St. Paul’s Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in Mosul, Iraq. / Credit: France Yousif

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

Here are some of the major stories about the Church from around the world that you may have missed this week:

Cardinal calls on Iraqi Christians to vote for fellow Christians in upcoming elections

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, is urging Iraqi Christians to actively participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, emphasizing the importance of updating electoral records and obtaining voter cards, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported. 

Sako stressed that the five parliamentary seats that are designated for Christians be confined to Christians alone to ensure accurate representation and underscored the crucial role that each individual can play in shaping Iraq’s future. 

Latin patriarch of Jerusalem promotes interfaith dialogue during historic visit to Bahrain 

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, was received as an official guest of the Kingdom of Bahrain last week, marking a historic moment for the Catholic community in the Gulf country, with whom he expressed the Holy Land Church’s “spiritual ties,” ACI MENA reported. 

The cardinal met with Archbishop Aldo Berardi, the second apostolic vicar of Northern Arabia, along with various other religious leaders, parishioners, and representatives for the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence. He also presided over a pontifical Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, the largest Catholic church in the Arabian Peninsula.

During the homily, he emphasised the importance of coexistence, tolerance, and mutual respect in light of the various challenges facing the Middle East and called for prayers for the Christian community and harmony among religions. 

Cameroon diocese suspends ‘all forms of worship’ for chapel after Blessed Sacrament stolen

The bishop of the Diocese of Bafang in Cameroon has directed that St. Augustine Famkeu Chapel remain closed after it was desecrated and thieves stole a ciborium containing consecrated hosts and other items, ACI Africa reported. 

“This place can no longer host Christian worship until reparation has been made for this offense against God,” Bishop Abraham Kome said in a statement. “Therefore, the chapel will remain closed until further notice for the necessary time of reparation.” 

Excavation reveals further evidence of Armenian Christians in Jerusalem

Excavations this week in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem uncovered four ancient Armenian inscriptions dating back to the sixth and seventh centuries, according to the Jerusalem Post. 

The inscriptions were discovered on a mosaic floor, tombstones, and a large pottery bowl. One inscription, discovered in the center of the “reception room,” is a dedication by an Armenian priest that reads: “I Ewstat the priest laid this mosaic. You who enter this house, remember me and my brother Luke to Christ.” 

Ethiopian bishop: Northern region could be ‘engulfed in a very bloody confrontation’

Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin of the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has issued a warning of rising tensions between Ethiopia and its northern bordering neighbor, Eritrea, ACI Africa reported. 

“Instability in our region continues to persist, tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea are increasing, and the country could be engulfed in a very bloody confrontation. God forbid that the factions involved start a new war in Tigray, which has already suffered enormously,” the bishop said Tuesday in a statement to Agenzia Fides. He noted that political instability and violence in the region, coupled with the “sudden interruption of USAID funding, is severely penalizing millions of people.” 

Pakistan court sentences 5 men to death for alleged ‘online blasphemy’ 

A court in Pakistan has sentenced five men — four Pakistani nationals and one Afghan — to death on Tuesday for allegedly violating the Muslim-majority country’s blasphemy laws online, according to an AFP report on March 26. A representative for the legal group that brought the case forward told AFP that “all five accused were sentenced to death for spreading blasphemous content against the holy prophet.”

The five accused have each been sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly desecrating the Quran and 10 years for “hurting religious sentiments.” The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended Pakistan be designated as a country of particular concern in its latest annual global watch report earlier this week.

The Kansas Capitol in Topeka. / Credit: Nils Huenerfuerst/Wikipedia| CC BY 4.0

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

The organizer of a “black mass” that took place outside the Kansas state Capitol on Friday amid heavy Catholic protest was arrested shortly afterward in the Capitol building after punching a protester in the face. 

A video from local news outlet WIBW shows Michael Stewart raising his arms and chanting in the Capitol rotunda, surrounded by a number of protesters urging him to stop. A young man later identified as Marcus Schroeder attempted to snatch what appeared to be papers from Stewart’s outstretched hands. 

Video and images circulating on social media show Stewart punching Schroeder twice in the face before a half-dozen police officers tackled him and led him away.  

Upon reaching the Capitol building’s doors, law enforcement had greeted Stewart and told him he was welcome to enter but could not hold a demonstration. Gov. Laura Kelly had previously banned all protesters from entering the building. 

Stewart had publicly announced on numerous occasions his intention to defy Kelly’s order and enter the Capitol rotunda, saying in a recent Facebook live video that he intended to enter the building and “read prayers.” 

According to the Kansas Reflector, after the area cleared, two other Satanists tried to pick up where Stewart left off and were taken into custody. 

It’s not yet clear what charges, if any, will be brought against members of the Satanist group. 

During the “mass” on the Capitol steps prior to the altercation inside the building, a protester attempted to throw himself on the unconsecrated “crackers” that Stewart was stomping on as part of the Satanic ritual. Stewart pummelled the man with his fists, and law enforcement took the man away, the Reflector reported.  

Catholic leaders in the state, while deploring the planned sacriligious “black mass” — which is designed to protest and mock the Catholic Mass — had called for peaceful and prayerful resistance. 

At the center of the Catholic reaction, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, led a session of Eucharistic adoration and Mass at a Catholic church directly opposite the Capitol. According to the Reflector, “as many as 400 people” showed up for the Mass at Assumption Church.  

Naumann, who settled a lawsuit earlier this month after the Satanic group testified under oath that it did not steal a consecrated host, had urged the faithful not to “succumb to anger and violence, as that would be cooperating with the devil.”

A large crowd of several hundred counterprotestors, primarily organized by the Catholic group the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, gathered on the south side of the Capitol to pray the rosary and demonstrate in defense of the Catholic faith. 

Meanwhile, “about 20 people” showed up in support of the “black mass,” WIBW reported. 

Credit: Ivanko80/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

A public official in Ulster County, New York, is refusing to cooperate with a ruling from a Texas judge ordering a doctor to pay a $113,000 fine for allegedly mailing abortion pills into the southern state. 

Acting County Clerk Taylor Bruck will not file the summary judgment ordered against abortion doctor Margaret Daley Carpenter for allegedly providing abortion pills to women in Texas via mail, a violation of the state’s laws.

The order was issued by Collin County, Texas, District Court Judge Bryan Gantt against Carpenter, a cofounder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine Access (ACT).

This is the first case, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, in which a court official in one state refused to cooperate with a judicial ruling from another state on a matter related to interstate abortion services.

Under Texas law, both surgical and chemical abortions are illegal in most circumstances and it is expressly illegal to supply abortion drugs to a person through the mail. The initial complaint against Carpenter, issued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, also noted that she is not licensed to practice medicine in Texas.

However, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill in 2023 that prohibits New York courts from cooperating with abortion-related court orders from out-of-state judges in pro-life states. The New York “Shield Law” is designed to create a “safe haven” for abortionists.

“I hold my responsibilities and the oath I have taken in the highest regard,” Bruck said in a statement after refusing to file the summary judgment.

“In accordance with the New York state shield law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office,” he continued. “Since this decision is likely to result in further litigation, I must refrain from discussing specific details about the situation.”

Paxton issued a statement on X chastising the county clerk for blocking the summary judgment. 

“I am outraged that New York would refuse to allow Texas to pursue enforcement of a civil judgment against a radical abortionist illegally peddling dangerous drugs across state lines,” Paxton wrote. 

“New York is shredding the Constitution to hide lawbreakers from justice, and it must end,” he added. “I will not stop my efforts to enforce Texas’ pro-life laws that protect our unborn children and mothers.”

Gantt, who was appointed to the district court in Texas by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2024, issued the ruling against Carpenter after she failed to appear at a court hearing in February. The order also prohibits her from mailing abortion pills into the state in the future.

According to Paxton’s lawsuit against Carpenter, the abortionist prescribed abortion drugs to a Texas woman after seeing the patient virtually via a telehealth appointment. The alleged drugs killed the unborn child and caused severe bleeding for the woman, which required her to seek medical attention at a hospital.

Carpenter is a co-medical director and cofounder of ACT, which advertises on its website that it makes abortion available “in all 50 states” and specifically offers “telemedicine care for patients in abortion-hostile states.” The organization supplies women with abortion pills up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

ACT was formed in 2022 in response to lawmakers in some states enacting pro-life laws after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

In February, Carpenter was also indicted by a Louisiana grand jury for allegedly supplying abortion drugs to a minor in that state, in violation of state law. Hochul said at the time that the doctor would not be extradited to Louisiana, citing New York’s shield law.roba

“People need genuine compassion and choices, not the false choice of pain or poison,” says Jim Towey, founder and president of Aging with Dignity, the organization behind a new watchdog effort to monitor and oppose the expansion of assisted suicide throughout the United States. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo”/EWTN News screenshot

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

A new watchdog effort has launched to monitor and oppose the expansion of assisted suicide throughout the United States. 

Aging with Dignity, a nonprofit group inspired by St. Teresa of Calcutta that provides guidance on end-of-life issues, on Thursday debuted Assisted Suicide Watch, which the group said will “challenge the well-funded effort to convince people that suicide-affirming care is a social good.”

Jim Towey, the founder and CEO of Aging with Dignity, previously served as legal counsel to Mother Teresa. He told CNA last year that he launched the nonprofit “to give people a hopeful vision for end of life that helps them practice their faith and that doesn’t treat dying like it’s just a medical moment.”

The organization has widely distributed its “Five Wishes” legal document, an advance directive that helps Catholics and others establish their wishes for care ahead of a serious illness. Last year it rolled out a new resource, “Finishing Life Faithfully,” a booklet that helps Catholics address end-of-life decisions in line with Church teaching. 

Assisted Suicide Watch, meanwhile, is meant to research and analyze “the consequences of suicide-affirming care,” the organization says.

“If we adopt suicide as a social norm, then we remove any motivation to try and correct the increasing rate of suicide in the country because it is no longer a problem worth fixing but rather a ‘solution’ worth celebrating and promoting,” the initiative points out. 

The new watchdog effort is already tracking the growing rate at which assisted suicide is claiming lives in the U.S. It says more than 2,300 Americans died from the practice in 2023, while more than 1,000 lethal prescriptions remain unaccounted for in the country.

Aging with Dignity said the watchdog will “track, expose, and oppose state and national efforts to expand physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.”

Towey in a press release said the group “fully support[s] patient self-determination.” But, he said, “killing yourself or forcing doctors to participate is not the answer” because “it cheapens human dignity.”

“Physicians are healers, not executioners,” he said. “People need genuine compassion and choices, not the false choice of pain or poison.”

In addition to the United States, assisted suicide has been on the upswing in other parts of the world, including in Canada, where the country’s national “medical aid in dying” program accounted for nearly 1 in 20 deaths in the country in 2023.

Aging with Dignity said assisted suicide is the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada, with more than 96% of suicide requests granted. 

The group said that in order to counter assisted suicide it promotes “best practices in palliative care,” including pain management, timely hospital services, and spiritual and emotional support.

“If America’s health care system routinely offered such humane services,” Towey said, “public support for the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide would nearly vanish.”

Maryland State House. / Credit: Jon Bilous/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 14:25 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Church in Maryland is urging the state Legislature to treat cases of child sexual abuse in state-run facilities equal to those in private institutions following a proposed bill that would “decrease the number of civil causes of action for child sexual abuse filed against the state.”

The Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) said in a statement on Thursday that the bill “greatly exacerbates an existing difference in treatment for victims abused in state institutions and those abused in private institutions.”

If passed, the bill would reduce the state damage cap for abuse victims to $400,000 while keeping the cap for private organizations at $1.5 million.

The “overtly unequal treatment in HB 1378 is not only poor policy for victim-survivors but also unfairly targets nonprofit and religious organizations that have long served children in this state and have implemented strong safeguards for youth protection,” the Maryland bishops said.

The bill is sponsored by state Del. C.T. Wilson, who spearheaded the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023, which abolished the statute of limitations on lawsuits against public and private entities involved in incidents of sexual abuse. That bill resulted in increased claims against the state.

“The Child Victims Act uncovered a terrible truth,” the Maryland bishops said. “The largest employer of abusers in the state of Maryland appears to be the state of Maryland itself.”

The MCC statement said the reports of abuse within state-led institutions, including Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services, are mainly from young men and women of color who are the majority of youth placed under the state’s care. 

The bishops called the harm done to them “heartbreaking.”

“As a Church that has faced its own painful reckoning,” the statement said, “we urge state leaders to be accountable and transparent.”

The statement calls for specific actions to be done by state leaders to ensure “abuse by state employees never happens again.”

The Church further instructs the government to “seek opportunities for an independent assessment to gain further insight into the history of abuse in state settings” as well as “implement reforms such as stringent safeguarding policies” and “provide survivor-centered support for those who suffered abuse by state representatives.”

But there is “no principled basis for treating victims of child sexual abuse in state institutions differently from those who suffered abuse in private institutions,” the conference said.

The Philippines has the highest adult Christian faith retention rate in the world, according to Pew Research. / Credit: icosha/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 28, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Surveys in about three dozen countries compiled by the Pew Research Center found that most Christians who are raised in the faith hold onto it in adulthood. In fact, in every country surveyed the majority of people who are raised Christian still remain in the faith as adults.

However, the numbers vary widely, from a high of 99% Christian faith retention in the Philippines and 98% in Hungary and Nigeria to lows of 51% in South Korea and 53% in the Netherlands.

The United States was slightly lower than the average from the countries included in the research. About 73% of Americans who are raised Christian as children have kept the faith in their adult lives.

Pew’s data includes numbers from 10 European countries, 10 east and South Asian countries, eight countries in the Americas, five African countries, two west Asian countries, and one country in Oceania.

The broader report on religious retention rates included surveys from 36 countries, which polled nearly 40,000 Americans and slightly more than 40,000 people from other countries. However, the report only measured the Christian retention rate in 27 of those countries — the ones that had substantial Christian populations.

Based on the report, African and Eastern European countries surveyed had some of the highest retention rates for Christianity. Some of the lowest retention rates were in Western Europe, Canada, and Australia. 

Ghana, Kenya, Poland, and Sri Lanka all had retention rates between 92% and 97%. Peru had a retention rate of 89% and Greece was at 87%. Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa all had retention rates at 81%. Argentina’s retention rate was 80%.

Countries with Christian faith retention rates between 72% and 79% included Colombia, Singapore, Italy, the United States, and Chile. 

The following countries had retention rates between 57% and 61%: Canada, Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden.

A large majority of the people in these countries who abandoned the Christian faith no longer identify with any religion at all. Only a small percentage switched to a different religion.

Numbers of those who fall away outpace incoming converts 

The surveys also reveal that in most countries the number of adults who have fallen away from the faith is substantially higher than the number of adults in those countries who convert to Christianity.

Some of the biggest losses for the faith are happening in European countries, with six countries on the continent surveyed seeing more than 11 adults leave the faith for every one who converts to it. This trend is also prevalent, yet less pronounced, in the United States and other countries in North and South America.

Pew’s surveys only measure the number of people who adhere to a different religious faith than the one with which they grew up. It does not measure broader national shifts in religious beliefs that are caused by other factors, such as immigration and birth rates.

The only countries that had more adult conversions to the faith than departures were Singapore, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Ghana, and the Philippines. Nigeria had a 1:1 ratio. 

Assessing these numbers, Jimmy Akin, a senior apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that the Pew compilation is “not representative of global trends” as it only includes five African countries on a continent where “Christianity has been growing dramatically.” He also pointed out that “the Gospel is making progress in Muslim countries and in the communist world,” most of which are not included in these surveys and frequently undercounted due to repressive laws.

In the United States, about 73% of people who were raised Christian as children still identify as Christians as adults. However, about 23% no longer identify with any religion and another 4% identify with a non-Christian faith, which means 27% no longer call themselves Christian.

On top of this, conversion rates to Christianity in the country are quite low as a percentage. The surveys found that about 94% of current Christians were raised in the faith. Only about 4% of people who call themselves Christian were raised without any faith and just 2% were raised in a non-Christian household of a separate faith.

Multiple factors contribute to the religious makeup of a country. In spite of the net loss through “religious switching,” a separate Pew survey from May 2024 found that — in raw numbers — the percentage of Americans who identify as nonreligious has stabilized in recent years after a major surge in nonreligious identity through the 1990s and 2010s.

The data does not establish distinctions between Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or Protestantism. It does not categorize a change in Christian faith tradition or community as “religious switching.” 

For Catholicism specifically, data published by the Vatican earlier this month shows continued growth in the number of people in the world who are Catholic. According to the data, the total number of Catholics globally surpassed 1.4 billion people in 2023.

null / Credit: sebra/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

A Texas Catholic charity group that sued the federal government this month over budget cuts says it will drop its lawsuit as payments from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) resume. 

Catholic Charities Fort Worth sued the agency at the beginning of March after the Trump administration froze tens of millions of dollars in grants for refugee services in Texas. 

Earlier this month the government said it was conducting a “program integrity review” of the Catholic charity. Last week the government said it had paid out more than $47 million to the charity after completing the review. 

In a “joint status report” filed earlier this week, the charity and the government said HHS has made continuous payments to the Catholic group since March 17 following the conclusion of the review. 

“As a result of [the government’s] representations and action, [the Catholic charity] will move to dismiss this case on or before April 2, 2025,” the filing said. 

The document noted that the charity would only dismiss the lawsuit so long as the group’s funding requests “continue to be paid in the normal course up until that date.”

The lawsuit’s pending dismissal will bring to an end just one of several suits filed in the wake of the major budget and funding cuts the Trump administration has enacted since January. The White House said the cuts were meant to bring federal policy and spending in line with the administration’s agenda.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sued the Trump administration in February over what the bishops said was an unlawful suspension of funding for refugee programs in the United States.

The State Department earlier this month canceled two multimillion-dollar refugee resettlement contracts with the USCCB, directing the bishops to “stop all work on the program[s] and not incur any new costs” and “cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible.” The bishops’ lawsuit is still playing out in federal court. 

Several other groups have sued the government over the funding freezes, arguing that the White House engaged in an overreach of its executive power in ending the large amounts of federal payouts.

Lawsuits have also been filed over other Trump White House policies. Multiple religious groups last month sued the administration over its policy allowing immigration officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants in houses of worship and other “sensitive locations.”

Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as Jesus Christ in “The Chosen,” speaks with CNA during a press junket interview on March 19, 2025, in Dallas at the Season 5 premiere of “The Chosen: Last Supper.” / Credit: EWTN screenshot/Francesca Fenton/CNA

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Season 5 of the hit series “The Chosen” has officially been released in theaters across the country.

“The Chosen: Last Supper” focuses on the events of Holy Week, starting with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with Judas’ betrayal in the Garden of Gethsamene. 

Part 1 of Season 5 was released in theaters on March 28, with Part 2 coming on April 4 and Part 3 on April 11. 

Actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in the series, shared about his experience portraying historic events such as the Last Supper and the washing of the feet, especially as a Catholic who celebrates these moments every year during the Triduum.

“For me, it was living out liturgy,” he told CNA in a March 19 press junket interview at the premiere of Season 5 in Dallas. “I try to best replicate a level of authenticity for those scenes based on my experience of the liturgy.”

Speaking about these beautiful moments in salvation history, he said: “It’s going to be stunningly beautiful for people to see. And we sort of present it in a very unique way, but in a way that is super powerful.” 

He added: “I hope it lands the way it felt when we did it because there were moments where many of us were just kind of like wiping away the tears from our eyes right after the scene, or during the scene. It’s really truly beautiful.” 

The release of the new season comes during Lent, culminating in the Triduum and the celebration of Easter. Roumie hopes that Season 5 will provide viewers  “a more vibrant and saturated experience of Holy Week, a more vivid experience of Holy Week, that they can see and feel.” 

Roumie explained that during this time where we are reading about these important moments of Holy Week in Mass each week, viewers will now get to see “a full production of what this moment looked like. I don’t know if anybody has ever covered it in the detail that we have and I think for me it was so important to bring everything that I had to it, especially as a Catholic.”

The actor shared that he even flew his spiritual director out to be with him as they shot the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsamene. 

“I just wanted to be armed with as much spiritual firepower as possible,” he said. “He’s a priest so he said Mass for me that day. I felt prayed up, put it that way, before entering into the scene.”

Roumie is now preparing himself for another incredibly important scene — the Crucifixion, which will be shown in Season 6. 

The actor shared that he recently received the script and while Roumie has been traveling, he has been trying to read “different source material” regarding the Passion.

He has also been studying the Shroud of Turin in order to learn more about “the crucifixion techniques and what Jesus actually would’ve went through.”

“Learning from the markings on that shroud, what the crucifixion physically looked like and what I now have to prepare for mentally and spiritually to recreate — I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m confident that the Lord will bring me through it one way or another, and hopefully I’ll continue to learn more and fall deeper in love with Jesus as a result.”

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser speaks in front of the Capitol on March 27, 2025, in Washington, D.C. “This movement is completely unified in its first priority, and that is to defund big abortion in this reconciliation bill,” she said. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA

Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2025 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

More than 300 pro-life activists from 39 different states gathered on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 27 to advocate for the defunding of “Big Abortion” and Planned Parenthood. 

Earlier this week, a letter from more than 150 pro-life groups from all 50 states was sent to members of Congress urging them to “stop the flow of American tax dollars toward the abortion industry” through a reconciliation bill.

The action comes after the announcement that the Trump administration plans to freeze millions of federal taxpayer dollars funding abortion and transgender services.  

Half of the activists on the Hill were students from across the nation, while the other half were women, men, and children of all different ages and demographics. Kelsey Pritchard, communications director for SBA Pro-Life America, told CNA that a few-months-old baby was their youngest supporter at the events.

Some of the attendees also joined various members of Congress and advocates from pro-life organizations at a press conference outside the Capitol highlighting the importance of the issue and the need to act now. 

Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona; Mary Miller, R-Illinois; and Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, along with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, all shared their support for the initiative. 

“American taxpayers should never be forced to pay for the murder of innocent babies. But that’s exactly what Congress has allowed to happen,” Biggs said. “In 2022-2023, during the Biden-Harris regime, Planned Parenthood received nearly $700 million in taxpayer funding.”

Miller said today is a “historic opportunity” to “defend life in America.”

Milled shared her support by announcing legislation she introduced “to require ultrasounds to be performed on women and girls seeking abortions,” she said, “because 90% of women change their minds after they see the baby for the first time.” 

“Today is a great day to stand for life,” Tuberville said.

“One of our government’s basic duties is to defend life, not destroy it,” he continued. “I’m proud to be here today and look forward to working with my colleagues to defund Planned Parenthood and stand up for life and the American taxpayers.”

Kristen Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, called the day a “historic moment,” as “the pro-life movement stands unified behind one single message, defund the entire abortion industry, defund the longtime standard bearer of Planned Parenthood once and for all.”

Hawkins explained that next steps will include rallies across more than 100 cities to “tell President Trump and our legislative players here on Capitol Hill, in our state capitals, that it’s very clear what they must do next. Defund your political enemies, invest in lifesaving, life-affirming medical care.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA Pro-Life America, said: “I can tell you one thing, this movement is completely unified in its first priority, and that is to defund big abortion in this reconciliation bill, hopefully by Memorial Day.”

“But until then, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” she continued. “We’re going to go back to those halls in Congress and defund big abortion.”

Dannenfelser told CNA that right now is a hopeful time in the movement to defund Planned Parenthood. 

“There’s a lot of momentum and a lot more conversation,” she said. “There’s a lot more desire to land somewhere post Dobbs. It is very important right now. The policy itself is the most important thing, but it’s also good for the pro-life movement to get some points on the board after some tough losses.”

Kansas Capitol building in Topeka. / Credit: Dave Newman/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Mar 27, 2025 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

Amid plans for a blasphemous “black mass” at the Kansas Capitol building set to take place on March 28, Catholics in the state and elsewhere are urging a prayerful, peaceful response, the centerpiece of which will be adoration and Mass at a Catholic church directly opposite the Capitol.

Organized by the Satanic Grotto, the “black mass” — an explicit parody of the Catholic Mass — is set to begin around 10 a.m. Originally slated to take place inside the Capitol rotunda itself, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly later decreed that the event must take place outside, though organizers of the ritual have said they plan to defy Kelly’s order and enter the Capitol building “around 11:30.”

A promotional flyer for the “mass” posted on Reddit lists the “components” of the ritual, which include the “Denounciation [sic] of Christ,” the “Desecration of the Eucharist,” and the “Corruption of the Blood.”

To counter the Satanic event, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, will lead a Eucharistic Holy Hour at Assumption Catholic Church, which is directly across the street from the Capitol.

The Holy Hour will begin at 11 a.m. Friday followed by noon Mass. Similar Holy Hours and Masses are planned in the neighboring Kansas dioceses of Wichita, Salina, and Dodge City. 

The planned Satanic ritual is an “affront to all Christians,” Naumann noted in a recent statement, but he urged the faithful not to “succumb to anger and violence, as that would be cooperating with the devil.”

During the authentic Catholic Mass, “we will pray for God to bless those who blaspheme him and who mock those who believe in Jesus Christ. After all, on Calvary, Jesus implored his heavenly Father to forgive those who crucified him because they did not know what they were doing,” Naumann wrote. 

The archbishop noted that Pope Francis recently announced he will canonize Blessed Bartolo Longo, a 19th-century Italian who embraced the occult and Satanism, becoming a Satanic priest and promising his soul to the devil. 

Amid the fervent prayers of his family, a priest motivated Longo, on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to make a sincere confession and return to the Church. He became a devout and charitable Catholic and even later inspired St. John Paul II to create the luminous mysteries of the rosary. 

“Catholics should not underestimate Satan, his craftiness and power. However, as long as we keep close to Jesus, we need not fear the devil. Throughout the Gospel, we see Our Lord’s authority over the demonic, liberating many who had given themselves to Satan,” Naumann wrote. 

“If we seize the opportunity to draw closer to Jesus through prayer, then we can make this attempt to mock and blaspheme our Catholic faith into what Satan most fears and despises,” the prelate said. 

“Let us pray that the Lord of Life can penetrate and change the hearts of the Satanists of our time with his merciful love. St. Bartolo Longo, pray for us and especially for those who have become ensnared by the evil one. All things are possible with God!”

Archdiocese filed lawsuit over alleged theft of consecrated hosts

Naumann had on March 14 filed a lawsuit in Leavenworth County District Court seeking an order to secure the safe return of any consecrated hosts in the Satanist group’s possession. Satanist groups intending to stage so-called “black masses” have on at least one other occasion boasted of possessing a stolen consecrated host with an intent to desecrate it. 

Naumann settled the lawsuit after the Satanist leaders testified under oath that the hosts and wine they plan to desecrate in the ritual are not “Catholic in origin.”

The planned Satanic event has sparked a heated debate among Kansas lawmakers as to whether the event should be allowed to go forward. The Legislature passed a nonbinding resolution March 20 denouncing the planned ritual. 

The leader of the Satanic Grotto, Michael Stewart, who has described himself as an atheist who does not believe in Satan, posted a video this week in which he said he expects “up to 5,000 counterprotestors” to show up at the Capitol during his event. 

“5,000 Catholics are what the Capitol Police are preparing for,” Stewart claimed. 

A Catholic-led petition asking Kelly to shut down the event has attracted over 50,000 signatures as of Thursday. 

Students at Kansas’ Benedictine College are invited to pray a rosary in the school’s Mary’s Grotto at 11 a.m. on Friday, school spokesman Steve Johnson told CNA. 

Benedictine students can then participate in daily Mass at 12:10 p.m. that day, which will be offered with the intention for the conversion of those involved in the “black mass,” Johnson said.

Benedictine is in Atchison, about an hour northeast of Topeka. The school is not taking an official group to the capitol to take part in the prayerful protest, Johnson said, but he said some students may be going of their own volition.