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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 18:05 pm (CNA).

The March for Life unveiled its new theme for the 2025 march, "Every Life: Why We March," which organizers say emphasizes the pro-life movement's fundamental messages of encouragement, joy, and that every life matters.

The 52nd annual March for Life will be held on Jan. 24, 2025, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Professional surfer and pro-life activist Bethany Hamilton will be the event's keynote speaker, and Christian pop-alternative band Unspoken will perform at the pre-march rally.

 March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said during a press conference on Thursday that the "Every Life: Why We March" theme is meant to send a message of encouragement and joy in a time when many pro-life activists may be discouraged by a string of recent defeats at the ballot box.

"Two and a half years from the overturn of Roe v. Wade it's going to come as no surprise that some marchers are a little discouraged right now. In my own travels around the country, I've even been asked questions along the lines of: 'Was it worth it?'" Mancini said.

Amid a contentious election and with the pro-life movement facing ballot initiatives to significantly expand abortion in 10 states, Mancini said it is "easy to become disheartened in an anti-life culture embraced by many with loud voices and big platforms."

"The biggest thing is this confusion over the lie that a right to abortion is good for women. There's just so much cultural confusion," Mancini said. "So, it's onto that backdrop that we want to encourage our marchers, we really deeply want to do everything possible to encourage our marchers that we're on the right side of history, that we're in this for the long game, and that we need to lean in."

Mancini also said March for Life on social media will be emphasizing biological facts about fetal development and the beauty and humanity of unborn life in the months leading up to the 2025 march.

The March for Life released a promotional video on Thursday announcing the new theme on social media. The video begins with a narrator saying that "being on the right side of history isn't always popular or easy."

"When culture is spreading lies about the dignity of life and it seems like we're in a losing battle we might feel like giving up. But we won't," the narrator says.

As a newborn baby is shown the narrator says: "This is why we march."

Speaking with EWTN News after the announcement, Jennie Bradley Lichter, who will take over as president of the March for Life next year, said that despite the pro-life movement's recent losses "we will win the fight for life."

"We know that truth wins, and I think we can take encouragement from that," she said. "Our call to tell the truth and to witness to the dignity of human life doesn't change no matter what's going on with politics, no matter what the culture is telling us."

This will be the third national March for Life since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The March for Life is one of the largest annual human rights demonstrations in the world and regularly gathers crowds of pro-life activists numbering from the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 18:25 pm (CNA).

A Maronite Catholic priest is recovering from injuries he suffered after a man attacked him at the rectory in Philadelphia, across the street from the St. Maron Maronite Catholic Church, at which he is the pastor.

The alleged attacker, who has not yet been identified, banged and kicked on the front door of the rectory and caused enough damage to force entry into the building and assault the priest, Father Andrew El-Tabchi, on Oct. 2, according to a police report the Philadelphia Police Department provided to CNA.

According to the report, the attacker punched and slapped El-Tabchi but was eventually pushed out of the rectory. It states that the alleged assailant fled the property, going west on Ellsworth Street on the south side of the city.

"The attack only strengthened my resolve to protect the parish and to stand up for the safety of each and every one of my parishioners," El-Tabchi said in a letter to parishioners following the attack. "This is my duty, and I will not waver in defending the sacred space that we all cherish."

El-Tabchi declined an interview with CNA while he continues to recover from the attack. The police report noted that he suffered back pain after the incident. The Philadelphia ABC affiliate reported that he needed to walk with a cane following the attack.

"The morning the rectory was attacked was a turning point for me, one that forced me to reflect deeply on life, faith, and the forces of evil," El-Tabchi said in the letter to parishioners. "The experience reminded me how short life is and how evil can be lurking just around the corner, ready to strike at any time. But rather than giving in to fear, I embraced the truth that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Chorbishop Michael G. Thomas, the vicar general of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn, told CNA: "We thank God that Father El-Tabchi is doing well" after the attack but did not comment further. The eparchy has jurisdiction over the Maronite Catholic Church along the east coast of the United States.

El-Tabchi is pressing charges against the man and wrote in the letter that "God is both merciful and just," adding that "mercy without justice is dead, and justice without mercy is ruthless." He said "in God, we see the perfect balance of both, teaching us to live with compassion while upholding what is right and just."

"We are invited, as Jesus teaches us, to be like our Heavenly Father — merciful and just — reflecting his love in both our actions and decisions," the priest added. "Seeking justice doesn't negate mercy; it allows us to act with integrity while trusting in God's divine plan for both healing and accountability."

El-Tabchi further wrote that "individuals who make inappropriate choices that affect others negatively … need God's help [and] they need our help" and asked parishioners to pray for the attacker. He said Catholics must "reflect Christ's love, even when faced with darkness."

"Today, we are invited to pray for the lost soul who committed this act and to forgive him," El-Tabchi concluded. "This is the heart of the Gospel message — to love and forgive, even in the face of injustice or harm. Just as Christ forgives us, we must extend that same mercy to others. Through prayer and forgiveness, we show the true strength of our faith."

The South Detectives Division of the Philadelphia Police Department is handling the investigation. According to the police report, El-Tabchi said the suspected attacker is a Middle Eastern male with gray hair and a stocky build.

According to the police report, the attacker was wearing a gray hoodie, black pants and brown shoes at the time of the alleged attack.

St. Maron Maronite Catholic Church, named after the fourth-century Arab Catholic saint who is the patron of the Maronite Catholic Church, is the only Maronite Church in Philadelphia — and one of nine in Pennsylvania. The Maronite rite is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome.

According to the parish website, the church serves men and women who emigrated from Lebanon to the United States as well as "faithful men and women who are not of Lebanese descent, but … [are] attracted to the spirituality and traditions of our Maronite rite." The Maronite Patriarchate is located in Bkerke, Lebanon, north of Beirut.

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Vatican City, Oct 10, 2024 / 09:15 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Thursday that Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer will conduct a special concert for the poor and homeless at a Vatican City venue.

Zimmer, known for his scores of films like "Gladiator," "The Lion King," "Interstellar," and "Pirates of the Caribbean," will conduct some of his most memorable movie melodies at the event.

The legendary composer will take center stage at the Vatican's "Concert with the Poor" on Dec. 7 in the Paul VI Hall.

Three thousand people in need, cared for by volunteer organizations around Rome, will be invited to enjoy the live performance. At the end of the concert, they will receive a takeaway dinner and other necessities.

The Vatican event seeks to elevate those often left on the margins of society, offering them not just a world-class performance but an experience that acknowledges their dignity and worth.

Zimmer has won Academy Awards for composing original scores for "Dune" and "The Lion King" as well as 22 Grammy nominations for films including "Inception," "The Prince of Egypt," and "The Dark Knight."

Joining him will be Grammy-nominated cellist Tina Guo and Italian priest and composer Monsignor Marco Frisina, who has composed both sacred music and scores for numerous religious films in Italy.

The Nova Opera Orchestra, featuring 70 musicians from across Europe, and the 250-member Choir of the Diocese of Rome will also participate, marking the choir's 40th anniversary.

Pope Francis will meet privately with Zimmer and the other artists ahead of the concert. 

First held in 2015, the "Concert with the Poor" has become a Vatican tradition. Past editions of the event have featured luminaries such as the late composer Ennio Morricone, a legend in Italian cinema history, and Nicola Piovani, who won the Academy Award for best original score for Roberto Benigni's film "Life Is Beautiful."

The concert is under the patronage of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Charity, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. 

The concert capacity is 8,000 attendees, including 3,000 special guests from Rome's poorest communities. These guests are invited through various charitable organizations such as Caritas, the Order of Malta, and the Community of Sant'Egidio.

Tickets for the general public will be available starting Nov. 18 through the event's official website.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 10, 2024 / 11:50 am (CNA).

Nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with transgender drugs or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023, contradicting Church teaching and the U.S. bishops' prohibition on Catholic health care providers offering such interventions, according to data published this week by a medical watchdog group.

In all, more than 520 minors received treatments in Catholic hospitals in about 40 states over the five-year period, an analysis of the data by EWTN News shows.

Of those patients, more than 150 had surgeries to alter their appearances to resemble the opposite sex, while more than 380 children were given puberty blockers or hormone therapies.

Puberty blockers stop a child's natural developments during puberty and hormone therapies provide testosterone to girls who want to resemble boys and estrogen to boys who want to resemble girls. Based on the records in the database, EWTN News found that doctors at Catholic hospitals wrote more than 1,850 prescriptions for minors to facilitate a gender transition.

Catholic health care providers contacted by EWTN News criticized the watchdog group's methodology and motives without contradicting any of its specific data.

In 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published guidelines stating that any attempt to alter one's physical sex characteristics to facilitate a gender transition is "not morally justified" because it does not "respect the fundamental order of the human person as an intrinsic unity of body and soul, with a body that is sexually differentiated."

"Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures," adds the document prepared by the USCCB's Committee on Doctrine, titled "Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body."

The document quotes Pope Francis several times, including his 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia: "Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created."

Yet despite the bishops' directive, the watchdog group Do No Harm found gender transition interventions to be widespread among U.S. hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church.

The group's "Stop the Harm Database" is based on publicly available insurance claims generated by U.S. hospitals and health care facilities. These numbers do not include children who were born with intersex disorders.

Based in Glen Allen, Virginia, Do No Harm states on its website that it "seeks to highlight and counteract divisive trends in medicine, such as "'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion' and youth-focused gender ideology."

Most of the more than 149 Catholic hospitals listed in the database — including six children's hospitals — offered only minimal services, such as filling a single prescription, the records show. But 33 Catholic hospitals performed at least one gender transition surgery on a minor for a total of 152 surgeries.

Half of the children who received such surgeries — 76 in all — were patients at five facilities operated by Providence, a nonprofit Catholic health care system encompassing 51 hospitals in five states: Washington, Montana, Oregon, California, and Alaska. Two of the system's hospitals provided the lion's share of these surgeries: Providence Milwaukie Hospital in Oregon operated on 46 children, according to the database, while Providence St. Joseph Hospital-Orange in California provided surgeries to 18 children.

Six other Catholic hospitals performed gender transition surgeries on at least five minors. This includes eight children who received surgery at St. Anne Hospital in Burien, Washington. St. Anne Hospital is operated by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which runs 10 hospitals in Washington state.

Other hospitals that performed several gender transition surgeries, according to the database, include Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital-St. Joseph Campus in Milwaukee and Ascension NE Wisconsin-St. Elizabeth Campus in Appleton, Wisconsin, both of which performed surgeries on six minors.

Across Catholic, secular, and other hospitals, the database found nearly 14,000 minors undergoing gender transitions in the United States across the time span. This includes more than 5,700 surgeries and more than 8,500 minors receiving puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Doctors wrote more than 62,600 gender transition prescriptions.

Catholic Health Association pushes back

When EWTN News reached out to several Catholic health networks and hospitals that are listed in the report, most referred to a statement issued by the Catholic Health Association (CHA), which criticized Do No Harm.

Comprising more than 600 hospitals and 1,600 long-term care and other health facilities in all 50 states, CHA is the largest group of nonprofit health care providers in the United States, according to its website. The organization has clashed with the U.S. bishops in the past on health care issues, such as the Affordable Care Act.

"A preliminary review of the data gathered by Do No Harm indicates they are irresponsibly presenting claims data without necessary clinical context," CHA said in its statement. "This harmful report makes dangerous assumptions that seek to disparage health care providers and the patients they treat."

CHA added that Catholic hospitals provide "ethical, evidence-based medical care that recognizes and upholds the human dignity of each person" and accused Do No Harm of stigmatizing "LGBTQ communities." It also stated "there are certain procedures we do not perform based on our values and faith."

CHA did not respond to EWTN News' request for clarification about which procedures are not in line with its values and whether Catholic hospitals provide transgender surgeries or drugs to minors or adults.

Beth Serio, the external relations manager at Do No Harm, told EWTN News the group stands by its findings, adding that the group has published the methodology so that "anyone could look at our paper and exactly replicate our study and get the same results."

She said the records in the group's database represent "the minimum [number of gender transitions] we know occurred in these hospitals." Because the database could not account for cash payments or insurance claims that are not accessible to the public, she said, "we're quite confident it's an undercount."

Serio expressed disappointment in CHA's response, telling EWTN: "It is very sad that the Catholic Health Association is choosing to attack [Do No Harm's] character as an organization rather than focusing on the real issue, [which is that] … thousands of children are being harmed across the country."

She said the report could be an "opportunity [for CHA] to be an advocate for change" and urged the association to "truly read our methodology and study it and point to exactly where [they think] the methodology is flawed."

Serio told EWTN News that Do No Harm's "primary motivation and interest in releasing this database is the protection of children."

A spokesperson for Providence — the network responsible for half of the transgender surgeries by Catholic hospitals listed in the report — said the health network has "concerns about the motivation for this report and the risk it poses to the privacy of a vulnerable patient population" but could not "speak to the validity of its report content, data, or methodology."

"Transgender patients come to us for many health care needs," the statement read. "We are committed to providing them with quality, compassionate health care, and helping them to feel welcome, safe, and included. … [We] provide all patients with the full range of care available at our facilities."

When asked for clarification about its policies regarding transgender surgeries, a spokesperson referred EWTN News back to Providence's original statement.

What can the bishops do?

It remains to be seen what, if any, action the USCCB or individual U.S. bishops will take in response to Do No Harm's report.

In a statement to EWTN News, Chieko Noguchi, a spokesperson for the USCCB, said that Church teaching "is clear … about the inherent dignity of each person as created in the image and likeness of God."

Noguchi added that "we are always called to accompany those who are struggling, and this certainly includes people who struggle with his or her God-given identity as male or female," but emphasized that both the bishops and the Holy See "have been clear as to what is morally acceptable."

"Let us pray that we may all find the compassion and wisdom to better help our brothers and sisters accept who God created them to be," she added.

EWTN News followed up on the statement to ask what action bishops could take if hospitals violate the USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication. EWTN News also asked CHA whether Catholic hospitals listed in the report intend to follow USCCB guidelines but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, told EWTN News: "Catholic hospitals clearly must hold to a higher standard than that of their secular counterparts" and they "may not condone or participate in these unethical practices."

"Reports indicating that Catholic hospitals, including some Catholic children's hospitals, may be involved in sex reassignment procedures remind us of the need for continued vigilance on the part of diocesan bishops and Catholic health care leaders," Pacholczyk said.

"There may also be a need for more thoroughgoing ethical formation for employees and administrators to help them counter the pro-transgender ideological messaging that has become commonplace in recent years," he added.

"To treat our human maleness or femaleness as malleable or re-assignable is to invite serious harm into the lives of those who may be facing genuine and deep-seated psychological struggles over their own 'gender identity,'" Pacholczyk said. "Catholic health care entities best serve their patients by directing them towards supportive psychotherapy that works to address any underlying psychiatric issues that may be prompting the desire to gender transition."

Transgender drugs and surgeries for minors has become a heated political topic in the United States and worldwide in recent years.

Most Republican-led states have restricted or banned doctors from providing those medical interventions to minors. Many Democrat-led states have done the opposite — changing state law to ensure doctors can continue with those interventions.

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CNA Staff, Oct 9, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

A United Nations report on violence against women and girls in sports defended spaces for women on Tuesday by calling for separate sports for biological males who identify as "transgender persons."

The United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls in a presentation of the report on Oct. 8 demanded that member countries preserve female spaces, noting that testosterone suppression for biologically male athletes "will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired."

The U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem from Jordan, appointed by the United States Commission on Human Rights in 2021, presented the 24-page report presented to the General Assembly's Third Committee in New York. The report cited cases of severe injuries to women and girls forced to compete against biological males participating in female divisions as well as violations of privacy in the locker room and public consequences against women who speak out.

"Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity," the report read.

The report highlighted "an increased encroachment on female-only spaces in sports," noting that female-only divisions in sports ensure "equal, fair, and safe opportunities in sports" for female athletes.

May Mailman, director of the Independent Women's Law Center, a group that advocates for women's rights and spaces, said the statement was heartening, though she noted it was from just one branch of the "unwieldy organization."

"We are heartened that it recognized the obvious: that women deserve sports. This should embarrass the many organizations in the United States that fail to do the same," Mailman told CNA. "But, it does not make the U.N. at large a reasonable organization. There are too many failures to name, including that UN Women seems to care little about the rapes, murders, and kidnapping of Israeli women."

The special rapporteur's office, since it was established in 1994, has addressed domestic violence, trafficking and migration, armed conflict, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and has also advocated for abortion under the guise of "reproductive rights." Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, recently called out the U.N. for promoting abortion and gender ideology.

Women's physical safety and privacy

The report highlighted that female safety and privacy are threatened when biological men are invited into female spaces such as sports practices, games, and locker rooms.

Female athletes are "more vulnerable to sustaining serious physical injuries when female-only sports spaces are opened to males, as documented in disciplines such as in volleyball, basketball, and soccer," the report noted, citing cases of severe injuries ranging from knocked-out teeth and broken legs to skull fractures and neurological impairment from concussions.

For instance, the IWF statement noted that Payton McNabb was 17 when she became partially paralyzed after a biologically male "transgender" athlete spiked a volleyball into her face. 

McNabb has brain damage and paralysis on her right side and has difficulty walking without falling.

"If leaders in the United States care at all about the treatment of women like the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls cares, then this should give them cover to finally do right by women," Mailman told CNA, referencing the U.N. report. 

The U.N. report highlighted the danger of sexual assault when opening up female locker rooms to males, noting that it could "increase the risk of sexual harassment, assault, voyeurism, and physical and sexual attacks in unisex locker rooms and toilets."

"Female athletes also reportedly experience forced dissemination of nonconsensual sexual images offline and online and exhibitionism, including as a result of a failure to maintain single-sex changing rooms," the report said.

Violating female-only spaces can not only negatively affect "the mental health and sense of personal safety" of women in sports, the report noted, but it can also "damage their public image and have long-term career repercussions."

The loss of women's spaces also has psychological consequences for female athletes. Knowing she has to compete against a male "causes extreme psychological distress due to the physical disadvantage, the loss of opportunity for fair competition and of educational and economic opportunities, and the violation of their privacy in locker rooms and other intimate spaces," the report said.

The U.N. noted that "sex screenings" can be "necessary, legitimate, and proportional in order to ensure fairness and safety in sports." The report cited the 2024 Paris Olympics, where female boxers competed against two boxers "whose sex as females was seriously contested, but the International Olympic Committee refused to carry out a sex screening." 

Freedom of expression 

The inclusion of men in women's sports has resulted in the persecution of women who stand up for themselves, the U.N. report said. 

Women who speak out against the dangers of men in women's spaces are often unjustly treated, "accused of bigotry, suspended from sports teams and subjected to restraining orders, expulsion, defamation, and unfair disciplinary proceedings," the report said. 

"Female athletes and coaches who object to the inclusion of men in their spaces due to concerns about safety, privacy, and fairness are silenced or forced to self-censor; otherwise, they risk losing sporting opportunities, scholarships, and sponsorships," the report noted. 

Mailman said many leaders have let name-calling "overcome their duty to promote fairness, safety, and equality." 

"U.S. leaders have shown tremendous cowardice in standing up for women because they don't want to be called anti-trans," Mailman said. 

"The more people who show how to do the right thing should give followers cover to finally do the same," she added.

The U.N. report noted that "transgender" people should still be able to participate in sports, noting that through open categories, "fairness in sports can be maintained while ensuring the ability of all to participate." 

Protecting women's spaces "does not automatically result in the exclusion of transgender persons from sports," the report added. 

Mailman highlighted that "the solution is not to dissolve women's sports but to create an open category or to make the men's category an open category." 

"The U.N. report addressed safety and fairness, including that testosterone suppression does not equalize the playing field and is arbitrary in any case. It addressed privacy in the locker room. It addressed the harassment women face for standing up for themselves," Mailman told CNA. "These are all important. The only thing regrettable is that this comes from a specialized body and hasn't percolated higher yet."

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CNA Newsroom, Oct 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In early June, the U.S. Catholic bishops voted unanimously to begin the process of officially declaring Adele Brise a saint. Brise, an immigrant from Belgium living in northern Wisconsin, witnessed the first and only approved Marian apparition in the United States in 1859. Today, Oct. 9, is the solemnity of that apparition known as Our Lady of Champion.

In 2022, the Vatican gave its formal stamp of approval to the apparitions Brise witnessed, recognizing the newly named National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, as an approved apparition site. 

Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, who initiated the formal investigation into the apparitions, told CNA at the June bishops' meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, that the number of pilgrims traveling to the shrine has increased from 10,000 a year to more than 200,000 a year today since the apparitions were approved.

"The Blessed Mother is calling people to come to the shrine to experience the peace there, the simplicity; the basics of the Gospel, the catechism are exposed there," Ricken said.

Our Lady of Champion was the patroness of the Northern Marian Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which stopped a the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion on June 16 on its way to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

A saint for our times

On Oct. 9, 1859, the Belgian-born Brise reported seeing the first of three apparitions while walking in the woods in Champion, Wisconsin. Brise, who was 28 at the time, said a woman who was dressed in white and wearing a crown of gold stars on her head asked her to pray for the conversion of sinners and teach children about the faith.

Brise immediately set out to visit families within a 50-mile radius of her home to share the Gospel with them and teach them the catechism. They were Belgian immigrants like herself, but unlike Brise, they had lost their faith since coming to America.

"She's really current for now because we're facing the same problems — people not knowing the faith, people having fallen away from the Church. She's a model for us of what it means to be an evangelizing catechist. She's very pertinent for today as well," Ricken told CNA in June.

"From the moment of the apparitions, Adele furiously traveled the wild country of northeast Wisconsin teaching children. She would go so far as to do the household chores for the families in exchange for simply having some time to instruct the children," Ricken said.

Brise went on to gather other women to help her with her mission and establish a schoolhouse and convent. Brise's father built a chapel at the site of the apparitions, which eventually became a shrine to Our Lady of Good Help. The name was taken from the words the Blessed Mother said to Brise: "I will help you."

What did the Blessed Mother say to Brise?

After Brise reported seeing the first apparition, her parish priest advised that if she were to appear again she should ask: "In God's name, who are you and what do you want of me?"

"I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received holy Communion this morning and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them," the apparition said.

According to the shrine's website, the apparition "gazed kindly" upon Brise and her companions (who could not see her) and said: "Blessed are they that believe without seeing." Then, looking toward Brise, the Queen of Heaven asked: "What are you doing here in idleness while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son?"

"What more can I do, dear Lady?" Brise asked, weeping.

"Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation."

"But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?" Brise said.

"Teach them their catechism," the woman in white replied, "how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing; I will help you."

Possible miracles

In his address to his fellow bishops at the meeting in June, Ricken shared the testimonies of people who said they had received healing thanks to the intercession of Brise.

Candidates for beatification and canonization normally require two miracles attributed to their intercession as well as evidence that they were holy and virtuous.

"As we examine Adele's life more closely and gather testimonies of people who attest to the life of the growing virtue and possession of Adele, two stories of healing speak out to the most," Ricken said.

He recounted the story of a woman named Sharon, who while hospitalized for depression saw a vision of a woman she believed to be Brise who gave her the will to live a joyful life of faith.

The second person to testify, a man named John, was diagnosed in 2018 with colorectal cancer, which had metastasized to his lungs. He received what he believes to be a miraculous cure after he prayed for Brise's intercession.

"'As of January 2022, I was declared with no evidence of disease, and I have been without cancer detected through my last scans all the way through April 2024,'" Ricken quoted the man's testimony.

"'I pray every day, and I'm convinced that my visit to the Champion shrine, my deepening relationship with Mary through Adele, has really blessed me,'" the bishop quoted John as saying.

Following a couple of days of prayer events and festivities, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion is celebrating the solemnity of Our Lady today, Oct. 9, with a Mass, rosary procession, adoration, and other prayer opportunities for those gathered to celebrate the solemnity.

This article was originally published on June 14, 2024, and has been updated.

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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 9, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican has revoked, based on new evidence obtained in an "extraordinary procedure," the penalty of expulsion from the clerical state that two interdiocesan tribunals had determined for Father Ariel Príncipi, accused of crimes against the Sixth Commandment, which include cases of sexual abuse of minors.

Príncipi, incardinated in the Diocese of Villa de la Concepción in the city of Río Cuarto, had been accused in 2021 of the abuse of minors and was tried first by the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Córdoba, which decided to expel him from the clerical state, a penalty confirmed this year after being appealed to the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Buenos Aires.

According to a statement by the Diocese of Villa de la Concepción de Río Cuarto posted on AICA (Spanish acronym for Argentine Catholic News Agency, unrelated to CNA), the Holy See carried out an "extraordinary procedure" based on evidence received in June and July, and determined to adopt a series of definitive measures that rescind Príncipi's expulsion from the clerical state but limit his exercise of the priestly ministry.

The measures in effect from now on are: "Always under the special oversight of the ordinary to whom said priest will be entrusted, from now on he will not be able to: 1) have contact with minors; 2) exercise pastoral ministry in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal; 3) exercise full pastoral care of the Church. In addition, he will only be able to concelebrate or celebrate holy Mass in private."

Days before the announcement was made by the substitute of the Vatican Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the bishop of Villa de la Concepción de Río Cuarto, Adolfo Uriona, had told the local newspaper Puntal that Príncipi's case "was investigated by the canonical tribunal of Córdoba, which after confirming the facts that were reported decided to expel him."

"The canonical tribunal of Buenos Aires also confirmed these facts and ratified the expulsion," he then explained, acknowledging that they were awaiting notification from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The vicar general of the Diocese of Río Cuarto, Father Juan Giordano, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, that the statements made by Uriona to the newspaper Puntal were "based on information that he had at his disposal up to that moment" and in response to questions from the press, not through an official communication from the diocese.

At that time, Giordano clarified, "we were waiting for confirmation from the dicastery; it had not come to us formally, because there was also some possibility that [the priest would file] an appeal. Thus, on Sept. 25, Bishop Uriona published the statement that he received the day before from the Secretariat of State of the Holy See," he said, and it was communicated through AICA, "because the Secretariat of State expressly requested that this statement be made public."

"What we know so far is what the statement says. Obviously we are trying to get more details to see how this will proceed but what we know is the statement," the vicar general explained.

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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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 8, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

A group of 10 scientists is suing the publisher that retracted their studies showing the health risks associated with abortion drugs.

The suit against Sage Publications, filed on Oct. 3 in the Superior Court for Ventura County, California, alleges that the researchers' studies were retracted simply because of the scientists' pro-life views.

At the center of the lawsuit are three studies that Sage published in the scientific journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology (HSRME) in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

One of the articles was cited heavily in the recent Supreme Court case AHM v. FDA in which a coalition of doctors from the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and several other groups sought to compel the FDA to revoke its approval of the abortion drug mifepristone because of its associated dangers to women's health and well-being.

The scientists argue that while their studies were peer-reviewed and had previously been praised for their academic rigor, the publisher retracted them in bad faith for political reasons.

The scientists are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom and Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.

What did the chemical abortion study say?

The 2021 study cited in AHM v. FDA said that emergency room visits "are at greater risk to occur following a chemical rather than a surgical abortion."

It showed that in a study cohort of 423,000 women undergoing chemical abortions between 1999 and 2015, there were 121,283 subsequent emergency room visits occurring within 30 days of the procedure.

The study concluded that "the incidence and per-abortion rate of ER visits following any induced [chemical] abortion are growing, but chemical abortion is consistently and progressively associated with more postabortion ER visit morbidity than surgical abortion."

The study also said that there is a "distinct trend of a growing number of women miscoded as receiving treatment for spontaneous abortion in the ER following a chemical abortion."

Why were the studies retracted?

As AHM v. FDA was working its way through the courts in 2023, Chris Adkins, a professor at the South University School of Pharmacy in Savannah, Georgia, submitted a concern to Sage in which he accused the scientists associated with the three studies of exaggerating their findings and misrepresenting the data in ways that were "grossly misleading."

States Newsroom, which first reported on Adkins' accusations, reported him saying of the researchers: "I can't prove that there was intent to deceive, but I struggled to find an alternative reason to present your data in such a way that exaggerates the magnitude."

States Newsroom also reported that Adkins was worried about the legal status of abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

"I now have a daughter that is born in a world where there is no Roe v. Wade, no federal recognition that women have the right of bodily autonomy," Adkins said, adding: "I'm going to support her in whatever way I can." 

After learning of Adkins' concerns Sage discovered that all but one of the article's authors had an affiliation with one or more of the pro-life organizations the Charlotte Lozier Institute, Elliot Institute, and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Sage claimed that this presented a conflict of interest regarding the studies concerning abortion.

Sage also conducted a post-publication peer review in which they claimed to have identified "fundamental problems with the study design and methodology, unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions, material errors in the authors' analysis of the data, and misleading presentations of the data."

Sage concluded that the studies demonstrated a "lack of scientific rigor" that "invalidate[s] the authors' conclusions in whole or in part."

Scientists respond

In their lawsuit, the studies' authors claim that they "complied with all submission guidelines and all requirements in Sage's publishing agreements."

The suit said that "following each submission, HSRME conducted a double-blind peer review of each article, which Sage claims is thorough and rigorous" and that "after peer review, HSRME accepted all three articles for publication."

According to the suit, the authors' attempts to respond to the accusations and to prove the scientific validity of their studies were rebuffed and ignored by Sage.

In addition to retracting the studies, the lead researcher associated with the articles, Dr. James Studnicki, was removed from the board of the HSRME without any prior notice and with no explanation other than his association with the retracted articles.

The researchers allege that Sage intentionally sought to discredit them and ruin their reputations because of their pro-life views.

"Sage's wrongdoing," the suit states, "has been causing enormous and incalculable harm to the authors' professional reputations, as Sage intended."

Phil Sechler, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement announcing the suit that "politics should never sway science, especially when that science is vital for saving and protecting lives."

"Sage punished these highly respected and credentialed scientists simply because they believe in preserving life from conception to natural death," he continued. "These actions have caused irreparable harm to the authors of these articles, and we are urging Sage to come to the arbitration table — as it is legally bound to do — rescind the retractions, and remedy the reputational damage the researchers have suffered at the hands of abortion lobbyists."

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CNA Staff, Oct 8, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

A charter school in Oklahoma is aiming to be the first publicly-funded religious charter school in the United States after it appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday after lower courts ruled against it this summer.

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School and Oklahoma's charter school board filed separate petitions Oct. 7 with the Supreme Court after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled last summer that the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board could not authorize a charter with a Catholic school.

The court in its ruling said that extending public funding to a religious school would be a "slippery slope" that could lead to "the destruction of Oklahomans' freedom to practice religion without fear of governmental intervention."

The court subsequently ordered the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to rescind the school's contract.

St. Isidore petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Oklahoma decision on the basis of Supreme Court precedent and the free exercise clause of the First Amendment on Monday. The school was represented by the Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic of Notre Dame Law School, a teaching law practice that trains Notre Dame law students.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal nonprofit that defends First Amendment rights, filed a petition the same day on behalf of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.

In the Oct. 7 petition, ADF argued that the Oklahoma Supreme Court had ruled contrary to the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court, which "has repeatedly struck down states' attempts to exclude religious schools, parents, and students from publicly available benefits based solely on their religion."

For instance, a 2022 Supreme Court ruling found that Maine couldn't exclude religious schools from a tuition aid program because it violates the free exercise clause.

Michael Scaperlanda, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and chairman of the board of St. Isidore, said that a mission of Catholic education "is to serve the whole community by building new learning opportunities so that every child can thrive in a school that suits her own needs."

"Too many children in our state don't have that chance," Scaperlanda said in an Oct. 7 statement. "We want to help solve that problem by opening a school for children who find the available options unable to meet their needs and who lack the resources to consider other choices."

Oklahoma ranked 49th in education in the U.S. in 2024, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with 84% of its eighth graders testing "not proficient" in math and 76% of its fourth graders "not proficient" in reading.

"Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more choices, not fewer. There's great irony in state officials who claim to be in favor of religious liberty discriminating against St. Isidore because of its Catholic beliefs," ADF senior counsel Phil Sechler said in an Oct. 7 statement. "The U.S. Constitution protects St. Isidore's freedom to operate according to its faith and supports the board's decision to approve such learning options for Oklahoma families."

Sechler said the case is about "bolster[ing] religious freedom across Oklahoma."

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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 8, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

"Mother, Under Your Gaze We Seek Unity" was the theme that brought together more than 2.3 million of the faithful this past weekend to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lujan in Argentina as part of the 50th Youth Pilgrimage.

Coming from the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, which organized the pilgrimage through the Popular Piety Commission, the pilgrims began to arrive in Luján during the day on Saturday under a radiant sun after walking more than 37 miles to the shrine and continued to pour in on Sunday.

On their way, they received the blessing of priests, support from volunteers, and inspiration from music groups from the different dioceses of western Buenos Aires.

Upon arriving at the basilica in Luján, they were able to attend different Masses. The main Mass of the day for the huge crowd of pilgrims was held at 7 a.m. and celebrated by the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge García Cuerva, who arrived on foot from St. Cajetan Shrine located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Liniers.

In his homily, the prelate addressed a few words to the Virgin of Luján: "To say to you 'mother' unites us; there is the foundation to begin to build the national unity so longed for," he said.

"Saying to you 'mother,' 'mom,' makes us children and brothers and sisters. That is how we came on pilgrimage. As a people, all so different, all so equal. We have traveled many kilometers, we have brought our intentions to Mary" in an experience "with others" and with "solidarity and joy."

Citing the "youth of 1975," protagonists of the first Youth Pilgrimage to Luján, he said: "In each step we have taken up to this point we have experienced what it is to be a people who walk together toward their ideal of freedom and justice. And that is why we came. It is because we young people are increasingly understanding that we are part of a people, the people of God in Latin America, whose heart is the humble and the workers."

'Mother, look at your weary people'

At the feet of the Virgin, the archbishop referred to the situation in Argentina, with so many children "trapped by drugs," others sick, young people "distressed by not being able to realize their life projects," and those who "cannot make ends meet to feed their families."

"Mother, look at your weary people, look at your people who are making a great effort to hold on to hope, to shoulder the country and overcome the crisis that we have been going through for years," he prayed. "Look at your pilgrim people, who come with all their intentions, with their wounds and hopes."

A call to humility 'to build bridges'

The archbishop then referred to the poverty index for the first half of 2024 in Argentina: "In the face of crises, the wise seek solutions, the mediocre seek those to blame. There are many mediocre people who, faced with the appalling and painful 52.9% index of poverty, began to look for those to blame," he said.

"From the house of Mary, we ask you: Please unite behind two or three important issues for all Argentines. Let us ask for the humility to work with others, to create consensus and agreements, and to build bridges, because the bravest thing we can do is ask for help," he urged.

"Let us not give up on being brothers and sisters, on seeking solutions together, on building a more just and fraternal homeland, on freeing ourselves from prejudices, hatred, and sterile confrontations, on continuing to entrust our lives to the Virgin of Luján," he urged, assuring that she "encourages us to continue walking in life, weary, but not dejected, beaten, but with hope and without giving up."

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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