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Washington D.C., Jul 13, 2017 / 04:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An upgrade to a key anti-trafficking bill passed the U.S. House on Wednesday, and has been praised by one U.S. bishop as “an important step” in the fight to abolish modern-day slavery.Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, chair of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee, called H.R. 2200 “an important step Congress can take to help prevent human trafficking and protect victims as it provides important service provisions that will aid victims.”The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention, Protection and Reauthorization Act of 2017 makes upgrades to existing legislation, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The new bill is named after Frederick Douglass, who was born a slave in 1818 but escaped to freedom and who spent his time thereafter fighting to abolish the institution of slavery in the U.S.Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the House global human rights subcommittee, is the author...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Colleen DulleBy Colleen DulleWASHINGTON(CNS) -- For some aspiring priests and religious, the biggest obstacle topursuing their vocation is student debt.Becausemany religious orders do not accept members with outstanding debts, 42 percentof individuals discerning religious life in the U.S. are barred from formationbecause of their student loans, according to the Laboure Society, a nonprofitthat helps people in this situation raise funds to pay off their loans.Accordingto multiple studies by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate atGeorgetown University, one in three people seeking to enter religious life carriesstudent debt, which on average amounts to about $28,000.ForAndrew McCullough, an aspiring Dominican, that number was $20,000.McCulloughstudied mechanical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle andmoved to Washington, D.C., last fall to be near the Dominican community hehoped to join. The plan was to work off his loans for a year, the...
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The scandal was remarkable even by Vatican standards: The president of the "pope's hospital" for sick children had taken nearly a half-million dollars in hospital donations and used them to spruce up the penthouse apartment of the Vatican cardinal who had appointed him....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Education Department's top civil rights official's "flippant" remarks are raising questions about the government's commitment to fighting campus sexual violence, even as she issued her second apology in as many days for attributing 90 percent of sexual assault claims to both parties being drunk....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's outside counsel lambasted a random emailer after the man suggested he step down following reports that explored why he had not sought a security clearance....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- If congressional Republicans succeed in repealing and replacing "Obamacare," expect a big Rose Garden celebration with President Donald Trump taking credit....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican leaders unveiled a new health care bill Thursday in their increasingly desperate effort to deliver on seven years of promises to repeal and replace "Obamacare." They immediately lost two key votes, leaving none to spare as the party's own divisions put its top campaign pledge in serious jeopardy....
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A jail inmate who was the focus of an investigation into the disappearances of four men admitted on Thursday that he killed them, his attorney said in a surprise development....
Rome, Italy, Jul 13, 2017 / 11:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After nearly a year since his kidnapping, Yemen officials say that Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil is in fact alive and efforts are being made for his release.“The Yemeni deputy prime minister conveyed that as per available information, Father Tom was alive and the Yemen government has been making all efforts to secure his release,” Gopal Baglay, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in India said July 11.The statement was made after Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdulmalik Abduljalil Al-Mekhlafi, told Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that the Salesian priest was in fact alive, and that continued efforts were being made to obtain his release.According to India's Deccan Herald news service, Al-Mekhlafi met Swaraj during his current tour to New Delhi. Swaraj had inquired about Fr. Tom, voicing concern for his safety.Baglay said Al-Mekhlafi “assured all...
Vatican City, Jul 13, 2017 / 11:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An analysis piece published Thursday in La Civilta Cattolica, discusses what it calls a “surprising” and unfortunate alliance between conservative Catholics and evangelicals in the U.S. on issues such as immigration – suggesting the two are in direct opposition to Pope Francis' message of mercy.The article, published online July 13, is co-authored by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of the Jesuit publication, and Marcelo Figueroa, a Presbyterian pastor who is editor in chief of the Argentine edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's newspaper.Both men are regarded as confidantes of Pope Francis. La Civilta Cattolica is also seen as a mouthpiece of sorts for the Holy See, as its text is revised and approved by the Vatican Secretariat of State before it is published.Fr. Spadaro and Figueroa start from the US motto, In God We Trust, saying that for some this “is a simple declaration of ...
