Catholic Nutshell News: Tuesday 9/9/25
Topics include: Trump launches ‘America Prays’ initiative, and fights for school prayer; Madison Diocese denies allegations; & Catholic colleges wrestle with AI
“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)
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.
ACI Africa
Ivory Coast: ‘Do not be frightened by crosses’
By Justin Assalé, September 8, 2025
Bishop Raymond Ahoua of the Catholic Diocese of Grand-Bassam in the Ivory Coast has invited members of the Legion of Mary, known as Patricians, to be, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, disciples of Jesus amid challenges in the West African nation. The year-long jubilee celebration was held under the theme: After 75 years, together to rebuild the Legion of Mary. “Do not be frightened by crosses. Do not sink into doubts, prophets of doom. Listen to the Gospel! Listen to the Pope who speaks to you of hope,” the Ivorian Catholic Bishop said during the September 7 Eucharistic celebration at Holy Spirit Parish of Grand-Bassam Diocese. The Catholic Church leader urged Patricians to resolutely turn toward the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first disciple of Christ, just as the missionaries and Attobra François Kacou, who led the first presidium of the Legion of Mary in the Ivory Coast in 1950, had done.
The Pillar
Madison Diocese denies allegations of mishandling assault report
By Michelle La Rosa, September 8, 2025
The Diocese of Madison has denied claims that it covered up a previous allegation of sexual assault against a priest arrested last month for attempting to meet a minor for sex. The diocese confirmed that a man had contacted the diocese last year to make an allegation against an unnamed Madison priest and was put in contact with appropriate diocesan officials. That priest was later identified as Fr. Andrew Showers, who was arrested last month on unconnected charges, for allegedly attempting to meet with nefarious intentions a 14-year-old girl. But the diocese said Saturday that while a complaint was made last year, the person who contacted the diocese refused to share essential details about the alleged assault, including the priest’s identity, making it impossible for the diocese to assess or respond to the allegations.
Times of Israel
Israel orders all of Gaza City to evacuate ahead of ground invasion
By Emanuel Fabian, Nurit Yohanan, & ToI Staff, September 9, 2025
The IDF on Tuesday issued the first widespread evacuation order for Gaza City, saying all Palestinian civilians must leave the entire city immediately, ahead of a major military ground offensive against Hamas. Previous warnings issued by the IDF in recent days had only included specific buildings and the area surrounding them. “The IDF is determined to defeat Hamas and will operate in the Gaza City area with great force, just as it has throughout the Strip,” Col. Avichay Adraee, from the IDF. Witnesses said Tuesday Israeli military aircraft dropped hundreds of leaflets on Gaza City, urging residents to flee southwards. With Israeli bulldozers razing the ground in neighborhoods already occupied by the army and some Israeli leaders supporting the mass relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, many fear departing the city now could mean leaving for good. Palestinian civilians were instructed to head to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south via the coastal road. “Remaining in the area is extremely dangerous,” Adraee warned.
Related: At least 50 Palestinians killed in Gaza as Israeli strikes intensify, Vatican News Service (As reported by Hamas), by Nathan Morley, September 9, 2025
CatholicVote
Trump launches ‘America Prays’ initiative
By Elise Winland, September 8, 2025
President Donald Trump unveiled the “America Prays” campaign Sept. 8, calling on Americans to hold weekly prayer gatherings as the US prepares to mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence next year. At the Religious Liberty Commission hearing at Washington D.C.’s Museum of the Bible, Trump laid out the initiative, urging Americans to dedicate one hour each week, gathering in groups of 10 or more, to pray for the nation, its leaders, families, freedoms, and future. “Next year, we will celebrate 250 years since that Declaration was signed,” Trump said. “We’ve invited America’s great faith communities to pray for our nation and for our people and for peace in the world.” “Nothing is more important than winning back the soul of America. Prayer is the essential weapon in this battle,” said CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt.
National Catholic Register
Catholic colleges wrestle with AI in the classroom
By Jonah McKeown, September 8, 2025
In a viral clip, a graduating UCLA student appears on a Jumbotron and holds up a laptop with ChatGPT pulled up, clearly flaunting the online tool and “thanking” it for helping him on his final exams. The viral moment, though silly, sparked a fierce reaction online. For many people, the exuberant graduate, now headed for the real world, said the quiet part out loud — that AI is sucking the oxygen out of college classrooms and taking developing brains with it. AI is no longer a new technology. Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT debuted at the end of 2022, its use has become almost ubiquitous among college students. Examining students across the board at both public and private institutions, recent surveys consistently show that more than 80% of students are using AI tools regularly. However, the widely used cheating-detection tool Turnitin reported that only 1 in 10 assignments run through its AI detection tool were 20% AI-generated.
Catholic News Agency
Trump pledges federal guidance to protect school prayer
By Tyler Arnold, September 8, 2025
President Donald Trump announced the U.S. Department of Education will issue new federal guidelines to protect prayer at public schools. In a Sept. 8 speech to the Religious Liberty Commission, Trump said the new guidelines will “protect the right to prayer in our public schools and [provide for] its total protection.” “For most of our country’s history, the Bible was found in every classroom in the nation, yet in many schools today, students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda,” Trump said. “Some are even punished for their religious beliefs, and very, very strongly punished — it’s ridiculous,” he added. The president said he was inspired to authorize the new guidance after hearing about instances of public school students and staff being censored or facing disciplinary action for engaging in prayer, reading the Bible, or publicly expressing their faith in other ways.
CRUX
Leo gives first exclusive interview to Crux correspondent
By Crux Staff, September 8, 2025
Penguin Random House announced Monday that notoriously media-shy Pope Leo XIV has given his first-ever papal interview to Crux Senior Correspondent Elise Ann Allen as part of her new biography of the pontiff. Titled León XIV: ciudadano del mundo, misionero del siglo XXI, or “Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century,” the book will be published by Penguin Peru in Spanish on Sept. 18 and will be available in bookstores nationwide. English and Portuguese editions of the book, which will hit bookstores in Spain, Mexico, and Colombia this fall, will be released in early 2026. Select excerpts of the pope’s interview will be released in Spanish and English Sept. 14, ahead of the book’s publication. Since his election to the papacy on May 8, the first North American pope and first to hold Peruvian citizenship has emerged as a quiet personality who is cautious but decisive.
Our Sunday Visitor
Why we call Mary ‘co-redeemer’
By Bonnie Drury, September 8, 2025
A few weeks ago, we had a visitor in our home who went straight for the jugular. “You Catholics are going to hell because you believe in a religion instead of Jesus Christ.” “No,” I said, “that’s not true. The Church is Jesus, here on earth.” She swatted away my answer and said, “And you call Mary the co-redeemer!” I was taken aback by the look of horror and disgust on her face. “Because Mary said yes,” I replied, wondering why this offended her so much. “She allowed Jesus to come to earth through her, as a willing participant to God’s will.” Mary’s title of being called the co-redeemer highlights her humanity. While many misunderstand this teaching, believing that she is being made equal to the Holy Trinity, she is not divine. She is human like the rest of us, yet she rose to the occasion, though young and fearful. Mary said yes — fiat. Is it such a stretch to honor her by the title co-redeemer? Can we see this is also our role?
From Pulpit & Agency to Authors for 9/9/25
BIG PULPIT
Tito Edwards Catholic blogger site: September 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.
Pope Opted Not To Meet With Gay Group – Michael H. Brown at Spirit Daily Blog
Boniface Luykx’s Critique of the Novus Ordo as Defective Ritual – Peter A. Kwasniewski, Ph.D.
St. Catherine’s Monastery in Mount Sinai Mount Will Be Turned Into Mega-Resort – BBC
Why Traditionalists Love The Millennial Saint – Damian Thompson at UnHerd
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — September 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 happenings of the Holy See to anyone with internet access.
Vatican establishes feast days of St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati - Sep 9, 2025 - By Victoria Cardiel - Going forward, the Catholic Church will commemorate the liturgical memorial of St. Carlo Acutis on Oct. 12 and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati on July 4. The two young men were canonized Sept. 7.
U.S. Department of Justice report faults Biden administration for anti-Christian bias - Sep 8, 2025 - By Amira Abuzeid - A report from the U.S. Department of Justice has found that the Biden administration engaged in a “consistent and systematic pattern of discrimination” against Christians, including Catholics.
Quebec’s proposed prayer ban ‘like forbidding thought itself,’ Montreal archbishop says - Sep 8, 2025 - By Canadian Catholic News - The Quebec government’s call for a ban on all public prayer raises “serious concerns” about a democratic society’s fundamental freedoms.
Catholic Authors
Walker Alexander Percy: ‘Why Catholic? What else is there?’
By Rosie Hall/CatholicVote, January 12, 2024
A contemporary of Flannery O’Connor and a convert to Catholicism, Walker Alexander Percy was born in the Bible Belt of America in 1916. Orphaned at a young age, Percy lived with his aunt and uncle, who surrounded him with culture and allowed him to expand his horizons. Though he went to medical school and wanted to become a doctor, he fell ill with tuberculosis partway through his residency. Percy turned to writing, and his hobby became his job. He wrote for 30 years, and much of his work centered around reviving the true meanings of words. In our modern world, Percy argues, words can lose their meaning. He wanted to retake the true meanings of things. When asked, “Why are you Catholic?” he parried: “What else is there?” Many of his popular books, such as The Moviegoer and Love in the Ruins, contain Catholic characters, imagery, and an effort to revive the true meaning behind symbols.
Nutshell reflections for 9/9/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO - September 9, 2025
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Aleteia
What is the apocrypha in Catholic bibles?
By Philip Kosloski, September 6, 2025
Simply put, it refers to a set of books in the Bible that Christians tend to disagree about. The compilation of the Bible as we know it today was a long, drawn-out process. It started with oral history that was passed on to each generation, and then this history was written down by inspired authors and brought together to form various "books." Then, during the 4th century AD, the need arose to officially codify the Bible, which by this point was already starting to come together. The approval of the books to include started with the Council of Laodicea in 363, and was settled definitively during the Synods of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397). Luther thought that Jesus was not familiar with Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I and II Maccabees, and sections of Esther and Daniel, which became known in Protestant circles as the "apocrypha" and were eventually omitted from every Protestant Bible. The Jewish Septuagint, however, included all the books of the Old Testament, including those that Protestants currently refer to as the apocrypha.
Imaginative Conservative
Genesis undercuts the idea that toil is man’s ‘lot’
By Marc Barnes, September 7, 2025
Within the liberalist tradition, no one bats an eye when Locke casually interprets the Tower of Babel as the establishment of a Commonwealth in his Treatises on Government; when Hobbes calls Moses an absolute sovereign in the parts of Leviathan that no one reads; when John Adams includes in his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson an argument disdaining the “total lack of political realism on the part of the [Hebrew] prophets.” It falls to the critic to pull out the scriptural exegesis from the humanistic attempt to say everything about everything, but without addressing the liberal fathers’ appeal to Scripture, we fail to understand them, and thus their progeny — ourselves. If an increased population dooms men to war for finite resources, then the Genesis blessing “be fruitful and multiply” is no blessing, but a curse. Toil, instead of a punishment, becomes the means of man’s salvation from his original (and sinful) state of being mixed up with torpid matter.
Catholic Mom
It’s funny how humility works
By Leigh Ann Roman, September 9, 2025
When we travel, we attend Mass on the weekend no matter where we are. One of the great things about being Catholic is knowing that the Mass is the Mass wherever you go. But the flavor of the Mass can vary depending on the parish or the diocese. My home parish offers a reverent Mass with liturgical music, a good homily, and the option of receiving the Eucharist either kneeling or standing. That is what I am accustomed to. But I have learned that if I keep an open mind and a humble spirit, I can benefit from any Mass I attend. The virtue of humility is the touchstone of a relationship with God because it is through our understanding of our human nature that we discover our need for God. Humor is often sparked by seeing the incongruity between the way life is and the way we might wish it to be. It was refreshing to consider that laughing at myself can be a starting point for humility.
Catholic Stand
Sherborne Abbey: ‘Not so little gem‘
By David Torkington, September 9, 2025
I had heard of Sherborne Abbey before, and had been told it was worth visiting. I had also known that St. Stephen Harding had been brought up there before moving to Molemnes, from where he founded the Cistercian order at Citeaux, but nothing had prepared me for the overall effect of this ‘not so little gem‘. St. Stephen would never have seen the glory of what Sherborne Abbey finally became, because it was only after a fire had destroyed its interior in the early part of the fifteenth century that it was redecorated in the Perpendicular style. It was the first complete church to be decorated in the new English style that I had first seen at King’s College, Cambridge, when I was a schoolboy. The great Gothic cathedrals were meant to raise hearts and minds to the transcendental majesty of God and, at the same time, make you aware of your smallness, weakness, and unworthiness so that you could be led on to the true prayer of humility.
Catholic Nutshell News is a subscription service hosted by SubStack. Get up to a dozen recent articles from Monday to Saturday to review newsworthy issues. An easy way to browse top Catholic news and information services on the net. Edited by John Pearring.
Listen to an audio podcast of today’s Catholic Nutshell News on the Substack App!
At the top of your phone, while in the Substack app to read our post, you can press the ▶️ play button and have Catholic Nutshell News read to you daily …
