Article Archive
Please click below to view any of the articles in our archive.
Maltese priest Fabio Attard was elected rector major of the Salesians for the next six years. / Credit: Courtesy of Salesian FamilyACI Prensa Staff, Mar 26, 2025 / 13:05 pm (CNA).Maltese priest Fabio Attard was elected as the new rector major of the Salesian congregation during its general chapter in Turin, Italy, becoming the 11th successor of St. John Bosco.The new superior general of the order founded in 1859 succeeds Spanish Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, who became prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in January.According to the Salesians, the new rector major did not participate in the Salesian chapter meeting, so he was informed of his election by telephone, at which point he was asked for his required acceptance."His words were heard in the hall and, moved to tears, he thanked the brothers for their trust and especially for their trust in God in taking on this new task," the Salesians said in a statement. This is ...
Pope Francis waves from a balcony at Gemelli Hospital in Rome on Sunday, March 23, 2025, following weeks of hospitalization for bilateral pneumonia. / Credit: Vatican Media/ScreenshotVatican City, Mar 26, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).Pope Francis on Wednesday highlighted the transformative power of God's merciful love for those who encounter him at the crossroads of life.Since being discharged from Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Sunday, the Holy Father's weekly general audiences are suspended for the duration of his at-least-two-month convalescence in his Casa Santa Marta home in the Vatican. In his written March 26 catechesis, titled "Jesus Christ Our Hope" and released by the Vatican, the pope said: "Jesus waits for us and lets himself be found precisely when we think that there is no hope left for us."Reflecting on the Gospel of St. John, the Holy Father noted that Jesus had the desire to start a conversation with the Samaritan woman "who has had five husbands and is now with...
"It has been disappointing to see how seldom a CPC designation has resulted in real consequences for those responsible for religious freedom violations," U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chairman Stephen Schneck told CNA. / Credit: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Public Hearing/ScreenshotWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 26, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is urging President Donald Trump to ensure that religious freedom violations by foreign governments result in severe consequences, such as sanctions, for the aggressors.The USCIRF, which is a federal commission tasked with providing policy recommendations on advancing religious liberty abroad, conveyed those recommendations in its 2025 Annual Report published on March 25."Make appropriate policy changes to demonstrate meaningful consequences and encourage positive change," the report recommends.The report urges the Trump administ...
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. / Credit: Edlane De Mattos/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Mar 26, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA).The Archdiocese of Chicago this week filed a lawsuit alleging a "racketeering enterprise" among a group of individuals who reportedly filed false abuse claims against a former priest to receive compensation from the Church there. The archdiocese said in a Monday statement that it had filed a lawsuit in Cook County circuit court "seeking injunctive relief and damages from participants of a wide-ranging racketeering scheme" that reportedly involved "more than a dozen" fraudulent abuse claims against disgraced former priest Daniel McCormack, who spent more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to abusing young children.Lawyers for the diocese did not respond to requests for comment and for a copy of the lawsuit on Wednesday morning. The diocese said in its press release that some of the participants in the alleged scheme are "convicted felons and known gang ...
Thousands particpate in a Eucharistic procession sponsored by the Napa Institute through the streets of Manhattan in New York City on Oct. 15, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey BrunoWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 26, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).The Catholic nonprofit organization Napa Institute is pushing for more collaboration among Catholic and Protestant leaders to promote cultural values and aims that are common to both communities.Earlier this month, Napa Institute Board Chairman Tim Busch hosted a meeting among 15 Catholic and Protestant faith leaders for the organization's first Ecumenical Forum in New York City, according to a news release.The Napa Institute works to promote the re-evangelization of the United States and the defense of Catholicism in the public square.While recognizing the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism, Busch emphasized that there is shared agreement on many central tenets of the faith, such as in the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. Certain go...
Dr. Sergio Alfieri answers questions from the media at a press conference regarding Pope Francis' health on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, at Gemelli Hospital in Rome. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNAVatican City, Mar 25, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).The head of the medical team that treated Pope Francis during the 38 days he spent at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, revealed that one of the most critical moments of his hospitalization was when they had to choose between continuing the therapy or letting the pope die."We had to choose whether to stop and let him go, or push it and try every drug and therapy possible, running the extremely high risk of damaging other organs," he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.In the interview, Alfieri described in detail the doctors' response to the respiratory crisis suffered by the pope on Feb. 28.According to the medical report published that day, Pope Francis suffered an isolated attack of bronchosp...
Pope Francis waves to the gathered faithful from the balcony at Gemelli Hospital in Rome on Sunday, March 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media/ScreenshotVatican City, Mar 25, 2025 / 16:15 pm (CNA).The Vatican Press Office reported that Pope Francis' convalescence at St. Martha's House, his Vatican residence where he returned after being discharged from the hospital on Sunday, continues "under the terms prescribed by the doctors at the time of his discharge from the Gemelli Hospital."Thus for the time being, both the general audience scheduled for this Wednesday and the Angelus on Sunday will remain suspended, and the Vatican will release the text prepared by the pontiff, as it has done during the nearly six weeks he was hospitalized in Gemelli Hospital in Rome.Furthermore, he is not expected to meet with large groups of faithful until at least the end of May. In fact, the greatest fear of the medical team treating him for double pneumonia is that he could become infected with anot...
Zachary Liberto, 30, was arrested March 22, 2025, and charged with commissioning an act of terrorism for allegedly sending an email to a member of the staff at St. Louis Catholic Church in Memphis, Tennessee, expressing his intent to "butcher" Catholics with a machete. / Credit: Shelby County Sheriff's OfficeWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 25, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).The Memphis Police Department (MPD) last week arrested a 30-year-old man who is accused of sending a threatening email to a local Catholic parish expressing his intent to "butcher" Catholics with a machete.Zachary Liberto, who lives in Memphis, was charged with commissioning an act of terrorism for allegedly sending the email to a member of the staff at St. Louis Catholic Church, which is on the eastern side of the city. If convicted, he could face between 15 and 60 years in prison.According to a police report provided to CNA, Liberto is accused of sending an email to the parish's music director on March 20 containing...
Pope Francis greets His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Wales at the canonization of St. John Henry Newman at the Vatican on Oct. 13, 2019. / Credit: Vatican MediaCNA Staff, Mar 25, 2025 / 18:35 pm (CNA).King Charles and Queen Camilla postponed their visit to the Vatican at the advice of Pope Francis' doctors, who say the Holy Father needs more rest time following his recent illness. The royal couple was set to visit the Vatican in early April to celebrate the 2025 Jubilee but announced the postponement of their visit on Tuesday due to Pope Francis' health. Their audience with Pope Francis, now canceled, would have been on April 8. The postponement was mutual, according to a March 25 statement from Buckingham Palace."The king and queen's state visit to the Holy See has been postponed by mutual agreement, as medical advice has now suggested that Pope Francis would benefit from an extended period of rest and recuperation," read a post on X by the royal family.The royal...
A poster of "polysexual" flags is displayed at Upper Elementary School in North Hanover Township, New Jersey, and is plaintiff Angela Reading's exhibit attached to the complaint of a now-federal lawsuit. / Credit: Screenshot/Thomas More SocietyNational Catholic Register, Mar 25, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).A New Jersey woman who complained about student-made posters with flags labeled "polysexual," "pansexual," "nonbinary," and "genderqueer" at a public elementary school is suing state and federal agencies, saying they are punishing her by making it harder for her to travel by airplane. Angela Reading of North Hanover Township, New Jersey, said she lost her "trusted traveler status" that allowed her to avoid certain aspects of security screening at airports and that on seven domestic flights in 2023 and 2024, she was "subjected to repeated and unusual requests by TSA agents for additional identification and photographing."Reading, whose lawyers describe her as a devout Christia...
