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Democratic senators press Housing secretary on missing homelessness data
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner faced scrutiny from Democratic senators over the agency’s failure to release legally required counts of homeless people, a lapse Catholic Charities USA says undermines efforts to address rising homelessness.Turner testified before the Senate...
U.S. Supreme Court preserves access to abortion pill as legal fight continues
The U.S. Supreme Court will allow abortion by mail to continue to be available in the U.S.The Supreme Court on May 14 blocked a lower court ruling that would have required in-person dispensation of mifepristone. Chemical abortions, which rely on mifepristone and misoprostol, are the most common form...
Reflecting on meeting with Leo, Rubio emphasizes distinction between role of Church and nation state
In a May 13 interview on Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reflected on his May 7 meeting with Pope Leo XIV, emphasizing the different vantage points and distinct roles of the Church and a nation-state.In the interview, Rubio acknowledged the Catholic Church’s longstanding position advoc...
Thousands rally at Canada's National March for Life in Ottawa
It took almost 25 minutes for a crowd that organizers said was in the thousands to inch its way from Parliament Hill down Wellington Street to Elgin Street during the National March for Life in Ottawa.Members of every ethnic background, young and elderly, priests, families and church groups carried...
EWTN News explains: Is it ever morally OK to execute a criminal?
In the year since his pontificate began, Pope Leo XIV has come out strongly against the death penalty, repeatedly affirming the Catholic Churchʼs relatively recent declaration that capital punishment is immoral and should be abolished.In April, the Holy Father spoke out against executions several ti...
Join EWTN's Novena to the Holy Spirit, the ‘oldest novena in the life of the Church’
In preparation for the Solemnity of Pentecost, this year celebrated on May 24, EWTN will release daily recordings of the Holy Spirit Novena on its Live Mass & Devotions YouTube page beginning Friday, May 15.“Itʼs the oldest novena in the life of the Church, going back to the time where Jesus ascende...
Pope Leo to Coptic patriarch: Christians must work together in the Middle East
Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Tawadros II, the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, on May 15. The conversation marked the 13th Day of Friendship between Copts and Catholics.The Vatican said that the discussion between the two took place in a “cordial and fraternal atmosphere,” and that they expressed...
Pope Leo XIV rejects use of death penalty in fight against organized crime, drug trafficking
Pope Leo XIV called for respect for human dignity in the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking and reiterated his rejection of the death penalty, torture, and any degrading punishment in the face of a scourge that, he warned, “imperils the very future of our societies.”In a May 15 audie...
135 years later, Rerum Novarum inspires Pope Leo XIV and still shapes Catholic social teaching
When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, he chose the name Leo XIV in part, he said a few days later, to honor Leo XIII and his historical encyclical Rerum Novarum, a foundational document in Catholic social teaching that addressed the c...
Philippine bishops press Senate to begin Duterte impeachment trial
MANILA, Philippines — The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on May 12 urged the national senate to act swiftly on the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte after the countryʼs House of Representatives impeached her for the second time.“We appeal to the members of the...
Poland to register same-sex 'marriages' from EU countries
Speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting on May 12, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged that Poland would move to recognize same-sex “marriages” conducted in other European Union countries involving Polish citizens.Since Poland currently does not recognize same-sex “marriage” or civil partnerships...