“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”
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EWTN News
FedEx on shipping Mifepristone to states that restrict abortion
By Amira Abuzeid, October 6, 2026
Catholic investors are urging a major shipping company to account for the legal risk of carrying abortion drugs across state lines. At FedEx’s annual meeting on Sept. 28, the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, sponsored a shareholder proposal asking the company to analyze the regulatory and reputational risks of continuing to ship the abortion pill mifepristone into states where abortion is illegal. “Given its prevalence as one of the largest shipping services in the United States, we wanted to highlight the risk that FedEx may be posing for its shareholders if the Comstock Act is enforced and it continues to ship mifepristone, one of the key drugs used in the abortion pill regimen,” Bishop Michael Olson wrote in a letter to other Catholic bishops, asking them to vote for the proposal if their dioceses own shares in the company. Olson told EWTN News he posted the letter on a bishops-only website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Olson called the proposal “part of the process of exercising stewardship over” the diocese’s public equities and “an opportunity to further the culture of life.”
Zenit
Leo XIV on exclusive list of the architects of the new power
By Jorge Enrique Mújica, October 6, 2026
Pope Leo XIV has entered an unusual company. In Vanity Fair’s 2026 New Establishment list, the pontiff appears alongside technology executives, political figures, and financial power brokers helping shape an increasingly unsettled world. He ranks No. 18, below figures such as JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but ahead of countless figures whose influence is measured in money, followers or institutional authority. His inclusion is striking for another reason: Vanity Fair says it normally excludes heads of state. Leo is the exception, not because of the sovereignty of Vatican City, but because the magazine considers his influence to be fundamentally humanistic. That distinction reveals why the Pope’s place on the list matters. The magazine is not presenting him as another political operator. The magazine recognizes him as someone trying to shape the moral framework within which some of the world’s most powerful technologies and institutions will operate.
The Catholic Weekly
Assisted Suicide deaths in Victoria, Australia surge
By Michael Cook, October 7, 2026
Cases of voluntary assisted dying in Victoria have grown by 300% since VAD became legal there in 2019. The state’s Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board released its annual report for 2025-2026 quietly in late September. It shows that 512 people died, compared with 129 in 2019-20. The increase from the 2024 financial year to 2025 was 32%, from 389 to 512. These startling statistics went almost completely unnoticed in the media – even though the report included a shocking incident with implications for VAD regulation across Australia. A patient was approved for VAD and received the lethal drug in February this year. However, he or she died of natural death in a hospital in April. Two days later the applicant’s grieving partner took the lethal dose and died. The same distressing abuse of the law has already happened twice in Queensland, although one of the two who attempted suicide there was saved.
Zeale News
43% of young adult voters have positive view of sharia law
By David Uebbing, October 6, 2026
Americans under 30 are significantly more likely than the broader electorate to view sharia law favorably, with a new poll revealing a substantial generational gap concerning the Islamic legal system. Conducted by Our Republic and Rasmussen Reports, the poll found that 43% of likely U.S. voters ages 18–24 and 39% of those ages 25–29 have a positive opinion of sharia law, compared with 21% of all likely voters. Fifty-seven percent of voters said they have a negative opinion. “These results reveal a striking generational divide in Americans’ attitudes toward sharia. While a clear majority of voters overall have a negative view of sharia and an overwhelming majority oppose allowing it to become the legal code of an American community, large numbers of younger Americans hold very different views,” Justin Haskins, president of Our Republic, said.
The PIllar
Argentina’s episcopal upheaval continues with another removal
By Luke Coppen, October 6, 2026
The upheaval in the Argentine episcopate continued last Friday with the removal of an auxiliary bishop of Córdoba from his offices weeks before Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit the city. Bishop Ricardo Seirutti has been removed from his offices as auxiliary bishop and vicar general following a canonical judicial process ordered by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and conducted by the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Buenos Aires. “The case was initiated following complaints filed by two adults who alleged that he had engaged in conduct unbecoming to his episcopal office,” the archdiocese said, which is preparing to host Pope Leo Nov. 10. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s involvement in the case suggests the accusations must be of the most severe variety. The DDF handles penal matters reserved to its competence under canon law. These include crimes against the faith and sacraments, and the clerical sexual abuse of minors.
Pime Asia News
Theory of genocide of the Soviet people
By Vladimir Rozanskij, October 7, 2026
In his book *Against the Genocide of the Soviet People*, historian Konstantin Pakhaluk analyses this increasingly pervasive propaganda concept promoted by the Putin regime, the denial of which is now considered a criminal offense. He believes that the image of Nazism as an absolute evil, borrowed from the West, is becoming the basis of a specific ‘culture of erasure’, which even goes so far as to undermine the memory of the victims of Stalinist repression. The ‘genocide of the Soviet people’, as a verbal formula, a propaganda cliché and a commemorative concept, has undergone a rapid evolution over the last seven to eight years. It emerged in the late 2010s, and was subsequently taken under the wing of the presidential administration and promoted by the media. In 2020, the first court hearing in the Novgorod region recognized the executions near the village of Žestjanaja Gorka as ‘genocide’; a year earlier, researchers had excavated the burial site, uncovering over 500 skeletal remains.
Graphs about Religion
Why do you [Evangelicals] have so many Bibles?
By Ryan Burge, October 5, 2026
I distinctly remember a friend coming by my house when I was a junior in high school. He walked into my room, and the first thing he encountered was my bookshelf. It had a full row of Bibles. He looked at me with the most puzzled expression on his face and said, “Why do you have SO MANY BIBLES?” I was completely dumbfounded. I knew my buddy was a Christian, a Catholic, more specifically. I asked him how many Bibles he had. His answer was simple: “I have one, and it was given to me by my grandma when I had my First Communion.” I just didn’t even know what to say to that. What I found, though, Catholics’ view of the Bible does begin to rise really quickly once you get to the most active in the faith. Only 15% of monthly Mass-attending Catholics say that the Bible is extremely important. It doubles among weekly attenders (31%) and then doubles again among those who attend multiple times per week (64%). So it does look like some Catholics do place more emphasis on the Bible.
Aleteia
The Hail Mary prayer has changed over the centuries
By Philip Kosloski, October 6, 2026
The Catholic Church has two prayers that have become staples in the lives of Catholics worldwide. These two prayers are taught to children from the earliest age and remain part of their spiritual lives until they die — the Our Father and the Hail Mary. While the Our Father, given us by Jesus, has not changed much over the past 2,000 years, the Hail Mary, on the other hand, has developed and changed. The prayer started small and has since expanded to what we know today. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains that “in point of fact, there is little or no trace of the Hail Mary as an accepted devotional formula before about 1050. All the evidence suggests it rose from certain versicles and responsories in the Little Office, or Cursus, of the Blessed Virgin, which at the time was gaining favor among the monastic orders. It was not until much later that the second petitionary half of the prayer (the "Holy Mary" part) was added. For several centuries, the prayer simply ended at “…blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Amen,” but sometimes included added petitions.
Keep informed - 10/7/26 news for Catholics
Snippets from Loop, Formed, & The Pillar
Zeale’s 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.”
REPORT: BIDEN WHITE HOUSE PUSHED DOJ TO TARGET PARENTS PROTESTING AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS - Biden administration officials pushed to pursue federal action against parents who protested COVID-19 mandates, critical race theory, and LGBT policies at school board meetings in 2021, according to a DOJ report released Oct. 5. The push came despite objections from DOJ and FBI personnel over politicization, possible First Amendment violations, and the lack of a sufficient legal basis for intervention.
DOJ PLANS DENATURALIZATION OF 40 FOREIGN-BORN CITIZENS - The Department of Justice is moving forward with efforts to strip citizenship from 40 naturalized citizens who have been accused of lying about being convicted of serious crimes, including foreign espionage and child sexual abuse, during their naturalization process.
FAMILY SEEKS SCOTUS PROTECTION AFTER ALLEGED ASSAULT BY MALE IN GIRLS’ WRESTLING - A Washington family is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their daughter from mandatory matchups against males after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male identifying as “transgender” during a girls’ wrestling tournament in December. She was 15 years old at the time.
Augustine Institute
Formed Series Programs
Formed guides Catholics and those they evangelize to a fully Catholic life through faith-informed content, drawing people closer to Christ. The Formed platform provides a captivating experience that empowers and satisfies curiosity by forming Catholics for life.
Lead Kindly Light: The Story of Saint John Henry Newman - This documentary follows the journey of John Henry Newman, an English theologian and cardinal who left behind prestige and security to follow the voice of conscience and embrace the Catholic faith. Shot on location in England, Ireland, Italy, and the United States, the film reveals a man who faced solitude and rejection, yet found true freedom in his faithfulness to God.
Cabrini - From Alejandro Monteverde, award-winning director of Sound of Freedom, comes the powerful epic of Francesca Cabrini, an Italian immigrant who arrives in New York City in 1889 and is greeted by disease, crime, and impoverished children. Cabrini sets off on a daring mission to convince the hostile mayor to secure housing and healthcare for society's most vulnerable. With broken English and poor health, Cabrini builds an empire of hope unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Padre Pio: Miracle Man - This movie captures the Capuchin friar's intense faith, devotion, and deep spiritual concern for others, as well as his great compassion for the sick and suffering. It reveals the amazing details and events in Padre Pio's life as a boy and throughout his fifty years as a friar, dramatizing the frequent attacks from the devil, as well as the persecution he suffered at the hands of people, including those in the Church.
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — October 7, 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 warns that ‘watering down’ Christianity’s demands won’t make it more attractive - By Victoria Cardiel - “It is certainly not by watering down the content or softening the demands that Christianity can be made attractive,” he recalled on Wednesday at the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section on Fundamental Questions Regarding Evangelization in the World.
Australian bishop jailed for sexually abusing young aboriginal men - By EWTN News Staff - Archbishop Timothy Costelloe and Bishop Tim Norton apologized to the victims as the former bishop of Broome, Christopher Saunders, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
Tennessee bishops call for end to death penalty; Trump approves military firing squad execution - By Amira Abuzeid - In a statement issued Oct. 2, the Tennessee Catholic Conference argued that life imprisonment without parole “serves justice, protects society, and respects the dignity of every human life.”
October 7, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE or read HERE:
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
Today’s Catholic commentary:
Crisis Magazine
There was no ‘Original Liturgical War’
By Peter Kwasniewski, October 7, 2026
In an article published at The Catholic Thing on September 18, 2026, Dmitri Solzhenitsyn endeavors to summarize for readers what he calls “The Original ‘Liturgy Wars’: Between East and West.” His basic argument is that wars over liturgy are nothing new—in fact, the first battlefield was between East and West, inasmuch as the Western church slowly drifted away from the original template still preserved to this day in the Eastern churches. The way he tells the story makes it almost sound plausible. His argument rests on an underlying double premise: first, a primitive common liturgical repository from which the various traditions evolved differently; second, this repository was Greek or Byzantine. However, no serious liturgical scholar holds either position anymore. Paul Bradshaw and others have shown the opposite: at the beginning, there seems to be considerable diversity; over time, there tends to be convergence and assimilation.
National Catholic Register
America could use the Brooks and Frank Robinson camaraderie
By George Weigel, October 7, 2026
I am not usually given to apocalypticism, but I think I got the imagery exactly right when, in 2001, I called my brother and described the ruins left by the demolition of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium as akin to “the abomination of desolation” (cf. Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11). What had once been our youthful field of dreams, where we encountered mythic figures — Triandos and Wilhelm, Robinson and Aparicio, Palmer and Weaver — was a field of rubble. Which brings me to a diamond (no pun intended) jubilee and two lessons for 21st-century America. The camaraderie of the 1966 Orioles was made possible by Brooks Robinson, son of Little Rock and 1964 American League Most Valuable Player, yielding his leadership role to Frank Robinson, proudly and often defiantly black, who would become the 1966 American League Most Valuable Player. Their partnership, I’ve long been convinced, was a crucial factor in breaking down old prejudices in the old hometown. Today, America could use some of that camaraderie, built on excellence ordered to a common cause.
The Jerusalem Post
3 years of defense as Israel mourns those lost on Oct. 7
By James Genn, October 7, 2026
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir stated that both the failures of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 2023 October 7 massacre were “two painful shortcomings, two failures, with a connecting thread between them,” in a Wednesday visit to the military’s new 38th Division. On the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre, Zamir said that “the lesson we must all learn from both wars is that the possibility of a surprise attack must concern us all; the IDF must always be prepared for a surprise war.” “A commander who does not question and entrenches himself in his perceptions will be defeated. Reality is constantly sending us signals, and it is our duty to identify those signals, listen to them, and constantly adapt,” Zamir added. “At the same time, we must not become immersed solely in failure; we must confront it, learn from it, and move forward,” he stated.
Church Life Journal
The modern disaster: The lost taste for God
By Emma Miller, October 6, 2026
The twentieth-century debates over the natural desire for the supernatural largely begin with the common conviction that the human person, in some sense, desires God. Yet under contemporary conditions, the Augustinian “restless” heart has slowed, not because it has found its true contentment, but out of indifference, and modern culture increasingly appears marked not by intensified longing but by doubt, skepticism, and what Henri de Lubac diagnosed as the loss of the “taste for God.” Postmodern ageusia and its symptomatic agnosticism, however, derive from an unexpected ailment: the attenuation of reason under rationalism. By sidelining faith to privilege reason, and mistaking their relationship as a zero-sum game, modern rationalism did not enlarge its capacity as intended. Rather, it unwittingly limited its range, enclosing it within the finite when it had once traversed the infinite. No longer looking beyond itself toward the transcendent, reason comes to think too little of its own capacity, and thereby too readily concludes its search in a posture of resigned uncertainty.
Image of Almonds by Monfocus from Pixabay
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