The pro-life cause will confront new challenges in the coming decades, with physician-assisted suicide in particular emerging as a growing threat to human life, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston told attendees of the 25th annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life Jan. 20.

Ryan Realbuto, a 23-year-old member of the Capuchin Franciscan Volunteer Corps, was fatally shot just after 10 p.m. Jan. 18 while walking with fellow volunteers in the Michigan Park neighborhood of Washington.

With little fanfare, Pope Francis officially opened the Year of Prayer after Mass for the church’s celebration of Sunday of the Word of God.

Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville of Houma-Thibodaux, La., passed away unexpectedly late Jan 19 due to complications from recent health problems, according to a post from the diocese. He was 63.

Although most Americans describe themselves as “pro-choice,” a majority also would support some legal limits on abortion, as well as conscience protections for health care workers who do not wish to participate in those procedures, according to a new Marist Poll sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.

Auxiliary Bishop Matthew G. Elshoff compared California’s 2022 decision to enshrine a right to abortion up to the point of delivery into the state constitution to the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution did not guarantee the rights of American citizenship to people of African-American descent, even if they were no longer slaves.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Jan. 17 in a pair of cases concerning the regulatory power of federal agencies and the deference that courts give those agencies in their interpretation of the law, a legal doctrine known as Chevron deference.

At least 18 Catholic bishops have signed on to a call by PAX Christi USA for the U.S. government to redirect military spending to fund human need.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is “extremely catastrophic,” and people are dying not only from violence but from preventable illnesses, said the CEO of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

John and Sharon Echaniz are living out the reality of that offer of forgiveness, relying on their deeply held Catholic faith to implement what John called in his statement “those pesky words near the end” of the Lord’s Prayer — “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”