U.S. bishops urge Congress to stop funding abortion and ‘gender transition’ services

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recently sent a letter to federal senators and representatives urging them to defund Planned Parenthood and stop taxpayer money from funding services such as abortions and transgender procedures that “gravely violate human dignity.”

Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron and Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas, the chairmen of the USCCB’s marriage and pro-life committees, respectively, wrote the letter Thursday, March 27, 2025, to “affirm our support for stopping taxpayer funding of the abortion and ‘gender transition’ industries.”

The letter was sent following the announcement that the Trump administration plans to freeze millions of taxpayer dollars from subsidizing abortion services via the federal Title X program.

The bishops addressed the senators on the same day hundreds of pro-life advocates went to Capitol Hill to urge Congress to cut the “funding of the abortion industry in the budget reconciliation process,” the prelates said.

“Necessary, long-standing, and historically bipartisan policies like the Hyde Amendment help prevent public funding for elective abortions themselves,” the bishops said, citing the decades-old rule that forbids federal funding of most abortions.

“Yet Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S. at over 390,000 preborn children killed per year (about 40% of the total), still receives nearly $700 million annually — about a third of its revenue — from taxpayers,” they noted.

The letter further argued that federal funds to Planned Parenthood must be cut not just to limit abortion but also the gender ideology the organization promotes.  

Planned Parenthood is “the nation’s second-largest provider of hormone therapy for patients attempting ‘gender transition,’” the bishops said. 

“The off-label use of hormones and puberty blockers has proven to be a lucrative billion-dollar business in an ever-growing market,” they wrote. “Planned Parenthood offers ‘gender transition’ services at nearly 450 clinics across the nation, surpassing the number of its locations that perform abortions.”

Planned Parenthood itself has admitted that most of these patients leave their first visit with a hormone prescription, the bishops noted.

“As the rate of these destructive services has dramatically increased, so too has government funding,” the bishops said. They asked Congress to put the money toward supporting families in need rather than helping harmful services be carried out.

“As you consider how to best steward taxpayer resources in the weeks ahead, we call upon you to stop funding abortion and ‘gender transition’ industries that gravely violate human dignity. Instead, we urge you to prioritize the needs of struggling families so they can flourish,” the bishops said.

Pope Francis’ doctor: ‘We really thought he wouldn’t make it’

By Victoria Cardiel - CNA

VATICAN CITY - The head of the medical team that treated Pope Francis during the 38 days he spent at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, revealed that one of the most critical moments of his hospitalization was when they had to choose between continuing the therapy or letting the pope die.

“We had to choose whether to stop and let him go, or push it and try every drug and therapy possible, running the extremely high risk of damaging other organs,” he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

In the interview, Alfieri described in detail the doctors’ response to the respiratory crisis suffered by the pope on Feb. 28.

According to the medical report published that day, Pope Francis suffered an isolated attack of bronchospasm, a severe coughing fit that suddenly worsened his clinical condition, after days of moderate optimism at the Vatican.

Although the pope never lost consciousness and cooperated with the specialists’ therapeutic maneuvers, the alarms went off, and doctors opted to place him on a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe.

‘I saw tears in the eyes of some people who were close to him’

“For the first time, I saw tears in the eyes of some people who were close to him. People who, I’ve come to understand during this period of hospitalization, truly love him, like a father. We were all aware that the situation had worsened further and there was a risk that he might not make it,” Alfieri explained.

However, despite the risk of causing irreversible kidney and bone marrow damage due to the medical treatment he underwent, they decided to act. “We really thought we wouldn’t make it,” he said.

It was a difficult decision, as Alfieri recounted, ultimately supported by the decision of the pope himself, who, through his personal health assistant, Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal nurse at the Vatican, gave a clear order: “‘Try everything, let’s not give up.’ And no one gave up.”

In the end, Pope Francis responded to the treatment. However, after his recovery, there was another moment of intense concern.

While eating, the pope suffered an episode of vomiting, and the gastric juices ended up entering his lungs.

“We were just coming out of the toughest period, and while eating, Pope Francis vomited and inhaled it. That was the second truly critical moment because, in these cases, if you don’t act quickly, there’s a risk of sudden death, in addition to complications in the lungs, which were already the most compromised organs,” Alfieri related.

He might not survive the night

The doctor explained that, despite the seriousness of the situation, Pope Francis was always fully aware, “even when his condition worsened.”

“He was aware, like us, that he might not survive the night,” the doctor stated.

He added: “We saw the man who was suffering. However, from the first day he asked us to tell him the truth and wanted us to tell the truth about his condition.”

In this regard, the director of the medical-surgical department at Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital expressed the desire for transparency that prompted the Vatican to report on Pope Francis’ health.

“We communicated the medical information to the secretaries, and they added other information that the pope later approved. Nothing has ever been modified or omitted,” he noted.

The power of prayer

In the interview, Alfieri also highlighted the pope’s incredible strength, both physical and mental: “In the past, when we spoke, I would ask him how he managed to keep up this pace, and he always replied, ‘I have a method and rules.’ Beyond a very strong heart, he has incredible resources.” 

In addition to the pope’s stamina, the Gemelli medical coordinator added that the prayers offered by faithful around the world in recent days also contributed to his recovery.

“There is a scientific publication that says prayer strengthens the sick. In this case, the whole world began to pray. I can say that twice the situation was lost, and then it happened like a miracle. Of course, he was a very cooperative patient. He underwent all the therapies without ever complaining,” he stated.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

This is Pope Francis’ message for Lent 2025

By Hannah Brockhaus
Catholic News Agency

Vatican City (Feb 25, 2025 - In his message for Lent 2025, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of living one’s life as a constant journey of conversion, choosing to walk in peace and hope aside one’s fellow humans.

“May the hope that does not disappoint, the central message of the jubilee, be the focus of our Lenten journey toward the victory of Easter,” the pope said in the message, released Tuesday. 

He also quoted St. Paul’s exclamation in the first letter to the Corinthians: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 

Though Francis is in Gemelli Hospital to receive treatment for multiple respiratory infections, his Lenten message is dated Feb. 6, well ahead of his hospitalization on Feb. 14. 

The season of Lent will begin on Ash Wednesday, March 5. The Vatican said the pope continues to carry out some work duties with the help of his secretaries while in the hospital.

In his message, the pontiff wrote that this Lent is an opportunity to consider three areas where one may be in greater need of conversion: journeying with others, being synodal, and having hope.

“A first call to conversion,” he said, “comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behind the occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity?”

On the virtue of hope, Pope Francis quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which calls hope the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” 

“Thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in the hope that does not disappoint,” the pope said, adding that hope “moves the Church to pray for ‘everyone to be saved’ (1 Tm 2:4) and to look forward to her being united with Christ, her bridegroom, in the glory of heaven.”

He recalled a prayer of St. Teresa of Ávila, to “hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one.”

Francis said a good Lenten exercise and examination of conscience would be to compare one’s life to a migrant or foreigner, “to learn how to sympathize with their experiences and in this way discover what God is asking of us so that we can better advance on our journey to the house of the Father.”

He also encouraged Catholics to be more synodal by journeying with others while avoiding self-absorption, exclusion, oppressing and excluding others, or being envious and hypocritical.

“Let us all walk in the same direction, tending toward the same goal, attentive to one another in love and patience,” he urged.

Pope Francis said the call to hope and trust in God and in eternal life is also an important aspect of Lenten conversion. Some questions to ponder include: “Am I convinced that the Lord forgives my sins? Or do I act as if I can save myself? Do I long for salvation and call upon God’s help to attain it? Do I concretely experience the hope that enables me to interpret the events of history and inspires in me a commitment to justice and fraternity, to care for our common home and in such a way that no one feels excluded?”

“This Lent, God is asking us to examine whether in our lives, in our families, in the places where we work and spend our time, we are capable of walking together with others, listening to them, resisting the temptation to become self-absorbed and to think only of our own needs,” he said.

“We Welcome the President’s Executive Order that Protects Opportunities for Women and Girls to Compete in Sports Safely and Fairly”

 WASHINGTON – “We welcome the President’s Executive Order that protects opportunities for women and girls to compete in sports safely and fairly,” said Bishop Robert Barron and Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M. “Consistent with the Catholic Church’s clear teaching on the equality of men and women, we reaffirm that, in education and in sports as elsewhere, policies must uphold human dignity. This includes equal treatment between women and men and affirmation of the goodness of a person’s body, which is genetically and biologically female or male.” The bishops offered the following statement in response to the Executive Order signed by President Trump, “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports,” which will help ensure the continued viability of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, guaranteeing equal educational opportunities for women and girls.

 “The Catholic Church teaches, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: ‘Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. “Being man” or “being woman” is a reality which is good and willed by God.’ Athletics not only provide valuable educational opportunities, fostering discipline, teamwork, and personal growth, but they also serve as a celebration of the human body as a gift from God.

 “In further recognition of the inherent dignity of the human person, the Church stands firmly against all unjust discrimination, including against those who experience gender discordance, who are equally loved by God. Students who experience gender dysphoria bear the full measure of human dignity, and they therefore must be treated with kindness and respect. Similar to their peers, those students must be assured the right to participate in or try out for co-educational activities in accord with their biological sex.”

 Bishop Barron is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, and Bishop O’Connell is chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education.

President Trump signs executive order keeping men out of women’s sports

By Kate Quiñones, CNA Staff

President Donald Trump has signed an order to keep men out of women’s sports in a move intended “to protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports,” according to the order.   

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said as, surrounded by young female athletes, he signed the order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” 

“Under the Trump administration we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes and we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls,” Trump continued. “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.”

The order rescinds funding from educational programs “that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”

In recent years, a growing number of women and girls have been harmed by the inclusion of men in women’s sports. For instance, Payton McNabb was 17 when she became partially paralyzed after a biologically male athlete spiked a volleyball into her face. McNabb has brain damage and paralysis on her right side and has difficulty walking without falling.

In recent years, women have begun to speak out against men competing in women-only sports. For instance, swimmer Riley Gaines and more than a dozen other female athletes filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) last year alleging that allowing men to compete in women’s competitions denies women protections promised under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.  

The executive order is based on Title IX, which bans discrimination based on sex in schools and was designed to protect women’s rights in higher education. The order notes that under Title IX, “educational institutions receiving federal funds cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports.”

Federal funding will be pulled from any schools that don’t comply. 

“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and you will risk your federal funding,” Trump said. “There will be no federal funding.” 

The order is designed to “defend the safety of athletes, protect competitive integrity, and uphold the promise of Title IX,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Wednesday briefing prior to Trump’s signing of the order.  

The order also looks ahead to the Olympics, which will be held in Italy in 2026 and in Los Angeles in 2028. 

Last year’s Summer Olympics in France was peppered with controversies about requirements for participation in women’s sports when an Algerian boxer with male chromosomes defeated an Italian woman boxer in an Olympics boxing match after landing a devastating punch to the woman’s face in the brief 46-second fight.

The order instructs the secretary of state to “use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone.”  

The order follows Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” that asserted that the federal government recognizes two sexes, male and female, and that those sexes are unchangeable and grounded in reality. In another executive order, Trump restricted transgender surgeries and treatments for minors.