Catholic Nutshell News: Wednesday 4/29/26
Topics include: Catholic ‘data center’; 9 nuclear powers are killing treaty; Reactions to Pope Leo vary; & Weekly Mass can help you live longer
“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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The Pillar
Brazil has a Catholic ‘data center’ — the US probably won’t
By JD Flynn, April 27, 2026
The Brazilian bishops’ conference last week approved the creation of a national data center to facilitate information sharing among the country’s dioceses and to make information on the status of the nation’s clerics available to both Church officials and the public. While clerics and Church leaders in the U.S. have called for a similar system to make ministry easier, a system like Brazil’s Catholic Church Data Center is unlikely to be established soon in the United States, despite available technology and widespread calls for changes to current systems for sharing information about clerics. Brazilian bishops agreed in the face of declining Catholic identity in the country, where Protestants are projected to outnumber Catholics by 2030, and a growing number of people say they have no religion at all. There is a lot of information that flows between dioceses on a daily basis — premarital inventories and marriage files, information about religious institutes and clerics, and other processes in the life of the Church. The U.S. bishops use the postal service, with paper sent back and forth between diocesan chanceries.
OSV News
US & Japanese bishops warn 9 nuclear powers are killing treaty
By Gina Christian, April 28, 2026
Several U.S. and Japanese Catholic bishops seeking nuclear disarmament are expressing both urgency and wariness, as the United Nations hosts a conference on a non-proliferation treaty at a time when the U.N. head himself admits “arms control is dying.” In an April 27 statement, the archbishops of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Seattle joined their fellow bishops from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in warning that as “nuclear threats are escalating,” the world is “sliding backward with massive modernization programs to keep nuclear weapons forever.” The bishops’ message comes at the opening of the Eleventh Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is taking place April 27-May 22 at U.N. headquarters in New York. “Our four dioceses represent the birthplace of nuclear weapons, the most deployed nuclear weapons in the United States, and the only two cities that to date have suffered atomic bombings,” they said.
National Catholic Register
Pope Leo XIV: The end of the pragmatic approach
By Andrea Gagliarducci, April 29, 2026
The press conference on the plane returning from Africa provided the first sign of Leo XIV’s notable break with Pope Francis’ pontificate. When asked specifically about the decision of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, to formally bless same-sex couples, Leo XIV said the Holy See had already informed the German bishops that it did not agree with “the formal blessing of couples — in this case, same-sex couples as requested — or of couples in irregular situations, beyond what Pope Francis has specifically permitted, saying that all persons should receive the blessing.” Leo went further. “When a priest gives the blessing at the end of Mass,” he said, “when the Pope gives the blessing at the end of a great celebration like the one we had today, there are blessings for all people.” “To go beyond this today,” Leo said, “could cause more disunity than unity,” adding “that we should seek to build our unity on Jesus Christ and on what Jesus Christ teaches.”
CatholicVote/Zeale
Fired teacher challenges Georgia Catholic school’s ‘Catholicism’
By Hannah Hiester, April 27, 2026
A non-Catholic teacher at a Catholic school in the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, has filed a lawsuit alleging she was wrongfully terminated, arguing the diocese cannot claim protection under the “ministerial exception” of employment law because she was not required to integrate Church teachings into her lessons and finds Catholicism “offensive.” According to court documents, Keshel Coates taught first-grade classes at St. Peter Claver Catholic School in Macon for two years beginning in 2022. During her interview, she was told that she would need to take her class to Mass once a week and monitor their behavior. Coates alleged discrimination on the basis of race, retaliation, breach of contract, wrongful termination, religious harassment, and “religious coercion and abuse of the ministerial exception,” among other claims.
EWTN News
Views vary among Catholic clergy on ‘just war’ pronouncements
By Ken Oliver-Méndez, April 28, 2026
While various leading U.S. prelates have taken the position that the U.S. war with Iran fails to meet the Churchʼs classic just war criteria, opinion on the matter is not unanimous. In recent days, one of the countryʼs most prominent bishops in the public arena, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, contended that itʼs not even the role of the Churchʼs leaders to make a final determination about whether a particular war is just or not. “The role of the Church,” Barron wrote in an X post on April 20, “is to call for peace and to urge that any conflict be strictly circumscribed by the moral constraints of the just war criteria,” which is outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2309). “it is not the role of the Church to evaluate whether a particular war is just or unjust.” In an extensive appraisal of the situation in the light of just war teaching, Father Gerald Murray, a former U.S. Navy chaplain, wrote in The Free Press that “the justice of the United States attack on Iran is confirmed by the Iranian regime’s admissions.”
The Pillar
Leo acknowledges a ‘complex’ relationship with Anglicans
By Charles Collins, April 27, 2026
Relations between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion have “been complex,” according to Pope Leo XIV as he met the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally in the Vatican on Monday. She is the first woman to lead the Church of England and the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion. The pontiff noted that this year is the 60th anniversary of the first formal ecumenical statement between the Anglican and Catholic Churches, signed in 1966 at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls basilica. “While much progress has been made on some historically divisive issues, new problems have arisen in recent decades, rendering the pathway to full communion more difficult to discern,” Pope Leo said. In the developing world – especially in Africa – the Anglican Communion is much more conservative. These Anglicans are most often from the Evangelical wing of the communion rather than the Anglo-Catholic wing. This branch has suffered its own problems over female ordination.
Related: Canterbury archbishop to visit pope, a milestone for churches split on women clergy - (RNS) - Catherine Pepinster, April 24, 2026
Aleteia
Weekly Mass can help you live longer
By Anna Kurian, April 22, 2026
Most Catholics do not drag themselves to Sunday Mass thinking, Excellent, this should lower my mortality risk. They go because it is Sunday, because they were taught to go, because they need the Eucharist, because they are trying to be faithful, or, on some weeks, simply because not going feels worse. The idea that sitting through the readings, standing, kneeling, singing half a hymn, and trying not to think about lunch could also be quietly improving one’s health is not usually the first thing that comes to mind. Drawing on a growing body of observational studies, internal medicine physician Dr. José Jorge Maya recently shared that people who attend religious services at least once a week show, on average, a 21% lower risk of cancer, a 29% lower likelihood of smoking, a 34% lower risk of excessive alcohol use, a 33% lower risk of depression, and, perhaps most strikingly, a 27% lower risk of mortality from any cause. Adolescents, he added, also show lower rates of risky sexual behavior and substance abuse.
Zenit News
New research reports an increase in church attendance & donations
By Jorge Enrique Mújica, April 28, 2026
For a quarter of a century, the trajectory of religious life in the United States has appeared unmistakably downward. Congregations shrank, public confidence in organized religion eroded, and the rise of the religiously unaffiliated reshaped the cultural landscape. Yet new research suggests that the narrative, while not reversed, may be entering a more complex phase—one marked less by collapse than by adaptation and tentative recovery. A major study released on April 24 by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research offers what its authors describe as “cautious optimism.” The numbers remain modest when placed in historical context. At the turn of the millennium, the average congregation drew 137 people to in-person services. That figure fell dramatically over the following decades, reaching a low of 45 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, it stands at 70 adults—an improvement over the 65 recorded in 2020, but still far from earlier levels.
From Loop & EWTN to Pillar Post for 4/29/26
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VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT STOPS EFFORT TO REINSTATE NEW MAP - The Virginia Supreme Court yesterday rejected a request from Democrats and the state to stay a lower court ruling that blocks certification of results from last week’s special election on a congressional redistricting amendment. The high court decision leaves the Democrat-backed map rewrite on hold for now as the midterms approach. READ
KING PRESSES FOR PARTNERSHIP IN ADDRESS TO CONGRESS - King Charles III called for the U.S. and the U.K. to "rededicate" themselves to each other and to the defense of shared democratic values during an address to Congress yesterday. The king's speech touched on Ukraine, NATO, the 9/11 anniversary, and the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. READ
FOOTBALL STAR SERVES MEN DEVASTATED BY ABORTION - Nyles Pinckney, a former defensive tackle at Clemson University, was still in college when his girlfriend became pregnant. Years after they both experienced the pain of an abortion, he now works to help men find healing after similar experiences. READ
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — April 29, 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.
New film depicts the powerful role St. Joseph can play in marriages, families - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - “Saint Joseph: Guardian of the Family” tells the story of a married couple facing a serious marital crisis. After the husband — a journalist — is assigned to investigate testimonies of people who claim to have experienced the intercession of St. Joseph
Vatican automates its telescope in Arizona for remote use -
By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú - Thanks to donations, the telescope is now operable remotely by students at Jesuit universities and has already been used by astronomers at the Vatican’s observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.
U.S. dioceses observe Child Abuse Prevention Month - By Madalaine Elhabbal - Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond, Virginia, urged vigilance in child protection, and Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago posted a video message about the monthʼs observance on behalf of U.S. bishops.
The Pillar
Pillar Stories for Tuesday, 4/29/26
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:
First, thanking God first disposes us to see Providence when we’re tempted to see only our own efforts. Second, thanking God first inclines us to gratitude, when we’re often inclined to grumble or resentment about what we don’t have yet. Third, thanking God first purifies our intentions — no one would, I hope, have the audacity to thank almighty God for providing something he wanted for the wrong reasons.
More than seven months ago, a Polish Carmelite was arrested in Belarus on espionage charges. On Tuesday, he was freed. Twenty-seven-year-old Brother Grzegorz Gaweł was detained last September, when Belarusian authorities said he was carrying a sensitive military document documenting a Belarusian exercise conducted jointly with Russia.
A Belgian diocese confirmed this week that the Vatican imposed confidential disciplinary measures on its former bishop in 2021. The Diocese of Namur said April 21 that retired Bishop Rémy Vancottem was informed five years ago that he could no longer celebrate Mass in public or participate in bishops’ conference bodies due to his mishandling of an abuse case.
Nutshell reflections for 4/29/26:
USCCB Daily Reflection Audio - April 29, 2026
Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Crisis Magazine
Liberalism continues to guide the Holy See
By Augustine Franer, April 22, 2026
Pope Leo XIV rejected the blessing of homosexual unions last Thursday, and for this, the Church ought to be grateful. It surely isn’t easy to contradict the consensus opinion of Western society and expose oneself to the vicious criticism of the modern media, especially for a public figure as exposed to global scrutiny as the pope. Unfortunately, upon reviewing his response in its entirety, the continued influence of liberalism on the Holy See is apparent, leaving one wondering when, or if, that influence will be broken. Before explicitly rejecting the blessing of homosexual unions, the pope provided a rather unnecessary preamble, noticeably apologetic in tone. He remarked: We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual. And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.
National Catholic Reporter
What we learned about Pope Leo XIV in Africa
By Michael Sean Winters, April 27, 2026
Asked about visiting authoritarian regimes at the final press conference, Leo said, “We are actually trying to find a way to apply the Gospel to concrete situations so that the lives of people can be improved. We don’t always make great proclamations, criticizing, judging, or condemning, but there’s an awful lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to promote justice, to promote humanitarian causes, to look for, at times, situations where there may be political prisoners and finding ways for them to be freed.” We knew Leo was not flashy, that he did not possess his predecessor’s flair for the dramatic idiom, the grand gesture, the flavorful metaphor. He is from Chicago, not Argentina. But his visit to the prison, and his words about the church’s ongoing work for justice, indicated that his heart, like Francis’, Benedict XVI’s, John Paul II’s, Paul VI’s, and John XXIII’s, is with the imprisoned, and that the Gospel reaches to these truly marginalized, incarcerated persons.
Related: Leo recaps 11-day trip as chance to spotlight people of Africa - Aleteia - Kathleen N. Hattrup - 04/29/26
The Catholic Weekly
Pro-life activists & abolitionists square off in abortion debate
By Alex Woolnough, April 28, 2026
Pro-life activists led by Dr Joanna Howe and abortion abolitionists from Abolish Abortion Australia (AAA) clashed in an intense but largely civil debate at Rydges World Square on 16 April. The event was hosted by pro-life organization Bird Flip and moderated by NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick. Dr. Howe, founder of Bird Flip, and her husband, James Howe, debated AAA representatives Todd Boaden and Elijah Harris on the proposition that Australian politicians are morally obligated to ban late-term abortions. The debate followed AAA’s opposition to recent bills in South Australia and New South Wales – from Sarah Game MLC and Ruddick — which sought to ban late-term abortions. While the evening began with expressions of goodwill and ended with handshakes, exchanges during the debate were often sharp, at times taking a personal edge. Arguing the affirmative, the Howes said the abolitionist position — calling for the total and immediate abolition of abortion — would, in practice, prevent support for incremental laws that could save lives now.
Catholic Digest
We used to have heavily involved godparents
By Catholic Digest, April 29, 2025
According to Joel and Lisa Schmidt, co-founders of ThePracticingCatholic.com, Catholic godparents today don’t play the important roles that they once did. Godparenting has become more of an honorary title than a responsibility. In today’s culture, there are little or no expectations associated with it. “We were invited to a baptism in the Latin Rite by friends of ours,” says Lisa, “and I was struck most by the prominent role the godparents played. The parents never held the child. The parents never responded. It was always the godparents. I walked away from that thinking, Wow! The Church has a special place for godparents, and it’s easy for us to misunderstand that.” “The thing that was striking was the liturgical prominence of the godparents in the old rite,” explains Joel. “When you contrast that with the new rite, the godparents are there, but they don’t really have a prominent role. Now that most people don’t necessarily live close to their families, we don’t have a lot of large extended families going to church together for the most part. The culture has changed significantly.”
Image of Almonds by Monfocus from Pixabay
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