Uruguay's lower House passes euthanasia bill, which now heads to Senate

null / Credit: HQuality/ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 15:19 pm (CNA).After a lengthy session in Uruguay's Chamber of Representatives, legislators passed a bill this week that, if passed in the Senate, would legalize euthanasia in the country, making it the third in South America to permit the practice.Introduced by the Broad Front political coalition at the beginning of the year and approved in July by the lower House's Committee on Health, the bill will now move to the Senate for consideration. It passed by a margin of 64-29 in a plenary session of the Chamber of Representatives on Aug. 12.Nearly the entire ruling party bloc as well as members of the opposition voted for the bill, which states that any person over 18 years of age "who suffers from one or more chronic, incurable, and irreversible pathologies or health conditions that seriously impair their quality of life, causing unbearable suffering" may request assisted death.If approved, Uruguay would become ...

Report finds over 400 cases of vandalism, other 'hostile' acts against churches in 2024

A vandalized statue of Mary, the Mother of God, at St. Leo Parish in Hartford, Arkansas, in July 2024. / Credit: Father Joseph ChanWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 13, 2025 / 15:49 pm (CNA).A report published by the Family Research Council (FRC) documented more than 400 cases of "acts of hostility" against Catholic and other Christian churches in the U.S. in 2024.The report, published on Aug. 11, found 415 incidents, which included 284 acts of vandalism, 55 cases of arson, 28 gun-related incidents, 14 bomb threats, and 47 other hostile acts.In every month, there were at least 20 hostile acts against churches, with the highest numbers occurring in June with 49 incidents and February with 45 incidents. The average was 35 incidents per month.This is a slight downtick from FRC's 2023 numbers, when the evangelical nonprofit found 485 incidents. Yet, the number is still significantly higher than in previous years: 198 in 2022, 98 in 2021, 55 in 2020, 83 in 2019, and 50 in 2018, the yea...

Federal court rules against Little Sisters of the Poor in latest contraception lawsuit

Religious sisters show their support for the Little Sisters of the Poor outside the Supreme Court, where oral arguments were heard on March 23, 2016, in the Zubik v. Burwell case against the HHS mandate. / Credit: CNACNA Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 16:25 pm (CNA).A federal court has ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor in their long-running legal dispute over government contraception mandates, dealing a blow to the religious order of sisters even after multiple court victories, including at the Supreme Court.The legal advocacy group Becket said on Aug. 13 that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania in finding that the federal government had not followed protocol when issuing exemptions to contraceptive requirements, including for the Little Sisters.The district court said that a set of religious exemptions granted by the federal government during the first Trump administration were "arbitrary [and] c...

Aid to the Church in Need joins religious sisters' call to pray and fast for world peace

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need reminds us that "women religious are often on the front lines of wars." / Credit: ACNACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 16:55 pm (CNA).The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) joined the International Union of Superiors General in its call to pray and fast for world peace on Aug. 14, the eve of the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.In a statement released Aug. 13, Regina Lynch, executive president of ACN International, said: "Wherever there is conflict, women and children are marginalized, and it is often they who suffer most. Religious sisters are often on the front lines of wars, helping the innocent in whatever way they can, without regard for their own safety.""It is therefore very commendable that this group of women should be leading the way in denouncing warfare and calling for peace and reconciliation," Lynch said. "ACN is happy to add its voice to the many which are responding to th...

Catholic University Press to publish Pope Leo XIV's doctoral dissertation

The Catholic University of America. / Credit: Mehdi Kasumov/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2025 / 17:07 pm (CNA).Here's a roundup of some of the latest Catholic education news:Catholic University Press will exclusively publish Pope Leo XIV's doctoral dissertationThe Catholic University of America has secured exclusive English-language editorial rights to Pope Leo XIV's doctoral dissertation, "The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of St. Augustine."The book will be available in print and Kindle editions in October, according to an Aug. 11 press release, with a foreword by Dominican Father Thomas Joseph White, rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, also known as the Angelicum, where the Holy Father defended his dissertation in 1987."While the future pontiff's dissertation focuses on the role of the prior as the local superior in the Augustinians, his insights as a young priest in areas such as Church authority, the sp...

At 76 and wheelchair-bound, acolyte serves God 'with all I can do'

Acolyte Reynaldo José Osorio Muñoz doesn't let his age or disability interfere with his desire to serve God at the altar of his parish in Colombia. / Credit: Marcos CobosACI Prensa Staff, Aug 12, 2025 / 17:38 pm (CNA).At 76 years of age, and despite being wheelchair-bound, Reynaldo José Osorio Muñoz doesn't let these factors interfere with his desire to serve God at the altar of his parish in Colombia. With love and dedication, he participates as an altar server at Mass, dedicating his service to God, the Church, and his fellow parishioners.Osorio lives at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Senior Citizen Wellness Center, a Christian-inspired institution dedicated to the comprehensive care of vulnerable seniors.According to its website, the center offers meals, medical care, recreational activities, and cultural and spiritual formation, "allowing them to meet their basic needs and improve their quality of life in a safe and harmonious environment, through medical and human car...

Proposed solar farm plan threatens English Camino, UK bishop says

St. James Roman Catholic Church in Reading, England, is the starting point of the English route of the Camino de Santiago. / Credit: Kevin Hellon/ShutterstockLondon, England, Aug 12, 2025 / 13:52 pm (CNA).A bishop in the United Kingdom has expressed concern about a proposal to build a huge solar farm on the English stretch of the Camino de Santiago in the south of England.The English leg of the highly popular and historic pilgrimage runs 68 miles from the city of Reading to the port of Southampton, which falls within the Diocese of Portsmouth and has been frequented by pilgrims for more than a thousand years.The Camino de Santiago is made up of many different ancient routes across Europe that all lead to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.English pilgrims would traditionally take a boat from Portsmouth and sail to Spain before continuing their pilgrimage.In an email exchange with CNA, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth expressed his worries about t...

French bishops ask that priest who served time for rape of a minor not be promoted

The side of Toulouse Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse) in Toulouse in the South of France. / Credit: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).The French bishops' conference has issued a statement addressed to the archbishop of Toulouse, Guy de Kerimel, asking him to rescind the promotion of a priest who served time in prison for the rape of a minor boy.In an Aug. 10 press release from the presidency of the Bishops' Conference of France, the French bishops revealed they had "engaged in constructive dialogue" with Kerimel, "inviting him to reconsider the decision he made regarding the appointment of the chancellor of his diocese.""Such an appointment to such an important position, both canonically and symbolically, can only reopen wounds, reawaken suspicions, and disconcert the people of God," they wrote.The French bishops further recalled the Church's efforts in the...

Baltimore to receive statue by Timothy Schmalz depicting Christ mourning a murder victim

Christ mourns a murder victim in the statue "Thou Shalt Not Kill" by Timothy Schmalz. / Credit: Courtesy of the Archdiocese of BaltimoreWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2025 / 14:54 pm (CNA).As advocates in Baltimore work to end violent crime in the area, officials with the Archdiocese of Baltimore are bringing to the city a sculpture of Jesus mourning a homicide victim.The statue, made by Catholic artist Timothy Schmalz, is titled "Thou Shall Not Kill."On Aug. 9 the archdiocese held its third annual gun buyback program, inviting citizens to surrender their guns for cash to help lessen violence in the city. The Baltimore City Police Department, St. Joseph's Monastery Parish, and the Health by Southwest coalition helped the archdiocese sponsor the event.Following the success of the buybacks, St. Joseph's Monastery parish priest Father Mike Murphy, the archdiocese, and community leaders are working to bring Schmalz's work of Christian public art to the city.The life-sized statu...

Vatican allows New Zealand ban on Scottish congregation after alleged illicit exorcisms

A panorama of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. / Credit: Jakub Maculewicz/ShutterstockCNA Staff, Aug 12, 2025 / 15:52 pm (CNA).A religious institute in New Zealand has lost its appeal to the Vatican to continue public ministry in the Diocese of Christchurch after the local bishop ordered the ban amid allegations of unauthorized exorcisms and other abuses.Christchurch Bishop Michael Gielen said in an Aug. 10 letter to his diocese that the Vatican "rejected in its entirety" the appeal of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer after Gielen forbade the community from ministering in Christchurch last year.The bishop said in July 2024 that the community had been subject to an apostolic visitation by Australian Bishop Robert McGuckin. Gielen removed the ministry faculties of the members after the Vatican's recommendation and also asked the group "to leave the Christchurch Diocese."Gielen in both letters did not clarify why the community was being investigated and sanctioned, but the...