and teenagers aged 11 to 17 were baptized during the Easter Vigil this year, up from 17,788 in 2025. At the same time, this August, France enacted a law establishing a right to “aid in dying” after a protracted process in France’s parliament. Speaking to Crux Now, Guillaume Cuchet, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and an expert in the history of Catholicism, was cautious about the idea that France was experiencing a significant revival of the faith. He said “indicators of religious sociology—Sunday Mass attendance, religious weddings, infant baptisms, attendance at catechism classes, etc.—continue to decline.”
National Catholic Register
Slow extinction looms for Middle East Christians
By Alberto M. Fernandez, September 15, 2026
In the Muslim East, for centuries the cost of faith was literally measured in gold, as Christians had to pay punitive taxes to keep their faith, the notorious jizya tax imposed on religious minorities by Muslim rulers well into the 19th century. The Islamic State terrorist group sought to revive it. Christians under Muslim rule is a complex history and included periods of great flourishing and great slaughter — but mostly, it was costly to be a Christian. Despite headlines when there is some terrorist attack, as happened at a Damascus church last year, the cost for many Middle East Christians today is less dramatic, less newsworthy, more subtle, but no less inexorable. This week, on the eve of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, two masked men on a motorcycle threw a “sound bomb” into the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. George in the Syrian city of Hama. The intimidation factor was clear. In 1947, Jerusalem had 27,000 Christians. Today, only 4,000 remain. The Hamas War on Oct. 7, 2023, accelerated Christian emigration from the West Bank as IDF checkpoints, settler attacks, and economic crisis all increased.
Aleteia
The saint who warned Galileo, and what really happened
By D. R. Esparza, September 17, 2025
On the evening of February 26, 1616, Galileo Galilei met with a saint. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine was 73, one of the most respected theologians in the Catholic world, and a Jesuit who had spent decades serving popes, councils, and controversies. Galileo, 52, Europe's most famous scientist—and in Rome, especially—argued for the Copernican heliocentric theory: the claim that the Earth moves around the Sun rather than the reverse. The meeting between them that February evening has been retold, simplified, and mythologized ever since. The feast day of St. Robert Bellarmine is September 17. Since at least 1613, Galileo had been arguing publicly that the Copernican system was the best astronomical model for predicting planetary motions. His second claim was what alarmed the theologians. Absent conclusive proof — and Galileo did not yet have it — the demand to reinterpret Scripture on the basis of a contested scientific theory was, in the institutional logic of post-Tridentine Catholicism, a serious overreach.
Vatican News
Leo: New martyrs reflect Christ’s light to the world
By Deborah Castellano Lubov, September 16, 2026
“We admire these brothers and sisters of ours as stars shining in the darkness of selfishness and oppression. They help the Church to reflect more fully the light of Christ the Lord, so as to point humanity today towards the path that leads to the civilization of love.” Pope Leo XIV said this while addressing participants at the Vatican on Wednesday morning at the Conference, titled ‘21st Century: A New Age of Martyrs?’, organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and the Dicastery’s Commission of the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith. "These are brothers and sisters," he insisted, "who, in diverse geographical, historical and political contexts, have given their lives for the Gospel." Pope Leo went on to insist that their testimony shows that our own time, dominated by a culture of power, unlimited force, and the unceasing development of weapons systems, is also a time that witnesses the heroism of those whom we are pleased to call “new witnesses of the faith.”
Zenit
Christian teen beaten for protecting women in Pakistan
By ZENIT Staff, September 16, 2026
A 17-year-old Christian man named Ikhlaq Masih was severely beaten by a mob in Nasrat Colony, a town in Ajnianwala, Sheikhupura, Pakistan, where many Christians reside. Masih works making pizzas at a restaurant, while his father, Saleem, works at a brick kiln and his mother, Zakriya, is a homemaker. The modest family has limited financial resources and is now facing the heavy burden of medical expenses and basic living costs. An influential local man’s son, Ali Shah, along with his friends, made a habit of coming to Nasrat Colony every Sunday to harass, mock, and follow local girls as families walked to church. On Sunday, Aug. 16, Masih saw the gang harassing a girl and confronted them, asking why they kept coming to their neighborhood to trouble women. An argument broke out. The gang hurled religious slurs, calling Masih a “chura,” a derogatory term used against Christians in Pakistan, and asked how he dared to stand up to them. Shah and his group left the scene temporarily, but waited for Masih to leave the village. Shah and his gang returned armed with pistols, iron rods, and motorcycle chains. They attacked him.
EWTN News
Venezuela: Talks with opposition, oil deal, & the Church’s stance
By Andrés Henríquez, September 16, 2026
Sept. 15 marked the start of the second round of negotiations between a Venezuelan opposition delegation and the country’s ruling socialist regime, a process promoted and driven by the U.S. government with an eye toward potential presidential elections in the South American nation. Last week, Cardinals Baltazar Porras and Diego Padrón, together with Bishop Emeritus Ramón Ovidio Pérez Morales, once again spoke out regarding the political and social situation in Venezuela. The prelates had raised their voices at the start of negotiations, offering to serve as guarantors of the process. They described the state of “indeterminacy, confusion, and uncertainty” prevailing in the country and offered proposals to help overcome the current crisis and achieve solid institutional stability. The cardinals and the bishop cited a lack of change since political prisoners and a climate of repression under a state monopoly on the media continues centralization of power.
Keep informed - 9/17/26 news for Catholics
Snippets from OSV, EWTN News, & ChurchPOP
OSV News
OSV’s seasoned reporters - September 17, 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.
Minnesota priest describes weeping at altar amid powerful Eucharistic experience - by Dave Hrbacek - During Mass Sept. 14 at a Catholic parish in suburban Minneapolis, Father Brent Bowman, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, had an experience during the Eucharistic prayer that left him weeping for more than a minute.
Advocates urge Trump to push for Jimmy Lai release during Xi’s state visit to the US - by Kate Scanlon - President Donald Trump is scheduled to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House in late September, and advocates for Hong Kong’s prominent Catholic media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai said Trump should push for his release from prison during the summit.
Families of inmates spend $840 million a year to support them in Brazil, Catholic ministry finds - by Eduardo Campos Lima - Brazilian families of prisoners spend an estimated $840 million a year to provide basic necessities such as food, hygiene supplies, clothing and medicine for incarcerated relatives, according to a new study commissioned by the Catholic bishops’ prison pastoral ministry.
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — September 17, 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.
800 years after St. Francis’ death, new digital project preserves his basilica for years to come - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - Preserving Assisi combines ultra-high-resolution photography, 3D surveying, immersive virtual tours, and a digital archive to create an unparalleled record of the basilica and its history.
Diocese of Phoenix opens education center to support mental health ministry - By Tessa Gervasini - “The people formed here will carry what they learned beyond these walls and into their parishes, their families and communities; into the lives of those who need their care, whether through priestly ministry or mental health services,” said Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix.
U.S. bishops launch task force to promote human dignity amid rise of artificial intelligence - By Daniel Payne - Bishops’ spokeswoman Chieko Noguchi said the meeting “focused on ways to keep any system of Artificial Intelligence at the service of humanity” as well as “the urgent need to address the real and present dangers such technology presents.”
ChurchPOP Trending
ChurchPOP provides fun, informative, and authentically Catholic news and culture - September 17, 2026
“We publish inspiring daily stories, fun and shareable faith-centered infographics, prayers, Church history, and more.”
St. Hildegard was mixing Pumpkin Spice flavors centuries before Starbucks - The cappuccino takes its name from the Capuchin friars; Trappist monks have brewed beer in monasteries for centuries; and the Carthusian monks of France are famously associated with Chartreuse. And a female Doctor of the Church was making history with pumpkin-spice flavors centuries before they ever trended.
The Seven Sorrows Rosary & Our Lady’s Powerful Promises to Those Who Pray It - “Most Merciful Mother, remind us always about the Sorrows of your Son, Jesus.” The Seven Sorrows Rosary, or the Seven Sorrows Chaplet, dates back to the Middle Ages. However, Our Lady of Kibeho reintroduced this devotion to visionary Marie-Claire Mukangango in Kibeho, Rwanda, in the 1980s.
6 Moments When You Should Make the Sign of the Cross (Not Only When You Pray!) - The Church includes the Sign of the Cross among the signs used in blessings and sacramentals. It is not a lucky charm or a magic formula: it is a prayer made with the body as well, a simple way of entrusting our minds, hearts, actions, and lives to God—a practice Christians have observed since the earliest centuries.
September 17, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE — or read HERE:
Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
National Catholic Register
Unlearned Lessons of 9/11, a Quarter-Century Later
By George Weigel, September 9, 2026
Several weeks after Islamist terrorists hijacked four planes, wreaking havoc in lower Manhattan and at the Pentagon in the name of deranged religious convictions, I was at dinner in the papal apartment with John Paul II and three of his closest associates. The mood was somber, which was unusual at that table. The Pope’s hope for a “new springtime of the human spirit” in the wake of the bloody 20th century, which he had proclaimed at the United Nations in 1995, seemed to have been thwarted. I said I thought it was a turning-point in world history; an example of the mystery of evil at work through the corruption of an already defective monotheism; a possible moment of moral sobering-up in the U.S.; and a very complex mess from a strategic and international-political point of view. All of this, I continued, was a moral challenge as well as a political challenge. 9/11 ushered in a new world disorder. What I did not foresee was that inept American policy would make the new disorder even more disorderly.
Related: Saying “We will never forget” while forgetting what can happen again, by Kenneth Craycraft, Catholic World Report, September 13, 2026
The Angelus News
Why was the fish a symbol of early Christianity?
By Mike Aquilina, September 09, 2026
I’m sure the ancient Christian fish is a popular tattoo, and it’s also a popular bumper sticker. The fish is, in fact, the symbol most commonly associated with the ancient Church. It is everywhere in the archaeological record — scratched onto walls as graffiti, traced onto oil lamps, and detailed in beautiful mosaics and frescos. The Fathers of the Church left an impressive paper trail explicating the fish and its many layers of meaning. And, as it turns out, the symbol was as complex as it was common. The only symbol comparably popular today is the cross, which was itself rarely depicted in Christianity’s earliest centuries. The fish was similarly ubiquitous in antiquity. What did the fish represent? Above all, it was Jesus Christ. The dominant language of the early Church was Greek, and in Greek the phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” produced the acronym ICHTHYS, the Greek word for fish. Scholars, however, believe that the visual symbol preceded the acronym.
Christian Post
Casual Christians have a hard time forgiving themselves, others
By Ryan Foley, September 16, 2026
Casual Christians struggle more than those who regularly attend church services and read the Bible to offer and receive forgiveness, even as research links forgiveness to greater flourishing and lower stress and loneliness, a new survey finds. The American Bible Society released the sixth installment of its “State of the Bible: USA 2026” report last Thursday. The new chapter, titled “Forgiveness,” examines how Americans forgive themselves and others, and whether they believe they have received forgiveness from God. By generation, millennials (36%) and Generation Z (35%) were most likely to say they had a hard time forgiving themselves, followed by Generation X (28%) and baby boomers and elders (21%). Generation X and millennials were also most likely to say they struggled to forgive others, at 43% each, compared with 36% of Generation Z and 35% of baby boomers and elders.
Related: Must I Forgive and Forget? | Catholic Answers Magazine, by Tim Staples, 1/25/2024
Wild at Heart
Heaven: Life as it was meant to be
By John Eldredge, September 17, 2026
In heaven, nothing is stained or broken; everything is as it was meant to be. For a moment, think of the wonder of this. Isn't every one of our sorrows on earth the result of things not being as they were meant to be? And so when the kingdom of God comes to earth, wonderful things begin to unfold. Look at the evidence; watch what happens to people as the kingdom of God touches them through Jesus. As he went about "preaching the good news of the kingdom," Jesus was also "healing every disease and sickness among the people" (Matt. 4:23). When he "spoke to them about the kingdom of God," he "healed those who needed healing" (Luke 9:11). What happens when we find ourselves in the kingdom of God? The disabled jump to their feet and start doing a jig. The deaf go out and buy themselves stereo equipment. The blind are headed to the movies. The dead are no longer dead, but very much alive. Those glimpses we see in the miracles of Jesus were the first-fruits.
Image of peanuts by Nicole Köhler, from Pixabay
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