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Browsing News Entries

Browsing News Entries

The Marriage Crisis Driving America’s Fertility Decline

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U.S. Dioceses Observe Child Abuse Prevention Month

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Pope Leo XIV to Equatorial Guinea: Take Your Destiny Into Your Hands

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Who Is Pope Leo’s New ‘Sostituto’ for the Secretariat of State?

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More than 1.12 million abortions in US in 2025; actual figures likely higher (OSV News)

The number of abortions in the United States rose slightly from 1,124,000 in 2024 to 1,126,000 in 2025, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The institute—named after Alan Guttmacher (1898-1974), a president of Planned Parenthood and vice president of the American Eugenics Society—reported that abortions have increased 21% in the United States since 2020.

“States with total bans [on abortion] saw a spike in telehealth-provided abortions, with the figure totaling 91,000, up from the previous 74,000,” OSV News reported. The figures do not include abortions “involving drugs sourced from community networks or acquired from outside of the U.S.”

17 bishops have attended dialogues organized by New Ways Ministry (National Catholic Reporter)

Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, wrote that 17 bishops have attended dialogues organized by the group since 2023.

The organization “has been sponsoring a series of two-day meetings, in which bishops interact with theologians, scientific professionals, other scholars, pastoral ministers and, most importantly, LGBTQ+ people themselves,” said DeBernardo. “At the conclusion of one meeting, one bishop was in tears when he expressed how little he had known about the realities of transgender people, and regretted how he may have unintentionally added to their pain.”

New Ways Ministry was the subject of a notification by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1999) and a statement by the US bishops (2011) because of its dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

Pope Francis, however, praised Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, in a handwritten letter. He later met with Sister Gramick and other leaders of the group for 50 minutes.

Late Colombian cardinal accused of abuse (El País (Spanish))

A 57-year-old man has accused Colombian Cardinal Pedro Cardinal Rubiano Sáenz (1932-2024) of abuse.

The man, who alleged that the abuse began in 1983 and continued for several years, said that he has spoken with the current archbishop of Bogota and the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors about his allegations.

Italian president hails Pope Francis as moral leader of immense wisdom (Vatican News (Italian))

“One year has passed since the passing of the beloved Pope Francis, and the Italian people cherish the memory of his figure and his teachings with affection and gratitude,” Italian President Sergio Mattarella wrote in a tribute published on the front page of the Vatican newspaper.

“Francis possessed an acute ability to identify problems, breaking points, and the risks of division; he held the gift of looking far ahead—a hallmark of the Pontifical Magisterium—beyond the limited horizon of the immediate and contingent,” President Mattarella continued, as he hailed the late Pontiff as “a spiritual and moral leader of immense and admirable wisdom.”

The Italian president concluded, “One year after his passing, we renew our gratitude for the teachings of Francis, which stand as a beacon of hope for all people of peace.”

Pope emphasizes the Eucharist and evangelization at Mass in Equatorial Guinea (CWN)

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass this morning at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea (video),

Mass at Casa Santa Marta on anniversary of Pope Francis's death (Vatican News)

Archbishop Luigi Travaglino, a retired nuncio, celebrated Mass in Casa Santa Marta on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’s death. Casa Santa Marta, or Domus Sanctae Marthae, is the Vatican guest house in which Pope Francis lived during his twelve-year pontificate.

Reading aloud a homily prepared by Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, a 100-year-old retired nuncio, Archbishop Travaglino recalled “the apostolic courage with which he faced the years of his pontificate, even when, despite his physical limitations, he wanted to carry out his apostolic mission to the farthest ends of the earth.”