U.S.

Bishops urge prayer as high court will hear cases on pill used in abortion

WASHINGTON — As the Supreme Court prepares to take up two cases on access to abortion pills, U.S. Catholic bishops have issued a nationwide call to prayer to end abortion and protect women and unborn children. The invitation was issued March 14 by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities. The prayer campaign, which seeks the intercession of St. Joseph as the “Defender of Life,” begins March 25, the day before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments regarding lawsuits on the drug mifepristone and its widespread availability. Mifepristone has a two-decade history of use for early abortions when used with misoprostol, but the same drug combination in recent years has been prescribed for early miscarriage care. The daily prayer for the bishops’ campaign is available in English and Spanish at respectlife.org/prayer-to-st-joseph. (OSV News)

Pro-life group deplores Harris’ visit to abortion clinic

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Vice President Kamala Harris on March 14 toured a Minnesota abortion clinic, marking the first time that a president or vice president has done so, according to Harris’ office. During a trip to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, part of a nationwide tour Harris launched earlier in 2024 to advocate for expanding abortion access, the vice president spoke with staff at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Harris has frequently argued that access to abortion should be expanded by congressional legislation, a position the Biden-Harris re-election campaign has also advocated for. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect anti-abortion candidates, criticized the appearance. (OSV News)

La Crosse, Wis., bishop resigns for health reasons; Detroit auxiliary named successor

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop William P. Callahan, 73, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, for health reasons, and has appointed Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Gerard W. Battersby as his successor. The resignation and appointment were publicized in Washington March 19 by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Bishop Battersby, a Detroit native, was named a Detroit auxiliary Nov. 23, 2016, and ordained a bishop Jan. 25, 2017. He will be installed as the 11th bishop of La Crosse May 20 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman. Bishop Callahan has headed the west-central Wisconsin diocese for 14 years. He is two years shy of the age canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope. (OSV News)

WORLD

Pope sets up groups to study most controversial issues raised at synod

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has decided that some of the most controversial issues raised at the first assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality will be examined by study groups that will work beyond the synod’s final assembly in October. The possible revision of guidelines for the training of priests and deacons, “the role of women in the Church and their participation in decision-making/taking processes and community leadership,” a possible revision of the way bishops are chosen and a revision of norms for the relationship between bishops and the religious orders working in their dioceses all will be the subject of study groups. Pope Francis approved the 10 groups and their topics; he asked the groups, coordinated by different offices of the Roman Curia, to make a preliminary report to the synod’s second assembly in October and to give him a final report on their work by June 2025. (CNS)

Life-threatening safety concerns keep Burkina Faso Catholics away from Sunday Mass

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — The majority of Christians in Burkina Faso are now shying away from Sunday services and instead praying at home after a series of deadly attacks by Islamist militants targeting churches and killing scores of worshippers. The latest attack by insurgents on a Catholic church in the northeastern part of the country on Feb. 25 left at least 15 people dead. Gunmen on motorcycles suspected to be Islamist militants raided the church, indiscriminately shooting at worshippers, including children. “People are devastated and are … avoiding Sunday Mass for fear of further attacks,” said Father Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, vicar general of the Diocese of Dori, where the attack took place. Martin Ouedraogo, a former catechist in the Diocese of Dori, said continuous attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State on Christians have instilled fear in them about expressing their faith in public. (OSV News)

Family, community, are key to overcoming secularism, pope says

VATICAN CITY — Faced with decades of rising secularism, the Catholic Church must invest in families and in strengthening other forms of community to transmit the faith, Pope Francis said. “The big issue before us is to understand how to overcome the rupture that has been established in the transmission of faith,” the pope told members of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s section for new evangelization March 15. “To that end there is an urgent need to recover an effective relationship with families and formation centers.” Developing faith in Christ “requires a meaningful experience lived in the family and in the Christian community as a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ in order to be transmitted,” he wrote in his message to members of the dicastery during their plenary assembly. “Without this real and existential encounter, one will always be subject to the temptation to make faith a theory and not a testimony of life.” In his message, the pope wrote that the secularism of recent decades “has created enormous difficulties” for the Church, “from the loss of a sense of belonging to the Christian community to the indifference regarding the faith and its contents.” (CNS)

Rome biblical and Eastern institutes merged with Gregorian University

ROME — At the request of Pope Francis, three Jesuit-run institutions of higher learning in Rome — the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute — will formally become one university in May. Jesuit Father Arturo Sosa, superior general of the Jesuits, informed the three March 15 that “the new general statutes of the university, which permanently incorporate the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, will come into effect on 19 May 2024, which is Pentecost Sunday,” said a press release March 18 from the Gregorian University. In December 2019, Pope Francis ordered the Biblicum and the Oriental Institute to formally become part of the Gregorian University while keeping their names and their areas of expertise. With the new statutes they become academic units of the university, the press release said. (CNS)