Prince of Peace Parish

The Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics releases the 2025 Pontifical Yearbook providing details about the number of Catholics, consecrated religious, priests, and bishops throughout the world.

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The Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, Bishop Paolo Martinelli, expresses concern for the consequences for civilians in the event of a renewal of “open and large-scale conflict” in Yemen.

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Marking the 25th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Fr Rif’at Bader, a Jordanian priest of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, remembers that pilgrimage and its legacy, including the recent inauguration of the Church at the site of the Baptism of Jesus on the River Jordan.

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Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, calls for unity amid ongoing bloodshed in the country. Speaking during a sermon for the first-ever episcopal ordination of a Tamil priest in the country, the Cardinal also decried caste systems and divisions.

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An Indonesian Catholic school run by the Archdiocese of Semarang has hosted an iftar, a fast-breaking evening meal of Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan, in an expression of interreligious harmony.

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Ahead of World Poetry Day on the 21st of March, we celebrate some poems that express humanity's yearning for peace.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 19, 2025 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

Officials in the state of Delaware have agreed to temporarily halt enforcement of a law that would require pro-life pregnancy centers to display notices that their facilities do not have licensed medical professionals on staff — even when they have licensed nurses on staff.

Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings agreed to a March 17 court order that requires the state to stop any enforcement of the mandate while pro-life pregnancy centers challenge the legality of the mandate in court. This order applies until the court issues a final ruling on whether the law is constitutional.

“We’re pleased Delaware officials won’t enforce their unconstitutional law against the pregnancy centers we represent as this case continues,” William R. Thetford, an attorney representing the pro-life pregnancy centers, said in a statement.

Thetford, an associate with Simms Showers LLP, and lawyers affiliated with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) are representing A Door of Hope Pregnancy Center and the pro-life pregnancy center network National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) in a lawsuit challenging the Delaware law.

“Pregnancy centers are a force for good in Wilmington and the surrounding community, offering families true, life-affirming care and resources during unplanned or unsupported pregnancies,” Thetford said.

The law, which would have gone into effect on March 26, would require pregnancy centers to display the following notice on site and in print and digital advertisements: “This facility is not licensed as a medical facility by the state of Delaware and has no licensed medical provider who provides or directly supervises the provision of services.”

This would apply to a facility unless it has a physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), a radiologist, or an ultrasound technician. A facility that staffs other registered nurses but not APRNs would need to display the notice even though its nurses are also licensed by the state.

In the lawsuit, the pregnancy centers argued the notices would mislead the public when facilities have nurses on staff. The lawsuit contends the mandate is meant “to undercut the opportunities the pregnancy care centers have to engage pregnant women in unplanned or unsupported pregnancies.”

The lawsuit notes that the Wilmington-based A Door of Hope Pregnancy Center would need to display the notice under the law, even though the facility employs licensed nurses who provide medical services under the supervision of other licensed medical personnel. The lawsuit alleges the law forces the facility to engage in “untrue compelled speech.”

Additionally, the lawsuit asserts the law is burdensome because it would limit, and in some cases prevent, digital advertising. It notes that displaying this notice would prevent any advertisements with Google ads because of the character limits.

Lawyers representing the pregnancy centers contend the state is engaging in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and curtailing the free exercise of religion because the pregnancy centers are faith-based. For those reasons, the lawyers argue that the law violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

“We applaud Delaware officials for allowing NIFLA and A Door of Hope to serve women and families free from government punishment as this case moves forward,” ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot said in a statement.

“We’ve seen too many state attorneys general ramp up their efforts to silence, censor, and shut down pregnancy care centers across the country,” Theriot added. “We are urging the court to follow the Supreme Court’s guidance and respect pregnancy centers’ freedom to continue their lifesaving service in their communities.”

Theriot, who is on the legal team for this case, also served on the legal team for a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the free speech rights of pregnancy resource centers. In that case, the court ruled that California had violated the First Amendment by requiring pregnancy centers to display notices that provided information on where one could obtain an abortion.

Courts have issued rulings in some states, such as Illinois, to halt similar laws that sought to regulate the speech of pregnancy resource centers. In other states, such as New York, attorneys general have also begun targeting the speech of pregnancy centers through civil action.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 19, 2025 / 16:25 pm (CNA).

Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years on Tuesday evening, using nitrogen gas for the first time amid Catholic criticism of both the death penalty itself and the mode of execution.

Jessie Hoffman Jr. was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. after undergoing 19 minutes of nitrogen gas. According to a CBS News report, a witness to the execution said the convicted killer was “convulsing” throughout the process. His death comes after numerous attempts by his lawyers to stay his execution.

According to court documents, Hoffman in 1996 kidnapped Mary “Molly” Elliot at gunpoint near New Orleans and forced her to withdraw $200 from an ATM. He then raped her before marching her naked down a dirt path to a makeshift dock, where he shot her in the head “execution style.” She was found by a duck hunter the next morning.

The nitrogen method requires that the gas be administered for at least 15 minutes or for five minutes after the inmate’s heart is no longer beating. Hoffman was the seventh death row inmate to be executed in the country this year.

Nitrogen gas has been used in four other executions, each in the state of Alabama, where the method — also known as nitrogen hypoxia — has been legal since 2018. The process was first used last year, when the state of Alabama executed death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith in January 2024. 

The practice is also legal in Mississippi and Oklahoma, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. 

Catholics opposed to execution

The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops (LACCB) had not released a statement on the execution by Wednesday afternoon. But the prelates issued a statement last month condemning the state’s intention to carry out its pending executions, writing that “no method of execution is acceptable including nitrogen hypoxia.” 

Capital punishment “only contributes to the culture of death,” they wrote. “We promote a culture of life, not death, in this great state we love. As bishops, we will continue to promote life from conception to natural death and work to end the execution of another human being.” 

A representative with LACCB told CNA that Baton Rogue Bishop Michael Duca had attended a prayer vigil ahead of Hoffman’s execution on Tuesday. 

The anti-death penalty group Catholics Mobilizing Network similarly opposed the execution, arguing that Hoffman’s experience of “extreme child abuse” led to his criminality. 

“We oppose this execution as we do every execution,” the group wrote. “Capital punishment is an act of state-sanctioned violence that violates the sacred dignity of every human life.”

In a Tuesday statement, meanwhile, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said: “It is unfortunate that bad people exist, and they do real bad things. When these acts of violence happen, society must not tolerate it.” 

“God is as just as he is merciful; and my hope is that when Louisiana empties death row, there will never be another victim whose perpetrator must be placed there,” he said.

“In Louisiana, we will always prioritize victims over criminals, law and order over lawlessness, and justice over the status quo,” the governor said. “If you commit heinous acts of violence in this state, it will cost you your life. Plain and simple.”

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mar 19, 2025 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has gifted the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to him by former U.S. President Joe Biden to the metropolitan cathedral of Buenos Aires. 

The medal is the highest honor given to a civilian by the United States, which the former president in January, before leaving office, decided to bestow upon the Holy Father, announcing the award by telephone.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction recognizes “individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant social, public, or private endeavors” and has been awarded only 55 times.

In presenting the award to the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the White House noted that Jorge Bergoglio “for decades served the voiceless and vulnerable across Argentina. As Pope Francis, his mission of serving the poor has never ceased. A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet. A welcoming leader, he reaches out to different faiths.”

“The first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, Pope Francis is unlike any who came before. Above all, he is the People’s Pope — a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world,” the White House stated at the time.

Addressing the pontiff on X, Biden said “your humility and your grace are beyond words, and your love for all is unparalleled. As the People’s Pope, you are a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world. Today, it was my honor to award His Holiness Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction.”

After receiving this recognition, the Holy Father decided to send the medal to the Buenos Aires cathedral, where he served as archbishop and cardinal primate until the conclave that elected him the successor of Peter in 2013.

The cathedral’s ceremony to receive the medal took place on March 13, the 12th anniversary of Pope Francis’ election, during a Mass of thanksgiving for his pontificate.

Upon receiving it, Father Alejandro Russo, rector of the cathedral, said: “Note how today we view this award that the pope has received from President Biden of the United States as a symbol, simply beyond any nation that could have done so, and any president who could do so.”

“The pope must accompany, lead, and preside over the Church and the sheep of Christ’s flock. But it is also the pope’s role, as the clear presence of the voice of Jesus Christ in time, to bring the mystery and preaching of the Gospel through justice and peace, through human elements, but which are certainly clear conditions for the life and establishment of the Gospel in time to the rest of the world,” he explained.

The Holy Father, he added, “preaches, brings justice, peace, and truth to all areas of life. The Holy Father is present in the various situations of conflict, and the Holy Father is present in the preaching of justice and truth in the various area of public life, when he is invited, when he visits, when he is in different realities. And the Holy Father is present there, also giving a new imprint to this preaching, to this landing of the kingdom in the temporal.” 

“Wanting to take away this mission from the Church, wanting to take away this mission of preaching justice and truth, is wanting to separate her from the mission that Jesus himself gave her. Wanting the pope to remain available only inside St. Peter’s Basilica, merely to issue rules and regulate the internal life of the Church, is wanting to obscure the figure of the pastor, the figure of the representative of Jesus that Christ himself intended,” Russo noted.

“And so we give thanks on this 12th anniversary, receiving this award. But we give thanks because Pope Francis had the courage to preach justice, to preach the truth, to be present in armed conflicts to try to help resolve them; that Pope Francis also had the courage to make it an issue throughout the world the ecological care of our common home; that Pope Francis had the courage to bring the preaching of the Gospel into the temporal realm,” he summarized.

“We ask God then, in these days, as we continue to pray for the pope, that he may continue to recover, for the presence of Pope Francis in the Catholic Church,” Russo prayed, and quoting the archbishop of Buenos Aires, he prayed “that oxygen may be taken in by the pope’s lungs, that the pope, who, thank God, gave so much oxygen to the Church, may be healed.”

This is the second time a pope has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The first was presented by George W. Bush to John Paul II during a visit to the Vatican in 2004.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Vatican City, Mar 19, 2025 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin denied that during his three recent visits to Pope Francis — who has been hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since Feb. 14 — they had discussed the possibility of the pope’s resignation.

“No, no, not at all,” the cardinal replied when asked by reporters after the “Iftar: Ramadan Table” event held at the St. Regis Hotel in Rome on Monday.

Parolin addressed the 88-year-old pontiff’s health and his ability to lead the Catholic Church.

“I think we should go by the medical reports, because they’re the ones that tell us exactly what the pope’s condition is,” he said.

The cardinal added that during his last visit to Pope Francis at Gemelli Hospital on March 9, he found him in better condition.

“I saw him a week ago, so I didn’t have the opportunity to see him again. I found him better than the first time,” he related, although he emphasized that this was only his personal observation and that it is necessary to follow the official information provided by the doctors.

Regarding the governance of the Catholic Church and the Holy Father’s role in decision-making, Parolin explained that, although they have been unable to discuss issues in depth during their conversations in the hospital due to his delicate health, the pontiff was presented with several situations that required his decision.

“The pope gives his instructions,” Parolin emphasized.

Concern over rearmament in Europe

The Vatican secretary of state also expressed his concern about Europe’s rearmament plan and its possible consequences. “When you rearm, sooner or later you have to use the weapons, right?” he reflected.

He also recalled that the Holy See has always advocated for disarmament.

“This has always been the policy of the Holy See: to insist on controlled and across the board disarmament on the international level. So one cannot be happy with the direction things are taking,” he commented.

Parolin also addressed the situation in Ukraine and expressed his hope that the dialogue process could move forward without obstacles.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.