Catholic Nutshell News: Wednesday 1/7/26
Topics include: U.S., Vatican diplomats on Venezuela; Venezuela through a Catholic lens; Wyoming SC strikes down pro-life laws; & Trump suggests flexibility on abortion
“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”
Today's sources are the CRUX, Pime Asia News, National Catholic Register, Vatican News, The Pillar, Aleteia, and CNA. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)
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Catholic News Agency
U.S., Vatican diplomats discuss situation in Venezuela
By Andrés Henríquez, January 6, 2026
The U.S. State Department announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin about the situation in Venezuela. During the Jan. 6 call, the State Department indicated that “the two leaders discussed pressing challenges, including efforts to improve the humanitarian situation, particularly in Venezuela, as well as the promotion of peace and religious freedom globally.” Both leaders “reaffirmed their commitment to deepening cooperation between the United States and the Holy See in addressing shared priorities around the world,” the State Department added. At the time of this publication, the Vatican had not provided details about the call. Parolin served as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela from 2009 to 2013.
National Catholic Register
Venezuela through a Catholic lens
By Jason Poblete, January 7, 2026
The Venezuelan system known as “Chavismo” entered through the ballot box in 1998. With Cuba’s help, Hugo Chávez and his supporters systematically hollowed out Venezuela’s democratic institutions that make elections meaningful. Venezuela has not been a normal nation-state since then. Whatever one thinks of the pre‑Chávez political order, the project that replaced it has been brutal on the Venezuelan people: political prisoners, torture chambers, hostages, censored media, weaponized courts, economic collapse, scarcity, forced exile, and the steady humiliation of ordinary life. Venezuela isn’t merely suffering from bad domestic governance; it has become a platform. Cuba, for example, has “set up shop” inside Venezuela’s security architecture, with help and partnership from Russia, China, and, some argue, Iran. The first Catholic posture toward an event like this should be prudence: We do not yet know enough to declare moral victory — and perhaps we never will. We need the truth about aims, methods, limits, and what comes next.
CatholicVote
Wyoming Supreme Court strikes down pro-life laws
By Mary Rose, January 7, 2026
Marking a dark day for protections for the unborn, in a landmark 4-1 decision Jan. 6, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down two sweeping abortion restrictions, including the nation’s first explicit abortion pill ban, ruling that they violate the state constitution. According to The Hill, the court sided with Wellspring Health Access, Chelsea’s Fund, and four women who argued that Wyoming’s 2023 bans infringed on Article 1, Section 38 of the Wyoming state constitution, which affirms an adult’s “right to make his or her own health care decisions.” The laws under review included the Life is a Human Right Act, which enacted a near-total ban on abortion and specifically outlawed abortion pills, the first such law in the U.S. since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. All justices in the majority were appointed by Republican governors, yet they affirmed that abortion qualifies as health care under Wyoming law. The court rejected state arguments that abortion falls outside the definition of health care and is thus unprotected.
Pime Asia News
Demographic crisis and religious denominations in Russia
by Vladimir Rozanskij, January 7, 2026
Although Rosstat has decided to keep the data secret until 2025, many independent demographers believe that the decline in the Russian population is accelerating. The only areas bucking the trend are the Muslim-majority regions of the North Caucasus. Where religious practice is already much more intense than among the faithful of the Orthodox Churches. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow assures that the country “is laying the foundations for a new civilisation, where science, technology, new technologies, high standards of living, education, art and culture are combined with sincere and profound faith,” but the Russian Academy of National Economy warns of the risk of the disappearance of 130 towns with a current population of between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants. Russia had a population of 142,905,200, while in January 2025, the Rosstat institute counted 146,119,928. The increase of just over 3 million was due to the population of Crimea and annexed parts of Ukraine.
The Pillar
Ghanaian archbishop: Rome denied funding requests
By Luke Coppen, January 6, 2026
Archbishop John Bonaventure Kwofie told priests, religious, and lay collaborators Dec. 30 that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization had classified the Archdiocese of Accra as a “big archdiocese” in a “big city,” limiting its eligibility for funds. “This year, for instance, we sent four applications to Rome for funding, and we got nothing, absolutely nothing,” he said. Ghana, a West African country with a population of around 35 million, borders Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Togo. While Catholicism is growing overall in Africa, it is shrinking rapidly in Ghana. The proportion of the population identifying as Catholics fell from 15.1% in 2000 to 10.1% in 2021. Bishops attributed the decline to urbanization. When Catholics move from rural areas to the city, they are drawn to other Christian communities, especially those that preach the Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that financial donations to ministries can secure material well-being.
Vatican News
‘Second Vatican Council still guiding star of Church’s journey’
By Deborah Castellano Lubov, January 7, 2026
“It is the Magisterium [of the Second Vatican Council] that still constitutes the guiding star of the Church’s journey today.” Pope Leo XIV expressed this during his Wednesday General Audience on January 7 in the Vatican, as he began a new catechesis series dedicated to Vatican Council II and a rereading of its Documents, following the Jubilee Year’s focus on the mysteries of the life of Jesus. “I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century.” He said that while the time that separates us from this event is not long, the generation of Bishops and theologians from Vatican II is no longer with us. Leo said not to review Vatican II through 'hearsay' or interpretations, “but by rereading its documents and reflecting on their content."
Catholic Culture
The truth and beauty of revelation
By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, January 5, 2026
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). “Man” is comprised of male and female—a community of persons, a communion of love. The complementary masculine and feminine attributes help us understand the manner in which God reveals Himself to His creatures, images of the Blessed Trinity. Men tend toward the conceptual—the Word. Women tend toward the personal and relational—God’s infinite Trinitarian love. God’s revelation manifests truth and beauty in equal measure—truth apprehended by reason and beauty encountered through loving relationships. Faith and reason operate in harmony because Christ reconciles God and man in Himself. Religion and science are not adversaries. Science explains how creation functions. Faith explains why creation exists at all. In Christ, our reality and destiny become intelligible.
Crux
Trump tells Republicans to be ‘flexible’ on abortion restrictions
By Bill Barrow, AP, January 7, 2026
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants Republicans to reach a deal on health care insurance assistance by being willing to bend on a 50-year-old budget policy that bars federal money from being spent on abortion services. “You have to be a little flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, Trump told House Republicans as they gathered in Washington for a caucus retreat to open the midterm election year. “You gotta be a little flexible. You gotta work something. You gotta use ingenuity.” With his suggestion, Trump, who supported abortion rights before he entered politics in 2015, is asking conservatives to abandon or at least ease up on decades of Republican orthodoxy on abortion and spending policy — something lawmakers and conservatives pushed back on immediately. House Republicans did not visibly react to Trump’s argument. But Senate Republicans appeared unlikely to back off their demands that any new health care legislation maintain existing restrictions on government funding for abortion services.
From Loop & Agency to Pillar Post for 1/7/26
CatholicVote: Daily LOOP
Read daily news and political impact stories at the “LOOP”
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CV PRESIDENT URGES TRUMP TO RECOMMIT TO HYDE AMENDMENT -CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt urged President Donald Trump on Jan. 6 to reaffirm his commitment to the Hyde Amendment after he suggested Republicans should be “flexible” on the decades-old rule protecting taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions.
REPORT DETAILS RECENT PERSECUTIONS IN NIGERIA - Armed militants killed at least 42 men and abducted numerous women and children during a series of brutal assaults in Niger and Kebbi States, Nigeria, according to a statement from the Diocese of Kontagora. The attacks spanned from Dec. 28, 2025, to Jan. 3, 2026.
NO MORE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced this week that its board of directors has unanimously voted to dissolve the organization, months after Congress rescinded federal funding that had long supported public media outlets, including National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — January 7, 2026
The Catholic News Agency provides reliable, free, and up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and the activities of the Holy See, available to anyone with internet access.
Cardinal Dolan reflects on recovering the essentials of the Catholic faith - Jan 7, 2026 - By Walter Sánchez Silva - “Let’s start with what I think is one of the basics: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The sign of the cross. Almost a hallmark of being a Catholic. The identifying feature.”
SEEK 2026: 7 ways to discern your vocation - Jan 7, 2026 - By Francesca Pollio Fenton - Hundreds of young women filled a ballroom on Jan. 4 at the 2026 SEEK conference in Denver. “When we think about vocation, it’s ultimately a call to love and be loved,” Sister Virginia Joy said during her talk, titled “The Adventure of the Yes: Following God’s Call.”
Facing impending death, renowned cartoonist announces intent to convert - Jan 6, 2026 - By Tyler Arnold - Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created the “Dilbert” comic strip, said he is converting to Christianity amid his deteriorating health. Adams appeared to invoke “Pascal’s Wager,” an argument about the risks and rewards of following Jesus Christ, articulated by the 17th-century French Catholic philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal.
The Pillar
Pillar Stories for Tuesday, 1/7/26
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:
There are a few more days left in the liturgical season of Christmas — and some people celebrate Christmas until Candlemas — so you might find worthwhile this interview with Bishop Erik Varden, on the place of St. Joseph in the Christmas story.
The Conference of Rectors of Austrian Seminaries unveiled a new program Monday that will enable men aged 45 to 60 to train for the priesthood while continuing to work in a secular profession. The program itself seems to resemble the approach most U.S. dioceses take to the formation of permanent deacons .
Musk is sorry, not sorry - In March 2023, Elon Musk signed a letter alongside dozens of tech luminaries, calling for AI labs “to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” The letter lamented “the dangerous race” among AI developers “to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.”
Nutshell reflections for 1/7/26:
USCCB Daily Reflection Audio - January 7, 2026
Wednesday after Epiphany
George Weigel
Beware of the ‘designer’ gospels
By George Weigel, May 24, 2006
The all-stops-pulled media rollout of the Gospel of Judas, published by the National Geographic Society to the loud hosannas of those who find the four canonical Gospels too restrictive — people who, as Sister Sandra Schneiders of Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union told the National Catholic Reporter, “want to believe there is more to the story, that it is more flexible, richer, less closed than they thought.” All of which reminds me of P.T. Barnum’s commentary on the birth-rate of suckers. What Gospel of Judas cheerleaders like Princeton’s Elaine Pagels assiduously avoided noting was that their “gospel” isn’t a Gospel at all — that is, a story of the public ministry, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Church had to determine which of the many “gospels” on offer in the first centuries of Christianity were, in fact, canonical Gospels: that is, the word of God. Reflecting on that might well advance the Catholic-evangelical dialogue on the relationship of the Bible to the Church.
Aleteia
Tempted by divorce? Here’s why it’s a terrible idea
By Cerith Gardiner, January 6, 2026
Statistics suggest the first Monday in January is one of the busiest days of the year for divorce filings — the moment couples look at each other after Christmas stress, New Year reflection, and a few too many unresolved arguments, and think: That’s it. I’m done. If that thought has crossed your mind, take a breath. Step back.Divorce may look like an exit sign lit in flashing neon, but in reality, it’s often the emergency fire door that leads straight into a lifetime of emotional drafts. Marriage is not for the faint-hearted. It is hard. It can feel unfair. It demands humility, sacrifice, patience, forgiveness … and then forgiveness again. But before deciding to walk away, it’s worth remembering a few truths — said with love, realism, and a little Catholic wisdom. First, If you or your children are being harmed emotionally, physically, or spiritually, please seek help. Yet, no matter how glossy the “single, peaceful, free” life appears online, divorce rarely fixes what hurts.
Catholic Exchange
Jesus of Nazareth: Liar, lunatic, or Lord?
By Bobby Jakucs, PsyD, January 7, 2026
“Who do you say that I am?” This is the question Jesus asked His disciples two thousand years ago. Peter answered with the clarity only grace can give: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But every generation must answer that same question again. And in our age—one marked by anxiety, despair, and a deep confusion about identity—the stakes feel even higher. A few years back, in the middle of studying for my psychology licensure exam, my mind wandered (as minds under duress tend to do) and landed on a copy of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. I flipped to Lewis’s famous “Liar Lunatic Lord argument” about the identity of Christ—one of the most compelling apologetic arguments of the 20th century, and still astonishingly relevant today. “You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Catholic Exchange
When a diocese undermines its own vocations
By Sarah Cain, January 7, 2026
Bishop Martin of Charlotte is seeking to impose ‘a year as a layman’ before priestly ordination. This is like an engaged man living an additional year as a bachelor before his wedding day. One measure of a diocese's success is the number of its seminarians, as they reflect a spiritual ecology. If young people are not willing to give their lives in service to God when they hear the call, then either they are not listening for it or their environment represents an obstacle. But how ought we respond when a diocese actively sabotages what was working? The vocations initiative in the Diocese of Charlotte has been thriving for well over a decade. Under the former bishop (Bishop Jugis), dozens of young men entered the minor seminary in Belmont, North Carolina. They came from large Catholic families, were overwhelmingly homeschooled, had regular access to Eucharistic adoration, attended reverent parishes, and so on. With the aid of that program, they emerged as orthodox, motivated, zealous priests who celebrate reverent liturgies themselves.
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