The institute—named after Alan Guttmacher (1898-1974), a president of Planned Parenthood and vice president of the American Eugenics Society—reported that abortions have increased 21% in the United States since 2020.

“States with total bans [on abortion] saw a spike in telehealth-provided abortions, with the figure totaling 91,000, up from the previous 74,000,” OSV News reported. The figures do not include abortions “involving drugs sourced from community networks or acquired from outside of the U.S.”

The organization “has been sponsoring a series of two-day meetings, in which bishops interact with theologians, scientific professionals, other scholars, pastoral ministers and, most importantly, LGBTQ+ people themselves,” said DeBernardo. “At the conclusion of one meeting, one bishop was in tears when he expressed how little he had known about the realities of transgender people, and regretted how he may have unintentionally added to their pain.”

New Ways Ministry was the subject of a notification by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1999) and a statement by the US bishops (2011) because of its dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

Pope Francis, however, praised Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, in a handwritten letter. He later met with Sister Gramick and other leaders of the group for 50 minutes.

The man, who alleged that the abuse began in 1983 and continued for several years, said that he has spoken with the current archbishop of Bogota and the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors about his allegations.

“Francis possessed an acute ability to identify problems, breaking points, and the risks of division; he held the gift of looking far ahead—a hallmark of the Pontifical Magisterium—beyond the limited horizon of the immediate and contingent,” President Mattarella continued, as he hailed the late Pontiff as “a spiritual and moral leader of immense and admirable wisdom.”

The Italian president concluded, “One year after his passing, we renew our gratitude for the teachings of Francis, which stand as a beacon of hope for all people of peace.”

Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass this morning at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea (video),

Reading aloud a homily prepared by Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, a 100-year-old retired nuncio, Archbishop Travaglino recalled “the apostolic courage with which he faced the years of his pontificate, even when, despite his physical limitations, he wanted to carry out his apostolic mission to the farthest ends of the earth.”

Pope Leo XIV visited a prison in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, this evening and told the prisoners that “today, I am here to tell you something simple: no one is excluded from God’s love!” (video)

Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, reported:

Among the 55 villages in southern Lebanon where the Israeli army is currently using excavators and bulldozers to demolish the last remaining public buildings, schools, and private homes—structures that had somehow survived the fierce bombardments of recent weeks—and which military commanders just yesterday declared off-limits to the residents who had fled to save their lives, there remain three villages that are still almost intact and inhabited.

Father Tony Elias, a Maronite priest who ministers in Rmeish, told Vatican News that “there is no way in or out. All the roads are blocked. We are struggling immensely to get water, baby formula, and diesel fuel delivered.”

Andrea Monda, the newspaper’s director, recalled that “he handed me this text—typewritten—dedicated to Virgil. I did not immediately realize it was a gift; I asked him if he wished for me to publish it in L’Osservatore Romano, but he demurred, saying, ‘It is merely a youthful trifle, something I wrote a long time ago.’”

“He went on to explain that, in his youth, he had been deeply intrigued by the widely held thesis of Virgil as a ‘pre-Christian’ poet and prophet; this text was born of that curiosity and passion,” Monda continued, adding:

Once his explanation was complete, he let me understand that he wanted me to keep it for myself. That gesture moved me—and still does, every time I think of it—but some time ago, as the date of the first anniversary of his death approached, I realized that April 21st is also the birthday of Rome, the city “founded” by Aeneas.

This coincidence prompted me to disobey him; yet I am convinced he would be pleased—as, too, will be the readers of this “party newspaper,” who will thus come to know another facet of the man who was Pope Francis.

“The emphasis on peace, on returning to negotiation, and on respect for international law—interventions that have drawn reactions in recent days—fits within this context,” Tornielli wrote. “It helps to clarify once more the nature of the Church’s service, and particularly that of the Successor of Peter, who does not act as a politician but as a pastor.”

“Yet it is inherent in being a pastor—far from any reduction to a purely spiritual or abstract dimension—to care about peace, justice, dialogue, encounter, the building of more just societies, closeness to those who are persecuted or discriminated against, solidarity with innocent victims of war, and the prophetic concern for the fate of humanity in this “dramatic hour of history,” Tornielli concluded.