Banner of the Yes to Life demonstration held in Madrid on March 12, 2023. / Credit: Nicolás de Cárdenas/ACI PrensaACI Prensa Staff, Mar 13, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).Thousands turned out for the Yes to Life march in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, where the sponsoring organizations expressed their opposition to "all laws and practices that threaten life and human nature at any moment of its existence, as well as the businesses and ideologies that sustain them."The event was held this year somewhat ahead of the usual date of March 25, the International Day for Life, and was supported by more than 500 organizations that are part of the Yes to Life platform.Various participants carried banners with messages such as "You can t be a Catholic and support abortion," "All life is a blessing from God," "Live out your pregnancy, give life," "Human rights begin in the womb," "No mother regrets being one," and "Abortion leaves women without
Joe Biden / lev radin/ShutterstockWashington D.C., Mar 13, 2023 / 17:05 pm (CNA).President Joe Biden criticized Florida s regulation of transgender medical care for children and ban on gender ideology in the classroom, calling the measures "close to sinful."Biden said in an interview with Daily Show guest host Kal Penn: "What s going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. I mean it s just terrible what they re doing."Although the president did not specify which laws he was referring to, Republican lawmakers in Florida and other states have introduced bills and regulations to protect children from transgender medical interventions and restrict classroom instruction in gender ideology.During his interview, Biden added that federal legislation might be necessary to prevent states from adopting certain bills that affect transgender policies related to children. "It s not like, you know, a kid wakes up one morning and says, You kn
null / ivanko80/ShutterstockWashington D.C., Mar 13, 2023 / 14:50 pm (CNA).The first hearing in what could be the most consequential abortion case since the overturning of Roe v. Wade is set for this Wednesday, March 15.The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), along with several other medical organizations and doctors, is suing the Federal Drug Administration for its approval and expansion of the abortion drug mifepristone.On Jan. 3, the FDA changed its policy to allow pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, to sell mifepristone. Previously, the FDA only allowed certified doctors, clinics, and some mail-order pharmacies to dispense the drug. After the FDA s policy change, any patient with a prescription can obtain mifepristone from her local retail pharmacy.Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), AHM is alleging that the FDA has been recklessly endangering women and young girls for decades by ignoring its own research and testing standards and continuing to expa.
Palazzo della Rovere, also called Palazzo dei Penitenzieri. / Credit: Lalula via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0Vatican City, Mar 14, 2023 / 12:12 pm (CNA).A Catholic order of knighthood has signed a leasing agreement that will allow a Four Seasons hotel to manage part of a historic building close to the Vatican.The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem signed an agreement with Fort Partners, a Miami-based development company, on March 10, according to a statement published Tuesday.The lease to Fort Partners includes an agreement to use that part of the building for a hotel under the management of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.The other part of the building houses the headquarters of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.The order is a lay institution under the protection of the Holy See whose first mention in historical records dates to 1336. Today, the charitable group has approximately 30,000 members in almost 40 countries and is de.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNARome Newsroom, Mar 14, 2023 / 08:54 am (CNA).The Vatican s foreign minister has said that the Vatican-China deal was "not the best deal possible" and that negotiations are underway to make the deal "work better."In an interview with Colm Flynn for EWTN News, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for Relations with States, said that Holy See diplomats are "negotiating improvements" to the Holy See s provisional agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops, first signed in 2018."Obviously, the objective is to get the best deal possible, which certainly this agreement is not the best deal possible because of the other party: They were only prepared to go so far and to agree to certain things. But that was what was possible at the time," Gallagher said."It wasn t really a great time to sign the deal, for various reasons. It was always going to be difficult; it was