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"Abortion is a crime disguised as a solution" and "The size of your body doesn't take away your rights" are among the signs held high by pro-life marchers in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, March 10, 2024. / Credit: Nicolás de Cárdenas/ACI PrensaACI Prensa Staff, Mar 11, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).In a festive atmosphere, thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid, Spain, on Sunday to participate in the annual March for Life with the theme "Yes to Life" in an event that featured powerful testimonies."It's time to unmask the lies, horrors, businesses, and ideologies that sustain the culture of death and assume responsibility for repairing, healing, and making possible the culture of life and true progress," the organizers of the pro-life event emphasized in their manifesto for the event.Before the start of the march, the president of the Spanish Federation of Pro-Life Associations, Alicia Latorre, told the media that the objective of the march is to say "yes...
A camp for Internally Displaced Persons in Renk, South Sudan. / Credit: Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD)ACI Africa, Mar 11, 2024 / 17:55 pm (CNA).The people of God in South Sudan are in urgent need of external support, the president of the Integral Human Development Commission of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference (SCBC) has said.In a March 8 letter addressed to "the head of Caritas network, people of goodwill, and the international community," Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala described the desperate situation of his compatriots, who he says are "on the brink of destitution" and are "slowly perishing" amid challenges occasioned by violent conflicts and COVID-19."Our people continue to suffer the effects of complex emergencies, which are still being experienced in many parts of the country, including those parts that had previously been peaceful," Hiiboro Kussala said in his three-page letter dated March 8.The number of internally displaced persons (I...
Pope Francis washes the feet of 12 young men and women, inmates at Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center on Rome's outskirts, during a Mass of the Lord's Supper on Thursday, April 6, 2023. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Mar 11, 2024 / 11:18 am (CNA).Visiting prisoners is one of the Catholic Church's corporal works of mercy originating with Jesus' words in the Gospel of Matthew: "I was in prison and you visited me."All visitors to the 2024 Venice Biennale's Vatican pavilion will take part in this Catholic tradition by entering an active women's prison on Venice's Giudecca island, where the inmates will play an active role in the exhibition of works by nine professional artists.Upon arrival, visitors to the Vatican pavilion titled "With My Eyes" will be forced to leave their cellphones and IDs at the door, following the typical security protocols for family members visiting inmates.Chiara Parisi, one of the curators of the Vatican pavilion, explained that an added ...
Pope Francis delivers the Angelus address on March 10, 2024. / Vatican MediaVatican City, Mar 10, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).Pope Francis said Sunday that governments and civil society have a fundamental duty to help ensure that women are able to accept the gift of life."Institutions, social and political, have the fundamental duty to protect and promote the dignity of every human being, offering women, the bearers of life, the necessary conditions to be able to accept the gift of life and ensure a dignified existence for their children," Pope Francis said on March 10.Speaking from the window of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, the pope said at the end of his Angelus address that he wanted to express his closeness to all women after International Women's Day, especially those whose dignity is not respected. "There is still a lot of work that each of us must do in order for there to be concrete recognition of the equal dignity of women," Francis added.Pope Francis delivers the Angelus...
Richard Carrillo, composer of "Requiem for the Forgotten," conducts a choir. Carrillo is finishing his doctorate in choral conducting at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. / Credit: Kevin WhiteCNA Staff, Mar 10, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).A Miami parish will host the world premiere of a new sacred choral composition, Frank La Rocca's "Requiem for the Forgotten," during a Mass in memory of those who have died without a proper funeral. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, who will preside at the Mass, commissioned the piece "for the repose of the souls of people on the margins: the homeless, the refugee escaping war and political or religious persecution, the martyrs of totalitarianism in all its forms," La Rocca explained. La Rocca is a prize-winning composer-in-residence at the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Liturgy, an organization founded by Cordileone. La Rocca studied at Yale and the University of California-Ber...
The violence in one of the most troubled regions of Mexico led to a temporary parish closure. / Credit: ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, Mar 10, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Bishop Cristóbal Ascencio García of the Diocese of Apatzingán in Mexico, one of the regions hardest hit by organized crime and where a church was recently forced to close its doors "for security reasons," said that "in the face of the helplessness" the residents are experiencing, the people "find their only defense in God."In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, Ascencio commented on disturbing developments at Santa María de Guadalupe Parish in the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, also known as La Ruana, about 30 miles west of Apatzingán.On Feb. 28 the parish announced on social media the suspension of religious services, stating that "we are in a risky situation; let us pray for peace for our people.""For everyone's safety, Santa María de Guadalupe Parish in La Ruana will remain closed. Tod...
Votes are counted in Dublin, Ireland, on March 9, 2024, after voters in the country went to the polls March 8 to decide on a pair of referendums proposing wording changes to the Irish constitution aimed at reflecting secular values. / Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, Mar 9, 2024 / 10:32 am (CNA).By wide margins, voters in Ireland rejected proposed changes to the country's constitution that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about the social value of women within the home.Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday that voters had delivered "two wallops" to the government, which had pushed for a "Yes" vote on a pair of March 8 referendums."Clearly we got it wrong," he said. "While the old adage is that success has many fathers and failure is an orphan, I think when you lose by this kind of margin, there are a lot of people who got this wrong and I am certainly one of them."Nearly 68% of voters rejected the so-called "Family ...
Pope Francis presides over a penitential service at St. Pius V Parish in Rome on March 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNAWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 9, 2024 / 18:34 pm (CNA).The Vatican on Saturday said Pope Francis did not mean to suggest that Ukraine ought to surrender to Russia when he referred to "the courage of the white flag" in a newly released television interview.Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni clarified that Pope Francis was calling instead for a cease-fire and negotiations. Bruni explained that the pope was picking up on the interviewer's use of the term "white flag," an international symbol of surrender, adding that the pope remains hopeful that a diplomatic solution can be reached for a "just and lasting peace," The New York Times reported.The Holy Father made the remark during an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI. Portions of the interview were released on Saturday. Reuters said the interview will be broadcast March 20."I think that the ...
Votes are counted in Dublin, Ireland, on March 9, 2024, after voters in the country went to the polls March 8 to decide on a pair of referendums proposing wording changes to the Irish constitution aimed at reflecting secular values. / Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, Mar 9, 2024 / 10:32 am (CNA).Voters in Ireland appear to have voted to preserve the country's constitutional recognition of the central role of the traditional family founded on marriage as well as the societal value of women within the home, rejecting a pair of referendums held March 8, pro-referendum government leaders conceded Saturday."It does look like a no vote in both the family and care referendums," Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan told RTE News on Saturday. "The first thing to say is that we respect that. It's the voice of the people and in our constitution, it's the people who are sovereign.""It's they who decide what goes into our constitution," Ryan said. Official results were not relea...
Inside St. Frances of Rome Church in Italy on March 9, 2016. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNARome, Italy, Mar 9, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).Francesca Romana, also known as St. Frances of Rome, is frequently called the "most Roman of the saints" and is the co-patron of the city. She serves as a model for holiness in her vocation as wife and mother, and for her service to the poor of the city through the lay order she founded, the Oblates of Mary. She also inspired a special "blessing on cars" in Rome.Born in Rome in 1384 to a noble family, Francesca was determined to dedicate her life to God as a nun at the age of 11. However, her father forbade it and arranged for her to be married to a young man named Lorenzo, who was also from a wealthy family.Though she initially refused the marriage, Francesca eventually agreed after speaking with her confessor, who urged her to pursue the will of God rather than her own.She married Lorenzo at the age of 13 but soon became ill due to the stress of he...
