U.S. bishops pass directive forbidding transgender surgeries at Catholic hospitals

Mercy Health Perrysburg Hospital in Perrysburg, Ohio. / Credit: Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).Catholic hospitals in the United States are explicitly forbidden from carrying out transgender-related surgeries on individuals who believe themselves to be the opposite sex, the U.S. bishops said this week.The prelates, gathered at the plenary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore, voted on Nov. 12 to direct hospitals to "preserve the integrity of the human body" when treating individuals with gender dysphoria.Such individuals often seek surgery to make their bodies conform to that of the opposite sex. But in updated guidance, the bishops said that while Catholic health care providers must employ "all appropriate resources" to mitigate the suffering of such patients, they can use "only those means that respect the fundamental order of the human body."The new rule makes into explicit USCCB policy what the bishops expressed in a doct...

U.S. bishops receive briefing on artificial intelligence

Paul Scherz briefs bishops about artificial intelligence at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNABaltimore, Maryland, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:50 pm (CNA).The U.S. bishops received a briefing on the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) from Paul Scherz at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.Scherz, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, has studied the ethics of AI. At the Nov. 12 meeting, Scherz highlighted some of his findings and shared how the bishops should approach the technology within their dioceses.AI technologies "have great potential to contribute to human flourishing and the common good," Scherz said. "But note that it would be a mistake to describe these programs as intelligent in the same way that humans are.""They lack consciousness and any kind of subjective relationship to the world...

Numbers down but engagement up among youngest U.S. Catholic adults, survey finds

null / Credit: Wirestock Creators/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Nov 13, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).According to a new survey, engagement among U.S. adults who identify as Catholic is strong, especially among the youngest adults, and there is growing trust in the Church after the fallout of the clergy sexual abuse crisis of the early 2000s.In July, Leadership Roundtable commissioned a polling firm to conduct a national survey of Catholics in the U.S. in order to inform Church leaders of problems as well as strengths within the Catholic Church since the sexual abuse crisis came to national attention in 2002 and the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was composed to address it.Researchers composed a 72-question survey and divided respondents into three groups: the Faithful (1,541 respondents), the Occasional (472 respondents), and the Disengaged (1,020). The Faithful said they attend Mass at least monthly, the Occasional said they go a few times a year, and the Disengaged...

Vatican, German bishops continue dialogue on synodal body

Representatives of the Roman Curia and the German bishops' conference meet to discuss the proposed Synodal Conference statute at the Vatican on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Deutsche Bischofskonferenz/KoppEWTN News, Nov 13, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).Representatives of the Roman Curia and the German bishops' conference met on Wednesday to continue discussions on the proposed statute of a "synodal conference" for the Church in Germany, marking the fourth such dialogue since talks began in 2022.The meeting, held in Rome on Nov. 12, took place in what a joint press statement described as an "honest, open, and constructive atmosphere," with both sides discussing various aspects of the planned synodal body's character, composition, and competencies.No further details of the encounter were shared. The proposed conference concept represents the latest iteration of plans to establish a permanent body in Germany in the wake of the controversial Synodal Way, following repeated inte...

Mother Frances Cabrini: The unsinkable saint who missed the Titanic

A photo of St. Frances Cabrini from 1880, the year she founded her order, is seen against a 1913 painting by Harry J. Jansen, "The Steamship Titanic." / Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, public domain via Wikimedia CommonsNational Catholic Register, Nov 13, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).In April 1912, Mother Frances Cabrini was in Italy with her sisters. Her plans were to visit her foundations in France, Spain, and England before sailing back to the United States in mid-April to continue work in New York City. Her sisters in England were eagerly awaiting this visit from their 62-year-old founder and superior. To help make her journey back to the U.S. more comfortable, they bought her a ticket and booked passage on a new ocean liner, the RMS Titanic.Although an intrepid traveler who would eventually make 24 transatlantic crossings to establish her foundation, hospitals, and orphanages, Mother Cabrini was not a fan of ocean voyages since she had almost drowned as a ch...

Catholic schools in Bangladesh close amid political unrest

Catholic religious sisters conduct classes at a school they run outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2, 2023. / Credit: Stephan Uttom RozarioDhaka, Bangladesh, Nov 12, 2025 / 18:31 pm (CNA).Several Catholic schools in Dhaka will close on Thursday amid fears of political violence as Bangladesh's International Crime Tribunal prepares to announce a verdict date for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.On Nov. 13, the International Crime Tribunal will announce the date of the first verdict in the ongoing case of crimes against humanity against Hasina, who was ousted in August 2024. The political climate has become unstable, as the ousted Awami League called for a Dhaka blockade on social media Thursday.In July 2024, a student-led uprising toppled Hasina's government, and on Aug. 5, 2024, she fled to India. An interim government was subsequently formed under the leadership of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. According to a United Nations report, around 1,400 people died during the July p...

Vatican declares alleged apparitions of Jesus in France 'not supernatural'

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Xosema (CC BY-SA 4.0)ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 14:54 pm (CNA).The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the alleged apparitions of Jesus in Dozulé, France, do not have an authentic divine origin and are therefore "not supernatural."The prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, confirmed the declaration based on the Norms for Discerning Alleged Supernatural Phenomena in a document released Nov. 12 and addressed to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Jacques Habert.In 1972, Madeleine Aumont claimed that Jesus had appeared to her, asking the Church to build a giant "glorious cross" in Dozulé, next to a "shrine of reconciliation." Furthermore, the alleged visionary claimed that Jesus had announced his "imminent" return.In the document, the Vatican authority notes that the alleged apparitions in the Normandy town "have elicited spiritual interest" but also "not a few controversies and diffic...

Bishops approve beatification cause of priest who ministered in U.S.-Mexico border region

Father Richard Thomas, SJ, ministered in the U.S.-Mexico border region. / Credit: Courtesy of Our Lady's Youth CenterBaltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 15:24 pm (CNA).The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted in favor of advancing the beatification and canonization cause of the late Jesuit Father Richard Thomas. Bishop Peter Baldacchino, who has served as bishop of Las Cruces in New Mexico since 2019, initiated the request for the Jesuit priest's beatification. Baldacchino spoke about Thomas and his ministry to the poor at the bishops' Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore."Jesus said, 'When you hold a lunch or dinner, do not invite your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, rather … invite the poor. Blessed indeed will you be, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous,'" Baldacchino said during his Nov. 11 presentation. Thomas "gave witness to those words of the Lord through a life dedicated to serve persons i...

Sister Mary Michael, last of Mother Angelica's founding nuns, dies at 94

Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA, died Nov. 10, 2025, after roughly three-quarters of a century of religious life. She was 94. / Credit: Poor Clares of Perpetual AdorationCNA Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA, died on Nov. 10 after roughly three-quarters of a century of religious life. She was 94.Sister Mary Michael was the last of the original five nuns who, along with EWTN foundress Mother Angelica, began the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama. (The monastery is now located in Hanceville; EWTN, the parent company of CNA, remains in Irondale.)Born Evelyn Shinosky on Feb. 25, 1931, to Joseph and Helen Shinosky, she entered Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 1951, and received the habit and her new name the following May.Sister Mary Michael made her first profession on May 1, 1954, and her solemn profession exactly six years later in 1960. Shortly after h...

Pope Leo XIV proposes 19th-century Indian religious as a model of women's emancipation

The beatification ceremony for Mother Elisva Vakha'i was held in the square in front of the Basilica-Shrine of Our Lady of Ransom in Vallarpadam, Kochi, Kerala, India, Nov. 8, 2025. / Credit: Congregation of the Teresian Discalced Carmelite Sisters; Daniel Ibañez/EWTN NewsVatican City, Nov 12, 2025 / 16:24 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV spoke of the beatification this week of Mother Elisva Vakha'i, a 19th-century Indian religious and founder of the Third Order of the Teresian Discalced Carmelites, highlighting her "courageous commitment to the emancipation of the poorest girls.""The witness of Mother Elisva Vakha'i," the pope affirmed during his greetings in Italian at the end of his general audience on Nov. 12, "is a source of inspiration for all who work in the Church and in society for the dignity of women."The beatification ceremony on Nov. 8 was held in the square in front of the Basilica-Shrine of Our Lady of Ransom in Vallarpadam, Kochi, in the Indian state of Kerala, and was pre...