Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. / Credit: Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, May 16, 2025 / 10:39 am (CNA).

A Georgia hospital is requiring that a pregnant woman who was declared brain dead more than 90 days ago remain on life support until the birth of her unborn child.

In February, doctors declared 30-year-old Adriana Smith, a nurse who was nine weeks pregnant, brain dead after discovering multiple blood clots in her brain.

According to Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, after visiting the hospital complaining of painful headaches, Smith was “given medication” and sent home. Smith’s boyfriend found her “gasping for air” the next morning and called 911. After a CT scan, doctors discovered the blood clots and eventually determined nothing could be done.

Emory University Hospital in Atlanta informed Newkirk that due to Georgia state law, because Smith is brain dead and no longer considered at risk, her medical team is legally required to keep her on life support until her unborn child can survive outside the womb.

Smith’s family, including her young son, visits her in the hospital regularly. Newkirk told 11Alive that seeing her daughter, who is now 21 weeks pregnant, “breathing through machines” the last three months has been “torture.”

Newkirk said not having any choice in the matter has been difficult. She also said she is concerned about raising both her grandsons and the mounting medical costs.

“They’re hoping to get the baby to at least 32 weeks,” Newkirk said of Smith’s doctors. “But every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions.”

Georgia law prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy. While removing life support from a pregnant woman is not a direct abortion, Smith’s situation is not clear from a legal perspective.

The law defines abortion as “the act of using, prescribing, or administering any instrument, substance, device, or other means with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy with knowledge that termination will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of an unborn child.”

State Sen. Ed Setzler, lead sponsor of the Georgia law while he served in the state House of Representatives in 2019, told CNA that he is glad “the hospital is seeking to stabilize the child.” 

In Setzler’s opinion, the hospital’s reading of the law “is not inconsistent with the way the statute is crafted because of the direct foreseeability that ending the mother’s life ends the life of the child,” though “you could argue that the removal of the life support of the mother is a separate act” from an abortion.

While the Catholic Church teaches that direct abortion is always wrong, in a case like Smith’s, it is “complicated,” Joseph Meaney, senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), told CNA.

Meaney said the Church recognizes that in cases like Smith’s, where there is no clear teaching, a “discernment of conscience” is required. He said these situations can “reach a threshold of disproportionate burdens,” which can include financial considerations. 

Another NCBC ethicist, Joe Zalot, told CNA that Smith’s case is a question of prudential judgment. Removing Smith from life support “without the direct intent to kill her unborn child” is not an abortion, he said.

However, Zalot continued, “when a woman is pregnant, doctors will say they are treating two patients. In this case, you have one patient, the mother, who is deceased, and another patient who is alive.”

“The question is, if it can be demonstrated that we are not harming the mother,” Zalot said, “can we give the unborn child an opportunity to live?”

In the end, Meaney said, “the state of Georgia says it has state interest in the life of the child, and they’re stepping in.”

Emory Healthcare did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.

null / Credit: Orhan Cam/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 16, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Earlier this week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled its portion of the reconciliation bill, which included language to defund Planned Parenthood and abortion vendors for the next 10 years in the base text of the House bill.

Leading pro-life voices say the proposed congressional reconciliation bill could be a “historic opportunity” to stop federal funding from going to the abortion giant.

“Through a process called budget reconciliation, a new budget is being crafted that will soon be voted on by both chambers of Congress and sent to the White House for approval,” Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said this week in a livestream that gathered together leading pro-life advocates.

“Our goal is to see Planned Parenthood and big abortion defunded of our taxpayer dollars once and for all through this process,” Hawkins said.

What is budget reconciliation? 

Reconciliation is an expedited process for passing laws related to spending, budget, or taxes. 

What makes the reconciliation process unique is that for certain budget-related bills, it allows for a simple majority vote in the Senate as opposed to the usual supermajority requirement. Getting a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate is a challenge, but in budget reconciliation, bills can pass with a simple majority of 51 votes.

Reconciliation enables Congress to efficiently make fiscal policy changes. The process begins with the House and Senate budget committees creating budget resolutions and working together to pass an identical budget resolution.

After negotiating and voting on the reconciliation bills, the finalized reconciliation bill is brought to the president for a signature.

Why pro-lifers have high hopes

David Bereit, founder of 40 Days for Life and head of the Life Leadership Conference, called this opportunity “the best shot we’ve ever had.”

“With a Republican trifecta in Washington, Congress can finally use the budget reconciliation process to stop the forced taxpayer funding of the Big Abortion industry,” read an SBA statement shared with CNA.

Kristi Hamrick, vice president at Students for Life Action, noted that the language of disqualifying abortion vendors is in the “base text” of the bill. “An amendment is easy to throw away,” Hamrick told CNA. “But we’re written into the bill itself, and we’re written in for 10 years.”  

“A major hurdle was just passed,” Hamrick said. 

But the Republican majority in the House and Senate is slim — and not all right-leaning legislators consistently vote pro-life. 

According to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, moderate Republicans could be key to passing the bill. 

Without enough votes, legislators may have to comprise on the proposed 10-year pause on Planned Parenthood funding.

Hawkins and other pro-life voices are encouraging citizens to reach out to their members of Congress to encourage them to vote pro-life. 

Hawkins has high hopes for the reconciliation bill. “We know we can get out there and get this job done,” she said.

Why defund Planned Parenthood?   

While the Hyde Amendment blocks federal funding of abortion in programs like Medicaid, the abortion industry is still funded by the federal government via subsidies.

According to its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood received $800 million in U.S. taxpayer funding, with taxpayer dollars making up nearly 40% of their funding. 

“Imagine if you or I had someone covering 40% of our bills,” Hamrick said. “That’s a lot of money, and that gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility.”

The same annual report revealed Planned Parenthood caused over 400,000 abortions. 

“Forcing Americans to fund the abortion industry is a gross abuse of our hard-earned tax dollars and it’s unconscionable how long it has gone on,” Dannenfelser said.

“Health care should promote health,” Hamrick added. “If your health care kills people on purpose, you’re doing it wrong.” 

More and better alternatives 

Hamrick noted that defunding Planned Parenthood “doesn’t cut health care dollars away from poor women.” 

Pro-life advocates like Dannenfelser also maintain that “better alternatives to businesses like Planned Parenthood exist for women.” 

A recent report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute — the research and policy arm of SBA — found that in the U.S., community health centers for women outnumber Planned Parenthood locations 15 to 1. 

Dannenfelser noted that the community health centers give “high quality care.” 

“These centers are accessible and provide much more comprehensive care without performing abortions,” Dannenfelser said. “And because Medicaid dollars follow patients, they can continue to use Medicaid.” 

“We want them to go to health care providers that care for them as a full person,” Hamrick added.  

Vice President JD Vance speaks at a film-screening event April 1, 2025, at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Erin Granzow/Courtesy of the Heritage Foundation

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 15, 2025 / 18:23 pm (CNA).

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both of whom are Catholic, will attend the inaugural Mass for Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pope, on Saturday, May 18.

The Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Rome time and will be celebrated in St. Peter’s Square to mark the beginning of Leo’s pontificate.

Vance, a convert to the faith, congratulated the Holy Father on his elevation to the papacy in a post on X following the new pope’s election, saying “millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church.”

Shortly after his papacy was announced, prior posts on X from Leo that criticized Trump and Vance over the administration’s deportation and migration policies resurfaced on an account that has since been deleted.

In a May 9 interview with Hugh Hewitt, Vance addressed that issue, saying he tries not to “play the politicization of the pope game,” adding: “I’m sure he’s going to say a lot of things that I love [and] I’m sure he’ll say some things that I disagree with, but I’ll continue to pray for him and the Church despite it all and through it all, and that’ll be the way that I handle it.”

“The Church is about saving souls and about spreading the Gospel,” he added. “And yeah, it’s going to touch public policy from time to time as all human institutions do, but that’s not really what it’s about. And I think it’s much healthier for the American media, and certainly for Catholics, to not take such a, you know, politics in the age of social media attitude towards the papacy.”

Rubio also addressed the subject during a news conference on Thursday, making similar comments, saying: “I don’t view the papacy as a political office” and “I view it as a spiritual one.”

“The Church has strong social doctrine teachings, and I think there is not incompatibility,” Rubio said.

“We, too, are compassionate towards migrants,” he continued. “I would argue there’s nothing compassionate about mass migration. There’s nothing compassionate about open borders that allows people to be trafficked here. [It’s not compassionate] to the American people [either], … flooding our country with individuals that are criminals and prey on our communities.” 

Vance was last at the Vatican on April 20 and met Pope Francis the day prior to the pontiff’s death. During the meeting, the two exchanged Easter greetings and the pope gave Vance gifts for himself, his children, and his wife.

President Donald Trump was last at the Vatican for Francis’ April 26 funeral. In 2013, when Pope Francis was elevated to the papacy, the United States delegation to his inaugural Mass was also led by the vice president at the time, former president Joe Biden, who is also Catholic.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, with Sister Mary Bosco of the Sisters of Mercy, a 100-year-old Irish nun who taught him to “love and serve the Lord.” / Credit: Photo courtesy of Cardinal Dolan

ACI Prensa Staff, May 15, 2025 / 17:03 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, shared a video on May 14 in which he appears with Sister Mary Bosco of the Sisters of Mercy, a 100-year-old Irish nun who taught him to “love and serve the Lord.”

“I’m in Tullamore, Ireland, with my beloved Sister Mary Bosco! She’s 100 years old and she taught me when I was just a little boy,” the cardinal explained in a video posted on X after being in Rome participating in the conclave in which Pope Leo XIV was elected.

“Choosing is always important for God — he chooses us! I thank God for Sister Bosco’s vocation, the call of Pope Leo, for St. Matthias [whose feast day is May 14], and for my parents, who chose to get married today in 1949,” he added.

“That’s choice in action! Thank God for calling us,” he concluded. 

On Jan. 4, Dolan congratulated Sister Mary Bosco in a video message on her 100th birthday, noting that she “played a crucial role in my life,” as she was his teacher in second, fourth, and fifth grade.

“She taught me wisdom, she taught me knowledge, she taught me to put Jesus first. She taught me to know, love, and serve the Lord, she taught me to love the Church, to desire to receive the Lord in holy Communion and to strive to do my best to live the commandments and the beatitudes,” he recounted in January.

“I don’t know where I would be without her,” he shared at the time.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Capitol Hill on May 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

CNA Staff, May 15, 2025 / 16:33 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reviewing the regulation and labeling of the abortion pill mifepristone following new evidence of safety concerns regarding its current use, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday.

More than 1 in 10 women who take the abortion pill mifepristone to complete a chemical abortion will suffer a serious health complication within 45 days of taking the drug, a recent study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center found.

The study also found that the rate of serious adverse side effects occurs at 22 times the rate that the FDA-approved drug label currently indicates.

“It’s alarming, and clearly it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed,” Kennedy said when asked about the study by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing. 

During the hearing, Kennedy said that he has asked FDA director Marty Makary to “do a complete review and report back.” The FDA is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.

On Wednesday, a coalition of more than 100 organizations called for a review and restoration of previous federal safety regulations for the abortion drug in light of the study.

The open letter noted that under the Obama and Biden administrations, the FDA had removed various safety requirements including requirements for in-person prescriptions, provider follow-ups, and a doctor to be involved at any stage of the chemical abortion process.

“The evidence strongly suggests that mifepristone is unacceptably dangerous, and those who removed such protections put American women directly in harm’s way,” read the letter, which was signed by groups such as Americans United for Life, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, and dozens of other groups.

Various Catholic organizations are among the letter’s signatories, including the Catholic conferences of Colorado and Oklahoma.

“We encourage the administration and FDA to put the safety of women first and take a serious look at the data showing chemical abortion is neither safe nor effective,” the letter stated.

American Civil Liberties Union’s Julia Kaye, senior staff attorney for the Reproductive Freedom Project, criticized Kennedy’s decision to review the pill.

“If the FDA moves forward with this politically motivated review, that is a dangerous sign that the president is going back on his promises to voters not to restrict abortion access even further,” Kaye said in a statement.

In an interview last December, President Donald Trump promised that he would not ban the abortion pill but did not rule out regulating the drugs. Earlier this year, Kennedy said he planned to investigate safety concerns related to mifepristone.

Last week, Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of the HHS, Jim O’Neill, also pledged to conduct a review of the safety of mifepristone in light of the EPPC’s study.

Chemical abortions make up 63% of abortions in the U.S., according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

According to the EPPC, its study is the most comprehensive research on the abortion pill to date and is based on an insurance claims dataset that is 28 times larger than all the FDA-cited clinical trials.

The Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, Tennessee. / Credit: Nheyob, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, May 15, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Catholics in Nashville, Tennessee, are calling for the release of a man arrested by immigration officials last week amid broad efforts by the federal government to curb illegal immigration. 

A petition started by Catholics there says Edgardo Campos was detained by a “joint operation” between Tennessee state troopers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on May 9. 

Campos was “violently pulled out of his car by ICE agents and arrested,” the petition says, alleging that the detainment was part of an immigration operation carried out under the guise of “traffic violations.”

The petition calls Campos “a beloved, respected, and irreplaceable servant of our community.” 

“Edgardo Campos is more than just a name to us — he is the heart of our parish,” it states. “For years, he has faithfully served in multiple ministries, always the first to arrive and the last to leave. He is known by all for his tireless dedication, constantly running up and down our church halls, making sure everything is in order, welcoming others, and offering a helping hand wherever needed.” 

“Edgardo does not simply attend church — he lives his faith in both word and action, and his presence is essential to our spiritual life,” it reads. 

The petition calls the arrest an “injustice,” a “personal attack against Edgardo,” and “a strike against our shared values and the fabric of our church family.”

The document calls for Campos’ release. “The community will not be the same without him — and we will not rest until he is free,” it states. 

Though arrested in part by ICE, it is unclear what Campos’ immigration status is. Reached on Thursday, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said Campos remains in custody with them but that he has an immigration detainer on file, meaning he may be transferred to ICE custody at some point.

Rick Musacchio, a spokesman for the diocese and the executive director of the Tennessee Catholic Conference, told CNA that Campos reportedly attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Nashville. 

That parish “is located in the area of the ICE enforcement action last week,” he said. 

“We are very concerned that the immigration enforcement activities in the Nashville area are going well beyond efforts to target individuals accused of serious and dangerous crimes, or those who have received final deportation orders through the immigration court system,” he said. 

“Concerns about the lack of due process under law for those picked up in the current environment are creating even greater fear within our communities, including the fear of being confronted or detained while attending Mass or other events at our parishes.”

Mass attendance at both Sagrado Corazon and Our Lady of Guadalupe, the two Spanish-peaking parishes in Nashville, “were both down about 50% this past weekend,” Musacchio said.

In December, Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding joined a statement with other bishops from Tennessee and Kentucky calling for “just and humane treatment of all migrants, including access to legal protections, and due process.” 

“The Church recognizes that basic human rights are based on the dignity of being created in the image and likeness of God,” the statement said. 

On May 13, meanwhile, the diocese on its website said that, due to the immigration enforcement activities in the area, “many of those in our diocese are concerned about possibly being confronted or detained while attending Mass or other parish events.”

As a result, “no Catholic is obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk,” the diocese said. 

null / Credit: Sach336699/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 15, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church on May 8, 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 challenges of the industrial revolution. Now, the new pope says, it can help us, along with the full body of social teaching, to navigate the developments of artificial intelligence.

Today, on the 134th anniversary of the release of Rerum Novarum — published May 15, 1891 — CNA takes a look at the significance of this encylical.

As European society was grappling with the impact of the industrial revolution and the rise of socialist ideology in the late 1800s, Pope Leo XIII issued a papal encyclical that expressed empathy with the discontentment of laborers but outright condemnation of the socialist movements of the time.

The encyclical emphasizes a need for reforms to protect the dignity of the working class while maintaining a relationship with capital and the existence of private property.

The message was promulgated fewer than 50 years after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto” in 1848 and after Pope Pius IX denounced both socialism and communism in his 1849 encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum.

Pope Leo XIII’s teachings can still help inform readers on the proper relationship between labor and capital.

Leo XIII writes of a “great mistake” embraced by the socialist-leaning labor movements, which is the notion that “class is naturally hostile to class” and “wealthy and the working men are intended by nature to live in mutual conflict.”

This view, he asserts, is “so false … that the direct contrary is the truth.”

“It [is] ordained by nature that these two classes should dwell in harmony and agreement, so as to maintain the balance of the body politic,” Leo XIII teaches. “Each needs the other: Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital.”

The pontiff, who reigned from 1878 until his death in 1903, saw a need “in drawing the rich and the working class together” amid the strife brewing between these groups throughout the continent. 

This can be done, he said, by “reminding each of its duties to the other” and “of the obligations of justice.”

For the laborer, this includes a duty “fully and faithfully to perform the work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon” and to never destroy property, resort to violence, or riot to achieve a goal.

For the wealthy owner, this includes a duty to “respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character” and to never “misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain or to value them solely for their physical powers.”

“The employer is bound to see that the worker has time for his religious duties; that he be not exposed to corrupting influences and dangerous occasions; and that he be not led away to neglect his home and family or to squander his earnings,” Leo XIII says.

Leo XIII contends that employers must pay workers the whole of their wages and workers must do all of the work to which they agreed. But, in the context of wages, he adds that this “is not complete” because workers must be able to support themselves and their families.

“Wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner,” Leo XIII writes. “... If a workman’s wages be sufficient to enable him comfortably to support himself, his wife, and his children, he will find it easy, if he be a sensible man, to practice thrift, and he will not fail, by cutting down expenses, to put by some little savings and thus secure a modest source of income.”

In certain cases, Leo XIII encourages the intervention of government, such as when “employers laid burdens upon their workmen which were unjust,” when “conditions [were] repugnant to their dignity as human beings,” and when “health were endangered by excessive labor.” He adds that such interventions should not “proceed further than [what] is required for the remedy of the evil.”

Leo XIII also expresses support for “societies for mutual help” and “workingmen’s unions” but also exerts caution against any associations that promote values contrary to Catholic teaching. He encourages the creation of associations that are rooted in Catholic teaching.

The pontiff says there is much agreement “that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.” Yet, he accuses socialists of “working on the poor man’s envy of the rich” to “do away with private property” and turn “individual possessions” into “the common property of all, to be administered by the state or by municipal bodies.”

“Their contentions are so clearly powerless to end the controversy that were they carried into effect the working man himself would be among the first to suffer,” Leo XIII says. “They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the state, and create utter confusion in the community.”

Using this remedy to resolve poor conditions for the laborer, the pontiff contends, “is manifestly against justice” because “every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.” He further argues that government intrusion into the rights of property and the right to provide for one’s family is “a great and pernicious error.”

“That right to property … [must] belong to a man in his capacity of head of a family; nay, that right is all the stronger in proportion as the human person receives a wider extension in the family group,” Leo XIII says. “It is a most sacred law of nature that a father should provide food and all necessaries for those whom he has begotten; and, similarly, it is natural that he should wish that his children, who carry on, so to speak, and continue his personality, should be by him provided with all that is needful to enable them to keep themselves decently from want and misery amid the uncertainties of this mortal life.”

Rerum Novarum set the foundations of Catholic social teaching about labor. Other popes have since built on the teachings laid out in the encyclical, including Pope Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno on the 40th anniversary of Leo XIII’s writing and Pope John Paul II’s 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens on the 90th anniversary.

This story was first published on Sept. 2, 2024, and was updated on May 15, 2025.

Camp IdRaHaJe in Colorado on May 12, 2025, field a lawsuit against the state government over a state rule allowing males who identify as girls to be given access to girls’ showers, dressing areas, and sleeping facilities. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Camp IdRaHaJe

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 15, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

A Christian summer camp network is suing the Colorado government over a state rule allowing males who identify as girls to be given access to girls’ showers, dressing areas, and sleeping facilities.

Camp IdRaHaJe — which separates private facilities on the basis of sex rather than self-asserted “gender identity” — filed the federal lawsuit against Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood on Monday.

The camp, which derives its name from the 1922 Christian hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” is protesting a regulation that requires access to gender-separated showers, sleeping facilities, changing rooms, and bathrooms in all children’s resident camps on the basis of “an individual’s gender identity” even when the gender identity is different from his or her biological sex.

The lawsuit notes that the camps believe and teach that God “has immutably created each person as either male or female in his image” and that “the differentiation of the sexes, male and female, is part of the divine image in the human race.” 

It adds that the camps’ beliefs, including its beliefs on biological sex, are integrated into all of its programs and operations.

Camp IdRaHaJe requested an exemption from the state rule because it conflicts with its religious beliefs and mission, but the department denied the request. The department’s rules generally allow for individualized exemptions to “any rule or standard” if it poses “an undue hardship” on any camp, but the government determined the religious objection did not qualify.

If the camps do not comply with the rule, their licenses could be revoked or suspended and they could face fines. According to the lawsuit, the camps open on June 8 and will not operate in compliance with these rules. The camps also need to certify compliance with all departmental rules to have their licenses renewed in June, which the lawsuit asserts they will not be able to do.

The camp network is asking the federal judge to immediately prevent the department from enforcing the rule against its camps, arguing that any enforcement would violate the group’s First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. 

The lawsuit also contends that the rule infringes on the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, which safeguards the rights of protected classes, including those defined by religion.

“Those regulations would require the camp to violate its religious beliefs by altering its policies and operations that are based on its religious beliefs about sexuality and gender,” states the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the camp by lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Camp IdRaHaJe has operated since 1948 and was established for “the purpose of winning souls to Jesus Christ through the spreading of the Gospel,” the “edifying … of the believers through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God,” and the “evangelizing of campers through witnessing and missions,” according to its website.

The camp network serves children between the ages of 6 and 17. The camps are attended by about 2,500 to 3,000 children every summer.

Many families “choose to send their children to IdRaHaJe camps because of their Christian programs and education,” according to the lawsuit.

Andrea Dill, who serves as legal counsel for ADF, said in a statement that the government “has no place telling religious summer camps that it’s ‘lights out’ for upholding their religious beliefs about human sexuality.” 

“Camp IdRaHaJe exists to present the truth of the Gospel to children who are building character and lifelong memories,” Dill continued. 

“But the Colorado government is putting its dangerous agenda — that is losing popularity across the globe — ahead of its kids. We are urging the court to allow IdRaHaJe to operate as it has for over 75 years: as a Christian summer camp that accepts all campers without fear of being punished for its beliefs,” she said. 

Charitable organizations distribute food to displaced people in shelter tents in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on June 9, 2024. / Credit: Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 15, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The global number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the world skyrocketed to a record high of 83.4 million in 2024, according to a report released Tuesday, marking a more than 100% increase in six years. 

“Conflicts and violence have left 73.5 million people displaced and [natural] disasters 9.8 million, in both cases the highest figures on record,” the latest edition of the Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) finds.

According to the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency, internally displaced persons are those who have been forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, persecution, or disasters; however, unlike refugees, they remain within their own country. 

The total number of globally displaced people in 2023 was 75.9 million, while the first GRID in 2015 recorded 40.5 million.

Conducted by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, this year’s report listed ongoing wars such as those in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine as well as natural disasters like hurricanes Helene and Milton as driving factors behind the record-breaking numbers of people forced to leave their homes.

Sudan recorded the highest number of displaced people in the world, at 11.6 million, followed by Syria at 7.4 million. In Gaza, the report estimates that more than 3.2 million displacements occurred in 2024 while in Ukraine it recorded about 3.7 million. For its part, the U.S. had more than 11 million displacements due to mass evacuations following hurricanes. 

“The ever-increasing number of IDPs results in part from the insufficient support [internally displaced people] receive to put an end to their displacement by returning home or making a new home elsewhere and addressing their related needs,” the report states, noting that the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen, where conflicts have been ongoing for years or even decades, recorded their highest-ever numbers of displacements. 

During a jubilee year audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV urged thousands of Eastern-rite Catholics present from around the world, many of whom come from places experiencing violence, not to abandon their ancestral lands and assured them that he will do everything he can to bring peace there.

“I thank God for those Christians — Eastern and Latin alike — who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them,” he said. “Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” 

In 2020, the Vatican’s migrant and refugee office released guidelines on how the Church ought to respond to the problem of people who have been internally displaced within their own countries due to conflict or disaster.

The document, the “Pastoral Orientation on Internally Displaced People,” calls on Catholic dioceses and organizations to “welcome, protect, promote, and integrate” people who have been internally displaced.

The 47-page document quotes the late Pope Francis, who noted in his New Year address to the Holy See Diplomatic Corps in 2020 that because consistent protections for internally displaced people do not exist in the same way as they do for refugees, “the result is that internally displaced persons do not always receive the protection they deserve.”

CREDO is a new, global streaming platform for faith-driven content launching on May 28, 2025. / Credit: Castletown Media

CNA Staff, May 15, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A new global streaming platform for faith-driven content will launch worldwide on May 28 and serve as the exclusive streaming home of “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,” the top-grossing faith-based documentary of the year at the box office.

CREDO, founded by Tim Moriarty, CEO and founder of Castletown Media, is also on track to stream Castletown’s newest project, “Leo XIV: A Pontiff’s Path,” later this year.

The platform will allow filmmakers to showcase their work, connect directly with audiences, and earn fair compensation while viewers enjoy on-demand, a la carte rentals with no subscriptions or recurring fees. Content will be able to be viewed on computers, mobile devices, and on smart TVs. 

Castletown Media’s newest project, “Leo XIV: A Pontiff’s Path,” will follow the journey of the new Holy Father — from his Chicago roots through his theological formation and missionary service. The film will weave together interviews with those who knew him and offer an immersive portrait of his missionary work in Peru, tracing his vocational journey from a humble Augustinian friar to the supreme pontiff.

The film invites viewers to meet the man behind the title — how his Chicago roots, Augustinian formation, and missionary zeal will shape his ministry as vicar of Christ, Moriarty told CNA in an exclusive interview.

“Within hours of his first appearance on the loggia, our cameras were rolling in Rome and Chicago, and this week our team is in Peru, uncovering the experiences that prepared him to shepherd the global Church,” he said.

On CREDO, starting on May 28, viewers will be able to watch “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,” which explores the life of Acutis and the lessons he offers young people regarding the challenges of the digital world. It features Acutis’ family and friends sharing their firsthand experiences of the soon-to-be saint and his impact on their lives, in addition to well-known voices in the Catholic Church and technology experts who offer a model for young people to engage in the digital world.

“Catholic audiences shouldn’t have to settle for anything less than artistic excellence,” Moriarty said. “With CREDO, rigorous curation meets state-of-the-art streaming, so families can hit play knowing they’ll experience beautifully crafted, spiritually sound films. It’s only fitting that our launch title is ‘Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,’ which explores the life of the first millennial saint who used digital media to spread the Gospel. His story perfectly encapsulates everything CREDO stands for.”