In 1885, a 21-year-old Pennsylvania woman named Elizabeth Jane Cochran saw a column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch arguing that women exist primarily to have children and keep house. Her written response was so impressive, the editor offered her a job. Under the pseudonym Nellie Bly—the name she’s known by today—she began investigating the plight of […]

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Since first grade, my daughter’s best friend has been a boy. They share what Dr. Seuss called “compatible weirdness”—cracking each other up with drawings or spinning stories for hours. At school, their moments to connect came in the gaps between lessons and, most importantly, at lunch. So she was shocked when a new principal separated […]

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Pope Leo XIV spoke about how Christ can heal our past during the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 18, 2025. / Credit Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Jun 18, 2025 / 06:03 am (CNA).

After a turn in the popemobile to greet thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV continued his catechesis on “Jesus Christ, Our Hope.”

The pope reminded listeners that Jesus is capable of healing and unblocking the past, which at times paralyzes us — inviting us to move forward and decide what to do with our own history.

The Church: A house of mercy

The Holy Father invited the faithful to reflect on moments in which “we feel ‘stuck’ and trapped in a dead end,” where it seems “pointless to keep hoping — we resign ourselves and no longer have the strength to fight.”

Referring to the Gospel passage from John 5:1–9, which recounts the healing of a paralytic, the pope said that it is Jesus who “reaches people in their pain” — the sick and those who had been cast out of the Temple for being considered unclean.

These people, the Holy Father recalled, hoped to get well in a pool whose waters were believed to have healing powers. According to the custom of the time, the first person to plunge into the pool when the water stirred would be healed.

“That pool was called ‘Betzatà,’ which means ‘house of mercy.’ It could be seen as an image of the Church, where the sick and the poor gather, and to which the Lord comes to heal and bring hope,” he added.

The paralysis of disillusionment

Jesus then approaches a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years and had never managed to enter the pool. The pope pointed out that “what often paralyzes us is precisely disillusionment. We feel discouraged and risk falling into neglect.” When Jesus speaks to the paralytic, he asks a “necessary” question: “Do you want to be healed?”

“Sometimes we prefer to remain in the condition of being sick, forcing others to take care of us. It can also become an excuse to avoid deciding what to do with our lives. But Jesus leads this man back to his true and deepest desire,” Leo XIV said.

The paralytic, feeling defeated, replies that he has no one to help him into the pool — an attitude that, according to the pope, “becomes a pretext for avoiding personal responsibility.”

Regarding the man’s fatalistic view of life, the pope said that at times “we think things happen to us because we are unlucky, or because fate is against us. This man is discouraged. He feels defeated by life’s struggles.”

With Jesus, we discover that life is in our hands

Nevertheless, Jesus “helps him discover that his life is also in his own hands. He invites him to rise up from his chronic condition and take up his mat. That mat is not thrown away or abandoned: It represents his past illness — his history,” the pope continued.

The past, he explained, had kept the man stuck, forcing him “to lie there like someone already dead.” But thanks to Jesus, he is able to “carry that mat and take it wherever he wants — he can decide what to do with his history. It’s a matter of walking forward, taking responsibility for choosing which path to take.”

Finally, the pope invited the faithful to ask the Lord “for the gift of understanding where in our life we have become stuck. Let us try to give voice to our desire for healing. And let us pray for all those who feel paralyzed and see no way out,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world must resist the allure of modern weapons which threaten to give conflicts a ferocity surpassing that of previous wars, Pope Leo XIV said.

"The heart of the church is torn apart from the cries that arise from places of war," he said at the conclusion of his general audience in St. Peter's Square June 18. "In particular from Ukraine, from Iran, from Israel, from Gaza."

"We must not become accustomed to war," the pope said. "Rather, we must push against the allure of powerful and sophisticated weapons as a temptation."

Quoting the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World ("Gaudium et Spes"), Pope Leo said that in modern-day warfare "scientific weapons of all kinds are used," and consequently "its atrocity threatens to lead the combatants to a barbarity far greater than that of past times."

"Therefore, in the name of human dignity and international law, I repeat to those responsible that which Pope Francis used to say: 'War is always a defeat,'" the pope said. And, quoting another of his predecessors, Pope Pius XII, he added: "Nothing is lost with peace. All can be lost with war."

Pope Leo's message came a few days after he expressed deep concern over the "seriously deteriorating" situation in the Middle East shortly after Israeli airstrikes were carried out on nuclear sites in Iran and retaliatory drone attacks on Israel were launched June 13.

"No one should ever threaten the existence of another," the pope had said during an audience with pilgrims in Rome for the Holy Year 2025 June 14. While it is right to hope for a world "free from the nuclear threat," he said, "it is the duty of all nations to support the cause of peace, taking paths of reconciliation and promoting solutions that ensure security and dignity for all."

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, told the Italian news agency ANSA June 17 that the Holy See is advocating for nuclear disarmament and has prepared a document on the immorality of not only the use but the possession of nuclear arms -- a notion previously expressed by the late Pope Francis.

Pope Leo: We can't get used to war!

Pope Leo XIV spoke of the ongoing conflicts around the world during his general audience June 18.

WASHINGTON - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commemorates  Religious Freedom Week from June 22–29. This year’s theme, “Witnesses to Hope,” builds on the annual report released earlier this year by the Conference’s Committee for Religious Liberty that highlights the impact of political polarization on religious freedom. In addition to issues such as mandates for in vitro fertilization, and threats to Catholic ministries serving migrants, Religious Freedom Week also highlights crucial policy positions such as parental choice in education during a time when the faithful are urged to contact their Senators to express support for educational choice in the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill.

The USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, in collaboration with the Secretariat of Catholic Education and Our Sunday Visitor Institute, hosted a religious liberty essay contest. The top essays from the competition will be published during Religious Freedom Week.

Through prayer, education, and public action during Religious Freedom Week, the faithful can promote the essential right of religious freedom for Catholics and those of all faiths. For the latest information from the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, please visit the Religious Liberty webpage and sign up for the First Freedom News monthly newsletter.

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The British Parliament building in London. / Credit: Marinesea/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 17, 2025 / 18:46 pm (CNA).

British lawmakers voted to decriminalize abortions in England and Wales in a move that pro-life advocates say could endanger women and unborn children. 

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the USCCB fall plenary assembly Nov. 14, 2023. / Credit: USCCB video

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 17, 2025 / 18:26 pm (CNA).

As the Trump administration steps up immigration enforcement actions throughout the country, U.S. bishops are raising their voices in solidarity with unauthorized immigrants who are being arrested “on the basis of immigration status alone” and sending the message that “enforcement alone” cannot be the solution to addressing the nation’s immigration challenges.

Speaking on behalf of his fellow bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop Timothy Broglio stated that “law enforcement actions aimed at preserving order and ensuring community security are necessary for the common good. However, the current efforts go well beyond those with criminal histories.”

“The mass arrest and removal of our neighbors, friends, and family members on the basis of immigration status alone, particularly in ways that are arbitrary or without due process, represent a profound social crisis before which no person of goodwill can remain silent,” Broglio said.

“On behalf of my brother bishops, I want to assure all of those affected by actions which tear at the fabric of our communities of the solidarity of your pastors,” Broglio continued. “Count on the commitment of all of us to stand with you in this challenging hour.”

At the same time, referencing protests against immigration enforcement in various cities across the country, Broglio insisted that “while protest and dissent can be a legitimate expression of democratic participation, violence is never acceptable.”

The prelate also pushed back against what he said were “unfounded accusations against Catholic service providers, who every day endeavor to provide critical support and care to the most vulnerable,” adding that such accusations “contribute to societal tensions and a growing climate of fear.”

Broglio concluded by calling for “just and humane solutions” to these immigration challenges and pledged the “cooperation and goodwill” of the nation’s bishops toward that end.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington D.C., Jun 17, 2025 / 17:56 pm (CNA).

During the first hearing of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, Bishop Robert Barron echoed Pope Benedict XVI’s warning against the “dictatorship of relativism” encroaching on American society.

Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said at the June 16 hearing that “religion is being attacked in our society” and referenced a homily given by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in April 2005, the day before he was elected pope.

“[This attack] is coming from a … philosophy that Joseph Ratzinger — Pope Benedict XVI — called the ‘dictatorship of relativism,’” Barron said. “I call it the culture of self-invention: the complete prioritization given to individual autonomy; that we decide value, that we decide meaning, that we decide purpose.”

That philosophy, according to Barron, “rightly appreciates the classical religions as the chief opponent.” He said these tensions arise from religious views that stand for objective moral values grounded on God and a stable human nature, which leads adherents of relativism to seek to push faith out of sectors of public life, such as in education and health care.

Many members of the commission and guest witnesses expressed similar concerns about the lack of faith and decline in religious liberty in the country through laws and regulations at the federal and state levels of government.

This includes rules that force religious Americans to violate their beliefs through contraception mandates for health care coverage, which the Little Sisters of the Poor defeated at the Supreme Court. Yet Catholic nuns are still fighting state-level contraception mandates in states like New York. 

Members also touched on parental rights in education, such as the ongoing Supreme Court case against Montgomery County Public Schools, where officials are denying parents the ability to opt their children out of lessons that promote transgenderism as early as preschool.

The commission includes two Catholic prelates: Barron and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the latter of whom was absent due to transportation issues. The 14-member commission is led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and includes Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Pastor Paula White, special advisor to the White House Faith Office; psychologist and talk show host Phil McGraw; and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who spoke at the hearing, said the president is seeking to reverse these trends, adding that the commission’s work is “vital to addressing the emerging threats to religious liberty.” The commission will develop a report within the next year to advise Trump on how he can combat threats to religious freedom.

Bondi, who said religious liberty is “built into the foundation of our founding documents,” voiced criticism of the past administration under former President Joe Biden. She noted some recent threats to religious liberty including the prosecution of pro-life protesters, an FBI investigation into traditionalist Catholics, and the shutdown of places of worship during COVID-19.

“Every individual must be free to worship without fear, without coercion, and without government interference,” Bondi said. 

Freedom to worship or free exercise?

One theme throughout the first hearing of the commission was that the First Amendment guarantee that Congress shall make no law “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion is not limited to simply a freedom to worship God but rather extends to living out one’s faith.

Anderson, for example, argued that attacks on religious liberty are not just related to worship but rather extend to attacks on the right to “bring your religious values into the public square.”

One of the expert witnesses who addressed the commission, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty president Mark Rienzi, emphasized this point, noting that the “freedom to live out one’s faith” is essential to the First Amendment, adding that religious liberty is “the basis and bellwether for all human rights.”

Rienzi spoke about the historical efforts to defend religious liberty in the United States, noting that there were bad Supreme Court cases throughout American history, such as the Minersville School District v. Gobitis decision, which sought to force Jehovah’s Witnesses to salute the flag in schools despite their belief that it was “equivalent to worshipping a false idol.” 

This 1940 decision was quickly overturned just three years later when the court ruled in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses in West Virginia who refused to salute the flag. Rienzi said governments often try to reject religious liberty for the case of convenience but that the court decided “some things are beyond the reach of politics and government.” 

“There are places in our lives where the government is not allowed to go,” Rienzi added.

Separation of church and state

Questions about the separation of church and state and to what degree the government can or should promote religion as a public good were also discussed at length during the commission’s hearing. 

Mark David Hall, the director of the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy at Regent University, testified that the separation of church and state is not a “bilateral barrier” but is rather meant to only restrict the state from imposing itself on the church.

Former Notre Dame law professor Gerard Bradley, who spoke as an expert witness, similarly said the American Founding Fathers did not envision a public “secularized space in which religion was banished.”

He argued that a proper promotion of the common good includes “encouragement and help and recognition of religion.” For example, he criticized lawmakers for justifying legislative prayer as just a way to solemnize the activity, arguing they should simply say “we’re praying here.”

“It’s fine if the government works with religion, even for the sake of religion,” Bradley said. 

Bradley encouraged “promoting religion for the sake of religion,” such as having prayer in public schools, but noted that the government must be careful to not be sectarian. He also said any promotion should have voluntary observance and any policy should be “considered carefully” to ensure there are no violations of people’s rights.

McGraw, commonly known as “Dr. Phil,” mildly pushed back on that position, saying: “If we’re promoting religion, that’s different than promoting choice.”

Bradley responded, arguing that just like the government “ought to promote marriage and family as good things” it should also “promote [religion] as a good thing” rather than remain neutral on the subject.

null / Credit: PIGAMA/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 17, 2025 / 16:56 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit has identified the non-parish churches in the archdiocese that are allowed to continue the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), following an earlier statement saying that most of the TLM celebrated in the area would come to an end. 

In April, the archdiocese announced that the TLM would no longer be celebrated at parish churches after July 1. Weisenburger said the end of the TLM was due to the Vatican’s 2023 clarification that diocesan bishops do not have the authority to allow the Masses to be held in existing parish churches.

The archdiocese reported that permissions given to parish church priests to carry out the TLM would expire and they could not be renewed, but Weisenburger said he would recognize at least four non-parish locations in the archdiocese where the TLM could still be celebrated.

On June 13, the archdiocese released a letter with an update on the Masses and a list of approved churches. 

“As there are a number of the faithful in our local Church who have found spiritual richness in this form of the Mass, I am permitting it to continue in accord with the Holy See’s parameters,” Weisenburger wrote.

“You will recall that in 2021, Pope Francis issued guidelines for the celebration of the Mass in the extraordinary form, commonly called the ‘Traditional Latin Mass.’ This is the expression of the Mass which was offered prior to Vatican II.”

The letter expressed that the Masses will be held in accordance with “the new liturgical teachings and law of the Church.”

“There are two goods which must come together as we move forward: the pastoral care of these faithful as well as fidelity to the Holy Father’s call for the ordinary form of the Mass to become the ‘unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman rite’ (Traditionis Custodes, 1),” Weisenburger said. 

“Guided by these principles, beginning July 1, 2025, the Traditional Latin Mass will be offered at St. Joseph Shrine in Detroit in the central region and three non-parish churches in each additional region of the Archdiocese of Detroit.”

The other churches include St. Irene Church in Dundee in the south region, Our Lady of Orchard Lake Chapel in Orchard Lake in the northwest region, and St. Joseph Church in Port Huron in the northeast region.

Permission for all other churches and sites that celebrate the TLM will still expire as originally planned, on June 30.

“While not every priest will retain the required permission to celebrate the Mass according to the rubrics of the 1962 missal, a number of priests will be available to serve these four regional sites,” Weisenburger explained. 

“I take seriously my charge to care for all the faithful and am confident that this new arrangement is faithful to the Church’s law while expressing my concern for your spiritual welfare.”

“I have been impressed by the rich expressions of the Catholic faith in southeast Michigan,”  Weisenburger said. “The unity of our Catholic faith need not be diminished by diversity. Likewise, fidelity to Christ is only possible if we remain faithful to the Church, under the leadership of our pope and the local bishop.”

A Georgia woman gave birth to a 1-pound, 16-ounce baby boy on June 13, 2025, after four months on life support. / Credit: liseykina/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 17, 2025 / 16:26 pm (CNA).

A Georgia woman who was declared brain dead in February has given birth after four months on life support.

Adriana Smith, an Atlanta nurse, gave birth via emergency cesarean section at 29 weeks to a 1-pound, 13-ounce baby boy named Chance on Friday, June 13.

Baby Chance is currently in the NICU. Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told 11Alive that “he’s expected to be OK,” adding: “He’s just fighting. We just want prayers for him. Just keep praying for him. He’s here now.”

According to Newkirk, doctors had been planning to deliver him at 32 weeks, but Smith had an emergency C-section Friday for unspecified reasons. 

Smith, who turned 31 on Sunday, will be taken off life support on Tuesday, June 17, her mother said. 

“I’m her mother,” Newkirk said. “I shouldn’t be burying my daughter. My daughter should be burying me.”

Smith also has a 7-year-old son. 

Background

In February, Smith visited a hospital complaining of painful headaches but was sent home with medication. The next morning, her boyfriend found her “gasping for air” and called 911. 

After a CT scan, doctors discovered multiple blood clots in her brain and eventually determined nothing could be done and declared the then-30-year-old nurse, who was nine weeks pregnant, brain dead.

Smith’s case garnered national attention in May after a local news station interviewed Newkirk, who said Emory University Hospital in Atlanta said that Smith had to remain on life support until the birth of her unborn child, citing what Newkirk said was the Georgia state abortion law. 

Newkirk said last month that not having a choice regarding her daughter’s treatment plan was difficult. She also expressed concern about raising both her grandsons and the mounting medical costs.

Georgia law prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy. However, removing life support from a pregnant woman is not a direct abortion.

In response to national outcry over Smith’s case, the Georgia attorney general’s office released a statement in May clarifying that the state’s heartbeat law, which prohibits abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, did not require Smith be kept alive.

“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” said the statement, issued by Attorney General Chris Carr’s office.  

Quoting the law itself, the statement continued: “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”

A spokesperson for the Georgia House told the Washington Post in May that the LIFE Act is “completely irrelevant” regarding Smith’s situation, saying “any implication otherwise is just another gross mischaracterization of the intent of this legislation by liberal media outlets and left-wing activists.”

Although he supports the hospital’s decision to keep the unborn child alive until viability, state Sen. Ed Stetzer, the original sponsor of the LIFE Act, told CNA in May that “the removal of the life support of the mother is a separate act” from an abortion.

David Gibbs III, a lawyer at the National Center for Life and Liberty who was a lead attorney in the Terri Schiavo case, said he thinks there may be a misunderstanding about which law the hospital is invoking in Smith’s case. Georgia’s Advance Directive for Health Care Act may be the law at play here, Gibbs told CNA.

Section 31-32-9 of that law states that if a woman is pregnant and “in a terminal condition or state of permanent unconsciousness” and the unborn child is viable, certain life-sustaining procedures may not be withdrawn.

“The majority of states have advance directive laws with a pregnancy exclusion,” Gibbs explained.

A pregnancy exclusion means that if a patient is pregnant, the law prioritizes the survival of her unborn child over her stated wishes in an advance directive if there is a conflict between her wishes and the child’s well-being.

“When in doubt, the law should err on the side of life,” he said.