On October 28th, after four weeks of discussions in Rome at the general assembly of the Synod on Synodality, the Summary Report titled “A Synodal Church in Mission” was released. That now seems, just weeks later, […]
Pope Francis meets with the prefects of the Italian Republic in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace on Dec. 11, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 11, 2023 / 16:50 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Monday received the prefects … […]
The offertory at the installation Mass for the new Archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli, on Dec. 8, 2023.. / Credit: Anto Akkara
Senapati, India, Dec 11, 2023 / 16:22 pm (CNA).
More than 10,000 Catholics from across the state of Manipur… […]
Bishop Jaime Soto. / Diocese of Sacramento.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2023 / 14:35 pm (CNA).
The bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, California, announced on Saturday that “after careful consideration and consultation” the diocese wil… […]
The Texas Supreme Court (building pictured) paused a lower court ruling that could have allowed a woman to receive an abortion following a request from Attorney General Ken Paxton. / Credit: Public Domain
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2023… […]
Father Stephen Gutgsell. / Credit: Archdiocese of Omaha
CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2023 / 13:35 pm (CNA).
A Catholic priest in Nebraska died Sunday after being stabbed at a parish rectory, the Archdiocese of Omaha said. Police identified a suspect in t… […]
The Celebrate Life Day rally was organized to commemorate the first anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court decision. / Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
This week state Supreme Courts in Arizona, Wyoming, and New Mexico will hear oral arguments for litigation related to the states’ abortion laws. In all three cases, the pro-life side will be argued by lawyers at the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom.
The Arizona Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday, Dec. 12, on whether prosecutors can enforce the state’s pre-Roe v. Wade abortion laws, which prohibited most abortions at the moment of conception.
Arizona’s prohibition was declared unconstitutional shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide. Despite the law being unenforceable for about 50 years, the state Legislature never repealed the law and the prohibition is still technically written into the state code.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich requested that the 50-year-old injunction that blocked the enforcement of the law be lifted.
The law in question prohibits both chemical and surgical abortions in every case, except when it is necessary to save the life of the mother. There are no criminal penalties on the books for the mother who procures an abortion, but anyone who “provides, supplies, or administers” drugs or other substances, or “employs any instrument or other means whatever, with the intent thereby to procure the miscarriage” is subject to a prison sentence between two and five years.
Following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill to prohibit abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This is the threshold that is currently enforced in Arizona.
The Wyoming Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday, Dec. 12, on whether two state lawmakers and a pro-life organization have standing to intervene in a lawsuit about the state’s pro-life laws, which are currently held up in the court system.
State Reps. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams and Chip Neiman, along with Right to Life of Wyoming, are appealing a trial court decision that blocked them from intervening in a lawsuit that challenges the Life Is a Human Right Act, which prohibits chemical and surgical abortions in most circumstances.
A district court judge blocked the enforcement of the law in March of this year.
The lawmakers and the pro-life organization argue that they have standing to defend the state law because they “have abiding interests in protecting women and unborn children.”
Abortion is currently legal up to the point of viability in Wyoming.
The New Mexico Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday, Dec. 13, on whether the state constitution protects a right to abortion after state Attorney General Raúl Torrez petitioned the court to strike down local pro-life ordinances in a handful of cities and counties.
In his petition, Torrez asked the court to find a constitutional right to abortion within the New Mexico Constitution and declare the ordinances unconstitutional. There is no explicit right to “abortion” mentioned anywhere in the state constitution, but the attorney general claimed that abortion rights are implied in several sections of the state constitution.
Roosevelt County is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to find that there is not a constitutional right to abortion. The county is asking the court to allow its ordinance, which bans the shipment of abortion materials by mail, to remain in effect.
In 2017, nationally syndicated radio host Hank Hanegraaff and his wife converted to Orthodox Christianity at St. Niktarios Greek Orthodox Church. That name may not mean anything to most Catholics, but to former Evangelicals such […]
Pope Francis confessing in St. Peter’s Basilica. / L’Osservatore Romano
CNA Newsroom, Dec 10, 2023 / 11:15 am (CNA).
A 91-year-old Franciscan has spoken about his time as confessor to Pope Francis and stressed the enduring and essential role of the sacrament of reconciliation.
Brother Otmar Egloff served for several years as chief confessor at the Lateran — the storied cathedral of the bishop of Rome — according to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language partner agency.
He recalled being asked to move from his native Switzerland to serve at the basilica in 2004, towards the end of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate. “It was probably my talent for languages that was decisive, as I speak Italian, German and French,” the priest said in an interview published Dec 7.
The friar recalled being told, “tomorrow the pope is coming for confession!” — but that the experience was not so different from hearing confessions from other Catholics.
“The only difference was that my confessional was cleaned very thoroughly beforehand,” the Franciscan said.
“When you come to the confessional in the morning and see a whole team cleaning and scrubbing your confessional, that’s really something else. I used to go and dust it myself with a cloth.”
Brother Otmar said, “it was also special that Pope Francis confessed kneeling in public and used my confessional afterwards to hear confessions from other priests.”
Upholding both the sacred seal of confession and his sense of humour, when asked by the Swiss interviewer what penance Pope Francis would receive from him today, the Franciscan answered with a laugh: “Today, I would give the pope a different penance. A penance of the tongue. His tongue is sometimes too quick.”
Asked by the Swiss journalist where priests live when appointed a confessor at the Lateran, the priest replied: “Above the roof of the church are the apartments of the eight Franciscan friars who sit in the eight confessionals during the day.”
Brother Otmar added Franciscans from all over the world had always been assigned to this service in the Lateran, “that has always been the case and will remain so.”
From his long experience as a confessor, Brother Otmar stressed that the sacrament “remains important”.
Noting “a decline of the practice in German-speaking countries,” the Swiss religious added: “This is a human need and gives you the chance of a real new beginning. Your conscience shows you what was wrong. God forgives.”
Pope Francis, who has encouraged Catholics to go to confession, recently reiterated his call on German Catholics to remember “the importance of prayer, penance, and adoration.”
In his interview, Brother Otmar also said that celibacy and abuse have nothing to do with each other: “It’s more because unsuitable candidates were accepted due to a shortage of priests. Paedophilia is a serious disorder and an atrocity.”
Asked whether you can already know in your mid-20s whether you can spend your whole life celibate, the Franciscan said: “You do know. You know whether you’ve had relationships, whether you long for a partnership or not. You have to deal with these issues. That was probably not discussed enough [in the past]. For me, it was always important to help the respective priests and candidates to the priesthood — and, if necessary, to advise them against it.”
Cardinal Robert Sarah, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. / Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA
ACI Africa, Dec 10, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The emphasis of cultural elements over Christian ones dur… […]
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