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CNA Staff, Feb 27, 2025 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night temporarily paused an order from a lower court directing the White House to pay out roughly $2 billion in foreign aid grants to nonprofit organizations.

The Department of Justice had filed an appeal with the ??U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday night after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the administration to make payments to grantees by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. 

The Trump administration had frozen the funding as part of an extensive series of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump last month. Numerous Catholic entities have been affected by the freeze, though the Church was not involved with the suit at issue on Wednesday night.

The administration argued that Ali's order forced the government to "pay arbitrarily determined expenses on a timeline of the district court's choosing." It further claimed the court "create[d] a payment plan" that was contrary to the president's obligations under Article II of the Constitution and the principles of "federal sovereign immunity."

In its petition to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the Justice Department noted that the appeals court had not yet responded to the filing by late afternoon, leading the Trump administration to petition the high court "in light of that extraordinary circumstance."

Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday night subsequently issued an order that the district court's ruling was "hereby stayed" pending a further order. "Any response" from the nonprofits suing the Trump administration would have to be filed by Friday at noon, the chief justice said. 

The dispute before the high court is one of several legal challenges that have arisen after Trump issued numerous executive orders after taking office last month, including one that paused all foreign aid grants for 90 days. 

Trump's Jan. 20 executive order said the "United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy" are not aligned with American interests and "serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries."

The funding freeze touched off a flurry of lawsuits from nonprofits and aid groups who said the White House had engaged in an overreach of its executive power. The groups further said the lack of funding would wreak havoc on vulnerable populations, including refugees and those in undeveloped countries. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sued the Trump administration earlier this month over what the bishops said was an unlawful suspension of funding for refugee resettlement and aid programs. A federal judge last week denied the bishops' request to block that freeze.

Several faith-based refugee services brought forward a similar lawsuit against the Trump administration earlier this month over its suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. A federal judge in Seattle this week blocked that order, claiming the Trump administration had exceeded its authority in issuing it.

In further challenges to Trump's executive orders, numerous religious groups have filed suit against the administration over its policy to allow broad immigration enforcement at houses of worship. Immigration officials were previously constrained from arresting illegal immigrants at churches under Biden-era guidelines. 

A federal judge earlier this week ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in one of those lawsuits, blocking suspected illegal immigrant arrests at some religious sites while the lawsuit plays out in federal court. 

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Vatican City, Feb 27, 2025 / 06:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis spent another restful night at Rome's Gemelli Hospital after being admitted on Friday, Feb. 14, to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis.

Follow here for the latest news on Pope Francis' health and hospitalization:

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CNA Newsroom, Feb 27, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis slept well overnight and his condition continues to improve as he undergoes treatment for a complex respiratory infection at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican announced Thursday morning.

The 88-year-old pontiff continues oxygen therapy "with high flow rates" and has begun physiotherapy treatment for his respiratory passages.

While the pope's condition shows signs of improvement, Vatican officials emphasized that "the prognosis remains cautious" as his hospitalization extends into its 13th day.

Pope's consolation to grieving mother

The Vatican, meanwhile, has revealed a moving letter the Holy Father wrote shortly before his hospitalization.

In the letter, set to appear in the monthly magazine Piazza San Pietro, Pope Francis responded to a grieving Roman mother who lost her 21-year-old son.

"Jesus, who weeps with us, will sow in our hearts all the answers we seek," the pope wrote to Cinzia, whose son Fabrizio went out one evening in October 2019 and never returned home.

Meanwhile, the prayer vigils for the pontiff's recovery continue.

According to a Thursday announcement from the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the holy rosary will be prayed again this evening at 9 p.m. in St. Peter's Square, with Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general for the Diocese of Rome, presiding over the prayer service.

The Vatican also confirmed that "due to the pope's continued hospitalization, the jubilee audience scheduled for Saturday, March 1, has been canceled."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 27, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Faith & Reason Institute, the first Washington, D.C.-based think tank devoted to encouraging both of these essential elements of human existence. 

The institute, which got its name from St. John Paul II's 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio, addresses issues of economics, politics, public policy, science, and technology, among others, from the perspective of both faith and reason. 

"I thought there needed to be a more explicit emphasis on both faith and reason here in Washington and elsewhere," the institute's president, Robert Royal, told CNA in an interview ahead of the organization's recent gala celebrating its milestone anniversary.

Reflecting on the institute's beginnings, Royal recalled his father telling him: "'Are you sure this is going to work?' And I [told him], 'Well, there isn't an overabundance of faith or reason in Washington, so it's a growth industry, I think I'll do OK.' And 25 years later, we're still here."

Range of activities

Among the institute's projects are its Fides et Ratio Seminars, in which Catholic academics are invited to gather to read and discuss Catholic books. The recurring seminars, according to Royal, help to fill a gap that was missing among Catholic academics.

"A lot of times when I go to donors about that, they would say, 'Well, don't these guys already get that in their departments?'" Royal said. "And the truth is no, because a lot of professors, they just come in to get their mail [and] teach their courses. Maybe there's a departmental meeting, but to sit down with like-minded Catholic academics and to talk about Catholic stuff was something that we found was really quite something."

Another seminar provided by the institute is the Free Society Seminar, geared toward students and young professionals. These seminars, hosted in Slovakia, attract American and European Catholics to learn about Catholic moral theology and its intersection with political theory.

These seminars, according to Royal, teach students about the threats to free society, such as communism and humanism. He said there is "no longer any living memory" of communism among young students, "so we've had to revise the curriculum there and talk a bit more about these kinds of things." 

In 2008, the Faith & Reason Institute also launched The Catholic Thing, which offers a steady stream of thought pieces on various contemporary issues. The blog features dozens of engaging Catholic writers, and each piece is edited by Royal. 

The Catholic Thing also provides online courses on theology that can be purchased. The subjects of the courses include Christology, the doctrines of the Trinity, and lessons on important works of Catholic literature such as St. Augustine's "City of God" and Dante Alighieri's "Inferno."

Spotlighting the Catholic intellectual tradition

The Faith & Reason Institute seeks to reflect the core of St. John Paul II's 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio, which emphasizes the need for both faith and reason within theology, both of which he stated "stand in harmony" with each other.

"Deprived of what revelation offers, reason has taken side-tracks which expose it to the danger of losing sight of its final goal," the pontiff wrote. "Deprived of reason, faith has stressed feeling and experience and so run the risk of no longer being a universal proposition."

"It is an illusion to think that faith, tied to weak reasoning, might be more penetrating; on the contrary, faith then runs the grave risk of withering into myth or superstition," John Paul II wrote. "By the same token, reason which is unrelated to an adult faith is not prompted to turn its gaze to the newness and radicality of being."

The late sainted pontiff, who held doctorates in both philosophy and sacred theology, was building on a long Catholic intellectual tradition that embraces both faith and reason as two ways of knowing that work best, as the institute sees it, "when they mutually challenge one another to look farther, to probe more deeply, in quest of truth."

"The faith — as we can demonstrate from Catholic history — the faith really needs reason [and] it really needs philosophy," Royal said.

Royal pointed to second-century Christianity in which St. Justin Martyr, one of the patron saints of philosophers, wrote open letters to the Roman Senate that defended the faith and argued against the persecution of Christians. Justin, who was educated in Platonist philosophy, was a convert to Christianity.

According to Royal, Justin "was a philosopher and tried to argue the truth of Christianity with [the Roman government]." Because of his philosophical background, "Platonism [came] very strongly into the Church" with his writings and others after him, such as Augustine.

Aristotlean thought, which focuses on "the real tools of logical analysis and rational consistency," Royal said, developed in the middle ages. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the 1200s, "balances both the Platonic and the Aristotelian lines in the Church," which set the foundations for a lot of Catholic philosophical thought today.

As it marks its anniversary, Royal told CNA that the Faith & Reason Institute continues to seek new ways to engage citizens and institutions alike, and introduce better ideas of faith and reason to the culture as a whole.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

More local Catholic Charities agencies across the country have been forced this week to lay off employees and shut down programs as a result of the federal aid funding freeze enacted last month by the Trump administration.

Catholic Charities in Florida, Texas, and Kansas spoke out this week about how the funding freeze has impacted both program-specific and agency-wide efforts. 

Since President Donald Trump issued a directive halting all foreign aid for a 90-day review, federal funding has been blocked for Catholic Charities programs across the U.S., affecting migrant and refugee service programs especially.

Texas Catholic Charities announces closure of refugee program

Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle announced Monday it had made the decision "with a heavy heart" that it would indefinitely suspend its Refugee Resettlement Program. 

"Catholic Charities has proudly helped resettle refugees legally authorized to settle here by the U.S. State Department since the mid-'70s," the organization stated in a press release, according to local news reports. "We offer our sincerest gratitude to the organizations and individuals who have partnered with us to provide this ministry over the past 50 years."

"We ask our community partners to assist our team and our clients during this difficult time of transition," the organization added, further noting that it would be moving the program's staff into other departments within the agency.

Catholic Charities Jacksonville lays off 26

Similarly, Catholic Charities Jacksonville said on Wednesday it had laid off 26 employees of the Florida agency's refugee program after the funding freeze resulted in its office not receiving reimbursement for services it had already provided in November, according to a local report. 

The agency was supposed to receive over $600,000 in federal funding for the program. 

The agency's chief executive officer, Anita Hassell, stated in the report that the organization was forced to let employees go without severance following the executive order. 

Now, the Catholic Charities agency is seeking to compensate for the funding freeze by appealing to donors.

"What we have done for each of the programs that we have [is] we have left someone who will be able to pick [up] the loose ends, and we have been appealing to our donors and talking to foundations to see if we can receive money for direct assistance so we can continue providing them with what they need," Hassel stated in the report.

Catholic Charities in Kansas issues 'urgent call for support' 

Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas issued an "urgent call for support" after the federal government blocked reimbursements it was contracted to receive for its migrant relief program, resulting in an agency-wide financial crisis. 

"In recent weeks, our community and nation have faced unprecedented challenges due to new executive orders impacting the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and foreign aid," Executive Director Debbie Snapp stated in a letter addressed to supporters of the organization. "The freezing of crucial funds poses a critical threat to Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas and our ability to continue serving those in need."

Snapp told CNA in an interview that the agency had expected to receive close to $500,000 in reimbursements from both organizations combined for December and January. 

"I find it really disappointing because we have had really good partnerships with our federal funding partners," she said. "That whole idea of a public-private partnership has worked really well in our communities."

Snapp explained that the small agency in southwest Kansas runs "pretty tight margins." So when funding for its migrant program was blocked, the agency was forced to use other undesignated funds, as well as donor funds, to pay its bills. 

As a result, Snapp said, operations across the agency are affected: "The things that we would do, like emergency assistance, some rental assistance, paying utility bills, we're not able to do that for anybody in the community right now."

"I had a gentleman that was in my office last Tuesday," she recalled. "He just completed a treatment program, and he needed a halfway house. He had a small rent payment to make at the halfway house."

"We had to tell him no because we don't have the funds to pay that because we're just trying to pay the bills that we have every month," she said. The agency is now scrambling to come up with ways to provide rental aid as the first of the month approaches. 

While the agency anticipated it would have to make changes to the services it would provide for migrants under the Trump administration, Snapp said the agency was not prepared for an abrupt freeze, having received roughly 70 migrants in the 30 days leading up to the inauguration. 

"We had been provided some assurances that we were going to have administrative funding for the rest of the fiscal year to the end of September so that we would be able to wind down those programs and meet our obligations, particularly to the new arrivals that just came the 30 days before the freeze happened," she stated. 

According to Snapp, the agency plans to continue providing migrant services, including job assistance and English language classes, "because we are hopeful that if the funding freeze is ended and we have those funds that we're still able to provide people with services." In the past year, she said, the agency has served approximately 1,500 people. 

As CNA reported last week, local Catholic Charities agencies in Dallas; Syracuse, New York; and Santa Rosa, California, were also forced to lay off employees and scale back program operations on account of the freeze.

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Vatican City, Feb 27, 2025 / 06:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis spent another restful night at Rome's Gemelli Hospital after being admitted on Friday, Feb. 14, to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis.

Follow here for the latest news on Pope Francis' health and hospitalization:

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ACI Africa, Feb 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Fear has gripped the Nazaré Training Center in Mozambique's Archdiocese of Beira following a Sunday, Feb. 23, attack that left two priests and a religious brother at the facility injured.

The Conference of Religious Institutes of Mozambique told Catholic pontifical and charity foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International that a group of men armed with pistols, machetes, and irons entered the institution in the early hours of Feb. 23, violently attacking three missionaries who were there.

According to a Feb. 25 ACN report, the conference "expressed its concern about the insecurity" in the southern African nation following the attack and appealed for prayers for peace in the country.

ACN reported that the two priests and brother were "tied up and tortured by the bandits" at the institution, which engages in various activities, including formation courses for the Mozambican archdiocese.

Fortunately, according to the report, all three men "are out of danger" and suffered only "minor pain and injuries."

One of the victims, Father Timothée Bationo, is a priest from Burkina Faso who celebrated two decades of priesthood in December 2024 and is currently the episcopal vicar for consecrated life of the Archdiocese of Beira. He is responsible for the Nazaré Training Centre.

ACN said the attack on the Catholic institution occurred at a sensitive moment in the political life of the Portuguese-speaking African nation, which has been wreaked by political upheaval following a contested presidential election. 

Mozambique, ACN said, also continues to suffer from attacks by the Al Shahab militants, especially in the country's northern province of Cabo Delgado.

In its report, ACN quotes one of the victims as saying that the robbery incident was being handled by security officials, who he said are yet to provide details about the robbers, including their identity and what they might have stolen. 

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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CNA Newsroom, Feb 27, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis slept well overnight and his condition continues to improve as he undergoes treatment for a complex respiratory infection at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican announced Thursday morning.

The 88-year-old pontiff continues oxygen therapy "with high flow rates" and has begun physiotherapy treatment for his respiratory passages.

While the pope's condition shows signs of improvement, Vatican officials emphasized that "the prognosis remains cautious" as his hospitalization extends into its thirteenth day.

Pope's consolation to grieving mother

The Vatican, meanwhile, has revealed a moving letter the Holy Father wrote shortly before his hospitalization.

In the letter, set to appear in the monthly magazine "Piazza San Pietro," Pope Francis responded to a grieving Roman mother who lost her 21-year-old son.

"Jesus, who weeps with us, will sow in our hearts all the answers we seek," the pope wrote to Cinzia, whose son Fabrizio went out one evening in October 2019 and never returned home.

Meanwhile, the prayer vigils for the pontiff's recovery continue.

According to a Thursday announcement from the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the Holy Rosary will be prayed again this evening at 9:00 p.m. in St. Peter's Square, with Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, presiding over the prayer service.

The Vatican also confirmed that "due to the pope's continued hospitalization, the Jubilee audience scheduled for Saturday, March 1, has been canceled."

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Madrid, Spain, Feb 26, 2025 / 18:07 pm (CNA).

The Poor Clare abbess of the Monastery of Santo Cristo de Balaguer in Lérida province in northeast Spain is criticizing a 2018 rule established by Pope Francis that dissolves communities of women religious with fewer than five nuns, a rule that does not apply to male communities.

Sister María Victoria Triviño, OSC, made her critique in an article published by the magazine Catalunya Cristiana regarding the recent closure of the Monastery of Santa María de Pedralbes in Barcelona that had been in existence for 700 years.

Asked about the reason for the closure, "which people, hurt and perplexed, address to some of the Poor Clares every day," the nun explained that the Holy Father published the apostolic constitution Vultum Dei Quaerere in 2016 but emphasized that the document "did not affect monks."

Similarly, regarding the Cor Orans instruction, published in 2018 to implement Vultum Dei Quaerere, the Poor Clare nun pointed out that "it affects women's monasteries around the world, not men's."

This instruction establishes that "if a monastery has only five nuns, it loses its autonomy and must be affiliated with another monastery." Furthermore, if it falls below that number, it must be abolished, according to Triviño.

In such a case, an apostolic visitor is appointed who, if he issues a negative report to the Roman Curia, "the transfer of the sisters is ordered" and the building is closed.

In the opinion of the abbess, this rule "which in normal circumstances may be opportune, in a difficult time of a vocations crisis, a crisis of values, economic crisis, etc., has had an effect of the confiscation of Church property by the Church itself."

In her dissertation, the abbess noted that, just as the habit of the Poor Clares can be adapted "according to the cold regions" as stated in their rule, "each monastery acquires peculiarities 'according to the region' in which it lives."

"If the closure of a monastery always means the loss of its production of liturgical items, of the intercessory influence on the city, the loss of a presence that bears witness [in an environment], so often secular, to the fact that 'God exists and makes us happy,' to all this we must add distinctive characteristics such as the artistic legacy, the cultural, musical, artisanal influence, etc. After all this, there will always be regret for desacralizing a sacred place," she noted.

In this regard, the abbess also lamented the closure of other monasteries such as that of the Holy Trinity in Valencia (founded in 1242), the Monastery of St. Clare la Real in Toledo (founded in 1254), or the Monastery of St. Clare in Salamanca, founded by St. Clare of Assisi in 1238.

The abbess concluded that "much has already been lost. And only [by the intervention of] the Roman Dicastery for [Institutes of] Consecrated Life [and Societies of Apostolic Life] can we avoid further loss. How? By attenuating the instructions given for all women's monasteries."

In her opinion, it should be the nuns who "when the time comes, can take the options of continuing or closing according to their real situation, like men's monasteries, for which no limits are set."

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Vatican City, Feb 26, 2025 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis' mild early-stage kidney insufficiency "subsided" on Wednesday, according to the Vatican.      

"The Holy Father's clinical condition over the past 24 hours has shown further slight improvement," the Holy See Press Office stated. "The mild renal insufficiency noted in recent days has receded."

Despite the improvement, the latest medical report stated the pope's "prognosis remains reserved." 

The 88-year-old pontiff had a chest CT scan Tuesday evening that showed a "normal evolution" of lung inflammation caused by pneumonia.

Blood tests taken Wednesday confirmed the pope, though fragile, is showing signs of recovery. 

"Today's hematochemical and hemacrocytometric examinations confirmed yesterday's improvement," the Vatican's evening statement said.

The pope did not experience an "asthmatic respiratory crisis" on his 12th day of treatment in Gemelli Hospital but continues to undergo "high-flow oxygen therapy" and respiratory physiotherapy to treat his pneumonia.

"During the morning, the Holy Father received the Eucharist. The afternoon was devoted to work activities," the Vatican report concluded.

Though the Holy Father met with Vatican officials at Gemelli Hospital earlier this week — including Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Secretariat of State — the pontiff has not received any visitors today, the Vatican said.

In Rome, parishes and religious communities continue to offer Masses and prayers for Pope Francis, his health, and the leadership of the Church while the pontiff remains in the hospital for ongoing medical treatment. 

Since Monday, the Diocese of Rome and the Roman Curia have collaborated to organize nightly prayer events open to the public in St. Peter's Square to pray for the pope's recovery.  

Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, will lead Wednesday evening's rosary.

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