Catholic Nutshell News: Tuesday 7/1/25
Topics include: 45-year-old cardinal bridges many worlds; Former inmates and St. Vincent de Paul; Vatican Radio 75 years at EBU; & Americans support public school chaplains
“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 George Weigel. (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
Unlikely 45-year-old cardinal bridges many worlds
By John Burger, July 1, 2021
It was in keeping with Pope Francis’ reputation as a “pope of surprises” that a 44-year-old former monk who headed a diocese in faraway Australia should be named a cardinal, the youngest cardinal. Perhaps no one was more surprised than Mykola Bychok to find himself not only at the December 2024 consistory but in the May 2025 conclave. Cardinal Bychok is from Western Ukraine, but has served in the United States, Australia, and even Russia. Born in Ternopil, two hours east of Lviv, on February 13, 1980, he was ordained a priest with the Redemptorists on May 3, 2005. He served in monastic and parish life and youth ministry in Ukraine and was a pastor in a Ukrainian Catholic parish in Newark, New Jersey. He is now in charge of the “Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania covers an area of 8,919,530 square kilometers [3,443,849 square miles], located on the Australian mainland and the Oceania Islands. In this vast area, we have 10 parishes and 10 missions.”
The Pillar
Former inmates: St. Vincent de Paul program offers a fresh start
By Jack Figge, June 23, 2025
For the past 20 years, Ricardo Salgado had been locked inside a walled complex where time seemed to stand still. When he got out, things were different than how he’d left them. Beyond the barbed wire fences and prison routine, Salgado found himself immersed in a cashless world, dictated by iPhones, where even vending machines required a credit card. Salgado moved to a halfway house in Des Moines, Iowa, in the hope of being close to his daughter and granddaughter. “Somebody at the halfway house mentioned the program at St. Vincent de Paul and that they would help me out and give me this or that.” The program aims to help recently released former inmates readjust to life beyond prison. Over the past few years, the Iowa idea has grown into a national project, with chapters in cities across the country. Over the past decade, the local operation has experienced exponential growth, expanding from a single location to five, and increasing its budget from $600,000 to over $8.5 million annually.
Vatican News Service
Vatican Radio participates in European Broadcasting Summit
By Vatican News, June 30, 2025
From 2 to 4 July, London hosts the 94th General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the foremost association of public service media organisations in Europe, at the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Vatican Radio has been a member of the EBU since its inception, reflecting its mission to communicate the universal message of the Church through modern means of communication. Leading figures from the international media landscape will attend, marking the 75th anniversary of the EBU’s founding. Vatican Radio will be represented by Alessandro Gisotti, Deputy Editorial Director of Vatican Media. Topics will include the impact of artificial intelligence, the defence of press freedom, combating disinformation, and the future of streaming technologies.
CatholicVote
Majority of Americans support public school chaplains
By Hannah Hiester, June 30, 2025
The majority of Americans support allowing public schools to have chaplains available to offer support to students, said a recent AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey. AP News reported on the study’s nuanced view toward the presence of religion in public schools. Six in 10 US adults said public schools should be allowed to have chaplains, but the same number opposed teacher-led prayer or mandatory prayer times during the school day. US adults were also more likely to oppose publicly funded religious charter schools than they were to support it (43% vs 23%). The survey found that white evangelical Christians (82%), non-white Protestants (76%), Catholics (61%), and white mainline Protestants (56%) are most likely to support religious chaplains in public schools, compared with 41% of those with no religious affiliation. Republicans are also more likely than Democrats to approve of chaplains in public schools (70% vs 47%), teachers leading prayers in the classroom (60% vs 29%), and mandatory prayer times (49% vs 27%).
National Catholic Register
Judge rejects motion to dismiss suit blocking Catholic trade school
By Tyler Arnold/CNA, July 1, 2025
A lawsuit that seeks to block West Virginia from offering a Catholic trade college a $5 million grant will move forward after a judge rejected the college’s motion for dismissal last week. The lawsuit, filed by the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the American Humanist Association (AHA), seeks to block a grant awarded to St. Joseph the Worker College in Kanawha County Circuit Court. The College of St. Joseph the Worker, based in Steubenville, Ohio, teaches trades related to construction — carpentry, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing — combined with a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies. The school intends to use the grant money to create a nonprofit construction company in West Virginia and expand its job training and education programs into the state.
Catholic News Agency
Hard but ‘not impossible’ to rescind gay marriage law in Spain
By Nicolás de Cárdenas, July 1, 2025
Analyzing the consequences of the law that equated same-sex unions with marriage in Spain 20 years ago, Carmen Sánchez Maíllo, academic secretary of the CEU (Center of University Studies, by its Spanish acronym) Institute of Family Studies, considers the statute to be difficult to overturn but “not impossible.” On July 1, 2005, Spain’s lower house passed the law that then-President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced a year earlier that his government would introduce. Article 44 of the Civil Code was reworded as follows: “Marriage shall have the same requirements and effects when both parties are of the same or different sexes.” Spain thus became the third country in the world, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to equate marriage with same-sex unions, which also allowed same-sex couples to apply to adopt children in the latter two.
CBCPNews
Cardinal David: Online gambling policy is ‘theater of the absurd’
By CBCP News, June 30, 2025
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, Philippines, criticized the government’s handling of online gambling, calling it a “theatre of the absurd.” He accused officials of moral negligence in allowing widespread access to betting platforms. Cardinal David said the government is complicit in exposing children and families to the dangers of gambling addiction by legalizing online platforms that are accessible around the clock, even to minors. “Who needs to sneak into a high-end casino when the casino has been brought into every living room, every bedroom, every child’s pocket — right there on the glowing screen of a smartphone?” David said. David heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. He condemned celebrities and influencers for promoting gambling apps on social media, saying they “prostitute themselves for a fee” in service of “conscienceless billionaires.”
Catholic Culture
Peter’s Pence had $20.4M deficit in 2024
By Catholic World News, June 30, 2025
Peter’s Pence has released its annual report for 2024, noting that the collection for the Holy See and papal humanitarian aid generated 58 million euros ($68.0 million) in income and 75.4 million euros ($88.4 million) in expenses in 2024, resulting in a deficit of 17.4 million euros ($20.4 million). Most of the income (54.3 million euros, or $63.7 million) came from donations; the rest came from “financial & other.” The United States (25.2%), France (15%), and Italy (5.2%) were the largest sources of donations from dioceses and individuals. 59% of the donations came from dioceses, 22% from foundations, 16% from individuals, and 3% from religious orders. (Vatican News, the agency of the Dicastery for Communication, mistakenly reported that 12.2% of donations came from foundations.)
From Pulpit & Agency to Satire for 7/1/25
BIG PULPIT
Tito Edwards Catholic blogger site: July 1, 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.
As Christians Are Slaughtered, the World Looks Away – Madeleine Kearns at The Free Press
Americanist Heresy Query: Should Church be More American or Americans More Catholic – TFP
Peruvian Bishops Call on the Pope to Return – Silere Non Possum
Leo Awards TLM Persecutor Weisenburger & Scandal Ridden McElroy the Pallium – Ch. Jackson
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — July 1, 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 happenings of the Holy See to anyone with internet access.
Mexican bishop: Despite danger, it’s worth the risk to become a priest - Jul 1, 2025 - By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú - During the last 30 years, at least 80 priests have been murdered in Mexico, making the nation one of the most dangerous.
20 bishops join interfaith letter against ICE funding boost in ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ - Jun 30, 2025 - By Tyler Arnold - An interfaith coalition of religious leaders, including 20 Catholic bishops, signed a letter urging lawmakers to vote against the “big beautiful bill.”
Churches in Syria resume liturgies amid heightened security and unease - Jun 30, 2025 - By Souhail Lawand - Divine Liturgies were celebrated on Sunday, June 30, in Damascus, Syria — albeit with significantly lower attendance due to a prevailing atmosphere of fear and anxiety.
Babylon Bee - Satire News
Satan Releases Statement Declaring Victory Over Jesus
By Theology Staff, April 16, 2022
After one of the biggest, most significant victories of his career, Satan the Prince of Darkness released a statement today touting his accomplishment of defeating the Son of God on the cross on Friday afternoon. "Mission Accomplished" banner flashed across the screen. "We are talking one of the best wins, maybe ever. Everyone is saying so. I don't normally like to brag, but since people have been asking, yes, the rumors are true. I've killed the Son of God, mankind's only hope of salvation, and there's no chance of a comeback." "This is huge." Reading a copy of the Ancient Jerusalem Times, Satan triumphantly pointed out the headline, which read, "Satan Defeats Jesus." At publishing time, Satan had been slightly troubled at the sound of a stone rolling somewhere in the distance. Still, he'd brushed it off and said it was "probably nothing."
Nutshell reflections for 7/1/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO - July 1, 2025
Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our Sunday Visitor
Should general absolution be a more regular practice?
By Jenna Marie Cooper, June 30, 2025
“General absolution” is sacramental absolution a priest confers on a large group of people all at once, without having heard the spoken confessions of each individual’s sins. As one might expect, the Church reserves general absolution for fairly extreme situations. Canon 961 of the Code of Canon Law describes the two scenarios where general absolution would be appropriate. The first is when “danger of death threatens and there is not time for the priest or priests to hear the confessions of the individual penitents.” An illustration of this would be a priest onboard an airplane about to crash, or immediately prior to an inescapable and deadly natural disaster. This would not be the situation in the vast majority of parishes at a regular Sunday Mass. The second scenario for general absolution as a legitimate option: “there exists a grave necessity, that is, given the number of penitents, there are not enough confessors available.”
The Abbey of Misrule
Be still and know: Lives of the wild saints
By Paul Kingsnorth, July 1, 2025
Excerpt from St Seraphim of Sarov, Russia - Eighteenth century
It was wanting to perfect that led me to the lake. I was not perfect and never would be and I saw no way to change this. Therefore I could never be a Christian so I may as well be dead, as God would never have me. This was what my young man’s blood told me. But God had other ideas. I threw myself in. It was cold, it was freezing, there was a fog on the water; but I swear I saw the Mother of God standing on the shore, looking over at me with a kind of weary love. I was not a Godly man, and I knew it. I had failed to drown, but I had also failed to live. So I thought to go and ask Father Seraphim, who they said was a saint, what it meant to be a Christian, and if I could ever achieve it. The minute I saw him, my heart sank. He was all that I would never be. All through our conversation he would call me my joy, or your godliness. But there was no falseness in him, and I knew it straight away.
Catholic Mom
Holy perspective on anger issues
By Erin McCole Cupp, July !, 2025
I have angry mom problems. Thankfully, I don’t have a problem with placing undue value on what I can only call “stupid anger.” For instance, when road rage surges through me, I am at least lucid enough to recognize that no number of curse words has ever improved another driver’s driving. Sometimes, anger is just pointless. On such occasions, anger has no power to make anything better, but it certainly has the power to make things worse. Anger is on our list of deadly sins. Aquinas quotes Saint Gregory the Great, who tells us: “We must beware lest, when we use anger as an instrument of virtue, it overrule the mind, and go before it as its mistress, instead of following reason’s train, ever ready, as its handmaid, to obey.” Anger is beneficial when it motivates us to stop sinning, provided we are mindful that we should be angry enough about our own sins to change them, rather than pointing our anger towards anyone else’s sin (see Matthew 7:3-5).
GeorgeWeigel.com
Flannery O’Connor: Grounded in deep theological truths of the Creed
By George Weigel, June 25, 2025
I agree with Chilton Williamson Jr. that the posthumously published Habit of Being was Flannery O’Connor’s best book: an agreement I record with some trepidation, given critic Bruce Bawer’s recent assertion in The New Criterion that Miss O’Connor was the best American short story writer of the 20th century (take that, Papa Hemingway!) In Habit, and in her own voice, she traces the arc of her often-difficult life as a lupus-afflicted author of fiction while revealing herself as one of the most gifted Catholic apologists of her time. And by “apologist,” I don’t mean someone who bludgeoned others into the act of faith by the ahistorical, logical rigor of irrefutable syllogisms. Rather, Flannery O’Connor’s apologetics were grounded in a profoundly humanistic grasp of the deep theological truths of the Creed, coupled with a penetrating insight into the cultural obstacles that modern life posed to a Christian apprehension of those truths.
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