The U.S. bishops designated the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., as a special pilgrimage site for the 2025 Jubilee Year on Dec. 17, 2024.  / Credit: Victoria Lipov/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 14:25 pm (CNA).

The U.S. bishops on Tuesday designated the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., as a special pilgrimage site for the 2025 Jubilee Year. 

A jubilee is a special holy year of grace and pilgrimage that happens at least once every 25 years. The pope can call for extraordinary jubilee years, such as the 2016 Year of Mercy, more often. During the jubilee, Catholics are encouraged to make a pilgrimage to Rome. For pilgrims who can’t travel to Rome, the bishops are expected to designate important local shrines and pilgrimage sites as special sites for the jubilee, according to the USCCB. 

“Visiting the basilica is a powerful way to take advantage of the grace of the jubilee and to be filled with the hope that flows from the embrace of our Mother,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio, archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and president of the USCCB, said in a statement shared with CNA. 

One grace that “pilgrims of hope” on the jubilee may obtain is the “jubilee indulgence.” This grace is granted by the Holy Father to anyone who travels to any sacred jubilee site, whether in Rome, the Holy Land, or a locally designated sacred site.  

Monsignor Walter Rossi, rector of the National Shrine, shared his gratitude “for the privilege of designating Mary’s shrine as a special place of pilgrimage for the holy year.”

“This honor will provide a moment of grace for all ‘pilgrims of hope’ during the jubilee year and will be especially beneficial to those who are unable to travel to Rome to pass through the Holy Doors and obtain the jubilee indulgence,” Rossi said in a statement shared with CNA. 

The National Shrine is the largest Roman Catholic church in North America and is dedicated to the patroness of the United States — the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Immaculate Conception. 

A spokesperson for the U.S. bishops told CNA that the National Shrine is the only special place of pilgrimage designated by the U.S. bishops — but diocesan bishops may designate their own cathedrals and basilicas.   

“While the USCCB hasn’t given this distinction to other sites in the United States, you will see in the guidance published by the Holy See that various sacred places such as diocesan cathedrals and minor basilicas may be given the special designation by the local bishop to allow the faithful to obtain the jubilee indulgence,” Chieko Noguchi, executive director of public affairs for the USCCB, told CNA. 

Bishops around the U.S. are beginning to designate special places of pilgrimage within their dioceses. 

In Michigan, for instance, the archbishop of Detroit designated 12 local pilgrimage sites. Archbishop Allen Vigneron noted that certain pilgrimage sites would be available for the faithful to receive graces. These 12 pilgrimage sites include the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Detroit, the Blessed Solanus Casey Center, and the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica. 

In the Archdiocese of Miami, Archbishop Thomas Wenski designated five churches as jubilee pilgrimage sites, including the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity and St. Mary Star of the Sea Basilica. 

In the Archdiocese of Denver, Archbishop Samuel Aquila established nine jubilee pilgrimage sites including the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden and the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

In Pennsylvania, Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia designated 10 sites, including the National Shrine of St. John Neumann as well as the Blessed Carlo Acutis Shrine and Center for Eucharistic Encounter.

A mom and her baby whom the St. Raymond’s Society helped. / Credit: Courtesy of St Raymond’s Society

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 13:55 pm (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of recent pro-life, pro-family, and abortion-related updates.  

Missouri’s maternity home program saves money

A pro-family tax credit program in Missouri saves taxpayers nearly $600,000 a year while supporting mothers, a report found. The St. Raymond’s Society maternity home report found that the program, which offers tax credits for donations to pro-life maternity homes, saved hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars by limiting public spending on other programs, such as homelessness.

“Pregnant women and new mothers are highly vulnerable to the financial impacts of these precarious circumstances,” the report noted. “Early intervention to address poverty is important as studies show the longer one is in poverty, the less likely they are to exit poverty.”

Maternity homes do more than just house women — they often provide coaching and mentoring services as well as financial and emotional support. The program’s long-term impact means that women are less likely to fall into poverty and more likely to receive higher levels of education. This decreases their need for future public resources in the long term, the report found. 

In addition, these services help the child long-term by providing essential prenatal services that help prevent health issues. The report found that by supporting women during pregnancy, Missouri saves about $28,700 per person seeking maternity services, totaling almost $600,000 in savings. Missouri’s policy also gives donors to maternity homes a 70% return to use on their taxes.  

Housing for pregnant women and mothers

A prominent research institute released a report on Dec. 12 encouraging the U.S. government to do more to support pregnant and parenting women facing housing challenges. The Charlotte Lozier Institute urged the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — which currently allocates $70 billion to housing programs — to extend support to pregnant and parenting women in need of housing aid. 

The report highlighted the housing crisis and its effect on expecting mothers. Housing instability increases risks for a mother and her unborn child — including poverty, health complications, and even adverse birth outcomes, the report noted. In addition, housing instability and poverty are key reasons that women cite for having abortions. 

The Lozier Institute encouraged HUD to amend definitions in its programs to include pregnant and parenting women in need — and to place them at the front of the line. These changes, the report noted, would allow expecting mothers priority access to housing assistance programs. Current policy generally focuses on youth pregnancy, but the report noted that programs should be expanded to include better support for pregnant and parenting mothers of varying ages.

Canadian city to restrict pro-life flyers with abortion images

A city in British Columbia, Canada, is set to restrict flyers containing graphic images of aborted fetuses. The New Westminster council on Monday unanimously supported the bylaw, which applies to graphic images of aborted fetuses but not to graphic images in general. The bylaw will require mailed materials with graphic images of victims of abortion to be delivered in an opaque envelope with a content warning as well as the name and address of the sender. Advocates of the bylaw argued that the flyers could be harmful to receivers’ mental health. 

If approved, the bylaw would make New Westminster the first city in British Columbia to restrict abortion images, though other cities in Canada have made similar bylaws restricting pro-life materials with graphic images of what abortion does to a fetus. Abortion is legal in Canada and publicly funded through all nine months of pregnancy. The government of British Columbia’s website states that in the province, every person has a medical right to abortion. 

Kansas abortions skyrocket in 2023

A Kansas report found that abortions spiked 58% in 2023, with nonresidents representing three-quarters of Kansas abortions. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) reported an increase from 12,319 abortions in 2022 to 19,467 in 2023. The number of nonresidents having abortions in Kansas nearly doubled from 8,475 in 2022 to 15,111 in 2023. Kansas became an “abortion destination” following abortion restrictions in neighboring states, with abortions in Kansas rising since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Before the overturn, there were 7,849 abortions reported by the KDHE in 2021.

While the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that the state’s Bill of Rights contained a right to self-determination, which included a state right to have abortions, several states surrounding Kansas limit abortion, including Missouri and Oklahoma. Missouri’s current pro-life law, which allows abortions only in medical emergencies, is being challenged in court after the state voted to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. 

Father Lawrence Hecker pleaded guilty this week to kidnapping and raping a teenage boy in the 1970s, heading off a long-delayed trial that launched with an indictment last year.  / Credit: New Orleans Police Department

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 11:25 am (CNA).

A Louisiana priest who pleaded guilty to raping a teenage boy decades ago will spend the rest of his life in prison, a criminal court ruled this week. 

Lawrence Hecker was handed the life sentence in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court on Wednesday. The sentence was given by Judge Nandi Campbell “without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension.” Campbell was reportedly weeping for Hecker’s victim as she ordered the life sentence. 

“He admitted to some very horrible crimes,” Hecker’s lawyer Bobby Hjortsberg told media after the sentencing. 

“He took responsibility for that and I believe that sparing the victims from having to go through the anguish of a trial should give them some closure and allow them to walk away from this knowing they got justice,” Hjortsberg added.

Hecker had pleaded guilty earlier this month to the kidnapping and raping of his teenage victim in the 1970s. The last-minute plea headed off a long-delayed trial that launched with an indictment last year. 

In September of last year, the 93-year-old priest was indicted on charges of aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, an aggravated crime against nature, and theft. The sex abuse crimes are alleged to have occurred between Jan. 1, 1975, and Dec. 31, 1976.

The trial was repeatedly delayed this year amid Hecker’s ill health and uncertainty over his mental competency to stand trial. Orleans Parish First Assistant District Attorney Ned McGowan had promised to “roll him in on a gurney” to try him.

District Attorney Jason Williams told media on Wednesday that he would request Hecker serve his sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiary, known popularly as Angola. Hjortsberg, meanwhile, said the convicted rapist will likely serve his sentence at a medical facility.

In a statement provided to CNA, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond said: “Today, it is our hope and prayer that the survivors of abuse perpetrated by Lawrence Hecker have some closure and some sense of peace in his sentencing.”

“On behalf of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, we offer our sincere and heartfelt apologies to the survivors for the pain Hecker has caused them to endure for decades,” the archbishop said, telling survivors the archdiocese “commend[s] your bravery” for coming forward.

“Our prayers are with all survivors,” the prelate said, adding that when the archdiocese has concluded its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, he will “meet with those survivors who wish to do so.”

The Archdiocese of New Orleans lists Hecker as among the priests who “are alive and have been accused of sexually abusing a minor, which led to their removal from ministry.”

The archdiocesan website says it received allegations against Hecker in 1996 and removed him from ministry in 2002. 

The archdiocese says the “time frame” of Hecker’s abuse spans the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The priest had in 1999 reportedly confessed to abusing multiple teenage boys during those years.

“Roadmap to Reality: Carlo Acutis and Our Digital Age” is a new documentary film exploring the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis and the lessons he offers young people regarding the challenges of the digital world that will be coming to theaters in the spring of 2025. / Credit: Castletown Media

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 10:55 am (CNA).

An online presentation Tuesday sponsored by the National Eucharistic Revival explored the question of how Catholics can use technology for good, inspired by the life of soon-to-be-saint Carlo Acutis. 

Acutis, a young Italian who died in 2006, is due to be canonized during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year. He is known for his skillful use of technology to spread his Catholic faith, particularly his creation of a still-extant website cataloging Eucharistic miracles.

Born in 1991, Carlo’s mother remembers the young whiz kid proudly describing himself as a “computer scientist” well before he got his first computer as a gift around the year 2000. He is often described as the Catholic Church’s first “tech-savvy” saint.

Tim Moriarty, director of the new film “Roadmap to Reality: Carlo Acutis and Our Digital Age” and co-host of the Dec. 17 webinar, highlighted statistics that suggest the average teen spends half of his or her waking hours looking at screens, and the troubling evidence of mental health issues and suicidal ideation linked to excessive digital engagement. 

He described Acutis as a “digital missionary” who masterfully used the internet as a tool in his pursuit of holiness while the Eucharist kept him anchored to reality — unlike so many of his peers who, Moriarty argued, fell into the distractions, vices, and prideful pursuits that the burgeoning internet had to offer.

In the face of such challenges posed by imprudent use of technology, “in a world losing itself to screens,” Moriarty called Acutis “absolutely a saint for our times ... the saint we need.”

Acutis’ deep devotion to Christ in the Eucharist, which informed his prudent use of technology, is an example for people today, he said.

“[Acutis was] online to get people offline,” Moriarty said, explaining that Acutis sought to encourage people to have a tangible encounter with God in the sacraments, as Acutis himself so often did in Eucharistic adoration and at Mass.

Brett Robinson, associate professor of practice at Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute and the co-host of the webinar, called for a critical examination of Catholics’ relationship with technology, urging them to try to use technology intentionally and focus on cultivating meaningful relationships outside of the digital sphere.

He asserted that Catholics would do well to take an approach to technology more like the Amish — a group that contrary to popular belief does not reject technology, he added — and ask in the face of technological advancements not “What can this do for me?” but rather “What will this do for my community?”

Because society has become so dependent on technology, many people believe there is no choice but to accept the “collateral damage” of a teen mental health crisis driven largely by social media, the scourge of pornography, and a decay of public discourse online, Robinson argued. 

An “atomized” approach to life and a lack of “formation” in virtue has led to the misuse of technology and many of the problems of modern society, he asserted.

Robinson similarly presented Acutis as a model for navigating this digital landscape, emphasizing a balance between embracing technology’s benefits and maintaining a grounded spirituality — particularly within devotion to the Eucharist — as well as human connection.

Robinson closed by offering several pieces of advice for a better relationship with technology that he compiled from his students at Notre Dame; slow down and take moments of rest, reflection, and silence; go outside and spend time in nature to escape digital noise and find peace; be present and prioritize human connection, rituals, and habits; set boundaries and use technology intentionally; and seek meaning, defining yourself by your values and passions rather than your achievements.

Above all, he said, Christians are called to “contextualize” the world, helping those they encounter to understand the bigger picture.

“Something is being revealed in all this [technological] change; something’s being revealed about what it means to be human. And that’s actually a really good thing for the Church, but it’s up for us to discern,” Robinson said.

A confirmation Mass is held at St. Mary Parish on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Franklin, Massachusetts. / Credit: St. Mary Parish

CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 05:15 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, announced it would be lowering its confirmation age just days after the Diocese of Salt Lake City shared it would adjust its process for youth converts to ensure thorough catechesis.

These decisions indicate a growing desire to strengthen the formation of youth in the Catholic faith.

Tim Glemkowski, who heads Amazing Parish, a ministry designed to support Catholic pastors and help parishes flourish, spoke to the challenges of remaining Catholic that young adults face in the culture today.

“The pressures of the culture are away from, not toward, religious belief and practice,” Glemkowski told CNA. “It is fair to say that our culture, broadly speaking, does not lend itself to preconditions.”

As the Church strives to address how to properly form youth in such a culture, in recent years many dioceses have lowered the confirmation age from high school to middle school or even younger, including the Archdiocese of Seattle to seventh grade; the Boston Archdiocese to eighth grade; and the Archdiocese of Denver to third grade before young people have received Communion. 

Requiring confirmation before Communion is known as “the restored order” — a celebration of the sacraments of initiation as the Church originally instructed them to be dispensed: baptism, confirmation, and then first Communion. The U.S. bishops allow reception of confirmation for youth between ages 7 and 17. 

According to a study by St. Mary’s Press and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University (CARA), the median age of those who left the Church was 13 years old. The study found that many former Catholics who reported leaving usually between ages 10 and 20 said they had questions about the faith as children but never discussed their doubts or questions with their parents or Church leaders.

“We need to ensure that youth learn how to pray with their heart, have their questions about the faith answered in robust ways, and have many opportunities to hear the Gospel and respond to God by handing over their life to him,” Glemkowski said. 

“Young saints should show us that holiness and heroic mission is possible for young people; we should not underestimate what kids are capable of.”

Addressing a hostile culture 

The Diocese of Baton Rouge recently lowered the confirmation age to seventh grade, citing the challenges that face youth today.

“Our children are experiencing a culture which, at times, is hostile to our faith,” Bishop Michael Duca of Baton Rouge wrote in a Dec. 8 letter. 

“Through social media of all forms, young people are confronted at a surprisingly younger age with challenges to their Catholic faith and morals,” Duca explained. “Given this new reality, I believe it is time to lower the age of confirmation to give our children the full grace of the sacrament of confirmation at an earlier age to meet these challenges. 

Duca announced the diocese would begin a transition plan to lower the age from 10th to seventh grade gradually. 

“This gift of the Spirit is given to all of us in a special way in the sacrament of confirmation that fully initiates us into the Church and fills us with these gifts and the enthusiasm to take on the mission of Christ to renew the world,” he wrote. 

“Many older Catholics remember that the age of confirmation was younger when we were confirmed,” Duca continued. “After the Second Vatican Council, in many places, the age was raised to high school since many leaders felt that the sacrament would be better understood at an older age. This practice has worked well, but times have changed.”  

Strengthening formation 

The Diocese of Salt Lake City is also developing its catechetical program for youth converts who are too old for infant baptism, citing a need to strengthen catechesis within the diocese. 

The diocese announced last month that children above the age of 7 who are joining the Catholic Church will not receive all three sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil after the diocese temporarily paused the standard practice. 

After baptism, children joining the Church in the diocese are to attend a faith formation class at their age level rather than receive several sacraments at once, according to the diocesan announcement. The pause is temporary as the diocese develops its faith formation plans.

The Church considers children older than 7 to be at the “age of reason” and able to make some decisions of faith for themselves, so unbaptized youth are usually enrolled in the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) adapted for children, a yearlong preparation program for becoming Catholic. 

The Church broadly requires that for sacramental initiation after the age of reason, recipients should receive the three sacraments of initiation at the same time, except with grave reason. 

However, the Diocese of Salt Lake City cites “many challenges and our limited ability to overcome them in a missionary diocese” as the reason for the temporary moratorium on OCIA for children.  

Through the moratorium, the diocese hopes to ensure that catechesis is adequate and that children understand the sacraments they are participating in; the diocese is also looking to develop its programs in order to enable unbaptized children to fully assimilate into the faith, according to the announcement. 

This pause will end after the diocese develops a “comprehensive faith formation plan,” according to Lorena Needham, director of the Office of Worship for the diocese.

Needham noted that OCIA generally comes with many challenges across dioceses. 

“There is still a classroom-school-year mentality in which both catechumen and directors try to work within a timeline of one year or less instead of allowing each person to discern their journey (along with the discernment of the initiation catechist),” Needham told CNA. 

Both the parents and the child must consent to joining the Church — but children “cannot adequately give [consent] if they do not know and understand what the sacraments of initiation are,” she noted in the diocesan announcement in Intermountain Catholic. 

“There is little training in the seminaries on the OCIA — often it is just an optional class,” she noted, adding that other groups such as LTP, TeamInitiation, and the Association for Catechumenal Ministry offer ongoing training.

To remedy this situation, the Diocese of Salt Lake City hopes to place a greater emphasis on training for Christian initiation.

“Some bishops have taken Christian initiation to heart and made it a focus for the professional development of their priests and central to their pastoral plans,” Needham observed.

The biggest change under the temporary moratorium mandates that youth baptized above the age of 7 will receive sacraments one at a time rather than all at once. This will entail attending first Communion and confirmation classes within their age groups.

Under the moratorium, the requirements for obtaining baptism for youth over age 7 are unchanged. The current pastoral directives of the diocese require a parent interview at least 60 days before the baptism as well as discernment of the parents’ readiness to help the child live a Christian life. In addition, parents must be registered in the parish or live within its boundaries, and the parish must provide baptismal preparation for the child, parents, and godparents.

“The hope for our youth, our families, and indeed for all of us in this diocese is that we have the best possible opportunities to learn and live our faith, regardless of when the Holy Spirit moves us or our parents to take the next step of faith,” Needham said in the announcement.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services, arrives for meetings at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 16, 2024, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 18, 2024 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reassuring Republican senators that he will back certain pro-life policies if the Senate confirms him to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In November, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kennedy to serve as the United States secretary of the HHS, a position that requires Senate confirmation. HHS oversees 10 agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Kennedy is a former Democrat. He ran for president as an independent in 2024 before dropping out and endorsing Trump. 

Although Kennedy has supported legal abortion for his entire public career, he told pro-life senators in closed-door meetings that he would oppose taxpayer funds for abortion domestically and abroad and restore conscience protections.

“Today I got to sit down with [Kennedy] — we had a substantive discussion about American health care … [and] a good discussion, at length, about pro-life policies at HHS,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said in a series of posts on X.

According to Hawley, Kennedy told him that, if confirmed, he would reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which ends federal funding for overseas organizations that promote abortion. Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy during his first term and said in an October interview with EWTN News that he would consider doing so again in a second term.

Hawley said Kennedy’s plans include “ending taxpayer funding for abortions domestically” and ”reinstating the bar on Title X funds going to organizations that promote abortion.” He said that Kennedy also “pledged to reinstate conscience protections for health care providers.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, told reporters that he and Kennedy also talked about abortion, saying: “The big thing about abortion is that he’s telling everybody … whatever President Trump [supports], I’m going to back him 100%.” 

“Basically, [Kennedy] and President Trump have sat down and talked about it and both of them came to an agreement,” Tuberville said. “Roe v. Wade is gone, [abortion has] gone back to the states. Let the people vote on it.” 

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, told reporters that Kennedy told him he “serves the will of the [incoming] president of the United States and he’ll be pushing his policies forward.”

“[Kennedy’s] first thing is [that] we have too many abortions,” Mullin said. “... His follow up to that is [that he is] serving at the will of the president of the United States. … I think that should clear up that question for anyone.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, said in a post on X that he also spoke with Kennedy about abortion. 

“I had a productive discussion with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this evening about the future of our nation’s health care system, preventing taxpayer-funded abortion, and Americans’ long-term well-being,” Scott said. 

During his independent presidential campaign, Kennedy first endorsed abortion in all stages of pregnancy, including late-term abortion. He later retracted that position and said he would back restrictions at the point of fetal viability. 

Kennedy also said during his campaign that he would support a “massive subsidized day care initiative” to reduce abortion without limiting legal access.

No word on chemical abortions

Tuberville, however, said that he did not speak with Kennedy about chemical abortions, which are regulated by the FDA. Trump himself has said he will not restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Chemical abortions account for about half of all abortions in the country. 

The FDA first approved mifepristone to be used in chemical abortions in 2000. Under current law, the drug is approved to abort an unborn child up to 10 weeks’ gestation, at which point the child has a fetal heartbeat, early brain activity, and partially developed eyes, lips, and nostrils.

Mifepristone kills the child by blocking the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the supply of oxygen and nutrients. A second pill, misoprostol, is taken between 24 to 48 hours after mifepristone to induce contractions meant to expel the child’s body from the mother, essentially inducing labor.

Pro-life advocates have been urging the incoming administration to restrict abortion drugs. Many activists have argued that the executive branch could prohibit the delivery of abortion drugs in the mail by enforcing the Comstock Act — a plan that has not been embraced by Trump.

U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 18, 2024 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a six-year-old case about whether South Carolina can prevent Medicaid funds from covering non-abortion services at Planned Parenthood facilities and other abortion clinics.

On Wednesday, the justices announced they would take the case in their 2024-2025 term. The case stems from a lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed in 2018 after Gov. Henry McMaster blocked abortion clinics from receiving those funds through an executive order.

Under federal law, federal Medicaid funds cannot be used to pay for abortion unless the life of the mother is at risk or the pregnancy results from rape or incest. However, federal law does allow those funds to pay for other services at abortion clinics. The court’s ruling will determine whether states can prevent those funds from covering non-abortion services at those facilities.

“Taxpayer dollars should never fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,” McMaster said in a post on X after the court agreed to hear the case. 

“In 2018, I issued an executive order to end this practice in South Carolina,” he added. “I’m confident the U.S. Supreme Court will agree with me that states shouldn’t be forced to subsidize abortions.”

The state government has argued that it has the authority to determine which organizations can access the federal funds it receives for family planning services and that it can allocate funds to other organizations that provide family planning services while exempting abortion clinics. The lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood argues that the state is interfering with a patient’s ability to obtain health care services at “the qualified provider of their choice.”

“Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund facilities that make a profit off abortion,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel John Bursch said in a statement. 

Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers are representing the state’s interests in the lawsuit. 

“Pro-life states like South Carolina should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood and other entities that peddle abortion are not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid,” Bursch added. “Congress did not unambiguously create a right for Medicaid recipients to drag states into federal court to challenge those decisions, so no such right exists.”

Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement that “every person should be able to access quality, affordable health care from a provider they trust, no matter their income or insurance status.”

“This case is politics at its worst: anti-abortion politicians using their power to target Planned Parenthood and block people who use Medicaid as their primary form of insurance from getting essential health care like cancer screenings and birth control,” Black said.

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit issued a ruling in favor of Planned Parenthood and ordered the state to grant abortion clinics access to those federal funds. Alliance Defending Freedom appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Monsignor Roger Landry. / Credit: EWTN News/Screenshot

Boston, Mass., Dec 18, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Father Roger Landry is now Monsignor Roger Landry — but he says he’s not ready to abandon the title “Father” anytime soon.

Landry, 54, the incoming national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States and a regular contributor to the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news parter, said he got the news this past weekend. He made it public Tuesday morning.

He said the new title, which is an honor bestowed by the pope, “will take some getting used to,” adding that he prefers the simpler title he has had during his 25 years of priesthood.

“I really love being called ‘Father,’ which is an ever-present challenge, every time it’s used, to respond as a spiritual father in the image of God the Father and of my own hardworking manly dad. I think it’s the greatest title to which any man and priest ought to aspire,” he told the Register.

“But I anticipate those who have always known me as ‘Father’ or strangers who see me dressed in black will still use it as the most natural vocative. I hope they do,” he continued. 

Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, where he serves as executive editor of the diocese’s newspaper, The Anchor. The diocese sent a written statement to its priests this past weekend. It says:

“On Nov. 14, 2024, Father Roger Landry was honored with the title Chaplain of His Holiness by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, for his distinguished service to the Church. Let us all wish Monsignor Landry hearty congratulations and best wishes.”

Landry told the Register that Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha told him about his new title on Saturday.

Landry said he was surprised, because in 2014 Pope Francis announced he was limiting the pool of possible candidates for the title of monsignor to priests in the Holy See’s diplomatic corps and those who serve at least five years in the Vatican, in addition to diocesan priests who are at least 65 years old, as the Register reported at the time.

The only one of those categories that corresponds to Landry is the diplomatic service, he said, “but after nothing happened after I worked for seven years as an attaché to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps as the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York, I figured I was safe!” 

Landry was born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he was valedictorian of his high school class. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard in 1992. He graduated from the Pontifical North American College in Rome in 1999, the year he was ordained a priest.

He served as a parochial vicar at parishes in Fall River and Hyannis before becoming a pastor in New Bedford and later at another church in Fall River.

For the past nine years he has worked in assignments outside of his diocese.

He served as attaché to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2015 to 2022, when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, appointed him Catholic chaplain at Columbia University. He is completing his stint at Columbia this month.

During the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2016 he served as a “missionary of mercy,” with authority from the pope to offer absolution for sins normally reserved to the Holy See.

He served as ecclesiastical assistant to Aid to the Church in Need between 2021 and 2024.

This past summer, Landry was the only priest to walk the entirety of one of the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimages. He carried the Body of Christ in a monstrance for long stretches on foot between New Haven, Connecticut, and Indianapolis, the site of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in July — an experience he wrote about for the Register in August.

He is the author of the February 2018 book “Plan of Life: Habits to Help You Grow Closer to God.”

His newest role is national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, which he begins full time in January 2025.

Landry will run, from the organization’s offices in New York City and St. Petersburg, Florida, four societies that help the pope spread the Catholic faith: the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which supports missionary work in 1,100 dioceses in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Latin America; the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, which supports vocations to the priesthood and religious life; the Missionary Childhood Association, which helps provide young people religious education, health care, advocacy, and the necessities of life; and the Missionary Union, which prays for the missions and supports catechists across the world.

As Landry looks forward to his new mission, he hopes that he will be seen for his priestly service foremost, he told the Register. “At the end of the day, I’m still just an ordained foot-washer given the privilege to proclaim the greatest news of all time.”

The oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments, dating from A.D. 300 to 800, was sold at Sotheby’s on Dec. 18, 2024, in New York City. Expected to sell for $1 million to $2 million, it went for $5.04 million. Inscribed with the commandments in Paleo-Hebrew script, the tablet was discovered during railroad excavations along the southern coast of Israel in 1913. / Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Seattle, Wash., Dec 18, 2024 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

A contentious Ten Commandments tablet has sold at Sotheby’s for $5.04 million — more than twice its high estimate of $2 million. The auction took place on Wednesday in New York City.

Promoted by the auction house as “the earliest surviving inscribed tablet of the Ten Commandments” and purportedly dating to the late Roman-Byzantine era, the marble slab drew intense scrutiny ahead of the sale, with scholars disputing its provenance and authenticity.

According to Sotheby’s, a local worker discovered the roughly 115-pound artifact in 1913 during railway construction in what is now Israel. Unaware of its significance, he reportedly used it as a threshold stone for decades.

It was only in 1943, when scholar Jacob Kaplan acquired the tablet, that its potential importance as a Samaritan Decalogue emerged. Sotheby’s relied partly on this narrative and the object’s wear as indicators of its antiquity.

Some experts remained unconvinced. 

“It may or may not be ancient,” said Christopher Rollston, the chairman of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University, in an interview with CNA. 

“Sotheby’s has not done its due diligence with this piece, and I find that to be deeply problematic,” he said. Rollston argued that while Sotheby’s cites wear patterns as evidence of age, decades of use as a doorway threshold alone could account for the stone’s abrasion.

In a recent blog post for The Times of Israel, Rollston also noted that the tablet omits the commandment forbidding the misuse of God’s name — a precept included in the Samaritan Pentateuch. 

He suggested that such deviations might be intentional “surprising content” introduced by forgers to stoke interest. “For 150 years, and indeed much longer than that … forgers have been producing fake inscriptions with surprising content,” Rollston wrote in the blog.

Sotheby’s defended its process. “Sotheby’s regularly undertakes due diligence procedures to authenticate and determine the provenance of property prior to accepting it for sale, and the research into this property was no different,” a spokesperson said before the sale.

The house emphasized that the tablet “was also seen by scholars who had the opportunity to inspect it firsthand” and has appeared in scholarly publications since 1947 without prior challenges to its authenticity.

The strong price underscores the ongoing tension between market demand for rare antiquities and persistent legal, ethical, and academic debates about how such objects are vetted. 

“Auction houses don’t have any specific legal obligations to verify authenticity and provenance,” said Patty Gerstenblith, distinguished research professor of law and director of the Center for Art, Museum, and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University. “The auction house typically owes a fiduciary obligation to the consignor, not the buyer.”

If doubts arise after a sale, buyers face hurdles. “If the artifact turns out not to be authentic or not to have lawful provenance, the purchaser may be able to sue the auction house,” Gerstenblith said, noting that such claims often hinge on whether the auction house’s assertions amounted to a warranty or were made fraudulently.

While the $5.04 million result indicates robust interest in this piece of purported biblical heritage, the scholarly skepticism voiced by experts like Rollston suggests the tablet’s true legacy — and its place in the historical record — may remain the subject of vigorous debate.

null / Credit: udra11/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Wednesday, Dec. 18, is a special day in the Catholic Church, though relatively few Catholics probably realize it. 

This Wednesday — along with the following Friday and Saturday, Dec. 20 and 21 — is an ember day, a day traditionally set aside for fasting and abstinence from meat. These three upcoming ember days are the last ones of 2024. 

But what are ember days, and why do they exist?

Ember days are tied to the four seasons of the year. The reason “ember” is associated with these days seems to be that the word is a corruption of the Latin phrase “quatuor tempora,” meaning four seasons. 

Each of the four seasons of the year contains three ember days. The 12 total ember days throughout the year are:

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Ash Wednesday

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14)

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the feast of St. Lucy, which is Dec. 13 

Ember days appear to be a very early Christian practice, first attested to as part of apostolic tradition by Pope Leo I in the fifth century. The purpose of their introduction, according to The Catholic Encyclopedia, was to thank God for the gifts of nature (hence their tie to the natural seasons), especially the crops used to make bread and wine for the Eucharist; to teach people to make use of those gifts in moderation; and to assist the needy. 

Ember days also served as a response to the pagan festivals of Rome; the days encouraged Christians to counter the excesses and debauchery of those festivals by, instead, fasting and praying. At first the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December, but the exact days were not fixed. The first record of the fasts for all four seasons being decreed comes in the writing of Pope Gelasius at the end of the fifth century. 

After Gelasius, the practice spread beyond Rome. Gelasius also started the practice of permitting the conferring of ordinations on ember Saturdays, which were formerly given only at Easter, The Catholic Encyclopedia records. That tradition of holding ordinations of ember Saturdays also continues today, and in addition, ember days have traditionally been days of prayer for vocations.

The observance of ember days was later prescribed for the entire Latin Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085). So, ember days were a big part of Catholic life for quite a while. 

Though canon law no longer requires the observance of fasting and abstinence on ember days, they remain important for Catholics in many countries, and their continued observance by Catholics everywhere is certainly not discouraged. And in fact, some bishops in the United States have explicitly encouraged their Catholics to observe ember days and pray for specific intentions. 

Ember days are a fascinating and ancient tradition of the Catholic Church that has been largely forgotten, at least in the United States. Though certainly not required, consider observing the last ember days of the year, thanking God for nature and for the gifts he brings us through it.

This story was first published Dec. 17, 2022, and has been updated.