Pew: One third of Catholics say faith was strengthened during pandemic (NCR) More than a third of U.S. Catholics say their own personal faith has become stronger during the coronavirus pandemic, and 3 in 10 Catholics believe the virus has strengthened the religious faith of other people in the country, according to a study released Jan. 27 by the Pew Research Center. Overall, 28% of Americans said their own faith had become stronger during the pandemic, with 49% of white evangelical Protestants, 21% of white non-evangelical Protestants, and 35% of Catholics agreeing…
Abortion ban takes effect in Poland (The New York Times) A contentious near-total ban on abortion in Poland went into effect late Wednesday, despite rampant opposition from hundreds of thousands of Poles who began protesting in the fall in the largest demonstrations in the country since the 1989 collapse of communism. Thousands of outraged women, teenagers and allies returned to the streets Wednesday night bundled up against the cold after word that a ruling that halts the termination of pregnancies for fetal abnormalities — virtually the only kind of abortion performed in Poland — would come into force…
Biden expected to lift restrictions on abortion funding Thursday (Wall Street Journal) President Biden on Thursday will begin shaping his health-care agenda by lifting certain restrictions on abortion funding and relaunching Affordable Care Act insurance sign-ups, moving swiftly to reassemble components of the health law weakened by the former Trump administration, according to a person familiar with the planning…
Cordileone: Catholics must rediscover ‘sense of worthiness’ to receive communion (CNA) In an interview discussing his recent admonition of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco emphasized the need for Catholics to recover the sense of worthiness to receive Holy Communion…
Recalling Holocaust, Pope says remembering is an expression of humanity (Vatican News) “Today we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and all those persecuted and deported by the Nazi regime,” Pope Francis said at his weekly General Audience. His remarks came on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which occurs each year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau – the largest Nazi concentration and death camp – by the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. “Remembering is an expression of humanity. Remembering is a sign of civilization,” the Pope said. “Remembering is a condition for a better future of peace and fraternity…”
