Catholic Nutshell News: Tuesday 6/9/26
Catholics should know: Scientists unethically experiment on the unborn; Vatican investigates Baton Rouge bishop; AI still thinks Francis is pope; & Catholic clergy used in China’s ethnic Sinicization
“I’ll pray for thee from my pistachio tree”
Your 5-minute Catholic briefing for busy faithful. Today's sources are OSV News, EWTN, First Things, Big Pulpit, Aleteia, and The Pillars. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise their Catholic News Muscle)
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EWTN News
Scientists unethically experiment on the unborn
By Kate Quiñones, June 8, 2026
Genetic researchers are increasing the accuracy of gene editing through experiments on unborn babies that could have been done on animals, one bioethicist says. At Columbia University, researchers have now edited the DNA of human embryos with “unprecedented accuracy,” according to a recent report by the New York Times. Dieter Egli, a professor of developmental cell biology in the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia, led the research, using a technique called base editing to replace individual genetic letters in sequences of DNA, according to the report. Egli’s work did not cause the damage that the gene editing technique “CRISPR,” or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, usually causes. Potential side effects remain unknown, according to the researcher, and the technique is not ready for clinical implementation. Developing technology comes with its own ethical implications — used to cure disease-causing mutations in the early stages of life, but also used to select traits in unborn children.
CBCP News
SVD community takes legal action over Senate hearing allegations
By CBCP News, June 5, 2026
The Society of the Divine Word, the largest Roman Catholic missionary order, said it has initiated legal action after one of its priests was accused during a Philippines Senate hearing of receiving money allegedly linked to a flood control kickback scheme, calling the claims “false, malicious, and defamatory.” The SVD community categorically denied allegations that Fr. Flaviano Antonio Villanueva received cash in an envelope delivered near a church on Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City. “They are false,” the congregation said. “Legal action has already been initiated. We intend to hold accountable those who have chosen to bear false witness.” The accusations surfaced during a Senate inquiry into alleged irregularities in flood-control projects, in which purported former Marines linked Villanueva to transactions tied to a controversial scheme. According to the congregation, no church matching the witness’s description exists along Mindanao Avenue, and no SVD parish, church, or ministry center is located in that area.
Related: Appeals court in Canada says sexual assault suit against Fr. Rosica can proceed - Michelle La Rosa, The Pillar, June 04, 2026
National Catholic Register
Vatican-ordered probe of Baton Rouge bishop
By Matthew McDonald, June 8, 2026
Investigators conducted three full days of interviews last week in a probe of Bishop Michael Duca, ordered by the Vatican over the Diocese of Baton Rouge’s handling of a report of sexual abuse by a parish priest, two witnesses told the Register. “They’re all about the timing, why it took so long,” the purported victim, a man in his mid-60s, told the Register, on condition of anonymity. “They wanted to connect a lot of dots.” The man told the Register he and his wife spoke with the investigators for about 1 hour and 45 minutes on Wednesday, June 3. The investigators represent the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which is conducting the investigation, but they are lay professionals from out of state, said Luke Zumo, a longtime friend of the purported victim. Zumo filed the initial complaint against Bishop Duca under Vos Estis Lux Mundi, an apostolic letter issued by Pope Francis in May 2019 that established a process for investigating bishops in sexual abuse cases.
Our Sunday Visitor
Pope Leo jokes AI still thinks Francis is pope — there is a lesson
By Paulina Guzik, June 8, 2026
Pope Leo XIV used a light touch of humor to make a point about artificial intelligence and a Christian answer to it while sharing a meal with Spanish bishops in Madrid on June 8. Meeting the country’s prelates over octopus, a staple of Spanish cuisine, Pope Leo made a joke that made a point worthy of the “Magnifica Humanitas” author. OSV News learned from a source close to the bishops’ conference that Pope Leo told the gathering he had “consulted” AI and asked what the pope should say to the Spanish episcopate. The system began its answer with, “Pope Francis would say …,” prompting Pope Leo to cut in: “I think there is another Pope now,” the source recalled to OSV News what the pontiff said. Only then, Pope Leo said, according to the source, did AI correct itself: “Ah, that’s right. Pope Leo is now the pope.” Pope Leo used the story to underline that Christians follow a very different “algorithm.” Unlike digital systems, he said, the Gospel’s algorithm leads believers, including bishops, to love people, to accompany them, and to be servants of the Word.
Religion News Service (RNS)
Defense Department reduces recognized religions to 30
By Yonat Shimron & Adelle M. Banks, June 8, 2026
The Defense Department under Secretary Pete Hegseth last month pared down the list of recognized religious labels in the military from 211 to a mere 31 — the vast majority of which are various Christian denominations. After eliminating about 180 faith groups from its list of recognized religions, the Department of Defense moved quickly to revise the list once again on Monday (June 8) in response to criticism from various religious groups. The most recent list dropped the word “Christian” from 19 categories after pressure from two Utah senators and others who objected to omitting a “Christian” label beside the name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Defense Department also dropped the category “Christian-Other.” “The Pentagon list included redundant and unnecessary labeling, and the mistake has been fixed,” the DOW Rapid Response X account tweeted, which also listed the updated religious affiliation codes.
Aleteia
Antonio Banderas on the question that shaped his faith
By Cerith Gardiner, June 8, 2026
Speaking before Pope Leo XIV in Madrid this week, Antonio Banderas offered a surprisingly personal reflection on faith, art, and the question that has accompanied him since childhood. The Spanish actor was taking part in a gathering of cultural, artistic, economic, and sporting figures during the Pope’s visit to Spain. "With only four or five years of age," Banderas told the Pope, "a question was born in me that contained just one word: God," as shared by Cadena SER. The image he described was beautifully simple. Standing in the streets of Málaga during Holy Week, surrounded by what he called a "majestic ritual of art, culture, and devotion," the future Hollywood star watched as his mother fixed her gaze on the Virgin of Hope passing before them in procession. What makes Banderas' faith story particularly interesting is that it has never been presented as a dramatic conversion. Instead, he speaks openly about searching. That search eventually brought him back to the Catholic faith of his childhood.
The Pillar
Catholic clergy used to ‘promote China’s ethnic unity law’
By Luke Coppen, June 4, 2026
The Chinese government is reportedly using state-sanctioned Church bodies to promote a contentious new law aimed at ethnic minorities. The online magazine Bitter Winter published a June 2 article documenting an event in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, in which priests reportedly handed out booklets on the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, scheduled to go into effect July 1. Chinese authorities present the law as an effort to strengthen national cohesion and guarantee equality between the country’s 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. But Western governments and human rights activists claim it seeks to subsume minority languages, cultures, and religious practices into a unified Chinese national identity that reflects the norms of the majority Han culture. The new law embeds Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s policies promoting the “Sinicization of ethnic minorities” into the country’s legal framework.
Zenit News
Impressive numbers for the Pope’s second day in Spain
By ZENIT Staff, June 7, 2026
The organizing team for the Pope’s visit to Spain released some of the most relevant and surprising figures for Sunday, June 7.
1.5 million people participated in the Corpus Christi Mass and procession with the Pope.
Approximately 400 million people followed the celebration on television, through the official broadcast distributed by TVE (Spanish Television) to networks worldwide.
Among many others, a group of influencers with a combined following of nearly 60 million also attended the Mass in person. The content they shared on Sunday, June 7, has garnered millions of views.
In the last 24 hours, the official website for the visit, conelpapa.es, has received over 13 million visits. Over the past week, the site has registered 68 million visits.
Keep informed - 6/9/26 news for Catholics
Snippets: Pulpit, EWTN, & Aleteia
BIG PULPIT
Tito Edwards’ Catholic blogger site: June 9, 2026
The Big Pulpit website is an intelligent news aggregator offering insights and analysis on the Catholic Church worldwide. Here are Chief Editor Tito Edward’s top recommendations for today.
Research Finds Parents Play Decisive Role in Children’s Religious Future – Catholic World Report
Six Extraordinary Eucharistic Miracles That Left Physical Evidence With Pictures – Church Pop
Spanish Feminists React With Fury After Pope Leo Goes Off – Catholic Arena
Priests in U.S. Sent to the Funny Farm for Believing Catholic Teachings – Fr. David J. Nix at Pilgrim Priest
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — June 9, 2026
EWTN News 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.
7,000 pilgrims open divine mercy congress in Vilnius, Lithuania - By Bryan Lawrence Gonsalves - Pilgrims from more than 50 countries gathered in the birthplace of the Divine Mercy devotion as Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to make mercy the foundation of peace.
Monsignor Vaccari cites rising humanitarian strain as Middle East violence intensifies - By Katherine Matt - Monsignor Peter Vaccari, president of Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA), a papal agency that delivers humanitarian aid, described the situation in Jerusalem.
Meet Jules Rimet: The devout Catholic who helped create the FIFA World Cup - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - The FIFA World Cup, one of the most-watched sporting events, with roughly 5 billion people tuning in to the tournament, has Catholic faith underpinnings.
Aleteia
Aleteia’s global network of experts, journalists, & contributors
Aleteia (aleteia.org) is an online publication distributed in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Slovenian). Launched in 2013, it is one of the world’s leading news websites. Aleteia offers a Christian vision of the world by providing both general and religious content free from ideological influences.
Why is St. Ephrem called the “Harp of the Holy Spirit”? - St. Ephrem, the "Harp of the Holy Spirit," an influential saint from the 4th century, wrote a number of hymns that are used by many Eastern Christians. Born into a pagan family, he was instructed as a youth in the Christian faith and then baptized at the age of 18.
Beautiful funeral prayer from the 1950s - This month of the Sacred Heart brings to mind a prayer from a funeral held in the 1950s, which calls on St. Joseph as a "friend of the Sacred Heart." It aids us to pray for the souls in Purgatory with insistence and constancy.
Ready in a crisis: Catholic Relief Services gets funding lifeline -After a year of funding cuts for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. State Department has announced a $240 million grant for emergency relief.
June 9, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE - or read HERE:
Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
CRUX News
Pope Leo will tap into the Sagrada Familia’s allure, but first …
By Joseph Wilson, June 9, 2026
Pope Leo XIV will bridge 1,000 years of church history on Wednesday, visiting a medieval mountaintop monastery that local Catholics consider sacred and then celebrating Mass at Barcelona’s famous Sagrada Familia Basilica. Montserrat, a healthy drive from the city, followed by a steep ascent, is dear to many of the Catalan people in northeastern Spain. Annually, 2 million people travel to the complex that includes an 11th-century Benedictine abbey as well as a 16th-century basilica. Its Black Madonna statue, which studies show was originally white but darkened over centuries by smoke and incense before being painted black, is widely revered. But for many Catholics watching from afar — and especially non-Catholics — the highlight of the Chicago-born pope’s seven-day trip to Spain will be his evening Mass at the Sagrada Familia — the Basilica of the Holy Family — commemorating the centennial of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí.
Missio Dei Catholic
A scene of God’s inexhaustible grace
By Deacon Michael Halbrook, June 9, 2026
There, at the gate of the city Zarephath, Elijah finds the woman God has designated to provide for him. She has a handful of flour and a little oil. She is preparing what she believes will be the last meal for herself and her son. She tells Elijah this with the flat clarity of someone who has exhausted hope: “When we have eaten it, we shall die.” And Elijah says, “Do not be afraid. Go. Make the cake.” She does. “The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry.” The miracle is quiet and domestic. Not fire from heaven, not parting waters. Just a jar that, when she reached into it the next morning, still had something in it. And the morning after. And the morning after that. For a year, she reached into the jar, and it was not empty. The abundance was invisible until the moment of need, and then it was simply there. The early Church read this scene as a figure of inexhaustible grace.
The Imaginative Conservative
Plague of plagiarism sweeping through the university system
By Trevor Lipscombe, June 7, 2026
In the First Letter to Timothy (1 Tim. 1:9-10), Saint Paul informs us (RSV CE 2nd ed.) “The law is not laid down for the righteous but for… immoral persons, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine”. Stern words indeed. In the Vulgate, what the RSV renders “kidnappers” is plagis, sharing a root with plagiarist. In the classical world, plagiarius meant a kidnapper, which ultimately became the common phrase we use today when someone kidnaps another's words. Right now, a plague of plagiarism is sweeping through the university system. No less an authority than the Harvard Crimson reports that 47% of undergraduates at that storied Ivy League school have committed plagiarism. It’s plagiarism when students reduce, reuse, or recycle others' words. It’s “borrowing freely” or “leaning on heavily” when scholars do it. At its very marrow, though, it’s theft. The theft of intellectual property, maybe, but theft nonetheless.
First Things
Erroneous outputs by AI can jeopardize the salvation of souls
By Nikolas Prassas, June 9, 2026
The words of a dead man / Are modified in the guts of the living.” Neither W. H. Auden, who wrote these lines in 1939, nor W. B. Yeats, whom they concern, knew that their words would one day end up in the matrices and vector fields that constitute the “guts” of modern AI models. To use Yeats’s preferred language, everything he ever wrote is now being turned around in a virtual “gyre” along with everything else that has ever been written. How his works will be modified in the process is impossible to say. While this may not be an urgent problem for Yeats scholars, it does present a difficulty for an institution with teaching authority, such as the Church. The integrity of doctrine depends on the precision with which it is stated. Hallucinations—the standard euphemism for erroneous outputs by AI models—can, where the word of God is concerned, jeopardize the salvation of souls.
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