St. Andrew Catholic Church

Lila Rose (left) debates Frances Kissling on Sept. 16, 2025, at Yale University. / Credit: Live Action via YouTube screenshot

National Catholic Register, Sep 19, 2025 / 10:40 am (CNA).

The news that pro-life activist Lila Rose was declared the winner by students attending a debate earlier this week with an abortion activist at Yale University — a campus not particularly known for its pro-life sentiment — lit up the pro-life corners of the internet.

Rose, the founder and president of Live Action, posted on X following Tuesday night’s debate, which was hosted by the Yale Political Union. She said the event’s organizer was “shocked” after those in attendance voted in favor of the pro-life argument by a margin of 60-31.

For defenders of the lives of unborn babies, it was heartening to see apparent evidence that arguments against abortion are making headway, even at one of the country’s most elite educational institutions. 

Rose’s opponent, Frances Kissling, the former head of Catholics for Choice and founding president of the National Abortion Federation, laid bare the diabolical essence of the “pro-choice” argument. An unborn baby may be human, according to Kissling, but a woman should be able to decide whether the child lives or dies.

“We need to begin to think about abortion as a conflict of values. I tend to favor more or think more about the value of women’s lives,” Kissling said.

“I’m not talking about whether they’re going to die or not,” she said. “I’m talking about the fact that they have decisions to make about how they are going to live that life,” Kissling clarified.

Kissling, who is Catholic and had spent two years as a religious sister in a convent, went on to say that abortion should be condoned by what she said is an ever-evolving Catholic Church.

“The idea that Catholicism never changes is not true, even in very serious decisions,” she said. “I was thinking about this. Whatever happened to limbo?”

“I’m in the group of Catholics who look at the idea that even the Catholic Church can change. We learn new things,” she said. 

Rose countered by describing what allowing “choice” to trump life really looks like, citing the recent case of a 21-year-old college student whose newborn baby was found dead, wrapped in a towel and stuffed in a closet.

“A child hidden in a closet, his humanity denied. If this does not grieve us, then what will? This is what choice over life looks like when the choice of adults is made supreme,” Rose said.

“What about the child’s choice? That has not been represented here yet tonight. And so let me ask the question here plainly: Should murder be legal? Of course not. Then why do we excuse abortion? Abortion is the direct and intentional killing of an innocent human being,” she said.

Rose called for more federal funding for pregnancy-resource centers, for government-funded cash credits for parents, and for making childbirth free.

“Instead of turning to violence against the most vulnerable as a solution to problems that we face, instead, we should be a society that uplifts, that makes life better for the vulnerable, that focuses our energy and our efforts and our organizations and our resources on supporting women and young families and children,” Rose said.

At the conclusion of the debate, Kissling revealed that at the heart of her position is a concession that an unborn child is, in fact, a human being. 

Kissling then presented the argument put forward by adherents of utilitarian moral theory that an action can be justified if it leads to the “happiness” of the greatest number of people.

The abortion activist suggested considering a “thought experiment” involving a situation in which there is a fire in a building, and one is faced with deciding whether to rescue a poor family of six or a doctor who was about to come up with a cure for cancer. 

“I’m asking you to think for yourself about how much you really believe and how much you act and how all our governments act within the principle of ‘every single life [has equal value],’” she said.

“The greatest good for the greatest number of people. Good principle. Do you save the family of six or do you save the doctor? That’s it,” she said.

Following the debate, Sabrina Soriano, a junior and art history major at Yale, said she thought Rose was the clear winner.

“I think Lila definitely just swept the floor and took the trophy prize because she came in with a sense of humility, and also with a deep sense of wanting to do justice to the Church in general, and also to the unborn.”

“I think regardless of if you were pro-choice, you understood that the argument [Kissling made] was weak, and it was based on more of a crowd-surfing or sentimentality rather than the facts,” said Soriano, who is Catholic and a member of the campus pro-life group, as were many students in attendance.

Kylyn Smith, a 19-year-old senior and double major in physics and economics, told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that while there was a strong contingent of pro-life advocates in the audience, Rose bested Kissling in the debate fair and square. 

“Lila Rose valiantly defended the pro-life position with a secular, logical argument centered on the humanity of the unborn child. It was incredible watching her speak just as incisively and coherently live and in person as on her videos,” Smith said. 

“Passion from attendees of all opinions quite literally rang throughout the auditorium, from hissing in disagreement to stomping in support. Ms. Rose’s cogent reasoning stood in stark contrast to the often-contradictory statements of the other guest, solidifying Lila’s win.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV greets the families of the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 19, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Friday said the Church and public institutions need to better support families in social and political life.

“Public institutions and the Church have a responsibility to seek ways to promote dialogue and strengthen the elements in society that favor family life and the education of its members,” the pontiff said Sept. 19 in reference to the encyclical letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis of St. John Paul II.

“In this context,” he continued, “we can understand the family as a gift and a task. It is crucial to foster the co-responsibility and protagonism of families in social, political, and cultural life, promoting their valuable contribution to the community.”

Leo addressed the participants of a Sept. 17–19 Rome meeting on the future of the family during an audience in the Hall of the Consistory in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

The Rome gathering used a synodal method “to listen, discern, and imitate processes of cultural and structural transformation in response to the challenges faced by families in the peripheries, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, in dialogue with other regions of the world,” according to organizers.

“Living synodality in the family requires ‘walking together,’ sharing sorrows and joys, dialoguing respectfully and sincerely among all its members, learning to listen to one another and to make important family decisions together,” the pope told meeting participants.

Referencing Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, he said threats to the dignity of the family today include “problems related to poverty, lack of work and access to health care, abuse of the most vulnerable, migration, and war.”

“In every child, in every wife or husband, God entrusts us with his Son, his Mother, as he did with St. Joseph, so that together with them we may be the foundation, the leaven, and the witness of God’s love among men,” the Holy Father said.

The Jubilee of Hope, he noted, includes an invitation to think about the roots of one’s faith as received from parents and grandparents: “The persevering prayer of our grandmothers as they prayed the rosary, their simple, humble, and honest lives which, like leaven, sustained so many families and communities.”

The family is called “to be a domestic Church and a home where the fire of the Holy Spirit burns, spreading its warmth, contributing its gifts and experiences for the common good, and calling everyone to live in hope,” he said.

The “Jubilee and Synodal Meeting for Hopeful Discernment on the Future of Life and the Family” was organized by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, the Latin American Episcopal Council, the Pontifical Academy for Life, and the  John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.

“Through this Jubilee and Synodal Meeting, the Church wishes to renew its commitment to defending life and the family, building bridges of fraternity and hope for the new generations,” organizers said in a press release.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke with Catholic journalist Diane Montagna in Rome this week, praising Pope Leo’s “Christ-centered proclamation of the Gospel.” / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 19, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

German Cardinal Gerhard Müller praised the “Christ-centered proclamation of the Gospel” throughout the first four months of Pope Leo XIV’s papacy in an interview with Rome-based Catholic journalist Diane Montagna.

“There is a more Christ-centered proclamation of the Gospel, greater order, and less emphasis on matters of secondary importance for the Church, such as migration, which is primarily the task of the state,” Müller said when asked about changes he’s seen in the Vatican amid Leo’s papacy.

“Certainly, the Church can assist through charitable works, but our first mission is to preach the Gospel to everyone and to evangelize those coming to Europe — not merely to provide material aid, but to give them the truth,” the cardinal said.

Müller expressed his belief that Leo “wishes to overcome this ideological polarization within the Church,” but added: “This cannot be achieved through compromise. We must speak the truth — and the truth inevitably divides people into those who follow the Word of God and those who do not.”

Montagna’s interview was published on Wednesday, Sept. 17, on Substack.

Müller’s comments came after Leo’s first sit-down interview as pope, with Crux senior correspondent Elise Ann Allen, was released this week.

“I don’t see my primary role as trying to be the solver of the world’s problems,” Leo said in the interview. “I don’t see my role as that at all, really, although I think that the Church has a voice, a message that needs to continue to be preached, to be spoken and spoken loudly.”

Müller’s concerns about ‘LGBT jubilee pilgrimage’

In his interview with Montagna, Müller expressed grave concerns about the LGBT jubilee pilgrimage in Rome earlier this month, led by American Jesuit Father James Martin. More than 1,000 pilgrims and about 30 priests attended the Mass concelebrated by Bishop Francesco Savino, vice president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.

Montagna referenced a viral photograph of a homosexual couple holding hands, while one wore a backpack that read “[Expletive] the Rules.” The two walked through the Holy Doors with that message on display, which exacerbated the cardinal’s concerns.

Müller said this action “desecrated the temple of God,” and added: “The LGBT movement is absolutely against the will of God the Creator, who instituted marriage as a holy sacrament in Christ, and it is an absolute scandal that this occurred.”

“They abused the Catholic faith and the grace and symbol of the Holy Door — which is Jesus Christ — for the sake of propaganda, while living in open contradiction to the will of the Creator,” Müller said. “They denigrated the Church of God by obscene gestures and by their lifestyle.”

Müller cited St. Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.”

The cardinal encouraged Catholics to “consult the doctrine of the Church on matrimony and family” and referenced the first chapter of Part II of the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes.

“As a dogmatic theologian I don’t want to be diplomatic,” Müller added. “The Catholic Church must proclaim the truth but also contradict lies. That is, we must not only positively explain the faith but also actively refute error.”

This photo taken on Jan. 15, 2024, shows a Chinese flag fluttering below a cross on a Christian church in Pingtan in China’s southeast Fujian province. / Credit: GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 19, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

New regulations from the State Administration for Religious Affairs in China have enacted a ban on several major forms of online evangelization for religious clergy of all religions, including Catholic priests.

The new Code of Conduct for Religious Clergy on the Internet comprises 18 articles. Among stipulations that religious clergy must “love the motherland” and support Chinese leadership of the Communist Party of China and its socialist system, faith leaders are banned from preaching and performing other religious rituals through live broadcasts, short videos, or online meetings. 

Priests may only do so on “websites, applications, forums, etc. legally established by religious groups, religious schools, temples, monasteries, and churches” with approval from the Chinese government. Furthermore, whenever using social media accounts or messaging apps to send out information, religious clergy must provide “certificate of membership as registered religious clergy” to their internet service providers. 

Clergy are banned under the code from both the evangelization and education of minors on the internet, and from organizing educational opportunities, such as seasonal camps for minors on the internet. 

They are also banned from making money online and from raising money to build religious places or for holding religious activities. 

“If a religious clergy violates this standard, the religious affairs department shall order them to make corrections within a time limit,” the code of conduct states, adding: “If they refuse to make corrections, the religious affairs department shall … punish them in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and administrative regulations.” 

For “serious” offenders, the code recommends religious institutions suspend their teaching activities or revoke their religious status. 

“Religious teachers and officials who carry out online activities through overseas websites and platforms shall abide by this standard,” the code states.

Announcement of the new regulations comes after the publication on Thursday of an interview with Pope Leo XIV from July in which he indicated that he may be open to changes to the Vatican’s controversial deal with China and that he is in dialogue with persecuted Chinese Catholics as he weighs the future of Vatican policy toward Beijing.

Pope Leo said he is listening to “a significant group of Chinese Catholics who for many years have lived some kind of oppression or difficulty in living their faith freely” as he tries to get “a clearer understanding of how the Church can continue the Church’s mission.”

“I would say that in the short term, I will continue the policy that the Holy See has followed for some years now … I’m also in ongoing dialogue with a number of people, Chinese, on both sides of some of the issues that are there,” he said.

As the first pope to ever have visited mainland China, Leo — who traveled there years before his election — said he draws on his experiences with “government as well as religious leaders and laypeople.”

Leo’s comments indicate openness to a possible shift from the status quo on China since 2018, when the Holy See signed an agreement with Beijing described as managing the appointment of bishops. The agreement was renewed under Pope Francis three times in the past seven years despite objections from human rights activists and reports of increased persecution of the so-called underground Church in China, which rejects government control.

“It’s a very difficult situation. In the long term, I don’t pretend to say this is what I will and will not do,” Leo said.

Eucharistic edoration at the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, led by the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, in December 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Gabriel Romanelli

ACI MENA, Sep 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The city of Gaza continues to reel as Israeli airstrikes pound multiple neighborhoods and the conflict there escalates. 

Days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the launch of a ground operation urging civilians to evacuate designated combat zones, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz has maintained that Gaza faces the risk of massive destruction unless Hamas releases Israeli hostages and surrenders its weapons.

Amid this turmoil, the Holy Family Catholic Church in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood of southern Gaza has become both a spiritual center and a refuge, sheltering about 600 people from both Christian and Muslim families. The church provides a measure of calm as shells continue to fall nearby.

In the same neighborhood stands the historic Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, which maintains its centuries-old presence in the territory. It too has served as a shelter, though for a smaller number of people. 

The two churches are in separate locations, not in the same compound, and are about 1.7 miles apart — roughly a 40-minute walk, according to Google Maps.

The relationship between Holy Family Church and the Church of St. Porphyrius is good and it has become even stronger since the war began. Both are close in mission and serve the Christian community in the area, but all Christians there right now rely heavily on Catholic aid being channeled through Catholic organizations.

Most people taking refuge in the Holy Family Church are Orthodox, as their community in Gaza is larger than the Catholic one and there are more resources available there. 

Sources from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem have said they are closely monitoring the situation in Gaza and warned of the dangers of continued escalation. 

Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Jerusalem earlier stressed that another round of violence “will only bring more destruction and suffering,” urging the international community to act swiftly to stop the war and protect civilians.

These calls echo the Holy See’s position, with Pope Leo XIV and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, repeatedly urging respect for civilians and secure passage for humanitarian aid — especially to areas with Christian communities. 

Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Holy Family Church, has emphasized on multiple occasions that the church “will not abandon the people in this difficult time” and will keep its doors open to anyone in need of shelter and hope.”

As the war drags on and Gaza’s Christian community continues to shrink, concerns grow over collapsing infrastructure and worsening humanitarian conditions. Yet the church remains a witness to suffering and a beacon of hope.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.

As part of the Jubilee of Justice, an evening event will be held at the Chancellery Palace in Rome featuring a colloquium with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, pictured here delivering the 2024 commencement address at Franciscan University of Steubenville. / Credit: Franciscan University of Steubenville

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Jubilee of Justice, to be celebrated Saturday, Sept. 20, will bring together some 15,000 pilgrims from around the world, necessitating the relocation of the events to St. Peter’s Square.

This is the first time in the history of jubilees that a single event is dedicated to those who, performing various functions, are involved “in the world of secular, canonical, ecclesiastical justice, the Vatican City State, and the Roman Curia, as judges, prosecutors, magistrates, lawyers, legal practitioners, and administrative staff,” along with their families, according to the Holy See Press Office.

Registered participants will come from approximately 100 countries around the world, with the largest delegations coming from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Australia, Nigeria, Peru, and the Philippines.

Among the pilgrims will be representatives of important legal institutions, from the law schools of various pontifical universities or those affiliated with various Catholic institutions, and from professional associations and official entities.

The presence of representatives from Italy’s Ministry of Justice, the Constitutional Court, the Superior Council of the Judiciary, and the Supreme Court of Cassation has been confirmed, as have representatives from the Confederation of Catholic Jurists of France and the Supreme Courts of the United States, Brazil, Colombia, and Spain.

Likewise, there will be representatives from the Vatican Judiciary, the Court of Accounts, the presidency of the Italian Council of State, the International Union of Catholic Jurists, and the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists, among other entities.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, will welcome pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square and present the “lectio divina” prepared by Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, on the theme “Iustitia Imago Dei: The Worker of Justice, Instrument of Hope.”

Pilgrims will have access to simultaneous translation through the Vatican Vox app, which is available for free download. 

At noon Rome time, Pope Leo XIV will hold the jubilee audience and address his remarks specifically to those working in the justice system. Following these events, pilgrims will proceed to the Holy Door of the papal basilica.

As part of the Jubilee of Justice, an evening event will be held at the Chancellery Palace in Rome featuring a colloquium with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

Rome’s Palazzo Altemps will host another event organized by the French Embassy to the Holy See and the Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto, led  by French priest Patrick Valdrini, a professor at the Pontifical Lateran University.

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

“[Kirk] gave his life in following his Lord, as a sacrifice for the truth that man is made in God’s image, male and female, and in opposition to the lies and self-mutilation promoted by so-called ‘trans ideology’" said Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller / Alan Koppschall/EWTN

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 18, 2025 / 16:57 pm (CNA).

German Catholic Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller referred to Charlie Kirk as “a martyr for Jesus Christ” and condemned the “satanic celebration” of his death by some detractors in an interview published one week after the conservative Christian activist was assassinated.

“From a supernatural perspective, [Kirk] died not as the victim of a political assassination but as a martyr for Jesus Christ — not in the sense of those who are canonized, but as one who bore witness (from the Greek ‘martyros’) through his life,” Müller said in an interview with Rome-based Catholic journalist Diane Montagna, published on Substack on Sept. 17.

“[Kirk] gave his life in following his Lord, as a sacrifice for the truth that man is made in God’s image, male and female, and in opposition to the lies and self-mutilation promoted by so-called ‘trans ideology’ and ‘gender-affirming care,’” Müller continued.

“He upheld and lived in defense of the beauty and sanctity of marriage and family, as ordained by God the Creator, and stood up for the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death,” the German cardinal added.

Kirk, an evangelical Christian, was shot and killed while conversing with students at a Sept. 10 event at Utah Valley University. He was answering a question about transgenderism and gun violence at the time of the shooting. Suspected killer Tyler Robinson is in a romantic relationship with a man who identifies as transgender, who officials say is cooperating with the investigation.

A few months before his death, Kirk said he wanted “to be remembered for courage for my faith.” Kirk was a staunch defender of the right to life for unborn children and an opponent of gender ideology in his activism. He often proclaimed the divinity of Christ to college students and urged them to prioritize God and family above anything else.

Although most public figures condemned Kirk's assassination, some who opposed his views took to social media to celebrate it. Teachers, professors, health care professionals, a Secret Service employee, and many others have lost their jobs for allegedly publicizing celebratory attitudes about the killing, according to various media reports.

“Kirk was the victim of an atheistic ideology, whose followers erupted in satanic celebration over the heinous murder of an exemplary husband and family man,” Müller said. “The devil always takes possession of those who hate life and truth. For, according to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, the devil is a ‘murderer from the beginning’ and the ‘father of lies’ (Jn 8:44). And only those who hear the words of God are of God (cf. John 8:47).”

Even though Kirk was a Protestant, he was seen several times attending Mass at a local Catholic parish with his wife, Erika, who was baptized Catholic. He often spoke positively about Catholics and debated theological disagreements with his Catholic friends, including Vice President JD Vance.

In a podcast earlier this year, Kirk praised faithful Catholics, saying: “They fight for life, they fight for marriage, they fight against transgenderism.”

Kirk during that podcast also said Protestants “under-venerate Mary” and referred to the Blessed Mother as a solution to “fix toxic feminism in America.”

Müller said in the interview that through Mary’s “‘yes’ to the incarnation of God, she became the mother of Jesus, the only redeemer of humanity, who alone delivers us from lies, sin, and death, and all murderous ideologies.”

“We ask the Lord Jesus and holy Mary to bring comfort to Charlie’s wife and children,” Müller said.

Three Augustinian nuns (pictured on Sept. 16, 2025) fled their nursing home and returned to their convent in Austria. / Credit: Photo courtesy Nonnen_Goldenstein

CNA Deutsch, Sep 18, 2025 / 16:33 pm (CNA).

Since early September, three elderly nuns have been making international headlines and gaining followers on Instagram after fleeing their nursing home and returning to their convent in Austria.

Sister Bernadette, 88; Sister Regina, 86; and Sister Rita, 81, left their Caritas nursing home and, with the help of a locksmith, returned to their former convent, Goldenstein, near Salzburg, Austria, according to the BBC.

Now, the Augustinian nuns are flatly refusing to return to the nursing home, from which they have officially withdrawn.

According to the Vatican’s Cor Orans regulations, communities with fewer than five nuns can no longer elect their own superior. In 2022, by order of the Vatican, the three nuns had to transfer ownership of the Goldenstein convent equally to the Archdiocese of Salzburg and to Reichersberg Abbey.

The transfer contract granted the nuns a lifelong right of residence, but only “as long as it was justifiable from the perspective of health and spiritual life.” After several hospitalizations of the elderly nuns, Rector Markus Grasl ordered them to be transferred to the Schloss Kahlsperg nursing home in Hallein in December 2023.

Grasl justified the decision to relocate them based on the sisters’ precarious health and the structural condition of the convent. He determined that independent living in Goldenstein was no longer sustainable due to the nuns’ age as well as to the demands of community life and the condition of the building.

According to officials, the decision to move the sisters was made out of concern for them and after intensive discussions with all parties involved, including the nuns.

The three women vehemently denied this, however. They said they felt “displaced” and were expelled against their will from the home they had lived in for decades.

The nuns have accused Grasl of pressuring them to sign a contract without properly informing them of its terms. They also complained that approximately 50,000 euros in cash (almost $59,000) had disappeared and that they no longer have access to their own accounts.

Church authorities flatly rejected these accusations. “For several years, intensive discussions were held with the sisters, in which the Archdiocese of Salzburg also participated, to consider and plan the future of the monastery. One of the sisters’ greatest concerns was the continuity of the local secondary school. This wish was fulfilled. The move to the nursing home became inevitable due to the precarious situation,” Grasl said in a statement in August.

The Archdiocese of Salzburg and Reichersberg Abbey jointly maintain that all decisions were made in coordination with the sisters themselves, the episcopal vicar responsible for the religious, and the superior of the Augustinian nuns.

About 30 former students and other supporters helped the nuns return to the convent and are now providing them with food, medical care, and media support. The nuns now have electricity and water back in most rooms.

The three nuns have used modern media to promote their cause. On Instagram, under the account “nonnen_goldenstein,” (Goldstein Nuns) they have more than 18,000 followers and share videos of themselves eating, praying, and cleaning together.

Church authorities remain concerned and perplexed.

The superior of the Federation of the Canonesses of St. Augustine in Germany, Sister Beate Brandt, condemned the disobedience of the Goldenstein nuns: “I cannot tolerate this,” she said.

“There is a certain feeling of helplessness,” Grasl’s spokesperson declared. The rector continues to appeal for the sisters’ return to the nursing home, where they will receive “comprehensive care, nursing, and medical attention of the highest quality.”

He assured them that “no coercive measures” are currently being planned. 

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

null / Credit: Alex_Traksel/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 18, 2025 / 16:03 pm (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news. 

National Institutes of Health refuses to renew fetal tissue grants

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is refusing to renew more than a dozen grants related to human fetal tissue research. 

The federal agency told Breitbart News that multiple grants involving human fetal remains “will not be renewed.” The funding was originally launched under the Biden administration, the NIH told the conservative news outlet. 

The agency revealed the decision shortly after a report from the watchdog group White Coat Waste exposed the ongoing funding. 

The NIH told Breitbart that it is “guided by a commitment to valuing human life and ensuring that federally funded research is conducted responsibly and transparently.”

Lila Rose wins Yale debate on abortion with pro-choice leader

Lila Rose, the founder and president of Live Action, emerged the winner in a debate about abortion at Yale Political Union, the pro-life group said this week. 

The Yale group describes itself as “the oldest and largest collegiate debate society in America” and “the central forum for political engagement and debate at Yale.” Attendees are permitted to vote to determine the winner of debates after speeches are given. 

Live Action reported that Rose on Sept. 16 debated Frances Kissling, a former Catholics for Choice president and the founding president of the National Abortion Federation. 

Kissling “argued that preborn children are not as valuable as other humans,” while Rose “defended their humanity and pointed out the injustices that occur when society dehumanizes certain human beings,” Live Action said. 

Rose “came out ahead in a 60-31 vote,” the pro-life group said. 

“We won. The room voted for the pro-life side,” Rose later wrote on X. “Yale organizer was shocked. Change is here. Thank you for praying.”

Assisted suicide activists go on trial in France as country debates euthanasia

Multiple elderly defendants are on trial in France for allegedly helping dozens of people purchase deadly drugs to end their own lives. 

The trial of a dozen defendants, ranging from 74 to 89 years old, comes as the country debates legalizing assisted suicide. The French National Assembly approved an assisted dying measure earlier this year, with the bill now before the national senate. 

Le Monde reported this week that the 12 defendants in the recently begun trial are accused of helping patients procure the drug pentobarbital, which is used in executions in the United States but is only legal to euthanize animals in France. 

The defendants are reportedly members of Ultime Liberte (“Ultimate Freedom”), a pro-assisted-suicide group. 

Texas governor signs bill allowing state residents to sue abortion pill manufacturers

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sept. 17 signed into law a measure permitting state residents to sue manufacturers of abortion pills who circulate the deadly drugs in the state.

The law, passed by the state Legislature earlier this month, will allow plaintiffs to collect up to $100,000 in damages from those who bring abortion pills into the state or provide them to Texas residents. 

Pregnant women who use the pills cannot be sued under the law.

Ethics and Public Policy Center scholar Mary Rice Hasson praised the Bishop of Toledo's recent pastoral letter, titled "The Body Reveals the Person: A Catholic Response to the Challenges of Gender Ideology." / Credit: "EWTN News Nightly"/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 18, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas’ recently released pastoral letter offering guidance on sex and gender identity issues received praise from the head of the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s (EPPC) Person and Identity Project, Mary Rice Hasson.

“[Thomas] really hones in so beautifully in this document on the truth that we are body and soul, and that our bodies reveal something wonderful about who we are,” Rice told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Veronica Dudo on Sept. 17. “And so, rejecting the body, which is really what’s going on in the transgender issue, it’s sex rejection, rejection of yourself, is really turning back on yourself and hating and destroying something that is really, really good.” 

Thomas’ letter, “The Body Reveals the Person: A Catholic Response to the Challenges of Gender Ideology,” is the longest statement by a U.S. bishop dealing exclusively with gender ideology.

Drawing on Scripture, theology, philosophy, and social sciences, the letter presents Church teaching in a form the bishop said he hopes is “readable, digestible, accessible, and charitable.”“I think it’s tremendously important that we have a bishop speaking out and giving such timely, but really comprehensive, loving, and hopeful guidance,” Rice said, noting the letter comes in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. 

Kirk was shot while answering a question about transgenderism and gun violence. Tyler Robinson, the man charged with murdering Kirk, has been romantically linked to his transgender roommate, Lance Twiggs, a biological male.

Kirk had said he supported an effort to ban transgender people from owning firearms in light of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota last month, which was also carried out by a man who identified as transgender.

EPPC scholar calls on more bishops to emulate Thomas

While some dioceses have offered “terrific responses” to the transgender issue, Rice acknowledged, “there are some dioceses where there’s nothing, there’s not even a statement about how people should understand this issue [and] what the Church’s teaching is.” 

“I encourage bishops, if they have not written and spoken to this issue to please do that,” she continued. “People want to hear that. And that’s what I hear from people when I travel all over the U.S. talking about this issue.” 

Rice pointed out that while social media can be used well to form connections with other people, “it really has become a channel of evil in many respects,” especially regarding sexual orientation and gender identity issues. 

“Our youth are particularly vulnerable because they’re young,” she said. “They don’t have the prudence, the discretion, to be able to judge what’s the truth of what’s coming at them. They’re very subject to manipulation and peer pressure.”

Rice further encouraged parents to be vigilant in monitoring social media usage among their children. 

“We have to speak the truth, and we have to be really clear that this is evil,” Rice said of transgenderism. “There are wonderful holistic ways to deal with difficult feelings,” she said, adding: “God loves everyone so much, and he wants something better than what is on offer right now from the culture on this issue.”