Church must take seriously the problems, needs of workers, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — All workers should feel welcomed by the church and know that...

Pope Francis meets Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege ahead of Congo trip

Pope Francis met Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege on Dec. 9, 2022. / Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, Dec 9, 2022 / 04:18 am (CNA).Pope Francis met Friday with Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, a Congolese physician known for his work treating victims of sexual violence.The private audience at the Vatican on Dec. 9 comes as Pope Francis is preparing to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) next month.Mukwege has said that he hopes the pope's January visit will "shed light on what is happening in the Congo.""The international community is making the same mistake as it did in Rwanda when it allowed the genocide of the Tutsis. Today Rwandan-backed guerrillas are massacring the Congolese: these are crimes against humanity, war crimes that can also be crimes of genocide. And the international community has closed its eyes as it closed them in 1994," he told Vatican News on Dec. 5.The M23 armed rebel group in the DRC executed 131 people last week "as part of a campa...

Gomez: Virgin of Guadalupe 'leads us to Jesus,' who shows way to peace

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Our Lady of Guadalupe “always leads us to Jesus, who will...

Cardinal brings spiritual closeness of Pope Francis to flood victims in Italy

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski visits the Italian island of Ischia Dec. 8, 2022, on behalf of Pope Francis to console victims of recent flooding there. / Credit: Holy See Press OfficeCNA Newsroom, Dec 9, 2022 / 13:00 pm (CNA).The prefect of the Dicastery for Charity, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, visited the Italian island of Ischia on behalf of Pope Francis to meet with the victims of recent floods.The floods took place in the early morning hours of Nov. 26 and have so far caused the deaths of 12 people, several serious injuries, and the evacuation of at least 200 people.The Holy Father asked Krajewski to travel on his behalf on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, to express his spiritual closeness.In an interview with the local press, the Vatican official said that he visited some homes of the relatives of the deceased and also prayed in the Church of the "Santissima Annunziata" ("The Most Holy Virgin of the Annunciation"), where some of the coffins with the bodies of...

Bishop: 'Nigeria is waiting' for justice in Pentecost Sunday church massacre

Altar of St. Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish of Ondo Diocese, Nigeria, where dozens were slain in a massacre on June 5, 2022. / Courtesy of ACNAdo Ekiti, Nigeria, Dec 9, 2022 / 12:05 pm (CNA).Six months after the Pentecost Sunday attack on St. Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish in Ondo Diocese, which left 39 Catholic worshipers killed and more than 80 injured, there have been arrests and promises but no prosecution, Bishop Felix Femi Ajakaye has lamented. "Dec. 5, 2022, is the sixth month of the evil attack, the dead have been buried and their people and other well-wishers are still in sorrowful moods," the leader of Ondo's neighboring Ekiti Diocese said in a Dec. 5 statement."Nigeria is still waiting."On Aug. 11, Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff General Lucky Irabor told journalists that four suspects allegedly involved in the June 5 attack had been arrested. He identified the suspects as Idris Omeiza (a.k.a Bin Malik), Momoh Abubakar, Aliyu Itopa, and Auwal Onimisi."More t...

In post-Roe Colorado, could a city ordinance keep out a late-term abortionist?

Ultrasound of a baby in the womb. / GagliardiPhotography/ShutterstockDenver, Colo., Dec 9, 2022 / 11:05 am (CNA).A proposed ordinance in the southern Colorado city of Pueblo would require abortion clinics to follow federal law and allow citizens to file a civil complaint against any clinics that violate the law. The proposal comes after news that late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart seeks to open an abortion clinic in the city.The proposal asks U.S. attorneys for the District of Colorado "to investigate and prosecute all abortion providers and abortion-pill distribution networks.""We call upon victims of abortion providers and abortion-pill networks to sue these criminal racketeering enterprises," the text says.The ordinance text cites federal provisions of the 1873 Comstock law, which bar sending abortion-related items in the mail. The proposed ordinance says federal law imposes criminal liability on those who ship or receive abortion pills or abortion-related paraphernalia in ...

Indiana abortion doctor drops lawsuit against state attorney general 

Indiana State Capitol. / Henryk Sadura via www.shutterstock.com.St. Louis, Mo., Dec 9, 2022 / 10:32 am (CNA).An Indiana abortion doctor, Caitlin Bernard, has voluntarily withdrawn her lawsuit against state attorney general Todd Rokita, whose office is investigating her after she publicly disclosed performing an abortion last summer on a 10-year-old Ohio child who was raped. Bernard in June performed an abortion on the girl, who traveled from Ohio to Indiana. Already known for her pro-abortion activism in Indiana, Bernard drew worldwide media attention to herself when she disclosed to the Indianapolis Star details about the abortion, though she did not name the patient. Ohio has a "heartbeat" abortion law in place, which took effect after the June 24 U.S. Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade, whereas Indiana at the time allowed abortions until 22 weeks' gestation. In late November, Rokita asked the state's medical licensing board to discipl...

Biden's transgender mandate suffers second big loss in appellate court

null / ShutterstockDenver, Colo., Dec 9, 2022 / 17:15 pm (CNA).The Biden administration may not force Catholic organizations and medical professionals to perform gender-transition surgeries or provide insurance coverage for them, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has said in a Dec. 9 ruling that cited religious freedom grounds."The federal government has no business forcing doctors to violate their consciences or perform controversial procedures that could permanently harm their patients," Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket legal group, said Friday. "This is a common-sense ruling that protects patients, aligns with best medical practice, and ensures doctors can follow their Hippocratic Oath to 'do no harm.'"Becket serves as legal counsel for a coalition of Catholic organizations representing hospitals, doctors, and clinics that had filed the legal challenge to the mandate issued by President Joe Biden's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS...

Media reaction to Club Q shooting scapegoated religion, Denver archbishop says

Archbishop Samuel Aquila / Denver CatholicDenver, Colo., Dec 9, 2022 / 17:00 pm (CNA).The "unmitigated tragedy" of a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub prompted "irresponsible" press coverage that wrongly scapegoated religious communities for their stands on sexual morality and identity, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver has said."This type of irresponsible commentary is increasingly common," he said, summarizing the assumption as "You don't accept what I believe, therefore you are not only wrong but hateful.""Unfortunately, the reaction has thus far fostered more vitriol and division than peace and unity as the press has blamed religious communities, including the Catholic Church, to which the shooter has no apparent connection," Aquila said.His comments come in a Dec. 8 commentary for the Wall Street Journal weeks after the Nov. 19 shooting.The alleged gunman, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, entered Club Q just before midnight on that Saturday and began s...

Former Jesuit Provincial on the Rupnik case: It is a tsunami of lack of transparency

Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, S.J., with the official image of the 10th World Meeting of Families in Rome. / Screenshot from Diocesi di Roma YouTube channel.Denver Newsroom, Dec 7, 2022 / 22:30 pm (CNA).In an unusual Twitter thread, Father Gianfranco Matarazzo, S.J., former Superior for the Euro-Mediterranean Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) demanded full transparency from his community in dealing with the current situation of noted Jesuit Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, S.J., accused of having abused several women religious from a Slovenian congregation almost 30 years ago."The 'Rupnik case' is a tsunami...of injustice, lack of transparency, questionable management, dysfunctional activity, personalized work, apostolic community sacrificed to the leader and unequal treatment," tweeted Matarazzo, who is currently the delegate for social ministry and abuse prevention for the dioceses of Sicily, Italy's southern island. With all my limitations,I am trying to give my lifeto the C...