Nearly half of 2,500 anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe were in France, report says

The historic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, was ravaged by arson on the night of Sept. 2, 2024. / Credit: Courtesy of Father Sébastien RousselWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 20, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).A recently released report from a European watchdog group has found nearly 2,500 documented instances of hate crimes against Christians living in Europe. Approximately 1,000 of these attacks took place in France. According to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC) report, which drew on both police and civil society data, 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes and acts of discrimination and intolerance occurred across 35 European countries from 2023 to 2024.Of these, 232 constituted personal attacks of harassment, threats, and physical assaults against Christians.Most affected countries: France, England, and GermanyNearly 1,000 of the anti-Christian ha...

Vietnam, with one of the highest abortion rates, leads UN initiative on premature births

Senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center Joseph Meaney speaks to "EWTN News Nightly" anchor Tracy Sabol on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"CNA Staff, Nov 20, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).Vietnam, a country with one of the highest abortion rates in the world, spearheaded a United Nations initiative this week on the health care needs of infants born prematurely.While the event in honor of World Prematurity Day aimed to spotlight the need for better care for preterm infants, a bioethicist is pointing to the irony of a country grappling with widespread abortion leading the charge."It's a completely mixed message," Joseph Meaney, a senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told "EWTN News Nightly" on Tuesday.Advances in neonatal intensive care have made possible the survival of smaller and younger infants. The world's most premature surviving baby is Curtis Zy-Keith Means, who was born at 21 weeks and one day in Birmingham, Alabama. V...

Nairobi archbishop declines Kenyan president's donations to Catholic parish

Archbishop Philip Anyolo of the Nairobi Archdiocese in Kenya. / Credit: Nairobi ArchdioceseACI Africa, Nov 20, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).The archbishop of Kenya's Archdiocese of Nairobi has turned down financial donations that the country's president offered to a Catholic parish, stating that the Church will not be compromised by offers from politicians who seek to use church fundraising events for self gain.In a Nov. 18 statement widely circulated on social media platforms, Archbishop Philip Anyolo Subira declined over 5 million Kenyan shillings ($38,500) that President William Samoei Ruto offered to Soweto Catholic Church on Nov. 17. The cash gift was meant for the construction of a new rectory at the parish.The president further gave the parish choir and the Pontifical Missionary Childhood a 600,000 Kenyan shilling ($4,600) cash reward and promised to donate a bus to the parish, both of which the archbishop has also declined. In the statement, the archbishop explained that the "...

Jimmy Lai takes the stand in yearslong Hong Kong national security trial

Jimmy Lai's wife, Teresa (left), and retired Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun arrive at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts to attend Hong Kong activist publisher Lai's national security trial in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. / Credit: AP Photo/Chan Long HeiCNA Staff, Nov 20, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).Catholic human rights activist Jimmy Lai on Wednesday took the stand in his national security trial in Hong Kong, arguing in his own defense as he faces life in prison over allegations of sedition against the communist Chinese government. Lai, 76, was first arrested in August 2020 under China's newly instituted Hong Kong national security law. He has faced multiple trials since his arrest and has been convicted on multiple charges of unlawful assembly and fraud. Advocates have argued that the charges are politically motivated. Lai, through several media enterprises including the long-running Apple Daily newspaper, has for years been a vocal pro-democracy voice i...

America's pro-life movement readies 2025 federal- and state-level policy efforts

null / Credit: Orhan Cam/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 19, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Pro-life advocates plan to push federal- and state-level legislative and policy reforms on abortion when the United States Congress and many state legislatures enter into session in January 2025.Many plans look toward regulating the abortion drug mifepristone, which is used in chemical abortions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion policy group, chemical abortions accounted for 63% of all abortions in 2023, which is an increase of 10 percentage points from 2020 and more than double what it was in 2014.Other efforts will include rolling back the abortion policies of President Joe Biden's administration, supporting conscience protections for doctors and hospitals opposed to abortion, and backing a federal law that restricts abortion by a certain point in pregnancy. There is currently no federal abortion cutoff, and nine states permit elective abortion for any reason thr...

Pro-life group asks Supreme Court to throw out abortion 'buffer zone' laws

Sarah Richardson, a sidewalk counselor with Coalition Life in Carbondale, Illinois. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Thomas More SocietySt. Louis, Mo., Nov 19, 2024 / 09:15 am (CNA).A St. Louis pro-life group has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional a rural Illinois town's now-defunct "buffer zone" law, which previously impeded the group's peaceful protests and counseling outside the town's abortion clinics. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether or not it will take up the case on Nov. 22.The case, Coalition Life v. City of Carbondale, Illinois, concerns a law restricting protests outside three abortion clinics in Carbondale, a small college town about two hours southeast of St. Louis and three hours north of Memphis, Tennessee, both major cities in states that currently have strong pro-life protections in place. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Illinois leaders have leaned in to the state's status as a destination for wo...

Pope Francis laicizes schismatic Argentine priest 

null / Credit: natatravel/ShutterstockBuenos Aires, Argentina, Nov 19, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA)."With a supreme and definitive decision," Pope Francis expelled from the clerical state for the crime of schism Fernando María Cornet, an Argentine who served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Sassari, Italy.Cornet, 57, wrote a book titled "Habemus Antipapam?" ("Do We Have an Antipope?"), published in 2023 by the publishing house Edizioni del Faro, the Argentine newspaper La Nación reported. In his book, Cornet asserts that Pope Benedict XVI's resignation was invalid and, consequently, so was the election of Pope Francis.In announcing the decision, the archbishop of Sassari, Gian Franco Saba, urged the community to pray for the unity of the Church."The members of Christ must not be in conflict with each other; all those who form his body must each fulfill their own office ... so that there may be no divisions," he said.The archdiocese also announced that the vicar of the Historic Urban ...

Brooklyn pastor removed after secretly loaning $2 million of parish funds to lawyer

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Brooklyn. / Credit: Jim.henderson, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Nov 19, 2024 / 14:35 pm (CNA).A pastor in Brooklyn, New York, has been removed from his city parish after a review found alleged "severe" financial violations, including a secret transfer of parish funds totaling almost $2 million. Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan said in a statement this week that he had relieved Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello of "any pastoral oversight or governance role" at Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish after an outside review found "evidence of severe violations of diocesan policies and protocols." Brennan previously disciplined Gigantiello last year after the priest allowed pop star Sabrina Carpenter to shoot a lewd music video in the church. Brennan at that time relieved the pastor of administrative oversight of the parish. Gigantiello's removal from the pastorship this week came after investigations revealed h...

Pope Francis conveys closeness to Ukraine in letter marking 1,000th day of war

Pope Francis attends a Vatican screening of the 2022 documentary "Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom" on Feb. 24, 2023. / Credit: Vatican MediaCNA Staff, Nov 19, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).In a letter sent to Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, on Nov. 19, Pope Francis expressed his great sorrow for the suffering of the people of Ukraine, who have now endured 1,000 days of war since the outbreak of the violent conflict there in 2022.The letter was published in Italian by the Vatican newspaper on Nov. 19. Addressing his representative in "beloved and tormented Ukraine," the Holy Father said he wished "to embrace all its citizens, wherever they may be," and acknowledged the extreme hardships the Ukrainian people have suffered under "large-scale military aggression" for the past 1,000 days. The pope told the nuncio, whom he addressed as "brother," that his words are meant to express solidarity with the people of Ukraine and to convey "a ...

Texas Supreme Court allows previously-delayed execution of Robert Roberson to proceed

The Texas Supreme Court will allow the execution of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of the murder of his infant child, with the ruling coming after a legislative committee attempted in October 2024 to delay the capital sentence by subpoenaing the condemned man. / Credit: Innocence ProjectCNA Staff, Nov 19, 2024 / 16:05 pm (CNA).The Texas Supreme Court will allow the execution of a man convicted of the murder of his infant child, with the ruling coming after a legislative committee attempted last month to delay the capital sentence by subpoenaing the condemned man.The Texas House of Representatives Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence last month had issued a subpoena for Robert Roberson to appear before the committee to testify regarding the state's "junk science" law. Roberson was convicted in 2003 of the murder of his infant daughter, Nikki.The Texas Supreme Court granted an emergency motion to halt his execution, which had originally been scheduled to take place Oct. 17. Th...