Browsing News Entries
Eden Invitation founder: Chastity helps us view people as ‘worthy of reverence and dignity’
Posted on 02/14/2025 23:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 14, 2025 / 19:00 pm (CNA).
A Catholic ministry called Eden Invitation is working to “create space to receive the whole person” for people with LGBTQ+ experiences. Founders Anna Carter and Shannon Ochoa said they started the organization to form a community of Christians who want to stay close to God and their faith but experience discord in their desires and attractions.
Carter, the ministry’s president, explained in a Valentine’s Day “EWTN News Nightly” interview that these experiences don’t need to be “a cause for shame” but rather can be “an invitation to surrender more deeply to Jesus in your life.”
“I recognized in high school that I experienced attraction to other women. But I also was really into youth group and had these beautiful experiences of prayer and community, and I knew that the Church was home.”
Carter said she realized, “OK, this isn’t really going away.” So she asked herself: “How do I work this out? What does discipleship look like? What does friendship look like? What does vocation look like in the midst of all of this?”
She said Eden Invitation flowed out of that, “really trying to create community for other people wrestling with sexuality and gender in the Church and world today.”
The group now operates across the nation with members who describe themselves as “disciples with LGBTQ+ experiences, building community with others who desire a way of life in congruence with Christ and his Church.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines chastity as “the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being.”
Carter commented on this definition and the act of being chaste, saying that we need an “awareness of our body and soul and the reality that has for our sexual relationships.”
“Also, I think being aware of these places where we do experience discord and desires, being honest about that, and bringing all of that to God,” she added.
During her “EWTN News Nightly” interview, Carter was asked what her response is to young adults questioning their attractions and desires.
“To have increased vulnerability in some of your close relationships, and that this doesn’t have to actually be an obstacle to your holiness, but maybe this is actually a means that Jesus is inviting you to keep surrendering to him and just continuing to move forward in your life and discipleship,” she said.
“I think that as we grow in chastity, as a virtue, it’s about developing these habits of using our reason and our intellect within our desires. There’s a lot that can be gained as we grow in self-discipline in our lives.”
“I also think it affects the way we see other people, not just as objects for our own pleasure or own use but as people worthy of reverence and dignity.”
Carter further discussed the virtue of chastity in a recent Eden Invitation blog post where she expressed that living a chaste life goes beyond sexuality. She referenced Pope Francis’ description of chastity where he said that it “is freedom from possessiveness in every sphere of one’s life.”
“Only when love is chaste is it truly love,” the pontiff said.
Referring to Valentine’s Day, Carter concluded her “EWTN News Nightly” interview by saying: “I think, especially on Valentine’s Day, there can be a lot of mixed feelings if you find yourself in particular states of life. Stay close to the Lord, because no matter what your state of life is in this moment, that’s the place that God has you and that God wants to meet you.”
Fertility rates show pro-life laws saved 22,000 lives in 2023, study finds
Posted on 02/14/2025 22:05 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 18:05 pm (CNA).
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life- and abortion-related news.
Pro-life policies save lives, study finds
Following the adoption of pro-life laws protecting unborn children across many states, a recent study found there were more births than anticipated in the United States — more than 22,000 additional births.
A Feb. 13 study published on JAMA Network analyzed the impact of recent pro-life laws by looking at state-level fertility information from 2012 to 2023. The study found that fertility rates increased in 2023 — the first full year after the U.S. Supreme Court put abortion issues back into the hands of the states.
The number is a powerful indication of the impact of pro-life laws, according to pro-life expert Michael New, a senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.
But this week, National Public Radio drew attention to reports by nearly a dozen pro-life states that reported zero or very few abortions in 2023, pointing out that these official records do not account for illegal abortions.
Many factors impact abortion data tracking. Chemical abortions via abortion pills have become increasingly accessible as the FDA has decreased regulations such as in-person requirements for prescriptions. Meanwhile, the rise of shield laws — implemented by pro-abortion state governments such as California, Colorado, New York, and others — helps protect abortionists who send abortion drugs via mail to women and girls in states where the drug is restricted or illegal.
But New noted that “in the post-Dobbs era, the most accurate way to analyze the impact of pro-life laws is through birth data.”
“That is because some women are able to circumvent pro-life laws by obtaining abortions in other states, obtaining abortions in other countries, acquiring chemical abortion pills through mail, or getting abortions outside the formal health care system,” New told CNA. “As such, the abortion statistics released by state health departments may not reflect the actual incidence of abortion.”
“However, if more babies are being born after pro-life laws take effect, that is powerful statistical evidence that more unintended pregnancies are being carried to term — and lives are being saved — as a result of the pro-life law,” New said.
In fact, given the limitations of the study, New suspects it “undercounts the lives saved to some extent” because it considers only abortion bans and heartbeat acts, not additional post-Dobbs gestational age limits.
Maternal mortality reaches lowest point since 2018
This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an almost 17% decrease in the maternal mortality rate in 2023 — its lowest point since 2018.
The maternal mortality rate dropped to 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births from 22.3 in 2022, according to a February report by the National Center for Health Statistics. This continues a trend in decreasing maternity mortality rates since 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned and many states began to institute protections for unborn children.
While pro-abortion advocates have expressed concerns that increasing abortion restrictions harm women’s health, mortality rates are on a steady decline, according to the CDC data.
From 2018 to 2019, maternal deaths had increased, peaking in 2021 and then decreasing in 2022 and 2023. The statistics includes a woman dying while pregnant as well as of pregnancy-related causes within 42 days of an abortion.
The maternal mortality rate decreased for all racial demographics except for Black women, among whom there was a slight increase, which the CDC noted was not statistically significant. Though, notably, the number has not decreased with the other demographics. Asian women also had a statistically insignificant decrease in maternal mortality, according to the study.
Texas and Louisiana slap $100,000 fine, extradition order, on New York doctor who mailed abortion pills
Texas and Louisiana — states with many laws protecting unborn children from abortion — issued a $100,000 fine and an extradition order, respectively, to a New York doctor who mailed abortion pills illegally into the state.
New York on Thursday rejected the request from Louisiana to extradite the doctor who was charged by Louisiana with prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant minor. A Texas judge the same day ordered the same doctor to stop prescribing and sending abortion pills to patients in Texas and to pay a penalty of more than $100,000.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to honor Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s request to arrest and send Dr. Margaret Carpenter, who was indicted last month by a Louisiana grand jury, to Louisiana.
While Texas and Louisiana have strong protections for unborn babies, New York has a “telemedicine abortion shield law” protecting abortion providers who send telehealth abortion pills to women and girls in states where it is illegal or restricted. Abortionists have sent more than 10,000 abortion pills per month to patients in states with restrictions on abortion under the shield laws, according to the New York Times.
Texas Judge Bryan Gantt of Collin County District Court signed an order permanently banning Carpenter from prescribing abortion drugs to Texas residents. But New York’s shield law prohibits cooperation with out-of-state legal actions, so Carpenter did not respond to the suit nor appear for the hearing.
Democrats push restrictions for crisis pregnancy centers
Democratic lawmakers are pushing for the federal government to regulate pregnancy resource centers with the “Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation (SAD) Act.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon reintroduced the SAD Act on Thursday.
The SAD Act is designed to enable the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate pregnancy centers designed to support women to choose life. The bill would allow the FTC to take disciplinary actions against pregnancy clinics by levying fines for “misleading” or providing “false” information about abortion or contraception.
With a Republican majority in Congress, the bill is unlikely to pass. Pregnancy resource centers outnumber abortion clinics in the U.S., offering pregnant women support and resources, and providing an alternative to abortion.
The nearly 3,000 pro-life pregnancy resource centers in the United States provided nearly $367.9 million worth of life-affirming pregnancy services and material goods to clients and their families in 2022, a 2024 report found.
Vance draws attention to lack of religious freedom, free speech in Europe
Posted on 02/14/2025 21:35 PM (CNA Daily News)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 14, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).
U.S. Vice President JD Vance called attention to deteriorating religious freedom and free speech rights in Western liberal democracies throughout Europe during an address to the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany on Friday.
“I come here today not just with an observation but with an offer,” Vance said in a speech to hundreds of high-ranking European leaders, including heads of state and European Union officials.
“Just as the [President Joe] Biden administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds, so the [President Donald] Trump administration will do precisely the opposite, and I hope that we can work together on that,” Vance continued.
“In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town, and under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views — but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square,” he added.
Rather than focusing his remarks on external threats to European security, Vance warned about internal threats, particularly “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America.”
During Vance’s address, he received scattered applause from a handful of attendees. However, most of the time the majority of European leaders blankly stared at the American vice president, not vocalizing either approval or disapproval of his comments.
Religious persecution and speech laws
The vice president referenced several areas of concern, including arrests in the United Kingdom for silent prayer near abortion clinics, a Swedish court convicting a Christian activist “for participating in Qur’an burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder,” a court annulling the Romanian election results, and the expansion of hate speech laws throughout the continent.
Vance specifically mentioned the case of Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted in a British court for silently praying outside of an abortion clinic for his unborn son who died in an abortion that he helped procure two decades prior.
“The British government charged [him] … with the ‘heinous’ crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes,” Vance said. “Not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.”
On the same subject, Vance called out the Scottish government for its “safe access zones” law around abortion clinics, which prohibits “religious preaching” and “silent vigils” geared toward discouraging abortion within 200 meters of a clinic.
In some circumstances, the law can apply to activities on one’s own property and within one’s own home if it can be seen or heard within the zone, according to The Telegraph. The Scottish government sent letters to residents who live within the zones to inform them of this law.
“The government urged readers [of the letters] to report any fellow citizen suspected guilty of [a] thought crime,” Vance said. “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
Vance discussed the conviction of Swedish citizen Salwan Najem, an immigrant from Iraq, for participating in a Qur’an burning. His friend, Salwan Momika, was murdered for participating in the burning.
Referencing the court decision, the vice president said the judge determined that “Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant … ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.’”
Vance repeatedly condemned the Constitutional Court of Romania for annulling a democratic election in November 2024 in which independent candidate Călin Georgescu qualified for the runoff after leading in the first round of voting. He also chastised the European Court of Human Rights for rejecting the appeal from Georgescu, who is an outspoken Orthodox Christian and critic of Ukraine.
According to Vance, the courts “straight up canceled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors.” The courts claimed Russia used advertisements to influence the election.
“If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with,” Vance said.
The vice president also criticized hate speech laws throughout Europe, saying the European Union “warned citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest — the moment they spot what they judge to be ‘hateful content,’” in reference to the Digital Services Act.
Vance compared these modern-day European policies to the Soviet Union censoring dissidents, closing churches, and canceling elections.
“You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail, whether that’s the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news,” the vice president said. “Nor can you win one by disregarding your basic electorate on questions like who gets to be a part of our shared society.”
During his speech, Vance also criticized “out of control” mass migration into Europe and said the United States is looking to “come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine.” He also said it is “important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense.”
The vice president, who is Catholic, concluded his speech with a quote from St. John Paul II, whom he called “one of the most extraordinary champions of democracy on this continent or any other.”
“Do not be afraid,” he said, quoting the former pontiff. “We should not be afraid of our people, even when they express views that disagree with their leadership.”
Pope Francis hospitalized: Live updates
Posted on 02/14/2025 20:30 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Feb 14, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis, the Vatican said.
The 88-year-old pope was hospitalized in the late morning on Feb. 14 following meetings with a number of people, including the prime minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico.
Follow here for the latest news on Pope Francis’ health and hospitalization:
Pope Francis’ AI adviser, experts raise concerns about artificial intelligence
Posted on 02/14/2025 19:15 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Feb 14, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis’ adviser on artificial intelligence (AI) warned of the risks of the new technology, saying that its unregulated use could result in the creation of bioweapons as well as an increase in income inequality.
Father Paolo Benanti discussed ethical and human rights challenges surrounding the use of AI at a Thursday event jointly organized by the embassies of Australia to the Holy See and Italy.
The event took place in Rome following the conclusion of the Feb. 10–11 Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. This week, more than 60 countries — including the Vatican, Italy, Australia, and China — signed an international pact in France pledging to develop AI in a way that is ethical, open, transparent, and safe. The U.S. did not sign the final version of the agreement.
Benanti, a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life and moral theology professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, was joined on Thursday by four other panelists to exchange perspectives on the various impacts of AI on global politics, the economy, law, and social interactions among people in the wake of an “AI revolution.”
The other speakers at the Feb. 13 event were: Diego Ciulli, head of government affairs and public policy for Google in Italy; Professor Edward Santow, a member of the Australian government’s Artificial Intelligence Expert Group; Professor Luigi Ruggerone, director of business and innovation research for the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center; and Rosalba Pacelli, a postdoctoral researcher at National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Padua, Italy.
During the 90-minute discussion, all five speakers raised ethical concerns about whether people could relinquish their responsibility to promote and defend human rights to data-driven solutions generated by machines and algorithmic tools.
According to Benanti, open-source AI models “without any controls” are “the biggest problem now” as they have the potential to enable users to develop harmful technologies, including bioweapons, that threaten humanity.
Several panelists warned that the technology could exacerbate the gap between the rich and poor.
“AI has a risk to generate more inequalities than more opportunities in society,” Google’s Ciulli said. “AI as a technology has more to do with the impact it has on generating wealth and opportunities.”
The Vatican adviser agreed, adding that AI should be harnessed as a “global resource” that could “empower people” but pointed to the reality that the majority of the world’s population does not have access to this software.
Building upon Ciulli’s comments, Ruggerone expressed his concerns about AI’s potential impact on the distribution of wealth, income, and the labor market from the perspective of an economist.
“In the last 70 years, 99.9% of those who receive the wages and income have not seen their wages increase by 1.5% or 2% a year … actually much, much less,” he explained.
“Even if productivity of labor, thanks to artificial intelligence, increases, nobody guarantees us that wages would increase. Actually quite the opposite,” he added.
For Pacelli, a deep learning expert, a collaborative approach is key to regulating the AI revolution, which fundamentally differs from past industrial revolutions as machines are no longer developed to maximize production but are made to “interact with the user” according to specific data selection processes.
“A bad data selection process can, for example, inject racial bias in diagnostic tools,” she said. “Obviously this is harmful and dangerous for [those who are] already marginalized and so must be taken into account.”
Referencing the Vatican’s document Antiqua et Nova, which outlines the Church’s position on the relationship between AI and human intelligence, Santow said: “It is only the human, not the machine, that is in dialogue with principles such as truth, justice, and peace.”
“Lawyers like me are very concerned about when a machine is being used to make a profound and important legally significant decision,” the former Australian Human Rights commissioner said. “Liability … must always attach to the humans who put those machines in the world.”
Catholic leaders push for $10 billion federal school choice program
Posted on 02/14/2025 18:45 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).
Catholic leaders have voiced support for a bill that would establish a federal tax credit to expand school choice in K–12 education.
If passed, the Educational Choices for Children Act (ECCA), introduced at the end of January during National School Choice Week and National Catholic Schools Week, would provide $10 billion in tax incentives for those who contribute to nonprofits that provide education scholarships for K–12.
The program is designed to encourage individuals and businesses to donate by offering tax credits for donations to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOS), non-private 501c3s that provide scholarships for eligible students to attend qualifying K–12s. The program would also help assist students in public, private, and home school with tuition, fees, books, and educational materials. A companion version of the bill has been introduced in the House.
School choice programs help low- and middle-income families send their children to private schools of their choice, including the nearly 6,000 Catholic schools across the nation. Following a record expansion of state school choice programs in 2023, the National Catholic Educational Association found that more than 1 in 10 Catholic school students used school choice programs to help them attend Catholic school in the 2023-2024 school year. While the number of states offering school choice programs has rapidly risen in recent years, these programs are only in select states.
Numerous bishops and Catholic conferences throughout the U.S. have pushed for the ECCA, highlighting that it supports parental rights, education access, and religious freedom across the United States.
Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, on Feb. 6 encouraged lawmakers to implement legislation that “provides for an ever-greater spectrum of educational choice for families.”
“As Catholics, we know the crucial role that Catholic schools serve in support of parents, the first and primary educators of their children, by providing enriching and morally robust choices — especially for all those who experience economic or other challenges that would otherwise put a high-quality private education out of reach,” Burbidge wrote.
“Greater educational choice for families is good for everyone, as the experience of so many states shows, and what is good for individual families and their children is also good for our whole nation,” Burbidge continued.
The U.S. bishops voiced support for the act in a Jan. 30 letter to U.S. Sen. Dr. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, and Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Nebraska, who introduced the legislation following Trump’s executive order on expanding school choice programs.
The head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education, Bishop David O’Connell, CM, of Trenton, New Jersey, in a Jan. 30 letter welcomed the proposed legislation, citing its affirmation of parental rights in education and its protections of religious freedom.
He said the legislation is necessary to combat “anti-Catholic” Blaine Amendments that prohibit public funding of religious schools and leave Catholic families “cut off from school choice at the state level.”
“The Educational Choice for Children Act is vital for families across the country who have little to no access to school choice in part due to a history of anti-Catholic bigotry,” O’Connell said.
“Thirty-seven state constitutions still have ‘Blaine Amendments’ that prohibit public funding of religious schools, so named after the nakedly anti-Catholic attempt by Sen. [James] Blaine to amend the U.S. Constitution in 1875 to deny support to ‘sectarian’ schools,” he said.
“Opponents of parental choice continue to use Blaine Amendments to limit access to children’s educational options,” O’Connell said. “Amid ongoing litigation to resolve these issues in several states, there are still millions of children across the country who have no access to school choice.”
Several Catholic Conferences including California, Illinois, Kansas, Connecticut, and Washington state encouraged Catholics to urge legislators to support the ECCA.
New York chancellor who met with Trump ‘hopeful’ it will pass
After attending a White House roundtable on the ECCA that included Republican governors, religious leaders, and education reform advocates to discuss the ECCA, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York, John Cahill, said he was “hopeful” the bill would pass.
Cahill, who met with President Donald Trump, said during a Feb. 4 “Conversations with Cardinal Dolan” interview that the president was “very interested” in making sure the act is included in the omnibus budget bill within the next 100 days.
Cahill said the House is likely to have the votes, while the Senate “we probably still need to do some work on.”
“We are in the best position to get some help from Washington on this,” Cahill added. “The president was very keen on the crisis that we have in the education system, a monopoly that, for the most part, failed during COVID.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said in the same interview that the ECCA “really is a start” for increasing school choice for parents amid school closures in the Archdiocese of New York.
Dolan applauded the school choice legislation in an opinion piece for the New York Post, noting that “expanding education freedom with school choice must be one of the solutions to improve education for all children, regardless of where they attend school.”
The bill protects private or religious schools from being excluded from the scholarship program and also prohibits government officials from mandating or controlling those schools.
Cahill noted that the bill had support from legislators and governors of various faiths and that the focus was on increasing education options.
“This was all about choice of education for parents to do what’s best for the kids and had support geographically and demographically across our country,” Cahill said.
Catholic welfare group says U.S. funding cuts won’t affect ministry
Posted on 02/14/2025 18:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
A major global Catholic aid group says the recent funding cuts at the U.S. government will not affect its globe-spanning ministries in India, Africa, and elsewhere.
Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) said in a Thursday press statement that the Trump administration’s slashing of funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) “will neither curtail nor limit” the group’s ministries across several continents.
CNEWA serves communities “scattered throughout the historic but unstable lands of the ancient Eastern churches” — specifically in the Middle East, northeast Africa, India, and Eastern Europe.
The group distributes emergency relief to churches that require it while also supporting the formation and development of Church leaders including clergy and religious. It supports communities ranging from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India to the Coptic, Eritrean, and Ethiopian Catholic Churches in Africa.
CNEWA president Monsignor Peter Vaccari said on Thursday that the group’s work “is in no danger of being halted” after the USAID cuts, which have caused chaos among religious aid and nonprofit groups who have relied heavily on the funds for their budgets.
Vaccari said the broader concern of the funding cuts is not for CNEWA but for the churches and communities the group serves.
“The generosity of the American people is extraordinary, and the U.S. government has been a major source of humanitarian aid, providing essential services throughout CNEWA’s world,” he said in the release.
The priest said the group strives “to avoid the current globalization of indifference.” He thanked supporters “for being with us as we touch countless lives in incalculable ways, always mindful of the great command of Jesus in the parable of the good Samaritan: ‘Go and do likewise.’”
‘The Church remains present’
CNEWA spokesman Michael La Civita told CNA on Friday that the group is anticipating a major spike in aid requests as funding dries up at the regional level.
The majority of CNEWA’s funding comes from private donations, he said. But the communities they serve are heavily dependent on foreign aid.
“Where we work, the fallout is significant,” he said. “Even though it may be temporary, the aid has stopped.”
There are “large populations where we work — say for example Lebanon or Jordan — where about half the population is refugees,” he said. Those communities are “dependent on foreign assistance, whether it’s through the United Nations or through organizations that are funded by foreign entities like the United States.”
The cessation of funding, he said, means medicine and health care and foodstuffs and other critical aid will dry up as well.
“What will happen, and what is already happening, is that the requests for assistance to make up for the shortfalls will be significant,” he said. Requests for aid are already increasing in Jordan and Lebanon, he said, as well as in Ethiopia, where Catholic Relief Services — a major recipient of USAID funding — has been active in food distribution.
La Civita said fundraising in the current environment is “getting increasingly more difficult,” though he said that Americans, especially American Catholics, are “extremely generous.”
“We have a history of understanding that as Catholics, we’re not members of a congregation but members of a worldwide communion of churches and communities,” he said. “That’s something our people have understood only all too well, and they’ve been very generous.”
“Ultimately, I have hope — great hope — that American Catholics will continue to help us live out the Gospel and continue with their generosity,” he said.
CNEWA was founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926. Its humanitarian and outreach efforts include scholarships for priests and funds for repairing churches as well as more diverse initiatives including poultry farms for religious sisters in Eritrea and youth ministry programs in Israel.
La Civita said the Church will remain active at the forefront of the present crisis.
“The Church doesn’t shut down when there are pandemics, and it doesn’t move out when there is no money,” he said.
“The Church remains, and it remains present, as do the people it serves. And so they’re going to reach out to us,” he said.
Catholic leaders pray for Pope Francis amid hospitalization
Posted on 02/14/2025 16:35 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).
Catholic leaders across the U.S. and the world united in prayer Friday for Pope Francis after it was reported the 88-year-old had been hospitalized with bronchitis.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) shared on social media that the bishops “join in prayer for the Holy Father during his hospitalization.”
The pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis after being sick for over a week, the Vatican said. His appointments for the next three days have been canceled.
Join us in praying for Pope Francis' swift recovery and his intentions.
— EWTN News (@EWTNews) February 14, 2025
The Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word @MFVAFriars, the community of friars founded in 1987 by Mother Angelica, offered this prayer for Pope Francis:
Heavenly Father,
We thank you for the loving… pic.twitter.com/ng2UB3jkqO
The U.S. bishops also shared a prayer for Pope Francis:
O God, shepherd and ruler of all the faithful,
look favorably on your servant Francis,
whom you have set at the head of your Church as her shepherd;
Grant, we pray, that by word and example
he may be of service to those over whom he presides
so that, together with the flock entrusted to his care,
he may come to everlasting life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Hispanophone Catholic leaders from around the world expressed their spiritual closeness with the pope as well, with bishops from Spain, Central America, and Francis’ native Argentina offering assurances of prayer Feb. 14.
The pope’s health
The octogenarian pope’s health has been a recurring concern in recent years, marked by a range of medical issues that have led to canceled appointments and trips, and have necessitated the pope’s frequent use of mobility assistance.
In December 2020, he reported suffering from a surge of sciatic pain — a condition he has lived with for years — which recurred in January 2021, causing him to cancel public appearances. July 2021 saw him hospitalized for colon issues, leading to a significant surgery to address stricture of the colon caused by diverticulitis. He spent 11 days in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital recovering from the surgery.
January 2022 brought significant knee pain and inflammation, which led the pope to cancel events. By May 2022, he was using a wheelchair regularly and undergoing rehabilitation. His knee issues also caused the postponement of a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, originally scheduled for July 2022. He eventually made that trip in early 2023.
Though he announced the return of his diverticulitis in January 2023, he maintained that he was in good health. He was briefly hospitalized with a respiratory infection in March 2023.
June 2023 saw Pope Francis undergo another abdominal surgery to repair an incisional hernia, and later that year he was treated for lung inflammation and breathing difficulties.
In late 2024 and again in early 2025, Pope Francis suffered falls, the former causing a prominent bruise on his chin and the latter causing a contusion on his right forearm. The Vatican had described his current condition as a “cold” before his present hospitalization.
This is a developing story.
Pope Francis’ health: Here’s a timeline of his medical issues in recent years
Posted on 02/14/2025 15:30 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Feb 14, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).
Pope Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday to receive medical care for bronchitis after struggling with the illness for over a week.
The Vatican said the pontiff’s schedule was cleared through at least the morning of Feb. 17 while he undergoes “diagnostic tests” and treatment.
The respiratory infection is the latest health challenge for the 88-year-old pope, who has been struggling with breathlessness, which has prevented him on several recent occasions from reading the entirety of his speech or homily.
The pope was also treated for a contusion on his right forearm after falling at his residence last month and suffered a facial injury and cold during the Christmas season.
Francis spent much of the past decade as pope in relatively good health but has dealt with several painful medical conditions over the last few years.
Here is a timeline charting Pope Francis’ recent health concerns:
December 2020
A bout of sciatic pain in the final days of 2020 keeps Pope Francis from presiding at the Vatican’s liturgies on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Francis has suffered from sciatica for a number of years; he spoke about it during an in-flight press conference returning from a trip to Brazil in July 2013.
“Sciatica is very painful, very painful! I don’t wish it on anyone,” he said about the condition, which starts in the lower back and can cause pain running down the back of the thigh and leg to the foot.
📹 VIDEO | Sound on! Listen to thousands of pilgrims encouraging Pope Francis as he makes a huge effort to stand up and walk at the end of the general audience. He is undergoing treatment for a torn ligament in his knee. Stay strong, dear Holy Father! pic.twitter.com/iejCLYtBlF
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) May 4, 2022
January 2021
Pope Francis cancels three more public appearances at the end of the month due to sciatic nerve pain.
July 2021
A problem with his colon lands the pope in the hospital on July 4.
Pope Francis undergoes surgery to relieve stricture of the colon caused by diverticulitis. The three-hour surgery includes a left hemicolectomy, the removal of one side of the colon.
The pope spends 11 days in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital recovering from the surgery.
January 2022
Pope Francis shares that he is having problems with his knee.
“Excuse me if I stay seated, but I have a pain in my leg today ... It hurts me, it hurts if I’m standing,” the pope tells journalists from the Jerusalem-based Christian Media Center on Jan. 17.
Francis tells the crowd at his general audience that the reason he is unable to greet pilgrims as usual is because of a temporary “problem with my right leg,” an inflamed knee ligament.
February 2022
Pope Francis cancels two public events at the end of February due to knee pain and doctors’ orders to rest.
In the month that follows, he receives help going up and down stairs but continues to walk and stand without assistance.
April 2022
During a trip to Malta, Pope Francis uses a lift to disembark the papal plane. A special lift is also installed at Malta’s Basilica of St. Paul in Rabat so Francis can visit and pray in the crypt grotto without taking the stairs.
On the return flight on April 3, Francis tells journalists: “My health is a bit fickle, I have this knee problem that brings out problems with walking.”
At the Vatican’s Good Friday service, the pope does not lie prostrate before the altar as he has done in the past.
He also does not celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass on April 16 or participate in the paschal candle procession but sits in the front of the congregation in a white chair.
On April 22 and April 26, Francis’ agenda is cleared for medical checkups and rest for his knee. The following day, the pope tells pilgrims at his general audience that his knee prevents him from standing for very long.
Pope Francis also begins to remain seated in the popemobile while greeting pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.
On April 30, he says that his doctor has ordered him not to walk.
May 2022
The pope says at the beginning of the month that he will undergo a medical procedure on his knee, “an intervention with infiltrations,” by which he may have meant a therapeutic injection, sometimes used to relieve knee pain caused by ligament tears.
Two days later, he uses a wheelchair in public for the first time since his July 2021 colon surgery. Throughout May he continues to use the wheelchair and avoids most standing and walking.

Francis also undergoes more than two hours of rehabilitation for his knee every day, according to an Argentine archbishop close to the pontiff.
The treatment “is giving results,” then-Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández writes on Twitter on May 14 after he has a private meeting with Francis.
Other than his knee, “he’s better than ever,” Fernández adds.
Earlier, Lebanon’s tourism minister says that a reported papal visit to the country in June was postponed due to the pope’s health.
The pope does stand for long periods of time when celebrating a May 15 Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Afterward, a seminarian from Mexico catches a moment of lightheartedness between pilgrims and the pope as he greets them from the popemobile. Someone thanks the pope for being present at the Mass, despite his knee pain, to which Francis responds: “Do you know what I need for my knee? A bit of tequila.”
June 2022
In early June, the Vatican postpones Pope Francis’ planned visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan for health reasons. The trip was planned for July 2–7 but is put off “at the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardize the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee,” according to the Vatican.
Less than a week later, the Vatican announces that Pope Francis will not preside over the June 16 Corpus Christi Mass because of his knee problems and “the specific liturgical needs of the celebration.”

Pope Francis comments on his health and speaks about the effects of old age in general terms during his June 15 general audience.
“When you are old, you are no longer in control of your body. One has to learn to choose what to do and what not to do,” the pope says. “The vigor of the body fails and abandons us, even though our heart does not stop yearning. One must then learn to purify desire: Be patient, choose what to ask of the body and of life. When we are old, we cannot do the same things we did when we were young: The body has another pace, and we must listen to the body and accept its limits. We all have them. I too have to use a walking stick now.”
Toward the end of the month, on June 28, Pope Francis walks with a cane to meet bishops from Brazil and tells them: “I have been able to walk for three days.”
August 2022
On Aug. 4, the Vatican announces that Massimiliano Strappetti, a Vatican nurse, has been appointed as Pope Francis’ “personal health care assistant.”
November 2022
José María Villalón, the head doctor of the Atlético de Madrid soccer team, is recruited to assist Pope Francis with his knee problems. He says the pope is “a very nice and very stubborn patient in the sense that there are surgical procedures that he does not want” and that “we have to offer him more conservative treatments so that he will agree to them.”
January 2023
In an interview published by the Associated Press on Jan. 25, Pope Francis announces that his diverticulitis has returned. He emphasizes that he is in “good health” and that, for his age, he is “normal.”
February 2023
On Feb. 23 the Vatican announces that Pope Francis has a “strong cold.” The pope distributes copies of his speeches at two morning appointments rather than reading them aloud as usual.
March 2023
On March 29 the Vatican announces that Pope Francis is expected to remain in a hospital in Rome for “some days” due to a respiratory infection. It had announced earlier in the day that he was in the hospital for previously scheduled medical checkups.
June 2023
Pope Francis undergoes a three-hour abdominal surgery to repair an incisional hernia on June 7.
A team of surgeons removes scar tissue and operates on a hernia in the pope’s abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
The pope is discharged on June 16 after an eight-day stay in the hospital recovering from the operation.

November 2023
Pope Francis comes down with a “mild flu,” according to the Vatican. The pope cancels his scheduled meetings and goes to the hospital on Nov. 25 for precautionary testing.
The CT scan at the hospital rules out pneumonia but shows that the pope has lung inflammation that is “causing some breathing difficulties,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni tells journalists on Nov. 27.
The pope is treated with antibiotics intravenously as he recovers. A bandage holding in place a cannula for intravenous treatment can be seen on the pope’s right hand as he gives the Angelus blessing from his residence, the Casa Santa Marta, rather than from the usual window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
“Today I cannot appear at the window because I have this problem of inflammation of the lungs,” the pope says in the Angelus broadcast on Nov. 26.
Pope Francis feels well enough to keep his scheduled appointment with the president of Paraguay the following day. The Vatican releases photos of the pope’s meeting with the Paraguayan president showing the pope smiling and using a cane to walk.

December 2024
According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, Pope Francis hit his chin on a bedside table on the morning of Dec. 6, causing a large hematoma on the lower right side of his cheek. Despite the visible bruising, he continues with his scheduled appearances, including the consistory for the creation of new cardinals the following day.
The pope is also sick with a cold right before Christmas. At Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24, he is seen wearing what appears to be hearing devices.
January 2025
The Vatican says on Jan. 16 that Pope Francis suffered a “contusion” on his right forearm after falling at his residence that morning. Photos from his scheduled audiences show his arm tied up in a white sling.
While the arm was not fractured in the accident, it is braced “as a precautionary measure,” the brief communication says.
February 2025
The Vatican says on Feb. 14 that Pope Francis is being hospitalized to undergo “diagnostic testing” and treatment for bronchitis, and his audiences are canceled for the next three days.
The pope is admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital over a week after he first announced he was ill.
This story was first published May 21, 2022, and was last updated Feb. 14, 2025.
Tom Homan on U.S. immigration policy: ‘We absolutely are’ protecting human dignity
Posted on 02/14/2025 13:15 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).
Addressing concerns raised by Pope Francis about the U.S. government’s initiation of a mass deportation program, U.S. border czar Tom Homan defended the morality of the Trump administration’s enforcement policies, saying the administration’s approach is saving lives and preventing human trafficking.
“What the pope needs to understand is that President Trump and I have been very clear that our prioritization right now are public safety threats and national security threats,” Homan said in a Feb. 13 interview on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.”
When asked about whether the administration is respecting the dignity of deportees, Homan, a lifelong Catholic, responded: “We absolutely are.”
Strong border enforcement, Homan went on to emphasize, reduces tragic deaths and exploitation suffered by migrants and citizens alike. For example, he noted that a sizable percent of female migrants who “make that journey through the cartels get sexually assaulted.”
“So when President Trump has illegal immigration down 90%, how many women aren’t being sexually assaulted? How many children aren’t dying crossing the river? How many women and children aren’t sex trafficked in this country? How many Americans aren’t dying from fentanyl poisonings?” Homan said. “President Trump’s policies save lives.”
“We have a right to have a secure border,” Homan noted. “We have the right to our sovereignty, just like the Vatican,” he added.
Referencing the Vatican’s tough new penalties for illegal entry into its own territory, which include fines from $10,000 to $25,000 and prison sentences from one to four years, Homan said the Vatican State’s penalties are “more severe” and “more extreme” than those of the United States.
Supports funding cuts to end ‘magnet for illegal immigration’
When asked about federal funding cuts to Catholic Charities and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that serve migrants, Homan said that when organizations help make the process easier for people illegally crossing the border, “you are feeding a monster that kills thousands of people every year.”
“The U.S. government, we’re going to be out of the business of this because it’s just, it’s a magnet for more illegal immigration to come,” Homan said of the government’s decision to cut funding for migrant services. “We’ll leave it up to, you know, the way it used to be,” he said, referring to private, charitable funding.
“I’ve gotten reports that there have been U.S. citizens show[ing] up at a Catholic Charities place and they were turned down when they asked for help because they weren’t getting paid for it,” Homan revealed, saying investigations into these alleged activities are underway.
Labor and sex trafficking: finding the children
Homan said Trump has commissioned him to track down hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children that were brought into the country during the Biden administration. While some may be safe and with family, many were likely trafficked by cartels, he said.
“President Trump gave me three things: to secure the border, run a deportation operation, and find these children,” Homan said.
“Under the last administration, over half a million children were separated from their families, put in the hands of criminal cartels to enter this country illegally,” Homan said. “And who knows what happened to them during that journey? I can tell you many of them were sexually assaulted. I know. I’ve done this for three and a half decades. I know how these groups operate.”
Homan indicated that many of these children “have been sex trafficked and forced labor traffick[ed] in this country, and we’re already finding them.”