null / Shutterstock Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 18, 2024 / 17:55 pm (CNA). Scotland’s only gender clinic for minors is formally pausing the prescription of puberty blockers and hormone medications that are designed to facilitate gender transitions for children after a review commissioned by the English government questioned the efficacy of those practices. This announcement effectively ends the practice of providing sex-change drugs and hormone medications to children in Scotland — just one month after England instituted the same ban. Per the new policy formalized on April 18 ..read more

Father Marko Rupnik. / Credit: Screen shot/ACI Prensa ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 18, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA). Father Marko Rupnik, a priest dismissed from the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 2023 — accused since 2018 of having committed serious sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse against at least 20 women in the Loyola Community that he co-founded in Slovenia — continues to appear as a Jesuit and consultant to the Vatican in the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook. The information appears on page 1346 of the yearbook, where the list of the consultants of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline ..read more

Cardinal Wilton Gregory speaks at an interview in Rome on April 11, 2024. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly” screen shot Rome Newsroom, Apr 18, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA). As the Catholic Church’s first African American cardinal was honored at a U.S. seminary in Rome, he recalled the legacy of faith and perseverance of Black Catholics in America, including at a time when they were not accepted by U.S. seminaries.  Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, received this year’s Rector’s Award at an April 11 banquet at the Pontifical North American College, where seminarians from across 9 ..read more

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks during the signing of the ELVIS Act to Protect Voice & Likeness in Age of AI event at Robert’s Western World on March 21, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. / Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Human Artistry Campaign Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 18, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA). The first English-language translation of the Bible in the United States will become an “official state book” in Tennessee on July 1. Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, signed a bill on Tuesday that names the Aitken Bible and nine other texts as official state books in the Tennessee Bl ..read more

A member of New South Wales Forensic Police is seen at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley, Australia, on April 16, 2024. Hundreds clashed with police in western Sydney on April 15 after Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed at the altar. New South Wales police have declared the attack a terror event. Police apprehended a 16-year-old in connection with the attack. / Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images CNA Staff, Apr 18, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA). The Assyrian bishop who was attacked at an Australian church earlier this week shared that he is “doing fine” and told hi ..read more

Credit: Unsplash. / null CNA Staff, Apr 18, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA). A priest at a Michigan parish has resigned his post following a controversy over an “openly gay” author’s appearance at the parish parochial school’s pre-kindergarten class. Father Thomas Held has resigned from the pastorship at St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Beal City “effective immediately,” Diocese of Saginaw Bishop Robert Gruss said in a statement on Tuesday. The parish and Held himself have been at the center of controversy since last month after area author Dominic Thrasher made an appearance at the parish’s school ..read more

A bishop and a priest exchange the sign of peace during Mass. / Credit: Father Lawrence Lew, OP; photo courtesy of Martin Beek via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 18, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA). The director of the Chair of Theology of the Consecrated Life at San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University in Spain, Sister Carolina Blázquez Casado, OSA, explained that the rite of peace at Mass “is not a greeting or friendly gesture.” The sister explained the meaning of the rite in a video posted by the university, which is under the Archdiocese of Madrid. The sign of peace, which takes place be ..read more

Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako presides over the dedication ceremony of the altar of the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Mosul, Iraq. April 5, 2024. / Credit: Fadi Dinkha/ACI Mena CNA Newsroom, Apr 18, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA). When the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic Church was consecrated earlier this month in Mosul, Iraq, a former parishioner now living in the United States said she was moved to tears. “My eyes were filled with tears as I watched my church and my school return to the beautiful picture engraved in my memory,” said Georgena Habbaba ..read more

null / Credit: Jill Sauve/Unsplash Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 17, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA). Arizona House Republicans blocked two attempts on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law protecting life at conception. In a near party-line 30-30 vote on Wednesday, House Democrats failed to gain a majority of votes to suspend the Legislature’s rules to fast-track a so-called “abortion ban repeal” bill that would have overturned the 1864 pro-life law.  Dormant since being invalidated by Roe v. Wade in 1973, the 1864 law protects all unborn life from conception and imposes prison time for those who “prov ..read more

Father Benedict Kiely, founder of Nasarean.org, speaks during a panel discussion on Day 2 of The National Conservatism Conference at the Claridge on April 17, 2024, in Brussels, Belgium. / Credit: Omar Havana/Getty Images Brussels, Belgium, Apr 17, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA). Belgium’s highest court ruled late last night that a conference upholding conservative values in the public square could go ahead in the country’s capital after a Brussels district mayor had ordered police to shut it down yesterday.  Emir Kir issued the order to halt the National Conservatism conference that was scheduled ..read more