Catholic Nutshell News: Tuesday 9/2/25
Topics include: Priest in Sierra Leone murdered; Leo’s upcoming diplomatic flights; Malala Yousafzai fights for the right to education; & Communion rails returning?
“I’ll pray for thee from my pistachio tree”
Today's sources are the National Catholic Register, CNA, The CatholicVote, CRUX, The Pillar, OSV, 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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ACI Africa
Priest in Sierra Leone murdered while preparing for new mission
By Agnes Aineah, September 1, 2025
Fr. Augustine Amadu from Sierra Leone’s Catholic Diocese of Kenema was murdered on August 30 while he was preparing to take on a new mission in the Sierra Leonean Episcopal See. Fr. Augustine, who served at Kenema’s Immaculate Conception Parish, was preparing for his Sunday, August 31, farewell Mass when suspected robbers ended his life. “We are saddened by the shocking news reaching us this morning (Sunday, August 31) about the demise of Reverend Father Augustine Amadu, who was stabbed to death by armed robbers at his parish house in Kenema Diocese,” reads the report by the communication department of Freetown Archdiocese in part. “Fr. Amadu was wrapping up his final days of his pastoral work … before departing for his new assignment at St. John Parish, Kailahun, after five years of devoted service.”
The Pillar
Leo’s upcoming diplomatic flight plan
By Ed. Condon, August 27, 2025
With the end of the summer schedule now at hand, the Vatican is gearing back up to a regular working schedule. Leo will need to oversee the closing months of the Jubilee Year, with pilgrims likely to flood the city for the canonizations of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis in October. Leo will soon likely also approve the announcement of his first slate of international travel as pope. Where he goes, and when, could end up telling us a great deal about how he sees himself inhabiting the office of Bishop of Rome. The universal expectation is that Leo’s first marquee trip will be to Turkey in November. Ecumenical rapprochement with the Orthodox Church was a key priority of the Francis pontificate. The deepening split between the Russo-sphere of the Orthodox Communion and the rest of the Eastern Churches actually saw some of the more intractable opponents of dialogue with Rome remove themselves from the process.
Vatican News Service
Malala Yousafzai fights courageously for the right to education
By Alessandro Gisotti, September 1, 2025
At 14, Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai became the target of a brutal Taliban attack that nearly cost her life. Her struggle began at just 11 years old, when she started a blog advocating for girls’ right to education in her native Swat Valley. In a remarkably short time, she became a global force in promoting the right to education for women everywhere. In 2014, at the age of 17, Malala became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Together with her father, the schoolteacher Ziauddin Yousafzai, she founded the Malala Fund, which for a decade has been fighting for access to education through concrete projects and initiatives. “Education fuels hope for a more peaceful, more equal future. It is also where they make friends, build compassion, and learn to work with others. These skills are key to tackling injustices—like misogyny and discrimination—and reminding people of our shared humanity.”
CatholicVote
Guidance for Catholics when loved ones leave the Church
By Rachel Quackenbush, September 1, 2025
Missionaries with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) released guidelines for Catholics struggling with the pain of seeing friends or family leave the Church. Their first piece of guidance is to begin with prayer, according to an article from FOCUS. “No argument, no perfectly worded conversation, and no social media post can change hearts the way God’s grace can,” the article stated. FOCUS encourages Catholics to intercede through the Rosary, Eucharistic adoration, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and sacrifices offered quietly for those who have left. They also stress the importance of remaining close to loved ones rather than pulling away. “Keep calling, keep inviting, keep being a friend,” they said. “Let them know that your love for them isn’t dependent on whether they share your beliefs.” According to FOCUS, the consistency of showing up is often remembered in difficult times. Listening is another essential step. FOCUS notes that each person’s story is unique.
National Catholic Register
Communion rails return: Churches claim it is for beauty & reverence
By Joseph Pronechen, April 6, 2025
A growing number of Catholic parishes in the U.S. are restoring altar rails, renewing reverence, and transforming the faithful’s experience of the Holy Eucharist. At St. Anne Church in Richmond Hill, Georgia, the Hilleary family receives Communion at the altar rail. “It creates a more sacred space. And it draws your attention to the sacred,” said Michelle Hilleary. “It sets apart the sanctuary,” observed her 15-year-old daughter, Malia. When St. Anne’s was built in 2016, there was no Communion rail. Today, a redwood altar rail — installed in July 2024 — now surrounds the sanctuary. So far, he has found that “about 90% of the people will kneel to receive Communion. Even if they are receiving on the hand, they will still kneel and use the altar railing.” Naturally, those unable to kneel will stand.
Catholic News Agency
New animated movie: Jesus through eyes of John the disciple
By Francesca Pollio Fenton, September 2, 2025
A new 2D-animated movie, told through the eyes of Jesus’ beloved disciple John, will be released in theaters on Sept. 5, taking viewers from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry to his passion, death, and resurrection. “Light of the World” is the first film from the Salvation Poem Project, a nonprofit ministry and independent studio that crafts stories to share the message of Jesus Christ with the world. Brennan McPherson, producer of the film, told CNA in an interview that his team chose to tell the story from John’s perspective because he was likely the youngest disciple, so they believe his perspective is the most relatable. “Telling it from the perspective of a young teenager — young kids want to age up, and they see themselves in that. Teenagers are going through those formative years, so they relate to it. Adults know what that formative time in their life was like. It appeals to a whole family.”
CRUX
Pope Leo to maintain openness to LGBTQ
By Elise Ann Allen, September 2, 2025
As the church grapples with how various ‘hot-button’ topics, such as women and LGBTQ issues, will be dealt with in a post-Pope Francis era, the approach from the top will remain the same. Speaking to Crux following a private Sept. 1 audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Jesuit Father James Martin said the pontiff, who has been in office nearly four months, “told me that he would continue the legacy of Pope Francis regarding LGBTQ people, which is a stance of openness and welcome.” Debate on this point was so divisive among synod participants that it ultimately ended up being removed almost entirely from the preparatory document for the final synod gathering in October 2024, as well as that meeting’s final summary document. The lack of consensus on the LGBTQ issue among the church’s global pastors demonstrated what an inflammatory and challenging issue it can be, especially for the church in culturally conservative countries in Africa, Asia, and much of the Pacific, where the topic of homosexuality is frequently still taboo.
Our Sunday Visitor
Family stewards God’s land into a rustic, Catholic retreat
By Gigi Duncan, September 1, 2025
Molly Zimmerman understands that pumping porta-potties, grooming trails and coordinating hundreds of volunteers isn’t how everyone is called to cultivate their God-given gifts, but it’s how she has been called — hesitantly and full of worry, at times — to cultivate hers. It wasn’t until after people who visited their home mentioned how peaceful it was, and after the Boy Scouts had used the land for camping, that Zimmerman gave thought to using their land for a bigger purpose. Zimmerman and her husband, Randy, purchased and dedicated 340 acres of land in Paynesville Township to create the St. Joseph Preserve, a rustic retreat for Catholic renewal, where she hopes people will find peace. “I’m an intense person, and I think that’s part of why God could move in me in this way. But if you have a gentler, more recollected calling, it isn’t any less valuable. Those souls are powerful — those often-hidden souls,” Zimmerman said. “That’s (just like) St. Joseph.”
From Pulpit & Agency to Authors for 9/2/25
BIG PULPIT
Tito Edwards Catholic blogger site: September 2, 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 Church & the Jews: What Is “Authentic Judaism”? – Thomas V. Mirus at Catholic Culture
Will the End of Protestantism Be the End of America? – Aaron M. Renn
53 People in the Bible Confirmed Archaeologically – Lawrence Mykytiuk at Bible History Daily
I Was Minding My Own Business Then All of a Sudden 1975 Was 50 Years Ago – Don McClarey
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — September 2, 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.
Pope Leo XIV opens Augustinians’ general chapter with call to listening, humility, and unity Sep 1, 2025 - By Kristina Millare - Nearly 100 Augustinian priests from around the world, who are participating in this year’s chapter, attended the pope’s Mass.
Irish missionary, 7 other hostages freed in Haiti - Sep 1, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - The humanitarian organization Nos Petits Frères et Sœurs on Sept. 1 confirmed the release of eight hostages who had been held captive since Aug. 3 in Haiti.
How to watch the canonizations of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati - Sep 2, 2025 - By Michelle Laque Johnson - EWTN News and EWTN Studios will join forces in Rome from Sept. 3–7 to televise the canonizations of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. In addition to the canonizations, viewers who want an in-depth look at the life and legacy of these two young saints-to-be.
Catholic Authors
Famous novelists deeply influenced by their Catholic faith
By Cerith Gardiner, April 19, 2018
These renowned authors were driven by their search for God. A Catholic worldview sees goodness, truth, and beauty wherever they’re found, and never tires of wrestling with the big questions of life and faith. A great novel is one of the best places to do that. Many novelists, inspired and compelled by the Catholic faith, have penned memorable and moving books that have gone on to be timeless favorites. Most of these authors experienced pain and suffering in their lives; some came to their faith after years of questioning their beliefs. What they all share in common is a commitment to using their craft to tell timeless stories that help us better understand ourselves, our world, and our Creator. Click on the Launch Slideshow to see 12 reputable novelists whose works do just that
Nutshell reflections for 9/2/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO - September 2, 2025
Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Our Sunday Visitor
The difficult reframing by Jesus: The cost of the kingdom
By Father Joshua J. Whitfield, September 1, 2025
in this Sunday’s reading, Jesus repeats the lesson he’s been teaching for several chapters (Lk 14:25-33). He is trying to pry his disciples and would-be followers from relying on everything they are usually accustomed to relying on. Religious identity and status? Stop. Possessions? Definitely stop. Family status? Stop relying even on that. Putting it in the starkest terms possible, talking about “hating” even family members, what Jesus is calling his disciples and potential disciples to accept is that they are to renounce every instance of earthly reliance for the sake of following him. Jesus is not ultimately saying his disciples should erase or ignore all family bonds, but that they should be decisively subordinated to following Jesus. He is calling his disciples to consider a truly radical reordering of their lives.
Imaginative Conservative
A 14th-century view of Church and State
By Andrew Willard Jones, August 31, 2025
Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX, by myself, is a study of France during the life of St. Louis IX (1214–1270). I hope to overcome the limitations of modern political and religious categories, and in doing so, to reframe our understanding of government in the Middle Ages, particularly in relation to the spiritual and temporal powers. I argue that thirteenth-century France was not a world of the secular and the religious vying for position and power, but a world in which the material and the spiritual were totally dependent on each other and penetrated one another at every level. This was a world not of the religious and the secular, but of the New Testament and the Old, of virtue and vice, of grace and law, of peace and violence. This world offered a coherent vision of the whole in which mankind moved through grace from the lesser to the greater, from the fallen to the redeemed. Its integral vision included all of social reality, and its vision was far removed from our own.
Catholic Mom
When depression takes over, we can’t focus on our Father
By Bonnie Drury, September 2, 2025
On Facebook, I joined one of the prayer pages for people seeking Saint Jude's intercession. People post there, asking for prayers from the beloved saint and from members of the group. It breaks my heart when someone writes, “I’m so sad. I don’t know what to do, and I can’t pull myself out of it.” Most of us have had this feeling at one time or another, an overwhelming sadness. Often, we don’t even know why. I don’t mean the debilitating grief that accompanies the loss of a loved one, but the everyday cloud of gloom that colors everything we do. God doesn’t want us to be sad, but Satan certainly does. Anytime depression takes over, we can’t focus on our Heavenly Father. Sometimes, we can’t even see our own family or friends through this fog. They try to reach out to us, but we’re so weak from despair. The Lord “heal[s] the brokenhearted, and bind[s] up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).
Catholic Stand
Joining old with new: Ember days in Arabia
By Russell D. James, September 2, 2025
Is the Church returning to the pre-Vatican II celebrations of the seasons, known as Ember Days? If a recent announcement from Rome for a missionary region of the world is any indication, Ember Days may be making a comeback in the Church. The Vatican announced on August 18th that there had been some changes to the particular calendar of the Vicariate of Southern Arabia (which includes the nations of the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen). The new calendar is not promulgated for the Vicariate of Northern Arabia (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait). These changes included the celebration of three Ember Days: one on the first Friday in March to pray for peace and vocations; the first Friday of June to celebrate the coming of Summer, and the first Friday of November to celebrate the coming of Winter. These Ember Days are not precisely in line with the old Ember Days, but maybe the developing Church has stumbled on a way to combine the old with something new?
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