Article Archive
Please click below to view any of the articles in our archive.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed into law a 12-week abortion ban and a ban on transgender surgery on minors on May 22, 2023. / Credit: Courtesy of the Office of the Governor of NebraskaCNA Staff, Mar 20, 2024 / 13:50 pm (CNA).A recently proposed pro-life ballot measure would make Nebraska the first state in the nation to offer unborn children protection in its constitution. State residents, meanwhile, may also be voting on a measure to enshrine broad abortion rights into the state's constitution, with both proposals potentially appearing on the ballot in November.The Protect Women and Children constitutional amendment, preliminary language of which was filed with the Nebraska secretary of state's office March 1, would "amend the Nebraska Constitution" to ensure that "unborn children shall be protected from abortion in the second and third trimesters."The amendment would outlaw abortion after 12 weeks except in medical emergencies or when an unborn child is the result o...
When Biden was a senator (pictured with former Rep. Henry Hyde), he consistently supported and voted for the Hyde Amendment, which banned federal spending on abortion. / Credit: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 20, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).President Joe Biden is calling for taxpayer-funded abortion nationwide and more funding for a program that funnels money to Planned Parenthood facilities in his 2025 budget plan unveiled last week.The $7.3 trillion budget would eliminate two safeguards that prevent taxpayer-funded abortion: the Hyde Amendment and the Dornan Amendment. Both amendments have been included in federal budget bills for decades, but the president's proposal leaves them out completely. His plan would also increase funding for the Title X family planning program, which funnels millions of dollars to the abortion provider Planned Parenthood."Since flip-flopping on taxpayer-funded abortion to run for president, Biden has lost any resistance to his party...
In 2023, over half a million migrants headed toward the United States crossed the Darien Gap, the inhospitable jungle region between Colombia and Panama. / Credit: Gonzalo Bell/Shutterstock.comRome Newsroom, Mar 20, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).Pope Francis on Wednesday sent a letter to the bishops of Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica highlighting the need to develop greater pastoral care and initiatives to assist migrants who travel through the treacherous Darien Gap."As Christians, every refugee and migrant who leaves his or her homeland challenges us," the pope wrote. "In our villages we find at the same time the hospitable fraternity that welcomes with human sensitivity, but also, unfortunately, the indifference that stains the Darién with blood."The pope's message comes as bishops from the episcopal conferences of the three countries conclude a four-day meeting in Panama titled "Easter with Our Migrant Brothers and Sisters," focused on the Catholic Church's pastoral outreach and s...
Sister Inah Canabarro and her nephew Kléber Canabarro. / Credit: ACI DigitalACI Digital, Mar 20, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA)."My secret, my great secret, is to pray," said Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, the oldest nun in the world at 115 years of age. "I pray the rosary every day for all the people around the world."The Teresian nun is also the oldest person in Brazil and Latin America, according to the Gerontological Research Group.Sister Inah expressed her good humor and joy in the few words she managed to say in a March 9 interview with ACI Digital, CNA's Portuguese-language news partner. She repeated a prayer several times to the Virgin Mary, praying to her "for all the people of the entire world."The nun currently lives in Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul state in Santo Enrique de Ossó Home, adjacent to the Provincial House of the Teresian Sisters of Brazil, the community she entered in 1927 at the age of 19.According to the home's coordinator, Sister Lúcia Ignez Bassotto, Sister...
A screenshot of Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo during the March 17 interview with KTO. / Credit: KTOACI Africa, Mar 20, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).Fiducia Supplicans, the declaration by the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) permitting the blessing of same-sex couples and couples in other "irregular situations," was perceived as "cultural colonization" in Africa, the president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said.In a March 17 interview with the French-language Catholic television channel KTO, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo deplored the lack of "synodality" in the release of the DDF document that has evoked mixed reactions and deep division among Catholic bishops across the world since its publication on Dec. 18, 2023."In this declaration, there was a whole cultural problem, because the African continent perceived Fiducia Supplicans as cultural colonization," said Ambongo, the archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.&...
Monstrance for adoration, stock photo. / Zolnierek/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Mar 20, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Did you know that there are several ways you can gain a plenary indulgence during Lent? There are actually four ways you can receive one. Even though Lent is nearly over, there is still plenty of time for you to complete any, or all, of these. First of all, what is a plenary indulgence?A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin. The indulgence cleanses a person of all temporal punishment due to sin. However, it must always be accompanied by a full detachment from sin. How do we receive one during Lent?The first way is to spend at least 30 minutes in Eucharistic adoration. Visiting the Blessed Sacrament is important all year round. So why not take part in this beautiful practice during Lent and receive some additional graces too? If you've never been to adoration,...
WASHINGTON - Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop William P. Callahan, O.F.M., Conv., 73, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of La Crosse for health reasons, and has appointed Bishop Gerard W. Battersby, auxiliary bishop of Detroit, as his successor. The resignation and appointment were publicized in Washington, D.C. on March 19, 2024, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.The Diocese of La Crosse is comprised of 15,078 square miles in the state of Wisconsin and has a total population of 875,018, of which 135,268 are Catholic.###
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Though the global situation risks plunging people into pessimism, Christians are called to pursue their vocation of becoming "men and women of hope," Pope Francis said."As individuals and as communities, amid the variety of charisms and ministries, all of us are called to embody and communicate the Gospel message of hope in a world marked by epochal challenges," the pope wrote in his message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations April 21.Global challenges such as war, migration, rising poverty rates and climate change, in addition to personal difficulties encountered daily, "risk plunging us into resignation or defeatism," the pope wrote in the message released March 19. He encouraged Christians to instead "cultivate a gaze full of hope and work fruitfully in response to the vocation we have received, in service to God's kingdom of love, justice and peace."To be "pilgrims of hope and builders of peace" means "to base our lives on the rock of Christ's resurrecti...
People use a car to light themselves on a dark street during a blackout in Bauta municipality, Artemisa province, Cuba, on March 18, 2024. / Credit: YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty ImagesACI Prensa Staff, Mar 19, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).Prolonged power outages and food shortages triggered protests in Cuba in different cities on March 17. Layman Osvaldo Gallardo and Catholic priest Father Alberto Reyes shared with ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, the causes of this latest crisis in the island nation."In Cuba there have been power outages throughout the history of the Cuban Revolution [since the 1960s], because the system has never had sustained economic development that would have made a suitable grid possible," Gallardo told ACI Prensa on March 18. The infrastructure for electricity production in Cuba includes eight old plants along with backup generators and eight offshore floating plants, all of them impacted by the shortage of diesel fuel necessary for their oper...
Pope Francis on March 19, 2024, appointed Bishop Gerard Battersby to lead the Diocese of La Crosse in western Wisconsin. / Credit: Marek Dziekonski/courtesy of the Archdiocese of DetroitWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 19, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Gerard Battersby to lead the Diocese of La Crosse in western Wisconsin after accepting the resignation of Bishop William Callahan.The pope's appointment was communicated to the U.S. bishops by the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre.Erik Archer, a representative for the Diocese of La Crosse, told CNA that Battersby will be officially installed as bishop of the diocese on May 20 at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral. At 63 years old, Battersby will become the 11th bishop to lead the Diocese of La Crosse. He was born in Detroit and has been serving as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit since 2017. He issued a statement on Tuesday upon learning ...
