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The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Andrea Izzotti/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Oct 24, 2025 / 14:22 pm (CNA).Life-affirming organizations are calling on the Trump administration and Congress to permanently block funding to Planned Parenthood.In an Oct. 22 letter, Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins and more than 50 signers asked President Donald Trump to debar Planned Parenthood from federal funding because of reports of the trafficking of baby body parts as well as possible fraud and failure to report sex crimes, among other complaints.In another letter sent the same day, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and more than 100 signers asked Congress to remove the loophole created by the Affordable Care Act that enables government money to go to Planned Parenthood.While the Trump administration cut funding to the abortion giant for one year in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, pro-life advocates say Planned Parenthood should go through debarment, a significant le...
Torture intersects with religious freedom violations worldwide, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says in an October 2025 report. / Credit: Sahana M S/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2025 / 15:37 pm (CNA).Governments around the world continue to violate religious freedom and breach international law by engaging in torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, according to a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In an October USCIRF fact sheet, "Religious Freedom and the Prohibition of Torture and Ill Treatment," the commission highlighted incidents of torture in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam, and recommended the United States designate each of them as countries of particular concern (CPCs) as they "engage in or tolerate 'particularly severe violations' of religious freedom."These designations are based on information from the USCIR...
null / Credit: Brian A Jackson/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2025 / 17:31 pm (CNA).A federal judge struck down a regulation imposed by President Joe Biden's administration, saying the administration was "redefining sex discrimination." The Biden administration adopted the rule through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. The ACA authorized the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement rules that prohibit "sex" discrimination as understood through the 1972 Title IX Education Amendments.Biden's administration interpreted the ban on "sex" discrimination to also imply a prohibition on discriminating against a person on the basis of sex characteristics, including "sexual orientation; gender identity; and sex stereotypes." Neither Title IX nor the ACA define "sex" in this way.U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the Southern District of Mississippi ruled HHS "exceeded its authority" because when Title IX was adopted ...
The state of Alabama on Oct. 23, 2025, executed convicted murderer Anthony Boyd by nitrogen gas just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider requiring the state to execute him by firing squad instead. / Credit: Alabama Department of Corrections via AP, FileCNA Staff, Oct 24, 2025 / 11:32 am (CNA).The state of Alabama on Thursday executed convicted murderer Anthony Boyd by nitrogen gas just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider requiring the state to execute him by firing squad instead.Boyd reportedly took around 20 minutes to die from the execution method, according to the Associated Press. The news wire said he "clenched his fist, raised his head off the gurney slightly, and began shaking," after which he became still but continued with a series of "heaving breaths" for "at least 15 minutes."The Alabama man was convicted of capital murder in the 1993 killing of Gregory Huguley in Talladega County. Huguley was taped up, doused with gasoline, and ...
Annunciation School shooting survivor Sophia Forchas in a photo before the incident and then posing with neurosurgeon Dr. Walt Galicich at Gillette Children's Hospital in Minneapolis on a very happy day as she goes home to be with her family on Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Forchas familyNational Catholic Register, Oct 24, 2025 / 12:02 pm (CNA).Twelve-year-old Sophia Forchas is finally home after spending 57 days in the hospital with severe injuries sustained from the deadly shooting on Aug. 27 at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis during the first school Mass of the year that claimed the lives of two students. Sophia received a fond farewell outside the hospital on Oct. 23. In a statement posted to the family's GoFundMe page, Sophia's parents, Tom and Amy Forchas, wrote: "Today marks one of the most extraordinary days of our lives! Our beloved daughter, Sophia, is coming home!!"Speaking with gratitude for the team of doctors that worked dili...
null / Credit: AS photo studio/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:Bill proposed in Hungary could require priests to violate seal of confessionThe Permanent Council of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference has expressed shock over the proposition of a bill that would require Catholic priests to violate the seal of confession. "This is in serious conflict with the agreement between the Republic of Hungary and the Holy See of Feb. 9, 1990, which states that the Catholic Church in our county operates on the basis of [canon law]," the council stated in an Oct. 17 press release. The council expressed regret over "extremely crude" and "baseless sentiment-mongering and slander" that has occurred during the ongoing election cycle. "We emphasize to our priests, all believers, and society that we are not a political organization, we do not wish to partici...
The faithful pray before the altar at Knock Shrine in Knock, Ireland, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNADublin, Ireland, Oct 24, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Seven pivotal priorities emerged from the Irish bishops' Pre-Synodal Assembly meetings on Oct. 18 in Kilkenny, reflecting the hopes and concerns of the Irish faithful, drawing upon a series of gatherings held throughout the country from February to May.The assembly brought together delegates from parish communities across Ireland to discern how the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church today.Father Gerry O'Hanlon, SJ, one of the delegates, welcomed the process. "Building on the trust that has been established, we need to face difficult issues and embrace conflict and difference on the way," he told CNA. "The Pre-Synodal Assembly was characterized by a constructive spirit of speaking and listening in a spirit of prayer. As we go forward, we probably need a more concrete focus, with input from theology and the other sc...
José Luis Bazán, legal adviser to the Commission of Episcopal Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) in Brussels. / Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN NewsVatican City, Oct 24, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).The rise in violence and attacks against places of worship and believers, traditionally associated with regions of conflict, has seen a worrying upturn in recent years in Europe, South America, and North America.According to the latest report from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), in 2023, France recorded nearly 1,000 attacks on churches, and more than 600 acts of vandalism were documented in Greece.Similar increases were observed in Spain, Italy, and the United States, where attacks not only target church property but also include disruptions of worship services and attacks on clergy."These attacks reflect a climate of ideological hostility toward religion," said José Luis Bazán, one of the report's authors, in a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner.For Bazán,...
Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III meet before their prayer together in the Sistine Chapel during a historic meeting at the Vatican on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaDublin, Ireland, Oct 23, 2025 / 18:04 pm (CNA).King Charles III has acted contrary to the oath made at his coronation and should now "let someone else take his place, who is a true Protestant and who will take their vows seriously," a prominent Free Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland said after the king prayed with Pope Leo XIV on Thursday in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.Rev. Kyle Paisley, the son of firebrand Democratic Unionist Party founder Ian Paisley, made the statements in a letter to Newspapers in Northern Ireland and subsequently in an interview on BBC Radio as well as other media outlets. In the Sistine Chapel prayer service, King Charles, the supreme governor of the Church of England, accompanied by Queen Camilla, sat at Pope Leo's left-hand side as the pope and Anglican...
A color guard stands at attention as Eliza Monroe Hay's remains are carried for reinterment at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Payne/CNARichmond, Virginia, Oct 23, 2025 / 17:04 pm (CNA).Nearly two centuries after her death, the daughter of American Founding Father James Monroe has been laid to rest in Richmond, Virginia, joining her family's historic burial plot in the city's famed Hollywood Cemetery. The Diocese of Richmond held Eliza Monroe Hay's reinterment at the top of Hollywood Cemetery overlooking the James River on Oct. 23. Hay, who died in 1840, converted to Catholicism several years before her death. Pallbearers prepare the casket of Eliza Monroe Hay during her reinterment at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Credit: Daniel Payne/CNAState Sen. Bryce Reeves, who worked with the Eliza Project to repatriate Hay's remains, said she was "far more than the daughter of a pres...
