A crowd prays the rosary in Madrid, Spain, on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, patron saint of Spain, Dec. 8, 2023. / Credit: ACI Prensa
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 12, 2023 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
More than 100 cities joined in praying the rosa… […]
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 12, 2023 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
Illinois has agreed to halt its enforcement of a law that restricts the speech and advertising of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers following a lawsuit … […]
Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, prefect of Dicastery for the Clergy, and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrate Mass on Dec. 11, 2023, to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Republ… […]
Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Dec 12, 2023 / 12:45 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis will provide input on the “big questions” to focus on at the next session of the Synod on Synodality next October, the Vatican revealed in a new document Tuesday.
Examples include questions related to the ordination of women to the diaconate, revisions to canon law pertaining to the Oriental Churches, and a review of the Vatican document Ratio Fundamentalis, which serves as the basis for the formation of priests and deacons.
Those were among the topics deemed “matters of great relevance” that came up during the synod’s first session in October and require consideration “at the level of the whole Church and in collaboration with the dicasteries of the Roman Curia,” according to the new document.
A list of these topics will be sent to Pope Francis for review, and the pope will indicate sometime in January which topics require further study. The new document does not detail who the experts are or how they will be selected.
Released on Dec. 12 by the General Secretariat of the Synod, the Vatican office coordinating the ongoing synodal consultative process, the four-page document, titled “Towards October 2024,” details “the steps to be taken in the months between now and the Second Session of the Synodal Assembly.”
The first monthlong session of the Synod on Synodality, a multiyear process initiated by Pope Francis to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church, concluded on Oct. 29 with the finalization of a 42-page synthesis report. The October 2024 session is expected to produce a final report, which will be presented to Pope Francis for his consideration in issuing any related teaching.
The new document calls for feedback on the synthesis document from local and national levels. Emphasizing that this is not to be construed as a “a question of starting the synodal process from scratch or repeating the process of listening and consultation undertaken during the first stage,” it notes that “each local Church is invited to focus on those aspects that enable it to make a contribution in the light of its own situation, character, and experience, sharing good practices that represent visible and concrete signs of synodality.”
According to the document, this process will be a moment for dioceses to reflect on the “fundamental questions” that are to be guided by the central aim of the synod’s central question: “How can we be a synodal Church in mission?”
“The local Churches are also invited to go through the entire Synthesis Report and collect the requests that are most consonant with their situation,” the document states. “On this basis, they will be able to promote the most appropriate initiatives to involve the whole people of God.”
Once this process is complete, these various reports submitted by the dioceses will be compiled into an eight-page document and sent to the General Secretariat of the Synod by May 15, 2024, forming the basis of the Instrumentum Laboris (or working document) that will be used by assembly members of the synod’s second session in October 2024.
Bishop-elect Juan Carlos Londoño. / Credit: Archdiocese of Quebec
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 12, 2023 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis appointed a Colombian-born priest, Father Juan Carlos Londoño, to serve as a new auxiliary bishop in the Ar… […]
Cardinal-elect Víctor Manuel Fernández was appointed by Pope Francis on July 1, 2023, to become the next prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. / Credit: Courtesy of Archdiocese of La Plata
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 12, 2… […]
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CNA Staff, Dec 12, 2023 / 11:00 am (CNA).
The method used by the Canadian government and several U.S. states to record assisted suicide deaths leads to incomplete statistics and less accountability, anti-euthanas… […]
null / Oleksandr Kniaziev / Shutterstock
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 12, 2023 / 10:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis received in an audience on Monday the members of the Office of the Auditor General, a Vatican body established by the Holy Father to implemen… […]
In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol, National Catholics Bioethics Center President Dr. Joseph Meaney discusses the first-ever therapy approved by the FDA using CRISPR, a genome editing technology. / Credit: “EWTN News Nig… […]
A sign welcoming patients from East Texas is displayed in the waiting area of the Women’s Reproductive Clinic, which provides legal medication abortion services, in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, on June 15, 2022. / Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 11, 2023 / 18:15 pm (CNA).
A woman who sued Texas state officials so she could obtain an abortion has decided to get an abortion in a different state after the state Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling that could have granted her an abortion.
“Kate [Cox’s] case has shown the world that abortion bans are dangerous for pregnant people and exceptions don’t work,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing her in the lawsuit, said in a statement.
“She desperately wanted to be able to get care where she lives and recover at home surrounded by family,” Northup said. “While Kate had the ability to leave the state, most people do not, and a situation like this could be a death sentence.”
The Texas Supreme Court intervened in the litigation on Dec. 8 after Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued a temporary order that would have restricted state officials from enforcing Texas abortion laws against hospitals and doctors who would have performed the abortion for the woman.
Gamble’s Dec. 7 order came amid the preborn child’s diagnosis of trisomy 18. Only about 5%-10% of babies born with this condition will live past their first birthday. Her order also claims the woman’s doctor determined that she could suffer long-term health complications, such as future fertility problems, if she continued the pregnancy.
The Supreme Court’s intervention restored the state’s ability to enforce its laws but did not put an end to the litigation, noting that the ruling is “without regard to the merits” of the case and it allows the case to proceed. The pro-abortion group will continue the litigation “because the issues in this case are capable of repetition,” they said in a Dec. 11 court filing.
The litigation is scheduled for a hearing on Dec. 20 in the Travis County District Court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused Gamble of being an “activist judge” and has argued that the ruling failed to show any “reasonable medical judgment and a life-threatening physical condition” and did not meet “the legal standard” for a permissible abortion under Texas law.
State law prohibits abortions in most circumstances, with an exception when the life of the mother is at risk or she could face serious problems with her physical health.
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