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null / Credit: ucchie79/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA)."Growth is anticipated."That's how the Tokyo-based company Oji Holdings described the Japanese adult diaper economy last week. The company announced in a press release that it would be terminating its "domestic disposal diaper business for babies" later this year.The baby diaper market in Japan is a "low-growth business," the company indicated, though the 150-year-old company said it will not exit the diaper business altogether.The company "aims to continue … focusing its resources on the market for the domestic disposable diapers business for adults, where growth is anticipated," the press release said. Oji's pivot toward adult diaper manufacturing underscores an ongoing crisis facing many developed nations around the world, Japan in particular: cratering fertility rates. Global fertility has been falling for decades, though the problem is often most acute in industrialized nations with high...
null / Credit: PixabayCNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 10:50 am (CNA).An Italian Catholic watchdog group says a blasphemous ad featuring a priest consecrating potato chips in place of Eucharistic hosts has been ordered pulled from the airwaves.The Italian Association of Radio and Television Listeners (Associazione Italiana Ascoltatori Radio e Televisione, AIART) on Monday had called for the immediate suspension of an advertisement by the Italian company Amica Chips, one that the group said "offends the religious sensitivity of millions of practicing Catholics." AIART says on its website that its mission is "inspired by Catholic principles."In the advertisement, an abbess fills a ciborium with potato chips instead of Eucharistic hosts prior to Mass, after which a priest distributes one of the potato chips to a nun during holy Communion. As the communicants are visibly surprised to discover the chips in place of hosts, the abbess looks on unconcernedly as she eats from th...
To mark its 10th anniversary, the St. Pio Foundation in the United States has released 10 never-before-seen photographs of Padre Pio. The candid images include scenes of the Italian priest celebrating Mass and deep in prayer. The foundation's director, Luciano Lamonarca, discovered the photos when visiting photographer Elia Saleto's studio. / Credit: Courtesy of the St. Pio FoundationCNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).To mark its 10th anniversary, the St. Pio Foundation in the United States has released 10 never-before-seen photographs of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio.To mark its 10th anniversary, the St. Pio Foundation in the United States has released 10 never-before-seen photographs of Padre Pio. The foundation's director, Luciano Lamonarca, discovered the photos when visiting photographer Elia Saleto's studio. Courtesy of the St. Pio Foundation.The candid images show the Italian priest celebrating Mass and deep in prayer but also in lighter mo...
The State Supreme Court building in Phoenix. / Credit: ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 9, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that a law protecting unborn life from abortion beginning at conception can soon take effect. The court ruled that state law does not guarantee a right to an abortion and that an 1864 law prohibiting all abortions can take effect in 14 days, pending any further constitutional challenges.The 1864 law allows for exceptions in cases in which the mother's life is in danger but does not grant exceptions for cases of rape or incest. The 4-2 decision issued Tuesday found that the Arizona Constitution "does not create a right to, or otherwise provide independent statutory authority" for abortion and that any guarantees to a right to abortion in the state were predicated on the now overturned Roe v. Wade precedent."To date, our Legislature has never affirmatively created a right to, or independently a...
The official portrait of Servant of God Niña Ruíz-Abad was presented to the public during the opening session of the diocesan phase of her cause for beatification and canonization at the Cathedral Church of St. William the Hermit in Laoag City on Sunday, April 7, 2024. / Credit: Portrait of Catholic Saints, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsACI Prensa Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).The official portrait of Servant of God Niña Ruíz-Abad was presented April 7 during the opening of the diocesan phase of her cause for canonization at St. William Cathedral in the town of Laoag located in the Ilocos Norte region of the Philippines.If canonized, the young Filipina, who died in 1993 at age 13, could become one of the youngest saints in history.The proceedings, including the Mass celebrated by Renato Mayugba, the bishop of Laoag, were posted on Facebook. The ceremony began with a procession of members of the Diocese of Laoag followed by the reading of Ruíz-Abad's biography and th...
Penn University transgender swimmer Lia Thomas celebrates taking first place in the 500-yard freestyle race with a time of 4.37.32 during the championship final race in heat three during the Women's Ivy League Swimming & Diving Championships at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Feb. 17, 2022. / Credit: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) approved a policy on Monday that stated that biological men cannot compete in women's sports in NAIA-sponsored college sports. The NAIA includes 249 schools across the U.S. and Canada, most of which are small, private colleges. Catholic colleges such as Benedictine College in Kansas, Ave Maria University in Florida, Loyola University in New Orleans, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana are members of the league. Texas A&M University-San Antonio is also a member. The decision, in a 20-0 vote,...
A plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. / Credit: MichalPL via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).Catholic bishops in the European Union on Tuesday reiterated that a right to abortion can never be a "fundamental" right ahead of a Thursday vote related to the insertion of a "right to abortion" in the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights. A draft resolution set to be voted on April 11 would amend the EU's charter, which first came into force in 2009, to include the assertion that "everyone has the right to bodily autonomy, to free, informed, full, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to all related health care services without discrimination, including access to safe and legal abortion."The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), based in Brussels and made up of bishops delegated by the bishops' conferences of the more than two dozen member state...
null / orgarashu / Shutterstock.CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).Baltimore Archbishop William Lori on Monday attended a hearing at a U.S. bankruptcy court in which several witnesses testified on the abuse they endured at the hands of Church officials. The archdiocese said in a release on Monday that the archbishop "attended [the hearing] in which victim-survivors of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church offered statements as part of the proceedings associated with the archdiocese's filing for Chapter 11 reorganization." The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in September of last year in response to a looming wave of sex-abuse-related lawsuits. Lori at the time said filing for bankruptcy ensured that "victim-survivors will be equitably compensated" and the Church would be able to "continue its mission and ministries."After the sealed hearing on Monday at U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, Lori said he was "deeply grateful t...
President's Hall, Seton Hall University. / Credit: Wikimedia/cc by sa 3.0CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).A Catholic university in New Jersey returned to its historic tradition of naming a "priest-president" following the previous president's abrupt resignation and lawsuit against the school. Seton Hall University, one of the oldest diocesan-run universities in the nation, on April 2 announced Monsignor Joseph Reilly as the 22nd president of the university. Reilly is an alumnus of the university and the current vice provost of academics and Catholic identity.The 168-year-old university had a "priest-president" for 146 years of its history, and Reilly's appointment marks a "return" to the tradition, the university press release noted.Reilly will take over from interim president Katia Passerini, who took up the role after former Seton Hall president Joseph Nyre's resignation in July 2023.Nyre and his wife, Kelli, filed a lawsuit alleging that the former...
The Department of Justice announced the arrest of Alexander Scott Mercurio, 18, after he allegedly plotted to kill Christians and burn down churches in his town to further the mission of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). / Credit: U.S. Department of JusticeWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 9, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).The Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested an 18-year-old man from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, who allegedly planned to kill Christians and burn down churches in his town to further the mission of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).The DOJ's criminal complaint alleges that Alexander Scott Mercurio intended to kill Christians in the nearest church, burn the building to the ground, then hijack a car and do the same at other nearby churches. He planned to handcuff his father and tape his father's mouth shut so he could steal his guns to commit the attacks, according to the DOJ allegations.According to the DOJ, Mercurio landed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation...
