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‘Real sanctions, real consequences’ are needed for countries on religious freedom watchlist
Posted on 02/5/2025 20:30 PM (CNA Daily News)

Washington D.C., Feb 5, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).
Placing countries that violate religious liberties on a watchlist of the world’s worst offenders is not enough to prevent future violations, according to a panel discussion at the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit held in Washington, D.C., this week.
The Tuesday afternoon panel, “Rallying Behind the CPC Designation: Enhancing Collaboration for Greater Impact,” discussed the limitations of the State Department’s tool for combatting global religious persecution: the country of particular concern (CPC) designation.
United States Commission on International Religious (USCIRF) Chairman Stephen Schneck explained: “The CPC designation really only works as an instrument for naming and shaming.”
“Real sanctions, real consequences on the ground in some practical way of effectiveness — that’s just not there in the way that the CPC designations currently work,” Schneck said. “We need to change the CPC designation in such a fashion that it has actionable consequences on the ground.”
Since the United States adopted the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the State Department has issued annual reports designating countries of particular concern. The designation is reserved for countries with “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious liberty, such as torture and other types of inhumane treatment, prolonged detentions, abductions and disappearances, and other flagrant denials of life, liberty, or security of persons.
According to the USCIRF chairman, many countries that receive a CPC designation can “largely ignore” it through waivers that have been put in place for diplomatic geopolitical reasons.
“There needs to be something — whether a waiver is applied or not — that has meaningful consequences for these countries, regardless of the larger geopolitical situation in the world and U.S. foreign policy, and so forth,” Schneck said.
He further suggested application of the Global Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that allows the government to issue sanctions against religious freedom violators at an individual rather than national or statewide level so as not to cause economic suffering to those already experiencing religious persecution in those countries.
Piero Tozzi, staff director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called for the State Department to exercise more comprehensive oversight over countries it designates as CPCs. He also suggested its officials receive more training on how to recognize religious freedom violations.
“Sometimes they see the world and they think the rest of the world has the same secular outlook that they do,” Tozzi said, explaining that if State Department officials are not trained to recognize religious persecution, issuing a designation and holding countries accountable becomes more difficult.
Tozzi gave the example of the persecution of Christian farmers by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. He said that some at the State Department had incorrectly described it as a land resource dispute brought on by climate change.
The Biden administration notably left Nigeria off its CPC designation list despite its own reports highlighting the violent persecution of Christians taking place in the country.
St. Louis Archdiocese rebukes pastor’s comments opposing ban on transgender treatments
Posted on 02/5/2025 20:00 PM (CNA Daily News)

St. Louis, Mo., Feb 5, 2025 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
The Archdiocese of St. Louis this week distanced itself from comments a local pastor made in opposition to proposed legislation that would extend the state’s ban on transgender procedures for minors.
Missouri bans the provision of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries to minors for purposes of “gender transitions.” The law took effect last summer and was subsequently upheld in court in the fall, but the law is currently due to expire in August 2027. Missouri lawmakers, amid a contentious debate, are currently considering bills that if passed would make the law permanent.
Father Mitchell Doyen, pastor at St. Josephine Bakhita Parish in north St. Louis City, testified during a Missouri House committee hearing Feb. 3 that the “bills which you contemplate today are dehumanizing our brothers and sisters.”
“I have had the privilege of knowing and befriending transgender youth and adults and their parents and their friends and their brothers and sisters. I have listened to their stories and the stories of their doctors and their counselors. Their desire to live fully human, authentic, grace-filled and gifted lives in our community is a profound blessing for us,” Doyen said.
“I believe in a loving God who has fashioned each human person as a unique reflection of God’s love in the world. I am not afraid to imagine a world more profound than male and female. And I trust the parents, the families, the doctors, the counselors — all who love our trangender youth — to make these decisions more than [I trust] you.”
In a statement shared with CNA Wednesday, the Archdiocese of St. Louis said Doyen “was speaking on his own behalf, and his comments did not accurately reflect Church teaching.”
The Catholic Church teaches that the human person is an intrinsic unity of body and soul, and that the body is a gift to be received, respected, and cared for. The U.S. bishops reiterated in 2023 that surgical or chemical interventions that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of the body into those of the opposite sex represent a rejection of the “fundamental order of the human body” as being “sexually differentiated.”
“The Catholic Church consistently reaffirms the compassion and inherent dignity of all men and women, including those who experience gender dysphoria. We do not discriminate against anyone based on how they identify or what they believe,” the statement from the archdiocese reads.
“However, our pastoral care and support of individuals who identify as transgender does not mean that we condone chemical treatment or surgical procedures that are designed to alter the appearance of one’s gender. The Church has been consistent on this issue, and any suggestion to the contrary is a misrepresentation.”
St. Josephine Bakhita Parish, which is historically African American, was formed from a merger of three former parishes that came into effect in October 2023. The parish played a prominent role last summer as an official stop for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimages as part of the National Eucharistic Revival.
‘I don’t think the Church has anything to say’
Speaking prior to Doyen at the hearing on Monday was Guillermo Villa Trueba, a lobbyist with the Missouri Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops. He said the Church supports the bills because they would continue to protect minors from procedures that “based on a false understanding of human nature” are designed to attempt to change a child’s sex.
Minors are not capable of giving true informed consent to procedures that can lead to infertility and lifelong dependence on transgender medications, Villa Trueba noted, quoting Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ on the importance of “learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning.”
“Young people struggling with gender dysphoria are loved by God and possess the same inherent dignity that all persons do. They deserve help that heals rather than harms. Using puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for the purpose of gender transition can and will only inflict harm and cause suffering,” Villa Trueba said.
During the hearing, Republican State Rep. Brad Christ, a fellow Catholic, probed Doyen about what he described as a “disconnect” between Doyen’s testimony and Villa Trueba’s.
“I’m not saying ‘change Church teaching.’ But I don’t think the Church has anything to say about these bills. It’s too intimate among the lives of families,” Doyen replied.
“[The] Church teaches chastity. [The] Church teaches the dignity of the human person. The Church teaches the value of the sacrament of marriage and the beauty of a love between man and woman that reveals God’s love in the world. All of that is true. But why then, because all of that is true, do we have to say that nothing else can be true? It’s a lack of imagination, and it’s really a failure to trust God’s promises to us,” the priest continued.
Police charge teenager with stabbing classmate at Catholic high school in England
Posted on 02/5/2025 17:55 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 5, 2025 / 14:55 pm (CNA).
A teenager has been arrested and charged with murder after police say he stabbed a fellow student to death at a Catholic high school in England on Monday.
The alleged attacker, whom police have not named because of his age, reportedly stabbed 15-year-old Harvey Willgoose to death Feb. 3 at All Saints Catholic High School in the South Yorkshire city of Sheffield. The school has about 1,300 pupils, aged between 11 and 18, the Guardian reported.
The local Diocese of Hallam, which encompasses all of Sheffield, released a statement Feb. 4 paying tribute to “our much-loved student, Harvey Willgoose.”
Bishop Ralph Heskett of Hallam said he will be asking all priests of the diocese to offer Mass for Willgoose. In addition, the bishop said, St. Marie’s Cathedral is open for those wanting a place for private prayer.
A Mass at St. Joseph’s Parish in Handsworth at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8, will be celebrated for Willgoose’s intention, he continued. Willgoose was a former pupil at the elementary school there.
“Our prayers, and those of every parish and school, are with Harvey, his parents, family, and friends for a young life lost and all those affected by this tragedy,” the bishop said.
“My thoughts are also with the students, staff, and community of All Saints Catholic High School at this time. In God’s peace, and in God’s presence, we must come together as a community of faith to comfort each other.”
Steve Davies, the CEO of the trust that runs the school, expressed his “heartfelt condolences.”
“Harvey was an invaluable part of our school community. An immensely popular young man with his fellow students and teachers alike, he had a smile that would light up the room. Harvey was young. He was precious. He was loved,” Davies said.
“A tragic and shocking incident such as this shakes us to our core and is the opposite of the ethos of what All Saints stands for — a loving, caring school community.”
“We are assisting the police in their ongoing investigation and echo their call to refrain from engaging in speculation and misinformation whilst they establish the facts behind this tragic incident,” he concluded.
Members of the community continue to contribute to a makeshift shrine honoring Willgoose with flowers, balloons, and tributes at a spot outside the gates of the school.
Prior to the Feb. 3 incident, the school went into lockdown Jan. 29 after staff and students were informed of “threats of violence” between a “small number of students,” the Yorkshire Post reported. Local police have not announced if the two incidents are linked.
Spokane bishop urges voters to oppose bill that forces priests to break seal of confession
Posted on 02/5/2025 17:25 PM (CNA Daily News)

CNA Staff, Feb 5, 2025 / 14:25 pm (CNA).
Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly is urging Catholic voters in Washington state to oppose a proposed law that would order priests to violate the seal of confession in cases where child abuse is revealed during the sacrament.
The bill, proposed in both houses of the state Legislature, would amend state law to require clergy to report instances of child abuse with no exemption for instances where the abuse is learned during the sacrament of penance.
A 2023 version of the proposal offered an exemption for abuse allegations learned “solely as a result of a confession.” The latest bill does not contain such a carve-out.
State Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, told the Washington State Standard that the proposal was “a hard subject for many of my colleagues, especially those with deep religious views.”
“I also know far too many children have been victims of abuse — the Legislature has a duty to act,” she argued.
Canon law stipulates that any priest who deliberately violates the seal of confession is automatically excommunicated. This week, Daly stressed his opposition to the measure, assuring the faithful that clergy “are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail.”
“The sacrament of penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane,” the bishop said.
Daly noted that the Diocese of Spokane devotes considerable resources to child safety and holds “a zero-tolerance policy regarding child sexual abuse.”
The bishop said the diocese would follow the legislative process around the bill. He called for prayers “that our legislators will create sound law” that respects freedom of religion in the U.S.
“I strongly encourage the Catholic faithful of eastern Washington to call our state representatives and respectfully ask them to vote against this measure,” Daly wrote.
This is not the only recent effort to order priests to violate the seal of confession in an effort to combat child abuse.
A bill proposed in Montana earlier this year proposed to “eliminate clergy exemption in mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect.”
Clergy “may not refuse to make a report as required ... on the grounds of a physician-patient or similar privilege,” the Montana bill said. That measure stalled at committee in January.
In May 2023 Delaware legislators proposed a bill requiring priests to break the seal of confession in cases of reporting sexual abuse. A similar law was proposed in Vermont around the same time. Both bills failed to advance in their respective legislatures.
Citing ancient Church teachings, Vance prioritizes religious liberty at IRF summit
Posted on 02/5/2025 16:55 PM (CNA Daily News)

Washington D.C., Feb 5, 2025 / 13:55 pm (CNA).
U.S. Vice President JD Vance cited both ancient Christian teachings and America’s Founding Fathers as he vowed that the Trump-Vance administration will deliver on its religious liberty commitments during a speech to the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit Wednesday morning.
“Religious freedom flows from concepts central to the Christian faith,” Vance said at the Feb. 5 speech to hundreds gathered at the annual summit in Washington, D.C.
Those Christian tenets, according to the American vice president, are “the free will of human beings and the essential dignity of all peoples.”
“We find its foundational tenets in the Gospels themselves with Christ’s famous instruction to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s,” Vance said. “Early Christians, of course, suffered greatly and unfortunately many Christians still suffer today at the hands of oppressive state power.”
The vice president referenced a letter that ancient Church historian and apologist Tertullian wrote to Scapula, a proconsul of Carthage, in the early third century about the persecution of Christians and the importance of religious liberty.
“It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own convictions,” Tertullian wrote. “One man’s religion neither harms nor helps another man. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion — to which free will and not force should lead us.”
Vance noted that Tertullian’s writings influenced Thomas Jefferson, the third American president, and that Tertullian’s writings remain in the Library of Congress.
“This is the legacy that has guided America’s political principles from the founding to this very day,” the vice president added. “We remain the world’s largest majority Christian country and the right to religious freedom is protected by the people for everybody whether you’re a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, or [have] no faith at all.”
Vance noted that the principle of religious freedom was so vital to the founders of the country that it was included as a protection in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
‘Expanding’ religious liberty in Trump’s second term
Vance promised attendees that during President Donald Trump’s second term, the administration will not only restore the religious freedom protections he supported during his first term but also intends on “expanding” those protections further.
On the domestic front, the vice president said the administration will continue its work from Trump’s first administration to preserve the conscience rights of hospital workers and faith-based ministries, remove barriers for religious organizations and businesses to contract with the federal government, and combat antisemitism.
Vance also noted that Trump is working to end the weaponization of the federal government against religious Americans and halt government censorship. “You shouldn’t have to leave your faith at the door of your people’s government, and under President Trump’s leadership, you won’t have to,” Vance told the assembled gathering.
On the subject of U.S. foreign policy, Vance referenced the American military response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which was intended to protect Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in the Middle East. He spoke about the plight of Iraqi Christians and the work that is needed to advance religious freedom in every part of the world, saying there is “more to do” to secure those rights.
Vance said the new administration will recognize “the difference between regimes that respect religious freedom and those that do not.”
The vice president also gave credit to Trump for halting federal funds to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that he asserted are “dedicated to spreading atheism all over the globe.”
“Our administration believes we must stand for religious freedom, not just as a legal principle, as important as that is, but as a lived reality both within our own borders and especially outside [of our borders],” the vice president assured.
“I pray that together we will be able to better protect the dignity of all peoples as well as the rights of all believers to practice their faith to the dictates of their conscience,” Vance said.
The speech came on the second day of the IRF Summit, which kicked off on Tuesday with a panel that discussed some of the speakers’ hopes for religious liberty protections in Trump’s second term.
Some of the speakers expressed optimism about the administration’s commitment to religious liberty, but some also expressed concerns about the federal freeze in grants for certain NGOs abroad, some of which are meant to promote religious liberty in other countries.
In conjunction with the launch of the summit, the partners that organized the summit published a seven-page paper that outlined certain priorities. These included reassessing foreign grants to ensure religious liberty is a priority and restoring the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program with a prioritization for religious minorities.
Pope Francis prays for victims, grieving families of tragic school shooting in Sweden
Posted on 02/5/2025 16:15 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Feb 5, 2025 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday expressed his spiritual closeness with the people of Sweden after at least 11 people were killed by a gunman at an adult school in Örebro on Feb. 4.
In a Feb. 5 telegram to Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, the Holy Father said he is deeply saddened by the incident, which has been described as the worst mass shooting in the country’s history, and is praying for all those affected.
“[Pope Francis] offers prayer for the repose of the souls of those who have died, for the consolation of their grieving families and friends, and for the speedy recovery of the injured,” the telegram reads.
“At this difficult time for the nation, His Holiness invokes upon the Swedish people Almighty God’s gifts of unity and peace,” the papal message concludes.
The suspected gunman, who has not been named by police, is among the 11 killed at the Risbergska School for adults. The school offers vocational training courses and Swedish language classes for men and women who were unable to complete their high school education.
According to Sveriges Television, local authorities have not yet confirmed the number of injured people and warned that the death toll could rise.
Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden issued a statement on Wednesday mourning the tragedy: “Together with all of Sweden, we Catholics mourn the victims of the violent incident in Örebro, and we pray for them. Violence and shootings only seem to increase.”
Though shootings in Sweden are rare, police data shows the number of shootings in the country has gone up. To date, the highest number of shootings was in 2022 when 391 shootings took place, killing 62 and injuring an additional 107 people, according to Al Jazeera.
St. Eskil’s Catholic Parish in Örebro opened Wednesday afternoon for those who wanted to light candles, attend Mass, or pray for the city and those affected by the deadly shooting.
All Catholic churches in Sweden will pray for mercy for all the victims at Feb. 9 Sunday Mass celebrations, according to Arborelius’ statement.
French prime minister’s Catholic faith slammed after his decision to split end-of-life bill
Posted on 02/5/2025 15:40 PM (CNA Daily News)

Paris, France, Feb 5, 2025 / 12:40 pm (CNA).
French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s decision to split the controversial “end of life” bill in two — to separate the issue of “active assistance in dying” from that of palliative, which was announced Jan. 21 — has earned him the wrath of his own party officials, who have suggested his judgment has been clouded by his Catholic convictions.
Opponents of the original bill, whose debates were interrupted by the dissolution of the National Assembly last June, saw it, on the contrary, as a courageous choice that endeavors to respect the plurality of parliamentary opinions on these two centrally important social issues.
For President Emmanuel Macron, this bill was intended to be one of the flagship societal measures of his second term in office — along with the inclusion of the right to abortion in the French Constitution, formalized in March 2024 — to satisfy his progressive electoral base, largely in favor of euthanasia.
The bill on “accompanying the sick and the end of life,” initially presented to the Council of Ministers on April 10, 2024, and then to the National Assembly on May 27, encompassed two aspects: palliative care and support for the sick, and active assistance in dying — i.e., euthanasia and assisted suicide — for incurable illnesses and/or pain that cannot be relieved.
In particular, the text provided for the authorization of the provision to “a person who so requests a lethal substance, for self-administration or, if unable to do so, to be administered by a doctor, a nurse, a relative, or a voluntary person of his or her choice.”
“The bill debated before the dissolution would have made France one of the most extreme legislations in the world, by providing for the lethal act to be carried out by a close relative, exerting strong coercion on medical staff and providing for a procedure conducive to abuses and drifts,” Laurent Frémont, lecturer at Sciences Po Paris and co-founder of the Démocratie, éthique et solidarités association, told CNA.
Indeed, while the bill provided for a conscience clause for health care professionals, it did not apply to pharmacists, nor did it include any collective dimension for a health care service or establishment.
While the governmental instability that followed the June 9 European elections and the dissolution of the National Assembly bought time for opponents of active aid in dying, its promoters are seeking to make up for lost time by making it a political priority. Thus, since early November 2024, National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet has been urging the government to resume discussions on the bill no later than early February.
In taking up this request, Bayrou, prime minister since Dec. 13, 2024, nevertheless surprised his own political allies by announcing, at the end of January, that the original end-of-life text would finally be split into two. Parliamentary debates will therefore revolve around two separate bills, the first on palliative care, the second on active assistance in dying.
“We need to be able to vote on each of these two texts in a different way,” the centrist leader explained at the time of his announcement, highlighting that he had no intention of delaying the examination of the bill in Parliament.
This decision was welcomed by critics of the initial project, who saw a blatant antinomy between the two parts of the bill.
“Since the beginning of debates on the subject, Emmanuel Macron has attempted a particularly audacious ‘en même temps’ [‘at the same time’ — an expression often used by the French president] by announcing the advent of a ‘French end-of-life model’ based on both palliative care and induced death,” Frémont said.
“There can be no continuum between these two radically opposed practices. Induced death cannot be care, because it interrupts care by eliminating the person being cared for. Despite strong opposition from caregivers, this confusion was maintained during the debates that took place before the dissolution.”
The announcement also triggered an outcry among proponents of active aid in dying, who saw it as an attempt to postpone the debate indefinitely. They also pointed to the religious convictions of Bayrou, who has never made a secret of his Catholic faith.
“The prime minister is in the midst of a mystical enlightenment,” wrote the French Association for the Right to Die with Dignity in a press release, comparing him to “the preacher of a religious congregation” and inviting him to “set aside his religious beliefs and finally take an interest in the general interest of the French people.”
More nuanced, political figures in the presidential camp nonetheless considered that the politician’s judgment was clouded by his personal convictions, despite the fact that both he and his entourage insisted to the contrary.
For columnist Guillaume Tabard, Bayrou has above all shown political astuteness by evading pressure from the president of the National Assembly and by aiming “to de-mine a heated subject without burying it.”
“By promising to separate the two subjects,” Frémont said, “François Bayrou is showing that he has grasped what is at stake in this debate. This will ensure that palliative care is not used as an excuse to legalize administered death in France.”
Pope Francis: Faith in God is ‘a force that sets love in motion’ in the world
Posted on 02/5/2025 12:40 PM (CNA Daily News)

Vatican City, Feb 5, 2025 / 09:40 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Wednesday continued his catechesis on “Jesus Christ Our Hope,” saying love is the force that compels people, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, to share their faith in God with others.
Unable to read his prepared catechesis due to a cold, the Holy Father asked an aide to read his reflection on St. Luke’s Gospel account of the Visitation at his Feb. 5 general audience held inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall.
“The Virgin Mary visits St. Elizabeth, but it is above all Jesus, in his mother’s womb, who visits his people (cf. Lk 1:68),” he said. “Mary gets up and sets out on a journey, like all those who are called to in the Bible.”
During the audience, the pope explained that the “unlimited readiness” of the men and women of the Bible is “the only act” that enabled them to respond to God’s call, particularly during times of uncertainty.

“This young daughter of Israel does not choose to protect herself from the world,” he said. “She does not fear dangers and the judgments of others but goes out toward other people.”
Highlighting the need for people to know and feel loved by God, the 88-year-old pope encouraged Christians to be open to receiving God’s love, “a force that sets love in motion,” and, like the Mother of God, passing it on to others.
“Mary feels the push of this love and goes to help a woman who is her relative but also an elderly woman who, after a long wait, is welcoming an unhoped-for pregnancy, difficult to deal with at her age,” he said.
“But the Virgin also goes to Elizabeth to share her faith in the God of the impossible and her hope in the fulfillment of his promises,” he continued.

The Holy Father also praised the impact of Mary’s humility expressed in her hymn of praise, the Magnificat, in salvation history.
“Mary does not want to sing ‘out of the choir’ but to tune in with the forefathers,” he told pilgrims. “Mary sings of the grace of the past, but she is the woman of the present who carries the future in her womb.”
After asking pilgrims at the Vatican to pray for peace in Ukraine and for all countries at war, the Holy Father invited his listeners to also welcome Mary into their lives and to ask “for the grace to be able to wait for the fulfillment of every one of his promises.”
“By following her example, may we all discover that every soul that believes and hopes conceives and begets the Word of God,” he said.
Spanish diocese cancels parish prep course for blessing irregular couples
Posted on 02/5/2025 09:00 AM (CNA Daily News)

Madrid, Spain, Feb 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The Diocese of Huelva in Spain has “prohibited and disavowed” a planned preparation course for the “blessing of same-sex couples or couples in an irregular situation” that was to be held at one of its parishes. The diocese said it learned about the course through the media.
In a brief statement, the diocese explained that “this way of accompanying Christian faithful who are in such situations does not correspond with the teaching of Pope Francis nor with the pastoral practice of the Church.”
The text concludes by stating that “the Diocese of Huelva provides pastoral accompaniment for all people, offering opportunities for listening, formation, and growth in faith and always in accordance with the teachings of the Church.”
St. Paul Parish, the planned venue for the course, has canceled the event. On its website, the original information was replaced with a message stating: “For reasons beyond our control, we have to cancel this accompaniment.”
The message is illustrated with a drawing of a lamb with the rainbow colors of the LGBT flag next to a shepherd and the message: “I was not lost, they told me I was not welcome.”
A local newspaper, Huelva24, shared a promotional poster for the course that inaccurately quotes the December 2023 Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans. The poster features a line that is not in the declaration itself, stating that “the blessing of couples in irregular situations and of same-sex couples is possible ... so that human relationships can mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel message.”
The sentence “it is possible to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples” does not appear in the text of Fiducia Supplicans published by the Vatican. It does appear, however, with this formulation: “Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex.”
Regarding the second part, the original Vatican document states that the blessings are for such couples “that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of the divine love.”
The declaration Fiducia Supplicans sparked controversy in the Catholic Church by allowing pastoral blessings for couples in irregular situations, including same-sex couples, without altering the doctrine on sacramental marriage.
The controversy arose from divergent interpretations: While some sectors of the Church saw it as a gesture of mercy to address complex realities, other bishops and faithful warned of the risk of doctrinal confusion, fearing that it would be perceived as an implicit validation of unions contrary to traditional teaching.
In May 2024, the bishop of Plasencia in Spain, Ernesto Jesús Brotons, admonished a priest for blessing a homosexual couple in such a way that it caused “scandal” and “confusion.” He had situated the pair in front of the altar similar to a bride and groom and was wearing an alb and red stole.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
St. Agatha, the early Church martyr who tradition says was visited by St. Peter
Posted on 02/5/2025 07:00 AM (CNA Daily News)

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 5, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
Every Feb. 5, the Church remembers St. Agatha of Catania, a young woman who consecrated her virginity to God and died a martyr’s death during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Decius in the third century.
Agatha was born in Catania, Sicily, in southern Italy, around the year 230. Like many women of her time, she decided to consecrate her life to Jesus Christ by remaining a virgin.
In the days of the persecution of Decius, the proconsul Quintianus, the governor of Sicily, fell in love with Agatha and sought her in marriage. However, the young woman rejected each of his proposals.
The constant refusals greatly annoyed the proconsul, who ordered her to be taken to a brothel as punishment. Contrary to what Quintianus expected, in that sad place, Agatha managed to avoid any occasion that could jeopardize the promise she had made to the Lord. And, as if this were not enough, many women subjected to that world that treated them as merchandise converted to Christ.
Quintianus then ordered Agatha to be subjected to a series of taunts and insults, and then ordered her to be tortured. Her executioners, in a fit of insanity, cut off her breasts. A certain hagiography preserves her words in the face of such wickedness: “Cruel tyrant, are you not ashamed to torture in a woman the same breast which fed you as a child?”
Tradition has it that Agatha miraculously survived the horrors and cruelties committed against her, and during the night while she was bleeding to death, St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her to heal her wounds and encourage her to remain steadfast.
At dawn, when the guards realized that the woman had recovered, the executioners resumed the tortures and Agatha gave up her life. It was the fifth day of the second month of the year 251.
One year after the martyrdom of St. Agatha, the volcano Etna erupted. The lava that spread along the slopes of the volcano threatened to destroy Catania. Then, some of its inhabitants who remembered the young martyr asked for her intercession to stop the fury of nature.
Miraculously, the sea of burning rock and ash that began to move never reached the city. In gratitude, Catania and other surrounding towns chose Agatha as their patron saint.
Today, devotees of St. Agatha ask her to intercede for women who have complicated childbirths or problems with lactation. She is also invoked by those who suffer from breast ailments. She is considered the protector of women and patron saint of nurses.
In traditional iconography, St. Agatha is usually shown with the palm of martyrdom, the palm of victory, in her hand; or she is holding the tray on which her breasts were placed.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.