“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”
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EWTN News
Historic cross, Nativity can remain in Los Angeles public square
By Daniel Payne, September 29, 2026
A cross and Nativity will remain in a Los Angeles public plaza after a U.S. appeals court ruled against an atheist who sued to have the displays removed. The two monuments are located at El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the historical center of the Southern California city, marking its founding in 1781. Los Angeles resident Jack Gerritsen sued the city government claiming that the displays violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Gerritsen identifies himself as a “nonbeliever” in the suit and claims the monuments make him feel “excluded” in the public space. A U.S. district court ruled against Gerritsen, after which he appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. On Sept. 29, the religious liberty law firm Becket announced that the appeals court had also ruled against Gerritsen.
Zenit
Clarification on the sacrament: Jesus forgives, confessors ‘absolve’
By Fr. Edward McNamara, September 28, 2026
At confession, if a confessor says, “I forgive you all your sins” instead of “I absolve you of your sins,” is that confession valid? While experts differ on whether this adaptation is valid, most seem to hold that it is an invalid formula. Priests should always and everywhere use the proper formula of the sacraments. Of the above formula, the expression “I absolve you of your sins” has customarily been considered the essential words that may be used alone in emergencies with imminent danger of death. A few also sustained that the words «from your sins» were also necessary. The form «I forgive you» would change the meaning of the formula and hence be invalid. This is because, while they may appear to be synonymous, they actually describe two different actions. Absolution is the act by which a duly authorized priest, acting in the person of Christ, declares that he remits the guilt and penalty due to sin.
National Catholic Register
Reproductive health, freedom now euphemisms for killing
By George Weigel, September 30, 2026
The now-ubiquitous terms “reproductive health” and “reproductive freedom” have contributed mightily to a slaughter of the innocents in the United States. The death toll from that massacre is now greater than the estimated 60 million civilian lives erased during World War II. The “Fact Sheet” [on] How to Use Abortion Pills for 14-20 weeks,” As my Ethics and Public Policy Center colleague Mary Rice Hasson noted when drawing my attention to this horror, is “diabolically cold and heartless.” It says: WHAT WILL I SEE? You will pass blood, clots, a fetus, and a placenta. It is okay not to look. The fetus will be several inches long, and you may see a head, arms, and legs. … You may be able to feel the umbilical cord attached to the placenta. If so, you should not pull on the umbilical cord. It is important for thoughtful citizens to recognize what the anti-culture of euphemism has done to our country, to the point where it is deemed publicly acceptable to describe a 20-week-old pre-born child as “household waste.”
Zeale News
Group warned to stop paying high schoolers to register to vote
By Zeale News Team, September 29, 2026
In a Sept. 25 cease-and-desist letter, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, accused a Kansas county chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV) of bribing high school students to register to vote. “These prohibitions are essential to ensuring the integrity of state and federal elections. Beyond the direct corruption of the election, paying people to register destroys public confidence in elections, which is essential to the functioning of our participatory democracy,” he continued. “The conduct which the League of Women Voters is alleged to have engaged in appears to violate both federal and state law.” LWV offered students at Lansing High School and Leavenworth High School $5 Starbucks gift cards to register to vote. Kobach said that organizations “may encourage registration and help eligible Kansans complete the process” but that they “may not buy registrations. Paying people to register or to vote is illegal, period. The size of the gift card does not matter.”
The PIllar
Pope Leo’s iconic moment in France, embracing a disabled child
By JD Flynn, September 29, 2026
As Leo traveled the Champs-Élysées Saturday, he stopped to bless Marie-Garance Noel, a child with profound disabilities, adopted by a Catholic family that has adopted other children with disabilities along the way. The pope took Marie-Garance in his arms; he traced the cross on her forehead. A photo of the moment unfolds as a Pietà, the pontiff embracing a suffering Christ in the sufferings of Marie-Garance. It may well become the most famous photo of the Leonine papacy, and deservedly so. When he embraced her, he seemed to embrace every sick and suffering person clinging to the heart of Jesus. I was moved by it. Kate and I have some common cause with Marie-Garance’s family — our own adopted children have significant disabilities, and Max, especially, carries a web of neurological complications that make life for him very difficult. We could imagine what their parents felt when their daughter was taken up as Christ by the bishop of Rome.
Pime Asia News
Hindu nationalist’s shocking gift of ‘trishuls’ to women journalists
By Nirmala Carvalho, September 29, 2026
Do India’s political or religious movements have the right to intimidate or punish people outside the law? This question was sparked by an incident in the newsroom of a Gujarat television station, where a leader of the Bajrang Dal (BD), a Hindu nationalist organization, handed trishuls (sacred tridents associated with the deity Shiva) to two female journalists during a live broadcast, using them to simulate the act of slitting a person’s throat. According to Newslaundry, the news channel reported that the tridents were presented as a “symbolic gesture of support” after one of its young anchors, Piya Gadhvi, allegedly received threats from followers of Sant Rampal, a controversial guru and convicted murderer. The images raise concerns because trishul diksha, an initiation ceremony involving the distribution of tridents, has a long history in the mobilization efforts of organizations such as the BD and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Graphs about Religion
Black and white evangelicals reveal a shared faith
By Ryan Burge, September 21, 2026
Classifying American religion is hard. It’s nearly impossible, really. There are hundreds of denominations, and that doesn’t even include the variations of non-denominational churches popping up all over the United States. If social scientists were only concerned with measuring religiosity when creating a typology of Christianity, then there would be just two groups—not four. Evangelical Protestants and Black Protestants are almost exactly alike and form one cluster of American religion, while the other category consists of mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics. The share of evangelicals who say that they believe in God with absolute certainty is 86%, and for Black Protestants it’s 84%. If you combine the top two categories, you get 98% for both. You get the point here, right? Nearly everyone in both traditions expressed a highly certain belief in God. Less than 1% fall on the right-hand side of the visualization. Between mainline Protestants and Catholics, 71% indicate a belief in both heaven and hell, ten percent higher than their mainline cousins, but only 8% lower than evangelicals.
Aleteia
No Eucharistic adoration until Corpus Christi was established
By Philip Kosloski, June 6, 2026
In the past 100 years, Eucharistic adoration has become very popular among Roman Catholics, especially since St. John Paul II highly promoted this devotion during his pontificate. It's fitting that St. John Paul II made that connection, as historically speaking, Eucharistic adoration was not a popular personal devotion until the feast of Corpus Christi was established in the 13th century. While Eucharistic adoration was not part of the early Church, it does not mean that early Christians did not believe Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist. They believed in his Real Presence, under the form of bread and wine, but focused mainly on his role as "food" and how consuming the Eucharist led to communion with him. As the Church further developed her understanding of the Eucharist, more and more saints felt a desire to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament rather than simply consume him.
Keep informed - 9/30/26 news for Catholics
Snippets from Loop, Formed, & The Pillar
Zeale’s LOOP
Read daily news and political impact stories at the “LOOP”
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CATHOLIC SENATOR PUSHES BILL TO PROTECT PARENTS WHO OPPOSE GENDER IDEOLOGY - Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is introducing a bill to prevent federally funded child welfare agencies from penalizing parents for raising a child according to his or her sex. CatholicVote’s Tom McClusky called it a safeguard against the government “weaponizing” child welfare cases against families.
THE HYDE AMENDMENT’S PRO-LIFE LEGACY 50 YEARS LATER - As pro-lifers mark the Hyde Amendment’s 50th anniversary today, a former aide told Zeale News how Rep. Henry Hyde’s Catholic convictions shaped his defense of unborn children and his approach to politics. The amendment has protected taxpayer dollars from funding most abortions for five decades, saving an estimated 2.7 million lives.
MOTHER SUES OREGON SCHOOL DISTRICT OVER ANTI-CHRISTIAN REIMBURSEMENT POLICY - An Oregon mother of five is suing her local school district for denying reimbursement for academic curricula that incorporate a Christian worldview. However, the district has also approved a book that promotes second-graders dressing in drag and another that teaches a Native American spiritual approach to the environment.
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.
What Catholics Believe - Join professors at the Augustine Institute and other Catholic experts as they answer some of the most popular questions on the internet about the Eucharist, the Resurrection, the Papacy, Relics, and more! Was Jesus a ghost when he appeared to the Apostles? Is the Resurrection important? Are Catholics cannibals? Is the Eucharist in the Bible? Find out in this exciting series!
Jesus Thirsts: The Miracle of the Eucharist - This visually stunning film takes viewers on a global journey to uncover the Eucharist's transformative power. Through engaging dialogue with prominent Catholic leaders, the film explores the biblical origins of the Eucharist and shares powerful personal stories of lives transformed by the Blessed Sacrament.
Eternal Rest: The Art of Dying Well - We all have very real questions about death. What happens when we die? What does Scripture teach about death? How do we prepare for the life to come? Explore the mystery of death, dying, and everlasting life through Eternal Rest, a new offering of the Augustine Institute. Eternal Rest examines the origin of death, the afterlife, and the powerful reality around the sacrament that ushers us into eternal life.
EWTN News
EWTN’s top headlines — September 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.
Pope Leo XIV says ‘rebirth’ is key to understanding France trip - By Victoria Cardiel - “It is precisely Notre-Dame, with the tragedy it has endured, that can symbolically shed light on this entire Apostolic Journey, offering a perspective that I would summarize in one word: rebirth,” the pope said during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Digital distractions could erode silence needed for prayer, Nigerian Catholic bishop warns - By Abah Anthony John - Bishop Anselm Umoren of Nigeria has warned that the growing culture of digital distraction risks undermining the silence needed for prayer and spiritual discernment, urging Christians to resist the constant demands of notifications, social media, and online interactions.
Across the U.S., 3 bishops, dozens of religious sisters leading lawsuits against assisted suicide - By Daniel Payne - Church leaders in New York and Illinois have won multiple victories in recent weeks in federal district court after bringing suits against the newly launched suicide regimes in those states.
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September 23, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE or read HERE:
Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Today’s Catholic commentary:
Crisis Magazine
We are living through a new Cold War, and it’s a Civil War
By Peter Giersch, September 30, 2026
Some of us remember the Cold War with Russia, and all of us have, hopefully, spent some time learning about the Civil War. What we’re living through right now is a combination of the two. We are living in a Cold Civil War. I think we all feel it—and have felt it for maybe a decade. Vandals aren’t always killing or shedding blood; yet these people clearly feel they are “at war,” and that justifies their actions. The “war” is definitely like a “cold war,” and since their actions are against their own country, it’s also a “civil war.” Two primary means of “cold combat” during the Cold War were propaganda and proxy wars. The use of propaganda in a cold war is obvious. Barnes & Noble is a great example of the propaganda tactic. Every book on display was anti-Trump or supported an issue Trump opposed. Conservative author Eric Metaxas recently released his best-selling book Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World, and B&N has done everything in their power to bury or not even carry the book.
The Catholic Weekly
Conscientious objection for healthcare workers endangered in NSW
By Michael Cook, September 30, 2026
NSW doctors and nurses who have a conscientious objection to participating in abortions or voluntary assisted dying are under threat, Liberal MLC Susan Carter told a gathering of doctors and lawyers recently. She disclosed that she has detected hostility towards conscientious objection and a growing endorsement of “authoritarian majoritarianism” among her constituents and her colleagues in Parliament. “Anyone who would stand in the way of health care – for example by declining, on conscience grounds, to participate in a surgical abortion – must be an obstruction to be removed by any effective health system, rather than a practitioner with a strong ethical compass who should be supported,” she observed. “And this is the language we hear from health bureaucrats all the time … From a view of conscience as representing a perceived majoritarian view, this makes perfect sense. But from any other understanding of conscience? It is denial of a conscience right.”
The Jerusalem Post
Tourists visit northern Israel: Sense of normalcy returns to kibbutzim
By Seth J. Frantzman, September 30, 2026
On the road between Kibbutz Dan and Kibbutz HaGoshrim, a clump of large cement blocks sits stacked like one might stack Lego. They are in a field near Kibbutz Dafna. They appear to be one of the many fortifications added or improved in this region after October 7, when there was fear of a mass Hezbollah attack. Today, the cement-block fort is a gathering place for kids to climb and play. This symbolizes how Northern Israel has changed. This area at the northern end of the Huleh Valley forms a large basin surrounded by hills and mountains. On one side is the ridgeline over Kiryat Shmona. On the other side are the feet of Mount Hermon, which rises up into the clouds, its summit shrouded and obscured. Today Israel controls that summit. It was seized on December 8, 2024, when the Assad regime collapsed.
Church Life Journal
Mithraism and Christianity: An historical review of their similarities
By Paul Murray, September 14, 2026
Among the first Christian apologists to respond to the Mithras cult are Justin Martyr (ca. 100–165) and Tertullian (ca. 155–220). What impressed these authors most were the apparent similarities between their most hallowed religious rites and those of a cult they considered idolatrous. How was such a thing to be explained? How could the Mithraists celebrate a rite with structures and patterns (e.g., banquet, gathering, sacrifice, etc.) similar to the eucharistic banquet celebrated by Christians? And how to explain the Mithraists’ apparent commitment not only to a form of baptism but also to a belief in a heavenly realm? The Mithraists “purified themselves by baptism,” they “expected from a Lord’s Supper salvation of body and soul,” and they “celebrated the birth of the Sun [Mithras] on the 25th of December, the same day on which Christmas has been celebrated since the fourth century at least.”
Image of Almonds by Monfocus from Pixabay
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