What if salt is losing its flavor? What if Christianity is being reduced from a dramatic, intimate, living Faith to a private devotion, a routine, an aside? Instead of going out and making disciples of all nations, we are going out and barely letting the nations know that we ourselves are disciples. Our lives look […]

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. To get to Bethany, which was two miles east of Jerusalem, Christ and the Apostles would have descended down the steep Kidron Valley and then ascended up the Mount of Olives.  At the western base of the Mount of Olives […]

ENCOUNTERING THE WORD — YOUR DAILY BIBLE VERSES “And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” – John 17:11 Please […]

The post Your Daily Bible Verses — John 17:11 appeared first on Integrated Catholic Life™.

Saint Francis Caracciolo, born Ascanio Caracciolo in 1563 in the Kingdom of Naples, led a life marked by deep devotion and humility. Initially, he intended to live a secular life, but a severe illness prompted a profound conversion. During his recovery, Francis vowed to dedicate his life to God if he survived. Miraculously healed, he […]

CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Illinois was not called for a vote in the Senate before the Legislature adjourned on June 1, effectively halting its progress for the session amid ardent opposition from leading Catholic voices in the state.

The bill, which passed in the House at the end of May, would have made it legal for physicians to give “qualified” terminally ill patients life-ending drugs. As the bill failed to move through the General Assembly, physican-asisted suicide remains criminal in Illinois.

Physician-assisted suicide, called medical aid in dying or “MAID” by proponents, is legal in 10 states as well as the nation’s capital. Oregon was the first to legalize the practice in 1994, though an injunction delayed its implementation until 1997.

Under the proposed Illinois legislation, death certificates would show the terminal illness as the cause of death, not suicide.

The bill was included as part of legislation originally intended to address food and sanitation.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, criticized the bill in a May 30 statement.

“I speak to this topic not only as a religious leader but also as one who has seen a parent die from a debilitating illness,” Cupich said, recalling his father’s death.

Cupich urged Illinois to promote “compassionate care,” not assisted suicide.

“My father was kept comfortable and was cherished until his natural death,” he said. 

Cupich noted that Catholic teaching supports palliative care (a form of care that focuses on improving quality of life, including pain management, for patients with terminal illnesses) “so long as the goal is not to end life.” 

“There is a way to both honor the dignity of human life and provide compassionate care to those experiencing life-ending illness,” Cupich said. “Surely the Illinois Legislature should explore those options before making suicide one of the avenues available to the ill and distressed.”  

State Rep. Adam Niemerg, a Catholic legislator who opposed the bill when it was on the floor in the House, said the practice “does not respect the Gospel.” 

Niemerg urged Illinois legislators to vote against the bill, saying: “We must protect the vulnerable, support the suffering, and uphold the dignity of every human life.”

“It tells the sick, the elderly, the disabled, and the vulnerable that their lives are no longer worth living — that when they face this despair, the best we can offer is a prescription for death,” he said of assisted suicide. “That is not compassion, that is abandonment.”

Niemerg also raised concerns that the law “opens the door to real abuse.”

“We’ve seen where this becomes practice, the patients are denied lifesaving treatment and offered lethal drugs instead,” he said.

Mental health concerns

In his statement, Cupich questioned the move “to normalize suicide as a solution to life’s challenges” amid a culture already contending with a mental health crisis. 

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for U.S. teens and young adults, Cupich noted, citing a 2022 study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

He urged politicians to consider “the impact on impressionable young people of legalizing suicide in any form.”

“Suicide contagion is a real risk to these young people after exposure to suicide,” he continued, citing the National Institutes of Health.

“Add to that the ready availability of firearms in the U.S., and this is a tragedy we do not need to compound,” he said.

Cupich also raised concerns about suicide rates increasing if assisted suicide legislation were implemented.

“While the bill sets parameters for assisted suicide, the data from places where assisted suicide is available are clear,” Cupich said. “Rates of all suicide went up after the passage of such legislation.”

“These rates are already unacceptably high, and proposed cutbacks in medical care funding will add to the burden faced by those contemplating suicide,” Cupich said.

CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Illinois was not called for a vote in the Senate before the Legislature adjourned on June 1, effectively halting its progress for the session amid ardent opposition from leading Catholic voices in the state.

The bill, which passed in the House at the end of May, would have made it legal for physicians to give “qualified” terminally ill patients life-ending drugs. As the bill failed to move through the General Assembly, physican-asisted suicide remains criminal in Illinois.

Physician-assisted suicide, called medical aid in dying or “MAID” by proponents, is legal in 10 states as well as the nation’s capital. Oregon was the first to legalize the practice in 1994, though an injunction delayed its implementation until 1997.

Under the proposed Illinois legislation, death certificates would show the terminal illness as the cause of death, not suicide.

The bill was included as part of legislation originally intended to address food and sanitation.

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, criticized the bill in a May 30 statement.

“I speak to this topic not only as a religious leader but also as one who has seen a parent die from a debilitating illness,” Cupich said, recalling his father’s death.

Cupich urged Illinois to promote “compassionate care,” not assisted suicide.

“My father was kept comfortable and was cherished until his natural death,” he said. 

Cupich noted that Catholic teaching supports palliative care (a form of care that focuses on improving quality of life, including pain management, for patients with terminal illnesses) “so long as the goal is not to end life.” 

“There is a way to both honor the dignity of human life and provide compassionate care to those experiencing life-ending illness,” Cupich said. “Surely the Illinois Legislature should explore those options before making suicide one of the avenues available to the ill and distressed.”  

State Rep. Adam Niemerg, a Catholic legislator who opposed the bill when it was on the floor in the House, said the practice “does not respect the Gospel.” 

Niemerg urged Illinois legislators to vote against the bill, saying: “We must protect the vulnerable, support the suffering, and uphold the dignity of every human life.”

“It tells the sick, the elderly, the disabled, and the vulnerable that their lives are no longer worth living — that when they face this despair, the best we can offer is a prescription for death,” he said of assisted suicide. “That is not compassion, that is abandonment.”

Niemerg also raised concerns that the law “opens the door to real abuse.”

“We’ve seen where this becomes practice, the patients are denied lifesaving treatment and offered lethal drugs instead,” he said.

Mental health concerns

In his statement, Cupich questioned the move “to normalize suicide as a solution to life’s challenges” amid a culture already contending with a mental health crisis. 

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for U.S. teens and young adults, Cupich noted, citing a 2022 study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

He urged politicians to consider “the impact on impressionable young people of legalizing suicide in any form.”

“Suicide contagion is a real risk to these young people after exposure to suicide,” he continued, citing the National Institutes of Health.

“Add to that the ready availability of firearms in the U.S., and this is a tragedy we do not need to compound,” he said.

Cupich also raised concerns about suicide rates increasing if assisted suicide legislation were implemented.

“While the bill sets parameters for assisted suicide, the data from places where assisted suicide is available are clear,” Cupich said. “Rates of all suicide went up after the passage of such legislation.”

“These rates are already unacceptably high, and proposed cutbacks in medical care funding will add to the burden faced by those contemplating suicide,” Cupich said.

CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

A victim advocacy group launched an ad campaign urging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to force insurance companies to pay millions of dollars in abuse claims, slamming the governor for allegedly “stand[ing] with her big insurance buddies” instead of abuse victims.

The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which started in 2023 to pressure insurance companies to pay abuse claims under the state’s Child Victims Act, began running ads in upstate New York markets this week.

“Who turns their back on over 14,000 survivors of child sex abuse? Gov. Kathy Hochul,” an ad states, claiming the Democratic governor “stands with her big insurance buddies [who are] denying responsibility while donating to her campaign.”

The ad features headlines from news stories of abuse scandals, including one that references the Diocese of Buffalo, which earlier this year said it would pay out a massive $150 million sum as part of a settlement with victims of clergy sexual abuse there. 

“Call [Hochul’s] office. Demand she enforce the law. Make big insurance pay, not the survivors they failed,” the advertisement says. 

Passed in 2019, New York’s Child Victims Act extended the statute of limitations involving child sex abuse cases so that victims can file civil lawsuits against both abusers and institutions until the victims themselves are 55 years old. 

It is not just victim advocates who have called for insurers to pay abuse claims in both New York and elsewhere. 

New York archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan last year said the archdiocese was launching a lawsuit against its longtime insurer in response to an alleged attempt by the company “to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims. 

The Archdiocese of Baltimore similarly sued numerous insurers last year over their alleged failure to pay for abuse claims stretching back several decades.

And earlier this year the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, sued its insurance provider over allegations that the company was refusing to pay out sexual abuse claims under that state’s own Child Victims Act.

Neither the New York victims’ group nor the governor’s office responded to requests for comment on the campaign.

CNA Staff, Jun 3, 2025 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

A victim advocacy group launched an ad campaign urging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to force insurance companies to pay millions of dollars in abuse claims, slamming the governor for allegedly “stand[ing] with her big insurance buddies” instead of abuse victims.

The Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation, which started in 2023 to pressure insurance companies to pay abuse claims under the state’s Child Victims Act, began running ads in upstate New York markets this week.

“Who turns their back on over 14,000 survivors of child sex abuse? Gov. Kathy Hochul,” an ad states, claiming the Democratic governor “stands with her big insurance buddies [who are] denying responsibility while donating to her campaign.”

The ad features headlines from news stories of abuse scandals, including one that references the Diocese of Buffalo, which earlier this year said it would pay out a massive $150 million sum as part of a settlement with victims of clergy sexual abuse there. 

“Call [Hochul’s] office. Demand she enforce the law. Make big insurance pay, not the survivors they failed,” the advertisement says. 

Passed in 2019, New York’s Child Victims Act extended the statute of limitations involving child sex abuse cases so that victims can file civil lawsuits against both abusers and institutions until the victims themselves are 55 years old. 

It is not just victim advocates who have called for insurers to pay abuse claims in both New York and elsewhere. 

New York archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan last year said the archdiocese was launching a lawsuit against its longtime insurer in response to an alleged attempt by the company “to evade their legal and moral contractual obligation” to pay out financial claims to sex abuse victims. 

The Archdiocese of Baltimore similarly sued numerous insurers last year over their alleged failure to pay for abuse claims stretching back several decades.

And earlier this year the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, sued its insurance provider over allegations that the company was refusing to pay out sexual abuse claims under that state’s own Child Victims Act.

Neither the New York victims’ group nor the governor’s office responded to requests for comment on the campaign.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 3, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

A revival of the Catholic faith is spreading across Australia and beyond, according to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher. 

The Archdiocese of Sydney welcomed a record 384 catechumens and candidates in March, marking a 30% increase from the previous year. In addition, the archdiocese has ordained a bishop, along with two deacons and a priest, just in the past month.

Following a record number of conversions this past Easter, Fisher declared the Church in Sydney to be in a “second spring.” The archbishop attributed the historic growth among the faithful to the Holy Spirit in a speech given over the weekend to Catholic business leaders, according to a report in Catholic Weekly.

“These aren’t just people raised Catholic who are returning — but individuals from diverse backgrounds who are encountering the faith for the first time and finding something deeply compelling,” he said, observing “a genuine hunger for spiritual meaning in an increasingly fragmented world.”

Fisher delivered his speech at a May 30 event with the theme “Signs of Hope in This Jubilee Year,” organized by the Archdiocese of Sydney and sponsored by Catholic Super, a retirement savings fund organization. 

Reflecting on the increasing Mass attendance rates across the archdiocese, Fisher joked: “I might have to get a bigger cathedral.”

Apart from parish life, Fisher pointed to the archdiocese’s Catholic schools, noting that enrollments are “the highest they’ve ever been, and keep growing.”

This phenomenon is not unique to Sydney alone, he noted, citing dioceses across the U.S. that saw similar booms in adult conversions this year.

Among them was the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which welcomed more than 5,500 new Catholics this past Easter, its highest number of Easter converts in 10 years.

The bishop also pointed to the U.K., which also experienced its highest surge of entrants into the faith this year. France also saw a record 45% increase in new converts at Easter, with young adults making up the majority of the country’s 10,384 adult conversions. 

While Fisher credits the Holy Spirit for the current upward trend of religious conversion, he also noted factors in everyday life that he sees as driving forces, such as the experience of the COVID pandemic. 

Some, he added, were “wowed by the beauty and sacredness of the liturgy, art, or music” or drawn in by a sense of community. 

“It might be too early to declare winter now past, but flowers have appeared in our land,” he concluded. “There are signs of hope.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 3, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

A revival of the Catholic faith is spreading across Australia and beyond, according to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher. 

The Archdiocese of Sydney welcomed a record 384 catechumens and candidates in March, marking a 30% increase from the previous year. In addition, the archdiocese has ordained a bishop, along with two deacons and a priest, just in the past month.

Following a record number of conversions this past Easter, Fisher declared the Church in Sydney to be in a “second spring.” The archbishop attributed the historic growth among the faithful to the Holy Spirit in a speech given over the weekend to Catholic business leaders, according to a report in Catholic Weekly.

“These aren’t just people raised Catholic who are returning — but individuals from diverse backgrounds who are encountering the faith for the first time and finding something deeply compelling,” he said, observing “a genuine hunger for spiritual meaning in an increasingly fragmented world.”

Fisher delivered his speech at a May 30 event with the theme “Signs of Hope in This Jubilee Year,” organized by the Archdiocese of Sydney and sponsored by Catholic Super, a retirement savings fund organization. 

Reflecting on the increasing Mass attendance rates across the archdiocese, Fisher joked: “I might have to get a bigger cathedral.”

Apart from parish life, Fisher pointed to the archdiocese’s Catholic schools, noting that enrollments are “the highest they’ve ever been, and keep growing.”

This phenomenon is not unique to Sydney alone, he noted, citing dioceses across the U.S. that saw similar booms in adult conversions this year.

Among them was the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which welcomed more than 5,500 new Catholics this past Easter, its highest number of Easter converts in 10 years.

The bishop also pointed to the U.K., which also experienced its highest surge of entrants into the faith this year. France also saw a record 45% increase in new converts at Easter, with young adults making up the majority of the country’s 10,384 adult conversions. 

While Fisher credits the Holy Spirit for the current upward trend of religious conversion, he also noted factors in everyday life that he sees as driving forces, such as the experience of the COVID pandemic. 

Some, he added, were “wowed by the beauty and sacredness of the liturgy, art, or music” or drawn in by a sense of community. 

“It might be too early to declare winter now past, but flowers have appeared in our land,” he concluded. “There are signs of hope.”