How pregnancy centers help women: Centers provide $450 million in value, report finds

Jessica Williams and her 3-year-old daughter were helped by First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life AmericaCNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 16:11 pm (CNA).When Jessica Williams became pregnant with another man's child while she and her husband were separated, her husband pressured her to abort the child.As soon as she took the first abortion pill, mifepristone, she regretted it. "As a nurse, the reality of what I had done had hit me hard," said Williams, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time. "Here I was working to save lives and about to take one of my own child's lives." But as a nurse, Williams knew that in spite of the pill cutting off the progesterone supply to her child, the baby might still be alive. She hadn't yet taken the second pill, misoprostol, which would expel the child from her body.  When she found a pregnancy center, First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas, staff immediately brough...

Catholic bishop calls Sheikh Hasina death sentence 'one-sided' and 'abuse of power'

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gestures while speaking to the media a day after she won the 12th parliamentary elections in Dhaka on Jan. 8, 2024. / Credit: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty ImagesDhaka, Bangladesh, Nov 17, 2025 / 16:58 pm (CNA).The secretary of the Bangladesh Catholic Bishops' Conference has criticized the death sentence given to ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as unilateral and politically motivated, reaffirming the Church's opposition to capital punishment.Bishop Ponen Paul Kubi, CSC, of the Mymensingh Diocese, told CNA that the verdict handed down Nov. 17 by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal was "one-sided" and that "the accused had no lawyer and that the current government used political power to give this verdict.""The Catholic Church has never supported the death penalty," Kubi said. "I think that even if Sheikh Hasina committed a crime, she should be punished in a way that is remedial."Describing the verdict as an abuse of power, ...

Pope Leo asks for liturgy that is 'sober in its solemnity' while respecting popular piety

Pope Leo XIV addresses diocesan liturgy officials during an audience on Nov. 17, 2025, at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Nov 17, 2025 / 19:40 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV urged parishes to invest in liturgical formation, especially for lectors, while also encouraging people to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and calling for attention to be paid to popular piety.While receiving participants in a course organized by the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of St. Anselm in Rome at the Apostolic Palace for diocesan liturgical pastoral workers, the Holy Father said that "in the dioceses and parishes there is a need for such formation" and encouraged the creation of "biblical and liturgical courses" in places where such formation programs are lacking.Through such courses, the pope said the institute could help local churches and parish communities "to be formed by the word of God, explaining the texts of the weekday and feast day Lectionary."For the pope...

Archdiocese of Detroit announces restructure due to shrinking numbers

Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. / Credit: Nheyob, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 14:05 pm (CNA).The Archdiocese of Detroit has announced a restructuring process that will lead to church closures and parish mergers as a result of declining church attendance, its archbishop said.Archbishop Edward Weisenburger announced in a letter over the weekend that due to a shrinking Catholic population in the archdiocese, a two-year restructuring process will see some parishes close while others will be collected into groupings called "pastorates," led by one pastor and his team.He said the "struggle to care for buildings and parish structures where there are very few people" is preventing the Church there to focus on "areas where the Church is growing." Weisenburger said that currently there are 900,000 Catholics in the archdiocese, and fewer than half of those attend Mass regularly. Many parish buildings were constructed at a time when ther...

Pope Leo XIV holds protection of minors 'deep in his heart'

Pope Leo XIV prays during a Mass at Sant'Anselmo Church, located at a Benedictine monastery on the Aventine Hill in Rome, on Nov. 11, 2025. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 14:35 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV sent a message Nov. 17 to participants in the meeting for "Building Communities that Protect Dignity," promoted by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.The Holy Father said that efforts to build communities where the dignity of minors and the most vulnerable is protected and promoted are a matter that he holds "deep in his heart."The pontiff explained that "dignity is a gift from God" and that it is not something obtained through merit or force but rather "a gift that precedes us: It is born from the loving gaze with which God has loved us individually and continues to love us.""In every human face, even when marked by weariness or pain, there is a reflection of the Creator's goodness, a light that no darkness can extinguish," he affirmed.T...

Robert George resigns from Heritage Foundation board over Kevin Roberts video

Professor Robert P. George speaks at Heritage Foundation event commemorating the 100th anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters on May 30, 2025. / Credit: Ronald WaltersWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 17, 2025 / 15:41 pm (CNA).Robert P. George, a Catholic academic focused on philosophy and law, resigned from his board position at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Nov. 17 after the think tank's leader Kevin Roberts posted a video defending Tucker Carlson's interview with Nick Fuentes.In the interview, Carlson and Fuentes bonded over criticism of Israel, and Carlson pushed back on Fuentes for tying his criticisms of Israel to Jewish identity and blaming "organized Jewry" for the American support of Israel. Jewish organizations and some conservative and other political commentators argued that Carlson platformed Fuentes' views and kept a friendly tone without adequately pushing back against antisemitic claims. Carlson allowed Fuentes to speak uninterrupted and challenged g...

St. Elizabeth of Hungary: The married princess who embraced poverty

"The Charity of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary," painted by Edmund Leighton, circa 1895. / Credit: Edmund Leighton, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).On Nov. 17, the Catholic Church celebrates the life and example of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, a medieval noblewoman who responded to personal tragedy by embracing St. Francis' ideals of poverty and service. A patron of secular Franciscans, she is especially beloved to Germans as well as the faithful of her native Hungary.As the daughter of the Hungarian King Andrew II, Elizabeth had the responsibilities of royalty thrust upon her almost as soon as her short life began in 1207. While she was still very young, her father arranged for her to be married to a German nobleman, Ludwig of Thuringia.The plan forced Elizabeth to separate from her parents while still a child. Adding to this sorrow was the murder of Elizabeth's mother, Gertrude, in 1213, which history ascribes to a conflict between her ow...

Pope Leo XIV shares lunch with more than 1,300 people in need at the Vatican

Pope Leo XIV shares lunch with people in need at the Vatican on November 16, 2025. / Daniel IbáñezVatican City, Nov 16, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV had lunch on Sunday with more than 1,300 people experiencing poverty and social exclusion, gathering with them in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall for a festive meal marking the World Day of the Poor.The hall was transformed into a vast dining room for the occasion. The event was organized by the Congregation of the Mission on behalf of Vincentian missionaries worldwide, who this year celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of their congregation and of the Daughters of Charity. Volunteers served lasagna, breaded chicken with potatoes, and the traditional Italian dessert babà.As on similar occasions in past years, the Vatican, through the papal almoner Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, invited a group of transgender people from the Roman seaside town of Torvaianica. Father Andrea Conocchia, a parish priest in Torvaianica, to...

Sacred music is good for the brain as well as the soul, neuroscientist says

Neuroscientist Kathlyn Gan says research shows music can help counter the mental decline that accompanies aging. / Credit: Terry O'NeillToronto, Canada, Nov 16, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Sixteen hundred years ago, St. Augustine was credited with saying, "He who sings, prays twice." Today, scientific research shows that he who sings, performs, or listens to music also enriches and strengthens his brain, according to Catholic neuroscientist Kathlyn Gan.Not only that, but sacred music may produce even more beneficial effects.Gan, who leads a research laboratory at the University of Toronto, delivered the uplifting news to about 50 people at an Oct. 30 talk at St. Francis de Sales in Burnaby, Ontario.In her hourlong presentation "The Neuroscience of Sacred Music," Gan, a former choir director and accompanist, described how research showing that music can be part of a healthy lifestyle that helps counter the mental decline that accompanies aging.Music can also help prevent the onset of ...

Pope Leo XIV: Where the world sees threats, the Church sees children

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on November 16, 2025. / Daniel IbáñezVatican City, Nov 16, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Celebrating Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor on the Ninth World Day of the Poor, Pope Leo XIV urged Christians not to retreat into a closed or "religious" world of their own, but to help make human society "a space of fraternity and dignity for all, without exception."Presiding in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday, the pope reflected on the "day of the Lord" and the upheavals of history, saying that Christ's promise remains secure even amid war, violence, and deep social wounds.Quoting the prophet Malachi, he described the "day of the Lord" as the dawn of a new era in which "the hopes of the poor and the humble will receive a final and definitive answer from the Lord," and recalled that Jesus himself is the "sun of righteousness" who comes close to every person. In the Gospel, he said, Christ assures his disciples that "Not a hai...