NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, and Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, walk on the crew access arm of the mobile launcher in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
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TUCSON, AZ — Local husband Ryan Masterson denied having consumed any radioactive Walmart shrimp, though his wife had her doubts due to his entire body emitting a soft neon green glow.
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KABUL — In a newly released video, the terrorist group Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the changing of the Cracker Barrel logo.
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This painting on the ceiling in Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, a church on Via Veneto in Rome, depicts the Virgin Mary being assumed body and soul into heaven. Today is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary in much of Western Christianity or the Dormition of the Mother of God in Eastern Christianity.
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A reading from the Book of Isaiah
66:18-21
Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;
from them I will send fugitives to the nations:
to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,
to the distant coastlands
that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
as an offering to the LORD,
on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries,
to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
just as the Israelites bring their offering
to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.
A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews
12:5-7, 11-13
Brothers and sisters,
You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:
"My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges."
Endure your trials as "discipline";
God treats you as sons.
For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time,
all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.
So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.
From the Gospel according to Luke
13:22-30
Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him,
"Lord, will only a few people be saved?"
He answered them,
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
‘Lord, open the door for us.’
He will say to you in reply,
‘I do not know where you are from.
And you will say,
‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’
Then he will say to you,
‘I do not know where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last."
Jesus does not want to give us false hopes by saying: “Yes, do not worry, it is easy, there is a beautiful highway with a large gate at the end ….”. He does not say this. He tells us things as they truly are: the doorway is narrow. In what sense? In the sense that, in order to save oneself, one has to love God and neighbour, and this is uncomfortable! It is a “narrow doorway” because it is demanding. Love is always demanding. It requires commitment, indeed, “effort”, that is, a determined and persevering willingness to live according to the Gospel. Saint Paul calls it “the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim 6:12). It takes a daily, all-day effort to love God and neighbour. (…) May the Virgin Mary help us in this. She went through the narrow door that is Jesus. She welcomed him with all her heart and she followed him every day of her life, even when she did not understand, even when a sword pierced her soul. This is why we invoke her as “Mary Gate of Heaven”, a gate that traces the form of Jesus precisely: the door to God’s heart, a demanding heart, but one that is open to us all. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 25 August 2019)
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CNA Staff, Aug 23, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).
Lincoln, Nebraska Bishop James Conley this week said a proposed federal immigrant detention facility in the state must allow Catholic ministers to provide sacramental and pastoral care.
The bishop made the announcement after Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced the repurposing of the state Work Ethic Camp in McCook to house immigrants in the country illegally.
The state website says the camp presently offers “an integrated program that combines evidence-based practices with treatment and educational opportunities” for prisoners. Pillen told local media this week that the facility “would be converted and provide capacity for 300 migrants,” according to the Nebraska Examiner.
In his own statement this week, Conley said the Diocese of Lincoln has been allowed to administer the sacraments and pastoral care to detainees at the camp “for decades.” The diocese has been allowed to say Mass there “on a weekly basis,” he said.
“It will be of utmost importance that any person detained in the federal immigration detention center in McCook can also access regular and ongoing pastoral care,” the bishop said. “This is fundamental to the dignity of every human person, as each of us is called to union with God.”
Conley further urged that the facility should not be used to detain immigrants who are only in the country illegally, but rather “those who have committed crimes that endanger public safety.”
“To do otherwise would undermine the facility’s moral legitimacy and erode public trust,” he argued.
Conley said he remains “committed to safeguarding human dignity which maintains public safety and respects our migrant brothers and sisters.”
The bishop’s letter comes a few weeks after Catholic leaders in Florida were allowed pastoral access to the state’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detainment facility in the Everglades.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski had previously expressed concern that Catholic ministers were not being allowed access to the facility, though the state ultimately allowed Mass to be celebrated there earlier this month.
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 23, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).
Here’s a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the U.S.:
Franciscan University of Steubenville has officially reopened its Christ the King Chapel after 15 months of renovation and expansion as part of the school’s Rebuild My Church Capital Campaign.
“Franciscan’s chapel has nearly doubled its seating capacity — from 325 to 590 — to better accommodate the growing student population and has added a new altar and tabernacle, new sacred art, and stained-glass windows to beautify the space,” the school said in a press release on Monday.
A Mass of solemn blessing was celebrated on Aug. 17 by Diocese of Steubenville Apostolic Administrator Bishop Edward Lohse to mark the occasion.
Christ the King Catholic Church, a historically Black parish in Louisville, Kentucky, will be converted into a science and technology campus for Simmons College of Kentucky after the Archdiocese of Louisville donated it to the school following the church’s closure on March 7, according to local reports.
“Converting the church property into classrooms and labs is expected to cost around $32 million in total,” a university news article stated, noting the project has been in the works for years.
“At Simmons it’s so important for us to meet workforce needs,” said Simmons Chief of Staff Myra Rock. “There’s a need in our community, not just in the West End, not just in the city, but across the commonwealth, for talent in the STEM fields and specifically underrepresented talent.”
Archbishop Shelton Fabre said the parish closure was due to declining membership and the financial burden of maintaining the historic property.
The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City on Wednesday celebrated the grand opening of its Holy Angels Education Center for immigrants in an event attended by Archbishop Paul Coakley and other Catholic leaders, according to the Oklahoman.
The center will operate on the property of the former Holy Angels Parish, which has been closed since February 2023.
“The Holy Angels Education Center was born out of a deep desire to serve, uplift, and walk alongside our immigrant brothers and sisters as they build new lives in our community through education, language learning, skills development, and cultural integration,” said Larann Wilson, the associate director for the archdiocese’s secretariat for evangelization. “This center will become a beacon of support and opportunity.”
ExxonMobil Baytown has donated $5,000 to St. Joseph’s Regional Catholic School to promote “enhancing science education and empowering the next generation of innovators and problem solvers,” according to a local report.
Located in Beltsville, Maryland, St. Joseph’s Regional Catholic School’s mission “is to cooperate with families, who are the primary educators, in developing the whole child in the Catholic Christian faith,” according to its website.
Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School in Baton Rouge kicked off the school year by inviting nuns and service dogs for the first weeks of classes to help ease anxiety among students, according to a local news report.
“Their presence here has been so transformative,” the school’s pastor and prominent Catholic speaker, Father Joshua Johnson, said in the report.
“And with the sisters came the dogs. When I saw the effect that the dogs were having on our kids, especially our kids who experience anxiety and the peace it brought to those kids, I knew we needed more dogs and more nuns.”
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Padel takes center stage at Wölffer Estate Vineyard this Labor Day with its first all-star event.
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