Amid mounting geopolitical tensions, Fr. Tomaž Majcen, the Slovene Franciscan priest who leads the small Catholic community on the Arctic island, tells Vatican News that Greenlanders “want to be seen as a people with their own story, language, culture, and faith.”

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In this week’s news from the Eastern Churches, produced in collaboration with L’Œuvre d’Orient, we go to the Ethiopia and Eritrea, where Christians are commemorating the Epiphany and the baptism of Christ.

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WASHINGTON - “As tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered for the annual March for Life this week, we were grateful to see the U.S. House of Representatives pass the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act,” announced bishop-chairmen of three committees of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday. 

“Building a culture of life requires helping mothers to be able to welcome their new children,” they continued. “Too often, however, expectant and vulnerable women are essentially told that they have to choose either their child or their future. No one should have to make this ultimately false choice. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act is needed legislation that would simply ensure that colleges and universities at least provide information about the resources, services, rights, and accommodations available for pregnant and parenting students. The Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act would help ensure that key public resources are available to pregnancy help centers, which compassionately accompany women in need with baby supplies, childcare assistance, health and parenting information, career services, and more. Amid great uncertainty and difficulty, such support can make a life-saving difference.”

The three bishops spoke as chairmen of their respective committees: Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, Bishop David M. O’Connell, CM, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Bishops O’Connell and Thomas had also sent a letter to Congress on Thursday in support of the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on its own version of that bill next week.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Advocating for unborn children is fulfilling the Lord's command to serve him in the most vulnerable, Pope Leo XIV told those taking part in the March for Life.

"I would encourage you, especially the young people, to continue striving to ensure that life is respected in all of its stages through appropriate efforts at every level of society, including dialogue with civil and political leaders," he said in a written message released by the Vatican Jan. 22.  

"May Jesus, who promised to be with us always, accompany you today as you courageously and peacefully march on behalf of unborn children," he wrote. "By advocating for them, please know that you are fulfilling the Lord’s command to serve him in the least of our brothers and sisters." 

The March for Life is held every year in January in Washington, D.C., to march on Capitol Hill to remember the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. While the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022, abortion policy is now determined at the state and federal levels.

Addressing his message to all people taking part in the Jan. 23 March for Life, Pope Leo sent his "warm greetings" and expressed his "heartfelt appreciation."

He assured them "of my spiritual closeness as you gather for this eloquent public witness to affirm that 'the protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation of every other human right,'" quoting from his Jan. 9 address to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. 

"Indeed, 'a society is healthy and truly progresses only when it safeguards the sanctity of human life and works actively to promote it,'" he wrote.

"With these sentiments, I entrust all of you, as well as those who support you with their prayers and sacrifices, to the intercession of Mary Immaculate, patroness of the United States of  America, and I gladly impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of abundant heavenly graces," his message concluded.

 

Following prison riots and the killings of ten police officers, Bishop Rodolfo Valenzuela Núñez, President of the Guatemalan Bishops' Conference, issues an appeal for unity and reason: “We must fight together for the good of the people.”

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Pope Leo XIV will visit five parishes of the Diocese of Rome, meeting with parish groups and celebrating Mass each Sunday during Lent.

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Pope Leo XIV receives Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg with his wife, Grand Duchess Stéphanie, in the Vatican on Friday.

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In a message to the 2026 European Conference organized by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation in Luxembourg, Pope Leo XIV upholds the Church’s Social Teaching as showing societies a path to authentic respect and peaceful coexistence.

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John Allen, editor and founder of Crux, died in Rome after a long illness. The Vatican expert analyzed and recounted the events of the last quarter century in the life of the Catholic Church.

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Pope Leo XIV sends a message to participants in the 2026 March for Life in Washington, D.C., encouraging young people “to continue striving to ensure that life is respected in all of its stages.”

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