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Rome Newsroom, Mar 8, 2025 / 06:45 am (CNA).

As Pope Francis continues to receive treatment at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, and his condition remains stable, the pontiff remains involved with Church affairs.

On Saturday, Pope Francis addressed pilgrims of the Movement for Life in a statement issued from his hospital room, which Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, delivered during a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica on Mar. 8.

In his message, the 88-year-old pontiff thanked the pro-life pilgrims on their organization's 50th anniversary, praising their concrete support for mothers experiencing difficult pregnancies.

Pope Francis encouraged the Movement for Life to continue their mission, noting that "there is still and more than ever a need for people of all ages who concretely dedicate themselves to the service of human life, especially when it is most fragile and vulnerable; because it is sacred, created by God for a great and beautiful destiny."

Medical staff continue to provide Pope Francis with "high-flow oxygenation" via nasal cannulas during daytime hours while he uses "non-invasive mechanical ventilation" overnight to support his breathing. "The night passed quietly; the pope is resting," read the brief Vatican update issued on Saturday morning.

Vatican officials confirmed the pope will again not publicly appear for the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer. Instead, as has been done in recent weeks, his reflection's text will be published.

Similarly, the homily for the pope at Sunday's Mass for the Jubilee of Volunteers will be read by Cardinal Michael Czerny, who will also lead the rosary in St. Peter's Square at 9 p.m. local time on Saturday, gathering the faithful to pray for the Holy Father.

After a heartfelt audio message from the pope was played in St. Peter's Square on Thursday evening, Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni explained it was Francis' desire to record and play the greeting to thank everyone who is praying for him.

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Vatican City, Mar 7, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has expressed its solidarity with Muslims participating in the Ramadan fast, noting that Catholics also fast and do penance during the season of Lent and inviting greater dialogue and friendship between people of the two religions.

"Our world is thirsting for fraternity and genuine dialogue," a March 7 message from the Vatican's Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue said. "Together, Muslims and Christians can bear witness to this hope in the conviction that friendship is possible despite the burden of history and ideologies that promote exclusion."

"Hope," it continued, "is no mere optimism: It is a virtue rooted in faith in God, the Merciful, our Creator."

In 2025, Ramadan runs from approximately Feb. 28 to March 29. It concludes with the three-day celebration of Eid al-Fitr.

The Christian season of Lent began on March 5 and will end on April 17 with the three days known as the Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday — followed by Easter Sunday.

"This year, Ramadan largely coincides with Lent, which for Christians is a period of fasting, supplication, and conversion to Christ," the dicastery said. "This proximity in the spiritual calendar offers us a unique opportunity to walk side by side, Christians and Muslims, in a common process of purification, prayer, and charity."

The Vatican's annual message for Ramadan was signed by the dicastery's new prefect, Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, and its secretary, Father Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage.

Pope Francis appointed Koovakad prefect of the dicastery at the end of January, filling the vacancy left by Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, who died in late 2024.

An Indian from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Koovakad was previously responsible for the organization of papal trips.

In its message, the interreligious dicastery noted similarities between the Muslim observance of Ramadan and the Catholic observance of Lent.

"By abstaining from food and drink, Muslims learn to control their desires and turn to what is essential. This time of spiritual discipline is an invitation to cultivate piety, the virtue that brings one closer to God and opens the heart to others," it said. 

"In the Christian tradition, the holy season of Lent invites us to follow a similar path: Through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving we seek to purify our hearts and refocus on the One who guides and directs our lives," it went on. "These spiritual practices, though expressed differently, remind us that faith is not merely about outward expressions but a path of inner conversion."

The dicastery said it wanted to reflect on how Christians and Muslims can become "genuine brothers and sisters, bearing common witness to God's friendship with all humanity."

"Our trust in God," Koovakad's message underlined, "is a treasure that unites us, far beyond our differences. It reminds us that we are all spiritual, incarnate, beloved creatures, called to live in dignity and mutual respect."

"What is more, we desire to become guardians of this sacred dignity by rejecting all forms of violence, discrimination, and exclusion," the dicastery continued. "This year, as our two spiritual traditions converge in celebrating Ramadan and Lent, we have a unique opportunity to show the world that faith transforms people and societies and that it is a force for unity and reconciliation."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 7, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

A South Carolina death row inmate is scheduled to die by firing squad on Friday and executions are set to resume in Tennessee with a newly approved lethal injection drug, with both executions coming as states move away from a long-used three-drug lethal injection combination.

At 6 p.m. on Friday, March 7, a firing squad will kill 67-year-old Brad Keith Sigmon, a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents in 2001. He chose the firing squad method because he was worried about possible complications with other methods.

Beginning in the 1980s, execution by lethal injection has become the primary method for executions in most states that have the death penalty. 

Lethal injections have historically been carried out in three steps: one drug to make the victim unconscious, a second to paralyze the body, and a third to stop the heart, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

But amid public pressure from opponents of the death penalty and moral qualms about taking human lives, many drug manufacturers stopped providing the medicine needed to carry out the lethal injections. In recent years many states have begun facing a shortage of drugs and an inability to obtain them.

Without access to those drugs, the states in which the death penalty is still practiced are moving to other forms of execution.

For example, in January of last year, Alabama became the first state to execute a man by forcing him to inhale nitrogen until he died. In a news conference, the spiritual adviser for Kenneth Eugene Smith — the convicted murderer who was executed — said Smith visibly struggled for his life for several minutes before dying and called the execution "torturous." 

"We saw minutes of someone heaving back and forth, we saw spit, we saw all sorts of stuff from his mouth develop on the mask, we saw this mask tied to the gurney and him ripping his head forward over and over and over again," Rev. Jeff Hood said. 

Alabama has executed three additional prisoners using nitrogen gas. Louisiana, which has only executed one person since 2002, is set to become the second state to use this method. Jessie Hoffman, a convicted murderer and rapist, is scheduled to die by inhaling nitrogen gas later this month.

South Carolina, meanwhile, has reintroduced the more antiquated execution methods of the electric chair and firing squads. Amid drug shortages for lethal injection and legal challenges against the new methods, executions were paused for about 13 years but resumed in 2024. 

Tennessee, which has not executed any inmates for five years, will now begin executions with a single-drug injection. The first execution is scheduled for May.

Firing squad execution set for Friday

South Carolina on Friday will perform the first execution by firing squad in the United States since 2010, when Utah executed convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner with this method. At the time, this method of execution was rare. It has only been used three times in the country since 1977 but is still permitted in five states.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, expressed concern about South Carolina executing people with firing squads, issuing a statement asking: "How did we get here?"

"How does our society think this inhumanity is somehow acceptable?" Murphy said. "The reality is, those are the questions we should ask ourselves each time there is an execution, because the death penalty is contrary to human dignity and an affront to the sanctity of life."

"The outrage we feel toward these execution methods is a reminder that over time, the system of capital punishment has become all the more deceptive to make executions appear more palatable, sterile, and 'humane,'" she added. "But executions are never any of these things."

Executions by firing squad could become more commonplace in Idaho as well. Although the method is legal under state law, it is not the primary form of execution. Lawmakers passed a bill to change that, making firing squads the primary method of execution. The legislation awaits action by the governor. 

Executions resume in Tennessee

Tennessee paused all executions from 1960 through 2000, though it executed just over a dozen people between 2000 and 2020.

The state paused executions during the COVID-19 pandemic and then extended that pause until 2025 to review execution methods. That will end on May 22, when convicted murderer Oscar Smith is scheduled to be executed. Three additional inmates will be executed later this year. 

Rick Musacchio, the executive director of the Tennessee Catholic Conference — which represents the bishops of the three dioceses in the state — told CNA that the state's bishops have expressed their concerns about the death penalty with Gov. Bill Lee. The conference and the bishops met with the governor last week.

"We addressed life issues with the understanding that the pause on the death penalty for the review of protocols might be ending," he said. "We reminded him that although the review of protocols had been completed there are still questions about the appropriateness of the state's plans for carrying out executions. He said that he expected that legal challenges to executions would likely continue."

Musacchio told CNA that "just as we recognize the human dignity that the unborn have as children of God, we also recognize that even those convicted of committing terrible crimes [are] also his children."

"The death penalty is simply not necessary to protect the people of Tennessee," he said.

Murphy, meanwhile, told CNA that the return of the death penalty to Tennessee is "disheartening."

"For years, national trends of public opinion have been steadily moving away from capital punishment," she said. "Now we need state leadership to follow suit. We need bold leadership toward a vision of justice that prioritizes the dignity of every person, no matter the harm one has caused or suffered."

Murphy referenced Pope Francis' opposition to the death penalty and cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which holds that the death penalty "is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" (No. 2267).

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Vatican City, Mar 7, 2025 / 09:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Friday, Feb. 14, to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis.

Follow here for the latest news on his health and hospitalization:

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Vatican City, Mar 7, 2025 / 09:50 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed a NASA geophysicist, a Harvard genetics professor, and a Chinese embryonic development researcher among five new members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican announced Friday. 

The new appointees include Maria Zuber, an American planetary scientist involved in multiple NASA missions; Olivier Pourquié, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School; and Meng Anming, a Chinese developmental biologist specializing in embryonic research.  

Also joining the academy are Chilean molecular geneticist Luis Fernando Larrondo Castro and Mexican environmental scientist Cecilia Tortajada. 

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences brings together leading international experts to promote scientific progress and interdisciplinary research. Members participate in study groups and Vatican-hosted meetings to examine key scientific and ethical issues. 

Meet the new members: 

Maria Zuber 

A geophysicist from Norristown, Pennsylvania, Zuber is the E.A. Griswold professor of geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a trustee of Brown University. She has contributed to more than half a dozen NASA planetary missions studying the moon, Mars, Mercury, and asteroids. In 2021, she was appointed co-chair of President Joe Biden's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. 

Meng Anming

A professor of developmental biology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Meng specializes in embryonic development, using zebra fish as a model for studying early growth processes. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Olivier Pourquié

A French-born geneticist, Pourquié is a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He previously directed the Institute for Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in France. In 2024, he co-authored a study on standardizing stem-cell-based embryo models.

Luis Fernando Larrondo Castro 

A professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Larrondo Castro has served as director of the Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio). His research focuses on fungal biological clocks and their role in physiology and host-pathogen interactions.

Cecilia Tortajada

An environmental scientist from Mexico, Tortajada specializes in water, environment, and natural resource management. She is a professor at the University of Glasgow's School of Social and Environmental Sustainability and an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore. She has advised global organizations, including the World Bank and the United Nations.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron during his visit to the nation's capital this week to attend President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress called on Catholic politicians to bring their faith into the public square.

"EWTN News Nightly" Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales sat down with Barron for an interview before the bishop celebrated Mass in the Capitol for lawmakers on March 4 ahead of the address. 

Barron, the founder of the nonprofit global media apostolate Word on Fire, shared with EWTN his message to Catholics serving in Congress: "Don't leave your faith at the door."

"We don't impose the faith. [Pope] John Paul [II] always said, 'We don't impose, we propose.' But they should bring their faith into the public square," Barron continued.

"It's not the case that we're to sequester faith simply into the privacy of our conscience. No, it's a public reality, and it should inform the decisions that they make here," he said.

Barron is one of the most well-known American bishops with more than 1.8 million followers on his YouTube channel, where he discusses faith and culture, often touching on politics.

The bishop from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who serves as chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, was invited to the joint session of Congress by Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia. 

During the interview, Barron said he hoped to "just take in the beauty of the event." 

"I was graciously invited here by Rep. Moore from West Virginia. I'm a student of American history, and I've been watching these addresses for many years," he said.

"Just the chance to be in the chamber and to hear the president, see the whole government assemble. All that was attractive to me, so I accepted the invitation," Barron added.

Earlier this year, the media apostolate announced plans to establish a new order of Word on Fire priests. During the "EWTN News Nightly" interview, Rosales asked Barron what he hopes this order will bring to the Church. 

"I just think the needful thing today in the Church is this outreach to the unaffiliated," Barron responded. "I think it's the central problem we have, is the number, especially of young people, who are disaffiliating from the Church."

"A lot of my ministry has been focused on that — to appeal through truth and beauty, to bring the great tradition forward, and to try to draw people back to the Church," he said.

"What I didn't want was this ministry simply to end with me. I thought, I want it to go on after I'm gone. Could there be an order, I wondered, that would carry on this charism of using the media in an intelligent way, in a beautiful way, reaching out to the unaffiliated?" he said.

The interview wrapped up with a brief discussion of Pope Francis and the bishop's thoughts on the Holy Father's health battle.

"We've been praying for him for the last now almost three weeks he's been in the hospital. So it's been a pretty dicey time, and we've been following the news and accompanying him with our prayers," he said.

"Just praying for him and hoping that he can recover and get back to his mission," Barron concluded. 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 6, 2025 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Catholic bishops reiterated their support on Thursday for a bill to protect women's sports after the measure failed to pass the Senate in a procedural vote this week.

In a statement released by the bishops' conference, Bishop Robert Barron and Bishop David O'Connell called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act "commonsense legislation that would ensure fairness for female athletes."

The proposed legislation, which passed the House in January, would have prevented federally funded sports programs under Title IX from allowing male students to compete or participate in women's and girls' athletic programs.

Although a majority of senators backed the legislation on a 51-45 vote, the proposal received no support from Democrats and failed to reach the necessary three-fifths supermajority.

In a joint statement, the bishops said: "The teaching of the Catholic Church calls us to advocate for the equal dignity of men and women, recognizing that God created us male and female. This legislation would ensure a level playing field for women and girls to compete in fairness and safety with other females."

"An ideological promotion of personal identity, detached from biological reality, undermines human dignity and the role sports play in true educational formation."

Barron and O'Connell, who chair the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, and Committee on Catholic Education, respectively, stated their full support of the legislation in a January letter sent to Senators urging them to vote for the bill.

After the failed vote the bishops said: "We reiterate our long-standing support for this act and encourage female student athletes nationwide to continue to strive to uphold fairness and equality in athletic competitions."

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CNA Staff, Mar 6, 2025 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The National Eucharistic Congress announced this week the names of the eight Perpetual Pilgrims who will accompany the Eucharistic Jesus on a 3,300-mile walking pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles this summer, beginning in May.

The latest iteration of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, dubbed the Drexel Route, was announced in mid-February, while the biographies of the pilgrims were posted online this week. 

This year's pilgrimage is a continuation of last year's unprecedented four simultaneous Eucharistic pilgrimages, which started at the edges of the country and eventually converged in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024. 

The goal of the pilgrimages is to bear public witness to the truth that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. 

This year's Drexel Route will open with a Mass of Thanksgiving in Indianapolis on Sunday, May 18. The route then heads northwest through Illinois to Iowa before turning to the southwest and descending through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. From Texas the route continues roughly west through New Mexico, Arizona, and finally California.

Over a quarter of a million people across the country encountered the pilgrimages last summer, organizers said. As with last year, the small group of young adult Perpetual Pilgrims will accompany the Eucharist the entire way, while any person wishing to join for small portions of the route will be able to sign up to do so.

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage website includes biographies for each of the eight young Perpetual Pilgrims who will be walking the entire route with Jesus. 

Arthur "Ace" Acuña is originally from Las Vegas and graduated from Princeton University in 2023 with a degree in chemical and biological engineering. He works for the Aquinas Institute — Princeton's campus ministry — finding creative ways to share the joys of the Catholic faith with students. 

Stephen Fuhrmann is from Lindsay, Texas, and plans to graduate from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural business. He developed a deep love for Jesus in the Eucharist while in college. 

Johnathan "Johnny" Silvino Hernandez-Jose resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and helps run his family's construction company. He has a heart for service in his diocese, assisting with confirmation, young adult groups, and a ministry for the Hispanic community. 

Cheyenne Johnson is originally from Lakeland, Florida, and currently lives in Indianapolis, where she serves as the director of Catholic campus ministry at Butler University. She is a convert to Catholicism. 

Leslie Reyes-Hernandez is from Phoenix, originally from Illinois, and teaches freshman algebra at a public high school. She encountered Christ's love through the Eucharist in college and serves in college ministry at the Grand Canyon University Newman Center. 

Rachel Levy grew up in small-town Indiana and graduated from Indiana University with a degree in marketing before transitioning to full-time ministry. She currently serves the Office of Young Adult and College Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, accompanying young adults in their faith journey. 

Frances Webber, originally from Virginia but currently living in Minnesota, is a senior in college studying theology and business. She works for the Center for Catholic Social Thought and is involved with Saint Paul's Outreach. 

Charlie McCullough, a recent Texas A&M graduate, is the only 2025 pilgrim who is a returner from last year. In 2024 he completed the southern Juan Diego Route, which began in Brownsville, Texas; this year he will serve as team leader for the Drexel Route. 

Speaking to CNA last year ahead of the first round of pilgrimages, McCullough expressed openness to God radically altering the course of his life during the pilgrimage. He said at the time that he was most looking forward to being able to help people experience small, "seemingly insignificant" interactions with Christ in the Eucharist that "radically change everything."

"My hope for the pilgrimage is that every person that we encounter has something stir inside of them that makes them question: 'Why do I feel differently when I was encountered by this procession? … What if that is truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ?'" McCullough said in 2024.

"I have full confidence that Jesus Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist and if the pilgrimage simply stirs questions in the hearts of those that we encounter, I know that those questions will be answered with the truth."

The 2025 pilgrimage route will include numerous opportunities to encounter the Eucharistic Jesus, including daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, Eucharistic processions, witness talks, and fellowship meals with the Perpetual Pilgrims, organizers said.

Like last year's events, this year's pilgrimage will focus on Eucharistic encounters with marginalized communities, bringing the Eucharist to assisted-living facilities, food banks, a juvenile detention center, a hospital, and a federal prison along the route.

In addition, there will be a number of stops with particular significance to Catholics along the way: the tomb of Venerable Fulton Sheen in Illinois; the Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother in Oklahoma City; several mission churches in Southern California; and St. Michael Church near Window Rock, which is the capital of the Navajo Nation in the southwestern desert.

In honor of the ongoing Jubilee Year of Hope, there will be an additional focus on Eucharistic healing, organizers said.

Prayer intentions for the pilgrims to carry with them on their journey can be submitted here.

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Vatican City, Mar 6, 2025 / 06:40 am (CNA).

Pope Francis was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Friday, Feb. 14, to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis.

Follow here for the latest news on his health and hospitalization:

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Vatican City, Mar 5, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis said the Lenten journey reminds the Church that hope in Jesus Christ ultimately overcomes fears of fragility, weakness, and the brevity of life.

"Made of ashes and earth, we experience fragility through illness, poverty, and the hardships that can suddenly befall us and our families," the pope said in his homily prepared for Ash Wednesday. 

"Lent, however, is also an invitation to rekindle our hope," he said. "We are invited to lift our eyes to the One who rises from the depths of death and brings us from the ashes of sin and death to the glory of eternal life."

The pope is continuing his medical treatment at Gemelli Hospital and was unable to attend the Mass held inside the Basilica of Santa Sabina located on Rome's Aventine Hill.

"The ashes remind us that we are dust, but they also set us on a journey toward the hope to which we are called," Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said, reading the papal text. "Jesus descended to the dust of the earth and, by his resurrection, has drawn us with himself into the Father's heart."

Focusing on Easter as the reason for undertaking the journey of Lent, the pope in his homily told the congregation of cardinals, bishops, and religious brothers and sisters of Benedictine and Dominican orders that the risen Lord is waiting for us "at the end of the road."

"The hope of Easter that we journey toward reassures us of God's forgiveness," the Holy Father said, quoting his predecessor Benedict XVI. "Even while submerged in the ashes of sin, hope opens us up to the joyful acknowledgment of life."

Acknowledging the "social and political realities of our time" — including war, ideological opposition, abuse of power, and exploitation — the 88-year-old head of the Church said the world's problems should spur people to walk together, be open with one another, and turn to our God who wants peace and reconciliation.

"Let us turn back to God, let us return to him with all our hearts," the pope said. "Let us learn from almsgiving to go beyond ourselves, sharing each other's needs and nurturing the hope of a fairer world." 

In his homily, the Holy Father also said accepting the fragility of our human condition "is good for us" as it reminds us who we really are "despite the masks we wear" and of our need for God.    

"It reshapes us, reduces the severity of our narcissism, brings us back to reality, and makes us more humble and open to one another: None of us is God; we are all on a journey," he said.

"With this hope in our hearts, let us begin our journey. Let us be reconciled with God," the pope reiterated at the end of his March 5 homily.

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