The consecration of Father Martin Chambers as the new bishop of Dunkeld, Scotland had been scheduled for April 27. / Credit: Diocese of Dunkeld/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 11, 2024 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Dunkeld, Scotland, announced that Father Martin Chambers passed away at the age of 59 just weeks before being consecrated bishop.

A Mayo Clinic study published in late March 2024 found that boys who take puberty blockers may suffer “irreversible” harm. / Credit: Nephron|Wikimedia|CC BY-SA 3.0

CNA Staff, Apr 11, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

When parents seek medical help for their gender-confused children, they are assured that puberty blockers are “reversible” treatment that pauses puberty, offering the “chance to explore gender identity.” 

But a Mayo Clinic study published in late March found that boys who take puberty blockers may suffer “irreversible” harm.

The study, published on a website hosted by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Minnesota, found that adolescent boys who take puberty blockers may experience fertility problems and atrophied testes.

Eleven Mayo Clinic scientists based in Rochester, Minnesota, studied the effect of puberty blockers on testicular cells. The researchers discovered “unprecedented” evidence “revealing detrimental pediatric testicular sex gland responses to [puberty blockers].” 

While the Mayo Clinic website currently claims that puberty blockers simply “pause” puberty and “don’t cause permanent physical changes,” this recent study is just one of many that have sounded the alarm about the various harms of puberty blockers. In 2022, one study gained national attention after it found that putting children on puberty blockers causes irreversible harm to bone density. 

The March study suggested that “abnormalities” from the data “raise a potential concern regarding the complete ‘reversibility’ and reproductive fitness of [spermatogonial stem cells]” for youth taking puberty blockers. 

Researchers found that puberty blockers hurt the development of sperm production and could affect fertility when children grow up. They reported “mild-to-severe sex gland atrophy in puberty blocker-treated children.”

The study, which has not been peer-reviewed yet, looked at testicular samples for 87 patients under the age of 18. The study included 87 children total, with 16 boys who identified as girls and nine of whom took puberty blockers. 

Two of the nine who were taking puberty blockers had abnormal features on their testicles that were observable from a physical examination. 

The Mayo Clinic researchers noted that they began the study in a context where “the consequences” of puberty blockers for “juvenile testicular development and reproductive fitness” are “poorly understood.” 

“To the best of our knowledge, no rigorous study has been reported on extended puberty blockade in pediatric populations and its long-term consequences on reproductive fitness,” the authors noted. 

Yet puberty blockers, originally developed to suppress hormones of minors who began puberty too early, are prescribed to children experiencing gender dysphoria. 

Meanwhile, European countries such as Finland, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and the U.K. have restrictions or bans on puberty blockers for children. England ended puberty blockers for kids just last month. 

“Puberty blockers … are not available to children and young people for gender incongruence or gender dysphoria because there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness,” the NHS England website’s section on “treatment” for gender dysphoria read after the update. 

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CNA Newsroom, Apr 11, 2024 / 06:45 am (CNA).

“I ask for forgiveness from the victims and deeply regret everything I have done,” the priest said.

A Massgoer prays at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City before a Eucharistic procession through the streets Oct. 10, 2023. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), announced April 9 the opportunity for Catholics who participate in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and the National Eucharistic Congress to receive plenary indulgences.

Broglio requested that the Apostolic Penitentiary, the office in charge of granting plenary indulgences within the Roman Curia, grant a plenary indulgence to all those who take part in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. 

It was also requested that he or another prelate be designated to impart the apostolic blessing with a plenary indulgence to the faithful present at the National Eucharistic Congress, which takes place July 17–21 in Indianapolis.

“It is with gratitude to the Holy Father that we receive his apostolic blessing upon the participants in the National Eucharistic Congress and for the opportunity for Catholics in our country to obtain a plenary indulgence by participating in the events of the Eucharistic Revival,” Broglio said in a statement released by the USCCB. 

He added: “Through the efforts of the revival over the last two years, we have been building up to the pilgrimage and congress that will offer Catholics a chance to experience a profound, personal revival of faith in the Eucharist. Pope Francis continues to encourage and support us as we seek to share Christ’s love with a world that is desperately in need of him.”

A decree issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary and approved by the Holy Father states that the plenary indulgence will be granted to the Christian faithful who participate in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage at any point between May 17 and July 16.

The indulgence will also be granted to the elderly, the infirm, and all those who cannot leave their homes for a grave reason but who participate “in spirit,” uniting their prayers with the pilgrimage.

A second decree issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary and approved by Pope Francis grants Broglio, or any other prelate of episcopal rank assigned by him, the ability to impart a papal blessing with a plenary indulgence to those who participate in the National Eucharistic Congress following the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

The faithful who, “due to reasonable circumstances and with pious intention,” have received the papal blessing through media communications can also obtain a plenary indulgence.

Both indulgences are granted under the usual conditions of confession, receiving the Eucharist, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father.

The National Eucharistic Congress is a monumental moment for the U.S. bishops’ three-year initiative, the Eucharistic Revival, which began on the feast of Corpus Christi in 2022 and continues through 2025.

null / Photo credit: Kryvosheia Yurii/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Republican Gov. Brad Little of Idaho on Monday signed a law designed to protect government employees and students at public schools from being forced to use names and pronouns that violate their sincerely held beliefs. 

HB538, which the Idaho Legislature passed last week, is set to take effect July 1. The new law provides for “a prohibition on any governmental entity in the state of Idaho from compelling any public employee or public school student to communicate preferred personal titles and pronouns that do not correspond with the biological sex of the individual seeking to be referred to by such titles or pronouns.”

“Such prohibition is essential to ensure that the constitutional right to free speech of every person in the state of Idaho is respected,” the bill reads.

Government, public school, and higher education employees “shall not be subject to adverse employment action” for declining to use a person’s preferred pronouns or addressing a person with anything other than his or her legal name. The act also covers students, saying they “shall not be subject to adverse disciplinary action” for declining to use a person’s preferred pronouns or addressing a person by a name other than his or her legal one. 

In terms of enforcement, the act provides for a “private cause of action for injunctive relief, monetary damages, reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, and any other appropriate relief.”

Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, praised the governor’s actions, saying: “All of society benefits when freedom of speech and conscience flourish.”

“No one should lose their job or face punishment at school for declining to say something they believe is false,” ADF senior counsel Matt Sharp said in a statement.  

“Words and language carry meaning, and when used properly, they tell the truth about reality, feelings, and beliefs. Yet forcing individuals to say things that are untrue — such as inaccurate names, pronouns, and titles — imposes real harm on the speaker. In no world is it acceptable for schools to force good teachers out of a job all for the sake of promoting gender ideology to vulnerable children. Now and always, there are only two sexes — male and female — and denying this basic truth only hurts kids.”

The Idaho bill comes in response to a number of cases throughout the country in recent years of teachers and students facing disciplinary action for expressing Christian beliefs about gender. 

In August 2021, Virginia’s Supreme Court sided with a teacher after he challenged a school district policy requiring teachers to refer to students by their preferred gender pronouns.

And in 2022, Ohio’s Shawnee State University and Nicholas Meriwether agreed to a $400,000 settlement after the professor faced disciplinary action for declining to use the preferred pronouns of a self-identified transgender student. The university denied claims it had violated the professor’s free speech and religious freedom, though the professor’s attorneys claimed victory.

Later that year, a Kansas middle school teacher was awarded a $95,000 settlement with her school district, which had suspended her in an effort to force her to comply with its gender policies, which included a mandate to lie to parents about their children’s gender transitions.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives at the Atlanta airport on April 10, 2024, in Atlanta. / Credit: Megan Varner/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 14:20 pm (CNA).

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would not sign a national abortion ban if reelected to the office of the presidency in November. 

The Republican presidential candidate was at an event in Atlanta on Wednesday when a reporter asked him: “Would you sign a national abortion ban if Congress sent it to your desk?” 

“No,” Trump said in response. 

Asked by the reporter: “You wouldn’t sign it?” Trump responded again: “No.”

Trump had minutes earlier indicated that he disagreed with this week’s historic ruling at the Arizona Supreme Court. That court on Monday ruled that state law does not guarantee a right to an abortion and that an 1864 law prohibiting all abortions can take effect later this month.

Asked in Atlanta on Wednesday if that ruling “went too far,” Trump responded: “Yeah they did, and that will be straightened out.”

“I’m sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and that’ll be taken care of, I think very quickly,” the former president said. 

Trump has been steadily positioning himself as more of a centrist on abortion in recent months. 

On Monday he said in a social media video that “at the end of the day” abortion law in the U.S. is “all about the will of the people” and that “now it’s up to the states to do the right thing.” 

Last September, meanwhile, he called Florida’s six-week abortion ban “a terrible thing” and “a terrible mistake.”

President Joe Biden, on the other hand, last month promised to support a law that would legalize abortion nationwide in response to the repeal of Roe v. Wade two years ago.

null / Credit: Pixabay

CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 10:50 am (CNA).

In the advertisement, an abbess fills a ciborium with potato chips instead of Eucharistic hosts prior to Mass.

To mark its 10th anniversary, the Saint Pio Foundation in the United States on April 29, 2024, will release 10 never-before-seen photographs of Padre Pio. The foundation’s director, Luciano Lamonarca, discovered the photos when visiting photographer Elia Saleto’s studio. / Credit: Courtesy of the St. Pio Foundation

CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

To mark its 10th anniversary, the Saint Pio Foundation in the United States will release all 10 photographs of Padre Pio on April 29.

A plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. / Credit: MichalPL via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Catholic bishops in the European Union reiterated that a right to abortion can never be a “fundamental” right ahead of a Thursday vote to amend the EU charter. 

Penn University transgender swimmer Lia Thomas celebrates taking first place in the 500-yard freestyle race with a time of 4.37.32 during the championship final race in heat three during the Women's Ivy League Swimming & Diving Championships at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Feb. 17, 2022. / Credit: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Apr 9, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) approved a policy on Monday that stated that biological men cannot compete in women’s sports in NAIA-sponsored college sports. 

The NAIA includes 249 schools across the U.S. and Canada, most of which are small, private colleges. 

Catholic colleges such as Benedictine College in Kansas, Ave Maria University in Florida, Loyola University in New Orleans, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana are members of the league. Texas A&M University-San Antonio is also a member. 

The decision, in a 20-0 vote, followed a December survey that found widespread support for the proposed rule among the association’s members. Of the 68 schools that responded to the survey, 58 were in favor of the policy change, according to a CBS report.

“We believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA,” NAIA president Jim Carr told CBS Sports. “We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created.” 

The new policy requires that students who participate in NAIA-sponsored women’s sports must be biologically female and not under the influence of any masculinizing hormone therapy. 

Female athletes who take masculinizing hormones cannot compete in NAIA-sponsored women’s sports but may participate in internal activities such as workouts, practices, and teams, according to the individual college’s discretion, the policy stated.

The NAIA’s policy does not specify sex for NAIA-sponsored male sports, meaning that women taking masculinizing hormones may participate in male sports if they wish.

The policy will go into effect Aug. 1.

The decision follows recent controversy over University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, winning an NCAA Division I Championship. 

Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas, has been outspoken about her opposition to allowing male athletes to compete in women’s sports. 

Gaines and more than a dozen other female athletes filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) in March. The suit alleged that allowing men to compete in women’s competitions denies women protections promised under Title IX and that the decision “subject[ed] women to a loss of their constitutional right to bodily privacy.”

“Title IX was enacted by Congress to increase women’s opportunities; therefore, no policy which authorizes males to take the place of women on women’s college sports teams or in women’s college sports locker rooms is permissible under Title IX,” the complaint read.

Gaines applauded the NAIA’s move in a post on X, noting that the NAIA “becomes the first national college governing body to mandate athletes compete with their sex.”

A recent Vatican document released Monday affirmed the Catholic Church’s teaching on human dignity and addressed a variety of modern issues including transgenderism.

The Vatican declaration noted that “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected” while also condemning any violence or aggression toward individuals based on sexual orientation.