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Looking For Good Catholic Writing – October 2026

Looking For Good Catholic Writing – October 2026

Last updated on: October 16, 2026 at 8:20 am by Mark Wilson

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Looking For Good Catholic Writing – October 2026 2026-10-16T08:20:36-05:00 Mark Wilson

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He alone extends the heavens,
and he walks upon the waves of the sea.
-Job 9:8

Totus Tuus (J͏u͏l͏y͏ ͏1͏1͏ , 2026)– Meet Venerable Guido Schäffer – the “Surfer Angel” on the path to sainthood!

A Brazilian doctor, passionate surfer, and dedicated seminarian who gave his life completely to God and the poor. Guido Vidal França Schäffer was declared Venerable by the Church in 2023, showing us that holiness is possible in everyday passions and modern life.

Sometimes I like to surf Catholic social media looking for good Catholic writing and see what waves people are making I can ride my metaphysical surfboard on.

Nightcrawler’s Catholicism has remained one of the defining aspects of his character. Throughout his long tenure in the X-Men series, he has consistently been depicted as one of the most compassionate members in the Marvel universe.

Nightcrawler has resonated with many comic book lovers for generations. He doesn’t merely pontificate but is an imperfect example in the traditionally secular world of comics of how to live according to the Catholic faith. His faith doesn’t exempt him from suffering but rather provides a way to endure it with dignity and hope. And there lies the fundamental paradox of Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler: That which appears the most demonic is the most Christlike.
Matthew Malone–Different Eyes: The Catholic Demon and the X-Men – Word on Fire (September 28, 2026)

Nightcrawler taken from the variant cover of Uncanny X-Men #9 (January 2025).
Art by Mike Mayhew.

My overall goal in reading and posting snippets of Good Catholic Writing in an article like this is expressed in this quote I like to quote often.

The diversity of thought within Catholic teaching, like variety within the strictures of sonnets, is one of its most beautiful features. It is nevertheless important to listen, as much as we can, to a broad chorus of Catholic thinkers. I have found great consolation in the fact that someone holier and smarter than myself has likely asked my questions already; my job is to find them and to listen, and then to make as many people as possible read block quotations about it.
Sharon Kabel , OSB vs. UFO: Stanley Jaki and the Theology of Aliens (June 16, 2021)- OnePeterFive

Whatever it is. It could be a fascinating blog post, an interesting, intriguing article, a podcast that makes you ponder or a YouTube video that educates you about some aspect of life whether it be religious, historical or entertaining. I think about the Whatever Catholic Principle when looking for Good Catholic Writing.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable,
if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Philippians 4:8

Whoever it is can be added to the broad chorus of Catholic Thinkers.

From the earliest hagiographers onward, tradition emphasizes that Francis gave song and music an essential role in his preaching. He called his friars “minstrels of the Lord,” for, like the wandering storytellers of his time, they carried melodies, praises, and words through towns and villages, opening hearts to evangelical joy. In this, Francis unexpectedly bridged the troubadour tradition that, from the late twelfth to early thirteenth century, enlivened Italian courts and spread the art of singing and composing poetry in Provençal.
Massimo Scapin St. Francis Loved to Sing – OnePeterFive –October 3, 2026

Fiction writing doesn’t yet have an obvious patron saint. This seems odd, given that there’s no shortage of saints for other areas of the arts. If you’re working in visual arts, especially drawing or painting, Beato Angelico is your go-to. If you’re a singer or musician, you have St. Cecilia. St. John Paul II was an actor before he was a priest, which makes him a fitting patron for all things theatrical.

If storytelling is necessary to our human life, it’s also necessary that faithful Christians do it, and do it well. Not as a tool for evangelization or otherwise achieving something else; evangelization has its own appropriate means for its pursuit, but a work of art breaks if you try to use it as a tool. Simply making good and beautiful stories gives glory to God and a gift to the readers.

The Patron Saint of My Writing – Sarah E. Greydanus (Oct 05, 2026)

When I find something great to read, watch or listen to I like to share it with others in a post like this. I do share some of my favorite social media personalities and websites I really like.

I’ve been to Rome a number of times before, but Assisi only once, during a 2010 pilgrimage with our archdiocese, accompanied by our eldest, Sarah E. Greydanus.

The historic center of the town is built on the side of a mountain, the western slope of Monte Subasio. A fellow pilgrim in 2010 compared Assisi to the mountain city of Minas Tirith in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien himself wrote that visiting Assisi made him feel as if he were in Gondor. The connection is easy to understand: Assisi isn’t exactly built in discrete tiers, but there is level upon level, with most streets cutting diagonally up or down the slope, and arched tunnels or alleys cutting directly from one level to another. Like the Citadel of Minas Tirith on the peak of the hill of Amon Tirith, there’s a castle on the mountain peak above Assisi, the Rocca Maggiore.
-Steven D. Greydanus Rome and Assisi, Part 2: Eight centuries of Saint Francis (Oct 04, 2026)

Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר – Own work

If I post something I like from someone, it doesn’t mean I agree with everything they say or read everything they write. Nobody’s perfect in conveying the Catholic faith perfectly and without error from time to time. I don’t always look for folks I agree with most of the time for good Catholic writing. I sometimes try to find good things in social media personalities or Catholic ministries I disagree with on a regular basis and either ignore or try to avoid. It’s super easy to find something negative someone wrote. It’s easy to find unhinged angry people.

Hate to tell you. Since Pope Benedict XVI was booted out by the St. Galen’s Mafia Lavender Masons Illuminati bisexuals Cardinals 18 + Cardinals Martini Policarpo McCarrick Bergolio etc. On Feb 11 2013. The following conclave was illegal. Bergoglio and Prevost are illegal pontiffs. Thus their entire picked clergy are invalid apostate masons Pachamama TLM hating and are running the Synodal imposter Catholic Church for NWO global satanic government of the Antichrist. FB comment

Social media is filled with this. You can always find fault with something. But if you look for wise and profound things you can usually find something you agree with someone you usually don’t.

“We live in a culture where we feel like we have to make judgments on everything that anyone ever says. Or like it’s dangerous if we don’t correct something that is said that we disagree with. So we never give any time to just listen to another person.” (Sr. Theresa Aletheia)

News flash:

Saints can be wrong sometimes.

Now, don’t panic. There’s nothing impious in realizing this reality. After all, what makes saints exceptional is they continuously strove to overcome their human weaknesses and errors in their quest for sanctity. But, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, this process was never completed in this life: even after years of living a life of holiness, a saint might still make errors.

Saints, like all of us, are not infallible, nor do they necessarily even have foresight. In many ways, this makes them even better role models for the rest of us. They overcame their limited vision to focus on the Beatific Vision. We would do well to do likewise.

Blessed Fulton Sheen, pray for us!
Eric Sammons –Even Saints are Products of their Times – Crisis Magazine (September 24, 2026)

I look to Catholics who consider themselves liberal and progressive as long as what they are writing or saying is in conformity with the Catholic faith.

One of the distinctive dimensions of the Franciscan liturgical calendar is the celebration of the death of Francis on the evening of Oct. 3 each year. Known as the Transitus in Latin, or the “passage” from this life to the next, the Franciscan family remembers the joy with which Francis greeted his “Sister Bodily Death” and calls to mind that this is a journey we will all make someday. That this commemoration of death is one of the most important Franciscan feasts has been and remains a radically countercultural observance that challenges the fear and avoidance reflected in Francis’ own doctor’s initial reluctance to share the truth and the contemporary temptation to skirt around the facticity of aging, decline and death.
Daniel P. Horan – St. Francis teaches us about death, 800 years after his own | National Catholic Reporter (October 1, 2026)

I look to Catholics who consider themselves conservative and traditional as long as what they are writing or saying is in conformity with the Catholic faith.

Here we find ourselves in 2026, in the midst of the special Jubilee Year of St. Francis of Assisi proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV. This weekend, Assisi and the world will mark the 800th anniversary of his passing from this life into the next.

How ironic that this saint’s nickname was “Il Poverello,” which means “little poor one.” He may have been poor in the eyes of the world when it comes to material wealth. But Francis was a spiritual billionaire. His contributions not only to the Church but the rest of the world, including the United States of America, were so great that we see his zeal for God, the Catholic faith and nature reaching across the centuries and the miles.
Teresa Tomeo–How St. Francis of Assisi Shaped America — and 8 Other Franciscan Connections | National Catholic Register (October 2, 2026)

The Ecstasy of St. Francis, Stefano di Giovanni, 1444

And everyone else in between.

If you’ve seen monks pause their work to pray at the sound of a bell, you’ve glimpsed the Liturgy of the Hours (or Divine Office). These set times of prayer are a hallmark of monastic and consecrated life, but they are not reserved for monks and nuns. In fact, all Catholics are invited to join!

The Liturgy of the Hours is considered a public prayer of the Church, second only to the Holy Mass. However, it is also a wonderful form of personal prayer because it helps us enter into contemplation and interior dialogue with God through the texts of Scripture.
What Is the Liturgy of the Hours? Complete Guide to Catholic Daily Pra – Ascension August 28, 2026

I look for original creative expressions of our Catholic faith that are unique and are worded in a way that the Word of Life seeps into my mind, heart and soul with goodness, beauty and truth and fills me with joy, peace, love, joy, faith and hope. Faith and Creativity equals Good Catholic Writing.

The Procession of the Spirit Means God is Love – Some people have the notion that all this sort of thing is just cold theological abstraction that comes from philosophers out of touch with ordinary folk. Such people ask why we can’t just skip it and get to heart of Faith where ordinary Joes find consolation in the words, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). But it is precisely to defend that truth that these words of the Creed exist.

This is precisely why St. Thomas follows ancient Catholic tradition when he quotes Pope St. Gregory the Great, saying “The Holy Ghost Himself is Love”. And it is what Augustine means as well when he says, “The Holy Ghost is He whereby the Begotten is loved by the one begetting and loves His Begetter.
Mark P. Shea – The Spirit Who Embraces Both East and West, Part 4 – Stumbling Toward Heaven (October 8, 2026)

I look to learn about the church, her theology, her people and her saints.

Today, the Church keeps the liturgical memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, one of the brightest lights to illuminate the darkness created by the Protestant Revolt. She was the indomitable reformer of the Carmelite Order and doyenne of spiritual theology, which is why Pope Paul VI named her a Doctor of the Church, along with that other formidable daughter of the Church, Catherine of Siena.

As I was reflecting on this valiant woman, I also began to think of her many female descendants, among whom three came to mind immediately – all of them taking the name of “Teresa,” so as to place themselves under her influence and patronage: Thérèse of Lisieux, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (better known as Edith Stein), and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They drank deeply from her well of wisdom.
Wisdom from Four Saint Teresas – Catholic World Report –October 15, 2026 –Peter M.J. Stravinskas

Totus Tuus –O͏c͏t͏o͏b͏e͏r͏ ͏1͏4͏ ͏a͏t͏ ͏1͏0͏:͏0͏0͏ ͏A͏M͏ ·-Marco Gallo, a 17-year-old Italian teenager who loved sports, the mountains, and everyone he met, is now on the path to sainthood. On March 7, 2026, what would have been his 32nd birthday, Archbishop Mario Delpini of Milan opened his cause for beatification.

Original Material. Not A.I.

One evening this summer I lay on the couch to read the print issue of Commonweal, a century-old Catholic magazine I adore and occasionally write for. I turned to a short essay (archived here) by an author whose name I didn’t recognize. A couple paragraphs in, the author wrote of his aged, dying grandmother, “Her silence wasn’t empty. It had weight.”

My mental AI detector fired. That negative parallelism, “it’s not this, it’s that,” especially when it lands with a monosyllabic thump, is a cliché of large language models. Human writers use it, too, though, and my suspicions might have died if the construction hadn’t kept appearing in the essay. At one point, there were three in a row.
Jonathan Malesic – How I uncovered a prolific AI author in religious magazines (Sep 24, 2026)

I sometimes look for challenging articles that will encourage me to avoid sin and embrace the Triune God and my Catholic faith more seriously.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,
so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:4

The Pentagon confirmed that the scheduled December 3 execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of murdering thirteen people at Fort Hood in 2009, will be livestreamed.

Every Good Friday we listen to the account of a crowd taking part in the humiliation and death of a condemned man, and we contemplate the soldiers who mocked him and the authorities who believed that public violence would demonstrate their power. December 3 falls in the first week of Advent, when the Church waits for God to arrive as a vulnerable child, and some of the same Christians who heard the Passion read last spring will be invited to gather around a screen and watch soldiers kill a man on the government’s schedule. The difference between the innocence of Jesus and the guilt of Hasan is morally significant, yet it does not absolve us of the responsibility to ask what we are becoming when another person’s death becomes something we anticipate with satisfaction.

Yes, human dignity would be a much more convenient principle if it applied only to people we liked and people whose lives we admired, but it would also be a much less meaningful one. Its real test comes when we are asked to recognize it in someone who has done something unforgivable, and on December 3rd the government will ask the whole country to look at such a man and see nothing worth sparing. I hope most can’t bring themselves to watch.

–Calvary, Livestreamed – by John Stanczak (October 9, 2026)

UPDATE: President Donald Trump announced the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will not be livestreamed.

The U.S. bishops have strongly opposed the decision to livestream the execution. Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, issued a joint statement with the Texas Catholic bishops Oct. 12 urging the president to reconsider the decision, which he characterized as “barbarically killing our adversaries.”

In a social media post on Oct. 10, World Day Against the Death Penalty, Pope Leo XIV wrote: “The death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
Firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter will not be livestreamed, Trump says – Catholic World Report by Amira Abuzeid for EWTN News(October 15, 2026)

I look for things that will uplift me and encourage me to run the race to the finish line of eternal life.

Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete,
but only one receives the prize?
Run in such a way that you may win it.
-1 Corinthians 9:24

Our wounds need not define us, for as St. John Paul II so beautifully said, “we are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.” We are the sum of God’s love for us, and God’s love is greater than any obstacle we might encounter. Let us boldly embrace Christ, our Divine Physician, and allow his love to heal every corner of our hearts, because in him alone do we find complete restoration, body and soul.
Marcus Peter –Christ Heals Our Mental and Emotional Wounds | Catholic Answers Magazine (10/9/2026)

Never let evil talk pass your lips; say only the good things men need to hear, things that will really help them. Do nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed against the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind. In place of these, be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ. -Ephesians 4:29-32

Christianity is a religion of hope. We are to have hope and use it to engage the world, believing we can make things better than they are. We must not to give into despair, thinking that as time goes by, the world will only become worse and worse, and that there is nothing we can do about it. Yes, we must be realistic and realize we can’t do everything, we can’t make an earthly utopia. We must also realize there will be things which go bad. However, that doesn’t mean we should stop striving for what is best. Hope tells us that we can do something to improve the world, to make at least some element of it better off than before.
Rejecting Doom: Christian Hope And Human Action | Henry Karlson (October 15, 2026)

I would like to do more of these types of posts where I highlight Good Catholic Writing by the broad chorus of Catholic thinkers. If anyone likes this, comment and subscribe and if your a writer who thinks you’ve written something worth sharing send me a link to your work and if appropriate I’ll add it to my next rendition of Good Catholic Writing.

Pope Leo XIV@Pontifex (Oct 7, 2026) In an age dominated by technology, in which efficiency and profit often take precedence, it is so important that we continue to cultivate a spirit of contemplation and allow time and space for beauty. Such an attitude will greatly help humanity, especially young people, to discover the ability of art to uplift and reveal the depths of the human spirit and our openness to the divine. Contemplation presents a marvelous opportunity to encounter the God who is Beauty.

POPE RECOVERY

EWTN Vatican and Catholic News Agency·

The Vatican has released the first post-surgery photos of Pope Leo XIV as he continues to recover at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.

In a new medical update, Dr. Luigi Carbone and Prof. Stefano Margaritora said blood tests and a chest X-ray conducted this morning “confirmed continued improvement in his overall condition.”

“His post-operative recovery has progressed to the point that he can carry out normal daily activities completely independently,” the doctors added.

The Pope also celebrated Mass at the hospital and personally distributed Holy Communion.

Pope Leo is scheduled to pray the Angelus on Sunday, although the location has not yet been confirmed.

Please continue to pray for the Holy Father’s recovery.

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