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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...
Bishop Mark Seitz speaks at a rally for immigrants and refugees at the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, on Monday, March 24, 2025. / Credit: Father Miguel Briseño, OFMWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 25, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).The Diocese of El Paso, Texas, held a march and vigil in solidarity with migrants and refugees in the city center on Monday evening, with Bishop Mark Seitz criticizing the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement as a "war on the poor." "I am very grateful that we have come together this evening as a borderland community," Seitz said during remarks delivered at the vigil. "How wonderful it is to have moments when we can celebrate and recommit to who we are, and to do so in the presence of God." Clergy participate at a rally for immigrants and refugees in the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, on Monday, March 24, 2025. Credit: Father Miguel Briseño, OFMThe event fell on the 45th anniversary of the killing of St. Oscar Romero, an El Salvador...
null / Credit: Cassiohabib/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 25, 2025 / 14:30 pm (CNA).Catholic nurse practitioner Gudrun Kristofersdottir recently agreed to a settlement in a religious discrimination case against CVS, her lawyers have announced. Kristofersdottir initially filed a lawsuit in 2024 following her termination from a Florida CVS MinuteClinic after she refused to prescribe contraceptives or drugs that could cause abortions.The nurse practitioner was originally granted a religious accommodation from 2014 to 2022 that allowed her to refuse to prescribe contraceptives and abortifacients.First Liberty Institute, which represented Kristofersdottir in the suit, said that when patients sought out contraceptives from Kristofersdottir, she would simply refer them to a different provider who would prescribe the medication. In 2021, CVS announced it would revoke all such religious accommodations. Kristofersdottir was subsequently fired in April 2022. Upo...
Rody Sher, editor-in-chief of ACI MENA, speaks on the second anniversary of ACI MENA in 2024 at the Catholic University in Erbil, Iraq, where the agency is based. This year marks three years since ACI MENA began its mssion to report on the Church and the lives of Christians in the Middle East. / Credit: ACI MENAACI MENA, Mar 25, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).March 25 marks the third anniversary of ACI MENA, the Association for Catholic Information in the Middle East and Northern Africa, CNA's Arabic-language news partner. A service of EWTN News, ACI MENA was established in 2022 and currently operates from the Catholic University in Erbil, a city in northern Iraq. Since its founding, ACI MENA has established itself as a trusted news source, committed to shedding light on the struggles of Middle Eastern Christians. In a short time, the news agency has become their voice, highlighting their resilience, creativity, and determination, showcasing their rich religious and cultural herita...
