This Catholic family is asking Fulton Sheen’s intercession for a second miracle

Pope Francis invoke the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Peace and Mother of Mercy at a prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica, Friday, Oct. 27. / Credit: Courtney Mares

Rome Newsroom, Oct 28, 2023 / 10:03 am (CNA).

Pope Francis said Saturday he is praying for strength and peace for the community of Lewiston, Maine, after the city experienced two deadly mass shootings earlier this week.

The Wednesday shootings at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Maine’s second most populous city, in the southern part of the state, left 18 people dead and 13 people injured.

The victims ranged in age from 14 to 76, according to officials, who released the names and photographs of victims on Friday.

The man suspected of the shooting, 40-year-old Robert Card, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday evening after a days-long manhunt, the New York Times reported.

Pope Francis “was deeply saddened to learn of the terrible loss of life resulting from the mass shooting in Lewiston, and he expresses his spiritual closeness to all those suffering from this unspeakable tragedy, especially the families who lost loved ones,” said an Oct. 28 telegram signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“With first trust that aided by God’s grace we can overcome evil with good (c.f. Romans 12:21),” it continued, “the Holy Father invokes upon the people of Lewiston and indeed the entire country, almighty God’s blessings of strength and peace.”

The message said the pope is praying for the recovery of the wounded, for the medical personnel caring for them, and for the souls of the dead.

“He likewise commends the noble efforts of first responders who put themselves in harm’s way to protect the community.”

Lewiston police said on Facebook late on Wednesday that the shootings occurred at local establishments Schemengees Bar and Sparetime Recreation.  

In a statement posted to Facebook, Portland Bishop Robert Deeley said it was “heartbreaking to hear of lives lost and dozens injured and to know of the pain and grief that so many families are experiencing.”

“We pray for all those impacted by this terrible violence, that the Lord may provide them with consolation in the midst of their sorrow,” Deeley said. “In this moment of trial and uncertainty, let us raise up our prayers, asking God to give strength to them and to our community now and in the coming days, and we ask him to protect our law enforcement officers as they seek to prevent further harm.”

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Dallas, Texas, Apr 25, 2018 / 03:01 am (CNA).- Like any figure of importance, there is high likelihood that the Pope or another Catholic leader could be the subject of a fake video using a rapidly improving technology—and everyone needs to take c… […]

Valerie Huber, the president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Health, speaks to EWTN Pro-Life Weekly on Thursday, May 23, 2024 / EWTN News

CNA Staff, May 24, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

One woman is working with world leaders to promote women’s health without also submitting to the pro-abortion ideologies that often come with international aid.

President of the Institute for Women’s Health Valerie Huber spoke with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” Thursday about current worldwide efforts to support women’s health from conception until death.

Huber founded the institute after completing her service as the first special representative for global women’s health under former President Donald Trump.

“I had the whole world, but only one focus, and that was promoting women’s health,” she told Alvarado about her tenure in public service. “And to ensure that health was not equated with abortion, because it shouldn’t be, and it’s not.”

Since then, through the Institute, Huber has continued her outreach to various nations to encourage them and provide them with support.

For example, Huber recently worked with the first lady of Uganda to launch the Women’s Optimal Health Framework, a new initiative developed with the pro-life government of Guatemala that marks the “first life-affirming, family-strengthening framework that ministries of health can use in these countries to affirm every life.”

“It’s looking holistically at helping a woman receive optimal health,” Huber said. “That’s not just physical health. It’s emotional health. It’s intellectual health, [it’s] physical health, it’s spiritual health,” she said.

“There’s not another framework that takes these elements, empowers a government and literally empowers a woman and a girl at that community level to have opportunities that she has not had in the past.”

Huber noted that many countries are pressured to promote abortion ideology or else their aid will be taken away.

“What we want to be as the Institute for Women’s Health is that encourager that not only encourages them to stand but gives them the tools and the resources so they can stand,” she said.

This can be a challenge when many U.S. allies equate women’s health with abortion, Huber said.

“When I was special representative for global women’s health, I saw that women’s health had experienced a devolution where women’s health was being equated with abortion,” Huber said. “It’s just not true. It’s very limiting. It’s a narrative that leaves women who are dying every day behind with no assistance for anything else.”

“Our goal really was to put the focus where it should be, and that is: look at those authentically vulnerable women and girls in countries around the world to which the United States provides foreign assistance, other countries provide foreign assistance.”

When she proposed during the Trump administration that other nations work with the U.S. to address “unsolved conditions” for women worldwide, she found that no countries would “agree to leave abortion out of that equation in order to promote women’s health.”

“I saw that even though at that time, the U.S. administration was very pro-life, many of our traditional allies were not,” she said. “What did that tell me? It told me that the priority was not really helping the women who needed help. It was promoting ideology above women’s health, and actually that women were being used as a vehicle for ideology.”

“It was based on that that I started having conversations with countries that were pro-life, pro-family, that wanted to make genuine improvements to the health of their women and girls,” she continued. “But they were being held back by these conditions that were standing in the way.”

During her time as a representative, she united the U.S. with Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda and numerous other countries by initiating the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which stipulated several pro-family principles and rejected the premise of a “human right” to abortion.

Representatives from 37 different nations have signed the declaration, including Sudan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Paraguay, and Poland.

The declaration upheld several principles, Huber noted, including that “the family is foundational to society,” that “there is no international right to abortion; it’s not a human right,” and that “the sovereign right of countries to defend life, family, and women’s health with their own laws and not have external meddling, forcing them or pressuring them to change.”

“It created a coalition of nations that said, regardless of where we are, we commit to improve health and thriving for women and girls,” she said.

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