Archbishop Paul Gallagher has arrived into Moscow for talks with the Russians.
🚨 Russia's Foreign Minister has said that relations with the Vatican remain 'friendly, trusted and pragmatic' pic.twitter.com/f8vpbVHKSE
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) August 25, 2026
🚨 'This war must end'
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) August 25, 2026
Pope Leo XIV's representative Archbishop Paul Gallagher speaking in Moscow today during a press conference with the Russian Foreign Minister pic.twitter.com/F9GPs1oeEI
'Peace is a gift and a responsibility'
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) August 25, 2026
Archbishop Paul Gallagher reading remarks from Pope Leo XIV during a press conference with the Russian Foreign Minister in Moscow pic.twitter.com/g3m8ZuZAlP
Feast Day: August 24
Today the Church celebrates Saint Bartholomew, one of the Twelve Apostles, whose life took him from an honest skepticism to an uncompromising faith in Christ—and, according to ancient tradition, to a particularly brutal martyrdom for the Gospel.
The New Testament tells us relatively little about Bartholomew. His name appears in the apostolic lists of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and again in the Acts of the Apostles. The name itself comes from the Aramaic Bar-Talmai, meaning “son of Talmai.”
An ancient and widespread Christian tradition identifies Bartholomew with Nathanael, the man brought to Jesus by Saint Philip in the first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel.
When Philip excitedly told Nathanael that he had found the one foretold by Moses and the prophets—Jesus of Nazareth—Nathanael responded with memorable bluntness:
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip’s answer was simple: “Come and see.”
When Nathanael approached, Christ greeted him with an extraordinary description:
“Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!”
Nathanael was astonished that Jesus appeared to know him. Christ then revealed that He had seen him beneath the fig tree before Philip called him.
Whatever Nathanael understood in those words was enough to transform his skepticism into faith.
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
It is one of the earliest great confessions of faith in Saint John’s Gospel.
Bartholomew therefore offers a particularly attractive model of discipleship. His first reaction was not sentimental enthusiasm. He questioned. He doubted. Yet his skepticism was not rooted in pride or bad faith. Christ Himself praised him as a man without deceit.
When confronted with the truth, Bartholomew surrendered to it.
After the Resurrection and Pentecost, tradition remembers Bartholomew as a tireless missionary who carried the Gospel far beyond Palestine.
Ancient accounts associate his preaching with regions including India, Mesopotamia, Persia and Armenia. The Church historian Eusebius records a tradition that when the Christian scholar Pantaenus travelled to India, he found that the Apostle Bartholomew had preached there before him and had left behind a copy of Saint Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew characters.
The precise routes of Bartholomew’s missionary journeys cannot now be reconstructed with certainty. But the many traditions surrounding him agree on the essential point: the Apostle who had once asked whether anything good could come from Nazareth spent the rest of his life proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth to others.
Tradition places Bartholomew’s final mission in Greater Armenia, where his preaching won converts and provoked the hostility of those opposed to the Christian faith.
The best-known account of his martyrdom says that the Apostle was flayed alive and then put to death, often said to have been beheaded. Other ancient accounts differ on some details, but the tradition of his flaying became inseparably associated with Bartholomew in Christian memory.
For this reason he is frequently shown in sacred art holding a knife, the instrument of his martyrdom, or even carrying his own skin.
The most famous example is Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, where Saint Bartholomew appears holding the skin stripped from his body.
What could appear at first as gruesome imagery is, in Christian art, an image of victory. His persecutors could take even his skin from him, but they could not take his faith.
Saint Bartholomew has traditionally been invoked as a patron of tanners and leatherworkers, but his witness speaks especially powerfully to a culture marked by suspicion, cynicism and uncertainty.
He shows that honest questioning is not the enemy of faith. Nathanael was skeptical, but he was sincere. He did not pretend to believe before he believed, nor did he refuse the truth once he encountered it.
He also shows where genuine encounter with Christ can lead.
The man who once asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” became an Apostle who travelled to distant lands proclaiming that the Messiah had indeed come from Nazareth.
And according to the tradition of the Church, he finally surrendered not only his homeland, comfort and security for Christ, but his very flesh.
His story begins with Philip’s simple invitation:
“Come and see.”
Saint Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr, pray for us.
One of Youtube’s most popular Agnostics has converted to Catholicism, as revealed in a new video.
Canada has been quieter on the world stage since the disastrous reign of Justin Trudeau came to an end.
Mark Carney seems a more capable and mature figure at the helm, whatever one thinks of his politics.
Some of the woke controversies of recent years still persist however.
In the latest, the armed forces have been instructed not to mention God in official ceremonies as it impinges on the religious freedom of those who do not believe.
You can read a summary from the Canadian bishops here.
August 23rd each year marks the Victims of Communism and Nazism Remembrance Day in Europe.
Speaking at his Wednesday General Audience this week, Pope Leo XIV drew attention to one of the most well known of those victims.
Blessed Father Władysław Findysz is the first martyr of Communism in Poland to be beatified.
Pope Leo said: “reminds us that a civilization of love is built by forgiving and overcoming evil with good.”
Read here
The 900th anniversary of Saint Agatha saw an amazing and beautiful ceremony in Sicily this past week.
With Cardinal Parolin in attendance, the skull of the great saint was crowned and ceremonially presented.
Protestants on X are LOSING THEIR MINDS over this video
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) August 19, 2026
Evidently, they have not read the Old Testament, which is FULL of references to the veneration of remains and objects connected to sacredness pic.twitter.com/ckv5j9CH2k
The event has caused a complete meltdown of various branches of American Protestantism.
There is something GRIM about putting someone’s skull in a box and parading it around town. https://t.co/3WzfCgxWaD
— 𝕷𝖚𝖐𝖊 𝕬𝖕𝖕𝖑𝖊𝖙𝖔𝖓 ♱ (@lukeappleton) August 20, 2026
True. This is what cults do. https://t.co/IBW8y2zwg3
— Sarah (@italiathetruth) August 19, 2026
I'll take "this is as crazy as Muslims, Mormons, and Hindus" for $500, Alex. https://t.co/rqWJEwodGN
— Erik Reed (@ErikReed) August 19, 2026
Pure Paganism.
— PEACE IN CHRIST (@_maDmaX___) August 19, 2026
Pure idolatry
Pure witchcraft
Pure Blindness
pic.twitter.com/kkhTtOqyrG
Saint Bernadette is one of the Catholic Church’s most beloved saints.
The French girl experienced a tumultuous short life in the 19th century, eventually dying in her 30s, but stated that God had promised her happiness in the next life.
The Lourdes visionary draws many pilgrims from all over the world, not just to where Our Lady appeared and where miraculous healing occurs, but also to Bartres and other areas where Bernadette herself lived.
In 2024, her relics visited Ireland were met by a massive outpouring of devotion.
Now, they visit the United States of America.
The tour begins in Washington DC on September 18th.
You can read the full list of dates here
Between August 18th and October 31st, the USCCB have called on Catholics to pray for an end to abortion pills.
Their Committee for Prolife Activities has released a statement in which they write:
Committee on Pro-Life Activities is inviting Catholics to join a focused effort of prayer and action to stop the spread of abortion pills. The initiative will take place August 18 through October 31, which includes the month-long commemoration of Respect Life Month observed each October by the Catholic Church in the United States.
Archbishop Coakley said:
“Every abortion involves the death of a child and harm to the mother. Now with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks.”
You can read their full post here.
Media host Glenn Beck was raised Catholic but then converted to American religion Mormonism.
Beck has made many bizarre comments on the Catholic faith over the years.
'Don't make the Sign of the Cross!'
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) June 13, 2025
Glenn Beck CHASTISES Joe Biden for daring to make the Sign of the Cross in the presence of Benjamin Netanyahu https://t.co/OcnKN6X8tb pic.twitter.com/AbiTmr4GUk
Glenn Beck, who believes that Catholics shouldn't bless themselves in front of Israeli politicians, has sensationally claimed that 796 babies were 'dumped in a septic tank'
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) June 23, 2025
Beck's website makes the allegation that:
'this home forced unwed mothers into unpaid labor, ripped… pic.twitter.com/Z0sB81t1Hy
Now, he shared a bizarre claim about the Bible.
For centuries, kings and tyrants kept the Bible in Latin for a simple reason: if you can't read the truth for yourself, you're easy to control.
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) August 18, 2026
William Tyndale decided to fix that. He knew he would receive the death penalty just for printing the Bible in English so regular… pic.twitter.com/ThYxLzdyoS
The replies were overwhelmingly critical.
Not only are you embarrassing yourself, but you're also making countless good Protestant Christians on X – who care about history and theology – look bad by association.
— IMPERATOR (@IMPERATORAUS) August 18, 2026
This is not only bad history but false history. The Church produced the first printed Bible, the first common language Bible, scores of bibles in the vernacular languages before Tyndale who was not condemned by secuiar authorities and King Henry for translating into English but
— Jim Sano (@JimSanoBC79) August 18, 2026
Latin was the universal language at the time, it meant more people could understand it, not less.
— Southern Chestnut 🇺🇸 (@AppyOrtho) August 19, 2026
Every Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV attends the public audience in the Vatican. He has chosen for the year to offer catechesis on the Second Vatican Council and the documents contained within it.
In today’s reflection, Leo focused on Sacrosanctum Concilium, the document concerning the church’s Sacred Liturgy.
During the reflection, he reminded people that the Second Vatican Council placed Gregorian Chant as an important part of the church’s liturgical life:
The Council then attributes great value to Gregorian chant, without excluding other genres of sacred music from the celebration.
He also stated:
the composer of sacred music is called to know and preserve the musical heritage of the Church
You can read his full comments here.
There was disgust around the world this week after Massachusetts passed a gruesome new law on abortion.
Governor Maura Healey signed ‘An Act Prioritizing Patient Access to Care’ which allows abortion right up until birth so long as a physician signs off on it.
As a Catholic, I believe in our responsibility to care for others, especially those who are the most vulnerable among us. That obligation must be at the center of our response to climate change as well.
— Governor Maura Healey (@MassGovernor) May 23, 2024
It was a tremendous honor to meet His Holiness Pope Francis last week at… pic.twitter.com/RCdQ9vBrco
The Catholic world has been outraged, especially with Healey calling herself a practising Catholic.
I’m calling on Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston @bostoncatholic to publicly and formally EXCOMMUNICATE Maura Healey @maura_healey @MassGovernor.
— Jaylin Hertz (@jaylinhertz) August 11, 2026
Yesterday she signed the evil bill that allows children to be murdered up until birth.
We as Catholics must recognize and boldly…
I’m calling on Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston @bostoncatholic to publicly and formally EXCOMMUNICATE Maura Healey @maura_healey @MassGovernor. pic.twitter.com/nk9VkDvR0S
— Jaylin Hertz (@jaylinhertz) August 11, 2026
I appreciate the response but this is all they're going to do, they won't deny Healey Communion for her actions (Hope I'm wrong) because they're scared that less liberal Catholics will go to Mass on Sunday if they do it https://t.co/lvxS51Kobo
— Nevada Man 🇺🇸🇻🇦 (@RulerofNV) August 12, 2026
Every August, the Northern Hemisphere witnesses one of the year’s most spectacular astronomical displays. Broadly known to science as the Perseids Meteor Shower, this celestial event carries a fmore poetic name: the Tears of Saint Lawrence.
In 258 AD, during the persecutions ordered by Roman Emperor Valerian, a deacon named Lawrence was tasked with managing the goods and alms of the Church. When ordered by Roman officials to hand over these material possessions, named by the Romans as ‘the treasures of the church’, Lawrence spent three days gathering the poor, the sick, and the needy, presenting them to the prefect with the words: "These are the treasures of the Church."
The authorities sentenced Lawrence to execution on August 10, ordering him roasted alive on a red-hot iron gridiron. Lawrence famously told them: "Turn me over; I’m done on this side!" as they tortured him to death.
Following his death, lore surrounding Saint Lawrence spread throughout Mediterranean Europe, particularly in Italy and Spain. Villagers who looked to the skies around the night of his feast day—August 10—noticed a sudden surge of shooting stars. They began calling these fiery streaks Lágrimas de San Lorenzo (the Tears of Saint Lawrence), believing the glowing lights were either the tears he shed during his suffering or the lingering embers thrown into the sky from his fiery gridiron.
The Perseids typically run from mid-July through late August, reaching their peak intensity each year right around August 11–13—aligning perfectly with the traditional feast day of Saint Lawrence. Under dark skies away from city light pollution, observers during peak hours can often count anywhere from 60 to 100 meteors per hour.
World Youth Day 2027 will take place in Seoul, South Korea.
Up to 3 million people are expected at the event, in which Pope Leo XIV will lead young people in an overnight vigil in the city.
The theme for the event has been revealed this week.
The theme is:
“Take courage! I have overcome the world”
In the lakeside city of Pátzcuaro, Mexico, a group of Dominican nuns have shown a traditional side of Catholicism that many people do not take note of. Inside the Monasterio de la Virgen Inmaculada de la Salud, the sisters care for hundreds of achoques, unusual aquatic salamanders found naturally in only one place on Earth: Lake Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán.
The achoque, or Ambystoma dumerilii, is a close relative of the better-known axolotl. It keeps its feathery external gills throughout adulthood and remains aquatic. Despite its remarkable biology, the achoque is Critically Endangered. Chester Zoo, which works with Mexican conservationists on the species, reported in 2025 that there may be as few as 150 individuals remaining in the wild.
The sisters’ connection with the salamander did not begin as a modern conservation project. Achoques have long held cultural importance for the Indigenous Purépecha communities around Lake Pátzcuaro, where they have traditionally been used as food and in medicine. The Dominican sisters also raised achoques for use in a traditional cough remedy. When the wild population began to collapse in the 1980s, however, their experience keeping the animals took on a new significance. The convent’s captive population became an important safeguard against extinction.
Caring for achoques is demanding work. The salamanders require carefully managed water conditions, feeding and close observation. Breeding them successfully also requires detailed knowledge of their behaviour and development. Young salamanders must be managed particularly carefully because they can attack or eat one another. Over time, the sisters developed husbandry skills that now complement the work of professional scientists.
Their conservation effort has increasingly become a partnership between faith, local knowledge and modern science. Researchers from Mexican institutions and Chester Zoo have worked alongside the nuns to study the species and improve techniques for protecting it. In one recent project, scientists tested tiny identification microchips on 80 captive achoques. Twenty-eight of the animals came from the monastery. The chips, about the size of a grain of rice, allow researchers to identify individual salamanders and record information such as their sex, health and approximate age. The trial found no long-term health effects in the animals studied.
Such technology could prove especially useful in Lake Pátzcuaro, where conservationists are trying to understand how many achoques still survive. The lake has been transformed by pollution, falling water levels and introduced fish such as carp and bass. Because the lake has no natural outflow, pollutants can accumulate in its water. Conservation teams now monitor wild salamanders, rescue eggs caught in fishing nets and study the species’ genetics and health.
The goal is not simply to maintain achoques in aquariums forever. Conservationists hope to strengthen a healthy wild population and protect the lake ecosystem on which both wildlife and surrounding communities depend. That will require habitat protection, scientific research and cooperation with local people.
Their work began with a traditional remedy, evolved into captive breeding and now forms part of an international conservation effort. In rooms lined with tanks rather than laboratory benches, the nuns have helped preserve a species that might otherwise be disappearing unnoticed.
A group of Dominican Nuns in Mexico have spent the last 25 years rescuing a rare breed of Salamader from extinction pic.twitter.com/HgWIv6q8yw
— Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) August 10, 2026
Particularly in this Jubilee Year of Saint Francis, their work is a reminder that we are called to care for all of God’s creatures.
In March 2024, the Irish establishment suffered its biggest ever humiliation.
The Irish people shocked the world by overwhelmingly rejecting efforts to remove the Constitution’s right for a mother to remain at home to work with her family. It also rejected a radical redefinition of the meaning of family, which was in part designed to speed up Ireland’s already catastrophic migration levels.
The fall out was so dramatic that Leo Varadkar resigned as Taoiseach less than two weeks later.
Fast forward almost two and a half years and no lessons have been learned.
Minister for Children Norma Foley, the first heterosexual to hold the post in a decade, has decided to spend a fortune on countering the rising popularity of ‘tradwives’ and the ‘manosphere’.
The three year action plan sees Irish women working at home with their own children as counter productive to ‘gender equality’.
The action plan states:
Other online influencers, colloquially referred to as ‘tradwife’ influencers, many of whom are women, seek to promote restrictive, stereotypical roles for women and girls. Patriarchal gender norms are also particularly harmful for LGBTIQ+ people and anyone who is non-binary or gender non-conforming in any way. The influence of harmful gender norms often intersects with other restrictive norms, such as for example those limiting disabled women’s access to employment.
The document’s purported opposition to the ‘manosphere’ seems ironic given the state’s friendly relationship with Alyo Holdings, the world’s largest pornography dealer, which operates from Dublin. The company has been involved in numerous cases about human trafficking and images of child abuse, how does that contribute to ‘gender equality’?
The document also states:
Despite being over 50% of the population, women are under-represented in senior decision-making roles across society, including elected public office.
It should be pointed out that no Irish political party has ever chosen a woman to be Taoiseach when they have gotten in to power. Perhaps they should practise what they preach instead of attacking those who wish to work at home with their children.
Ireland has had the most dramatic collapse in birth rates and home ownership of any EU country over the past 15 years, in large part because of the policies of successive governments.
The annual Mladifest in Medjugorje brings tens of thousands of young people to the pilgrimage site each year.
Up to 50,000 attended this year’s weeklong event, which occurred in the shadow of an attack in which the altar was set on fire and the statue of Our Lady covered in paint.
2026 marks the 800th anniversary of the death of the great Saint Francis of Assisi and also the Jubilee Year of Saint Francis.
As part of the celebrations, Pope Leo XIV met with thousands of young people from all over Europe today.
Since 2011, Ireland has seen a colossal collapse in birth rates.
Between 2011 and 2025, the birth rate collapse by a dramatic 25%, thanks to catastrophic policies by Fine Gael, which created mass emigration and discouraged people from having children. Housing is a particularly important concern, with young people marrying much later due to competition with migrants for housing.
Now, reports are emerging today that the state is worried that the internet could scupper the progress that they have made into turning the country into a childless zone of workers for multinational corporations.
According to Newstalk, the state is deeply disturbed that young Irish people are considering traditional gender roles more seriously.
It states that there are plans for a national strategy to stop women from working in the home with their children.
The horror in Nigeria continues, even after intervention from the USA and even with a presidential election looming.
11 children were among 31 killed in recent violence, with a priest also hacked to death with a machete.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu has found himself in a war of words with the Catholic bishops over the situation.
Famous UFC fighter Tabatha Ricci has posted an image from inside Saint Colman’s Cathedral in County Cork.
