SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) -- Religious freedom advocates and pro-life leaders praised California Gov. Jerry Brown for vetoing a bill called the Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act that targeted religious employers and their faith-based codes of conduct for employees.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A 40-foot-tall cross memorializing soldiers who died in World War I that sits at a busy intersection in the Washington suburb of Bladensburg, Maryland, is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Oct. 18.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The head of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration said some migrants from Honduras and El Salvador cannot safely return to their home countries in the near future and should have a special immigration permit extended.
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Denver, Colo., Oct 18, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- A network of wealthy donors is funding a series of well-organized lobbying campaigns to restrict legal protections for religious freedom, in order to advance access to abortion and LGBT causes.
Read moreHONOLULU (CNS) -- A federal judge in Hawaii Oct. 17 blocked the Trump administration's expanded version of its travel prohibitions issued in late September. In a 40-page ruling issued hours before the new travel ban was to take effect, U.S. District Court Judge Derrick K. Watson granted the state of Hawaii's request for a temporary restraining order and blocking Trump's order nationwide.
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Washington D.C., Oct 16, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- On Monday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Callista Gingrich, wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as the next U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. The vote was 70-23.
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Washington D.C., Oct 16, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- A week after issuing new religious freedom guidelines to all administrative agencies in the federal government, the U.S. Department of Justice has settled with more than 70 plaintiffs who had challenged the controversial HHS contraceptive mandate.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Dozens of Catholic groups that challenged the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act have reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, they announced late Oct. 16.
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MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. (CNS) -- Auxiliary Bishop Dominick J. Lagonegro of New York celebrated Mass Oct. 13 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown to mark the 100th anniversary of the last vision at Fatima and the miracle of the sun.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A part of President Donald Trump's Oct. 13 executive order on health care that would end subsidies to health insurance companies aimed at helping individuals with low to modest incomes is of "grave concern," a U.S. bishop said.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- A hurricane-stricken Puerto Rican and a local fan who dropped off pizza are among the admirers of a video of the choir from Cardinal Shehan School in Baltimore that has gone viral and been clicked on at least 8.5 million times.
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Jefferson City, Mo., Oct 13, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- The American cultural situation poses great challenges, but these can be overcome through a missionary renewal following Pope Francis’ proposed “culture of encounter,” said the apostolic nuncio to the U.S.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- More than 750 Catholics called on President Donald Trump and Congress to seek diplomatic solutions to defuse rising tensions between the United States and North Korea and to assure that the U.S. remains a party to the Iran nuclear deal.
Read moreLOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Colleges, hospitals and universities "are well-established" in the area of planned giving, but such programs are just as applicable to Catholic parishes, schools, dioceses and many other institutions, said one of the organizers of an upcoming national seminar in Los Angeles.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Trump administration Oct. 6 issued interim rules expanding the exemption to the contraceptive mandate for religious employers, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, who object on moral grounds to covering contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs and devices in their employee health insurance.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- There's little, if anything, that immigrant advocates like in the Trump administration's latest immigration plan. The 70-point Immigration Principles and Policies was sent to Congress Oct. 8. The wide-ranging document calls for a major tightening of immigration laws; raising the standard of proof for asylum seekers; and limiting family members of current immigrants who can enter the country.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' memo on religious freedom issued for all federal agencies and departments to follow "helpfully reaffirms that the law protects the freedom of faith-based organizations to conduct their operations in accordance with their religious mission," a U.S. archbishop said.
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DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNS) -- An Iowa District Court judge Oct. 2 upheld the state's 72-hour waiting period for abortions, signed into law in May by former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland had filed a petition for injunctive relief immediately after the bill was signed into law May 5, claiming that it would place an undue burden on patients, particularly low-income women who have to drive long distances for abortion services.
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IRVING, Texas (CNS) -- The leaders of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, which has its headquarters in the Dallas suburb of Irving, said they "accept and work with the new membership policy of the Boy Scouts of America" to admit girls.
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SANTA ROSA, Calif. (CNS) -- The Diocese of Santa Rosa "has been hit hard" and "is in an ongoing state of uncertainty" because of Northern California wildfires that began the night of Oct. 8, said Bishop Robert F. Vasa.
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CHICAGO (CNS) -- When the relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina -- commonly known as Padre Pio -- stopped at two Chicago churches, more than 19,000 people turned out to venerate them, organizers said. The relics, which included a lock of Padre Pio's hair, blood from his wounds, a glove used to cover his stigmatized hands and part of his religious habit, visited St. Francis Borgia Church Sept. 25 and St. Ita Church Sept. 26.
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CAGUAS, Puerto Rico (CNS) -- The only way a military veteran who works for the Diocese of Caguas could get a message out from Puerto Rico to contacts elsewhere illustrates conditions in Puerto Rico nearly three weeks after Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island Sept. 20.
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Washington D.C., Oct 9, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Two sets of announcements by the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services issued Friday both promise to broaden religious freedom protections in the United States.
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Washington D.C., Oct 6, 2017 CNA.- All eyes were on the Department of Health and Human Services on Friday, as the Trump administration announced a major broadening of exemptions to the federal contraception mandate, prompting cheers from religious freedom proponents nationwide.
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CNS) -- A new survey shows that almost six in 10 Americans, or 57 percent, believe that celebrating Columbus Day is a "good idea," while only 29 percent oppose the holiday. Almost two-thirds of respondents who said they were Catholic, or 65 percent, expressed a "favorable" or "very favorable" opinion of Columbus and the national holiday that honors him. Overall, the poll found that Americans support Columbus and the observance of Columbus Day by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Trump administration Oct. 6 issued interim rules expanding the exemption to the contraceptive mandate for religious employers, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, who object on moral grounds to covering contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs and devices in their employee health insurance.
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Oakland, Calif., Oct 4, 2017 CNA.- Whether he’s navigating a harrowing obstacle course in front of the camera or doing behind-the-scenes content editing for an evangelization website, Sean Bryan wants people to know that he is proud to be Catholic.
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Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- All life is valuable – especially those who are suffering, urged speakers at a recent pro-life program at Georgetown University on Monday. Their lives deserve care and accompaniment, even in the most trying of times, the experts said.
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Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- German pharmaceutical company Bayer announced recently that it has suspended from all non-US sales the Essure coil, a controversial form of birth control which has received the strictest possible FDA warning for its side effects, which include chronic pain, bleeding, and severe allergic reactions.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Clarence Gilyard, the actor most known for co-starring intheTV hits "Walker, Texas Ranger" and "Matlock" andwhonow teaches acting in Las Vegas, said the deadly mass shooting at the outdoor country music festival Oct. 1 left a "palpable emotional weight" on the city and its Catholic community.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer -- a white stucco church just off the Las Vegas Strip and dwarfed by giant hotels, casinos and flashing neon lights -- has long been a spiritual oasis for tourists.
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Denver, Colo., Oct 4, 2017 CNA.- The power of Christian beauty and human encounter will be the focus of a leading Communion and Liberation priest as he holds a roundtable discussion and speaking tour of North America this Oct. 9-15.
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Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Three years ago, J.J. Hanson received a diagnosis that no one wants to hear. He had terminal brain cancer, and doctors said his time was short – he likely had about four months to live.
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Washington D.C., Oct 3, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- The U.S. House passed on Tuesday a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of gestation in a largely party-line vote. The measure is a major pro-life legislative priority, but it is expected to fail in the Senate.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. House Oct. 3 passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which bans abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, about the time doctors have determined that an unborn child can feel pain.
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard professor of law and former U.S. ambassador, has been named the 2018 recipient of the Evangelium Vitae Medal bestowed by the University of Notre Dame's Center for Ethics and Culture.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Stories from the lived experience of the speakers took the place of policy discussions during Georgetown University's first "Lives Worthy of Respect" conference Oct. 2. The mass killings in Las Vegas the evening before cast a pall over the event, which took place in the Dahlgren Chapel on campus and was sponsored by the university's Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. It was held to coincide with the opening of the fall Supreme Court session.
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ALTOONA, Pa. (CNS) -- A self-described "bratty teenager," always thinking about "me -- what I want," 18-year-old Jennifer Pellegrine of Altoona was blown away when, as an exchange student, she met Chiara Corbella of Rome in 2001.
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Washington D.C., Oct 3, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- During the annual Red Mass marking a new term of the U.S. Supreme Court, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles said that early American missionaries should be honored among the founding fathers of the United States.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, and named as his successor Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger, who has headed the Diocese of Salina, Kansas, since 2012.
Read moreLAS VEGAS (CNS) -- At an emotional interfaith prayer service at Guardian Angel Cathedral, Las Vegas Bishop Joseph A. Pepe told those filling the pews Oct. 2 that "in the face of tragedy we need each other."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Students at St. Viator Parish School in Las Vegas began school Oct. 2 -- hours after the mass shooting in that city -- by praying the rosary together in the school gym. The school is just three miles east of the Las Vegas Strip, the location of most of the city's largest hotels and casinos, and the site of the Oct. 1 mass shooting at a musical festival that left 59 people dead, including the shooter, and wounded more than 500.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Forty Catholic institutions, including the Belgian bishops' conference and a leading church social welfare agency in South Africa, have decided to divest from fossil fuel companies.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez on Oct. 1 asked the Supreme Court justices, government officials, lawyers and other members of the judiciary gathered at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington to renew a commitment to a government that "serves the human person."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The nation has experienced "yet another night filled with unspeakable terror," and "we need to pray and to take care of those who are suffering," said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s support of nonviolence to bring about social change applies as much to today's society as it did when Rev. King put his philosophy to paper 60 years ago, said speakers at an Oct. 2 news conference at the memorial dedicated to the civil rights figure in Washington.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- Saying he was speaking "on behalf of our country and the children whose lives are at stake," Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York Sept. 29 urged members of the U.S. House to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- A statewide task force made up of Catholic and other officials has been formed in Maryland to work for better race relations and "to address the sin of racism that continues to be a divisive force in our country," the Archdiocese of Baltimore said in a Sept. 27 news release.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Three and a half months after he was shot during an early morning baseball practice, Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise, the House majority whip, received thunderous applause and standing ovations from the House floor Sept. 28 where he attributed his recovery to the power of prayer.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Lawmakers in Washington were urged to approve a bill introduced in Congress to ensure the fair and equal treatment for houses of worship damaged in natural disasters "by enabling them to seek aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With the Supreme Court's new term starting Oct. 2, one person equipped to comment on it -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- hesitated to say too much but hinted that it would be interesting.
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Washington D.C., Sep 28, 2017 CNA.- With the future uncertain for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors, three Republican Senators say they have a proposal to allow for permanent residency and potential citizenship.
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Washington D.C., Sep 27, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Shortly after Donald Trump assumed the office of President of the United States, witches across the country began large-scale efforts to cast binding spells on him.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) -- Jenni and Joe Amschler recall the birth of their baby boy with love and awe. "I fell in love with him as soon as he was put on my chest," said Jenni. "It was an instant bond."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- More than a week after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, much of the island remained without communication and in desperate need of humanitarian aid. News programs have been broadcasting about long lines of travelers, who have little food or water, and are desperate to get off the island at the San Juan airport to no avail.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A prayer here, a share on social media there, a voice of support in a letter to the editor, even a get-to-know-others potluck. Supporting refugees and migrants can take many forms, and Pope Francis is hoping Catholics around the world will act over the next two years to encounter people on the move.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic Charities USA has sent $1 million in emergency aid to Caritas Puerto Rico, the Catholic Charities agency on the island, and the Knights of Columbus is including Puerto Rico in its expanded emergency relief outreach to areas hit hard by recent natural disasters.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Our Lady of Fatima's message about prayer, conversion and peace that she imparted to three shepherd children in a field in Portugal "is as important now as it has ever been since" she appeared a century ago, a Connecticut bishop told Massgoers Sept. 23 in Washington.
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Portland, Maine, Sep 25, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- A lawsuit seeking to challenge a Maine law allowing only doctors to perform abortions has drawn criticism from pro-life advocates who warned it could endanger women’s health and safety.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Respect Life Month is observed every October by the church in the United States, beginning with Respect Life Sunday, which takes place this year Oct. 1. These events kick off the 2017-18 Respect Life Program.
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NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan suggested to more than 400 priests of the state of Louisiana that humbly and openly sharing the "wounds" and shortcomings of the church might bring those who are alienated back to the practice of the faith.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (CNS) -- If the martyrdom of Blessed Stanley Francis Rother "fills us with sadness," it also "gives us the joy of admiring the kindness, generosity and courage of a great man of faith," Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, said Sept. 23 in Oklahoma City.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It took a couple of days for Jesuit Father Flavio Bravo to venture out and survey the devastation of Hurricane Maria, with its torrential rain and winds of 155 miles per hour, inflicted for hours on the island of Puerto Rico.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The latest version of a Republican measure in the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act must be amended to protect poor and vulnerable Americans, said the chairmen of four U.S. bishops' committees.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The title of the 1969 film comedy "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" sparked an ongoing series of parodies that continues to this day. The latest version: If it's Congress, this must be health care.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Authorities say it may take months for electricity to fully return to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria pummeled the island and its infrastructure as it made landfall Sept. 20. When the hurricane hit the island with winds of up to 155 miles per hour, it tore out cables, roofs from homes and buildings, uprooted palm trees and even bent a cross anchored to a cement post at the entrance of a Jesuit school.
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Oklahoma City, Okla. (CNA/EWTN News) -- When Father Stanley Rother, a missionary priest from Okarche, Oklahoma, was killed by rebels in Guatemala, his body was transferred back to the United States to be buried by his family.
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