Catholic Nutshell News: Tuesday 11/18/25
Topics include: Pregnancy Centers provide $450 million; UN downsizing Sudan security; Vatican shift on Nicaragua; & Parents back at the center of faith formation
“I’ll pray for thee from my pistachio tree”
Today's sources are the National Catholic Register, CNA, The Imaginative Conservative, CRUX, The Pillar, Big Pulpit, and MOM. (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
Pregnancy Centers provide $450 million to help women
By Kate Quiñones, November 17, 2025
Pregnancy centers across the U.S. “provided over $452 million in total medical care, support and education services, and material goods in 2024,” according to a Nov. 17 report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Pregnancy centers saw a total of 1 million new patients last year, “which is the equivalent of each center serving a new client every day in 2024,” Karen Czarnecki, the head of Charlotte Lozier Institute, said during the press conference. During the press conference, Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called pregnancy centers the “beating heart” of the pro-life movement. Pregnancy centers, Dannenfelser said, “are going to the roots of the problem” by providing support for mothers across the board, whether they are struggling with addiction, domestic abuse, homelessness, completing school, or any other challenge.
ACI Africa
Sudan Bishops warn about UN downsizing security operations
By Agnes Aineah, November 17, 2025
The United Nations announced it is downsizing its security operations in South Sudan, a decision Catholic Bishops in the country and the neighbouring Sudan say spells doom for innocent civilians. Under-Secretary-General for UN Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, cited financial constraints as the reason for reductions in national and international staff, as well as the closure of some UNMISS offices in the embattled country. At the end of their November 7-14 Plenary Assembly, members of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SSS-CBC) said that they were “disturbed” by the news. They said that downsizing UNMISS “will have serious implications and consequences for peace in South Sudan.” The Bishops addressed numerous issues; key among them the protracted fighting in South Sudan and the civil war in Sudan, where “abominable atrocities” have been reported.
The Pillar
Quiet no more? Pope signals shift regarding Nicaragua persecutions
By Edgar Beltrán, November 18, 2025
Pope Leo XIV received Bishop Rolando Álvarez in a Nov. 13 audience, marking the first meeting between the bishop — who spent more than a year in Nicaraguan prisons on conspiracy charges — and the new pope. The audience comes two months after the pope received three other exiled Nicaraguan bishops at the Vatican. The string of recent meetings has prompted speculation about whether the Vatican is starting to shift its approach to the country, in which the Church has been almost completely silenced by ongoing regime persecution. Taking a new diplomatic direction could prove tricky. Statements criticizing the government have consistently led to spikes in persecution, leading Catholic leaders both in Nicaragua and in Rome to go quiet in recent years. Ultimately, the pope may determine that the question before him is not whether to act in Nicaragua, but when.
Times of Israel
UN Security Council endorses Trump's broad Gaza peace plan
By Jacob Magid, November 18, 2025
The UN Security Council voted on Monday to adopt a US-sponsored resolution authorizing the establishment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) that will help secure the Gaza Strip, in line with US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the war in the coastal enclave. The resolution provides a much-needed tailwind for Washington’s effort to maintain the Gaza ceasefire that was inked on October 9. The truce has come under strain, with Israel pledging to resume fighting if steps aren’t taken to disarm Hamas, which remains in de facto control of nearly half of the Strip following a partial Israeli withdrawal when the ceasefire came into place. Washington recognized that countries interested in contributing troops to the foreign force needed an international mandate backed by the UN to move forward.
CatholicVote
Denver archdiocese appeals ruling in preschool program case
By McKenna Snow, November 17, 2025
The Archdiocese of Denver, a Catholic family in Colorado, and several local Catholic preschools this month appealed to the United States Supreme Court in their case seeking inclusion in the state’s universal preschool program (UPK) after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled against them Sept. 30. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said when the UPK program was launched, state officials established restrictions that effectively “excluded all parish preschools because they ask families who enroll to be supportive of their Catholic faith.” All participating schools are required to sign a nondiscrimination agreement that the plaintiff parish preschools argue conflicts with their sincerely held beliefs. The archdiocese holds “that enrolling a child of same-sex parents in a Catholic school is ‘likely to lead to intractable conflicts.’”
Aleteia
Do we become angels in Heaven when we die?
By Philip Kosloski, November 17, 2025
No. There is no possibility of a human becoming an angel. In popular culture, it is common to refer to deceased individuals as “angels” in Heaven. They think of the deceased person as being with God, where the other angels live. When we die, our soul is separated from our body, but will be reunited with it at the end of time. To become an angel after death would mean becoming a different being entirely. Catholics believe that angels are unique, unrepeatable spirits. Angels were created prior to humans. One theory that is an accepted Catholic belief is that on the first day of creation, when God made “light,” the “light” he made was the angels (Gen. 1:3). This theory may even be confirmed when it says God “divided the light from the darkness,” if that refers to the rebellion of the angels led by Lucifer (Gen. 1:4).
CRUX
Pope doubles down on climate change as a threat to the planet
By Nirmala Carvalho, November 7, 2025
Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged countries at United Nations climate talks to take “concrete actions” to stop climate change that is threatening the planet, telling them humans are failing in their response to global warming and that God’s creation “is crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat.” “One in three people live in great vulnerability because of these climate changes,” Leo said. “To them, climate change is not a distant threat, and to ignore these people is to deny our shared humanity.” Leo said there’s still time to stay within the Paris Agreement, but not much. Leo made history this year by becoming the first American pope, and has embraced Pope Francis’ environmental legacy, including dismissing climate skeptics. U.S. President Donald Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” to the U.N. General Assembly in September.
National Catholic Register
Putting parents back at the center of faith formation
By Zelda Caldwell, November 17, 2025
One of the most pressing challenges facing the Catholic Church in the United States today is the steady rise in young Catholics who abandon the faith before they reach adulthood. A new approach — one that places the family at the center of faith formation — is gaining momentum as a possible solution to this crisis. By re-catechizing parents and fostering connections between families committed to living their faith more deeply, parishes are witnessing dramatic results. Michael Rota and Stephen Bullivant addressed the crisis of youth disaffiliation with the Church in an article published this summer in Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal. Drawing on data from the “General Social Survey,” the authors found that the percentage of “cradle Catholics” — those raised in the faith — who still identified as Catholic as adults decreased from 84% in 1973 to just 62% in 2022.
From Pulpit & CNA to Fides for 11/18/25
BIG PULPIT
Tito Edwards Catholic blogger site: November 18, 2025
The Big Pulpit website is an intelligent news aggregator offering quality insight & analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide. Here are Chief Editor Tito Edward’s top recommendations for today.
New Yorkers Turning To The Church, Number Of Catholic Converts Soaring – New York Post
On Pope Leo’s Liturgical Vision, But He’s Spitting In The Wind. . . – Fr. Allan J. McDonald
How Salvation History Comes to Life in the Mass – Saint Dominic Media
Vanishing Neutral Zone: Classical Christian Schools Must Choose a Side – American Reformer
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — November 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.
Imposing statue of Pope Leo XIV unveiled and blessed in Chiclayo, Peru - Nov 18, 2025 - By Walter Sánchez Silva - Chiclayo is celebrating following the installation of a statue of Pope Leo XIV that welcomes visitors to the northern Peruvian city where Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, served as bishop and apostolic administrator from 2014 to 2023.
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne: Great missionary of the Midwest - Nov 18, 2025 - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - The Potawatomi gave St. Rose Philippine Duchesne the name “Quah-kah-ka-num-ad,” which means “woman who is always praying.”
Catholic bishop calls Sheikh Hasina death sentence ‘one-sided’ and ‘abuse of power’ - Nov 17, 2025 - By Stephan Uttom Rozario - Bishop Ponen Paul Kubi, CSC, of the Mymensingh Diocese, told CNA that the verdict handed down Nov. 17 by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal was “one-sided … the accused had no lawyer, and that the current government used political power to give this verdict.”
Agenzia Fides
Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies - 11/18/25
Fides News Agency (Fides) was established in 1927, at the direction of the Council Superior General of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, as the first Missionary Agency of the Church and among the first agencies in the world.
AFRICA/NIGERIA - Catholic priest kidnapped in Kaduna State. Abuja (Agenzia Fides) – Another Catholic priest has been kidnapped in Nigeria. Father Bobbo Paschal, parish priest of St. Stephen’s Parish Church in the Kushe Gudgu Kagarko Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State
ASIA/BANGLADESH - Bishop Subroto: Silent march of Catholics in Dhaka “to say No to fundamentalism and violence” - Dhaka (Agenzia Fides) – “Tomorrow we will be in the city center and march hand in hand. The faithful and parish communities of the capital, Dhaka, have organized a silent march and a sit-in for peace, to denounce the intimidation we have suffered…”
AMERICA/HAITI - Hurricane Melissa, gangs, thefts, assaults, and kidnappings fail to quell hope for a better life - Pourcine-Pic Makaya (Agenzia Fides) – Shootings and violent clashes against the defenseless population continue to be reported. Among the latest incidents is a shootout between U.S. Marines and gang members.
Nutshell reflections for 11/18/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO - November 18, 2025
Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Catholic365
Books removed from the Bible — When Christian division began
By Richard Horrell, November 17, 2025
Most Christians don’t know that some books were removed from the Holy Bible —
books that the Jews and Catholics had always read. The Book of Wisdom was one of the books removed — the very book that exposes collapsing morality, false enlightenment, persecution of the righteous, government corruption, and nations that destroy themselves when they reject God. [Called the Apocrypha, the Protestant Bible, during the Reformation, also removed 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Sirach, and Baruch] Scripture warned us not to do exactly that. “You shall not add to the word… nor take from it” — Deuteronomy 4:2. Scripture told us exactly what would happen. “These are the people who cause divisions…
worldly people, devoid of the Spirit”— Jude 1:19. Christianity shattered.
One Church became thousands. A divided Church became weak — unable to stand against the rise of Marxism, atheism, and godless politics.
Imaginative Conservative
World War I and its effect on The Inklings
By Bradley J. Birzer, November 17, 2025
For those looking for a generational explanation of The Inklings' intent and success, the birth dates provide only limited guidance, sadly. The twenty-eight years separating the birth of the oldest, Fox, from the birth of the youngest, Bennett, witnessed vast changes in the world. Victorians and Edwardians, in large part, the Inklings, especially the English ones, each came into a world romantically and mythically in love with children and the innocence of childhood. World War I shattered this, symbolically as well as actually, exchanging a rather idyllic and sacramental world for an ideological and ceaselessly bloody one. The Great War destroyed much the Inklings had held true, personally and culturally. Each lost friends, and each felt the guilt that any survivor of a war feels, exemplified by J.R.R. Tolkien's mythology, from his Black Riders, to the fall of Gondolin in The Silmarillion, to the passages across the dead marshes in The Lord of the Rings.
Catholic Mom
Flight school: Where my son found his place in the world
By Charisse Tierney, November 18, 2025
My son was the child who made me seriously consider homeschooling years before I gathered the courage to try it. He was the child whose school conferences always brought up more questions than answers. He was the child who came home from his first months of high school looking defeated every day. We decided to homeschool. He seemed to grow into himself and realize who he was in an instant. He was the one who did most of the talking when we met with his high school principal to inform her of our decision. “I just think I’ll learn better at home.” We dove into our studies at home. “This is what it’s all about,” I thought. “I can work with him at his own pace, boost his confidence, and conquer all of those subjects he was struggling with in school.” But I was putting him into a box, too. Until his first ride in a tiny flight school plane, that is. My son was hooked.
Catholic Stand
Spending the holidays alone
By Laura DeMaria, November 17, 2025
The holiday season is upon us. For some, parties and family gatherings will be attended, and warm memories will be made. Yet, increasingly for many, the holidays are a solitary time of year. Being reminded of all the relationships we may feel we’re missing out on can be especially difficult. First, don’t compare. Your neighbors or coworkers may or may not be having a great holiday season surrounded by loved ones. You honestly will never know. Leave the comparison at the door, and your loneliness will ease. Be grateful that the holidays are a brief season and that spring will eventually come. The greatest way to combat loneliness is to serve others. Pressure to have a social-media-worthy holiday season does exist. Remember the beauty and truth of Christmas: God loves us so much that He entered our world and became man.
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