Denver Newsroom, May 20, 2020 / 10:14 am (CNA).- Facebook says it is responding to long-standing questions about content moderation and censorship by appointing an independent oversight board to help set policy. American pro-life advocates have voiced concern about protections for their free speech, and at least one member of the oversight board has links

CNA Staff, May 19, 2020 / 01:30 pm (CNA).- Future seminarians should receive an “absolutely solid formation” in hospital ministry, a priest working with coronavirus patients has said. Fr. Joe McNerney, a full-time hospital chaplain in the Diocese of Portsmouth, England, said that before the COVID-19 crisis, healthcare chaplaincy was a sometimes marginalized ministry. “I

CNA Staff, May 19, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Two newly-elected members of Congress signed a petition on Tuesday to bring a key pro-life bill to the House floor for consideration. Reps. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) and Tom Tiffany (R-Wisc.) were both sworn in to the House on Tuesday morning, and signed the discharge petition for

CNA Staff, May 19, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- The Department of Labor (USDOL) issued new protections for federal employees and faith-based grant recipients last week, with religious freedom groups praising the move. On Friday, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia issued a directive that agency leaders should incorporate respect for religious freedom into the daily operations

Vatican City, May 19, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- The Vatican will on May 24 launch a year-long celebration of Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato si’ to mark its fifth anniversary. The “special Laudato si’ anniversary year” is an initiative of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and will include a wide range of

CNA Staff, May 19, 2020 / 10:01 am (CNA).- Priests and brothers of the Redemptorist community who live and work at a Houston parish have tested positive for coronavirus, leading the parish to close after having reopened earlier this month. Five out of seven members of the Redemptorist community at Holy Ghost parish tested positive

CNA Staff, May 18, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Christians in Nigeria faced escalating persecution and a mounting death toll in the first four months of 2020, a new report has said. In a report issued on 15 May, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) said that 620 Nigerian Christians have

CNA Staff, May 18, 2020 / 01:46 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis described St. John Paul II as “an extraordinary gift of God to the Church and to Poland” in a video message to young people in Kraków Monday. In the message marking the 100th anniversary of the saint’s birth May 18, Francis recalled his visit

CNA Staff, May 18, 2020 / 01:15 pm (CNA).- The French Council of State ruled Monday that a ban on religious gatherings in the country is a disproportionate response to the coronavirus pandemic, and ordered the government to lift the ban within eight days. Religious gatherings have been prohibited in the country for eight weeks,

CNA Staff, May 18, 2020 / 12:39 pm (CNA).- The coronavirus pandemic is causing drops in charitable donations to Catholic organizations in Japan, especially affecting refugees and vulnerable foreigners, local media are reporting. Sinapis, an aid group created by the Archdiocese of Osaka in 2002, had to shut its doors in April amid a sharp