Catholic Nutshell News: Tuesday 12/9/25
Topics include: Archdioceses' hundreds of millions in settlements; Homosexuality among the youth; A government 'egg' donation bill; & Bishop's cure for cultural amnesia
“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 CatholicVote. (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
New York archdiocese announces $300 million settlement
By Daniel Payne, December 9, 2025
The Archdiocese of New York will pay out nearly a third of a billion dollars to victims of clergy sex abuse, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said this week, offering one of the biggest Church payouts in U.S. history to compensate for the “horror of abuse” by clergy there. The archdiocese has made “a series of very difficult financial decisions” to help fund the settlement, Cardinal Dolan said in the Dec. 8 statement, including staff layoffs and a 10% reduction in the archdiocese’s operating budget. “We are also working to finalize the sale of significant real estate assets,” the prelate said. He pointed to the recent sale of the former archdiocesan headquarters in Manhattan, which a development group bought for about $100 million. A third-party mediator who helped negotiate a “global settlement,” a process that allows for rapid resolution of cases while avoiding lengthy court proceedings.
Related: Court settlement approved $230 million for New Orleans Archdiocese to pay hundreds of clergy abuse victims, Crux, by Jack Brook, Associated Press, Dec 9, 2025
ACI Africa
Archbishop cautions against homosexuality among the youth
By Agnes Aineah, December 8, 2025
Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles of Sierra Leone’s Catholic Archdiocese of Freetown has proposed the creation of pastoral programs that address issues of sexuality, family life, and “sexual deviations” in the West African country, expressing concern that homosexuality, in particular, has become rampant among Sierra Leonean youths. He described “the developing culture” of homosexuality and lesbianism among our Catholics, including the youth, as “a worrying pastoral issue.” “The sex revolution of the 1950s and 1960s that transformed an intimate and sacred act of love between a man and his wife into a source of pleasure with anyone, sometimes for money, led to abortion on demand as an expression of the woman’s right over her body, to get rid of unwanted pregnancies. It has now evolved into sex between people of the same sex.”
The Pillar
Hungary’s bishops criticize government egg donation bill
By Luke Coppen, December 8, 2025
In a Dec. 3 statement, the Hungarian bishops’ conference called for rejecting a bill to authorize foreign egg donation and provide financial compensation to donors, in a rare public clash with the Orbán administration. Hungary permits oocyte (female egg cell) donation only from relatives or close friends. Only a handful of such procedures are reported to take place annually. But each year, thousands of Hungarian women seek treatment in nearby countries such as the Czech Republic or Slovakia, in a practice dubbed “oocyte tourism.” The Hungarian government introduced the bill after the country’s birth rate fell to a record monthly low in June 2024, despite the state offering generous financial incentives to prospective parents. Hungarian bishops say the practice contravened Catholic teaching, noting that a child’s best interests are safeguarded only by natural conception within marriage, and firmly oppose the destruction of human embryos.
Times of Israel
Kibbutz to demolish all homes damaged Oct. 7, bar one
By Sue Surkes, December 9, 2025
All homes damaged in the two worst-hit neighborhoods of Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border will be demolished, save for a single house that will remain as a memorial to the destruction and bloodshed of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, the community announced Monday. The house will initially remain standing for five years. The kibbutz did not specify which home will be preserved. Ofer Gitai, Be’eri’s community director, said, “Between the desire to move forward and the obligation to leave testimony for future generations, we have chosen a path that allows for both.” The decision followed months of discussion, consultation, and community dialogue. Out of the 1,200 people Hamas terrorists killed in Israel on October 7, 102 were residents of Kibbutz Be’eri, a tenth of the community. The gunmen also kidnapped 30 Be’eri residents to the Gaza Strip, all of whom, both alive and murdered, have since been returned.
CatholicVote
Bishop issues in China regarding presence of underground Church
By McKenna Snow, December 8, 2025
The Holy See Press Office issued a Dec. 6 statement about China’s civil recognition of Xinxiang emeritus Bishop Giuseppe Zhang Weizhu, which comes amid reported concerns for the bishop, who was allegedly prohibited from attending his successor’s episcopal ordination Dec. 5. “We are pleased to learn that today the episcopal dignity of His Excellency Giuseppe Zhang Weizhu, bishop emeritus of the Apostolic Prefecture of Xinxiang (Henan, mainland China), has been civilly recognized,” Matteo Bruni, the office’s director, said in a statement. Vatican News also reported the acceptance of the resignation from pastoral governance submitted by Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu.” Bishop Zhang is an underground bishop who was secretly ordained in 1991 and has been arrested several times since for exercising his ministry. Concerns that remain for Bishop Zhang over the episcopal ordination of Bishop Jianlin, which “is opening new wounds rather than healing old ones.”
Aleteia
100 abducted schoolchildren released in Nigeria
By Daniel Esparza, December 9, 2025
About 100 children kidnapped last month from St. Mary’s Private Catholic School in Papiri, central Nigeria, have been released, according to BBC, which first reported their arrival in the Niger state capital, Minna. Officials have not yet disclosed whether the release came through negotiation, security operations, or ransom payments. The abductions occurred on November 21, when more than 250 students and 12 staff members were taken from the Catholic school. The BBC reports that despite Monday’s release, around 153 students and 12 staff are still held by the gunmen. Local media quoted the governor of neighboring Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, saying the federal government played a significant but undisclosed role in securing the children’s freedom. Security officials have declined to provide further details.
CRUX
Nicaraguans celebrate Mary despite fears at home & in the U.S.
By Giovanna Dell’Orto, AP, December 9, 2025
Hundreds of Nicaraguans sang in praise of the Virgin Mary at flower-and-light-filled altars set up in church parking lots as well as in the back of vehicles on the streets of Miami to mark the Dec. 8 feast of the Immaculate Conception. The exuberant celebration called “gritería” is especially poignant this year during the ongoing crackdowns on religion in Nicaragua, as well as on immigrant communities in the United States. In Nicaragua, there’s a special tradition in which families create home altars and then go from house to house, singing. But those celebrations have been either stifled or co-opted by the Nicaraguan government. Clergy and lay observers say the church has become the only voice resisting state violence and aiding its victims. The U.S. has sought to end expanded and temporary legal protections for 430,000 migrants from Nicaragua, as well as from Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti.
National Catholic Register
Cure for cultural amnesia: Get lost in the world of literature
By Bishop James Conley, December 8, 2025
The motto of the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas (KU) was a simple Latin phrase: Nascantur in Admiratione, which is translated: “Let them be born in wonder.” Over the course of the 15 or so years, the program flourished, hundreds of university students were reborn in wonder, and many of those students, including myself, converted to the Catholic Church. By experiencing truth, goodness, and beauty through the humanities at a very large and secular state university, lives were forever changed. At the time, there wasn’t even a Catholic student center on the KU campus. But it was primarily through an introduction to the rich treasury of Western civilization that hundreds of students discovered and fell in love with the Catholic Church. Students not only read the classics of Western civilization, from Homer’s Odyssey to Francis Parkman’s The Oregon Trail, but also memorize poetry, write calligraphy, go stargazing, and learn to waltz.
From Pulpit & CNA to Fides for 12/9/25
BIG PULPIT
Tito Edwards Catholic blogger site: December 9, 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.
How to Reboot Monastic Life & Save Christendom – Hilary White at The Sacred Images Project
Faithful Worldwide Petition Pope Leo to Re-Examine “Mater Populi Fidelis” – Diane Montagna
President Trump’s Immaculate Conception Message – Don McClarey at The American Catholic
Video: Man Dies, Meets Jesus, Sent Back with Urgent Message – Catholic Unscripted
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — December 9, 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.
Knock Shrine event highlights urgent call to revive First Saturdays practice - Dec 9, 2025 - By Patrick J. Passmore - Bishop urges “no half-measures” at First Saturdays’ centenary as hundreds mark 100 years of First Saturdays devotion at Knock Shrine.
At a French shrine for the dead, a quiet revival among the living - Dec 9, 2025 - By AC Wimmer - As a Normandy basilica is restored, the Shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon is known internationally for its mission of prayer for the deceased and its archconfraternity for the souls in purgatory.
Remnants of the chapel where the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was originally kept still exist - Dec 9, 2025 - By Diego López Colín - Next to the current Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City is the old chapel built to house the miraculously imprinted image, which is still preserved and forms an essential part of the Marian complex of Tepeyac.
Agenzia Fides
Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies - 12/9/25
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/TANZANIA - Appeal for the release of political prisoners - Dar es Salaam (Agenzia Fides) – Political prisoners must be released and the bodies of missing persons returned. This is the joint appeal launched to the Tanzanian government by the embassies of Great Britain, Canada,
AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Resignation and appointment of vicar apostolic of Leticia - Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the apostolic vicariate of Leticia, Colombia, presented by Bishop José de Jesús Quintero Díaz.
EUROPE/ITALY - “Changing Africa and changing the way we perceive it”: presentation of “The Metamorphosis of West Africa - Not only migration” - Rome (Agenzia Fides) “What is Africa?” This question was the focus of the presentation of the book “The Metamorphosis of West Africa – Not only migration” (Rubbettino, 2025), edited by Archbishop Samuele Sangal.
Nutshell reflections for 12/9/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO - December 9, 2025
Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent
What We Need Now
Sin is not a material but a moral disorder of love
By Michel Therrie, December 9, 2025
A hierarchical system is thus comprised of relationships of interdependencies, which God intended from the beginning, and it ought to work especially for those at the lowest position within the system. The proposed solutions borne from the error of materialism suffer and hold, among other things, that evil is an accident of nature stemming from the finite limits of material existence. By implication, if we solve the practical problems we have through technology and politics, we can live happily ever after. The name given for the hope of a future beyond evil is progress. Sadly, after so much actual historical failure at moral progress, we still suffer from the same blind faith in technology and politics. Sin is not and will never be overcome by either. Sin is not a material but a moral disorder of love within the heart bereft of grace, as the Church has always taught.
Imaginative Conservative
Before Napoleon’s coronation, he was forced to marry Josephine
By Henri Daniel-Rops, December 6, 2025
Pius VII left Rome on November 2, heading to France with a retinue of forty persons, after delegating his powers to Consalvi. On the eve of Napoleon’s coronation day as the French Emperor, which Pope Pius had been manipulated into performing, an incident occurred that nearly wrecked the whole proceeding. Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, asked for an audience with the Holy Father and informed him that she had been through no more than a civil marriage with her imperial spouse. Distressed by the discovery that he had been wilfully deceived, Pius VII acted with firmness: he demanded that the religious marriage should be performed at once, failing which he would take no part in the coronation. He gave permission, however, for a quasi-clandestine ceremony at which Cardinal Fesch would officiate alone, in a room in the Tuileries. And so it was done. Through the guile of a woman who hoped to assure her future, the all-powerful emperor was driven to “forced marriage.”
After Babel
Meta’s child sex-trafficking problem
By Nathan Witkin, December 5, 2025
We’ve long known that Facebook and Instagram are major hubs for sex and labor trafficking. In 2021, internal documents released by whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed, among other things, that Apple threatened to pull Facebook (now Meta) apps from the App Store because they were being used to trade and sell maids in the Middle East. The court filing shows that Meta leadership knowingly chose to expose teen users—particularly young women and girls—en masse to human traffickers and other child predators to protect its bottom line. These are quite possibly the most appalling revelations yet to emerge about the tech giant, and they come at a moment when Congress is considering a flurry of new bills to regulate Meta and other social media providers. They deserve the ear of every parent and every citizen in America.
Catholic Stand
The heresy in ‘One Battle After Another’
By Kristoffer Ehrnström, December 4, 2025
Another film, ”One Battle After Another (2025)”, implicitly mocks Catholic traditions. Rather than being a complaint in the choir (Christians are, after all, supposed to turn the other cheek and transcend any affectual provocations), we could benefit instead by asking questions like, “How can an atheist be just that, an atheist, without any concept of God?” Or: “Why does one need to insult or belittle Christian stories, in all negate them, in order to create?” Christ is the door, after all, not just to salvation and the fullness of life but to true creativity. If one’s creative and artistic endeavor does not come from God, incentivized by elements such as love or artistic naïveté, then where does it come from? And what does it mean that a creative motivation and an artistic incentive draw their energy from the negation of God? And why? What is the need to actively go against God if there is no God, as per the now performative self-contradiction of the creative agent, the artist? Because ironically, it nonetheless seems to point towards God.
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