The Church of St. Luke

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CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 15:37 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

1 in 4 post-abortive women regret abortion decades later, study finds 

A new study found that 1 in 4 women regret their abortion decades after undergoing the procedure. 

The study, published in the International Journal of Women’s Health Care, measured the levels of distress abortive women feel years after having an abortion. 

Authored by Father Donald Paul Sullins with The Catholic University of America and the Ruth Institute, the study found that 24% of postabortive women in the U.S. “suffer from serious post-abortion distress.” 

Of these post-abortive women, just under half showed “multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress,” according to the study. 

In the study, Sullins called for more research on the long-term effects of abortion as well as the development of “effective therapeutic interventions.”

“The health care of this population of women is understudied and underserved,” the study read. “Women considering an abortion should be informed of the possibility that they may experience persistent emotional distress.” 

1 million ‘conversion counts’ highlights pregnancy center’s lifesaving work

A group that promotes life-affirming pregnancy centers has logged 1 million “conversions” away from abortion since its inception, the group announced earlier this week.

Choose Life Marketing works with more than 900 pro-life clients, including pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies. 

The group found that a million women experiencing unplanned pregnancies had scheduled an appointment with a pregnancy help center since the agency’s founding in 2016. 

“It reflects women choosing connection over isolation, hope over fear, and the courage to reach out for help,” said Nelly Roach, who heads Choose Life Marketing. “Pregnancy help centers across the country continue to meet those moments with the compassion, excellence, and support women deserve.”

“One million women reached out,” she continued. “Hundreds of thousands found the support they needed to choose life. Their courage and their children will shape families, communities, and futures for generations.”  

Appeals court rules in favor of pregnancy centers in legal battle 

A federal appeals court in New York ruled in favor of pregnancy centers in a legal battle over abortion pill reversal services.

A panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction allowing pregnancy clinics to advertise abortion pill reversal.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the group Heartbeat International and 11 pregnancy centers in May 2024 accusing them of fraud in promoting a drug regimen that purports to reverse the effects of mifepristone. 

In response, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates sued James, claiming she was attacking their right to free speech. The three-judge panel at the appeals court ruled unanimously that the pregnancy centers could continue to advertise abortion reversal. 

Thomas Glessner, president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, heralded the ruling, saying that pregnancy resource centers in the state “are now free to help women who regret taking the abortion pill and want a chance at saving the lives of their babies.” 

“Abortion pill reversal, like the court said, offers no financial gains for pregnancy centers,” Glessner said in a statement shared with CNA. “They are simply giving women another option than ending the life of their unborn babies.”

Iowa lawmaker reintroduces bill in support of pregnant college students 

Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, has reintroduced a bill requiring colleges to inform pregnant students of their rights and the resources available to them in their schools.

Under Title IX, pregnant students have the right to remain in school and complete their education, but about 30% of abortions are performed on college-aged women, according to Hinson’s press release. Resources that colleges offer to pregnant students often include flexible class schedules, excused absences, and child care assistance.

Students “deserve to know every resource available to them,” Hinson said in a statement.

“It is unacceptable that so many often feel they have to choose between finishing their education and having their baby,” the lawmaker continued.

Praising the bill, Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, said in a statement: “Women balancing school, pregnancy, and family deserve our support. Yet, ironically, far too few know about Title IX, the law that is supposed to protect their rights.”

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 4, 2025 / 15:07 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has published a public comment that supports the removal of gender ideology within refugee resettlement forms for unaccompanied children.

In accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order “defending women from gender ideology extremism” and restoring “biological truth to the federal government,” the Office of Refugee Resettlement has proposed a change to forms that would replace the word “gender” with “sex.”

The proposed change would require that the forms reflect the child’s biological sex as opposed to perceived identity. The form options will be limited to only “male” and female.”

In the public comment, the bishops said they have “historically partnered closely with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to protect the well-being of unaccompanied noncitizen children while, in all respects, adhering to the Catholic Church’s teachings on the God-given dignity of the human person, created male and female,” and cited Genesis 1:27.

“By replacing the references in [the forms] to ‘gender’ with ‘sex,’ the proposal reflects a true anthropology that is grounded in the biological sexual identity that is either male or female, an anthropology that promotes human flourishing,” read the comment, signed by USCCB General Counsel William J. Quinn and Assistant General Counsel Daniel E. Balserak.

The USCCB elaborated on the Catholic doctrines related to sex and the inability to change a person’s sex, as highlighted in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (DDF) April 2024 document Dignitas Infinita, approved by Pope Francis.

“Biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,” the document teaches.

“Therefore, all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected: We cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore. Only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in reciprocity can each person fully discover themselves, their dignity, and their identity,” it adds.

The bishops also cited the June 2019 document from the Congregation for Catholic Education titled “Male and Female He Created Them” to emphasize the importance of using the term “sex” instead of “gender.”

“In this cultural context, it is clear that sex and gender are no longer synonyms or interchangeable concepts, since they are used to describe two different realities… the concept of gender is seen as dependent upon the subjective mindset of each person, who can choose a gender not corresponding to his or her biological sex, and therefore with the way others see that person (transgenderism),” the document reads.

Trump’s executive order directed agencies and departments to update terminology on forms and in all official government documents to remove any recognition of gender ideology. The order reflects the administration’s position that there are only two sexes: male and female.

The Ten Commandments outside the Texas capitol. / Credit: BLundin via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 4, 2025 / 14:37 pm (CNA).

First Liberty Institute and Heather Gebelin Hacker of Hacker Stephens LLP have filed an amicus brief on behalf of 46 United States lawmakers urging the federal court to allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools.

U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana; Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas; and Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are among the lawmakers supporting the cause after federal judges blocked Texas and Louisiana laws requiring the display of the commandments.

“The Ten Commandments — adorned both inside and outside the U.S. Supreme Court — served as essential building blocks for Western civilization and are deeply embedded in the history of this country,” Johnson said in a Dec 4. statement.

“I am grateful to my colleagues for joining me in filing this amicus brief, and we hope the court follows well-established precedent and affirms the importance of teaching the fundamental foundations of our country,” he said.

In 2024, the state of Louisiana adopted House Bill 71, which requires schools that receive public funding to display the Ten Commandments, but a federal judge subsequently blocked the law for being “coercive” and “unconstitutional.” Then in May of this year, Texas passed Senate Bill 10 that also requires the commandments be placed in classrooms. In August, a federal judge also partially blocked that state from enforcing its law. 

The cases were consolidated and are slated to be heard this month by the full panel of judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

First Liberty Institute, a legal organization dedicated to defending religious liberty in the U.S., reported that previous religious freedom cases including The American Legion v. American Humanist Association and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District “make clear that displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools is constitutional.”

“As the Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged, the Ten Commandments were foundational to Western legal tradition, including the common-law system that shaped American law, and this case is critical to reaffirming our commitment to the principles that have guided America since our founding,” Cruz said. “I hope the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will uphold the ruling.”

“I’m proud to stand with Sen. Cruz in supporting Texas’ law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools across the Lone Star State,” Cornyn said. “The Ten Commandments ensure students are reminded of the Judeo-Christian values that have shaped our state and nation.”

“America was founded as a nation grounded in a distinctly Christian understanding, and the Ten Commandments are intertwined with America’s legal, moral, and historical heritage,” Roy said. Placing them “in every classroom in Texas affirms that we are a Judeo-Christian nation, upholding our historical and moral heritage and proclaiming the Ten Commandments as a guiding path for a righteous way of life.”

“Our religious heritage and the best of the nation’s history and traditions acknowledge the Ten Commandments as an important symbol of law and moral conduct with both religious and secular significance,” said Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief counsel for First Liberty. “Government hostility to religion and our religious history is not the law.”

In the brief, Hacker said: “As Justice [Neil] Gorsuch warned in American Legion, if individuals ‘could invoke the authority of a federal court to forbid what they dislike for no more reason than they dislike it … courts would start to look more like legislatures, responding to social pressures rather than remedying concrete harms, in the process supplanting the right of the people and their elected representatives to govern themselves.’”

Bishop Michael Fisher outside the meeting hall during the 2019 USCCB General Assembly, June 12, 2019. / Credit: Kate Veik/CNA

CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 14:07 pm (CNA).

Buffalo, New York, Bishop Michael Fisher is permitting Catholics to meet at diocesan parishes while they work to oppose diocesan-mandated parish closures, with the bishop reversing an earlier policy after talks with the Vatican.

Fisher had banned such parishioner meetings in October 2024 amid opposition to the Buffalo Diocese’s “Road to Renewal” plan that included multiple parish closures and mergers. That initiative was finalized in September 2024.

On Nov. 27 the advocacy group Save Our Buffalo Churches posted a Nov. 6 letter from Fisher in which he wrote that he was repealing the directive “in an effort to better protect the rights of the faithful.”

The prelate met with members of the Dicastery for the Clergy — including prefect Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik — during a trip to the Vatican in October, he wrote in the letter.

“Based on our conversation, it is clear to me now that this policy is too restrictive of the rights of the faithful,” the bishop said in his letter.

He pointed to the Catholic Code of Canon Law, which holds that Christians “can legitimately vindicate and defend the rights which they possess in the Church in the competent ecclesiastical forum according to the norm of law.”

In announcing the rule change, Fisher ordered that parish funds are not to be used “for expenses related to recourse” and that Church property can only be used with permission of the facility’s pastor or administrator.

Parish-owned social media accounts and websites are also not to be used for recourse activities, he said.

The prelate stressed the need for “pastoral unity” amid the ongoing restructuring plan.

“Even if one of the faithful chooses to exercise his/her right to recourse, this choice should always be seen as a disagreement about a particular decision, not a rejection of Church authority or the Road to Renewal more broadly,” he said.

In releasing the letter, Save Our Buffalo Churches described the decision as of “crucial importance to the faithful,” though it criticized what it said was a “lack of publicity” from the diocese on the decision, with the order allegedly being left up to pastors to disseminate.

“This is insufficient, because it’s proven to be inequitable,” the group said. “It’s also in the greatest contrast with how the original October policy was promulgated: immediately and aggressively.”

The group described its decision to publish the letter as “just and equitable,” though group members said they were “thankful” for Fisher’s statement “and the wisdom contained therein.”

Parish advocates have been clashing with the bishop over the closure and merger plan for over a year. Earlier in 2025 the dispute even reached the New York Supreme Court, which in July issued a halt on parish payments into the diocese’s abuse settlement fund amid parishioner objections. 

The high court in September ultimately allowed the payments to proceed, citing a long-standing prohibition against “court involvement in the governance and administration of a hierarchical church.”

Pope Francis receives the bishops of England and Wales for their ad limina visit at the Vatican, Sept. 28, 2018. / Credit: Vatican Media

London, England, Dec 4, 2025 / 13:07 pm (CNA).

A policy change concerning restrictions on the old Mass is relevant to the whole of the universal Church, not just England and Wales, said the head of the Latin Mass Society.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. / Credit: “EWTN News In Depth”/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 12:07 pm (CNA).

U.S. Military Services Archbishop Timothy Broglio is urging the country’s leaders to refrain from killing noncombatants while neutralizing violent drug cartels across the world.

The Trump administration throughout late 2025 has been launching aggressive strikes against suspected drug cartel operators in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. The White House has come under fire for what critics have claimed are indiscriminate and possibly extralegal airstrikes against alleged narco boats.

Human rights advocates have particularly criticized a Sept. 2 strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in which the military fired a second strike against two individuals who survived the initial strike.

In a Dec. 3 statement, Broglio acknowledged that “dismantling the powerful criminal networks responsible for the flow of illegal substances into our nation is a necessary and laudable task.”

Yet “questions have been raised about the use of military force in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and, as a nation, we must ensure that the use of military force is ethical and legal,” the prelate said. 

Broglio noted that methods to eradicate drugs and drug smugglers from the U.S. must be “moral” and in line with “just war theory,” which includes respect for “the dignity of each human person.” 

“No one can ever be ordered to commit an immoral act, and even those suspected of committing a crime are entitled to due process under the law,” he said. 

The intentional killing of noncombatants is forbidden in a just war, he said, and it would be “an illegal and immoral order to [deliberately] kill survivors on a vessel who pose no immediate lethal threat to our armed forces.”

Military forces possess a legitimate means of ensuring that noncombatants are not killed, Broglio pointed out: Vessels can be intercepted, boarded, and members of the Coast Guard can arrest suspected drug runners, after which they would be subject to due process in a court. 

“True justice is achieved through transparent legal procedures, accountability, and respect for life — not through violence outside the law,” the archbishop said. 

Broglio — who previously served as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and has led the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, since 2008 — pointed out that the U.S. has “a long tradition of responding to injustice, liberating the oppressed, and leading the free world.” 

Leaders “cannot tarnish that reputation with questionable actions that fail to respect the dignity of the human person and the rule of law,” he said. 

Broglio urged leaders to refrain from asking soldiers to “engage in immoral actions.” He further noted that, as a military chaplain, his own investment in the matter stems from a tradition as old as the the country itself. 

“[F]rom the beginning,” he said, “George Washington wanted chaplains with his troops to tell him the truth.”

Poster for the St. John of the Cross 2026 Jubilee. / Credit: Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites is preparing to celebrate the jubilee year of St. John of the Cross during the 300th anniversary of his canonization.

La Moneda Presidential Palace in Santiago, Chile. / Credit: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In a climate marked by insecurity, rising crime rates, and the migration crisis, Chile’s citizens are closely watching the proposals of their leading presidential candidates.

Bishop Raimo Goyarrola, the only Catholic bishop in Finland, speaks with CNA in Houston in November 2025 on a fundraising trip for his “mission” Church. / Credit: Amira Abuzeid/CNA

Houston, Texas, Dec 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Bishop Raimo Goyarrola has been traveling in the U.S. with Father Jean Claude Kabeza to raise funds to support the Finnish Church, which has seen explosive growth.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A commission set up by Pope Francis to study women deacons has voted against the possibility of ordaining women deacons while also supporting more study on the issue.

It also expressed hope that women's access to other ministries would be expanded.

Pope Francis established the "Study Commission on the Female Diaconate" in 2020 as a follow-up to a previous group that studied the history of women deacons in the New Testament and the early Christian communities.

Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi of Aquila, Italy, was chosen as president of the commission and Msgr. Denis Dupont-Fauville served as secretary. Pope Francis had named 10 other members of the commission -- five women and five men, including two permanent deacons from the United States and three priests.

The seven-page report published Dec. 4 was a synthesis of the commission's work, which concluded in February, and was addressed to Pope Leo XIV. According to Vatican News, the pope requested the synthesis -- which was dated Sept 18 -- be made public.

The Vatican published the synthesis, including the results of votes the commission members took on eight different statements or "theses."

One proposition that showed members split exactly down the middle was: "The masculinity of Christ, and therefore the masculinity of those who receive Holy Orders, is not accidental but is an integral part of sacramental identity, preserving the divine order of salvation in Christ. To alter this reality would not be a simple adjustment of ministry but a rupture of the nuptial meaning of salvation."

When this statement was put to a vote among 10 members in February, it received five votes in favor, confirming its current form, while the other five members voted to remove it.

A statement that received six votes against, two for and two abstaining was: "The undersigned is in favor of the institution in the church of the female diaconate as understood as the third degree of holy orders."

In fact, during the commission's second session in July 2022, members agreed seven to one on the following statement: "The 'status quaestionis' of historical research and theological investigation, as well as their mutual implications, rules out the possibility of moving in the direction of admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders. In light of sacred Scripture, tradition and the church's magisterium, this assessment is strongly maintained, although it does not at present allow for a definitive judgment to be formulated, as is the case with priestly ordination." 

The commission unanimously expressed support in 2021 for the establishment of new ministries that "could contribute to synergy between men and women. Their implementation would require the development of appropriate means of formation -- theological, practical, mystagogical -- and support." Pope Francis had announced several months before, in January 2021, that the ministries of lector and acolyte would be open to women.

During its last working session in February, the commission also reviewed materials it received after the Synod of Bishops had allowed anyone to contribute to the commission's deliberations.

"Although many interventions were submitted, the persons or groups who sent their writings numbered only 22 and represented few countries," the report said. "Consequently, although the material is abundant and in some cases skillfully argued, it cannot be considered the voice of the Synod, much less of the People of God as a whole."

The report noted the subject of a female diaconate is of "significant complexity" and lacks "sufficient consensus," as could also be seen in the discussion reports compiled during the October 2024 Synod on Synodality.

However, the report noted some of the arguments being made in favor of women's ordination to the diaconate, citing how proponents have said excluding women from this ministry seems to contradict the biblical foundation of the equal status and dignity of "male" and "female" as images of God.

Because of that, some believe women should not only be allowed access to ordination as deacons, but also to the other degrees of Holy Orders: the priesthood and episcopate, the report said.

"The argument based on the masculinity of Jesus Christ is seen as a sexist and narrow view, leading to discrimination against women," it noted. "According to these views, the 'repraesentatio Christi' should no longer be linked to gender categories but should focus on the ministerial mediation of salvation through men and women."

Given the different arguments, the commission developed during its third and final session the thesis which saw the members split down the middle about the masculinity of Christ and those who receive Holy Orders as not being accidental but is "an integral part of sacramental identity" and "the nuptial meaning of salvation."

The commission then voted nine in favor and one against on a "preamble" that encouraged broadening "women's access to ministries established for the service of the community."

"It is now up to the discernment of pastors to evaluate what further ministries can be introduced for the concrete needs of the church of our time, thus ensuring adequate ecclesial recognition of the diakonia (service) of the baptized, particularly of women. Such recognition will be a prophetic sign, especially where women still suffer situations of gender discrimination," the preamble said. 

Cardinal Petrocchi then added his own personal comment in the report's conclusion, noting the "intense theoretical and existential dialectic" between two theological standpoints.

The first maintains that the ordination of a deacon is for ministry and not for priesthood, which "would open the way toward the ordination of women deacons," he wrote.

The opposing stance, he wrote, insists "on the unity of the sacrament of Holy Orders, together with the nuptial meaning of the three degrees that constitute it, and rejects the hypothesis of a female diaconate; it also notes that if the admission of women to the first degree of Holy Orders were approved, exclusion from the others would become inexplicable."

For this reason, the cardinal wrote, continued study should focus on critically examining "the diaconate in itself -- that is, on its sacramental identity and its ecclesial mission -- clarifying certain structural and pastoral aspects that are currently not fully defined."

"The commission insisted on the urgency of valuing 'baptismal diakonia' as the foundation of any ecclesial ministry," he wrote.

In fact, he wrote, there are whole regions where the diaconal ministry is "almost nonexistent" and others where it is active with functions often "coinciding with roles proper to lay ministries or to altar servers in the liturgy."

"It should also be emphasized that the various commissions were unanimous in pointing out the need to expand 'communal spaces' so that women can participate adequately and share responsibility in the church's decision-making bodies, including through the creation of new lay ministries," the cardinal wrote.

While the report did not name the commission members taking part in the deliberations in 2021, 2022 and 2025, Pope Francis had named the following in 2020: U.S. Deacon Dominic Cerrato, director of deacon formation for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois; U.S. Deacon James Keating, a former director of theological formation at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. The other three men were priests: Father Santiago del Cura Elena, a priest of the Archdiocese of Burgos, Spain, and a professor and theologian who has studied and written extensively about priestly ordination; Father Manfred Hauke, a German-born professor at the Theological Faculty of Lugano, Switzerland, and author of a book examining the church's teaching on ordaining only men as priests; and Msgr. Angelo Lameri, a professor of liturgy and the sacraments at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University.

The five women chosen had been: Catherine Brown Tkacz, a U.S.-born professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, who focuses on women in the Bible and in Christian tradition; Caroline Farey, a theologian and catechist educator who serves as "Diocesan Mission Catechist" for the Diocese of Shrewsbury, England; Barbara Hallensleben, a professor of theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and former member of the International Theological Commission; Rosalba Manes, a consecrated virgin and biblical scholar, who teaches at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University; and Anne-Marie Pelletier, a French biblical scholar.