Posted on 01/11/2025 15:00 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
From left to right: Ivan, Olga, Julia, and Violetta Petrosyan. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Petrosyan family
CNA Staff, Jan 11, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
A new movie telling the true story of an Armenian family who was forced to flee their home country of Azerbaijan amid political turmoil will be in theaters Jan. 26–28.
The Petrosyans — made up of husband and wife Ivan and Violetta and their two daughters Olga and Julia — inspired the new film “Between Borders,” which depicts the real-life events the family endured while fleeing their home in Baku, Azerbaijan, during the anti-Armenian massacre that took place in the late 1980s.
Experiencing discrimination in their home country and then in Russia, the country to which they fled, the Petrosyans eventually found hope in a church established by American missionaries. There they came to the faith and were helped to seek refuge in the United States.
CNA spoke to Violetta and Olga Petrosyan about their experience fleeing persecution and how they came to find refuge in Christ along the way.
Olga, who was only 4 years old when the violence broke out, said watching their story depicted in a movie has been “healing.”
“Growing up, when you end up going through all of those tribulations, you don’t know that there is a life not lived like this,” she explained. “You think that this is how everyone probably lived their life, but the older you get and the more normal your life becomes away from all the hardships, you understand how much you’ve gone through in your childhood and teenage years that affected you in many different traumatic ways.”
She pointed out that by watching their story now in a movie format with others who are “processing your story with you” it feels as though “you are seen and known and you are affirmed in some of those situations where you felt it wasn’t as bad — no, it was as bad because you can hear other people processing it out loud so it becomes healing.”
Violetta added that it was “a mix of emotions” watching their story on the big screen.
“It was so intense, so many emotions, bringing back memories — at the same time, in awe and wonder that God actually made it happen,” she said.
She explained that there are moments from your past “that you want to forget but you also don’t want to forget because there’s some aspect in life that still shows you how God brought you through, even at the moments when we didn’t know him. So, that’s how important it is that you understand that his hand was always protecting our family.”
While in Volgograd, Russia, after fleeing Azerbaijan, the family began to attend a church established by American missionaries and it was there that Violetta experienced a conversion.
She shared that she was taught by her grandmother at a young age to always make the sign of the cross and say the Lord’s Prayer before bed but her grandmother never spoke about God.
As she became an adult, Violetta became a member of the Communist Party and even led a Communist Party organization at the school she taught at.
“We were raised in the Communist era and we learned that there is no God, that God is evil. I would protect children from going to church because I said that it doesn’t exist,” she shared. “I still don’t know how I was saying that.”
“When God came into our life in Volgograd through the missionaries that was the immediate click and I realized that I’ve always known that God existed but I pushed him away from me and then it actually happened — my conversion happened on the 6th of October, on my physical birthday.”
Olga added: “I saw my family before Christ and then I saw my family after Christ and the difference that it makes to be united in Christ in the midst of hopelessness, around the circumstances, makes everything different. We still had the same tribulations after we came to Jesus, but we had this center, which was Christ binding us all together, that we knew that no matter what, we can do this with Christ who gives us strength.”
“It was Jesus that made the whole difference for me,” Olga said. “The world can give us temporary labels and I think we all carry some sort of labels that were given to us by people of this world. And I’ve carried those labels as a ‘foreigner,’ ‘unwanted,’ ‘refugee,’ ‘dirty,’ but I got one label from the Lord and that’s the one that will stick with me through eternity and that’s ‘child of God.’”
Olga hopes that “Between Borders” will help shed light not on the political conflict but on what hatred does to people.
“It’s not ‘Oh, look at what Azeris have done.’ I think for me it’s important, at least, that it’s more ‘Look what evil that is fostered, or hatred that is fostered, between two nationalities can do, what it can lead to,” she explained. “But at the same time, look what God can do despite and through that … There’s always hatred between two … and it’s fostered and it bursts more hatred and it bursts destruction and tragedy, but look what God can do.”
Violetta added that she hopes viewers will see that “there is always forgiveness.”
“No matter how hard the events were in that conflict … no matter how severe it is, love and forgiveness always conquer.”
Check theater listings near you for showtimes.
CNA's video interview with Violetta and Olga Petrosyan can be watched below.
Posted on 01/10/2025 22:20 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Immigrants at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley humanitarian respite center in McAllen, Texas. / Credit: Vic Hinterlang/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 10, 2025 / 17:20 pm (CNA).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued guidelines for immigration reform that encourage lawmakers to safeguard communities in a “targeted, proportional, and humane” manner.
With President-elect Donald Trump taking office on Jan. 20, bishops have grown increasingly vocal about immigration policy. The incoming president has expressed his intent to implement mass deportations of immigrants who are in the country illegally — a position that many bishops are voicing concerns about.
The guidance issued this month, just weeks before Trump takes office, states that “safeguarding American communities and upholding the rule of law are laudable goals” but adds that “a country’s rights to regulate its borders and enforce its immigration laws must be balanced with its responsibilities to uphold the sanctity of human life, respect the God-given dignity of all persons, and enact policies that further the common good.”
“Enforcement measures should focus on those who present genuine risks and dangers to society, particularly efforts to reduce gang activity, stem the flow of drugs, and end human trafficking,” the guidelines read.
“Just enforcement also requires limiting the use of detention, especially for families, children, pregnant women, the sick, elderly, and disabled, given its proven harms and the pervasive lack of appropriate care in detention settings,” the guidance continues.
Trump nominated Tom Homan, the former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to serve as his border czar in the next administration. He and Trump have said their first priority for deportations will be criminals.
The USCCB guidelines discourage the use of military personnel, resources, and tactics to carry out deportations, and state enforcement should consider “families, community ties, and religious liberty interests.”
On the matter of families, the USCCB discourages policies “that require eligibility for programs or services to hinge on an entire family being comprised of citizens,” noting the prevalence of mixed-status families that include “combinations of citizens and noncitizens.”
“Catholic teaching maintains that families are the foundation of society, and the success of any civilization hinges on the well-being of its families,” the document adds. “... Immigration reform measures should be evaluated according to whether they strengthen families and promote family unity.”
The bishops also urge lawmakers to support a pathway to citizenship for long-term residents of the United States and an expansion of pathways for legal immigration. According to the bishops, “improving and increasing opportunities for people to lawfully enter the United States, on both a temporary and permanent basis, are necessary steps to address several pressing issues, from family separation to regional labor shortages.”
Additionally, the bishops request that protections for refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking and abused youth remain in place.
“The dehumanization or vilification of noncitizens as a means to deprive them of protection under the law is not only contrary to the rule of law but an affront to God himself, who has created them in his own image,” the guidelines add. “Further restricting access to humanitarian protections will only endanger those who are most vulnerable and deserving of relief.”
Furthermore, the USCCB is urging “meaningful cooperation between the United States and other countries” to address forced migration and conditions that cause migrants to flee their home countries.
“There are a multitude of factors causing people around the world to migrate in large numbers today, often as the only way to sustain or protect human life,” the guidelines state.
Posted on 01/10/2025 19:50 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Archbishop José Gomez delivers the homily at a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels amid burning fires in Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. / Credit: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles/YouTube
CNA Staff, Jan 10, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).
Fires in suburban Los Angeles are continuing to burn and lay waste to entire neighborhoods as Archbishop José Gomez on Thursday urged Catholics to remember the preciousness of human life and to make themselves “instruments” of God amid the devastation.
The prelate delivered the remarks in a homily at a special Mass celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The cathedral sits just over a dozen miles from the outer edges of the Eaton Fire, which is burning northeast of the city center.
“These are difficult and challenging days for our city and county and our local Church,” the archbishop said. “As we pray, the wildfires keep burning around us and, as we know, the damage continues to be devastating.”
“We are reminded today how precious every life is, and how fragile,” he continued. “We are reminded also that we are brothers and sisters, that each of us — we all belong to the family in God.”
Raising the question of why God “let[s] evil things happen,” the prelate admitted, “there is no easy answer.”
“But that doesn’t mean that there are no answers,” he said, arguing that “love is what is asked of us in this moment.”
“In this moment, God is calling each of us to be the instruments through which he shows his love and compassion and care to those who are suffering,” the archbishop said.
Much of the archdiocese has been left reeling amid the fires, which have destroyed blocks of homes in the city and left countless buildings in ruins.
The fires began on Tuesday and quickly spread via dry conditions and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds blowing in from the east. On Friday multiple fires were raging unchecked across thousands of acres as firefighters worked to get the blazes under control.
Among the destroyed structures was Corpus Christi Catholic Church. Los Angeles resident Sam Laganà told Angelus News, the magazine of the archdiocese, that the destruction was “too much” and “overwhelming.”
Laganà is well known in the area for providing the “stadium voice” for the Los Angeles Rams. He grew up in the Corpus Christi Parish and was catechized there.
He told Angelus that as the fires began earlier this week he was “using water from garden hoses and his backyard jacuzzi to put out the flames encircling his home of 28 years,” the magazine reported.
“As I was leaving, I was trying to defend my home and hoping to keep the [Corpus Christi] school from catching on fire by watering down the hillsides,” he said. The school was mostly spared from destruction.
Corpus Christi parishioner Rick McGeagh, meanwhile, told Angelus that his family discovered on Wednesday that their house had burned to the ground.
The “sole part of his home left standing,” however, was a Virgin Mary statue the family first installed when they moved in nearly 30 years ago.
“That statue belonged to my grandmother, who died in 1997,” McGeagh told the magazine.
“The fact that she survived, when everything, even our Viking stove, burned down, I think is miraculous. There’s no way to explain that.”
The Los Angeles resident attended the archbishop’s Mass at the downtown cathedral, which he described as an “easy choice.”
“I need God’s strength, as we all do,” he said. “We’re all going to have a tough road ahead to rebuild our homes, and Monsignor [Liam Kidney]’s got to rebuild [the Corpus Christi Parish], and he’s not alone. We’ll be there to help.”
Kidney, who has been pastor of the parish since 1999, told the news outlet that the destruction of the parish — and thus of his home of nearly a quarter-century — ”still hasn’t sunk in yet.”
But the priest said the tragedy would ultimately work for good for a parish that is still reeling from the COVID-19 crisis nearly five years ago.
“COVID kind of ripped us apart,” he said. “This is going to bring us together.”
In at least one other instance a parish was saved by quick-thinking parishioners who luckily had the resources to protect it.
Angelus reported that Deacon José Luis Díaz and a group of parishioners worked to save Sacred Heart Church in Altadena from the fires. That effort involved breaking roof tiles and using a low-pressure garden hose to keep the flames at bay.
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Though the heroic parishioners saved the church, Diaz told Angelus that much of the rest of the city resembles a war zone.
“It looks like we’re in the middle of a battlefield. Everything is wiped out,” he said. “There are so many burned homes gone, with only the chimney left.”
Federal rescue workers have been on hand to assist state and local responders in battling the blazes. Helicopters have been visible throughout the week dumping water on walls of flame just feet from homes. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over the fires.
President Joe Biden canceled his upcoming visit to Italy — what would have been the final diplomatic trip of his presidency and which included a planned meeting with Pope Francis — in order to address the ongoing deadly wildfires in Southern California.
The archdiocese, meanwhile, is working with local Catholic agencies to bring resources to those affected by the fires. The archdiocese has set up a donation portal to receive funds to help the community “recover and rebuild.”
In his homily on Thursday, Gomez said Catholics in Los Angeles “must be the ones who bring comfort to our neighbors in this time of disaster.”
“And we must be the ones also who stand by their side and help them to rebuild and go forward with courage and faith and hope in God,” he said. “Let us pray for them.”
Posted on 01/10/2025 18:50 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
The 52nd annual March for Life will have as its theme “Every Life: Why We March.” / Credit: Photo courtesy of March for Life
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 10, 2025 / 13:50 pm (CNA).
The March for Life Education and Defense Fund this week unveiled its speaker list for the 2025 March for Life on Friday, Jan. 24, with the lineup including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Chris Smith from New Jersey, and Live Action President Lila Rose.
Toledo Bishop Daniel Thomas, the chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, will also speak at the event.
“We are overjoyed to welcome these inspiring pro-life leaders at this year’s 52nd March for Life,” Jeanne Mancini, the president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said in a Jan. 9 statement.
“For the past 52 years, the March for Life has powerfully witnessed to the tragedy of abortion while calling for stronger protections for women and the unborn,” Mancini said.
“This year’s speakers will address the 2025 theme — ‘Life: Why We March,’ which reminds us of the basic truth that every life has inherent human dignity from the start.”
The rally will begin at noon and the march at 1 p.m.
DeSantis, who is Catholic, signed legislation in April 2023 to prohibit abortion in Florida once the unborn child’s heartbeat can be detected, which occurs at about six weeks into pregnancy.
The state had a referendum in 2024 to establish a legal right to abortion in the state constitution. The measure failed to reach the 60% threshold needed to pass. DeSantis campaigned strongly against the proposal.
Smith, who is also Catholic, co-chairs the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and has an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America for votes in defense of the unborn.
Rose, another Catholic, founded the pro-life nonprofit Live Action in 2003 when she was 15 years old.
Other speakers include Bethany Hamilton, who is a professional surfer, mother, and pro-life advocate; Josiah Presley, an abortion survivor; and Dr. Catherine Wheeler, a former abortionist who is now a pro-life obstetrician.
Also speaking will be Beverly Jacobson, CEO of Mama Bear Care; the Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; Jennie Bradley Lichter, president-elect of the March for Life; and Hannah Lape, a student and president for the Wheaton College Voice for Life.
“I’m thrilled to be joining the March for Life at this pivotal moment, and I couldn’t be more excited to share the stage this year with dedicated elected officials, pro-life leaders, and other great Americans who will share their testimonies about why they fight for Life,” Lichter said in a statement.
“There is nothing else like the March for Life, and this year’s lineup is a reminder of the enduring strength of our movement.”
The Christian rock band Unspoken will perform before the rally. Julie Stone, who owns Sopranojam Music Studio in Mountville, Pennsylvania, will perform the national anthem.
Posted on 01/10/2025 17:05 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
President Joe Biden speaks to the media on the federal response to the Los Angeles wildfires at the White House on Jan. 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
CNA Staff, Jan 10, 2025 / 12:05 pm (CNA).
President Joe Biden has canceled his upcoming visit to Italy — what would have been the final diplomatic trip of his presidency and which included a planned meeting with Pope Francis — in order to address the ongoing deadly wildfires in Southern California.
Biden was set to travel to Rome from Jan. 9–12 at Pope Francis’ invitation. His audience with the Holy Father was set for Jan. 10.
In a statement this week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that after returning from Los Angeles where he met with officials fighting the ongoing blazes, Biden “made the decision to cancel his upcoming trip to Italy.”
The president canceled the trip “to remain focused on directing the full federal response in the days ahead,” Jean-Pierre said.
The president’s planned meeting with the pope was set to focus on efforts to advance peace around the world. Biden was also scheduled to meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Biden last met with Pope Francis in June of last year where the two discussed foreign policy in Israel, Gaza, and the Ukraine as well as climate change.
During a private audience at the G7 Summit in Apulia, Italy, the two leaders “emphasized the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and a hostage deal” in Gaza and the need to “address the critical humanitarian crisis,” according to the White House.
Los Angeles archdiocesan officials and local Church leaders have been working this week to shelter and assist victims of the wildfires as the blazes consume entire neighborhoods and lay waste to significant portions of the suburban area.
One of the fires destroyed Corpus Christi Catholic Church and has forced the closure of dozens of Catholic schools. Numerous other churches in the area have also been destroyed.
Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez in a social media post urged the faithful to “keep praying for all those suffering” in the wildfires.
“My heart goes out to our neighbors who have lost their homes and livelihoods,” the prelate said. “Let’s pray for them and let’s pray for our firefighters and first responders. May God keep all of our brothers and sisters safe and bring [an] end to these fires!”
Posted on 01/9/2025 23:20 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
From left to right, front row: U.S. President Joe Biden, First Lady Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamla Harris, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Second row: former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President George W. Bush, his wife Laura Bush, former President Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, attend the state funeral service for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9, 2025. / Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 9, 2025 / 18:20 pm (CNA).
U.S. President Joe Biden praised former President Jimmy Carter’s character and referred to him as a “good and faithful servant of God” in his eulogy of the country’s 39th president during a funeral service at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Jan. 9.
“The man had character,” Biden said during the service, which was attended by every living former U.S. president, numerous lawmakers, six Supreme Court justices, several celebrities, and Carter’s family.
“Jimmy held a deep Christian faith in God,” Biden said. “Faith founded on commandments of Scripture: Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy soul and love thy neighbor as thyself. Easy to say, but very, very difficult to do.”
Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, was one of several people to eulogize Carter, a lifelong Baptist. Various speakers referenced Carter’s legacy both in and out of public office, his peace and humanitarian efforts, and his faith in Christ.
Three of Carter’s grandchildren spoke at the service, as did Steven Ford, the son of former President Gerald Ford; and Ted Mondale, the son of former Vice President Walter Mondale, who both read eulogies drafted by their fathers, both of whom died before Carter.
Biden, who was one of the first elected officials outside of Georgia to endorse Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign, said that endorsement was based on “Jimmy Carter’s enduring attribute: character, character, character.”
“Through it all, he showed us how character and faith start with ourselves and then flow to others,” Biden said. “At our best, we share the better parts of ourselves: joy, solidarity, love, commitment. Not for reward, but in reverence to the incredible gift of life we’ve all been granted to make every minute of our time here on Earth count. That’s the definition of a good life — the life Jimmy Carter lived in his 100 years.”
The service included Christian hymns such as “Amazing Grace,” “Be Still My Soul,” and “Eternal Father, Strong to Save.” The service also included the song “Imagine” by John Lennon, which is not a Christian song but rather includes the lyrics “imagine there’s no heaven” and “no religion too.”
Although Carter had spoken positively of the song during his lifetime, to many observers, such as Bishop Robert Barron, the selection struck a discordant note.
“Vested ministers sat patiently while a hymn to atheistic humanism was sung,” Barron said in a post on X. “This was not only an insult to the memory of a devoutly believing Christian but also an indicator of the spinelessness of too much of established religion in our country.”
Carter’s grandson, James Carter, offered the Gospel reading from Matthew 5:1-16, which includes the Beatitudes.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” he read in part. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. … Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
One of Carter’s other grandsons, Josh Carter, read verses from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which he said was the bedrock of his grandfather’s faith.
“There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law has set me free from the law of sin and death,” he read from Romans 8:1-18. “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin and sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the spirit.”
As a national figure, President Carter was known for speaking often about his Christian faith and spent much of his life engaged in humanitarian work. However, he also supported legal abortion and later in life expressed his support for homosexual marriage.
In addition to reading from Romans, grandson Josh Carter spoke at length about his grandfather’s many decades of humanitarian work and teaching Sunday school, which he described as a central part of his life.
“My grandfather spent the entire time I’ve known him helping those in need,” Josh Carter said. “He built houses for people in need of homes. He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people. And whenever he told these stories in Sunday school, he always said he did it for one simple reason: He worshipped the Prince of Peace.”
Steven Ford, the son of former President Gerald Ford, read the eulogy for Carter that his father wrote before his own death. Carter defeated Ford in the 1976 election and the eulogy noted the formerly fierce competition between the two but also “one of my deepest and most enduring friendships.”
“It was because of our shared values that Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries, even before we cherished one another as dear friends,” the eulogy read. “... Jimmy learned early on that it was not enough merely to bear witness in a pew on a Sunday morning. Inspired by his faith, he pursued brotherhood across boundaries of nationhood, across boundaries of tradition, across boundaries of caste. In America’s urban neighborhoods and in rural villages around the world, he reminded us that Christ had been a carpenter.”
Ted Mondale, the son of former Vice President Walter Mondale who served under Carter, also read his father’s eulogy, which focused on the 39th president’s Christian faith and his support for human rights globally.
“Carter was a devout Christian who grew up in a small town and was active in his faith for almost every moment of his life,” the eulogy read. “I was also a small-town kid who grew up in a Methodist church where my dad was the preacher and our faith was core to me, as Carter’s faith was core to him. That common commitment to our faith created a bond between us that allowed us to understand each other and find ways to work together.”
Posted on 01/9/2025 19:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
null / Credit: GBJSTOCK|Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Jan 9, 2025 / 14:30 pm (CNA).
Pro-life groups are criticizing a burgeoning effort to expand use of the abortion pill through pharmacist prescriptions, slamming what one advocate called an effort at “chipping away at medical standards for women.”
A pilot program launched this month in Washington state has trained pharmacists to prescribe the abortion-drug combo mifepristone and misoprostol to women seeking abortions.
The initiative — launched by the pro-abortion group Uplift International and dubbed the “Pharmacist Abortion Access Project” — uses the online pharmacy Honeybee Health to distribute the drugs. Uplift said it plans to eventually expand the program in “brick-and-mortar pharmacies” as well.
The program “is expected to be tried in other states where abortion remains legal,” the New York Times reported this week.
Michael Hogue, the chief executive of the American Pharmacists Association, told the newspaper: “I think it is going to expand, and it is expanding.”
Abortions done via medication, also called chemical abortions, currently account for about half of the abortions that are done in the United States every year. Abortion drugs are used to end the life of an unborn child up to about 10 weeks into a pregnancy.
Kristi Hamrick, the vice president of media and policy at the pro-life Students for Life Action, told CNA that pharmacists “should be horrified” at the effort to “co-opt their businesses into the abortion network.”
“The abortion lobby’s interest in expanding the number of people risking women’s lives and ending the lives of babies in the womb knows no limits,” she said. “Death is their intention.”
Beth Rivin, the president and CEO of Uplift International, said this week that research “confirms that medication abortion can be prescribed through telehealth just as safely as in person.” Hamrick disputed the claim.
“Without proper screening for blood type or by ultrasound, women’s lives and future fertility are at risk,” she said. “Without in-person verification, abusers can get chemical abortion pills to use against women without their knowledge or consent. Pharmacists are not set up for that.”
She also raised the possibility of “future pharmacists who are working to distribute life-affirming care and instead may be forced to deliberately end precious lives.”
Dr. Ingrid Skop, an obstetrician and the vice president and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, told CNA that “pharmacists, who do not receive clinical training, should not be distributing these dangerous drugs.”
“By pushing these medically unsupervised abortions, the FDA and abortion advocates continue down the slippery slope of chipping away at medical standards for women seeking abortion,” she said. “This is not health care.”
The effort comes as lawmakers have been pushing to restrict abortion, including abortion pills, in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s repeal in June 2022.
Many states restrict the use of abortion pills, specifically the first drug in the two-drug regimen, mifepristone.
Several states have banned the pills entirely while others have passed restrictions on abortion pills designed to protect women, including requirements that only physicians may dispense them. The pills are broadly available in 21 states.
The Supreme Court last June unanimously ruled against a physician-led challenge to the drugs, rejecting an attempt by advocates to impose stricter regulations by claiming that they lacked standing to bring the suit.
Three states picked up the lawsuit in October, arguing that “women should have the in-person care of a doctor when taking high-risk drugs.” The lawsuit said abortion drugs were “flooding” the plaintiff state and “sending women … to the emergency room.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against an abortionist in New York in December, alleging that she illegally provided abortion drugs to a woman in Texas, which killed the unborn child and caused serious health complications for the mother.
Hamrick said the pharmacy initiative raises numerous risks, including dangers to women’s lives and future fertility.
“This is a terrible idea that benefits only the industry profiting from pill pushing,” she said.
Posted on 01/9/2025 18:45 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
The U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Justin Kozemchak/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 9, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).
A Department of Education rule to ban discrimination against a person’s self-asserted “gender identity” in K–12 schools and colleges was blocked nationwide by a federal court in Kentucky on Thursday, Jan. 9.
The court’s decision to strike down the rule is being hailed as a major victory by opponents of the regulation. With President-elect Donald Trump heading into office in less than two weeks, an appeal from the federal government is highly unlikely, essentially rendering the rule dead.
The rule, implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration, reinterprets the Title IX ban on “sex” discrimination to include a ban on “gender identity” discrimination even though the phrase “gender identity” does not appear anywhere in the 1972 law.
Judge Danny C. Reeves of the District Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled that the department “exceeded its statutory authority” in implementing the rule and found that the rule itself violates the United States Constitution because it would “chill speech” related to gender ideology and because it is “vague and overbroad” in how it is written.
The lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Title IX rule change was brought by attorneys general in six states: West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia. State officials warned the rule would override state laws that separate athletics, bathrooms, locker rooms, and dormitories on the basis of biological sex.
“This is a victory not only for the rule of law, but also for common sense and the safety of every student,” West Virginia Attorney General and Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey said in a statement.
“The Biden administration’s Title IX revisions would have ended sex-based protections for biological women in all aspects of education, and this would have marked a retreat from the progress women have made,” he added.
Reeves wrote in his ruling that the Title IX prohibition on sex discrimination is “abundantly clear” that the law refers to discrimination “on the basis of being male or female.” He wrote that “there is nothing in the text or statutory design of Title IX to suggest that discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ means anything other than it has since Title IX’s inception.”
“The entire point of Title IX is to prevent discrimination based on sex — throwing gender identity into the mix eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless,” the court order read.
According to Reeves, if the department interpreted Title IX’s ban on sex-based harassment to include “gender identity,” it would “chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees” in regard to speech related to the use of certain pronouns or about other aspects of gender ideology. He found that this violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.
“The plaintiffs reasonably fear that teachers’ (and others’) speech concerning gender issues or their failure to use gender-identity-based pronouns would constitute harassment under the final rule,” the court order read.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) President and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner called the court order “a colossal win for women and girls across the country” in a statement. ADF is representing a West Virginia high-school female athlete and Christian Educators Association International in the lawsuit.
“This ruling provides enormous relief for students across the country, including our client who has already suffered harassment by a male student in the locker room and on her sports team,” Waggoner said.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the court order a “massive win for [Tennessee] and the country” in a post on X.
“The court’s order is [a] resounding victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically-accurate pronouns,” he said.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote in a post on X: “All of America is now safe from Biden’s attempt to undermine half a century of landmark protections for women.”
Prior to this ruling, the enforcement of the Biden administration’s Title IX rule was already halted in more than half of the country. Numerous state attorneys general and athletic associations had challenged the rule across the country.
Trump has promised to reverse the Biden administration’s promotion of gender ideology in federal regulations, vowing to “stop the transgender lunacy” on his first day in office.
Posted on 01/9/2025 17:30 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
A large sycamore tree and a chimney are seen at the remains of the home of parishioners from St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of St. Monica Catholic Church
CNA Staff, Jan 9, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).
Archdiocesan officials and local Church leaders in Los Angeles are working to shelter and assist victims of the ongoing wildfires there as the blaze consumes entire neighborhoods and lays waste to significant portions of the suburban area.
The fires began on Tuesday, Jan. 7, and quickly spread via dry conditions and hurricane-force Santa Ana winds blowing in from the east. As of Thursday morning multiple fires were raging unchecked across thousands of acres as firefighters worked to get the blazes under control.
One of the fires has destroyed Corpus Christi Catholic Church and has forced the closure of 65 Catholic schools, according to archdiocesan officials. Numerous other churches in the area have also been destroyed.
Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez in a social media post urged the faithful to “keep praying for all those suffering” in the wildfires.
“My heart goes out to our neighbors who have lost their homes and livelihoods,” the prelate said. “Let’s pray for them and let’s pray for our firefighters and first responders. May God keep all of our brothers and sisters safe and bring [an] end to these fires!”
Church leaders and officials in the area were scrambling through the week to address the growing humanitarian crisis caused by the fires.
Multiple local parishes “opened their doors to families evacuated from their homes,” Angelus News, the magazine of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, reported on Wednesday.
St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica offered residents refreshments and charging stations for their phones late into the night on Tuesday, Angelus reported.
Merrick Siebenaler, the director of parish life, told the news outlet the church was seeing “dozens and dozens of parishioners and school families who have lost everything.”
By Wednesday the parish was forced to close amid advancing wildfires. Sacred Heart Church in nearby Lincoln Heights, meanwhile, offered the city its auditorium as a resource center for evacuees.
“We’re here to help out,” Father Tesfaldet Asghedom, the pastor at Sacred Heart, told Angelus.
Dozens of Catholic schools in the region were closed on Thursday due to “proximity to fire, poor air quality and wind damage, staffing challenges, and nearby power outages.”
One of the schools, Mayfield Senior in Pasadena, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “Our hearts are broken at the damage and destruction caused by the fires currently raging in our area.”
The school “has not been directly impacted by the fire,” but “the campus is strewn with debris and downed tree limbs and will need a major cleanup,” the post said.
The school “will respond to this crisis as a community of faith and compassion grounded in our Holy Child mission, helping one another during this difficult time.”
Another, La Salle College Preparatory also in Pasadena, said on its website that the school would be closed until Monday, at which point it would be open “for students who need to be dropped off due to parent/guardian work obligations.” Classes would not resume until Tuesday at the earliest, it said.
“Please know that the safety and well-being of our entire school community is our top priority,” the school said. It invited community members to either share if they had been impacted by the fires or offer support to those who had been.
On X, Colorado-based Father David Nix said in a post that he had spoken to a friend in Los Angeles whose neighborhood had suffered terrible devastation from the fires.
“Many of the homes around him burned down, but his home had the purple scapular and they doused the home in holy water (and that family lives a very holy life),” the priest said.
“Miraculously, their home is fine. Pray for all the others in the area (and them too),” he wrote.
I just talked to a married friend on the phone in Los Angeles who took this picture from his front yard of his neighbors' home. Many of the homes around him burned down, but his home had the purple scapular and they doused the home in holy water (and that family lives a very holy… pic.twitter.com/KrTIWJ2g14
— Fr. Dave Nix (@FrDaveNix) January 9, 2025
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over the fires. On Wednesday he wrote on X that “more than 7,500 firefighting personnel are on the ground working with local and federal partners” to respond to the crisis.
“Southern California residents — please remain vigilant tonight,” the governor said.
“Listen to local officials and be ready to evacuate if you’re near impacted areas.”
In Pasadena, meanwhile, St. Andrew School Principal Jae Kim told Angelus: “Every hour, I’m getting a phone call from another family who’s lost everything.”
“You can hug them, pray with them, listen to them as best you can,” Kim told the outlet. “What else is there to do?”
Posted on 01/9/2025 11:00 AM (CNA Daily News - US)
Sister Tonia of the Heart of Jesus Borsellino at the booth for the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament at SEEK25 in Salt Lake City on Jan. 3, 2025. / Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA
CNA Staff, Jan 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Before Sister Tonia of the Heart of Jesus Borsellino became a religious sister of the Mercedarians of the Blessed Sacrament, she was an intern for Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Sister Tonia shared her discernment story with CNA last week at SEEK25 in Salt Lake City — one of many SEEK conferences she has attended, both as a student and as a religious sister.
In 2017, when Sister Tonia was in the midst of her discernment process, she attended a SEEK conference — not as a participant but as a reporter for CNA. It was at that conference that she had an experience that confirmed her call to her vocation.
In December 2016, she had visited the Mercedarian Sisters for a “Come and See,” shortly before she left for SEEK 2017 in San Antonio. At the event, Sister Tonia sought spiritual direction and decided to apply to the community — but she still wasn’t sure she was called to be a sister.
“I was unsure — was this the right answer?” she recalled thinking.
This internal dilemma played out in her mind while she interviewed a Catholic speaker for CNA.
“I was interviewing this Catholic speaker, and at the end, he just looked at me and said, ‘I just need to tell you something’ and that the Holy Spirit was telling him to tell me how much God loves me,” she said.
“I just got emotional and I knew that the Lord was saying, ‘I’m confirming and leading you to be my bride,’” Sister Tonia said.
Years later, Sister Tonia has returned to SEEK as a religious sister. When asked how it feels to return as a fully professed sister, she said: “It’s amazing.”
“There’s a lot of awe of how the Lord works and how his hand is on everything,” Sister Tonia said.
“To be here at SEEK and to see I was there as one of these students and that the Lord has done so much since then — there’s just a lot of pondering in my heart, like Mary, of how the Lord works, how his love is so much more than I could have thought.”
Sister Tonia shared her gratitude that SEEK provides this opportunity “to encounter Jesus and to learn more about our faith and to have these opportunities to meet different religious communities.”
Along with keynote talks, breakout sessions, and prayer opportunities, SEEK gathers apostolates, religious orders, and other Catholic organizations together in “Mission Way,” a large area of booths that SEEK attendees can visit.
It was actually at SEEK where a couple of Sister Tonia’s college friends — who later went on to become sisters in the same order — first encountered the Mercedarian sisters.
Sister Tonia — who was studying at University of Florida in Gainesville at the time — was deeply involved in campus ministry with several friends. While at SEEK, members of the campus ministry invited the Mercedarians to join a retreat they were hosting on campus.
Several of Sister Tonia’s friends from campus ministry then went on to join the Mercedarians after college, which was how Sister Tonia first got to know her community.
“My friends were entering with the community, and I saw them and how they became more fully themselves,” Sister Tonia recalled. “I got to know the community a little bit through them.”
The Mercedarian sisters in Sister Tonia’s junior year of college started a community in Gainesville, Florida, to minister to the University of Florida.
“I got to see their day-to-day life and really get to know them,” Sister Tonia recalled.
When she graduated from the University of Florida in 2017, Sister Tonia joined the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and professed her final vows on April 3, 2024.
Sister Tonia said she had considered other communities for their apostolates, looking for something related to communications. But her vocation director advised her to “look at the spirituality of the community.”
“The spirituality, the charism never changes,” Sister Tonia said. “Our charism is about the Eucharist and redemption through the Eucharist — spreading the love of the Eucharist through education and evangelization of children and youth.”
“And that was my heart,” she continued. “Desiring to bring people to know Jesus in the Eucharist felt like home, and the sisters felt like family. So the Lord was slowly prompting my heart to see that this was where he was leading me.”
The community is contemplative and active, meaning they pray for more than four hours every day in addition to serving their apostolates. On top of this, the sisters have a silent hour of Eucharistic adoration.
“Our day starts with the Eucharist, then we go out then to our apostolates,” Sister Tonia explained. She serves in campus ministry three days a week and runs the communications for the community at the regional house in Baton Rouge, where she has been for the past four years.
The Mercedarian sisters have more than 400 religious sisters in 12 different countries — and the community is growing in the U.S. They recently opened a new house of formation in Baton Rouge in addition to the community of professed sisters there.
“It’s incredible to see how the Lord works,” Sister Tonia said. “Now I get to use all these gifts and talents that I’ve studied or just learned along the way, and I get to bring that to continue to build the Eucharistic kingdom for our community.”
While she was personally discerning religious life, Sister Tonia was a guest on EWTN’s “Life on the Rock” where she shared about the campus ministry work she was involved in at University of Florida. She was telling a story about how the campus ministry would reach out to students to invite them to light a candle and pray before Jesus in Eucharistic adoration.
“As I’m explaining this on the show, I’m getting really passionate, and the host of the show says, ‘Well, forget about communications; just go be a sister,’” Sister Tonia recalled.
She said the comment by co-host Doug Barry “caught me very off guard.”
“My face turned super red because I was thinking about religious life. All these thoughts were in my prayer, and I was not expecting him to say that,” Sister Tonia recalled. “It was a little way of the Lord speaking through it.”
When asked what her advice would be to others who are discerning, Sister Tonia said to “ask the Lord to lead.”
“Our vocations are not something for us to figure out. They’re not a puzzle,” she said. “It’s through our relationship with the Lord that he leads us to our vocation.”
She noted that “our primary vocation is holiness.”
“So what does your prayer life look like? How are you in communion with the Lord?” she asked.
She advised those who are discerning to focus on “building that relationship with him, spending time in adoration, just receiving his love, and then following where he leads.”
“It’s all in him,” Sister Tonia added.
Sister Tonia’s archival story on SEEK 2017 in San Antonio can be found here.
