Holy Name of Jesus

Feast date: Mar 20

Not much is known about the life of St. Herbert, other than he was a Hermit of England and a good friend of St. Cuthbert. Herbert was a priest, and lived as a recluse on an island in Lake Derwentwater, England which later became St. Herbert’s in his honor. Herbert had asked to die on the same day as his dear friend St. Cuthbert, and God granted Him the fulfillment of that desire.

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.

Vatican City, Mar 19, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

Hundreds of people in Rome joined celebrations organized by the Parish Basilica of St. Joseph al Trionfale in Rome to celebrate the March 19 solemnity of St. Joseph.

Festivities began March 9 with a vigil Mass at the parish to commence the March 10–18 novena leading up to the feast day dedicated to the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

For the jubilee year, the relics of St. Joseph’s cloak and Our Lady’s veil were on display inside St. Joseph al Trionfale for public veneration for four days from March 16–19.

It is believed the relics belonging to the parents of Jesus were hidden in the Basilica of Sant’Anastasia, located near the Circus Maximus, for more than 1,600 years after St. Jerome brought the relics to Rome in the fourth century.

Devotion to the holy cloak of St. Joseph has expanded beyond Rome. For American visitor Gina Pribaz, the holy patron of the universal Church is an important saint for her family.

“When I was expecting my first child and experiencing difficulty, I asked St. Joseph for his intercession — my daughter was born on his feast day,” Pribaz told CNA on Wednesday.

“Being able to venerate the relic of his cloak moved me; it helped me feel close to the real man who guided and protected the Holy Family and can do the same for our families now,” she said.

The 30-day Holy Cloak prayer devotion, which includes the recitation of the Litany of St. Joseph, has spread throughout the world. Each of the 30 days represents a year in the 30 years of Jesus’ hidden life — before he began his public ministry — under the protection of St. Joseph.

Wednesday’s celebrations at St. Joseph al Trionfale included six Masses; an afternoon street procession with the parish’s St. Joseph statue, accompanied by the Lazio region’s band orchestra and state police; food and games for children, including St. Joseph cream puff pastries; and an evening fireworks display.

Vatican City, Mar 19, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

The Vatican announced on Saturday its latest plans for the Synod on Synodality’s ongoing implementation — a multiyear “accompaniment and evaluation process” leading to a Church-wide assembly at the Vatican in October 2028.

CNA explains more about the process and why it has been initiated:

Implementation phase

Initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021, the Synod on Synodality was a multiyear, worldwide process of the Catholic Church focused on exploring the question “What steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow in our ‘journeying together’?” 

The synod went through diocesan, national, and continental stages in phase one, the “consultation” phase. Two global, monthlong assemblies were held at the Vatican in October 2023 and October 2024 as part of the next “discernment” phase.

The 2024 synod gathering, which included for the first time both bishops and non-bishops as voting members, was largely focused on discussing the question “What processes, structures, and institutions are needed in a missionary synodal Church?”

At the end of the month, Pope Francis chose to ratify the assembly’s final report rather than write his own postsynodal document, stating that “there are already very concrete indications in the document that can be a guide for the mission of the Churches, on the different continents, in the different contexts.”

The third and final phase of the Synod on Synodality is the implementation phase, underway now.

Study groups examining 10 areas of possible reform, based on suggestions from the 2023 assembly, are part of the implementation of the synod. Some of the study groups are expected to deliver their final reports in June.

Accompaniment and evaluation process

On March 15, the Vatican’s synod office announced an additional initiative of the implementation of the Synod on Synodality: an over-three-year accompaniment and evaluation process that will begin in churches and dioceses, move to national and international gatherings, and eventually culminate in a global gathering at the Vatican in October 2028.

With the approval of Pope Francis, who signed off on the process from the hospital on March 11, the General Secretariat of the Synod sent a letter to all of the Catholic Church’s Latin-rite bishops and Eastern-rite exarchs as well as to bishops’ conference presidents explaining this next project.

The timeline of the accompaniment and evaluation process is as follows: This May will see the publication of a support document for the implementation phase, with guidelines for its use.

From June 2025 to December 2026 there will be implementation paths in local Churches.

In the first half of 2027 there will be evaluation assemblies in dioceses around the world.

The second of half of 2027 will see evaluation assemblies in national and international bishops’ conferences.

Evaluation assemblies at the continental level will take place in the first half of 2028. 

June 2028 will see publication of the Instrumentum Laboris, or guiding document, for the October 2028 assembly.

Finally, in October 2028, the Vatican will host the ecclesial assembly.

According to Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod and the author of the letter about the accompaniment and evaluation process, “synodal teams” made up of priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and laypeople — accompanied by their bishops — will organize and conduct the process in each diocese.

What is it all about?

Grech said in his letter the implementation phase of the Synod on Synodality should be understood “not as merely the ‘application’ of directives from above but rather as a process of ‘reception’” of the suggestions made in the final document of the October 2024 synodal assembly.

“It is essential to move forward together as the whole Church,” the cardinal emphasized, noting the importance of “harmonizing” the synod’s reception throughout the Church.

Pope Francis, in his final speech to synod participants on Oct. 26, 2024, said: “There are and there will be decisions to be made.” 

“I, then, will continue to listen to the bishops and the Churches entrusted to them,” he continued. “This is not the classic way of postponing decisions indefinitely. It is what corresponds to the synodal style with which even the Petrine ministry is to be exercised: listening, convening, discerning, deciding, and evaluating.”

“The process,” Grech explained, “will also be an opportunity to evaluate together the choices made at the local level and recognize the progress made in terms of synodality. Thanks to this process, the Holy Father will be able to listen to and confirm the orientations deemed valid for the whole Church.”

In an interview with Vatican News, Grech provided more background to the decision to implement an “application and evaluation process” in the Church.

He said it boils down to the need to have a synodal mentality and “simply publishing a ‘document’ is not enough for what emerged in the two phases of the synodal process to be implemented in the Church’s life.”

Because Pope Francis adopted the final document of the 2024 assembly into his ordinary magisterium, the whole Church is “required” to live the third phase, the implementation, of the synod, he continued.

This new process and its steps “constitute a map for the conversion and renewal of the Church in a synodal sense,” Grech said. “All the work that awaits us in these next three years is inspired by the contents of this document, which must be experimented with, in order to verify the possibility of realizing them in the life of the Church.”

Vatican City, Mar 19, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

Minecraft, the popular video game known for its blocky, pixelated graphics, has launched a new educational edition that challenges students to explore and restore St. Peter’s Basilica. 

Michelangelo’s dome, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s colonnade, and the ancient tomb of the Apostle Peter have been recreated within Minecraft’s iconic digital world of 3D cubes and retro gaming aesthetic. 

Microsoft and the Vatican unveiled the game, “Peter Is Here: AI for Cultural Heritage,” at a press event in Rome on March 18. The project is the latest step in their collaboration on an AI-enhanced experience of St. Peter’s Basilica. 

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, placed the educational video game under the patronage of St. Joseph, who was “the educator par excellence of the child of God.” 

“Those who play with St. Peter’s Basilica in Minecraft Education have the opportunity to try their hand at creative architectural interventions, to discover the history of the basilica, to restore it, and to enter into the hidden meanings that it holds,” the cardinal said. 

Restoring the Vatican, one block at a time 

Designed for students aged 8–18, the game allows players to take on roles of skilled craftsmen and restoration workers responsible for maintaining St. Peter’s Basilica. By completing restoration tasks, they earn golden papal key tokens while learning about the basilica’s history, art, and architecture. 

Eleven-year-old Michael Sterpi was one of the lucky students selected to test out the game.  

“I play Minecraft on Xbox and PC at home,” Sterpi told CNA. “This game is like really, really, cool. With each block, they made the whole Vatican!” 

Sterpi, who has been studying the life of Blessed Carlo Acutis in school, said he thinks that Carlo “would love this game.” 

Yet, the student from Rome’s Jesuit-run Massimiliano Massimo Institute was quick to point out that nothing can replace seeing St. Peter’s Basilica in person. 

“The real thing is much better, obviously,” he said. 

Minecraft as an educational tool? 

The new Vatican edition is part of Microsoft’s larger effort to bring cultural and religious history to life through digital learning in Minecraft Education. 

“Introducing complex topics to students in an immersive 3D virtual world makes challenging concepts easier to understand,” Allison Matthews, head of Minecraft Education at Microsoft, said at the game’s Rome premiere. 

“We’ve created a lot of classroom-ready resources that educators can download to make it very easy,” she added. 

Minecraft Education also features other religious and cultural sites, such as Syria’s Monastery of St. Elian — an ancient Christian church destroyed by the Islamic State — available in the UNESCO’s History Blocks edition of the game. A different edition lets students explore the monuments of ancient Rome. 

The game’s launch comes at a time when video games are often viewed with skepticism, especially in educational settings.  

Mauro Antonelli, the head of Italy’s technical secretariat for the Ministry of Education and Merit, acknowledged a need to “counter gaming addiction” among young people today but called the initiative an example of how technology can serve educational purposes. 

“It is really a paradigm shift — gaming is often seen with a negative connotation,” he said. 

The Vatican’s involvement reflects a growing interest in artificial intelligence, social media, and digital tools that engage younger generations.  

In April, the Catholic Church is expected to canonize Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old who loved video games, as the first computer-coding saint during a worldwide gathering of teenagers at the Vatican. 

Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, the director of communications for St. Peter’s Basilica, also suggested that the Minecraft game could become the official game of the Vatican’s next World Children’s Day event in September 2026. 

Microsoft has been working with the Vatican on digital preservation projects through its AI for Good Lab. This latest venture builds on previous efforts to create an AI-enhanced digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica, using advanced photogrammetry techniques to map its intricate details. 

“This partnership with St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican is one of Microsoft’s most cherished,” Matthews said. “We are honored to be able to use the power of AI to help preserve St. Peter’s Basilica and make it more accessible to people all around the world.” 

How to play Minecraft Vatican edition? 

“Peter Is Here” is available in the Minecraft Education lesson library for all licensed users. A trial version can be downloaded for free by logging in with an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 Education account. 

The game offers two distinct modes. In “Restoration Mode,” players work on key sections of the basilica, including restoring the Vatican Obelisk, exploring St. Peter’s Tomb, reinforcing the colonnade, and repairing Bernini’s baldacchino.  

After completing restoration tasks, players can switch to “Exploration Mode,” where they navigate the basilica, interact with historical figures, and uncover the history of its art and architecture. 

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, called the launch “a big step forward” in making the Vatican’s cultural and religious heritage more accessible to young people everywhere. 

“This is the way we take this wonderful institution — the culture, the religion, the heritage — and then put it into the hands of children in every country around the world,” he said. “What could be more special than that?” 

Archbishop Carlo Maria Polvani, the undersecretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, said he hopes that millions of young people will use the game to discover one of the world’s greatest heritage sites, especially during the jubilee year. 

CNA Staff, Mar 19, 2025 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

The Maryland Senate passed a bill Monday that would allow $25 million in funding to go toward abortions. 

The grant program is designed to fund abortions for women whose insurance does not cover the procedure, using money from premium funds collected by health insurance carriers.  

If approved by the state’s governor, the program would become the first of its kind in the country.

Funding for the Public Health Abortion Grant Program would require “certain premium funds collected by health insurance carriers be used to provide certain coverage and to support improving access to abortion care clinical services under certain circumstances,” according to the text of the bill. 

The grant program was approved in the House last week and in the Senate on Monday. The two bills must be reconciled before legislators send a final version to be signed by the state’s governor, Wes Moore.

Moore has a track record of pro-abortion action and has pledged his support “for a woman’s right to choose.”  

In 2025, Maryland voted overwhelmingly in favor of enshrining a right to abortion in the state constitution via an amendment that passed with roughly 75% voting yes. The state has no gestational limits on abortion. Its broad acceptance of abortion makes it an abortion destination for some in neighboring states such as West Virginia. 

A similar bill did not pass last year due to legal concerns over the use of insurance company funds to support abortion clinics. 

The grant program is designed to ensure that uninsured or underinsured women have funding for abortions. The funding comes from a dollar-per-month fee that certain insurers are required to collect on every policy under the Affordable Care Act. The fund has grown to $25 million over time, increasing by about $3 million annually.

The Senate bill was sponsored by Guy Guzzone, D-Howard, chair of the Budget and Taxation Committee. Lesley Lopez, D-Montgomery, and other delegates sponsored the House bill. 

A local report said the legislators’ debates over the bill grew heated and emotional over the past few weeks, with legislators on both sides of the aisle bringing up their own personal experiences.

The Maryland Catholic Conference has encouraged lawmakers to redirect resources toward pregnancy support rather than abortion, calling on local Catholics to take action via a statewide alert. 

Jenny Kraska, the Maryland Catholic Conference executive director, urged the state government to put funds toward mothers in need.

“Instead of allocating public funds to expand abortion access, our state should prioritize policies that support mothers in need, provide real health care solutions, and affirm the dignity of both mother and child,” Kraska told CNA.

Kraska also shared her concerns that taxpayer funding could go toward abortion.

“We also hope that the federal government will act to ensure that taxpayer dollars cannot be used in this manner to fund or subsidize abortion at the state level,” she said.

If signed, the bill would go into effect July 1.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 19, 2025 / 12:40 pm (CNA).

Ahead of the fifth anniversary of its program supporting mothers in need in the United States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a call for parishes across the country to magnify efforts to “put the gospel of life into action” by opening up and offering help to vulnerable women and children. 

The solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord on March 25 will mark the fifth anniversary of Walking with Moms in Need and the 30th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s pro-life encyclical Evangelum Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) that inspired it. 

Walking with Moms in Need is a nationwide parish-based initiative that works “to increase outreach and support to pregnant and parenting mothers in need.” 

Parishes participate in the initiative according to the USCCB’s Parish Action Guide, beginning with a yearlong process that includes making an inventory of available resources to mothers in the community and creating a plan by which the parish may fill any leftover gaps. Parishes are encouraged to take steps such as creating new ministries and reaching out to mothers in the community. 

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, oversaw the program’s launch in 2020 while at the time serving as the chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. 

“Since the launch of Walking with Moms in Need, Catholics in dioceses and parishes across the country have put the gospel of life into action, uniting in a shared mission to surround pregnant and parenting mothers in need with loving support and personal accompaniment,” Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas, the committee’s current chair, said in a statement Wednesday. 

“Heroic volunteers have stepped forward to make our parishes places where a mother can be connected with meaningful resources and assistance and, most importantly, know that she and her baby are not alone,” Thomas said.

“The Annunciation reminds us that Our Lord Jesus came to earth as a vulnerable child in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” the prelate continued. 

“Every parish has something unique that God is calling them to contribute to the Church’s efforts to transform our society into a culture of life and civilization of love,” he added. 

The bishop concluded his message by asking for prayers that the ministry will continue to become established in every parish and diocese across the country. “May every mother know that she can turn to her local Catholic parish for help in her time of need,” he said.