A drag performer dresses up as a Catholic religious sister and dances provocatively on stage while wearing a gay pride flag. / rYN/YouTube Nov 8, 2018Boston, Mass., May 19, 2023 / 13:30 pm (CNA).A small group of students who protested an annual drag show at the Catholic Loyola University Chicago told CNA that a group of counterprotesters destroyed their signs, disparaged their faith, and later threatened them with violence on social media. Rising juniors Emily Torres and Matthew McKenna resorted to protesting the April 14 event, which has been held on campus since at least 2018, after school administrators refused to accede to their requests that the event be canceled. The students had told officials they believed the drag show promotes values in contradiction with Catholic teaching.According to their account, when the two students staged a protest outside of the event held at the university s Mullady Theater, a crowd of counterprotesters surrounded them and ripp.
Staff at a new facility in the Archdiocese of Bogotá, Colombia, that helps people recover from drug addiction. / Credit: Courtesy photoACI Prensa Staff, May 18, 2023 / 12:45 pm (CNA).The Church in Bergamo, Italy, and Bogotá, Colombia, have recently joined together through two Catholic foundations to help people who have fallen into drug addiction to recover.The Santina Foundation, directed by Msgr. Luigi Ginami, a priest of the Diocese of Bergamo, and the Domus Colombia Foundation, part of the Care for Human Dignity ministry of the Archdiocese of Bogotá and headed by Father Jorge Arias, have agreed to work together to combine their efforts.The first fruit of this collaboration has been the expansion of a home for drug addicts that the Domus Foundation administers in the town of Silvania in the Cundinamarca department of Colombia. The project was blessed May 3.The expansion will allow 10 more people to be accommodated in addition to the 15 who already reside there.The constructi.
null / SiljeAO/ShutterstockDenver, Colo., May 16, 2023 / 14:10 pm (CNA).Federal regulators with the Food and Drug Administration should reject proposed over-the-counter use of the progestin-only "minipill" contraceptive, the U.S. bishops have said. They echo other critics who say the drug s side effects mean patients should have physician supervision while taking the drug."It is concerning that the FDA has a recommendation before it to approve over-the-counter hormonal contraception when there is strong evidence of the many harmful risks to women s health," Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, said May 15.An advisory panel to the FDA on May 10 unanimously voted to recommend approval of the Opill birth control pill for over-the-counter availability. A final decision is expected this summer.The progestin-only contraceptive, sometimes called the &q
Santiaguito Church in Mexico sustained fire damage, according to a May 15, 2023, statement by the Diocese of Irapuato in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. / Credit: Facebook of Bishop Enrique Díaz Díaz of IrapuatoACI Prensa Staff, May 16, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA).The Diocese of Irapuato in the Mexican state of Guanajuato expressed its "profound consternation" over a fire deliberately set at Santiaguito (St. James) Church and called it a "sacrilege." In a statement published May 15, Father Efrén Silva Plascencia, spokesman for the diocese, said that the fire "was set on the exterior by a male person who arrived outside the church at 1:04 a.m. and left at 1:26 a.m."Silva pointed out that the Church of Santiaguito, whose origins date back to the 17th century, is one of the "most emblematic and iconic" in the region.The bishop of Irapuato, Enrique Díaz Díaz, shared on Facebook the first images of the scorched church.According to the diocese, a crimi
An FBI agent stands outside the Houck residence in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 23, 2022. Mark Houck was arrested that day and charged with assaulting a Planned Parenthood escort outside an Philadelphia abortion clinic on Oct. 13, 2021. / Courtesy of the Houck familyWashington D.C., May 16, 2023 / 15:45 pm (CNA).House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, threatened to reduce the Federal Bureau of Investigation s funding during a committee hearing in which lawmakers debated whether laws are being selectively enforced against pro-life activists."Politics is driving the agenda in far too many agencies in our government," Jordan said during a Tuesday morning hearing on "Revisiting the Implications of the FACE Act."A subcommittee heard testimony from five witnesses, including pro-life activist Mark Houck. Although he was ultimately acquitted, the Department of Justice brought charges against Houck under the FACE Act, which imposes harsh penalties on anyone who tr