Catholic Nutshell News: Tuesday 5/13/25
Topics include: Religious order priests seldom the Pope, India & Pakistan's spared war, Journalists shocked Pope is Catholic, & HHS sides with employees objecting to abortions
“I’ll pray for thee from my pistachio tree”
Today's sources are the National Catholic Register, CNA, Aleteia, The CatholicVote, The Pillar, OSV, Big Pulpit, and Matt Fradd. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)
Click here to view this email on the Catholic Nutshell News website. Today’s Catholic Nutshell News audio podcast is available on the Substack App.
Aleteia
Religious order cardinals rarely are named pope
By Christine Rousselle, May 11, 2025
A religious order is like a club. Or in Catholic lingo, a "spiritual family." Some religious orders, like the Jesuits, are male only, while others, like the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians, have congregations of religious sisters and religious brothers. Lay members are associated with them as well. Priests can be members of religious orders, as Francis and Leo were. In Pope Leo XIV's case, as a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, or "Augustinians," he served as the superior of his religious order at the international level (not just the regional). He has notable experience in a global role, visiting Augustinian communities worldwide. Until the election of Pope Francis (the first pope from the Society of Jesus, or"Jesuits"), the most recent pope of a religious order was Pope Gregory XVI in 1831.
The Pillar
Ceasefire spared India and Pakistan's very dangerous war’
By Luke Coppen, May 12, 2025
Bishop Samson Shukardin, the president of Pakistan’s bishops’ conference, told UCA News May 11 that the end of four days of clashes between the two nuclear powers was “a good thing. We once again call for dialogue — war is not a solution,” the Bishop of Hyderabad in Pakistan said. Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after an April 22 terrorist attack near Pahalgam, in the disputed Kashmir region. Kashmir, located in the northernmost part of the Indian subcontinent, is divided into territories administered by India, Pakistan, and China. The attack took place in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Islamist militants killed a group of 26 tourists, who were mainly Hindus but included a Christian and a local Muslim
National Review
Journalists shocked to learn the Pope is Catholic
By Brittany Bernstein, May 12, 2025
The Guardian newspaper can’t believe a pope would follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. “Unearthed comments from new pope alarm LGBTQ+ Catholics,” the outlet reported. The Guardian reports that “After years of sympathetic and inclusive comments from Pope Francis, LGBTQ+ Catholics expressed concern... about hostile remarks made more than a decade ago by Father Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV.” Prevost said, “Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel — for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia,” he said at the time. The Guardian effectively proved a point the now-pope made at the time; that mass media has fostered so much “sympathy for anti-Christian lifestyles choices” that “when people hear the Christian message it often inevitably seems ideological and emotionally cruel.”
CatholicVote
HHS probes allegations against employees objecting to abortions
By Susan Berry, Ph.D., May 12, 2025
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched a compliance review to investigate allegations that technicians employed by a hospital faced possible termination due to their objections to performing ultrasounds used in abortion procedures. “This matter is the second investigation of an entity’s compliance with laws protecting the exercise of conscience that OCR has initiated during President Trump’s second term,” HHS observed Monday in a press release. “Today’s announcement is part of a larger effort to strengthen enforcement of laws protecting conscience and religious exercise.” Recipients of certain federal funds are prohibited from requiring certain individual providers to participate in procedures that violate their faith beliefs or moral convictions.
Vatican News
Uganda: Catholic sisters offer trauma care to refugees
By Sr. Helen Kasaka, LSMI, May 13, 2025
Sister Linah Siabana, a mental health specialist with the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, serves displaced South Sudanese communities in Uganda’s Arua Diocese. As part of her congregation’s mission to be “a healing and consoling presence,” she brings care, education, and hope to some of the world’s most neglected refugees. For five years, Sr. Linah has worked in settlements near the South Sudan border, helping rebuild lives uprooted by conflict. On Sundays, she leads communion services for those unable to reach a church. When food rations were cut, her team distributed emergency supplies to child-headed households and elders with disabilities. Sr. Linah mentors young religious sisters in the Adjumani Vicariate, offering workshops on mental health and spiritual formation. “Young religious sisters crave guidance, but trained counselors are scarce,” she said.
Catholic News Agency
Australian archbishop signs ecumenical creed on human sexuality
By Madalaine Elhabbal, May 12, 2025
Archbishop Julian Porteous of Hobart, Australia, is calling attention to an ecumenical statement on human sexuality released last year as the group behind the project seeks to gain approval for the creed from “biblically orthodox leaders” worldwide. Hobart is among 6,000 initial signatories of the “Australian Creed for Sexual Integrity,” a statement affirming fundamental Christian ethics on sex and gender drafted last October by a team of over 100 Christian faith leaders, including Catholic clergy. The creed outlines common Christian moral tenets on the creation of every person as male or female, marriage and sexuality as exclusively between men and women, the belief that every human life is sacred, and the call to chastity and faithfulness both in marriage and singleness.
National Catholic Register
Conclave voting pattern emerges for the pick on the 4th ballot
By Edward Pentin, May 12, 2025
Now that the dust is settling, what transpired during the conclave is that Cardinal Parolin was a leading contender in early voting, attracting 40-50 votes, but he could not obtain broader support. Votes for other leading candidates—Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Matteo Zuppi, Mario Grech, Pablo Virgilio David, and Jean-Marc Aveline—were divided, especially among the Italians, Asians, and Africans. Votes for “conservative” candidates were split between Cardinals Péter Erdő, Robert Sarah, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and Malcolm Ranjith. Once these candidates were effectively eliminated, the stage was set for Cardinal Prevost to emerge. Considered a possible compromise candidate by many cardinals going into the conclave, he began picking up votes in the third round, helped in part by Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Cardinal Prevost secured more than 100 votes by the fourth ballot, well above the two-thirds majority of 89 required to be elected.
Related: Pope Leo XIV was another shock pick, but it seems obvious now, Story by RNS, May 9, 2025
ARC
Numbers dropping for homosexual men in the priesthood
By Kimberly Winston, April 15, 2025
In 2000, Donald B. Cozzens, a Roman Catholic priest, wrote in The Changing Face of the Priesthood that 58% of clergy were gay, with the number even higher for young priests. A new study by Mark Regnerus, a sociologist at the University of Texas, makes the case that the number of gay men in the American priesthood will plummet to an all-time low, just 2 to 3%, by 2051. In addition, younger priests say they struggle much less with celibacy than their elders, and fewer than ever say they are aware of a “homosexual subculture” in their seminaries or dioceses. “If this holds, and all other things being equal, you would expect the number of homosexual priests to shrink even further,” Regnerus said from his office in Austin. Regnerus and his co-authors, Brad Vermurlen of the University of St. Thomas and Stephen Cranney of the Catholic University of America, published their research in Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.
From Pulpit & Agency to Satire for 5/13/25
BIG PULPIT
Tito Edwards Catholic blogger site: May 13, 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.
The $10 Billion Rise Of Classical Christian Education – Sarah Hernholm at Forbes - Classical Christian Education (CCE) has expanded from a niche movement to a significant market force, with over 677,500 students enrolled across 1,551 institutions
Why Is Everyone Getting Their Tattoos Removed? – Carrie Battan at GQ Magazine
Ross Douthat & the New Theism – Mary Eberstadt at the Washington Free Beacon
Report Claims Vatican Recognizes Eucharistic Miracle In Kerala Church – Spirit Daily Blog
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — May 13, 2025
Catholic News Agency provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See to anyone with access to the internet.
A priest friend of Pope Leo XIV shares memories of him in Peru - May 13, 2025 - By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú - On Sunday, May 12, Pope Leo XIV made time in his busy schedule to welcome his friend Father Hugo Sánchez.
9 things to know and share about Fátima - May 13, 2025 - By Jimmy Akin - May 13 is the optional memorial of Our Lady of Fátima, arguably the most prominent approved apparition of the 20th Century.
Pope Leo’s ‘greatest generation’ dad served on D-Day tank landing ship - May 12, 2025 - By Tessa Gervasini - Louis Marius Prevost, the father of Pope Leo XIV, served on a D-Day landing ship during World War II.
Babylon Bee - Satire News
Corinthian Church Hopes That Embarrassing Letter Paul Wrote About All Their Sexual Immorality Doesn't Become Public
By Scripture Staff, May 12, 2025
With the congregation of believers still dealing with the fallout from multiple scandals, the Corinthian church expressed hope that the letter the Apostle Paul wrote about all their sexual immorality wouldn't become public. The letter, a stinging rebuke from the church's founding apostle, confronted multiple members for their objectionable behaviors. It left the believers convicted and committed to changing their ways, but worried about what could happen if the general public ever somehow found out about the situation. "It's not like this letter will ever be passed around to other groups of people, right?" asked Sosthenes, a member of the Christian church in Corinth. "We've been dealing with some pretty messy stuff. We're ready to own it and acknowledge all the ways we've gone wrong, but we just hope Paul's letter stays on the ‘down low' and nobody else hears about it. That would be really embarrassing."
Nutshell reflections for 5/13/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO & VIDEO - May 13, 2025
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
The Obscure, Forgotten, and Undiscovered
Hermits also experience persistent uncertainty in their lives
By James K. Hanna, May 5, 2025
“He will never be seen again,” writes Kevin Wells in his remarkable book, The Hermit (Ignatius Press, 2024). He wrote about a Maryland priest named Martin Flum. “His home today is a cell, likely no larger than your childhood bedroom, buried deep in a forest, hidden among tens of thousands of trees.” Father Flum is no longer a parish priest. He is now a hermit. The thing is, he was a hermit once before when I encountered him in 2009. I had arranged for a private, silent retreat at Holy Family Hermitage, a Camaldolese hermitage near Cadiz, Ohio, an hour or so from my home in Pennsylvania. I was restricted to the retreat house and the chapel nearby. It was an experience—the most solitude I ever had. Pray, read, write, repeat. Holy Family has nine separate hermit cells. There were four living there at the time. I didn’t need Kevin’s book to remind me of the hermit, but was surprised to find that Father Flum left the Camaldolese to return to parish life, but then discerned a second call to solitude—a reminder of the persistent uncertainty in our lives.
Our Sunday Visitor
Diligence: Living virtuously in a work-obsessed world
By Rachel Meixner, May 10, 2025
In a world that insists on defining things by extremes, it can be challenging to identify the true balance we call virtue. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines virtue as “an habitual and firm disposition to do the good” (No. 1803). The catechism adds that a virtue “allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.” The opposite of virtue is vice, which is a habitual disposition of doing what is not good. While we might describe a virtue-driven person as virtuous, we don’t often hear a person who has vices as “vicious.” However, when we look at things from the spiritual perspective, to allow vices to reign within us — that is, to let them exist in our hearts and minds without working to overcome them — will gradually but surely eat away at the life of grace in our souls.
Matt Fradd's Terrifying Ruminations
Pope’s first homily: A clear, humble proclamation of Jesus Christ
By Matt Fradd, May 9, 2025
“These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised, or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family, and so many other wounds that afflict our society. And these are not few. Today, too, there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman. This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism.”
The Catholic Weekly
The real shame is in not putting up a fight at all
By Monica Doumit, May 13, 2025
As the Catholic Weekly goes to print today, the Greens abortion bill has still not been voted on in the Lower House, so we do not know what the final wash up will be. We know that an amended bill passed the Upper House on Thursday evening, 27 votes to 14. We know that the proposed attacks on individual and institutional conscience were taken out of the bill, and that the attempts to restrict reporting on abortion in NSW backfired. Not only did a majority of MPs vote against an attempt to remove existing requirements for abortions to be reported to the Secretary of Health, but they also added an obligation to provide an annual report to parliament that will finally give details of how many abortions are performed annually and the adverse consequences of those. As the late, great Cardinal George Pell used to say, the real shame is in not putting up a fight at all.
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