TCA Media Monitoring October 13, 2026
| 1. WHO’S IN CHARGE WHEN THE POPE IS UNCONSCIOUS AND UNABLE TO GOVERN? THE POPE. Church law has no mechanism for transferring power when a pope is sick or unconscious, so Pope Leo XIV remains fully in charge while under general anesthesia for his lung-nodule surgery at Gemelli hospital, with power changing hands only if a pope dies or resigns. In practice, a Vatican bureaucracy led by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin already handles day-to-day governance, and Parolin said he was reassured after speaking with the pope, while other business, such as new bishop appointments, continues as normal. Canon law covers an incapacitated diocesan bishop but offers no explicit provision for an “impeded” pope, though past popes like Paul VI and Francis wrote contingency resignation letters that were never invoked, and the camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, has no role unless the pope dies or resigns. (By Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 2. POPE LEO PREPARES FOR SURGERY TO REMOVE LUNG NODULE. Pope Leo XIV, 71, is undergoing surgery Tuesday to remove a “very early-stage and well-localized” lung nodule found during recent medical tests, his first hospitalization since becoming pontiff, and he is expected to recover in the hospital for about a week, with all audiences canceled until Oct. 20. Outside doctors note that most pulmonary nodules are benign, that the operation is likely to be minimally invasive, and that any further treatment will depend on lab analysis of the nodule. Day-to-day Vatican business will be handled by its bureaucracy and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will preside at Wednesday’s Mass in his place, while the Vatican says the pope still plans to begin a South America trip on Nov. 6, though one surgeon advises patients against flying for three weeks after lung surgery. (By Elisabetta Povoledo, The New York Times) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 3. ARCHBISHOP BROGLIO ISSUES STATEMENT ON PROPOSED EXECUTION LIVESTREAM. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, issued a statement expressing disapproval of the proposal to live-stream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, saying he supports the earlier statement by the Texas bishops. He expresses sympathy for the victims of the Fort Hood attack and reaffirms the Church’s opposition to capital punishment, then asks whether broadcasting the killing would make the U.S. military resemble terrorists, and raises concerns about moral injury to the firing squad, the effect on impressionable young viewers, and the dignity of the person being executed. He calls on people of good will to ask for the decision to be reconsidered, or at least to shield young people from the broadcast, and says he is obliging any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused, just as he would in the case of a procured abortion. (Archdiocese for the Military Services) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 4. HOW THE SUPREME COURT IS RESHAPING THE LIMITS OF RELIGIOUS RIGHTS IN AMERICA. This article reports that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts has ruled in favor of expanding religious rights in nearly every recent case, including seven of eight since the 2020 term and 86 percent of cases across the Roberts era, compared with about half in the five decades before him. The new term could extend that streak, with a Colorado prekindergarten case involving a Catholic school that won’t admit children of gay parents set for November arguments, a likely challenge to a 46-year-old precedent barring the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, and a possible case on an Amish exemption from New York’s vaccine mandate. Supporters such as Notre Dame’s Rick Garnett describe the trend as “doctrinal repair” of earlier rulings that disfavored religion, while critics like Americans United’s Rachel Laser say the court has turned religious freedom on its head and eroded church-state separation, with research showing the shift is driven largely by the conservative and Catholic justices. (By Julian Mark, Justin Jouvenal, The Washington Post) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 5. OPINION: AI IS CHANGING MOTHERHOOD FOR THE WORSE. While attention is growing on AI’s risks to children, mothers are also affected: AI advice can replace the peer networks and trust in maternal instinct that parents once relied on, and it adds anxiety about jobs, finances, and the future. The author cites surveys showing that most parents use AI for parenting help, a third follow its guidance over their own instincts, and a large majority of mothers worry about their children’s exposure to unsafe content and confusion between human and AI interactions. She concludes that, without policy fixes like age limits or school restrictions, the burden of monitoring AI use falls on mothers, making an already intense period of childrearing even harder. (By Abby McCloskey, Bloomberg) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 6. OPINION: FILL THE GOVERNMENT WITH BARBARIANS, YOU GET BARBARIC GOVERNMENT. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to live-stream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan (scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood) is a barbaric and misguided attempt at “moral instruction,” since capital punishment doesn’t meaningfully deter crime and mostly serves to project the state’s dark majesty. The author uses sarcasm and historical examples, including Nazi-era executions and a 1936 Kentucky public hanging, to show how public killings have served as spectacle and shown a regression rather than progress in society’s “evolving standards of decency.” He concludes that the plan, arriving ahead of the midterms, reveals the character of the Trump administration, and that revulsion toward it, while not an argument, is a virtue. (By George F. Will, The Washington Post) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 7. THE MAKING OF POPE LEO XIV, AMERICAN WARTS AND ALL. This column reviews “American Pope,” a book by NPR journalists Scott Detrow and Daniel Burke tracing Pope Leo XIV’s path from a devout childhood on Chicago’s South Side to the papacy, portraying him as an almost saintly figure with an easygoing temperament, deep compassion, and courage shown during his years as a missionary and bishop in Peru. The author notes that the reporting relied on friends and family who were cleared to speak by the Vatican, but that the reporters never interviewed the pope himself, and he praises Leo for criticizing Trump and Vance over policies he sees as contrary to Christ’s teachings on protecting the vulnerable. The piece also highlights the pope’s less-than-spotless family history, including an adulterous grandfather and Black New Orleans ancestors on his mother’s side who relocated to Chicago and began living as white, and it closes by hoping the pope will one day fill in the gaps in the story. (By Joyce M. Davis, PennLive) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 8. AI HAS A GOD PROBLEM STRETCHING FROM THE VATICAN TO THE BAPTIST PULPIT. This article reports that anxiety over AI is increasingly being voiced from the pulpit, with a South Carolina pastor saying it now outranks wars and the economy among his congregants’ worries, and Christian groups including the National Association of Evangelicals, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and Pope Leo XIV (through a May encyclical invoking the Tower of Babel) all weighing in. The author argues this poses a new risk for AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, since the tech community’s own language about creating a new kind of consciousness echoes biblical themes of hubris and rebellion, and religious leaders are wary of tech’s track record on social media. The faith leaders say they aren’t Luddites but want to steer AI toward benefiting humanity, and the South Carolina pastor himself is hopeful about its potential for medical cures yet worries that people unprepared for the coming changes could be harmed by its misuse. (By Tim Higgins, The Wall Street Journal) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 9. OPINION: AI’S EXISTENTIAL RISK ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK IT IS, THE THREAT TO HUMANITY MAY BE REAL, BUT MUCH LESS DRAMATIC. AI systems lack consciousness, memory, empathy, or genuine care, so treating them politely or as if they have souls only fuels harmful myths and marketing hype. Their trained sycophancy and simulated emotional bonds create para-social relationships that can enable exploitation, reinforce delusions, erode real human connections, and potentially accelerate already-collapsing fertility rates with severe economic consequences. The author proposes outlawing human-like AI agents—forcing them instead to appear and sound obviously mechanical—to prevent these risks while allowing limited exceptions such as elder care. (By Merryn Somerset Webb, Bloomberg) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 10. FORT HOOD SHOOTER’S EXECUTION WILL BE PUBLIC AND STREAMED LIVE, PENTAGON SAYS. The Pentagon announced that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army officer convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and wounded 32, will be executed by firing squad on December 3 in a public setting that will also be livestreamed. If carried out, it would mark the first public execution in the United States in nearly a century and the first livestreamed military execution, a practice more commonly associated with authoritarian regimes or extremist groups. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the decision by saying the public needs to see the serious consequences of such crimes. (By Chris Cameron, The New York Times) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 11. CARDINAL PAROLIN ON US PUBLIC EXECUTION: DEATH MUST NOT BE TURNED INTO A SPECTACLE. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, strongly criticized the U.S. Pentagon’s plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hassan, calling it incomprehensible and unacceptable to turn death into a public spectacle. He reiterated the Catholic Church’s total opposition to the death penalty, describing it as incompatible with human dignity and ineffective as a deterrent, while noting that the Holy See would issue a formal statement. In the same remarks, Parolin briefly welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to human-rights advocate Navi Pillay as a positive affirmation of those who defend human rights. (By Vatican News) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 12. THESE STATES ARE SET TO SETTLE SCHOOL CULTURE WARS AT THE BALLOT BOX. Voters in 10 states will weigh 17 education-related ballot measures in the midterms (19 counting two that already failed in Louisiana primaries), the most since 2018, with many aiming to settle culture-war fights by writing policies into state constitutions, which makes them harder to reverse. Alabama’s measures would require student-led prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each school day and weekly broadcasts of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” while Nebraska’s would enshrine a ban on transgender students joining girls’ sports teams, and similar athlete measures are on ballots in Washington, Colorado, and Arizona. Supporters say constitutional amendments protect policies from shifting political tides and signal what the state wants, but critics, including the League of Women Voters of Alabama and OutNebraska, argue the prayer measure blurs church-state lines and the sports measure targets a tiny share of students in a way that doesn’t belong in a constitution. (By Lauren Lumpkin, The Washington Post) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 13. U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS CONDEMNS PENTAGON’S ‘BARBARIC’ DECISION TO LIVESTREAM EXECUTION. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued a statement Friday expressing “shock and great sorrow” over the Pentagon’s decision to livestream the upcoming execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad. As National Review’s Jim Geraghty noted, the planned broadcast raises questions about compliance with Army regulations prohibiting minors from witnessing executions. Archbishop Coakley stated that while “in no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned,” the decision is a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.” He added, “The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.” The Catholic Church opposes capital punishment, which Pope Francis declared “inadmissible” in a 2018 revision to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Coakley has previously called for an end to federal executions. (By Raleigh Adams, National Review Online) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 14. LOWER EAST SIDE PARISHIONERS MOURN LOSS OF ‘SPIRITUAL HOME’. Most Holy Redeemer, a 175-year-old Catholic church on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, has been locked since the Archdiocese of New York closed it last August, citing a priest shortage and minor ceiling damage, and parishioners have since kept up regular prayer vigils outside its gates. They say the archdiocese has communicated poorly, that promised Masses never happened and special programs like the Spanish-language Mass and soup kitchen have ended, and they have responded with rallies, landmark-status efforts, appeals to politicians, and a canon-law challenge arguing no formal closure decree was issued. The archdiocese denies any violation and says the closure was for safety reasons, that ceiling repairs began last month, and that the Mass schedule will be set afterward, while parishioners see the situation as part of a broader pattern of neighborhood change in which churches are closed, demolished, or converted into developments like luxury housing. (By Maya King, The New York Times) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 15. EWTN NAMES URSULA MURUA TO SUCCEED MONTSE ALVARADO AS HEAD OF EWTN NEWS. EWTN Global Catholic Network on Friday named Ursula Murua, a longtime leader of digital strategy, as the next president of EWTN News, effective Nov. 1. Murua, a native of Peru who is director of digital strategy and social media for EWTN News, succeeds Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News since 2023, whom Pope Leo XIV appointed in June as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication. Alvarado takes up the Vatican post the same day. (By EWTN News Staff, EWTN News) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 16. CANONISTS WARN SYNOD’S CANON LAW PROPOSALS BLUR LINES OF CHURCH AUTHORITY. Several canon lawyers have criticized the final report of a Synod on Synodality commission on canon law, describing several proposed changes as a departure from Catholic doctrine and contrary to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The commission, whose report was published Sept. 30 by the General Secretariat of the Synod, sought to identify how the theological and ecclesiological insights emerging from the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality could be translated into canonical norms. According to Dominican priest and canonist Father Pius Pietrzyk, the commission report contains “maybe two decent ideas,” but otherwise ranges from “silly cosmetic changes to a betrayal of the Second Vatican Council and two millennia of ecclesiology.” Legislative proposals include amendments to 34 canons, including those governing the capacity of lay people to exercise offices, responsibilities and ministries in the Church. Others relate to canons governing councils and bishops’ conferences and propose changes to participatory bodies with the aim of strengthening participation and mission. (By Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ |
| TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. Subscribe to the TCA podcast!  “Conversations with Consequences” is an audio program from The Catholic Association. We’ll bring you thoughtful dialogue with the leading thinkers of our time on the most consequential issues of our day. Subscribe today or listen online and enjoy our entertaining and informative weekly episodes. Click Here to Listen and Subscribe |