Tyler Robinson, 22, (pictured on Sept. 12, 2025) the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, conservative Christian political activist. / Credit: Handout/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 15, 2025 / 18:01 pm (CNA).

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed that the man accused of killing Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk lived with a transgender partner who is cooperating with authorities in the ongoing investigation.

The suspected assassin is 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a resident of St. George, Utah, which is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive south of Utah Valley University, where the shooting occurred. Formal charges are expected Tuesday, Sept. 16.

Although Robinson has exercised his right to remain silent while in custody and has not spoken to authorities, his live-in transgender partner and members of his family are cooperating with the investigation. He was arrested Thursday night, Sept. 11, the day after the shooting.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sept. 14, Cox said the roommate of the alleged shooter “is a boyfriend who is transitioning from male to female.” He said the roommate “has been very cooperative with authorities.”

“This person did not have any knowledge [and] was shocked … when he found out about it,” the governor said. “The suspect has not been cooperating so far, and so we’re getting all of this information from family members, again, people around the suspect, and then the forensic information that we have, which is confirming everything and more than what we were able to share in that initial press conference.”

In a previous news conference, Cox said the roommate showed investigators messages that Robinson allegedly sent, which discussed engraving bullets, needing to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving a rifle in a bush, and wrapping a rifle in a towel.

Kirk was shot while answering a question about transgenderism and gun violence. Kirk said he supported an effort to ban transgender people from owning firearms in light of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota last month, which was carried out by a man who identified as a transgender person.

Throughout his career as a conservative activist, Kirk had been a critic of gender ideology, opposing allowing biological males in women’s sports, transgender surgeries and drugs for children, and the promotion of transgenderism and homosexuality in K–12 schools.

FBI investigates suspect’s communications

Cox said Robinson came “from a conservative family, but his ideology was very different” from his family’s, and “there clearly was a leftist ideology with this [alleged] assassin.”

“The ‘why’ behind this, again, we’re all drawing lots of conclusions on how someone like this could be radicalized,” he said. 

FBI Director Kash Patel told “Fox & Friends” on Monday, Sept. 15, the agency will not “politicize this investigation.” Rather, he said, “we are looking at the facts and that is why we are releasing the facts in record fashion.”

“My job as FBI director is not to speak to motive; it’s to speak to the facts, and that’s what I’m going to do,” he said.

“His family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology, and even more so in these last couple of years,” Patel continued. “And [the suspect] had a text message exchange … with another individual in which he claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and he was going to do it because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for.”

Markings on bullet casings found by investigators included the phrase “Hey, fascist. Catch!” and lyrics to the Italian anti-fascist song “Bella Ciao.”

Patel said the FBI has evidence of a since-destroyed note written before the assassination in which the suspect wrote that he had the opportunity to “take out” Kirk and planned to do so. He said “even though it has been destroyed, we have found forensic evidence of the note, and we have confirmed what … it says because of our aggressive interview posture.” He said the FBI also has DNA evidence to link the suspect to the shooting.

According to Patel, the FBI is also investigating the suspect’s conversations in chatrooms on the online messaging application Discord, and investigators will interview people with whom he conversed there.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Monday that the agency has evidence that the suspect may have communicated that “his target was obviously going to be Charlie [Kirk] and that people knew in advance.”

Bongino said he does not “want anyone to jump to conclusions on this,” noting this is a question of whether people knew in advance and kept it quiet or whether they thought “it was some type of joke.”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out now,” he said. “But I promise you, if there’s a larger network here, we’re going to get that out to the public as soon as we can.”

The New York Times reported that in one Discord chat, friends of Robinson noted that he looked similar to the shooter. Robinson allegedly said the shooter was a “doppelganger” who was trying to “get me in trouble.”

According to the Times, much of the communications appeared to be joking. After Robinson’s arrest, the report noted that members were in disbelief with one saying: “I truly cannot distinguish if this is for real.”

The Washington Post reported on a separate Discord chat in which Robinson was allegedly involved, which showed members expressing concern about the shooting with one saying Kirk “didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

Robinson allegedly told this chat: “I have bad news for you all,” adding: “It was me at UVU yesterday. [I’m] sorry for all of this.”

One friend reportedly urged the group to “pray for Tyler [Robinson] and his repentance” after the arrest.

Bongino said the FBI is looking into the man who asked the question about transgenderism and gun violence just before Kirk was shot at the event, but noted Kirk “was known to speak out about these issues” and that it is “not terribly uncommon for him to get questions like that.”

The man who asked the question gave an interview to “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan” late last week and denounced the assassination and political violence.

Bongino said the assassination was “an ideologically motivated attack” on a conservative.

“Family members said he’d become more political, leading us to believe that this ideology had infected him and had taken over,” Bongino said.

St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. / Credit: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Sep 15, 2025 / 17:31 pm (CNA).

In what some are calling “the Charlie Kirk effect,” people across the nation, including many college students who are not ordinarily churchgoers, have decided to go to church since the assassination last week of the conservative Christian political activist Charlie Kirk.

Matt Zerrusen, co-founder of Newman Ministry, a Catholic nonprofit that operates on about 250 campuses nationwide, told CNA he has spoken with Catholic college ministry leaders throughout the country over the last few days, and “every one of them told me they’ve seen bigger crowds” at Masses and lots of people “they’ve never seen before.”

“I have not talked to anyone who has not seen an increase in Mass attendance,” Zerrusen said. “Some schools are reporting increases of 15%.”

He told CNA that many more college students are also asking for spiritual direction. “So many people are asking ‘What do I do?’ What is evil? How does God allow this?” Zerrusen said. “They are asking so many basic questions.”

One priest at a large state school in the Northeast told Zerrusen he spoke over the weekend with 15 young men he had never seen before who sought him out for faith advice. 

Zerrusen said the spiritual “revival” Kirk’s death has amplified comes amid one he has been observing for months.

He pointed out that more than 400 students at Texas A&M University in College Station are attending the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) class at St. Mary’s Catholic Center near campus.

Social media users say Kirk inspired them to go to church

Since Kirk’s death on Sept. 10, social media platforms X, TikTok, and Instagram have been flooded with posts from users saying they plan to go to church for the first time or to return to church, thanks to Kirk’s influence.

With more than half a million followers, X user @TONYxTWO posted a TikTok video on Sunday showing a young man saying he had to park “five blocks away from church because everyone wants to come now! Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Charlie.”

Another X user who calls herself a “Devout Aggie” and “Catholic” who has nearly 15,000 followers said her son, who “is not a churchgoer,” asked her to go to Mass with him over the weekend, attributing it to “the Charlie Kirk effect.” 

The vicar general for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, Father John Evans, said on Monday that he had noticed a “slight increase” in Mass attendance over the weekend, but what was more unusual was what happened in the days immediately after Kirk’s assassination.

“People were coming together before Sunday, praying privately, some in groups, praying the rosary, and different prayers of different sorts,” Evans told KSL-TV in Utah.

The Catholic University of America has announced that Taylor Black, director of artificial intelligence at Microsoft, will lead a new institute on emerging technologies and AI at the Washington, D.C.-based university. / Credit: The Catholic University of America

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 15, 2025 / 15:36 pm (CNA).

The Catholic University of America (CUA) announced that Taylor Black, director of artificial intelligence (AI) at Microsoft, will lead a new institute on emerging technologies and AI at the Washington, D.C.-based university. 

At the technology conglomerate, Black serves as the director of AI and venture ecosystems in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. In the role, he designs and leads cross-company initiatives that integrate innovation, product development, and community engagement to foster the next generation of technologies. He will remain in the position but plans to travel regularly to CUA’s campus.

“Taylor’s background in innovation, AI, and entrepreneurship; studies in philosophy and law; and his formation as a deacon candidate make him the ideal person for this new venture,” H. Joseph Yost, senior vice provost of research for CUA, said in a statement. “From our first conversation, we knew he was the person we wanted to lead Catholic University’s expansion of AI programs and innovation.” 

Black received an undergraduate degree in philosophy and classics from Gonzaga University and a master’s degree in philosophy and a law degree from Boston College. His career took off after he created a successful web development business while still in school. He went on to hold consulting, business development, and venture positions before joining Microsoft in 2021. 

While working in the technology field, Black said he has noticed an increase in questions related to human dignity from his secular colleagues. The new institute will work to tackle some of the concerns by pursuing innovation in AI and engaging in dialogue about human issues central to the Catholic Church.

“The Church has been trying to get people to ask the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ for a very long time. Now a bunch of people are asking it unprompted,” Black said in an interview with CUA. “This lends itself to addressing the gaping hole in understanding what people should know about what it means to be human in a deeper way.”

“Universities are for the formation of human persons. If you’re well-formed, you generally do a better job in the workplace,” Black said. He is interested in “how we reinvigorate the heart of what the university is — its human formation roots — while still providing the tools and training necessary from an entrepreneurial perspective to take this new economic paradigm in stride.”

The new AI initiative will bring faculty together from multiple departments including engineering, business, science, art, philosophy, and theology to engage collaboration within as well as outside the university.

The new institute follows a number of other advances at CUA. Earlier this year, the university achieved R1 status, which placed it among the top 5% of universities nationwide in terms of research funding and doctorates.

Vice President JD Vance (right), second lady Usha Vance (center), and Erika Kirk deplane Air Force Two while escorting the body of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. / Credit: Kirk, Eric Thayer/Getty Images

CNA Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 10:05 am (CNA).

Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, vowed to continue her husband’s work Friday night during an impassioned and deeply personal televised address that focused on the importance of faith and family life.

Appearing on Fox News just two days after her husband was shot and killed by an assassin’s bullet, fired from a rooftop on the campus of Utah Valley University where he was holding an outdoor event, she spoke for more than 16 minutes, maintaining her composure as she stood at a podium in her husband’s podcast studio, beside his empty chair.

“I will never, ever have the words to describe the loss that I feel in my heart,” said Erika Kirk, the mother of two young children, ages 1 and 3.

“I honestly have no idea what any of this means,” she said. “I know that God does, but I don’t. But Charlie, baby, I know you do, too. So does Our Lord.”

“The evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done,” she said.

“They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God’s merciful love.”

Here are other highlights from her remarks:

She revealed that she had not yet told the couple’s 3-year-old daughter of her father’s death.

“When I got home last night, Gigi, our daughter, just ran into my arms. And I talked to her, and she said, ‘Mommy, I missed you.’ I said, ‘I missed you too, baby.’

“She goes, ‘Where’s daddy?’ She’s 3. I said, ‘Baby, daddy loves you so much. He’s on a work trip with Jesus, so he can afford your blueberry budget.’”

She talked about why her husband advocated so passionately for marriage and family life.

“Charlie always believed that God’s design for marriage in the family was absolutely amazing. And it is. It is. And it was the greatest joy of his life. And over and over, he would tell all these young people to come and find their future spouse, become wives and husbands and parents. And the reason why is because he wanted you all to experience what he had, and still has,” she said.

“He wanted everyone to bring heaven into this earth through love and joy that comes from raising a family. It’s beautiful. Charlie always said that if he ever ran for office — I know a lot of you asked if he ever was going to — but privately, he told me if he ever did run for office, that his top priority would be to revive the American family. That was his priority.

“One of Charlie’s favorite Bible verses was Ephesians 5 verse 25: ‘Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.’

“My husband laid down his life for me, for our nation, for our children. He showed the ultimate and true covenantal love,” she said.

Erika, who is a baptized Catholic, witnessed to the Christian faith she and her husband shared.

“Charlie always said that when he was gone, he, he wanted to be remembered for his courage and for his faith,” she said.

“And one of the final conversations that he had on this earth, my husband witnessed for his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now and for all eternity, he will stand at his Savior’s side, wearing the glorious crown of a martyr.”

During the broadcast, Erika Kirk urged others to make faith central to their lives, as her husband had done.

“But most important of all, if you aren’t a member of a church, I beg you to join one, a Bible-believing church,” she said.

“Our battle is not simply a political one above all. It is spiritual. It is spiritual. The spiritual warfare is palpable. Charlie loved his Savior with all of his heart, and he wanted every one of you to know him, too. He wanted everyone to know that if they confess, if they confess the Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead, then they will be saved.

“Hear me when I say this. Nobody is ever too young to know the Gospel. Nobody. Nobody is ever too young to get involved with saving this beautiful country, this country my husband loved and still loves. And nobody is ever too old, either.”

She vowed to continue Charlie’s work with Turning Point USA, the conservativve advocacy organization he founded, and said the campus speaking tour he had just embarked on would go on.

“If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world. You have no idea,” she said.

“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.

“To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die,” she said. “It won’t. I refuse to let that happen. It will not die.”

Kendrick Castillo, who died in a school shooting in 2019 and whose cause for canonization has been opened in the Diocese of Colorado Springs. / Credit: Photo courtesy of John and Maria Castillo

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Colorado Springs announced it received a petition to open a cause for canonization for Kendrick Castillo, the lone fatal casualty after a shooting at a Colorado school in 2019, when the 18-year-old died after jumping into the line of fire to stop one of the shooters. 

“Knowing Kendrick, we knew that that was something that he would do,” said his parents, Maria and John Castillo, in an interview with “EWTN News In Depth” this week.

“We’re so humbled and grateful,” John said about the opening of Kendrick’s cause for canonization. “It’s one of the greatest gifts that can ever be bestowed upon anybody. It’s just the sheer mention of sainthood. We always have felt … that since Kendrick was born, he’s been our saint. He’s worthy, and we believe that. But to hear it coming from our Catholic brothers and sisters and our families, it’s different and it’s more powerful.”

The priests in the diocese advocating for Kendrick’s cause believe that he qualifies for beatification in a new category called “Offering of Life.” 

In a 2017 motu proprio, Pope Francis established a new category of Christian life eligible for beatification, recognizing individuals who died prematurely as a sacrificial offering of their life out of love for God and neighbor.

Since his death, there have been “numerous things that have taken place to honor Kendrick, and they’ve all been spectacular,” John said. “But this is on a level that is indescribable. It really is an honor, it’s humbling.”

Reflected on the kind of man his son was, John said: “Kendrick was joyful all the time. I don’t think there’s a picture [of him] that we have that doesn’t have a smile on it. He was just happy all the time. He loved life.” 

“He made friends everywhere he went,” John continued, remembering a particular time when Kendrick was in preschool. “A child was being dropped off and was afraid to leave his mom for the day. Kendrick, as a little kid, went over and hugged him and said it would be OK and comforted him. That was just in his nature.”

At the public school Kendrick attended, “he took his Catholic faith and did what we’re asked to do as Catholics,” John said. He showed the “agape love that we should have for our savior. That’s what Kendrick did every day. I just wish people got to know his personality and see that.”

His son had a “willingness to live out his faith and help his community at church,” the elder Castillo said, recalling his service as an usher and altar server at Mass and funerals.

On the day of the shooting, Kendrick “risked his life to save others,” John said. “That was in Kendrick’s nature. We wish that he didn’t have to do that, of course. But in that moment, it wasn’t surprising to us that he would not run the other way [and] that he would defend the sanctity of life.”

Maria said she wants her son to be remembered for “his love.” She said: “He loved his friends, his parents, but most importantly, he loved God.”

Following recent shootings at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota and Evergreen High School in Colorado, John offered consolation and wisdom to parents who have lost a child in such a tragedy. “My words to them would be: ‘Hold each other close.’” 

“Remember what we’re called to do in faith and surrender to trust in the Lord,” John said. “God did not make this happen. Evil is real, and we can’t let evil divide us. We must comfort one another. We must try to seek viable solutions that are going to create safety for our families and our community … Reach out to one another and don’t let evil win and pull you away from anything that’s positive and God’s grace in our lives.”

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. / Credit: “EWTN News in Depth”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 at a Utah college campus, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action and a close friend of Kirk’s, said: “His death will be a turning point.”

In an interview with “EWTN News In Depth,” Hawkins called Kirk “a joyful warrior.” She pointed out: “He was a man of God and just moments before he was assassinated, he had proclaimed that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior. And he never shirked away from that, just like he never shirked away from any of the other political debates … I believe with my whole heart, he died a martyr.”

Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and campus activist, “truly enjoyed having conversations with those who disagreed with him and having the opportunity to change their minds,” Hawkins said. “He was a huge learning advocate … He was always wanting to find out the best ways to save our country and to advance our faith.”

“We work symbiotically on campuses to spread the good news of the Gospel, but then also spread the voice of reason, which Pope Benedict was very clear [about]. He wrote about how reason is God’s gift and when reason is abandoned, violence becomes the only remaining path … When people stop talking, when they disagree with each other, it only leads to violence.”

Hawkins highlighted Kirk’s mission to protect human life. Students for Life honored him in January at the National Pro-Life Summit with the Defender of Life Award “for his advocacy for life on college campuses.” 

Turning Point, Students for Life, and similar organizations that work to defend life “have become increasingly effective [in] winning back students,” Hawkins said, especially because of Kirk’s “ability to reach young men.” 

While the pro-life organizations have been “effective and things have started to shift in our country, it hasn’t shifted enough,” Hawkins said. “We still have a culture of death.” 

Manifestation of the ‘culture of death’

The day of Kirk’s death, Hawkins was speaking to students at the University of Montana. “I was on campus for two hours before Charlie was shot and every argument from the 150 pro-choice students who surrounded me … was: ‘Maybe it is a baby, maybe it is human, but I can still kill it because I want to. That’s a culture of death.”

“When I announced to them that my friend had been shot and we were trying to find updates on Charlie’s condition … they laughed.” 

“This is what a culture of death breeds. When you say it’s OK to kill innocent babies and that there should be no recourse [for] killing innocent, helpless babies who are the most innocent among us, this is what it leads to. This is why we say it’s a culture of death that must be defeated and this is why we can’t abandon the campuses right now,” Hawkins said. “Do we abandon violence or accept reason?”

Despite this tragedy, Hawkins said: “We have to stay on campuses, because we have to teach this generation, Gen Z, that violence isn’t acceptable.” She shared that her organizations will be going to “160 campuses this semester talking about [their] fall theme, which is ‘every human life matters.’ Charlie Kirk’s life matters.”

“We have to go now harder and louder than ever before because God’s gift of reason must prevail. That is the only way our mission survives this.”

Hawkins also asked people to pray for Kirk’s wife, Erika, and their young children. “I can’t even imagine the pain that Erika is going through,” Hawkins said. “To lose the love of her life, the father of her children, her rock, one that she loves so dearly, and Erika loves so fiercely. But she also loves the Lord.” 

“And so my prayer for her right now is that her faith prevails, and her faith carries her through this moment, and God grants her strength. She is strong enough to endure this. I would ask folks every morning when you wake up, pray for Erika. Pray for those two young children.”

Pilgrims at the canonization Mass for Sts. Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 7, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

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

‘Surge of enthusiasm’ among Catholic in Asia after St. Carlo Acutis canonization 

Young Catholics in Asia are “experiencing a surge of enthusiasm” around the life of the newly canonized St. Carlos Acutis, according to the testimony of Father Will Conquer, a Paris Foreign Missions Society priest stationed in Cambodia, according to a Sept. 8 UCA News report. 

“In Asia, where digital culture is omnipresent, Carlo Acutis stands out as a ‘saint 2.0,’” said Conquer, who added that the young saint’s life “resonates particularly in this region where young people, connected and searching for meaning, find in him an accessible and inspiring role model.” 

Catholic leaders in Jerusalem gather for conference on property tax laws 

The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land gathered at the Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem on Sept. 10 for a “high-level conference dedicated to the Arnona property tax issue,” the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a Sept. 12 press release. 

The conference comes after the Jerusalem Municipality’s decision to impose the Arnona municipal property tax on church properties, breaking with the historic status quo that has exempted Christian churches in the Holy Land from paying property taxes since the Ottoman Empire.

According to the release, the conference opened with a keynote address by Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who “emphasized that the status quo regarding the Arnona tax has come to an end and that change is inevitable.” Pizzaballa further called for leaders among the assembly to unite and “for institutions to prepare themselves collectively and responsibly for the upcoming changes.”

Catholic charity delivers water to South Korean city plighted by drought

A charity organization called the Catholic Medical Angels has delivered 10 tons of water to the coastal city of Gangneung in South Korea, where rapidly declining water levels in the city’s Obong Reservoir has prompted a water crisis, according to a report from UCA News.

“Though it is a small effort, we hope it helps the citizens of Gangneung and that this severe drought is resolved as soon as possible,” said Min Chang-Ki, director of the Catholic Medical Center, which oversees the Catholic Medical Angels.

The delivery took place on Sept. 3 and was carried out at parishes across the local Chuncheon Diocese. The diminishing reservoir ordinarily supplies about 87% of the city’s tap and industrial water, the report said.

Filipino priest to receive Nobel Prize of Asia for opposition toward former president 

Filipino priest Father Flavie Villanueva will receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Asia,” for his work building shelters for Manila’s homeless population and “defending victims of extrajudicial killings” in former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug crackdown, according to Crux.

“I accept this on behalf of the thousands of homeless and those victims of social injustice, particularly the EJK victims, that they may have a face in this fast-changing world,” Villanueva said in a press conference on Wednesday. He will receive the award officially in a ceremony on Nov. 7.

Catholics in Nepal hoping for an end to violence amid corruption protests

Catholics in Nepal are hoping for an end to ongoing violence, according to Nepal priest Father Silas Bogati, after anti-corruption protests in the country escalated on Sept. 6, resulting in the deaths of at least 22 people, according to a Sept. 10 Crux report.

“Violence is never a solution to problems, and now we hope there will be peaceful transition and people can live in peace,” the priest said. “For the Catholic Church, we want to see the end of violence and arson attacks and get a peaceful solution to the ongoing problems.”

The priest’s words come after “a full curfew” was enacted following Saturday’s unrest, which was ignited by social media bans across the country.

The World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines 2025 no longer has the caveat that abortion drugs should only be used where “legally permitted or culturally acceptable.” / Credit: KadirKARA/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 17:34 pm (CNA).

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

WHO promotes abortion drugs on essential medicines list

Pro-life leaders are expressing concern after the inclusion of abortion drugs in the World Health Organization (WHO)’s latest annual list of essential medicines, noting that the drugs can be “dangerous.” 

The Model List of Essential Medicines 2025, released on “International Safe Abortion Day,” had a section dedicated to abortion drugs, which for the first time did not include the caveat that these medicines are not legal or culturally acceptable everywhere. 

According to WHO, “the list no longer carries the boxed caveat, in place since 2005, that singled out these medicines as only to be used where legally permitted or culturally acceptable.” 

Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs for Charlotte Lozier Institute and a board-certified OB-GYN, expressed concern that these drugs were being recommended for use around the world, noting that abortion drugs “have a complication rate four times higher than surgical abortion.”

“As many as 1 in 5 women will suffer a complication and 1 in 20 will require surgical completion,” Skop said. “Also, a recent study found that more than a third of women who used abortion drugs were unprepared for the amount of pain and bleeding they encountered.” 

“Yet, the WHO is recommending them for use in Third World countries with poor health care systems, where emergency care may be limited or nonexistent,” Skop continued. 

Calling the action a part of WHO’s “population control and eugenic agenda,” Skop urged WHO to “instead devote more attention to helping countries obtain the resources they need to impact maternal mortality, such as blood-banking for hemorrhage and antibiotics and critical care for infections.”

Michael New, a senior associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at The Catholic University of America, added that the WHO’s decision was “disappointing” but “unsurprising.” 

“The World Health Organization has always had a very strong pro-abortion bias,” New said, noting that the group’s website calls abortion a “critical public health and human rights issue.”

New also noted that WHO’s website “wrongly claims that ‘evidence shows that restricting access to abortions does not reduce the number of abortions’ even though many, many studies show the incidence of abortion is impacted by its legal status.” 

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Political Affairs Communications Director Kelsey Pritchard expressed gratitude that the U.S. withdrew from WHO in January.  

“Thank goodness President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pro-abortion WHO, and they keep proving that decision right,” she said. “The abortion industry — including foreign, criminal abortion drug rings — is flooding every state with these drugs whether it is legal or not.” 

Pritchard also noted that abortion drugs can be “dangerous.” 

“A mounting body of scientific evidence and real-life horror stories show abortion drugs are far more dangerous than advertised, exposing the serious risks they pose to women and girls as well as unborn children,” she said. 

“Week after week these dangerous drugs cause more tragedies: Women coerced and poisoned, girls rushed to the ER, mothers dying along with their babies — all while the abortion industry profits from deception and abusers benefit from unfettered drug access,” Pritchard continued.

Pritchard anticipated the FDA’s review of the drug, saying that “we’re confident once the evidence is examined, it will be undeniable how harmful these drugs truly are.” 

California bill allowing anonymous abortion prescriptions awaits signature 

A California bill that would allow health care providers to anonymously prescribe abortion drugs could soon become law. 

The law would allow a pharmacist to dispense abortion drugs “without the name of the patient, the name of the prescriber, or the name and address of the pharmacy, subject to specified requirements,” according to the bill’s text.

The law would allow abortionists to anonymously mail abortion medication to patients in California and in the rest of the U.S., even to states where these abortion drugs are illegal. This could make it harder for states to build legal cases against abortionists operating under shield laws.

New York attorney general intervenes in landmark legal battle over abortion shield laws

Attorney General Letitia James is intervening in a landmark case involving a New York abortionist who allegedly prescribed abortion pills to a patient in Texas, where the drugs are illegal. 

James sent a letter to the state Supreme Court judge in Ulster County, New York, saying she has the authority to enforce the state’s shield law — a law designed to protect abortionists who violate the laws of other states. 

The abortion shield law prohibits state officials from cooperating with investigations into abortionists for out-of-state abortions, even when abortion drugs are illegal in those states.

The legal battle is among the first challenges to New York’s 2023 shield law.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington, D.C., where Archbishop Timothy Broglio, USCCB president, said the Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation will continue “important work.” / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 12, 2025 / 16:34 pm (CNA).

The Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism established in 2017 by former United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) President Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston has officially been made a permanent body within the USCCB, according to a Sept. 10 press release. 

The newly created, permanent Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation “continues the important work of the temporary ad hoc committee,” said USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio. 

“As we call for a genuine conversion of heart that will compel change at both individual and institutional levels,” he continued, “I invite all Catholics to join us as we carry forward this work to recognize and uphold the inherent dignity of every person made in the image and likeness of God.”

The Administrative Committee of the USCCB approved the transition on Sept. 9, according to the press release, noting that the new subcommittee falls “under the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.” 

The Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development “seeks to teach about and to witness to the intrinsic dignity of the human person as an antidote to the grave sin of racism” and “explores and implements concrete solutions to address the racism that still pervades our society and our Church today, and works in collaborative ways to strengthen the response of all people to this evil.”

The move to cement the ad hoc committee comes as part of the bishops’ “ongoing commitment to addressing the sin of racism,” the release noted. 

The committee’s chair, Bishop Joseph Perry, also weighed in, stating: “I speak on behalf of the bishop members, staff, and consultants of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism in expressing gratitude for the transition of our committee to a standing subcommittee so that the important work of evangelization of the faithful and the community at large may continue in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” 

The committee will officially begin work after this year’s November plenary assembly.

Pope Leo waves to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 6, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Sep 12, 2025 / 14:56 pm (CNA).

A new report from a Pew Research Center survey finds that 8 out of 10 American Catholics view Pope Leo XIV favorably.

According to the report, 84% of U.S. Catholics surveyed say they have a “mostly favorable” view (47%) of the pope or a “very favorable” view (37%) — while only 4% of Catholics view him unfavorably and 11% say they have never heard of him.

Among non-Catholic Americans, more than half of those surveyed (56%) say they view him favorably, while 31% say they have never heard of him.

Pew surveyed 9,916 U.S. adults (which includes 1,849 Catholics) from July 8 through Aug. 3. The margin of error in the survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The very same percentage of U.S. Catholics — 84% — viewed Pope Francis favorably in the early months of his pontificate as well, according to the report.

Those who attend Mass more often have a more favorable view of the new pope. Among U.S. Catholics who attend Mass weekly or more often, 95% say they have a favorable view. Of those who attend Mass once or twice a year or a few times a month, the number stands at 84%, while 77% of Catholics who seldom or never attend Mass say they have a favorable view.

More than three-quarters of U.S. Catholics say they are excited that Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955, is the first U.S.-born pope.

Though so many view him in a positive light, only 7% of Catholic survey respondents say they know a lot about the new pope, while a quarter say they know nothing at all. Just under 70% say they know “a little” about the pontiff, who spent decades working for the Church in Peru, eventually serving as the bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. 

He was elected to the papacy by the College of Cardinals on May 8 after the death of Pope Francis on April 21.

Among weekly Catholic Mass attendees, 75% say they only know a little about the new pope, and 11% say they know nothing.

“These numbers show both the excitement and the challenge of a new papacy,” said Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News (CNA’s parent company). “While Pope Leo XIV has been warmly received, many still don’t know his story.” 

“With our presence in Peru and the Vatican, and decades of experience covering the Church, EWTN News is uniquely positioned to help Catholics understand the people and places that shaped the Holy Father — and to serve as a force for unity for his pontificate,” she said.

The latest findings are part of Pew’s American Trends Panel, part of Pew’s ongoing research on Catholicism in the U.S.

In June, Pew reported that nearly 50% of adults in the U.S. have some connection to the Catholic faith. 

“Catholicism’s roots in the United States run deep,” Pew stated in the report titled “U.S. Catholicism: Connections to the Religion, Beliefs, and Practices.”

Pew found that 47% of U.S. adults have Catholic ties: 20% identify as Catholic, 9% as “culturally Catholic,” 9% as ex-Catholic, and 9% report a connection through a Catholic parent, spouse, or past Mass attendance.