Canadian politician introduces bill to stop MAID expansion for mental illness

Canadian member of Parliament from Cloverdale-Langley City in British Columbia, Tamara Jansen, has introduced a private member's bill to stop the expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness alone. / Credit: ParlVu screen imageVancouver, Canada, Jul 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Canadian member of Parliament (MP) from Cloverdale-Langley City in British Columbia, Tamara Jansen, has introduced a private member's bill to stop the expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAID) for mental illness alone.Jansen's Bill C-218 would amend the criminal code to prevent mental disorders from being considered a "grievous and irremediable medical condition" for the purposes of MAID.The bill was read a first time in the House of Commons on June 20 and is scheduled for second reading at the next sitting of the House.Speaking in the House, Jansen said: "Imagine your son or daughter battling depression for some time, after losing a job or maybe a broken relationship. Imagine the...

Diocese of Fresno officially files for bankruptcy amid more than 150 abuse claims

null / Credit: Minerva Studio/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Jul 2, 2025 / 11:17 am (CNA).The Diocese of Fresno in California filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 1, seeking to address more than 150 abuse claims filed there in what Bishop Joseph Brennan said was part of a "journey of conversion through contrition."Brennan announced the filing via a video message on Tuesday. The bishop's message comes more than a year after he announced, in May 2024, that the diocese would seek the bankruptcy filing.The prelate said the filing was "the only path that will allow us to handle claims of sexual abuse with compassion that is fair and equitable while simultaneously ensuring the continuation of ministry within our diocese."As with other dioceses in California and the U.S., the Fresno Diocese is facing a large number of allegations of clergy abuse. Brennan said last year that plaintiffs had lodged 154 sex abuse complaints against the Church there.Those filings were made under a California la...

Pope Leo XIV's marriage advice? Keep calm and pray the rosary

Newlyweds Anna and Cole Stevens meet Pope Leo XIV at the general audience in Rome on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of Anna and Cole StevensVatican City, Jul 2, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV recently offered marriage advice to a young American couple days after their wedding, sharing how he was blessed by the example of his own parents who prayed the rosary together every day.Newlyweds Cole and Anna Stevens received Pope Leo's personal blessing for their marriage during one of the pope's first general audiences under the hot Roman summer sun on June 11, just four days after their wedding at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham, Alabama.Newlyweds Anna and Cole Stevens meet Pope Leo XIV at the general audience in Rome on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Credit: Courtesy of Anna and Cole StevensThe moment, captured on video, became an unexpectedly intimate exchange with the American pope, who responded warmly to their question of how best to pray together as a marri...

Religious freedom report: Russia guilty of 'severe' violations against religious minorities

Palace of the Senate of the Russian Empire in Moscow. / Credit: Angel Miklashevsky, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 09:29 am (CNA).Russia continues to perpetuate "particularly severe" religious liberty violations against minority groups within its own country and the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, according to a new report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).The June 30 report, which detailed religious liberty violations throughout 2024 and the beginning of 2025, found continued "intense persecution" of Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians.Within Russia's borders, the report also found numerous religious liberty violations against human rights activists, independent media, anti-war protesters, and others who belong to minority religious groups."Russian authorities abuse vague and problematic laws to target religious communities that do not conform to state authorit...

Vatican grants exemption from Traditional Latin Mass restrictions to Texas parish

An exemption to the restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass has been granted to a parish in the Archdiocese of San Angelo, Texas. / Credit: James Bradley, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 14:51 pm (CNA).The Vatican has granted a parish in Texas an exemption from restrictions to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) imposed by Pope Francis' encyclical Traditionis Custodes. The exemption, requested by Bishop Michael Sis on Feb. 6, was granted to St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas.No other such exemption by Pope Leo XIV has been reported since the start of his pontificate. "The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments informed me in a decree of May 28, 2025, that my request has been granted for a further two years for a dispensation from article 3§2 of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, so that Mass according to the 'Missale Romanum' of 1962 may be celebrated in the parish...

Pope Leo XIV appoints Texan bishop to shepherd the Diocese of Austin

Bishop Daniel E. Garcia. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of AustinVatican City, Jul 2, 2025 / 13:49 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Daniel Garcia of Monterey, California, as the sixth bishop of Austin, Texas.After leading the Diocese of Monterey for more than six years since 2018, Garcia, 64, has returned to his home state of Texas to serve the Austin Diocese as its leader.At a July 2 press conference held by the Diocese of Austin, Garcia gave thanks to God for the local Church, which he described as "diverse in ethnicity, race, language, and way of life.""I was ordained a priest for this local Church in May of 1988," he said on Wednesday. "It is filled with people of so many great gifts and talents and it is my hope to reacquaint myself with all of you whom I have known and get to know you whom I have not yet met."During his address given in English and in Spanish, the bishop emphasized that the Church and civil society cannot forget the "poor, the weak, and...

Pope Leo XIV: Environment should not be a 'bargaining chip' to wield power, exploit poor

The Vatican Gardens at Castel Gandolfo in Italy. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNAVatican City, Jul 2, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV declared that nature should not be a "bargaining chip" in his message announcing the theme "Seeds of Peace and Hope" for the 10th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, set for Sept. 1.Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', released 10 years ago, the Holy Father said the "Bible provides no justification for us to exercise 'tyranny over creation'" and should therefore not be exploited."Nature itself is reduced at times to a bargaining chip, a commodity to be bartered for economic or political gain," Leo said. "As a result, God's creation turns into a battleground for the control of vital resources."The pope said poor nations, marginalized societies, and Indigenous communities are destabilized and penalized as a result of conflicts over water and natural resources as well as the destruction of forests and agricultural ...

Dominican Father Ambrose Little appointed new director of Thomistic Institute

The Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 18:37 pm (CNA).An organization encouraging the presence of "the Catholic intellectual tradition" in universities across the globe has a new leader. Dominican Father Ambrose Little has been appointed the new director of the Thomistic Institute (TI), a position held for the past seven years by Father Dominic Legge, OP, who has now been named president of the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies."The Thomistic Institute is one of the most dynamic apostolates in the Church, and we are immensely proud that it is an institute of our Pontifical Faculty," Legge said in a statement. "It is very dear to my heart! Serving as the TI director has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. I am therefore delighted to announce that, as my first official act as president, I have appointed Father Ambrose Little, OP, as the new...

UN delegation makes surprise visit to Catholic parish in Gaza

People gather at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family on Palm Sunday in al-Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on March 24, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. / Credit: AFP via Getty ImagesStockholm, Sweden, Jul 2, 2025 / 18:17 pm (CNA).A United Nations delegation made a surprise visit on Tuesday to Holy Family Parish, the only Latin-rite Catholic Church in Gaza, which hosts hundreds of people displaced by the war. According to Servizio Informazione Religiosa (SIR), the news agency of the Italian bishops' conference, representatives from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) visited the parish on July 1 to survey the current situation there. "It was their first visit here to the parish," Argentine Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Holy Family Parish, told SIR. "The delegation wanted to check on our conditions, greeted our displaced people, and gathered their testimonies of ...

Pope Leo XIV encourages Ukrainian bishops during meeting at the Vatican

Pope Leo XIV greets Sviatoslav Shevchuk, primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, on July 2, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Jul 2, 2025 / 17:47 pm (CNA).Following last week's meeting with pilgrims from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday received in audience the bishops who are members of the Ukrainian church's synod.Noting that the encounter is taking place in the context of the jubilee year, in the July 2 meeting Leo recalled the words of Pope Francis, who said that "hope does not disappoint, because it is founded on the love of God in Christ Jesus, Our Lord."In the context of the bloody war in Ukraine, the Holy Father acknowledged that "it is not easy to talk about hope to you." "It is not easy to find words of consolation for the families who have lost their loved ones in this senseless war," he said.Addressing the Ukrainian bishops, he noted that they are "in contact every day with pe...