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Christopher Columbus, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519. / Credit: Public domainWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 13, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).President Donald Trump renewed the focus of Columbus Day to be celebrated on the second Monday of October, reclaiming the explorer's "extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue," according to the president's proclamation.Since 1971, the second Monday in October has been federally recognized as Columbus Day to commemorate Columbus' discovery of the Americas in 1492, celebrate Italian-American heritage, and acknowledge the 1891 lynchings of 11 Italian Americans. In 2021, former President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day to be observed on the same day, following backlash toward Columbus.The "current hostility to him is ill informed," Felipe Fernández-Armesto, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of "Columbus on Himself," told CNA. "He was understandably c...

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A view of the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, also known as the ADX or "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado. The facility has been dubbed the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" because of its remote location and harsh security measures. / Credit: JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Oct 13, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).A foreign-born Muslim inmate currently incarcerated in the U.S.'s most severely restrictive prison complex is asking the government to require the prison to accommodate his religious practices under a key federal statute, highlighting the far-reaching and comprehensive nature of religious freedom rules in the United States. U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer in a Sept. 25 ruling agreed that Mostafa Kamel Mostafa had demonstrated that prison officials at the maximum facility had "substantially burdened the exercise of his religion" by failing to install a special cleaner in one of his cells.The prison, a "supermax" facility in Colorado...

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A view of St. Peter's Basilica during the Mass for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, with Bernini's baldachin and the papal altar decorated with white flowers, Dec. 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNACNA Staff, Oct 11, 2025 / 16:28 pm (CNA).A man urinated on the Altar of Confession of St. Peter's Basilica on Friday before being taken away by security officers in the famous basilica, according to news reports.The man climbed the altar and "urinated under the stunned gaze of hundreds of tourists," according to the newspaper Corriere della Sera's Rome edition. Video of the desecration was widely shared on social media.Il Tempo reported that the man "was promptly reached by plainclothes police officers present in the basilica" and was escorted out of the church.The latter newspaper claimed Pope Leo XIV was "shocked to learn of the news," though the Holy See Press Office had not released a statement about the incident as of Oct. 11.This is not the first time thi...