Cardinal Schönborn retires as Vienna archbishop on 80th birthday

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn (left) shakes hands with Father Josef Grünwidl, whom Pope Francis appointed as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Vienna on Jan. 22, 2025. / Credit: Archdiocese of Vienna / Stephan SchönlaubRome Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 07:04 am (CNA).Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, concluded his term as archbishop of Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday, his 80th birthday, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.Schönborn, a theologian who led Austria's most populous archdiocese for three decades, helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church and chaired the Austrian bishops' conference for 22 years. He is currently chairman of Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals.The Vatican announced Jan. 22 that Pope Francis had accepted Schönborn's resignation and appointed an apostolic administrator, Father Josef Grünwidl, to oversee the Vienna archdiocese until the appointment of Schönborn's successor."The fact that Rome has created an interim solution shows us tha...

U.S. bishops voice concern over immigration, gender policies in religious freedom report

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 22, 2025 / 10:20 am (CNA).Policies related to immigration, gender ideology, abortion, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are among the top religious liberty concerns heading into 2025, according to a report published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).The USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty on Jan. 16 issued its Annual Report on the State of Religious Liberty, which highlights the legislative actions, potential executive actions, and U.S. Supreme Court cases the bishops are closely watching."We can become anxious that our unpopular positions on issues such as the dignity of all human life and the nature of marriage and the human person require us to compromise our integrity in order to secure political victories," Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, wrote in the f...

CNA official X account compromised, working with X Support

null / Thomas Lefebvre (CC0 1.0).CNA Newsroom, Jan 20, 2025 / 22:07 pm (CNA).On Jan. 20 Catholic News Agency's official X account, @cnalive, was compromised, and used to publish scam-related posts on the platform. The EWTN News digital media team is actively taking complete control of the account.EWTN News is working with the X Support team. We will notify you when the problem has been resolved.  In the meantime, all users are asked to refrain from clicking on any strange links or posts that may be made in this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.This is a developing story.

What would happen if the U.S. Department of Education closed under Trump?

The U.S. Department of Education sign hangs over the entrance to the federal building housing the agency's headquarters on Feb. 9, 2024, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: J. David Ake/Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Jan 21, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).During his campaign for the presidency, President Donald Trump said in a video posted in October 2024 that he would close the U.S. Department of Education and send education "back to the states." This would require an act of Congress. But as commentators and activists speculate on what the new Trump administration may bring, CNA took a closer look at how the Department of Education impacts Catholic education and what shuttering it might look like.Though private education doesn't receive government funding, private schools often work with the Department of Education to enable their students to receive benefits from the variety of taxpayer-funded programs the department offers.Reestablished under President Jimmy Carter in 1978 to collect data, the Dep...

The origins of St. Agnes, child saint and martyr

A lamb is wreathed in flowers during a special Mass for the feast of St. Agnes at the Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Wall on Jan. 21, 2014. / Credit: Paul Badde/CNACNA Staff, Jan 21, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).The stories surrounding St. Agnes' life and death are varied. We know the place of her burial, her approximate age, and the place where she was martyred. Much less is known about her life, though there are many stories passed down since her martyrdom in the fourth century.The Roman Catholic Church celebrates her feast day every Jan. 21, the day of her death. She was only about 12 or 13 year old when she was martyred in A.D. 304, but she has been honored by the Church for more than 1,700 years.The altar dedicated to St. Agnes of Rome in the Sant'Agnese in Agone, a 17th-century Baroque church in Rome, located where the saint was martyred in the ancient Stadium of Domitian. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNAToday, the saint's skull resides in a side chapel of the church Sant'Agnese in ...

Protestant leader at interfaith service calls on Trump to 'have mercy' on migrants, LGBTQ

Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde (left) arrives as U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington, DC.. / Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 21, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).At the interfaith prayer service held at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday morning, an Episcopal bishop challenged President Donald Trump, urging him to "have mercy" on migrants and those who identify as members of the gay, lesbian, and transgender community."Let me make one final plea, Mr. President," Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington said at the conclusion of her sermon."Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of [a] loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared," Budde continued."There are gay, lesbian, ...

PHOTOS: Catholic public figures take part in inauguration festivities in Washington

Political commentator and writer Matt Walsh is seen at Turning Point USA's Inaugural Eve Ball on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Migi Fabara/EWTNCNA Staff, Jan 21, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).Numerous notable Catholic celebrities and public figures attended festivities surrounding Donald Trump's swearing-in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday.Trump has made headlines by choosing several Catholics to serve in his Cabinet and other parts of his administration, most prominently among them with the selection of Vice President JD Vance.Among the other Catholics whom Trump has chosen for his Cabinet are environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., three-term Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, and former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy.Over several days in Washington, including several inaugural balls that took place throughout the weekend, there were numerous well-known Catholic figures and celebrities in attendance showing their support ...

Pope Francis emphasizes 'ecumenical vocation' of all Christians

Pope Francis meets with an ecumenical delegation from Finland on Jan. 20, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Jan 21, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).Pope Francis on Monday emphasized the ecumenical vocation shared by Christians during an audience held at the Vatican with Finnish representatives of various Christian denominations who have made a pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the feast of St. Henry, celebrated Jan. 19.The Jan. 20 meeting took place in the Vatican Apostolic Palace and was attended by the head of the Finnish Orthodox Church, Archbishop Elia of Helsinki, as well as Catholic Bishop Raimo Goyarrola of the Diocese of Helsinki and Bishop Matti Salomäki of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.The Holy Father stressed that bearing witness to the incarnate love of Christ "is our ecumenical vocation, in the communion of all the baptized."As part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the 2025 Jubilee Year, the pontiff stressed that St. Henry, the...

In bid to 'put America first,' Trump again withdraws U.S. from Paris climate accord

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Jan 21, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).President Donald Trump on Monday once again withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, backing the country out of the nine-year-old climate accord and billing the move as both an economic and environmental boon to the U.S. The president issued the executive order as part of a flurry of directives he signed within hours of taking the oath of office for the second time. The Paris Agreement, an international accord to limit carbon emissions in an effort to halt climate change, has been signed by nearly 200 countries since it was first proposed in 2016. The agreement aims to keep global temperatures from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. The U.S. first entered into the agreement in 20...

New study reveals decades of abuse cases in northern Italian diocese

Ulrich Wastl shows copies of the abuse report for the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone at its presentation in Bolzano, Italy, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. The 635-page document, published in both Italian and German, details investigations into abuse cases spanning from 1964 to 2023. / Credit: Diocese of Bolzano/Jan KusstatscherCNA Newsroom, Jan 21, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).A pioneering probe into clerical abuse in northern Italy's Bolzano-Bressanone Diocese has uncovered 67 cases involving 59 victims over a nearly 60-year period, according to a study released Monday.The 635-page report examined cases from 1964 to 2023 in the northern Italian region of Alto Adige-Südtirol and identified 41 clergy members as alleged perpetrators.However, researchers could definitively confirm allegations against only 29 of the accused, while claims against the remaining 12 clergy could not be verified with sufficient certainty.In what researchers called a "surprising" finding, more than 51% of the victims...