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null / nito/Shutterstock.Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 8, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).A study from researchers in the Netherlands found that nearly two-thirds of children who had wished that they belonged to the opposite sex as adolescents ultimately became comfortable with their biological sex in early adulthood.The 15-year study, which was conducted by researchers at the Netherlands' University of Groningen, tracked the gender unhappiness rates of 2,772 study participants from ages 11 through 26.In the early stages of the study, 11% of participants reported the desire to have been born as the opposite gender. As they got older, the number steadily declined and it eventually dropped to about 4% of participants wishing they had been born as the opposite gender at the last follow-up, which was usually at age 26.According to the study, 78% of participants never became discontent with their gender. About 19% grew more content over time and only 2% became less content over time.The...
The Apostolic Administration in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, made up of priests, religious, and laypeople, gather in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, during Easter Week, April 2-3, 2024, to pray and discuss the work of the small but growing Catholic community spread throughout the Central Asian country. Father Anthony Corcoran (pictured in glasses holding a blue pen and paper) and Caritas representative Sher Abdugapirov (glasses and light blue hoodie) can be seen in this photo. / Credit: Father Remisgiuz Kalski, SJRome Newsroom, Apr 8, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).During Easter Week, April 2-3, the Apostolic Administration of Kyrgyzstan convened a two-day meeting in the capital of Bishkek dedicated to prayer, sharing, and the work of evangelization within the small yet budding Catholic community spread throughout the Central Asian country."It is such a great consolation to all of us to be a part of this universal Church with so many members across the world," said Father Anthony Corcoran, SJ, apostolic ...
A total solar eclipse. / Credit: Public domain via PixabayNational Catholic Register, Apr 7, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).When the moon passes between the sun and Earth creating a total solar eclipse on April 8, many Catholics in its path will be looking skyward to observe the phenomenon from a spiritual and scientific perspective.Some will gather at retreat centers like Our Lady of the Pines in Fremont, Ohio, to reflect on the eclipse as a metaphor for the darkness and shadow in their own lives, while others, like a group of students at the Catholic University of America who will be studying the eclipse in collaboration with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will take a more methodical approach. A partial solar eclipse will be visible throughout North America and Central America on April 8, but only those in what is known as the "path of totality" will be able to observe the sun completely eclipsed by the moon. In the United States, this includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma,...
The Divine Mercy image is displayed at St. Peter's Square before Pope Francis Regina Caeli prayer on April 7, 2024. / Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty ImagesVatican City, Apr 7, 2024 / 09:10 am (CNA).Pope Francis during the Regina Caeli on Divine Mercy Sunday noted that the "fullness of life" comes not from the pursuit of transitory pleasure but is "realized in Jesus." "To have life," the pope said, "it is enough to fix one's eyes on the crucified and risen Jesus, encountering him in the sacraments and in prayer, recognizing that he is present, believing in him, letting oneself be touched by his grace and guided by his example, experiencing the joy of loving like him. Every living encounter with Jesus enables us to have more life." Divine Mercy Sunday, instituted by St. John Paul II during the Jubilee Year of 2000, is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter.Pope Francis delivers his Regina Caeli reflection on April 7, 2024. Credit: Vatican MediaT...
Image of the Divine Mercy. / Credit: EWTN News In DepthACI Prensa Staff, Apr 7, 2024 / 10:10 am (CNA).The feast of divine mercy is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter and is associated with the prayer of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, a pious practice revealed to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska by Jesus himself that has spread throughout the world.While Catholics are not required to believe private revelations, the Church often encourages the practices associated with those that she approves, such as St. Faustina's divine mercy revelations. There are five main reasons to offer this prayer, as Inés Mery, a volunteer with the Divine Mercy Foundation's shrine in Chile, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner.1. It develops an attitude of trust.Jesus appeared to St. Faustina on Sept. 13-14, 1935, in Vilnius, Lithuania, and asked her to make his mercy known through the dissemination of an image of himself bearing the inscription "Jesus, I trust in you" that he...
Cappella sings "O Sacrum Convivium" at the University of Mary on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Rebecca RaberCNA Staff, Apr 7, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).A group of 28 choral students left the University of Mary (UMary) in Bismarck, North Dakota, in May of last year to embark on a world tour as part of a two-year Eucharistic Revival project, culminating this year in a choral album. As part of their Eucharistic Revival project, the students and their director, Rebecca Raber, have been performing and recording music at sites of Eucharistic miracles.The ultimate goal is to record enough choral songs to create an album focused on Eucharistic hymns. "When I heard about the Eucharistic Revival, I knew I wanted to do something from the perspective of liturgical music," Raber told CNA in an email. The choir, known as "Cappella," has been recording a collection of music focused on the Eucharist that includes a wide variety of styles of music such as...
Cardinal Angelo De Donatis. / Daniel Ibanez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 6, 2024 / 08:57 am (CNA).Pope Francis has transferred the vicar of Rome Cardinal Angelo De Donatis to a different post as head of the Vatican's Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican announced on Saturday.De Donatis, 70, has overseen the administrative needs of the Diocese of Rome as cardinal vicar since 2017. His reassignment leaves the important post of Vicar General of Rome vacant until the pope appoints his successor.The Vatican also announced on April 6 that one of Rome's seven auxiliary bishops, Bishop Daniele Libanori, SJ, will be transferred to a new position as the Holy Father's supervisor for Consecrated Life. The Jesuit bishop played a key role in uncovering alleged serial sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse of women religious by Jesuit mosaic artist Father Marko Rupnik. Libanori reportedly learned of the women's accusations while investigating the Loyola Community Rupnik co-founded in Ljubljana, S...
Archbishop Carlo Vigano. / Edward Pentin/National Catholic RegisterCNA Newsroom, Apr 6, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).A Wisconsin bishop has publicly rebuked the former apostolic nuncio to the United States, accusing him of defamation and a possibly illicit ordination.The clash between Bishop James Powers of the Diocese of Superior and Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò stems from a March 22 post on X in which the controversial former Vatican official criticized what he called a "shamanic ceremony" at the start of the Superior Diocese's 2024 Chrism Mass. The March 19 Mass at its outset featured four Ojibwe women engaging in traditional dance while accompanied by indigenous drumming. Viganò in his post called the ritual "a very serious sacrilege," describing Powers as "a squalid official of the ecumenical religion" and "not a Successor of the Apostles, but a servant of Freemasonry." You can watch the beginning of the Mass in the diocese's video here.Powers responded in a ...
A room at the former hospice facility run by the Delta Hospice Society in Delta, British Columbia, Canada. The Canadian government in 2020 ended a $1.5 million funding contract with Delta Hospice over the organization's refusal to implement medical assistance in dying (MAID). Then British Columbian Fraser Health Authority terminated the property lease with Delta Hospice, which shut the facility down. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Delta Hospice SocietyCNA Staff, Apr 6, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).A Canadian hospice leader is working to promote a new anti-euthanasia film to help raise awareness of what she calls the "predatory doctor-assisted suicide regime" of the Canadian government. Angelina Ireland is the president of Delta Hospice Society in Delta, British Columbia. The organization, founded in 1991, is "dedicated to helping families and individuals experiencing life-threatening diagnoses, advanced illness, or bereavement" by offering palliative care and other end-of-life serv...
"A retreat is a moment of prolonged personal encounter, without distractions, with God, and in God, with oneself," says Father Guillermo Serra. / Credit: ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, Apr 6, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Four Catholic priests shared their reflections in answer to a simple but very important question for the life of faith: Why go on a spiritual retreat?Father Antonio Domenech Guillén, a priest of the Diocese of Cuenca in Spain, said that "a retreat is always worthwhile, especially during Lent and Easter, those more focused times that help us bring our hearts closer to the Lord.""We always need it. Jesus says in the Gospel that 'those who are healthy do not need a doctor, but only the sick,' and if we recognize that we are sick, the Lord heals us every day, and a good way is to go on a retreat to be cured, like the person who goes to a hospital, to the doctor," the priest explained."If you give your time to God, he multiplies it like all spiritual goods. Material th...
