Ave Maria Parish in Ave Maria, Florida. / Credit: Lee Leblanc cc by nc sa 2.0

CNA Staff, Oct 18, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

A Catholic university in Florida is set to host a major rally against Florida’s pro-abortion ballot measure on Sunday, with several federal and state legislators as well as actor and producer Eduardo Verástegui scheduled to be in attendance. 

Ave Maria University is hosting the Oct. 20 rally in opposition to a Florida Amendment 4, which would enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. The amendment would prevent the government from restricting abortion up until the point of viability and up to birth in cases of the woman’s health.

“We are so excited to host the Respect Life Rally at Ave Maria University,” said Father Joseph Lugalambi, Ave Maria University’s campus chaplain.

“We have been following our bishop, and his support for mothers and the unborn has been inspiring,” Lugalambi told CNA. “This event raises awareness of the harm Amendment 4 will cause to the unborn and their mothers — allowing for late-term abortions, eliminating parental consent laws, and worsening the health care provided to women in crisis.” 

“We are grateful for the opportunity to support life in all its stages!” he said. “Ave Maria University is pro-life!” 

The Ave Maria rally, organized by the Respect Life Ministry at Ave Maria Parish, is set to bring in a number of well-known Floridians.

Mexican producer and actor Eduardo Verástegui, who produced “Sound of Freedom,” starred in “For Greater Glory,” and was a producer for “Little Boy,” “Bella,” and “Cabrini,” will also be speaking at the rally. 

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Florida) and State Rep. Lauren Melo (R-Naples) are set to speak at the event, as is Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice. 

“We are humbled to welcome Bishop Dewane and many special guests as we organize our community to get out and vote against this radical pro-abortion amendment,” Sharon Levesque, coordinator of the parish Respect Life Ministry and the Oct. 20 rally, told CNA. 

Speakers also include Manuel Milanés, an “Ave Maria hero” who saved the lives of a mother and her four children by taking a bullet in the chest.

“He’s the strongest embodiment of a pro-life man that we’ve ever seen,” Ave Maria Respect Life Ministry volunteer and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo told CNA. He noted that “it’s the same thing” as protecting unborn babies, but “on the left, only those children are worth saving.”

CatholicVote’s National Political Director Logan Church and members of Doctors Against Amendment 4 are also slated to be in attendance.

If passed, the amendment would change the Florida Constitution to include a provision that reads: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.”

Opponents of the amendment note that the amendment would deregulate pre-viability abortion, removing health and safety regulations to the point that the government could not legally require a doctor to be present to prescribe chemical abortion pills. 

“There’s a lot of fear that Florida will become an abortion vacation destination” if the amendment is passed, Caputo said, noting that the state is already a major vacation destination.  

Proponents argue that abortion decisions should be in the hands of individuals. Proponents from the group “Yes on 4” call Florida’s current abortion law a “near-total abortion ban with no real exceptions,” according to a statement by the group’s campaign director, Lauren Brenzel.

The proposed amendment needs a 60% majority to pass in the state of Florida.

“Florida possesses a vibrant pro-life community,” Seana McGuire, the chair of the politics department at Ave Maria University, told CNA. “Our bishops have rallied the faithful and impressed upon us the gravity of the moral issues at stake with Amendment 4.”

State’s bishops are all in

The Florida bishops have steadfastly opposed the amendment and submitted a brief to the state Supreme Court in November 2023 that argued the proposal’s title “misleadingly suggests that the amendment ‘limits’ government interference when it bans all regulation before viability.”

The bishops “have communicated that Amendment 4 is a radical measure that undermines parental rights and perversely worsens the health care provided to women in crisis,” McGuire continued. “Most importantly, they have reminded us that every life is precious, no matter the stage of development. We are all created in the image and likeness of God. We can be thankful for their message of love for all and their prudence at this critical moment.”

“That is the mission of this town, of this parish, of this university — to support mothers and children,” Caputo added when asked why Ave Maria was hosting the rally.

null / Credit: J.J. Gouin/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 18, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a doctor for reportedly violating state law by prescribing transgender drugs to underage children.

A law passed by the state Legislature last year prohibits doctors from performing “gender transition” surgeries on minors; it also forbids doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children.

The state Supreme Court upheld that law in June of this year. On Thursday Paxton said in a press release that a doctor in the state had violated the law by providing illegal hormones to children.

A Dallas-area doctor “illegally provided high-dose cross-sex hormones to 21 minor patients for the direct purpose of ‘transitioning’ the child’s biological sex,” the release said.

The doctor “allegedly used false diagnoses and billing codes to mask these unlawful prescriptions,” it said. 

The state’s filing in district court alleged that pediatrician May Lau “engaged in deceptive trade practices, including by misleading pharmacies, insurance providers, and/or patients.”

The doctor allegedly falsified medical records in order to prescribe testosterone to young girls for “gender transitions.” 

The state described Lau as a “scofflaw” who put “the health and safety of minors at risk” in the alleged fraud scheme. The hormones were allegedly prescribed to “at least 21 minor patients.” 

“Texas passed a law to protect children from these dangerous unscientific medical interventions that have irreversible and damaging effects,” Paxton said in the press release. 

“Doctors who continue to provide these harmful ‘gender transition’ drugs and treatments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he said. 

The availability of transgender treatments for children — including, in some cases, the castration and/or sterilization of boys and girls under the age of 18 — has become one of the most contested parts of the ongoing debates around LGBT politics. 

Earlier this month a watchdog group revealed that nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with transgender drugs or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023. 

Those medical procedures contradict Church teaching and the U.S. bishops’ prohibition on Catholic health care providers offering such interventions.

The U.S. Catholic bishops clarified in March of last year that “gender transition” interventions are not to be performed because they do not respect the fact that God has created each person as a unity of body and soul.

“The body is not an object, a mere tool at the disposal of the soul, one that each person may dispose of according to his or her own will, but it is a constitutive part of the human subject, a gift to be received, respected, and cared for as something intrinsic to the person,” the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine wrote.

Pope Francis meets with other delegates of the Synod on Synodality at a roundtable discussion in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Oct. 17, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 18, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Is there more than meets the eye in the framing of discussions about ecclesiastical governance and the relationship between the local Churches and the universal Church — the main topic of conversation at the Synod on Synodality for the past week?

One gets the impression that many synod participants view the subject as a kind of Trojan horse, a theme that may seem innocuous on the surface but one that can be deployed to sneak sidelined issues such as married priests and women deacons back on the main agenda.

The mere possibility that this is what’s really going on has put those who want to hold the line on the Church’s governance structure and moral teaching on high alert.

The theme in question relates to Part 3 of the synod assembly’s Instrumentum laboris, or working document, which “invites” the people of God “to overcome a static vision of places that orders them by successive levels or degrees according to a pyramidal model (i.e. parish, deanery, diocese, or eparchy; ecclesiastical province; episcopal conference or Eastern hierarchical structure; and universal Church).”

“This has never been our vision,” the document goes on to say. “The network of relationships and the exchange of gifts between the Churches have always been interwoven as a web of relations rather than conceived as linear in form. They are gathered in the bond of unity of which the Roman Pontiff is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation.”

As Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg and the synod assembly’s relator general, emphasized during the week: “The Church from the beginning has referred to the city, to the places in which it lived, guided by the bishop in a close relationship with the territory.”

It was in this context that Cardinal Leonardo Steiner of Manaus, Brazil, said during a daily press briefing that “many of our women are true ‘deaconesses’” while arguing that Pope Francis “has not closed the question” of the ordination of married men in places like the Amazon. He advocated for the Church to be be open “to listening to cultures and religions” so that the Gospel can be “inculturated.”

What does this mean, exactly? In Steiner’s view, it allows for the possibility that some episcopal conferences might say yes to women deacons and married priests, based on cultural considerations, while others may say no. By that reasoning, even the synodal path of the Church of Germany could make sense, even though Pope Francis has not missed an opportunity to criticize and even to mock it, having made the quip to a German bishop in Belgium: “Is there a Catholic Church in Germany?”

At a pastoral-theological forum on Oct. 16 titled “The Mutual Relationship of the Local Church and the Universal Church,” Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, emphasized that local Churches are not merely parts of a larger structure but embody the true presence of the Church of Christ, achieving unity through diverse local expressions.

Echoing that theme, another forum participant, Miguel de Salis Amaral, a Portuguese priest and theology professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, said the local Churches are formed “in the image” of the universal one. Citing Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, he emphasized that “the power, the richness of all the sacramental and spiritual gifts” resides “in every local Church.”

Another speaker, Antonio Autiero, a priest of the Diocese of Naples, Italy, and a professor emeritus of moral theology at the University of Münster, highlighted how the experience of the Church is “purely local.” He expressed support for a “ministry of listening” at the local community level, which through their “elements of discernment” could make suggestions to the local Church.

An example of local bodies shaping Church policy highlighted during the form was Australia’s Plenary Council, convened to respond to the country’s sexual abuse crisis. Comprised of 44 bishops and 275 other members, the council is authorized by an indult from the Holy See to dialogue and make decisions.

Meanwhile, within the assembly hall, there was agreement of the need to highlight “the importance of preserving the unity of the Church,” according to Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery of Communications.

How the delegates choose to articulate that consensus in the assembly’s final document at the end of the month, however, remains to be seen.

Cardinal-elect Roberto Repole, archbishop of Turin in Italy, for one, signaled that the document won’t express the views of the majority and the opposition but rather a consensus.

“We are not a parliament; we are searching for the voice of the Spirit also through listening to the voice of our brothers. Here, I see the catholicity of the Church,” he said.

“Synodality is an experience,” he added, “but requires an in-depth analysis of theological questions that cannot remain on the sidelines.” 

Smoke billows during air strikes in central Khartoum as the Sudanese army attacks positions held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) throughout the Sudanese capital on Oct. 12, 2024. / Credit: AFP via Getty Images

ACI Africa, Oct 18, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

A U.K.-based human rights foundation condemned the forced conversion of Christians to Islam in Sudan following the arbitrary arrest of 12 Christian men by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) military intelligence unit.

The 12 men were part of a group of 26, most of whom are Christians and were reportedly detained at a building run by the Sudanese Church of Christ. Although 14 were released between Oct. 12 and 13, the rest are still under the detention of SAF, which has been fighting with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023.

In a report on Oct. 14, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) condemned the detention of the 12 and the forceful conversion of Christians to Islam in various Sudanese villages.

“We call on the RSF to cease its efforts at forcible conversion, which have been occurring on a widespread and systematic basis since the beginning of the ongoing conflict,” CSW founding president Mervyn Thomas said.

CSW reported that the detained Christians, primarily from the Moro Nuban tribe in Sudan’s South Kordofan State, have long faced both religious and ethnic discrimination. The Almudada unit of the military intelligence that is holding them is known for being notorious in the use of torture, according to the report.

According to CSW, Christians in the village of Al Thora Mobe in Gezira state are being coerced into converting to Islam by the RSF. The village, home to Christian refugees from the Nuba Mountains since 2011, has been under RSF control since December 2023.

Meanwhile, their families, including at least 25 women and 54 children, remain in a dire humanitarian situation, forced to stay in the overcrowded Sudanese Church of Christ building.

According to CSW, the men were members of the church in Al Ezba, Khartoum North. They had fled their homes along with approximately 100 other church members as fighting between SAF and RSF escalated.

These Christians sought refuge in Shendi only to face arrests that started Oct. 6, with groups detained over several days until Oct. 11. The men are said to have been subjected to harassment, physical assault, and interrogation with accusations of being RSF affiliates.

In the report, Thomas expressed concern over the situation of the detained 12, saying: “We are deeply concerned by the arrest and detention of these men, who simply sought refuge for themselves and their families, yet have been subjected to unjust detention, unwarranted assaults, and interrogation.”

He called for the immediate release of those still detained and raised alarm over the conditions of their detention, which include denial of family or lawyer visits and the lack of formal charges. Thomas urged both the SAF and RSF to adhere to international humanitarian law and to respect their international obligations under the Jeddah agreement.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan (left) and Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump react during the annual Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner at the New York Hilton Midtown on Oct. 17, 2024, in New York City. / Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 18, 2024 / 13:55 pm (CNA).

Former president Donald Trump and comedian Jim Gaffigan took jabs at Vice President Kamala Harris during the annual Al Smith dinner for her decision to skip the event that both major party candidates traditionally attend during presidential election years.

“My opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and in particular to our great Catholic community,” Trump said to applause from some of the guests. 

The dinner, held Thursday, Oct. 17, commemorates Al Smith, governor of New York in the 1920s and the first Catholic to be nominated for president by a major political party. Hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York, the $5,000-a-plate dinner was expected to raise as much as $10 million for Catholic charities in the state. 

Normally, the two candidates trade lighthearted jokes about each other and themselves. In 2016, however, Trump diverted from this precedent with harsh criticisms of his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Harris, who was campaigning in the battleground state of Wisconsin on the day of the dinner, instead sent a prerecorded video to address the guests.

“Instead of attending tonight, [Harris is] in Michigan receiving Communion from [Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer,” Trump joked, referencing a TikTok video of the Michigan governor feeding a Dorito to a podcast host, which mimics a viral trend but was interpreted by some Catholics as appearing similar to receiving holy Communion. 

Trump noted that the last major party candidate to skip the event was Walter Mondale in 1984, which he said “did not go very well for him.” President Ronald Reagan won reelection that year in a landslide against Mondale, taking 49 of 50 states.

“It’s been a long tradition for both Democrat and Republican candidates for president of the United States to attend this dinner, always,” Trump said. “It’s a rule — you’ve got to go to the dinner.” 

“Otherwise bad things are going to happen to you from up there,” the former president added and pointed upward.

Trump took repeated jabs at Harris during his speech, saying he “hoped that she would come because we can’t get enough of hearing her beautiful laugh,” something he has mocked in other speeches. He also said that to get Harris to attend, the archdiocese “should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis and she would have been here.”

Gaffigan, the Catholic stand-up comedian and actor who hosted the event, also criticized Harris for not attending the event, saying: “Catholics will be a key demographic in every battleground state.” 

“I’m sorry, why is Vice President Harris not here?” Gaffigan said. “I mean, consider this, this is a room full of Catholics and Jews in New York City. This is a layup for the Democratic nominee.”

Before Trump’s speech, the organizers played a video clip from Harris, which was received with a smattering of applause, some cheers, and a handful of boos. The clip included an appearance by former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Molly Shannon, who played one of her recurring fictional characters from the show, a Catholic school teenager named Mary Katherine Gallagher. 

In the clip, Harris asks the character for advice on what to speak about, to which Shannon says: “Don’t say anything negative about Catholics,” to which Harris responds: “I would never do that no matter where I was — that would be like criticizing Detroit in Detroit,” referencing a Trump event in Detroit which the former president criticized the condition of the city.

“The Al Smith dinner provides a rare opportunity to set aside partisanship and come together to do some good by supporting the tremendous charitable work of the Catholic Church,” Harris said.

“The Church cares for the sick and feeds the hungry, supports families with housing and education, and in times of disaster, provides not only essential supplies but also and so importantly, a sense of hope,” she said and then quoted the Gospel of St. Luke. 

“In the spirit of tonight’s dinner, let us recommit to reaching across divides, to seek understanding and common ground,” Harris added. “And in honor of the great Al Smith, let us fight to build a better future with faith in God, our country, and in each other.”

Trump also commended the charitable work of the Catholic Church, saying: “You’re helping the poor, educating children, and supporting the vulnerable.” He used some moments during the speech to make campaign pitches as well.

“You’ve got to get out and vote and Catholics you’ve got to vote for me,” Trump said. “Just remember, you better remember I’m here and she’s not.”

Trump made some crude remarks that received mixed reactions from the crowd, including a reference to an allegation that Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, committed adultery during his first marriage. He also commented on the group called White Dudes for Harris, saying he’s “not worried about them” because “their wives and their wives’ lovers are all voting for me.”

The former president also took repeated jabs at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was seated next to the podium where Trump was speaking. This included a comment alleging that Schumer pushed President Joe Biden out of the presidential race and one presumably questioning the majority leader’s masculinity.

“Considering how woke your party has become, if Kamala [Harris] loses, you still have a chance to become the first woman president,” Trump told Schumer, to which the Senate leader shook his head with a grin on his face.

Before the event, Trump took part in an interview on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” in which the former president discussed abortion, religious freedom, and his admiration for the Catholic Church. 

Some recent polls show that Catholic voters are nearly evenly divided on the 2024 presidential election. According to a September Pew Research Center survey, about 52% of Catholics support Trump and 47% support Harris. A poll conducted by the National Catholic Reporter found that Catholics in the seven most tightly contested swing states preferred Trump 50% to Harris’ 45%.

null / Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Oct 18, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of the latest developments in the U.S. regarding abortion and pro-life issues.

Young mother imprisoned for blocking abortion clinic entrance

Bevelyn Beatty Williams, a pro-life activist and mother of a toddler-aged daughter, began her three-and-a-half-year prison sentence on Wednesday after being convicted for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic.

Williams reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Aliceville, Alabama, after the judge denied her appeal request, according to a statement she posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old mom was sentenced to jail for three and a half years for taking part in a two-day pro-life protest where she blocked an entrance to a New York City Planned Parenthood in June 2020. She was convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Williams received the second-longest prison sentence given in a recent series of FACE Act convictions, according to Live Action.

“Ministry doesn’t stop in jail,” Williams said in her statement, adding: “I want to be with my husband and my daughter, but that’s not happening right now.”

Florida pro-abortion ballot measure faces legal challenges

Local pro-life activists represented by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson filed a lawsuit on Wednesday asking a circuit court to remove a pro-abortion ballot measure after a Florida government report found alleged “widespread petition fraud” by signature collectors.

The plaintiffs cite the Oct. 11 report by the state Office of Election Crimes and Security that claimed 16.4% of the petitions for the abortion measure should not have been validated, meaning that the amendment fell short of the number of valid signatures required.

State deputy secretary Brad McVay reported alleged illegal pay-per-petition compensation schemes, which the report says incentivizes petition collectors to forge signatures. The investigation also found that petition circulators allegedly “tampered with petition forms” and obtained other petitions by fraud.

If passed, Amendment 4 would prevent the government from restricting abortion up until the point of viability and up to birth in cases of the woman’s health.

The amendment would change the Florida Constitution to include a provision reading: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.”

Live Action opens new advocacy organization

The pro-life group Live Action launched a new organization, Live Action Victory, last week to target Florida’s Amendment 4 and Missouri’s Amendment 3, two pro-abortion amendments that would permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

Launched on Oct. 11, Live Action Victory is a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt social welfare group designed “to advocate for preborn children in the political arena.”

The new organization will target misinformation about abortion ballot measures through a six-figure advertisement campaign, according to Noah Brandt, executive director of the new initiative.

Black market abortion pills

Abortion pills from Mexico and India are easily available in states where abortion is illegal or heavily regulated, a new report from a pro-life group says. 

The eight-page report by American Life League, a pro-life group based in Virginia, cited a Mexican website that mails abortion pills for free and instructs women to not tell medical staff that she took abortion pills if she needs to go to the hospital.

The report says anyone in the United States can order abortion pills online with no medical supervision and that federal agencies have shown no interest in stopping the practice.

The Vatican held four different public conferences from Oct. 9 and 16, 2024, in Rome to explain the “theological undertone of the synodal process,” according to a conference moderator and expert at this month’s Synod on Synodality.  / Credit: Hannah Brockhaus/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 18, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).

Four different theology conferences, held publicly Oct. 9 and 16 in Rome, explain the “theological undertone of the synodal process,” according to a conference moderator and expert at this month’s Synod on Synodality.

The evening forums gave a platform to 17 handpicked theologians and canonists who spoke for about 10 minutes each on the topics of papal primacy, the people of God, the bishop’s authority, and the relationship between the local Churches and the universal Church — all in the context of how to make the Church more synodal.

One of the few novelties of the second session of the Synod on Synodality, the forums revealed some of the theological underpinnings of synodality — according to the experts who were writing about the concept years before Pope Francis launched the three-year synodal process — and the concrete proposals for the future of the Catholic Church.

Klara A. Csiszar, a moderator of two of these forums, an expert at the Synod on Synodality, and a Romanian-Hungarian-Austrian theologian, said at an Oct. 16 briefing for journalists that the conferences “help to better understand the theological undertone of the entire synodality process, especially the theology of the people of God, which is seen as the subject of the mission.”

“This is a fundamental theme that, in my opinion, should be translated into practical application with all its implications,” she continued, adding that “theology helps with this by learning not only to teach, so to speak, but also by listening a lot, sitting in the hall, and trying to understand what is really at stake” during the Oct. 2–27 Vatican assembly.

Other participants agreed that the goal of the forms was to examine some of the issues and concrete proposals being debated inside the Vatican synod hall in a deeper theological way.

Archbishop Roberto Repole of Turin and Susa, Italy, told CNA at a briefing earlier this week that while the forums were a way to make some of the synod debates more open to the public, they were also a good opportunity “to grasp the stakes of some possible changes” to the Catholic Church and to see the journey the Church has made to arrive at synodality since the Second Vatican Council.

“Synodality,” Repole said, “has to do with a way of living together, being Church, of deciding as Christians on the basic issues. But it also asks for some deepening on theological issues that cannot remain on the sidelines of the journey that is being made.”

At the forums, Repole and many of the meetings’ speakers drew heavily on the Church’s dogmatic constitution from Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, in their defenses of synodality, insisting that the theological concept has its roots in the council.

Cardinal Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, speaking at the same Oct. 15 briefing as Repole, explained the impetus for organizing the theological-pastoral forums.

The Brazilian cardinal said that at the end of the first session of the Synod on Synodality in October 2023, theologians expressed a desire to have a more integral and prominent part in the synodal discussions.

It was important for theologians to “participate more in the synod,” Steiner said. “And in this sense, the synod has identified a new path, a new way to consider what has been proposed.”

“Last year it was said that theology was not granted sufficient attention,” Csiszar said. “The theological and pastoral forums provide an answer and open a space in which theology, on the one hand, is learning to articulate its role in a synodal Church, and on the other, is making a substantial contribution to the development of a new synodal style, a new synodal culture.”

The four topics of the forums, she continued, “help provide orientation where there are blockages, motivate where possibilities are perhaps no longer seen, and address exhaustion when it sets in as well as offer criticism where many responses indicate that a certain path might be the wrong one.”

A group of 15 theological experts is participating in the Synod on Synodality as advisers, but they are not delegates and do not take part in voting during the Oct. 2–27 assembly.

Some of the forums’ panelists were chosen from among these over two dozen theologians and canonists. Others were chosen by synod organizers “mainly from among those who participated in the various phases of the synodal process,” Father Riccardo Battocchio, the synod’s special secretary, told the National Catholic Register in an email interview.

“Some [of the speakers] are members of the theological commission established in 2021, others were added during the preparation of the first and second Instrumentum Laboris, others were involved for their specific expertise and experience,” Battocchio explained.

He said the presenters “were asked not to privilege, in their presentation, a particular theological school but to convey, even in the short time available, the scope of the individual questions, the possible different answers offered by Catholic theology, helping the participants in the forums to grasp the different aspects of each theme and to ask questions.”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo just prior to attending the annual Al Smith dinner in support of the charitable work of the Archdiocese of New York on Oct. 17, 2024. / Credit: The World Over with Raymond Arroyo/Scxreenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 18, 2024 / 09:55 am (CNA).

Former president Donald Trump said he will consider reimplementing a ban on taxpayer funding for abortion overseas as well as establishing religious exemptions for any government program that requires health insurance coverage of in vitro fertilization (IVF) during an Oct. 17 interview with EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo.

The former president was interviewed on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” Thursday night ahead of the annual Al Smith dinner, organized by the Archdiocese of New York. During the interview, he made a direct appeal to Catholic voters, spoke fondly of the Church, and criticized his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, for not attending the dinner in person.

Arroyo asked Trump several questions about abortion and IVF, particularly whether the former president would reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits taxpayer funding for organizations that provide abortion overseas. The rule was first implemented during the Reagan administration and has been the policy of every Republican president since, including the prior Trump administration.

“We’re going to be giving that a very good, serious look,” Trump said without committing to reimplementing the policy.

Arroyo also pressed Trump for additional details on a plan he announced in August to impose a rule in which either the government or insurance companies pay for IVF. The Catholic Church opposes IVF because it separates procreation from the marital act and destroys millions of human embryonic lives. 

When asked whether he would support a religious exemption for those opposed to IVF, Trump said: “I haven’t been asked that, but it sounds to me like a pretty good idea.”

“It’s a very popular thing, but certainly if there’s a religious problem, I think people should go with that,” the 2024 Republican presidential nominee said. “[I] really think they should be able to do that. But we will look at that.”

Trump said religious liberty is “a stance that I’ve taken from the beginning and I’ll keep it.” He contrasted his approach with that of his opponent, saying: “I stand for really everything that you stand for and that the Church stands for. And she doesn’t. She’s a very different kind of a person. She’s a Marxist. Her father was a Marxist and still is a Marxist. And they are not big into religion.”

“I am totally in favor of religion and I also like the Catholic Church a lot,” he emphasized, while expressing confidence that he comes up the winner for voters who apply the "lesser of two evils" measure Pope Francis last month urged voters to apply to their choice in the U.S. election. 

Trump pointedly criticized Harris for not attending the Al Smith dinner, which both major party candidates have attended during presidential election years for nearly four decades, saying the event is “honoring the Catholic Church” and that he has “been a longtime supporter.”

“I’m surprised she’s not here,” Trump said. “I think she’s the first one in many, many in decades, actually, to miss it as a candidate. It [has] always been a tradition. So I’m happy only that the Catholics are going to vote for Trump now. But no, look, I have a special relationship with the Catholic Church, and I think it was very important to be here.”

Arroyo also inquired about Trump frequently playing “Ave Maria” at rallies and recently making social media posts honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel. The former president said those posts do not reflect a spiritual journey but that he simply thinks they are “very beautiful.” 

“It’s just beautiful to me,” Trump said. “I mean, I look at the whole thing, the words and the pictures. The pictures are so beautiful.”

Some recent polls show that Catholic voters are nearly evenly divided on the 2024 presidential election. According to a September Pew Research Center survey, about 52% of Catholics support Trump and 47% support Harris. A poll conducted by the National Catholic Reporter found that Catholics in the seven most tightly contested swing states preferred Trump 50% to Harris’ 45%.

Believers gather at the Namugongo Shrine for the Martyrs’ Day Pilgrimage on June 3, 2024, in Uganda. The Catholic population in Africa surpassed 272.4 million people in 2022 after seeing a rise of more than 7.3 million people — the largest increase of any continent, according to Vatican statistics released in October 2024. / Credit: ACI Africa

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 18, 2024 / 09:32 am (CNA).

The Catholic population in Europe fell by nearly half a million people in 2022 but continued to increase in every other part of the world, according to data released by the Vatican this week.

According to the Vatican numbers, released by the Holy See’s Fides News Agency, the Catholic population in Europe was just under 285.6 million people at the end of 2022. That is about 474,000 fewer Catholics than was reported in 2021.

The Catholic population decline coincided with a total population reduction on the continent, which recorded a net loss of 517,000 people living in Europe over the year.

Catholics still made up about 39.5% of Europe’s population in 2022, which is an 0.08% decline, according to the Vatican. The Catholic population decline in Europe has been a consistent phenomenon for several years.

In spite of the reduction in Europe, the global Catholic population is still on the rise. At the end of 2022, the Catholic population reached nearly 1.39 billion people thanks to an increase of more than 13.7 million Catholics.

The data showed that about 17.7% of the world’s population was Catholic, which was an increase of 0.03%.

The Catholic population in Africa surpassed 272.4 million people in 2022 after seeing a rise of more than 7.3 million people — the largest increase of any continent. About 19.7% of Africa was Catholic in 2022, which was an increase of 0.32% from the previous year — the largest increase in Catholic representation as a percentage of population.

North and South America recorded more than 666.2 million Catholics in 2022 following a rise of more than 5.9 million Catholics. The number of Catholics in Asia surpassed 154.24 million, which was an increase of about 889,000. There were nearly 11.11 million Catholics in Oceania after a rise of about 123,000.

Apart from Europe, Asia was the only region to see a decline in Catholics as a percentage of the total population, with a reduction of 0.02%.

Priest shortage worsens globally, nuns decline, deacons increase

The total number of Catholics priests in the world declined for the fifth straight year, but some regions are seeing an increase.

At the end of 2022, there were about 407,730 priests in the Catholic Church, which was a net decline of about 142 priests. Globally, this means there is one priest for every 15,682 Catholics.

The worst reduction of priests was in Europe, which dropped by 2,745. There was also a decrease of 164 priests in the Americas and a loss of 69 priests in Oceania.

However, an increase in 1,676 priests in Africa and 1,160 priests in Asia helped soften the blow of the overall decline in priests. 

Similarly, the number of major seminarians went down by more than 1,400 from 2021 to 2022. This includes a decrease of 921 in the Americas, 859 in Europe, and 375 in Asia. 

Africa saw the largest increase of 726 seminarians and Oceania had a small increase of 12 seminarians. The number of minor seminarians went down by 553.

The number of women religious fell slightly below 600,000 in 2022 with a total decline of 9,730. This was mostly led by a decrease of more than 7,000 in Europe and more than 1,350 in the Americas. 

There was also a decline of about 225 in Oceania. However, the number of women religious increased by more than 1,350 in Africa and by about 74 in Asia.

Alternatively, the number of permanent deacons increased globally by 974. This includes an increase of 267 in Europe, 15 in Asia, and one in Africa. The number declined by 308 in the Americas and one in Oceania.

The number of permanent diocesan deacons went up by 960, with an increase of 697 in the Americas, 255 in Europe, and nine in Asia, with a decrease of one in Oceania. The total number of religious permanent deacons increased overall globally by 14 to 615.

Bishop José Libardo Garcés Monsalve of Cúcuta, Colombia. / Credit: Romanuspontifex, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lima Newsroom, Oct 18, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Going out to find and recover Catholics not living according to their baptism is one of the great challenges of pastoral work, along with the evangelization of those who do not know Christ, said the bishop of Cúcuta, Colombia, José Libardo Garcés.

In a column published in the newspaper La Verdad (“The Truth”), the prelate recalled that Jesus has entrusted his disciples with taking the good news to the ends of the earth, a call that “must move us all to develop creativity to reach the different sectors of the parish.”

This involves covering the three areas of parish pastoral care that, as Pope Francis explains in Evangelii Gaudium, consist of “igniting the hearts of the faithful who regularly frequent the community,” going to “baptized persons who aren’t living the demands of baptism, who don’t have a warm relationship with the Church, and no longer experience the consolation of faith,” and evangelizing “those who do not know Jesus Christ or have always rejected him.”

Garcés pointed out that although in the diocese they have worked hard on the  first aspect, “we need to go out and look for those who are part of ​​those who aren’t living the demands of baptism, which is a large group.”

“And much more neglected are those in the third area, those who don’t know Jesus Christ or openly reject him,” he said.

The Colombian bishop explained that in order to cover these latter two groups of people “we must call upon those we have in the first area of ​​pastoral care so that they commit themselves to the joyful announcement of the message of Jesus Christ in all environments.”

In his text, Garcés noted that “catholic” means “universal” and that universality “has to be in the mind of the evangelizer, to reach everywhere with the power of the Gospel.”

He also encouraged his flock to not be afraid of going into certain sectors of society and not to be discouraged if they are rejected at first, because it is Christ who leads the mission. “He himself has told us in the Gospel: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age,” Garcés recalled.

“This means having fervor for evangelization, which is strongly felt in the missionary when he is in God’s grace. A priest, a missionary in God’s grace, is capable of leaving his usual comfort zone and giving his life for Jesus Christ.”

Make use of the means of grace

However, he clarified, “it is not possible to be a fervent missionary while being in a permanent state of sin. We are all sinners, but what is expected of a priest, of a missionary, is that he doesn’t remain in a state of sin for a long time,” and for this he has the sacrament of confession, he said, with which he will receive forgiveness and be able to continue announcing God’s mercy everywhere.

The bishop of Cúcuta concluded by again quoting Pope Francis, who points out in his apostolic exhortation that “missionary activity still represents the greatest challenge for the Church today and the missionary cause must be the first.”

“May the Blessed Virgin Mary, star of evangelization, and the glorious patriarch St. Joseph, faithful guardian of the faith, obtain from Our Lord Jesus Christ the pastoral fervor to always be in missionary outreach,” the prelate prayed in conclusion.

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