St. Bridget, St. Elizabeth & Sacred Heart

From left to right: Venerable Pierre Toussaint, Venerable Henriette Delille, Venerable Mother Mary Lange, Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, Servant of God Julia Greeley, Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman. / Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons ; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Archdiocese of Denver, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Courtesy of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

CNA Staff, Nov 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

November is National Black Catholic History Month in the United States, a time to honor the history, heritage, and contributions of Black Catholics across the nation. The National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (NBCCC) first established Black Catholic History Month in 1990. 

Here are six prominent Black Catholics on their way to sainthood: 

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

Venerable Pierre Toussaint was born on June 27, 1766, in Haiti and was brought to New York City as an enslaved person. After his master died, he was determined to support the household. In his early 20s Toussaint became an apprentice to a hairdresser and quickly learned the trade. He became very successful and was able to support himself, his master’s widow, and the other house enslaved people, whose freedom he eventually bought. Toussaint himself was freed from slavery soon before his former master’s widow died in 1807.

Toussaint attended daily Mass and is credited by many as being the father of Catholic Charities in New York. He played a major role in raising funds for the first Catholic orphanage and began the city’s first school for Black children. He also helped provide funds for the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a religious community of Black nuns founded in Baltimore.

Toussaint died on June 30, 1853, and was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II on Dec. 17, 1997.

Venerable Henriette DeLille

Born on March 11, 1813, in New Orleans, Henriette DeLille was a religious sister who devoted her life to improving the welfare of her community, especially African Americans who were currently or formerly enslaved. She was born in New Orleans; her father was from France, and her mother was a free woman of African descent.

After being confirmed in 1834, she began pursuing religious life and sold her possessions to use the money to establish the Sisters of the Presentation, the second Black religious order in the United States. The sisters — whose name was eventually changed in 1942 to the Sisters of the Holy Family — educated enslaved people, which was illegal at the time. DeLille also established the Lafon Nursing Facility, which is the first and oldest Catholic nursing home in the U.S. 

After 20 years as mother superior, DeLille passed away on Nov. 17, 1862, and was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Venerable Mother Mary Lange

Mother Mary Lange, who was born in Cuba, came to the United States in 1813 and settled in the Baltimore area. She quickly realized that the children of her fellow Caribbean immigrants needed an education and decided to use her own money and home to educate children of color.

In 1829, Lange became the founder and first superior of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Her deep faith helped her persevere against all odds and she gave herself completely to help her Black brothers and sisters. In addition to establishing a religious order, she also opened an orphanage, a widow’s home, and a school. 

Mother Lange died on Feb. 3, 1882, and was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2023. 

Venerable Father Augustus Tolton

Augustus Tolton was born into slavery in Brush Creek, Ralls County, Missouri, on April 1, 1854, to Catholic parents Peter Paul Tolton and Martha Jane Chisley. In 1862, he, along with his mother and two siblings, escaped by crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois.

Called to enter the priesthood, Tolton sought to enter the seminary but none in America would accept him because he was Black, so he studied for the priesthood in Rome and was ordained in 1886 at the age of 31, becoming the first African American ordained as a priest.

Tolton returned to the U.S. where he served for three years at a parish in Quincy, Illinois. From there he went to Chicago and started a parish for Black Catholics — St. Monica Parish. He remained there until he died unexpectedly while on a retreat in 1897. He was just 43 years old.

During his short but impactful life, Tolton helped the poor and sick, fed the hungry, and helped many discover the faith. He was lovingly known as “Good Father Gus.” Pope Francis declared him venerable in 2019. 

Servant of God Julia Greeley

Julia Greeley, also known as Denver’s Angel of Charity, was born into slavery near Hannibal, Missouri. When she was a child, her master, while beating Julia’s mother, caught Julia’s right eye with his whip and destroyed it. After she was freed in 1865, she spent her time serving poor families mostly in Denver.

In 1880, Greeley entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver. She attended daily Mass and had a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active in it until her death in 1918. Her cause for canonization was opened by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2016.

Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman 

Born in Canton, Mississippi, in 1937, Thea Bowman converted to Catholicism as a child inspired by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, who were teachers and pastors at Holy Child Jesus Church and School in Canton. Bowman witnessed Catholics around her caring for the poor and those in need, and this is what drew her to the Catholic Church.

At the age of 15, she told her family she wanted to join the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She left her home in Mississippi and traveled to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where she would be the only African American member of her religious community. 

In 1978, Bowman accepted a position to direct the Office of Intercultural Affairs for the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, and became a founding member of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans. She became a highly acclaimed evangelizer, teacher, speaker, and writer. 

In 1984, after the death of both of her parents, Bowman was diagnosed with breast cancer, which eventually metastasized to her bones. Despite the pain she was in, she continued her rigorous schedule of speaking engagements to share her love for God and the joy of the Gospel with others. Bowman would arrive in her wheelchair, with no hair due to chemotherapy, but always filled with joy and smiling from ear to ear. 

She died peacefully in her childhood home on March 30, 1990, and in 2018 the Diocese of Jackson opened her cause for canonization.

null / Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.

CNA Newsroom, Nov 28, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

According to the saints in heaven, we should give thanks to God each and every day. In special celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday celebrated in the United States, here are 10 quotes about gratitude from well-known saints.

1) St. Teresa of Calcutta:

“The best way to show my gratitude is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.”

2) St. Gianna Beretta Molla:

“The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for all that he, in his goodness, sends to us day after day.”

3) St. John Paul II:

“Duc in altum! (Put out into the deep!) These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm, and to look forward to the future with confidence.”

4) St. Thérèse of Lisieux:

“Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.”

5) St. Josemaría Escrivá:

“Get used to lifting your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because he gives you this and that. Because you have been despised. Because you haven’t what you need or because you have. Because he made his mother so beautiful, his mother who is also your mother. Because he created the sun and the moon and this animal and that plant. Because he made that man eloquent and you he left tongue-tied … Thank him for everything, because everything is good.”

6) St. Teresa of Ávila:

“In all created things discern the providence and wisdom of God, and in all things give him thanks.” 

7) Blessed Solanus Casey:

“Thank God ahead of time.” 

8) St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier:

“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” 

9) St. John Vianney:

“Believe and adore. Believe that Jesus Christ is in this sacrament as truly as he was nine months in the womb of Mary, as really as he was nailed to the cross. Adore in humility and gratitude.”

10) St. Francis of Assisi, in his “Canticle of the Sun”: 

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,

especially through my lord Brother Sun,

who brings the day; and you give light through him.

And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!

Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;

in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and beautiful ...

Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks, and serve him with great humility.

This article was originally published on Nov. 25, 2021, and has been updated.

null / Credit: Brian A Jackson / Shutterstock

St. Louis, Mo., Nov 27, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

A Missouri circuit judge on Monday upheld the state’s ban on the provision of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to minors for purposes of “gender transitions,” a law which took effect last summer and halted the procedures at some of the state’s largest clinics.

The law, the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, also prohibits adults who identify as transgender from accessing transgender health care under Medicaid. It further bars “gender-affirming” surgery for prisoners and inmates. It is set to expire on Aug. 28, 2027.

Lambda Legal, a law firm focused on LGBT activism, filed a lawsuit last year against the state challenging the new law on behalf of several medical professionals engaged in “gender-affirming care” as well the parents of several minors who identify as transgender. The trial began in late September. 

In his Nov. 25 opinion, Wright County Circuit Judge R. Craig Carter cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent in cases such as 2007’s Gonzalez v. Carhart in which the high court held that states have broad power to regulate in areas “fraught with medical and scientific uncertainties.”

State governments can prohibit treatments that are shown to be “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer,” the high court held.    

The medical ethics of providing transgender interventions to minors are “entirely unsettled,” Carter noted this week, while the potential harms, including irreversible bodily mutilation and infertility, are serious. 

Carter said he was presented with an “almost total lack of consensus as to the medical ethics of adolescent gender dysphoria treatment.” The plaintiffs challenging the ban were able only to present “low” or “very low” quality evidence in favor of transgender treatments for minors, he wrote. 

“None of these interventions corrects any biological or physical abnormality. Rather, the thought process behind these novel procedures is that even though these adolescents are physically healthy, altering their bodies might reduce distress associated with the mismatch between their bodies and how they perceived their identity,” Carter wrote. 

Carter went on to write that “credible evidence” shows that most children with gender dysphoria —  a persistent feeling of identification with another sex and discomfort with one’s biological sex — grow out of the condition. 

In addition, many patients who seek transgender interventions have “serious mental health comorbidities,” many of which remain unaddressed and untreated. 

None of the commonly-used drugs in transgender interventions are FDA-approved to treat gender dysphoria, he noted, but their use, especially for young girls, has markedly increased in recent years. According to evidence cited by the judge, the prevalence of gender dysphoria among 15-year-olds increased by a factor of 20 between 2017 and 2021, to around 340 per 100,000 people. 

Also mentioned was the fact that in addition to “more than half” of U.S. states, other highly developed nations such as Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands have begun in recent years to restrict the use of puberty blockers for minors, citing insufficient evidence of their efficacy outweighed by evidence of harm. 

Finland and Sweden further reserve transgender surgery for adults.

The judge also pointed to a 400-page study out of the U.K. known as the Cass Review which found “remarkably weak evidence” in favor of transgender interventions for minors as a means of treating the mental health condition of gender dysphoria. 

That study prompted the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) earlier this year to end the practice of prescribing puberty blockers to children to facilitate a gender transition, a decision that was later upheld in U.K. courts. 

The ruling this week goes on to cite the “unrebutted,” “credible” testimony of Jamie Reed, a former employee at a major Missouri transgender center who in a Feb. 2023 sworn statement said she witnessed doctors prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to minors without parental consent and, in her view, “permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care.”

In addition, Reed claimed her former clinic “regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery” and performed at least one double mastectomy on a minor at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. 

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey initiated an investigation into the hospital’s practices based on Reed’s allegations. He later led a seven-state-coalition in suing the Biden administration over a rule that would force doctors to provide sex-change procedures and require health insurers to cover them. 

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley also announced an investigation into the clinic’s practices after the allegations surfaced.

In a two-year period from 2020 to 2022, the clinic “initiated medical transition for more than 600 children. About 74% of these children were assigned female at birth,” Reed, who describes herself as a “queer woman” who is married to a formerly transgender person, wrote in her sworn statement.

Also testifying in the present case and cited as a credible witness by Carter was Chloe Cole, a young woman from California who in 2022 sued the doctors who performed transgender procedures on her, including a double mastectomy, beginning when she was 12 years old. 

Cole testified about the regret she carries for allowing doctors to remove her breasts, saying she wants to have children and will never be able to breastfeed them. 

In the end, Carter ruled that the plaintiffs’ arguments against Missouri’s law “simply [fail]” and noted that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a similar law in Indiana. 

Lambda Legal has vowed to appeal the ruling. 

After the law’s Aug. 2023 implementation, Washington University in St. Louis became the second major hospital in Missouri to shut down the practice of gender transition for minors following University of Missouri Health Care, based in Columbia. 

MU Health Care cited “significant legal liability for prescribing or administering cross-sex hormones or puberty-blockings drugs to existing minor patients.”

In 2023 there were more than 275,000 child pornography websites on the Internet, with approximately 11,000 photos generated by AI in just one month. / Credit: Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 27, 2024 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court calling on the justices to uphold a state law that requires porn websites to verify the age of their users. 

According to a Nov. 26 press release, Paxton has filed a brief with SCOTUS asking that it uphold House Bill 1181, a Texas law that requires online pornography companies to implement “reasonable age verification measures to safeguard children from obscene online material.” 

“Let me put this simply: these companies do not have a right to expose children to pornography,” Paxton stated in the release. “Texas has a clear interest in protecting children, and we have been successful defending this commonsense age verification law against a powerful global industry.”  

Without age verification, Paxton’s brief points out, widespread availability of smartphones and other devices gives children “instantaneous access to unlimited amounts of hardcore pornography—including graphic depictions of rape, strangulation, bestiality, and necrophilia.”

“Like ‘doomscrolling’ on social media, online pornographers use sophisticated algorithms to keep adults who have greater maturity than children on their sites,” the brief states, describing widespread child access to pornographic content as a “public health crisis.’” 

The brief cites multiple studies which have found childhood exposure to pornography has led to increased likelihoods of mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia, as well as increased chances of using tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. 

Children who are exposed to pornography were also found to be at an increased risk of “behavioral problems.” Critics have pointed out that much of the content that pervades pornographic websites contains sexual violence, including involving minors.

The document also points out that age verification measures have become a widespread practice for a variety of online services such as gambling or tobacco purchasing, and do not pose a demonstrable threat to constitutional rights. 

Countries around the world such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom currently require online porn sites to use age verification measures. 

Porn industry has challenged laws

When HB 1181 first passed in 2023, several online pornography companies, including Pornhub, filed a lawsuit alleging the mandate violated their First Amendment rights.

After lower courts ruled that the law did not violate the First Amendment, the companies appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. Earlier this year, SCOTUS denied a request by the Free Speech Coalition, which includes a porn trade association and several pornography creators, to issue a stay on the law during legal proceedings. 

Paxton has been aggressive in his efforts to enforce the law, filing multiple lawsuits against porngraphy companies as litigation continues. 

Texas currently issues fines of up to $10,000 per day that a company fails to comply with age verification requirements, an additional $10,000 per day “if the corporation illegally retains identifying information,” and $250,000 if a child is found to have been exposed to pornographic content due to lack of age verification. 

“Several of these companies, when faced with a choice between protecting children from pornography and complying with Texas law, have stopped doing business in Texas,” Paxton noted. Pornhub made headlines in March of this year after it opted to disable its website in the state instead of adopting age verification practices.

 “Good riddance,” Paxton added. 

Amicus briefs submitted in support of Paxton’s efforts include a coalition of two dozen state attorneys general, 60 lawmakers from 15 states, and over 20 U.S. congressmen and senators, as well as health organizations such as the Foundation for Addiction Research

“Texas has a right to protect its children from the detrimental effects of pornographic content,” Paxton said. “As new technology makes harmful content more accessible than ever, we must make every effort to defend those who are most vulnerable.”

Texas is currently slated to argue its case before the nation’s highest court on Jan. 15.

null / kristina sohappy via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 27, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Catholic, signed legislation on Wednesday that prevents males from entering women’s and girls’ locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms in the state’s public and private K-12 schools and colleges. 

The new law requires that schools and colleges separate gender-specific facilities on the basis of biological sex, rather than self-asserted gender identity. This prevents men and boys from using facilities that are designated for only women and girls and vice versa, even if the person identifies as transgender. 

“This landmark legislation reflects the will of Ohio voters who demanded bold, common-sense action to protect privacy and safety in school restrooms and other shared spaces,” read a statement issued by the Ohio Republican Party and posted on X. 

“This is more than just a law — it’s a fulfillment of Ohio’s mandate to prioritize the dignity and safety of young women,” the statement added. 

Under the new law, schools cannot establish facilities that are “nongendered” or “open to all genders,” but schools can create “family facilities.” 

The legislation includes exceptions for young children who need assistance from a parent or guardian. It also includes an exception for people with disabilities who need assistance.

Per the legislation, schools also cannot permit boys and girls to share overnight accommodations, regardless of whether one of them self-identifies as transgender.

The language was included in a bill that amends a college credit program.

Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Sara Beth Nolan praised DeWine for signing the legislation. 

“States have a duty to protect the privacy, safety, and dignity of women and young girls,” Nolan said.

“Yet certain advocacy organizations — and the Biden-Harris administration through its Title IX rule change — are demanding that states devalue women by eliminating longstanding, distinct private spaces for males and females,” Nolan continued. “Allowing males into women and girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms is an invasion of privacy and can even be a threat to their safety.”

The Biden-Harris Department of Education revised Title IX regulations in April to reinterpret the law’s prohibition on “sex” discrimination to include a prohibition on discriminating against a person based on his or her self-asserted gender identity.

The rule change was blocked by courts in more than half of the country after state attorneys general sued the department out of concern that it would overrule state laws restricting athletic competitions, locker rooms, and bathrooms on the basis of biological sex.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio criticized DeWine for signing the bill into law.

“We will always have the backs of our trans community,” the ACLU statement on X said. “Every Ohioan deserves the freedom to be loved, to be safe, to be trusted with decisions about healthcare and to access the facilities that align with their gender identity,” the statement continued.

In January, DeWine vetoed legislation to prohibit doctors from providing minors with transgender drugs and surgeries, but Republican lawmakers voted to override his veto and the law went into effect earlier this year. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to prevent the law from going into effect, but has appealed the loss.

A sign hangs above a Planned Parenthood clinic on May 18, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois. / Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Nov 27, 2024 / 05:30 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life related policy developments in the United States.

Lawmakers ask for investigation into abortion funding

More than 100 members of Congress asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the amount of federal funding given to abortion providers nationally and internationally over the past three years, including Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates.  

One hundred and twelve members of Congress signed the Nov. 22 letter spearheaded by House Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), and Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY). Eighty-one House members and 31 Senators signed the letter, including top leaders such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).

A 2023 GAO report found that from 2019-2021, the U.S .government provided $1.89 billion in federal funding to abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood Federation of America and MSI Reproductive Choices. 

Republican congressmen seek to stop expansion of IVF for military 

Two Republican representatives urged the House and Senate Armed Services committees to not expand health insurance coverage of in vitro fertilization (IVF) for military personnel, citing high costs and ethical concerns.

In a Nov. 21 letter, Reps. Matt Rosendale (MT) and Josh Brecheen (OK) asked committee leaders in both chambers to not include provisions that expand access to the method of fertility treatment that involves artificially creating many embryos, most of which are never born.

In the letter, Rosendale and Brecheen noted, “There are no limits under current law on how many embryos can be created in an IVF cycle.” The two said that the Centers for Disease Control could not provide “basic information” such as how many embryos are screened for sex selection or genetic abnormalities, or how many embryos are destroyed each year.

The representatives noted that in 2021 there were “4.1 million embryonic children created through IVF, but only 97,128 of those children were born,” meaning only 2.3% of embryonic children are ever born, according to numbers from the CDC and the Family Research Council.  The representatives called on Congress to “protect the most vulnerable and reject any provision that leads to the destruction of innocent human life.” 

When it comes to IVF, lawmakers hold opposing views. Proponents tout the technology as pro-family, while opponents point to the loss of unborn life that is an inherent part of the process. Rosendale, a Catholic who is retiring from Congress, shares these latter, moral and ethical concerns. 

The Catholic Church teaches that IVF is not a moral method of fertility treatment because it separates conception from the marital act and because multiple embryos are created only to be discarded. 

Texas bill could reclassify abortion pills as controlled substances

A bill has been introduced in the Texas legislature to reclassify abortion pills as Schedule IV substances, meaning the drugs would be considered controlled substances. The drugs are used in abortions, as well as for miscarriage care and other uses. The first pill in the regimen, mifepristone, deprives the unborn child of necessary nutrients, while the second pill, misoprostol, induces the delivery of the deceased child. 

Pat Curry, Republican from Waco, filed HB 1339 Nov. 14. If passed, the bill would take effect Sept. 1, 2025. It would also designate the muscle relaxant carisoprodol as a controlled substance, in addition to the two abortion drugs. The Texas Controlled Substance Act dictates that possession of a fraudulent prescription is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 or 180 days in jail. 

The measure follows the state of Louisiana's abortion pill reclassification earlier this year.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, with a capacity of 6,000 in its upper church, was standing room only for the National Prayer Vigil for Life in 2024. / Credit: Photo by Joe Bukuras/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 27, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

The U.S. bishops are calling on faithful Catholics across the country to join them in person or virtually at their National Prayer Vigil for Life in Washington D.C., which takes place every year on the eve of the March for Life. 

Co-hosted by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), The Catholic University of America’s Office of Campus Ministry, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the vigil will take place from the evening of Thursday, Jan. 23 to the morning of Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. 

“I enthusiastically invite Catholics from all around the country to join me in-person or virtually, in praying for an end to abortion and building up a culture of life,” stated Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in a press release. 

“Together, we must pray to change hearts and build a culture of life as we advocate for the most vulnerable. I look forward to opening our Vigil with Holy Mass together with many other bishops, hundreds of priests, consecrated religious, seminarians, and many thousands of pilgrims,” he added. 

The event will kick off with an opening Mass celebrated by Bishop Thomas in the main sanctuary at the Basilica of the National Shrine on Thursday evening. Mass will be followed by a Eucharistic procession and Holy Hour, which will include a Rosary and the Benediction. 

The vigil will conclude on Friday morning before the March for Life with an 8 a.m. Mass celebrated by Bishop Robert Brennan of Brooklyn. 

U.S. Catholics may participate in the vigil via livestream on the Basilica’s website, or view EWTN’s live television broadcasts on Thursday from 5-8 p.m. and Friday from 8-9 a.m.

Full schedule: 

Thursday, January 23:

4:45 p.m.      Chaplet of Divine Mercy

5:00 p.m.    Opening Mass with Bishop Thomas

7:00 p.m.    Holy Hour for Life

Friday, January 24:

8:00 a.m.    Closing Mass with Bishop Brennan

The March for Life will begin with a pre-rally at 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 24. Professional surfer and EveryLife founder Bethany Hamilton will be the keynote speaker at this year’s event, for which the theme is “Every Life: Why We March.”

Black smoke billows over the city after drone strikes in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Sept. 19, 2023, amid Russia's military invasion on Ukraine. Drones attacked Ukraine's western city of Lviv early on Sept. 19, and explosions rang out, causing a warehouse fire and wounding at least one person. / Credit: YURIY DYACHYSHYN/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 26, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis called for an end to global production and use of anti-personnel explosives in a message delivered at an international summit on abolishing landmines, one week after U.S. President Joe Biden approved Ukraine’s use of American land mines in the Russia-Ukraine war. 

“Conflicts are a failure of humanity to live as a single human family,” the Holy Father expressed in his letter, which was read by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin at the Fifth Review Conference on the Convention of Anti-Personnel Landmines in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

“These treacherous devices continue to cause terrible suffering to civilians, especially children,” he added. 

The International Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, is an international agreement to end the production and use of anti-personnel mines that went into force in March 1999. One hundred and sixty-four state parties have formally agreed to abide by the agreement, including Ukraine. 

The pope “urges all states that have not yet done so to accede to the convention, and in the meantime to cease immediately the production and use of land mines,” Parolin stated to the delegation. 

The United States, Russia, and China are among the 33 states which have not yet agreed to abide by the agreement. 

Francis also appealed to countries that have already entered into the agreement, urging them to renew their commitment to end use of the explosives, stressing that any delays in doing so “will inevitably increase the human cost.” 

The Holy Father’s urgent appeal to the convention comes one week after President Biden approved the provision of anti-personnel mines to Ukraine, in order to bolster its defense against Russian advances in the east. 

Biden’s move to authorize the controversial explosives follows closely his decision to give Ukraine permission to fire long-range American missiles at Russia. The Kremlin has responded by lowering the threshold in which it would use its nuclear arsenal. 

The Pope this week further recognized the work of the land mine conference, and all of those dedicated to ending use of land mines, as well as those who assist victims’ families.

The Holy Father prayed that the objectives of the conference inspired by the treaty “may become an important step towards a world free of landmines and ensure a truly integral and restorative assistance to victims.” 

Francis himself delivered a similar pro-peace message at an event on the same day, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Argentina and Chile. 

“We do well to commemorate those intense negotiations that, with papal mediation, avoided the armed conflict about to set two brother peoples against each other and concluded with a dignified, reasonable and equitable solution,” the Holy Father said in his address. 

“In this regard, how can I not refer to the many ongoing armed conflicts that remain still unresolved, despite the fact that they cause immense sufferings for the countries at war and the entire human family,” Francis said, further rebuking countries “where there is much talk of peace [but where] the highest yielding investments are in the production of arms.”

“I simply mention two failures of humanity today: Ukraine and Palestine, where people are suffering, where the arrogance of the invader prevails over dialogue,” he told the delegation. Francis has been vocal in his opposition to the ongoing conflicts in both regions since their respective beginnings.

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 9, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 26, 2024 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Monday clarified that the final Synod on Synodality document — which calls for structural changes, including more lay and women participation in the Church — is part of the Church’s ordinary magisterium and should be implemented by dioceses and churches. 

“[The final document] participates in the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter, and as such, I ask that it be accepted," Francis wrote in a Nov. 25 note about the 52-page document.

In his note, he clarifies that the final document is part of “the authentic teaching of the Bishop of Rome.”

Rather than publishing his own post-synodal document, the pontiff instead approved the synod’s final document in full on Oct. 26, the same day the synod issued it. Francis wrote in the note that by signing the document, he joined the “we” of the assembly participants who directed the document to the people of God.

“[The final document] can already now be implemented in the local churches and groupings of churches, taking into account different contexts, what has already been done and what remains to be done in order to learn and develop ever better the style proper to the missionary synodal church,” the pontiff wrote, according to the Catholic News Service.

"Local churches and groupings of churches are now called upon to implement, in different contexts, the authoritative indications contained in the document, through the processes of discernment and decision-making provided by law and by the document itself," Francis added.

The Holy Father wrote that the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality "does not end the synodal process.” 

The document calls for strengthening pastoral councils at the parish and diocesan level, but adds that such authority “is not without limits,” noting that the authority of the local bishop and the pontiff “in regard to decision-taking is inviolable.”

Additionally, the document calls for more lay participation in all ecclesiastical decision making. It specifically calls for more women in leadership roles but does not settle the question about a possible women’s diaconate. It also condemns exclusion based on a person’s “marital situation, identity, or sexuality.”

In the note, Francis emphasized that the final document is "not strictly normative" and that local churches should discern how to implement the document in a way that is consistent with the needs of their country and their region. However, he said, “Local churches [are obligated] to make choices consistent with what was indicated.” 

“Each country or region, moreover, can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs,” Francis wrote, directly quoting his apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia.

"In many cases, it is a matter of effectively implementing what is already provided for in existing law, Latin and Eastern," Francis wrote.

The pontiff also wrote in his note that bishops will report to the Vatican on the way in which they are implementing the document within their dioceses when making their required trip to Rome to meet with Vatican officials. 

"[Bishops] will report on the choices made in their local Church concerning the indications in the Final Document, the difficulties encountered, and the fruits achieved, and are called to report on progress during their ad limina visits, sharing both challenges and fruits of their efforts,” Francis wrote, according to Vatican News, the official news outlet of the Holy See.

“This journey has allowed the Church to read her own experiences and identify steps to live communion, realize participation, and promote the mission entrusted to her by Christ,” Francis wrote. 

Vatican dicasteries and the General Secretariat of the Synod will oversee the bishops’ implementation of the final document. 

null / Credit: RasyidArt, Shutterstock.

CNA Staff, Nov 26, 2024 / 13:07 pm (CNA).

The superintendent of a Wisconsin Catholic school system has been fired along with a high school principal after officials there reportedly found violations of diocesan safe environment protocols meant to protect children from sexual abuse. 

Kate Heim, the interim president of St. Francis Xavier Catholic School System in Appleton, Wisconsin, said in a letter to parents last week that Xavier High School Principal Mike Mauthe and St. Francis Xavier Catholic School System superintendent John Ravizza were both let go by the school system after an investigation by the diocese. 

In the letter, obtained by Fox affiliate WLUK-TV, Heim told parents that the Diocese of Green Bay Office of Safe Environment had received “a complaint” that initially led to Mauthe’s being put on administrative leave. 

After an investigation, Mauthe was found to have violated the diocese’s “Our Promise to Protect” safe environment policy. Mauthe was subsequently fired from his position due to the reported violation. 

Heim said that Ravizza also “fail[ed] to meet reporting requirements” in connection with the investigation, and as a result, he was also fired.

The diocese reported the matter to police in accordance with state mandatory reporting rules, Heim noted. 

“Because this is a personnel issue, we are not at liberty to share the specifics of the situation such as the contents of the complaint, victim identity, and details regarding the evidence,” the interim president said in the letter.

Community members had started a petition to have Mauthe re-instated at the high school prior to Heim’s letter. In a Facebook post responding to those efforts, Mauthe urged the community to undertake “no petitions [and] no protesting” in response to his firing. 

The controversy “has given me a lot of time to think about how much I chase things like attention and importance to people, how I have an unhealthy attachment to trying to help, and how my actions can hurt and harm, even when that's the opposite of what I intend,” he wrote. 

“I am not a victim,” Mauthe added. “I broke a policy and accept the consequence for doing so. No excuses, no caveats.”

“During my career, I did not always maintain the proper boundaries of communication. That responsibility was mine,” he said. “I need to be better and I own my failures for any times that I've fallen short of who I strive to be.”

The petition was reportedly signed by “well over 600 people” before Mauthe requested the effort cease. 

The St. Francis Xavier school system includes an elementary school, middle school, and high school. Appleton is located about 30 miles south of Green Bay. 

The Diocese of Green Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.