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On the World Day of Social Communications, Pope Francis releases his annual Message, in which he calls for a transformation in the way we communicate.

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During the Jubilee conference with religious sisters, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication highlights the significance of interaction, saying our identity and impact on the world are shaped by the stories we share.

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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2025 / 20:30 pm (CNA).

Pro-life activist Paul Vaughn received the news that President Donald Trump had pardoned him, along with 22 other pro-life demonstrators, on Thursday in the middle of a press conference with his lawyers at the Thomas More Society.

“I have a lot of thoughts,” he told CNA. “It’s a big ordeal, and it’s been a long time going through all this.”

The pardon put an end to the Biden administration’s prosecution of Vaughn and his fellow pro-life activists, among whom were several elderly and infirm women who were serving time in prison for peacefully protesting abortion.

Vaughn was one of 11 pro-life activists convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for a demonstration outside of a Tennessee abortion clinic in March 2021. 

Prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought a one-year prison sentence for him, but he was ultimately sentenced to three years of supervised release in July 2024. Prior to the pardon, Vaughn’s case was on appeal. 

Vaughn had been taking part in the conference about free speech and the abortion pill reversal process alongside several senior members of the religious liberty law firm when Steve Crampton, senior counsel with the Thomas More Society, interrupted the discussion.

Crampton read aloud a social media post announcing that Trump had signed pardons for the 23 convicted pro-life activists. Those gathered for the event rose to their feet and erupted in applause, while Vaughn and his legal team shook hands joyfully.

“On one side, it’s great to see a president like Donald Trump who understands the injustice that has gone on,” Vaughn later told CNA. “On the other side of the coin, it doesn’t erase the injustice that my family and the other 22 pro-lifers have endured for the last two years at Biden’s DOJ.” 

“We won’t get that back,” he added. 

Calling the pardon “a mixed bag,” Vaughn said he is both “rejoicing” with his family and co-defendants and hoping that “we do better as a nation going forward.” 

“Lord willing,” he said of the jailed pro-life activists who were among those that received a pardon, “[they] will be eating dinner with their families tonight and not in the federal pen, with, you know, bologna sandwiches and whatever.” 

Vaughn’s wife, Bethany, told CNA that while she is happy about the pardon, she hopes her husband will pursue his appeals case and ultimately win so that future prosecutions may be prevented from happening. 

A video posted on social media shows Trump signing the pardons on Thursday afternoon after telling the press: “Twenty-three people were prosecuted. They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them were elderly people.” 

“It’s a great honor to sign this,” the president said as he signed the order. 

Last week, the Thomas More Society petitioned the incoming president to issue 21 individual pardons for pro-life advocates who were arrested for violating the FACE Act, including several who were elderly and in poor health. 

“These peaceful pro-life Americans mistreated by [President Joe] Biden include grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest — all are selfless, sincere patriots,” the petition stated. 

CNA Staff, Jan 23, 2025 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

As a series of massive and destructive wildfires in the Los Angeles area continue to burn, a new fire that sparked Wednesday north of the city, near Castaic Lake reservoir, has quickly burned more than 10,000 acres and as of Thursday is only about one-quarter contained. 

The Hughes Fire has forced the evacuation of 31,000 people and more than 14,000 structures are threatened, according to Los Angeles County’s Coordinated Joint Information Center.

Father Vaughn Winters, the pastor at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church in nearby Santa Clarita, told CNA by email that “yesterday was very stressful, but the immediate danger seems to be past.” 

He said “a couple hundred” St. Kateri parishioners living near where the fire is spreading were forced to evacuate, as evacuation warnings bordered the city of Santa Clarita, which is about 30 miles north of Los Angeles and home to 220,000 people.

“Our parishioners from the community of Castaic near the fire were evacuated. The evacuation warning zone came near to the actual church and our parishioners in Santa Clarita, but we did not have to evacuate,” the priest told CNA.

“Seeing all the plumes of smoke all day was very worrying and of course everyone has been on edge because of the terrible fires two weeks ago.”

Winters said the parish is willing to extend assistance to anyone who needs it through a special fire assistance fund that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles set up in early January.

The Hughes Fire, which at its height engaged about 4,000 firefighters, is about 30 miles as the crow flies from Thomas Aquinas College (TAC), a prominent Catholic institution of higher education located in Santa Paula that has been threatened by wildfire before. 

The 2017 Thomas Fire, named for its proximity to the school, sparked in early December less than a mile from campus and burned nearly 300,000 acres, including hundreds of residences in the town of Ventura. It was the largest wildfire in state history up to that point, but the college survived the fire without the loss of any major structures.

The school in 2021 opened a concrete helipad designed to accommodate the needs of a Firehawk helicopter in an effort to assist local firefighters by giving them a location to refill the craft’s water tanks. 

Christopher Weinkopf, a TAC spokesman, told CNA that “thanks be to God” the school isn’t threatened by the Hughes Fire but that they were “seeing a lot of smoke on campus yesterday.” 

He added that firefighters are not currently using the TAC helipad in their efforts to fight the Hughes Fire.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 23, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump issued pardons for 23 pro-life activists on Thursday, fulfilling a promise he made during the presidential campaign.

Trump signed the pardons on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House on the day before the March for Life to be held in Washington, D.C., according to the Thomas More Society.

Last week, the religious liberty law firm petitioned the incoming president to issue 21 individual pardons for pro-life advocates who were arrested for violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “Conspiracy Against Rights” statute while peacefully engaging in protests at abortion clinics.

Several of those convicted and imprisoned were elderly and in poor health.

At least two times during his 2024 campaign for the presidency, Trump said he intended to release pro-life activists who are currently imprisoned.

“These peaceful pro-life Americans mistreated by [President Joe] Biden include grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest — all are selfless, sincere patriots,” the petition from the Chicago-based law firm reads.

During Biden’s four years in office, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought charges against more than 30 people who took part in pro-life demonstrations under the FACE Act, which was legislation in the 1990s to increase penalties for people who obstruct access to abortion clinics or pregnancy resource centers.

Although the FACE Act’s higher sentences also apply to people who obstruct or damage pro-life pregnancy centers, Biden’s DOJ only brought charges in two cases regarding attacks on those facilities despite more than 100 incidents occurring under his tenure.

“While Biden’s prosecutors almost entirely ignored the firebombing and vandalism of hundreds of pro-life churches and pregnancy centers, they viciously pursued pro-life Americans,” the petition adds.

The longest sentence was given last year to Lauren Handy, who received four years and nine months in prison for her role in a protest at an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. The second longest was also given last year to Bevelyn Beatty Williams, who received three years and five months in prison for a protest inside an abortion clinic in New York City. 

Several pro-life activists in their mid-to-late 70s also received multiyear sentences for their protests.

“These 21 peaceful pro-lifers, many of whom are currently imprisoned for bravely standing up for unborn life, are upstanding citizens and pillars of their communities,” Steve Crampton, who works as senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.

This is a developing story.