Parental and religious freedom rights advocates, including a group of Muslim parents, on June 6, 2023, protest a Maryland school system policy that removes parents authority to opt their children out of homosexual and transgender coursework. / Credit: The Religious Freedom InstituteWashington D.C., Jun 8, 2023 / 09:30 am (CNA).A group of Muslim parents joined parental and religious freedom rights advocates Tuesday to protest a Maryland school system s new policy that removes the parents authority to opt their children out of coursework that promotes homosexuality and transgenderism.The June 6 protest at the Montgomery County public school district s headquarters was led by a group called Family Rights for Religious Freedom. About 50 parents and activists carried signs that read "family rights" and "restore the opt-out" while chanting slogans such as "protect our children" and "religious freedom now."Maryland law requires that school d
null / Credit: ShutterstockACI Prensa Staff, Jun 6, 2023 / 16:15 pm (CNA).Last Saturday, hundreds of parents in Honduras officially launched the "For Our Children" movement, a citizen platform that seeks to stop the attempt to impose gender ideology in the public school curriculum.With the slogan "Don t mess with my children," a group of approximately 500 people met June 3 at the Cortés Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the city of San Pedro de Sula to present a manifesto highlighting the "inalienable right" of parents to educate their children according to their "values, principles, and beliefs."Martha Lorena de Casco, a member of the Pro-Life Honduras Committee, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA s Spanish-language news partner, that this movement was formed to respond to the attempt by the administration of President Xiomara Castro to "mandate the implementation [of] a sex education guide with gender ideology starting in kindergarten."&
President Joe Biden welcomes the Kansas City Chiefs to the White House in Washington, D.C., June 5, 2023. Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker (back row, center) wore a tie with a pro-life message on it. / Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesBoston, Mass., Jun 6, 2023 / 15:15 pm (CNA).During the Kansas City Chiefs visit to the White House on Monday in celebration of their Super Bowl victory in February, the team s kicker, Harrison Butker, made a statement in support of the unborn by wearing a custom-made necktie with a pro-life message.Butker, a faithful Catholic, wore a tie that says "Vulnerari Praesidio," a Latin phrase he says means "protect the most vulnerable.""I want to give the most vulnerable, the unborn, a voice at a place where every effort has been made to allow and normalize the tragic termination of their lives," Butker said in a June 6 statement.Butker is referring to the Biden administration s aggressive pro-abortion stance, a position that has put
A pro-LGBTQ message on a Methodist church in Nashville, Tennessee. / Glendale United Methodist Church|FlickrWashington D.C., Jun 6, 2023 / 15:45 pm (CNA).As the United Methodist Church (UMC) is rocked by disagreement over LGBTQ+ issues, more than 4,000 congregations have officially split from the denomination this year. More congregations joined the growing schism this weekend with 60 leaving in Michigan on Saturday and 250 in Kentucky splitting with the UMC on Sunday. Jay Therrell, president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association and a leader in the "disaffiliation" movement, told CNA that "the authority of Scripture and the lordship of Christ" has "deteriorated for many, many years in the United Methodist Church." Today, Therrell said, that problem is "playing out in the issue of human sexuality."As of Tuesday afternoon, 4,876 Methodist churches this year have officially completed the process to break away from the UMC, Therrell sa
Pope Francis prayed before a relic of St. Therese of Lisieux at the beginning of his general audience in St. Peter's Square, and shortly before going to the hospital for an abdominal surgery, on June 7, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNAVatican City, Jun 7, 2023 / 04:37 am (CNA).One of Pope Francis last gestures before undergoing abdominal surgery on Wednesday was to pray before a relic of St. Therese of Lisieux.A relic of the French Carmelite nun, also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus, was present on the platform in front of St. Peter s Basilica during the pope s weekly general audience June 7.Before beginning the audience, Francis venerated the relics of St. Therese in a moment of silent prayer. He also placed a single, white rose on the table in front of the reliquary.Pope Francis was taken to Rome s Gemelli Hospital for abdominal surgery under general anesthesia at the end of the morning audience, shortly after 11:00 a.m. Rome time, the Vatican said. Relics of St. There.