Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 15, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Evelio Menjivar came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant in 1990. Today he serves as an auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., and is the first Salvadoran U.S. bishop in an archdiocese that is home to over 200,000 of his former countrymen.

In an interview with “EWTN News in Depth,” Menjivar shared his conviction that immigrants “make the United States a great nation” and “make society better.” 

After years of “blue-collar jobs,” upon his arrival to the U.S., Menjivar felt a calling to the priesthood and was ordained in 2004. He served as a parish priest in Washington for almost two decades until Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop in 2022.

“I came here when I was 20 with a great desire to work hard, to go to school, to contribute to the well-being of this great nation that became my home country,” Menjivar told Montse Alvarado, EWTN News president and COO.

Menjivar said he attempted to enter the country three times before making it to Los Angeles. He explained: “I don’t feel proud that I crossed the border without documents.”

“But it is a testimony that many people cross the border with good intentions,” he said.

“Most immigrants come here because they do not find any other option in their countries and they put their own lives at risk. But once we enter here, we contribute with our own talents, with our own energy,” he told Alvarado.

He described the violence and chaos that led him to flee El Salvador for the United States.

“I was growing up during the civil war that started in … 1977,” Menjivar said. “We were forced to abandon our village in 1982. We relocated to another town in the same area, but the whole area was abandoned, left with nobody.”

“So the war was there,” he said. “That was the situation that I grew up in, and then in 1990 is when I left El Salvador, and the war continued for two more years.”

“Religious sisters, even American sisters, were killed. Many priests were killed. Catechists were killed. It was a situation of war that pushed me and pushed so many immigrants to leave their countries,” the bishop explained.

Menjivar said immigration is a “journey marked by a lot of uncertainty, fear, but also with hope.” 

During Menjivar’s episcopal ordination Cardinal Wilton Gregory, then-archbishop of Washington, commended Menjivar’s dedication to those who work unfair wages to make a day’s living. 

“Cardinal Gregory said very beautifully in the homily that I should never forget my roots,” Menjivar said. “And that way people, immigrants, anybody, will be able to be more open to share their own stories, knowing that I’m going to understand them.”

“As most immigrants do, I did janitorial work, I did construction, painting, youth ministry, you name it, all kinds of blue-collar jobs. And so that helped me to understand labor, hard labor, to learn to work hard.”

He said he is “very proud” of the work he did when he arrived in the U.S. and believes it is a “gift to be able to understand the hardships that people go through.”

EWTN’s Alvarado and Menjivar discussed a letter he and his brother bishops received from Pope Francis asking them to always remember human dignity when addressing immigration in the political climate today.

“The pope emphasizes the importance, the need, to defend the dignity of human beings, of immigrants,” Menjivar said. “His message is a message of concern … for the well-being of everybody.”

When asked about the lack of Hispanic bishops in the U.S. Church in light of how many Hispanic Catholics there are in the country, Menjivar said he is seeing progress in that direction, adding that he believes it’s very important that “shepherds understand their flock.”

“Yes, there are not many Hispanic bishops, but the number [is] increasing. There are more and more, especially during the last years with Pope Francis.”

“One of the things that we need to do as a Church is to promote more vocations to the priesthood. We need more Hispanic priests, that’s for sure. We need more deacons, we need more religious sisters and brothers to serve the Church.” 

Asked to comment on how he responds to people in his community who fear deportation during this uncertain time, Menjivar said that while many “are expressing fear and anxiety” they are turning to the Church and to their faith for consolation. 

“Thanks be to God, we have people that are very hopeful,” he said. “And they know that this is the moment when they need the Church the most. That they need to come as a community to pray.”

“People don’t know what is going to happen to them. But one of the beautiful things that we are seeing here is that people, they continue going to church and celebrating their faith.”

Menjivar said he never lost faith on his journey to the U.S. and has been able to continue on that path that led him to become a bishop because he knows “there [are] always people praying for us. There is always a light that is lit.”

CNA Staff, Mar 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Five years ago this week, public health orders issued amid the uncertainty of the novel coronavirus turned Mass schedules across the country and the world upside down. 

In those early days following the WHO’s March 11, 2020, declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the bishops of every U.S. diocese issued some form of dispensation, suspending the obligation that Catholics must attend Sunday Mass in person. 

Thousands of parishes and ministries scrambled to develop plans to offer livestreamed Masses, deliver the sacraments in a “socially distanced” manner, and live out the Church’s life as best they could under extraordinary circumstances. Public Masses at most parishes were suspended entirely for a time, and those that were able to reopen were subject, in many areas, to distancing requirements and numerical or percentage-based attendance caps.

As Catholics nationwide adapted to the changes — not knowing how long this new reality might last — observers feared that many Catholics, barred from their parishes for so long and now accustomed to attending from the comfort of home, might not return after the parish doors reopened. 

A study from the Pew Research Center found that most Catholics continued participating in Mass throughout the pandemic — but many were only able to do so virtually. In November 2022, when the survey was done, only about 4 in 10 U.S. Catholics said they attended Mass in person as often as they did before the pandemic.

Indeed, from the start of the COVID pandemic lockdowns in the U.S. to the declared end of the pandemic in May 2023, in-person Mass attendance averaged just 15% — a dismal figure, but not markedly lower than the 24% it was before. (The Catholic Church teaches that Catholics are obligated to attend Mass in person every Sunday, except for a serious reason such as illness or if they’ve been dispensed from their obligation by their pastor or bishop.)

Some bishops lifted the dispensations they had issued as early as late 2020, while a few held out until 2022. In lifting the dispensations they issued amid the lockdowns, many U.S. bishops implored Catholics to return to Mass in person. 

While Mass attendance today among Catholics in the U.S. remains much lower than among Catholics in other countries, recent data has suggested that U.S. in-person Mass attendance levels have quietly returned to where they were in 2019 after years of uncertainty over whether they would ever rebound. 

For some thriving parishes in the U.S., the lockdowns — while challenging — presented an opportunity to continue sharing the faith in a creative manner and come out even stronger than they were before. 

Father John Mosimann, pastor at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Fredericksburg, Virginia, told CNA that the parish has seen its numbers grow since the pandemic. 

On a typical weekend, Mosimann and his four parochial vicars celebrate 11 total Masses in English, plus another in Spanish at a different parish where they are kick-starting a Spanish Mass ministry. 

All told, roughly 3,800 people attended St. Mary’s weekend Masses on a typical week in 2019. According to headcounts, the parish had already exceeded its pre-pandemic levels by 2023, with around 4,300 attendees on average. The parish, which is about 55 miles south of Washington, D.C., has 6,700 registered families and nearly 100 active ministries. 

During the pandemic, St. Mary’s added extra Masses — since for a time, Masses were limited to a smaller-than-usual number of attendees — and continued hosting adoration. Like so many other parishes, the parish had to quickly adapt to a livestreaming paradigm in order to stay connected with the community.

“I was in the office and I was looking at Facebook and I said, ‘What if I hit this button and go live, what would happen?’” Mosimann remembers thinking as the lockdowns began.

“And so I started streaming on Facebook Live and everybody started jumping in … ’What’s going on, Father? What’s going to happen?’ And I didn’t have answers, because I wasn’t that great a prophet. But we did immediately start streaming.”

He said parishioners were grateful for the effort the priests made to stay in touch, despite the occasional technical challenge — a problem far from unique to St. Mary’s. 

“If you want perfect sound and you want a studio, go to EWTN. They’ve got professional equipment. If you want to see your priests, come talk to us,” Mosimann said he told his parishioners. 

“We’re not going to be anxious over having studio quality, because what’s important is for us to be connected to you. People responded to that. People were very grateful for that. It was very frequently cited by parishioners, how grateful they were for our staying in touch with them during that difficult moment.”

The last of Virginia’s capacity-restricting public health orders on venues was lifted in late May 2021, and Bishop Michael Burbidge of the local Diocese of Arlington in the following month lifted the dispensation he had issued, inviting Catholics to return to Mass throughout the diocese. So far, as in most U.S. dioceses, Mass attendance overall in Arlington has risen significantly but has not quite returned to pre-pandemic levels. 

Since the pandemic’s end, Mosimann said his focus has been on encouraging parishioners to use their time and talents generously to help rebuild and grow the parish community. 

For Mosimann, the pandemic experience was proof that by remaining faithful even through troubling and difficult times, God can and does bring good out of bad situations through his grace. 

“[We] did everything we could to provide the sacraments to God’s people and to make it available as much as possible with all the restrictions. That should be the goal of every parish, every day, whether there’s a pandemic or not,” Mosimann said. 

‘We are proud to be who we are’

Father Michael Hurley, OP, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco, said his parish, which offers what he believes is the largest young adult presence in the entire archdiocese, regularly sees attendance numbers today that are similar to pre-pandemic levels. 

The parish was able to safely provide the sacraments to those in need during the pandemic and had, providentially, already set up livestreaming for Masses shortly before the start of the pandemic. To this day the parish maintains a healthy online base of Dominican laypeople who tune in for Masses and prayer. 

Hurley said he personally never worried during lockdown about people not returning to Mass, instead trusting that Catholics would return when they could. He said his main concern was keeping the church building open safely during the pandemic — in a state with some of the strictest lockdown measures in the country — to maintain sacramental support. 

California finally lifted all capacity restrictions on religious gatherings in April 2021 after previously implementing a near-total ban on indoor services that was contested all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Though the demographics of St. Dominic Parish has changed somewhat, in-person worshippers, many of whom work in the Bay Area’s high-tech sector, have returned in large numbers. 

“The Lord is always searching for the strays, right? ... All you have to do is open the doors and do what you’re doing, and people will come,” Hurley told CNA. 

That said, Hurley said he believes St. Dominic’s beautiful church building, welcoming atmosphere, and a strong sense of identity — as a Dominican-led parish that aims to “radiate the joy of the Gospel in the heart of the city” — helps to make it an attractive place for Catholics, especially young adults. They also keep the church building open for personal prayer throughout the day, a rarity in a city that occasionally struggles with crime. 

“We are proud to be who we are as Catholics, and for us as clergy, as Dominicans. And that makes a huge difference,” Hurley said.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Here are some of the major stories about the Church around the world that you may have missed this week:

3 Christian converts sentenced to over 40 years in prison by Islamic Republic of Iran

Three Christian converts in Iran have been sentenced to over 40 years in prison collectively, Article18, a London-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting and promoting religious freedom in the Islamic country, has reported.

The Iranian Revolutionary Court collectively sentenced Abbas Soori, Mehran Shamloui, and Narges Nasri, a 37-year-old woman who is pregnant with her first child, to more than 40 years in prison for charges described as “propaganda activities contrary to Islamic law.” 

Catholic nonprofits speak out against climate credit scheme targeting Indigenous Tanzanian community 

The International Cooperation for Development Solidarity (CIDSE) is speaking out on behalf of the Tanzanian Maasi community after a recently published study found the native community had been coerced into allowing carbon credit projects on their land, threatening their livelihoods. 

The CIDSE told ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, that the Maasi communities were pressured into signing unfair contracts that forced them out of their traditional grazing lands. The CIDSE condemned the dubious contracts, which it said “undermine Indigenous rights.” 

Diocese of Guinea-Bissau celebrates appointment of new bishop

The Catholic community in Guinea-Bissau is celebrating this week after the appointment of Monsignor Victor Luís Quematcha as local ordinary of the Bissau-Guinea Episcopal See on March 8, ACI Africa reported. The appointment comes almost exactly four years after the passing of Bishop Pedro Carlos Zilli in March 2021. 

Holy pilgrimage honors 10th anniversary of Coptic Martyrs in Egypt

Marking the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of 20 Egyptian Copts and a young Ghanaian in Libya, the Apostolic Vicariate of the Latins in Egypt organized a holy pilgrimage with over 300 people to the Egyptian city of Samalut. 

Coinciding with the Jubilee of Hope, the pilgrimage took place under the patronage and participation of Bishop Claudio Lurati of Alexandria and his vicar, Monsignor Antoine Tawfik, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported. 

Nigerian bishops’ conference: Unemployed youth are ‘ticking time bomb’

The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria issued a warning this week about increased rates of joblessness among the country’s youth as violence and criminal activity continues to surge across Africa’s largest nation-state.

Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji called the crisis a “ticking time bomb” for Nigeria’s youth and called for federal and state governments to take action to address unemployment among young people or risk “losing the battle against insecurity and violent crime.”

Religious freedom win: Pakistani Christian girl free from forced marriage, conversion

Pakistani courts have granted an annulment to Shahidi Bibi, allowing her to return to her father’s house and her faith, according to her legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International. Bibi was forced by her mother to marry her stepfather’s brother, a Muslim man, when she was just 11 years old. During the marriage, she gave birth to two children and was falsely legally registered as “Muslim” on her identification documents. 

Cases of violence against Christians in India on the rise, report finds

According to a March 10 report from The Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission (EFIRLC), 640 incidents of violent attacks against Christians occurred in 2024, an increase of 39 cases compared with 2023, and 147 cases recorded in 2014. 

“Attacks on Christians take various forms, including physical assaults, disruptions of prayer meetings, church vandalism, social boycotts, denial of community resources, and targeted arrests under anti-conversion laws,” the report states, adding: “Reports indicate that on average, four to five churches and pastors face attacks daily, with incidents nearly doubling every Sunday.”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Earlier this week, Cuba completed the release of 553 prisoners despite the collapse of a deal with the United States, Vatican News reported. 

In January, under the Catholic Church’s mediation, former U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to remove Cuba from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in exchange for the early release of hundreds of prisoners. 

The deal was made following years of pressure from the U.S., the European Union, the Catholic Church, and human rights organizations urging Cuba to free anti-government protesters jailed after a 2021 demonstration. 

The Biden administration had initially called Cuba to release “political prisoners,” but Cuba less specifically agreed to gradually release “553 people sanctioned for diverse crimes.” 

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said: “As part of the close and fluid relations with the Vatican State, I informed Pope Francis of [the decision to free the prisoners] in the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee.” 

Just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration overturned the deal. Despite the administration’s reversal, Cuba continued to free prisoners intermittently.

In February, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, called the continued release of the Cuban prisoners “a sign of great hope” at the start of the holy year and said he hoped for more “gestures of clemency.”

The vice president of Cuba‘s top court, Maricela Soza Ravelo, announced on state television on March 10 that the full release was completed, according to Vatican News. 

Cuba has not reported how many of the 553 releases were linked to the 2021 protests or disclosed a full list of the freed prisoners.

National Catholic Register, Mar 14, 2025 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

Democrats worried about what the Trump administration might do to curtail chemical abortions have filed a bill in Congress that would prevent the federal government from stopping the mailing of abortion pills.

The “Stop the Comstock Act” bill, filed Wednesday, would remove language in federal law that prohibits sending items that cause abortion through the mail. It is a re-file of a bill introduced in June 2024, which the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, reported on at the time.

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, one of the bill’s sponsors, said she expects the Trump administration to use the Comstock Act to stop access to abortion.

“With Donald Trump in the White House, the threat to women’s reproductive health and freedom is more urgent than ever,” Smith said in a written statement.

Republicans control both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and it seems unlikely the leadership will schedule a vote on it.

“The bill won’t go anywhere,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee.

“Democrats are hoping this bill will energize a demoralized base, but they are doing so at the cost of women. Mailing abortion pills without an in-person doctor’s appointment can lead to complications such as severe hemorrhaging and, sadly, the possibility that a woman could lose her life,” Tobias told the Register. “Democrats want to make abortion available anywhere, under any circumstances, and at any time in pregnancy, but it’s women and their unborn babies who will suffer.”

Most abortions in the United States now occur not by surgery but through pills. In 2023 about 63% of abortions in the country took place through abortion pills, according to a survey published in March 2024 by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion and tracks it.

Most chemical abortions in the United States use a two-pill regimen. The first, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone, which is needed for a pregnancy to continue. The second is misoprostol, which the National Institutes of Health says “may be employed to induce labor following intrauterine fetal demise.”

Congress passed the Comstock Act in 1873. The federal statute, which is still on the books, prohibits “sending or receiving by mail … means for procuring abortion.” A related 1909 federal statute prohibits sending “any drug … designed … or intended for … producing abortion” by “common carrier.” 

Neither was enforced after 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared a federal right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began allowing abortion pills to be sent through the mail on a temporary basis in April 2021, not long after President Joe Biden took office. In December 2021, the agency made the approval permanent.

But in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion when it issued its Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

That led postal officials to ask the U.S. Department of Justice if abortion pills could still be sent through the mail.

The Biden Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said in December 2022 that mailing abortion pills does not violate federal law “where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully.”

Trump administration officials have not yet announced whether they intend to apply the Comstock Act to stop the mailing of abortion pills. They also haven’t announced how they plan to regulate abortion pills, which supporters say are safe for women who take them but opponents argue are dangerous.

Critics of abortion pills have criticized the FDA for loosening restrictions on them during the last several years and for not tracking certain types of adverse reactions unless they are deemed serious enough.

That question came up during the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“I think it’s immoral to have a policy where patients are not allowed to report adverse events, or doctors are discouraged from doing that,” Kennedy said during a Jan. 29 U.S. Senate confirmation hearing. “President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone. He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies. I will work with this committee to make those policies make sense.”

Last week, Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, declined to take a position on how the agency would deal with the primary abortion drug, mifepristone.

“I have no preconceived plans on mifepristone policy except to take a solid, hard look at the data and to meet with the professional career scientists who have reviewed the data at the FDA and to build an expert coalition to review the ongoing data, which is required to be collected as a part of the REMS program, the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy,” Makary said March 6 during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). “It is pursuant to the REMS, and so if we’re gonna collect data, I believe we should look at it.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, later in the hearing said that what she called “medication abortion” has “been approved by the FDA for many, many decades based on mountains of high-quality evidence and expert scientific judgment,” and she tried to get Makary to make a commitment in favor of it.

He didn’t.

Makary, whose nomination was moved forward by the Senate’s HELP Committee on Thursday, said: “You have my commitment to come to follow the independent scientific review process at the FDA, which is a tried-and-true process and that has been around, and so that is my commitment to you, Senator.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample condemned what he described as a “celebration of death” after Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a proclamation to make March 10 an “appreciation day” for abortionists.

“There are moments when words fail,” Sample wrote in a March 13 letter that also offered a pastoral teaching about the sanctity of human life.

Kotek’s creation of an “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” is “one of those moments,” the archbishop wrote.

At such times, he said, “the mind stares into the abyss and finds no bottom. When all that’s left is a kind of stunned silence — the kind you feel when you realize just how far a culture can drift from reality.”

“Not just the act of abortion itself, but the celebration of it,” he added. “The idea that those who make a living ending innocent, unborn life should be publicly honored. Thanked. Applauded.” 

“This isn’t just moral confusion. It’s something deeper. A kind of spiritual blindness so thick that what should be self-evident — the sheer wonder and worth of a human life — is obscured entirely.”

Sample’s harsh rebuke came two days after Kotek, a Democrat, signed a proclamation on March 10 establishing the new honor.

The governor said she “appreciated” the work of abortionists. She cited the rising number of abortions in Oregon performed on women from other states. In a statement she told abortionists and women seeking abortion: “I continue to have your back.”

The increased number of out-of-state abortions in Oregon comes as some states, including neighboring Idaho, pass laws to adopt pro-life protections for unborn children that restrict abortions.

‘Deep down, we know’

Sample wrote that pro-abortionist ideology constantly relies on “euphemism.” 

Instead of saying “killing,” he wrote that advocates hail “choice.” Rather than acknowledging that abortionists are “ending a life,” they invoke the phrase “reproductive freedom.” The archbishop said the language is “carefully chosen … not to tell the truth, but to make the truth more palatable.”

“Because deep down, we know,” the archbishop stated. “We know what abortion is. We know what it does. And we know that no amount of slogans or legal jargon can make a wrong thing right. And yet, modern culture insists on turning tragedy into triumph. It demands not just tolerance for abortion, not just legal protection, but celebration. It must be honored, enshrined.”

Within this ideological framework, Sample said human life is treated as “an obstacle, a burden, a problem to be solved,” rather than “a gift.”

“This is what happens when a culture loses its sense of the sacred,” the archbishop warned. “When it stops seeing existence as a miracle, as something given, something to be received with gratitude. Instead, life is reduced to a transaction. A commodity to be managed. And, when necessary, discarded.”

The promotion and celebration of abortion, according to Sample, is “a spiritual issue” and “is not just about politics or law or even ethics.” Rather, the debate around abortion, he said, “is about how we see reality itself” and whether life is “a gift” or “an accident” and whether “a baby is something to be received with awe” or “something to be discarded at will.”

“Is love the foundation of the universe? Or is it simply power?” the archbishop wrote. “Modernity has chosen the latter. It has built an entire system — legal, medical, ideological — on the premise that some lives matter more than others. That some are expendable. That the strong can dictate the terms of existence.”

In spite of the persistence of abortion proponents, Sample said “something feels off” and that “the need to frame it as a social good, as a moral necessity, reveals the guilt just beneath the surface.” 

On a more hopeful note, the archbishop reminded the faithful that darkness “doesn’t get the final word” and that the Gospel “is not about condemnation” but is rather an invitation “even for those who have celebrated abortion [and] even for those who have profited from it.” 

The prelate said that “grace is still available” and “forgiveness is still possible” for all people.

“The truth lingers,” Sample said. “It cannot be fully erased. The unborn child is not just tissue. Not just an inconvenience. But a presence. A reality. A life.”

CNA Staff, Mar 14, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The contribution of nearly 700 Catholic religious sisters to a “groundbreaking” decades-long study on Alzheimer’s and dementia continues to offer important information for maintaining “cognitive health” across the lifespan, researchers say.

Launched in 1986 by neurologist David Snowdon, the “Nun Study” produced “seminal findings” on “cognitive impairment and related neuropathologies,” researchers said in a historical review published at Alzheimer’s & Dementia journal last month.

Kyra Clarke, a doctorate student at UT Health San Antonio and one of the authors of the February review, said Snowdon opted to use Catholic sisters for the monumental study after he “realized that studying nuns came with many advantages for dementia research.” 

“Normally, it’s hard to pinpoint what causes some people to develop dementia while others remain healthy because people can have very different lifestyles, environments, and biology — some smoke, some don’t; some have better access to health care than others; some may be more genetically disposed to disease,” she said.

“But Catholic sisters from the same order share the same environment for most of their adult lives: similar marital histories, housing, nutrition, health care, income, and social networks,” she pointed out. 

“It is difficult to find a community of people with such consistent and comparable lifestyles. This makes it easier to figure out what factors truly increase or decrease the risk of dementia.”

Snowdon launched the pilot study of the program in 1986 in cooperation with the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), with a pool of 678 sisters eventually being drawn out of 1,000 candidates from what were then seven main convents across the country, including in Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas, and elsewhere. 

The age of the sisters at the outset of the study ranged from 75 to 102. All had similar life histories, while the vast majority were at least college graduates, with nearly 90% having been teachers at some point.

Researchers used a variety of methods to gauge progression of cognitive function of the sisters later in their lives, including autobiographies the nuns wrote prior to taking their vows, medical records, academic transcripts, and questionnaires.

The sisters “consented to participate in neuropsychological assessments and permitted researchers access to personal records kept by the convents,” researchers said; they were further required to agree to brain donation upon their deaths for the scientists to study. 

Clarke said the sisters exhibited ”extraordinary dedication and enthusiasm” for the study, particularly as evidenced by the high numbers of them who agreed to participate. 

“A 66% participation rate is a truly impressive amount for a longitudinal study requiring participants to undertake extensive cognitive testing every year for the rest of their lives and agree to brain donation as well,” she noted.

The inclusion of healthy as well as cognitively impaired sisters was a critical factor in the study, the researchers said, as it “allowed for the longitudinal tracking of cognitive changes through annual assessments.”

The high brain donation rate likewise “provided the opportunity to compare neuropathology findings from the autopsied brains of impaired individuals with healthy control brains, which had been historically difficult.”

The findings of the study have “significantly advanced” understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. One key discovery, Clarke said, was that “higher early-life cognitive ability seems to be protective against dementia.”

“Researchers found that sisters with higher educational attainment and academic performance (based on school transcripts stored in convent archival records) had higher scores on cognitive tests in late life and lower risk of dementia,” she said. Religious sisters with better written language skills earlier in life were also at a lower risk for dementia. 

“The Nun Study really emphasized that maintaining cognitive health is a lifelong task and emphasized the importance of education and cognitive stimulation in reducing the risk of dementia,” Clarke said.

All of the sisters in the study have since passed away. In some cases the research has taken on personal significance: multiple family members of Margaret Flanagan, the director of the ongoing Nun Study at UT Health, attended Chicago’s Academy of Our Lady run by SSND sisters. 

Researchers, meanwhile, continue to meet with representatives of the SSND to provide updates on the ongoing data. 

The scientists are “deeply appreciative of their dedication to education and helping the lives of others,” Clarke said. 

“Their kindness and generosity made the Nun Study an iconic and groundbreaking contribution to dementia research and continuously inspires us to keep pushing towards understanding and treating this debilitating disease,” she said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Four weeks after Pope Francis was hospitalized and one day after the 12th anniversary of the pope's election, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, celebrated a Mass for the pope with ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.

"We gather in prayer this morning with the intention of the health of the Holy Father, that he might recover and return among us soon," the cardinal said March 14.

The Mass was celebrated in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, a chapel containing the last two murals Michelangelo ever painted: one of the crucifixion of St. Peter and the other illustrating conversion of St. Paul.

In his homily, focused on the day's Lenten Gospel reading, Cardinal Parolin spoke about the connection between prayer and love for God, which is expressed through love for others.

"The best way to present our prayers to God is, above all, to offer him a heart, our hearts, open and attentive to his word," the cardinal said. 

Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See listen to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, give his homily during a Mass offering prayers for the health of Pope Francis March 14, 2025, in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Citing Matthew 5:20, in which Jesus tells his disciples, "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven," Cardinal Parolin urged the diplomats to actively seek God's will.

"If you do not go beyond human logic in your search for God's will, you will never find it," he said.

And Jesus' examples in the passage -- of not hating others, speaking ill of them or refusing to forgive them -- show that trying to do God's will involves treating others with kindness and respect, the cardinal said.

"And this relationship must be founded on charity," he said. "Charity, love for our neighbor, is the proving ground of our love for God."

In the Gospel reading, Jesus reminds his disciples of the commandment not to kill and then tells them, "But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment."

The passage, the cardinal said, equates anger with killing.

"It seems a bit exaggerated, a bit extreme," Cardinal Parolin said. "But it is that way, isn't it?"

Looking at the wars "bloodying our planet," diplomats know that they do not begin on a battlefield, "but they are born in the human heart, in feelings of hatred and hostility," he said.

The Gospel call to love one's enemies, the cardinal said, is a call to recognize with humility how much each person needs God's help and grace.

"Listening to this Gospel, we must first of all open our hearts to accept a gift before following a command," Cardinal Parolin said. "Purified by these words of the Lord, may our prayer for the health of our Holy Father gain more momentum in rising to the giver of all good gifts." 
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After one full month of being hospitalized and treated for double pneumonia and other respiratory infections, Pope Francis' medical condition has decidedly stabilized, the Vatican press office said.

Despite his "complex" medical situation, there has been no significant change for the past few days so doctors caring for the pope at Rome's Gemelli hospital decided not to release a medical bulletin as scheduled, it said. The brief medical reports will also probably be released every two or three days because recovery in this case "is slow."

No change to his condition is in itself a positive sign, the press office added March 14. 

Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, leads the Lenten retreat for cardinals and senior officials of the Roman Curia in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican March 13, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The pope spent the past week following the Roman Curia's Lenten retreat March 9-14 by video, listening to the daily meditations led in the morning and afternoon by Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household.

Father Pasolini ended the last mediation by thanking the pope, whose absence was "more than justified." He joked that if the pope had planned to be absent to alleviate the pressure and fear of leading his first series of Lenten reflections for the Curia, then "mission accomplished."

The pope suspended all work-related activities to dedicate the week to prayer and reflection, but he did continue to follow his prescribed physical therapies with physiotherapy and respiratory therapy, which often entails breathing exercises, in the mornings and afternoons, the Vatican press office said.

The pope still "is able to move and walk as he always has," a Vatican source said March 14. Sometimes he moves "with more assistance, sometimes with less," but those movements are limited, most often alternating between his bed and a chair.

He continues to use high-flow oxygen through a nasal tube during the day and "noninvasive mechanical ventilation" with a mask overnight. 

Religious sisters pray the rosary for Pope Francis March 10, 2025, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, celebrated a Mass for the pope March 14 with ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. "We gather in prayer this morning with the intention of the health of the Holy Father, that he might recover and return among us soon," the cardinal said at the Mass, celebrated in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.

In the evening, Msgr. Lucio Adrián Ruiz, secretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, led the recitation of the rosary for Pope Francis which has been taking place every night since shortly after his hospitalization. The nightly prayer in St. Peter's Square was moved from 9 p.m. to 7:30 p.m Rome time.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 13, 2025 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

Diocese of Boise Bishop Peter F. Christensen raised concerns about a “culture of death” and threats to human dignity after Idaho made death by firing squad its primary method of execution for death row inmates.

“Whether we live in Idaho or anywhere else in the world, Catholics need to stand firm on the Gospel we preach,” Christensen said. “Therefore, we oppose this means of execution and every other form of capital punishment. We are people who strive to promote redemption and peace.”

The bishop said in a statement provided to CNA Thursday afternoon that “Christians are called to oppose the culture of death” and “a person’s dignity is not lost even after committing grave crimes.” He noted that the government can protect the community by incarcerating the person “while avoiding definitively depriving the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

“In light of the Gospel of mercy and hope, our response to the death penalty is not based on what the condemned have done but who we are in Christ,” Christensen said. “The Catholic Church recognizes that it is the right and duty of every government to maintain law and order. While doing so, the sanctity of life and the dignity of every human being must also be safeguarded.”

Christensen cited the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew, in which Christ said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” He also cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which holds that the death penalty “is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267).

Governor defends new law

Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, signed the bill this week to make death by firing squad the default method of execution for every person on death row in the state. Per the legislation, lethal injection will be the backup method of execution if, for any reason, the state cannot carry out an execution using a firing squad.

“I have long made clear my support of capital punishment,” Little said in a statement provided to CNA.

“My signing of [this bill] is consistent with my support of the Idaho Legislature’s actions in setting the policies around methods of execution in the state of Idaho,” Little added. “As governor, my job is to follow the law and ensure that lawful criminal sentences are carried out as ordered by the courts.”

The state has carried out three executions since 1957 with the most recent occurring more than 12 and a half years ago in June 2012. Those three executions were all completed through lethal injection. 

Idaho attempted to execute convicted serial killer Thomas Creech by lethal injection in 2024, but the medical team was unable to establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection after eight attempts over the course of an hour. A federal judge temporarily halted his execution after the botched lethal injection attempt.

Creech is one of nine people currently on death row in Idaho.

Shift from lethal injection to firing squad

Idaho banned executions by firing squad in 2009 but later reversed that ban in 2023 when the state made executions by firing squad the backup method. At the time, lethal injection was the primary method for executions.

Executions by firing squad are permitted in five states, but the new law will make Idaho the only state in which death by firing squad is the primary form of execution. The new law goes into effect on July 1, 2026. 

Only four death row inmates in the United States have been executed by a firing squad since 1977, with the most recent occurring in South Carolina just last week. South Carolina recently brought back this method of execution because of a shortage of drugs for lethal injection.

Many states have had trouble obtaining the drugs for lethal injection over the past two decades because drug manufacturers have refused to sell the products amid public pressure from death penalty opponents and moral qualms about ending human life.

“As lethal injection drugs become harder to procure, either because pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell their drugs for this purpose or because of rampant botched lethal injections, we have seen states seeking additional methods of execution,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, told CNA. 

“We are witnessing that some states are so hellbent on pursuing executions that they’ll go to distant lengths in order to take these lives,” she said. “Catholic Mobilizing Network will continue to oppose legislation that promotes executions because this is clearly a direct affront to the sanctity of life and the inviolability of human dignity.”

Catholic Mobilizing Network works closely with the United States Conference of Catholic bishops on efforts to oppose the death penalty.

“Whether someone is shot, electrocuted, injected, or gassed, each and every execution extinguishes a God-given life with inherent dignity and worth,” Murphy said. “Each and every execution is a blatant act of state-sanctioned violence.”

Some states have also brought back executions by the electric chair and others have approved different drugs to carry out lethal injections. 

Last year, Alabama became the first state to execute inmates by forcing them to inhale nitrogen gas. Louisiana also intends to execute inmates with nitrogen, but the first scheduled execution with this method was temporarily halted by a judge this week.