Friday, August 21, 2026

Autism and the Priesthood: How the Church Is Responding

As autism diagnoses rise, seminaries are grappling with how to form and support men on the spectrum who feel called to the priesthood.

‘Altar’ (photo: Davi Correa / Shutterstock)

Matthew McDonald Nation August 20, 2026 National Catholic Register

Psychologist and Catholic deacon Lawrence Sutton once worked with a seminarian, now a parish priest, who genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament but looked like a toy soldier when he did it.

Not only did the young man stick out because of his unusual movement, but he couldn’t understand why his mechanics drew attention to himself. His autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was preventing him from performing the knee-to-floor movement in the customary manner.

“I stood, fourteen years old, amid the summer green of an Iowa cemetery” (Joan Loeken/Danita Delimont/Alamy Stock Photo)

The name of the story will be Time,
But you must not pronounce its name.
—Robert Penn Warren, “Tell Me a Story”

A father, coughing and pale from his days interred in the Iowa coal mines, drinks himself half to death over a stillborn baby. The father collects the little body in a spare blanket, soiled with blood and afterbirth, and carries it through town on a muggy August night. Or maybe it’s a crisp one in November. It doesn’t matter. He’s alone, the child tucked under one arm. With his free hand, he drags a shovel. He finds an out-of-the-way corner of the town graveyard and he sets to digging, interrupted only by swigs from the bottle in his pocket. When the hole seems deep enough, he places the stiffening bundle at its bottom. He does his best to hide any sign of a burial.

Your letters: Democrats, the word 'conservative' and religious liberty

Letters to the Editor

Opinion

Your letters: Democrats, the word 'conservative' and religious liberty

NCR Staff

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Full text: Pope Leo on liturgical music, Vatican II and inculturation

by Pope Leo XIV August 19, 2026

Pope Leo XIV talks to visitors and pilgrims during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Aug. 19, 2026. Credit: CNS photo/Vatican Media

The following is the full text of Pope Leo XIV’s general audience address given Aug. 19 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Dear brothers and sisters,

The sixth chapter of the Constitution “Sacrosanctum Concilium” (SC) of the Second Vatican Council is dedicated to sacred music. The document states that “The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy.” (SC, 112). It specifies that “Sacred music is to be considered the more holy in proportion as it is more closely connected with the liturgical action, whether it adds delight to prayer, fosters unity of minds, or confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites. But the Church approves of all forms of true art having the needed qualities, and admits them into divine worship.” (ibid.).