Over 2 dozen Planned Parenthood facilities shut down amid federal funding losses

In recent months, more than two dozen Planned Parenthood locations have announced they will close. / Credit: Jonathan Weiss/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 17:25 pm (CNA).More than two dozen Planned Parenthood facilities across the country in recent months have announced plans to shut down amid funding concerns caused by new federal rules that prevent the abortion giant from receiving Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.As of Friday, July 25, the growing number of Planned Parenthood facility closures has reached at least 25, which span across 10 states. The most recent announcement came yesterday, July 24, with Planned Parenthood Mar Monte indicating its plan to shut down five facilities in northern California.On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which put a one-year freeze on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements for Planned Parenthood. The provision is being challenged in court, but a federal judge this week allowed th...

Escalating child famine in Gaza: UN, Church leaders plead for urgent aid access

Palestinian children shove to receive a meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025. The head of Gaza's largest hospital said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, amid a devastating assault by Israeli forces. / Credit: AFP via Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 25, 2025 / 13:23 pm (CNA).The humanitarian organization United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has reported that "1 in every 5 children is malnourished in Gaza City" and cases continue to "increase every day."In a post to the social media platform X, Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini wrote that "when child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold."As "more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger," UNRWA is urging "humanitarian partners to bring u...

Firing was 'a shock' for theologian Ralph Martin

Ralph Martin appears on a December 2020 episode of "EWTN Live." / Credit: EWTNNational Catholic Register, Jul 25, 2025 / 13:53 pm (CNA).Prominent Catholic theologian Ralph Martin says Detroit's new archbishop told him he fired him from the archdiocese's seminary faculty over undefined "concerns about my theological perspectives."Martin, 82, who had taught at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit since 2002, said Archbishop Edward Weisenburger told him Wednesday he "was terminating my position at the seminary effective immediately.""When I asked him for an explanation, he said he didn't think it would be helpful to give any specifics but mentioned something about having concerns about my theological perspectives," Martin said in a written statement Thursday afternoon."This news came as a shock," Martin said. "I have contributed much to the seminary over more than 23 years. I even helped introduce and lead, up until yesterday, our flagship pontifical degree program, the Licentia...

UPDATE: Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's incorrupt body to be in Rome for Jubilee of Youth

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24 in 1925, is beloved by many Catholic young people today for his enthusiastic witness to holiness that reaches "to the heights." / Credit: Public domainVatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 14:23 pm (CNA).Update: The Vatican's jubilee office on Tuesday, July 8, removed posts on its website and social media pages referring to plans to expose Frassati's relics as described below. However, the Diocese of Rome confirmed on July 22 that Frassati's incorrupt body will be in Rome for veneration. The coffin holding the incorrupt body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will be in Rome for veneration during the Jubilee of Youth July 26 through Aug. 4.According to the Diocese of Rome, the coffin will be transferred from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, in the Italian region of Piedmont, to the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.The official opening of the veneration will take place on July 26 with a Mass celebrated by ...

Pope Leo XIV gives priests 3 tips to build a solid Catholic formation on 'rock'

Pope Leo XIV on July 25, 2025, addresses priests belonging to the Society of St. Xavier and participants of a monthlong seminary formators course at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Jul 25, 2025 / 14:53 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV offered three brief suggestions to two groups of priests he met at the Vatican on Friday morning, saying a "solid and integral formation" is essential for all Catholic faithful but especially for those who give Christian formation.In his July 25 address to priests belonging to the Society of St. Xavier and participants of a monthlong seminary formators course at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, the Holy Father said the main purpose of formation is to have "the same mind" as Jesus Christ and "reflect the Gospel.""Indeed, it is necessary that the 'house' of our life and vocational journey, whether priestly or lay, be founded on 'rock,'" the pope said Friday.The formation of priests, l...

Baltimore Archdiocese holds third annual gun buyback program amid declining gun crime

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is hosting a gun buyback program for the third year in a row. / Credit: Sean Pavone/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Jul 25, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).The Archdiocese of Baltimore will host a gun buyback event for the third year in a row, urging citizens to surrender their guns for cash as the city continues to see declining gun crime rates.The archdiocese hosted successful gun buyback events in 2023 and 2024. The program raised tens of thousands of dollars each year to help finance the purchasing of guns.The archdiocese says on its website that the event will take place Aug. 9 in the southwestern part of the city. The Baltimore City Police Department, St. Joseph's Monastery Parish, and the Health by Southwest coalition will join the archdiocese in supporting the buyback.The 2023 program netted nearly 160 handguns as well as shotguns and rifles. Handguns and long guns were purchased for $200 apiece, while assault weapons were bought for $300. All of the purchased...

With Church as facilitator, Colombian armed group to hand over 13 tons of weapons

Cathedral of Bogotá, Colombia. / Credit: Eduardo Berdejo/ACI PrensaACI Prensa Staff, Jul 25, 2025 / 10:10 am (CNA).An armed group in Colombia pledged to hand over for destruction 13.5 tons of weapons to the Colombian government after reaching an agreement facilitated by the Catholic Church.The agreement, known as Accord No. 12, was signed July 19 following talks between the government and the armed group known as the National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army (CNEB, by its Spanish acronym) held in the Inda Zabaleta Indigenous Reserve in the town of Tumaco.Representatives of President Gustavo Petro's government and the CNEB, as well as the bishops' delegate for church-state relations, Monsignor Héctor Fabio Henao, were present at the meeting.In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, Henao explained that the Church representatives "are permanent facilitators at the [negotiating] table, along with the United Nations.""Our role is to connect the territo...

Excitement in Tanzania as over 200 young people prepare for Jubilee of Youth in Rome

Over 200 young people from Tanzania are traveling to Rome as pilgrims to the Jubilee of Youth, an event that is part of the ongoing 2025 Jubilee Year. / Credit: AMECEA/Vatican MediaACI Africa, Jul 25, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Over 200 young people from Tanzania are traveling to Rome as pilgrims to the Jubilee of Youth, an event that is part of the ongoing 2025 Jubilee Year. It is a huge number, coming from Africa, where denied visa applications have blocked many youth from participating in the global July 28 to Aug. 3 event.Father Liston Lukoo, head of the Youth Department of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), told ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, that excitement is high among those set to travel to Rome for the event. For many, this is the first time they are setting foot outside their native country, he said. But their biggest anticipation is to visit the Vatican, and if fortunate, shake hands with the new pontiff, Pope Leo XIV.Asked to describe the mood of t...

White House releases U.S. plan for AI as Catholics say it must uphold human dignity

null / Credit: maxuser/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 24, 2025 / 17:53 pm (CNA).This week the White House released its plan for artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States, which aims "to achieve global dominance in AI" and promote "human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people." The plan comes as Catholic leaders continue to urge developers to exercise caution when growing and refining the new technology.The government's "Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan" identifies more than 90 federal policy actions within the categories of "accelerating innovation, building American AI infrastructure, and leading in international diplomacy and security."The White House announcement laid out the key policies the AI plan will focus on, including sharing technology with allies around the world, developing data centers, and stripping away red tape around AI development.The government will also focus on "updating fe...

Exclusive: Gaza priest injured in Israeli bombing discusses impact on parish community

Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family who was wounded in a recent strike on the church, stands before the altar during a Sunday morning Mass held by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem at the church in Gaza City on July 20, 2025. / Credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 24, 2025 / 18:13 pm (CNA)."Thanks be to God more people weren't harmed," said Father Gabriel Romanelli in an exclusive interview with EWTN on July 24 in the wake of the July 17 bombing of his parish, Holy Family Church in Gaza, which left three dead and 15 wounded, including himself. "It was a shocking experience," Romanelli told "EWTN Noticias" in the Spanish-language interview, noting that while the parish grounds were struck toward the beginning of the war in December 2023, last week's attack marked the first time the church itself was hit. The front of the church was hit in a strike that Israeli officials have said was an ...