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Enugu, Nigeria, Nov 17, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Vatican-based Nigerian Church leader Cardinal Francis Arinze has urged priests to avoid lengthy homilies, saying a homily should not be an exhibition of "theological acrobatics" but rather a reflection of the priest's prayer life and a clear, concise proclamation of the Gospel.

In his keynote address during the 12-day centenary celebrations of Nigeria's Bigard Memorial Major Seminary, Arinze emphasized the importance of priests delivering homilies that are deeply rooted in Scripture, liturgical texts, and sound theology. 

"A homily well prepared should last around 10 minutes. A university lecture of 45 minutes is for a different setting. A homily is not a display of theological acrobatics nor a harangue about money," the cardinal said during a Nov. 13 event.

A homily, Arinze added, "is not an exposition of the local political climate nor a social disquisition on the economic hardships of the people. It should be the sharing of the prayer life of the priest for the past week in the presence of the Lord Jesus in the holy Eucharist."

He explained that the major points of the homily are best put in writing and that the language of a homily should be clear — "not an admixture of English and the local language, nor an exhibition of the preacher's ability to navigate in idioms."

"A poor homily is an offense against the Word of God and against God's people gathered to hear his word," the cardinal said.

In his address titled "The Impact of Formations House on Education in Nigeria," Arinze reflected on the priestly vocation and the role of seminaries in preparing future priests.

"It is expected that the seminary will train the future priest to be a good pastor of God's people. He is the spiritual director of individual Catholics and of their associations … [h]is patient attendance at their meetings, where he delivers well-prepared addresses, is one of the ways in which he serves them," the cardinal continued. "Lay leaders remain necessary according to the nature of each association. But the priest is their irreplaceable shepherd. As a good shepherd, he is neither in front nor behind his people; he is in their midst. As the pope would put it, he has the smell of the sheep."

Arinze noted the alarming trend of young people drifting from the Catholic faith, turning instead to African traditional religions and other superstitions. 

"In many parts of our country, Nigeria, there is a lamentation that many young people today are rather poor in their knowledge of the Catholic faith. Many of them relapse into practices of the African traditional religion," he said.

"They may engage in real idol worship; they believe in charms; they consult fortune tellers and some go so far as to kill even a relative in the hope that that will attract big money. It is not a surprise if such young people keep away from the sacraments."

Arinze continued: "The problem is not solved by blaming the catechists for a job not well done. Some Nigerian dioceses have a remarkable increase in the number of their priests … Suppose such a diocese adopts the policy that a priest is to be the teacher of religion in every class in schools primary or secondary. It is not below the dignity of the priest to teach the young about God and religion. Moreover, the teenagers need answers to life's challenges."

"The seminary also has the role of preparing its [students] to be good preachers. A priest should be a convinced announcer of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ."

In his keynote address at the beginning of the 12-day centenary celebrations, Arinze reflected on the challenge of inculturation in the Catholic Church in Nigeria.

The cardinal pointed to ongoing efforts in the Church to respect local cultures, including the adoption of local names in baptism and hymns in Indigenous languages. 

However, he underscored the need for a more thorough and careful process of inculturation, involving bishops, theologians, and cultural experts. 

"For an element of culture to be inculturated, the bishops' conference of the area or country in question has first to set up a multidisciplinary study commission of experts in theology, liturgy, scriptural studies, ethnology, psychology, and music. Such a high-powered commission will have to sift the many sides of an indicated custom or tradition and, if it considers it ripe, make recommendations to the bishops' conference," he said.

"Inculturation is very demanding on a local Church," Arinze pointed out. "It is not a one-man affair. It is not the fruit of someone's over-fertile imagination, which concocts an idea on Saturday evening and forces it down the throat of the innocent and unsuspecting Sunday Mass congregation the following morning."

As Bigard Memorial Seminary enters its second century of formation, Arinze expressed gratitude for its successes, calling on future generations of seminarians and priests to continue the work of evangelization and faith integration. 

"Bigard Memorial Seminary has come a long way in 100 years in preparing clergy for evangelization. It has done a good job!" the cardinal said. "May the Lord of the harvest continue to bless and guide this respected alma mater of ours as it walks into its second century. May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles, intercede for Bigard." 

Bigard Memorial Major Seminary in Enugu was founded in Onitsha in 1922 and officially opened in 1924. It was moved to its current location in 1951. It was named after benefactors Stephanie and Jeanne Bigard, a French mother and daughter who were foundresses of the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle, who donated the funds for the main building.

In 1982, Pope John Paul II visited Bigard Memorial Major Seminary, the first Nigerian seminary to receive such a guest. 

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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CNA Newsroom, Nov 16, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis wants dioceses worldwide to shine a spotlight on their "saints next door" every year on Nov. 9.

In a letter released by the Vatican in Italian on Saturday, the pope established an annual commemoration of saints, blessed, venerables, and servants of God in local dioceses worldwide, set to begin with the upcoming Jubilee.

"I exhort particular Churches, starting from the upcoming 2025 Jubilee, to remember and honor these figures of holiness each year," Pope Francis wrote.

The initiative aims to help Catholics around the world rediscover and maintain the memory of those extraordinary disciples of Christ who have witnessed the presence of the risen Lord and continue to guide the faithful in those dioceses today.

He signed the letter at St. John Lateran on Nov. 9, 2024, the feast day of the basilica's dedication.

While the pontiff chose this feast day for the yearly remembrance, he emphasized that he was not adding another liturgical celebration to the Church calendar.

Instead, he explained, the pope called on local dioceses to promote appropriate initiatives outside the liturgy or recall these figures within it, such as during homilies.

Called to be holy

Pope Francis connected the initiative to his 2018 apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, on the universal call to holiness.

The 2018 letter emphasized how sanctity manifests in everyday life through various examples, including married couples living their faith while being open to life, young people following Jesus with enthusiasm, and religious living the evangelical counsels.

"We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case," the pope wrote in his exhortation: "We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves."

According to the letter released Saturday, episcopal conferences may develop pastoral guidelines for implementing this commemoration.

The Vatican expects millions of pilgrims to travel to Rome for the 2025 Jubilee Year but also renewed spiritual initiatives in dioceses across the globe.????????????????

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Vatican City, Nov 15, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

As Rome's temperatures drop and the jubilee year approaches, Pope Francis has asked the city's priests and religious to open any vacant facilities on their property to the homeless and those at risk of homelessness.

Noting the housing issues that could be caused by the large influx of pilgrims expected for the jubilee in 2025, the pope asked for "a courageous gesture of love" in a letter published Nov. 15.

"I want all diocesan realities that own real estate to offer their contribution to stem the housing emergency," he said, "with signs of charity and solidarity to generate hope in the thousands of people in the city of Rome who are in a condition of housing precariousness."

The pontiff asked all Church realities, including movements, religious orders, and diocesan churches, to offer any vacant apartments or guesthouses to those who may need them.

He recalled the jubilee year's theme of hope, which he said "comes from love and from feeling loved," and said the Church's social teaching makes clear everyone's right to land, a home, and work.

"In view of the jubilee, I have asked my diocese to give a tangible sign of attention to housing issues so that, alongside the welcome given to all the pilgrims who will be coming, forms of protection will be activated for those who do not have a home or who are in danger of losing it," Francis said.

The jubilee, or holy year, which will formally open on Dec. 24, has impacted the ever-growing number of tourist and short-term rentals in Rome, leading to a housing shortage for Rome's residents, according to experts.

According to some estimates, since 2018, the number of short-term apartment rentals, such as Airbnb, has grown from 17,000 to 30,000.

"Rome's real estate market is going through a period of increasing pressure due to the scarcity of residential housing and the increase in tourist rentals," Rome real estate expert Silvia Dri told the financial journal Milano Finanza in October.

"This situation creates difficulties for families and students, who are forced to look for solutions increasingly far from the center or to share living spaces," she added. 

In October, Pope Francis reconfigured the prefectures of the Diocese of Rome due to the exodus of residents from the historic center.

The high influx of tourists has also had an impact on the pastoral needs of the area, which now has only 35 Catholic parishes, many with few parishioners, he wrote.

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CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

A bookkeeper at a Florida Catholic parish has been sentenced to more than two years of federal prison after stealing nearly $900,000 from the church at which she managed financial records. 

Heather Darrey will spend 27 months in prison on a wire fraud conviction over her $875,323 theft from Christ the King Parish in south Tampa, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. 

The prosecutor's office did not name the parish, but the Tampa Bay Times identified the church in question as Christ the King.

Darrey worked as the records and finance manager at the parish, the U.S. attorney's office said. 

She "abused her position of trust by engaging in a scheme in which she created false and fraudulent bank checks drawn against [the church's] business bank account and made them payable to her own account," the prosecutor's office said. 

Checks were also made payable to her mortgage company and other creditors.

Prosecutors said Darrey would draft legitimate checks to parish vendors and have them signed, after which she would destroy those checks and make out fraudulent ones for herself.

Darrey also "input false and fraudulent data" into the parish's accounting software system. 

The money was "largely spent on mortgage payments, car and boat loans, and credit card bills for clothing, restaurants, vacations, and concert tickets," the prosecutor said. 

The bookkeeper had reportedly attempted to minimize the amount she had stolen from the parish when officials looked into the funding discrepancies there. She also reportedly asked the church not to report the matter to law enforcement. 

Darrey had previously pleaded guilty on June 6. The court also entered an "order of forfeiture" for the bookkeeper to repay the proceeds of her crime. 

The theft "financially hobbled" Christ the King Church, the Tampa Bay Times reported, with the stolen funds "muddling a $7 million building project and damaging the congregation's trust."

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Vatican City, Nov 15, 2024 / 10:05 am (CNA).

The Pontifical Academy for Life discussed the global financial system in light of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and crises that have impacted the world at a meeting titled "Common Good: Theory and Practice" on Thursday evening in Vatican City.

The event, opened by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, welcomed and introduced guest panelists Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and Mariana Mazzucato, professor of economics of innovation and public value at University College London.

The participants gathered to discuss the multifaceted and interconnected impacts of war, technology, health crises, and the environment on politics and the global economy.

During the two-hour exchange both women spoke of the value of Catholic social teaching — including solidarity; call to family, community, and participation; and the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable — in providing "clear objectives" for the creation of policies ultimately aimed at serving and protecting people.

Highlighting the difference between the classic economic theory on "public goods" and the Catholic concept of the common good, Mazzucato — also the founder-director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose — stressed that, in order to improve the current "global financial architecture," it is necessary to first consider the dignity of the person.

"The way we talk to each other, the way we respect each other, the way we value each other matters in the way that we then approach the goals," she said. "It holds the system to account."

"We do not currently have the action that we require globally to treat these [health and environmental] problems collectively, systematically, and in an economy-wide way," she asserted at the conference.

Speaking on the great political, economic, and technological divide between Global North and Global South countries, Mottley said food and water insecurity in parts of the world are largely due to the lack of political will or collective action. 

"We can find a way to put a man on the moon but we cannot find a way to distribute the ample food and water that exists on earth," Mottley said. "All of these things are man-made. They need to be solved [and] require moral, strategic leadership."

Mottley stated that many people are skeptical of rethinking the global financial system in a "fundamental way" because they have become "used to the status quo." However, she believes a reformed system is "within our reach" if individuals, multinational organizations, and governments take appropriate action.

"I believe that it is not only appropriate for us to speak about the pursuit of the common good," she said, "but it is now important for us to flesh out and map out how it can happen and how it must happen." 

In a message to participants of the Nov. 14 conference, Pope Francis said the "search for the common good and justice are central and essential aspects of any defense of every human life, especially the most fragile and defenseless, with respect for the entire ecosystem that we inhabit." 

The pope said the common good is "one of the cornerstones of the social doctrine of the Church" that must primarily be understood as a "communion of faces, stories, and people" and not idea or an abstract ideology disconnected from reality.

"We need solid economic theories that assume and develop this theme in its specificity, so that it can become a principle that effectively inspires political choices (as I indicated in my encyclical Laudato Si') and not just a category so much invoked in words but ignored in deeds," he wrote. 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 14, 2024 / 18:15 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement that urges the American government to reform the immigration system with "fair and humane treatment" of immigrants.

"Together, we must speak out on behalf of the 'huddled masses yearning to breathe free' and ask our government to provide fair and humane treatment for our beloved immigrant brothers and sisters," read the Nov. 15 statement, signed by USCCB President Bishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and two other bishops. 

"It is our hope, and our prayer, that all of us can work together to support a meaningful reform of our current immigration system," the bishops said. 

Broglio was joined by Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, who serves as the chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, and Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento, California, who serves as the chairman of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

The bishops called for an immigration policy that welcomes refugees and creates a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who entered the United States illegally but have been here for many years. They also called for a safe and secure border and policies that deter dangerous criminal activity on the southern border.

"Our country deserves an immigration system that offers fair and generous pathways to full citizenship for immigrants living and working for many years within our borders," the bishops wrote. 

"We need a system that provides permanent relief for childhood arrivals, helps families stay together, and welcomes refugees," they added. We hope that our country can develop an effective asylum system for those fleeing persecution." 

The letter also calls for "an immigration system that keeps our borders safe and secure, with enforcement policies that focus on those who present risks and dangers to society, particularly efforts to reduce gang activity, stem the flow of drugs, and end human trafficking." 

"The United States should have an immigration system that protects vulnerable migrants and their families, many of whom have already been victimized by criminal actors," they wrote.

"From the founding of our nation, immigrants have been essential to this society's growth and prosperity," the bishops added. "They come to our shores as strangers, drawn by the promises this land offers, and they become Americans. They continue to provide food security, health services, and many other essential skills that support our prosperous nation."

President-elect Trump's mass deportation plan

The statement comes less than two weeks after President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 election on a platform that prioritized a stronger border and stricter immigration enforcement, including mass deportations of immigrants who entered the country illegally. Trump has said he will first prioritize deportations for people who have committed additional crimes after coming into the country illegally.

Trump appointed Tom Homan, a Catholic, as his border czar. He is the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On Tuesday, Homan told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats first and that's what the focus should be" when it comes to mass deportations.

"There's over 1.5. million convicted criminal aliens in this country with final orders removal that we're going to be looking for," Homan said. 

"There's thousands of gang members, illegal alien gang members we'll be looking for," he continued. "Now, I'm going to say, if you're in the country illegally, you shouldn't feel comfortable. Absolutely not. I won't feel comfortable if I'm in the country illegally. If I'm in some other country illegally, I'm not going to be comfortable. You should be comfortable either, because when you enter this country illegally, you have committed a crime. You are criminal and you're not off the table." 

Although the statement from the bishops did not directly reference Trump, Seitz said on Tuesday during the USCCB fall assembly that the bishops will "raise our voice loudly" if the administration's deportation policies transgress human dignity. He said he is "concerned" about Trump's rhetoric but that "we know that very often the reality is different from the rhetoric." 

Broglio said during the assembly that the bishops do not encourage illegal immigration but that people who come into the United States should be taken care of because they "represent the face of Christ."

Seitz also encouraged the government to distinguish between those who have committed additional crimes after entering the country illegally and those who "for the benefit of our country, should be able to remain."

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CNA Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

Two leaders of a major global mother's breastfeeding support group, including one of the organization's founders, have resigned amid the group's decision to allow males to participate in meetings that have historically been open only to mothers. 

The international board of La Leche League recently directed all British affiliates to begin accommodating men who believe they are women.

La Leche League was founded in Illinois in 1956 by Marian Tompson and six other women to offer mother-to-mother breastfeeding support, first in the U.S. and then beyond. At the time in the United States, the vast majority of babies were bottle-fed, with many medical experts urging mothers away from breastfeeding in favor of formulas.

Tompson, 94, announced this week that she was resigning from the group's board of directors after accusing the organization of becoming "a travesty of my original intent."

Tompson said the group was launched with the aim of "supporting biological women who want to give their babies the best start in life by breastfeeding them." 

Yet the group's aim has shifted, she said, "to include men who, for whatever reason, want to have the experience of breastfeeding." 

LGBT advocates have argued that men who believe they are women are capable of breastfeeding babies by way of taking synthetic hormones and inducing lactation via nipple stimulation. Tompson in her resignation noted that there has been "no careful long-term research on male lactation and how that may affect the baby."

"This shift from following the norms of nature, which is the core of mothering through breastfeeding, to indulging the fantasies of adults, is destroying our organization," Tompson wrote. 

She said she had attempted to change the group's focus as one of its board members but that "it has become clear that there is nothing I can do to change this trajectory by staying involved."

"Still, I leave the door open to come back when La Leche League returns to its original mission and purpose," she said. 

Also this week, Scottish breastfeeding advocate Miriam Main announced that she was leaving La Leche League after serving for several years as a lactation counselor and on the council of directors of the league's Great Britain affiliate. 

Main said her concerns began when she noticed changes being made to official group literature, such as the term "mother" being replaced with "parent" and "breastfeed" being replaced with "chestfeed."

A "group of zealots from within the organization" propelled further changes, she said, including orders that the group would have to begin accepting "men who wished to breastfeed" into support groups. 

Critics of the decision were "told we were transphobic, and we were compared to racists and Nazis" by organization leaders, Main said. A petition to the La Leche League International Board eventually led to an order for all affiliates in Great Britain to offer breastfeeding support "to all nursing parents, regardless of their gender identity or sex."

The organization's leaders have "shown that theoretical male lactation trumps the needs of real women living in the U.K.," Main said. 

"The grief I feel at losing LLL from my life is huge," Main said, urging remaining leaders at the organization to "listen to their hearts and decide what to do next."

Neither Main nor Tompson responded to requests for comment on their respective departures. 

In her book "Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood," author Sheila Kippley argues that breastfeeding is "an integral part of the vocation of Christian motherhood."

"God's breastfeeding plan is simple," Kippley writes. "Yet this simple plan can have far-reaching effects upon the human race, offering numerous benefits for the baby, for the mother, and for society." 

"God's plan is indeed good, and it is therefore good for us to try to follow it," she says. 

Pope Francis, meanwhile, has several times spoken out in favor of breastfeeding, for instance telling mothers in the Sistine Chapel in 2017: "You mothers, go ahead and breastfeed, without fear. Just like the Virgin Mary nursed Jesus."

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CNA Staff, Nov 14, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A property development group is addressing the lack of reliable senior housing by building senior living communities on Catholic church properties.

Acanthus Development has closed several leases for its senior living project, which has been more than five years in the making. Acanthus collaborates with parishes by renting land on the church campus and taking responsibility for the development and management of the senior communities. So far, the group has confirmed five leases with local Catholic churches in the Phoenix area.

Chris Bayley, COO of Acanthus Development, told CNA that the organization was formed by Catholics who came together to build a better option for senior care.

"We're not formally a Catholic organization. It's a group full of Italian and Irish Catholics by heritage who have grown up in the Catholic community," he explained. 

"Frankly, we're all at an age and station in life where we all have had experiences with our parents going through end-of-life things and having assisted in independent living and memory-care-type issues," Bayley continued. "We've not necessarily been enamored with what's out there in the marketplace right now."

Acanthus will be building and managing five communities, beginning at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Ahwatukee, an urban village in Phoenix. The following senior communities are set to be on the campuses of St. Clare of Assisi in Surprise, St. Raphael Catholic Church in Glendale, and St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Cave Creek — all just outside the state's capital of Phoenix.

The communities will be open to people of all faiths, while the management will "abide by all the Catholic mission statements and hiring requirements," Bayley said.

Acanthus is responsible for the management of the senior communities, which is a key factor for having care facilities on Catholic property.

"We at Acanthus have agreed as part of this program to build from the ground up our own management company," he said. "That is going to essentially require the management company to abide by all of the Catholic mission statements and hiring requirements so that you won't find things going on on the premises that are not acceptable to the Catholic Church as a whole." 

Acanthus plans to make additional donations from the revenue of the communities to support the local parishes. 

"There are zero expenses that are attributed to the parish," Bayley explained. "The only thing that happens when the parish signs the lease is that they're entitled to receiving revenues, so it's only a plus for them." 

The location helps seniors remain involved in their parish and Catholic community. Based on the group's experience with their own parents, being near their parish was a key issue for seniors. 

"They wanted to be back with their community, their parish communities, as they were going through these experiences," Bayley said of his parents' generation. 

Bayley added that this will help bring together a "multigenerational" Catholic community at parishes that often have a K–8 school on campus as well. 

"You literally are going to be having a situation now where you can have the mother and father with their children going to Mass, but they'll be able to stop off right there, right next to the church and pick up the grandparents," he said. "They can literally walk across the parking lot and you can go together as a family." 

Father James Aboyi, pastor of St. Benedict Parish, called the project "a historic moment for us." 

"I am excited to have a senior living facility in our parish community that will give us the opportunity to evangelize all generations from early childhood in our St. John Bosco school to the seniors who will be living in the facility," Aboyi said in an Oct. 31 press release shared with CNA. 

Bishop John Dolan of Phoenix also voiced support for the project, noting that "those of all faiths who are in an assisted living situation can foster a sense of home so close to the heart of parish life." 

"I commend and am deeply grateful for people of goodwill coming together to roll up their sleeves and find creative ways to uphold the dignity of our brothers and sisters, and live out the Gospel mission to bring Jesus Christ to every heart and home," Dolan said in the press release.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 14, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A subcommittee in the House of Representatives launched an inquiry into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after a grant recipient admitted that she concealed findings in a tax-funded study because it failed to show any mental health benefits for children who are prescribed transgender puberty-blocking drugs.

"In light of the NIH grantee's unwillingness to release the research project's findings, we ask that you provide documents and information to assist the committee's oversight of this matter," Rep. Lisa McClain, the chair of the Oversight and Accountability's Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, wrote in a letter to NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli.

Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the leading researcher on the study, told the New York Times three weeks ago that she withheld the study's results because the findings could bolster criticism of puberty blockers being used on children. The drugs are designed to facilitate a gender transition of a minor by delaying his or her normal development during puberty.

Olson-Kennedy, who works as the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, told the Times that she did "not want our work to be weaponized" by critics and lawmakers who want to prohibit doctors from prescribing these drugs to children.

The NIH allocated nearly $10 million of taxpayer money for several projects, which included the research led by Olson-Kennedy to give puberty blockers to 95 children who suffered from gender dysphoria and analyze whether the drugs improved their mental health. The average age for a child enrolled in the study was less than 11 and a half years old and the researchers could not find any mental health benefits.

"We are alarmed that the project's principal investigator, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, is withholding publication of the project's research findings, which cast doubt on the efficacy of the 'gender affirming' model, because she believes the findings could be 'weaponized' by critics of transgender medical interventions for children," McClain wrote in the letter.

McClain also accuses Olson-Kennedy of mischaracterizing the study to the Times by telling the reporter that the mental health of the children was "in really good shape" when the study began, even though the researchers previously reported high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.

"Deliberately mischaracterizing and withholding the results of the … study has serious implications for the health and safety of children who are subjected to 'gender affirming' medical procedures, many of which are irreversible and hold lifelong implications despite lacking adequate scientific support for their efficacy or safety," the letter adds.

"NIH is responsible for overseeing its extramural research projects to ensure supported researchers practice transparency, exemplify scientific integrity, and are proper stewards of taxpayer funds," McClain wrote.

The subcommittee requested that the NIH provide all research grant applications and summary statements regarding the broader project about transgender youth, including progress reports, unpublished data, and certain communication documents.

Neither the NIH nor Olson-Kennedy responded to CNA's request for comment by the time of publication.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that the House's inquiry into the grants "seems eminently sensible, given NIH policy that specifies that the results and accomplishments of the activities that it funds should be made available to the research community and to the public at large."

"This public duty constitutes a basic ethical obligation for researchers who are recipients of public funds (more than $9 million in this case) made available through traditional NIH grants," Pacholczyk added.

Jane Anderson, the vice president of the American College of Pediatricians, which opposes the use of transgender drugs and surgeries on children, told CNA that "it is crucial that all scientific information be released so families and youth can make truly informed decisions, especially when the research is taxpayer funded."

"The integrity of medicine, not to mention the safety of our patients, is at risk when we ignore scientific facts for political reasons," Anderson said.

This is not the first time health care professionals have suppressed information related to the effectiveness of gender transitions of children. 

In 2021, the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) eliminated proposed age-based guidelines that encouraged doctors to wait until children reach a certain age before giving them hormone-altering medications or providing them with transgender surgical procedures. Rather, the organization forwent any age-based suggestions after facing external pressure from the Biden-Harris administration.

Some studies have raised major concerns about puberty blockers, such as a Mayo Clinic study published earlier this year, which found that boys might suffer irreversible harm from the drugs, such as fertility problems and atrophied testes.

Earlier this year, the United Kingdom halted the use of puberty blockers for children after an independent review failed to find comprehensive evidence to support the routine prescription of transgender drugs to minors with gender dysphoria.

President-elect Donald Trump has called the use of transgender drugs and surgeries on minors a form of "child abuse." He has vowed to instruct the Department of Justice to investigate "Big Pharma and the big hospital networks" to look into whether they are covering up evidence about the harms of gender transitions.

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Baltimore, Md., Nov 13, 2024 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

A leading U.S. Catholic bishop on Wednesday called on his fellow bishops to help revive the tradition of abstinence from meat on Fridays as a way to commemorate the upcoming 10th anniversary of Pope Francis' 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si'.

Archbishop Borys Gudziak, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, the committee charged with advancing Catholic social teaching, made his remarks at the conference's annual fall meeting in Baltimore on Nov. 13.

In 1966, the USCCB (then called the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) removed the obligation of the faithful to abstain from meat on Fridays except during Lent. The tradition of fasting on Fridays dates back to the early Church but was codified in canon law in 1917. 

"We could renew the tradition of Friday abstinence from meat," said Gudziak, the metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. "A return to Friday abstinence would be good for the soul and for the planet, maybe for something else, uniting our devotion to the Lord and reverence for the Lord's creation."

He noted that in 2011, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales introduced the pre-Vatican II practice, inspired by a pastoral visit to England by Pope Benedict XVI, who he said was known as the "Green Pope" for his emphasis on the importance of caring for creation.

Reintroducing fasting on Fridays would also bring the Roman Catholic Church closer to its Eastern brothers, he said. 

"Furthermore, fasting could be an opportunity for synodal engagement, exploring ancient practices in the Latin rite, such as Ember Days or Advent fasts, and other rich Eastern Christian practices among Catholics and others," Gudziak said. 

In addition to fasting, Gudziak suggested Catholics honor the Sabbath and turn to the sacrament of the Eucharist.

"In a world of constant work and stimulation, with ever-present photos, screens, and gadgets, in essence, our world does not rest and struggles with leisure. Perhaps, providentially, 2025 memorializes not only Laudato Si' but also the jubilee, a special year rooted in Sabbath rest," he said.

"Our hyperactive world yearns for the Sabbath, which is expressed in the Sunday Eucharist when the Lord makes all things new," he continued. "On this theme, I would suggest efforts centered on contemplation of creation, leisure, and celebration. This could lead to a pilgrimage to a significant local shrine, basilica, or ecological site in your diocese or eparchy that evokes the marvel of God's creation." 

He suggested bishops consider celebrating a special Mass for care for creation on the feast of St. Francis or "preaching on the union of creation and the divine in the Eucharist."

"To be truly restful, such an initiative should be oriented to the sacraments and overflow with celebration and joy," he said. "The goal of this suggestion is not to do something but to experience something, the mystery of God's presence in the sacraments and in creation."

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