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A Planned Parenthood facility in Indianapolis. / Credit: Jonathan Weiss/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Pro-life organizations are stepping up their campaign to defund "big abortion" as the reconciliation bill is expected to come up for debate in the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week. On Wednesday, May 7, digital billboards with ads from pro-life organization Live Action lit up Times Square, urging passers-by to help defund Planned Parenthood.Since the Trump administration announced its plan to defund Planned Parenthood in March, pro-life leaders have been working with lawmakers and urging citizens to contact their representatives with the hope the reconciliation bill will defund federally defund the organization by Memorial Day. With that date only weeks away, activists are campaigning to make it happen."Although there are multiple reasons why Planned Parenthood deserves to be defunded," Live Action reported, "the bill...
Pope Leo XIV prays at the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy, Saturday, May 10, 2025 / Credit: Vatican MediaCNA Deutsch, May 10, 2025 / 13:42 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV on Saturday visited and prayed at a Marian shrine outside of Rome, greeting the community there and urging them to "be faithful to the Mother."The Holy Father visited the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano on Saturday afternoon. The sanctuary, located about an hour east of Rome, is run by the religious of the Order of St. Augustine and "houses an ancient image of the Virgin, dear to the Order and to the memory of Leo XIII," according to the Vatican.Pope Leo XIV visits the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy, Saturday, May 10, 2025. Credit: Vatican MediaThe pope greeted the religious at the shrine before praying at both the altar and the Marian image there, according to the Vatican. The Holy Father also prayed St. John Paul II's prayer to the Mother of Good Cou...
An activist protests on Capitol Hill July 22, 2015 in Washington, DC. Members of the San Carlos Apache Nation and other activists gathered to protest the a section of the National Defense Authorization Act that would turn over parts of Oak Flat that are sacred to the Apache to a foreign copper mining company. / Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, May 10, 2025 / 11:45 am (CNA).An effort backed by the U.S. bishops to protect a centuries-old Native American religious site from destruction scored a win in federal court on Friday when a district judge blocked the sale of the location while the matter is considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.U.S. District Judge Steven Logan said in the Friday order that the federal government would be prohibited from selling the Oak Flat site in Arizona while the coalition group Apache Stronghold waits for the Supreme Court to potentially consider its case.The federal government several years ago moved to transfer Oak Flat to ...
Americans gather in St. Peter's Square on May 8, 2025, to celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first pontiff from the United States. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNAVatican City, May 9, 2025 / 18:28 pm (CNA).Americans gathered in St. Peter's Square on May 8 to celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first pontiff from the United States. Born Robert Francis Prevost on Chicago's South Side, the 69-year-old Augustinian friar was chosen by the College of Cardinals after just two days of conclave. While American flags were scarce among the sea of international banners, those present from the U.S. lingered in the square long after the Holy Father appeared out on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica for the first time. They shared prayers, chants, and reflections on the unprecedented moment. "Never in a million years did I think that the Holy Spirit would send us a beautiful cardinal from Chicago," said Deacon Steven Marcus, a Maronite Catholic from Florida. "You ...
At a leper colony in the Kon Tum area in Vietnam in April 2025, Pontifical Missions Society USA President Monsignor Roger Landry celebrated Mass, brought Communion to people, and distributed food and sandals. / Credit: The Pontifical Mission Societies/Margaret MurrayWashington, D.C. Newsroom, May 9, 2025 / 11:47 am (CNA).The American arm of the worldwide Pontifical Mission Societies (TPMS) is celebrating yesterday's election of Pope Leo XIV. "The Pontifical Mission Societies in the USA rejoices in the historic election of the first pontiff from the United States of America, Leo XIV, Chicago native Robert Cardinal Prevost, a missionary at heart who served for many years as a priest and bishop bringing Christ and his Gospel to the people in rural Peru," said Monsignor Roger Landry, the organization's national director since January. "Together with all of our fellow American Catholics and citizens, and with all those served in the 1,124 missionary dioceses an...
Singaporean theology student Dominic Nalpon managed to arrive at the center of St. Peter's Square in time to hear the awaited "Habemus papam!" ("We have a pope!") announcement and see the new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, on May 8, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Dominic NalponRome Newsroom, May 9, 2025 / 12:26 pm (CNA).From Europe to the Asia Pacific, millions of Catholics are celebrating the election of U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV as the 267th leader of the Catholic Church.After news of "white smoke" began to spread across Rome, Singaporean theology student Dominic Nalpon managed to arrive at the center of St. Peter's Square in time to hear the awaited "Habemus papam!" ("We have a pope!") announcement and see the new Holy Father."My first impression of the new Pope Leo XIV was that he had a sense of presence about him," Nalpon told CNA on Thursday. "I was especially joyful at his name 'Leo' as it brings to mind two other popes of the same name who are dear to me.""Leo the Great who...
An explosive device detonates at St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of St. Teresa of Calcutta ParishCNA Staff, May 9, 2025 / 12:56 pm (CNA).Police in a small Pennsylvania town have arrested a man they claim detonated an explosive on the altar of a small Catholic chapel this week. Father Kevin Gallagher, the pastor at St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Mahanoy City, told CNA on Friday that on Tuesday, May 6, a man came into the parish chapel at around 9 p.m., "placed an explosive device on the altar, lit it, and then ran out." The device subsequently exploded, damaging a monstrance, the altar, the ceiling, and some stained-glass windows.Investigators thought the explosive might have been a quarter-stick of dynamite, Gallagher said.Police arrested 32-year-old Kyle Kuczynski shortly after the incident. He was charged with multiple crimes including arson.Kyle Kuczynski. Credit: Mahanoy City Police Departmen...
U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, May 9, 2025 / 13:32 pm (CNA).The U.S. Department of Justice says a recent data breach of a California consulting firm exposed data of Catholic clergy abuse survivors in nearly a dozen bankruptcy lawsuits. In a May 6 letter addressed to attorneys at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP, the Justice Department's Nan Eitel, the associate general counsel for Chapter 11 practice in the Executive Office for United States Trustees, said that late last month multiple government trustees received notice of a data breach at Berkeley Research Group (BRG).The Emeryville, California-based BRG offers corporate finance and economic consulting, including to Catholic dioceses in bankruptcy proceedings. The government's letter said the data breach had occurred on March 2 but that trustees were only first informed on April 28. The breach "affected multiple Chap...
Pope Leo XIV addresses cardinals in the Sistine Chapel during his first Mass as pope on Friday, May 9, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, May 9, 2025 / 13:52 pm (CNA).In his first Mass as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV called on the faithful to "bear witness to our joyful faith in Jesus the Savior" in a world where "a lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life." Preaching in the Sistine Chapel on May 9 to the cardinals who elected him, the first pope born in the United States opened his homily in English. "My brother cardinals, as we celebrate this morning, I invite you to recognize the marvels that the Lord has done, the blessings that the Lord continues to pour out on all of us through the ministry of Peter," the new pope said, speaking off the cuff.Pope Leo XIV incenses the altar of the Sistine Chapel during his first Mass as pope, Friday, May 9, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media "You have called me to carry that ...
From left, Cardinals Robert McElroy, Wilton Gregory, Blase Cupich, Joseph Tobin, and Timothy Dolan give a press conference on Pope Leo XIV in the hall of the Pontifical North American College in Rome on May 9, 2025. Cardinals Christophe Pierre and Daniel DiNardo (not pictured) also participated. / Credit: Patrick Leonard/EWTN NewsVatican City, May 9, 2025 / 14:19 pm (CNA).The United States cardinals who were part of the conclave that on Thursday elected Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, called him "a citizen of the world," in continuity with Pope Francis but with his own manner of doing things.At a May 9 press conference at the Pontifical North American College in Rome following Leo's election, seven cardinals fielded questions about participating in the conclave, the qualities of Pope Leo, and the impact of having an American pope.While Cardinal Robert McElroy, the new archbishop of Washington, D.C., expressed surprise at the election of a U.S.-born pope, something he...
