Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

A vintage McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish container with blue and green branding. / Credit: Karolis Kavolelis/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Few people associate McDonald’s with the season of Lent, but the fast-food chain has played a small but iconic role in Lenten history — at least in the United States.

Known primarily for its burgers and chicken nuggets, the restaurant’s “Filet-o-Fish” sandwich is also a classic mainstay on its menu — and it first arose in the early 1960s as a way to boost sales on Lenten Fridays. 

According to the company, Lou Groen, an early franchisee based in Cincinnati, ran a McDonald’s in a heavily Catholic neighborhood and observed a decrease in sales at his McDonald’s restaurant on Fridays during Lent. He proposed to founder Ray Kroc that he allow the restaurant to begin selling fish sandwiches as a way to draw in observant Catholics on Fridays.

Kroc was dubious about adding fish to the menu. Groen would later claim that Kroc told him: “I don’t want my stores stunk up with the smell of fish!”

He and Groen decided to run a test: They’d sell Groen’s fish sandwich on a Friday alongside what Kroc dubbed the “Hula Burger” — a meatless sandwich consisting of grilled pineapple with a slice of cheese on top. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Filet-o-Fish won out. In fact, it won massively: In its corporate history McDonald’s says the fish sandwich sold 350 orders, while only six customers purchased a “Hula Burger.” 

A few years later, the fish sandwich was the first new dish officially added to the original McDonald’s menu. 

The company says it has since become a “popular menu item.” At one point McDonald’s even advertised the sandwich with an anthropomorphic, sharply dressed piece of cod known as “Phil A. O’Fish.” 

The sandwich remains an indelible part of American fast food culture, though it appears to have fallen somewhat out of favor in recent years: AllRecipes earlier this year polled a group of chefs about the “best fast-food fish sandwich,” and the Filet-o-Fish ranked 10 out of 11. Earlier this month, meanwhile, Taste of Home ranked the Filet-o-Fish at the bottom of its list of fast-food fishwiches. 

Still, due to its legendary roots, the Filet-o-Fish’s place in both fast-food and Catholic history is assured. Kroc himself must have been aware of its looming historicity in the early 1960s: McDonald’s says that he was so sure of the success of his Hula Burger that he “made a side bet with his first grillman Fred Turner that the loser would buy the winner a new suit.”

“Fred got a new suit,” company historian Mike Bullington said, “and McDonald’s got the Filet-O-Fish.”

Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo and president of the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network, speaks with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol on March 18, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 20, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

It’s been 20 years since Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed, initiating the process of dehydration and starvation that would lead to her death 13 days later.

With the approach of the 20th anniversary of her passing on March 31, 2005, Schiavo’s brother Bobby Schindler said “it doesn’t get any easier thinking about those events,” particularly “having to witness my sister die such a terribly unjust and inhumane death.”

“The only thing keeping her alive was the same thing that keeps us all alive, which is food and hydration. Terri had difficulty swallowing because of a brain injury and therefore needed a feeding tube in order to receive her food and hydration. But it was removed.”

In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Tracy Sabol, Schindler detailed the inhumane way his sister passed. He said: “It’s something if we do to an animal, it would be criminal.”

Following Schiavo’s death, Schindler created the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network, which “upholds human dignity through service to the medically vulnerable” and assists people who experience similar situations to Schindler and his family. 

The network offers help through “public advocacy of essential qualities of human dignity — which include the right to food and water, the presumption of the will to live, due process against denial of care, protection from euthanasia as a form of medicine, and access to rehabilitative care — as well as through 24/7 crisis lifeline service to at-risk patients and families,” according to the organization’s website. 

The organization strongly advocates that food and water be classified nationally as “basic and ordinary” care. Food and water that is delivered by a feeding tube is often called “medical treatment” or is treated as an “end-of-life” issue, but Schnidler and his network advocate that they are just basic human needs. 

“We only get the hard cases,” Schindler told Sabol. “It seems to me these past 20 years, decisions are being made awfully quick, particularly when someone experiences a brain injury, to stop treatment.”

“Sometimes days, sometimes even hours, pressure is being put on families to terminate treatment,” he continued. “They need time.”

“We certainly will stand with families that call us when these decisions are being made so quickly and use our resources, doing anything we can to help the family get the time they want and the treatment they want for their loved ones,” Schindler said. 

Recalling the circumstances of Schiavo’s case, the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network recounts that “at the age of 26, Terri experienced a still unexplained collapse while at home alone with Michael Schiavo, who subsequently became her guardian. After a short period of time, Michael lost interest in caring for his brain-injured, but otherwise healthy, young wife.”

“Terri was not dying, and did not suffer from any life-threatening disease. She was neither on machines nor was she ‘brain dead.’ To the contrary, she was alert and interacted with friends and family — before her husband … petitioned the courts for permission to deliberately starve and dehydrate her to death.”

After years of legal battles between Schiavo’s husband and her family, a judge ruled in Michael Schiavo’s favor, allowing Terri Schiavo’s life to end.

“The fact that Terri’s case was not isolated and it’s happening every single day across countless hospitals and nursing homes and hospices is just troubling,” Schindler emphasized.

“It happens every single day. And that’s why we’re doing the work that we’re doing, trying to help other families that are confronted with similar types of situations.”

Since its founding two decades ago, the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network has advocated for and assisted more than 3,000 medically vulnerable patients and families.

A young woman prays the rosary in front of the Planned Parenthood facility on Bleecker Street in Manhattan in an undated photo. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno via the National Catholic Register

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 20, 2025 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

Amid an ongoing financial crisis for the organization, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) is selling the property of its only Manhattan facility, a location where New York pro-life Catholics have prayed outside for years.

Planned Parenthood announced the sale of the building in a statement on Wednesday, coming as the company said it was “fighting to overcome social and political obstacles and structural challenges within the country’s health system.”

PPGNY CEO Wendy Stark said funds from the sale of the Manhattan facility would be funneled toward “systemically underserved communities — the people who need us most.” 

The PPGNY statement described the building as “outdated” and “not designed to support the health care needs of the future.” 

‘A miracle’ and ‘an answer to prayer’

The 26 Bleeker St. location will debut on the market for $39 million. This comes as PPGNY works to recover from the $31 million deficit it incurred from last year, as reported by the Gothamist on Wednesday. The move is currently pending state approval. 

“If you’ve spent time outside that Planned Parenthood, you know that they’re fulfilling our legacy,” Kathyrn Jean Lopez, a longtime pro-life advocate and senior fellow and editor at National Review, told CNA on Thursday. 

“So many Black and Hispanic girls go in there for abortions. It’s just devastating,” she said. “That particular Planned Parenthood, it’s [a] flagship. It’s no small thing that it’s closing.” 

Lopez described herself as having “spent way too much time outside that clinic.” Its closure, she said, “is definitely an answer to prayer and sacrifice, no question about it.” 

Lopez spent over a year and a half attending prayer vigils and doing sidewalk counseling outside of the Manhattan clinic almost every day, she said.

While she acknowledged the closure of the building as a milestone for the pro-life movement after decades of prayer, Lopez said the landscape of the abortion industry has shifted, with most abortions taking place “in the shadows” via abortion pills like mifepristone. 

The space for encounters between women experiencing crisis pregnancies and the pro-life movement are becoming less frequent, Lopez said. But, she added, “I actually think the challenge right now is an excellent one because it forces us in all human encounters to show what a dedication to the sanctity of human life looks like.” 

“Ultimately, that’s what the pro-life movement is about,” she said. “It’s not about debating abortion. It’s about showing people that we love them and their lives are eternally valuable. And they were loved into existence by the creator of the universe, every single one of us.”

The Sisters of Life told CNA on Thursday that “the announcement of the closing of the Planned Parenthood in Manhattan is an incredible answer to prayer.” 

The religious sisters in their statement thanked those who organized and participated in prayer vigils throughout the years, including the monthly Witness for Life — a Mass and rosary procession on first Saturdays that has taken place since 2008 — as well as efforts by the 40 Days for Life campaign of prayer and fasting, present in Manhattan since 2015. 

“It is through prayer that the culture of death will be transformed into a culture of life, and we rejoice to see the fruit of this constant and faithful prayer,” the sisters said. “We also recognize God’s providence, as the announcement was made on the solemnity of St. Joseph and within a week of the 30th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s landmark encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life).” 

The closure “might seem like just another business decision, another casualty of financial strain to the outside world,” said Catholic photographer Jeffrey Bruno at the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Wednesday. 

But “to those who’ve knelt on those sidewalks, who’ve poured out their hearts in prayer, it feels like something far more profound: a miracle — a moment when heaven touched earth and the countless prayers of the faithful were answered.” 

Bruno, who has photographed pro-life prayer vigils outside the Manhattan clinic for decades, said at the Register that it “seemed especially fitting that the announcement came today, on the feast of St. Joseph,” whom he described as the “guardian of the Holy Family.”

“The battle for life is far from over; but, today, there’s cause to celebrate, because this reveals firsthand how God works in ways we cannot always see,” he wrote. 

“And today, we’ve witnessed a glimpse — proof that, through prayer, trust, and love, miracles can … and do … happen. And sometimes, they happen on a quiet street in Manhattan.”

PPGNY, which recently shut down four clinics as it scales down operations across the state, has three remaining facilities in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.  

The abortion clinic, which has been around since the early 1990s, once bore the name of Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger. News of its closure comes just short of five years since the organization opted to remove her name from the facility over her “harmful connections to the eugenics movement.” 

Sanger had a history of speaking to racist and extremist organizations in support of birth control — including the Ku Klux Klan — which Planned Parenthood acknowledged in 2016. 

null / Credit: HQuality/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 20, 2025 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

“Assisted suicide is a false charity” with alarming consequences that must be rejected, said Bishop David Malloy of Rockford, Illinois, in a pastoral letter in response to the possibility that the Illinois General Assembly could approve the practice.

The prelate referred to a Senate bill and a House bill that would legalize assisted suicide for people with terminal illnesses.

In his March 12 letter Malloy noted that proponents of both bills claim they will “end suffering at the end of life.”

However, he warned that “although well-intentioned, assisted suicide is a false charity that brings with it many alarming consequences that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to reject.”

The prelate encouraged the faithful not only to pray and fast to stop both bills but also to write or call their state elected officials and encourage them to vote no on the legislation. Malloy referred them to the Illinois Catholic Conference website or they could call 217-528-9200 to request information on how to contact their local elected officials.

Assisted suicide affects the most vulnerable

In his letter, Malloy reiterated that “assisted suicide is clearly not the compassionate solution for those suffering.”

He pointed out that where this practice has been legalized, “there are documented cases of insurance companies refusing to pay for the necessary care of the terminally ill while at the same time they will cover the small cost of the drugs resulting in the end of life.” 

He also noted that “every major national organization that represents people with disabilities is opposed to assisted suicide.”

Furthermore, “experience shows that it is especially the poor and those with disabilities who are particularly in jeopardy as they are the most vulnerable to such abuses,” he pointed out.

“There is no way to prevent the vulnerable from being coerced or intimidated to end their lives once this assisted suicide is legal. The American Medical Association (AMA) has summed up the case against assisted suicide well: ‘Physician assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would provide serious societal risks,’” Malloy noted.

Palliative care is right response to suffering

Malloy affirmed that “our Catholic faith strongly believes that no one should needlessly suffer or have to watch a loved one experience unnecessary pain and suffering.” 

Malloy recalled that the history of Catholic health care is filled with testimonies of “compassion for those who are suffering and for their loved ones. In this way we show our love and respect for the gift of human life and the dignity even of those who are ill or suffering.”

And, “thanks to the advancement of medical knowledge, there are now effective ways to make a person more comfortable at the end of life through palliative care,” he continued.

He explained that this specialty “utilizes physician-led teams to care for the whole person — physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually — to relieve the symptoms and the stress that often accompany serious illness and side effects of treatment.”

“Through palliative care, expanded access to mental health care, and stronger family and community support, providers and families are finding better ways to accompany these people compassionately that truly confers the love for, and dignity of, each human life,” Malloy emphasized.

In addition to Illinois, bills to legalize assisted suicide have also been introduced in Maryland and Delaware.

If passed, they would join California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia, which have already legalized the practice.

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

A detail from “Joseph with the Child and the Flowering Rod” by Alonso Miguel de Tovar (1678–1752). / Credit: Public domain

Rome Newsroom, Mar 19, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The proclamation of the Year of St. Joseph by Pope Francis in December 2020 coincided with the 150th anniversary of the saint’s proclamation as patron of the universal Church by Blessed Pius IX on Dec. 8, 1870.

“Jesus Christ Our Lord ... whom countless kings and prophets had desired to see, Joseph not only saw but conversed with, and embraced in paternal affection, and kissed. He most diligently reared him whom the faithful were to receive as the bread that came down from heaven whereby they might obtain eternal life,” the 1870 proclamation Quemadmodum Deus stated.

Blessed Pius IX’s successor, Pope Leo XIII, went on to dedicate an encyclical letter to devotion to St. Joseph — Quamquam Pluries.

“Joseph became the guardian, the administrator, and the legal defender of the divine house whose chief he was,” Leo XIII wrote in the encyclical published in 1889.

“Now the divine house which Joseph ruled with the authority of a father contained within its limits the scarce-born Church,” he added.

Leo XIII presented St. Joseph as a model at a time when the world and the Church were wrestling with the challenges posed by modernity. A few years later, the pope went on to publish Rerum Novarum, an encyclical on capital and labor that outlined principles to ensure the dignity of laborers.

In the past 150 years, nearly every pope has taken steps to further devotion to St. Joseph in the Church and to use the humble father and carpenter as a witness for the modern world. 

“If you want to be close to Christ, I repeat to you ‘Ite ad Ioseph’: Go to Joseph!” said Venerable Pius XII in 1955 as he instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, to be celebrated on May 1.

The new feast was intentionally placed on the calendar to counter communist May Day rallies. But this was not the first time the Church had presented St. Joseph’s example as an alternative path toward workers’ dignity.

In 1889, the International Socialist Conference instituted May 1 as a holiday for labor in remembrance of Chicago’s “Haymarket affair” labor protests. In that same year, Leo XIII warned the poor against the false promises of “seditious men,” calling them to turn instead to St. Joseph, with a reminder that mother Church “each day takes an increasing compassion on their lot.”

According to the pontiff, the witness of St. Joseph’s life taught the rich “what are the goods most to be desired,” while workers could claim St. Joseph’s recourse as their “special right, and his example is for their particular imitation.”

“It is, then, true that the condition of the lowly has nothing shameful in it, and the work of the laborer is not only not dishonoring but can, if virtue be joined to it, be singularly ennobled,” wrote Leo XIII in Quamquam Pluries.

In 1920, Benedict XV prayerfully offered St. Joseph as the “special guide” and “heavenly patron” of laborers “to keep them immune from the contagion of socialism, the bitter enemy of Christian principles.”

And, in the 1937 encyclical on atheistic communism Divini Redemptoris, Pius XI placed “the vast campaign of the Church against world communism under the standard of St. Joseph, her mighty protector.”

“He belongs to the working class, and he bore the burdens of poverty for himself and the Holy Family, whose tender and vigilant head he was. To him was entrusted the Divine Child when Herod loosed his assassins against him,” Pope XI continued. “He won for himself the title of ‘The Just,’ serving thus as a living model of that Christian justice which should reign in social life.”

Yet, despite the 20th-century Church’s emphasis on St. Joseph the Worker, Joseph’s life was not defined solely by his work but also by his vocation to fatherhood.

“For St. Joseph, life with Jesus was a continuous discovery of his own vocation as a father,” wrote St. John Paul II in his 2004 book “Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way.”

He continued: “Jesus himself, as a man, experienced the fatherhood of God through the father-son relationship with St. Joseph. This filial encounter with Joseph then fed into Our Lord’s revelation of the paternal name of God. What a profound mystery!”

St. John Paul II saw firsthand communist attempts to weaken the family unit and undermine parental authority in Poland. He said that he looked to St. Joseph’s fatherhood as a model for his own priestly fatherhood.

In 1989 — 100 years after Leo XIII’s encyclical — St. John Paul II wrote Redemptoris Custos, an apostolic exhortation on the person and mission of St. Joseph in the life of Christ and of the Church. 

In his 2020 announcement of the Year of St. Joseph, Pope Francis released a letter, Patris Corde, explaining that he wanted to share some “personal reflections” on the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“My desire to do so increased during these months of pandemic,” he said, noting that many people had made hidden sacrifices during the crisis in order to protect others.

“Each of us can discover in Joseph — the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet, and hidden presence — an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble,” he wrote.

“St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”

Pope Leo XIII also asked that the following prayer to St. Joseph be said at the end of the rosary in his encyclical on St. Joseph:

“To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction, and having implored the help of thy thrice holy spouse, we now, with hearts filled with confidence, earnestly beg thee also to take us under thy protection. By that charity wherewith thou wert united to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by that fatherly love with which thou didst cherish the child Jesus, we beseech thee and we humbly pray that thou wilt look down with gracious eye upon that inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by his blood, and wilt succor us in our need by thy power and strength.

“Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen offspring of Jesus Christ. Keep from us, O most loving Father, all blight of error and corruption. Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness. And even as of old thou didst rescue the child Jesus from the peril of his life, so now defend God’s holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Shield us ever under thy patronage, that, following thine example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting bliss in heaven. Amen.”

This article was first published Dec. 9, 2020, and has been updated.

At dawn on March 17, 2025, a group of Christians gather around St. Patrick’s grave in Downpatrick, County Down, in Ireland to pray the Lord’s Prayer 100 times for peace and unity. / Credit: Siobhán Brennan

Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mar 17, 2025 / 13:40 pm (CNA).

Inspired by St. Patrick’s “Confessions,” in which the patron of Ireland states “I arose as many as 100 times at night to pray,” a group of Christians gathered at dawn on March 17 around St. Patrick’s grave in Downpatrick, County Down, in Ireland to pray the Our Father 100 times for peace and unity.

It was the third year in a row that friends and strangers from all walks of life joined together in prayer to honor St. Patrick’s legacy.

Event organizer Siobhán Brennan told CNA that parts of the Lorica of St. Patrick — a prayer also known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate — were recited in chorus between each set of 10 Our Fathers. 

“The words of the Lorica are ancient and St. Patrick’s own; they serve as a strong and powerful protection against evil, a protection which is greatly needed today,” Brennan said. “Jesus promises us in Matthew 18:20 for where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. The Lord and his holy presence among this group of dedicated Christians is indeed palpable.”

The offering of 100 Our Fathers formed the backbone of this prayer initiative, but the inclusion of Scripture, hymns, and the lorica gave it a distinctive Celtic flavor. 

“This is our way of paying fitting tribute to the great St. Patrick, to all the Irish missionaries, and to all the faithful throughout the world who form part of his Patrician legacy on this feast day,” Brennan said.

“Standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow believers, in the darkness of a crisp, early, Irish spring morning while reverently repeating the Lord’s Prayer in harmony with nature is a profoundly moving, spiritual experience,” she added.

It has also become a tradition during this event to sing “Light the Fire: St. Patrick’s Song” by Irish singer Dana at the beginning of the prayer gathering. 

The morning prayers were held against the backdrop of Down Cathedral overlooking St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church. The organizers said they hope other groups from across the world will join in this simple offering of prayer in the future.

“We have been joined spiritually from other parts of Ireland and Albuquerque in New Mexico,” Brennan said. “It is inspiring; our hearts are filled with new hope and the possibility that, someday soon, we will all be fully united in Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Aug. 10, 2023. / Credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mar 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Four former police officers have taken legal action against the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for anti-Catholic discrimination. The PSNI is the third-largest police force in the United Kingdom. 

The cases come 23 years after the force was established to create a new start for policing after years of controversies related to alleged discrimination. 

The PSNI was established in 2001 following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. 

One of the officers taking legal action spoke to the Belfast Telegraph on condition of anonymity. “Sean,” who joined the force at the outset and who has now left and is suing his former employer, said: “If I were talking to [a] new recruit, I would have to say, think long and hard about it; long and hard — especially if you’re a Roman Catholic officer, because there’s so much baggage.”

His attorney, Kevin Winters of KRW LAW, said: “This wasn’t an easy decision for ‘Sean’ to make given the well-documented difficulties he experienced throughout his time in front-line policing. However, on balance, he feels compelled to take this case if nothing else than to put a marker down. He sees his case contributing to opening up the debate on residual sectarian attitudes which still, unfortunately, permeate the PSNI.”

Winters explained that when his client joined the police just after the Good Friday Agreement, “he did so with the best of intentions to help make a change to policing and society. He never envisaged that 20 years later he’d be instructing [attorneys] to take legal action in relation to some of the problems he encountered during that time.”

Winters pointed to four such cases before the courts. “Significantly, he’s not the only Catholic officer doing so. I can confirm this is the fourth such case we’ve been instructed in over the last nine months,” he said. “The common thread running through each of the case details relates to embedded cultural sectarianism — some of which is at a low level but in other instances is quite significant. I have to state that in each case there’s an understandable hesitancy about venturing into legal action of this nature.“

In a statement, the Catholic Police Officer Guild of Northern Ireland said: “We are deeply concerned by his reports of internal sectarianism and the challenges faced by him as a Catholic in the PSNI.

“Such issues undermine the principles of equality and respect that are foundational to effective policing and community trust. The guild stands in solidarity with all officers and staff who have faced discrimination and emphasizes the importance of fostering an inclusive environment within the PSNI. We and the public expect and demand a workplace culture within PSNI where everyone is treated with respect and dignity,” the statement said. 

PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said that what he had been told “is disgraceful and has no place whatsoever in the Police Service of Northern Ireland.”

The issue of policing in Northern Ireland was a key issue throughout negotiations with the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland governments. The PSNI was preceded by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which was viewed with deep mistrust by the majority of the Catholic and nationalist population of Northern Ireland. 

The RUC was viewed as a predominantly Protestant police force that did not conduct its duties with impartiality and was considered sectarian. The force was repeatedly linked with allegations of collusion with Loyalist paramilitary groups against Catholics and of operating a shoot-to-kill policy against Irish Republicans. 

When the PSNI was established following recommendations by the Report of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland (“The Patten Report”), 50-50 recruitment was one of the recommendations contained within and was in place from 2001 to 2011. During this time, an equal number of those who belonged to the Catholic community and those who belonged to the non-Catholic community were appointed from a merit pool of suitably qualified candidates.

The latest recruitment campaign for the PSNI closed last Wednesday. Of the 3,500 applications, about 27% were made by people who identify as Catholic. PSNI officer numbers currently remain at 6,300, far below the chief constable’s ideal force of 7,000 officers. 

The lack of confidence among Catholics in the force is a concern. A return to a 50-50 policy has been suggested as a potential solution, but legal actions asserting anti-Catholic behaviors will not build confidence. 

Singleton doubled down on his comments that the PSNI will not tolerate religious discrimination. “As a service, we do not and will not tolerate this kind of alleged wrongdoing by our officers or staff. This retired officer’s experience reinforces that we need to do more to give officers and staff the confidence and courage to report wrongdoing in the workplace.”

He added: “We accept that and are actively working to do so. Where we do receive information or complaints around wrongdoing, they are robustly investigated and if proven officers can face penalties up to and including dismissal.”

Highlands El Encinar School in Madrid. / Credit: Courtesy of Highlands School

Madrid, Spain, Mar 13, 2025 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

Regnum Christi has announced that it will review the safe environments protocols it has in place in Spain following five allegations of sexual abuse against the former secretary of Marcial Maciel, Legionary priest Marcelino de Andrés Núñez, who worked at the Highlands El Encinar school in that country.

Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi, was found to have sexually abused at least 60 minors, most between the ages of 11 and 16, according to a report issued by the Legionaries of Christ in December 2019. 

The measure was announced in a letter to the students’ parents dated March 11 listing a series of “public commitments” that were reportedly conveyed to the students’ parents in an in-person meeting held Monday.

The section on reviewing processes and protocols begins with the decision to “select and hire an external auditing firm to review existing safe environment protocols and to identify and implement areas for improvement.”

Additionally, the current protocols and codes of conduct as well as the hiring process for all school staff will be examined, and it will be verified that all persons in contact with minors “have an updated Sexual Offenses Certificate.”

In addition, a one-month period has been established for the governing board of Regnum Christi schools to review whether the school’s principal, Father Jesús María Delgado, LC, should remain in his position.

Previous protests by parents

Upon learning of the priest’s arrest, Regnum Christi acknowledged through a FAQ section on its website that some parents had protested the priest’s hiring in 2023.

“They asked that he not continue at the school, and their opposition had to do with the fact that the priest had been Marcial Maciel’s secretary, not because they had perceived inappropriate behavior with minors,” the website states.

This situation had already occurred in 2015 at another school in Madrid, Highlands Los Fresnos, where Maciel’s former secretary had worked since 2011. Due to the protests, “it was then requested that he take a secretarial job in Rome, and he did not remain at the school.”

Support for victims

Among the announced commitments, Regnum Christi offers families who report abuse to listen and attend to their needs, “whether or not they are in school,” as well as “independent and specialized services from experts in listening and comprehensive care.”

In addition, Regnum Christi will provide “psychological counseling sessions in specialized private centers” for all families at the school, helping them address the issue in a conversation at home.

Two additional complaints

In a new statement dated March 13, the sixth since the priest’s arrest, the school’s administration said that it is seeking “official confirmation” from the police about two additional complaints against the priest, which were reported on by a popular television program in Spain.

“We have not received information from the police regarding this development, but we wanted to share it with all of you while we seek official confirmation,” the statement explained.

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

Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz gives a talk during his July 2024 visit to Santiago, Chile. / Credit: Courtesy of Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus De/Flickr

Madrid, Spain, Mar 13, 2025 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

In his latest pastoral letter, the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, reflected on how Christians should live joyfully in the context of “difficult times.”

“Joy, in general, is the effect of the possession and experience of something good. Depending on the type of goodness, joy has a greater or lesser intensity and permanence. When joy is not the consequence of some particular experience of a good, but the consequence of one’s whole existence, it is usually called happiness,” explained the successor of St. Josemaría Escrivá.

The prelate, who noted that “these are difficult times in the world and in the Church (and the [apostolate] is a small part of the Church),” also reminded that “always and in every circumstance, we can and should be happy.”

In this regard, he recalled how St. Josemaría was happy during his final years, despite the difficulties: “All of us who saw and heard our [spiritual] father in Villa Tevere during the last seven or eight years of his life saw that he was truly content and happy, even though he suffered greatly during these years, both physically and, above all, because of the serious difficulties in the life of the Church.”

Ocáriz also addressed the question of Christian joy in relation to the theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

Regarding faith, he noted: “Our natural joy, elevated by grace, is found especially in union with God’s plans” and is related to being aware of God’s paternal love and so “it is good to renew the conviction of our faith in God’s love.”

The prelate pointed out that “faith in God’s love for us brings with it great hope” that “has as its specific object a future and possible good,” which fundamentally consists of “full happiness and joy in definitive union with God in glory.”

In the realm of charity, Ocáriz said that “love for God and for others is linked, along with joy, to faith and to hope.” Thus, the shared essence of the different expressions of love is “desiring — and to the extent possible, seeking — the good of the person who is loved, along with the consequent joy that comes from knowing that this good is finally present.”

Thus, the prelate continued, “love, as a source of joy, is manifested in a special way in giving ourselves to others,” and when it consists of taking up the cross for love of God, “is a source of happiness,” and this joy “has its roots in the shape of the cross.”

Invoking Mary as “the cause of our joy,” the prelate concluded with an invitation to “always be happy and to be sowers of peace and joy in all the circumstances of our lives. We ask her for this in a special way now in this Jubilee Year of Hope, closely united to the suffering of Pope Francis.”

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

Highlands El Encinar School in Madrid. / Credit: Courtesy of Highlands School

Madrid, Spain, Mar 13, 2025 / 06:40 am (CNA).

Father Marcelino de Andrés Núñez, a priest of the Legionaries of Christ and former secretary of Marcial Maciel, was arrested in Spain and released subject to restrictions, accused of abusing five underage girls at a school where he served as a primary and secondary school chaplain.

Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, sexually abused at least 60 minors, most between the ages of 11 and 16, according to a report issued by the Legionaries of Christ in December 2019. 

According to several statements released by Highlands El Encinar School in recent days, Spain’s National Police arrested de Andrés on March 6, initially accused of sexually abusing one female student.

Upon learning of the events, the school activated the Safe Environment Protocol for cases of sexual abuse reported against a Legionary of Christ, the last approved version of which dates back to February 2023.

Within hours of informing parents of the arrest, four more complaints were received, and the school sent a new communication to parents responding to the main questions received during that period.

Highlands School explained that the priest arrived at the school in September 2022 to fill a vacancy and that he presented a certificate stating he had no criminal record for sexual offenses.

The school stated that the priest was hired despite his known ties to the founder of Regnum Christi and the Legionaries of Christ, Maciel, “because there was no history of inappropriate behavior against minors that would prevent him from carrying out his work in an educational center.”

De Andrés was released March 8 subject to restrictions by the judge, who imposed several precautionary measures.

He was prohibited from getting within 300 meters (almost 1,000 feet) of the school; from approaching or communicating with the underage girls who complained; from engaging in any activity that involves regular and direct contact with minors; and from leaving the country.

Furthermore, the judge ordered the priest to surrender his passport, and he appointed his sister and a criminal lawyer to defend him.

De Andrés is the author of numerous books in Spanish, including “Joseph of Nazareth, a Man After God's Own Heart,” “What Are You Waiting for to Be Happy?”, “Tales of Hope,” and “Give Him Wings: More than 100 Ways to Love.”

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