Catholic Nutshell News: Wednesday 8/13/25
Topics include: New Zealand bishop bans Scottish group; State Dept. shake-up & religious freedom; Mozambique jihadist attacks; & Cardinal questions Philippines’ gambling law
“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”
Today's sources are the CRUX, Catholic Culture, National Catholic Register, CatholicVote, The Pillar, OSV, Church Life Journal, and CNA. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)
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Catholic News Agency
New Zealand bishop bans Scottish group over illicit exorcisms
By Daniel Payne, August 12, 2025
The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, a religious institute in New Zealand, has lost its appeal to the Vatican to continue public ministry in Bishop Michael Gielen’s Diocese of Christchurch after Gielen ordered the ban amid allegations of unauthorized exorcisms and other abuses. The community had been subject to an apostolic visitation by Australian Bishop Robert McGuckin. Gielen removed the ministry faculties of the members after the Vatican’s recommendation and also asked the group “to leave the Christchurch Diocese.” The institute continued its ministry in the diocese during the appeal.
CatholicVote
State Dept. shake-up may weaken US religious freedom policy
By Rachel Quackenbush, August 12, 2025
In an Aug. 7 op–ed for The Hill, two leading experts on international religious liberty warned that a recent State Department reorganization could weaken America’s ability to defend persecuted believers worldwide. The change moves the International Religious Freedom Office back under the State Department’s human rights bureau — reversing its direct reporting line to the Secretary of State and placing it under the bureau’s agenda and operational control. Thomas Farr, the first director of the Office of International Religious Freedom and president emeritus of the Religious Freedom Institute, and David Trimble, the institute’s current president, said this structure restores the “bureaucratic isolation” that stifled the office for nearly two decades after its creation in 1998.
Catholic Culture
50,000 displaced in latest round of Mozambique jihadist attacks
By Aid to the Church in Need, August 12, 2025
“Between July 20-28, the Diocese of Pemba was particularly impacted by the new wave of brutal attacks, especially the districts of Chiúre, Ancuabe, and Muidumbe. Attacks were also very intense on August 6-7, with incidents recorded in the districts of Palma, Meluco, and Quissanga,” reports Sister Aparecida Queiroz from the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The war in Cabo Delgado is rooted in an insurgency carried out by jihadists linked to the Islamic State. Attacks began in 2017, and government attempts to quell them have borne little fruit. The conflict in Cabo Delgado has caused over 6,000 deaths since October 2017 and has displaced over one million people. According to the UN, one million Mozambicans require emergency assistance just to survive.
Related: Church academic exposes ‘owners’ of Mozambique terrorism, CRUX, By Ngala Killian Chimtomm Aug 13, 2025
CRUX
Cardinal questions Philippines’ gambling law after man’s death
By Joseph San Mateo, August 8, 2025
Filipino Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David questioned a decades-old law against illegal gambling after the death of a 20-year-old man whose father was arrested for playing an outlawed street game. Dion Angelo dela Rosa, a third-year college student, died of leptospirosis after wading in floodwaters to search for his father and later visit him in detention. He was an altar server in David’s territory, the Diocese of Kalookan in northern Metro Manila. David noted that the 1978 law “was said to be a protection for the poor against the vice of gambling,” yet decades later, “not a single major gambling lord has been arrested.” He said that the poor “remain the only victims of this law.” The cardinal said that after 24 hours since his father had gone missing, Dela Rosa visited police stations across three different cities, “but no one could give them an answer.”
The Pillar
Vatican-ordered investigation underway in Lima
By Edgar Beltrán, August 12, 2025
The Vatican has commissioned an investigation into allegations of cover-up and financial misconduct made against Cardinal Carlos Castillo, archbishop of Lima, according to senior archdiocesan sources in Peru. Investigators — a group of Augustinian priests led by Fr. Alexander Lam, OSA — have questions about the economic situation of Caritas Lima, a network of diocesan schools, and multiple alleged coverups of sexual misconduct — including cases previously reported by The Pillar, among them sexual misconduct claims linked to the archdiocesan seminary. “The Vatican had asked the archdiocese a couple of months ago for reports about some of these allegations, and the archdiocese slow-walked them, so that’s when the pope decided to send these people to investigate,” a diocesan source told The Pillar.
Catholic365
Explanation needed for ‘We become gods in God’
By Jonicis Saez Bulalacao, August 13, 2025
In a word, Sanctifying Grace is God's life in our soul. We become gods in God. To clarify, “the Christian understanding of deification is one of participating, of becoming a PARTAKER, never the POSSESOR, of divinity.” (from “the Catholic Theology of Human Deification” by David Meconi SJ). “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity” (cf. Jn 17:21-23) CCC #260. “But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘If a man loves me’, says the Lord, ‘he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.’ (Jn 14:23)”. (quoted in CCC 260). These passages enlighten the truth that “the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of our Christian faith and life (CCC 261). Let the Catechism explain further: “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” (St. Irenaeus)
George Weigel
Karl Rahner, SJ, a JPII critic, remained in the Church
By George Weigel, August 8, 2025
Karl Rahner, SJ (1904-1984), one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, is a favorite whipping boy for many traditionally minded Catholics. It’s interesting, then, that Karl Rahner gave a very sharp answer to an interviewer who asked him in 1982 why he, a critic of the direction Catholicism had taken under Pope John Paul II, remained in the church: In all honesty, the [question] ‘Why I remain in the church’ strikes me as abominable. … [The] real Christian believer can’t possibly have a patronising attitude toward the church that allows him or her to weigh staying in the church against getting out of it. Relationship to the church is at the very essence, an absolute of Christian faith. And one should be able to detect this when people who claim to be people of the church, members of the church, criticise their church. …
National Catholic Register
Extinction and new revival of an ancient Syriac saint
By Alberto M. Fernandez, August 11, 2025
When Muslim conquerors first appeared in the seventh century, Mar Elian (“Mar” means saint in Syriac), near the Syrian desert town of al-Qaryatayn, was at least two centuries old. It held Elian the Hermit or Elian the Elder, a Syriac saint, ascetic, and miracle worker originally from the city of Edessa (today Urfa in Turkey) who died in A.D. 367. Soldiers sent by Muhammad passed this shrine and caravan watering hole numerous times and moved on, leaving the site untouched. In early August 10 years ago, these Muslim raiders were different. The Islamic State took the nearby town of al-Qaryatayn and seized several hundred Christians hostage while others fled. Photos and video showed the fighters destroying the Syriac Catholic Monastery of Mar Elian and the saint’s tomb using bulldozers and dynamite. Many did not quite understand who Mar Elian was and the history of the site. Amazingly, the bones of Mar Elian have been recovered, and some initial work has been done towards restoring the monastery and shrine.
From Loop & Agency to Comedy for 8/13/25
CatholicVote: Daily LOOP
Read daily news and political impact stories at the “LOOP”
Elections and politics matter. The LOOP gives you daily gems on the news that seek “to renew our country and culture.” CatholicVote’s advertised mission is “To inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.”
SUPREME COURT ASKED TO STRIKE DOWN GAY 'MARRIAGE' - Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk, has officially petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. This 2015 decision legally redefined matrimony, allowing same-sex "marriage" in all 50 states. Read what might come next.
RFK ANNOUNCES END OF DOCTOR BONUSES FOR VAXES - Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Friday announced the repeal of federal regulations that he said have led to “corrupt medical judgment” by allowing specific patient treatments to be financially incentivized. The announcement brought renewed public attention to government programs that directly paid hospitals to push controversial shots and treatments on patients.
AFTER DISTURBING REPORT, ORGAN DONORS ARE OPTING OUT - Thousands of Americans are opting out of being organ donors after a New York Times report raised alarms about rushed organ harvesting that, in some cases, involves non-responsive patients who still show signs of life.
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — August 13, 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.
At 76 and wheelchair-bound, acolyte serves God ‘with all I can do’ - Aug 12, 2025 - By Diego López Colín - Reynaldo José Osorio Muñoz doesn’t let his age or disability interfere with his desire to serve God at the altar.
Catholic University Press to publish Pope Leo XIV’s doctoral dissertation - Aug 12, 2025 - By Madalaine Elhabbal - The Catholic University of America has secured exclusive English-language editorial rights to Pope Leo XIV’s doctoral dissertation, “The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of St. Augustine.”
French bishops ask that priest who served time for rape of a minor not be promoted - Aug 12, 2025 - By Madalaine Elhabbal - The French bishops’ conference has asked the archbishop of Toulouse to rescind the promotion of a priest who served time.
Busted Halo
Why Being a Catholic Comedian Brings Me Great Joy
By Carl Kozlowski June 17, 2019
For several years, when I started working in comedy in the 1990s and early 2000s, I kept my routine mostly clean but was still tempted to be edgy and slip some dirty jokes in from time to time. I always felt kind of guilty about that and struggled with reconciling my Catholic faith and comedic career until I learned about St. Augustine’s principles of striving for truth, beauty, and goodness at a Catholic networking event for people who worked in the entertainment industry. Another positive influence in my life was the manager of Chicago’s top comedy club, Zanies, who said that I didn’t need to “go dirty” to succeed and taught me that working clean meant putting real thought into my words. I was inspired to start my own comedy business with my best friend and fellow Catholic comic Scott Vinci. The idea for Catholic Laughs came from my longtime friend Father Don Woznicki, whom I met in Chicago before I moved to Los Angeles 17 years ago.
Nutshell reflections for 8/13/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection Audio - August 13, 2025
Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Aleteia
St. Clement urged Christians to “cling to the saints”
By Philip Kosloski, July 7, 2024
Ordained by St. Peter the Apostle, St. Clement wrote that all Christians need to stay close to the saints if they want to someday be led into Heaven. He believed that the closer we tried to imitate those who have gone before us in faith, the closer we would be to God. Being a Christian in the world can be difficult at times, as we encounter numerous temptations throughout the day. While prayer is one of the most effective methods to combat these temptations, another method is to continually look to the saints. The saints provide for us beacons of light in our daily lives, encouraging us forward and showing us that it is possible to lead a virtuous life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers a similar reflection: Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ.
Matt Fradd's Terrifying Ruminations
Our thoughts determine our lives
By Matt Fradd, August 8, 2025
One book I’ve read and reread—and which has been a tremendous blessing—is Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica. Elder Thaddeus’s teaching that “our thoughts determine our lives” follows a long tradition in Eastern Christianity, echoing the wisdom of earlier ascetics like Evagrius Ponticus, who taught that controlling one’s thoughts is essential to spiritual warfare, and St. Maximus the Confessor, who emphasized the purification of the mind (nous) as the path to union with God. Like the Desert Fathers, Elder Thaddeus saw the inner life as the true battleground and believed that peace and holiness begin with the thoughts we allow to dwell in our hearts. He said, “Our starting point is always wrong. Instead of beginning with ourselves, we always want to change others first and ourselves last. If everyone would begin with themselves, then there would be peace all around!”
Church Life Journal
A solution to the Church's biggest problem
By Michael Rota and Stephen Bullivant, August 12, 2025
For over fifty years, the General Social Survey has asked a large, representative sample of Americans a battery of questions, including questions about religion. These data reveal a major problem—indeed, arguably the single biggest problem—for the Catholic Church in the United States. In 1973, 84% of all those raised Catholic still identified as Catholic when surveyed as adults. In 2002, that figure was 74%. By 2022, it had dropped to 62%. More and more of those raised Catholic are leaving. Somewhat surprisingly, the social science here bears some good news. Much is known about what parents can do to more successfully hand on the Faith to their children, and we can therefore make some well-informed judgments about what parishes should be doing differently. Read further for the suggestions
Missio Dei
Christians are called not to stay silent when evil is happening
By Andrew McGovern, August 13, 2025
Today, we hear one of the most familiar passages from Scripture regarding fraternal correction. Truly, this needs to be read in conjunction with Matthew 7: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Matthew 7:1–5 forms a type of spiritual guardrail for the work of mercy we call ‘admonishment of the sinner.’ For the Christian, we are called not to stay silent when evil is happening, and yet, we must make sure that our correction is offered in both humility and charity while avoiding hypocrisy. Thus, the call that we have received to live a likewise holy life is immense. Fraternal correction is a function of fraternal charity, which, in turn, is an extension of the love of God. We are called not just to love God but to love our neighbor as ourselves. This love extends out from our love for God.
Image of Almonds by Monfocus from Pixabay
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