Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need reminds us that “women religious are often on the front lines of wars.” / Credit: ACN

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 16:55 pm (CNA).

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) joined the International Union of Superiors General in its call to pray and fast for world peace on Aug. 14, the eve of the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In a statement released Aug. 13, Regina Lynch, executive president of ACN International, said: “Wherever there is conflict, women and children are marginalized, and it is often they who suffer most. Religious sisters are often on the front lines of wars, helping the innocent in whatever way they can, without regard for their own safety.”

“It is therefore very commendable that this group of women should be leading the way in denouncing warfare and calling for peace and reconciliation,” Lynch said. “ACN is happy to add its voice to the many which are responding to their brave call.”

Pointing to the wars raging all over the world, including in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Union of Superiors General — made up of 1,903 female heads of religious congregations from around the world — called for the world to unite in a day of fasting and prayer on Aug. 14 ahead of the celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The group said women religious “cannot remain silent spectators” and entrusted themselves to the Mother of God, Our Lady of Peace, “so that she may tenderly answer the cries of the peoples and teach us to be a humble and prophetic presence in places of suffering.”

“Each day we see faces marked by pain, lives shattered, peoples deprived of dignity and peace, especially the women and children,” the organization said.

Lynch emphasized that “Mary is the Queen of Peace. Let us pray that she may touch the hearts of decision-makers all over the world, that they may yearn for the peace of her son, Jesus Christ.”

“On this feast of her assumption into heaven, we recall that there is a woman, in body and spirit, at the side of Our Lord. No doubt she will be sympathetic to the pain and anguish that the women religious are witnessing and shall intercede for an end to the conflicts,” she stated.

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

Religious sisters show their support for the Little Sisters of the Poor outside the Supreme Court, where oral arguments were heard on March 23, 2016, in the Zubik v. Burwell case against the HHS mandate. / Credit: CNA

CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 16:25 pm (CNA).

A federal court has ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor in their long-running legal dispute over government contraception mandates, dealing a blow to the religious order of sisters even after multiple court victories, including at the Supreme Court.

The legal advocacy group Becket said on Aug. 13 that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania in finding that the federal government had not followed protocol when issuing exemptions to contraceptive requirements, including for the Little Sisters.

The district court said that a set of religious exemptions granted by the federal government during the first Trump administration were “arbitrary [and] capricious” and failed to adhere to the requirements of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

The court has vacated those exemptions “in their entirety,” the Aug. 13 ruling said.

Diana Thomson, a senior attorney with Becket, told CNA that the case is the same one that saw the Little Sisters win a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 when a majority of the court’s justices said the exemptions to the contraceptive mandate were legal.

She described the procedural questions in the Aug. 13 ruling as “cutting-floor arguments” that the states had largely ignored several years ago.

“Instead of dropping the case, Pennsylvania and New Jersey revitalized their cutting-floor arguments that they chose not to pursue at the Supreme Court last time and brought them in the district court,” she said.

The district court accepted those arguments “even though the Supreme Court already blessed the rules,” Thomson said.

The court is “trying to find a loophole” to the 2020 Supreme Court ruling, she said.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania had brought the lawsuit against multiple federal agencies and officials, though the Little Sisters of the Poor were attached to the lawsuit as “defendant-intervenors.”

The sisters will appeal the ruling, Thomson said.

“I assume the Trump administration will appeal also,” she said. “But the Little Sisters’ appeal is already on file.”

“We will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” she said.

In a separate statement, Mark Rienzi, the president of Becket and the lead attorney for the Little Sisters, said it was “bad enough that the district court issued a nationwide ruling invalidating federal religious conscience rules.”

“But even worse is that the district court simply ducked the glaring constitutional issues in this case after waiting five years and not even holding a hearing,” he argued.

“It is absurd to think the Little Sisters might need yet another trip to the Supreme Court to end what has now been more than a dozen years of litigation over the same issue,” he said, adding: “We will fight as far as we need to fight to protect the Little Sisters’ right to care for the elderly in peace.”

A vandalized statue of Mary, the Mother of God, at St. Leo Parish in Hartford, Arkansas, in July 2024. / Credit: Father Joseph Chan

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 13, 2025 / 15:49 pm (CNA).

A report published by the Family Research Council (FRC) documented more than 400 cases of “acts of hostility” against Catholic and other Christian churches in the U.S. in 2024.

The report, published on Aug. 11, found 415 incidents, which included 284 acts of vandalism, 55 cases of arson, 28 gun-related incidents, 14 bomb threats, and 47 other hostile acts.

In every month, there were at least 20 hostile acts against churches, with the highest numbers occurring in June with 49 incidents and February with 45 incidents. The average was 35 incidents per month.

This is a slight downtick from FRC’s 2023 numbers, when the evangelical nonprofit found 485 incidents. Yet, the number is still significantly higher than in previous years: 198 in 2022, 98 in 2021, 55 in 2020, 83 in 2019, and 50 in 2018, the year FRC began tracking hostile incidents.

Neither the perpetrator nor the motive is clear for most incidents, according to FRC. The report notes that some acts appeared to have been motivated by hatred toward Christianity, some by financial gain, and others seemed like they were perpetrated by teenagers “engaging in a destructive pastime.”

There was only one instance in which a pro-abortion motive was found, which is much lower than in 2022, when at least 59 hostile acts were motivated by the perpetrator’s support for abortion. The spike that year is likely related to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

The pro-abortion vandalism occurred at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, where the vandal defaced a church building with the phrase: “[expletive] you, my body my choice.”

Arielle Del Turco, the director of FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty, said in a statement that “no instance of vandalism or other crimes against churches is acceptable, and political leaders should be quick to condemn such actions and affirm the importance of religious freedom.”

“Religious freedom does not rely on legal protections alone but also on cultural support,” she added. “We must bolster cultural support for religious freedom and respect for our Christian heritage.”

According to the report, there were also 33 instances in which the perpetrator targeted churches because the church embraced “LGBT” pride, which mostly came in the form of stealing the pride flags.

One of the hostile acts documented against Catholic churches was an incident in South San Francisco, California, in January. A man fired gunshots toward St. Augustine Catholic Church, but no one was injured in the attack.

In another incident, a person desecrated a processional crucifix and a statue of the Blessed Mother in a Georgetown University chapel. St. Leo Church in Hartford, Arkansas, was attacked once in 2023 and twice in 2024, which included a vandal destroying statues. Another vandal decapitated a statue of Jesus Christ at Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in Fresh Meadows, New York.

At St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a person discarded about 100 Communion wafers in the church parking lot during an Easter Mass. The priest said at the time that he believed they were likely not consecrated.

FRC President Tony Perkins, a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement the report “clearly shows religious freedom faces substantial threats here at home.”

“Religious freedom is seldom handed to the passive; it is claimed by those who exercise it even when a hostile culture says they may not,” Perkins said.

The report notes that the federal government has grown aware of anti-Christian sentiments within American society, with President Donald Trump signing an executive order to create a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias within federal government policies, regulations, and practices.

“The American woke Left has been intentional in spreading its hostility toward the Christian faith throughout every corner of America,” Perkins said. “We applaud the efforts of the Trump administration, but efforts must be taken at every level of government to protect and promote this fundamental human right.”

“Christians must expect and demand more from their government leaders when it comes to prosecuting and preventing criminal acts targeting religious freedom,” he added.

California, which is the country’s most populous state, recorded 40 hostile acts, which were more than any other state. The second-highest number occurred in Pennsylvania with 29, followed by Florida and New York with 25 each, Texas with 23, and Tennessee and Ohio with 19 each.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 15:19 pm (CNA).

After a lengthy session in Uruguay’s Chamber of Representatives, legislators passed a bill this week that, if passed in the Senate, would legalize euthanasia in the country, making it the third in South America to permit the practice.

Introduced by the Broad Front political coalition at the beginning of the year and approved in July by the lower House’s Committee on Health, the bill will now move to the Senate for consideration. It passed by a margin of 64-29 in a plenary session of the Chamber of Representatives on Aug. 12.

Nearly the entire ruling party bloc as well as members of the opposition voted for the bill, which states that any person over 18 years of age “who suffers from one or more chronic, incurable, and irreversible pathologies or health conditions that seriously impair their quality of life, causing unbearable suffering” may request assisted death.

If approved, Uruguay would become the third country in South America to permit the practice, along with Colombia and Ecuador.

The Catholic Church in Uruguay has spoken out against the bill on numerous occasions. In early August, the prelates of the Episcopal Conference of Uruguay posted a video message calling for a “firm no” to the bill because “causing the death of a patient is ethically unacceptable.”

The bishops emphasized that “the dignity of every person is an absolute, inalienable gift that is never lost” and that “for God, every life is infinitely loved and worthy of all our care.”

“Our society must welcome, protect, and accompany every person until the end of their earthly life,” they affirmed, emphasizing the urgency of “implementing the palliative care law so that no Uruguayan suffers unnecessarily.”

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

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CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 14:49 pm (CNA).

A coalition of 22 attorneys general — all Republican — led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, has called on the Trump administration to reinstate safety protocols for the abortion drug mifepristone, citing severe risks to women’s health. 

In a letter addressed to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, the attorneys general urge Kennedy and Makary to restore safeguards removed by the Obama and Biden administrations or consider withdrawing the drug from the market.

The letter references a study published in April by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. The EPPC study claims mifepristone causes many more serious adverse events, including hemorrhage, sepsis, emergency room visits, and ectopic pregnancy, than stated on the drug’s label, which shows a less than .5% rate of adverse events.

“Recent comprehensive studies of the real-world effects of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone report that serious adverse events occur 22 times more often than stated on the drug’s label, while the drug is less than half as effective as claimed. These facts directly contradict the drug’s primary marketing message of ‘safe’ and ‘effective,’” the letter states.

The study, which examined 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023, is the largest known study of the abortion pill. It found that 11% of women “experience at least one serious adverse event or repeated abortion attempt within 45 days of first attempting a mifepristone abortion.”

The attorneys general argue that the FDA should reinstate safety protocols from the 2011 Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, which required in-person prescriptions and provider follow-ups but were later relaxed by the Biden administration.

“The FDA’s removal of these crucial safety protocols in 2016 (and in 2023) that only five years before the FDA considered necessary begs the question of whether the removal was motivated by considerations other than the safety of patients,” the attorneys general wrote. “The current FDA’s dedication to the health and well-being of all Americans is encouraging, as is the much-needed review of mifepristone that Secretary Kennedy has promised.” 

The letter continues: “Currently, a woman can obtain a mifepristone abortion by participating in only one telehealth visit with any approved health care provider (not necessarily a physician), ordering the drugs through a mail-order pharmacy, and self-administering them. And the prescriber is only required to report an adverse event if he or she becomes aware that the patient has died.”

This push follows similar urging by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who, echoing the same EPPC findings, introduced the Restoring Safeguards for Dangerous Abortion Drugs Act in May. 

The bill would direct the FDA to create safeguards on mifepristone. It would also give women who have suffered complications from mifepristone the right to file lawsuits against telehealth providers and pharmacies. It would also prohibit foreign companies from importing and shipping the drug into the U.S.

Hawley urged immediate action to restore safety measures, and like the attorneys general, warned that without such measures, the FDA should consider removing mifepristone until the agency completes a thorough review.

When Hawley asked Kennedy if he was familiar with the study during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in May, Kennedy said he was. “It’s alarming, and clearly it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy also “pledged to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the drug,” Hawley said.

Also in May, a coalition of more than 100 pro-life groups, including various Catholic organizations, called for HHS to review the drug’s safety and restore previous federal safety regulations in light of the EPPC study.

Makary previously stated he had no plans to alter mifepristone policies unless data indicated a safety issue. The FDA, which first approved mifepristone in 2000 after a “thorough and comprehensive review,” maintains that periodic evaluations have not identified new safety concerns.

Mifepristone, used with misoprostol to terminate early pregnancies, accounted for 63% of U.S. abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The number of actual abortions might be higher due to underreporting, according to the organization, which was affiliated with Planned Parenthood until 2007.

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to mifepristone’s availability in 2024, declining to rule on the legality of relaxed regulations under the Obama and Biden administrations.

Mary Rice Hasson has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Vatican at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She currently serves as the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School. / Credit: Rui Barros Photography

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 13, 2025 / 14:14 pm (CNA).

Catholic researcher and speaker Mary Rice Hasson will receive the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Leo XIV, a papal honor recognizing distinguished service to the Catholic Church.

“I’m truly humbled and grateful to receive this honor from Pope Leo XIV, who reminds us that faith lies at the heart of our mission,” Hasson said in a statement. “It’s an honor to serve the Church.” 

The Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (“For the Church and the Pontiff”), first established by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, is a decoration of the Holy See conferred for dedication to the Church by laypeople and clergy.

It was originally bestowed on men and women who promoted the jubilee and assisted in making the Vatican Exposition successful.

“I’m blessed to be able to integrate my faith and work in a way that serves the Church, and to work alongside so many others with similar commitments,” Hasson told CNA. 

“My personal inspiration, and the touchstone for my service to the Church, comes from Pope St. John Paul II who wrote (in Christifideles Laici) that women have been entrusted with ‘assuring the moral dimension of culture.’”

Hasson is currently a Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and serves as director and co-founder of its Person and Identity Project, an initiative that assists the Church “in promoting the Catholic vision of the human person and responding to the challenges of gender ideology.”

She is also a visiting fellow for the Veritas Center at Franciscan University, an attorney, and a policy expert. Hasson has been a keynote speaker for the Holy See during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women three times and is a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for its Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth and Committee on Religious Liberty.

The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, announced that Bishop Michael Burbidge will formally grant the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice to Hasson and fellow honorees at a private ceremony in September.

The diocese reported it “rejoices that our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has bestowed papal honors on 50 members of the diocesan faithful, concluding our 50th anniversary golden jubilee.”

Hasson is one of 10 people who will receive the cross, and another 40 will receive the Benemerenti Medal, another papal award that was established by Pope Pius VI.

An aerial view of the papal palace of Castel Gandolfo near Rome. The apostolic palace is a complex of buildings served for centuries as a summer residence for the pope and overlooks Lake Albano. / Credit: Stefano Tammaro/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on the afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 13, returned to Castel Gandolfo, where he had resided during his summer vacation in July.

The pontiff left the Vatican around 4:30 p.m. local time and traveled by car to the papal summer home where he stayed July 6–22.

Castel Gandolfo, located 15 miles from Rome on the shores of Lake Albano, has historically been the site of the papal residence during the summer. While Pope Francis decided to stay at the Vatican during the summer, Pope Leo XIV has revived the tradition.

After a day of rest, on Friday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish in Castel Gandolfo.

On Sunday, Aug. 17, at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Holy Father will arrive at the shrine in Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano, an Italian town bordering Castel Gandolfo, to celebrate Mass with a group of poor people receiving assistance from Caritas.

After Mass, he will head to Castel Gandolfo to pray the Angelus at noon in Liberty Plaza.

In addition, according to the Diocese of Albano, he will later share lunch with 100 low-income people at Borgo Laudato Si’, an ecological and social project inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 17, the Holy Father will return to the Vatican.

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

Young people participate in the Mass for the first World Children’s Day in May 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has decided that the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day should be incorporated within the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, whose prefect is Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

A rescript published by the Holy See Press Office on Aug. 13 announced the Holy Father’s recent decision, which he made after a meeting on Aug. 6 with Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

On Dec. 8, 2023, Pope Francis established World Children’s Day, organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, saying it would be celebrated worldwide May 25–26, 2024.

On May 25 last year, thousands of children from 77 countries around the world met with the Argentine pope at Rome’s Olympic Stadium. Together, they heard various testimonies and the youngest children also had the opportunity to ask the Holy Father questions.

In November 2024, Francis established the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day and appointed as its president Father Enzo Fortunato, who is also director of communications for St. Peter’s Basilica and head of the press office of St. Francis of Assisi Basilica.

The next World Children’s Day will be celebrated in Rome in September 2026.

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

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CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 11:42 am (CNA).

A federal appeals court this week ruled that the state of Arkansas is allowed to ban “gender transition” procedures for minors, reversing a lower court’s decision that blocked the law from taking effect.

The state has a “compelling interest” in “protecting the physical and psychological health of minors,” the Aug. 12 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit held.

Arkansas passed the law in 2021, with the state Legislature voting to override then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto. The measure, titled the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, prohibits a “physician or other health care professional” from providing “gender transition procedures to any individual” under 18 years old.

A federal district judge struck the law down in 2023, claiming it violated the constitutional rights of children who believe they are the opposite sex and who seek to alter their bodies to align with that conviction.

In its ruling this week the appeals court said the Arkansas law “regulates a class of procedures, not people.” It noted that the Supreme Court “leaves wide discretion for medical legislation to the more politically accountable bodies, especially in areas of medical uncertainty.”

Parents, meanwhile, “do not have unlimited authority to make medical decisions for their children,” the court said, citing Supreme Court precedent. 

The court said it did not find a “deeply rooted right of parents to exempt their children from regulations reasonably prohibiting gender transition procedures.”

In a statement after the ruling, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he “applaud[ed] the court’s decision recognizing that Arkansas has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological health of children.”

Griffin said he was “pleased that children in Arkansas will be protected from risky, experimental procedures with lifelong consequences.”

The ruling comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on performing transgender procedures on minors.

The appeals court ruling this week heavily cited that June ruling from the high court. In that decision, Chief Justice John Robert said the Supreme Court “leaves [the] question” of banning such procedures “to the people’s representatives.”

Justice Elena Kagan, on the other hand, argued that the Tennessee law “undermines fundamental liberties and sets a dangerous precedent for state overreach.”

The court rulings come amid a broader public shift regarding transgender policy. 

Several children’s hospitals across the country that have performed transgender surgeries on minors have halted the procedures in response to President Donald Trump’s executive actions and his administration’s regulatory changes regarding the controversial medical practice. 

Trump in January also signed an executive order to end “radical gender ideology” in the military, reversing former President Joe Biden’s directive that allowed soldiers who identify as transgender to serve in the armed forces.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, published last year, found that more than 3% of U.S. high schoolers identify as transgender.

Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Basilica on Aug. 13, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 13, 2025 / 11:12 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV during his Wednesday general audience on Aug. 13 said the Gospel does not teach people to deny evil but to recognize its reality as an opportunity for conversion.

Continuing his jubilee catechesis on “Jesus Christ Our Hope,” the Holy Father continued his reflection on the Last Supper recorded in the Gospel of St. Mark.

Though Jesus did not “raise his voice” nor “point his finger” at Judas, Pope Leo said he used “strong words” to reveal the gravity of his betrayal.

“Jesus does not denounce in order to humiliate,” he said. “He speaks the truth because he desires to save.”

Due to the heat, the audience was held in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. The pope also greeted pilgrims who were not able to fit inside the hall and were gathered in other locations to stay out of the extreme temperatures, according to Vatican News.

The Holy Father said Jesus did not speak the truth to “condemn” but to help his disciples be aware that conversion and the “journey of salvation” begins with a sincere acceptance of the truth of one’s own weaknesses and fragility.

“In order to be saved it is necessary to feel that one is involved, to feel that one is beloved despite everything, to feel that evil is real but it does not have the last word,” he said.

“The Gospel does not teach us to deny evil but to recognize it as a painful opportunity for rebirth,” he added.

Exhorting his listeners to not “exclude” themselves from God’s love and salvation, Pope Leo said Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection are reasons to hold on to hope even when faced with one’s own sins and weaknesses.

“Precisely there, at the darkest point, the light is not extinguished,” he said. “On the contrary, it begins to shine.”

“If we recognize our limits, if we let ourselves be touched by the pain of Christ, then we can be finally born again,” he continued.

Toward the end of the Wednesday catechesis, the Holy Father encouraged Christians to “open up a space for truth in our hearts” and to trust Jesus, who never abandoned any of his disciples, even when he knew he would “be left alone” after the Last Supper to endure his passion. 

“Salvation begins here: with the awareness that we may be the ones who break our trust in God but that we can also be the ones who gather it, protect it, and renew it,” Leo said.

“Ultimately, this is hope: knowing that even if we fail, God will never fail us. Even if we betray him, he never stops loving us,” he said.