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null / Credit: Daniel Jedzura/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 13, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).A survey of more than 22,000 Americans found that support for homosexual marriage declined slightly and support for businesses who refuse to violate their religious beliefs went up in 2023 when compared with 2022.The American Values Atlas survey, which is produced by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), is released annually. The report details trends on these topics from 2014 until the most recent 2023 survey. Homosexual marriage support declinesThe survey found that 67% of Americans supported homosexual marriage in 2023, which is a two-point decrease from the 69% that recorded their support in 2022. This is the first time the annual survey found a downtick in support since 2015.Support for homosexual marriage also declined among self-identified Catholic respondents, but a majority still supported it. The decline was significantly larger among Hispanic Catholics, wh...
Pope Francis meets on April 29, 2023, with children and adults who are visually impaired and have other disabilities at a Catholic institute in Budapest, Hungary, dedicated to Blessed László Batthyány-Strattmann. / Vatican MediaCNA Staff, Mar 13, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).The University of Notre Dame's McGrath Institute for Church Life and the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD) are together hosting six online seminars in March and April to help develop pastoral guidance regarding the experiences and needs of persons with disabilities.The online series, "In Communion: Advancing the Full Participation of Persons with Disabilities in the Church," launched on March 7. Each seminar highlights a different angle on communion and participation and features three to four speakers.The seminars were launched in light of an upcoming pastoral statement on disability and inclusion in the Church that was announced in June of last year. The USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Famil...
Speaking with EWTN Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, railed against the Biden administration's passivity as more than 400 attacks against Catholic churches in the U.S. have been perpetrated during the last four years. / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN News NightlyCNA Newsroom, Mar 13, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).The need for the pro-life movement to update its strategy and hold the Biden administration accountable for its failure to address the wave of vandalism against Catholic churches across the country were the top two issues raised by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, in an interview with EWTN News.Speaking with EWTN Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales, Rubio expounded upon his proposed pro-life strategy released earlier this year. As part of that strategy, the Florida senator called on pro-life Americans to rally behind "supporting mothers and their babies with compassionate, pro-family policies; exposing the Democrats' abortion extremism; and protect...
The Maine State House in Augusta. / Credit: Wangkun Jia/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Mar 12, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).Over a dozen state attorneys general are threatening a possible lawsuit over a bill in the Maine Legislature that extends legal protections to out-of-state residents seeking transgender-related medical procedures.The March 11 letter, signed by 16 attorneys general, argues that Maine's LD 227 would "contravene the lawful policy choices of our states' citizens" by "imposing on the rest of the country Maine's views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children."The proposed measure, if passed, would offer legal protection to out-of-state individuals who seek transgender procedures in Maine. The measure would also extend legal protections to "reproductive health care services." State legislatures around the country have in recent months moved to limit or prohibit both abortion and transgender-related medical services.In their letter, the prose...
null / ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 12, 2024 / 18:25 pm (CNA).Doctors in England can no longer prescribe puberty blockers to children to facilitate a gender transition, according to an announcement from the country's public health care system, the National Health Service (NHS)."Puberty blockers … are not available to children and young people for gender incongruence or gender dysphoria because there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness," the NHS England website's section on "treatment" for gender dysphoria reads after the update.The drugs block a child's natural developments during puberty by preventing the production of hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen. For example, they prevent height growth, a girl's breast development, and a boy's facial hair growth, among other things."Children, young people, and their families are strongly discouraged from getting puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones from unregulated sources or onli...
Chega leader Andre Ventura addresses supporters at Marriot Hotel, where the party holds the election night event, in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 10, 2024. / Credit: ANDRE DIAS NOBRE/AFP via Getty ImagesACI Digital, Mar 12, 2024 / 19:00 pm (CNA).The defeat of Portugal's Socialist Party and the success of a populist conservative party in the March 10 legislative elections has dramatically shifted the political landscape in the Iberian nation.The Democratic Alliance, a centrist coalition, elected 79 deputies, two more than it had in the previous legislature. The Socialist Party (PSD), which had 120 parliamentarians, was the election's loser and elected only 77. However, the conservative party Chega ("Enough") made huge gains, increasing its seats from 12 to 48.In its political program, Chega defends the "natural family based on the intimate relationship between a woman and a man," the authority of parents in the education of their children, the encouragement of birth rates, and the...
In a speech during a meeting with Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, and other Coptic Orthodox representatives on May 11, 2023, Pope Francis announced that the Coptic Orthodox martyrs killed by ISIS in 2015 will be added to the Catholic Church's official list of saints. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Mar 12, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).The Coptic Orthodox Church has confirmed that its decision last week to suspend dialogue with the Catholic Church was due to Rome's "change of position" on homosexuality.In a video released on Friday, Coptic Orthodox spokesman Father Moussa Ibrahim said "the most notable" of nine decrees emanating from the church's annual Holy Synod, which took place last week in Wadi El-Natrun in Egypt, was "to suspend theological dialogue with the Catholic Church after its change of position on the issue of homosexuality."The video message followed the conclusion of the Holy Synod the day before and an accompanying statement...
Injured parishioners receive Communion on the third Sunday of Advent, Dec. 17, 2023, at Holy Family Parish in Gaza. The Pontifical Collection for the Holy Land provides community aid and assistance for parochial activities for Holy Family Parish, the only Roman Catholic parish in Gaza. / Credit: Father Gabriel Romanelli/FacebookRome Newsroom, Mar 12, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).This year's Vatican financial appeal for the Holy Land highlights the urgent humanitarian crisis facing the beleaguered population in Gaza and the pope's plea for peace. "The outbreak of the war in Gaza, after the events of Oct. 7, paralyzed the Holy Land. The lack of pilgrims and tourists has put thousands of families in difficulty," Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, said in a letter released March 8.The Vatican has overseen the "Pro Terra Sancta" fund, or the Pontifical Collection for the Holy Land, since 1974, when Pope Paul VI, in his apostolic exhortation&...
null / Credit: ShutterstockCNA Staff, Mar 12, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).Pope Francis has ordered the laicization of a North Dakota priest who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman in that state. Diocese of Fargo Bishop John Folda said in a statement this month that former priest Neil Pfeifer "received a dispensation from the clerical state (laicization) from Pope Francis" effective March 8.Pfeifer himself "sought the dispensation after adult women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct," Folda said in his statement. "Mr. Pfeifer pleaded guilty on July 13, 2023, to a misdemeanor charge of sexual assault in Stutsman County," the bishop said. Laicization is the term for when a priest has been dismissed from the clerical state. An individual who is confirmed as a priest will always remain one, but laicization takes away his ability to licitly execute the functions of the priesthood, except in the extreme situation of encountering someone who...
Mary Rice Hasson has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Vatican at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She currently serves as the Kate O'Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Mary Rice HassonCNA Staff, Mar 12, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).Franciscan University of Steubenville has announced that Catholic writer and speaker Mary Rice Hasson will be a visiting fellow for the school's Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life. Hasson, a graduate of Notre Dame Law School, has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Vatican at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She has also testified on parents' rights and transgender issues before the U.S. Senate. She currently serves as the Kate O'Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The Veritas Center's mission is "to bring faithful Catholic sc...
