Article Archive
Please click below to view any of the articles in our archive.
Orvich said he wanted to share his experience with same sex attraction "so that the Lord might touch hearts and that people repent and try returning to a chaste life." / Credit: Fran OrvichACI Prensa Staff, Apr 23, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).For the last five years Fran Orvich, 30, has been living chastely following a conversion process that began after a traumatic childhood and years of sexual libertinism.The young man shared his conversion process in a telephone interview with ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, "for the glory of God and the salvation of souls and to give light, hope, and salvation to these poor brothers of ours who are in the Church and are very confused."Specifically, Orvich said he wanted to share his experience with same-sex attraction "so that the Lord might touch hearts and that people repent and try returning to a chaste life."A difficult childhoodWhile only five years have passed since his conversion, to explain what he has experienced Or...
Reporter Catherine Hadro speaks with Sister Mary Gianna of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and Frank DeAngelis on "EWTN News In Depth" on April 19, 2024. Sister Mary Gianna, also known as Jenica Thornby, was a sophomore at Columbine High School and DeAngelis was principal on April 20, 1999, when two gunmen killed 12 students and one teacher before turning their guns on themselves. / Credit: "EWTN News In Depth" screen shotsCNA Staff, Apr 22, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).Throughout her freshman and sophomore years at Columbine High School, Jenica Thornby went to the library every single day."Not one day went by that I did not go to the library," Thornby recently told "EWTN News In Depth" reporter Catherine Hadro. "Except one day."That day was April 20, 1999. "I was 16 years old, and I was sitting in my art class when all of a sudden I had this overwhelming urge to leave school," she recalled. "I just over [and over] in my head kept repeating, 'There's no way I'm staying her...
Left to right: Dr. John Bruchalski, a former abortionist and IVF provider, Emma Waters, a senior research associate at the Heritage Foundation, Andrew Kubick, a bioethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center and the Religious Freedom Institute, and Sister Deirdre Byrne, superior of the D.C. Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts, discuss the "eugenic" dangers of in vitro fertilization at a panel event at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., April 18, 2024. / Credit: Photo by Peter Pinedo/CNAWashington D.C., Apr 22, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).A former abortionist and several pro-life ethicists are urging lawmakers to protect children and parents from the in vitro fertilization (IVF) industry, which they say operates on "eugenic" principles. IVF is a fertility treatment that works by inducing hyper-ovulation during a woman's cycle to harvest her eggs and then fuse them with sperm to conceive a child outside the womb. The Catholic Church is opposed t...
Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin of the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia, which covers the Tigray region. / Credit: CBCEACI Africa, Apr 22, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).The bishop of Ethiopia's Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat, which covers the Tigray region, said he has witnessed firsthand the "unspeakable suffering" and death of the people of God in the embattled region of the Horn of Africa nation.In a statement that ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, obtained April 19, Bishop Tesfasellassie Medhin pleaded for the implementation of the Nov. 2, 2022, peace agreement in Pretoria, South Africa, in which the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) pledged to "permanently silence the guns and end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia.""I am writing as a religious leader with deep concern and feeling for the pain of tens of millions of our population in the country, especially the children, elders, and women of Tigray," Medhin said. He pain...
Pope Francis greets an elderly couple at a general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Apr 22, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA)."A Caress and a Smile" is the name of the event that will take place Saturday, April 27, in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall where elderly people, grandparents, and grandchildren from Italy will meet Pope Francis.A total of 6,000 grandparents and their grandchildren will arrive this week at the Vatican for a special gathering with the Holy Father, an initiative presented by the Holy See's Press Office today.Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, noted that Italy has the second-highest number of elderly people in the world and that for the first time in history, four generations are living together, which "had never happened before."He also lamented that currently "we are afraid to use" the word "old" and that old age "is not only a very beautiful time, but can mean a change ...
Argentine pro-life Dr. Leandro Rodríguez Lastra. / Credit: Buena VidaACI Prensa Staff, Apr 22, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).In 2017, a 19-year-old woman arrived in severe pain at the hospital where Argentine doctor Leandro Rodríguez Lastra was working. She was 23 weeks pregnant and had ingested misoprostol, illegally administered by the La Revuelta ("The Revolt") organization well beyond the outer limit of 10 weeks of pregnancy for use of the drug.Using his professional judgment, Rodríguez stabilized the woman by stopping the chemical abortion process, thus saving both mother and child. When the baby reached six and a half months' gestation, the medical board decided to deliver the child by cesarean section and the baby was placed for adoption.In 2019, for preventing the completion of the abortion, Rodríguez was given a one-year-and-two-months suspended sentence in prison, and his license to practice medicine was revoked for two years and four months, ending Jan. 30. Speaking wit...
Ana Estrada, 47, suffered from polymyositis, an incurable disease that left her confined to a wheelchair. Since 2019, she had been been petitioning Peruvian courts to recognize a right to euthanasia. / Credit: Jessica Alva Piedra CC BY-SA 4.0 DEEDACI Prensa Staff, Apr 22, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).On Sunday, April 21, Peruvian activist Ana Estrada underwent a euthanasia process and died. The terminology employed did not indicate whether it was by direct euthanasia or medically assisted suicide.Euthanasia is not legal in Peru, but the nation's Supreme Court nevertheless ruled in favor of her appeal.According to a statement released by various Peruvian media, the activist "died on her own terms, in accordance with her idea of dignity and in full control of her autonomy until the end.""The medical procedure was carried out in accordance with the 'Plan and Protocol for Death with Dignity' applicable to Ana, approved by EsSalud, in the context of the historic ruling in her favor, i...
Participants in Italy's pro-life demonstration in Rome on May 21, 2022. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNARome, Italy, Apr 22, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).An amendment to a health care law that permits "nonprofits with experience providing maternity support" in family planning clinics, including pro-life groups, will be voted on by the Italian Senate on Tuesday, April 23, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Amendment No. 44.028, a provision attached to a health care system law, part of Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), would allow local public health authorities to freely collaborate with qualified third-party consultants, including nonprofit organizations that specialize in pregnancy and maternity support, "without new or greater burdens on public finance," according to the news site Centro Studi Livatino. Last week, the Brothers of Italy party, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, introduced the amendment to the Chamber of Deputies,...
Pro-lifers participate in the Illinois March for Life in Springfield, April 17, 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of March for LifeWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 22, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).Thousands of pro-lifers, including many groups of Catholic high school and college students, attended the Illinois March for Life in Springfield last week.Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, told CNA that the march was "joy-filled" and "hopeful" and had a large youth turnout.Catholic youth from "Crusaders for Life," a pro-life group from St. John Cantius Parish in Chicago, was one such group that traveled several hours to participate in the event.The group's members could be seen at the front of the march holding brightly colored umbrellas and inflatables. Many of the young people cheered, danced, and played drums and cymbals, while others in the crowd chanted pro-life slogans and prayed.Thousands show up in Illinois to March for Life. Incredible. pic.twitte...
Credit: (CC0 1.0)CNA Staff, Apr 22, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).Since 1970, Earth Day has been celebrated yearly on April 22 to demonstrate support worldwide for environmental protection. The Catholic Church has a long tradition of calling for proper stewardship of the earth. In May 2015, Pope Francis published Laudato Si', an encyclical focusing on care for the natural environment and includes topics such as global warming and environmental degradation. He then released a follow-up document to the encyclical on Oct. 4, 2023, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, to address current issues.In honor of Earth Day and in response to the Holy Father's message urging the faithful to take action in protecting the environment, here are five ways Catholics can celebrate Earth Day.1) Spend time with God in nature. Consider going on a hike or simply take a walk outside and spend time in prayer thanking God for his beautiful creation. You can also find a nice spot to sit and contemplate ...
