Month: January 2025

Numerous notable Catholic celebrities and public figures attended festivities surrounding Donald Trump’s swearing-in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday. Trump has made headlines by choosing several Catholics to serve in his Cabinet and other parts of his administration, most prominently among them with the selection of Vice President JD Vance. Among...

At the interfaith prayer service held at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday morning, an Episcopal bishop challenged President Donald Trump, urging him to “have mercy” on migrants and those who identify as members of the gay, lesbian, and transgender community. “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal...

Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump is scheduled to be in California visiting areas significantly damaged by wildfires on Friday, Jan. 24, the day of the 2025 March for Life in Washington, D.C. During his first term, Trump attended and spoke at the March for Life in person in 2020 and addressed the crowd through video calls in...

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order seeking to overturn Supreme Court precedents restricting capital punishment and expand states’ access to lethal drugs used in executions. Trump in his order describes the death penalty as an “essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens.” The...

“Holy Father, you have changed my life again! Shouldn’t you have at least given me advance notice?” With these words the newly created Philippine Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David y Siongco addressed Pope Francis after finding out that his name appeared among the new cardinals on the list for the last consistory held in Rome. Almost...

“Does God Exist?: The Cry of Man Asking for Salvation” is the title of a new interview book by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect emeritus of the Congregation — now Dicastery — for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In the book published in Italian at the end of 2024, the African cardinal answers...

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, concluded his term as archbishop of Vienna, Austria, on Wednesday, his 80th birthday, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation. Schönborn, a theologian who led Austria’s most populous archdiocese for three decades, helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church and chaired the Austrian bishops’ conference for 22 years. He is currently...

A Nigerian woman whose husband was killed by Boko Haram in 2014 has asked for prayers for persecuted Christians and for the terrorist group, “that they will be saved, that Jesus will reveal himself to their heart, so that they will repent.”  “I prayed for those that have killed my husband and said, ‘I have...

Pope Francis on Wednesday continued his yearlong jubilee catechesis series on “Jesus Christ Our Hope,” emphasizing that those who trust in God have no reason to fear. “The presence of the Lord always gives us this grace of not fearing,” the Holy Father said at his Jan. 22 general audience. “He says to Mary: ‘Do...

Policies related to immigration, gender ideology, abortion, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are among the top religious liberty concerns heading into 2025, according to a report published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty on Jan. 16 issued its Annual Report on the State of Religious Liberty, which...