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Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline has been elected president of the French bishops' conference, succeeding Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort as the Catholic Church in France continues responding to revelations of sexual abuse. / Credit: Laurent Coust/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesCNA Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline has been elected president of the French bishops' conference, succeeding Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort as the Catholic Church in France continues responding to revelations of sexual abuse.The 66-year-old archbishop of Marseille was elected on April 2 during the bishops' spring plenary assembly in Lourdes.Aveline will officially assume leadership of the conference on July 1 alongside newly elected vice presidents Archbishop Vincent Jordy of Tours and Bishop Benoît Bertrand of Pontoise.Aveline, who was born in Algeria and has served as a priest in Marseille for over 40 years, is known for his close relationship with Pope Fra...
Christians protest a recent attack on Catholics in Jabalpur on April 1, 2025. / Credit: Diocese of JabalpurBangalore, India, Apr 3, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) has condemned an attack on Catholic pilgrims visiting churches near the city of Jabalpur along with the beating of senior diocesan officials there. Allegedly injured in the assault was the vicar general and procurator of Jabalpur, who reportedly rushed to safeguard the pilgrims in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India."Reports indicate that this is not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing pattern and strategy to create communal polarization and hostility towards religious minorities," CBCI said in an April 1 press statement.The bishops urged the federal ministers "to intervene to ensure … stringent action" against the culprits.The CBCI described the assault on 52 pilgrims of Mandla parish as "deeply distressing." The pilgrims traveled over 60 miles to Jabalp...
The Council of Nicaea in 325 as depicted in a fresco in Salone Sistino at the Vatican. / Credit: Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsVatican City, Apr 3, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).The Vatican on Thursday released a historical document to recognize the opening of the Council of Nicaea, convened during the pontificate of Pope Sylvester I in 325. The International Theological Commission (ITC) published the in-depth document "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: The 1,700th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea" to highlight the significance of the Church's first ecumenical council, which defended the divinity of Jesus Christ as a profession of faith amid the spread of the Arian heresy."This anniversary occurs within the jubilee year, centered on the theme 'Christ Our Hope,' and it coincides with a shared celebration of Easter for Christians in both the East and the West," the ITC press release stated.The commi...
Tiananmen Square - Entrance to Forbidden City, Beijing, China. / Credit: 4H4Photography/ShutterstockRome Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).New restrictions from China's United Front ban foreign clergy from presiding over religious activities for Chinese people without the invitation of the Chinese government, severely limiting foreign missionary activity in the country.According to the regulations, which will go into effect on May 1, "collective religious activities organized by foreigners in China are restricted to foreign participants only" with few exceptions.The restrictions apply to believers of any religion, strictly prohibiting non-Chinese citizens residing in the country from establishing religious organizations, preaching without authorization, founding religious schools, producing or selling religious books, accepting religious donations, or recruiting Chinese citizens as religious followers.Published on April 1 by the National Religious Affairs Administration, a...
Human-rights lawyer Jared Genser is advocating on behalf of all Armenian prisoners of war and refugees of Nagorno-Karabakh and for true peace and stability between Armenia and Azerbaijan. / Credit: Free Armenian Prisoners campaignWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).A renowned international human rights lawyer is urging the Trump administration to fulfill its campaign promise and intervene on behalf of Armenian Christians as a recently negotiated peace agreement with Azerbaijan threatens to leave prisoners stranded."Our request up front to the administration has been quite clear: [A] deal for the release of Armenian Christian POWs must be a precondition to [a peace deal] moving forward, which has been the position of the administration," Washington, D.C.-based international human rights lawyer Jared Genser told CNA.Earlier this month, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the text of a peace agreement that would end nearly four decades of conflict between the emba...
A Planned Parenthood facility in Indianapolis. / Credit: Jonathan Weiss/ShutterstockAnn Arbor, Michigan, Apr 3, 2025 / 08:30 am (CNA).A coalition of pro-life organizations on Wednesday held rallies outside abortuaries to demand that Congress and the White House completely end the taxpayer subsidy of killing unborn human beings, nationally and at the state level.The Pro-Life Action League and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society promoted the April 2 Nationwide Day of Protest to Defund Planned Parenthood to redirect public funds away from abortion to instead go to health centers that affirm life. In an interview with CNA, Matt Yonke of the Pro-Life Action League pointed out that "Planned Parenthood provides less than 1% of annual pap tests and clinical breast exams but performs 42% of annual abortions in the U.S. They've been caught shielding child predators, defrauding Medicaid, and harvesting fetal tissue for profit." "Now with the Trump administration, it's time to put de...
A philosopher of science and technology, Father Ricardo Mejía Fernández is an expert in transhumanism. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Ricardo Mejía FernándezMadrid, Spain, Apr 3, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).In his new book "Integral Transhumanism," Spanish priest Ricardo Mejía Fernández examines the transhumanist movement as "a technological extension of traditional humanism."According to the definition of the Transhumanist Association, transhumanism "is a cultural and intellectual movement that affirms the possibility and necessity of improving the human condition, based on the use of reason applied within an ethical framework sustained by human rights and the ideals of the Enlightenment and humanism." In the book's prologue, the archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta, emphasizes that Mejía approaches the general transhumanist proposal from "a de-ideologized view of reality," like the child in Hans Christian Andersen's story who unabashedly declares that the emperor has no cloth...
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets with President Alar Karis of Estonia at the Vatican on April 3, 2025, to discuss local and regional issues including prospects of ending the Russia-Ukraine war. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Apr 3, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with President Alar Karis of Estonia at the Vatican on Thursday morning to discuss local and regional issues including prospects of ending the Russia-Ukraine war.During the April 3 audience, Parolin and Karis expressed appreciation for "good bilateral relations" between their two states as well as the "positive contribution" of local Catholic communities in the northern European nation.Approximately 6,700 Catholics live in Estonia, accounting for 0.5% of the country's total population. According to Statistics Estonia, the country's 2022 census showed the Catholic population grew from 0.4% in 2011 to 0.8% in 2021.The Vatican erected the Diocese o...
Asylum seekers wait for their CBP One appointments with U.S. authorities before crossing through El Chaparral port in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on Jan. 20, 2025. / Credit: GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 16:31 pm (CNA).Catholic and evangelical leaders are urging Christians to consider the "sobering" effects of mass deportation efforts by the government, arguing that ongoing aggressive immigration enforcement will be felt beyond those who are being deported. Church leaders with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, World Relief, and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity in their report "One Part of the Body" highlight the potential impacts of mass deportations on Christian families in the U.S."In the United States," the leaders write in the report, "immigrants from various countries form integral parts of the body of Christ. Most, of course, are lawfully present...
Vice President JD Vance speaks at a film-screening event April 1, 2025, at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Erin Granzow/Courtesy of the Heritage FoundationNational Catholic Register, Apr 2, 2025 / 17:03 pm (CNA).Vice President JD Vance hailed the accomplishments of the Trump administration in ushering in a return to democratic and faith-based values Tuesday evening at the screening of a documentary film series that warns a regime of "soft totalitarianism" threatens the United States and the West.In his remarks, Vance returned to the theme he raised in his February speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he criticized European Union leaders for undermining free speech and democracy."The ruling elite of the societies have become actively hostile to some of the very ideas that those countries were founded on in the first place," Vance said before an audience of about 100 people at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. In addition to Vance's sp...
