“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”
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EWTN News
U.S. companies settle religious discrimination claims
By Daniel Payne, October 20, 2026
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently announced that two southern U.S. companies have settled five-figure discrimination complaints brought by religious workers. The agency said in multiple press releases that two companies from North Carolina and Georgia had settled with Muslim and Christian workers over discrimination allegations. A detective agency in North Carolina said it would pay more than $65,000 to a Muslim worker who allegedly asked to be excused for a religious holiday but was denied the accommodation, the commission said. The company reportedly fired the worker without engaging in the necessary “interactive process” when she did not show up for work. The company, N.C. Detective Agency, would also take “other corrective actions” including establishing “written policies prohibiting religious discrimination” and “procedures for addressing religious accommodation requests in the future.” In another announcement, the Georgia-based Reynolds IGA Foodliner Inc. will pay $65,000 to a Christian worker who asked for Sundays off to observe the Sabbath.
Zenit
The religious face of contemporary South Korea
By ZENIT Staff, October 13, 2026
In August 2027, Seoul will welcome young Catholics from around the world for World Youth Day, along with the pope. But what kind of religious landscape will they find in today’s South Korea? In 2024, a survey by Hankook Research, one of South Korea’s leading research institutes, found that 51% of South Korea’s 52 million people now report having no religious affiliation. A separate study Gallup conducted the following year showed this figure was as high as 76% among young people aged 20 to 30, nearly double the proportion recorded in 2000. Among those who profess a religion, Christians make up the largest group, around 31% (20% Evangelical and 11% Catholic), the highest percentage in Asia outside the Philippines and Timor Leste, the only two predominantly Catholic nations. Despite its historical and cultural significance, only 16% of the population currently identifies as Buddhist, while the remaining small percentage is divided among various groups, churches of diverse origins, and the Muslim community.
National Catholic Register
‘Exorcist Files’ priest sues Catholic commentators
By Matthew McDonald, October 13, 2026
Father Carlos Martins, host of The Exorcist Files and author of a book with the same title, is suing two lay Catholic commentators for defamation, alleging they falsely told listeners of another podcast that he is not an exorcist. The two commentators are associates of a well-known exorcist, Father Chad Ripperger, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit. The lawsuit also names Catholic Resource Center Inc. of Los Angeles as a defendant; it operates Virgin Most Powerful Radio, the broadcaster of Jesus 911. According to Father Martins’ complaint, Clement made false statements about Father Martins while appearing on the podcast in November 2024. “Clement asserted that Fr. Martins ‘is not who he says he is’” and that Father Martins is “opining and talking about things which he does not know,” according to Father Martins’ complaint, which calls Clement’s statements “false and defamatory.”
Zeale News
Sen. Slotkin voices a goal to ‘deter young conservatives’
By David Uebbing, October 20, 2026
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a University of Chicago event on Oct. 13 that she wants young people considering jobs in the Trump administration to be deterred by the prospect of scrutiny for those who helped the President. Slotkin defended the remarks Oct. 19 on MS NOW’s “Deadline: White House.” She said her message is aimed at people who could be asked to follow illegal requests, and that “[I]f you break the law, you should be held accountable.” She also said lawyers who use frivolous lawsuits to intimidate political opponents should have their bar status scrutinized. The Justice Department investigated Slotkin, along with five other Democratic lawmakers, over a 2025 video urging service members to refuse illegal orders. Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project, translated Slotkin’s intent as wanting Trump officials prosecuted to discourage young conservatives from serving, an action he said would be unconstitutional.
The PIllar
In Utah, Catholic church meets ‘new urbanism’
By Laura Loker, October 19, 2026
Parishioners of St. Andrew in Riverton, Utah have celebrated Mass in a rectory basement, a movie theater and, for the last 18 years, their school gym. But after two decades without a dedicated worship space, the community is raising $35 million to build a basilica-style church from the ground up — on a 10-acre plot of land in one of the largest walkable, mixed-use developments in the United States. As mixed-use developments rise in the United States, St. Andrew’s model could become a new paradigm in parish campus design. The neighborhood, Daybreak, is a planned community in South Jordan, Utah, that first broke ground in 2004 and will continue to develop over the next several decades. Its pedestrian- and cyclist-oriented mix of commercial, residential and recreational spaces typifies the values of “new urbanism,” a movement that promotes — as Mauer put it — “walkability and good aesthetics on a human scale.”
Pime Asia News
Japan launches probe towards Mars’ moons
By Asia staff, October 14, 2026
Japan launched a space mission today to collect samples from one of Mars' moons and return them to Earth by 2031. Japan’s space agency JAXA, in cooperation with NASA and European agencies, launched the MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) probe from the Tanegashima Space Center. Its objective is to reach Phobos, the larger of the two Martian moons, to study its surface and collect at least 10 grams of material. The mission, with a budget of about US$ 578 million, is expected to reach the Martian system in August of next year. The mission is scheduled to collect samples in 2030, with the material slated to arrive on Earth the following year. This research will help clarify whether Phobos and Deimos formed from debris from an ancient collision with Mars, or whether they are asteroids captured by the planet’s gravity. However, the Japanese mission is just one of Asia's latest space expeditions. Asia has the most autonomous space capabilities. Beyond the United States, China, Japan, and India have emerged as new powers with space race aspirations, while South Korea is also seen as a rapidly growing player.
Graphs about Religion
Catholic schools & weekly Mass within the retention crisis
By Ryan Burge, October 15, 2026
American Catholicism does seem to be hemorrhaging members at a pretty alarming rate. The Pew RLS found that just 58% of Catholics were being retained into adulthood. Protestant retention has always been higher than Catholic retention. That’s true at every single point over the last five decades. The gap is not that small, either. Back in 1973, 91% of folks raised Protestant were still Protestant. For Catholics, it was 84%. In the most recent data, 72% of Protestants were retained in 2024. It was 62% of Catholics. Twenty-five years ago, someone raised Catholic was just as likely to leave Catholicism as to stay in the Church and attend Mass weekly. Even holding childhood religious attendance constant, a person raised Protestant is often 15 points more likely to still be Protestant compared to Catholics. For instance, among those born in the 1950s who attended church weekly as kids, 84% of Protestants were still Protestants. Only 64% of Catholics were. Among those who attended private Christian schools for at least seven years, Protestant retention was 71%, compared with 57% for Catholics. That’s a pretty tough pill to swallow.
Aleteia
What the soul is, and what it is not
By Daniel Esparza, October 20, 2026
The philosophical tradition that shaped Western Christianity used “soul” to mean something specific, arguable, and consequential. Understanding what that tradition actually claimed is crucial. The claim is more interesting than the popular version, and it has not aged as badly as its critics assume. Plato’s account, most fully in the Phaedo, begins from a sharp dualism. The soul is the “true” self — rational, immortal, oriented toward the eternal forms of truth, beauty, and goodness. The body is a temporary lodging. That’s not what Christianity ultimately settled on — partly because the Incarnation made pure Platonic dualism theologically awkward. If the body is merely a prison, what does it mean that God chose to have one? Aristotle’s account, developed in De Anima, begins from a very different intuition. His answer draws on the distinction between matter and form. Between Plato and Aquinas stands Augustine, who received both traditions and transformed them by placing the soul in a different kind of story — one that is not philosophical but narrative and confessional. The soul is defined by what it loves.
Keep informed - 10/21/26 news for Catholics
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TRUMP WARNS ISLAMO-MARXIST RIOTS IN FRANCE WILL COME TO US IF DEMOCRATS TAKE POWER - As violent riots fueled by Muslim and left-wing activists rage across France, Donald Trump and Republican leaders warn the U.S. will likely suffer the same fate if Democrats return to power. “If you want to see what is at stake in this election, just look at what’s happening in France,” Trump said at an Oct. 19 rally. “They’re losing their country. They’re losing Europe. That’s never happening to the United States of America.”
VANCE SITS OUT NETANYAHU ENDORSEMENT, FOCUSING ON AMERICAN ELECTIONS - Vice President JD Vance declined to join President Donald Trump in endorsing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 elections, saying his focus is on American candidates and the U.S. election. Meanwhile, War Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly visited Israel for talks with the prime minister.
CATHOLICVOTE PARTNERS WITH EDUARDO VERÁSTEGUI TO RALLY HISPANIC VOTERS - CatholicVote, through its Spanish-language initiative VotoCatólico, is partnering with Mexican actor and film producer Eduardo Verástegui to reach Hispanic voters in Colorado and Virginia ahead of the midterm elections, urging them to support the positions taken by their Catholic bishops on five ballot measures.
Catholic World Report
CWR, a free online magazine — October 21, 2026
CWR provides full coverage of news and events affecting the Church worldwide, offering in-depth analysis while exploring issues the mainstream media avoids. It features exclusive interviews, covers a wide range of relevant topics, and remains unwavering in its commitment to the truth in light of the Gospel.
From the Archives: Realism and Islam - This essay by the late Fr. Schall was posted first at CWR on April 17, 2016. I. Political realism, long associated with Augustine, constrains us to consider what Machiavelli later recommended to us—namely, our leaders cannot comprehend what is going on, either when a whole Western civilization loses its faith and moral standards or when Islam reawakens to the implications of its own faith and its vision of world conquest.
Eight Rules of Life from Saint Teresa of Ávila - Most Catholics know that Saint Teresa was born in Spain, became a Carmelite nun, and lived a faithful but mediocre life for almost two decades. After experiencing a deep conversion, she spent the rest of her life establishing a reformed order, now known as the Order of Discalced Carmelites. She was also a spiritual giant.
Prof. Jérôme Lejeune on Human Ethics and the Unborn Child - He introduced the philosophical distinction between the transmission of form and the transmission of matter, which rules out crude, materialistic arguments that a fetus is a mere “blob of tissue,” or “part of the woman’s body,” or exclusively her possession.
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — October 14, 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.
Pope Leo XIV: The world is poorer without saints - By Ishmael Adibuah - Pope Leo XIV, in his first private audience since undergoing surgery on Oct. 13, said the history of the world is inseparable from the history of the saints. “The history of the world without saints would be immeasurably poorer; that is, less human.”
Archbishop to Spain’s Senate: ‘I engage in politics whenever I can’ - By Nicolás de Cárdenas - Archbishop of Oviedo, Spain, Jesús Sanz Montes, explained that he is frequently accused of being a bishop “who gets involved in politics,” a charge he acknowledges is fair, noting that he “rarely disappoints” in that regard with some of his homilies and writings.
Ahead of midterms, economic justice ranks above life issues for many Catholics, researcher says - By Madalaine Elhabbal - The majority of Catholic voters cited the cost of living, inflation, and unemployment as higher priorities than life issues in polling ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to a Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) survey that has not yet been made public.
October 21, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE or read HERE:
Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Catholic commentary:
Crisis Magazine
A revisit to ‘iconoclasm’ as a heresy
By Luke J. Ayers, October 20, 2026
One of the many things I love about the Byzantine Christian tradition is the Sunday commemorations of the first Ecumenical Councils. The Sunday after the Ascension recalls Nicaea I, the first council; we commemorate the first six in July, and then on the Sunday nearest October 11, we remember the seventh council, Nicaea II. The particular importance of Nicaea II for Byzantine Christians (both Catholic and Orthodox) becomes immediately apparent: it condemned iconoclasm as a heresy—the belief that any images of Christ, the Holy Virgin, the angels, or the saints violated the second commandment. The earlier councils were essentially Christological, and Nicaea II was no different. In short, it declared that because Christ truly took on human nature, it is possible to depict Him in His humanity. Modern Christians often misunderstand iconoclasm as a mere debate over Church aesthetics and the second commandment, missing what it means for the identity of Our Lord. To deny the icon, the image, is to deny the Incarnation.
The Catholic Weekly
Our ‘final assessment’ compared to taking a university course
By Dr Philippa Martyr, September 21, 2026
Our relationship with God has a student-teacher dimension that many people prefer to forget, especially if they hated school. A “disciple” – from the Latin word discipulus – is a “pupil” or “learner”. But it’s less like a high school classroom and more like a university course, the enjoyable kind, with plenty of free time. You have things you should be reading, classes you should be attending, and assignments you should be doing. And you may be doing some of these things. You may also spend hours loafing in cafes, discovering the opposite sex, and going to parties. Then suddenly it’s the end of semester, and you’re miles behind, so you have to cram and pull late nights to finish everything by the deadline. But not everyone passes the course, even with this last-minute burst of effort. After all, the unit coordinator (God) will remind you that you’ve had access to the assessment requirements for all or most of your life. It was up to the student (you) to manage your time, ask for help when you needed it, and take responsibility for your work.
The Jerusalem Post
Liberty, equality, impunity: France ignored the warnings
By Sarah Chemla, October 21, 2026
There are moments when you wish you had been wrong. Watching the images coming out of France since Saturday, October 17, has been one of those moments. And it has been painful. What was meant to be a nationwide mobilization against the rising cost of living turned, in several cities, into a day of riots and looting. Streets ransacked, businesses plundered, buildings and cars set ablaze. It leaves a feeling hard to put into words. This did not come out of nowhere. For years, voices have warned of the normalization of violence, the radicalization of rhetoric, the erosion of authority, and the growing reluctance of France’s leaders to draw clear red lines out of political calculation. Those warnings were ignored, and those who voiced them were stigmatized. French Jews know this better than anyone: they were often the first to see those lines recede, and the first to be accused of overreacting.
Church Life Journal
What is a poem?
By Krzysztof Koehler, October 20, 2026
A poem is an ordering of words arranged in a certain pattern (determined by the will of its creator), which fulfills the basic function of language. For ages, people have tried to identify the characteristics that distinguish the language of poetry from the language of, for example, prose. As I see it, poetry is set in motion by an interior need, a sort of pressure, which demands expression. For if one writes poems only “rarely and unwillingly” (the first statement is objectively true, the second is certainly due to some temporary distraction of the author of these words), that only means that said pressure is not of permanent duration. A poet is that person who, having experienced inspiration (to think about something), brings his/her hands down upon the keyboard or grabs the felt-tip pen and begins blackening a sheet of paper. A rag by nature and custom as white as snow enslaved. A white flag of resignation from future struggle.
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