null / Credit: Peter Hermes Furian via Shutterstock ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 19, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA). The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) on April 19 condemned the kidnapping and murder of a catechist in Burkina Faso, West Africa. In a news brief, ACN informed ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that catechist Edouard Yougbare was kidnapped on Thursday night by “terrorists, and his lifeless body was found near Zigni this morning.” According to other local sources, along with Yougbare, who was a member of  Saatenga parish in Fada Gourma, Burkina Faso, more ..read more

null / Credit: Dzelat/Shutterstock CNA Staff, Apr 19, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating what it says have been multiple threats made against houses of worship, religious schools, and other institutions — including Catholic ones — in Pennsylvania.  Pennsylvania local media had reported on the alleged threats made earlier in the week. An FBI spokesman told CNA on Thursday that the bureau “is aware of a number of threats made against multiple faith communities, houses of worship, and schools in Western Pennsylvania recently ..read more

Worcester, Massachusetts, is home to Clark University, Assumption University, and Worcester State University. / Credit: Shutterstock Boston, Mass., Apr 19, 2024 / 11:50 am (CNA). Mary Jane Rein decided to leave her job as executive director of the Holocaust studies center at the secular Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in hopes of finding a “warmer welcome” at a nearby Catholic university in the same city.  Rein, who is Jewish, announced that she was resigning in an April Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Why I’m leaving Clark University,” following an inc ..read more

Pope Francis addresses the faithful at his Wednesday general audience on March 27, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media Vatican City, Apr 19, 2024 / 10:07 am (CNA). In the latest move in Pope Francis’ reform of the Vatican judiciary, the pope issued a new motu proprio on Friday on the retirement age and benefits for cardinal judges and magistrates in the Vatican’s court system. The April 19 motu proprio states that Vatican magistrates will retire at the end of the judicial year in which they turn 75 and cardinal judges at the age of 80, unless Pope Francis asks them to remain in office beyond the age ..read more

Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski of Krakow announced on April 14, 2024, the decision to begin the process of beatification and canonization of Helena Agnieszka Kmiec, a young lay missionary murdered in Bolivia in 2017. / Credit: The Helena Kmiec Foundation ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 19, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA). Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski of Krakow, Poland, announced the decision to begin the process of beatification and canonization of Helena Agnieszka Kmiec, a young lay missionary murdered in Bolivia in 2017. The prelate said that after the preliminary phase began in December 2022, he made the decis ..read more

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