Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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.”

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.

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.

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

Pope Leo XIV visited a prison in Bata, the largest city in Equatorial Guinea, this evening and told the prisoners that “today, I am here to tell you something simple: no one is excluded from God’s love!” (video)

Pope Leo XIV visited a psychiatric hospital in Equatorial Guinea (video) and said that loving care for the sick is a hallmark of Christian civilization.

“In harmony with his predecessors, he took up the legacy of the Second Vatican Council and spurred the Church to be open to mission,” Pope Leo continued. “We still hear his exhortations, expressed in eloquent words, to make the good news more understandable: mercy, peace, brotherhood, the smell of the sheep, the field hospital and many others. Each of these expressions brings us back to the Gospel he lived with a new language that proclaims the same Gospel as always.”

Pope Leo also highlighted his predecessor’s Marian devotion.

“Pope Francis nurtured a deep devotion to Mary throughout his life,” he said, citing his visits to the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major and Marian shrines around the world. “May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, help us to be tireless apostles of her divine Son and prophets of his merciful love in every circumstance.”