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Speakers present at the briefing presenting the report "Attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem" by the Rossing Center on March 27, 2025. From left to right: Hana Bendcowsky, director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations at the Rossing Center; Bernard Sabella, a retired professor of sociology; Federica Sasso (Rossing Center)), moderator, Hussam Elias, executive director of the project; and Jesuit Father David Neuhaus. / Credit: Marinella BandiniJerusalem, Mar 29, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).On March 27 in Jerusalem, the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue presented findings from its annual report, "Attacks on Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem," and from a survey conducted in December 2024 with 300 Palestinian/Arab Christians in Israel and East Jerusalem providing insight into their perceptions of various aspects of life.The briefing was held at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center. A panel of experts who shed light on the challenges and anxietie...
Pope Francis looks out at the crowd gathered below his hospital window at Rome's Gemelli Hospital on March 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media / ScreenshotCNA Newsroom, Mar 29, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).As hundreds of Missionaries of Mercy gathered in Rome this weekend, Pope Francis commended their distinctive ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation that continues to flourish worldwide.Approximately 500 priests are participating in a special jubilee dedicated to their role as part of the broader 2025 Jubilee of Hope.In a message addressed to these priests, and written while still in hospital, Pope Francis expressed his "gratitude and encouragement" for their work as special confessors who possess faculties to absolve certain sins typically reserved to the Holy See."Through your service," the pontiff wrote, "you bear witness to the paternal face of God, infinitely great in love, who calls everyone to conversion and constantly renews us with His forgiveness."The missonaries' Ma...
Launched in March 2025, St. Claret Maternity Center in the Nyabwina village serves the local region in the Sheema/Mbarara District of Uganda. / Credit: MaterCare InternationalCNA Staff, Mar 29, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).It all began with Pope John Paul II. In the 1980s, the late pope encouraged Dr. Robert Walley, a Catholic obstetrician and gynecologist who died in 2020, to provide life-affirming health care to women in need. Walley went on to found MaterCare International (MCI), which is now celebrating 30 years of supporting ethical maternal health care in developing regions around the globe."MaterCare International is vital for women's health because it provides lifesaving maternal care to some of the world's most underserved regions while maintaining an ethical approach that values both the mother and the unborn child," Jennifer Derwey Deane, communications director at MCI, told CNA. MCI provides emergency obstetric care, remote transportation for rural communities to...
Bishop Christian Carlassare (center), President Salva Kiir (left), and Dr. Riek Machar (right). / Credit: Catholic Diocese of Rumbek/Office of the President - Republic of South SudanACI Africa, Mar 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).A Catholic bishop in the Africa's youngest country has directed the people under his care to participate in daily prayers for peace amid testimonies of rising tension in South Sudan and reports of the arrest of the country's first vice president, Dr. Riek Machar."First vice president" is a position that was created in 2015 as part of a coalition agreement. Five more such positions were created in 2020. They are temporary positions to assist during a transition period."As we witness rising tensions in South Sudan, I invite our parishes to pray every day for peace," Bishop Christian Carlassare wrote in a March 26 note obtained by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa.The local ordinary of the Bentiu Diocese in South Sudan, who also serves as the apostolic a...
A wildfire blazes next to a stone lantern of family tomb in Andong, South Korea, on March 26, 2025. At least 18 people have been killed in one of South Korea's worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple blazes burning and causing "unprecedented damage," the acting president said. / Credit: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty ImagesRome Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 15:25 pm (CNA).Pope Francis has expressed his sorrow for the victims of the devastating wildfires in South Korea, which killed 28 people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.In a message sent on the pope's behalf by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis conveyed his condolences to those mourning their loved ones and offered prayers for emergency personnel working to contain the fires."His Holiness Pope Francis is deeply concerned by the threat to life and the damage caused by the widespread wildfires in various parts of Korea," Parolin wrote on March 28."Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving ...
"People need genuine compassion and choices, not the false choice of pain or poison," says Jim Towey, founder and president of Aging with Dignity, the organization behind a new watchdog effort to monitor and oppose the expansion of assisted suicide throughout the United States. / Credit: "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo"/EWTN News screenshotCNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 16:15 pm (CNA).A new watchdog effort has launched to monitor and oppose the expansion of assisted suicide throughout the United States. Aging with Dignity, a nonprofit group inspired by St. Teresa of Calcutta that provides guidance on end-of-life issues, on Thursday debuted Assisted Suicide Watch, which the group said will "challenge the well-funded effort to convince people that suicide-affirming care is a social good."Jim Towey, the founder and CEO of Aging with Dignity, previously served as legal counsel to Mother Teresa. He told CNA last year that he launched the nonprofit "to give people a hopeful visio...
Credit: Ivanko80/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).A public official in Ulster County, New York, is refusing to cooperate with a ruling from a Texas judge ordering a doctor to pay a $113,000 fine for allegedly mailing abortion pills into the southern state. Acting County Clerk Taylor Bruck will not file the summary judgment ordered against abortion doctor Margaret Daley Carpenter for allegedly providing abortion pills to women in Texas via mail, a violation of the state's laws.The order was issued by Collin County, Texas, District Court Judge Bryan Gantt against Carpenter, a cofounder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access (ACT).This is the first case, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, in which a court official in one state refused to cooperate with a judicial ruling from another state on a matter related to interstate abortion services.Under Texas law, both surgical and chemical abortions are ...
The Kansas Capitol in Topeka. / Credit: Nils Huenerfuerst/Wikipedia| CC BY 4.0CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 17:05 pm (CNA).The organizer of a "black mass" that took place outside the Kansas state Capitol on Friday amid heavy Catholic protest was arrested shortly afterward in the Capitol building after punching a protester in the face. A video from local news outlet WIBW shows Michael Stewart raising his arms and chanting in the Capitol rotunda, surrounded by a number of protesters urging him to stop. A young man later identified as Marcus Schroeder attempted to snatch what appeared to be papers from Stewart's outstretched hands. Video and images circulating on social media show Stewart punching Schroeder twice in the face before a half-dozen police officers tackled him and led him away. Satanic Grotto leader Michael Stewart starts his demonstration, punches Marcus Schroeder after Schroeder attempts to take Stewart's materials, and is detained by Capitol Police....
St. Paul's Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in Mosul, Iraq. / Credit: France YousifWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).Here are some of the major stories about the Church from around the world that you may have missed this week:Cardinal calls on Iraqi Christians to vote for fellow Christians in upcoming electionsCardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, is urging Iraqi Christians to actively participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, emphasizing the importance of updating electoral records and obtaining voter cards, ACI MENA, CNA's Arabic-language news partner, reported. Sako stressed that the five parliamentary seats that are designated for Christians be confined to Christians alone to ensure accurate representation and underscored the crucial role that each individual can play in shaping Iraq's future. Latin patriarch of Jerusalem promotes interfaith dialogue during historic visit to Bahrain Cardinal Pierbattista P...
The Philippines has the highest adult Christian faith retention rate in the world, according to Pew Research. / Credit: icosha/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).Surveys in about three dozen countries compiled by the Pew Research Center found that most Christians who are raised in the faith hold onto it in adulthood. In fact, in every country surveyed the majority of people who are raised Christian still remain in the faith as adults.However, the numbers vary widely, from a high of 99% Christian faith retention in the Philippines and 98% in Hungary and Nigeria to lows of 51% in South Korea and 53% in the Netherlands.The United States was slightly lower than the average from the countries included in the research. About 73% of Americans who are raised Christian as children have kept the faith in their adult lives.Pew's data includes numbers from 10 European countries, 10 east and South Asian countries, eight countries in the Americas, five Afric...
