| TCA Podcast – “Conversations with Consequences” – Ep. 389 Solène Tadié on France’s Catholic Revival & Matthew Haas on Thank-a-Priest Plus Father Petri’s Quick Confession Tips. With beautiful moments still lingering after Pope Leo’s apostolic journey to France, Solène Tadié joins to share her insights including the many heartfelt moments the Holy Father had visiting the “eldest daughter of the Church.” Matt Haas provides an update on the Thank-a-Priest initiative and why we should highlight these shepherds that work tirelessly on behalf of the flock all over the world on any given day. Father Thomas Petri is back with quick tips for your next trip to the confessional, and why therapy is never part of the equation when it comes to God’s mercy. Catch the show every Saturday at 7amET/5pmET on EWTN Radio! LISTEN HERE _______________________________________________________ 1. POPE LEO SEEKS STATUS UPDATE OF FRANCIS’ DIVISIVE OPENING TO DIVORCED AND REMARRIED CATHOLICS. Ten years after Pope Francis’ 2016 document Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) controversially allowed divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion on a case-by-case basis after spiritual discernment, Pope Leo XIV is inviting church leaders to a weeklong closed-door Vatican meeting to assess how the teaching has been implemented locally. Officials stressed that the text itself is not being rewritten, amended, or discarded, but rather that the gathering aims to learn from bishops’ experiences, surface differences and tensions, and avoid artificial consensus. The document remains one of the most divisive of Francis’ papacy, drawing conservative criticism that it sowed confusion about the indissolubility of marriage and even accusations of heresy. (By Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 2. OPINION: POPE LEO’S FRANCE VISIT OFFERS WASHINGTON A LESSON IN CONFRONTING TYRANNY. The piece praises Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France (Paris, Lourdes, and Metz), where over a million people attended Masses or rosary recitations despite the country’s hostile official stance toward religion, as proof that Catholicism will outlast its enemies. The author contrasts the Church’s direct, generational approach with President Trump’s state dinner for Xi Jinping, noting the administration apparently made no demands about the release of Catholic pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, and argues that appeasing violent regimes never works in the long run. He points to the vocations group Thank a Priest, with about 8 million video views, as an example of the Church preparing for the long term, and urges Americans to be clear-eyed about illegitimate regimes rather than pretending “the bad guys are not really that bad.” (By Michael McKenna, The Washington Times) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 3. OPINION: NUNS ARE THE NEW STOCK VILLAINS IN IRISH CINEMA. In Irish cinema, nuns have shifted from sympathetic figures in older films like The Sound of Music to one-dimensional, cruel stock villains in a popular modern genre, as seen in movies such as Philomena, The Magdalene Sisters, and Small Things Like These. The latest example is The Lost Children of Tuam (produced by Liam Neeson), which continues this pattern by depicting religious sisters involved with Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes as uniquely sinister. Columnist David Quinn argues that this portrayal is unfair and reductive, urging a more balanced view informed by official reports rather than gothic-horror stereotypes. (By David Quinn, The Wall Street Journal) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 4. OPINION: TRUMP ONCE CHAMPIONED GLOBAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. HERE’S WHY HE STOPPED. In his first term, President Trump elevated international religious freedom as a foreign-policy priority by raising the profile of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, incorporating it into the National Security Strategy, and appointing dedicated officials. His second term has marked a sharp reversal, with failures to issue required reports, deep cuts to funding and staffing for related programs and groups, demotion of the office within the bureaucracy, and a 2025 National Security Strategy skeptical of promoting “social change” abroad. The article attributes this shift to a broader move toward hard-interest realism in foreign policy, bureaucratic distrust, changing immigration politics, and a retreat from human-rights advocacy, arguing that religious-freedom advocates now need a new strategy. (By Matthew Schmitz, The Washington Post) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 5. OPINION: RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AND FINANCIAL ‘CRIMES’. In China, authorities are increasingly charging independent Christian house-church leaders with financial crimes as a tool of religious persecution. For example, a Shanxi court sentenced Golden Lampstand Church leader Yang Rongli to 15 years in June 2025 for “fraud” simply for collecting voluntary offerings from her congregation—an ordinary practice churches have used for two millennia, with no deception involved. Similar tactics were used against Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu’s Early Rain Covenant Church (sentenced to nine years in 2019 partly for “illegal business operations” related to printing Christian books), and the piece warns that this method of reclassifying normal activities as financial crimes should concern businesses as well. (By Gao Pu, The Wall Street Journal) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 6. ‘ADORE HIM: HE IS HERE’: NEW MOVIE SHOWS HOW EUCHARISTIC ADORATION CHANGES LIVES. The new docudrama Adore Him: He Is Here, executive-produced by Deacon Steve Greco and screening in theaters nationwide October 4–8, explores the transformative power of Eucharistic adoration through personal testimonies of conversion and spiritual renewal. Featuring stories from converts, lukewarm Catholics, and priests such as Fathers Chris Alar and Donald Calloway, the film interweaves these accounts with biblical dramatizations, explanations of the Eucharist’s scriptural roots, and practical guidance on prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. Drawing on insights from figures like Blessed Fulton Sheen and speakers including Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers and Archbishop Paul Coakley, it aims to answer questions for believers and nonbelievers alike while inspiring deeper devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. (By Joseph Pronechen, National Catholic Register) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 7. LEO AND THE SYNOD’S CANONICAL TEAM. A Vatican commission formed after the 2024 Synod on Synodality has released a report proposing changes to the Code of Canon Law aimed at expanding the role of laity in Church governance, including allowing laypeople to serve as sole judges in some tribunal cases and as episcopal delegates exercising significant authority. These suggestions, guided by Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, challenge traditional distinctions between the power of sacred orders and the power of governance, and call for a broader long-term revision of the Codes to reflect synodal theology. The report presents a challenge for Pope Leo XIV, a canon lawyer seeking to restore stability, as it advances some of the more controversial aspects of the Francis-era synodality agenda and raises questions about whether he will rein them in or allow their momentum to continue. (By JD Flynn, The Pillar) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 8. SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CASE ON LAWSUIT THAT BLOCKED MARIAN SHRINE PLAN IN KENTUCKY. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a religious liberty case about a local zoning dispute that pitted two residents of a northern Kentucky city against a Catholic chapel that wants to build a Marian shrine. Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, a Catholic religious association that runs the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel in Park Hills, Kentucky — just south of Cincinnati, Ohio — faces a lawsuit that seeks to block its construction of a grotto shrine that pays homage to the Marian apparitions in 1858 in Lourdes, France. The city board initially approved the chapel’s request to construct the shrine by granting it a variance from a zoning ordinance that would have typically prevented construction in that location, but two neighbors objected to the shrine and filed a lawsuit. The case went up to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which ruled against the chapel, finding that the city board exceeded its authority when it gave the chapel a variance from the ordinance. (By Tyler Arnold, EWTN News) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ 9. POPE LEO XIV HONORS HARVARD SCIENTIST WHOSE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE LED HER TO FAITH. Pope Leo XIV awarded the Pius XI Medal to Harvard astrochemist Karin Öberg on September 24 during an audience with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, recognizing her outstanding research under age 45 on chemical processes in planet formation and habitability. Öberg, who directs the Öberg Astrochemistry Laboratory, has publicly shared how her scientific pursuit of knowledge—coupled with observations of moral realism and the intelligibility of the universe—led her from skepticism of pure materialism to Catholicism, aided by C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. She emphasizes that science and faith are complementary rather than opposing, noting the scientific method cannot prove or disprove God while highlighting the beauty and order of the cosmos as pointing beyond materialism. (By Diego López Marina, EWTN News) READ MORE _______________________________________________________ |
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