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Vatican City, Jan 24, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

In his message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications on Friday, Pope Francis encouraged journalists to build communion in the world through sharing stories of goodness and hope.

"I dream of a communication that does not peddle illusions or fears but is able to give reasons for hope," the pope said. "I encourage you to discover and make known the many stories of goodness hidden in the folds of the news, imitating those gold-prospectors who tirelessly sift the sand in search of a tiny nugget. It is good to seek out such seeds of hope and make them known."

The Church celebrates the World Day of Social Communications every year on Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists and writers.

In 2025, the World Day of Social Communications is also taking place during three days of events in Rome for a Jubilee of the World of Communications, part of the yearlong Church-wide Jubilee of Hope.

In his message, Pope Francis urged those who work in media and communications to "tell stories steeped in hope," especially during these "troubled times," and pointed to the special graces available during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope as a support to this work.

The pontiff said a good communicator "ensures that those who listen, read, or watch can be involved, can draw close, can get in touch with the best part of themselves and enter with these attitudes into the stories told."

By sharing stories of goodness and hope, media professionals help the world to be a little less closed off and a little less indifferent to others, he noted. 

"May you always find those glimmers of goodness that inspire us to hope. This kind of communication can help to build communion, to make us feel less alone, to rediscover the importance of walking together," he said.

Francis also had advice for journalists' prayer lives.

"In the face of the astonishing achievements of technology, I encourage you to care for your heart, your interior life," he said.

Some practical ways to do that, he advised, are to "be meek and never forget the faces of other people; speak to the hearts of the women and men whom you serve in carrying out your work."

"To do this, though, we must be healed of our 'diseases' of self-promotion and self-absorption, and avoid the risk of shouting over others in order to make our voices heard," he warned.

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CNA Staff, Jan 24, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).

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

U.S. government reproductive rights website shut down 

A federal government website promoting abortion has been taken down following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Reproductiverights.gov, launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, went offline around the time of the inauguration on Jan. 20. Based on archived pages, the site was available just days before Trump's inauguration. 

The website formerly detailed information about accessing abortion and birth control via insurance providers. 

Pro-life physicians support challenge to FDA abortion pill safeguards 

A coalition of pro-life physicians shared its support of a recent decision granting three states access to challenge the FDA's chemical abortion policies.

A federal judge in Texas ruled on Jan. 17  that three other states — Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri — can join a case challenging online prescriptions of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Dr. Christina Francis, board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), criticized the FDA's lack of safeguards in a statement shared with CNA.

"For years the FDA has failed to provide basic protections for women and girls to lessen the serious health risks of abortion drugs," Francis said. "The physicians of AAPLOG believe that women deserve better care than this. Reinstating the original safeguards, including requiring in-person medical care, is a step towards protecting women from these dangerous drugs."

Virginia Senate backs abortion 

The Virginia Senate passed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to establish a right to abortion in the Virginia Constitution.

The Senate vote followed the House of Delegates, which passed its own version of the resolution. This is among the beginning steps of a long legislative process to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot in Virginia. The legislation must pass in both the House and Senate twice in two years, with an intervening election before the two sessions. Following this, the referendum can be put on the ballot for voters to decide. 

Both the Virginia Senate and House have a slim Democratic majority, while Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is a staunch Republican. 

Republicans warned that the amendment could undermine current abortion-related laws in Virginia, including Virginia's parental consent laws for minors seeking abortions. Abortion is currently legal in Virginia for the first and second trimesters of pregnancy as well as in the third trimester if the mother's life or health is at serious risk, as verified by three physicians.

The Virginia Senate also passed a resolution to repeal a now-defunct law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. 

Texas defendant pleads guilty after vandalizing pregnancy clinic 

A Texan man who vandalized two pregnancy resource clinics in May 2022 recently pleaded guilty to a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. 

Ethan Skorick, 23, vandalized two Texas pregnancy resource centers with spray paint shortly after the leak of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. The two clinics, the Loreto House and Woman to Woman, serve pregnant women in need in Denton, Texas. According to court documents, Skorick defaced the clinics with graffitied phrases including "NOT A CLINIC," "FORCED BIRTH IS MURDER," and "PRO BIRTH [does not equal] PRO LIFE." 

Skorick pleaded guilty to a violation of the FACE Act, which has been used in the past to allegedly target pro-life activists for blocking clinic entrances. The FACE Act prohibits "violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services."

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a Jan. 16 statement that the DOJ "will enforce the FACE Act to protect all providers of reproductive health services and their patients."

Birth rate in South Korea rises for first time in 9 years

South Korea has the world's lowest recorded fertility rates, but the birth rate in that country has risen for the first time in nine years.

The number of newborns from January 2024 to November 2024 rose 3% from a year earlier, according to monthly government data. South Korea's government last year encouraged young people to get married and have children. The now-impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a "national demographic crisis" and put forth a plan to create a new ministry to address low birth rates.

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Vatican City, Jan 24, 2025 / 07:10 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed his personal travel agent and new cardinal, George Jacob Koovakad, to lead the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, following the death last year of Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot.

Ayuso, a Spanish-born prelate and respected expert in Islam, died on Nov. 25, 2024, after a long illness. He was 72.

The 51-year-old Koovakad, originally from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis in December.

Since late 2021, the Vatican diplomat has been the coordinator for papal travels, working in the section for general affairs of the Secretariat of State to arrange Francis' trips. He also has a doctorate in canon law. 

Koovakad, who was in the diplomatic service of the Holy See for 14 years, is part of the Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Catholic faith's Eastern-rite Churches. He was the first Syro-Malabar priest to be elevated to cardinal directly from the priesthood, according to a spokesperson for the Church.

The Vatican's Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue was created during the Second Vatican Council, as the Church took a new, formal approach to dialogue with other religions, as expressed in the document Nostra Aetate.

Interreligious dialogue has been a priority of Pope Francis' pontificate, as demonstrated by his trips to non-Christian majority countries and the "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together," signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019.

Koovakad helped organize several of Pope Francis' religious dialogue-focused trips, including to Kazakhstan and Bahrain in 2022, to Mongolia in 2023, and to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore in September 2024.

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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2025 / 19:55 pm (CNA).

The 52nd annual March for Life will be taking place in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 24. Thousands of pro-lifers will be coming together in our nation's capitol to march in defense of the unborn.

Follow along here for live updates on the march. All times are in U.S. Eastern Standard Time:

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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2025 / 20:30 pm (CNA).

Pro-life activist Paul Vaughn received the news that President Donald Trump had pardoned him, along with 22 other pro-life demonstrators, on Thursday in the middle of a press conference with his lawyers at the Thomas More Society.

"I have a lot of thoughts," he told CNA. "It's a big ordeal, and it's been a long time going through all this."

The pardon put an end to the Biden administration's prosecution of Vaughn and his fellow pro-life activists, among whom were several elderly and infirm women who were serving time in prison for peacefully protesting abortion.

Vaughn was one of 11 pro-life activists convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for a demonstration outside of a Tennessee abortion clinic in March 2021. 

Prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought a one-year prison sentence for him, but he was ultimately sentenced to three years of supervised release in July 2024. Prior to the pardon, Vaughn's case was on appeal. 

Vaughn had been taking part in the conference about free speech and the abortion pill reversal process alongside several senior members of the religious liberty law firm when Steve Crampton, senior counsel with the Thomas More Society, interrupted the discussion.

Crampton read aloud a social media post announcing that Trump had signed pardons for the 23 convicted pro-life activists. Those gathered for the event rose to their feet and erupted in applause, while Vaughn and his legal team shook hands joyfully.

"On one side, it's great to see a president like Donald Trump who understands the injustice that has gone on," Vaughn later told CNA. "On the other side of the coin, it doesn't erase the injustice that my family and the other 22 pro-lifers have endured for the last two years at Biden's DOJ." 

"We won't get that back," he added. 

Calling the pardon "a mixed bag," Vaughn said he is both "rejoicing" with his family and co-defendants and hoping that "we do better as a nation going forward." 

"Lord willing," he said of the jailed pro-life activists who were among those that received a pardon, "[they] will be eating dinner with their families tonight and not in the federal pen, with, you know, bologna sandwiches and whatever." 

Vaughn's wife, Bethany, told CNA that while she is happy about the pardon, she hopes her husband will pursue his appeals case and ultimately win so that future prosecutions may be prevented from happening. 

A video posted on social media shows Trump signing the pardons on Thursday afternoon after telling the press: "Twenty-three people were prosecuted. They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them were elderly people." 

"It's a great honor to sign this," the president said as he signed the order. 

Last week, the Thomas More Society petitioned the incoming president to issue 21 individual pardons for pro-life advocates who were arrested for violating the FACE Act, including several who were elderly and in poor health. 

"These peaceful pro-life Americans mistreated by [President Joe] Biden include grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest — all are selfless, sincere patriots," the petition stated. 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 23, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump issued pardons for 23 pro-life activists on Thursday, fulfilling a promise he made during the presidential campaign.

Trump signed the pardons on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House on the day before the March for Life to be held in Washington, D.C., according to the Thomas More Society.

Last week, the religious liberty law firm petitioned the incoming president to issue 21 individual pardons for pro-life advocates who were arrested for violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and "Conspiracy Against Rights" statute while peacefully engaging in protests at abortion clinics.

Several of those convicted and imprisoned were elderly and in poor health.

At least two times during his 2024 campaign for the presidency, Trump said he intended to release pro-life activists who are currently imprisoned.

"These peaceful pro-life Americans mistreated by [President Joe] Biden include grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest — all are selfless, sincere patriots," the petition from the Chicago-based law firm reads.

During Biden's four years in office, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought charges against more than 30 people who took part in pro-life demonstrations under the FACE Act, which was legislation in the 1990s to increase penalties for people who obstruct access to abortion clinics or pregnancy resource centers.

Although the FACE Act's higher sentences also apply to people who obstruct or damage pro-life pregnancy centers, Biden's DOJ only brought charges in two cases regarding attacks on those facilities despite more than 100 incidents occurring under his tenure.

"While Biden's prosecutors almost entirely ignored the firebombing and vandalism of hundreds of pro-life churches and pregnancy centers, they viciously pursued pro-life Americans," the petition adds.

The longest sentence was given last year to Lauren Handy, who received four years and nine months in prison for her role in a protest at an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. The second longest was also given last year to Bevelyn Beatty Williams, who received three years and five months in prison for a protest inside an abortion clinic in New York City. 

Several pro-life activists in their mid-to-late 70s also received multiyear sentences for their protests.

"These 21 peaceful pro-lifers, many of whom are currently imprisoned for bravely standing up for unborn life, are upstanding citizens and pillars of their communities," Steve Crampton, who works as senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.

This is a developing story. 

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CNA Staff, Jan 23, 2025 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

As a series of massive and destructive wildfires in the Los Angeles area continue to burn, a new fire that sparked Wednesday north of the city, near Castaic Lake reservoir, has quickly burned more than 10,000 acres and as of Thursday is only about one-quarter contained. 

The Hughes Fire has forced the evacuation of 31,000 people and more than 14,000 structures are threatened, according to Los Angeles County's Coordinated Joint Information Center.

Father Vaughn Winters, the pastor at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church in nearby Santa Clarita, told CNA by email that "yesterday was very stressful, but the immediate danger seems to be past." 

He said "a couple hundred" St. Kateri parishioners living near where the fire is spreading were forced to evacuate, as evacuation warnings bordered the city of Santa Clarita, which is about 30 miles north of Los Angeles and home to 220,000 people.

"Our parishioners from the community of Castaic near the fire were evacuated. The evacuation warning zone came near to the actual church and our parishioners in Santa Clarita, but we did not have to evacuate," the priest told CNA.

"Seeing all the plumes of smoke all day was very worrying and of course everyone has been on edge because of the terrible fires two weeks ago."

Winters said the parish is willing to extend assistance to anyone who needs it through a special fire assistance fund that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles set up in early January.

The Hughes Fire, which at its height engaged about 4,000 firefighters, is about 30 miles as the crow flies from Thomas Aquinas College (TAC), a prominent Catholic institution of higher education located in Santa Paula that has been threatened by wildfire before. 

The 2017 Thomas Fire, named for its proximity to the school, sparked in early December less than a mile from campus and burned nearly 300,000 acres, including hundreds of residences in the town of Ventura. It was the largest wildfire in state history up to that point, but the college survived the fire without the loss of any major structures.

The school in 2021 opened a concrete helipad designed to accommodate the needs of a Firehawk helicopter in an effort to assist local firefighters by giving them a location to refill the craft's water tanks. 

Christopher Weinkopf, a TAC spokesman, told CNA that "thanks be to God" the school isn't threatened by the Hughes Fire but that they were "seeing a lot of smoke on campus yesterday." 

He added that firefighters are not currently using the TAC helipad in their efforts to fight the Hughes Fire.

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Vatican City, Jan 23, 2025 / 08:45 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Thursday that Pope Francis had approved the transfer of Bishop Joseph Cai Bingrui from the Diocese of Xiamen to the Diocese of Fuzhou, both in the southeast Chinese province of Fujian.

The 59-year-old Cai took possession of the diocese on Jan. 23.

The Vatican said the bishop's candidacy was approved by Pope Francis on Jan. 15 under the terms of the "Provisional Agreement," better known as the Vatican-China deal.

Cai was consecrated bishop of Xiamen with papal and government approval in 2010 after serving as diocesan administrator from 1996.

After growing up in a Catholic family, Cai was ordained a priest in 1992.

Last week, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had erected a new diocese in China and appointed Father Anthony Ji Weizhong as its first bishop.

The pope decided last October to suppress the Diocese of Fenyang in mainland China, which was originally erected in 1946 by Pope Pius XII, and at the same time erect the new Diocese of Lüliang.

Pope Francis appointed the 51-year-old Weizhong as bishop of Lüliang on Oct. 28, 2024.

Originally signed in September 2018, the Vatican in October 2024 renewed its "Provisional Agreement" with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops for an additional four years, until at least Oct. 22, 2028.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 23, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

Every Democrat in the U.S Senate on Wednesday voted against legislation that would have required doctors to provide lifesaving health care to infants who are born after a failed abortion attempt, with the party-line opposition effectively dooming the bill.

The "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act," which was introduced by Republican Sen. James Lankford, would have guaranteed equal protection under the law for "any infant born alive after an abortion."

The proposed legislation would have required all health care practitioners present during such a birth to "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a … health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age."

Although a majority of senators voted to advance the legislation, the bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the filibuster.

The vote was 52-47 with every voting Republican supporting the bill and every Democrat in opposition. One Republican was not available for the vote.

"I am disappointed that every Senate Democrat voted against my [bill], making something that should be common sense completely partisan for the first time," Lankford said in a post on X.

"This bill is straightforward and would save lives," he added. "I believe every life is valuable and that no one is disposable."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said before the vote that the bill "attacks women's health" and alleged it "adds more legal risk for doctors on something that is already illegal." 

He alleged the bill was part of an "extremist anti-choice resurgence." The proposed bill would not have restricted or limited access to abortions that are legal.

The measure would have imposed up to a five-year prison sentence on any health care practitioner who fails to provide equal health care for an infant who survives an abortion attempt and would have required employees to report violations to law enforcement. 

It would have also allowed the woman on whom the abortion was performed to sue a health care practitioner who violates this law.

The mother of a child who survives an abortion attempt could not be prosecuted under this law under any circumstances.

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Vatican City, Jan 23, 2025 / 10:40 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday released his message to global leaders attending the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week, telling attendees that artificial intelligence (AI) must ultimately serve humanity and the common good.

As "a protagonist and a supporter of the advancement of science, technology, the arts, and other forms of human endeavors," the Holy Father said, the Catholic Church teaches that such developments should be used to "improve life for everyone."

"AI must be ordered to the human person and become part of efforts to achieve 'greater justice, more extensive fraternity, and a more humane order of social relations,' which are 'more valuable than advances in the technical field,'" he said, citing Gaudium et Spes, No. 35, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2293.

In his Jan. 23 message, the pope said AI is "not an artificial form of human intelligence but a product of it" that, when used correctly, "assists the human person in fulfilling his or her vocation, in freedom and responsibility." 

"Progress marked by the dawn of AI calls for a rediscovery of the importance of community and a renewed commitment to care for the common home entrusted to us by God," he added. 

Francis also challenged government and business leaders to implement AI in ways "to bring people together" and not simply as a "tool" for economic cooperation.

"There is, however, the risk that AI will be used to advance the 'technocratic paradigm,' which perceives all the world's problems as solvable through technological means alone," the Holy Father said.

"Within this paradigm, human dignity and fraternity are frequently subordinated in the pursuit of efficiency as though reality, goodness, and truth inherently emanate from technological and economic power," he continued.

Pointing out other risks posed by AI, the Holy Father said critical questions must be addressed, including "its effect on the growing crisis of truth in the public forum," ethical responsibility, and human safety.

Emphasizing that "human dignity must never be violated," the pope said technological developments that "create or worsen inequalities and conflicts" are not true progress: "For this reason, AI should be placed at the service of a healthier, more human, more social, and more integral development."

The Holy Father also highlighted Catholic social teaching in his message, saying the principle of "subsidiarity" is necessary to achieve the common good in the "Intelligent Age."

"Appropriate responses should be made at all levels of society," he said, "with individual users, families, civil society, corporations, institutions, governments, and international organizations working at their proper levels to ensure that AI is directed to the good of all." 

"Today, there are significant challenges and opportunities when AI is placed within a framework of relational intelligence, where everyone shares responsibility for the integral well-being of others," he concluded.

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