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Crédit: Jcomp vía FreepikACI Prensa Staff, Apr 3, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA)."We are destroying ourselves little by little," the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico said in condemnation of the recent kidnapping and murder of an 8-year-old girl, Camila, which was followed by a vigilante reprisal against the alleged perpetrators.In an editorial in its weekly publication "Desde la Fe" ("From a Faith Perspective"), the Archdiocese of Mexico questioned: "How many more dead girls? How many more lynchings [mob justice]? How many more injustices? When will we understand that violence only generates more violence?"Faced with this tragedy, which is evidence of "a number of the problems that have torn the social fabric," the archdiocese urged the people to resist the feelings of "selfishness, fear, and bitterness, suffering and death, which close off the way to joy and hope."In the context of the celebration of Easter Sunday, the editorial reminded readers that "Jesus is alive, as is his message,"...
Original painting of the Divine Mercy by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski in 1934. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons 4.0Boston, Mass., Apr 3, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).What do St. John Paul II and St. Maria Faustina Kowalska have in common? They both became saints and were instrumental in the institution of Divine Mercy Sunday, which offers many graces to the faithful. When Divine Mercy Sunday rolls around again this year, the faithful have the opportunity to take refuge in the depths of Christ's mercy by receiving either a plenary or partial indulgence.Here are some facts about Divine Mercy Sunday, including the Church's guidance on how to receive indulgences on the day:What is Divine Mercy Sunday?Divine Mercy Sunday is the Sunday after Easter each year. Divine Mercy Sunday was first announced in an April 2000 homily given by Pope John Paul II for the Mass celebrating the canonization of Maria Faustina Kowalska.St. Faustina Kowalska was a Polish nun who received prophetic messages from Chris...
Bishop Xavier Novell Gomà, Bishop Emeritus of Solsona. / Credit: Conferencia Episcopal Española via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 3, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).After obtaining a dispensation from Pope Francis, the bishop emeritus of Solsona in Spain, Xavier Novell, has entered into a canonical marriage with psychologist and author Silvia Caballol.Caballol announced the marriage on Instagram this week, saying: "Xavier and I have finally been able to get married in the Church, thanks to the mercy of the Holy Father who has granted him laicization.""It has been a long road, but we have been able to regularize our canonical situation: to get married as we wanted to and be able to receive Communion again," Caballol announced."I don't think our love nor the Church deserves to be hidden. Nor do I believe that the cover-up that accompanied my husband's resignation [as diocesan bishop] two and a half years ago was entirely correct," she added."Sorry to all of you who think it wo...
null / Credit: ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2024 / 17:05 pm (CNA).Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed a bill that legalizes and regulates paid surrogacy in the state.Michigan will join the large majority of states in the country that permit paid surrogacy. The only remaining states to not permit paid surrogacy are Nebraska and Louisiana.The law reverses a 36-year-old prohibition on paid surrogacy in Michigan. The Legislature initially banned the market through the Michigan Surrogate Parenting Act in 1988, which made all compensatory surrogacy contracts unenforceable and the creation of such contracts punishable by fines and up to a year in prison.To procreate through surrogacy, doctors typically create several embryos through IVF by fertilizing a woman's egg with a man's sperm in a lab and then implant one of the embryos in another woman, called the surrogate mother, who has no biological ties to the preborn child. In the IVF process, doctors rou...
null / Credit: mangpor2004/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Apr 2, 2024 / 17:35 pm (CNA).The Oklahoma Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday for a case that will determine if the state can fund a Catholic charter school. The case, Drummond v. Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, follows the board's decision to approve St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. The school would become the nation's first religious charter school.Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run education institutions that retain autonomy in how they are run while still being publicly accountable.Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued on Tuesday against the board's approval of the school. In the lawsuit, filed in October 2023, Drummond argued that the school's existence is an unconstitutional "harm to religious liberty" that sets a precedent that could require the state to fund a "public charter school teaching Sharia Law." In the lawsuit Drummond declared...
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento, California. / Credit: Randy Miramontez/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Apr 2, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).Following more than 250 lawsuits alleging abuse against the Diocese of Sacramento, Bishop Jaime Soto announced on Monday that the diocese will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.California's Child Victims Act, signed in 2019 and enacted at the beginning of 2021, extended the statute of limitations on clergy sexual abuse. Since then, survivors of abuse have brought forward more than 250 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of minors by clergy and other employees going back to the 1950s."There are many victim-survivors who have long suffered from the reprehensible sins committed against them," Soto said in an April 1 statement. "This reorganization process will allow me to respond to them as equitably as possible."Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy will enable a court to oversee the distribution of the diocese's available assets to satisfy the clai...
Critics of the Hate Speech bill worry that it could criminalize the speech of people such as author J.K. Rowling, who has said that "transgender women" are not actually women. / Daniel Ogren |Wikipedia|CC BY 2.0Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).A new hate speech law that went into effect in Scotland on Monday could prompt investigations into those, such as author J.K. Rowling, who refer to transgender individuals by their biological sex, rather than their self-proclaimed gender identity, a Scottish minister said.Under the new law, which went into effect on April 1, 2024, a person will face up to seven years in prison for stirring up hatred against a person based on his or her "transgender identity." The law expanded existing hate speech laws that already banned people from stirring up hatred based on a person's race.The law does not explicitly prohibit so-called "misgendering," which is when someone refers to a transgender person by his or her bi...
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, pictured here in 2014, took up his new post as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in September 2023. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 2, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).The Vatican's top doctrinal office next week will unveil a new declaration on the theme of human dignity, one that is expected to address a range of contemporary moral issues including gender ideology and surrogacy. The Holy See Press Office announced on Tuesday that the new document, titled Dignitas Infinita ("Infinite Dignity") (On Human Dignity), will be debuted at a press conference held in Rome on April 8.The conference will include presentations by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF); Monsignor Armando Matteo, secretary for the doctrinal section of the DDF; and Professor Paola Scarcella of Rome's Tor Vergata and LUMSA universities. In an interview with the National Catholi...
Jean's journey into the Catholic Church was propelled by an earnest desire to align himself with the apostolic tradition, a lineage he felt was absent in his previous religious experiences. / Credit: Screenshot/Pillar and FoundationCNA Newsroom, Apr 2, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).A YouTuber disillusioned with his experience in an Austrian evangelical Protestant environment has found a spiritual family and home in the Catholic Church, embracing rich tradition and liturgical beauty. In the process of sharing his conversion story, the channel of the YouTuber, who goes by "Pillar and Foundation" ("Säule und Fundament"), has grown to almost 14,000 subscribers. For a Vienna-based channel in German, this is a considerable audience, and Jean, the 26-year-old married convert behind the project, recently shared his journey from being a member of a Protestant Free Church to Catholicism with CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner. Apostolic connection and liturgical beaut...
Protesters disrupt the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on March 30, 2024. / Credit: XR NYC Palestine SolidarityWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 1, 2024 / 16:20 pm (CNA).Three pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested after disrupting the Saturday evening Easter Vigil Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City as the faithful were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.Protesters entered the cathedral about 45 minutes into the 8 p.m. Vigil Mass, which was celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and stood in front of the altar with a large flag that read "silence = death." Security quickly tried to wrestle the flag from the protesters and eventually forced them away from the altar and toward the exit of the church before police came to arrest them.As the protesters were being forced out of the cathedral, more protesters who were standing in the pews shouted "free, free Palestine." Security also forced those protesters out of the church.&n...
