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EWTN News
Docs say: Eastern & Western spirituality heal the whole person
By Amira Abuzeid, September 15, 2026
For the first time in its nearly 100-year history, the Catholic Medical Association is focusing on how the Eastern Catholic Church’s emphasis on mystery, united with the Western Church’s emphasis on reason, can give a more comprehensive view of human identity and help Western medicine promote human flourishing. “We’re embodied spirits, not just physical bodies,” she said at the opening. Healing, she added, “is a return to humanity’s original creation in the image and likeness of God.” The conference theme was “Mysteries and Miracles: Restoring the Practice of Medicine to Heal the Whole Person.” Setting the tone, Father Andriy Chirovsky, a theologian and priest of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome, and psychiatrist Dr. Donna C. Dobrowolsky shared the first plenary. Chirovsky said. “Healing requires a true anthropology.”
aciafrica
AI cannot answer humanity’s questions on suffering
By Silas Isenjia, September 15, 2026
Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot be regarded as a means of resolving deeper human questions surrounding suffering, Fr. Melchior Marandu, author of “A Theology of Suffering: Quest for Meaning”, argued. His book explores the limits of technological advances in addressing humanity’s questions about painful aspects of life such as sickness and death; despite technological and scientific advances, suffering and death remain unresolved. “What is the meaning and cause of suffering and evil, death, that technological and scientific advances cannot eliminate?” The Tanzanian Jesuit Priest said suffering calls for examining human responsibility rather than placing blame entirely on God. “Why do seemingly good people make others suffer? We have seen people, we even call them holy, walking saints, aren't they? But in their own communities, they are making others suffer. Why?” he asked.
National Catholic Register
After 30 years, religious sisters return to New York catholic school
By Gigi Duncan, September 8, 2026
The first morning of school brought the familiar sights and sounds back to St. Mary’s Academy in Glen Falls, New York: students filing in with backpacks, classrooms filling, and school-year routines beginning once again. But this year, Sister of the Resurrection Laurie-Marie Parisi greeted students on the first day, Sept. 10, welcoming them into the pre-K-to-8 academy where she now serves as principal. It marked the return of something St. Mary’s has not seen in more than three decades: religious sisters living and serving in the school and parish. With two other Sisters of the Resurrection, Sister Angela Marie Leo and Sister Mary Lucille Borowski, Parisi lives at a newly established convent on the parish’s property. For Father Scott VanDerveer, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, the arrival of the religious sisters is the culmination of a long-shot effort to restore something he and other parish and school leaders believed the academy had been missing.
Zeale News
Planned Parenthood challenges Wisconsin laws on abortion
By Elizabeth Ervin, September 15, 2026
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit Sept. 10 seeking to overturn two state restrictions on abortion and establish abortion as a right under the Wisconsin Constitution. The lawsuit challenges a Wisconsin law making it a Class I felony for anyone other than a physician to perform an abortion and a requirement that women generally wait at least 24 hours after an in-person consultation before obtaining an abortion. Planned Parenthood argued that the Wisconsin Constitution protects the freedom to end an unborn child’s life through abortion, citing the document’s promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said, “These laws don’t make patient care better. They simply make abortion harder to access. And politicians should not get to put barriers between a patient and their health care provider.”
The PIllar
Are larger families actually more religious?
By Brendan Hodge, September 11, 2026
In a society where artificial birth control is widely available and accepted, having a large family is increasingly seen as a choice taken primarily by people outside the mainstream, often for religious reasons. But is that actually the case? Among married people aged 40-55 who have no children, 17% attend religious services at least once a week, a rate virtually identical to unmarried people with no children (16%). Sociologist Ryan Burge recently looked at the question on his site, Graphs About Religion, and concluded: “It’s fair to say that large families are more likely to go to church, but not by that much.” He found that 33% of families with four or more kids went to church at least weekly, while among families with any number of children, 29% went to church that often. Among married couples, the most common number of children is two. For large families, 5.1% of married couples have five or more children, while 2.9% of unmarried couples have that many.
Pime Asia News
Fifty years of charity: An encounter between a priest & a beggar
By Pime Asia News, September 12, 2026
Launched in 1976 by Father Oh Woong-jin, the "Village of Flowers" is now South Korea's largest Catholic social welfare complex. From the first "House of Love" for the homeless, a religious congregation has emerged with missions in several countries, including the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Pope Francis visited the community in 2014. It all began with a providential meeting between Father Oh Woong-jin and Choi Gwi-dong, an elderly beggar with a disability who had spent over 40 years caring for other marginalized people in even more dire straits than himself. That chance encounter between strangers gave rise to Kkottongnae, South Korea’s largest Catholic social welfare complex, which today celebrates the 50th anniversary of that event, which took place on 12 September 1976, in the Diocese of Cheongju. A decisive turning point came on 8 September 1986, with the founding of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Jesus of the Flower Village, religious communities that added a spiritual dimension to the organization's welfare activities.
Graphs about Religion
Praying daily much more common than Church attendance
By Ryan Burge, September 14, 2026
A quarter of Americans report attending a house of worship at least a couple of times per month, and about 40% are unlikely to go to a church, synagogue, or mosque at all in the next 12 months. We measure American religion through three dimensions: belief, belonging, and behavior. Social scientists almost always measure behavior through the lens of religious attendance. It’s just the simplest, most straightforward way to do it. Prayer frequency is another way to measure religious behavior, and it specifically asks folks to exclude prayer as part of religious services. Over a quarter of Americans say they pray multiple times per day, and another 16% say they pray by themselves every single day. In total, a majority of Americans say they pray at least a couple of times per week. In contrast, few adults say they don’t pray much at all.
Aleteia
Parish is the ‘Church’s most important institution’
By Jenny Lark Snarski, September 16, 2026
The leaders of the Amazing Parish movement firmly believe in the power of courageous leadership and cultural change to bring about parish transformation from the inside out. They announced a record attendance of 1,100 participants at their August summit held in Houston, Texas. The crowd included pastors, seminarians, diocesan staff, and lay leaders from 88 dioceses across 44 states and four countries, including the Archbishop of Fiji. This gathering, the first in two years, brought together well-known Catholic personalities “as equals” with those working for the Church whose names might never appear on an event flyer or book cover.
Keep informed - 9/16/26 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.”
DEMOCRATS SUE DHS TO KEEP GIVING WELFARE FUNDS TO FOREIGN NATIONALS - New York was joined by 21 other states and the District of Columbia in filing a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s new restrictions on green cards for foreign nationals who rely on taxpayer-funded welfare programs.
MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE EL-SAYED PROTESTED AGAINST ‘EX-TERRORISTS’ WHO CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY - Socialist-adjacent Democratic Senate nominee for Michigan Abdul El-Sayed reportedly protested against a 2007 event featuring three converts from Islam to Christianity who claimed to be former affiliates of Islamic terrorist organizations.
POLL: AMERICANS’ SATISFACTION WITH K-12 EDUCATION HITS RECORD LOW - According to a September Gallup survey, fewer than one-third of Americans are happy with the quality of K-12 education, the lowest share recorded by the polling and research firm in nearly 30 years of study.
Augustine Institute
Formed Series Programs
Formed guides Catholics and those they evangelize to a fully Catholic life through faith-informed content and draws people closer to Christ. The Formed platform provides a captivating experience that empowers and satisfies curiosity by forming Catholics for life.
In the beginning, God... (Gen 1:1) | Verbum Dei Podcast - Fr. John Ignatius teaches that despite various creation myths, the God who has revealed himself in Scripture is a Who and not simply a “what”. God’s first action toward us as living beings is to bless us.
The Crucifixion - Jesus enters the darkest moment in history to reveal the Father’s unfathomable love. What God did over 2,000 years ago, He desires to do in your life today. He continues to descend into our darkest moments to offer us forgiveness.
How to Cultivate Silence for a Better Prayer Life - On this episode of Practicing Catholic, hosts Taylor Kemp and Dr. Scott Hefelfinger tackle a challenge almost every praying Catholic knows well: sitting down for prayer only to find that silence is anything but quiet inside. Drawing on a year of listener responses to their episodes on prayer, Taylor and Scott turn to the question underneath it — why cultivating real silence is so difficult, and why it's essential to the spiritual life anyway.
The Pillar
Pillar Stories from the July calendar, 9/16/26
The Pillar offers a news summary and a capsule take on Catholic News. Here are news stories from the past few weeks in the Pillar Post:
Morocco’s Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero is sidelined right now, as the prelate faces investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct, including three women who say the cardinal acted inappropriately in the confessional. The Archdiocese of Rabat got a coadjutor bishop yesterday, who will take over governance of the diocese immediately whenever López Romero resigns, is removed, or retires.
The Belarusian Greek Catholic Church is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome. It has around 5,000 members in Belarus, as well as thousands more living in the diaspora.
The Diocese of Fall River, Mass., announced Friday that Msgr. Roger Landry has been restricted from public ministry after allegations of misconduct were made against the priest by “multiple individuals.” Landry, who was due to be a headliner at the beatification of Fulton Sheen next week, has said that the allegations do not involve sexual misconduct, and that he has not been suitably informed about what canonical crimes he may have committed.
September 16, 2026 - USCCB Daily Mass Readings
You can listen HERE or read HERE:
Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs
Today’s Catholic commentary:
Crisis Magazine
Modern fashion: No dignity for the pregnant woman
By Andrea Madrigal, September 16, 2026
Horrifying as it might be, the modern woman’s hatred for her very own childbearing abilities—abilities which used to be treasured and esteemed so highly—is a fascinating phenomenon that deserves to be examined. Why, and how, did we get here? There are certainly many possible explanations and theories, all of which point to one ideology whose effects on society have not left any room to doubt that it originated from the very pit of Hell: feminism. Its influence is everywhere—from the entertainment she is exposed to when she is a girl to the education system, which is steeped in turning women away from their natural inclinations, one of which is motherhood, and instead convincing them that a life of slavery to the corporate world (or, even worse, of individualistic success in the corporate world) is the epitome of female liberty.
The Catholic Weekly
How will the church thrive in secular Australia?
By Dr Philippa Martyr, September 16, 2026
When I was a kid, the basics of Christianity were still assumed and factored into our laws on working, shopping, eating, and drinking. Not anymore. Some changes feel harder than others — like the decision to hold major entertainment and sporting events on Good Friday. I really felt that one. Can we do anything about this? Is this a hill you’d be prepared to die on? I suspect not. Does that make you a bad Catholic? I don’t think so. I know some readers would disagree, because they’re keen for Catholics to be at the forefront of social action. It’s hard to accept that the number of committed Catholics in Australia has fallen drastically. It’s equally hard to accept that our church has been publicly disgraced, and with just cause. We don’t have the social and political clout that we used to have. Perhaps the great weakening of the church in Australia is a case of having talents taken off you when they’re not used for God’s purposes (Matt 25:29).
The Jerusalem Post
Among Christian zionists: Marco Rubio is No. 1
By Jerusalem Post Staff, September 10, 2026
As America's chief diplomat and National Security Adviser, Marco Rubio has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to the US-Israel alliance and to the security of the Jewish state. Throughout his years in public service, including his tenure in the US Senate, Rubio has been a vocal advocate for Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism and regional threats, while supporting efforts to strengthen strategic cooperation between the two nations. As the son of Cuban immigrants who fled communism, Rubio was raised with a deep appreciation for freedom, democracy, and the dangers of authoritarianism. His family's experience, coupled with his Christian faith, shaped his conviction that America should stand firmly with democratic allies such as Israel and defend religious liberty around the world. His leadership has reflected a broader commitment to confronting anti-Semitism, promoting religious freedom, and affirming the enduring partnership between the American and Israeli people.
Church Life Journal
Battle between Traditional Latin Mass & the Vatican is power
By Shaun Blanchard, September 11, 2026
The real dispute over the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes (TC) was ecclesiological, not liturgical. Put the controversy in historical context beyond the issues Pope Francis and his supporters and critics typically circled around: Vatican II and its implementation/reception, Lefebvrist and traditionalist resistance to the Council, and whether Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum had been good or bad for the Church. The most outspoken advocate for the TLM in the hierarchy is definitely still Cardinal Burke, and while he is obviously deeply, piously devoted to the old liturgy, it is no accident that he also led the charge against Pope Francis’s “ambiguities” in general and synodality in particular, finally generating the formal Roman response to his dubia he so desired. Indeed, it is now difficult to see much theological (as opposed to prudential or disciplinary) difference between SSPX and the leading traditionalist spokesmen, or at least the ones who make the most noise.
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