Catholic Nutshell News: Wednesday 4/16/25
Topics include: Program to recruit priests, Hidden pro-life victories, Bible in a Year in India, & Some offenses purged in the age to come
“Here was an almond tree in bloom before me”
Today's sources are the National Catholic Register, CNA, Aleteia, CatholicVote, The Pillar, OSV, The Imaginative Conservative, and CNA. (Catholic Nutshell is a subscription service for faithful, hopeful, & curious Catholics willing to exercise the Catholic News Muscle)
Click here to view this email on the Catholic Nutshell News website. Today’s Catholic Nutshell News audio podcast is available on the Substack App.
Catholic News Agency
Program to recruit priests tries ‘to shift the narrative’
By Tyler Arnold, April 16, 2025
A new initiative is trying to shift the narrative on the Catholic priesthood by shining light on stories of heroic virtue, courage, and selfless acts from modern-day priests and bishops in an effort to strengthen the appeal of the vocation. The Philadelphia-based nonprofit International Institute for Culture (IIC) launched the first pillar of its “Shepherding Future Shepherds” program, which is the creation of ThankAPriest.com. It showcases positive stories with the hope of inspiring young Catholic men to consider vocations to the priesthood. “By sharing stories of priestly heroism and compassion, we hope to inspire young men to recognize the priesthood as a profound and fulfilling vocation,” IIC President John M. Haas said in a statement.
CatholicVote
Pregnancy organization reveals hidden pro-life victories
By Elizabeth Weiss, April 15, 2025
Even though the fruits of pro-lifers’ prayers for expectant mothers in need worldwide often go unseen, victories happen every day, said Andrea Trudden, an executive Heartbeat International. In the contentious debate of abortion, most attentions focus on politics and policies, Trudden wrote in an April 8 Pregnancy Help News article. But past this focus, a quieter story unfolds through the help of pro-life pregnancy organizations. Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network (APRN), a 24/7 hotline that can connect women with help to reverse their chemical abortions. Trudden explained that the work done by APRN and other pro-life organizations involves a complex reality: the effects of the work are “not always immediately visible.”
Aleteia
Bible in a Year finds success in India
By Christine Rousselle, April 15, 2025
The Malayalam version of the popular podcast Bible in a Year was released this past January. The Bible in a Year–Malayalam launched on January 1, 2025, and is hosted by Fr. Daniel Poovannathil, a Syro-Malankara Catholic priest. Poovannathil is the director of Mount Carmel Retreat Centre in Kerala. Since its first episode, The Bible in a Year–Malayalam has amassed 230,000 subscribers on YouTube alone, and its videos have hundreds of thousands of views. Malayalam is spoken by about 37 million people, and is the official language of the Indian state of Kerala. Kerala has the highest number of Christians of any state in India. Malayalam is the first Indian language version of The Bible in a Year podcast.
CRUX
Bishop in Cameroon asks voters to ‘make no mistake’ this year
By Ngala Killian Chimtom, April 16, 2025
As Cameroon gears up for a presidential election later this year, Bishop Paul Lontsie-Keune of Bafoussam, in Africa’s West Region, called on Cameroonians to massively register and vote their consciences — to avoid errors in their choice of president that they may live to regret. Cameroonians are scheduled to vote in October, with the country’s 92-year-old President, Paul Biya, in power for 43 years, expected to seek an eighth mandate. Bishop Paul noted the freedom of every citizen to vote for any candidate of their choice, but that if citizens vote against their consciences, as often happens when money is used to buy votes, then they would be opening the highway to a lifetime of regret, mssing a chance to make history.
The Pillar
Sudan’s Catholics managing to survive the war
By Luke Coppen, April 15, 2025
When civil war broke out in Sudan two years ago today, there were more than 1.2 million Catholics in the country. 90% of the nation’s roughly 50 million-strong population is Muslim, but Sudan has had a significant Catholic presence for almost 200 years. Africa’s third-largest country is linked with saints such as Josephine Bakhita and Daniele Comboni, and other holy figures such as Zeinab Alif, a slave who became an abbess. What’s happened to Sudan’s Catholics in the past two years? The latest conflict began on April 15, 2023, but has its roots in a coup in 2019 that overthrew the country’s strongman president Omar al-Bashir. By the war’s first anniversary, an estimated 165 Christian churches had been forced to close. Many Catholics who were able to flee had crossed the border to South Sudan, a country with a larger Catholic population but also prone to instability.
Our Sunday Visitor
Some of our offenses are purged in the age to come
By Jenna Marie Cooper, April 14, 2024
Most people likely will do a stint in purgatory after they die in the final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. Going to purgatory does not mean a person isn’t “saved” — it’s quite the opposite. A person in purgatory is ultimately and surely destined for heaven. Our Catholic Catechism tells us “that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come” (CCC 1031). Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection did indeed save us from sin, making heaven possible for us. That is, whereas the original sin of Adam and Eve alienated humanity from God, Jesus’ perfect obedience to God’s will, with his death on the cross, broke the bond original sin had over us. Through our baptism, by which we share in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are personally freed from original sin in our lives.
UCA News
When women were not reliable witnesses in legal proceedings
By Dr. John Singarayar, April 15, 2025
Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and others unnamed in scripture form a constellation of faithful witnesses around the resurrection event. Their presence disturbs the expected narrative. In ancient Jewish law, women were not considered reliable witnesses in legal proceedings. Their testimony carried little weight in public discourse. Yet the Gospel writers unflinchingly record that women were the first witnesses to the resurrection — a detail that would have undermined rather than strengthened their case in the ancient world. They included this detail not because of its cultural liability but because of its unassailable truth. The women were there. The women saw. The women testified — a divine preference for inverting human hierarchies, elevating the marginalized, and speaking through those societies that have silenced them.
National Catholic Register
Next synodal path phase off to a bumpy start
By Andrea Gagliarducci, April 15, 2025
The Italian Church is blazing a trail for other national episcopal conferences that aren’t as far along in adopting the structures and procedures of synodality. Church leaders in different parts of the world are likely to take note that bumps along any sustained “Synodal Path” are to be expected. The Plenary Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) will not be held in May as planned, because the assembly’s delegates — 1,008 in all, selected by the CEI, encompassing bishops, priests, religious and lay people — were deeply unhappy with the text that outlined a set of 50 propositions up for a full vote. The presidency of the Committee of the Synodal Path read all the contributions (196 came from the dioceses) and produced a lengthy summary. The delegates requested so many amendments that 95% of the document would have to change.
From Loop & Agency to Satire for 4/16/25
CatholicVote: Daily 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.” CatholicVote’s advertised mission is “To inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.” Today’s Wednesday topics from the LOOP include:
SENATOR MOVES TO MAKE EASTER MONDAY A FEDERAL HOLIDAY - Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-MO, is introducing legislation to make Easter Monday a federal holiday. "The current lack of a federal Easter Holiday significantly limits Americans' ability to celebrate with friends, family, and church communities."
ILLINOIS BISHOPS DROP OPPOSITION TO HOMESCHOOL BILL - The Catholic Conference of Illinois has shocked parents and Catholic school advocates by withdrawing its opposition to a bill that would place sweeping new regulations on homeschooling families and private schools across the state.
PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST DENOUNCES VIOLENT RHETORIC - Savannah Craven Antao, a pro-life journalist who was punched during an April 3 interview, blamed recent Democratic rhetoric for the attack, arguing that the left espouses violence: "They’re totally fine with just using force like that to hurt people if they don’t agree with them.”
Catholic News Agency
CNA’s top headlines — April 16, 2025
Catholic News Agency provides reliable, free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Universal Church, emphasizing the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See to anyone with access to the internet.
Heritage Foundation’s Roberts: ‘Golden age of America’ lies in revitalization of faith - Apr 16, 2025 - By Madalaine Elhabbal - “We can make [politicians’] jobs easier as it relates to policymaking if we live out our respective faiths with zeal, with a real passion, with a persuasiveness to bring people to the truth.”
Social media and personal research driving France’s record baptism boom, survey reveals - Apr 16, 2025 - By Heather Tomlinson - A survey of 900 French catechumens conducted by Catholic media outlets Famille Chrétienne and Aleteia has revealed that social media plays a crucial role in attracting young adults to Catholicism.
Holy Week at White House features dinner with Christian leaders, religious service - Apr 15, 2025 - By Tyler Arnold - President Donald Trump on Palm Sunday kicked off Holy Week with comments acknowledging Jesus Christ’s “excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross” and the gift of redemption and the forgiveness of sins merited through his suffering and death.
Babylon Bee - Satire News
Loopholes To Help You Avoid Paying Taxes
By Priority Gold Staff, April 15, 2025
The Babylon Bee has come up with the following list of clever loopholes to get out of giving Uncle Sam any of your hard-earned money:
Claim all 15 million illegal aliens as your dependents: This is technically true.
Go fishing and hope Jesus repeats that whole coins-in-the-fish's-mouth thing for you: He did it once, and He can do it again.
Write off all the times you rounded up your Taco Bell order to the nearest dollar to help children in need: You knew all that generosity would pay off eventually.
Count your time working as a church greeter as part of your tithe: By reporting it as being at $1,000/hour, all those awkward hellos and handshakes will finally be worth it.
Do not, under any circumstances, make any money, ever: You can't pay taxes on income you don't have.
Nutshell reflections for 4/16/25:
USCCB Daily Reflection AUDIO & VIDEO - April 16, 2025
Wednesday of Holy Week
The Imaginative Conservative
‘We have become a spectacle to the world’
By Br. Andrew Lyons, April 12, 2025
Springtime moves toward good things. But while animals grow with new life, man takes one day to walk straight toward death. As the birds and squirrels look on in incomprehension, Christians process to the Cross. “Like people sentenced to death, we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike” (1 Cor 4:9). But in this season of new life, what makes Christians move against the tide of all the world, into the arms of the dead? What unseen force draws them? Jesus. On the Cross, there’s only Jesus. The joy of Cana, the health of Bethesda, the full bellies by the Sea, and even the joy of new life at Bethany disappear. All the goods that could commend Jesus to the world of nature have disappeared. Jesus hangs on the Cross, solitary in our eyes. This is his moment of glory because, at this very moment, he shows the faithful that he is all we need.
The Obscure, Forgotten, and Undiscovered
Who was Georges Chevrot?
By James K. Hanna, April 14, 2025
Beyond the holy assembly of canonized saints, the list of fervent souls birthed to the Church by French mothers seems equally endless. Among the legions, we find four born within a few years of each other in the late nineteenth century. Three were cradle Catholics, one converted at age twenty-four. Two became priests, two remained laymen. In the twentieth century, each made significant contributions to the Church. Three are well known: Jacques Maritain, Etienne Gilson, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Less known is Georges Chevrot. Maritain contributed to philosophy, Gilson to the history of philosophy, and Teilhard to speculative science. Chevrot, ordained in 1903, became the preacher extraordinaire. In 1938, Cardinal Verdier called Chevrot to the cathedral's pulpit at Notre Dame. He attracted faithful by the thousands, and his sermons were carried on radio.
Catholic Gentlemen
We don’t go to Mass primarily for ourselves
By Dr. Jared Staudt, April 16, 2025
God created us to give Him glory, which we do by sharing in His own happiness. The Catechism describes this reality in its opening line: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” The Baltimore Catechism captured the question “why did God make me?” even more poignantly: “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” The Mass has the same end as human life, though it is the most direct and intense expression of it on earth. We go to Mass for God, to give Him the glory, thanks, and honor He deserves as our Creator and Redeemer. We don’t go to Mass primarily for ourselves, though we do benefit by going, because through the Mass God draws us into His life, which is the goal of our lives.
Missio Dei
Judas was offered and desired for his office, but …
By Andrew McGovern, April 16, 2025
Today is the day traditionally known as Spy Wednesday. Today we remember our Lord's selling and handing over by the traitor, Judas Iscariot. Judas is an interesting case as it has always puzzled many Christians that Christ even chose him to be an Apostle. Why even call the traitor to begin with? He called Him an apostle because even the hardened sinner is created for heaven and to do something great. For Judas, he was meant to be seated on a throne in heaven, but through His free will, he rejected the Lord. Of course, our Lord, being omniscient, knew this, and Matthias was chosen before the foundation of the world to replace the traitor, but the fact remains that Judas was offered and desired for this office and yet rejected it.
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