Catholic leader urges support for school choice, state aid amid voucher debate

Credit: Flamingo Images/shutterstockCNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).Although school vouchers were not on any statewide ballot in recent elections, the legislative push for and implementation of voucher programs is growing throughout the country, particularly in Republican-led states.While the programs continue to receive pushback from Democrats and teachers unions, traditionally conservative groups like home-schoolers and rural residents have been increasingly voicing their disapproval.David Tamisiea, executive director for the North Dakota Catholic Conference, said in a recent presentation at the Society for Catholic Social Scientists conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville that he was surprised when he first encountered Catholic parents who opposed educational choice in the form of school vouchers.He defined educational choice as "the idea that parents should have the freedom to choose the educational setting best suited to their child" and said that "to ...

Scotland's bishops sound alarm as key safeguards rejected in assisted suicide bill

The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Scotland's Catholic bishops and pro-life groups have raised alarms about the effects a proposed assisted suicide bill may have upon disabled and vulnerable people after a number of key amendments were rejected. / Credit: Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia CommonsEdinburgh, Scotland, Nov 11, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).Scotland's Catholic bishops and pro-life groups have raised alarms about the effects a proposed assisted suicide bill may have upon disabled and vulnerable people after a number of key amendments were rejected.Assisted suicide is currently illegal in Scotland, but if Liam McArthur's Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill becomes law, terminally ill adults will be given assistance to end their own lives.After the committee considering the bill on Nov. 4 rejected several amendments to make the bill safer, the president of the Scottish bishops' conferenc...

Cardinal Müller calls for overcoming ideological divisions in the Church

Cardinal Gerhard Müller. / Credit: La Sacristía de la VendéeMadrid, Spain, Nov 11, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called for overcoming ideological divisions within the Catholic Church in a Spanish-language interview on the "Sacristy of the Vendé" YouTube channel in which he reflects on the "instrumentalization" of abuse cases.Held last July, the interview was released this week after the coordinator of the priests' YouTube discussion group, Father Francisco José Delgado, was acquitted of charges of "inciting hatred" against the Holy See, interfering in the Vatican's investigation into the Sodality of Christian Life, and damaging the "good reputation" of layman José Enrique Escardó, one of the main proponents of the case against that apostolate.Müller stated that, since its inception, the Catholic Church has experienced divisions "because of these false doctrines, heresies, or pagan ideologies" ...

Broglio's leadership of bishops' conference included defense of religious freedom, immigration

USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio speaks at the bishops' spring meeting, Thursday, June 13, 2024. / Credit: USCCBWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 11, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).Archbishop Timothy Broglio's leadership of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) comes to an end Nov. 11 after a three-year term.Broglio, the archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, was elected to the office of president in November 2022. In his time, the USCCB has defended religious freedom and the right to life, opposed gender ideology, defended migrants, and promoted international peace.The USCCB voting guide continued to highlight abortion as its "preeminent priority" through the Broglio presidency. Because the conference represents the Church in Washington, D.C., this led to tension with the presidency of Joe Biden, which overlapped with Broglio's tenure.When Biden told an EWTN reporter that "not all" of the Catholic bishops oppose tax funds for abortion, B...

Vatican confirms investigation into alleged antisemitic act of Swiss Guard

Swiss Guards and faithful pilgrims holding olive branches line the processional route in St. Peter's Square for Palm Sunday celebrations, April 13, 2025. The ancient Vatican obelisk stands at the center of the square as clergy process toward the basilica. / Credit: Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN NewsVatican City, Nov 11, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).The Pontifical Swiss Guard this week opened an internal investigation to clarify an alleged act of antisemitism committed by one of its guards against two Jewish women in St. Peter's Square, the Vatican confirmed. "The Pontifical Swiss Guard received a complaint regarding an incident that occurred at one of the entrances to Vatican City State in which elements interpreted as antisemitic were allegedly detected," Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni stated on Monday.The reported incident took place during Pope Leo XIV's Oct. 29 general audience commemorating the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the 1965 declaration on the Church's r...

Soldier-turned-bishop St. Martin of Tours celebrated Nov. 11

St. Martin of Tours sharing his cloak with a beggar by François Joseph Thomas De Backer. / Credit: François Joseph Thomas De Backer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Nov 11, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).On Nov. 11, the Catholic Church honors St. Martin of Tours, who left his post in the Roman army to become a "soldier of Christ."Martin was born around the year 316 in modern-day Hungary. His family left that region for Italy when his father, a military official of the Roman Empire, was transferred there. Martin's parents were pagans, but he felt an attraction to the Catholic faith, which had become legal throughout the empire in 313. He received religious instruction at age 10 and even considered becoming a hermit in the desert.Circumstances, however, forced Martin to join the Roman army at age 15, when he had not even received baptism. Martin strove to live a humble and upright life in the military, giving away much of his pay to the poor. His generosity led to a life-cha...

Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to same-sex marriage decision

Kim Davis (at right) is pictured here in 2015, when she served as Clerk of the Courts in Rowan County, Kentucky. Citing a sincere religious objection, Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. / Credit: Ty Wright/Getty ImagesWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 10, 2025 / 18:12 pm (CNA).The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined a request to overturn its 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Kim Davis, a Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk from 2015 through 2019, petitioned the Supreme Court in July to reconsider the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which legalized same-sex civil marriages nationally.Davis requested the court also hear her case 10 years later after she made headlines for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She served multiple days in jail for contempt of court for violating a judicial order to issue the marriage licenses.Davis was ordered to pay more than $360,000 in damages and...

'The Sound of Music' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' among Pope Leo XIV's favorite films

Pope Leo XIV blesses a baby in St. Peter's Square during his general audience on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Nov 10, 2025 / 18:32 pm (CNA).The Vatican has revealed the names of Pope Leo XIV's favorite films, including "The Sound of Music" and "It's a Wonderful Life," upon announcing the Holy Father's upcoming meeting with the world of cinema on Saturday, Nov. 15.In total, the Vatican shared four titles of the "most significant films" for Leo XIV:'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946) by Frank CapraThe Christmas classic stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has sacrificed his dreams because of his sense of responsibility and generosity but feeling like a failure, he contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve. This prompts the intervention of his guardian angel (Henry Travers), who shows him all the good he has done for many people. 'The Sound of Music' (1965) by Robert WiseThe film tells the story of a postulant at a conven...

St. Leo the Great: The pope who clarified the humanity and divinity of Christ

The fresco of St. Leo the Great, doctor of the Church, in the cupola of the Church of St. Maximus of Turin, Italy. / Credit: Renata Sedmakova/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 10, 2025 / 13:25 pm (CNA).Throughout the last two millennia, the Catholic Church has only granted the title "doctor of the Church" to 38 saints, one of whom we celebrate today on Nov. 10: St. Leo the Great, the 45th bishop of Rome. Pope Leo I, who was the first pope to be remembered posthumously as "the great," began his papacy in 440 and served until his death in 461. During his pontificate, he worked to clarify doctrines related to Christ's human and divine natures.The pontiff was a "pope-theologian, but he's also known as a remarkable bishop," Thomas Clemmons, a professor of Church history at The Catholic University of America, told CNA, adding that "theologian popes are rare."St. Leo's papacy began nine years after the Council of Ephesus, which condemned Nestorius and the heresy of Nesto...

Pope Leo XIV warns AI could fuel 'antihuman ideologies' in medicine

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for his Sunday Angelus on Nov. 9, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaVatican City, Nov 10, 2025 / 16:06 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV warned Monday that artificial intelligence could exacerbate "antihuman ideologies" in medicine as Catholic doctors and moral theologians raise alarms about the future of AI in health care.In a message on Nov. 10 to an international congress on "Artificial Intelligence and Medicine: The Challenge of Human Dignity," hosted by the Pontifical Academy for Life, the pope said that ensuring "true progress" in medicine depends on keeping the dignity of every human at the forefront."It is easy to recognize the destructive potential of technology and even medical research when they are placed at the service of antihuman ideologies," Leo XIV said.Leo added that those responsible for integrating AI into medicine must remember that "health care professionals have the vocation and respo...