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Matt Vallière (at left), executive director of the Patients Rights Action Fund, and Inclusion Canada CEO Krista Carr (at right) discuss opposition to assisted suicide at a Religion News Association panel moderated by EWTN News President Montse Alvarado (center) on April 4, 2025. / Credit: Ken Oliver/CNAWashington D.C., Apr 4, 2025 / 19:52 pm (CNA).Advocates for those with disabilities focused on what they call troubling trends in government-backed assisted suicide programs in the United States and Canada during a panel on the subject held Friday at the 2025 annual conference of the Religion News Association.Although physician-assisted suicide is still illegal in most parts of the world, the practice is currently legal in about a dozen countries, including Canada, Germany, Spain, and Belgium, along with 10 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.The phenomenon is causing growing concern for patients' rights advocates and disability rights advocates who have warned that jurisdic...
Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick arrives at Massachusetts' Dedham District Courthouse for his arraignment, Sept. 3, 2021. / Credit: Andrew Bukuras/CNACNA Staff, Apr 4, 2025 / 15:47 pm (CNA).Theodore McCarrick, the disgraced former cardinal and archbishop of Washington who spent decades moving in the highest circles in the Church and was later found guilty in a Vatican investigation of sexually abusing minors and adults, died April 3 at age 94. A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington on Friday shared a statement with CNA in which Cardinal Robert McElroy confirmed McCarrick's passing. McCarrick, who was reportedly suffering with dementia, had been living in a facility in rural Missouri. "Today I learned of the death of Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington. At this moment I am especially mindful of those who he harmed during the course of his priestly ministry. Through their enduring pain, may we remain steadfast in our prayers for them and for a...
Nuns of the Little Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus in Haiti. / Credit: Courtesy of Aid to the Church in NeedACI Prensa Staff, Apr 4, 2025 / 17:24 pm (CNA).Sisters Evanette Onezaire and Jeanne Voltaire, members of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, were murdered in Haiti by armed gangs that continue to sow chaos in several cities across the country.The news was confirmed April 2 by Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, following media reports of the attack perpetrated by members of a coalition of gangs known as "Vivre Ensemble" ("Living Together").The group stormed the town of Mirebalais in central Haiti on Monday, March 31, freeing some 500 prisoners from a jail, storming a police station, and setting fire to several homes, although the exact number of homes affected has not yet been determined.According to the pontifical institution, when the attack began, the nuns...
Father Arul Carasala served as a pastor in the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas for over 20 years. / Credit: Courtesy of Archdiocese of Kansas CityCNA Staff, Apr 4, 2025 / 18:12 pm (CNA).Police have arrested a man in connection with Thursday's shooting death of a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas.Gary Hermesch was taken into custody at the Nemaha County Jail under suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting of Father Arul Carasala, according to the Nemaha County Sheriff's Office. Carasala had been shot at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca on Thursday afternoon. The priest later died from his injuries at Nemaha Valley Community Hospital, according to a press release from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.The motive for the shooting was unclear as of Friday afternoon. An employee of the parish told the Associated Press that "an older man walked up to [Carasala] and shot him three times." Hermesch, 66, is reportedly a resident ...
Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick arrives outside Massachusetts' Dedham District Courthouse for his arraignment, Sept. 3, 2021. / Credit: Andrew Bukuras/CNACNA Newsroom, Apr 4, 2025 / 19:20 pm (CNA).The following is a timeline of important dates from the McCarrick Report and elsewhere regarding abuse allegations against recently deceased former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.Published by the Vatican on Nov. 10, 2020, the McCarrick Report examined the "institutional knowledge and decision-making" regarding McCarrick, who was found guilty of sexual abuse of minors and seminarians in 2019 and laicized after an expedited canonical investigation. July 7, 1930: Theodore Edgar McCarrick is born in New York City, the only child of Theodore E. and Margaret McLaughlin McCarrick.1954: McCarrick graduates from Fordham University in New York with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy.1954-1958: McCarrick attends St. Joseph's Seminary in New York and attains a master of arts degree...
Pilgrims walk through St. Peter's Square in September 2024. / Credit: Dorisb.83/ShutterstockVatican City, Apr 4, 2025 / 11:23 am (CNA).Pope Francis on Friday shared a message with Slovak pilgrims, including Slovakia's President Peter Pellegrini, in Rome for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.In a written message released by the Vatican, the Holy Father welcomed approximately 4,300 Slovak pilgrims who began their jubilee pilgrimage this week with the celebration of Mass at the Basilica of St. John Lateran."I would very much have liked to be present with you to share this moment of faith and communion, but I am still in convalescence and so I will join you through prayer and with all my affection," the pope's message read.Pellegrini on Thursday posted on X that he "promised" the Holy Father that he would join his country's national pilgrimage to Rome when he visited the Vatican in December of last year.Archbishop Bernard Bober of Košice, chair of the Conference of Slovak Bishops, is a...
Father Isaac Agabi, a parish priest in Nigeria's Diocese of Auchi, was abducted and tortured in 2020 and still suffers physical and psyschoigcal effects of his ordeal. / Credit: Courtesy of the Diocese of AuchiACI Africa, Apr 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).A priest in Nigeria's Diocese of Auchi who was abducted alongside a seminarian on Trinity Sunday 2020 recently spoke about his harrowing experience as an abductee, attributing his successful escape to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, on March 29 following three days of peaceful protest against kidnappings and killings in the Auchi Diocese, Father Isaac Agabi, 46, a parish priest, recounted his ordeal and recommended that major seminaries in Nigeria consider teaching seminarians survival tactics as well as crisis management.Agabi said he and a seminarian with whom he was traveling, Justice Chidi Mbonu (who is now a priest), were abducted on June 7, 2020, when they were ambushe...
Statue of St. Peter on St. Peter's Square at the Vatican / Daniel Ibáñez / CNACNA Newsroom, Apr 4, 2025 / 06:22 am (CNA).Pope Francis continues to show "slight improvement" in his respiratory condition as he receives ongoing medical care at the Vatican, according to the latest update from the Holy See Press Office on Friday.According to the Vatican, the pope's mood remains positive as his pharmaceutical, motor, and respiratory therapies continue. The Holy See also noted Sunday's Angelus might be conducted differently compared to recent weeks, with more details expected on Saturday.The 88-year-old pontiff has improved his respiratory function, mobility, and voice, while recent blood tests indicate a mild improvement in infection markers, Vatican officials said.Although the pope still requires supplemental oxygen, his need for it has slightly decreased. During the day, he receives standard oxygen therapy, while high-flow oxygen is administered through nasal cannulas at night...
null / Credit: Photo Spirit/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).According to data from the 2024 Cooperative Election Study (CES), the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion has largely stopped rising and has even slightly decreased among certain generations.The Harvard-run CES is conducted before and after U.S. presidential and midterm elections and is then uploaded for analysis to Harvard's "Dataverse" online repository. The study includes 60,000 American adults interviewed to survey how they vote.Ryan Burge, the research director for the religious outreach initiative Faith Counts, said on X on Wednesday that the 2024 data reveals a plateau in the country's population of "nonreligious" or "nones."NEW DATA IS OUT!!!!1!1!!!And guess what? The nones have stopped rising - for real, for real. Non-religious Boomers are down to 2020 levels. Gen X nones are 31%. The same as 2012. Millennial nones haven't budged since 2020. Among Gen Z...
Idaho Capitol in Boise. / Credit: Through the Lens of Life/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Apr 3, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:Idaho governor signs in utero human development education lawIdaho Republican Gov. Brad Little recently signed a law requiring public schools to teach students about human development in the womb. Last week Little signed the bill, which passed in the Idaho Senate in a 27-8 vote at the end of February and in the Idaho House 63-6 in March.The law requires schools to teach about fetal development in grades 5 through 12 beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. Lessons must include a high-definition ultrasound video at least three minutes long that shows the development of vital organs as well as a rendered or animated video showing the process of fertilization and the stages of human development within the uterus. Live Action founding president Lila Rose noted in a post on X that this would includ...
