This week we’ve had stories on Catholic trade schools, an attack on a historic Oregon shrine, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs changing its regulations on abortion, an apple tree grown from cuttings from the orchard of recently-beatified Josef Ulma now growing in the Vatican, and more. There also have been several important pieces of legislation recently that touch on respect for human life and of family–find a sampling of our coverage of these and other news below. Enjoy!
Megan Marley
Digital Editor
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Sister of murdered French priest tells story of forgiveness, friendship with killer’s mother
Roseline Hamel would never have expected life to take such a dramatic turn when her brother, Jacques, was murdered while celebrating Mass in 2016. She has found consolation in something hard to achieve in grief — forgiveness and friendship with the assassin’s mother. Now they set out on a journey to write a book together.
Alabama House, Senate pass similar bills to safeguard IVF; once reconciled, bill goes to governor
Alabama lawmakers in both the state’s House and Senate Feb. 29 passed similar bills to implement legal protections to in vitro fertilization clinics following a ruling by that state’s Supreme Court that frozen embryos qualify as children under the state law’s wrongful death law.
Church Militant to shut down as defamation saga ignited by a radical traditionalist sect concludes
Trapped in a vortex of scandal, the Ferndale, Michigan-based Church Militant is shutting down, the concluding chapter for the online news outlet thanks to a legal drama set in motion by a fringe traditionalist group and its canon lawyer, who is accused of defaming a New Hampshire priest on the opposite side of a canonical dispute.
Catholics call for vigilance as more legislatures advance medically assisted suicide bills
While those who support euthanasia and medically assisted suicide emphasize empowerment and control, Catholic opponents argue an undeniably dangerous and dystopian dimension has begun to emerge in the sometimes profit-driven realms of health care insurance and medicine: the cost-benefit ratio of prescribing death for terminal patients versus palliative care.
For those who avoid meat anyway, is there another Lenten Friday penance?
QUESTION CORNER: Part of the value of this mandatory Lenten Friday abstinence for all Catholics, even those Catholics who wouldn’t normally be craving a meat-based meal, is not only the subjective sense of doing penance but also the solidarity and witness-value of a communal penitential practice.
French bishops call for fasting, prayer as abortion is enshrined in country’s constitution
French bishops called for fasting and prayer as abortion was enshrined in the constitution by an overwhelming 780-72 vote, accompanied by a standing ovation when the result was announced as the parliament met in Versailles.
Eucharistic congress pilgrims to visit beautiful, renovated chapel at Marian apparition site
When Catholics participating in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage visit the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, they will be treated to a newly renovated Apparition Chapel.
Amid government abuse scandal, Hungarian Catholics defend church record on tackling abuse
Prominent Hungarian Catholics have defended their church’s record on tackling sexual crimes by clergy after a top-level government abuse scandal led to the appointment of a new national president of the country.
Tolton scouting patch honors Black priest and model of Eucharistic devotion
Requirements for the patch include learning about Fr. Augustus Tolton’s life, visiting a seminary or religious community to better understand vocational discernment, modeling Tolton’s patient disposition and engaging in prayer.
Irish bishops appeal for protecting identity of family amid March 8 constitutional referendum
A constitutional referendum scheduled for March 8 could weaken the incentive for young people to get married, Ireland’s bishops have warned. A second vote to be held on the same day will, if passed, delete all references to motherhood from the foundational document, the prelates said.
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.)
MOVIE REVIEW: The military and the mystical continue to blend as the youthful protagonist Paul Atreides of the 2021 original, now an exile, fights for the desert dwellers among whom he’s taken refuge on the titular planet while falling for one of their warriors.
