Scientists reconstructed the face of St. Nicholas – here’s what they found

The New York capitol building. / Spiroview Inc/Shutterstock.

Albany, N.Y., May 28, 2021 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
Those who were sexually abused as adults would be given a one-year window in which to sue perpetrators and institutions, even if the statut… […]

A sonogram picture of a fetus in the second trimester of a woman’s pregnancy / Shutterstock

Washington D.C., Feb 20, 2023 / 15:58 pm (CNA).

Last Friday the Utah House of Representatives passed some of the strongest pro-life legislation advanced since the reversal of Roe v. Wade. If passed by the state’s Senate and signed into law, the measures effectively would shut down abortion clinics that only offer abortion and would also help victims of rape and incest.

The two bills passed the Utah House in strictly party-line votes, 53-14.

Though Utah has pro-life supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature, abortion is currently legal in Utah until 18 weeks of pregnancy. A “trigger law” was passed in 2020 to go into effect with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The law would ban abortion through all stages of pregnancy, but it remains blocked in the courts due to a legal challenge by Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and the Utah chapter of the ACLU.

The first bill, sponsored by Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, a Republican, prohibits abortions outside of hospitals and bans clinics that only offer abortion. 

Further, the bill prohibits the licensing of abortion clinics after May 2, 2023, and makes it a criminal offense for out-of-state actors to prescribe abortion drugs to Utahns.

The Utah House Democratic Caucus decried the bill as “a direct attack on reproductive health care.”

Planned Parenthood Action Council of Utah posted on Twitter that the bill “would shutter all abortion clinics in (Utah) and make this essential health care MUCH more inaccessible and expensive for #Utahns.”

Lisonbee pushed back on the claim that her bill would close abortion clinics, saying that providers like Planned Parenthood can continue offering other health services and abortions in limited exceptions.

Doctors performing abortions in fetal anomaly cases will now be required to inform the mother that perinatal hospice care, which is care for infants with short life expectancies, is available as an alternative to abortion.

“As a state, we deeply value human life at all stages and in all circumstances,” Lisonbee said. “It is the state’s responsibility to protect the most vulnerable, and that includes the unborn.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signaled his support for the bill, saying in a Feb. 16 news conference that he “feels pretty good” about the bill and that the 18-week cutoff gives “plenty of time for a decision to be made.”

The second pro-life bill sponsored by Rep. Kera Birkeland, also a Republican, expands care for rape and incest victims. The bill provides health care for the victim and the child during the resulting pregnancy and for the first year after the child is born. The bill also further expands already existing laws that doctors performing abortions on rape or incest victims verify the crime with authorities.

Both bills limit abortions performed in the rape and incest exceptions to the first 18 weeks of pregnancy.

Having cleared the House, both bills will now advance to the Utah Senate, which is majority Republican.

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A screenshot from Pope Francis’ May 4 video message to young people attending World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jun 6, 2023 / 11:45 am (CNA).

Pope Francis’ schedule for his trip to Portugal for World Youth Day 2023 was published by the Vatican on Tuesday.

During his Aug. 2–6 visit to the southern European country, the 86-year-old pope will split his time between WYD events and meetings with local government and religious leaders and other organizations.

He will also spend the morning of Aug. 5 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, about 75 miles northeast of Lisbon, where he will pray the rosary with sick young adults in the Marian shrine’s Chapel of Apparitions.

On the evening of Aug. 5, Pope Francis will participate in a vigil with World Youth Day participants at Tejo Park in Lisbon, a green space of more than 220 acres flanked by the Tagus River and with a view of Europe’s second-longest bridge, Vasco da Gama.

The park will be the site for WYD 2023’s main festivities, including Mass with Pope Francis on the final day.

Sunday Mass followed by a meeting with World Youth Day volunteers will be the pope’s final encounters before returning to Rome on the evening of Aug. 6.

The five-day trip will begin with a meeting with Portugal’s Catholic President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa followed by an address to government authorities, civil society members, and the diplomatic corps.

He will later meet with the country’s prime minister, António Costa, before praying vespers with local priests, bishops, seminarians, and consecrated men and women at the 16th-century Jerónimos Monastery, one of Lisbon’s top-visited sites.

On Aug. 3, Francis will meet students from the Portuguese Catholic University before traveling to the Cascais suburb west of Lisbon to spend time with young people from Scholas Occurentes, an international group that promotes education in poor communities.

That afternoon he will take part in his first World Youth Day event, a welcome ceremony at Eduardo VII Park.

On Friday, Aug. 4, Pope Francis will hear confessions, meet representatives of charity organizations, have lunch with young adults, and pray the Stations of the Cross.

The trip will mark Francis’ fourth World Youth Day after taking part in the international Catholic gatherings in Panama, Poland, and Brazil.

World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. The weeklong celebration usually attracts hundreds of thousands of young people.

The theme of Lisbon’s World Youth Day, which will take place Aug. 1-6, is “Mary arose and went with haste.”

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