Catholic Nutshell News: Wednesday 3/18/26
Topics include: New Catholics may point to regional ‘revivals’; Fellow who criticized Cardinal Cupich is out; Pope Leo supports Jimmy Lai; & Child mortality stalls at 4.9M deaths
“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”
Today's sources are the CRUX, National Catholic Register, Vatican News, The Pillar, Aleteia, and EWTN News. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)
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OSV News
Easter boom: Rise in new Catholics may point to regional ‘revivals’
By Kimberley Heatherington, March 17, 2026
While the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise globally, something curious is also happening: Some dioceses have reported significant upticks in adults preparing to enter the Catholic Church this Easter. Sherry Anne Weddell, the co-founder and executive director of the Catherine of Siena Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and an expert in Catholic evangelization, said that the “high point” of adult Catholics joining the Catholic Church in the U.S. was in 1999, with 172,000 adult baptisms and receptions. “And then there was just a steady sort of decline,” she said. That has since changed. “There was significant growth between 2023 and 2024,” she told OSV News. And while the data for 2025 and 2026 have yet to be published, “the numbers that are being reported are getting bigger and bigger.”
National Catholic Register
Fellow who criticized Cardinal Cupich is out at Conference Board
By Jonathan Liedl, March 17, 2026
Nearly six months after publicly criticizing Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plan to give a “lifetime achievement” award to a pro-abortion-rights senator, a long-serving lay member of the Catholic Conference of Illinois (CCI) board of directors, John Breen, a Loyola University Chicago law professor who has served on CCI’s board since 2012, is being involuntarily phased out of his role. An informed source confirmed that “conference leadership” was upset with Breen’s September 2025 criticism of Durbin because of what he said to the public, which was viewed as the layman speaking out of turn. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Breen is an expert on Catholic social teaching and Catholic legal thought. A resident of the Diocese of Joliet, he is the author of A Light Unseen: A History of Catholic Legal Education and has written articles applying Catholic teaching to abortion law, economics, and academic freedom.
CatholicVote/Zeale
Pope Leo sent ‘clear message of support’ for Jimmy Lai
By McKenna Snow, March 17, 2026
The co-founder of the Catholic California-based Napa Institute, this week, said Pope Leo XIV clearly supports Jimmy Lai, a perspective that comes amid others’ criticism of the Vatican’s approach to the tense situation with the Chinese Communist Party, which imprisoned the advocate of democracy. In February, 78-year-old Lai received a 20-year prison sentence from a Hong Kong court at the conclusion of a multi-year trial, which he endured while in a solitary confinement cell. His family has described it as a death sentence. “His crime? Standing for freedom — and standing up to communism,” Tim Busch of the Napa Institute wrote in a March 17 email to Napa Institute subscribers. He then noted that Lai’s wife and their daughter, Claire, had recently met with Pope Leo. Busch wrote, “The Vatican’s relationship with China is delicate and complex, a geopolitical and ecclesial tightrope. Yet the Pope is sending a clear message of support for Jimmy, who chose not to flee Hong Kong and will now likely die for the freedom that springs from faith.”
Jerusalem Post
UN warns child mortality reduction is stalling: 4.9M deaths in 2024
By REUTERS, March 11, 2026
Nearly 4.9 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday in 2024, according to new United Nations estimates, a sign that progress to reduce child mortality rates was stalling even before global aid budget cuts last year. Most of the deaths were preventable with better access to healthcare and low-cost interventions for challenges like complications from pre-term birth or diseases like malaria, said UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the UN population division, which produced the report. Preventable child deaths have more than halved since 2000, the agencies said, but progress has slowed since 2015. “However... we do see a global slowdown in mortality reduction,” a WHO spokesperson added, warning that conflict, economic instability, climate change, and weak health systems were all contributing to stalling progress.
The Pillar
Case raises sensitive issues on tax levies for Catholics in Germany
By Luke Coppen, March 17, 2026
The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled on March 17 that the Katholische Schwangerschaftsberatung, a pregnancy counseling service, had discriminated against the woman because it also employed non-Catholics, who were able to provide counseling according to a Catholic ethos despite not being Church members. The case raises sensitive issues for the Catholic Church in Germany — one of the country’s largest employers — about disaffiliation as the grounds for dismissal and how the country’s church tax is levied on families. The European Court of Justice case was triggered when the Diocese of Limburg requested that the complainant, identified only as JB, pay a levy in addition to Germany’s mandatory church tax. The reason for the additional levy was that she is in an interfaith marriage with a high-earning spouse. In the Limburg diocese, JB would have paid a standard 9% on her own income tax as church tax, and an additional levy based on her and her husband’s joint assessed taxable income.
Aleteia
Sign of peace at Mass began as a solemn act of forgiveness
By Philip Kosloski, June 11, 2022
While many Catholics are familiar with the sign of peace at Mass, few know its origins. The sign of peace was not created to be a casual exchange, but a profound plea for forgiveness. St. Cyril of Jerusalem explains the spiritual meaning of this action in his Catechetical Lectures: Then the Deacon cries aloud, "Receive ye one another; and let us kiss one another." Think not that this kiss is of the same character with those given in public by common friends. It is not such: but this kiss blends souls one with another, and courts entire forgiveness for them. The kiss therefore is the sign that our souls are mingled together, and banish all remembrance of wrongs.” Ancient cultures had a custom of a “kiss of peace,” which was much more meaningful than the simple handshake or waving that has replaced it in the modern Church. Furthermore, since churches were relatively small at the time, everyone knew everyone else, making this “kiss” more meaningful, as you likely held grudges against people you saw on a regular basis.
Zenit
After repeated acts of desecration, Vatican basilica is being secured
By Valentina di Giorgio, March 17, 2026
In the vast interior of St. Peter’s Basilica—a space designed to evoke transcendence rather than control—a significant change has appeared. Around the Altar of the Confession, directly beneath Baldachin of St. Peter’s Basilica, low panels now form a protective perimeter. The intervention is discreet, yet it reflects a growing concern within the Vatican: how to safeguard one of Christianity’s most sacred spaces without compromising its openness. The decision follows a series of incidents throughout 2025 that have unsettled both Vatican officials and pilgrims. In February, a man climbed onto the altar and knocked over six 19th-century candelabra—dating from 1865 and valued collectively at around 30,000 euros—causing visible damage. Months later, on October 10, another individual breached security and urinated near the main altar in full view of visitors, an act that required a formal penitential rite to restore the dignity of the temple. In a separate episode, a protester stripped naked at the same site, displaying a message referencing the war in Ukraine.
EWTN News
Vatican court orders partial retrial in ‘trial of the century’
By Andrea Gagliarducci, March 17, 2026
The Vatican Court of Appeal has ordered a partial retrial in a high-profile London property finance case, ruling that key parts of the original proceedings were invalid due to procedural issues. The case stems from the Vatican Secretariat of State’s investment of approximately 350 million pounds in a luxury property on Sloane Avenue in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, an operation that resulted in losses of up to 139 million euros for the Holy See. In a March 17 decision, judges found a “relative nullity” in the trial involving the Secretariat of State’s investment in the London building, widely known as the “trial of the century.” The ruling does not overturn the original trial or its verdicts but requires that portions of the case be reheard. The original trial concluded in December 2023 after 86 hearings. The Vatican tribunal sentenced Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five years and six months in prison, along with a lifetime ban from public office, marking the first time a cardinal had ever been convicted by a Holy See court. Nine of 10 defendants were found guilty of embezzlement, fraud, money laundering, and abuse of power.
From Loop & EWTN to Pillar Post for 3/18/26
CatholicVote: Zeale’s LOOP
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CATHOLICVOTE, CARDINAL BURKE LEAD PRAYER FOR AMERICA - A new video series featuring Cardinal Raymond Burke is exploring the Catholic understanding of patriotism as the U.S. approaches the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence on July 4. The series is part of CatholicVote’s Zeale for America 250 campaign. Here's how viewers can sign up to view it for free. READ
MEXICAN CONFERENCE TO TACKLE 'MASCULINITY CRISIS' - A Catholic men’s conference in western Mexico next month will feature psychologist Jordan Peterson, author Christopher West, and actor Eduardo Verástegui, as organizers seek to address what they describe as a global “masculinity crisis.” READ
SAINT OF THE DAY - Today the Church honors St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a fourth-century bishop and Doctor of the Church whose writings are still regarded as masterful expressions of Christian faith. READ
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — March 18, 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.
‘This baby is a gift’: Trisomy 18 Awareness Day reminds us that every life is sacred - By Tyler Arnold - When Beverly Jacobson first learned that her unborn daughter Verity would be born with the rare genetic condition trisomy 18, she “was filled with fear and anxiety” — but just a few weeks ago the family was able to celebrate Verity’s ninth year of “lots of smiles and giggles and pure joy.”
Preach from the heart, not with AI-generated homilies, priest says - By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú - Mindful of this reality, Pope Leo XIV recently advised the priests of Rome to use “their brains more” rather than AI when preparing homilies, a practice that appears to be beginning to spread among some members of the clergy.
Young Slovak martyr of communism reaches global audience - By Bohumil Petrík - A martyr of communist persecution in Czechoslovakia and the most recently beatified Slovak, Blessed Ján Havlík, is reaching an international audience through new books, a multilingual documentary, and other initiatives. Bishop Viliam Judák of Nitra, Slovakia, who is also a historian, co-authored a book titled “Our Saints: Lexicon of Saints and Beatified Connected With the Soil of Slovakia” featuring the young martyr.
The Pillar
Pillar Stories for Tuesday, 3/18/26
The Pillar offers a news summary and a capsule take on Catholic News. Here are news stories from the past week in the Pillar Post:
Cardinal Marc Ouellet took the witness stand in a Montreal court this month to reject claims of sexual assault. While Ouellet has filed suit for defamation against a woman he claims falsely accused him, two witnesses in the case raised new allegations of sexual misconduct by the cardinal, including the claim that he once shoved his hand down a woman’s shirt without her consent.
The U.S. bishops’ conference made headlines earlier this month for a legal brief on President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship. The brief was widely criticized by Catholics who said it argued that birthright citizenship is a requirement of morality for nations. The Conference corrected that notion, arguing that revoking birthright citizenship in the U.S. would leave some children born here potentially stateless.
The International Theological Commission this month issued a new text, Quo vadis, humanitas?, which is meant to examine Christian anthropology in face of profound and ongoing technological change. We put together a brief readers’ guide for you because this document is worth checking out.
Nutshell reflections for 3/18/26:
USCCB Daily Reflection Audio - March 18, 2026
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Crisis Magazine
Behind the scenes: The Supreme Court protects parental rights
By Jeffrey M. Trissell, March 18, 2026
On March 2, 2026, the United States Supreme Court issued a watershed ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta, a case that set the binding, nationwide precedent that schools cannot secretly socially transition a gender-confused minor. The majority per curiam opinion is less than 1,800 words. Since September 2022, I have spent just over 1,800 hours working on the case alongside lead counsel Paul Jonna. That’s one hour for every word. It was 100% worth it. Mrs. Mirabelli’s objection was not that of a meddler. It was that of a Catholic woman who understood, at an intuitive and theological level, that using one name for a child at school and another name when speaking with her parents was not discretion—it was active deception. Maintaining a double identity for a child made her nauseous with anxiety. She was being asked to come between parents and their children, and she knew exactly why that was wrong. The fact that teachers were protesting proved to be very important. Federal courts across the country found procedural ways of dismissing parental challenges.
CBCPNEWS
Faithful urged to join Intramuros Via Crucis for protection of life
By CBCP News, March 13, 2026
Catholic lay leaders are inviting the faithful to join a roughly two-kilometer Via Crucis through Intramuros during the annual “Penitential Walk for Life” on March 20, offering prayers for the protection of life. The event, organized by the Council of the Laity of the Philippines, will gather families, parish groups, and pro-life advocates for what organizers describe as “a prayer in action” and a public witness to the sanctity of human life. Participants will assemble from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Baluarte Plano Luneta de Sta. Isabe,l before beginning the penitential walk at 4:30 p.m. “Let us offer this walk as an intercession for the unborn, for the vulnerable, for those whose dignity is under attack, and for our country—that we may always be a people who value and uphold life according to God’s plan,” the organization said.
Aleteia
Historic Oscar winner’s refreshing tribute to great moms and dads
By Theresa Civantos Barber, March 18, 2026
On March 15, 2026, Jessie Buckley won the Academy Award for Best Actress, making history. In her speech, she honored mothers around the world, in a refreshing reminder of how important a mother’s role is. The first Irish woman to win the Best Actress Oscar, Buckley instantly became a national hero. Buckley won for her portrayal of a remarkable mother in Hamnet, the film adaptation of a novel about Shakespeare’s wife and family. Little is known about Shakespeare’s marriage, and Hamnet imagines his wife — called Agnes in the film — as an extraordinary match for him, and a devoted mother. In her Oscar acceptance speech, Buckley gave a moving tribute to mothers, made especially poignant not only because she played one in her winning role, but also because she became a mother herself just eight months ago to baby Isla.
Catholic Exchange
To see or not to see… That is the question
By C.E. Albanese, March 18, 2025
A niece of mine once complained to her mother during Mass that her knees hurt from all the kneeling. My sister told her to offer it up and to look at the crucifix to see how Christ suffered for her. My niece looked at the crucifix, then turned to her mother and said, “Yeah, but that was only for one day. I have to do this, every Sunday.” We can find a bit of humor in the childish logic, and of course, we understand that Christ did not just suffer on one day; the cross shadowed Him His whole life. And that shadow grew darker and darker as Good Friday approached. “Night is coming,” Christ warned at the feast of Tabernacles, a harvest festival filled with great rejoicing. A man blind from birth was healed—something only God could do. But God spat on the ground and made clay on a Saturday, so, according to the Pharisees, the miracle didn’t count. Christ broke the rules. Charity and right reason had to take a back seat to a law that enslaved people and kept them in darkness.
Image of Almonds by Monfocus from Pixabay
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