St. Mary's Church

La Iglesia enseña que todo tipo de superstición es contraria a la fe. De hecho, el numeral 2110 del Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica prohíbe estas prácticas, por considerarlas “una perversión, por exceso, de la religión”. La superstición —y todo lo que de ella deriva— nos aleja del culto a Dios porque se le atribuye una importancia ilusoria

Durante el año 2025, la participación de fieles en audiencias y celebraciones litúrgicas en el Vaticano alcanzó un total de 3.176.620 personas, sumando los pontificados del Papa Francisco y León XIV.

El Papa León XIV nombró Obispo Auxiliar de la Diócesis de Villa de la Concepción del Río Cuarto (Argentina) al P. Sergio Roberto Bosco. 

Un total de 17 misioneros fueron asesinados en el mundo durante 2025, el Año Jubilar de la Esperanza. Con estas cifras, el número de misioneros y agentes pastorales que han perdido la vida de manera violenta desde el año 2000 hasta hoy suma 626.

Dec 30, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, U.S. House majority whip, said his Catholic faith was formed by his parents’ example at a young age and he encouraged Americans to reflect more on God in a culture filled with many distractions.

Emmer, of Minnesota, spoke to “EWTN News Nightly” about the faith of his parents, including his father’s daily Mass attendance and his mother’s decision to gift her husband a rosary on their wedding day.

“The example that they set, is, I believe, why I am who I am,” Emmer said.

“I’m the son of Tom and Patsy Emmer who literally met in the sixth and seventh grade at Our Lady of Grace Catholic grade school in Edina, Minnesota,” he said. “[They] were married for 60-some years; they literally lived around the corner from each other, and they never moved more than about two or three miles from where they originally grew up.”

Emmer attended a Catholic elementary school and high school. He said he sang in the church choir, saying he “was a soprano” as a child but can no longer reach the high notes.

“When I try to do ‘and the rockets’ red glare,’ I can only say it. My voice doesn’t go there anymore,” Emmer said.

The congressman also opened up about his sister Bridget’s death from breast cancer, saying it made him question God’s will. Yet, he said a conversation with her before her death helped bolster his faith and to stop being angry with God.

Emmer said some older women told his sister that she was too young to have cancer and that he initially told her: “I kind of agree with them.” He said she responded by saying: “Would I love to live forever? Absolutely. But I’m not going to, and people who talk like that have not gotten every second out of every minute out of every hour of every day. I have lived a good life; if God comes and calls me today, so be it.”

Emmer emphasized the importance of reflecting on God’s goodness in a world that has become filled with distractions.

“Too many people, in this age of social media and all the other stuff — the world gets going so fast that they don’t take a minute to sit down and check out what the good Lord has created,” Emmer said.

Legislative activity

According to a 2025 report from the Pew Research Center, about 28% of Congress is Catholic. More than half of Catholic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate are Democrats.

Emmer, the third-ranking House Republican, has consistently opposed abortion access during his 11 years in Congress, receiving an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. He also has been critical of what he calls “radical gender ideology.”

His stances have not aligned with Church teaching regarding his support for in vitro fertilization (IVF). When he ran for governor of Minnesota in 2010, Emmer opposed same-sex civil marriage. He later shifted his position and voted in favor of a law enacted in 2022 to require states to recognize same-sex civil marriages performed out of state. The Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex civil unions as marriage according to its doctrine and sacramental theology.

Emmer has generally supported President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a “special message” in November opposing “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”

Estas son algunas de las imágenes más impactantes de la transición papal, comenzando con la última audiencia general del Papa Francisco antes de ser ingresado en el hospital, el inicio del cónclave y la elección del Papa León XIV.

Dec 30, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Abortion policy at the federal and state levels has continued to shift in the United States three and a half years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

At the federal level, President Donald Trump’s administration and congressional Republicans made strides to pull back funding for organizations that advocate for abortion access and to reinstate conscience protections. Yet the administration also approved a generic abortion pill and failed to further regulate chemical abortion drugs.

Some states adopted new restrictions on abortion, but others expanded policies to increase abortion access. In most states, changes to abortion policy were minimal, as many states already set their post-Dobbs abortion policies in the previous years.

Federal: Trump administration shifts

Abortion policy at the federal level shifted shortly after Trump took office, with the administration reinstating many policies from Trump’s first term that had been abandoned for four years under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy during his first week in office, which requires foreign organizations to certify they will not perform, promote, or actively advocate for abortion to receive U.S. government funding. In June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rescinded Biden-era guidelines that had required emergency rooms to perform abortions when a pregnant woman had a life-threatening emergency (like severe bleeding, ectopic pregnancy, or risk of organ failure) to stabilize her condition — even in states where abortion is otherwise banned.

Other changes within federal departments and agencies included rescinding a Department of Defense policy that provided paid leave and travel expenses for abortion and a proposed rule change to end abortion at Veterans Affairs facilities.

The Department of Health and Human Services has also withheld Title X family planning funds from Planned Parenthood. Trump also signed a government spending bill that withheld Medicaid reimbursements from Planned Parenthood. Federal tax money was not spent directly on abortion before those changes, but abortion providers did receive funds for other purposes.

Nearly 70 Planned Parenthood abortion clinics shut down in 2025 amid funding cuts.

Those closures came as the administration advanced changes affecting abortion medication. Although the administration announced it would review the abortion pill, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new generic version of the drug mifepristone. Bloomberg Law reported the review has been delayed, although officials deny it.

The state-level results in 2025 have also been mixed, with a few states adding pro-life laws and others expanding access to abortion.

In Texas, where nearly all abortions are illegal, lawmakers passed a bill that allows families to sue companies that manufacture or distribute chemical abortion pills. This comes as state laws related to chemical abortions often conflict, with states like New York enforcing “shield laws” that order courts to not cooperate with out-of-state lawsuits or criminal charges against abortionists within their states.

Lawmakers in Wyoming passed a law overriding a veto from the governor that requires women to receive an ultrasound before they can obtain an abortion. However, the law was blocked by a court and is not in effect.

There were two pro-life legal wins for states in 2025 as well.

In November, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state’s near-total abortion ban after it was temporarily blocked by a lower court. Under the law, unborn life is protected at every stage in pregnancy in most cases, but it remains legal in the first six weeks in cases of rape and incest and for the duration of pregnancy when the mother is at risk of death or serious physical harm.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that a South Carolina policy to withhold Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood could stay in place. This ruling also opened the door for other states to adopt similar policies moving forward.

In at least 10 states, lawmakers enacted bills to provide more funding for pro-life pregnancy centers, which offer life-affirming alternatives to abortion for pregnant women.

Alternatively, a handful of states in 2025 expanded their shield laws, which prevent courts from complying with out-of-state criminal or civil cases against abortionists. This includes new laws in California, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York. Several states expanded these laws by allowing pharmacies to provide chemical abortion pills without listing the name of the doctor who prescribed them to prevent out-of-state legal action.

About a dozen states expanded funding for abortion providers, such as California directing $140 million to Planned Parenthood to counteract federal defunding efforts. Maryland established a new program called the Public Health Abortion Grant Program, which offers abortion coverage through Affordable Care Act funds.

New laws in Colorado and Washington require emergency rooms to provide abortions when the procedure is deemed “necessary.” A law adopted in Illinois requires public college campuses to provide the abortion pill at their pharmacies.

Connecticut removed its parental notification policy regarding abortion, which means that minors are allowed to obtain abortions without the consent of their parents.

As of December, 13 states prohibit most abortions, four states ban abortions after six weeks’ gestation, two have bans after 12 weeks, and one has a ban after 18 weeks. The other 30 states and the District of Columbia permit abortion up to the 22nd week or later. Nine of those states allow elective abortion through nine months until the moment of birth.

El conferencista católico Paul Kim continúa compartiendo actualizaciones sobre su hijo de 5 años, Micah, quien permanece con soporte vital después de una repentina emergencia médica pocos días antes de Navidad.

Santa Anisia, virgen y mártir, fue una joven que vivió entre el siglo III e inicios del IV. Nació en Salónica, Tesalia (Grecia) en el año 284.

En una nueva entrevista con el P. Mike Schmitz —conocido por el podcast La Biblia en un Año y por sus videos en YouTube de Ascension Presents— el actor Jonathan Roumie habló extensamente sobre su papel al interpretar a Jesús en la exitosa serie The Chosen.