Bishops call for dialogue, offer help amid Ecuador protests

Demonstrators clash with riot police, nearby El Ejido park, in Quito, on June 24, 2022, in the framework of indigenous-led protests against the government. - Ecuador's government and Indigenous protesters accused each other of intransigence as thousands gathered for a 12th day of a fuel price revolt that has claimed six lives and injured dozens. After the most violent day of the campaign so far -- with police firing tear gas to disperse thousands storming Congress -- the government accused protesters of shunning a peaceful outcome. / Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty ImagesLima, Peru, Jun 24, 2022 / 18:00 pm (CNA).The bishops of Ecuador have called for dialogue in order to reach an agreement between the government and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which is leading nationwide protests that have left six dead."On behalf of the Ecuadorian Bishops' Conference, I wish to reaffirm our heartfelt call for the parties involved, setting aside any ext...

Supreme Court overturns Roe in anticipated Dobbs decision

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a 6-3 decision June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its...

New York State Catholic Conference 'troubled' by court's gun law ruling

WASHINGTON (CNS) — An official of the New York State Catholic Conference expressed disappointment with...

Families and forgiveness: Australian family shares their tragic story

ROME (CNS) — At 8 years old, Alex Abdallah knows that some people need more...

Read about the five Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade

Left to right, Supreme Court associate justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Brett M. Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil M. Gorsuch. / Courtesy of Supreme CourtDenver Newsroom, Jun 24, 2022 / 09:15 am (CNA).The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade with its landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision, issued Friday. For the first time in almost 50 years, the debate over legal abortion returns to the individual U.S. states, allowing many states to protect the lives of the unborn. Such protection efforts will still face strong opposition from foes who say individual autonomy should trump the right to life, and Congressional Democrats have pushed for federal legislation they say would "codify" Roe.Though the Dobbs decision falls short of nationwide protections for the unborn, it nonetheless represents a major victory for the decades of pro-life efforts to cultivate and promote jurists capable of rejecting Roe's deeply troubling precedent and al...

Even with successes, charter seen as a document that must adapt over time

WASHINGTON (CNS) — When Mike Hoffman decided to contact Archdiocese of Chicago officials in 2006...

UPDATE: New York State Catholic Conference 'troubled' by court's gun law ruling

WASHINGTON (CNS) — An official of the New York State Catholic Conference expressed disappointment with...

Biden calls Dobbs decision a 'tragic error', calls on Congress to codify abortion rights

U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the Supreme Court's decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade June 24, 2022 in Cross Hall at the White House in Washington, DC. / Alex Wong/Getty ImagesDenver Newsroom, Jun 24, 2022 / 13:55 pm (CNA).In a Friday press conference, U.S. President Joe Biden called on Congress to codify abortion access into federal law, following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade that morning. The court's decision returned the question of abortion policy to the states, which Biden labeled a "tragic error." He also said he had that day directed the Department of Health and Human Services to make abortion pills more widely available, and that he would do "everything in my power" to protect women traveling to obtain abortions.  "It's a sad day for the court and for the country," Biden, the nation's second Catholic president, said June 24.Calling abortion an "intensely personal decision," Biden wen...

Pontifical Academy of Life says overturning of Roe v. Wade 'challenges the world'

null / Vatican Media.Vatican City, Jun 24, 2022 / 12:54 pm (CNA).The Pontifical Academy of Life said Friday that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade "challenges the whole world.""The court's opinion shows how the issue of abortion continues to arouse heated debate. The fact that a large country with a long democratic tradition has changed its position on this issue also challenges the whole world," the Vatican academy wrote in a statement on June 24."The protection and defense of human life is not an issue that can remain confined to the exercise of individual rights, but instead is a matter of broad social significance. After 50 years, it is important to reopen a non-ideological debate on the place that the protection of life has in a civil society to ask ourselves what kind of coexistence and society we want to build," it said.The academy's statement was the first official reaction to the court's decision issued by an entity linked to the Roman Curia. Po...

Dobbs excerpts: Why the U.S. Supreme Court said Roe v Wade was 'egregiously wrong'

Associate Justice Samuel J. Alito Jr. / Screenshot from YouTube videoDenver Newsroom, Jun 24, 2022 / 12:08 pm (CNA).The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, saying that previous abortion rulings were "egregiously wrong from the start" and on a "collision course with the Constitution." Roe and other pro-abortion rights precedents were "an error that cannot be allowed to stand," and the abortion debate must now return to the states.The June 24 decision, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, concerned a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi under the name Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. It often echoes a draft decision leaked in May that thoroughly rebuked the pro-abortion decisions Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, respectively issued in 1973 and 1992 by Republican-majority courts.Alito's decision was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Thomas and Kavanaugh also filed concurring opinions.Chief Justice J...