Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

Father Mike Schmitz speaks at the revival session of the National Eucharistic Congress at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on July 18, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 14:25 pm (CNA).

Popular podcasting priest Father Mike Schmitz — best known for the “Bible in a Year” podcast — is back at it planning a new podcast titled “Called.”

Inspired by the Scripture verse Matthew 25:40, the podcast will be made up of episodes featuring conversations with individuals who have answered God’s call to serve others. From teachers and entrepreneurs to parents and community leaders, the podcast aims to inspire the faithful to put their faith into action.

The Catholic Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to renewing the Church and serving those most in need, has partnered with Ascension to create the podcast. An official release date has not yet been announced.

“This ‘Called’ podcast is giving flesh to the fact that every one of us is called to be the hands and feet of Jesus,” Schmitz said in a video released Sept. 3 announcing the new podcast.

The priest began the video by retelling the parable told by Jesus in Matthew 25. In this parable Jesus welcomes into the heavenly kingdom those who fed him when he was hungry, gave him something to drink when he was thirsty, and clothed him when he was naked. However, for others who did not do these things, they are told to “depart from him.” Schmitz called this parable “one of the most convicting.”

“Every time I read through it, every time I hear it proclaimed, every time I even think of it, I think, ‘Well, here is Jesus — he’s giving us the answer to the test when it comes to the end of our lives,’” Schmitz explained.

He continued: “Jesus makes it very, very clear we’re not being judged on what did you believe — although that’s very important — but here in this parable he’s not highlighting that part, he’s highlighting what did you do? Not just what did you do in your life, but what did you do for the least of my brethren?”

Schmitz said one example of someone who lived this parable was Pier Giorgio Frassati, who will be declared a saint on Sept. 7 in Rome. He explained that the young man would often return to his home without shoes on because he would give them to someone who did not have a pair of shoes.

Therefore, the podcast aims to answer the question: How is God calling each of us to live this out in our daily lives?

“On this podcast ‘Called’ you’ll be able to see ‘Oh, here’s how people right now do this.’ So it takes out some of the mystery and actually gives you and me the strength and the vision and the direction to be able to say, ‘That’s how they live that out. I can totally live that out in my life right now,’” Schmitz said.

“This podcast isn’t just to highlight and spotlight the heroes among us. What it’s meant to do is inspire us, to give us that new vision of what this could look like in your life and in my life.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is backing a coalition of New Jersey pregnancy centers asking the U.S. Supreme Court (pictured) to halt a state investigation into their donor lists.  / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is backing a coalition of New Jersey pregnancy centers as they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a state investigation into their donor lists and other sensitive documents.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers is asking the high court to block a demand from New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin to turn over extensive donor lists with identifying information. The prosecutor is demanding the records as part of an investigation into compliance with “consumer protection” laws.

In their amicus filing at the Supreme Court, the USCCB argued that compelling the donor disclosures would negatively affect groups beyond the pregnancy centers, including churches. The bishops alleged it would hollow out the “long-established protection of religious autonomy” established by the high court.

Compelling donor lists would “pressure a church to change the way it raises funds and maintains its financial records” and would “reveal private information about a church’s internal operations,” the bishops said.

“Coercive tactics could be used against religious groups of all creeds, social views, and political persuasions,” the bishops wrote. “Wherever a particular group’s religious calling takes it outside the predominant ethic and mores of the day, it will be at risk of similar attempts to interfere, redirect, chill, or quash.”

The USCCB argued that financial donations constitute an “act of speech” and of religious expression. 

“When a state compels a religious organization to disclose its donor lists, it assails nearly every First Amendment right with a single blow,” it said.

The bishops urged the Supreme Court to block Platkin’s subpoena efforts and “affirm and strengthen its precedents protecting religious exercise and association.”

The U.S. bishops in their filing joined a broad coalition of advocacy groups and associations in opposing the state attorney general’s investigation, including the U.S. government, multiple members of Congress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Democrats for Life, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the Second Amendment Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the state of Florida, and the 2001-era internet trade association NetChoice.

Erin Hawley, a senior attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the pregnancy centers before the Supreme Court, said in a press release that the legal group was “grateful for the diverse voices” coming out in opposition to the New Jersey prosecutor’s investigation.

“The Constitution protects First Choice and its donors from demands by a hostile state official to disclose their identities, and First Choice is entitled to vindicate those rights in federal court,” Hawley said.

null / Credit: Sora Shimazaki/Pexels

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

A federal court has blocked the government from enforcing an abortion accommodation rule against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and other Catholic entities as a lawsuit over the provision plays out. 

The abortion rule, finalized by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in April 2024, forces employers to provide accommodations for workers to obtain or recover from abortions, surrogacy, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, all three of which conflict with Catholic teaching.

Under the Sept. 3 court order issued by Judge David Joseph, the EEOC is prohibited from enforcing the final rule in any way that would force the bishops and the other Catholic entities to accommodate actions that are “in violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The order states that the EEOC cannot launch investigations against the bishops or the other entities based on a refusal to provide accommodations for procedures that conflict with Catholic teaching.

The block will remain in place until the lawsuit against the EEOC challenging the rule concludes.

Daniel Blomberg, vice president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead attorney for the bishops in the case, told CNA the court order is in line with what the bishops had requested.

He said the EEOC had previously “agreed to not enforce the mandate” on the bishops and other Catholic entities but had not agreed to the court-ordered injunction. He said the injunction requested by the bishops and provided by the court “memorializes the agreement.”

CNA reached out to the EEOC for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The bishops’ lawsuit continues

The EEOC imposed this rule as part of the regulatory framework for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, adopted by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden in 2024.

The law itself, which makes no mention of abortion, requires employers to provide workplace accommodations to women for limitations caused by pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions.

Under the Biden-era regulations that enforce the law, the EEOC determined that related medical conditions included “having or choosing not to have an abortion.” The regulation only provided religious exemptions on a case-by-case basis, which would be determined after accommodation requests were denied.

Blomberg pointed out that the bishops “were very supportive” of the law itself because they believed it would “protect [pregnant women] and lead to healthier moms and healthier babies.” 

Yet the EEOC “turned that protection for pregnant women into a mandate for abortion,” he said, and the bishops and many other organizations were forced to file lawsuits to maintain religious liberty protections threatened by the subsequent regulation.

The lawsuit to determine the legality of the mandate is still ongoing. The bishops’ challenge to the abortion accommodation rule is in front of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The bishops’ challenge to accommodation rules related to surrogacy, IVF, contraception, and other practices that conflict with Catholic teaching are in front of a federal district court. 

Blomberg said the bishops are “challenging the understanding that the [law] itself requires any sort of accommodation for abortion.” 

“We think that’s completely not right,” he said.

If the law were enforced, Blomberg explained religious workplaces would need to change their internal policies. He noted that the rule would also prevent religious employees from promoting pro-life values in the workplace because “there can’t be any sort of pressure or coercion, even by other employee speech in the ministry.”

A violation would be treated the same as any other employment discrimination case, such as through court-ordered injunctions or forcing employers to pay monetary damage for refusing to accommodate abortions.

The Sept. 3 court order expands on a previous court order that had only blocked the EEOC from enforcing the abortion accommodation against the bishops when the abortion is considered elective. 

Under the previous order, the bishops would have still needed to accommodate abortions when justified by medical conditions that included “minor” anxiety, depression, nausea, and changes in hormone levels caused by the pregnancy.

Under the current order, however, bishops are now exempt from accommodating all abortions and other practices that violate Catholic teaching.

The bishops, Blomberg said, “are protected for the time being.”

Father Edwin Román (left) with Bishop Silvio Báez. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Edwin Román

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Father Edwin Román talked about his life in exile in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, expressing his hopes for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which is suffering persecution at the hands of the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

The priest, who is now parochial vicar at St. Agatha Parish in Miami, noted that Aug. 3 marked four years since he left Nicaragua to go into exile for being critical of the dictatorship.

“My plane ticket was for 10 days [abroad], but due to direct threats from Rosario Murillo and a pro-government journalist threatening to imprison me  — and after being the victim of much harassment — traffic stops on the highway — and efforts to defame me, I decided to stay and apply for asylum,” he said.

“Since then, I’ve been at St. Agatha Parish, welcomed by the pastor, Father Marcos Somarriba, and the community. I’ve also been supporting neighboring parishes,” said the 65-year-old priest, who was ordained Dec. 12, 1990, for the Archdiocese of Managua.

Somarriba recently spoke with the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and expressed his concerns about the persecution of Catholics in Nicaragua and the Trump administration announcing it will deport thousands of his fellow Nicaraguans who have been in the United States for decades.

“My people, the Nicaraguan people, are dumbfounded. They don’t know where to go, what to do, and I think the regime is not going to be open to this. They disappear people; they put people in jail; they exile people and don’t let them come back into the country,” the priest said.

Parochial vicar at St. Agatha’s

On Aug. 17, Román thanked Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami on X for appointing him as parochial vicar of St. Agatha, the church where Bishop Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua who went into exile in 2019, also celebrates Mass.

As parochial vicar, Román explained, he supports “evangelization with parish groups and lay leadership, celebrates the sacraments, assists in caring for the faithful in the office, and visits the sick.”

“It has been very difficult to adapt. The pain remains of not having said goodbye to my parish, nor the faithful to me, their pastor. Thank God, we have found priests and bishops who have opened the doors of their parishes to us. Bishops who, like good shepherds, have listened to us and opened their hearts, as Archbishop Thomas Wenski did for me,” the priest shared.

The persecuted Catholic Church in Nicaragua

When asked what he knows about the current persecution of the Catholic Church in his homeland by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, Román emphasized that “the Catholic faithful haven’t stopped going to Mass, filling their churches during Holy Week, the feast day of [the parish’s] patron saint, and Sundays. People continue to pray and have not lost hope for better times.”

All of this continues, the priest pointed out, despite “the harassment, parishes being infiltrated, prohibitions against the Prayer of the Faithful at Mass, and requirements that priests send their homilies to police stations for review. Processions and prayer group meetings in homes are also prohibited.”

The dictatorship of Ortega and Murillo in Nicaragua has banned more than 16,500 processions and acts of piety in recent years and has perpetrated 1,010 attacks against the Catholic Church.

This is all detailed in the seventh installment of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church” by exiled lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina, which was released on Aug. 27.

Pope Leo XIV and Nicaragua

Pope Leo XIV received on Aug. 23 at the Vatican three Nicaraguan bishops in exile: Báez; Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna; and Bishop Carlos Herrera of Jinotega, president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference.

Báez recounted on X that he, his brother bishops, and Pope Leo XIV spoke “at length about Nicaragua and the situation of the Church in particular.”

The Holy Father, the prelate said, encouraged him “to continue with my episcopal ministry and confirmed me as auxiliary bishop of Managua. I sincerely thank him for his fraternal welcome and his encouraging words.”

Regarding the meeting between the bishops and Leo XIV, Román told ACI Prensa that “the pope expressed his closeness to the Nicaraguan people and to the Church. This visit has undoubtedly been a very encouraging one for us.”

“The pope is familiar with our Latin American reality” considering his many years as a missionary and bishop in Peru, Román said.

How can the faithful help the Church in Nicaragua?

Román told ACI Prensa that “one day someone told me: ‘Find a benevolent bishop.’ I have already found that bishop” in the archbishop of Miami, who has also warmly welcomed Báez.

“I thank the many Nicaraguans and people of other nationalities who have welcomed me and made me part of their families,” the priest added.

Asked how the faithful can help Catholics in his homeland, the priest responded: “By praying for this pilgrim Church in Nicaragua, including us in the prayers of the faithful in all parishes, and that Catholic and fair-minded media continue to denounce the injustice experienced by the Nicaraguan people and the persecution of the Church.”

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

Father Rony Salim, chancellor of the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul, shared with ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that the bishop has called Qaraqosh the “City of Hosanna” due to its uniquely spirited celebration marked by hymns, prayers, and massive crowds of worshippers. / Credit: Ismael Adnan/ACI MENA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Syriac Catholic archpriest attacked in Syria

Tensions in Syria deepened this week after a brutal assault on Archpriest Michel Naaman of the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Homs. Returning home one evening, Naaman was ambushed by two masked men who beat him, threatened him at gunpoint, and stripped him of his gold cross and cash, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported Thursday.

The attack is part of a troubling pattern of insecurity hitting Christian communities across Syria. In recent months, robberies, kidnappings, and even attacks on churches have become increasingly common in Homs, Aleppo, and beyond. For many, the assault on Naaman is another chilling reminder of the dangers Christians still face in a country fractured by war and lawlessness.

European Commission to examine EU abortion funding initiative 

The European Commission has said it will examine the European Citizens’ Initiative’s call for EU funding for “safe and accessible” abortion after an initiative reached over 1 million signatures across 19 member states, according to a European News Room report.

A Slovenian nonprofit organization, Institute 8th March, led the initiative, alongside several other EU nongovernmental organizations. “We want the European Union to establish a financial mechanism that would allow countries to provide abortion services to those individuals who do not have access to abortion in their own countries,” Institute 8th March Director Nika Kovač said. The commission said it will provide a response by March 2026.

Internal displacement camps in Nigeria ‘competing for space’ amid ongoing violence

Refugee camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria are experiencing heightened pressure amid ongoing violence across the West African country, according to Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja.

“People are losing their homes. The growing number of IDP camps is competing for space with estates in the cities,” he said in an Aug. 31 statement posted to his Facebook account. The archbishop further called on the government to “rise up to the occasion and take definitive action to stop the incessant killings, terrorism, banditry, and economic hardships ravaging our people.”

South Sudan bishop expresses solidarity with victims after landslide

Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of the Tombura-Yambio Diocese in South Sudan has expressed his solidarity with the victims of a devastating landslide that reportedly wiped out the village of Tarasin in the southwest Darfur region.

“It is with a heart full of sorrow and solidarity that I write to you in the wake of the devastating landslide that has erased the village of Tarasin and claimed so many innocent lives. The scale of this tragedy defies words, yet it is our shared humanity, our common faith, and our spiritual responsibility that compel us to speak to comfort, to support, and to hope,” the bishop said in a Sept. 3 letter shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa. “Please accept my deepest condolences and heartfelt prayers for all those affected. I stand with you in mourning but also in courage and in the pursuit of justice, dignity, and healing for the survivors.”

South Korean priests urge government not to build airport over wetland

The Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice in South Korea is protesting against government proposals to build an airport near the Saemangeum wetland, according to a UCA News report. 

The association celebrated Mass on Sept. 1 outside the presidential office in Seoul to express its opposition to the project, which it said “is destroying the environment and people’s livelihoods.” Parish priest Father Song Yeon-hong, who presided over the Mass, spoke out against the project, saying: “Many lives are dying due to the project, migratory birds that once visited Saemangeum have vanished, and local fishermen are leaving.”

St. Anne’s Church in Syria reopens

In a rare scene of celebration from Syria’s battered northwest, hundreds of worshippers gathered in the village of Yacoubiyah for the rededication of St. Anne’s Church, ACI MENA reported Monday. The centuries-old site, scarred by war and earthquakes, has been restored thanks to the efforts of Franciscan friars and local Christians. 

The liturgy, led by Bishop Magar Ashkarian of the Armenian Orthodox Church, was filled with music, bells, and the sight of parishioners reclaiming a sacred space long denied to them. St. Anne’s, first built in the 14th century, had suffered destruction and neglect through war and extremism. Only in recent years, under shifting local conditions, were Christians permitted to return and celebrate their patron saint’s feast. For villagers from Yacoubiyah, al-Quniyah, and al-Jadida, and pilgrims from across Syria, the reopening was more than a religious event; it was a sign of endurance and hope.

null / Credit: Diego G Diaz/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

The many changes to immigration enforcement policies introduced by the Trump administration since the president’s inauguration in January has led what some Catholic dioceses are calling “terror” to take hold of Spanish-speaking parishioners throughout the United States.

CNA asked dioceses around the country what effects, if any, the administration’s changing policies have had on Spanish Mass attendance. While responses varied — some dioceses have noted declines while others have seen increased attendance — one theme appeared throughout: Immigrants are filled with fear.

‘It’s more than fear — it’s terror’

The Archdiocese of Atlanta has not collected data on Mass attendance, and any changes in attendance, if any, are “very small,” according to Yolanda Muñoz, the director of Hispanic and Latino ministries for the archdiocese. 

She told CNA that although people are “very afraid,” their “faith is strong and they find ways around” their fears. Some carpool with people who have legal status. Many have created WhatsApp chats “to inform one another if there are areas of danger to avoid.”

Muñoz said some priests are even going to places where “there is a heavy concentration of immigrants, like trailer parks” to say Mass.

The archdiocese has held informational meetings in parishes at which immigrants are educated in their rights as well as in ways to plan and protect themselves and their families if they are deported.

Although the current “situation is very difficult and very sad, we must keep on reminding ourselves that Christ is in the boat in the middle of the storm,” Muñoz said. 

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of the Archdiocese of San Antonio told CNA he had not heard from priests that people were avoiding going to church, although on the day he spoke with CNA, he said he had just heard from a local priest about three families that were taken into custody.

He stressed that “fear is there. It’s more than fear — it’s terror.”

Nevertheless, he said that at least in San Antonio, people “trust the Church and their communities” because they have faith.

García-Siller said he thinks San Antonio is unique because there is more acceptance of immigrants there due to integration that has been ongoing for decades in the city.

“In San Antonio, we have Spanish Masses in almost all parishes … Hispanics here go to any parish,” he said.

According to the archbishop, the federal government has, until February of this year, asked the Church in San Antonio to help immigrants, and the Church responded, through Catholic Charities, with humanitarian aid, medical and legal assistance, counseling, and spiritual support.

“What is beautiful to see in San Antonio is that these services are not done only by professionals but also people from the parishes, laity, religious men and women, brothers, religious nuns and diocesan priests,” he said. 

“I have seen in the last few months more people in need. People are eating less, they are avoiding getting health care, and some even avoid going to school,” he said.

“We don’t ask them if they have papers or not,” he continued. “Because of the rhetoric in the country, people are very damaged, very scared. We avoid divisive narratives.”

The prelate said that immigrants “know that we as the Church, the body of Christ, we are for them.”

‘Less likely to linger after Mass’

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Las Vegas told CNA the archdiocese had noted a decline in participation at some Hispanic parishes, “particularly in Mass attendance and religious education enrollment.”

“One parish that would typically see around 1,500 children in its first Communion program has closer to 860 this year,” according to the archdiocese. ”In addition, families seem less likely to linger after Mass for community activities and socializing.”

Parishioners expressing ‘apprehension and fear’

Secretary for Communications and Public Affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston Terrence Donilon told CNA that the climate of “uncertainty” has resulted in “a stressful time for ethnic communities in the Commonwealth” of Massachusetts, with parishes rescheduling or seeking “alternatives” for summer festivals used for parish fellowship and fundraising.

“Anecdotally some pastors, though not all, have noticed Mass attendance among non-Anglo parishioners decline during this period of concern,” Donilon said.

Alayna Fox of the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, told CNA that “while the Diocese of Burlington does not have a large population of native Spanish speakers, it has been reported that attendance at the Masses offered in Spanish have experienced a drop in attendance.”

The communications director for the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, Tara Bishop, noted that there had been a decline in attendance recently, though she said the diocese could not “definitively attribute” it to immigration policies. 

She went on to say that many parishioners had “expressed apprehension and fear about participating in various parish events.”

However, Bishop said that “it is common to see a significant drop in attendance at Eucharistic celebrations during the summer months, so this decline may be part of a seasonal trend rather than a direct result of immigration policy changes.”

Need for a ‘spiritual dimension in this time of stress’

Echoing Bishop, Father Will Banowsky of Holy Spirit Catholic Church located in the southwest part of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City said that seasonal effects on attendance rather than fear of immigration enforcement seemed to explain declines in Spanish Mass participation throughout the summer. 

“A lot of people went back to their countries in the summer, or they went on vacation,” he said.

Many returned for the start of the school year, he said. There were 920 people at a recent Spanish Mass at Holy Spirit, whose congregation is about 50% Hispanic and where the average is closer to 650-800.

Banowsky told CNA that the higher-than-average attendance numbers in August could be attributed to people knowing they need that “spiritual dimension in this time of stress.”

While he said his parish and others in the archdiocese have not been “hurting” regarding attendance, he said there is still a lot of fear among Hispanic parishioners, and “social media doesn’t help.”

“We try to make sure people can find a refuge from their fears here, whatever those fears may be,” he said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a Senate hearing on Sept. 4, 2025, that the FDA review of abortion pill safety concerns is ongoing. / Credit: Carl DMaster/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2025 / 17:02 pm (CNA).

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) testified during a Senate hearing on Sept. 4 that a federal review of the safety concerns related to the abortion pill is still ongoing.

Kennedy told the Senate Finance Committee that former President Joe Biden’s administration “twisted the data” to downplay health concerns about the abortion pill mifepristone.

“We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore,” Kennedy said. “We’re producing honest science and gold-standard science on that.”

Republican Sens. James Lankford and Steve Daines both pressed Kennedy on their concerns about the drug during the Thursday hearing.

Kennedy was unable to say when the review would be completed or whether HHS or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would move toward regulating mifepristone more strictly. However, he committed to keeping the senators up to date on any developments. 

The FDA is “getting data in all the time — new data that we’re reviewing,” he said.

Daines, the founder of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, referenced a study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) that found that 11% of women who take the abortion pill suffer at least one “serious adverse event” within 45 days. The study reviewed the insurance claims of 865,727 women who used the drug to calculate that number.

“That is 22 times higher than the FDA’s long-standing estimate of less than 0.5%,” Daines told Kennedy. “... For years we’ve heard the misleading and frankly very harmful lie that’s being sold to women that this drug is ‘as safe as Tylenol.’ These lies sadly have real-world consequences.”

Both Daines and Lankford expressed concern about the deregulation of mifepristone under both the Biden and Obama administrations.

The FDA reduced the number of in-person doctor visits required to obtain mifepristone from three to one in 2016 and then to zero in 2023. Another 2016 change ended requirements that mifepristone be dispensed by a physician, taken in a doctor’s office, and monitored in a follow-up visit. 

Another 2023 change permitted mail delivery of the drugs.

Daines said the FDA “has steadily stripped away safeguards related to this drug” and asked Kennedy whether the Trump administration would reverse the Biden administration’s deregulation.

Kennedy told Daines he needs to check with the White House to know its position on that and would “need to get back to you on that” by next week.

In December 2024, Trump told Time magazine that he was committed to ensuring the abortion pill remains legally available. However, he also directed Kennedy to facilitate studies on the safety of the drug.

“Those studies are progressing and … they’re ongoing,” Kennedy said in the hearing.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a statement published after the hearing thanked the senators for raising those concerns and thanked Kennedy and the administration for reviewing safety concerns about the drug.

“We are grateful that Secretary Kennedy confirmed the FDA’s review of abortion drugs is now underway and look forward to his promised release of new data after years of the Biden administration ignoring this urgent issue,” she said. “Secretary Kennedy even revealed that Biden’s FDA ‘twisted’ data to bury safety signals.”

Dannenfelser warned that “as women and children are harmed, these dangerous drugs continue to be bought and sold with no commonsense safeguards and no accountability.”

“We look forward to hearing the update on restoring the in-person dispensing of mifepristone,” she said.

More than half of all abortions nationwide are now conducted chemically with pills, including mifepristone.

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 to complete abortions through the first seven weeks of pregnancy. In 2016, the FDA expanded its approval to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

At 10 weeks of pregnancy, an unborn child has a fetal heartbeat, early brain activity, and partially developed eyes, lips, and nostrils. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the child’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to kill the unborn child. A second pill, misoprostol, helps expel the body from the mother by essentially inducing labor.

Father Rafael Ángel Ciro. / Credit: Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).

The bishop of Paterson, New Jersey, Kevin J. Sweeney, offered the funeral Mass for Father Rafael Ángel Ciro, a 45-year-old Colombian priest who died by suicide on Aug. 27. In a heartfelt homily on Sept. 3, Sweeney recalled that Jesus, who understands our pain and suffering, “is here and comforts us.”

In his opening remarks in both English and Spanish, the bishop addressed the priest’s mother, Elena Guarín, and his brother Jairo, saying: “We are with you, with you and the entire family there in Colombia. We are all one family, with our Bishop Emeritus [Arthur] Serratelli, with all the priests. We are also your children, Doña Elena: The mother of one priest is the mother of all priests. You are also our mom.”

“We share the pain, but we also share the faith, especially with the community of St. Stephen and all the parishes where Father Rafael served as a priest,” the prelate continued.

Jesus understands our pain and suffering

In his homily on the Gospel recounting the death of Lazarus, still alternating between English and Spanish, Sweeney recalled the lyrics of a well-known Spanish hymn: “God is here, as surely as the air I breathe, as surely as the morning sun rises, so surely that when I speak to him, he can hear me.”

“We believe this: Jesus our God is here, in the home of Doña Elena and the family of Father Rafael in Colombia, in the hearts of each one of us present here. Jesus speaks to us and comforts us. He comes to us, as he did to that house in Bethany, which was also in mourning,” the prelate emphasized.

The bishop of Paterson noted that “perhaps we are like Martha, angrily asking Jesus where he was, and if he had been, perhaps my brother would not have died. He doesn’t answer Martha’s question with an explanation, nor does he give us an explanation today to all our questions, but he answers us surely as he answers Martha: ‘Your brother will rise.’”

“And she tells him with pain that she knows he will rise again on the last day. And Jesus tells her, he tells Doña Elena and us, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will never die.’”

The prelate then added that “Jesus is here at this moment, walking with us, and will accompany the priests who will go with Father Rafael to his burial in his beloved Colombia.”

“The shortest line in the Gospel says: ‘Jesus wept.’ He understands our pain and suffering and invites us to walk with him and the Blessed Virgin Mary to Calvary. Only God knows Father Rafael’s journey, his daily life; only God knows how many families and individuals he accompanied, and who now weep.”

Sweeney then thanked Guarín for giving the Church “a very good priest. A round of applause for our beloved Father Rafael! To his brother, Jairo, we priests are your brothers, too.”

At the end of his homily, the bishop said: “To anyone who feels alone or anxious now, I want to say, ‘You are not alone.’ God does not leave us alone. If you are struggling with difficulties, psychological emotions, depression, you are not alone, we want to walk with you.”

“We give thanks for the priesthood of Father Rafael Ángel Ciro, and we commend him to God now,” he concluded.

Biography of Father Rafael Ángel Ciro

Rafael Ángel Ciro was born on Oct. 29, 1979, in the municipality of Alejandría in the district of Antioquia, Colombia. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, Colombia, in 2006.

He continued his theological studies at the Intercontinental University in Mexico City (2007–2009), Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut (2011–2012), and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland (2012–2013).

Before joining the Diocese of Paterson as a seminarian in January 2011, he dedicated nearly three years to missionary work in Medellín and another three years in Mexico City. He also ministered to Hispanic migrants in Alabama and New Jersey.

He was ordained a priest on March 25, 2013, at St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Clifton, New Jersey. Following his ordination, he served in the parish communities of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Paterson, St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Passaic, St. Nicholas Parish, also in Passaic, and Sacred Heart and Holy Rosary Parish in Dover, New Jersey, before being appointed pastor of St. Stephen’s Parish in Paterson. 

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

The Ascensor da Glória funicular in Lisbon, Portugal, crashed on Sept. 3, 2025, killing 17 people and injuring at least 23. / Credit: Maragato1976 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 15:03 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday offered his “heartfelt condolences” to the families of those who were killed and injured in an accident involving the Elevador da Glória, an iconic funicular train that crashed at high speed into a building on Sept. 3.

In a Sept. 4 message signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of the pope, Leo offered prayers “for the complete recovery of the injured” and invoked “the strength of Christian hope for all those affected by this disaster,” Vatican News reported.

Pope Leo also expressed “special gratitude to those who took part in the rescue operations” and gave an apostolic blessing to all, especially to the families of the deceased.

The patriarch of Lisbon, Rui Valério, also offered his prayers following the accident. A statement posted on the patriarchate’s website said the patriarch received “with profound sorrow and sadness” the news of the accident, which left 17 dead and at least 23 injured in the Portuguese city. The crash of the funicular, a type of railway operated by cables and designed for steep slopes, occurred around 6:05 p.m. local time.

“At this difficult time Bishop Rui Valério lifts up his prayers to God for the victims and expresses his closeness to their families during this time of separation and profound grief,” read the statement in which the patriarch also wished the injured a speedy recovery.

The patriarch also expressed his gratitude and solidarity with those who mobilized to help the victims, including emergency teams, health care professionals, civil authorities, and volunteers.

The patriarchate also announced that Valério was scheduled to offer a Mass for the victims of the accident at St. Dominic Church in Rossio on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. local time. All faithful in the Portuguese capital were invited to attend.

According to the BBC, the cause of the accident is still unknown, nor is it clear how many people were on board the funicular, a tourist attraction inaugurated in 1885 and electrified 30 years later.

A witness told Portuguese television station SIC that just before the accident, the Elevador da Glória was descending “at full speed” down a steep street before violently colliding with a building.

“It crashed with brutal force and collapsed like a cardboard box; it had no brakes,” a woman told SIC. 

Carlos Moedas, mayor of Lisbon, stated on X that the city council has declared three days of mourning for the victims of the accident and offered his “sincere condolences to all the families and friends of the victims. Lisbon is in mourning.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA. It was updated on Sept. 4, 2025, at 3:59 p.m. ET with the pope's comments.

A late-term abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., has stopped taking appointments after a pro-life group campaigned against it. / Credit: SibRapid/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 12:44 pm (CNA).

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

Pro-life group says late-term abortion clinic halted procedures after campaign against it

A pro-life group said a major Washington, D.C., late-term abortion clinic has ceased operations for the time being after a public campaign against it. 

The Washington Surgi-Clinic, which has been at the center of controversy for years due to allegations of illegal abortion services, has “halted appointments” after a “campaign to shut the facility down” was mounted by the group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. 

The pro-life group said in a press release on Sept. 2 that it filed a complaint with the city board of medicine presenting “numerous complaints and lawsuits” against clinic abortionist Cesare Santangelo.

The clinic subsequently said it is “not currently taking appointments” and is hoping to resume them in “late September.” 

Santangelo, meanwhile, has not been seen at the clinic “in over three weeks,” the press release said.

Texas passes law allowing state residents to sue abortion pill manufacturers

Texas lawmakers this week passed a bill that will allow state residents to sue providers and distributors of abortion pills who circulate the deadly drugs in the state.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, who authored the measure, announced the bill’s passage on Facebook on Sept. 3, writing that the law, when signed, will ensure “that those who traffic dangerous abortion drugs into our state are held accountable.”

The measure 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.

Abortion drugs are illegal in Texas, though those seeking to abort children can acquire them through the mail. State Attorney General Ken Paxton last year filed a lawsuit against an abortionist in New York, alleging she illegally provided abortion drugs to a woman in Texas.

Leach on Sept. 3 said the state will continue to be “a national leader in the fight for life.” Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the measure into law.

Amy Coney Barrett defends Roe v. Wade repeal in new memoir

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a soon-to-be-published memoir has defended her decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, citing what she said was public sentiment as well as long-standing legal precedent. 

Barrett’s memoir, “Listening to the Law,” is due to be published on Sept. 9. Multiple media outlets reported on her remarks touching on Roe ahead of the book’s launch. 

“The evidence does not show that the American people have traditionally considered the right to obtain an abortion so fundamental to liberty that it ‘goes without saying’ in the Constitution,” she writes in the book. 

“In fact, the evidence cuts in the opposite direction. Abortion not only lacked long-standing protection in American law — it had long been forbidden.”

The Supreme Court’s role, the justice writes in the memoir, “is to respect the choices that the people have agreed upon, not to tell them what they should agree to.”