Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

null / Credit: Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 18:32 pm (CNA).

Nearly 20% of adults in the United States — approximately 50 million people — call themselves Catholic, but the American Catholic population is diverse in its beliefs, its adherence to Church teaching, and its religious practices as well as its social and political views.

Much of this data was revealed in the 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study conducted by Pew Research Center, which was published earlier this year.

The analysis by Pew finds that the proportion of the Catholic population in the United States has fallen over the past decade and a half, as about 24% of the country’s population identified as Catholic in 2007. The religiosity of those who identify as Catholic has also decreased in that time frame.

Immigrants currently make up about 29% of the American Catholic population and children of immigrants make up an additional 14%, accounting for 43% of the total number. Hispanic Catholics account for most of the immigrant or first generation Catholic segment and have also become a larger percentage of the country’s overall Catholic population, growing by 7 points since 2007 and now making up 36% of American Catholics.

Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of research at Pew, told CNA this is mostly caused by Hispanics “growing as a share of the total population” of the United States. The percentage of Hispanics who identify as Catholic, however, has declined.

“Those two things can be happening at once,” said Smith, who delivered a presentation of the broader findings of the Religious Landscape Study at the 2025 annual conference of the Religion News Association in Arlington, Virginia, on April 3.

A large percentage of Catholics, about 78%, have a favorable view of Pope Francis. The Holy Father’s favorability rating among American Catholics has fluctuated between a high of 90% in February 2015 to a low of 72% in September 2018.

Most Catholics pray, but fewer attend Mass

The survey found that about 51% of Catholics pray every day and another 31% pray at least weekly or monthly, with only 18% answering that they rarely or never pray. About 22% attend prayer groups at least several times per year, with 8% doing so weekly and 5% doing so once or twice per month.

Weekly Mass attendance for Catholics, however, was only about 29%, but another 11% go to Mass once or twice per month and 27% attend a few times every year. About 32% seldom or never go to Mass. 

All of the above indicators are lower than in 2007, based on Pew’s numbers. About 58% of Catholics prayed daily that year and 13% of Catholics seldom or never prayed. Weekly Mass attendance in 2007 was at 41%, which means that number has fallen by 12 points. In that year, only 19% of Catholics seldom or never attended Mass, and that number is now 13 points higher.

About 66% of Catholics who were surveyed said they had attended Mass weekly when they were children. About 57% said that religion was very important to their families while growing up and 32% said it was somewhat important.

Many other Christian traditions have also suffered from a decline in religiosity.

“In general, I’d say the trends in Catholics look pretty similar [to other denominations],” Smith told CNA.

A smaller percentage of Catholics are regularly reading the Bible as well. About 14% read the Bible at least once per week compared with 21% in 2007. About 67% of Catholics seldom or never read the Bible, compared with 57% in 2007. 

Strong belief in God, weaker on specific teachings

Nearly two-thirds of Catholics say they are certain that God exists and slightly over one-third say they believe in God but are not absolutely certain. About 86% say they believe in heaven, but just 69% believe in hell.

In 2007, about 72% of Catholics had said they were certain of God’s existence, which means this trended downward by about 10 points. In contrast, belief in heaven and hell have both gone up. In 2007, only 82% believed in heaven and only 60% believed in hell, which means there was a 4-point increase in belief in heaven and a 9-point increase in the belief in hell in that time frame.

About 21% of Catholics currently consider themselves very religious and another 55% say they are somewhat religious. Only 24% say they are not too religious or not religious at all. A larger percentage, 29%, consider themselves very spiritual and 52% consider themselves somewhat spiritual. Only 19% say they are not spiritual at all. 

Pew also found that many Catholics deviate from the Church’s teachings on social and cultural issues that intersect with politics.

About 59% of Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, even though the Church teaches that human life begins at conception and abortion is always immoral. The data shows that only 39% of Catholics believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. 

This has shifted substantially since 2007 even though a plurality of Catholics, 48%, said they supported legal abortion in all or most cases in that year. At that time, 45% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. 

About 70% of Catholics support homosexual marriages, even though the Church teaches that marriage is reserved for only heterosexual couples. This is much higher than the 57% of Catholics who said they supported homosexual marriage in 2007.

However, the frequency of Mass attendance is correlated with a higher likelihood of adhering to Church teachings on many issues, such as abortion and homosexual marriage. About 61% of Catholics who attend Mass believe abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances and only 36% believe it should be legal. 

Smith told CNA that this correlation holds true for many other issues, such as sexuality, birth control, the ordination of women, and a married priesthood.

“On each of those questions, there are big differences by Mass attendance,” Smith said.

Catholics are divided on politics, with about 49% saying they lean Republican and 44% saying they lean Democrat. This is also a major shift from 2007, when only 33% leaned Republican, 48% leaned Democrat, and 19% had no leaning.

Some of those political shifts were reflected in the 2024 election. Polls showed that President Donald Trump won the Catholic vote by a double-digit margin, which was mostly caused by an ongoing trend of Hispanic Catholics becoming less likely to support the Democratic Party in elections.

St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Mistervlad/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Apr 3, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

More than 20,000 pilgrims from 90 countries — including patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and other health care professionals — will participate in the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers at the Vatican this weekend.

The April 5-6 jubilee is one of the major celebrations of the 2025 Jubilee Year. It will feature times for prayer and reflection as well as a group pilgrimage along Via della Conziliazione to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

According to a statement from the Dicastery for Evangelization, Italy will be the most-represented country, but delegations are also expected from the United States, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, France, Mexico, Germany, Croatia, the Philippines, Peru, Australia, Chile, Ethiopia, Canada, and Cameroon, among others.

Likewise, numerous Italian and international health care associations and entities will participate in the organization of activities, highlighting the work of Fratres, a Catholic association that promotes blood donation; ANED, which strives for a better life for all people suffering from kidney disease through home hemodialysis systems; the Italian Catholic Physicians Association; the Bambino Gesù (Baby Jesus) Pediatric Hospital; and the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation.

The activities planned for the event will begin on Saturday, April 5, when pilgrims will be able to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, a moment of special recollection and spiritual renewal that can be part of gaining a plenary indulgence.

The faithful who make pilgrimages to any sacred place, such as the major papal basilicas in Rome or venerated sites in the Holy Land, can benefit from this jubilee grace — whether visiting individually or in a group — while devoting time to Eucharistic adoration and meditation.

In the afternoon, Rome will host numerous meetings and conferences as part of the “Dialogues with the City,” a series of events organized in various squares in the historic center of the Eternal City.

One of the most important events will take place in Piazza di Spagna (the Spanish Square), where the event “The Value of Gift and Solidarity” will begin at 4 p.m. with the participation of the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella; Italian Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci; Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri; and Lazio regional president Francesco Rocca.

At the same time, the international conference “Hospice = Hope” will be held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., addressing the importance of comprehensive care for chronically ill or end-of-life patients.

The American Heart Association will offer at the same time a cardiopulmonary resuscitation course, available in several languages, while the Fratres organization will promote a special blood donation campaign, with a collection from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Health awareness and moments of prayer

Throughout the day, various awareness-raising activities will take place in different areas of the city. Health education sessions will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., while from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. events focused on addiction prevention and treatment will be organized by the Vicariate of the Diocese of Rome.

In the spiritual realm, St. Monica Church in Piazza Sant’Uffizio will host a conference on the life of Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro, a medical student who died of a rare illness.

The event will feature the participation of her sister, Emanuela Bianchi Porro, and Father Andrea Vena, postulator of Benedetta’s cause for canonization.

In addition, prayer and catechetical sessions have been scheduled in various churches in the capital, led by religious congregations dedicated to caring for the sick.

In the Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, participants will be able to participate in the reflection titled “In the Footsteps of Blessed Luigi Novarese: Finding Blessing When Life Is Fraught with Fragility,” while in the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena, the presentation “In the Footsteps of St. Camillo de Lellis: The Heart Unifies a Fragmented Life” will take place.

Meanwhile, at the Church of San Gregorio VII, the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation will hold the colloquium “Caring and Being Cared For: Where Does Our Hope Lie?” with the participation of Monsignor Andrea Manto, episcopal vicar for health care ministry in Rome; Sergio Daniotti, president of the Pharmaceutical Bank; and Giorgio Bordin, president of Medicine and Person.

Finally, at the Pontifical Lateran University, a conference sponsored by the Italian Bishops’ Conference and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart will be held. The conference will address the role of patient associations in building a more humane and participatory national health system in Italy.

On Sunday, April 6, the Jubilee for the Sick will continue with Mass in St. Peter’s Square at 10:30 a.m., celebrated by Fisichella. 

On this occasion, a homily written by Pope Francis, who continues his convalescence at the Casa Santa Marta residence at the Vatican following his hospitalization, will be read. It is expected the pope will send a message of hope and commitment to the sick and health care workers.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Human-rights lawyer Jared Genser is advocating on behalf of all Armenian prisoners of war and refugees of Nagorno-Karabakh and for true peace and stability between Armenia and Azerbaijan. / Credit: Free Armenian Prisoners campaign

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

A renowned international human rights lawyer is urging the Trump administration to fulfill its campaign promise and intervene on behalf of Armenian Christians as a recently negotiated peace agreement with Azerbaijan threatens to leave prisoners stranded.

“Our request up front to the administration has been quite clear: [A] deal for the release of Armenian Christian POWs must be a precondition to [a peace deal] moving forward, which has been the position of the administration,” Washington, D.C.-based international human rights lawyer Jared Genser told CNA.

Earlier this month, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the text of a peace agreement that would end nearly four decades of conflict between the embattled countries. Neither country has signed the compact, though Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on social media has expressed eagerness to do so, despite widespread disagreement over several of its reported stipulations.

Once dubbed “the Extractor” by the New York Times, Genser is known for his successful work in freeing wrongfully imprisoned people around the world. He is currently working to free Ruben Vardanyan, the former state minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh region’s ethnic Armenian separatist government.

At the end of Azerbaijan’s nine-month blockade of the territory, Vardanyan was arrested while attempting to flee with his wife and has been detained in Baku ever since. 

Genser said that Vardanyan, a Christian belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church, has been denied access to a Bible, which he said “has only reinforced that the persecution of him and other leaders from Nagorno-Karabakh is not exclusively because they were an alleged ‘breakaway republic’ but relates to the fact that he’s a Christian.”

“We’ve also seen since the ethnic cleansing as well the burning to the ground of Armenian churches and other Armenian heritage sites,” Genser added.

Vardanyan faces 42 separate charges and awaits trial before a military tribune, despite never having served in the military. Since being imprisoned, he has undergone two hunger strikes, according to Genser, with the latest strike lasting 23 days, during which he lost about 14 pounds.

Freedom for Armenian Christian POWs must come before any peace deal

Part of his work in freeing Vardanyan, Genser said, is advocating on behalf of all Armenian prisoners of war and refugees of Nagorno-Karabakh and for true peace and stability between the two countries. 

“When you represent a high-profile political prisoner,” Genser said, “your instructions are not to exclusively lobby for them because that really doesn’t even work, even if you wanted to do that. Really, it’s to look at the broader set of issues that are implicated and to work hard at addressing them.”

Genser pointed out that President Donald Trump had campaigned on standing up for persecuted Armenian Christians, condemning what took place in Nagorno-Karabakh as “ethnic cleansing” while on the campaign trail in October 2024.

Now, Genser said release of the prisoners is “a top priority for the new administration.”

“We have been told that their freedom needs to be a precondition for President Trump to ultimately bless a peace deal,” Genser revealed.

“I think that’s a really important development because our biggest fear all along has been that if a peace deal were to proceed, and there was no resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh or of the Armenian Christian POWs, then unfortunately, it could lead to a sacrificing of those prisoners as a part of the peace deal.”

Neither of these critical issues are contained in the current peace deal, nor are they on the bilateral agenda, according to Genser. However, he said there are many things the Trump administration can do to push for these ends.

Genser declined to say what specific methods should be employed to apply pressure on Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev for the POWs, though he encouraged the Trump administration to “shock” Azerbaijan’s president, whom he described as a dictator. 

“At the end of the day,” Genser said, “dictators only release political prisoners when they have to. They never do it because they want to or because they’re magnanimous or humanitarian by orientation.” 

“The only way that happens is when the dictator sees the cost of detaining the political prisoner or political prisoners as being dramatically higher than the benefits of detaining them.” 

Beyond the situation faced by Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan, Genser said there are “many issues outstanding in terms of the conditions of the peace deal as well that are worrying.”

Chief among them are Aliyev’s demands that Armenia cede the Lachin Corridor, giving him a pathway to lay a pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Armenia, and that Armenia remove a preamble in its constitution that lays a territorial claim on Nagorno-Karabakh. 

“The problem with that is that one has never seen any peace deal in the world where a country gives up their sovereign land and cuts off part of their own population from the main part of the country, which is what this would do,” Genser said.

As the Jamestown Foundation pointed out in its analysis of the peace deal, the Armenian government’s messaging on this front has been mixed, with Pashinyan having in the past stated Azerbaijan’s constitution contains territorial claims rather than the other way around, while also advocating as recently as March 13 for constitutional amendments that would have “inherently regional significance.”

“Unless Azerbaijan withdraws its long-standing demand that the Armenian Constitution be changed, it is unlikely to be signed before mid-2026 or even 2027,” the article noted.

Amid the dispute, Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of violating its ceasefire agreement — which Armenia denies — augmenting further tension between the countries as the fate of political prisoners hangs in the balance.

When asked about the plight of Armenian Christian POWs, the State Department told CNA: “We continue to monitor the situation closely through our embassies in the region. All those detained should have their human rights respected and, if criminally charged, have all fair trial guarantees afforded to them.”

Genser said peace will not be possible until “all relevant issues and all relevant potential provocations have been identified, negotiated, and fully addressed as part of a peace deal itself.”

“A peace deal that leaves unresolved what the future is going to look like for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and the release of the Armenian Christian POWs is a recipe for future flare-ups, disagreements, and even potential war,” he said.

Tiananmen Square - Entrance to Forbidden City, Beijing, China. / Credit: 4H4Photography/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

New restrictions from China’s United Front ban foreign clergy from presiding over religious activities for Chinese people without the invitation of the Chinese government, severely limiting foreign missionary activity in the country.

According to the regulations, which will go into effect on May 1, “collective religious activities organized by foreigners in China are restricted to foreign participants only” with few exceptions.

The restrictions apply to believers of any religion, strictly prohibiting non-Chinese citizens residing in the country from establishing religious organizations, preaching without authorization, founding religious schools, producing or selling religious books, accepting religious donations, or recruiting Chinese citizens as religious followers.

Published on April 1 by the National Religious Affairs Administration, a branch of the United Front Work Department, the rules consist of 38 articles placing restrictions on foreign nationals’ ability to organize religious activities in the country.

Titled “Rules for the Implementation of the Provisions on the Administration of Religious Activities of Foreigners in the People’s Republic of China,” the regulations further stipulate that only Chinese clergy should preside over religious activities for foreigners at government-approved churches and temples.

It states that foreign religious clergy who enter China with a religious status may only preach if they are invited by one of the Chinese state-run national religious organizations and approved by the United Front’s religious affairs administration. Those accepted must also receive approval that the content of their preaching “does not interfere with China’s religious affairs.”

Beijing has long sought to maintain tight control over religious affairs, allowing only state-sanctioned religious institutions to operate legally.

The new regulations come after the National Joint Meeting of Religious Groups conference last month instructed these state-approved religious groups, including the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, to integrate Chinese Communist Party principles into their sermons.

The Council of Nicaea in 325 as depicted in a fresco in Salone Sistino at the Vatican. / Credit: Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Apr 3, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The Vatican on Thursday released a historical document to recognize the opening of the Council of Nicaea, convened during the pontificate of Pope Sylvester I in 325. 

The International Theological Commission (ITC) published the in-depth document “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: The 1,700th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea” to highlight the significance of the Church’s first ecumenical council, which defended the divinity of Jesus Christ as a profession of faith amid the spread of the Arian heresy.

“This anniversary occurs within the jubilee year, centered on the theme ‘Christ Our Hope,’ and it coincides with a shared celebration of Easter for Christians in both the East and the West,” the ITC press release stated.

The commission said on Thursday that the Nicene Creed “stands at the heart of the Church’s faith.”

“It is a source of living water to draw upon even today to enter into Jesus’ gaze and, in him, into the gaze that God, Abba, has toward all his children and toward the whole of creation.”

Emphasizing that the document is not just a historical record or a “text of academic theology,” the Vatican’s theological commission said the publication responds to Pope Francis’ desire to promote fraternity among Christians and inspire greater participation of Catholic faithful within local Churches.   

“It was in Nicaea that the Church’s unity and mission were first expressed emblematically at a universal level (and from here, it draws its designation as an ecumenical council) through the synodal form of that ‘walking together’ which is proper to the Church,” the ITC shared on Thursday.

“Nicaea stands as an authoritative reference point and inspiration in the synodal process in which the Catholic Church is involved today, in its commitment to live a conversion and reform marked by the principle of relationship and reciprocity for mission,” the press release stated.

Answering Pope Francis’ call to proclaim faith in Jesus Christ in a world scourged by the “tragedy of war along with countless anxieties and uncertainties,” the theological commission said the Nicaea Council publication can be used as a dynamic resource for Christian evangelization.

“The document highlights the relevance of these resources for a responsible and shared way of addressing the epochal change that is having a global impact on culture and society,” the press release stated. “The faith professed at Nicaea opens our eyes to the explosive and enduring newness of the coming of the Son of God among us.”

A special “study day” on the document will take place on May 20 at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.

Christians protest a recent attack on Catholics in Jabalpur on April 1, 2025. / Credit: Diocese of Jabalpur

Bangalore, India, Apr 3, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has condemned an attack on Catholic pilgrims visiting churches near the city of Jabalpur along with the beating of senior diocesan officials there. 

Allegedly injured in the assault was the vicar general and procurator of Jabalpur, who reportedly rushed to safeguard the pilgrims in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India.

“Reports indicate that this is not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing pattern and strategy to create communal polarization and hostility towards religious minorities,” CBCI said in an April 1 press statement.

The bishops urged the federal ministers “to intervene to ensure … stringent action” against the culprits.

The CBCI described the assault on 52 pilgrims of Mandla parish as “deeply distressing.” The pilgrims traveled over 60 miles to Jabalpur, making a jubilee pilgrimage to churches in the city, when their bus was attacked on March 31 reportedly by Hindu fundamentalists.

The entire group, including parish priest Father John Quodros, was taken to the police station by the attackers, who were alleging that the Catholics were undertaking a criminal act of religious conversion.

One social media user uploaded a video of the assault showing Vicar General Father David George being hit on the head by a leader of the Hindu group.

The CBCI statement decried the assault on the pilgrims and the senior priests as “a shocking attack on religious freedom and human dignity.”

“The trouble started in front of our Holy Trinity Church when the pilgrims were boarding the bus” after Mass, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Congregation Sister Taurina Vaz told CNA on April 2.

“When some people started questioning them, a policeman, sensing trouble, told the Catholics to rush away. Then I saw a young man taking a photo of the bus, and it seems it was forwarded to the mob that had gathered on the way for the assault,” Sister Taurina said.

The Hindu outfit Bajrang Dal reportedly stopped the bus near the parish church at Ranjhi, six miles away, and forced off all the pilgrims — mostly women and children — and heckled them, alleging that the group had been brought to be converted. 

George in his complaint to the Jabalpur police chief pointed out that the key of the bus was snatched from the driver and the pilgrims were taken to the police station.

“As we heard the news, we rushed from the bishop’s house to the police station and tried to explain that the whole group were Catholics on pilgrimage to churches. But they were shouting ‘conversion’ and anti-Christian slogans and assaulted us. The policemen tried to shield us,” George told CNA.

Though hundreds of Christians of Jabalpur staged a protest on April 1 against the attack, police have not arrested anyone in connection with the attacks.

“I am going with [Jabalpur Bishop Valan Arasu] to meet the police chief to demand action against the culprits. They cannot just let the culprits get away,” George said.

Asked about the pilgrims and the parish priest, George said “they are safely back in Mandla.”

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline has been elected president of the French bishops’ conference, succeeding Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort as the Catholic Church in France continues responding to revelations of sexual abuse. / Credit: Laurent Coust/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Apr 3, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline has been elected president of the French bishops’ conference, succeeding Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort as the Catholic Church in France continues responding to revelations of sexual abuse.

The 66-year-old archbishop of Marseille was elected on April 2 during the bishops’ spring plenary assembly in Lourdes.

Aveline will officially assume leadership of the conference on July 1 alongside newly elected vice presidents Archbishop Vincent Jordy of Tours and Bishop Benoît Bertrand of Pontoise.

Aveline, who was born in Algeria and has served as a priest in Marseille for over 40 years, is known for his close relationship with Pope Francis.

The pope created him a cardinal in August 2022 and briefly visited Marseille in September 2023.

According to French media, Aveline is the most recognized French cardinal in Rome.

Aveline succeeds Moulins-Beaufort, who served as conference president since 2019 and led the French Church through one of its most challenging periods. During his tenure, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) released its landmark 2021 report estimating that approximately 330,000 minors had been victims of sexual abuse in Church settings since 1950.

The outgoing president guided the bishops’ response to this crisis, which included implementing numerous reforms and establishing support systems for survivors. 

In December 2022, the French bishops established a new legal structure to deal with crimes and offenses committed by clerics and laity within the Church, including sexual abuse of adults.

In an interview published in Le Pèlerin last week, Moulins-Beaufort acknowledged the ongoing work needed to address abuse.

Aveline, who has advocated for dialogue between religions and cultures and promoted welcoming migrants — key priorities of Pope Francis’ pontificate — now faces the challenge of continuing this critical work while addressing other pressing issues facing the French Church.

His term as president of the French bishops’ conference is set for three years, with the possibility of a single renewal.

Idaho Capitol in Boise. / Credit: Through the Lens of Life/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Apr 3, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Idaho governor signs in utero human development education law

Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little recently signed a law requiring public schools to teach students about human development in the womb. 

Last week Little signed the bill, which passed in the Idaho Senate in a 27-8 vote at the end of February and in the Idaho House 63-6 in March.

The law requires schools to teach about fetal development in grades 5 through 12 beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. 

Lessons must include a high-definition ultrasound video at least three minutes long that shows the development of vital organs as well as a rendered or animated video showing the process of fertilization and the stages of human development within the uterus. 

Live Action founding president Lila Rose noted in a post on X that this would include Live Action digital resources such as the “Baby Olivia” video, which follows the growth and development of an unborn child in the womb from conception to just before birth. 

Rose called the move a “big win for truth, science, and life!” In a statement she said she hopes students in Idaho “will gain a deeper understanding of the incredible process of how human life begins.”

Other states that require education on fetal development include North Dakota and Tennessee. 

Alabama attorney general can’t prosecute out-of-state abortion funding

A federal judge ruled on Monday that Alabama can’t prosecute people for obtaining or funding an abortion in another state where it is legal. 

The decision followed a 2023 lawsuit against state Attorney General Steve Marshall, who once threatened that he would prosecute funding for abortion in other states. In 2022 Marshall said funding abortions out of state is “potentially criminally actionable for us.”

Two pro-abortion organizations that fund abortions — the Yellowhammer Fund and West Alabama Women’s Center — requested a declaratory judgment that Marshall’s comments were unconstitutional.

Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama said in this week’s ruling that the attorney general’s “threatened prosecutions are unlawful,” citing the right to travel as well as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Thompson ruled that Alabama may outlaw “what happens in its own backyard” but “it is another thing for the state to enforce its values and laws” against people who travel to another state where the conduct is legal.

Other states like Idaho and Tennessee ban “abortion trafficking,” including moving minors across state lines to obtain abortions. 

Nevada can enforce dormant parental notification abortion law, judge rules

A judge ruled Monday that Nevada can enforce a 40-year-old parental notification law for minors obtaining abortions.

U.S. District Court Judge Anne Traum in Nevada ruled that the 1985 law may take effect April 30. Traum cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision that repealed Roe v. Wade.

The Nevada law requires that parents or guardians are notified when minors receive abortions, but it allows an exception for minors who get a court order to authorize the abortion.

Traum left the possibility open for opponents to seek a court order to block the law while they challenge it, noting that “the injunction should be lifted unless the 1985 law should be enjoined on an alternative constitutional ground.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals initially found the law to be unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade. But after Roe was reversed, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and others took legal steps to restore the law.

Abortion in Nevada is legal until 24 weeks with exceptions for the mother’s life or health. A possible ballot measure is in progress that, if passed, could enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets with President Alar Karis of Estonia at the Vatican on April 3, 2025, to discuss local and regional issues including prospects of ending the Russia-Ukraine war. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Apr 3, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with President Alar Karis of Estonia at the Vatican on Thursday morning to discuss local and regional issues including prospects of ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

During the April 3 audience, Parolin and Karis expressed appreciation for “good bilateral relations” between their two states as well as the “positive contribution” of local Catholic communities in the northern European nation.

Approximately 6,700 Catholics live in Estonia, accounting for 0.5% of the country’s total population. According to Statistics Estonia, the country’s 2022 census showed the Catholic population grew from 0.4% in 2011 to 0.8% in 2021.

The Vatican erected the Diocese of Tallinn, which is immediately subject to the Holy See and not a metropolitan archdiocese, in September 2024. The diocese replaced the Apostolic Administration of Estonia that was founded 100 years prior in 1924.

In 2018, Pope Francis visited Estonia during his apostolic journey to the Baltic States and, in 2024, appointed French-born Bishop Philippe Jourdan as the first local bishop of the country. Jourdan had served as apostolic administrator since 2005. 

The Holy See Press Office said that during the Thursday meeting, “satisfaction was also expressed regarding the imminent beatification of Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, a Jesuit martyr and Estonia’s first blessed.”

Profittlich, who served as the apostolic administrator for Estonia from 1931 to 1942, died in Kirov prison in Serbia after being captured and deported by Soviet authorities. The Soviet Union invaded and occupied the country in 1940.

The Vatican reported “bilateral, regional, and international issues were also discussed” during the audience with “particular reference to the prospects for an end to the war in Ukraine.”

Last year, Statistics Estonia reported the country’s population is increasing due to Ukrainian immigration. Following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war on Feb. 24, 2022, approximately 44,480 Ukrainians migrated to Estonia, accounting for 73% of Ukrainian nationals living in the country.

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations, was also present at the April 3 meeting.

A philosopher of science and technology, Father Ricardo Mejía Fernández is an expert in transhumanism. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Ricardo Mejía Fernández

Madrid, Spain, Apr 3, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

In his new book “Integral Transhumanism,” Spanish priest Ricardo Mejía Fernández examines the transhumanist movement as “a technological extension of traditional humanism.”

According to the definition of the Transhumanist Association, transhumanism “is a cultural and intellectual movement that affirms the possibility and necessity of improving the human condition, based on the use of reason applied within an ethical framework sustained by human rights and the ideals of the Enlightenment and humanism.” 

In the book’s prologue, the archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta, emphasizes that Mejía approaches the general transhumanist proposal from “a de-ideologized view of reality,” like the child in Hans Christian Andersen’s story who unabashedly declares that the emperor has no clothes.

The prelate summarizes the basis of Mejía’s thesis by stating that “technology is a human way of loving, and love is the human way of using technology.”

As a philosopher of science and technology, the 37-year-old Mejía has been gaining international standing, including his election in 2021 as a member of the International Society for Science and Religion at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Mejía did not hesitate to define the majority transhumanist proposal as a “dangerous scam.” At the same time, he was quick to point out that “a technical intervention, simply because it is not natural, is not enough for us to disqualify it as immoral.”

Mejía advocates an approach consistent with the Church’s teachings, a “critical technophilia,” to address the issue, since “technology is already present in the plan of creation.”

ACI Prensa: Is there a bad transhumanism and a good transhumanism?

Father Ricardo Mejía Fernández: Transhumanism in its majority form (transitive and even substitutional), to the extent that it seeks to improve the person solely through biotechnology by altering their specific limits, is completely contrary to an ethics of the person.

My proposal is a forceful critique of transhumanism as it is known today, which lacks a minimally acceptable anthropological, metaphysical, and ethical foundation.

However, even these transhumanists seek to fulfill an infinite desire for fulfillment, what centuries ago was called, as was so often commented on by St. Thomas Aquinas, the “desiderium naturale videndi Deum” (“the natural desire to see God”).

Their error lies in how they propose that this innermost human desire will be fulfilled: not with a reality commensurate with this utterly deep desire but with the provisional devices, techniques, and interventions of the technosciences.

To provide this answer is to defraud humankind because they conceive of the person simply as a complex material mechanism, to which a singular mental capacity is added, the fruit of this mechanism.

The place once occupied by religion will now be taken by the technosciences. Can this transhumanism and its posthumanist extreme be critically reviewed, recognizing its elements of truth? This is what I have done in my work.

You use the concept of “integral transhumanism.“ What does the “integral improvement“ that it proposes consist of in various fields, biologically, socially, or spiritually?

The various transhumanisms have so far been developing their thought without acknowledging their partiality, with a clear danger to the human person: making him dependent on a presumed salvation exclusively through the augmentation of our most hardware-like aspects, which new anthropo-technologies will grant them sooner rather than later.

They also alienate human beings with the future promises that are yet to be revealed thanks to these disciplines. Fortunately, transhumanism is not a closed and monolithic movement, which allows me to reformulate it.

The term “integral transhumanism“ means, on the one hand, a technological expansion of traditional humanism as well as the recognition that the person can be also and not only through advances in new technologies assisted, strengthened, and expanded, without detriment to the human community or the ecosystem, in all that does not endanger its essence, dignity, and centrality.

This is not a “do-goodism,“ since integral improvement must depend on integral moral goodness — that is, improvement, among those found in the technosciences, must depend on integral ethical personalism.

It’s highly questionable, and that’s why I’m inspired by Jacques Maritain’s integral humanism without incurring in his virtualism, a good of the individual completely separate from the good of his community and the planet.

Is transhumanism possible without eugenics, discarding the weak, or the denaturalization of the human being?

Eugenics understood as the elimination of unwanted human life is an aberration, which Pope Francis criticizes as the “throwaway culture,“ but not so the technical strengthening of personal life without undermining or suppressing it. The latter is not condemned by the magisterium of the Church.

Inspired by a silenced early stage of the English scientist Francis Galton, I call this [by analogy] a viticulture of both care and the improvement of the person in relation to the community and the environment. One cannot improve without caring.

Likewise, a technical intervention, simply because it is not natural, is not enough for us to disqualify it as immoral: Is it immoral to wear glasses, an artificial addition to the body to correct vision? Or a pacemaker? Obviously not.

The majority of transhumanists my integral transhumanism opposes understand technology from an unbridled instrumental perspective: If it is technically possible, it is technically feasible to modify not only certain aspects of humankind but the very essence of humankind.

I believe it is metaphysically impossible to modify this essence, although today multiple genetic edits can be made that radically modify our bodies. This does raise concerns in bioethics and other fields, without thus abandoning a hopeful view of its treatment from a comprehensive ethical perspective.

This is emphasized by Archbishop Mario Iceta of Burgos in his extraordinary prologue to my work.

If a hopeful perspective on the transhumanist proposal is possible, what positive elements do you see?

No matter how much we insist on an uneducated humanism regarding the technosciences applied to humankind, these will likely continue to grow. Biotechnology is a specialty increasingly present in universities and is studied by a growing number of our young students, many of them Catholic.

How can we attempt to articulate an ethical discourse about the person, ignoring that today and in the future, our bodies and minds will increasingly be subject to intervention with these technosciences?

Integral transhumanism, far from a technophobia that ultimately grants these technosciences a free pass by failing to address their problems head-on or ignoring them, seeks to incorporate them into a critical approach that responds to ethical demands.

The position most compatible with the Church’s magisterium would be a critical technophilia that can incorporate those interventions of science and technology that allow for and strengthen a more developed human life in growing measures, even expanding it in aspects that our species has not yet reached through evolution, without this implying the suppression of the human person, particularly in an embryonic or dependent stage, or subordinating it to technological determinism.

What should we fear from the most widespread transhumanist proposal, which seems to be an amendment to the mystery of creation?

The majority of transhumanism is, as I’ve pointed out, a dangerous scam. I say it’s dangerous because it doesn’t rely solely on a vague promise but rather proposes that, until the definitive transhuman or posthuman arrives, technological interventions can and should be carried out on human beings, transcending genetic and personal barriers.

According to them, nothing can be more normative, or hold a higher place, than techno-scientific experimentation itself. Thus, we are promised the possibility of being more than human in an uncertain future, and in the meantime, we are invited to do anything with our bodies in an unrestrained experimentalism.

In my work, I assert that this transhumanism deforms humankind (human beings conduct experiments based on deliberation that concerns morality, even if they don’t know it) and deforms technology, since the only way to exercise this ability is by opposing it to humankind itself.

I call this a “Molochan“ deformation, in reference to the demon Moloch, who demanded that the purest human life [babies] be sacrificed to him so that he could offer greater prerogatives in the future.

But technology is already present in the plan of creation, precisely at the moment when God asks Adam and Eve, according to the beautiful story of Genesis, to care for and serve in the Garden of Eden without damaging it or its caretakers. Caring is key to the creation of technical humanity, since technology is meant to be an ally for the integral good of humankind in relation to our fellow human beings and the Earth.

Is there a relationship between the drive for this transhumanism and the secularization of the West?

This is what I argue in a chapter of my book. The majority of transhumanism is a consequence of secularization, although for some members of this movement, it presents itself with clear overtones of secularist religion.

In my opinion, it is an ultra-secularist proposal in the realm of technoscience, born directly from the most unbridled exclusionary humanism of modernity: a humanism that excludes God, neighbor, and care for our common home.

In my work, I criticize the worst of the modernisms from which this movement springs, as well as the understanding of humanism only as that which defends the despotic man. That’s why I so much like the neologism “transhumanism,“ such that I understand the prefix “trans“ not as abandoning our essence (this is metaphysically impossible), but rather as overcoming this modernist and exclusivist bias of a mistaken understanding of the self-deifying individual who can do whatever he pleases, no matter the cost.

I think, as a philosopher of science and technology, as a priest, that we must boldly critique the ultra-secularism that many transhumanists draw upon to try to improve humanity by turning their backs on God, in that neo-Gnosticism and neo-Pelagianism they unwittingly champion.

Integral transhumanism, on the other hand, cannot obstruct the innermost desire of [Homo] Sapiens, his specific religiosity, with techno-scientific fixes that are always revisable and perfectible. Improving humanity is a broader and grander undertaking.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.